58 Undead Corruption (1/2)
[Day 38]
We were woken up by the constant yells from Crina. It seems that she fell asleep with us last night. She seemed to be in a big hurry so we quickly packed our things and had a light breakfast.
Crina floated around while we ate our breakfast, yelling with anger.
”Hurry up already! Weren't you going to do my request?! Hey! Stop eating! Why do you mortals always eat? And Brontes! You don't need to eat either!”
I just tried to ignore Crina while I sipped on my tea. However, Brontes tried to explain to Crina why she eats.
”But sister Crina, I like to eat. It's very yummy and makes me happy. It also makes my body grow stronger. My body is not fully ethereal like you, I'm not a High Spirit”
It seems that the big difference between Spirit Classes is if they are ethereal or corporeal. Corporeal is most of the living beings in this world, made of mass, any type of mass, flesh, slime, minerals, plants, etc.
While Ethereal are beings composed entirely of elements or pure magic. Crina is a pure ethereal being, while Brontes is both corporeal and ethereal. This is why she can recover even from lost limbs so easily just by absorbing magic from the environment.
Well, it's not like Crina can't eat things, as she ate a lot yesterday. It seems that she can absorb the energy on these foods and digest it with her water body, similar to slimes, but not really. It's weird… Brontes needs constant food to maintain the energy on her semi corporeal body, she can replenish some from the magic on the environment but it's usually not enough.
Most of Meiji spirits are semi corporeal. Only two of them were purely ethereal, being Hypnos and Aether. These two also result to be the strongest. I wonder if they were revered in the past.
On the way towards the fourth floor, I decided to drink an [Antidote] and a [Strengthening Potion] from the rewards of the previous two bosses. Antidotes can cure most weak ailments like Poison, Paralysis, and Sleep, they tasted like a very sweet honey with some herbal hints. On the other hand, Strengthening Potions buff your Strength stat by +20 for 30 minutes, it tasted like a very spicy liquor.
[You learned the following Skills]
[Antidote Secretion]
[Antidote Flesh]
[Muscle Reinforcement]
My special blessing ended up making the buff effect of the Strengthening Potion a passive effect and permanently reinforced my muscles. While it absorbed the healing properties of the Antidote and gave my flesh such properties. Alongside my Poison Immunity, I have a very high resistance to Paralyze and Sleep.
My wives and Gaby ended up doing the same, obtaining the skills. Meanwhile, Crina watched us with a surprised face while saying ”Geeeehh”.
”H-How can you do that?”
I glanced at Crina with a confused look.
”Hm? What do you mean?”
”That! You just absorbed the essence of the items into your own body! How did you even do that? You are a mortal! Only the strongest of spirits were even able to do such things!”
I still don't have much trust in this spirit. I should keep my mouth shut for now and pretend to no understand.
”I don't get what you're saying. Anyways, you already got me tired with your pointless ramblings. Let's keep going”
When my wives and Gaby saw my response, they also played dumb. They are very smart girls.
”H-Hey! Don't ignore me! Wait a second! Don't leave me behind! Fueeeehh!”
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What I noticed from the fourth floor is that alongside all the previous floor monsters, there were more things than just slimes. Now there were two new types of non-slime beings. These were Red Cyclops Frogs and Ferocious River Lizardman. These lizardmen seemed to have very basic intelligence and weren't as complex as the surface species. They only carried very ragged clothes and weapons made out of bones and stones. They tried to attack us the moment they saw us.
Red Cyclops Frogs are big frogs of around 3 meters tall, they have a big spherical eye on the center of their faces and their skin is completely red. They attack with their powerful muscular tongues and can shoot boiling water.
I really wanted to taste this new type of meat, so I joined the hunt myself, annihilating most of the living beings on the entire floor in less than an hour. The Lizardmen seemed to have a small cave where they protected their women and children. The moment I saw the small Lizardmen kids and their mothers trembling in fear, I decided to leave them alone. However, I had no mercy against the warriors that tried to take me on. I drank their blood and ate their souls, however, some sneaky souls managed to run away.
After drinking this new type of blood, my blood finally evolved.
[Your blood has successfully evolved: Ancient Aquarian Merfolk Bloodline > Ancient Lizardman Tribe Bloodline]
[You gained +10 Blood Strength]
[Ancient Lizardman Tribe special Class tree has been successfully unlocked!]
I thought about enslaving them and adding them to my Kingdom so they can enjoy better living conditions, but it wasn't the time for that, maybe when I get back. The Lizardman looked me with surprise as I left their hideout intact.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm really doing the right thing, I should just kill them and make myself stronger, right? But when I saw my wives looking at me with happy faces, I understood that I did the right thing.
However, Crina seemed to not like my decision.
”Eeeh? Why didn't you kill those pests? They are just using my precious shrine as a place to live and leech on our magic! You should have killed them!”
Once again, everyone ignored Crina.
”H-Hey! Where are you going? Wait for me!”
Even Nereid wasn't as annoying. No. Now that I think about it, they are equally as annoying.
[You gained 263280 EXP] [The rest of your servants gained some EXP]
[You gained two levels!] [LEVEL 38/70 EXP 48940/180000]
[Your servants gained tons of levels!]
We went to a small open room and I cooked the meat into a delicious hot pot. I added the leftover Walking Mushroom alongside veggies and spices. A delicious fragrance of seafood and mushrooms began to emerge.
The Red Cyclops Frog meat was very tender and creamy, almost melting on my mouth. It tasted like chicken for the most part, but had a distinctive seafood flavor on it, alongside a small spiciness. The Lizardman meat was way harder, but every time I munched on it, delicious juices would enter my mouth. These Lizardman seem to survive by accumulating grease on their bodies, this is why their meat was so juicy.
[You obtained the following Titles]
[Merciless Amphibian Killer]
[Merciless Lizardmen Killer]
[You and your servants learned the following Skills]
[Menacing Eye]
[Enhanced Muscular Tongue]
[River Lizardman Physique]
[River Lizardman Scale Formation]
[Piercing Thrust]
Not so many skills, however, the food was delicious. My wives enjoyed the comforting meal and everyone asked for seconds. Crina ended up joining at the end and enjoyed the food too.
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When we entered the fourth-floor boss room, we found out it was the big boss of all the River Lizardman. It was a massive Lizardman of around 30 meters tall, it had muscular legs and arms but a big belly and was sitting on a throne. I noticed that most of the room was filled with food. He probably takes it all from the weaker Lizardman. His weapon of choice was a big aquamarine-colored Axe.
Although it was rather fatty, it moved around the room with masterful techniques. It was a rather tough nut to crack. That, until my wives, went serious. Brontes decided to slap the Lizardman on the face with her Red Thunder enhanced Club. Blowing its entire face into minced meat, killing the boss instantly.
[You gained 205700 EXP] [The rest of your servants gained tons of EXP]
[You gained one level!] [LEVEL 39/70 EXP 74640/190000]
[Your servants gained tons of levels!]
[Everyone on your party have received a [Reward Gift (Rare++)] x2 and [Speed Enhancing Potion Pack (3)] on your Item Box]
Brontes looked over the big mess that she made and began to clean the blood over her body.
”S-Sorry… I did a big mess…”
All of us ended up being covered on the Lizardman Emperor's brains and blood, so I had to clean everyone with my [Hydraulic Manipulation].
Due to my recent skill fusions, I obtained a strange abnormal status named [Insatiable Appetite], so I used this as an excuse to cook the Lizardman Emperor and we ate once again a bit hot pot. I also fried some of its meat into delicious crunchy slices. Crina was already accustomed to this as she watched us from the back.
The Lizardman Emperor meat was even more greasy and juicy than before, it even reminded me of Earth's bacon from time to time. Its body was rather massive so we ended up storing a lot of this delicious meat. I also managed to consume his soul and got a small buff on my Soul Stats.
[You gained +20 to every Soul Stat]
[You gained +5% Soul Mutation]
[You and the rest of your servants learned the following Skills]
[River Lizardman Emperor Mighty Muscles]
[River Lizardman Emperor Aquamarine Scales Creation]
[High All Water Resistance]
[Mighty Triple Slash]
[You learned the following Skill]
[Forbidden Summoning Magic: River Lizardman]
”Ah! Another summoning magic?”
The Lizardman summoned were quite strong, as strong as the ones we encountered earlier. And they also had the potential to evolve and become stronger on their own, however, they didn't have any intelligence and seemed to act like undead most of the time. They also lacked a soul and their meat tasted like paper, without any nutrition. I didn't get any skill from them either.
Before leaving the boss room, we made sure to take anything that the Lizardman Emperor had around. I even took his big throne. He had several chests full of gold and gems, and there was a big pile of monsters and Lizardman bones around. He probably ate its own kind.
We ended up obtaining around thirteen thousand human gold, around 12 Spirit Gems and 3 [Rare+] magic weapons.
On the way towards the fifth floor, I opened the two Reward Gifts and got a weird Item on my first gift, it seemed to be a golden ticket with a rainbow luster every time I moved it.
[Dungeon Monster Gacha Ticket (Unique and above increased): Exchange this ticket in any dungeon that you possess for a chance on getting a random monster for your dungeon with increased rates for [Unique] monsters and above]
So that's was what it was… I should give this to Zehe, she liked a lot the dungeon management.
The second item was a strange pin with the face of the Lizardman Emperor, the pin had a cute Lizardman Emperor face winking at me. It was rather hilarious.
[River Lizardman Emperor Lucky Pin (Rare++): The Cute River Lizardman Emperor will help you on your travels with this stylish and hilarious pin!]
[Effect: Grants +5 Luck]
Although the Luck stat was tempting, I would never wear such a ridiculous thing. The rest of my wives didn't like it either so I ended up gifting it to Gaby, who found it extremely cute.
”Ooooh! Thank you for the gift, Master! Hehehe! How does it look?”
”I-It looks beautiful in you, Gaby. Very fitting…”
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When we finally reached the fifth floor, we were greeted by an immense number of monsters. There were so many that they could barely move around. Most of the monsters making this floor were Undead River Lizardman and River Lizardman Skeleton. There was a stronger variant that was covered on a slime reinforcing its power named Slimy Lizardman Lich.
I had to use various of my Blast related skills to make some space for us. Using [Red Beam of Annihilation] and [Divine Punishment], I ended up blasting around hundreds of the smallest ones until the floor finally became more peaceful.
[You gained 278560 EXP] [The rest of your servants gained tons of EXP]
[You gained one level!] [LEVEL 40/70 EXP 163200/202000]
[Your servants gained tons of levels!]
Crina began to inspect the monsters.
”Hmm… There are too many undead, it shouldn't even be possible for the undead to be born here, this is supposed to be a holy place… Perhaps, the corrosive magic essence made this place rot faster than I anticipated”