《The Necromancer and the Would-Be-Hero》Chapter 5: Finding the Core
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Hideki screamed inside his head as he was forced to impale a beautiful, blonde haired woman from behind with his new sword. This was definitely not the kind of penetration he had in mind when he normally saw a pretty girl. Behind him he could hear the cackling of his flat-chested tormentor. What did I do so wrong in life that the gods saw fit to allow for me to be placed in service of this monster?
His body ran of its own volition and engaged in combat with a warrior like himself. The man was around his age, but Hideki could already tell that the guy was a much lower level than him. He pressed forward against his opponent with a flurry of blows, utilizing Tiger Style. His opponent was attempting to counter using Tortoise Style, a defensive sword style that utilized a shield for blocking.
Please! Just get a lucky blow and kill me off! I can't take this shit anymore!
He wouldn't get his wish. A few moments later his superior skill allowed him to break the man's defenses and throw him prone. He watched in horror as his body stabbed the poor guy in the face. This had been the third set of adventurers that the two of them had 'joined' for a short while before turning on them. Megumi seemed to revel in the destruction of lives that she was causing.
An explosion from behind him signaled that she had exploded another corpse to kill the rogue that had been with this team. At this point it wouldn't be a false statement to say that he literally had shrapnel in his ass. She indiscriminately cast her corpse explosion more than once when he had been near during the battles and he was nowhere near okay with being blasted by bone pieces and viscera. He was so covered in gore that the smell was becoming unbearable. Meanwhile, his tormentor was clean as fresh snow. Her white dress hadn't even gotten one drop of blood on it so far. This shit just isn't right, he grumbled internally.
"Can we stop for a minute so that I can at least get the shrapnel out of my body?" he asked.
"Megu will let Poro-tan rest when we get to the second level of the dungeon. Man up and stop complaining like a little bitch!" was her only reply before the two of them marched onward.
According to the map that he had dug out of the remains of the first two adventurers, the entryway for the second level should be just a few rooms away. One of the only benefits of being an undead, as he saw it was that he didn't tire easily. He wondered how this girl wasn't exhausted from all the walking around they had done for the day. She isn't human. She's a fucking monster, that's how.
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"Poro-tan, what do you know about dungeons and their cores?"
Should I answer her truthfully? Is this a setup so she can put me in that horrible state of pain again? Fuck. I can literally feel my will to resist this vile bitch leaking away. I'm no coward, I swear, but that shit hurts like fucking hell. He argued with himself for a few moments and Megumi's face started to take on a look of irritation, so he decided to answer truthfully.
"I don't know a lot. Dungeon cores level by killing adventurers and absorbing them, this one is a low level dungeon because it only has weak monsters that don't manage to kill very many adventurers. Supposedly, if you take a core then you can shape the dungeon and get a share of the loot that is generated from slain monsters as a tax. That's all I know. Can't you just put me out of my misery already and find someone else to torture?"
Megumi grimaced. "I'll decide when I'm done with you, and it won't be any time soon, Poro-tan. I think I'm starting to like you," she winked at him and he cringed inside.
She's never going to let me go. I'm going to be forced to do this horrible shit for all eternity.
A few minutes later they arrived at a large stairway that led deeper into the dungeon. Northpost had a weak dungeon, but to go further without a full party was still bordering on idiotic. Although he still had no idea what level the necromancer was, he didn't think she could be higher than level 20 if she was still hanging around in Northpost.
Megumi seemed to be mulling something over as she looked him over, removing large shards of bone from his torso, back, and even his rear. He didn't feel pain in the same way as he had when he was alive, but walking around with bone shrapnel stuck into your body was not anyone's idea of comfortable, okay? His Warrior's Essence skill went to work now that the pieces of bone had been removed, and the wounds closed over the next few minutes.
Once Megumi was satisfied with his condition, she forced him onward. They had killed or participated in the killing of all three of the dungeon's mini-bosses, and according to the map, they weren't far from the dungeon boss. They had stolen and earned a fair amount of coin as well, although he wasn't sure on the exact amounts because Megumi didn't give him that kind of information.
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The monsters had become steadily stronger as they went deeper, and it became harder and harder for them to overpower their foes. Hordes of higher level Were-Rabbits and more groups of the giant wasps tried to mob him, but all he had to do was kill a couple of them so that the bitch could explode their corpses. He always took some damage himself, as she didn't bother having him get out of range, but it was an effective tactic, and in no time at all they reached the boss room.
"All right, Poro-tan. This is it. We kill this thing and Megu-chan gets to take that core!" She grinned excitedly as they charged down the last little stretch of hallway and looked inside the large chamber. There was a large wasp nest hanging in the center of the room next to a pedestal with a glowing orb. Fuck! I hate those giant wasps.
The chamber was filled with a large buzzing noise as several dozen of the gigantic insects flew around the room. The real problem, though, was that there was a wasp that literally dwarfed the rest of the things next to the nest. It was probably fifteen feet tall with vicious looking mandibles and a stinger the size of his longsword.
Megumi sent him ahead of her by a few steps and he saw her from the corner of his vision holding her staff aloft. A large ball of green fire had begun to form above the instrument, and a second later the Eldritch Blast streaked through the air and slammed into the giant bug. It let out a buzz as it burned, and every single wasp in the room flew at them in a fit of fury.
The large one had been injured, so it was coming more slowly, but within seconds the first group of five smaller wasps reached them and he slashed away at them. Soon, the ground was littered with the corpses of the wasps, as wave after wave came for them. The nest seemed to be spawning more of the things at an incredible rate.
Megumi had once again gone to her go-to tactic of exploding the corpses of the dead wasps, but the boss had recovered some and was nearly across the room. Megumi sent him to engage the thing, which flew around and swooped down to stab at him with that ridiculously large stinger. He blocked and parried it as it tried to impale him. Blasts of Eldritch energy echoed through the boss room as Megumi fired on the nest over and over again.
How much freaking MP does she have anyway? he wondered as he fought. The nest had caught fire and was burning so brightly with green light that if he could look away, he would. The room heated up and he could hear the sizzling and popping of what must be wasp larvae inside. The wasp boss was enraged at this and switched targets.
It flew straight for Megumi, but Hideki's body wouldn't let the thing hurt her. He charged toward the thing from behind and stabbed it in the abdomen. Green blood spurted out of the thing, and its wings beat wildly, trying to get itself off the blade. Hideki jumped onto the giant bug from behind and held onto it. His weight was enough to encumber its flight, and in that short time frame, Megumi blasted the thing with three Eldritch Blasts. Hideki could feel his fingers burning, but he wasn't allowed to let go right away.
A second or two later, the two of them dropped to the ground in a heap and he was finally allowed to get away. Megumi ran over to look at him. "Poro-tan! Show me your arms. Megu didn't break you too bad, did she?"
Hideki heard the familiar *ding* that signified he had gained another level. He held out his scorched arms and she made a short tsk noise as she reached into her inventory bag and pulled out a potion they had pilfered from a group of adventurers. She opened up the stopper and shoved the thin neck of the bottle into his mouth. The thing tripled his natural regenerative abilities and within a few moments he had been healed up.
Once he was healed up Megumi stepped over to the glowing orb and placed her hand on it.
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