"Finally... !"
A cheer came out of Lily... Or Yurei's mouth as his arrow pierced the final Goblin Shaman.
The corpse turned into ashes and disappeared, leaving behind some rags as loot.
"Tsk... Compared to Bayek's party, these guys give too little loot... Speaking of which... Drake will probably try to convince the guild master to hunt me down..."
Yurei muttered as he thought about the guild master, Rio. As a lowly E-ranker, he didn't have many chances to interact with him.
But on the occasions he did, the guild master wasn't abusive like others. If Yurei had to put a name on his behaviour... Pity would be the best word.
Anyhow, Rio wasn't hostile towards Yurei in his previous life. And Yurei didn't want to make an enemy out of him either.
After all, Rio was a SS ranker, way more powerful than Yurei could ever be.
"Thinking hard won't do me any good. Well, I'll cross that bridge when the time comes."
Sighing, he broke off the arrow pierced into his shoulder. Black blood came out of the wound as the flesh around it started to rot.
"I can't use this body anymore... But how else would I fight the Goblin Lord?"
The body had already reached 70% of the decomposition rate. The skin was peeling off, wounds were festering. Movement speed had fallen below 20%.
"It wouldn't be possible to use the body without destroying it completely... But I don't want to do that..."
He grumbled as he sat down. There was still some time left before time ran out.
"Hm... Dammit. I can't seem to find another way."
After a few more moments of thinking, the spirit finally gave up.
"Must I really use her body to the extreme... Damn it! Fuck it, I'll bury her now."
He took a deep breath and looked around to find a suitable place. His mind was made up, he wouldn't hesitate any longer.
Soon, he found a small hill that overlooked a large river. The fourth floor, just like the second floor, had been transformed. Though this time the transformation seemed permanent.
Even if it was, it didn't particularly seemed odd to Yurei, who had never been to the fourth floor before.
"Alright, let's dig the grave now..."
Taking a deep breath, he pulled out the cursed sword and started digging. Soon, a large hole appeared on the hill. Yurei slowly moved Lily's body inside the hole and laid her down. Once he made sure her body was in a comfortable position, he ascended from the body and reached the top of the hole. From there, he quickly found a goblin and possessed it. Using the goblin, he put the dirt back inside the hole and closed it completely.
Then finally, he grabbed a nearby large rock and placed it on the top of the grave. With trembling hands, he curved out the words.
"Here lies Lily, the Hunter who lost her life prematurely... And unjustly."
The words were crudely written, but one could feel the emotions behind them instinctively.
"I'm sorry for hurting you. If we meet somewhere after my death, I'll let you take your revenge."
Murmuring that, the spirit who was possessing a goblin's body walked towards the boss room.
--------------------------------
"The second floor is... Normal."
Rio muttered as he walked through the floor alongside his party members. They were made of the strongest Hunters, with the weakest being an A-ranker. Rio, who was acting as the leader, was leading the party through the forest of the second floor.
"Perhaps Drake was lying after all, Guild Master."
One of the following men said as he looked around.
The monsters on the first floor were normal, and the size of the second floor also didn't change from the usual.
"Let's not jump to conclusions, let's defeat the second-floor boss and reach the third floor first. If the spirit is still there, then we'll exorcise it. If not, we'll go up to the fifth floor."
Rio gently chided his followers before looking at the boss arena in front of him. Even though the dungeon so far had been easy for him, he didn't let his guard down.
However...
"This boss was weak too."
One of Rio's party members pulled out his sword from inside the snake boss's head. The boss soon turned to ashes and disappeared, leaving behind some loot.
"The second floor is the same as before, then."
Rio murmured with a frown before heading towards the teleportation stone.
"Well then, let's go to the third floor, shall we?"
--------------------------------
"Here goes nothing."
Yurei, using the goblin's short body, pushed the door of the boss room open.
The boss room of the fourth floor was inside an ancient temple-like structure. As Yurei opened the door, the insides of the said structure came into his view.
"Hah, foolish bastard. You dare disturb your king's peace?!"
The large hobgoblin sitting on the throne at the end of the large room roared. The three large Goblin Warriors beside him immediately put their hands on their rusted swords, as if to intimidate Yurei.
"What?! A monster is speaking?!"
Yurei, however, was too shocked to speak. He thought to himself as his head went over the memories of his past life.
As far as common sense went, monsters inside the dungeons didn't have sentience. The humanoid monsters such as goblins who were outside the dungeons showed something akin to a primitive level of intelligence, being able to hunt and formulate crude plans to attack others. Yet, it wasn't to a level where you could call them an "intelligent" species.
The higher level undead such as vampires, liches and wraith queens did have intelligence, but those were categorized as the undead race instead of monsters.
Yet... Here was a mere hobgoblin, who was capable of speaking!
"What? Are you mute?! Your king is asking you a question, bastard!"
The hobgoblin... The monster known as Goblin Lord, hissed.
"I-I'm sorry, Your Majesty!"
Yurei suddenly kneeled and shouted. Seeing that the Goblin Lord was capable of talking with him... Or he was capable of conversing with monsters, a plan had hit him.
He could do this. But the success of his plan depended on whether he could achieve a certain condition or not.
"Hah! You come to your senses now, bastard!"
"Yes!"
The spirit inwardly cheered. It seemed that he was capable of conversing with the monsters that had the same type of body that he possessed!
"Y-your Majesty! I have great news for you!"
Yurei said in a flattering tone as he kept kneeling.
"Hoh? Go on!"
"I have killed a high-ranking hunter and have left her body nearby! I want Your Majesty to feast on her first!"
He inwardly muttered a quick apology to Lily as he said those words.
It was common knowledge that monsters, no matter where they are from, loved to feast on human flesh. And the goblins on the fourth floor were no exception.
On the other hand, the boss of the floor was the strongest when inside the boss arena. If it got somehow pushed out of that, its strength would drop dramatically!
"At that point... I can possess a Goblin Warrior and take him down. Probably."
Yurei's laughed inside his head as he formulated his plan.
However...
"You insolent fool! You dare ask me to step out of my palace?!"
The Goblin Lord roared in anger and stomped the ground.
"This broken temple is a castle?"
Yurei frowned as he kept his head down. The first plan had failed, so he quickly moved to the next one.
"No, Your Majesty! As you can see, I am weak and small! I can't carry the entire body here with just me! And others will try to eat it if they see the body..."
"Hoh... That's true..."
The Goblin Lord nodded in understanding. Then he suddenly smiled and gestured at the three Goblin Warriors standing beside him.
"Take these three and recover the body under my name! If you bring it here, I'll give you some part of it to eat!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Yurei smiled and nodded. After that, he left the temple with the three warriors on his tow.
They traversed through the forest and soon reached the small hill with the gravestone.
"Where's the body?"
One of the Goblin Warriors asked with a snort.
"It's here, it's here..."
Yurei smiled and took them to the top of the hill.
Below them was the turbulent river running through the fourth floor.
"There it is!"
"Where... ?"
One of the warriors stepped forward and peeked below. Just as he did that, Yurei suddenly pushed him from behind.
The goblin wasn't expecting that and lost balance. Then one of his feet slipped and his body plummeted towards the river below.
A large splash appeared in the middle... But the warrior didn't float up. The rusted armour he was wearing was too heavy to float, it seemed.
"You bastard!"
"How dare you!"
The remaining Goblin Warriors charged at Yurei, who quickly left the body of the goblin he was possessing. He quickly turned invisible and watched as the two warriors skewered the goblin to death.
Then as soon as they were done with that, he possessed one of the goblin warriors and swung his sword at the other.
The latter didn't expect that to happen. Without any resistance, the warrior was cut apart.
"Hah. Now then..."
Yurei used the rusted sword to slash at his own body. Wounds after wounds appeared on his arms, chest and legs where the armour was broken.
Soon, he was covered with blood from head to toe. He then broke the blade and used it as a crutch while he mutilated his leg with the cursed sword.
"This should be enough... Anything more will put me at harm."
He didn't feel any pain from the wounds, sure, but the HP of the body was also his own HP. If it dropped to zero, he'll die with the body.
Which was an outcome he wanted to avoid.
"Now, let's go get that bastard Goblin Lord!"
He chuckled as he staggered towards the temple, subconsciously realizing that the goblin warrior's aggressive personality was affecting his own.