'!?'
"Another gate? What the hell is going on!"
Both of them kept falling.... upwards.
No! To the right!
...To the left?
Down...?
It was impossible to judge the direction in which they were going, but they could see a light at the end of the tunnel.
For the first time since they entered that black box, they could tell which direction they were going. That would be a good thing if not for one tiny detail.
They were going down.
And the worst part was, they didn't see anything to break their fall at the bottom, on the contrary actually. It seemed that they would hit a hard floor if they didn't do anything.
Leo tried to use the spirit sword to switch them into the Hermit Turtle style, but he couldn't take it out due to the shackles limiting his movement.
"This will hurt!"
He screamed as he put his guard up to prevent too much damage to his vital organs.
"No, it won't."
Bounce
[Relationship increased with General: Gloppy]
'Wait what?'
Instead of a loud crash and pain, he bounced off of something and landed without as much as a scratch on the floor beneath.
There was a patch of slime around. It began to move and form back into Gloppy, although in a bit older form than before, closer to a teenager in height rather than a child.
"I didn't know you can do that."
Gloppy looked back at him, shocked himself. He looked at his new body, the raincoat he wore earlier was now way too small to fit him, so he threw it away.
"Didn't expect it to happen either."
[Generals]
[None]
'Biel... where did Gloppy go? I no longer see him in the Generals tab.'
|It means he had his rank ascend, Master Leo|
He didn't know this could happen because the previous summoner died too soon to figure out the functions of this class.
'So I'm now a trailblazer of the summoner class...'
[Summoner Army]
A window listing all the different functions of the summoning skill appeared. The last time he checked it, there were only 3 things.
His Summoner Slots, Generals, and a summary of what the army is made out of.
But now he could see a new section appearing.
[Warlords]
Without thinking much, Leo pressed it.
[Warlords]
[Gloppy the Slime Overlord - 30/50 ⚚ - 0/3 ⚚⚚]
"It seems that now that I'm a Warlord, we lost 10 summoner slots... I wonder why."
He thought for a moment, trying to figure out where that decrease came from. Equipment? No, he still had it on him... the enchants also worked like they should.
"Oh right!"
Leo smashed the cuffs against a rock nearby, only now getting a look at their surroundings. It looked like a cave and was lit with torches.
Next to the walls were the corpses of pirates who died of starvation or injuries they suffered from the fall.
He took out the artifact from his inventory and showed it to Gloppy.
[Harmonized Orb]
[+5 Summoner Slots per General]
"Oooh and the other five came from the rune's doubling effect."
As they were talking, a scrawny old man approached them, his eyes glued to the Orb in the summoner's hand.
"The ancient artifact..."
In an instant, hellbats filled the cave and turned toward the elderly man. There was no way in hell Leo would take any chances in a place like that.
"Who are you?"
He didn't look at the scared person behind him, but the aura he emitted dropped the man to his knees as he hid his artifact back into the inventory and turned to the Warlord.
"And while he collects his thoughts, let's check if your appearance was the only thing that changed about you."
The Slime Overlord grabbed a long robe from one of the pirates and wore it. Then with a long pull, he took out his staff from under the piece of fabric he just put on.
Previously, his staff was barely small enough for him to carry it in his child-like form. But now that he had gone up in rank, so did his weapon.
Now it was almost as tall as him, a long uneven bark rod finished with a circular-shaped effigy at the top. In the middle of the circle, an empty slot for something like a jewel or a tablet. The top of the staff was decorated with orange feathers with white stripes.
Gloppy swung it across the cave, creating an army of slimes 30 soldiers in size.
However, neither of them expected the thing that would appear. The slimes grew in size, easily reaching Leo's hips now, and in the few dozens that were summoned, 3 caught their attention for a different reason.
They were humanoid, just like Gloppy, but unlike him, all 3 already had the body of an adult.
"Hello?"
Leo waved his hand at them but got no answer. Neither of them even paid attention to it.
"Hello...?"
Right after, the Overlord decided to try, hoping that it might work.
And for an unknown yet to their reason, every single one of the 3 waved back at him.
"Suuu~"
"Su!"
"Su..."
[Mind Archive]
[General]
[Status: Bound]
[Slime Strategist - level 1]
[Slime Strategist - level 1]
[Slime Strategist - level 1]
Leo bought around 100 Mana Potions from the unbound market and threw them next to the Warlord.
"Have fun pouring Mana into them. Drink this whenever you run out."
He didn't look too happy that he had to do it, but he did it anyway, starting to pour it into the three female slimes in front of him.
"While he is doing this."
The summoner turned around towards the old man who was still quivering from fear in the corner, surrounded by the hellbats.
"Tell me who you are."
His ice-cold gaze made the older man feel like he was at the peak of a mountain, instead of being surrounded by creatures from hell.
"I... I'm just a villager who got lost on his way..."
Slash
A vertical cut barely shallow enough to not spill his guts out was left as Leo struck with his sword, moments before the Mana ran out.
"Blegh just how much do I need to drink."
Gloppy cried in the distance while continuously pouring his owner's Mana into the Bound Generals.
"Lie again and you won't end up with just a scar."
He called the man out on his bluff. Is a harmless villager staying alive enough to be old in this kind of prison? Like hell, that would happen.
"Okay okay, you got me! Just don't strike again."
Instead of answering, he just kept staring at him, making sure that the old man wouldn't try anything funny on them.
But as he saw that it was not his intention, Leo threw him a Healing Potion and helped him get up.
It was evident that the man was on the death's door. His stomach was flabby like he hadn't eaten in a long time and his muscles were barely holding together.
"Young man, have you heard of such a figure in the Pirate world as The Apex?"
[New Quest]
[Fulfill Blackbeard's request 0/1]
[Reward: ???]
[New Quest]
[Reject Blackbeard's request 0/1]
[Reward: ???]