7 Pride and Mushrooms

What the hell is a hearthstone?

S: Hmm, good question. But I feel like I've already said enough, so I'll let you figure it out.

S: Catch ya later, if you don't bleed to death.

I hate you.

If he won't tell me what it is, fine. I don't need the crutch anyways.

With that, I dropped it on the ground and stomped on it with my remaining strength. Surprisingly, it shattered rather easily, letting out a bright flash of light. Startled, I fell back against the wall and hit my head, a jolt of pain rushing through before my vision faded.

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When I awoke, I was surprised to find that I hadn't respawned back in my cell. I would have thought with my numerous injuries, I'd have bled out by now. But as I checked around my body, the numerous scratches and holes the rats left in my body were gone. My arm however, hadn't been restored. At the very least, the stump that was left had closed up, stopping the bleeding.

Huh. I'll take it. Maybe it was possible I had retained my great healing ability from my past life. After all, I was the undefeated, all powerful Demon Lord, Asht-

S: It was from the hearthstone, not you.

You couldn't just let me have this, huh.

It seemed this 'hearthstone' had similar properties to a health potion back on my home world, in that it could cure minor injuries but not restore limbs. How one of them ended up in the rat's stomach is anyone's guess.

I got up and dusted myself off. Now that I had time to think about it, it was strange to be missing an arm. I had been slightly ambidextrous before, so I could still halfway function, but this would take some getting used to. Picking up my hilt from where I had dropped it, I decided to continue on for now. I went back to the crossroads, and this time went right. It looked about the same as the other corridors, but this one had more cells in it on both sides. Might as well check.

I passed most of them by, seeing that they mostly held nothing. A few scratch marks on the walls, a failed attempt to dig out a tunnel, a few corpses, the usual dungeon fare. Some of the cells had messages scribbled on the walls, although I couldn't read them.

As I was searching the 8th or so cell, I found something strange. Off in the corner of the room there was a medium sized crate, relatively missable if you weren't looking for it. When I looked in it, I saw that it was packed full of mushrooms.

Based on the fact that I was getting lightheaded just from opening it, I'm guessing it was safe to assume whoever was here must've been the local dealer. I was tempted to take some for myself, but I figured that now wasn't the time.

Nothing else seemed noteworthy in the cells, and I was nearing the end of the hallway. Once I reached the door at the end I noticed that there was a long-dead skeleton leaning against it, slumped over.

By the looks of it's mostly destroyed chainmail and sword, it was most likely some sort of guard, or adventurer. One of it's hands seemed to be reaching for something at its waist, but when I checked all I saw was a cloth pouch that looked like it had been chewed through. Well, whatever.

I kicked the skeleton aside and opened the door a bit before peeking inside. Behind this door was a rather large room, the walls lined with various devices used for torture. There were numerous rats in this room, a couple of them standing near the open exit on the other side of the room, and another sitting off to the side, gnawing on something. I slowly shut the door and backed away, hoping they hadn't noticed me.

S: So, what's the plan genius?

Would you leave me alone already? You've done enough.

S: Hey, not my fault you got your arm chewed off. You don't have to be so aggressive about it.

Why would you even stick me here like this? This body is practically useless!

S: I thought you were the 'Almighty Demon Lord'. Cant handle a bit of a challenge?

This isn't a challenge, this is just unfair.

S: I mean, you'd probably be doing a lot better if you weren't so cocky and quick-tempered. The only reason you're even still alive is because you got lucky and have decent instincts. If you had gone through with your original plan, the other rat would've gotten you before you even had a chance.

Fuck you.

S: I'd rather you didn't.

I've had enough of this. He thinks he can talk down to me just because he's some sort of god? If he hadn't messed with my powers I'd have conquered half the world by now, without lifting a finger!

S: Too bad your body doesn't match your attitude. Right now you look like some whiny kid who got his toy taken away.

Shut up! I'll show you! Just watch, what's a couple more rats going to do to me? I've already killed 3 of them, I know all about these things now.

To prove my point, I went over and kicked open the door, marching in and drawing my hilt.

"What's up, bitches!"

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