8. Slime grudge

Today, I just finished training with my sister, I purposely lost. Even though losing purposely seems like it gives my master Grand marshal Edmond a headache, I didn't bother him about it it Might be his skill. I wanted to train more so I went to the forest and

"…" With lifeless eyes I was inside a harmless green slime. The green slime is a slime not used for fighting instead it eats clothing, the green slime is loathed by all women but somehow called as god's gift by men. The clothes that I had been wearing earlier we're now being eaten

"Ughhhhhhh!" The inside of the slimes feels weird. It was solid yet so wet, It was soft yet so solid. It was violating me. Now what to do-what to do. I have 2 options to escape those 2 options we're magic and brute strength. I first tried magic

"[Ember]" I created an small ember on my finger, but it immediately died down. I touched the place we're it was casted and ouch! It was hot. It seems like the slime took all the embers heat. I wont give up since DAMN YOU GREEN SLIME. ONCE IM OUTTA HERE I'LL MAKE YOU BECOME MY CLOTHING! My conviction will never disappear as a role model of justice I must give the green slime PUNISHMENT!!I'LL KILL YOU GREEN SLIME! My reasons for not giving up we're not corrupt or anything. The magic didn't work so I went and pulled out my sword and started flailing it around inside the slime. *hit* hmmm? Did I hit something? The slimes body suddenly started melting. I removed the sludge on my face then opened my eyes. The scenery that I saw was not what I saw when I was inside the slime. there was a labyrinth with a huge door infront of me. Labyrinth = danger, danger= training, training = strength but more importantly secret hide ou~t I was so exited that I might've found out a secret hide out that I didn't check what time it was. I put the slimes corpse inside my [storage] before leaving for the labyrinth

I entered the Labyrinth. I slowly checked the halls and nothing was out of normal no chess no nothing. I was finished checking the 2nd to last hall then went to the last . I looked in the hall from the entrance thinking that there wont be anything new But, I noticed that to the end of the hall there was an inscription like a magic circle. The magic circle had inscriptions I never saw before probably ancient language. I was curious to what it was so I came closer and touched it.

"Eh?" When I touched the magic circle it glowed

"Guh?!" A sting went through my head and I was forced to kneel to the ground.

"Eh? Where am I?"

I looked up and What I saw was a forest, Confused I went to a nearby river and looked at my face. It wasn't my original body, it seems like my body here is an older version.

"An illusion huh, you cant trap me here forever!" I tried to cast spells to break out of this illusion

"[Fireball]!" The spell didn't cast instead a voice appeared in my head

Spells other than [Absorb] are not permissible. Pass this trial and you will be rewarded. Trial begins in

3…

2…

2…

Begin

"Well shit!"

A lich spawns infront of me and casted a fireball towards me

"[Absorb]!!" I was able to absorb 50% of the fireballs mana. I wasn't able to absorb the whole fireball so I evaded it. It exploded and it sent me flying. I thought that the lich was only able to use magic, but I was wrong. The lich used the staff it was holding as a sword. The lich used the staff to attempt and slice me

"Guh!" I was able to grab a stick on the floor and block the lich's staff. Normally a stick would have been broken but I passed mana onto the stick. The stick was as hard as steel because my mana was denser and purer than normal because of my special training. If I would've used normal mana for enhancing the stick the stick would've broke.

I was knocked back when the lich attacked me. I regained my balance then using 1 of my hands I pushed myself up. I hold my sword then charge at the lich. I knew that if I we're to make noise he would find me immediately. There! I saw an opening on the back of lich's head. I charged at him then attempted to slash at it's skull

"Wha?!" I failed at slashing the lich's skull. Just as I attempted to slash it's skull a whirlwind hit me on the side and sent me flying.

"Tsk!" The lich sends multiple fireballs at my direction. I tried to enhance my [Absorb] spell by making it larger.

"Hmph![Absorb]!" I added much much more mana to my spell. The absorb spell normally had a small tornado the size of a tea table, but since I poured a ton of mana into the spell the tornado was instead 10x bigger than normal and thanks to it being bigger I was able to suck up all the fireballs. Not the mana, the fireballs itself. Since I sucked up the fireballs I tried to use them against the lich and it worked I'll call this 'Counter take'

"Hmph! Time to get serious" After sending back the fireballs the lich gave me I immediately circulated tons of mana throughout my body, I hop up and down and get into a rhythm. I jump and charge at the lich head on. The lich creates an energy sword with mana as the energy. There! I jump to the right to evade the sword, I then jump to the side of the lich and attempt to kick his head

"Haaaaaaa!" It was over-dramatic but I was able to kick his head off. Shit I forgot it was a skeleton. What to do? What to do? After thinking for a while I understood why the trial wanted me to use [Absorb] as a spell. The lich was just made of magical energy, So if I was able to suck out all the lich's energy I would've won. I steeled my nerve's and concentrated in sucking out the lich's magic power. I created 2 [absorb] spells one on each hand then charge towards the lich. I no longer cared about tactics instead I just rushed forward. The lich sent me multiple fireballs, icicle lances, and wind blades. Using the [absorb] on my left hand I suck them all in and using the mana that I absorbed, I put all the mana into my right hand so that if I fail to suck it's magic power, I can just swallow it as a whole.

"Kriiiiiiiiiieeeeee!" The lich cried when I started to suck it's magic power. I didn't let down since the lich was just artificially made.

"Ieeeeeee—" after a while it stopped crying. The reason for that is, I was finally able to eat up all it's magic power that was used to make it move.

"Haaah haaah" I was catching my breath after that tough battle but suddenly a voice started to say something

Good job! You have passed the trial. Arthur you shall now be bestowed upon the following:

Title: the new king of spirits

Follower: the grand wizard of lerorius: Barbarossa

Acquired skill:mazecraft

What?! King of spirits!? Barbarossa? Mazecraft? I was confused to what this voice in my head was telling me. The voice in my head then told me what I just attained.

This trial was created by the pillar spirits using the formerly Royal wizard who after death regrets not being able to protect his king, kingdom, and most importantly his family. Thanks to his regret he was able to become a wandering lich. To create this labyrinth they used the special magic mazecraft. Mazecraft can be bestowed upon humans who they have found worthy. There are many more labyrinths in this world they are found randomly since labyrinths do not stay at one place. Labyrinths have multiple rewards money, weapons, artifacts, and the rarest of them all and only attainable by people they recognize as master they are subordinates or I mean contracted beast/warriors. Contracted beast/warrior rewards are only attainable if you are a summoner class warrior. Well this is all—Actually we forgot how many labyrinths there we're and we forgot how many are still up and standing—well this is all from me the light pillar spirit bye-bye

At the end of it's sentence it changed from a monotonous tone to a girly voice Wha?

"Oi!we're you watching all this time?!"

"Yep"

"Yeah"

"Pretty much"

"Yeah"

"Yah" 5 spirits appeared before telling me that They we"re watching all this time. The spirits we're the Light, fire, water, earth, and air. The dark spirits was missing. And all the spirits except the earth spirit we're currently female incarnations

"A-are you guys pillar spirits?"

I have read about pillar spirits as the head and leader of their attributed subordinates

"Yes" they all said in unison. I sighed and inquired about the title of 'king of spirits'

"Ah that, yeah we acknowledge you since you're favored by god almighty and you've met him, am I correct?"

"…!! H-how did you know?!" I was shocked and taken aback

"He told us what happened and that he reincarnated you"

"That doesn't do anything with the title though"

"Hahah actually we paired you up with one of the strongest human in history. Actually he just woke up 50 years ago so he might be bored and he lost his original strength" They told me that the trial was facing against Barbarossa since even if he lost most of his strength he still could easily fought an army

"Bye-bye call on us natural spirits by praying or asking us for help. Speak to us using ancient spirit language kay? That's the only language the spirits beneath us understands until they make a contract kay?" The light spirit also told me that even though the current humans knew how to summon a spirit it was an artificial spirit without a conscious and it was a contract of master and servant instead of equals that the spirit with conscious' want. She also told me that even if the pillar spirits acknowledged me some of their subordinates might not. I told her that ' I really don't mind'. What I said fell on deaf ears and told me that their subordinates will watch over me through the years to come and will try and see if there are any good things to me that will make them acknowledge me

"Ah,o-okay" I blinked then when I opened my eyes I was back at the labyrinth. A lich was standing before me

"Uhm, so we're you the one who defeated me?"

"Y-yeah! Now make a contract with me!" I point at him and scream this words

"NEVERRRR!" The skeleton screamed in rejection. I was annoyed with him at this point. I sighed and slap him

The slap made a loud WHACK!

I looked at the lich and I could see tears welling up from his non-existent eyes

"Y-you, you just slapped me!" The lich sulked

"Yeah! So what!?" I angrily said

"S-so what!? You just hit me the royal wizard Barbarossa!" He was pointing his finger at me as he was arguing with me. I sighed and I put on a warm smile

"Heh, so you finally acknowledge me huh" he was smug as he says that but I wasn't showing my true thoughts that we're DAMN YOU! SHUT UP ALREADY! I AM NOW YOUR MASTER LISTEN TO ME! The lich's guard was down so I took advantage

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I slapped him with all my strength

"Guh!? Y-you dare—guh?!" He was about to spout some nonsense so I slapped him multiple times more

"*slap* make a contract with me!" My voice was showing authority

"Y-yes so p-pls stop slapping me! Pls!" Was this really a royal wizard? I didn't know the answer but I was sure that if I continued slapping him he would cry. Tears we're welling up in his non-existent eyes

"Form a contract with me!"

"I accept sniff"

"You shall be given the name and title: Barbarossa the wizard of Noir" I was prideful about my naming sense

"I Barbarossa the wizard of noir have been given given a worthy name title and master hahahahha"

Oh gosh is he a chuuni? Like me? Barbarossa was posing in a pose that had his left arm folded and his right arm covering the right portion of his face or I mean skull

"I'll unsummon you for the moment and summon you once we're back home"

"My king"

"What?"

"I wish to stay beside you, as your bodyguard but people may get scared of me so pls get me some change of clothes"

"Yeah, your right" I pulled gloves, a cloak, shirt, pants, and a masked helmet for him to wear

"Wear that then let's go"

It was night time. We arrived at the castle gate, the castle guards rushed into the castle when they saw me. I entered the castle. I was accompanied by the cloaked skeleton Barbarossa. I hadn't stepped in the castle for more than 1 minute and I was immediately greeted by Verni and Eddie followed by 3 pups

Eh?puppies? When did Verni give birth?!

Verni and Eddie growl at Barbarossa. Barbarossa hides behind me visibly trembling

'Kidding me right you told me you we're a grand wizard and the spirits called you the strongest'

'Y-yeah, I am strong, but, d-dogs are different!'

I sway my head left to right in disbelief. I calmed down the wolves

"Calm down calm down his my friend"

Verni and Eddie calmed down but Barbarossa canceled his summon

'My king, what did I do wrong for you to torture me like this?'

'What do you mean?'

'W-wolves a-are scary" is seems like this person is extremely scared of wolves. I'll have to fix that side of him

"Anyway Barbarossa earlier I apparently gained a new skill"

"New skill? It's pretty rare for someone to acquire a new skill but you're pretty different huh?" Barbarossa popped out his head.

"Aren't you strong why are you scared of them?"

"Muu! I lost all my strength , That's why you could defeat me! In adventurer's guild monster ranking I'm at-most a rank D at the moment"

"Oi" I look at him. Barbarossa looks away, his face was teaming with sweat

"What do you mean by that?"

"I-its just as I said, I-I lost my strength when I died. B-but d-don't worry the more we fight together the stronger I get"

"Fine-fine your strong as it is, just stay hidden and I'll assign some work for you to do"

"My king you truly are merciful"

I didn't bother paying attention to him by this point

Thud thud thud

Loud footsteps can be heard running to me. Before I realized it my old man and siblings we're on top of me

"Ugh"

"A-Arthur! Where have you been this past 3 days?!"

"Eh?" '3 days?'

'My king actually you we're inside that illusion for 3 days'

'Why didn't you tell me?!'

'Forgot'

I perform a facepalm

"Uhh, I found a labyrinth and challenged it"

"You really, you made us worry!"

"Sorry sorry"

"Anyway what did you gain from the labyrinth?"

"Nothing"

"I see so it's something that you cant tell me huh?"

I nod my head

"Fine go eat then sleep it's already you're third night out without eating. Don't collapse alright?"

"Oka—ughh?" I fell to the ground

Eh?why, am I on a bed?

'Barbarossa what happened to me?'

'Ooh master you have awakened'

'What happened?'

'You collapsed after talking with your father. Im surprised though I'm serving another king after I lost my original king'

'Uh kay thanks for telling me' Barbarossa told me what happened and came to the conclusion that I'll be the next king