When I first got the system, I had a lot of questions. One of them was ‘why me’. But right now, that didn’t really matter. It could have been anyone. I wasn’t special. Sure, I didn’t have friends and family, lived alone, suffered from terminal cancer and all that. But I wasn’t the only one suffering that exact scenario. There was always someone else going through similar shit. Always someone going through worse shit.

And they could have reincarnated. They could have had this system. They could have been here in my stead. But they weren’t.

I was here.

I was traveling down to the eighth floor.

And it was me who was going to conquer the dungeon. Not because the system told me to. But because I wanted to.

“Why aren’t there any monsters here?” Josie led with a shield and a sword, while we followed.

I hadn’t noticed before since I was always on the front but this squire used a rather weird type of shield: curved and spiked.

I’d actually switched back to my male body, since I didn’t need to fight the goblin kings.

“Does this mean the dungeon master is near?” Sen wondered.

I had no idea how this thing worked, so I kept quiet. In the first dungeon, the boss was at the first floor. This dungeon’s boss was near the bottom, but that didn’t mean it was at the very bottom floor.

“Keep sharp,” I said. “I don’t want to absorb you two today.”

Sen sighed. “We’re not looking forward to dying either, right Josie?”

“Absorb…” Josie mumbled without really looking back. But honestly, I could tell her face was a bit red.

Fucking horny perverts.

It wasn’t that there was nothing here. It was just that, the place was really dark and even with torches, we couldn’t see much. Or rather, the girls couldn’t. I could totally see the spiders on the ceiling and the big spider that was laying eggs and devouring goblins and people alike. It’d noticed me the literal first step I took here. I was tempted to attack it on the spot but for now I didn’t. A lot of the goblins and the humans were actually alive.

The big spider took a live body, impaled it with something of a tube that stretched from its mouth and slowly sucked the juices out of the body, before throwing the shriveled mass to the newly hatched spiders.

Those things looked very familiar. Half of them were hatching, while the other half just remained as eggs. Said eggs were being carried away by their brethren through the holes in the celling. Yet, they didn’t make any sound. None.

“Interesting how spiders hunt,” I said.

 But how did the bodies go up there? Did it randomly pop up and drag all the prey up? It’s wary of me huh?

“Spiders!” Sen’s tail stood erect as did her ears. Her ears were also pretty fluffy but that tail was just perfect!

“Ah,” she moaned as I fiddled with it and stared at the ceiling. “What?” She managed, staring back, face flushed.

“The two of you take cover. I’ll light this place up.”

“Take cover from what?” Sen wondered, standing next to Josie.

Without a word I fired off a ball of fire at the ceiling. A web caught fire. More and more webs caught fire since the things were so interconnected. A lot of the spiders also caught fire and started dropping.

The mother spider wobbled her legs, as sharp jagged hair on her body vibrated. She was about to jump down. Thump! She did-

And she landed straight on my spear, or rather went through it because of my piercing ability, and proceeded to impale me with that sucker like thing.

[HP -50] I coughed up blood and my whole body felt dizzy.

“No!” Sen screamed.

Almost a one shot. I immediately changed my body to that of a slime’s and covered her whole body. The scales were tough and couldn’t be dissolved easily. But since the spear had gone through, I could just use that hole and absorb her from within like she absorbed that adventurer just moments ago.

Even so, damn thing wasn’t going down without a fight and tried piercing me. But my slimy form was resistant to blunt and bladed attacks. And its main piercing thing wasn’t or rather, I wasn’t in its range.

You’re dead... ha ha!

[Arack Lord absorbed!]

[Lv up!]

[Strength increased!]

[HP increased!]

[Stamina increased!]

[Skill gained: Harden]

[Can now synthesize Arack Lord Scales]

Very productive.

I was barely surviving on 5 HP though. Close one.

“Woah!” Josie stared around. “The corpses… those things… those guys were alive.”

A lot of them were running around with fire up their ass so I decided to drowse them. The sizzling sound was somewhat pleasing. All of them dropped like corpses though.

There goes all my MP… sigh.

“You okay!” Sen gathered near me, hugging my slimy golden body. “Claudia!?”

“I’m Clyde you imbecile. Claudia’s my sister’s name. I only use it when I’m a girl,” I sighed, turning back to a guy. I was way thinner now? Weird. “Gather up the bodies. We’ll take them back once we clear the dungeon.”

“Right…” Sen mumbled. She was worried and I just insulted her… no, wait, she was glad. I guess she was glad because I was alive. I was still her shield. Even though her owner was gone, she still got a lot of lascivious gazes whenever we went through the city. The only reason people didn’t approach her was because of me. 

“Relax, I’m fine,” I said, stroking her tail till she fell on her knees panting.

Anyway, with the bodies piled it was time to descend to the 9^th floor. There was a very good chance the dungeon boss was there and… and it was empty? No, seriously, this floor was completely empty and only had treasures and ores and… Manatite!

I absorbed them all and increased my MP capacity by 50%!

I also increased my speed and stamina stat by 1 point each. Weirdly my luck stat also went up by 1. Lucky, I guess.

“I thought there were ten floors?” I said. But this was clearly the bottom floor.

Just to be safe, I absorbed the whole floor clean, along with the earth till I hit the bedrock stages; aka, the skeleton of the dungeon. But nothing, there was nothing below. Just one small gem?

It glowed faintly blue.

“Wait, doesn’t that mean…” Josie paused for a second. “The dungeon boss-”

“Is missing,” I said.

“Was the spider,” said Sen.

Huh? That thing? “No way.” I shrugged. “That thing couldn’t possibly be-” I paused. Even with my dissolve ability, I couldn’t really melt that thing’s armor. I just got lucky that my spear had gone through. And it had almost one shotted me, so….

That was the dungeon boss?

No, the quest hadn’t yet completed. Surely- I absorbed the gem.

[Dungeon core absorbed]

[Lv up!]

[All stats increased!]

[Skill Dungeon Master (mid) acquired]

[Quest: Conquer Aile Completed!]

[Credit earned 100; Gained 3 Health potions]

Fuck. It really was the boss… sigh.