Chapter 25a: Betrayal

"They're the uglier ones. The smellier, shortier, stinkier, grossier ones."

Thank god its hard to make out facial detail as living shadows so their fugliness doesn't come back too. Uh... Where's their wieners? Hadn't noticed any with Ushalen's shadows but, since many of the goblins didn't both to cover that part? Huh. Schlongless.

"Master?"

The girls are seeing thru me more and more easily. What's Ushalen doing? Oh god, she's checking their crotches too. We're acting like quality control. Bad seam on joint 3B. Rejected!

"I'm okay Avi." She looks visibly relieved.

Can't blame her. She found her personal jesus, and another girl, examining the crotches of undead creatures of smoke and ink with a critical eye and serious expression. I would be concerned too.

Look around and proudly review my craftsmanship. Over a hundred goblins died here. Dozens by my own hands. And my stomach is rock solid. Looks like I won't be throwing up anymore. Hopefully that's not a bad thing. Only a couple of minor injuries, none to my girls, and they've already been treated.

This is my first time in a fight this big and I think I would rate my performance as passable. Stayed in formation as much as possible. Even passed on a few kills to do so. Was able to fight and cast at the same time. Even using incantations. Also able to create and direct living shadows during the struggle.

Proved that it didn't need to be my kill to raise one. And discovered that shadows spawned from casters can use some of the spells they used in life. What they keep and what they lose seems to be random though.

I'll have to test later to see if they can learn new spells or improve them. They do manifest an ink and smoke version of the weapons they used in life. Can even make them pick up other weapons but, they don't like it and use them awkwardly. I can feel them in my mind like the swords and rat. The smarter they were in life? The larger their presence is on the edges of my mind.

Big discovery. I'm the anchor! I don't need an anchor like Ushalen does with Rowl. So no carrying around bones or trinkets for me.

My capacity is thirty-one but I feel I can hold more if I practice. Summoning and dismissing in moments. Even release them, which makes them fade into nothingness instead of running off. These shadows really can be hidden in the shadows of others and still communicate with me. Making them very convenient bodyguards, and spies.

I've already placed one in each of my women's shadows.

My mindscape is their home. Seem to be communicating with each other, after a fashion. While the rat's spirit is barely self aware? The goblin shamans and champions are much more clear. This could be dangerous. If I shadow a creature as strong or stronger than me? Will it take over my mind?

Should test that but I'm a bit afraid too.

Another interesting find is that my shadows, unlike Ushalen's, are immortal. I can heal them continuously and even if that rate is overcome? 'Killing' them? Re-summoning is nearly instant. As long as I have the mana too. Cost wise though its much cheaper to heal than re-summon.

Their presence in my mind is a two way street. At will I can experience whatever they see, hear, and even smell. Like spy drones.

Like with Rowl I've supercharged them but past a certain point? Its like an overflowing cup. Just wasting mana. Weight wise they can carry as much as they did in life. A bit more in fact. They cannot pass thru solid surfaces though. But even a crack small enough for just air or water is enough.

Intelligence seems to be less than when they were alive. But still serviceable. A shaman is clearly smarter than the rat, as an example.

With our connection they don't need to hear me. I can simply think the instructions, guidelines, parameters, whatever, and they follow thru. Though again their capability depends greatly on how intelligent they were to start with.

I'm like a kid with a new toy. Completely geeking out over every revelation. No matter how useless it might actually be. I wondered with the rat, but now that I have more intelligent goblin shadows? I think they may really be the answer I've been looking for.

Servants with unshakeable loyalty who cannot betray me? All I can do is more testing and keep my fingers crossed.

A hundred corpses is a lot to harvest materials from so I use half the shadows to help with the processing and the other half to hunt. They are as fast as shadows so quickly move thru the dungeon around us. Several 'die.' Find my 'healing' cannot reach beyond a couple hundred feet.

They carry the corpses back and most I can raise. A few were too far away though so by the time they returned? The spirit had left. Get a few more elite type goblins and even some higher rank kobolds. This world's version is doglike instead of lizardlike.

Everyone, except my girls and Red, freaks out again when they see my shadows carrying corpses.

Smells like shorty peed herself again. I know she looks young but didn't she say she was experienced? Or was that a sex thing that went over my head again?

We've been here for a couple of hours, and are up to near two hundred corpses, when Red walks over to me.

"Leaving?" Red, you harshing my buzz?

This was starting to get fun. Me and the girls are really in the zone. Hoping to go down to the undead floors. Curious to see what I can do with them. Might end up leaving with this dungeon with an army instead of a squad.

Maybe even take over this place and make it like the dungeon that Overlord guy has. I'll stick with a regular bath though. Pool of slime? No thanks.

Edelys has a sympathetic look. "I apologize, my lord. We hunted more successfully than I planned." She points at the packs lined up and the corpse pile. Backpacks loaded with hundreds of mana stones. Yeah, maybe I did get a little too carried away.

And here come the worms. Ewe. Yep, time to go.

Admittedly? Feel pretty good right now. Girls really impressed me with their skills, teamwork, and it was great to cut loose. Go wild. Something about hacking my way thru mobs of monsters while accompanied by a wave of shadowy death just feels… proper?

Is that the right word?

Want to see how well I do against actual undead. Red's right though. We've got weeks to go. No point in getting hung up here.

Also learned tons of skills since we left the cathedral. My grimoire has also grown greatly from the many spells I've been learning. I'm no expert but I can at least ride a horse now without embarrassing myself. Know how to setup a tent, hunt, clean the kills, gross but I can do it, and cook them.

Even have the know how to process corpses. Where the mana stone usually is. What parts to save. What to throw away. True, many of these life hacks are gross and disgusting. But they are still needed if I'm going to survive this shitty world.

*scuff* *tach* *crunch* *tak*

Making good time heading back. I've recalled my shadows. Don't want to rile up any other parties we run into. The girls are chatty and the guide is skittish. A couple of the girls have tried talking to her but she bows out quickly every time. Can't say I blame her.

The girls are too happy. Over the moon even. Maybe because they finally had a chance to show off? Suspect I'm not going to get any rest tonight. Oh well, can't be helped.

...

"Eh?"

What? Enter a large cavern but something's wrong. My alarms are going off. ... That's a lot of lanterns over there. Dozens? Hundreds? My second cheat tells me we are surrounded. Some are even carrying flags and banners. Underground? How stuck up are these guys?

Whoa. These guys are not trash mobs either. Lots of strong auras.

Shit.

"Its a trap." Fuck you Admiral Calamari.

Sigh.

"Its the church." Damn, Avi looks pissed.

"Master! I have a daughter!"

Vira?