Chapter 26: Call me Rocky because it's time for My Training Arc

[SKILL LEVEL UP!]

[Minion Synchronization LvL 3!]

Minion Synchronization: LvL 3

Synchronize your senses with a loyal minion to take control of the target for the duration of Three Minutes. Duration scales with skill level, effectiveness scales with bond. COOLDOWN[12 HOURS]

 

Back in my rubber body, I felt a sense of giddiness as my skill leveled up.

For days, weeks, months, on every twelfth hour on the dot, I took control of Hector. The only reprieve I had from the acid covered mandibles wrapped around my body sucking on me as if I were a lollipop.

In my captivity, the Matriarch spider had become…enraptured with me. Not like how Slimey was, but more like how a child enjoys their favorite candy or a baby with their binky.

Come to think of it, do babies in this world have binkies? I couldn't recall, but the analogy still stands.

As time passed, I was regenerating faster than she could suck me off. Not that she was trying to destroy me. I had acid immunity, not piercing immunity so I was still completely at the mercy of the spider Matriarch.

One wrong move, and she could pierce my body with her steel-like mandibles.

So I bided my time. Observing, silently, planning, plotting, training. Occasionally being made to involuntarily squeak as she squeezed me randomly.

Of course, I wasn't the only one improving my skills. 

From my prison, I directed my minions, my army in waiting carving out my future kingdom in the halls of the demon Lord's castle. 

While I couldn't subjugate new minions given my captivity, I instead focused on those warriors I had. The veterans.

 

[Minion Synchronization Available!]

It was time. 

 

I willed the ability to activate, my subconsciousness supplanting itself into my minion of choosing.

Into Hector.

I stood upright, my consciousness now viewing the world through the spiritual eyes of my skeletal minion.

I was a six foot skeleton now, one wearing old metal armor, vintaged leathers, wrapped in torn cloth stolen from the buried bodies of the damned.

“My LORD!”

Flexing my broken gauntlet, my army turned to me, each monster bowing as Slimey demanded a show of fealty.

Even Dave was brought to heel, the large gator too slow and being blasted by Slimey's new skill, Ellight. 

A light magic skill, her spell struck the back of Dave's knees bringing the monster down quickly to her knees.

“Lord Hiro Darling!!! You've returned! Every moment away agony to my core!” Slimey sent, bowing.

What is our status? I asked, the sounds of clashing echoing out in the distance pricking my undead senses.

“Your army is engaged against Gnolls my lord. Nothing we can’t handle.” Slimy said as Dave grumbled, the latter unhappy being treated the way it was while also being used as a mule to carry Chloe's bones.

I opened my system, eyeing the spiders and slimes still under my command that had grown substantially thanks to the presence of higher tier monsters. 

Infected Gnolls, blighted rat swarms, sickly goblins, skeletons, and even zombies. They flooded the upper catacombs, the undead biome radiating with sickness of death.

Fortunately, Slimey was the antesis of all things undead, making short work of the disgusting abominations that partroled this strata.

I pivoted, heading off to the sounds of battle where a small cluster of gnolls were engaged against my slimes and spiders.

My blind tarantuals had grown eyes and evolved since my capture, getting bigger while my slimes were conjoined into two super slimes. At the forefront, Kappybara led the charge, the now large Capruxa sprouting tusks that it used to gore a flailing gnoll.

Tightening my skeletal fingers around my steel daggers covered in blue slime, I entered the fray.

Daggers weren’t my preferred weapon of choice, but any warrior versed in the art of warfare makes due. And if there was one thing I was good at, well… It was warfare.

I dove into the crowd of Gnolls, slashing and cutting, my weapons digging into the flesh of the feral monster's that snarled at me as their flesh sizzled.

In a flash, I dispatched one, my dagger in the creature's temple as I ducked beneath an overhead claw. 

I spun, crouching low, slashing the tendons of my assailant, the furry brown monster smashing onto the floor.

The gnoll shrieked, scratching at the floor, the monster attempting to scramble away but pinned under the weight of my armor. Well, Hector's armor as I sat upon the monster and inserted my daggers into its skull.

The last Gnoll was quickly dispatched by my other minions, the slimes, spiders, and capruxa working in unison to bring down a much stronger prey.

In all, the ordeal had taken all but a minute. 

Not my best time, but certainly not my worst.

Day in and day out, this was my training. Every twelve hours, sharpening myself. Getting used to a body so that I could rescue myself. Hector was a decent minion, but ultimately still a skeleton and one that didn't possess the talent of warfare I did.

Unguided, Hector was lithe but not fast, its movements slightly sluggish in comparison to my direct control. But under my puppeteering, Hector changed from a dull blade to a surgeon’s scalpel.

And it was with that scalpel that I would carve my way out of the clutches of my enemies.

“Lord Hiro! So graceful! So magnificent! Your skill astounding as usual lord!” Slimy exclaimed kowtowing before my vessel of choice.

Arise Slimey, flattery will get you nowhere with me, there is more monsters to be culled, more levels to be earned. 

“Oh Lord! I mean not to offend, you are the greatest warrior known to the world, and your ascension is my only goal master!” Slimy sent, her head raised with a crazed madness in her eyes. “Please! Give the order to march on our enemies and free you from the unclean and unworthy!!! Every moment is agony to all two hundred of my cores!!”

Sigh… this again.

While the devotion was touching, it was also unsettling.

No. We must bide our time. This is the last I will tell you of this. Do not pester me further. I sent back, the Slime turning red, her skin billowing steam from the frustration building.

“My apologies Lord Hiro! It was not my intention to be a pest! Please! Allow me to repent by crushing one of my cores!” Slimey exclaimed, spitting out one of her cores and holding it aloft.

No. If you are truly sorry, aid your fellow comrades. Every moment you delay these displays is another moment I must spend as a prisoner.

Something seemed to shift in Slimey, her usually wide eyes somehow getting even wider before she splattered her head against the floor.

“I UNDERSTAND MY LORD!”

Oh… crap.

Suddenly my worldview shifted, the duration of my skill at it’s end with my senses cut off and dampened drastically.

Now back in my rubber body, I let out a low quiet squeak.

It wasn’t really that bad when I thought about it, actually I was quite safe! Although I was akin to an unending lollipop in the maw of a massive spider mouth, I was still protected, its own army of spiders shielding me from any threats. 

The trade off however, was that the entire place was disgusting and filled with web, my own form covered in sticky acidic drool. Every moment of being in this accursed kingdom of web infuriating me as I observed these filthy monsters living in squalor.

In short, it was disgusting. And I would not stand for such filth. No, they would be cleansed. Made to bend the knee and brought to heel to clean and if they would not… then they would be eliminated and made into immaculate sculptures and suits of armor.

This I swore. It would only take time however as I squeaked and eyed up the blue phase spider with gemstones on its body.

But, despite all my training and planning, with anything, its always good to have a backup plan. That's why the alphabet was invented after all.

A/N!

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