My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem

Chapter 1058

I blocked with the sword, jumping away in a roll and then coming up again only to meet two more swords. Every place I turned there were clones ready to attack. They were giving me absolutely no room to back up or strategize. I had taken several cuts and struggled even to use a quick heal before being cut again. At this point, I was shrugging off such minor pain. The one thing this dungeon had done, after feeling the pain of death over and over again, my tolerance had increased significantly.

“Watch out! She’s using a fire blade!”

“What’s a fire blade?”

One of their blades ignited on fire, and then they waved the sword. The fire left the sword and came out as a strike made of pure fire.

“Don’t block it, the fire will just breakthrough and hit you in the face!”

“Darn it!” I leaped away again, taking a nasty strike on the shoulder by one of the other clones.

I was taking Alysia’s advice the best I could. After all, who knew her skill layout better than herself? She was able to predict what they were doing and when they were going to do it better than anyone else. Her words were the only reason I was able to stay on top of these doppelgangers.

“What’s going on with your soul attack?” I demanded.

“It’s not as easy as it looks! I barely even know how I turned into a hammer. I’m trying to figure it out.”

“Oh, crap!”

Things just turned from bad to worse. As I was backed into a wall of the coliseum, all five of them ignited their blades at the same time. They all brought their swords down, coming at every angle, and making it impossible for me to dodge. I was going to have to take several of the blade cuts directly.

“Deek!” Alysia called out with alarm.

I raised her and helplessly struck out. At that moment, the sword in my hands glowed blue for just a second. It seemed to almost look like two swords, a translucent blue superimposed over the original sword. As it struck the fire blades, they broke in half and then dissipated away before hitting me. Three blades were destroyed in an instant, and the remaining two I was able to dodge.

“What was that?” I asked. “Didn’t you say these blades were unblockable?”

“They… they’re supposed to be! Even if you cut the flame, it will continue! Unless…”

“Unless?”

“I didn’t cut the blade! I cut the mana!”

“The mana?” My eyes widened.

“That’s it! I can cut anything! I’m not a physical blade, I’m anything I need to be. It’s not just about changing my physical form, it’s about manifesting and cutting through energy!”

“I don’t get it, but you can cut spells, right?”

“Not just spells! With enough practice, I should be able to cut only what I want. I can cut a soul free from the body without hurting the physical form, cut a person’s ability to access mana, even cut dungeon monster’s access to miasma.” She spoke excitedly as she considered the possibilities.

“Alysia, I’m really glad you’re having an epiphany here, but it’s getting kind of desperate here!” I cried, out, taking two more cuts as I desperately blocked the doppelgangers converging on me.

“Right! Do it! Attack them all!”

“Alright! I’ll do it!”

The sword began to glow a black image much like the mana image. With a roar, I did a wide sweep of my blade. To my surprise, it cut right through all of the girls. It went through their blades, their armor, and their bodies without even a bit of resistance. When I completed the arc, I felt an unimaginable pain, but what confused me was that the girls and their swords were completely fine. There was no damage to their bodies or swords at all.

However, as I instinctively crouched in pain, all five girls collapsed to the ground, dead, just like their strings had been cut.

Chapter 1059

“We did it!” Alysia cried out.

“Yeah… we did!” I chuckled as I stumbled into the safe room and put her down.

As soon as I lost contact with her, I collapsed to the ground. Having the feel of your soul being chopped in two, and then multiply it by five, and that’s exactly what I felt. Just to keep from passing out, I cast refresh several times. It kept my mind lucid, but the pain lingered for some time.

Thankfully, Alysia was too excited to realize what was going on. She spoke excitedly about all of the things she could do now that she was a blade. I had to admit that if she could do even half of the things she claimed, she’d be seriously powerful. I was even tempted to go through with the whole thing and turn her into a sword, rather than return her to a physical body. However, ultimately, if I had the choice, I would bring her back as an Osterian, which is what she was supposed to be.

It took nearly a day for me to recover from the pain all of the way. I claimed I wanted to let Alysia grow a better understanding of her newfound ability, and also ponder on what the final two trials of the dungeon would be. That last part was at least a little true. I checked out the mural. It didn’t really show me anything. It showed the man happy in a village with his daughter. Meanwhile, there was a dark threat growing in the distance. If I was ordering the murals, this probably should have been the first one. That threat was the dungeon, which ultimately killed his daughter and led him on his dark path.

When the pair of us were back in top condition, we prepared for the 8th and possibly hardest trial yet. Unlike the previous 7, I had no clue what this one would even ask me to do. That was why I was only further confused when I walked into the room to see a similar coliseum, but it was different because there was a massive hot forge at the end.

“This trial is about sealing your sword.” The little girl guide appeared just as suddenly as she always did.

“Seal?”

“Mm… the sword has been forged in blood, now, it must be forged in fire. You will have to place it in the forge and stick it there. It will likely try to escape, but you must place your personal sigil on it.”

“My sigil? I don’t have a sigil.” I admitted.

“You are not a lord?”

“I am, it just…never came up.”

“That’s fine. You will need your sigil.” She waved her hand, and a table appeared on the side, filled with dozens of tokens. “Choose the sigil you want.”

“Do you have a sigil?” I whispered to Alysia as I began to walk over to the edge.

“My family does. We don’t have last names like the human nobles, but our family crest is a Banewolf. I supposed that makes my family the Banewolf family. Well, there is no one from our family left.”

“I think I recall seeing that sigil on some livery at the wedding.”

“The humans are more interested in their sigils. I’m surprised you don’t have one.”

“Ah! Maybe I do!”

I suddenly recalled that I had been handed a token of nobility by Aberis. It had been to designate me as a noble to anyone if I ever needed to ask. Perhaps, that was my sigil. Well, it was fine to come up with a new one and make it mine. I scanned the table filled with sigils. I wasn’t sure where she had gotten these from.

That was when my eyes fell on a certain sigil, and it immediately called to me. It showed two circles superimposed, kind of like a Venn diagram. In front of it was a doorway, which appeared to be the doorway to a dungeon. I realized the circles behind it were actually worlds. Dungeons are a doorway between worlds. This sigil seemed to represent that union.

I picked it up. “This… this is my sigil.”

Chapter 1060

“Good, then your task is simple, heat up the blade, and place your sigil on it.” The guide smiled innocently.

She was being innocent, but I had a feeling it wasn’t that simple. Would Alysia feel the forge?

“Deek. It’s okay. I-I want you to mark me.”

“Alysia…”

“Ah… I already gave you… that, so, in a way you already have marked me. This will… just make it official. From now on, I will always be yours.”

I took a deep breath and then nodded. “Fine.”

By the time I turned back, the little girl had already vanished again. I was on my own again. No, I still had Alysia with me. I’m not sure I could have done it without her.

It’s not like I could argue. If we stopped now, it wasn’t like we could just go back up. My only choice would be to somehow take over the dungeon with Dungeon Master. That was my second plan. I’d need to challenge the dungeon master and become the dungeon master myself. That was honestly what I was planning. If there was a master, they would assuredly be on the final floor.

“Just one more…” I whispered to myself. “One last one.”

“What, Master?”

“Nothing.”

I walked up to the sizzling forge, and then I shoved Alysia into it. I also transferred the pain to me. At first, there was nothing, but it quickly grew. I could feel the burning of a molten forge. I clenched my teeth and shivered. The sword began to turn red. It felt like an eternity, and the pain grew more and more severe until I was shaking. It finally reached a point where even Alysia noticed something was off.

“M-master? What’s happening?”

“GGgghhaaaaaa!” I finally screamed, falling to my knees. “No!”

“Master!”

I stood back up and pulled her from the forge. I put the coin down where the hilt met the blade, and then I pressed the coin against the molten metal. Picking up a hammer, I hit the sword. It felt like I was being hit with the hammer. One. Two. Three. As the seal began to surround the sword, I felt like I couldn’t breathe.”

“Master! What’s going on? Something is wrong! Master!”

I wasn’t able to hear her. The pain finally overtook me. I collapsed to my knees and then passed out on the floor. I gasped, waking up. I was still on the floor. I had no clue how much time had passed. I could still feel the ache. It felt like I had been branded with a cattle prod while being cooked over a lava pit. I slowly stood up to my feet. That’s when I saw the guide standing there, grinning at me.

In her hands was Alysia, who was now cool. I reached out to her, and I heard nothing. The Slave Communication was being blocked.

“Y-you…”

“I never imagined you’d be such a lightweight as to pass out over the heat of the forge. You only made it too easy to take this…” She said, her hand stroking the flat side of the sword.

“Give her back!” I said.

“Hehe… You may think that this is just a sentient sword or something, but actually…”

“I will take this dungeon, and everything in it!” I yelled, switching my job to Dungeon Master.

{You are a rival dungeon master. You have declared war on this dungeon. Defeat the dungeon master to claim the dungeon as your own.}

The little girl stumbled back, as the sword flew from her hands. It was the first time she showed a strong emotion. She was extremely shocked.

“Y-you’re a dungeon master!”

The sword landed between the pair of us, and then flashed, turning into the form of Alysia. Her eyes looked at me in shock.

“D-Deek. Y-you’re a dungeon master?” She looked just as shocked.

“I have that job,” I admitted. “It was my backup for when she betrayed us.”

“You… use dungeons… just like the demons?”

I blinked, only then realizing I had never really told Alysia everything. She had no clue about my dungeon back at home. In her mind, I was a True Dungeon Diver who destroyed dungeons completely. The expression on her face, the one that had been filled with happiness even as we made our way down, was now filled with confusion, fear, and apprehension.

“We can talk about this later, right now, we need to take care of her.” I took a step forward, but Alysia took a step back, as if repelled by me, her head shaking.

Before she could say anything else, her body returned to a sword again and then flew back into the little girl’s hand. “She’s made her choice, and that choice is your death!”