LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 257
My arm spasms as I feel a vibration run through my body, like an impulse. Like a surge as the electrical current, as the magical energies of the dungeon try to move me, try to fill me with their buzz, as my eyes, frantic and wide, scan the world around me as I walk. Goo fills the crevices of my gauntlet, her liquid body dampening the shakes. I can feel the jitters trying to set on, I can feel my fingers try to tremble together with my shaking eyes. But they don’t quite ever start, her presence keeps them away.
Feeling unwell, I look around the floor that I find myself on. Floor… floor… I rub my head that kind of aches in a way I can’t explain. I can’t feel pain in this body, but there’s… a pressure. It feels like there’s a bubble in my head that keeps growing and it’s pressing against my skull from the outside.
Floor…
“Forty-two,” she adds, finishing my sentence.
Oh, thank you. I was losing track. I… I look around, blinking my eyes and rubbing my face, noticing how taut it feels, how numb. Where am I?
“Floor forty-two,” says the slime, nodding as she raises a finger.
Oh, thanks. Uh…
“We were escaping the dungeon.”
Right! Right… haha. Silly me. I get so forgetful sometimes, you know? I really should start keeping a notepad or a journal around. I wish I had something to draw on. I sigh. Oh well. I can’t write anyways. So… what would be the point? Anywho, I’m sure I’ll remember the things I need to remember. If they’re really important, I will. I’m sure of it. Right? Right. You’d tell me if I forget something, guy, right? Yeah. Yeah, I know you would.
Worst case, she’ll tell me. I have such good friends, you know? Well, I only have one friend. I think? Are we friends?
“Yeah!” she says excitedly, her soapy eyes pushing themselves out of the top of my wrist to look up my way. Well. If you say so.
Continuing my journey, I walk, listening to the sounds around me on floor forty-two. Remember that floor we were on not long ago? With the mechanical parts and the clockwork? I think this is a floor connected to that one. Or it was originally at least. Raising my gaze, I look up to the giant clock-face that is stuck at perpetual midnight. It sits high atop a tower on the far side of the floor. I find myself on a different tower. One that is much smaller. Much shorter. Bridges run left and right, connecting all of the towers to the central hub of the clock-tower, all of them standing tall in varying heights.
Looking up, I stare into the far distance, where I see a blur of color moving until it vanishes just out of sight. I think that was the hero-party. They’re way ahead of us. Do they still think I’m ahead of them? What a bunch of dummies. They don’t have the faintest idea.
Shaking my head, I keep walking over the first bridge. Something loud clatters down at my feet, as my boot strikes against it. I watch, as the empty glass bottle rolls noisily away until it hits the stone railing of the bridge and comes to a full stop.
Curious, I bend down and pick up the green thing. A wine bottle. Empty. No label. Turning it around, I lift it up into the air and look into the neck of the thing. It’s filled with dust and cobwebs. My trembling hand sets the thing back down onto the bridge and I shake my head. Best to keep on walking. I’m trying to escape the dungeon, you know?
I wonder why though. Isn’t it nice here? Hmm. I enter the clock-tower. The lowest floor is simply a round chamber with a small spiral-staircase. Not a ‘real’ staircase. They’re just normal tower stairs. I climb up them and follow the next bridge, leading out over to the next tower in the network. There isn’t anything here to stop me on my journey. There are a few mechanical bodies of trash-mobs that I don’t recognize. Some of the towers and the bridges are broken here and there. There are a few scorch-marks and a few burns that dot the stones. But other than that, it’s quiet.
All I hear is a soft buzzing. I hear the fastenings of my metal armor shake in the gentle vibration. I feel a pressure in my head and I feel my fingers spasm. But most of it is held at bay by the liquid filling my core, softening the symptoms of the disease.
So, escaping the dungeon, huh? That’s cool. I mean. I like the dungeon. It’s my home, you know? I don’t know if we have ever talked about it before. But I’ve spent all of my life here. All of it that I can remember at least. I love the dungeon. I’m just a simple trash-mob though. I’m a simple creature with simple wants and desires. I wonder… you know what would be great? What would make me really, really happy?
I hope I can meet the dungeon-master some day. Imagine that, will you? I mean, I’m just some schmuck, some weird construction of metal and bone and soul, filled with goo. I’m pretty useless. But imagine if I could meet the actual dungeon-master. That would be the greatest day of my life! I bet they’re super cool. Like some super shadowy evil dungeon lord with a throne made out of skulls and fire. But I don’t think that would ever happen. Why would they want to waste their time with someone like me? I’m just a disposable piece on the board.
I sigh.
Maybe one day. Maybe one day I’ll be someone that people like. Someone that people not only want to be around, but someone that people seek out. Someone that people see.
I stop, standing in the middle of the long bridge with a destroyed railing, as I stare out over the abyss.
I want people to see. With their eyes. I want people to see me. With their eyes. I want to be seen. I’m right here. I’m right here, so why isn’t anyone looking at me? I look around the abyss, noticing the absence of all life in my presence. Where is everyone? Where is everyone? Why isn’t anybody here? Hello? Anyone? Where are you? He-
The slime presses herself out of my armor.
“Hi!”
I sigh a breath of relief. I thought I was all alone, haha. I got scared there for a second, guy, tell you what. “Hey there!” I nod to her, happy that someone is here with me. There was nobody here but me for a moment and I got really scared.
Together, we look out over the abyss, staring at the destroyed towers all around us and all the while, I feel a gentle breeze. A soft, warm wind that rises from the deepest depths of the dungeon, one that presses itself around my body, wrapping itself around my armor and lifting my cape up into the air with a gentle tug, as it too makes itself felt. As the warm breeze reminds me that it is here as well. As it caresses me, filling me with a warmth as if a body were pressed against my own.
I smile. I have such good friends.
