Episode 36: The Overworld Journey (4)

******* Skeleton King's POV *******

I am sitting in my throne right now staring down at this 'wandering merchant'.

"You know my merchandise is top quality and they are worth the price so I don't know why are you hesitating on accepting my offer." He said to me while standing straight and his cape on his back called elytra fluttering.

This is the Legendary Monster that I hated the most.

Instead of helping me fulfill our mother's wishes, he just turned his back on her and does whatever he wants just like the others.

I didn't answer him and just stared at him.

He suddenly disappeared and teleported on my left shoulder sitting.

"You know, Zane. We have been living for a long time and I know your greatest goal is to do whatever our creator wants but we have free will you know." He started spouting nonsense to me and I can no longer take it.

I tried to grab him with my left hand but he quickly teleported back to his position.

I was losing my patience and I was about to stand up in my throne to start attacking him but I managed to temper myself since I still need him.

He is the only monster I know that has the abilities to craft and enchant.

He is also the only one I know that can provide us with good quality weapons and armors.

The human blacksmiths and enchanters that I captured refused to work for me so I just turn them all into my soldiers. It seems Astikuvielains are as tenacious as their current queen.

He stared at me with his purples eyes just patiently waiting for me to make a move.

He is so small yet he is too powerful.

Why would our mother create him like this?

Silence filled the throne room.

We currently have a standoff and I can see no emotions in his eyes.

"Alright. I give what you want just give me my weapons and armors." I finally accepted his deal since I got no choice.

One day, when I get the chance to kill him, I will definitely make it slow and painful.

"Excellent! I'll be back with the merchandise." He said to me while clapping his hands once.

He quickly disappeared and left purple particles in the place he was standing.

One of my soldiers quickly steps forward after seeing the legendary monster leave.

"My king. I have grave news." He bowed to me while talking.

"What it is?"

"Our soldiers in the western region are slowly disappearing and nobody knows why."

"Send a scout to find out then."

"We already did but it seems they also disappeared since they didn't come back until now."

"Hmm." I started to think deeply while holding tight with my iron sword.

Who is doing this?

"Any word in the territory of that man in the south?" I asked after thinking for a while.

"Yes. Our scouts there said that there is no current activity and they might be a possibility that that man has left his castle."

I see. Now I understand what is happening.

"Send a word to all of the soldiers in the western region. Assemble and start finding that human and kill him. He is probably traveling somewhere in our territory."

I don't know where is that human right now but if he is in my territory, I will not just let him leave unscathed.

The scout quickly bowed and ride his skeleton horse.

He is now galloping away and I just watch him while thinking that he might not come back.

Another soldier steps forwards and quickly bowed.

"I also have bad news for you, my king."

"Talk."

"The fleet that we sent in the northern part of the Astikuviel Kingdom are all sunk and only some of our soldiers managed to swim back in our territory."

The Kingdom of Astikuviel is starting to annoy me.

They are now getting used to fighting monsters and able to push back all of our assaults.

I may have underestimated their queen.

"Step back." I just ordered the soldier after hearing his news.

The last soldier quickly steps forwards and bows to me.

"That better be good news since this night is full of disappointments," I said to him while looking in the ceiling of the throne room.

"It is, my king. The fleet we sent in the southern waters of the Astikuviel Kingdom has returned and they are successful in gathering soldiers."

Finally. Some good news.

"Where are the prisoners? Are they all here? Send them in."

He quickly shouted at the large double door of the throne room and it quickly opened.

They are now humans walking in straight lines towards me and I can see in their faces that they already lose hope.

They are tied together so they won't escape and they are surrounded by my soldiers aiming their weapons at them.

They are about five hundred of them here.

"Raise your head, humans," I said to them and all of them tremble in my voice.

They are hesitant to listen to me and they just keep down their heads.

One of my soldiers fired his bow and hit one of the prisoners.

He quickly died and every single one of them quickly raised their heads and stare at me.

"That's it. You have nothing to fear to me." I said to them while slowly standing in my throne.

They tremble even more and it is good since I need that kind of fear from them.

"What are they?" I asked one of my soldiers since I am staring at them and they don't like Astikuvielian soldiers.

"They called themselves Chaephitopia pirates and we caught them in the middle of the ocean."

"Pirates?" I asked my soldier since it is my first time hearing that word.

I am being left behind with the information of the world so I decided to start building ships to travel and collect information. It seems my plan worked.

"They are similar to soldiers since they wield weapons and kill but they are not as disciplined and it seems they don't have any training for combat. They also only listen to their so-called captains and not their queen in their kingdom."

"I see."

I slowly walked closer to them and I can see so much fear in their eyes as they stare at me.

They are not disciplined they say? I guess I can't be too picky with my army since my soldiers are now slowly diminishing from the constant battles.

"Don't worry, humans. I will free you from your suffering." I said to them while raising my left hand in the air.

I then quickly put down my hand and arrows are fired on all sides.

All of the prisoners got hit and they quickly died.

Corpses are littered in front of me and blood is now starting to fill the floor of the throne room.

I raised my sword high and quickly swing in the empty space above the dead bodies.

A crack suddenly appeared above the corpses and black aura is starting to flow down in the hole and envelop the bodies.

They slowly start to shed their humanity and are now being reborn.

"Stand my loyal servants!" I shouted at them.

They quickly organized themselves and stand straight.

They are now an additional five hundred soldiers in my army and I quickly send the fleet back to gather some more prisoners.

Now, all I need is new weapons and armors and start planning my greatest invasion.

******* Carolus' POV *******

It has been three days since we left my territory.

We are still traveling northwest towards the Kingdom of Aezeokar and the sun is now above our head which means it is already noon.

We finally got out of the territory of the skeletons since there are about THOUSANDS of them chasing us.

It seems they are not happy about us galloping in their land and killing their kind.

They didn't manage to find us since I'm getting used to building tempory homes in secluded places since my training in the nether.

We can actually get out of the territory of the skeletons in a single day since our horses can run very fast but Rose is still weak and I decided to just take it easy for now.

We are now standing in front of what I believe is a giant swamp.

If my memory serves me right. This is where slimes in the game spawn.

Rose said that this is the path they took to get to the center of the Forest of Monsters.

I don't see any slimes near the edge of the swamp but Rose is pretty sure that they are a lot of them inside since they managed to get past this place.

I suggested that we took a long route and just travel in the Kingdom of Astikuviel but she quickly shot down my idea since it is a long journey she says. I was about to say to her that it is better to take a long journey than rather be dead but I just keep it to myself since she is now starting to warm up to me.

We started to travel slowly in the swamp and we are so careful with the surroundings.

I ordered to start wearing armor since we might suddenly get attacked.

I noticed that Rose is not wearing her helmet.

"Why are you not wearing your helmet, Rose?" I asked while starting to increase the speed of the travel since it is still quite safe.

"The helmet you crafted covered my whole face so it is hard for me to breathe." She just casually answered me while holding tight in her horse's rein trying to catch up with me.

'Okay. I crafted that helmet that way so it is used to prevent from breathing arrows.' I thought to myself but didn't voice out to her.

We just continued traveling for an hour or two until we encounter our first slime.

There is only one and it is only mid-sized so it not a threat but I can see Rose is afraid of this monster.

"We should probably run past that monster since there is nothing that could kill it." She said to me while keeping her eyes on the slime.

What is she talking about?

I just equipped my bow in my hand and nock an arrow.

I fired one arrow first in the core of the slime and then fired another four at a fast pace.

The first arrow pierced the body of the slime and hit the monster's core.

It quickly split into four and the remaining four arrows finished the small slimes.

Rose was quite shocked about what just happened. She probably doesn't know how to kill a slime so I decided to demonstrate to her.

I managed to find out how to kill a slime monster in the nether by hunting magma cubes. It was difficult at first but I managed to do it in the end by panicking and just swinging like a maniac until accidentally hitting the core.

I quickly run towards the remains of the slimes and dismounted in my horse to gather the green liquid and turn them into a ball.

It is nice to finally have slime balls since they are pretty useful especially for redstone purposes.

We continued to travel until we starting to see quite a lot of slimes in front of us.

We just run past them since they are just slow moving.

It is smooth riding for a while until I noticed something weird in this swamp.

The number of trees in the surroundings is getting fewer like they are being cut down. They are probably someone living close by or something is going here.

I ordered to halt for now to observe the surroundings.

Rose is now wearing her helmet, thank god. I thought she will just let her head exposed.

The giant slimes, mid-sized slimes, and the small ones are now starting to come together like they are merging into one.

After a while, a gigantic slime is now in front of us and it is probably 5 or so blocks in height and width and it is still growing.

'Why do in this world, they are a lot of giant monsters?' I just said to myself while watching the merging of slimes in the distance.