As they advanced, the guide’s resentment became almost palpable to Lohan’s senses.
Through his Instinctive Perception, the Slime sensed how the man’s mana pulse was becoming increasingly erratic and charged with a dark static, a sign of pent-up fury struggling not to explode prematurely.
The man tried, from time to time, to force a casual conversation, asking about the rarity of Lisa’s race or whether Lohan was some kind of elite "pet."
Lohan and Lisa, however, maintained absolute silence, which irritated the man even more.
For the man, every second of silence was like a slap to his ego.
He saw in those two monsters the same arrogance as the rich and the heirs he encountered in the Upper Zone, while he was merely the son of lowly workers from the Upper Zone.
The idea that he was being ignored by a Slime and a fox, even if they were powerful creatures, given that they had plenty of money, fueled a hatred that eroded any lingering hesitation he might have had about the original plan.
Finally, the vegetation of Mythlorien began to change.
The trees became more twisted, with roots pulsing in a sickly purple hue, and the air became saturated with a sweet, thick scent.
They arrived at a rocky depression where colossal roots formed a natural arch leading into the bowels of the earth.
Comparing this cave entrance to the feeling they had when visiting their Dungeon for the first time, it became clear that the two places were very similar.
Upon confirming the location and proving that the dungeon truly existed, the man stopped and began to laugh.
It wasn’t a laugh of relief, but a hysterical, malicious sound that echoed off the stone walls.
He turned to the pair, his eyes bloodshot with hatred and a twisted smile revealing that the mask of a desperate victim had finally fallen.
"Thank you very much... seriously, thank you very much!" he hissed, his voice hoarse as if he were spewing venom at them. "I was afraid that if you were nice to me, I’d end up feeling a shred of remorse. But you... you act like you’re gods! Ignoring me as if I were a bug on the sole of a boot, just like those snobby weirdos from Thalendor! You have no idea how pleasurable it was to watch you walk straight into the slaughterhouse with that air of superiority."
Lohan didn’t seem surprised. Using his Parallel Processing Core with his detection skills, he had already mapped out nine hidden mana signatures behind the ancient trees surrounding them, positioned to block any escape route.
And he didn’t regret acting that way, what good would it do to hand over his own secrets to someone who wants to harm him, just in exchange for their goodwill?
"Out of curiosity... what’s the reason for all this?" Lohan transmitted to everyone present, his mental voice now thick, deep, and imposing, losing any trace of the "cuteness" his spherical appearance might suggest.
The man roared with laughter again as the members of his guild, who were supposed to be "dead" or "missing," emerged from the shadows, weapons in hand.
They were nine adventurers of various classes, all clearly Players with common-quality gear, but driven by a desperate greed that Lohan recognized all too well.
"The reason? The reason is that we’re realists!" the leader shouted. "We really did find this dungeon, but we know we don’t have the strength to clear it, and more importantly, we couldn’t keep this information a secret for long. Sooner or later, a Great Guild like Astralis Requiem or the Corporate Groups would crush us to take this place from us. So we decided to ’sell’ the location to greedy fools like you. We’ll steal everything you have, kill your monster forms to take the cores, and flee to another city where you’ll never see us again! You can keep the dungeon information... until the system announces its ’Stellar Reckoning’!"
Lohan felt genuine satisfaction. His only concern had been that the dungeon’s existence was a complete lie to lure them in, but now that the Level 15 Core was confirmed to be real, the "reward" was worth the effort of clearing it.
’Little do they know just how spot-on their estimate was.’ Lohan thought, laughing at the irony that they had literally lured the leaders of Astralis Requiem, which, by the way, was also a guild belonging to a major corporate group around here. ’Sometimes fate likes to play tricks.’
"Lisa, I think we should show them that the fear they felt of losing everything over this information was very well-founded." Lohan said, his voice growing rougher and more animated.
Lisa growled, her claws digging into the ground as the reddish-white [Spiritual Fire] began to crackle at her paws, causing the temperature of the clearing to rise instantly.
Lohan didn’t waste any time either. He expanded his dark blue biomass, which now glowed with golden particles from his [Sacred Light Core], and enveloped Lisa’s body in [Living Armor] mode. Rigid, black hexagonal plates of [Obsidian] sprouted from Lohan’s mass, fitting perfectly over the fox’s white fur, transforming her into an armored war beast.
Suddenly, Lohan unleashed the full power of his Dual Mythic Base, blending the pure energy of the Sacred Light with the dense mana of his [Superior Magic Core]. A red and golden aura exploded from the pair, causing the air to vibrate with such intense gravitational force that the undergrowth was flattened against the ground.
The Players, who had previously been laughing with shouts of derision, stopped abruptly.
The leader stumbled backward, his face turning pale as the greed in his eyes was replaced by terror.
The mana pressure emanating from the armored fox was not something ordinary-level Players could withstand without faltering.
To them, it was as if the very oxygen of the clearing was being consumed by a predator operating on a completely superior plane of existence.
"What... what is this pressure?!" The man who had led them shouted, feeling his legs tremble under the weight of Lohan’s aura.
Lohan shifted his artificial eyes to their sinister red version, staring at the group with a murderous intent that "washed away" his opponents’ will to resist.
"You came after gold out of greed." Lohan echoed in their minds, his voice laden with murderous coldness. "I’d pay up to 5 gold coins for information like that, but since your greed is so intense, I won’t mind getting that information for free."
Lisa didn’t wait. At Level 11, her [Spectral Step] transformed her into a blur of light that streaked across the clearing like lightning.
Looking at how weak this group of Players seemed, Lohan wasn’t even sure if he was excited about killing them, figuring that probably nothing useful would come of it.
"Heh, I guess I should just be grateful for what I’ve been given, after all, they went to so much trouble to give themselves to me, so the least I can do is be grateful for this meal, right?"
With this new mindset, Lohan’s eyes lit up, and they went for it.
[Lisa with the Living Armor Visual Representation Here and on Discord.gg/NunuXD]