Chapter 17: Into the Catacombs.

Slinking around the darkness of the cavern, I rode atop Slimey surrounded by my minions. 

In front, Dave, my tanker. Supported by an armor of slimes atop of a cuirass made of hardened web. Flanking him, was Chloe and Hector, my skeletons who were covered in sticky webs that wrapped around their rib cages, skulls, arms, and legs. In a way, they almost appeared to be mummies thanks to how thick I had the Spooderman and the spiders weave their webs.

In the center, was me and Slimey, with a trail of spiders following behind and leaving webbing in their wake that would alert us of any potential stalkers and slow down attackers.

This time I wasn’t going to take chances.

Every few paces I would squeak, mentally mapping the sewers out as I traversed the filthy walkway.

Resistance was light, the monsters mostly already exterminated and turned into EXP for my army that passed through. Occasionally I would pick up other slimes, wild ones, but ones that I had already forcefully cured of their mutation, creating slimes that would be working for me while not being directly in my employ.

Of course they moved to attack me, but against a Super Holy Slime like Slimey, their meager attempts to reach me atop my moving mountain were all but futile. 

Is this what it feels like to be a king? 

I have to say it does feel quite nice ehehehehe.

Wait. What’s that?

My next squeak picked up something, multiple somethings, humanoid shapes in the distance clutching weapons, skeletons judging from their lack of flesh, the creatures having the same blank signature my skeletons originally had.

Dave, you’re up. I sent.

Of course the ten foot tall Croc wasn’t happy, I could feel it through our bond, but he'd done enough relaxing and needed to be put to work! After all, the best rehabilitation after a severe trauma was rest, recovery, and then exercise! 

Now we were in the exercise stage and my lazy minion needed to work!

Dave stomped his feet, striking the stone flooring with his scaly tail repeatedly slapping against it before released a mighty roar, one that sent a vibration cursing through Slimey and into me.

Immediately Slimey shifted, coating me head to toe in its body save for my beak it knew to allow for my squeakerlocation.

Like an angry bull my Krocotaur charged, the skeletons answering Dave’s challenge by turning and rushing him, their boney hands cradling dull weapons that did little against the monster who landed in their midsts. 

Thanks to the hardened silk and slimes coating his body, Dave resisted the damage, performing a 360 spin that immediately shattered the undead forms with his tail smashing through the fragile bones.

But the battle wasn’t over yet, the problem with fighting undead was that they revived if their cores weren’t destroyed. Similar to the stories of liches from the fantasy novels of my homeworld, all undead in this world operated with a phylactery, the source of their animation and power. 

Ghosts and spirit types tended to have theirs be their physical bodies, their corpses buried somewhere.

Zombies and skeletons, usually in their skulls, while more advanced undead had theirs tied to items, relics, or, even spouts of mana given form from intense emotions. Like Drowners or Penitents.

Dave had only broken their torsos, the skeletons churning with magic with the bones already moving to resemble themselves.  

We put an end to that quickly. 

Ordering Dave around, my champion quickly disposed of the skeletons, stomping on the brittle skulls that immediately ended their threat.

Of course there was barely any experience to be had, BUT! THERE WERE WEAPONS! 

Crusty, brittle, probably rusted weapons. But weapons nonetheless. Weapons Dave could use, material for potential tools, and traps!

I paused my menagerie, ordering Dave to pick up the tools with the giant croc huffing but following my orders.

Using the slimes that coated him, I had the monsters hold onto the weapons like little holsters and sheaths. Whatever that didn’t fit onto Dave’s impromptu backpacks, I had Slimey pick the rest. 

Metal was metal after, and RUST is deadly! Even if I couldn’t wield the blades and axes as intended, I could find a way to break down the material for other uses. 

All in all, four shortswords, two axes, a spear, and a mace.

Most of which, stored inside Slimey with explicit orders not to dissolve much to its displeasure. 

 

Carrying on, I kept squeaking, searching for the source of skeletons to procure more metal now that I knew I was on the right track.

Eventually my search led me to a large drain, one that was roughly twenty by twenty feet and jutting from a wall with nearly two dozen skeletons loitering around the tail end of the pipe.

After dispatching of the horde and collecting their loot, I sat on my slime, pondering if I should ascend as its innards swirled with dozens of weapons.

Judging from the trail of scattered bones, it was clear that they had descended from wherever this pipe led to, which to my best guess, was a dumping ground or a catacomb.

Right?

Should I chance it? What do you think?

….

I really need someone to talk to…

Squeaking into the pipe didn't do much of anything as my sound bounced upward and didn't return, telling me nothing of what lied beyond.

 

.

 

.

Perhaps that was the exit? Or a way towards one? I didn't know but the only way I would find out was by taking the first step. 

I ordered an elite slime ahead, my number 99. If anything happened to it then I knew it was dangerous, if not… well. Still dangerous but probably less.

 

Slime 99 detached from Dave, the gooey fiend crawling its way up the pipe to be my scout.

The simple orders of crawl to the exit, wait, then return. 

 

I waited. 

 

And waited.

 

And waited.

 

Until finally, something happened.

 

99 returned!

 

I let out a squeak, ordering my monsters forward while making a mental image of my path and leaving behind webs in case I got lost.

Turning my attention to Chloe and Hector, I ordered Slimey to swallow them up, to store them in its mass so that we could all go together.

Huh?

Oddly, the skeletons with no mind of their own backed away from Slimey’s tendrils reaching out. 

Slimey attempted to grab Chloe and Hector again, but just like before they backed away.

Weird.

Get in the slime. I ordered, yet the pair of undead were reluctant.

Uhg, we don’t have time for this! GET IN THE SLIME!

At my command, the skeletons both took a step forward into Slimey, their boney appendages clicking against the floor to step into the slime only to SUDDENLY COMBUST INTO FLAMES.

WHAT? HUH?! 

Dumbfounded by the unexpected heat, the pair of skeletons were immolating themselves to follow my command!

GET OUT OF THE SLIME! GET OUTOFTHESLIME! GET OUT!

So…. After that fiasco I learned something I had completely forgotten…

Undead are naturally adverse to holy attributes. So much so that they’ll disintegrate or combust into flames when exposed to righteous light. So now I have two lightly charred undead with half health and no way to heal them… I didn’t possess negative energy, nor did any of us have milk, so now I had permanently crippled two of my minions just because of my memory loss…

 

Sigh. 

Sending Chloe and Hector back to base with my newly procured armory of weapons, the rest of us eventually rose to the top where I entered into a winding tunnel of decrepit catacombs.

At least, judging from the structure of the walls, bones and the skulls littering the area of what I assumed was a catacomb. 

My body shivered. Odd because I wasn't cold, no… this was a different sensation. Something that made me uneasy.

I let out a squeak, I pinged the nearby surroundings, my sound washing over the bones and weapons scattered about, many of them broken with the undead not rising. 

Judging from the carnage and the feel of holy energy lingering in the space, it was a safe assumption that the Priestess Slimey had dissolved had come from this direction. 

It was also a safe assumption that the warrior from earlier had come from this way, the man attempting to find his companion only to run into me. 

Cautiously, I ordered Slimey and Dave forward, deeper into the unknown as a sense of foreboding and curiously, excitement took hold.

I had never been this far before, never “seen” this place. A whole new area to explore! New minions! New loot! OH HOW I MISS THIS FEELING!

No! Don’t get too excited! Everytime you do something bad happens! Better to just play it safe, smooth, and calm.

After rallying my wild emotions, me and my army marched forward into the catacombs, this time with Slimey up front. The skeletons lingering about weren’t a threat at all, in fact, most of them attempted to flee and those that didn't… well. Lets just say they weren’t a problem after Slimey ran them over and I now possessed enough weapons to outfit a small village.

Eventually, after much crawling, many squeaks, and copious amounts of undead turned into dust, my gang and I made it into a large chamber, one with a collapsed section of wall that most likely led to another entrance.

Inside, I squeaked, the sound bouncing off over each wall that registered something that made me giddy.

 

A body.

 

A/N

 

Archer, Warrior, Mage, or Healer?