One minute ago.
'A thief, hmm…' It was clear to Sol what the Zombeast meant, and if he was right, then there was a way out. The solution was to target the summoners of the Zombeast, the Zomests.
Via [Telepathy], Sol spoke directly into Amber's mind, -Make a clone of yourself and leave it here while I buy you time. Search the area and find the Zomest that summoned it. With the Zomests dead the Zombeast should die as well.-
Based on the information given in the dungeon guide, Zombeasts were a creation of the Zomest, and their life was maintained by them. If the Zomest died, the Zombeast would die as well. What Sol found strange was how the Zombeast spoke—it was something recently created, so how could it speak in such a way and label them as thieves? That must mean it wasn't the Zombeast talking, but someone else. The question was, who?
Amber gave a light nod before leaping forward, swinging three distorted slashes at the Zombeast. The creature didn't move out of the way as the three slashes only created sparks against its scales. Unharmed, the Zombeast pounced down, slamming into Amber, splattering her and sending sand everywhere.
While Amber reformed next to Sol, a small chunk of the sand that had scattered everywhere rolled inconspicuously to the very end of the passage, away from everything. Once out of sight, the clump of sand grew and grew until it resembled a humanoid shape, eventually morphing into Amber. The Amber that was standing next to Sol was actually a sand soldier she had disguised as herself, using an advanced application of her talent skill [Sand Incarnation]. Normally, the skill allowed her to completely turn into sand, enabling her to regrow and reform endlessly. However, she used the part of the skill that turned her back to normal and applied it to a sand soldier to mimic her appearance.
The sand soldier that wore her face only stared absently ahead with a poker face, as Amber couldn't quite make it show any real facial expressions—but that wasn't necessary, as she rarely showed any expressions herself to begin with.
Amber then became invisible as she carefully navigated the halls, searching for the Zomest. She had long since memorized the layout and first checked the most likely spot they could be. It didn't take long until she arrived and saw the stairs and an opaque dark red portal, with two Zomests standing next to it.
"Shriiiii! Keku ki Shriiik!" ("Yes! Hand it over!")
The Zomest on the left stood still but made noises every so often that sounded like shrieks, while the one on the right was on all fours, making odd movements—pouncing and jumping.
She assessed the situation and surveyed the area once more, ensuring there weren't any other undead hiding nearby. Seeing none, she approached, utilizing her stealth skills to their full potential.
Unlike last time, the Zomests were too focused on controlling the Zombeast to notice her approach. Their incomplete law techniques allowed them to create a much stronger creation, but it came with the downside of the Zombeast being completely mindless, running solely on instincts. Such a creature couldn't be commanded—any orders would fall on deaf ears, and it might even end with them being attacked by their own summon. If they had a true law technique, the creature could have been smarter, but they didn't. With their current abilities, they could only solve this issue by manually controlling their creation, suppressing its basic instincts, with each Zomest controlling one of the heads.
Once she was within 15 feet, she judged she was close enough. She launched forward and used [Phase Step], appearing in front of the Zomest on the right, who was mid jump, and unleashed a chain of skills at once. [Assassinate], [Dagger Rain], [Quintuple Slash], and more—countless deep stabs and slashes appeared on the Zomest, reducing it to pieces before it even saw her coming.
[You have slain a Lv 126 Zomest! Gained 134,348,526 Exp (460%)]
The other Zomest collapsed in pain as the entire burden of controlling and suppressing the Zombeast's instincts fell onto it. It raised its head and saw Amber turning from the remains of the other Zomest to face it.
It shrieked in surprise. "Kriki Shrie Shik?!" (How did you get here?!)
Amber couldn't understand what it said, as the Zomest didn't have vocal cords capable of emulating human speech, but even if it did, she wouldn't answer. With [Phase Step] on cooldown, she used [Blurring Speed] and rushed the Zomest, planning to finish it off as quickly as the last one.
"KRI KIRI KE KREAK KA!"
…
"I WON'T GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT!" the Zombeast roared as it wildly flailed at its surroundings.
The rest of the undead, seeing things weren't going according to the dungeon's plan, moved to kill the human, but the rampaging Zombeast was causing too much destruction. A few that got too close, trying to squeeze by, were accidentally cut into pieces by its razor sharp bronze claws.
Sol had run away long before its rampage began, knowing he had to rush to the exit before the other undead realized what was going on. A few turns through the passages later, he arrived to see Amber finishing off the last Zomest, who was covered in cuts. Since she had lost the element of surprise, she faced some resistance, but given that the Zomest's incomplete law technique was useless here and it was still suppressing the Zombeast's instincts, it was helpless before her.
[You have slain a Lv 114 Zomest! Gained 22,789,953 Exp (220%)]
The final Zomest of the four that had come to kill them finally died. They were the only Zomests in these ten floors. They had all been brought together for one purpose but ended up failing their "Mother" in the end.
Could Sol have given them the void root and resolved things peacefully? Yes. But should he have? They didn't approach peacefully in the first place. Initially, they tried to kill him with an ambush. It wasn't until they almost escaped that they took drastic measures and called upon a creature much stronger than the floors to force him to hand it over. Even then, he might have considered it if he didn't need it. But now, with a harbinger after him and tensions in the capital, he needed a way to fight those A-Rankers who would pose a threat to him and those around him.
"Thanks for the save, Amber! Let's go!"
She nodded, and they both ran down the stairs towards the boss floor.