Lair

Chapter 035 - The Feeling Of Despair

By Skalsar

*A few days before.*

Screaming.

Crying.

Shouts filling everything.

It gave me chills down my spire.

How could there be that much suffering?

Is it possible for a living being to outcry this loud?

Was this how true terror felt like?

Endless agony?

Crushing shouts?

Neverending pain?

How could another living being ignore all this?

Yet here I stand and watch the goings-on of the humans of this city.

Running around happily and buisily as always.

Sure, some are sad.

But they all just ignore the pain and the suffering.

They don't even notice it, do they?

As I stepped into reach of the hive, I had to puke.

Getting flooded with its emotions.

It wanted to get away, but it couldn't.

Stuck in a human city.

>See, my friend got me this necklace from the dungeon, isn't it beautiful?<, some girl was talking.

>Let's slaughter some easy foe tomorrow, I got a new skill I want to test out!<, a man said.

The humans are chatting steadily. I'm not personally there, my [Hiveworkers] are lurking around.

>If you strangle the [War Bats] instead of simply killing it, you may be able to extract more medicine from the body due to it being produced by stress.

At least that's what an [Alchemist] friend of mine told me.<

No.

They don't have the slightest idea about the pain the hive is in.

And they are sadistic.

'Well, I can at least understand the need for medicine.

If it was the other way around, I might kill humans in a cruel way too.'

But as I learned that adventurers simply went to the dungeon to have fun killing the mindless and weak creatures and maybe acquire some shiny loot, I can feel my anger accumulating.

'They don't need it to survive.

They don't need it to grow stronger.

They don't need it to learn more.

They simply use it to satisfy their greed.'

I can't tolerate it.

First, I turn part of my flesh into magic power.

The part of my lower body where the [Hiveworkers] and [Drones] were placed, to be precise.

I will collect them later.

Next, I get rid of two arms and shorten my height.

Two meters should be enough, with that, I can blend in with the humans.

Even though I can't really change much.

Being coated in a black carapace, I kind of look like a human in a full-body armor.

The chest, arms and legs have more chitin and look a bit thicker.

In order to be able to move, I made the carapace into layers, overlapping eachother on the joints.

I don't have a finite name for the form I have taken.

For now, I will name it [Morphling]. As a state between forms.

My center of gravity changed dramatically.

It's a bad combination with the fact that I only have two legs now.

My first step is my first fall.

'How does this work?', I ask Sora in my mind.

'It's quite easy if you have a tail.', she says.

Guess that isn't helpful.

I don't have a tail and I don't want one right now.

Ah.

Danar sends me a weak feeling of how it is supposed to work out.

Something like a memory of him walking.

I try imitating it.

And fall again, because my height is shorter.

But the feeling is right. I just have to train.

After a few hours, I get the hang of it.

It's nighttime by now and the city is mostly asleep.

Walking in casually is enough.

As [Zil City] is a travel point for many adventurers, not even the city [Guards] care about me.

And why should they.

Who ever heard about a monster walking casually into a city?

That is, till right in front of the hive.

>Halt!

The dungeon is off limits till the subjugation tomorrow.<, a [Guard] tells me.

I hit his face with my fist and he falls backwards.

The other [Guard] draws his weapon.

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But before anything else, I step through a [Portal] and enter the dungeon.

I don't care about them right now.

The hives suffering is all that matters at the moment.

Walking through the small maze, I see a few weak creatures.

They don't come near me.

Intuition tells them not to.

I connect my mind to the hive.

'Who are you..?', a weak voice asks me.

Suffering is sounding in it.

[Black Gate] brings me to the [Dungeon Heart].

After connecting to the hive, that is a easy thing to do.

This hive is weak, but old.

'You suffered a long time, didn't you?', I ask.

'...'

'Don't worry, I'm here to help.', I say.

'You aren't a human..? How is it that a creature of another hive has entered my body?', it asks.

Seems like it is still worried.

It tries to enter my mind and dominate me.

Not that it could possibly succeed with taking control over me.

'Don't waste your time.

My consciousness is strong.'

But I allow it to connect to my mind.

Realization hits the hive.

Its body trembles weakly.

'No, this is bad.

They will do it again!

I have to hurry!', it says with anger.

I see.

It realized the dungeon subjugation.

'Don't worry.

I will take care of that.'

'You?'

I nod.

Opening a [Black Gate], my [Hiveworkers] and [Drones] enter the hive.

I step near an egg.

'Wait! What are you doing?!'

I see.

That is it, right?

'That is the [Dungeon Lord] you are trying to create, right?', I ask.

'Please, be careful, it is still weak!

I have to breed it till tomorrow!', it says with worry.

I focus the magic power I can spare and start fiddling with the cores inside the egg.

My [Hiveworkers] and [Drones] support me with the saved up magic power they have stored.

'What?!', the hive exclaims with surprise.

Within minutes, the egg grows bigger and stronger.

Power pulsating through its veins.

'That is.. something like that is possible?', the hive watches interested.

Naturally, being conquered, this hive doesn't know very much about the possibilities.

I hardened the cores and increased the density of magic power inside the cores.

Added the ability to absorb magic power.

Increased the muscles of the body.

With that, it hatches.

A creature of just one meters and seventy.

The [Dungeon Lord] of this hive.

What surprised me is that this [Dungeon Lord] again is quite different from the other two I know.

'It seems, depending on the knowledge of the parent-hives, the [Dungeon Lord] differs.', I say.

This one for example has four sharp legs.

I don't know if there is any monster or animal that it was designed after.

The upper body is at the middle of the four legs and it has two faces with three eyes each.

One face to the front, one to the back.

'With this.. With this I can finally do it!

With this I will become free!

I will devour them all!

I will slaughter the humans in this city!', it shouts to my mind.

'Please don't.', I say and it looks shocked.

'What?!'

'It would be too much of a commotion.

I will help you kill the ones who caused you all that pain.

But after that, I have to ask you to leave this place behind.

You wanted to be free of these humans, right?

I will help you with that.

But at a price.', I explain.

Irritation floods my mind.

The hive isn't getting what I say.

Or maybe it doesn't want to.

'I can't!

After suffering for this long, I finally can devour again!'

'We made that mistake too.', I say and send memories to it.

Opening my mind, the hive gets silent.

I can feel its excitement.

A while later it seems to comprehend.

'Such a thing..

For such a thing to be possible.'