As I headed away from the entrance, my surroundings started to change.
There were lanterns that were hung on the wall at first, but the further I went, the darker it became.
It was a good thing that I had already brought a headlamp with me and when it became darker, I turned it on to light the way in front of me.
Even if I had become a demon king, that didn't mean that I had gained night vision.
This headlamp was a special one that was created for awakeners that explored the dungeon. It used a small magic stone that was gathered from the monsters of the dungeon as a power source.
With this magic stone, it created a magic light that didn't just illuminate the area in front of me. This magic light was like a torch that lit up the entire surrounding area, but unlike a torch, I was able to use it without encumbering any of my hands.
While heading deeper in, I didn't encounter any monsters.
It seemed that they had already understood that this was the palace where their enemies, the awakeners, gathered so they didn't come near this place
But once I got far enough, I could hear the sounds of things moving around me.
At this, I reduced the light's range around me so that I wouldn't attract too much attention and I started moving slower just in case anything came at me.
It didn't take long though for me to encounter my first monster.
I could hear the sound of something bouncing towards me, so I stopped moving and waited for this thing to show itself.
When it came into the range of the light, I was able to see what it looked like.
This was something that seemed like a sack of water that had a small blue bead in the center of it.
This was a monster that everyone knew because it was a famous beginner monster.
This was a slime.
The slime seemed to be bouncing along at its own pace, but when it came closer to me, it suddenly started moving faster. It was clear that this slime had found me and was coming to attack.
I didn't know just how the slime detected me when it didn't have any parts of its body that could detect people, but I didn't have time to think too much about it since the slime was coming.
It just bounced up and down as it came closer, but then once it had reached a certain range, it suddenly stopped bouncing.
The slime suddenly contracted on the ground, contracting its body together as if it was building up tension.
Then all of a sudden, the slime jumped up once more.
This time, it was different from when it bounced up and down. This time, the slime suddenly shot forward with all of the contracted force that it had built and shot out like a bullet.
Since I had been prepared, I was able to dodge out of the way at the last second, but it was without a doubt dangerous. If I had let my guard down for even an instant…I would have ended like the stalagmite beside me.
This thing had its tip shattered to pieces by the force of the slime slamming into it.
This was just like a cannonball as it shot out with the force that it had gathered.
Even though these things had been called a beginner monster, they were still monsters in the end.
However, I didn't have too much time to think since the attack of the slime wasn't over yet.
The slime slammed into the wall of the cave behind me, creating cracks in it before suddenly shooting back.
It was like a ball with how it suddenly bounced off the wall like this.
I had already been moving, so I was able to dodge out of the way again. But since I was already moving, I was able to also slash out at this slime as it passed by.
It was just too bad that I wasn't able to do anything to it.
My sword bounced off the slime's blue skin and I was even pushed back by the force.
When I landed on my butt on the ground, the slime was already bouncing back at me.
This seemed like it was over, this seemed like I would have my bones smashed by this slime.
But before it could hit me, I suddenly said, "Time Stop."
The moment that I said this, it was as if this slime froze in the air.
But it wasn't just this slime that had been frozen.
Everything around me seemed to stop.
Even the drops of water that fell from the stalactite around me were frozen in the air.
The only thing that wasn't frozen was the light of the headlamp on my head since that was attached to me. Since it was attached to me, it was considered a part of me and wasn't affected by the Time Stop.
I slowly got up off the ground and then moved in front of the slime that was frozen in the air.
After admiring this strange creature for a bit, I suddenly stabbed out at it, but…my sword bounced back.
It seemed that I still couldn't penetrate this thing's skin…
But I didn't give up as I stabbed at it again and again at the same point.
Eventually, I was able to do enough damage that I pierced through the skin of the slime and stabbed it right in the core.
There was no resistance at all as I stabbed right through the core and when I pulled out, it didn't seem like the core had been affected at all.
But when I looked closer, I found that there was a cut on the core.
So I moved away from the slime and then released the Time Stop.
The moment that the time stop was released, the slime suddenly burst apart and the liquid inside splashed onto the ground. The moment that this liquid touched the ground, there was a sizzling sound as smoke came up from it.
That was because the liquid inside the slime was actually acid.
But then, all of that disappeared and it was replaced by a few items that just laid there on the ground.