“I mean no offense, but if I go down in this situation, I will die.” I coughed, grabbing at my side.

The zombie queen had lowered her head, clinging to me tightly. She wasn’t dead, and she didn’t appear to be in any physical pain. As far as emotional pain, she had an extremely defeated look. I had been the one to bring her there, where the closest thing she had to a father, both in the fact that she was loosely based on his daughter and also in the sense that he had created the dungeon that ultimately created her, had ended up rejecting her completely.

King Diorite finally lifted his eyes and looked at me directly. He then touched the orb. A stream of light seemed to peel out of it, and he started writing in the air. Golden light formed text in front of him. He wrote with his finger a few lines, and then with a gesture, the letters came flying at me. I couldn’t have blocked or dodged it if I wanted to. The text touched my skin, and then I felt a burning sensation. I had come to get used to the feeling of a blessing attaching itself to my soul. This had a similar feel, although it was many times worse.

I could only shake violently as pain racked my body. Thankfully, it was over in a short amount of time. As soon as if finished, I noticed something different about my body. It was mana! I could access my mana again. I immediately began throwing healing spell after healing spell on myself. There was a surge of pain as bones cracked back into place and my body restored itself. However, I didn’t stop until I was back to normal. When I was done, I was panting. King Diorite had continued to watch me.

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“I will be keeping your soul, but I’ve created a connection between your soul and your body. You will be able to use your mana, your skills, and even your dungeon blessings. However, you won’t be able to access your soul world. As for your sword… heh, you can use the weapon, but the soul remains with me.”

“I’m stronger with her by my side.” I panted.

“You’ll have… that thing…” He gave the zombie queen a look. “Besides, she’ll be able to lead the way. The knowledge is in her head.”

With a grunt, I worked my way to my feet. My destination was the zombie queen’s legs. I grabbed them and pulled them over to the girl, who remaining lying with her head down, slouched next to where I had been. I used several monster tamer skills. After taming her and naming Selena, my Monster Tamer was up to level 55. With that, I had Heal Monster, Monster Restore, and Monster Regeneration. That last one was just a passive skill like my own regeneration. My monsters regenerated faster than untamed monsters.

Either way, I was happy to see I could get her body back together, or maybe it was a talent any zombie could do and it had nothing to do with my healing. After I fixed her, the pair of us stood up and I faced the king once again. The zombie queen grabbed the back of my shirt and hid behind me, avoiding the dwarf’s dark stare.

“If you have a barrier up, will I be able to return?”

“When you get close… I will open a place for you.” He responded.

“And when I succeed, you’ll give me back my soul?”

“We’ll see… once you’ve succeeded.” He waved his hand, and a portal opened. “Go, get out of my sight.”

He was able to create portals too. Once I took a step-through, then that meant I’d be in the abyss. However, I didn’t seem to have any choice here. This was the price of overestimating myself. I reached out and took the zombie queen’s hand, and then we stepped through the portal.