Ren's bare feet stepped on hardened spider silk...razor-sharp like blades.
Every step sliced open a new cut, blood dripping with each motion, but he forced himself into absolute silence. No groans, no heavy breaths. Only endurance and the pounding of his heart in his ears.
Ahead, Stephen's scrawny figure slipped between hollow corpses suspended in the dark, his small frame nearly blending into the gray web draped across the stone ceiling. Ren didn't fully trust him.
Couldn't. Not in a place like this.
So he deliberately slowed his pace. One step behind, one unnecessary glance over his shoulder—enough to keep a safe distance.
Then… footsteps.
Not just one. Many. From behind.
Not fast, not frantic, but cold, steady. Like a funeral march drawing closer. Metal scraping stone. Bone brushing bone.
Ren tightened his grip on the seaweed pouch, then grasped at the web strands hanging like rope ladders, climbing after Stephen. The threads trembled under his weight, whispering curses with each sway.
Stephen climbed fast. Too fast for a Sleeper. But Ren didn't have time to question it. Not now.The darkness swallowed them as they rose higher. The upper layer of the webbed nest… colder.
Deadlier.
And then, Ren saw it.
A massive black mass, slumped deep in the nest's core.
Not a wall.
Not a cavern.
A creature.
A corpse the size of a house, collapsed like a long-dead titan not yet consumed.Its limbs were jagged with broken armor plates—like spears torn from a fallen warrior.
Each joint was a monstrous mechanism, rusted steel wrapped in layers of silk so thick they'd nearly turned to stone.
Ren couldn't see its head. Only the twisted torso and giant legs snapped in unnatural angles.
The air here… thick, as if it, too, was rotting from within the body.What the hell is this…
Ren stood still for several seconds, a chill running down his spine.
That corpse… wasn't just dead.
Something about it felt… not entirely gone.
"All right…" Stephen whispered hoarsely. "We're safe for now. The other spiders… they don't come near this place."
He led Ren into the hollow of the corpse, his breath shaky, sunken eyes darting—like the darkness could shift at any moment.
No one spoke.
The air hung heavy, like they'd just escaped a prison only to walk into a grave.
Inside the massive corpse… was a frigid emptiness.
The flesh had rotted away.
Bones hollowed out.
Nothing left but heartbeats...and a faint scraping, hissing from somewhere far… or very close. Impossible to tell.
Stephen broke the silence first. "When I woke up… after Spell's announcement…"
He hesitated, throat clenched.
"…The first thing I saw was this giant corpse. The mother spider. It was dead—or I thought it was… I don't know what killed it… maybe a human…"
"I couldn't find any soul shards, you know… Nightmare creatures don't need shards, they absorb power directly from killing…"
He tried to sound calm, but Stephen's voice was trembling.
Ren said nothing, eyes fixed on the darkness closing in from three sides.
"Do you… have any water?" Stephen whispered, barely able to form the words. "It's been three days… since I last drank."
His voice wasn't exactly pleading.
It felt more like a confession. Or a final question before surrendering to death.
Ren couldn't see Stephen's face clearly in the dim light. But he could feel it.
That sense of someone standing at the edge, still waiting for someone to reach out.
Ren didn't answer.
Instead, he stepped back, into the shadow of a rib hollowed out in the corpse. Out of sight.He summoned a memory from the Soul of Sea, a pale, cold light spreading from his palm, like an ancient root revealed at the bottom of the ocean.
A wisp of mist rose as a small, solid item materialized from his soul: a pale gray porcelain flask. The only Memory Ren owned.
Stephen instinctively recoiled at the soul-light.
A small gesture...but one that meant everything on a night like this. Maybe… he'd once seen someone summon something with that same glow, only to use it to kill.
But this time, no betrayal. No trap.
Only Ren. A cold face, empty eyes, and an outstretched hand.
The porcelain flask touched Stephen's fingers.
"Oasis Vein," Ren said quietly. "Drink slowly."
Stephen didn't reply, but his hand trembled as he accepted it. Then drank. Lightly. Gently. As if every drop was the blood of an ancient dragon, earned at the cost of his soul.
A sigh escaped. Almost a sob.
Ren leaned back against a dry bone, eyes closed for a moment.
He didn't tell Stephen that… if he hadn't filled the flask with fresh water earlier, the boy might've had to drink something else the flask could filter.
But never mind.
That's another misery. Another tale.
Stephen finished drinking, gently set the flask down. His hands still trembled, not clear whether from fear or the muscles swelling back to life.
A few seconds passed… then the hoarse voice returned. "Do you… have anything to eat?"
Ren frowned slightly, turned to look without answering.
Stephen lowered his head. Clearly ashamed of the question. But hunger and brutal reality had stripped away pride.
"I know… I have no right to ask anything."
He hesitated, then reached inside the makeshift spider armor and pulled out a dimly glowing soul shard.
It was crude, but solid.
An Awakened-tier Soul Shard. "But I have this…"
Ren raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
Stephen continued, voice hushed, like negotiating with a death merchant: "I have more… Soul Shards. I… opened a few other cocoons. Quietly. Just to find food…"
He gave a dry laugh, throat too parched to form sound, more like rocks grinding.
"Nothing inside but bones… some still had eggs, but I didn't dare eat those. I just took the shards… I absorbed quite a few… This one's from today…"
Stephen looked up, his eyes torn between pride and desperation. "Can I trade? For something edible? Just a bit of meat… that's all I want."
Ren stared at the shard in Stephen's hand…
His cursed Flaw demanded more soul shards than anyone else to grow stronger…
This was a perfect deal for him. To survive here, survival skills alone weren't enough.
Part of him wanted to laugh at the idea of trading a piece of soul for a few grams of rotten monster meat.
But this was the Dream Realm.
Soul Shards were power.
Soul Shards were currency.
And hunger… killed faster than monsters.
Ren quietly reached into his seaweed pouch, pulling out a piece of dark red crab meat, dried at the edges, a little dirty, but still edible.
He said nothing. Just held it out.
Stephen didn't speak either.
He silently placed the shard in Ren's hand and accepted the meat like a precious treasure.
He didn't eat immediately.
Instead, he clutched the meat with both hands, closed his eyes, and slumped into a corner of the corpse.
A whisper barely escaped his lips: "Thank you…"
Ren turned the soul shard in his palm.
Its faint light danced across his fingers.
A life.. for a meal. Fair enough.
The Dream Realm had no place for pity. But it wasn't short on quiet bargains between souls about to decay.
Stephen only needed a few small bites to finish the meat quickly.
He didn't eat like a beast, no frenzy, no savagery. He ate like someone still human, even as hunger gnawed at him.
Ren watched quietly, the shard's dim glow reflecting off his dusty cheek.
Stephen kept his distance, not just physically. A few steps. A few walls of caution.But the weariness in his eyes had eased slightly. Now there was focus. Attention. As if calculating.
A quiet question slipped from his dry lips, curious, despite everything: "You… don't plan to absorb it?"
Ren frowned but didn't reply.
Instead, he crushed the shard in his hand.
A familiar voice echoed in his mind, like shadows whispering:
[You have absorbed a Soul Shard.]
[Your soul grows stronger.]
Warmth ran down his spine, then vanished, snuffed like a spark in cold rain.
Ren exhaled softly, then looked at Stephen. Darkness still veiled most of his face, but his eyes shone a little brighter.
Ren spoke.
Calm. Blunt. But almost… honest.
"Ren."
A pause.
"Nice to meet you, Stephen."
No smiles.
No handshake.
No sunlight streaming through a window.
Only a forsaken corpse, moldy webs, and the faint rustling of spiders in the distance.
But amidst all that...
Something remained. Something that could be called… connection.
Maybe not trust. But recognition.
And in the Dream Realm… Sometimes, that was enough to keep you alive one more day.