Author's Corner: Calling all potential song-writers! I'm looking for some help planning a song for later in the arc, and I want to get a headstart on it. If anyone wants to send me a PM on the forum, I would be glad for the help. To avoid spoilers, will only go over the details in PM! Naturally, whoever makes the chosen song will be credited with it in the chapter it appears!

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It was a short while after our first ‘panty thief demon’ encounter, that I thought of asking a question to Celeste. “What is it?” The Deus Ex looked at me curiously, while Yin and Sharon were pummeling another group of yellow-skinned demons.

“What do dungeon monsters eat? I mean, the ones at Alkrax obviously weren’t able to get out and hunt animals or find plants. Do they feed on the dungeon mana or something?” This had been bothering me since… well, ever since we made these dungeons. And, upon hearing my question, Celeste made an awkward face.

“Well… not exactly. I mean, plant dungeons usually do, unless they have a way to get sunlight. Otherwise… they… eat each other. Dungeon monsters are typically born feral. The only bright side is that the dungeon ‘reclaims’ the dead bodies. Sometimes, they will turn into new gear for the other dungeon monsters, but usually they just turn into more monsters. Once dungeon monsters start getting intelligent, they learn how to send members out to hunt and bring back food. Sometimes, the monsters will even gather together and kill the dungeon boss if they are starving.”

“Ah…” I suddenly lost any appetite that I might have had before. Basically… they were born cannibals. Shivers ran down my spine, and I no longer felt sorry for the creatures being killed by the angry girls.

We quickly made our way through to the floor boss, which.. Was a rather interesting creature. Somehow, there was a giant golden minotaur, in a large throne room, surrounded by mountains of gold and silver coins. In his hand, he held a large, silver axe that was easily as big as he was. Finally, in the corner of the room was a set of golden scales, atop which were cages. That part… gave me a bad feeling.

Seeing us enter the room, the minotaur demon waves his hand dramatically, speaking in a language we couldn’t understand. I’m sure this was some monologue about how we had made it to its throne room, and would now relinquish all that we owned to it, blah blah blah. Celeste, would you mind?

Celeste’s arm cannon fully expanded, growing to its maximum size as she nodded her head. We didn’t have any information on this boss, since Nathan’s group never made it this far, but we were about to find out just how strong its defenses were. As I finished that thought, Celeste fired a thick beam of light straight at the minotaur.

For a moment, nothing happened. However… soon, there was a laugh ringing throughout the room, and the sound of coins raining down from the ceiling. The boss monster had not only been entirely unaffected by the attack, but it had even seemed to absorb it to create more treasures… This is definitely a cheat, right?

“Celeste, you said before that thing can shoot metal, right?” I asked, glancing around to the mountains of treasure. The Deus Ex seemed to pick up on my thought, because she nodded her head.

“I’ll need a minute in order to gather enough for a big shot, though. Until then, it’s up to you to test its weaknesses.” After she spoke, Celeste jumped back to the back of the room, and deployed two turrets, while crouching down to the floor.

“Sharon, Yin, let’s see what makes it bleed. Yo… keep it busy.” After saying that, I stretched out my mana, and used the Wind Manipulation ability to send a pair of thick wind blades at the minotaur, while Sharon followed it up with a water blast, and Yin sent a lightning bolt. Yo, meanwhile, shifted into her newest shape, the three-headed cerberus, and unleashed a balefire breath attack.

More coins rang down from the ceiling, as three out of the four attacks seemed to cause no damage at all. However, Yo’s breath attack caused it to roar, striking the base of its axe against the ground. Yo was surrounded by a thick glow of golden light, before she vanished. Looking around, she reappeared almost immediately inside one of the cages on the golden scales.

Slowly, the mountains of coins around us began shrinking down, the coins instead appearing in the second cage. With each coin that fell, Yo let out a brief whimper of pain. She tried to slip through the gaps of the cage, but ran into an invisible wall, making escape impossible. “Daddy… help…” She let out a scared voice as the coins continued piling up.

“John, quick! Her soul is fading!” Celeste called out from the back. Meanwhile, the minotaur seemed to stand just a bit taller.

“Sharon, all or nothing.” I turned to rush towards the scales, sending out my psychic energy this time. To my surprise, it proved able to penetrate the barrier around the cage, and I was able to form a portal. Thanks to my practice recently, Yo was able to slip through the portal without me passing out, which I considered a brilliant success. Although I still had a fairly decent headache, and probably couldn’t do that a second time.

“Daddy… thanks…” The slime girl smiled as she appeared next to me, her body unstable and only half-formed. Something about it… I felt myself becoming more and more angry. If the scales had kept going, Yo might have had a true death. She would have been lost just like that, and I almost hadn’t been able to stop it.

That’s not going to happen a second time. I heard a dozen different roars from behind me, no doubt from Sharon summoning a small horde of beasts to fight. However, my focus was on the scales. The boss wasn’t likely to have another soul-draining item around, and this one had to go. The question was how to break it. Focusing, I activated my Aura Sight, and removed my limiter to use Spatial Comprehension and analyze the item.

Altering through my viewing methods a few times, I found that it did not have any particular defenses, so I went with the old fallback. Smash it until there’s nothing left. Raising my hand, I called to the coins around me with my Metal Manipulation, causing them to fly into the air and join together above me. Sure, I could have used the metal from my grove to do this, but it was easier and more satisfying to do it this way.

Next, I channeled my Fire Manipulation through the growing ball of coins, slowly melting them down to form into a single ball of precious metals. From there, I removed the heat to solidify it. By now, half of my mana was gone, but I had a ball of silver and gold at least ten meters thick. And I knew what to do with it.

“John! Watch out!” I barely had time to process Yin’s shout before a large force crashed into my side, sending me flying into the wall of the room.

Home run! -250 HP

I grimaced, shattering one of the scales of health I had saved up. Turns out, I really can only have five charges of the healing ability. When I tried to get more, they just wouldn’t appear. Immediately, my bones reset, my wounds closing, and I pulled myself out of the stone wall just in time to see a golden fist flying at me.

“I thought you were distracting him?!” I called out to the girls, just before the fist smashed me back into the wall.

Nailed it. -300 HP

With that, I sacrificed another of my healing charges. But this time, I jumped right out of the growing hole in the wall, not waiting around for the next punch.

“We were, but he started focusing on you!” Sharon shouted back, appearing as a large, black-furred wolf-girl. Flicking her wrist, spears of darkness shot out of her shadow at the minotaur, while other animals launched both elemental and physical attacks. However, none of it seemed to do much, except add to the ever-growing pile of coins.

“And, charged.” I could barely hear the words, before a loud roar echoed through the room. However, this was not the roar of a beast, but the sound of an artillery cannon being fired. This was what Celeste and I had bet on at the beginning, that the minotaur could be attacked by the gold coins created through its power.

Unfortunately… the silver shell slammed into the giant golden bull-man, and vanished. In its place, more and more coins rained down from the skies. This led me to only one conclusion… “Destroy the scales.”

I began sprinting across the ground, surrounding myself in time mana to increase my speed, surrounding my fist with a magnetic field, and punched with all of my strength at the wrecking ball I had previously made. Further amplifying the effect by launching it with my Metal Manipulation, I watched as the large ball shot out, crashing into the scales and creating a large dent in its base. At the same time, there was a furious roar from behind me, before it was my turn to stand in the cage.

“Well… looks like I was right, at least.” I groaned, and began feeling as if something was being ripped out of me. In the back of my head, I was able to hear coins falling down in the other cage, and I knew what was coming. But I had something that Yo didn’t have.

Sharon and her animals were clashing against the minotaur demon, who was now standing between them and the scales while it slowly drained my soul. Celeste still sat in the back, protecting Yo, who had still not apparently recovered. Finally, Yin was concentrating and extending her hands towards the cage, no doubt trying to use her own psychic powers to help.

But as I said, I have something Yo didn’t before. Spreading out my Mana Sense, I could see as my soul was being stolen, channeled into the minotaur. “Hey, bastard. These connections can go both ways, you know?” I grinned widely, focusing my Soul Arts skill and grabbing that link between us. Although doing so made me feel as though my head were about to explode, I was able to stop the transfer. More importantly… I was able to reverse it.

This time, it was the boss’s turn to roar out in pain from having its soul constantly drained away. But it had no way to stop me, this effect came from the scales, not the boss itself. I watched as the minotaur gradually began to shrink, flailing its arms miserably as my experience soared. Naturally, I would need to purify my soul later to prevent any bad traces, but this is still worth it.

Sharon and her pets completely stopped their attacks, watching as the mighty boss became too small to wield its weapon. The giant axe instead dropped to the ground, making a crashing sound as mountains of silver and gold tumbled around it. Further and further the boss shrank, until it had become no more than a normal greed demon.

Seeing that the boss was no longer a big threat, Sharon let her animals pile onto it together, finishing the job while she rushed towards me. Slowly, the bars of my cage bent open, but thanks to the barrier I was still unable to leave. But, that wasn’t too hard to solve for Sharon. I felt the mana around me shifting, and suddenly I was standing in front of her. “Was that…?”

“Teleporting magic.” She spoke with a grin. “I have been practicing summoning, remember?”

“Ah… sweet.” I said, before letting out a groan as my head began filling with various images. Celeste, help! I knew what this meant, and knew that Celeste was the only thing that could stop the soul from exerting control over me. I learned that lesson from Legion, and did not want to learn it again.

Slowly, the images faded away, though I had the feeling they were still there, somewhere. Looking to Sharon, I gave a slow nod. “Gather up the gold, we’re resting here for a bit.” Without waiting for an answer, I immediately sat down on the floor and began the exorcism.

You have destroyed the Soul Scales, and killed the Golden Bull Demon. Since you monopolized the rewards, like a jerk, you get 15 levels!

You have surpassed level 100Inventory space increased to 10x10

You now have the right to form an official Guild

Guild Interface now available

Well, although I gained fifteen levels from absorbing the soul of the boss monster, I had to sacrifice a third of that in order to purify the rest. So the end result was just a ten level increase. Still, a pretty good harvest for one fight, even if it was a tough one.

“How much gold was there?” I looked up at Sharon when I was done ridding myself of the tainted aura.

She smiled slightly, looking towards Yin. “All in all… one hundred and fifteen thousand gold coins, eighty five thousand, six hundred silver coins, and five hundred and twelve mithril coins. If we ever get to a society that uses gold and silver as a currency, we will be able to be considered rich. There’s also the axe, which is a bit special too.”

I raised my brow, waiting for her to finish explaining. “Well, it has a strength buff enchantment on it, and links the owner with the Soul Scales. But since those scales are destroyed, it’s only good for the strength buff. Or it would be, if it was small enough to use.”

Speaking of those scales… I didn’t remember destroying them. However, when I turned around to look, they had been twisted into a pretzel shape, ripped apart, and chopped into pieces. I glanced over, only to see Yin and Sharon both looking away innocently. Well, I did tell them to destroy it, after all. “Well… we can melt it down, then. Doesn’t matter much to us, anyways.”