My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem

Chapter 1052

“Her again? Wait… two?” My eyes turned to pinpricks as the next challenge was placed before me.

It was another Alysia doppelganger. No, it was two doppelgangers. I thought we had gotten past this trial. Don’t tell me every trial was just an increasingly large number of Alysia doppelgangers! Furthermore, now that I knew that she felt the pain, forcing her to kill herself over and over again seemed cruel. Alysia could see through my eyes with our bond, so she was aware of what was going on as well.

“Deek, it’s okay. Kill them.”

“Alysia, this…”

“This is the path I’ve chosen to walk. If I need to destroy myself piece by piece to become a sword, then I will do it.”

Alysia seemed to read my mind and was busy reassuring me. I felt like the situation should be the opposite. However, while she couldn’t feel my emotions, I could feel hers, and they were steady and determined. She was prepared to do this, whatever the cost.

The supposed guide wasn’t going to be much help either. She disappeared as soon as the doppelgangers appeared. I had a feeling she wouldn’t get involved again until this match was over. With a sigh, I used my experience wielding Alysia and attacked her clones. I was surprised to find them fighting in tandem. They used each other to defend and block. It wasn’t just twice as hard fighting them, but they seemed to have some level of tactics.

“Ahhh!” Alysia cried out as I cut one of their arms.

I hesitated as a result and ended up getting stabbed even worse. I leaped back to give myself some room. I immediately swapped my jobs and healed myself with White Mage while keeping a distance. Thankfully, they moved slowly rather than rushing me, or this would have been difficult.

“I-I’m sorry… that was my fault. I got you hurt.”

“Heh… I hurt you too.”

“No… you hurt them. I just… I’m still not used to it. In the past, when I felt pain, I could control it. I decided when I felt it and when I didn’t. This feels far more helpless.”

“They’re coming!”

“Y-yes!”

The two clones began to attack me once again. I had managed to heal my wound, and now I was fighting them again. Once again, they weren’t at the level of the true Alysia, however, if I had to fight, again and again, I feared she would grow more and more capable. What would I do when I needed to fight four or five of her? Nevermind protecting Alysia, it would be enough to protect myself.

“I’m going to make this as quick as I can. I’m going all out.”

“Okay!”

I launched several of my skills simultaneously. The first lost her head, and then I stabbed the second clone in the heart. The pair of doppelgangers collapsed to the ground dead. It was a very clean kill, and I didn’t even need to take any damage on my own. Alysia remained silent too, but I could feel the panic and distraught emotions tumbling through the bond.

“Both of them?”

“Y-yes… they both felt just as bad.”

“It’s over now. We can-” My words caught in my mouth as the two clones rose again.

The clone whose head was severed had the head fly back up and reconnect. As for the other, the blood sucked back into it and the wound disappeared like it had never been hurt. On that note, I hadn’t paid attention before, but the arm wound I had caused before had also disappeared.

“Alysia… I don’t think this trial is exactly like the last one.”

“Me neither…”

Chapter 1053

I had experienced death several times in my life. As consequence free as death was in this world, it was never a pleasant experience. You took trauma every time. Even if I protected my soul entirely, I wouldn’t wish to feel death. Alysia was in a situation where she was being forced to experience her death at my hands over and over again. I couldn’t even understand just how that would help her become a weapon. Was it to remove all fear of death? It felt more like torture.

“I-I’m ready… cut them down again.”

“What if… what if they get back up?”

“Then, kill them again! We’ll keep killing them until they stay down!”

“Okay, but I have a slave ability that might be able to help with the pain.”

“Slave Masters can even dull the pain?”

“Yeah… something like that. I guess it more effective to make a slave work themselves to death if they don’t feel anything or something like that,” I said casually, glad that the slave bond only worked one direction.

“I see, then, let’s try that.”

“Will do!”

I came at the clones once again. I wanted to get through this quickly, so I activated that skill and several others. As I cut them down, my face likely turned white, but I managed to keep myself from making a peep. I let out a breath as they collapsed to the ground.

“I… didn’t feel anything!” Alysia cried out. “It was fine.”

“G-good.” I nodded. “Good.”

“Wow, your abilities are really awesome. We can kill these girls as many times as we need to!”

“Well, let’s hope that was it.”

It turned out to be too much to hope for. The two clones got back up again only a few moments later. I groaned and lifted Alysia back up. I attacked again, and a few minutes later, I killed them both off at once. As they collapsed, this time, I had prepared myself. As soon as they hit the ground, I struck them with fire, burning them to bits. My hand clenched tightly on the hilt and my body shook, changing from white to red.

“Master, are you okay?”

“J-just anxious.”

It felt like it lasted forever, but finally, the doppelganger turned to ash. They didn’t get back up again. I let out a breath, my hand finally relaxing on the hilt.

“I didn’t feel anything again, and it looks like they aren’t getting back up.”

“Yup,” I said. “It looks like our guide won’t appear this time. Let’s move on.”

I rushed her out of the room and into the safe room. Once we were there, I put her down.

“I’m going to put you down for a moment.”

“I-is there a problem?”

“Y-you’re heavy.”

“H-heavy! Saying that to a girl…”

“Sorry…”

I let go of her anyway. As soon as my hand left her hilt, I collapsed to the floor and let out a scream. With my sweaty hands on the floor, I took in big gulps of water. I switched to white mage and cast heal several times, but it didn’t do anything. This wasn’t something I could fix, because this wasn’t a pain that occurred to me.

I didn’t have a slave pain tolerance skill or anything like it. What I did have was Pain Transfer. I’m sure its use was to transfer pain to slaves, so that the slaver didn’t have to feel anything. The Slave Master job could be ruthless that way. However, I used it in reverse, taking on the pain that Alysia should have felt. I felt myself burning her alive.

Chapter 1054

“I’m taking a break.” I told Alysia.

“Already? We didn’t go that far. We should get this finished quickly. Since I don’t feel any pain, I feel like I can handle more.”

“I had to use a lot of skills in quick succession to kill those doppelgangers swiftly,” I explained. “Just give me an hour or so.”

“Okay…” She responded, somewhat quietly.

“Did you feel anything wrong? Like with your soul?”

If she was being turned into a sword, shouldn’t her soul be changing? So far, I didn’t see any of that happening. It felt more like torture than functioning toward some kind of end.

“No, I feel great.” She spoke.

I could sense through the Slave Empath that she was relieved and quite happy. That was good. I just wanted to give myself a little time to prepare for the next trial. I hoped I was done with the doppelgangers, but I had a feeling that I wasn’t.

“What does the mural say?” She asked after a while of silence.

My eyes snapped open. I wasn’t sure if I had drifted off or not. “Right… that.”

I looked up at the mural, hoping to see some answers. It was a single image, depicting a sword impaling a man. It looked like he was committing seppuku, his hand on the blade as he plunged it into his chest. His hands were bloody, and his mouth was open. This was the father? These stories didn’t always come in order. I felt like this must be the end, or at least close to the end.

After recovering a bit, I grabbed Alysia and stood back up. “Time for the next trial.”

“Yes! We can get through this dungeon!”

The pair of us headed out, and there was the guide waiting on us again.

“You didn’t do bad. Only had to kill them three times.” She smiled. “Let’s see how long it takes you now!”

My expression fell as I saw two doppelgangers again. Well, at least it wasn’t three. They were, once again, more difficult. However, trying to distance myself from the pain, I killed them and then set them on fire. As the feeling of being burned finally dissipated, I turned to the exit, only to see that it was still closed. Turning back, the ashes started to form back together, and the two doppelgangers reappeared once again.

“Hmm?” Alysia remarked. “They’re not dead with that?”

“I think I see how these trials go,” I shivered as I came to a realization.

“How is that?”

“Every time you kill them, the next trial is immune to them. We had already sliced them to death in the first trial, so they no longer could be killed by a blade. I burned them alive in the second trial, so they no longer can be burned.”

“Oh, so we just have to find a new way to kill them?”

“I can certainly come up with a few ways, but what are we going to do when we reach the ninth trial?”

I had already used two ways to kill them. Could I come up with another 7 ways? More importantly, could I handle dying seven more ways?