novelraw Chapter 84: Silver Light
Chapter 84: Silver Light
[Devour Complete]
You absorbed 19% of the Charstone Basilisk's memories.
You have unlocked the [Charstone Basilisk] form.
You acquired the following skills:
[Molten Gaze (B)]
"Phew, that was a satisfying meal," Xen said after successfully devouring the entire corpse. His slime body had grown slightly in size and considerably in weight. Feeling a hot gust pass over his body, he was reminded that he was very much exposed.
I need to retake Ghostwire's body, Xen thought, and quickly located where he had left it with Geomantic Perception. As he rolled across the molten landscape, he decided to check on his new skill.
[Molten Gaze (B)]
Channel intense fire mana through your eyes to project a burning, petrifying glare at a target. The chance of inflicting the petrification debuff depends on the level difference between you and the target, and the target's fire resistance. The petrification will fail if eye contact cannot be maintained.
Xen hadn't known that if the basilisk stopped glaring at him, the petrification would wear off. No wonder it didn't try lobbing a glob of magma at him again and simply walked over.
"System, can I use Molten Gaze as a slime?"
[The skill requires eyes to work, so no. You must possess a form that has eyes to make use of the skill]
"As expected," Xen muttered. This was possibly the first time he had run into a skill or passive besides [Winged Flight] that had such a restriction on it. Still, the skill would be handy in the future, and since the skill was restricted to his level 1 Charstone Basilisk form, which he never planned to use, he would need to move it to a free skill slot if he wanted to make use of it as a human.
Free Skill Slots (10):
Slot 1: [Bloodmark Hunter (B)]
Slot 2: [Multilingual (B)]
Slot 3: [Corruption Missile (B)]
Slot 4: [Ghoststep (B)]
Slot 5: [Chains of the Damned (A)]
Slot 6: [Radiant Smite (E)]
Slot 7: [Cataclysm (A)]
Slot 8: [Orbs of Light (E)]
Slot 9: [Hellfire Howl (B)]
Slot 10: [Earthen Regeneration (B)]
"Which of these don't I need?" Xen pondered. "What does Hellfire Howl do again?"
[Hellfire Howl (B)]
Unleash a fire breath in a wide cone. Applies Burn and may cause Fear to enemies under your level.
Burn and Fear, that's two debuffs in one spell, and it fires in a wide cone, so it will be good for wiping out a group of weaker enemies. What about Earthen Regeneration?
[Earthen Regeneration (B)]
By drawing mana directly from surrounding soil, stone, or clay, you enter a state of rapid regeneration. While standing on natural terrain, your body repairs injuries at a significantly accelerated rate, rapidly closing wounds and restoring lost flesh using available life force. The regeneration rate doubles if you are underground or entirely surrounded by natural material and triples if you remain stationary.
I think I could get rid of this for now, as I can use biomass to heal. If I really need this in a pinch, I can always swap it back in. Radiant Smite is just too good in certain situations, despite being an E-grade skill, and Orbs of Light are useful when traversing the darkness with the humans.
"System, replace Earthen Regeneration with Molten Gaze."
He felt a large chunk of the mana he had restored from his meal vanish, and his free skill slots updated. Satisfied, he closed the menu as he arrived at Ghostwire's body right where he had left it.
The body lay crumpled on the ground, its skull shattered against a jagged rock like a cracked egg. One arm was submerged in a molten puddle, the flesh hissing faintly. Xen extended a slimy tendril and tugged the arm free, only to find the hand completely melted away.
"Not the best condition," Xen muttered.
[Do you wish to take on the Human form?]
Xen agreed. His body moved automatically, raising Ghostwire's cracked head and seeping in.
[Human vessel has sustained fatal damage]
[Use biomass to repair the body?]
"Yes, of course," Xen replied. He had almost too much biomass stored away right now and was feeling a little bloated. He easily had enough to construct a brand-new body if he wished, but this one was already dressed, and he wouldn't be able to mimic Ghostwire perfectly, including his old voice, if he were to craft a new body.
"Huh," Xen said, flexing his freshly regrown fingers and testing his voice, which didn't come out quite as he remembered it. "Did inhabiting a body always feel this... restrictive?" While terrifying to be so exposed, as a slime, he had felt so free. He moved his body, and the restrictive feeling slowly faded into the background. However, there was now a tiny voice in the back of his mind constantly reminding him that this human body wasn't him.
It was merely a skinsuit he wore to masquerade as a human to walk among them. That would never change.
"I'm not a human—I'm a man-eating slime," Xen said, smiling. He then tried a few different voices to match what he remembered Ghostwire sounding like. "Pleased to meet you," he held out his hand to nobody for a shake. "The name's Ghostwire. Have we met before?" He chuckled and shook his head. "Silly me, I must have forgotten! As you know, I've always been terrible with names. Ah, yes, this is what I used to sound like."
Xen coughed and lowered his hand. "Hello. I'm the human known as Ghostwire, and I came here on the request of another human—ahem, I mean a fine warrior of the Stormbringers guild sent me here on a quest." Finally feeling back in character, he took out the phone the man had given him to check the map. The area he needed to check was just up ahead.
Pocketing the phone, he broke into a sprint and arrived within ten minutes.
Filled with anticipation, he crested the outcrop and looked around—only to be disappointed when there wasn't a boss monster in sight. He triple-checked the map and was in the right place.
While a little disappointed, he had just fought for his life against the Charstone Basilisk and still needed to recover his mana, especially after changing around his free skill slots.
"How do I use this camera thing again?" Xen grumbled as he messed around with the phone. Eventually, after accidentally taking a selfie or two, he managed to point the camera in the direction he wanted and took a video of the molten landscape. "See, nothing here."
Pocketing the phone, he was about to leave when something caught the corner of his eye.
A beam of light in the distance.
"Is that... the teleportation hub?" Xen paused. The beacon to escape this place to the land of the humans. Where there would be thousands of unaware humans waiting to be harvested for their classes, skills, knowledge, and Gerald's cat, who was waiting for him.
His fingers twitched with anticipation, and a thought rose in his mind.
Do I really need Randy and the rest? I could just go by myself now, take on a new identity, and start anew without anyone knowing anything about me. His eyes narrowed. It was a tempting idea.
He began walking toward the light.
***
"Maybe he died," the mean-eyed priest said while resting in the shade. She had finished healing them all an hour ago and had said nothing positive or productive since.
Randy snorted. "Ghostwire won't die so easily."
"I sure hope so," the warrior agreed with a sigh. He was leaning against a nearby building's wall with his arms crossed. "That was a guild-issued phone that I gave him. If he died, I'd have to go find his corpse to retrieve it or pay a big fine. Hell, I don't know how I'd explain the fact that I gave the phone and information to an outsider to my superiors in the first place."
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Valoria came to sit beside Randy.
"It has been over four hours, and they said it would only take two," Valoria said quietly. "I—I think he might need our help, or perhaps," her voice dropped to a whisper, "he's gone."
Randy glanced at her. While she had been healed, the scars of battle remained. Her hair was still caked in blood, her clothes were torn in places, and she looked deathly exhausted. Vesper wasn't much better, and Randy desperately wanted to go home, too. What was supposed to be a few-hour excursion to peep on the Stormbringers' raid on the second floor of the dungeon had turned into a deadly adventure that had spanned days.
He lightly patted Valoria's leg. "It's going to be fine," he reassured her, "I'm sure he will be back soon."
Valoria's gaze hardened. "I hope you're right."
"There's not a doubt in my mind," Randy said confidently. "I bet he's just lost or is struggling to get the camera to work—you know how he is, not the best with technology."
Valoria slowly nodded and gave him a weak smile.
There was a whistling in the wind.
The Stormbringer warrior seemed to notice it first, as he uncrossed his arms and became alert. He glanced toward the north, and Randy followed suit.
"Well, that's a sight for sore eyes," the warrior chuckled, his mood lightening instantly. "He's back."
"Really?!" Valoria bolted to her feet. "Where? Where?"
The warrior pointed into the distance. "He's running along the rooftops. You can see the turrets tracking him."
Sure enough, the turrets were all moving and pointing at the same area. Randy followed them and saw him. Ghostwire, looking a lot worse for wear than when he had left, was running over to them.
Valoria ran into the dusty street and waved toward him. "Ghostwire!" she shouted. "You're back!"
Randy smiled as Vesper silently came to his side. They exchanged a knowing nod and returned to watching Valoria frantically try to grab Gerald's attention.
"Sorry I took so long," Gerald called out as he jumped down, sending a plume of dust where he landed. He looked terrible, like he had fought a war or two. "I got a little caught up with... things," he said vaguely. Pulling out the phone, he handed it to the warrior. "I took a video of the area as requested."
The warrior looked him up and down as he hesitantly accepted the phone. "By the looks of it, you encountered a boss monster as expected?"
Gerald shook his head. "No, the area was empty."
"Then..."
"Emberling Swarmers."
"Emberling Swarmers?"
Gerald nodded and didn't elaborate.
"You're saying Emberling Swarmers reduced you to this?" The warrior opened the phone and checked the video. "Mhm, there really was nothing. Strange. I'd have thought you would at least run into a Charstone Basilisk."
"Wouldn't it be more strange for there to be boss monsters spawning there?" Randy pointed out.
"The Guild Association has noted a weird increase in dungeon activity and mana intensity over the last week," the warrior said absentmindedly as he checked the other photos. "Rare variants are becoming more common, and there was that Living Armor that appeared on the second floor recently that was far too high level—why did you take selfies?"
"Felt like it," Gerald shrugged.
"Did the Guild Association say why they think that is?" Randy pressed. The increase in mana density and rare variants was indeed worrisome.
"They have no idea," the warrior said, pocketing the phone. "But I personally believe it has something to do with the dungeon turning twenty years old. I mean, during the first ten years, there were almost no rare variants, then they suddenly began to appear a decade ago. Perhaps the dungeon grows in strength every ten years—"
"That's just your crackpot theory," the priestess said as she came to the warrior's side. "Come on, you got the phone; let's go."
The warrior nodded. "Well, Ghostwire," he held out his hand, "It was a pleasure doing business with you."
Gerald took the offered hand—and didn't let go.
With a sharp, almost mechanical click, the upper half of his mask split apart, exposing his eyes.
The warrior and the priestess both stiffened, their bodies locking in place as if seized by an unseen force.
Randy didn't understand what was happening until he caught a glimpse of Gerald's gaze. His eyes were glowing, molten, like liquid metal trapped behind glass.
Oh no, Randy thought, horror gripping him. Gerald was about to do something terrible.
Gerald yanked the warrior forward. The man gasped, then choked as blood erupted from his mouth—Gerald's mithril short sword had already sunk into his stomach. He shoved the collapsing body aside and, in the same motion, turned and cleanly severed the priestess's head with the blood-slick blade.
"You can use the Molten Gaze of the Charstone Basilisk?" the warrior gurgled from the floor, blood pooling beneath him. "How? Who are you? Why did you attack us?"
Randy found himself asking the same question. He, Valoria, and Vesper stood frozen, the silence heavy after the sudden eruption of violence.
The mask snapped shut, concealing Gerald's eyes once more.
"I only ever meant to kill the priestess," Gerald said calmly. "You were collateral."
He crouched, drove his sword into the warrior's eye, and ended his life. Yanking the short sword off and flicking off the blood, he picked up the warrior by the neck and hurled him into a nearby building. He then did the same with the priestess's body but made sure to take her head, which still had the paralyzed expression she had died with.
Randy thought he had gotten used to Gerald's way of dispatching people after how Ghostwire died, but this was on another level.
Gerald closed the door to the house that he had tossed the bodies into and turned to face them. Randy found himself involuntarily tensing.
"Sorry about that," Gerald said casually. "I had to act fast before my Molten Gaze skill wore off, as the gap in our levels wasn't that significant."
"Why... did you kill them?" Valoria asked hesitantly.
Gerald glanced at her. "I wanted the priestess's healing skills and class. I was thinking about what I could do when I reach the surface, and you guys said it yourselves, the priests charge a lot for healing, right?"
Randy slowly nodded. "They do."
"I was thinking I could do the same," Gerald explained. "I don't plan to use Ghostwire as a persona forever, and I think being a healer would draw less suspicion," he paused, "and provide access to more bodies."
Randy shuddered as Gerald's words were made all the more sinister by the decapitated head he held by the hair. But he wasn't wrong. Ghostwire wasn't a known combatant, and nobody was cautious around healers.
It might just work.
"I sure do like the idea of getting free healing," Vesper said smoothly, the violence seemingly not affecting him at all. As expected of an assassin.
Randy decided to suppress the memory of what he had just witnessed and focused on what mattered. "We should get moving," he said with urgency. "You killed two members of the Stormbringer guild in their own area. That warrior was likely already attracting attention because he was so late in reporting his findings. Speaking of which, what the hell happened to you, Gerald? It's been four hours. I thought you got lost or something, but your charred suit tells a different story."
"Yeah, are you okay?" Valoria asked in a small voice. Gerald's violence had likely shaken her.
"There was a close call, but I'm fine." Gerald glanced down the road. "The reason I took so long is that I found the transportation hub and was too tempted to check it out."
"You found it?!"
Gerald nodded and looked back at them. "It was monster-infested."
"Ah, that was a concern," Randy rubbed his chin and then paused. "Wait, it was monster-infested?"
Gerald laughed. "You really thought a few Emberling Swarmers could do this to me?"
"You fought them all alone?"
"Yeah," Gerald nodded. "I've already cleared the path for us."
Randy exchanged a glance with his friends. They were really going home?
"Come on," Gerald said, setting off toward the north. "As Randy said, we should really get moving. I'll eat this on the way."
Randy felt like he was drifting through a dream as he followed the others across the scorched, molten terrain. The landscape pulsed with uncomfortable heat, the ground cracked and smoking beneath their feet, until at last, they descended into a cooler valley illuminated by a towering beam of silver light that pierced the sky like a heavenly spear.
Gerald led the way around the corpses of monsters strewn haphazardly along their path. The grotesque remains were half-melted and torn apart, and Randy could only dare to imagine the carnage Gerald had committed here hours ago.
Unaware of Randy's thoughts, Gerald munched idly on the severed head he had been carrying, unfazed by the carnage around them that he had caused.
Randy and his companions remained silent as they processed everything. Eventually, they entered a clearing where a crumbling base stood, draped in decay. The worn banners bore the faded emblems of the Titanborn Guild.
They passed through the hollow archway of the derelict base and stepped into the shadow of the northern transportation hub. At the center, resting upon an impressive weathered stone altar, was a circle of unnaturally blue crystals. They pointed skyward like teeth, feeding the blinding pillar of silver light that tore into the false sky above.
This was their exit.
All they had to do was stand on the altar, and they would be teleported to the surface.
Gerald paused on the steps and looked back at them. He seemed to hesitate for a moment but then spoke his mind.
"To be truthful, I thought about leaving you three behind," he said as the silver light illuminated his silhouette. "But as I stood here, about to step in, I realized that for humans, you three aren't the bad ones. I think I can trust you all and want to go to the surface together with you three."
Randy smiled. "I never doubted for a moment that you would come back, unlike—"
Valoria punched him in the shoulder and shot him a glare.
"Okay, okay," Randy said, jokingly rubbing his shoulder. "I'm glad you have come to trust us, Gerald, and I think we are all keen to return to the surface as soon as possible. Do you want to take the lead? Just in case something goes wrong."
Gerald nodded and continued his climb up the stairs to the altar. Randy followed with the others, and once they were at the top and could feel the power emanating from the light, Gerald asked them, "Alright. What should I do now?"
"Just stand in the circle, and you'll be taken to the surface."
Gerald stepped forward without hesitation.
"What if it doesn't work?" Vesper whispered, her voice barely audible over the low hum of energy.
Randy said nothing. He didn't want to entertain that possibility. If they failed to reach the surface, their usefulness to Gerald would vanish—and with it, any reason for him to keep them alive.
Please work, Randy thought, his heart pounding. He didn't even dare to blink.
Gerald walked beneath the beam of light. He glanced back at them, confused. "Am I doing it right—?"
A flash of silver swallowed him, and he was gone.
"It worked," Randy breathed, hardly believing his own words.
"Gerald actually made it to the surface," Vesper said, wide-eyed, echoing the disbelief that gripped them both.
"We need to follow him!" Valoria said, rushing forward. Randy and Vesper quickly followed behind. The moment he stood under the silver light, he felt a terrible coldness grip him, and before he knew it, he was opening his eyes to an overgrown staircase.
[You have been returned to the surface]
Randy dismissed the notification as he drew in a deep breath of crisp night air.
At the top of the stairs was Gerald, gazing up at the night sky with his hands on his hips.
"So this is what the real sky looks like," Gerald said, nodding to himself. "I like it."
All the tension left Randy's body, and he collapsed on the stairs.
"Randy?" Valoria asked, glancing down the stairs after hearing him fall.
"We made it," he whispered, practically kissing the ground. "Somehow, we made it back alive."
"Don't fall down now, Randy," Vesper said, patting him on the back. "The craziness has only just begun now that we have brought Gerald to the surface."
Randy laughed and wearily pushed himself to his feet. Vesper was right—the story of their rise to power with the help of a man-eating monster had only just begun.
"Let's head back to Tokyo," Randy said, ascending the stairs and looking out at the wilderness they found themselves in. He took a second to take it all in.
A slime can become stronger than a dragon, Randy recalled his professor's words. It had seemed so ridiculous at the time, but now he truly believed it. After all, an example was standing at his side in a bloodstained suit.
There wasn't a doubt in his mind that Gerald would become far more feared than any monster if given the time to grow.
= End of Book 1 =
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