The Kingdom of the Malaise (8)

A strange sensation entered the back of my mind as I walked through the last of the stone steps and set foot on the stone floor.

'What the...?' Bringing my hand up to the back of my head 'The hell was that?'

Feeling the strange unknown sensation that occurred within my mind disappear a frown appeared on my face but I shrugged and threw it to the back of my mind.

'It's probably not that important'

As the strange sensation flowed away from my mind I loosely held my weapons as the shadow armor, despite it's metallic appearance made no noise.

Shifting through the dark armor, I saw something that caused me to feel incredibly confused.

In front of me was an incredibly oversized brown bag that had several items sticking out of it's top.

Most notably the body parts of various creatures, both recognizable and not were poking out the brown flap of the bag.

"Is that you Cherry? I thought you were going to the..."

The bag shifted as it's user turned around and froze, revealing who it was that was carrying the bag.

Safe to say that I was surprised as well.

Holding the entire bag with an act that defied physics was a much smaller body.

Large green beady eyes stared back at me as the two prongs on top of the strange beings head twitched.

The strange lizard like being was wearing an orange cloth around their body and also had it around their head like a makeshift mask.

However, my own surprise and the strange beings surprise didn't last for long at all as we both pulled out weapons quickly.

Bringing my sword up alongside my shield I quietly observed the newcomer.

They held a grey spear which was a weapon I hadn't commonly seen in this mini hell, but nevertheless was still within the realms of possibility.

Strangely enough there was a string connected to the end of the grey spear, most likely used in some sort of way.

Thinking about those I realized something belatedly as the lizard pulled back their arm holding the spear and got into a throwing position.

'Wait... Isn't Cherry the name of the Knight I talked to? How do they know her'

Belatedly coming to that realization I opened my mouth to quickly stop the lizard from fighting.

Upon sighting me however, the lizard threw their spear letting the string trail out behind it as the other end of the string was wrapped around their arm.

Seeing the spear fly towards me in a familiar parabola that I had seen the arrows loosed by undead archers do, I calmly yet flusteredly responded by bringing Rampart up.

As a side move I was going to slice through the string before the lizard could use it so that I could stop the lizard from trying to skewer me.

Feeling the impact reverberate through my shield I quickly swung the blood sword, causing the red blood that coated the blade to float through the air.

However, against all my expectations the lizard pulled the string on the back of the spear and immediately made the spear fly back, and before I could understand what was happening and respond the spear was flying back to my face.

"Hey Lizard! Stop! I'm not an enemy."

Dodging the spear that was more like an arrow by now, the lizard jerked the strings back and almost instinctively I rolled forwards.

Seeing that action the lizard seemed to realize something and jerked the spear down, causing it to scratch against the stones and bounce back to the lizard.

Catching the spear with one hand they pointed it in my general direction and warily spoke, their voice coming out slightly raspy with a small lisp to it.

"What are you Unknown? No one I know in these parts of hell wears armor like that"

Realizing that I probably looked particularly ominous wearing purple armor that made my body seem to make a natural motion blur I hurriedly unequipped my hood.

"I'm Human! Human!"

Seeing my face the lizard blinked a few times before slightly lowering the spear... the wariness in their movements still remained though.

"Umm..." Wracking my brain for ways to stop the wariness that was like a tangible aura pulsing through the air I recalled that this lizard knew Cherry somehow and was probably close to them.

Which made sense because they probably spent centuries in the Kingdom of the Malaise, it was impossible by now to not know each other...

Probably explains their wariness though.

"Hey Lizard!" 

A slight twitch of the ear.

"My name is Slade... and I heard you say Cherry earlier before our clash, by chance is she a tall broadsword wielding Warrior wearing incredibly thick armor while being the last knight of this kingdom?"

Hearing those words the lizard blinked again and brought their spear down, the wariness that filled their movements now all gone.

"You know Cherry?"

Disbelief filled their voice though.

"Yeah! I don't think I know you though..."

The Lizard took my words for a grain of salt as they tilted their head, no doubt running through their mind to understand who or what I was.

I was human no doubt.

However a flash of realization went through their mind as they seemed to remember something looking at me with a new look.

Placing the large bag containing corpses down with a thud right next to what I noticed was a pile of humanoid corpses, they shrugged their shoulders and looked at me.

"Laid was it?"

"It's actually Sla-"

Ignoring my words they continued their own words.

"Well my name is Guillain and I am a Chameleon thank you very much, don't compare me to those stupid lizards"

Disdain tangible in their voice I mentally rebuked them 'Aren't Chameleons Lizards though?' I wasn't stupid enough to ruin the good mood that Guillian was in though.

Walking forwards, they stopped right in front of me and put their three fingered hand out.

"Since you seem to be an accidental that wandered into this place by accident and looking at your skill it seems that we will be seeing each other for some time"

"...Accidental?"

Blinking at the unfamiliar term Guillian luckily explained it to me.

"Because this place is put into a time loop so that the Core of the Malaise couldn't leave this place, space is kinda messed up here"

The chameleon moved back to the giant bag of corpses and jumped up to the top and started to rummage through the folds of the brown bag.

"We call you people who accidentally came to this hell hole by chance accidentals"

Hearing those words get repeated I didn't tell Guillian that I actually died to get here as they didn't need to know that.

However, mentally marking that there were accidentals which meant that there were probably more people in lieu with natives.

Putting my weapons away and re equipping my hood I walked to Guillian.

"Anyways I'm really happy I found a big pile of stinking corpses!"

Wearing a manic look to their eyes they grabbed a large serrated knife from their bag and jumped into the pile of corpses.

"By the way, its an odd thing to say... but you... kind of look like these guys..."

Looking at me with strange eyes they looked back at the pile of corpses.

"Anyways, sorry about the smell but I need these corpses so I can continue selling my services."

They paused.

"That reminds me, do you have gold? I can take into account that you are a newcomer and give you a first time discount but I can guarantee that my services don't disappoint"

Hearing those words I looked at Guillian with suspicion, perhaps sensing the suspicion Guillian raised a hand.

"I know what you are thinking and that is what are my wares that I'm selling"

'I was thinking about how suspicious you were but okay'

"I sell mutations!"

Hearing those words I instantly frowned from underneath my hood and shook my head, instantly recalling the many mutations that I encountered during my travels.

A good majority of the mutations I had experienced were not beneficial in the slightest and were incredibly harmful.

Recalling the extra hand on a hand or the extra eye that was on the neck I shivered.

"Thanks but-"

"Wait!" Interrupting me Guillian spoke "I think you're misunderstanding something, My mutations are beneficial!"

Hurriedly leaving the pile of corpses now covered in corpse juice, Guillian grabbed a sheet of leather that was connected to the bag and showed it to me.

"For a thousand silver! I can give you these mutations!"

Pointing at a set of strange looking icons, they continued and pointed at the set of text that was besides the strange icons.

"This is the name of the mutation and it's resulting benefit! I'll leave you to decided whether you want to decline my services when you read what my mutations can do."

Even if I couldn't see it, I could swear that the chameleon was almost proud of their collection of these things they called mutations.

Raising an eyebrow I looked at the set of mutations.

And with each string of text I read my eyes grew wider as my awe grew in lieu.

"Well God damn..." A sigh of astonishment left my mouth as I stared at the Chameleon with wide eyes.

"Guillian... I think I'm going to accept your services"

Hearing my words even the chameleon's eyes seemed to smile.

"Great! you won't regret this deal your making Accidental Slade!"

Putting out a corpse juice soaked hand I hesitated for a moment before surrounding the hand with my own gauntlet clad own.

"Oh yeah, you can only take three of them at a time"

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Tree that is asking whether to make it double chapters like today every two days or to stay on the daily upload schedule of one chapter per day?

Tree