77 Family Friendly (1)

A couple of knives, two identical broadswords, and three different shortswords were sticking out of Galahad's bag before a voice inside his head stopped him. It wasn't like the black orb, where it had clear venom in its tone and a will for death. This voice was different in the sense that there was no hate or rage, just words.

'Once you've completed ruling over your lust for looting, I suggest you continue down my hallway so that we may talk face-to-face. Figuratively of course, seeing as I don't have a humanoid face to converse with.' Spoke a calm and sophisticated voice of logic.

Galahad stopped filling his bag and looked down the crudely crafted hallway. The light crystals carried on for what seemed infinitely, not revealing where it led.

'I do suggest you hurry, soul bound entities never waver when they hunt down their prey.' The voice added, not revealing anything else.

"So then you know what's following me then?" Galahad asked aloud, figuring the voice was mind flayer and could hear him regardless of the method he spoke his words.

'Well I can sense them, but that could be anything. I just wish to have an informative conversation before you're devoured and your soul is left free to scamper about the oblivion within our void.'

'Yeesh, this thing talks like a cannibalistic philosophy instructor. Might as well hear it out while I try to run away and plunder.' Galahad thought and hoped the monster couldn't hear his short bursts of thoughts. Walking in compliance to the Flayer's demand.

Galahad walked down the hallway and kept searching the boxes and crates for more stuff to take from the monster's lair or cavern. He quickly discovered the storage based items were completely empty, not one barrel carried alcohol or chest any credits. Only the weapons he found sitting outside of them were worth something to take.

"So I can assume you are Sladdus? Am I pronouncing that right?" He asked without stopping his inspection of the axe in his hand.

In a rush of taking the weapons, he realized quite a few of them were aged with damages or rust that made them completely useless. Only a few were worth taking and Galahad could only thank his luck that his years living with two forgers taught him to find the good pieces from the bad.

'Indeed, that is my blessing. I see one of the fallen spoke it before you killed them, how unfortunate. I thought after so much extensive training, they'd be ready to keep this place an untold secret.'

"By training, you mean torture them till they learn to keep quiet." Galahad asked rhetorically, knowing damn well that the Flayer was doing doing exactly that.

The flayer was not taken aback by Galahad's statement and carried on to a new topic.

'You are not the first to be selective about the trophies they take.' Said the Flayer, noting Galahad's inspections and leading on with its questions. 'I am curious why humans choose to make so many different devices for killing, is there not one, singular method that proves to be the most efficient?'

"Some humans are better at using a long weapon or a short. The variety allows all of us to fight to our fullest potential." Galahad said as he put a spear with a fractured shaft back down.

'Ahh, there it is, the feelings of unity among the weak. Why is it your kind chooses to let the strong lift the weak with tools of war? Why not make them submit so that the strongest may flourish further?'

"Well if you've had this conversation with many other humans, or perhaps any species from the surface really, you'd know that's not how we operate. Building a society with morals and rules has helped us achieve things not even you can imagine. Our strength is limited when it comes from one mind and one body, working with others makes for a better life."

The flayer went quiet for a moment, Galahad wasn't sure if it was pondering his words or preparing for his entrance, because he could start to see the tunnel open into a new space.

'Well in a way, we can agree on something. Strength shared among the weak can make for better results, as you can see from the walls of my home. I have conquered many of your "united" kind with simple traps with useless objects stolen from the surface, thanks to the ones I have mastery over.'

Galahad sighed as the mind Flayer confirmed something he didn't want to hear. The weapons he called trophies all along the walls were nothing but a graveyard of fallen adventurers, lured by the mimics. He assumed that was the case, but a figment of his mind was just hoping they were stolen and not in a situation that should call for emotional feelings.

The problem was . . . He only felt a little sad about it, hardly anything about.

Galahad wasn't even sad at their deaths, he felt nothing at those words. Knowing hundreds died here has no effect on him, so what would that mean if he suddenly felt this way about everything? What would his quest to save his friends feel like when he lost his attachment to them?

The smidgen of sadness that came from losing his feelings was a possible sign the orb might be waking back up, something that won't be pleasant for anyone.

'Interesting, you certainly are a unique specimen. First the cloud hiding in your mind, then the cooperative demeanor, and now you show almost no sympathy for your own kind. I'm starting to think you're nothing but abnormalities.'

Galahad took note of those words as he finally arrived at the entrance to what he first thought was a cavern. As it turns out, it was a perfectly carved out cube shaped room almost the size of the pavilion back in Teramore.

Sitting in the middle of the room was a pedestal with a human body slumped on it, with the walls lined all with taller crates and boxes that could fit a person inside.

'Well those are definitely hiding more mimics.' Galahad thought as he stepped into the room, wishing he could spring the trap and be done with it. His bag was full and he was ready to get a few more orbs before he left.

When Galahad walked closer to the body in the middle of the room, he could see there were cuts and bite marks all along the limbs. It was stripped of all its clothing and was drained to a tightly skinned corpse, due to no blood left in its body.

The only thing unsettling about it was the dark spherical mound pulsating on the head. It would swell and shrunk in sync with a slow heartbeat pattern, making Galahad's empty stomach want to start heaving again. Every time it swelled to a peak, the body did a little twitch that made Galahad flinch the first time.

'Just a moment, I am nearly finished with this one's brain stem. Its what you could consider a delicacy among my kind. Of course trying to kill me beforehand will certainly be possible, but a waste of your time and mine, I assume you still want me to answer your questions.' Sladdus said before the body started shivering and a soft munching noise could be heard.

"Oh please don't stop on my account. You can't do much worse to the dead except desecrate them." Galahad said as he sat down on a box, trying not to listen it eating.

It was telling the truth about Galahad's reasons for not immediately killing it. Who else would be able to give him this opportunity? There certainly were very few monsters willing to talk before attacking, let alone any of the ones capable of explaining some of things that have been done to him.

He didn't just ignore how the mimic Heath was saying he smelled like a demon, and how Solteer said pretty much the same thing back in the forest. Galahad wanted to find out as much as he could, because he had no idea where or how this power came from. All he knew was it could give him the chance to save his friends.

So Galahad had his sword drawn by his side, glancing back and forth between the corpse and the tunnel he came from. The moment he felt those ominous winds, he was hitting the return spell as quickly as he could, hoping the twenty second it took to cast wouldn't be the death of him.

The dark mass on the corpse began rising, releasing its tightly gripped tentacles from the neck it was wrapped around. Sladdus was now revealing himself, showing off his rubbery black skin and four little tentacles attached to a squid body. Between the slithering arms, Galahad could see a circular shaped mouth with a row of razor sharp teeth wriggling inside, bits of brain still clinging to them.

Galahad soon started to shudder and tried not to let the rage in his mind explode out into Fury and Fyre. Seeing the creature for what it truly was made him go insane.

It may have been Galahad's first time seeing a Mind Flayer, but the part that made him so angry and tense was the black smoke coming off the squid mound. It was exactly like the smoke radiating from the Spriggan and Blemmyae.

Sladdus was working with the two monsters at the altar. Meaning Galahad might have found a secret keeper of the black orb.