The goblin instantly started running towards Zero, however, he simply smiled. 'Blink.' Zero appeared above the goblin before instantly slashing his dagger downward. The knife connected with the Goblin before the Goblin suddenly went flying backward. Zero's feet connected with the ground and he turned and looked at the Goblin, who was now lying dazed on the ground.
'So it's more of a stabbing weapon than a slicing one, good to know.' Zero started walking towards the creature, as his version of
Zero turned around, only to find a dog the size of a cow standing less than ten feet away from him. The dog's entire body was slowly dripping as it was all made out of the green sludge from the Dungeon. Zero looked at the Goblin for a moment, before ignoring it and turning to face the new opponent. "Dungeon protector I presume?" The dog stood stoically as it simply watched, the only movement on its end was the flicking of an ear.
Zero scanned the creature, finding the sludge that dripped onto the ground would slowly crawl back onto its body before disappearing. Deciding that he had nothing else to do, he tried something that he expected to fail. "I wish to make a deal with your Core." The mention of the Core caused the creature's head to cock to the side, before it returned to its original position.
Not knowing if it even considered what he had said, Zero lowered his pointer finger in anticipation. Just when he was about to raise it and blast the creature away, the dog suddenly gestured with its head for him to follow before turning and walking back towards the Dungeon Core. Confused, but on guard, Zero slowly followed the dog.
The two walked until they were ten feet away from the large mass of sludge. Zero stopped ten feet away, whereas the dog simply walked into the sludge and disappeared. Zero looked at the sludge's progress, finding it had stopped going up and was now moving around the building itself. 'It's covering the entirety of the lower floors first.' At the exact moment Zero looked back, he noticed the sludge was roiling directly in front of him.
Zero took a step back while raising his hand, only to pause as he watched a green figure suddenly stand from the sludge. Zero looked forward at a woman who was made entirely out of the sludge, however, the sludge woman had been made with exceptional detail, and it was also completely naked. Zero didn't look away, nor did he feel ashamed, as he had had no problem with displays of nudity in his life. "Earghhh!" The woman spoke, only for its mouth and neck to fall away in the process.
Although the sludge making up the woman was noticeably more solid than the dogs, Zero figured it took a great deal of concentration on the sludge's part to keep it that way. The woman reached up with her hands before scooping the fallen sludge back into its previous spot and holding it there. Closing her eyes, Zero watched as the areas he could see of the jaw and neck seemed to become more reflective.
The woman removed her hands to reveal a hardened crystalline version of her jaw and neck. "Aere...aarew...Ho..st?" Zero understood the last part, so he nodded before speaking. "That's right. I am a Host." The woman slightly nodded before she continued. "Wh...at D...e...al?" Zero shrugged at her question. "That depends on you. I know you are trying to turn this into a dungeon, however, I'm guessing you can't move too far away from this location as you do. I'm someone with the freedom to do just that."
The woman stared at Zero with her constantly swirling green eyes, and he continued to stare at her in return. "Souls. I need so...uls." Zero nodded as he took note of her rapidly improving speech. "I can get you souls, but I won't do anything for free." The woman was the one to nod this time, and Zero watched as her defined face turned into a blank ball of sludge before reforming. "I need souls to fo...rm f...aster."
She paused for a moment before speaking again, this time, slower. "In return. I can. Offer, safety." Zero raised an eyebrow at her offer. "And how can I trust you? If safety is what you offer, then I assume you mean within your Dungeon. I have no way of knowing if you would attack me when I let my guard down." The woman nodded once more, and once more her face lost its features.
"Half of the building. I can claim half of th...e b...ui...lding. I offer o...ther h...f" The crystal neck she had made suddenly cracked before returning to its original liquid state. Zero figured that the long sentence without a break caused too much stress on the make-shift vocal cords. "If what you say is true, then it is a start. However, how many souls would you need to claim half of that?"
Zero looked up at the skyscraper, counting at least 63 floors. His gaze returned to the woman, who was remaking her neck. Once she was done, she spoke again. "A million souls. To. Instantly complete." Zero raised an eyebrow at the absurd amount of souls she would need. He was about to deny her request when she continued her words. "Thirty days. To. form naturally. Two hundred souls will shorten. Time. By. an hour in your wor...ld."
Zero thought about it for a moment, doing the math in his head. "That would mean, 100,000 souls would shorten your time to... 220 hours, which would be around 10 days to complete. Fine. I will help you, however, I can't get the souls for you right away, and I expect more than simply somewhere I could have stayed either way as a reward."
Zero checked the sun's position in the sky, finding it was nearly time for the event to start. "I need to head up now, there is an intruder I need to take care of in this building." The woman nodded before her entire body lost form and fell into a puddle.