Chapter 44: My own Worst Enemy.

Mold.

Mold.

Mold.

Mold.

Mold.

Mold.

The word kept bouncing in my head.

Mold.

“Lord Hiro?”

Mold.

“Lord Hiro?”

Mold. I'm moldy Slimey! I'm full of mold!

“Yes you are sir,” Slimey replied, stroking my head as she carried me through the decrepit hallways of the catacombs.“But that's ok, I love you anyway Lord Hiro.”

ARGHHGH!

Screw love! I need a cure! A cure! Wait! AYAKA! She can suck-

Ah… what's this killing intent I'm suddenly feeling?

Slimey! Slimey calm down!

“Hrrrrrn!” The slime vibrated, her form red.

After calming Slimey down she and I continued our journey, a calm stroll through the catacombs with an army of slimes cleaning behind us.

“Such a lovely day for a stroll my Lord.” Slimey said.

Right. Day… in an underground cavern with no sunlight.

I decided to play along, placating the jealous slime’s emotions whilst I figured out my next steps.

Curing my disease, finding the treasury, getting a thousand Manacyst, and evolving Chloe.

And of course manually evolving Slimey using a tedious plan that involved the use of a very deep hole.

Hrrrrn. This mold was why Ayaka thought I was so tasty. Now this begged the question, why was there mold in me? Where did it come from? Why hadn't I seen this mold anywhere else?

Why was it so deadly? Why couldn't it be purged????

Questions, questions, questions.

But no answers.

Gah it's just one thing after another!

Hn?

Moving though the catacombs, I could feel a shift in the air, a tangible taste that hung suspended in my surroundings.

A dungeon’s territory.

Great…

I pinged my surroundings, noticing an ornate archway at the end of my current tunnel.

An exit out of the catacombs, a new biome.

Fall back.

“My Lord?”

Retreat.

“Yes my Lord.”

I wouldn't begin an incursion without more firepower.

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Chloe was still in stage two of her evolution process and while I could summon Ayaka to me, I needed her in the throne room to keep the dryad contained.

Just in case she broke free from her hourly tickle tortures.

No. I wouldn't chance it. Not yet. If my last dungeon run in was any indicator, I was basically running on luck.

There was also the fact that Zorin was out of commission, the large croco-girl regenerating from an experiment of mine.

From my testing, Zorin’s new scales reflected magical effects up to a certain extent, returning magical effects to the target so long as the spell was non-lethal.

However this also applied to healing skills as well, with Slimey's Enlight bolts penetrating the monster’s scales while mend simply bounced off.

A bit annoying. But after more testing it was shown that Zorin’s scales eventually lost their reflective property the more they reflected, allowing for healing to be used.

I was down three of my strongest. One recovering her spell reflection, one tied up defending my prisoner, and one stuck under a pile of bones evolving.

All I had was Slimey and Hector. And while enough for the lower biomes, I wasn't sure what threats lurked above the catacombs.

Yet.

Stepping out of the enemy domain, I called up Hector, my assassin bending the knee as it responded to my summon.

I reached out, taking control of Hector with the rest of my minions on standby to provide support.

Looking through the eyes of the undead rogue, I shot off through the archway, my eight minute timer already counting down.

Stepping into the next room, I could see that the biome had changed, the walls and flooring of cobblestone replaced by white marble cracked and stained by the passing of time.

However, despite the weathered appearance of my surroundings, I recognized them immediately as the same tile and walling as the floor Ayaka had fled from in her memories.

The treasury was near.

However, considering my last dungeon core encounter so happened to be grown around the Dragon Slayer, it was a safe assumption that the core in this area was probably the same.

Stepping lightly, I could feel the gaze of another on my back, a foreign will reaching out to touch my mind only to be rebuffed by my control.

Great. It knew I was here. Still, I wouldn’t be dissuaded by its gaze, I had an objective after all, and I needed to find it.

Opening one of the many rotting wooden doors that littered the space, I moved cautiously with my daggers raised, eyeing the storeroom I entered.

Wine barrels, rows upon rows of them with the containers long since fallen into disrepair. Judging from the layout, I had now entered the castle proper, as any base typically kept the alcohol close at hand.

Now the question remained, where exactly in the castle was I? Presumably near the kitchens or dining room maybe?

Hmmm. Walking through what I presume was the basement level of the castle, there was oddly a scarcity of monsters. In fact there were none! However, despite the lack of aggressors I could still feel the dungeon core’s presence, the mastermind of this strata watching every movement I made, completely aware that I was intruding into its space.

So now that begged the question.

Why hadn’t it sent enemies after me? What was it waiting for?

Hard to say.

I pressed on, exiting out of the wine storeroom up a set of stairs that exited out into a massive chamber I recognized immediately.

The arena…

A massive coliseum with rows upon rows of benches and seats, a place once used for the entertainment of demons.

I looked up, eyeing the hole in the ceiling, the trap door that led unsuspecting victims into the sandpit floor.

Stepped into the arena my bones rattled as mirages and echoes of the past played out around me.

Scenes of battle, dozens of monstrosities, hundreds of voices. Cheers and screams, monsters demanding blood as my companions of old collected ourselves to stand against the Chimera, Hydra, and twin-headed Gorecyclops.

Walking into the open, I stood at the center of the sandpit, my undead eyes scanning the decrepit landscape filled with bones of monstrosities once slain by my hand.

I could see them, the echoes of the past, images of that battle playing out before my eyes, visions of myself wielding my Holy Blade blade dubbed “Excalibur”.

Not the actual Excalibur of Arthurian legend mind you, but a blade I personally crafted with the help of my friends. A weapon infused with the strength of our friendship.

Cringe? Probably. But… it was something made with the combined efforts of those who put their trust in me. A weapon that resonated with the wielder’s strength of emotion and commitment. A holy armament that could only be used by those who had a hand in its creation.

Hmm. I wonder where that sword is?

A couple of hundred years had passed, with no one left alive to power the blade. No doubt the strength of the weapon had long since faded into oblivion, becoming no more than a useless piece of expensive metal.

Suddenly movement, a strange shift in the atmosphere of the arena.

The sands began to shift, move, a cold wind blowing as the sand swirled, forming what appeared to be a humanoid shape.

Power. I could feel it. An influx of mana condensing to form a man in armor with jet-black hair, his body adorned with armor fashioned of enchanted magi-gold and antimodium, the silver trim of his claw-shaped gauntlets holding a blade that was all but unfamiliar to me.

My jaw unwillingly dropped, my undead eyes quivering as I eyed…

Myself.

OH SH-

Suddenly my worldview was spinning, my skull decapitated from my skeletal body and sent flying. My instincts kicked in, plucking my head out of the air and backpedaling, avoiding the return swipe that broke open my ribcage.

Quacks!

Duck!

My knees gave out, avoiding the sword jab that shaved the top half of my skull.

I shot forward, not to attack but to dodge, scurrying through the legs of my sand copy to perform a tactical maneuver known as running away.

AYAKA!

“Yes my Lord?” Ayaka sent back as the blade speared the back of my ribcage, stopping me in my tracks with my feet sweeping the sand on the floor.

TELEPORT! TELEPORT HECTOR OUT RIGHT NOW!

My field of vision began to shift, my body held aloft as mirror me brandished my body into the open air like a sacrifice.

AYAKAAYAKAYAKAKSKDBkwpapalYT!!!

Suddenly a magnificent blue bug appeared out of thin air, the phase spider latching onto my body as mana began to condense below me

TELEPORTTELEPORTTELEPORT!

Suddenly the world erupted in white, my back being blasted open as my consciousness shifted.