"You're a fucking liar!" Sarah erupted, screaming at Xen with everything she had.

  Xen blinked, his bafflement obscured behind the helmet. From his understanding, the word "liar" was a label applied to those who said something untrue. Yet, everything he just said had been extracted directly from Jonathan's memories. The only way he could be lying was if Jonathan was so delusional that he had a completely false sense of self and reality.

  "What I said is irrefutably factual," Xen replied, feeling the need to defend himself. "You were being used by Jonathan, Sarah. Which is why I don't understand you harboring so much hatred toward me for killing him. He was an obstacle to you, nothing more than a parasite."

  Sarah shook her head, violently trying to break out of the stern hold of Devon. "Lies, all lies. Jonathan would never use me for anything—he loved me, and I loved him. How would you know anything about us? Who the hell do you think you are?" Her words flew out, stumbling over each other and almost nonsensical. She glared at him. "You're some random failed Hunter from the forums who was made to delve with us. Why should I listen to anything you say? What would you know about our relationship?"

  Xen couldn't make sense of her logic. How could she know for sure what Jonathan's motives were?

  Every being is a total mystery until you devour their brains and learn their truths, and I know for sure that Sarah hadn't dined on Jonathan's mind before I did, as it had been fresh.

  Sarah was still glaring at him, demanding an answer. So he gave one.

  "I know more about your relationship with Jonathan than you could even imagine," Xen said truthfully. "More than I even want to know. Listen, can't we agree to disagree and go our separate ways? Jonathan is dead and gone. There's no way to bring him back because I—" Xen stopped himself before saying he had devoured him, leaving nothing behind to be reanimated as an undead. "Whatever, it's not important. He's gone. People die all the time, why are you so hung up on this one elf anyway?"

  Xen cared about his fellow slimes as a whole but not for any particular one. Much like humans and elves, they were all the same. Why did one matter more than another? If one slime died, another was born to take its place. An endless cycle of birth and death. That was the way of the dungeon, and the same could be said about humans.

  As a monster and a slime, he could technically live forever, so long as he survived. Yet, even as a possible ageless being, he accepted that he might die one day. So why? Why was she so angry over this one dead elf?

  Sarah stared at him with reddened eyes for a solid ten seconds, the gears seemingly turning slowly in her head as she processed his perfectly logical argument.

  Just when he thought she had accepted his proposal, she narrowed her eyes.

  "Are you part of the Guild Association?"

  That wasn't a response he was expecting. What had he said that would warrant that inquisition? Was this Guild Association known for having a similar outlook to him?

  "What an interesting theory," he said, his voice echoing inside the helmet.

  "So are you, or not?" she snapped, her patience clearly wearing thin.

  Xen didn't know what to say. Obviously, he wasn't. But should Joe, his human persona as a necromancer, be considered part of this association? Quickly diving into the soup of memories locked in the deepest part of his consciousness, he desperately searched for anything regarding this Guild Association. From what he could discern, the Guild Association was similar to a guild, but it was funded by a government, which seemed powerful. They also seemed well-known, meaning it would be bad to pretend to be from them.

  Joe needs to be mysterious. Xen thought. The less they know about me, the more cautious they will be. While saying I'm from the Guild Association may make them leave me alone for a moment, once they confirm I lied, I might be in even more trouble.

  "I prefer to keep my associations secret," he said simply.

  Sarah didn't like that answer. "I knew it, you're a contract killer, aren't you? Someone paid you to kill Jonathan."

  Xen remained silent. While Gerald had given his money to Xen, he certainly hadn't had any money as a measly Mind Slime. Though the image of being a hired killer as a weak little slime amused him.

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  Eric, the shiny warrior, stepped forward with a dark expression. "You said you were from the Iron Legion when we ran into you."

  Now that was an example of a lie. Xen was, in fact, not part of the Iron Legion.

  "I told a petty lie to get you off my back. For that, I... apologize?" He said, unsure if this was a situation where it was human custom to apologize. After all, monsters didn't say sorry for anything. Yet, his hesitant apology only seemed to anger Eric more. While more restrained than Sarah, he could feel the blade's edge in his glare. Eric also wanted to kill him.

  Xen was starting to get the feeling that the negotiations weren't going his way, despite his earnest attempt.

  "Look, you all tried to attack me, and I simply defended myself. Is that so wrong? Can't we let..." Xen searched his memories for the proper term, "um, bygones be bygones?"

  Eric raised his shield and sword. "I will never let you go. I'll hunt you until one of us dies down here in the dungeon's cold depths."

  "That's a no, then?"

  "Just wait until the priests get down here," Sarah hissed through clenched teeth, her face twisted with rage. "They will crucify you and that Living Armor you're cowering behind—and as their holy mana tortures your tainted veins, you will answer my questions truthfully."

  Xen felt a new emotion surface that he'd never felt before.

  Genuine anger.

  He had been truthful yet labeled a liar. He had tried to negotiate, to talk, to reach an agreement with the humans. Yet all they did was threaten him. It hadn't even been a full day since he evolved as a slime, and the biggest annoyance he had faced was the Hunters.

  Slowly drawing the sword he had taken from Alex, he took a step back from the Living Armor.

  "What a shame," he said, with a cold edge to his tone. "I was hoping we could work things out, but you are pushing me too far." He looked down at the sword in his hand and felt the weight of it and his upcoming decision.

  A small part of him, this whole time, thought he could make good with the humans. This conversation had proved that they couldn't be reasoned with. Leaving him with one choice.

  To fight back.

  "Crescent Rage," he said, his sword igniting from the hilt to the tip with crimson mana, crackling along its edge with barely restrained power.

  "One day you will come to regret having pushed me too far," Xen said, raising the sword over his head.

  Eric, Brandon, and Devon stepped forward in unison. Raising their shields, they conjured skills of their own.

  "Bulwark of Faith," Eric said, his sword glowing with an earthly golden hue. The name and the appearance of the skill matched what Xen imagined a Paladin being capable of.

  "Ironclad Retaliation," Devon said, and Xen could feel the sheer aura that came from a level 30 warrior.

  Brandon was the last, setting his tower shield down with a thud. He proudly shouted, "Indomitable Defense!" A metallic aura manifested across his shield and body.

  Xen calmly looked at the insurmountable defense before him. Even if he were to pour all his mana into a barrage of Corruption Missile spells, he knew there wasn't a chance he would so much as scratch them. If it were just Brandon, he was confident in blasting through. But Devon and Eric were level 30 and 26, respectively. While his slime form's levels added a degree of magic capacity and strength to every form he took, that wasn't a gap he could currently overcome.

  That's why he wasn't aiming for them.

  Crescent Rage, a skill he had stolen from the Spellblade Alex, was a destructive skill best used against terrain. Stepping to the side of the Living Armor he had been hiding behind until now, he swung down, aiming at the archway of the corridor.

  A crescent of red mana roared through the air, the bottom third of it brushing the top of Brandon's tower shield, making the man brace. But the rest of it smashed right into the archway, causing it to explode in a shower of rock that rained down on the warriors. They realized what was happening a moment too late, having to use the speed their levels afforded them to jump back to avoid being buried alive.

  While not perfectly blocking the corridor, it would give him enough time.

  Xen turned around and fled toward the other exit that led deeper into the crypt. I need to level up my human form as soon as possible, he cursed in his mind as he ran as fast as he could across the room, while watching his back with Mystic Perception. The armor felt uncomfortably heavy, and he felt sluggish compared to his more mobile wolf form. But he didn't have the time to shapeshift, and he didn't want to expose his ability to do so either.

  The exit was so close, he had almost reached it when he saw someone peeking their head over the rubble. It was Aria, the sharp-eyed archer, and the one he wanted to devour to upgrade his appraisal skill. She pushed her bow that was already nocked with an arrow through the hole and took aim at his back.

  "Stunning Arrow," he barely managed to hear her whisper as golden mana formed at the arrow's tip.

  Xen cursed in his mind, debating if he should retaliate with his own round of Cursed Missiles. But he was too late, the arrow was already flying. It whistled through the air, a blinding light of golden mana heading straight for him at an undodgeable speed with his current stats. He accepted his fate and tried to turn around to block it with his sword, but with no sword proficiency or parry skills, the sword was like waving a stick at a fireball.

  It did little to help, and the arrow struck him with all the strength expected from an archer many levels above him. It swept him off his feet and sent him crumpling to the floor just shy of the exit.

  [You are stunned]

  A system message he had seen earlier that day replayed in his mind.

  However, he was more concerned about the sound of clicking armor behind him.

  The Living Armor was on the move.

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