Duckin’ what. The experiment had gotten through most of this garbarge without having to even start to get any emotions, from the bar fight to stuffing itself with unattended sweet rolls behind the bakery in a big box to having to hand a note over then steal a rock and run away, but now there was an entirely different ghost. As soon as it had gotten back the thing started up, going ‘behold, for I am eternal’ and 'your doom is at hand’. And it would just not stop ranting. It had been party to numerous crazed ranters and cause to listen to their various speeches throughout the course of its existence, but at least they needed to stop and breathe every once in a while, at which point the trapped audience could make their escape, but ghosts? Ghosts could just keep droning on about the purity of the grave and how all life was fated to join it in eternal servitude and the dark depth to which one must descend to even attempt to best it and blah blah blah blah blah.

Sleep may have been for the weak, but it was perfectly willing to join their ranks for a while.

Throughout it's training, it had been conditioned to never interrupt a monologue. Spending a minute or two listening while their superior unburdened their mind and let the ideas flow through them would keep them energized, which could be enough to mean the difference between an extraction being successful or everyone involved being erased from every having been made. Upon careful consideration, that rational didn't apply to this situation, as there was no real guarantee that the ghost was on its side.

“Just want to go to sleep. If you'd direct me to the bed the previous ghost promised, that'd be great. Want to recover from having to cross a plant infested waste of land on top of a gravity bucket,” it interrupts.

“There is no rest for those foolish adventurers who dare trespass in my domain! The promises of another will not bind my flawless facets, for I am the perfect instrument of death, and my eternally rising tide of monsters will spew forth from my depths to rend the flesh from your bones."

“Very intimidating. Come on then, I’m sure what you have to show is powerful and actually able to hurt me.”

“Behold, as I Spawn… Lesser Slime? Lesser Slime is the only creature under my command? SCAN.”

A pulse of energy erupts from somewhere under the tunnel entrance. Perking up a bit, the experiment notes the direction the new ghost is based, and tucks the black gemstone into the still warm body of the first ghost. Energy emission was a new phenomenon, and it was curious about whether it would be able to affect the source of that pulse in any way, whether it be through the application of telekinesis or poking stick.

“This is not my lair at all.”

“Turns out you’re trespassing while haunting. There’s a ghost here already, and possession is nine tenths of the law. I’m sure that if you go quietly now they won’t have to exercise their right to exorcise you from their digs. Either way I’m coming down to see what’s up with you.”

“Bah, just because this appears to be the work of a bestial minded newborn, without any traps, monsters, or defenses at all, doesn’t mean you will find me easily destroyed. Even the most pathetic creature poses threat in sheer volume, and momentarily you will be consumed within an unending tide of gel!”

Walking forward, the creature touches the end of its poking stick against the stone wall, dragging it along the flat surface with the rounded edge of the branch. It slowly rotates it as it advances into a chamber with a pedestal in the center. Stone doors, single pieces with wave-like designs at the bottoms, pushing toward an eye in the center, flank the room, blocking off any passage but straight forward.

“Your doom is at hand, for I grow ever farther from your attempts to destroy me! Core Displacement!”

Another surge of energy erupts from below, as the experiment ignores the provocation. Rotating the stick as it travels along the right side of the room, it slowly sharpens the edges into a makeshift spear. Stalking toward the way forward, it steps on a block, slips, and falls forward onto its face.

“And with that, your path is barred. Someone as weak and pathetic as you will not be able to overcome a slick of slimes even of this limited number. Perhaps once they finish devouring your corpse one of them will even evolve into something worth keeping as a guard. Run while you can, coward.”

Using the blunt end of the spear to lever itself back up, the experiment picks its way through the room by the diminishing light of the setting sun’s rays making their way through the straight line from the entrance. Ahead, there is another room, with a hole taking up the center of the chamber, and without even doors on the sides to provide a different theoretical pathway. Following the ‘right hand rule’, the experiment continues picking its way across the stone, this time slightly more careful for sliding traps littering the floor.

“Nothing to say mortal? Every moment you take to progress is another moment I have to expand my reach, to uncover the depths of this cavernous sphere. Oh yes, while you dally, I move to uncover the hidden chamber far below this pathetic excuse for a dungeon. Connecting its chamber to my core will provide me with sufficient mana to not only destroy you utterly, but to remake my army of the purified to consume the blighted world and bring it under my dominion, into perfection!”

Peeking into the next room, the tailed creature sees absolutely nothing within. No doors, no traps, no way down. Well, if that was the trick, it was certainly a simple one. It turns around and walks over to the hole. Extending its stick down into the dark depths, it pokes at the bottom of the hole. Judging it to be a survivable fall, it tilts itself over the edge.

“Well done, you found the only possible path. What the incompetent wretch you spoke to that created this worthless excuse for a deathtrap was thinking when they sealed off every possible permutations that was incorrect is unknowable except for the deluded, deranged, and, dare I say, stupid.”

Picking its face off the stone again, the creature pushes itself upright with the spear and leans against one of the walls of the pit. Using its spear to poke at the walls, it taps against the stone in the pitch black darkness until it misses. It grins slightly, realizing its short stature would give it a small advantage in fitting into the too-small tunnel going down.

“I’ve come to after fighting a party of Light sent adventurers, only to have all my knowledge but none of my blueprints, in an empty slime dungeon. Taking over a life with my superior tactics, with my purpose intact, and poised to destroy an invader immediately, but without any resources to bring any of it to fruition? Worst reincarnation ever.”

Pushing its spear in first, followed by its legs, the creature slips into the hole, falling down to the floor beneath the top level. This landing is less hard than the previous one, as it is cushioned by a soft cushion of jelly. Blindly sitting atop a waterchair, the creature not dungeonborn pokes beneath itself with its sharpened stick. Piercing the membrane of the slime, the fluids spill out immediately and the creature falls the rest of the way to the stone ground instantly.

“And you have fallen for the most basic of traps. Now that the floor above you has been vacated, you will be forever entombed in my mausoleum of the purified! Your corpse shall act as my devoted revenant, turned against the surface you once fought for. Once I… There’s another invader alive up there?!”

It looked like the ghost was telling the truth about being alive after all. That raised more questions than it answered, but right now the invader on the second floor was poking and anything that touched it. While the bounces against its lower half came from all directions, there was one side from which the slimes trajectory was more prevalent. Presumably, that would be where the ‘core’ was. One of the creature’s creator’s lessons; the correct way forward was likely the one most heavily guarded. It starts poking generally in the direction it determined was the path of greatest resistance, and shoots a couple words back into the darkness.

“Even if you managed to succeed in your ploy, I doubt you’d be able to muster up enough to do anything to me. Your minions are somehow weaker than me, and when they explode from a single poke, you’re going to run out of disposable minions before I run out of stabs.”

“Fool! Your every action plays into my grand strategy, for with their deaths I grow more powerful. Their released energy allows me to dig deeper, and soon I shall reach the untapped wellspring of raw space to bring under my control. All that live will serve to fuel the unstoppable machine that is I!”

‘Yeah, thanks for the hints,’ the creature thinks, flipping its tail to its other side and facing the blunt end toward the masses of slime. Unable to see anything, the experiment presses forward with its ability until it makes contact with a wall, and feels its way around the stone until its telekinetic grip finds a gap through which it can aim. Sweeping left and right with the long stick, it uses the range granted to it by its long tail to redirect the slimes away from its body so it can simply walk forward into the darkness. As it makes its way down another linear path, the new ghost continues its ranting.

“What even motivates one such as you to plummet down into my depths, when not even a whisper of my power has yet to be unleashed upon your world? It cannot be treasure, as there have been no twinkles of wealth to tempt you into your delve, nor the pain of loss as my consciousness has only just returned, leaving no avenue for news of my glorious return to spread. Unless… The meddling of the gods, providing prophecy and assistance to their chosen, to destroy me! Unscrupulous paladin, your gods will not save you here, not when the light of day sinks to nothing and night has yet to take its full strength.”

Unable to resist a laugh at the notion of it being the employ of any kind of god, the experiment pauses for a moment as it comes to another turn.

“Ha! My existence is the antithesis of any god’s plan. I would say you ought to meet my creator, but as of yet you’ve shown yourself to be unworthy of that kind of interaction. The only reason I come to your source of power is curiosity. To witness that which interests me, and experience the satisfaction of learning new information. Any kind of machination you envision is a deluded fantasy, and I know deluded fantasy. Fear me, for I am combating ennui.”

“Inspect! A monster I see. In that case, join me! Slaughter these blobs to fuel your growth, and I shall empower you to destroy all that oppose you. Your goals shall become goals of my own, and all you desire will be at hand. Through the raw power of mana, anything you can imagine can become reality. Coins, gems, meat, victims, or even simply a place to rest while you go about your goals without any further interaction. I offer you everything, in exchange for nothing.”

“I’m gonna pass on that.”

“What!? It is everything you asked, and more! Simply accept the contract, and your power will grow, your needs will be provided for, and your wants will be satisfied as long as I exist.”

“That word, right there. Contract. My associates weren’t exactly great conformists, but they did have general tendencies. In particular, the powerful among them would agree about a few things we in the rank and file knew nothing about. Contracts were one of them. Something about how if it was too good to be true, it was, and that fine print had a habit of stabbing them in the back. Not sure how much of that was literal, but I’m taking no chances.”

Shoving its way through another doorway, sans door, the experiment misses a step downward, and falls forward, rolling down a flight of stone stairs and into a slime at the bottom, which promptly explodes.

“Argh! And I was so close. Only a few more mana and I would have gotten access to that area. Your defiance makes no sense. Even the followers of Defiance have a reason for their actions. You have given up limitless power and growth, and for what? The chance to delay my return by a few moments? Monsters have no attachment to the outside world, you’ve no incentive to save them.”

Picking itself up from the stone once again, the creature taps its hand against the right wall, following as it turns down the pitch-black hallway.

“My life experiences are different from yours. My reasons are my own, make no mistake.”

“I can respect individual reasoning, but only if that leads to actions that do not conflict with my goals. If you leave now, you will be allowed to. These slimes will not stop you, nor shall I close the walls and trap you. Be warned, this offer comes only once, and unspeakable doom awaits should you refuse.”

Walking in circles, looping back three separate times, the experiment switches back to using the pointed end of the spear, inferring from previous complaints that the killing of slimes would not further the ghost’s ends. Proximity negating its abilities. It was going to have to remember to rub it in the first ghost’s ectoplasm once it figured out how to get it back out of its body. Considering that a pile of rocks falling on it had managed the feat, it might be able to simply stab it until it died again. On the other hand, whoop, slime. It stabs its path clear, back where it began, but on another wall. Judging from the number of turns it had made already, this was going to be an extremely long and annoying maze. In theory, it could produce light through friction, rubbing stick together, but that would involve breaking the spear and then managing to dexterously rotate it to grind the wood against itself. It was fairly certain that would be mostly impossible, particularly without light and with these slimes bumping against it every couple seconds.

“Nah.”

“Arrogant whelp! My minions will rend the flesh from your bones, and scatter you across my reaches, and once I demolish your remains the more obedient copies of you I Spawn will themselves be slain, and brought back from the dead as naught but mindless husks. It’s only unfortunate that you are so pathetic that they will be useless even as disposable fodder against adventurers.”

“And since you’re completely unable to stop me, what does that make you?”

With an incredibly juvenile insult, silence was brought back to the tunnels. Over the next few minutes, the creature follows what turned into an incredibly straight path until the only attacking slimes came from behind it. Taking that as an indication that it had reached some sort of important spot, the experiment transfers its spear to its hand, and sweeps the floor with its tail. Eventually, it feels a lump on the ground.

“Ah, this must be your anchor. I imagine that if I were to, say, take this to the top of a plateau and drop it into the canyon below, you wouldn’t be very pleased.”

Additional silence.

Pushing against the orb with its tail, the experiment decides it needs to work out more. Adding its kilogram of telekinetic might to the sphere, it lifts the ball from its resting place and staggers toward the entrance. Since focusing its mind on the rock in its tail wasn’t actually doing anything, it instead pokes out to locate any slimes that might attack it while it was distracted by holding an extremely heavy item. For some reason, they did not even attempt to bump into it. After a moment of thought, the creature realizes it was simply due to it having a hostage.

“Well, it’s certainly going to be fun getting you into that alcove and all the way out of that pit in the dark without breaking anything.”

It leaves out the possibility of one of the things breaking being its stick, what with it not being rated for combat or anything silly like that. A bit of wood against a rolling or falling rock would do nothing to halt its momentum. Additionally, if the ghost was worried about its anchor breaking, it was discounting the slimes. Even if they were useless for anything related to combat, what they did seem to be good for was cushioning.

Eventually making its way up the stairs, back through to the room with five exits, one of them being up a pit, up that pit, and back to the entrance of the cave, the creature sets the head-sized orb down next to the body and sits on it. Cool fresh air blows past the cave opening, and the gentle burbling of the stream in the center of the canyon softly covers the plopping of the slimes down below as they eat and multiply.

“No, I don’t care about this world. Not yet. It might be useful for someone I know though. I have things to do, then I can form an opinion once they’re done. If you want to call me a monster for apathy about the state of this world, then so be it. After my report is finished, and after I make sure that the world doesn’t change so much that my report is inaccurate, my superiors will make their decisions about what to do with this place. Depending on what that is, you might need to reconsider your definition of the word monster. We might just show you exactly what a monster is capable of.”

The body next to the creature starts to glow, and the gem glows alongside it. From the air, the voice of the ghost cries out.

“What is, no! My mind, it is… Augh!”

A subtle movement the experiment hadn’t even noticed stops. Breathing, from the body next to it. Hm. A shared anchor. That was interesting as well.

“Hey! What are you doing back already?”