SS Awakening: My Monster Merging System!

"Alright, that’s enough hunting." Zich yawned after he finished clearing a group of five undead hounds.

He would have liked to proceed, but he had spent too much time here. Apart from being exhausted from hunting monsters continuously, he was also curious about the outside world.

’I still need to get out of this damn space.’

He thought about exiting the Undead Crypt, and the next moment he vanished, appearing back in the Gold Realm. His gaze swept around, seeing that monsters hadn’t crossed into the spot where he was.

"Master." Frostgrave’s voice echoed in his head.

"Umu," Zich replied.

"Is this your world?"

"No, we are currently trapped in a secret realm," he said. "If we don’t find the key to exit, then we are done."

As he stepped out of the half destroyed buildings, Zich looked toward the horizon in the direction of the bell tower.

Presently, he had two options. One was to go back to the others and try to search for the boss of this realm. The second was to work alone.

Naturally, Zich was more inclined toward the latter. One might wonder if he shouldn’t be angry that he was abandoned. The simple truth was that he was not. Deep inside, he understood that his misfortune was due to his greed.

He didn’t want to pay them back for abandoning him. If he had been in their shoes, he would have definitely done the exact same thing. Heck, he wouldn’t even blink an eye before abandoning them.

’But it still doesn’t change the fact that I’ll show them the middle finger when we meet again.’

The first person that came to his mind was, of course, Jayden. Even though he didn’t see the Scion at that moment, he could swear he felt the mocking, triumphant gaze of the latter.

The first place Zich decided to head to was the fountain. The journey back was confusing at first. However, the elite undead knight whom Zich had named Iron led the way. The undead knight’s memory was quite impressive, as it led Zich back to the square as if he knew the place like the back of his hand.

Some time later, they arrived at the square where the deadly battles had taken place. However, unlike before, when the square had been crowded with undead monsters, what remained were corpses and damaged earth.

He approached the fountain without waiting and glanced down at the tunnel, his eyes flashing with determination.

"Slimy," he called out.

The blue slime appeared, bouncing eagerly while looking at Zich and waiting for his next command.

Crouching low to the slime’s height, Zich spoke. "I need you to go down the hole and report back everything you see."

The slime bounced twice and then went down the hole.

Step! Step!

Just then, a series of footsteps echoed from the distance.

Zich instantly recognized them as belonging to an undead, so he quickly used Shadow Blink several times and hid himself.

From his hiding spot, he watched as an undead walked up to the same tunnel and emptied a sack of soul stones.

The action surprised Zich slightly, as he had expected them to at least pause their operation after the large battle that had taken place.

The undead didn’t linger. After emptying the sack, it left.

Zich waited a little longer, watching as more undead came and went.

Meanwhile...

Slimy slid through the narrow tunnel with careful little movements.

The hole was not wide enough for a human to enter easily, but for a slime, it was almost comfortable. Its soft body pressed against the damp stone walls as it moved downward, leaving faint wet marks behind.

The tunnel smelled terrible. Slimy did not have a nose like humans, but it could still sense the disgusting energy around it, and its small body trembled slightly.

For a while now, Slimy had felt like its master was relying more on the undead summons. Blood Leech was fast and scary. Frostgrave was tall and strong. Tiamant was so terrifying that even Slimy felt tiny whenever that dragon appeared.

But Slimy was first.

Slimy remembered that.

It remembered the grass fields, the first hunts, the demonic toads, and the times it had guarded Zich when he was helpless. It remembered sitting beside him in the small shelter room and watching over the door.

So when Zich finally called it and gave it an important task, Slimy became serious.

Very serious. Its round eyes narrowed as much as slime eyes could narrow.

The tunnel bent sharply to the left, and Slimy squeezed through the corner without making a sound. A few small bones were stuck between the stones, but it simply flattened its body and slipped over them.

After several more meters, the tunnel widened slightly.

Slimy stopped. Ahead, a faint blue light shone from below, and the sound of rolling stones echoed quietly through the passage. Something was moving down there again and again without stopping.

Click. Click. Click.

The slime slowly moved forward until it reached a crack in the tunnel floor.

Below the crack was another passage, much wider than the one it had come through. Small undead couriers moved through it, carrying sacks, baskets, and broken metal cages filled with soul stones.

None of them looked up. They moved like they had done this for a very long time.

Slimy watched them for a few seconds before carefully dropping down onto the side of the lower passage. Its body landed softly on the stone and made almost no sound.

The undead did not notice, which made the slime feel proud.

If Blood Leech could sneak, so could it.

It followed behind the couriers, keeping close to the wall. Whenever one undead turned slightly, Slimy flattened itself against the ground and pretended to be a wet stain.

It was a very convincing wet stain.

The passage continued downward.

The air grew warmer with every few meters, and the blue light slowly changed into a dull red glow. Slimy did not like the red glow. It made its body feel strange, as if something below was hungry.

Soon, the tunnel opened into a vast cavern.

Slimy stopped at the entrance.

The cavern was enormous. Its ceiling stretched so high that the red light could not reach the top properly. Stone pillars as thick as towers rose from the ground, and hundreds of narrow channels ran across the floor like old water paths.

Only they did not carry water... They carried soul stones.

The stones rolled through the channels from many tunnels, moving toward the center of the cavern. Some were blue, some were pale white, and some had red lines glowing inside them.

At the center of the cavern stood something massive.

It was far larger than any undead Slimy had seen in the market square. Its body was made of thick bones, broken armor, and black chains wrapped around its arms and chest. Its skull had four curved horns, and a deep red glow burned inside its hollow eyes.

It was... a giant bone undead!