Ink Soldier

Chapter 12 – Ink Soldier

"Huh? Where is this place?" Jhin asked himself as he scanned his surroundings. The moment he opened his eyes, he immediately found himself lying on the cold ground of a dark and eerie tunnel. He could only see up to five meters around him.

"Crystal? Are you there?" He shouted. His slightly tensed voice reverberated in the tunnel.

However, the only reply he get was the silent murmurs of the wind. It was as though nobody except him was present in the tunnel. Crystal and the soldiers were nowhere to be seen.

"Did I get teleported away from them?" Jhin mumbled as he checked the crescent moon contract on his hand.

After he and Crystal signed the contract, Jhin realized that he could feel a connection to her. Thus, enabling him to determine his general direction. However, as he focused his attention on the crescent rune, he could no longer feel her.

Jhin couldn't help but knitted his brows. The earlier event started replaying inside his head. After he was enveloped by the blinding light, he felt a soft and foreign sensation passing through his body. As though he went through a wall of swirling water. It made him a little nauseous.

Suddenly, Jhin felt vibrations coming from the ground causing his eyes to lit up, "Who's there?" he asked with his voice raised.

But instead of a word, the tremors from the ground intensified. Then his ears caught a faint screeching sound.

"I have a bad feeling about this!" Jhin said as he opened the interface. "System! I want to summon two Tier 1 Ink Soldiers."

Instantly, two globs of black light materialized in front of him. In a blink of an eye, it transformed into two sturdy humanoid creatures.

Hurry! Carry me! Let's run!" Jhin shouted. Allowing one of the soldiers to pick him up and carry him the same way as Crystal did. The muscular summon started running towards the opposite direction of the screeching sound.

SCREEECH!

Jhin had just traversed a dozen meters when the other ink soldier he left was submerged in the sea of horrifying monsters. Their ragged teeth and sharp claws sank inside the ink soldier's body.

It was his first time witnessing such creature. It had an appearance like that of a spider and a centipede combined. Its claws and teeth emitted a metallic luster while its mouth had viscous green fluid dripping from it.

Fortunately, he remembered the words of the mysterious man who possessed his body. He was able to hurriedly check the system and found 69 ink drops on his profile. Without hesitation, he had immediately summoned two ink soldiers which costed him 20 inks from the exchange store.

Jhin watched as the spiders used their sharp fangs and claws, tearing off the summon he left behind. Surprisingly however, every time the ink soldier got wounded, the wound would instantly heal. Then the ink soldier would retaliate, sending juices and flesh of the spiders around.

"Woah! So strong!" Jhin exclaimed inside. Not only was the ink soldier capable of sharing vision with him, but it was also strong enough to kill a giant spider with its fist. Moreover, it was capable of self-regeneration.

Just now, a giant spider managed to tear off one of the ink soldier's hands. However, the decapitated hand just turned into a smoke and rushed towards the soldier, forming a new limb.

Jhin was in awed by his summons' performance. Its regenerative ability and strength were something he didn't expect. Jhin couldn't help but checked his profile.

[PROFILE]

Name: Jhin Herangel

Title: Reincarnated CEO, Dominator of Chaos

Tier: 0

Inventory: 1/10

Ink Drops: 40

"Eh? Why is the ink drops rapidly decreasing?" Jhin exclaimed after seeing the numerous notifications beeping from the interface.

[Ding! Your ink soldier was injured, you automatically used one ink drop to heal its wound…]

"Good Gracious! So, it's you!" Jhin cursed upon realizing that whenever the ink soldier got wounded, it would require a drop of ink to heal.

"Come back here!" Jhin willed. Then he saw the ink soldier at the distance turning into droplets of inks that flew towards him.

Surprisingly, it didn't return into its soldier form. Instead, the ink turned into a rune and attached on his right wrist. Now, both of his wrist had rune on it. Coffin, shrine key, and crescent moon on the left, while on the right was a small rune about a centimeter big.

"Eh? What?" Jhin was dumbfounded as he stared at it. The rune looks like an emoji of a crying yet smiling and face-slapping emoji of his phone back on earth. "Such aesthetic sense… Eh? Wait! What if I have hundreds of them or perhaps thousands… wouldn't it mean that I'll be decorated with such emoji?"

Jhin didn't whether to laugh or cry. As he stared at the emoji on his wrist, he realized that he could freely summon it again whenever he wished.

While being carried, Jhin started thinking how to escape. After summoning two ink soldiers and having his ink stock depleted, he only has 40 inks left. Enough to summon four more ink soldiers.

Alarmingly, after he called back the ink soldier to return, the speed of the spiders seems to increase by a fold. If this continues, Jhin was afraid that the spiders would catch up in a few seconds.

His mind rapidly processes the situation. In the end, Jhin gritted his teeth and decided to summon two more ink soldiers. He ordered both to scout ahead and look for possible exits while he himself followed behind.

Without him as the luggage, these ink soldiers were able to run almost twice as his speed.

Jhin willed the ink soldier to run with all its might. Whenever the situation turned dire, he would intantly summon the ink soldier on his wrist to defend. And every time it was hit by the spider's attack, Jhin's heart would bleed. The only good thing was that the moment it killed a spider, Jhin would obtain an ink. But alas, the rate it obtained ink couldn't refill the ink it spent for regeneration.

[Ding! You have killed a Tier 1 demonic beast, you received 1 drop of ink.]

[Ding! Your ink soldier was injured. A drop of ink was consumed…]

The horde of monsters were now two to three meters away from Jhin. Given a few more seconds, they would be able to catch up. If not for the ink soldier he summoned delaying them, he would really be bitten by them.

Fortunately, the tunnel was straight and the two ink soldiers he sent to scout forward finally found an exit. Without hesitation, Jhin commanded his summon to rush towards the direction with all its might.

He resummoned the two and had it delay the monsters while he himself rushed towards the exit.