I find myself chuckling at the happiness radiating from me. Not the joy itself, but where the joy is coming from. Which is a giant hole in the ground.
Yup, a giant gaping dark hole that will take me to the next level of the dungeon.
But that isn't important. The important aspect is regarding the word ‘Giant’. The hole is massive, so much so that I can't help but shed a tear as Berosus walks through unhindered like a sausage in a hallway… or a dick in a well-used vagina.
“You have that look again. Also, you’re crying again.”
I point, “Jessica, let me have my wins when I can. I’m not completely over the system screwing me over, though the skills do help.”
She smiles at my plight knowing full well how annoyed I am that my class literally leveled up into itself. The fucking system is a troll even though logically it would make sense. Regardless, I am an illogical human being, thus I can blame inanimate objects as I please.
“Thank you,” she says.
“Hmm? For what?”
“For helping Thorous. She looks a lot better now.”
Right, that.
I look behind me and the rather unorganized line of Gejan. Since the descent is spacious, they no longer need to walk in tandem, instead, they move in a relatively organized relaxed group. Thorous is leading with her chin up, head high, and is constantly looking for threats even though I have my birds keeping watch.
“She just needed to be beaten down mentally enough that when I offered a way out, she took it immediately.”
“That's still nice of you.”
I roll my eyes at her ignorance.
“It isn't nice. I manipulated her feelings through words and actions so that she becomes more useful to me and the group. I could have just as easily manipulated her into suicide,” I say as I look at her annoying smile on her face.
Her smile doesn't falter,” Uhuh, but you didn't. And that's what counts. You say things like that, but all I see is you doing your best to keep everyone alive and happy. You put yourself in the heat of battle when others would not. You take risks so that others don't have to. Under your constant excuses for being a manipulator, you still look out for those who look up to you. You are an egotistical, arrogant, narcissistic, maniac who prides himself on his ability to keep people alive, loyal, and above all else, happy.”
I open my mouth to retort but stop as I slowly realize how right she is as well as how perceptive she is.
She takes my pause as a confirmation before winking and walking towards mule farther back.
I blink and turn to my shoulder to where Peter sits, “She’s not just a pretty face, is she?” I ask the spider who opens its eyes, wiggles one of its legs and then goes back to sleep.
I shake my head and look around as we travel through the cavernous hole. My eyes fall on Alba, her own on mine. I wave her to me.
She strides to me with a smile on her face,” Commander, do you wish to mate with me? I’m not sure if it can be done on the move, but I am willing to try.”
I roll my eyes at her. The women are incessant on sex. Apparently being her first is the same as being a humans first. Borderline obsession is something I actually lack the experience to deal with right now.
“You said that you have traveled to the next floor several times and have met the Kitsune. Actually, before that, how can you be on that floor? I heard a lot of monsters use illusion and mind magic to attack and manipulate.”
Pouting at my ignoring her question, she frowns but explains,” The floor does have many monsters who use such magic but also just as many who are resistant. I have tamed those resistant and have taken the resistance for myself.”
[Advanced Analyze]
She is similar to me regarding her stats. They are low, even her mana. But her willpower is exceptionally high, which is more than likely the defining trait for her ability to control and tame monsters. Her mana is decent as well, which may mean that she does have skills that could utilize it. Overall, like me, her capability is pushed on her monsters.
But unlike me, she seems to get bonuses from her monsters.
“Will you need to tame them again?” I ask.
“No, when we get to the floor, they will seek me out immediately. Monsters tamed are always tamed but many of my skills require a certain distance to work.”
Makes sense.
I grunt in acknowledgment, “what else can you tell me? Any restrictions?”
She nods, “I’m not sure why, but I can't take monsters to other floors. They seem to weaken and die for some reason.”
She points beside her,” Though Fang here seems to not have that problem.”
I look towards her awakened direpanther, noting the presence of crystal teeth. Clearly the monster being awakened gives it some reason to traverse floors.
“Good to know. Final question, what can you tell me about the Kitsune?”
She opens her mouth to speak but stops as light is seen in the distance. The travel to the next floor is much sooner than expected.
“We will talk later, let's see what I am dealing with.”
I begin walking faster, outpacing Berosus as I make it to the opening and the light seeping through.
Exiting with a large number of undead birds, I gaze into the scenery. A forest, not as dense as the others, but clearly a forest with various trees, bushes, and plants. Though the biggest difference compared to all other forests is the presence of the fog. A lot of fog that is decently thick too. Granted, my perception allows me to see rather far still, but not nearly as well as usual. Still, I have eyes in the sky and from them, I find the place rather… lacking. No birds and barely any insects can be seen. Small monsters or animals are the only presences in the distance.
Frowning, I activate my [Advanced Mana Sense] which instantly begins to give me a headache. But I ignore it and push through, immediately noticing thick mana everywhere. The entire fog is heavy with mana as are all the plants. The whole place reeks of it.
I squint harder, checking details until I find a large discrepancy. A condensed amount of mana around a tree. Unseen to my eyes, but something is there. I raise my hand, calling up my mana as I prepare my corrosive fog spell. The movement is not necessary but it does allow me better control over the spell and gasses.
Just as I am about to release, Alba comes by.
“Awww you waited for me! Come here and give me a hug she says.”
The mana signature changes and the monster becomes visible to the naked eye. A snake-like monster with six claws for arms and very shiny mirror-like scales.
[Advanced Analyze]
Reading the last line, I lower my arm and watch as the snakelike monster wraps around Alba while rubbing its face on hers. She giggles.
“Yes, yes, I missed you too. It seems you've grown. Over level one hundred already! I’m so proud of you Dolby,” she coos to the monster that so affectionately wraps around her.
“Huh, I'm guessing this is one of those that you tamed.”
She smiles, “Yup, Dolby here was my second awakened. He was so young too when I last saw him. Barely over level eighty. But now, he’s a big boy.”
She looks around at the trees and grass. “Hahaha, so this is your territory now? You made it next to the entrance? You must have missed me a lot!”
The monster begins to make a small sound like a rumbling deep hiss.
The others catch up to my location but don't even raise their weapons towards the new monster as they see me just standing by and doing nothing.
Taking a look around again, I notice now that most of the trees seem to have some scratch marks, most likely created by Dolby. The lack of other larger monsters may be a testament to Dolby’s ability to keep his territory safe.
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“Oh! Really? That much? Wow! Can I meet them?”
Alba talks to the monster, somehow understanding it.
The monster slides off, opens its toothy mouth, and begins to hiss at an extremely high frequency.
A moment after, through the eyes of my little birds, I watch as several dozen more of the same monster reveal themselves and begin slithering to our location. All differing in various sizes and levels while sporting only two arms instead of Dolby’s six.
They slither to our location and Alba runs off towards the group. Many of the smaller, seemingly younger ones accelerate and begin climbing her. She giggles at their touch.
“Dolby! You have so many babies!” she yells as she falls on the floor laughing.”
I look to Dolby, finding the monster staring with what I might consider pride.
“Hey Alba, as much as I enjoy seeing a bunch of long slender snakes wrapping around you, mind telling me where I can find the Kitsune?”
She is barely able to stop giggling and point in a direction, “Tree” she exclaims.
Following her finger, I do indeed find a rather massive tree barely visible from the fog.
I turn to the Gejan, watching them stare confused at Alba playing with the baby monsters.
“Make camp here. It should be safe. Jessica, Zorren, you are with me. Bring mule.”
Zorren says nothing but obeys while Jessica nods and begins following. Mule right behind her heels.
“Zorren, The kitsune are at the tree, right?” I say pointing.
He doesn't answer for a good ten seconds.
“I do not know,” he says while pointing towards the complete opposite side of the direction we are heading to,” The next floor entrance is over there. No boss blocks it. We should not waste so much time dealing with every race on these floors.”
I wave away his concerns.
“Yes, yes, you have told me innumerable times that I should rush to the sixth floor as soon as possible and that dealing with the Centaurs and Minotaurs were a waste of time.”
I roll my eyes at the man, which seems to anger him further. But, as usual, he activates a skill and immediately begins to relax.
“Look, I understand you are worried, but we don't know exactly what has happened to your people, but rushing in could cost us our lives. It would be best to gain strength until that floor.”
He says nothing to my explanation as we continue walking towards the tree. Eventually, we begin to see monsters.
And like that, it shows up. But, as expected, it did not affect me. My [Mental Overmind] skill making me nigh immune to mental status effects.
Sensing mana, I find that the mental attack is coming from several small rabbit-like animals on a tree. The mana is sent invisibly and quickly towards my head. Gazing towards Zorren, I find that the same attack is actually flowing around his skull. Apparently, the Gejan scales are deflecting the mana.
Zorren moves, his one good arm grabs Jessica who began walking towards the tree. Her eyes are glazed.
“She is affected,” he says and I nod. Her eyes are glazed, body seemingly wanting to move on its own.
“Annoying,” I say as I send mana into Mule which releases swarms of bone discs from the openings in his cloak.
They fly towards the monsters who attempt to run but get slaughtered quickly.
“What? What happened?” Jessica asks as Zorren lets her go.
“Mind magic. You were affected,” I say, pointing towards the corpses.
“Oh, um, maybe I shouldn't have come then,” she says but I shake my head.
“Nope, I need you specifically. I want to see how mind magic works and how it affects people,” I say.
She takes a moment to digest my words before she frowns and her hands come to her sides. She begins glaring at me,” You are using me,” she says.
I shrug,” Yup, you are the only one that is affected. How will I study mind magic if I don't have someone who is susceptible to it?”
She opens her mouth to retort but stops. She is annoyed at being used for such a purpose. But she can see the logic of it.
“Just, just warn me next time,” she says with a sigh.
“I’ll think about it,” I say as I begin walking. She begins to follow me a couple of seconds after.
____________________________________________________________
Time passes and to my surprise, Jessica becomes less and less manipulated by mind magic. Granted, she had been controlled over twenty times now by various different monsters. Some had even tried to make her kill herself. But all had failed as I would react quickly and end the lives of the monsters.
The mind attacks are very diverse, as are the monsters themselves. All so far have been decently leveled but with weak bodies. Some had used magic like lightning or creating flames, but they were easily dealt with by my discs. Everything here was physically weak and surprisingly useless to me as a minion. Apparently, the magical abilities of monsters were not something the undead versions could utilize.
“This is annoying,” Jessica says while making a face that looks like she is taking a shit.
“Good, good, you are getting better at fighting back. Is it getting easier?”
She nods slowly,” Yea, though some of them are overwhelming me. But I can fight back now.”
“Good,” I say as my blade rips into the monsters and her expression relaxes.
“Let's continue, I can see the tree clearer now.”
She nods and we begin walking closer, the fog density not increasing but the mana prevalent becoming thick enough to mess with my senses.
After a good five minutes, I raise my hand and stop everyone from moving.
A smile forms on my face as I gaze around me.
“What happened? Did you find anything?” Jessica asks looking around, ready to make the poop face she is now so good at making.
I keep my hand raised.
“So, illusions. They manipulate light so as to create a projection. It is, I'm sure, very effective at fooling people. But, like all illusions, none of it will ever be perfect. Anyone with a keen eye would be able to tell what is fake. For example, the trees around me are too perfect. They are uniform and nature does not grow in such a way. For example, in nature, every leaf is different. They are never exactly the same. But here, I see only a couple dozen different variations.”
I shake my head as I step forward, a confident smile on my face “I am a bit disappointed now. I was expecting the Kitsune to be better than this.”
Mana fluctuates as the illusion degrades before me.