Chương 23: Dark Slime and Bone Spider

Maddie reacted instantly, standing as a shield between Hale and Venessa in a split second. She shouted to Hale:"Master, I'll stall her. Get out of here fast." Against ordinary mages, Maddie could simply carry him into the sky to escape. But with a Grand Mage present, doing that was far more difficult. A mage only earned the title of Grand Mage after mastering four elements: water, fire, earth, and wind. Most Grand Mages could fly and handle long-range combat with ease.

Hale knew his Merit-farming run here had to come to an end. He needed to leave as quickly as possible so Maddie wouldn't have to fight such a formidable opponent for long. He backed away, trying to use the giant boulders to hide his movements. Venessa noticed right away and called out to her nearby subordinates:"Gabriel, Locke, secure Hale Wallace now!" The two guards reacted fast, instantly blocking Hale from behind.

Just as Hale thought, Well, that's it, I'm definitely getting caught again, a dark shadow appeared right in front of him. It expanded at incredible speed, covering his entire body, then sank into a black puddle on the ground. The dark puddle shot toward the dungeon entrance and merged with the darkness inside. It happened so fast that Hale didn't even understand what had just occurred. He only felt his whole body covered by a cold liquid, unable to break free no matter how much he struggled.

He couldn't breathe, nor could he cast magic. A minute—or perhaps many minutes—later, Hale was finally pushed out of the liquid. He collapsed onto the stone floor, gasping desperately for oxygen. After a few minutes, he finally began to notice his surroundings. He was inside a huge cave, dimly lit by numerous glowing stones embedded along the rock walls. Is this... inside the dungeon? He turned his head to look around, searching for whatever had wrapped around him.

Then, what he found made Hale let out a sharp yell and jump to the side. Now, don't go calling him a coward just yet. If you got thrown into a dim cave and saw someone who looked identical to you, but with a face as lifeless as a corpse, you'd yell too. The figure that looked just like him stood completely still like a stone statue, staring dead at him. A few seconds later, starting from its feet, the figure's body melted into a pool of thick black liquid.

The black puddle spread across the ground, then pooled together into a round shape slightly larger than a basketball. Hale's expression shifted with every change, finally settling on utter confusion. Looking at its final form, it seemed to be... a slime? The pitch-black slime suddenly nudged toward Hale, making him step back. The slime stopped, then began moving in a circle around him, occasionally hopping up and down. It looked like it was happy. Do slimes even feel happy or sad?

Seeing that the slime didn't seem inclined to attack, Hale sat down to get a better look at it. But no matter how he looked at it, it was just a shiny, black blob of liquid. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Why did you bring me here?" The slime bounced once, then started hopping toward a passage. It stopped in front of the path as if waiting for Hale to follow. And Hale followed it. He walked slowly, observing his surroundings as he went. He tried touching one of the glowing stones embedded in the cave wall, and the stone slowly lost its light. In return, Hale felt something enter his body. He touched a few more stones, and the reaction was identical.

Hale opened his status panel and realized his mana was almost back to full. These glowing stones restore mana? He wanted to bring them outside! The black slime bounced again, urging him to keep moving. Hale thought to himself that he'd try prying a few out later, then continued forward. The passage widened steadily, eventually opening into a cave even larger than the previous one. However, this cave wasn't bare; it was covered in heavy cobwebs. Nestled among the webs were numerous egg-shaped cocoons.

Looks like this is where those scythe spiders breed, Hale thought, feeling a chill run down his spine. Yet the scariest thing wasn't the spider cocoons, but a massive structure lying in the middle of the cave—a giant spider skeleton. The first thought that popped into Hale's mind was: Wait, do spiders even have bones? While he was trying to guess whether the skeleton was real bone, the slime suddenly hopped out of the cave, leaving him alone. A moment later, footsteps echoed from outside.

Hale ducked behind a stone pillar, waiting silently. The black slime returned, with Maddie following right behind it.

"Maddie!" Seeing that it was Maddie, Hale let out a sigh of relief and stepped out from behind the pillar. Maddie was equally glad to see him:"Master! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Why did you come in here? Did anyone follow you?"

"I shook them off at the earlier turns. This dungeon is huge; I'm not sure if I still remember the way out." Hale pointed at the black blob on the ground:"Maybe it knows the way. This slime doesn't seem to want to hurt me, though I have no idea why it brought me here." Maddie fell silent in thought, then scanned the large cave. Finally, she said:"It seems to be a creature of darkness, and so is that giant spider skeleton."

"A creature of darkness?" Hale repeated stupidly.

"What the heck is that?" Maddie reached into the pocket behind her apron and pulled something out. Hale squinted to get a closer look—it was a ring.

"Since you don't remember much, I kept it for you temporarily," Maddie said, taking his hand and placing the ring on his middle finger.

"You are the conqueror of the Sacred Relic in Seki, the Lord of Darkness. That is why creatures of darkness love and obey you."

"Lord of Darkness?" Hale grimaced, finding the title painfully edgy.

"Do I have any more villainous titles? Might as well tell me all of them at once." He held the ring up high to inspect it carefully. It was a thick band made of dark metal, set with a stone that held a purple gleam in the center. At first glance, the craftsmanship looked quite rough, nothing that appeared expensive.

"What does this ring do?" he asked Maddie.

"It is a Sacred Artifact taken from the Sacred Relic in Seki, representing your title as the Lord of Darkness. Once it recognizes you as its master, creatures of darkness will sense that you are their master even if you aren't wearing it." Hearing that, Hale pointed straight at the black slime on the ground, commanding in an authoritative voice:"Do a hiphop dance for me!" The slime remained still on the ground for a moment, then nudged slightly toward him.

"It doesn't work at all," Hale said in disappointment.

"Or maybe it doesn't understand what I'm saying?" Maddie replied:"I am not sure. I have only ever seen you control dry bones before. Try giving a simpler command." Hale rubbed his chin in thought, then said:"Slime, turn into Maddie. Just like how you turned into me earlier." This time, the slime seemed to understand. Its body began expanding like a tarp, wrapping entirely around Maddie. Hale flinched slightly, but he felt it wouldn't harm Maddie, so he waited patiently.

About ten seconds later, the slime released a very annoyed Maddie. It bounced to the side, its body morphing into shape. Within half a minute, an exact copy of Maddie appeared right before them. Extremely excited by this magical ability, Hale rushed over to touch it. But what his hand met wasn't warm skin; it was still a cool liquid. The black slime could only copy the appearance, not truly transform into a complete human body. Still, this was pretty incredible.

Then, 'Maddie' the slime suddenly moved, pointing toward the giant spider skeleton in the middle of the cave. Its mouth moved, but no sound came out. Looking at its lip movements, it seemed to be trying to say the word "gift."

"A gift? For me?" Hale carefully approached the spider bone to inspect it more closely. Strangely, the longer he looked at it, the less scary it felt. It didn't look like the actual skeleton of a real spider, but rather various bone joints pieced together into the shape of a spider. Hale reached out and touched the skull bone. He felt as though he could wake it up.