The Chronicles of Dwynveia – A Slimeling LitRPG

Aki

Ren explained what she did to her bow as we headed down the corridor. At that point, we stopped caring about secrecy, at least some of it. We’ve shown enough of our cards not to worry about talking about what our powers were, but we kept the divine stuff under wraps. Luckily, for Ren’s bow, we had the ready-made cover story of the weapon being “soulforged” like Lilyth's combat knives. It wasn't even that far from the truth, really.

It seemed the enemy exhausted their forces in that attack, as the corridors and caves we crossed had little-to-no resistance. Just some skeletons, Lesser Bone Constructs and two more of the sword-hands things called “Bone Juggernauts”. It was, of course, possible that some of the monsters were in the tunnel the Kisamzo used, but we decided to skip that route until

All of that was good for our levelling situation. I was two thousand points away from level fourteen now, Deirdee was nearing level ten, Lilyth was slowly approaching level twenty, Caei, finally, hit level fifteen, Ren twelve and Taros eleven.

However, the nearly constant fighting was proving to be a massive drain on our fairly limited resources. Other than Caei and Deirdee, we were almost completely out of mana. My alabaster beauty did end up picking up the [Mana Refinement] trait immediately so that she could heal us more effectively, and Taros said vae kept some mana in a “just in case” reserve, but that was about as much as we could use for combat.

Another problem was the fatigue that was setting in. Stamina potions were another thing we were severely lacking in, so Lilyth and I got the last two and downed them immediately, meaning the two of us would be responsible for the bulk of the fighting.

‘We really need to stock up on potions to keep as an iron reserve,’ Lilyth sighed. ‘Three greaters of each on us at all times. That way we will be less fucked next time around.’

‘Maybe there won’t be a next time,’ Taros said hopefully.

‘Don’t count on it, gecko. You are one of us now, so you are utterly fucked in that regard.’

Tee whimpered, so I called for a halt. I thought we all could use a little breather, and I thought we needed to get to the bottom of what was going on with Taros. Vae has been off since the fight against the Kisamzo.

‘I don’t mean to pry, Taros,’ Caei began, ‘but how the hell did you get to level ten? That does require a lot of combat.’

‘I participated in hunts back home that were meant to teach me how to fight. After all, some combat ability was expected of me, but it was done in a controlled environment.’

So likely this is vaer first big battle.

‘You were power levelled?’ Lilyth asked, quite shocked. ‘That’s… a bad way of training someone.’

‘I now realise that,’ Taros admitted. ‘It gave me enough skills to survive on the road… but this… this…’

‘It is too much. I know the feeling. Believe me. I would say it gets easier… but it doesn't. You just get used to it.’

‘So you just go with the flow?’

‘At this stage? Yes. My life has been an absolute hell for the past month, and I have no reason to assume things will be different, given how many loose ends we have from the previous bullshit we faced. And entirely new stuff keeps popping up all the time.’

‘Oh,’ Taros muttered.

Vae looked really crestfallen. Tee clearly didn't know what vae signed up for when vae joined us.

‘Listen, Taros,’ I said to him. ‘If this isn't life for you, you can always walk away. Even now. The route back is clear. Wait for us at the entrance.’

I looked at my companions. They nodded their assent.

Taros looked at Deirdee with a guilty expression. She just smiled at vaem reassuringly.

‘Not everyone has to be a fighter. I think you really are the only member of our group that still has a chance to not get involved.’

‘But I want to help you, guys,’ Taros said. ‘Just not… not…’

‘By running around Dungeons, monster lairs and other wonderful tourist traps?’ my foxy cutie suggested.

Tee nodded.

‘Then… there are other ways you can contribute,’ Ren suggested. ‘Teach Aki more about Water Arcana, help Lilyth with research, earn us money on the road, the non-combat possibilities are endless.’

We all agreed.

‘Just bear in mind that if you tag along with us, like we were saying, some combat will be unavoidable,’ I stressed. ‘Dungeons too.’

I looked at Lilyth meaningfully.

‘Remind me, honey, whose idea was it to enter Akh’ret's Mercy?’ she retorted with an evil grin, making me realise I walked into the same trap again.

‘You really won’t hate me?’ Tee confirmed. ‘This was my idea after all.’

‘We won’t,’ Caei reassured vaem. ‘And remember: we all agreed to do this.’

‘No point in getting yourself killed for basically nothing, kiddo,’ Lilyth confirmed. ‘Listen, I have been harsh on you. For that, I apologise. And well… you tried. You honestly tried. Where I am from, we hear many stories about people getting hurt or killed because of things like pride or wanting to impress people. Don’t fall into the same trap.’

‘Yeah…’ Taros said. ‘When that thing grabbed and threw me

… The fact that I can die really hit me. Before all this… I never considered my own mortality. I am mostly immortal after all. Then we met the Corpse Amalgam, Lilyth did whatever she did and…’

Taros broke out crying.

Lilyth approached vaem and hugged.

‘I am so sorry, kiddo. For that and being a complete bitch to you.’

‘Th-thank you. I think I have earned some of that, though.’

‘So… how about we both start again with a clean slate?

‘I’d like that.’ Tee hugged her back.

‘Now, go. Don’t make the same mistake I did. I still keep doing, I guess.’

Taros nodded, turned around and took a careful step, looking back at us. When I smiled at him encouragingly, he took another step. And another. And then vae broke into a dead run.

‘Thank you,’ I heard Irmen say. ‘I am saying this as a mother and not as a goddess. I know my son can take care of vaemself if need be, but I couldn't help but worry when he proposed this quest.’

You didn't try to stop vaem?

‘Would you listen if your mother and Bergia tried?’

I guess not.

‘Ultimately, Taros is an adult and makes vaer own choices. But… vae is still my baby boy. Now and forever.’

It took us fifteen more minutes, but we finally made it somewhere, or at least to the beginning of A somewhere, as a corridor we entered looked man-made and was built out of grey square bricks. We tightened our grip on our weapons and started to slowly walk down it.

I began to ask whether Lilyth thought this was tied to the Y-Ramite ruin below us, but my wife clapped my mouth with her hand. She then pointed at where her ears were in the elf form.

Listen.

And so I did. At first I was confused, but then…

Someone was moaning. And it wasn't from pleasure.

Lilyth first pointed at herself, then Ren and Deirdee and raised her eyebrow.

I shook my head and drew a circle in the air with the tip of Siren.

My friends nodded, and Lilyth took point, trying to lead us to the source of the moaning, but when we got there, I really began to hate her hearing, because spending an eternity in the dark corridors would have been preferable to finding the gallery.

The corridors led us to a wooden door. The moans seemed to be coming from behind it. I could also hear voices begging for help. Lilyth took a deep breath and pulled the door open. The room we entered was fairly long, and maybe two metres wide, with a red carpet leading to another wooden door. That was all fine and good. The problem was with the walls, which seemed to be the source of the sounds. At first, I couldn't comprehend what was happening as they were covered in what I, not unreasonably, assumed to be paintings. A horrified gasp from Deirdee, followed by the sounds of her retching, told me that something was very wrong.

What could have disturbed an actual assassin?

I moved my [Abyssal Spark] over to one of the paintings and was so shocked I didn't even notice when I dropped my swords. I wanted to scream, but my voice died in my throat.

Those paintings… those horrible paintings… were made of human bodies. And they were all alive.

Seeing us only agitated the poor souls who all turned towards us, those still with eyes at least, and they began begging us to release them from their torment. And I just… didn't know how. Burn them? What if that didn't do anything and just added to their pain?

The answer came when the room grew deathly cold. I looked towards Lilyth. Her eyes were glowing pale blue again, and there was an expression of fury on her face. It quickly died and was replaced with great sorrow. The cold filling the room turned to warmth. My wife began walking from painting to painting, touching them and whispering something. Each tormented being would go silent and then combust into nothing. From time to time, I would see Ereshkigal standing next to my wife and mimicking her gestures. After a few minutes, the corridor grew silent. The phantom of Ereshkigal grew fully visible to all of us - even to Deirdee, given her yelp of surprise. Ereshkigal turned towards her, gave her a warm smile, waved and turned back to Lilyth. A mortuary sword appeared in her hands, which she handed to my wife. Ereshkigal then caressed her face and gave my foxy cutie a peck on the cheek. Pale blue light flowed into Lilyth, and then the goddess was gone.

We all approached my wife, who looked rejuvenated. Usually, Ereshkigal’s visit had the opposite effect, so this gave me a bad feeling. I pointed towards the sword.

‘Ere lent it to me,’ she explained. ‘It will stay material for the next hour. Enough time to put this business to an end.’

There was grim determination on Lilyth’s face. I looked at the now-empty picture frames. Fury and hatred grew inside me again.

How long did those people suffer in those?

‘Let’s finish this,’ I agreed.

Whoever did that needs to die.

Lendaria

The game was rigged from the start. She couldn’t use any of the escape routes - they either did not work, or there was some magic preventing her from entering them. And now that the intruders saw the Painter’s handiwork… There would be no peaceful end to this.

Lendaria summoned her remaining minions. She would not go down without a fight.

Together? the Painter asked.

Together.

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