[you have received an echo]
adam simply stood their, staring at his summoned runes in utter disbelief, he had actually got an echo, in his first nightmare at that
[echo rank: awakened]
[echo class: demon]
echo attributes: [shapeless] [actor]
[echo description: found in every region, these elusive monsters would pretend to be anyone and anywhere, they would befriend the race they imitate but ultimately devour them]
upon seeing such a description, adam immediately lost all feelings of remorse for having killed it.
adam summoned the echo, white sparks rose from the ground until an identical copy of adam appeared before him.
'i wonder if it can take the form of a horse again,'
as soon as adam thought it the doppelganger, seemed to morph, its skin stretching, hair growing everywhere until it became the chestnut horse adam had been riding atop all this time, at adam's will it's fur colour constantly changed, going from brown to grey to black until staying at a pristine white.
adam leapt onto it's back as the horse galloped back towards the area of the fight, it was a perfectly bred horse, it was much faster than adam's horse, meaning the small distance he had travelled on foot felt much shorter than it had previously.
when adam made it back to the area of the fight he was surprised with the fact that the two guards had managed to kill the shadows. the guards however were much more surprised because of the sight before them, adam had chased down a shapeshifting awakened demon and now came back atop a pristine white horse that they had never seen before, you could hardly blame them for any assumptions they made.
they patrolled the forest again, this time no matter where the went it was far lighter than before, all the darkness had seemingly been dispelled when the shadow creatures were slain, adam could detect life now, with the doppelganger, it was easy to kill any opponent.
by the time the moon was up, adam had killed many creatures, but still no memories his luck with getting them seemed very bad.
while the two guards slept, he trained his lunge against some salmon in the river and then against the trees, as he stabbed into one particularly tough tree the spell's voice spoke into his mind.
[you have slain an awakened monster, living tree]
[you have gained a memory]
adam plunged his hand into the tree, eventually pulling two soul shards out of it and into the pouch of his horses saddle.
he walked over to another tree and attacked it.
[you have slain a dormant monster, living tree]
adam stopped what he was doing and looked around him, how many of these trees were nightmare creatures, one or two, all of them, he didn't know, and definitely didn't want to find out.
"we're leaving this forest now." adam walked into the tent and told his guards, they were reluctant but followed his orders, they weren't powerful enough to oppose him. as soon as everything was packed up, they rode their horses as fast as possible.
they raced out of the forest and finally made it out of the forest, the carriage that had brought him here wasn't scheduled to come back for the next few days, they galloped as fast as they could to the manor adam lived at.
upon entering the gates adam rode the horse to the open front door before dismissing his echo, he flew through the air for half a second before landing on the ground with a thud adam ran into a wine cellar and pulled out several bottles of cheap wine, stuffing them in the saddle he was carrying.
adam ran out of the manor and began to summon his echo beneath him, when the echo fully formed he rode it out of the gates where the two confused guards stood, they saw him holding a lantern.
he raced towards the forest again, much quicker than his two guards, until they eventually gave up, their horses too tired to run such long distances. adam rode through the forest, opening bottles of alcohol to spill a trail throughout the entire forest, he made sure to get it on many of the trees, after running the entire forest, (it was a rather small forest) he exited through the same place he had entered and threw a bottle down onto the ground, it shattered spilling wine everywhere. adam held the lantern up, commanding his horse to walk further away, then he threw the lantern at the spot that was marked with broken glass.
within minutes the entire forest was lit up with fire, adam's mind was flooded with notifications from the spell.
[you have slain...]
[you have...]
[you...]
adam stared at his runes.
name: adam
true name: -
rank: aspirant
soul core: dormant
memories: [dancing blade] [tree root whip] [aggressors whistle] [falcons wings] [grapevine] [bag of holding]
echoes: [doppelganger] [living tree] [living tree] [salmon]
attributes: [spectator] [mark of divinity]
aspect: imbecile
'I got three echoes, my luck is ridiculous, but i guess it's fair considering I only got 5 memories, it seems I have very high luck when it comes to echoes but bad luck for memories.'
................
the lord was awoken by a light shining out of his window, getting out of bed he looked outside in the direction of the forest in the distance.
the entire forest was a sea of flame.
"what did he do." the lord had left his quarters before the sentence was finished, he rushed onto a horse and rode as fast as he could in the direction of the forest.
it took him about an hour before he made it to the forest, but when he did he saw adam sat on the back of a pristine white horse, staring at the charred remains of the forest as if it were a usual occurrence.
"what in the name of the empire have you done." the lord shouted in outrage.
adam simply jumped off of horseback and calmly explained, almost every tree in this godforsaken forest was alive, either dormant or awakened." he then kicked a burned tree with enough force to cut it down (it was significantly weakened by the fire) when he reached into the trunk he pulled out an awakened soul shard. "see".
the lord looked around in horror, all of these trees, who knew how many were bloodthirsty monsters. " I see, I'll forgive you this once but don't do such a thing again."
adam didn't answer and instead began plunging his hands into tree trunks and pulling out soul shards, he summoned his new memory, bag of holding and stored them inside, the lord watched white sparks appear in adam's hand and turn into a small hand sized bag, he didn't say a word.
adam eventually stored several hundred soul shards, taking two days to collect so many, of course he had his echoes help, he had gained three new echoes, incredibly lucky, the two living trees were horrifying abominations, like a trevenant from pokemon.
adam walked back over to the lord, one living tree on each side of him, it was truly a terrifying sight, adam dismissed both echoes and jumped onto the mimics back.
"how many days are left until my duel for the throne." adam asked
"five days" the lord answered, he had a knew found respect for the young contender beside him, of course he'd always known the lord had great potential, that was one of the reasons the lord chose to sponsor him over all the others with the mark of divinity.