The moment Shasha opened the chest, it triggered an exploding trap. When the dust from the explosion settled, I found Shasha's mangled form lying on the ground.
"Uuu… at least you aren't dead."
Shasha is essentially a part of me, being composed purely of my mud and all. With a little bit of effort and a decent amount of mana, Shasha was back in shape and combat-ready.
"That explosion destroyed the chest and its contents. I'm starting to get irritated with this dungeon now."
I moved along with Shasha while fighting any lizardman we encountered. I controlled Shasha to distract and bind them while I finished them off with mana-coated Blood Bane.
"It's tough walking through a dungeon without a map. I can only use the landscape and some landmarks to memorize the path I took."
Unlike the Cockroach Cave dungeon which had linear paths and not a lot of wide areas, Dark Swamp was a completely open area. I'm not even sure if a boss room exists in this dungeon. The only way to go about is to just keep walking forward deeper into the swamp.
"Hmm? What's that?"
With my enhanced sight, I saw a figure in the distance. It looked humanoid, and it was just standing still in the middle of the nowhere. I got closer to it and soon realized what it was.
Name: Lizard Swordsman Lv. 14
Race: Reptilian
Class: Swordsman
It was a lizardman that was quite bigger than the others I have encountered so far, and it was holding a scimitar-like sword. It even had some sort of scale armor on that had a similar color to its dark green scales.
"It's a new type of monster. This means that I'm getting closer to the boss right?"
With [Sensing], I could tell that this one was alone.
"Go Shasha! I choose you!"
I took this opportunity to practice my control over Shasha and initiated a one-on-one fight with the Lizard Swordsman. When Shasha got close, it finally started to move. It swung its sword at the incoming Shasha, who I made to roll in order to dodge the attack. However, before I could make Shasha fully stand up again, the Lizard Swordsman spin around and hit Shasha with its thick tail. She was knocked back but didn't take too much damage. My DEF is pretty high with my buffs after all, and Shasha received the benefits as she was made of my mud.
"Shasha use claw attack!"
I controlled her to duck instead of rolling to avoid the horizontal slash of the lizardman and attacked using the usual lizardman claw attack. It was not very effective. The claw attack only left a small gash on the scale armor of the lizardman. It took this chance to attack Shasha who just finished attacking. It swung its sword and hit Shasha on the side. She was knocked on the ground and a deep slash wound appeared across her torso.
"Shasha no!"
The Lizard Swordsman attack was super effective. It raised its sword high into the air and swung vertically down at Shasha. Without the chance to resist, Shasha was bisected into two-halves.
"You monster!" I shouted. The Lizardman Swordsman turned toward me. I raised Blood Bane in response.
"Shasha was my friend! My only companion! She was…"
*Swoosh*
Numerous mana-coated mud spikes pierced through the Lizardman from behind while he was distracted by my perfect acting. He took a look back and saw the spikes extending from the 'corpse' of the foe he just defeated.
"… my trap card. I didn't really want to take you down this way, you know? But my control skills were lacking too much."
I sighed inwardly as I controlled Shasha to wrap around the Lizard Swordsman to dissolve it.
[Skill Novice Blade User acquired through Assimilation.]
Novice Blade User: A passive skill that gives a damage correction when using blade-type weapons. As mastery of the skill increases it may evolve.
Information from the Lizard Swordsman about the skill entered my mind. Sword moves, stances, and breathing techniques flooded my brain.
"Ugh. It's so weird seeing things through the perspective of a lizard."
Whenever I get a skill using [Assimilate], I usually gain knowledge on how to use the skill through memories. But this was the first time it was so detailed. I controlled my mud to reform Shasha, but this time in the form of a smaller version of the Lizard Swordsman. The sword I made her wield was a Blood Bane mud replica.
We swung our swords down together at the same time.
"While I can perfectly mimic the Lizardman's swordsmanship while controlling Shasha, I feel a resistance when I'm doing it with my main body."
I spent a few minutes to try and correct myself in order to make the skill work for me. Using Shasha as a reference helped a great deal. After becoming satisfied with the results, I decided it was time to move on.
###
*Clang clang clang*
Right now, I am fighting another Lizard Swordsman using only my Blood Bane to hone my [Novice Blade User] skill. In the distance, I was controlling Shasha to fight off three Lizard Spearmen and a Lizard Shaman. I discovered a Lizardman Village in the swamp not long ago and through my tiny mud scouts, I discovered a cave entrance leading downwards in the center of village. I thought that it leads to the boss of this dungeon and so in order to safely check it out, I have to annihilate the Lizardmen. Otherwise, they might ambush me from behind while I fight with the boss.
I once again created an arena outside the village but this time the outer face of my walls had spikes in order to prevent the Lizardsmen from climbing over. I threw multiple mud spears at the village from the top of my spiked walls to reduce their numbers while luring them towards me.
The fight inside the arena was much easier than before because I now had Shasha helping me out. My need to control over her lessened after I had assimilated that Lizard Swordsman. Now, she was practically on auto-pilot. I could still sense her every move though with [Cloning] and [Sensing].
After killing a large number of normal Lizardmen, these evolved ones that I'm currently fighting started appearing. I took a step back and leaned backwards to avoid the horizontal slash of the Lizardman and swung Blood Bane diagonally upward while activating [Mana Coating] at the last second. I successfully cut off the hand that was holding onto the sword. I learned to do this in order to save MP in this drawn out fight. Outside dungeons, I would not have a constant source of mana after all so I practiced on economizing my MP.
"Shhaaa!"
The Lizard Swordsman shouted and jumped backwards avoiding my follow-up slash. It glowed and started regenerating its hand while staring at me.
"What can you do without your weapon huh?"
Suddenly, an unexpected thing happened. The Lizardman's tail popped off and he picked it up. The scales on the tail started to jut out and it became some sort of jagged club.
"Oh wow that's creepy. But I respect your fortitude. As expected from this village's chief."
The one I was fighting was the highest level monster that I encountered so far in this dungeon, level 20. Because of this, I considered this one as the village chief.
With his hand regrown, he held the tail club with both hands and jumped in the air. He raised his weapon, intending to do a skull bash on me. I stomped on the ground and activated the move I had prepared before my fight. The ground was actually made with my mud and I used this moment to create a spike. Coating it with the mana I dissolved from the corpses in the arena, I pierced through the Lizard Swordsman's lower abdomen while he was still in the air.
He tried to swing his club and smash my spike. But I made my mud spike branch out and pierce his four limbs to immobilize him.
"Don't try to resist. It's already over for you."
I controlled my mud to wrap around the chief and started to dissolve him. Although he was a higher level than me, my skill set and smart tactics allowed me to take him down. I moved to assist Shasha but I saw that she had disarmed the spears from the Lizard Spearmen. They had stabbed right through her mud body but they couldn't pull the spears out so they were just sticking out of her.
I noticed the shaman in the back preparing a big magic circle. I controlled my mud in the ground and raised a small dome to cover it.
"Mud Coffin."
I then collapsed the mud and interrupted the shaman's casting. I was about to dissolve it but it used a spell to blast my mud away and break free.
"Heh~. Let me borrow one of these Shasha."
I pulled out one of the Lizardman's spears from Shasha and rushed to the shaman. The others wanted to stop me but were blocked by Shasha. I actually got the [Novice Pole User] skill from assimilating one of the Lizard Spearmans that appeared earlier.
"Shashusha!"
While I ran to the shaman, it casted a spell that generated a huge gust of wind and pushed me back. I flicked my hand and controlled the ground to trip the shaman. When the wind disappeared, I threw the spear I was holding at it. It accurately hit the shaman's thigh but didn't pierce through all the way. I can't maintain the mana coating when I let go of a weapon not made with my mud. The shaman fell to the ground and I rushed over and used Blood Bane to cut off its arms and legs.
"Let's see if you can break out of my mud this time."
I covered up what was left of the shaman and used [Dissolve].
[Skill Mana Casting acquired through Assimilation.]
[Skill Mana Casting + Mana Release + Mana Coating combined into Mana Designing.]
Mana Designing: Can be used to convert mana into magic spells, mana items, or enchanting objects.
Information of [Mana Casting] entered my head. It combined with skills I already had so I had no choice but to base the skill description on what I already knew from the combined skills.
I looked over to Shasha and saw that she had decapitated one Lizard Spearman, cut off the arm of another, and the last one currently had its legs sticking outside of her back as she was dissolving the upper half. They were pretty weak without their weapons. I quickly dealt with the remaining one and cleaned up the battlefield.
CHAPTER END.
Name: Ruby Sen Lv. 14
Age: 17
Race: Half-Human?
Class: Half-Magical Creature
Job: - Lv. 14 <+1>
HP: 11 [44%]
MP: 15 [68%] (+5)
STR: 11 (+15)
DEF: 10 (+35)
INT: 19 (+10) <+1>
WILL: 15 (+10)
SPD: 10 (+5)
<
Assimilate
Mana Manipulation
Physical Resistance
Weaponized Limbs
Foresight
Shapeshift
Mana Absorption
Novice Blade User
Novice Pole User
<
Dissolve
Body Enhancement (Active)
Mind Enhancement (Active)
Sensing
Camouflage
Sculpting
Detonate
Appraisal Analysis
Lesser Heal
Cloning
Mana Designing
<
Tongue Enhancement