Chapter 14 – Beholder’s Nest
The party avoided a confrontation with a crowd of beholders by venturing further inside the ore mine. But now, they were blocked by a pair of sentinels.
Slade had to lure enemies guards away so that Milia, Shaki and a pawn could sneak deeper in the underground labyrinth.
His first step was to cross the intersection without being noticed.
While Slade attempted to slither on the ceiling, one of the beholders shot a ray at Slade.
Woah!
He evaded, jumping to the other side.
The beholders glanced at each other, shrugging.
They were puzzled by this unknown lifeform but they didn’t treat it as an intruder. As a result, they didn’t make a call for help or pursued Slade. After all, they could catch it and dissect it when they encounter it again.
Noticing this, Slade gathered himself on the ground.
On the other side of the corridor, he saw Milia with her eyes wide open, covering her mouth and Shaki grimacing.
Normally, his failure at sneaking away meant that he should abort that plan… But he already died once, getting run over by a truck.
I don’t care anymore! Can’t help it if I get busted!
Slade decided to push through.
He lifted a thumb up to Milia. He offered himself as a decoy, so that they could go further.
“I’ll never forget your sacrifice, little slime!” Milia tearfully muttered.
“Come on. Violet could always make a new dildo,” Shaki said.
They saluted his self sacrifice for being a decoy so that they could go further. Shaki took Milia’s hand to guide her away from the corridor.
As expected, they didn’t oppose his decision.
I’m just a disposable sex toy after all, Slade thought.
He crawled far from the party, until he found a recess in the wall.
It’s a good hiding spot, he thought.
The plan was to shapeshift into a beholder, to use the unlocked skill “Beholder Tongue”.
He stood in the middle of an empty corridor. His stump slowly wriggled outwards, turning into tentacles. His vision centered through his single eye.
[Temporary disabled skills: Alchemical synthesis, Symbiosis, Mana transfer. Temporary available skills: Disintegration Ray, Beholder tongue, Common tongue, True Sight]
“SKRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! (HELP!)” Slade shouted and quickly hid underneath a rock.
The stationed guards and patrollers arrived in Slade’s corridor.
They approached each other in confusion.
Now is the hard part, I have to escape but… huh?
The beholders started to raise their voice and argue.
“Why did you call?”
“No, I didn’t. You called!”
“Is this a prank?”
“Hey, that’s not cool. Don’t call us for nothing.”
“What? Are you blaming me? I’m the victim here!”
Slade hesitatingly poked his head out from his hiding spot.
“Don’t fuck with me, small iris!”
“What did you say?!”
They didn’t notice him at all. Slade crawled at full speed while the beholders were slapping each other with tentacles.
He found the girls and broglodyte in the corridor beyond the guard’s place.
“Good job,” Milia whispered, raising her thumb up.
He jumped onto Milia, wrapping her eyes.
[EZ PZ] he wrote.
They resumed their exploration.
Soon, they arrived at a large open area. The ceiling was a natural cathedral of stone, its rough surface riddled with stalactites. A blooming ray of light pierced its center, illuminating a finely crafted stone bridge.
As they walked forward, they stopped to peer at the abyss underneath the bridge.
The ground was several hundred meters. Their sight, affected by the light, readjusted to its darkness.
Countless gnoll soldiers were lined up on the ground. They formed neat rectangles. An underground river flowed in the middle on the army.
“Are those… Clay statues?”
The thick standing figures stood lifelessly in the darkness below the bridge.
It looks like a giant eastern tomb.
“We’re not sightseeing. Let’s go,” Shaki said.
They walked past the well of light piercing the ceiling.
What... is that?
The party stopped in their tracks, gazing forward. As their eyes readjusted to the darkness, they beheld the structure standing before them.
Beyond the three hundred meter bridge, stood an oriental looking stone palace. It was a dilapidated testimony of Gnoll’s glorious past.
It was severely damaged, worn down by a repulsive tree of eyes. Its branches were tentacles protruding from the gaps of the roof, and holding unripe sacks of beholders. A network of pulsating veins and eyes ran along its surface.
“It’s... a pillar of eyes. That’s where the beholders are born,” Shaki said.
“It’s creepy. Isn’t it going to spot us?” Milia asked.
“Well… I don’t know. Look! There are people underneath it,” Shaki said.
They walked beyond the opened steel doors of the ruined palace.
The tree’s trunk broke through the ground, spreading its roots inside the cracks of the room. A pile of decomposing corpses lay at its base, feeding it the nutrient to birth the beholders.
“Hmmhmm!” muffled voices screamed all around the party.
Twenty five emaciated gnolls were tied in ropes in a corner of the room. They cried from happiness at the sight of the party.
“Oh my. Look at those free experience points,” Milia said.
The captives winced in terror.
[Wait, are you serious?]
“Hell yeah, I’m serious! We can level up! Maybe we could unlock something to fight the beholders,” she said.
“That’s a good idea. You could unlock ‘Medusa Glare’ to counter Beholders,” Shaki said.
“Yeah, I’m a genius!”
[No but… but… Really?]
Milia approached the gnolls, raising her spear.
A female gnoll thrashed her broken body. Perhaps because of her weight loss, the gagging ropes came undone.
“Please wait!” she pleaded.
The minotaur mercilessly threw her spear down.
“Noooo!” The ungagged gnoll screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Huh?” Milia blurted.
The tip struck the stone wall, missing her target from a large margin.
[Please calm down...]
“You fucker, what did you do?!” Milia shouted.
She tore the slime bandana from her face.
“What’s going on?” Shaki asked.
“He distorted my vision to make me miss!”
Discarded, the slime landed on the ground. He wobbled back up on the tied gnoll, as if to protect him.
Milia and Shaki readied themselves for battle, surrounding the rebellious slime.
The slime shriveled against their animosity. It was his first encounter with the true nature of the Dungeon. Ruthless monsters who reigned with fear and cruelty.