The group followed Toby toward his chosen monster but encountered a problem. Andrew was incredibly slow and was lagging far behind.
“Guys…wait up!” Andrew called, and everyone paused to watch the struggling slime. Andrew honestly reminded Victor of Jabba the Hutt with his body proportions, but if Jabba was a necrotic jelly. I wondered why I never saw any island-size king slimes since they grow through eating, but now I understand. Even a rock could somehow outrun a king slime. As Andrew lurched forward, his underbelly sucked in loose foliage like fallen leaves, and Victor could see the juices that made up his body digesting them.
Victor thought for a while and decided Andrew would need help moving around. I could waste more points on reviving some of these ice statues, but the cost is far too high to justify it. Maybe the goblins could help? He imagined how emperors were carried around in wooden boxes back in ancient times by slaves. Although Andrew weighed as much as an elephant, Victor’s maxed-out Raise Undead skill empowered anything he raised, so even simple goblins could lift Andrew if they worked together like ants.
Luckily, Victor had all he needed nearby. With a simple thought, goblins that were hauling logs under the orders of Andrew rerouted toward the King Ooze. Andrew glared at them, assuming they were defying his orders, but Victor calmed him down. “In ancient times, obese emperors gave up on the peasantry’s act of walking and instead were carried around by their servants. You should do the same, although your circumstances are slightly different.”
Andrew retracted his glare and seemed pleasantly surprised by the idea. He brought up his stubby little arm and caressed the tuffs of brown hair that flowed down from his chin like a goatee. “I could allow that,” he said as the goblins surrounded him, some carrying large wooden logs. With Andrew’s approval, Victor commanded the goblins to lay the tree trunks before Andrew in a line to form a platform.
“Anyone got anything to use as rope?” Victor’s avatar asked the group. Of course, he could freeze the platform as he did for the flying platform in the dungeon with Freezing Cone, but he assumed king slimes struggled with magical ice since Andrew was primarily liquid.
Surprisingly Eve stepped forward. One of her spatial rings flashed with mana, and a climbing rope materialized in her hand. It was nothing fancy, but it could get the job done.
“Here, take it,” she offered. “It’s the least I can do for Andrew’s previous kindness.”
Victor highly doubted that was the real reason for the show of generosity, but he was never one to turn down free stuff, so he commanded a goblin to take the rope. The little goblin skeleton approached her, and Eve shuddered as the goblin’s skeletal hand brushed past hers to grasp the rope.
It only took a few minutes to construct the platform, and Victor ensured all the logs were secured together with rope before telling Andrew to climb aboard. It was no exaggeration to say it took Andrew a full ten minutes to move his body forward around two meters. His body was so large it couldn’t fully fit on the platform, so his tail was dangling off the back, but that was fine.
Everyone, especially Eve, watched in awe as the small goblins managed to lift the platform and balance it on their shoulders.
“Hahaha!” Andrew laughed as he was raised a meter into the air. With the added height from the platform, he could look down on everyone while stroking his goatee. “Now I feel very important. All I need is a snack and some guards…” From his higher point of view, he spotted some zombie ogres waiting around with their clubs resting on their shoulders. “Can I borrow them?” he asked Toby, and the zombie merchant nodded. There were over a hundred of them, so lending a few to Andrew was no big deal.
Victor had long set up a hierarchy within his undead network. His minions would obey any orders given by him without question. But if he provided no orders, the stronger undead could command the weaker undead without his input.
Without saying anything, Andrew mentally commanded the zombie ogres to stand beside him over the black ocean. They complied and carefully maneuvered their way through the ice statues. They were both giant green-skinned humanoids with bulging muscles. They were completely naked but lacked any reproductive organs. Meaning they were monsters entirely born from the dungeon’s mana rather than mana-corrupted animals.
Andrew pointed his tiny arm at the left one. “You go get me food, and you always stand beside me. These will be your roles from now on.” He could have commanded them mentally, but something about ordering them around in front of an audience made him happy. The ogres obeyed their new roles, with one sprinting off to find its master something to eat.
“Can we go now?” Toby said while tapping his foot. “The slug can move.”
“Forward!” Andrew declared while pointing his stubby arm toward the group, and the goblins moved in perfect harmony, balancing the enormous weight over their heads.
Despite the rapid stat loss for maintaining his avatar, Victor had to admit this was rather fun and a perfect way to spend the time it would take to reach the lower floors. However, he was confident the floors past the frozen lands would pose more of a challenge and require more of his attention.
But with Alice being so powerful and Genus hopefully making a recovery, they should be able to handle themselves for the most part. Also, Alice needs to level up more. I was using my undead and Annihilating Aura to clear the floors quickly, but I should let her kill them instead and leave my Consume skill passively running to replenish my falling stats. Happy with his new plan of action, Victor turned his avatar to Toby and gestured for him to take the lead. He was also interested in what monster the merchant would pick.
***
Toby stood proudly next to a colossal monster with a signpost reading The One-Eyed Titan.
Victor remembered killing this monster since it was one of the few he failed to eliminate in a single move. Not only was it resistant to Annihilating Aura, but stabbing it in the heart only made it angry. Its regeneration was godlike, and that single large eye in its skull could shoot a concentrated light beam that did a surprising amount of damage to Victor and could easily decapitate trees.
pαпdα Йᴏνê1,сòМ Andrew clapped his hands, but it sounded like two wet towels slapping together. “Perfect choice! It suits you, Toby.”
Victor had to agree. There were many monsters he could have chosen from, but this one matched him the best. As Toby was a large, muscular guy with the role of security, if combined with the one-eyed titan, which was just a magical cyclops, he could reach his full potential.
“Ready?” Victor asked Toby, and the man nodded with absolute certainty.
Victor repeated the ceremony.
[Undead System User Detected]
[One-Eyed Titan (S-grade) and Zombie Human Found]
[Merge?]
Victor agreed, and his body forced its way through space to complete the spell. His lifeforce burned at an astonishing rate. The process didn’t finish until ten million stat points had evaporated. Is the difference between an A-rank and an S-grade monster that much? he contemplated. King slimes were A-grade monsters, and merging Andrew had cost him five million, but for Toby, the cost had doubled to ten. Hopefully, it’s worth it. He could have saved the points by doing this later, but he wasn’t too worried. Even after this, he still had around fifty million left and would gain more as he descended the floors.
Victor’s main body’s tendrils smashed the two together in an explosion of mana, and a new monster was born.
[New undead created!]
[Name: Toby]
[Race: One-Eyed Demon King (Empowered by: UNKNOWN)]
[Level: 30]
[STR: 706, DEX, 276, CON: 847, INT: 500, WIS: 320]
[Description: An already talented and powerful zombie was merged with a royal-blooded one-eye titan, creating a one-of-a-kind existence of pure destruction.]
Everyone saw a silhouette of a kneeling humanoid through a cloud of dust.
With a waft of its hand, the creature dispersed the dust and stood tall. “Oh, my—” Toby paused his speech. His voice had become incredibly deep and held a similar weight to Victor’s, although a lot less. He stood at around Andrew’s height when Andrew was resting on his platform, roughly four meters. His skin was a pale gray, and his nails had extended into black claws. The single curved horn on his forehead was black and contrasted with his single glowing golden eye.
Victor gave Toby’s stats a once-over in shock and then appraised his new subordinate. I would pay double the price for this. A royal bloodline? I guess if dragons can have royal blood, why can’t monsters?
Victor now felt the surface was in safe hands. With Andrew and especially Toby around, he doubted any wandering threats from the Mystical Realm could destroy his town again.
But Victor was on a timer, so his avatar spoke to Eve. “Shall we go to the Empire now?”
Eve shook her head. “You will come, but those things?” She pointed at Andrew and then hesitantly at Toby. “They stay here.” She crossed her arms and stood her ground.
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