Tangled Fate

Chapter 1

The moment Sunny found himself in Dream Realm, he was surrounded by vast expanses of darkness with nothing but wet coldness enveloping his body. Disoriented and unable to breathe, Sunny found himself drowning in water.

'Damnation, is Spell trying to kill me? Where is the fairness everybody is talking about?'

Using shadow sense, he managed to get a grasp on directions. Moments later he emerged from the water only to be greeted by a black sky devoid of stars.

'Could I be in the storm sea?'

'Perhaps [Fated] decided to give me some luck this time.'

Unfortunately, his thoughts were quickly interrupted by a triangular fin rising from the water. Swaying his arms and legs, Sunny swam in the opposite direction, where he saw a black shape reminiscent of the platform.

Sunny moved across the water with considerable speed, but the fin was following him and coming closer with each moment. Soon enough, he noticed that the visible part of the creature was already bigger than him.

'Aren't you a little bit too big to be satiated with me? Why are you following?! Dammit!'

The platform seemed so close, just a few more seconds and he would be able to grasp it, but the monster, or whatever nightmare creature it was, was much faster than him.

Suddenly a gargantuan tower rose from the water, while it hovered for several moments over the surface, Sunny recognized it as a tentacle that belonged to an abomination in the depths of those murky waters. Carried by the waves of water caused by a giant appendage, Sunny hit the platform made of rock.

He immediately made an effort to climb the platform. Lying with his body on the hard surface, he inwardly thanked the professor for taking the time to teach him how to swim.

'When I get back, I'll visit him first.'

Sunny was gasping for air, his muscles aching and burning from his recent swim. Only now he had some time to look at himself and remember that he was still naked. Sunny summoned [Puppeteer's Shroud] and felt his body being wrapped in comfortable fabric and he felt pleasant warmth.

Sunny long ago noticed the creature's shadow being dragged into depths, so now he was completely alone.

'As alone as it is possible to be while being surrounded by waters teeming with various nightmare creatures. Isn't he lucky?'

Looking at the sky, grim thoughts emerged in his mind. Is this a storm sea?

'Surely webtoons and media might romanticize and exaggerate Dream Realm but it doesn't match with the description that professor told me.'

Total absence of stars and relatively calm waters instead of countless storms. Sunny wanted to blame it on an especially calm and cloudy night, but that's not how it works. Preparing for the worst, he decided to wait for the morning and see the results.

'If that's not a storm sea, as far as I know, I might be in a completely unknown region.'

While laminating over what role his attribute played in this, Sunny caught with side vision a tiny figure somewhere in the water.

'Is that a human?!'

Should he help this person? Sunny carefully looked at the water surrounding his relatively safe island and shivered while imagining another meeting with the owner of those tentacles.

That creature must be fallen rank at the very least. It could be even worse, there's no way for him to survive the direct meeting. It would be much better just to wait and see, perhaps another person will notice a platform and swim on their own.