CH31

Instant death from sitting on an easy chair, what a way to go. He shook his head at the thought and focused on a knocking sound.

"What is that?" Silas asked.

Blood still dripped on the floor from fangs slowly transforming into seat cushions. An echo of their driver's harsh scream of surprise remained fresh in his mind. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling of danger and the tightening of the noose around their necks. Were they any different than their driver?

"We're in the mouth of the beast; don't trust anything you see or hear. We can only move forward." Zacharia said.

Elizabeth sank to her knee's ears down, hair on end and shaking. The tough girl that kicked Silas's ass shook like a leaf. She was a rank above him and much better off, but she was shaking. How was he supposed to react to that? A part of him wanted to pick her up and comfort her, but the other wanted to slap some sense into her. They didn't have time to break down, but he was a leech that gained strength through being devoured. It was his gimmick, and the dungeon swallowed him without thinking.

There was no sense in holding back in their current situation. Silas waved his hand and summoned 25 sunshine fairies. The second they appeared in flashes of light, his instances of discipline crashed into them. He had many summon slots thanks to his D rank charisma, and his D+ rank mana made them stronger. So, he had a small army of low rank-2 monsters.

"You have a class." Zacharia looked at the fairies and then back at him in alarm.

"Surprise, I was a human turned into a leech by a witch." That was the story Stella gave him, and he was sticking to it.

Zacharia's eyes widened at his proclamation. "I didn't know; you have to believe me; if I knew you were human, I wouldn't have put that collar on you. When we get out of here, I'll take it off immediately and send you on your way. We'll find another way to make money."

Silas spoke up quickly; he still had a job quest to complete and wanted the inventory slot increase. "Now, hold on, I was looking forward to a fight. Besides, I owe you for the serum. It helped me get closer to being human again." Silas said.

He was also a brilliant alchemist that could make potential increasing serums.

The pounding grew louder, and Elizabeth slowly got to her feet. "That smell; there are more of them, and they're all rank 2."

The sounds came from the blind-covered doors next to a column of stairs leading deeper into the mansion. If they considered themselves inside the mouth of a monster, then they were on the tongue, and the banging was probably the teeth about to grind them down. But, on the other hand, if they stayed put, they would be crushed into mush and swallowed down.

"We should go through before it's too late," Silas said.

"Don't you see what it's doing? The owls chased us here, the chairs were monsters, and zombies were trying to get through the doors. It wants us to go further inside." Elizabeth said.

"Did you just figure that out? We're already in the beast's mouth; going back isn't an option. So, pull up your boots; we're going through." Silas pointed towards the dark stairs. "Charge," 25 sunshine fairies flew into the dark without fear and started blasting with their laser beam eyes.

Silas stepped forward. "At least we aren't alone. So come on, there is exp to get and items to loot. This place has mob drops, right."

"It's a feature of dungeons to encourage adventurers to be reckless."

"It sounds like the answer to your money problems to me," Silas said, letting some of his real personality out to play.

An arm shot through the door, Elizabeth screamed, and even Zacharia looked shaken. Silas felt something attempt to mess with his mind, but it fell away. He didn't know why but he was immune to the undead skill breaking Elizabeth's will and shaking Zacharia. Summoner hit 41 after a little while of his fairies blasting everything that moved, and Silas took a step forward.

More arms shot out the doors while his companions slowly got up. Charisma was hard to get without a harem of sexy fairies. He was too big to appreciate them and would have to date women to get charisma. Silas shivered at the thought of going through the motions for one-night stands or buying hookers. Neither option sounded good to him, nor was having sex with his imps an option. Instead, he needed to find sex friends. That was the only solution he could come up with to bring himself to the next level.

More of the doors collapsed as the zombies struggled to fight their way through. They made it to the stairs in time for one of the undead to finally rip his way through.

At the end of the day, Zacharia and Elizabeth were two desperate people trying to make it in a dangerous dog-eat-dog world. The brilliant alchemist had the tools to succeed, but he wasn't a combat-oriented person. Elizabeth had combat expertise, but numbers mattered. Silas was immune to the aura of fear from his unflappable will or the new eldritch trait he gained.

He summoned another group of 25 fairies to block the stairs while the zombies came through the doors. Silas fell back while his fairies used their light-based abilities to attack the undead. He felt exp for every zombie they dropped, and he summoned more fairies until he hit his max. From there, he gave his orders and retreated. At the same time, the fairies fought what Silas suspected was an endless tide of zombies created to ensure they went the path the dungeon set for them. It reminded him of a rail shooter.

Silas followed his companions down the stairs to a vault door with an overhead sign saying safe room. At their approach, a series of etched runes lit up before silver light fell over them. Then the vault door spun before opening admitting them. They walked inside, and the vault door shut behind them, and the symbols covering the door winked out.

He was sure they couldn't get back out the way they came. The zombies would be waiting on them outside and might even make it inside if they didn't hurry through the first floor of the dungeon. In a sense, they had fallen down the dungeon's throat and were being squeezed through its esophagus. He didn't want to see what the stomach would look like.