LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 16: Likewise
The next day, we made it back to the dungeon first thing in the morning. This time, Sen was feeling much better. She looked somewhat better too. Maybe fondling with her tail last night and giving her seven-
Anyway, we made it past the entrance and the swarm of adventurers, and descended to the second floor. The boy wasn’t here.
“They’re very weary of you,” Sen said.
Not just the monsters, but the adventurers too. They were always watching and they were always… scared?
Hmm… maybe me killing that many goblins yesterday wasn’t such a great idea? Ordinarily adventurers killed about ten typical goblins and some strong ones killed like 2 or maybe three hobgoblins. But I killed twenty goblins and around 5ish hobs. In like an hour. Nothing great. But nothing to sneeze at either. Especially considering I was just a newbie adventurer at the very lowest rank. Maybe they wanna know how I do it?
I guess I could show them a trick or two?
I had beginner skills with a lot of things. Spears, bows, knives. But for now, I just stuck to the spear. And although a normal human wielding a spear wouldn’t stand a chance against strong big hobs, I could puncture their throats just fine. And I don’t even have that much strength. Did that mean humans in general didn’t have good stats? No, some of the people I’d seen so far, particularly that kid from yesterday were exceptional. And some of these adventurers too. One big guy was literally cleaving hobs in two!
There were definitely strong humans. But how strong, that was the real question. If only memory assimilation wouldn’t take fucking forever. Grumbling, I moved forward, occasionally puncturing goblin’s throats. Sometime these hobs still lived and tried slamming their hard clubs on me. Which I obviously dodged, swirled up, and cleaved off their heads with my knife.
Technically, I should be able to use a sword now too, right? I got too casual about my abilities. I almost saw this world as a game. A game I was merely playing as a character in. But it’s real though…. The goblin I just killed… was crying. And I saw some small things in the corners, also crying. This was their home. And this hob was probably a father.
This is real. And I’m a murderer. “Alright, cut the dick,” I said.
“You don’t have to say that every time, you know,” Sen was annoyed. Of course, she was.
We steadily moved to the end of the second floor and then climbed to the third. Compared to the first and second floor, this one was quite dark. So, we lighted up some of the pyres on the wall. I used actually use beginner fire spells. Fireball and fire arrow. Each cost 5 MP, so I didn’t bother wasting them. Magic was fun, magic was exciting but at the same time, I’d already seen way more exciting stuff, so I wasn’t feeling like wasting MP.
Clatter….
There weren’t as many people here. And the monsters were also scarce. And yes, monsters, not goblins.
“Spiders…” Sen grabbed my left hand and stuck utterly close to me. Her tail, rigid and stood erect like a cat’s. “Eek!” I gave it a pull and brought her back to her senses.
“Calm down. They’re not harming you, are they?”
“But, but…”
Apparently, this floor was harmless. It did have massive spiders though. Black eight-legged spiders with about twenty or so ruby eyes. They had giant hair on their legs and although they didn’t really care for us, they did go out of their way to create traps for goblins. Accidentally fall in them though, they were happy to let you go off the hook. Yeah, no. They would eat you. They would eat you raw. Or was it suck you raw?
I sighed. “I’ll just burn the web if you fall in. Calm down.”
“Okie…” She still clung to me like a toddler.
Rolling my eyes, I moved past the spiders. Some were on the ceiling; some were just crawling on the ground. Roughly the size of a small dog: They disregarded me entirely. I did the same and before long I found some eggs. Experience told me, they were spider eggs. Brain told me, I could just absorb them and find out for real.
Let’s only take two. I did, I absorbed and…
Nothing.
Well fuck.
Guess, they were empty or something? Maybe I could absorb the whole batch?
“Umm… Cl-” Sen tugged on my sleeve.
“Huh? What?”
“The spiders,” she spoke softly.
I turned around and well, we were surrounded. Should have seen that coming? Every single adventurer in the vicinity ran away.
Good.
Really good.
Now I could eat them for real~!
“We should run!” Sen tugged.
“Nah, it’s fine. I got this.”
Grinning like a fool, I transformed my hand into slime and like a net, spread it around the spiders; how the turn tables! The ones above spewed hot webs on me but I absorbed the stuff. I absorbed the spiders, I absorbed the eggs, heck, I even ended up absorbing the damn floor, leaving just bedrock.
[Arack Spider Absorbed]
[Arack Spider Embryo absorbed]
[Silver Ore Absorbed]
[Manatite Ore Absorbed]
[Magic increased]
[Speed increased]
[Stamina increased]
[Level up!]
Definitely productive, that was for sure.
“That was…” Sen blinked a couple of times. “Wow…”
“What the hell happened here?” Someone was climbing up. Oh, it was the kid. He was covered in blood as usual. Weirdly black blood? Oh, that was from yesterday. The kid was here all night.
“Nothing much,” I said. “Just dissolved the whole floor.”
“You?” He smiled. “Oh. Nice going Sis.”
“What about you? What have you been upto?”
“Oh nothing. I was playing with the dungeon master. He’s pretty strong.”
“Couldn’t beat him?”
“Oh, I can beat him. Just didn’t feel like it.”
“I’ll kill him once I get there though.”
He shrugged. “Feel free. I was getting bored anyway.”
That said the kid gave me a smirk and left. Weird. This was a ten-floor dungeon. Judging by how strong a typical three floor dungeon boss was, it was evident this one had a way stronger one. Meaning, this kid was strong. Maybe he knows something about abilities and levels too? I could ask him or… no, not now.
Anyway, absorbing the spiders gave me some ideas. Namely, the spiders were merely just byproducts and they weren’t concerned about what happened to the dungeon since they weren’t bound to it. They were merely living here and living life. Just because I eradicated every single one of them, didn’t mean they were gone though. More would pop up soon.
“Let’s go then?” I said.
Sen nodded.
And we went down to the fourth floor, only to be trapped in a web and… Just you four?
I didn’t see monsters here. Everything was dead. “And I warned you too,” the girl sighed.
All three girls were looking down, or away. They weren’t necessarily happy about this. One person did seem happy though. Namely, that first dude with a harem. “Don’t worry, I treat everyone equally~!” Big wide grin, flashing his teeth.
Oh? He wanted to, I see.
“Ah,” Sen squeaked, her tail was apparently rubbing against the web. Her clothes slowly melted too. Sexy underwear, huh?
Mine didn’t melt though.
“Likewise,” I smiled, slowly dissolving the web and watching his smile fade away.
After A lot of back and forth, I've decided to not sign the contract.
Let me give you my reasons.
If I publish on Wn, I'll get guaranteed promotions and the book will sell. I would get some money. But they'll have my rights and I won't be able to use the same story again, I won't be able to publish it anywhere else, ever. They will keep my copyright even after my death for 70 years.
However, even if I start now, eventually Patreon would give me the same if not more money (it'll be hella slow though) and I will keep my rights and can just give you the chapters for free.
I have written purely for money before and I know how soulless that is. That's literally the reason why my current ongoing novels arent monetized. I want to write what I like. And if I'm pressured to write just to sell, I don't think I'll be able to maintain a proper story. it'll just get boring at that point. Has happened before and I'd rather not repeat that.
Long story short, this novel will remain free and I will upload 5 advance chapters on Patreon starting next week. Support me if you can.
Updates will be 5+ chapters a week from now on. No updates on sundays or fridays (Unless I'm feeling fiesty).
Thank you for everything guys. I was really glad to have you support me. And I'm glad you guys are reading this.
Have a great day.