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Arrosh would be safe. The entrance was blocked off from the infantile Myung-sas and there was only one way in there. He’d catch up.

Right now, it was just me.

I stepped softly, enjoying my [Superior Hearing] and [Darkvision]. I hadn’t realized how much I missed it. Darkness had become a friend to me before but with the absence of Lucky Beckoning Cat, I had been little more than helpless. But walking in the lightless cave with only the faint glow of magic stones to light my way, I felt in control. Because being in control also means just knowing more, and us humans know more by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting. Mainly, the first two.

So I walked down the narrow path, walking towards the mysterious sound of monsters.

But I didn’t do it normally. Taking a club I had stowed in my Dimension Ring for moments just like this, I began to slam the either side of the walls. Each step I took, I stopped and hit the walls.

A technique I call ‘Hidden Room Finder’.

You know what I’m talking about. When playing those RPG games with lots of hidden passageways, it’s natural to move around slamming walls, breaking boxes and strange looking items. So I did just that. Unfortunately though, there was no hidden room in the tunnels. Or if there was, I had yet to find it.

I kept walking, the strange scraping sound getting louder and louder.

The narrow tunnel opened up into a huge room with a high ceiling, reminiscent of an olympic stadium. Massive stalagmites and stalactites adorned the walls, painting the scenery of a monster's open maw. It was dark here, darker than the pathways due to the noticeable lack of magic stones. The final thing I noticed about this place was that its massive size was understated by its denizens, the source of the mysterious sound.

Recognizing the monsters, I immediately leapt up on top of a stalagmite, balancing on two feet.

There’s no easy way to describe them, but if I name them, I’m sure everyone has a version of it in their heads. Most of the time, people think of the monster from a famous 2d pixel MMORPG game. But these guys were anything but cute little green blobs.

These were Slimes, and not the Grade-10 Slime. But their Grade-8 counterparts are called [Rot Slimes].

The Slimes in MSS are nightmare fuel. They’re mostly roundish in shape, though they do tend to jiggle like jelly. That’s where the similarity with their adorable cousins ends. They’re translucent and one can clearly see their inner organs. It’s composed of two simple things, a tiny fist-sized brain connected to a beating five-chambered heart by a single nerve. Not only that, due to their see-through skin; you can clearly see what their last meal was.

They do not bounce around, rather they slide over the ground like giant slugs. Not only that, they do have a mouth; the problem is that any Slime-type monster in MSS is simply covered in those mouths. Ugly little mouths without lips, resembling a lamprey’s vortex-like sucker with inward-hooking fangs that are placed in a spiral. I watched as one of the Slimes gave out a nerve-wrecking screech and it was joined by the others soon enough.

It was too high-pitched for me to hear but I could feel the air reverberate in response. Wincing, I put a hand to my ear.

The ground was literally covered with them. They crowded around each other, screeching occasionally and huddling against one another. Gods, there had to be hundreds. It reminded me of being trapped at the bottom of the canyon with those insectoid monsters, except these guys lacked even the limited intelligence of those things. They were all instinct, designed to sense prey through the ground –any minute vibrations would be picked up by these things.

There was a problem here.

I was above level 34.

These guys were Grade-8.

I’d get no experience from killing them. Not only that, these guys never really dropped anything besides their Core. Their experience was really low too.

‘It’s just a waste of time.’

So I ignored them, trying my best to plan a way out of this place without stepping on the Slimes.

Then I heard it.

Clink

Rattle

Drip

Scrapeeee

Clink

Rattle

Drip

Scrapeeee

The sound of chains being dragged across the stony cavern floor.

Unmistakable sound of paws padding on the floor, followed by something hard scraping with each step. Liquid falling in a rhythmic staccato on the ground.

Lava. Meaning that this island was hot. Not tropical, but it probably was at one point in time; evidenced by the presence of trees.

An island in the middle of nowhere, which had an Apex Predator. Food was scarce, meaning competition was fierce. Only the strongest of predator monsters would survive here.

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And now the Apex Predator, the Variant Myung-sa was dead.

Things were coming out.

The sound of chains dragging across the ground…

And if that dripping sound was what I thought it was…

A chill went up my spine as the hairs on my arms stood on end.

Carefully, without making a sound, I descended the stalagmite. Not all the way, but just enough to hide by body but still look out from the top. I hung from the side, keeping absolutely still and my eyes trying to catch the faintest of movements.

It appeared from behind a bend that I swore wasn’t there before. I saw its paws first. Large paws that were the size of my torso that came out from behind the wall. It was colored orange with black stripes. At the end of the paw were barbed claws designed to shred meat.

Strong muscular shoulders followed after, in that slow purposeful prowling gait of a feline predator. I saw the mane first, a graying shade of red.

Finally it’s head.

The face of an old man.

I knew this monster.

It was a Chu-in, a Grade-7 Boss monster.

Not just a regular Boss either.

It was a Variant.

Normal Chu-in’s are simply tigers with an old man’s smiling face. But this one had all the markings of being a Variant. There were chains wrapped around its wrists, dragging across the ground. At the end of these chains were large meat-hooks, either rusted or coated in dried blood. Not just that, its mane almost reached the ground, originating from its face; so that the face looked like it was framed in long wispy gray hair.

All my fear of the Slimes forgotten, I watched, captivated by the monster.

Any monster that resembles a human is scary. There’s this thing we call the Uncanny Valley, where something is cool or adorable, until it’s resemblance to us passes a certain point –then we begin to fear it. We call that area the Uncanny Valley. Some scientists like to theorize that it’s because way back, our brains had to recognize predators who mimicked us. Who walked like us, talked like us and knew us. So they could lure us away… one by one.

Yeah, the Chu-in reminded me of those stories.

It lounged a moment longer, seeming to look at the slimes and thinking. Then it opened its mouth and yawned, revealing human teeth.

Then it stretched, like a cat. It put its forelegs forward, sending its posterior towards the back. The old-man face squinted, eyes closing and began to shake.

And in one fell movement, it leaped over the cluster of Rot Slimes and landed right in front of me.

…I froze.

It had happened so fast.

It was smiling.

It leaned forward and sniffed me.

My neck.

My stomach.

My arms.

And like a horror-movie come true, it opened its mouth wide, taking my hand and beginning to nibble on it.

It stopped, leaning back and tilting its head to the side, like it was confused.

But I knew better.

This thing was smart.

And it was pretending not to know.

Pretending that it didn’t think I was food. Pretending to be confused. It must’ve overestimated by strength, thinking this play-acting would catch me off-guard.

But I knew.

So when it lunged towards me at the speed of light, I was ready.

It all happened in a blur as both the Chu-in and I screamed. He slammed into the stalagmite I was on, breaking it like a house of cards and bowling over it straight towards me. The sound was deafening and absently, I knew that the Slimes would start moving. I leapt off of the stalagmite moments before the impact and put out a hand, simultaneously casting all my moves at once.

[King’s Guard] activated and the Lunar Shield slipped out from behind me.

Klang! Klang!

The Chu-in had immediately followed up with two swipes of its paw and the rusted chain-meat-hooks slammed into my shield one after another. I shot out my set of chains which materialized a manacle that wrapped around the Creature’s throat. The buff flowed into me and when I landed, I used the entirety of my newfound speed to duck out of the way –it saved my life because a second later and its jaw would have crushed my collarbone.

｢[Share the Load] decreases [Handicraft] ｣

｢ [Arcane Masochism] cancels [Share the Load] ｣

｢[Arcane Masochism] increases [Speed] ｣

Every five minutes, Share the Load would place a debuff on both of us; [Footwork], [Handicraft], [Smell], [Hearing] then [Sight]. Then after those twenty five minutes, it would start reducing [Physical] and [Mental] in alternating order.

It was a rare thing for a battle to last long enough for me to see all the buffs from Share the Load come into play.

I had a feeling this was going to be one of those battles.

The Chu-in’s missed scraped off a bit of my shoulder, shredding through the steel armor like it was paper. But I’m not the type to focus only on dodging, one thing MSS teaches you is that no amount of dodgings going to win you the fight. I spun in a whirlwind and stuck out with my sword, hearing the squelch of it sinking into flesh. [Aura] might not be the flashiest of the Racial Traits, but it works wonders with damage.

The homo-sapien-feline monster roared and jerked away before I could follow up with another slash. It kicked with its rear legs, sending the hooks flying and spinning. It pounced towards me, swiping at the air and I belatedly realized that it wasn’t just a tiger-monster rushing at me. It was a tiger-monster that was surrounded by hooks zipping through the empty air and threatening to rip out a chunk of my body.

I ran towards the first one, trusting that the King's Guard would do its job. There was a huge shriek as my Lunar Shield met the hook head on, both of them bouncing being knocked away in opposite directions. Without waiting for the shield to return to me, I danced through the hooks and barbed chains, weaving and stepping.

When I was less than ten paces away from the monster, I used my newest skill.

｢ Lock uses [Darkness] ｣

And the world was submerged in shadow.

My Darkness Skill tree isn’t that developed yet.

If it was, it’d leave the Chu-in completely blind. Not just blind either, it’d be deaf too.

As it was, the Chu-in’s passive, [Night Vision] kicked in at once. An inferior version of [Dark Vision]. [Night Vision] only worked if the target was moving. It had taken me a while to figure that one out back on Earth.

So I stood still.

The Chu-in went mad, jumping up and down the hook-chains slamming into the ground. It left grooves on the ground as it snarled and muttered incoherently in a language unknown to man, eyes shining brightly through my darkness. I even deactivated the King's Guard, holding the Lunar Shield close to my body. There were some close calls as the hooks sped by only inches from my face, the wind leaving shallow cuts over my hands and feet.

But I stood still.

And the first of the Rot Slimes arrived at the Chu-in’s feet.

The Rot Slimes don’t see, so [Darkness] doesn't affect them. They move by sensing vibrations.

And the Chu-in had been making a whole bunch of them.

The Rot Slimes have no muscles, but their body can still tense up. Using locomotion, they sprung up at the twenty-feet tall monster in droves. The Chu-in snarled and opened its mouth to activate its roar, but nothing came out.

Of course not.

I’d stolen it earlier with that first strike, thanks to the [Shadow Mimic Wolf] Core.

｢Lock Slaveborn casts [Sajahoo (獅子吼)] ｣

My mouth released a roar with me as the focal point, the air shaking once more. It was different from the high-pitched shrieks of the Slimes that were barely audible. The Chu-in actually fell to the ground as its ears erupted with small fountains of blood.

But the real point of the Sajahoo lies in its effect to stop monsters in its tracks. Every game has it: the [Stun] mechanic.

All the Rot Slimes froze, their gelatinous body quivering.

Two seconds.

I dashed over, drawing my sword and Aura flickered to life. Then I cut into the Chu-in’s neck, lacerating it and leaving a huge open wound. Blood began to fall. Not droplets, but pour out like a small faucet.

The two seconds were up.

And it was the Rot Slimes turn to go mad.

The ones nearest to the Chu-in had some blood splattered on them. It drove them into the frenzy as they wavered towards the fallen beast, bobbing up and down and their mouths spiraling and twisting and gnashing. In a sickening display of predatory pack instincts, the Rot Slimes moved as a singular unit and swarmed the damn things. The Chu-in screamed, sounding all too human, and began to move its paws.

It was a still a Grade-7 boss, the Rot Slimes died in dozens.

But there were hundreds more.

Wherever the Rot Slimes touched, the wound began to fester and turn gray. Their one and only offensive passive [Decaying Touch]. It slowly withered down the [Physical] stat, which affected everything related to the body. The Chu-in stomped the ground with two feet, puffing up like a porcupine and its fur extended six-feet in all directions. The needle-like hair skewered the Rot Slimes, killing more and more.

｢ Lock Slaveborn casts [High Tide] ｣

I used the Lunar Shield ability (which had full charges now) to drive the Slimes away from us. Creating space, I whipped my sword forward, creating an apparition of a meat-hook. Another stolen ability from the Chu-in. Hooking the Chu-in my its forelegs, I continued my run and pulled –bringing the beast down to the ground with a huge thud.

Another vibration for the Slimes to lock in on.

The Chu-in looked around, trying to see where I was.

But I stood still.

Because we were still in [Darkness].

And eight buffs flowed into me as the Lunar Shield expended its charges.

And another one, as [Share the Load] told me that five minutes were up.

It was really a pity. This was the perfect hunting spot for me, a death trap for monsters. With [Darkness] and the presence of [Rot Slimes], I could just stay here all day. I’d stack buffs, just taking last hits… It was too bad that I’d have to move on.

No, I didn’t have to.

Taking out the [Neung-uh’s Ocarina], I took it to my mouth slowly and let out a small melody.

It was followed by another roar.

Another Chu-in came into the cavern from the same opening. This one wasn’t a variant, evidenced by the lack of meat-hooks attached to its legs.

Still, it was a Grade-7.

Seeing the movement of the Chu-in Variant, it ran right past me, it’s [Night Vision] unable to see me.

…Right. The Myung-sa… it had driven all the other monsters underground. And now, they were drawn here by the scent of blood; curious to see if they could scavenge something. Not only that, if the baby Myung-sas were outside, filling up every corner of the island. It didn’t get better with the Field Boss’ death, it got worse.

Then the exodus really began.

Attracted to the noise, other Grade-7 monsters began to run in –even the Inuho-oh which I encountered in the Fracture once upon a time.

And every single one of them walked right by me, thanks to [Darkness].

Hallelujah.