[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 248 – In The Toxin Hole

Matt was in a dark, damp hole.

Again.

While it wasn’t the typical one, it was pretty much the same deal. At least it wasn’t a hole Raiko dug for him and stuffed him into. Oh no. This hole was horizontal.

Very different.

He crawled forward on hands and knees, keeping up a litany of cursing that would make a sailor blush. Or rather, he tried to crawl. It was more like a wriggle. Dragging his limbs through the thick sludge had him slipping more often than not.

Matt long ago gave up on wiping his face off. What was the point? He’d just fall into the muck again.

“Fuggin’ horxnax tunnel!” Matt growled, spitting out a wad of foul-tasting mud.

He hoped it was mud.

I really wish Xero didn’t teach me that swear word. I’m like a kid with a shiny new toy. I can’t help but keep using it!

Things oozed and slithered in the green-tinged depths. Matt didn’t particularly want to know whatever those things were. In fact, he would have preferred to be anywhere but in this hole.

“I just had to volunteer for tribute,” Matt grumbled to himself, with no one else around to correct him.

So maybe it wasn’t exactly for tribute, but for an experiment to unlock Paths. Raiko casually used the term “test subject” that he wasn’t too fond of.

Still, he was first in line. Being a part of the inner circle as it were had its perks. Sort of. He didn’t feel too happy about it at the moment.

It was definitely one of those things that seemed better on paper than in practice.

Beneath the Skyshard’s surface were various caverns. One of the biggest discovered thus far was an area connected to the underground ocean tile. The rough area where Sam and Raiko had defeated a pair of boss monsters.

As it turned out, it wasn’t just their Skyshard that was littered with hidden underground caverns.

An unknown cavern system beneath the Aker Academy was discovered just the other day. It led to somewhere that caused caustic damage to the mandragora militia members who discovered it.

Since Matt was undead, he didn’t need to carry a light source with him. That way, monsters were less likely to spot him. And with his natural affinity for poison to heal him instead of harm him, he was the perfect candidate to go spelunking.

Raiko sweetened the deal by suggesting that he might be able to find a way to gain a Path down there, but he doubted it.

Not only was it a tight fit that only a mandragora would be able to walk upright through, but it was filthy. Not poisonous filthy, necessarily, just ordinary filthy.

“Though there is something giving off an unsettlingly green light,” Matt told himself, more to hear his own voice than anything else.

Crawling through tunnels oozing glowing green sludge sounded like the sort of thing 11-year-old Matty would have loved. The Toxic Avenger had been his favorite. Even though he wasn’t much older than his companions, he knew that the reference would probably go over their heads.

“Damned millennials,” he grumbled, echoing some of his managerial cohorts’ favorite phrase.

The ground beneath his elbows suddenly gave way. Matt plunged forward into the darkness with a strangled yelp. He realized that while he might not die to poison, he could very much suffocate.

As a child, Matt often thought that one of the biggest dangers he might ever face would be quicksand. Up until this point in his life, however, he realized that such threats were far and few between.

Should’ve learned financial literacy instead, he often thought.

That thought vanished the moment he dropped 20 feet into the pool of thick sludge in a wide cavernous space.

Old memories from cartoons, TV shows, and various programs had his body reacting before he realized the trouble he was in. Spreading out his weight and doing a very awkward breaststroke, Matt managed to ooze across the surface of the pool until his fingers grasped the hard, stony edge.

Carefully, Matt pulled himself out of the muck and stood up for the first time since coming down that forsaken hole.

Flinging gobbets of muck, he tried to wipe his face and clear his eyes and mouth. “Well, suck on that Emily Renniger! I knew learning how to get out of quicksand wasn’t stupid.”

A wave of somber realization hit him as he understood the slim odds of a random person from Earth surviving the uplift. Emily Renniger was probably already dead.

Let’s just gloss right over that, Matt instructed himself.

He moved forward into the cavern, where more glowing lights illuminated the way. Unlike the sludge, these were a pale, frosty blue. Moss with tiny glowing buds lined the passage ahead, providing light that even human eyes could have seen by.

Matt hesitated. He turned around to look at the sludge falling off the ledge up above and falling with an incredibly juvenile and unflattering, PLOP-GLOP!

“It’s like the Aker Academy ate Taco Bell after a night of hard drinking.”

Despite his stats being more oriented toward magic, Matt was still pretty sure he could climb back up. He sincerely hoped he didn’t have to, but if push came to shove…

Some of the sludge oozed forward. It moved in a way that wasn’t quite right, beginning to separate from the greater mass.

“Hello?” Matt called, taking out a slim dagger from his belt.

It suddenly dawned on him that he was very, very alone.

Matt wasn’t weak by any standard that he judged. It was just that Raiko and Sam were impossibly strong. Now add in Xero, who seemed of a similar caliber, and Matt was beginning to doubt his odds against a single monster.

An eye emerged from the brownish green stuff, and then another. Something was beneath the sludge.

“Hello?” Matt asked again, readying his dagger.

The bulbous blob oozed out of the sludge and a small childlike voice called out, “Henlo?”

“Are you friendly?” Matt asked. Sir Chompers the Third was a friendly monster. Nothing would wound him more than accidentally harming or killing a rarity such as a good monster.

Most monsters were no different from unthinking beasts with magical powers. Powers that only aided in their hunt for prey.

Some were also smart enough to mimic their prey. Matt turned a slow circle, shifting to the side so he could put the rock wall to his back and the lone tunnel to his right.

At least he wouldn’t get ganked from behind, positioned like he was.

For all his worry, he still felt sure that this was a good creature. Something that was perhaps a bit gross, but otherwise harmless.

“Henlo?” the curious monster called out again.

The ball of sludge rolled forward, inching its way to Matt. As it did, the ball shrank. Much of its sludge sloughed away to puddle behind it in a filthy trail.

By the time the creature was 10 feet from Matt, he had to drop to one knee to be on the same level.

With the last vestiges of the muck drained away, the creature was finally revealed.

It was a slime.

The sort of small gelatinous creature that Matt encountered in a dozen different RPGs time and time again. It even had an adorably vacant expression.

These things were known to be the weakest of the bunch. Simple creatures that most games commonly offered for beginners. Maybe slimes were more threatening in this new reality, but Matt doubted this one was much different.

“Hello, little guy,” Matt said, still keeping his knife at the ready.

The slime bounced forward with a squishy plop and stared up at him with its doe-eyed gaze.

“You have a very ‘no thoughts, head empty’ vibe, little guy.”

The slime concentrated, squeezing its oversized eyes shut tightly. It let out a tiny whimper of pain. Its entire body began to quake like a bowl full of Jell-O in LA.

“Hey now, don’t overdo it!” Matt said, reaching a hand out but unsure how to comfort the creature.

That was when he saw the item.

A glowing green jewel wrapped in sickly black vines was stored in the middle of the slime’s body. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the jewel was causing the slime pain.

It was probably just hungry and ate whatever it could find. Obviously, this place didn’t seem to have much of a gourmet selection for a growing slime.

“Been there, little guy,” Matt said. “Kidney stones are a bitch. Here…let me try something. Say ‘aaahhh’!”

Even in pain, the slime sensed Matt’s intention and opened its mouth wide. Wide enough that if he wasn’t careful, he might just fall in.

Quickly as he could, Matt sheathed his dagger and reached in with both hands to grasp the jewel.

He knew he was right immediately when the sickly green light pulsed through his fingertips.

“Don’t think I should be able to see my bones through my skin,” Matt remarked to himself. “That sounds bad. Like growing extra fingers bad.”

The jewel resisted his intrusion. It wanted to stay and poison this creature. That was its purpose.

Matt wasn’t a hero. He wasn’t as brave or strong as Sam. Nor was he as smart or cunning as Raiko. He did have one trait in common with them, however.

He was stubborn as hell.

If he had been anybody else, his fingers would have melted like candles before a blow torch. The poisonous substance the jewel tried to infect him with actually hurt him, but its effects were blunted.

Poison shouldn’t hurt me! Matt cried into his head as he tugged with all his might.

His health steadily dropped and all the meanwhile the slime moaned in pain. Matt felt he was tanking most of the damage for the slime, but it still looked a few seconds away from dying.

For some reason that Matt couldn’t explain, he felt compelled to protect the slime that had wandered into his life.

He had never been selected by the itty bitty kitty committee in his life. No stray animal ever crossed his path in need of his help. He was never adopted by a lone cat or pup found living in his yard, but he imagined the feeling was the same as the one he felt now.

Without a care for what powers the jewel might offer him, Matt suffused his limbs with his mana in an attempt to destroy the jewel.

Just as Matt worried he might need to use a spell, the poisonous jewel came free, and he tumbled backwards into the cave wall.

Stars flashed before his eyes as his vision wavered in and out. It took him several seconds to realize he had smacked his head against the wall behind him, but he didn’t pay it much attention.

The jewel was pulsing in his hands again. Instead of harming him, it filled him with poisonous vitality. His wounds knitted together. The bloody pustules he had ignored on his fingers faded as if nothing ever happened.

Slow on the uptake, Matt realized too late what was happening. Even if he wanted to stop it, he doubted that he would be able to. The jewel flashed in his hands and vanished in a dazzling display of virulent green sparks.

The sparks drifted about like fireflies on a warm summer night before they streaked toward him as a thousand tiny needles.

Matt figured he must have passed out from the pain because when he came to, the little slime had curled up against him and was snoring contentedly. The little pink thing sounded like a cartoon, alternating between the classic “honk-shoo” and “mimimimi” sounds.

Shardscript dangled in front of Matt’s blurry vision, explaining his disorientation.

An outer dimensional plane resonates with your mana.

You use (1) [Toxin Pathstone (First Layer)].

You gain a new Attunement: Toxin Mana (★★ Unusual).

Level Up!

Your [Toxin] Path has reached Level 2.

+1 Insight Talent | +1 Arcane Talent

+1 Poison Talent

Your [Toxin] Path has reached Level 3.

+1 Insight Talent | +1 Arcane Talent

+1 Poison Talent

Your [Toxin] Path has reached Level 4.

+1 Insight Talent | +1 Arcane Talent

+1 Poison Talent

Achievement Earned: Slime Befriender

Few are those who treat friendly monsters with compassion. Even fewer save a young slime from the brink of death. For your unlikely friendship, you have gleaned a portion of a slime’s defenses.

You gain the following:

+20 Vigor

+20 Resonance

“I am the Toxic Avenger now,” Matt muttered to himself before the darkness closed in around him again.