The first floor was very dark, without a single light in sight. A constant sound of dripping echoed throughout the floor.
A ball of light that wasn't fire but pure light itself emerged from one of my vines.
The first floor's dreary and red landscape in a haze of mist was revealed. Something about the fog kept triggering my insight. It wasn't a surprise, any place obscured from view could be hiding an enemy.
Wind magic swept the mist away and in its expanse laid monster corpses that were a mix between insects and something else. Every one of them looked like a results of some horrible chimera experiment.
Plus I got nothing from killing them. Aside from possessing low mana, every time I killed them, **** would interfere and stop me from getting their characteristics.
I wouldn't even bother killing them have it not been for the fact that the requirements for clearing a floor wasn't clear.
During the time I was waiting for the cave door to open for the dungeon, I'd been thinking. What was the requirement for clearing a floor? Was it finishing the floor boss like in many video games or was it required to kill everyone on the floor?
The latter would be tedious. But thankfully, insight told me there was definitely a boss monsters.
My mana was running low. Compared to the cave, the first floor didn't have much mana in the air so I couldn't recharge unless I went back. I might have to ditch this body soon and go into a spore so I can safely regrow inside the cave.
Yeah, I should probably go back, my head was beginning to ache a lot. It could be the residual effect of mental damage, but considering that I've already healed myself that shouldn't be the case.
Maybe the headache is because of being corrupted.
An idea passed by my head as I turned to head back.
Amongst the many abilities I got was necromancy and here I had monster corpses ready to be utilized. If I raise them as an undead, I could remotely control them to explore the cave in my place and I wouldn't run out of mana inside the cave. Moreover, the biggest reason why I was running out of mana was because I needed to constantly use light magic to light my surroundings. But the inhabitants of this floor naturally didn't need to worry about visibility.
So yes, it was useful.
Somewhere in the dark and dreary floor droplets of blood dripped rhythmically. The mist along the ceiling had fallen lower.
I had a thought, 'If it was a human, it would've been okay to hesitate. So why are we hesitating? Yun?'
These are all monsters. There was no need to hesitate or abstain.
But even after thinking so, I still turned away.
When I was young I went to the countryside once.
I think it was because a doctor said fresh air and nature would help with my illness. It was back when I had first begun to feel sick and everyone had simply thought my immune system was failing due to school stress.
But regardless that was the first and last time I went to the countryside. I stayed at a cottage near a forest with two adults. We would sometimes go for a walk in the forest and shoot at some games. If we did manage to catch one then we'd gladly eat our catch.
The first time we went hunting, I remember seeing a wild rabbit for the first time. Then one of the adults covered my ears and told me to close my eyes for a sec. But I didn't and I saw the moment when death came for the first time.
But at that time what I felt wasn't horror, it was a feeling of accomplishment for having seen death and not being fazed by it.
After the rabbit was brought to our cottage, I sat by and carefully observed one of the adults as she prepared it for dinner. Whenever the rabbit was spun around on the chopping board to have each one of its limbs cut off, its head and limbs would flail a bit in motion.
When that happened, I had looked into its eyes, trying to discern any sign that it felt offended for being treated like an inanimate object.
My body was probably like that after death. An inanimate object that could never object no matter how it was treated.
But I shouldn't think about the past anymore, instead I should focus on my task to finish this floor.
A flower quickly blossomed on my vine and scattered its spores. The spores travelled far and wide as wind carried it and eventually fell to the ground as the last droplets of mana inside me disappeared. In the next second I was back inside the cave and I quickly began absorbing mana.
Now that I was back, I couldn't help but feel as if what I did earlier was very stupid.
Why did I not use necromancy because of such a simple reason? That I needed to show respect to the dead because I was also the dead?
What happens to my body now has nothing to do with me. Will I suffer just because a random blob of meat isn't being treated like an alive person?
Being uncomfortable due to such a ridiculous thing is meaningless. It's a hindrance that will stop you from doing what is needed!
Again I felt an uncomfortable feeling.
I calmed myself down. Was this uncomfortableness coming from a previous conditioning put on me by society? If so, then it was necessary to take control of myself.
Or was this due to another reason?
A sense of loss crept up in my heart. No matter how hard I tried to avoid it, from the moment I was reborn I couldn't get rid of this emptiness in my heart as if I'd lost something very important.
Where there used to be something remained emptiness.