The blob of a boss was a wild card; he kept rolling all over the place with no discrepancy. Dane was sure of his ability to keep dodging the boss, but he wasn't sure how to strike the slime's cores. He had a few ideas, but none of them would be pleasant for him. He started to take some deep breaths. He had found his lost athleticism, but he had still been slaughtering slimes for the last few hours. He was exhausted and needed to dig deep. He had a coach who used to tell him that champions think differently. An old Vince Lombardi quote: when things got hard, he would remember it and trudge through whatever was going on.

  He saw one of the pebbles float to the edge just barely in striking distance and took his chance. He began running towards the Caustic King. Dane pivoted onto his right leg and swung with his left arm hard, fully committing. He felt the familiar core crumble under his pick, a glancing blow, but still enough to destroy it.

  "Just 14 to go, how hard could that be?" Dane said to himself.

  He pissed off the King, and his whole body, which was a mixture of mud and green, turned a deep cherry. The room began to shake, and suddenly, a jet of slime was hurdling his way.

  He rolled to the left but still got some of the toxic sludge on his right arm. His skin began to feel tight, and when he looked, the top layer of skin had sloughed off. He checked his health and saw that his HP had dropped by 10%. The burning he felt was still tunneling through his muscles.

  "So much for having more than one hand, Dia, can you rewind this?" he asked.

  "I'm sorry, Dane, but I can not. We will have to find a health potion. The damage doesn't look so bad, so I am sure it will regenerate. You could always try not getting injured. We have only been bonded for a few days, and I am sensing a trend." She said, chuckling at her own joke.

  'I can't keep fighting close range with this guy; a pickaxe isn't the best weapon to fight this massive monster. Maybe if I had a bow.' Dane thought.

  The budding anxiety was worse than his opponent's, so he decided to clear his mind. Some people liked the bow, and it would help close some range and give him another avenue to deal damage, but would arrows even hold up in that slime? He decided that his best bet was to try using his space magic.

  Times like this, he really wished that he had spells related to magic; he would have to use free-form magic, which would be his only shot. He pictured a small hole that led to one of the cores. He began funneling his mana into his hands and shaped the portal. He hadn't noticed the first time he used space magic, but it felt like he was folding the world in half and not teleporting his ax to the core. He tugged hard and saw the core appear in his portal.

  Dane swung for the fences with his pickaxe, now in his good hand, and the stone gave the satisfying crunch as it splintered. He shifted the viewport to another core, but saw his mana draining ridiculously fast. He got another core but had to release the spell so he wouldn't go into a mana-starved status effect. Progress was progress, but the boss monster still had 11 lives left.

  'This bastard is worse than a cat,' The thought brought a smile to Dane's face, remembering the shadow cat from his trial.

  The slime resembled the Rage Hulk from old comic books. Dane noticed it was losing some of its mass, condensing into smaller and smaller cores; the cores were combining. The creature transformed from looking like a blob of slime to something almost human. It was still a 10-foot-tall giant of a man, but now it had two hollow holes to track him. It pointed its hand at him and let the acid fly towards him.

  Dane lept to the right, just barely avoiding the toxic spray.

  "Dia, I am pretty sure that fucker just grew eyes," Dane said with fear in his tone.

  "You don't have time to talk; you need to run," Dia said frantically.

  The river was 20 feet away; that was it. He had one shot. Making a beeline for the water and sprinting past the slime. The Caustic King reached out and extended its hand, blocking his path to the safety he desperately needed.

  Dane pushed straight through the arm. Raising his head so he wouldn't lose his brain to the monster, he hit the arm like a ribbon at the end of a race. His skin started to bubble, and the pain he felt was excruciating. He tumbled into the mana-infused river and began to gulp at the water. His mana pool began to fill, but the river's rushing disoriented him, and he couldn't tell up from down.

  He tried to open a portal to return to the fight. It wouldn't work. The portal would open and fizzle out every time he tried. He had been under the water too long. He was a good swimmer and could usually hold his breath longer than most, but his best time was only two and a half minutes.

  'This can't be it.' Dane thought to himself.

  "Dane, you have to let me take over," Dia said, truly desperate and sounding nothing like her usually ditsy self.

  "Go ahead, Dia. I'm going to sleep," he said, barely before looking at his HP, which was hovering at 1. He closed his eyes, ready for whatever was going to happen next.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  When he drifted off to sleep, instead of being in a typical dream, this one felt too real. He was sitting on a couch watching TV. He recognised this place; it was his childhood home. His sister was running around playing with toys. His mom was in the kitchen with her friend Tony.

  The TV was playing something strange. He saw a man floating in a river. Like a man sculpted out of clay, he had burns on his chest and arms. And the pants he had on were in tatters similar to how the Lui Fueregno looked after he transformed back into Bruce Banner.

  The man began to struggle against the current. He was glowing purple now, and just like that, everything on the TV became grey and stopped moving. He watched the haggard man walk along the bottom of the riverbed without resistance. The man was now on the riverbank, and he stared daggers at the red monster that loomed over him.

  The purple man raised his unburnt hand into the air and brought it down hard, grabbing a rock out of the blood. The haggard man opened his mouth wide and ate it. Dane lay his head down on the arm of the couch and curled up into a small ball. His father walked in and sat next to him.

  "Son, you've gotten so big. I'm glad I got to see you one last time. This place isn't ready for you yet. When the time comes, I will be waiting for you. You'll have to head on without me. I love you and your sister. Good luck." Daniel said to his son.

  Dane was okay with that; his tense muscles began to release, and he felt everything would be alright.

  Dia, the start of the battle

  Her dad told her that when dungeon spirits formed a bond, it usually ended in the complete submission of the monster, rendering it a mindless husk and just a shell for the spirit. She was glad that Dane was from the ascended races because when they formed their bond, it ended in a partnership rather than her just puppeting a flesh body. She watched him struggle time and time again.

  He always found a way to survive when they were on the verge of dying from dehydration; when he was mana-starved, he tackled each problem not with grace and creativity, but with an inspiring, steady determination. She watched as he fought the Caustic King with that same determination riveted on how he would come out on top.

  She realised much too late that he wouldn't win. He was taking too many hits and was 16 levels under the boss that they faced. He did everything possible, but they rushed into this fight too soon. They should have researched more, and after the 15 slime blobs formed the King, they should have run.

  Dane made a flat-out sprint for the river, which was a good idea. How could they know that it was going to transform again? Dane plummeted into the river in a half-cartwheel motion. She watched as he desperately sucked in the mana water, something that would kill most flesh creatures, and she began to hope. Dane was gonna pull off another miracle. He started to channel his mana into his hands and was beginning to open a portal. It flickered in and out of existence. She watched the fire begin to leave his eyes.

  "Dane, you have to let me take over," Dia said, not wanting to lose her only friend.

  "Go ahead, Dia. I'm going to sleep," Dane said as he drifted off.

  She assumed control, moving around Danes' huge muscles, and she struggled to spread mana strings through his body. He still had quite a bit of mana, but she watched as his final Health point ticked to zero. His already limp body got even heavier. She used everything to flood his corpse with all of her mana. This monster would pay.

  She used the last of her time magic to freeze everything. The rapids halted. She took her time to face the King who had destroyed her Dane's body so much. Funny, when did she start thinking of him as her Dane? She stood before the boss with a burning in her chest.

  'Is this rage?' she thought.

  She wanted to make him hurt and suffer the way that he broke them. She raised her hand and stabbed it into the chest of the monster, the remaining flesh on Dane's arm crackling and sizzling. She grabbed the core and twisted. Ripping and tearing until it came loose. She wanted him to feel humiliated, so she opened her mouth wide and felt a popping in Danes' jaw as she put the core in her mouth. She began to chew, cracking and chomping on the geode. Dane's teeth were breaking as well, but she didn't care.

  Congratulations on defeating a floor miniboss. Additional experience gained for defeating an enemy 16 levels above your level

  New title earned: The bigger they are

  Error: subject no longer living

  Error: incompatible class detected

  Contacting administrator

  Hello, little spirit, I wondered when you would take over that pathetic boy.

  "Don't talk about him like that," she said.

  Now, now, child, I understand that you are still young, but do you know why spirits don't bond with humans?

  "No, and I don't care."

  Allow me to enlighten you. Have you ever wondered what happens when a dungeon is conquered? When a dungeon is cleared, the person must crush the dungeon core, much like how you ate the one from the miniboss. The duegon crawler will gain stat points and loot from the core. Everything in the dungeon will wither and die without support from the dungeon core. That is the fate of these dimensional pockets. I am surprised your father never told you, considering he is one such dungeon core.

  "What does any of this have to do with me?"

  The boy that you are clinging to is a duegon crawler. I have weighed his heart, and his path is one of power. He will crush anything and everything that stands before him. He will kill your father, and you will be hopeless to do anything.

  "Who are you? How would you even know that?"

  I have gone by many names; I was once a dungeon core. The elves call me the emperor. The dwarves call me Honorstone. Most recently, these earthbound people called me the system. I will give you one boon in the form of a skill if you return the slime boss's core. That core possesses something within that you are not yet ready for. What would you request?

  "Bring him back."

  A soul brought back from the astral never returns the same. For some, the astral is a place of inner peace; others become tormented by their lives. Are you sure you want to proceed? You may be calling a demon into the world. I can also offer you a more feminine vessel.

  "He's a good man. Bring him back." Dia said with conviction, a quality rare for a spirit.

  Most tyrants began as individuals who sought to improve the world. He will be no better than those who came before. But your wish has been granted. I suspect this will be the last time I talk to you, little spirit. I hope you do not come to regret this choice.

  "Do you fear him?"

  She received no response.

  New Skill acquired: Resurrection uses 150 MP to revive one target in the user's party. This spell can only be used once.

  She activated the spell and felt Dane's soul being pulled from the other side.