Born in apocalypse

’Hahaha! This makes it even more interesting...’ Even though his connection with the undead was cut... Azarex was happy with the information he had gotten.

Turning his attention away he focused on the rest of his spies.

’Not many of them are left... Huh..’ Azarex thought, remembering how he had set numerous undead free on the mainland to gather as much information as possible.

During Tier III, he couldn’t maintain his connection through the dungeon portal... but after becoming Tier IV, Azarex knew the connection between him and his undead had deepened.

It was still very hard to maintain high-level undead through it... but who says one needs high-level undead to collect information?

Finding a bunch of insects and making them undead, Azarex began the first part of his information-gathering.

’Trailing them was a good idea after all...’ Azarex thought, recalling how he had found only a few men around the station. For some reason, except for them, everything else was barren.

The whole area was abandoned. And because of that, it was easier for him to prioritize the target.

The insects followed those men, and soon enough, those foolish men led the undead to their places. Most of the spies didn’t make it through, but some managed to enter the hideout.

And one of them who managed to pass through was the dragonfly.

As Azarex heard the conversation between the man and the one who appeared to be his master... there was one thing was sure of.

’So... they know Master, and from their tone, the relation isn’t good either...’

The further he heard their conversion, Azarex wanted nothing more than to end the puny human who didn’t know its place... but remembering his talk with Aurora, he calmed down and focused on information gathering... for now.

Soon the insect transferred itself to the leader, who further let the undead enter a more secure area. Before he could hear their conversation, though... it was unfortunately killed.

’That man wasn’t normal at all... he killed the undead before I could do anything.’

Making a mental note to remember his face, Azarex focused some of his attention on the hunting happening in front of him. Calling it hunting would be a bit too much, as what was happening could be better described as a massacre.

[You have killed a tier I monster: Lesser Acid Slimes]

[You have earned 20 CC]

[You have killed a tier I monster:..]

[You have killed...]

[You ha...] 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Lifting his head, Azarex looked around and found the scene quite disgusting, even by his standards.

He tsked, looking at a series of bubbling acid lakes. These sickly green acidic lakes were scattered throughout the dungeon, varying in size from small, shallow pools to large, deep basins.

The surface bubbled and churned ominously, releasing sporadic bursts of noxious gas. Gases weren’t the only things leaving them, as slimes were spawning from the lakes as well.

It looked disgusting, sure... but it was so much better to spawn-kill the slimes this way.

The moment any slime was discovered, the crystal ice would freeze the poor thing and destroy it without any mercy.

Despite being made out of acid, none of them had the corrosion power to destroy the ice. To have diversity in his undead, Azarex had turned some of the slimes into undead, but that was it.

’Still no sight of it...’ Azarex sighed, looking through the vision of one of the slimes.

All the undead slimes were deep within the lakes, trying to search for a way to the second floor or find the monster. With so much time passed, he had found the way to the second floor, but the boss was still nowhere in sight.

’This place is too big...’ Nodding his head, Azarex stopped killing the slimes and instead began turning most of them into undead.

Each of the monsters dived back into the lakes, and with the force of hundreds of slimes, Azarex began looking for the boss.

Even with the force this large, it took him more than four hours to find the monster. Not wanting to waste more time, he got there and directly corrupted the monster.

[You have killed a unique tier II monster: Lesser Slime Boss]

[You have earned exp..]

[You have...]

Collecting the dungeon core, Azarex moved toward a lake five times the size of the others.

emembering how deep it was, he summoned all the undead back to his phylactery and coated himself with death mana. Sighing, he jumped into the sticky hell.

Just slightly below the surface, the lake was so viscous that he had to exert extra force just to go further down. It took him more than five minutes to reach the bottom of the lake, where a giant door lay.

The door opened promptly as Azarex placed the core. Quickly entering, he moved to the next floor of the dungeon.

Looking around his surroundings, he couldn’t help but whisper, "Not only lakes of acid... it is raining acid here as well."

Summoning the monsters back, he sent all of them to do the same thing. The crystalline monster began their hunting as the undead slimes looked beneath the lakes—which looked more like rivers here.

***

While Azarex was leisurely massacring the slimes, the same couldn’t be said for Vexar.

The fire demon had to put in some work to massacre the enemy. Trying to clear the dungeon as soon as possible, he had assumed his monstrous form from the very beginning.

Now Vexar looked like a humanoid figure engulfed in flames, emanating an intense and powerful heat all around himself. His entire body was composed of swirling fire, with fiery hair and glowing red eyes.

Looking at the monster in front of him, Vexar sent a few strikes of sword slashes...

[You have killed a tier II monster: Minotaur Warrior]

[You have earned...]

"These aren’t even worth using my sword for..." Not wanting to waste any more time with these monsters, Vexar began manipulating his mana.

Having gained fire manipulation at tier IV, he had gained access to some very destructive spells... which were perfect for situations like this. The last drop of mana filled the blueprint as the spell contracted itself.

Flying high above in the air, Vexar whispered, "Meteor Shower."