Dungeon Sniper

"... How?"

It was my voice, but it was from Mataki.

Olothi knew to whom she was talking.

"Oh, Mataki, mundane and moronic as ever. Why act so surprised? I am practically a deity in this Level. I can do anything, and everything."

"A deity?"

The question came from me this time. And Olothi could tell the difference.

"Yes, Human. That is the ultimate, common goal for both you and me, no? You, a successor to that backstabbing Alpha. Pray tell me, how did you swindle the poor soul you now have within you? What wily words and treacherous trickery did you use to trap my beloved brethren?"

Under normal circ.u.mstances, I would have remarked, 'Mataki, I thought you said you were lovers. What's this now? A brethren-zone?'

But the situation was tense, and Olothi, despite her small frame and attractive outlook, seemed and felt formidable.

"I am here by choice, Olothi. I have come to slay and put a stop to this senseless madness," said Mataki through my mouth.

"Liar. My Mataki would never dream of rebelling against his Queen."

"... I have referred to you in such a title in the past, but things have changed. When I call you 'Queen' now, it is with deepest disgust and dejection that I find in your detestable, degenerated denouement of a display."

First, was it just me who found the whole 'address me as Queen' kinky, even for the Goblins? Second, what was it with the Goblins and their love for alliteration?

"And yet I still see a shade of sentiment, a lingering love in those eyes. You came here to find me the monster you last saw before fleeing, but here I am, as beautiful and alluring as before, if not more."

The petite Goblin beauty curtsied mockingly before us.

"You can barely stop yourself from touching my fiery skin again. I know you are thinking about rolling your tongue over my sanguine lips, and you are dying from constraining yourself."

"I am thinking, thinking about where to drive this knife into your body to grant you the swiftest, painless death," said I-Mataki flatly, and the diligent Goblin hero's soul had already spotted several exposed parts of her skin under the leather tunic.

"You lie, once again," Olothi smiled nonchalantly.

"No, it's you who's lying, kitty."

Everyone turned to Benedikt. But no one questioned the way Benedikt addressed the Goblin Queen.

Olothi's coy smile loosened a little, with a hint of fondness and nostalgia as she turned to Benedikt and c.o.c.ked her head playfully as she appraised him more thoroughly now.

"I remember now. You used to call me that, and I would throw a fit. Old times. Beautiful memories... But you, you have grown much smaller, Benny. All these years, we have been living so close to each other, but finally, I get to see your face up close."

"Yeah, well, you aren't exactly the ideal neighbor to live next to," grunted Benedikt.

"Neither are you. That explosion about ten years ago, I still get nausea from the shake. What was that?"

"A failed experiment," answered Benedikt curtly.

Olothi narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"Lies. Lies everywhere. You never fail anything, Benny."

"I did that time. And speaking of lies, do you want me to say it or are you going to come clean yourself?"

Olothi's smile dropped. Benedikt smirked and turned to Elysia.

"What about you, lass? You see what I'm talking about?"

"... Yes, I can see it too," said Elysia cautiously, who had been quiet all the time and carefully scrutinizing with her keen Elven eyes the almost too perfect Gobliness in front of us.

"I don't see anything," I murmured. All I saw was a Goblin chick with a cute face and a tight body of a gymnast. Mataki was, of course, seeing different things. The past, the love, the feelings, the pain—

Then I spotted Benedikt holding the portable scanner, the one he used to X-ray the New Type Goblin on the surface. Benedikt caught my gaze and nodded affirmatively.

"That's right, kid. What we're looking at is a doll. She's not a deity or anything. What she is just a giant bug, probably lurking beneath our feet, waiting to devour us whole."

Both Elysia and I looked down at our feet, ready to jump at the next slightest movement.

Seconds have passed in silence until Olothis' childlike, flirty giggle rang across the hall of million Goblin eggs and Sand Crystallite reserves.

"Well, I tried to entertain my first guests in five decades. And rest assured, Benny and the skinny Elf in the back. I do not like the taste of Dwarves, young or old. Tough to chew, and that horrible smell of beer and fat combined. An instant appetite killer, but I am sure you all know what I mean."

None of us could ever possibly know what she meant.

"And the Elves. They are even worse than the Dwarves. Not much meat, smells of grass... I see you that you are nodding, Mataki. I knew you would agree with me."

Benedikt and Elysia turned to me-Mataki accusingly.

"Old habits die hard. Apologies, companions," I-Mataki muttered sheepishly. There was an advantage of having two souls in one body. While Mataki became slightly fl.u.s.tered and apologized earnestly, I had not let my guard down, not even for a second.

Benedikt and Elysia were standing ahead of me. Their frowning faces turned toward me in the back, and I was staring at the three faces in return.

... I was the one farthest away from Olothi. I knelt the moment I saw Olothi in her pre-insect form. Benedikt and Elysia had approached Olothi to take a better look while I stayed behind numbly.

Yet Olothi referred to Elysia as the 'Elf in the back.'

Olothi did not point out the wrinkles on Benedikt's face but merely pointed out that he had shrunk in his size due to old age.

Olothi did not see Mataki's cold, resolved look reflected on my face. Instead, she went on with how perfect she looked... because that was everything she could look at other than the back of our heads.

The realization came too late, however.

"Look out!" cried Elysia. Her face, horrified and panicked, was the last thing I saw before something clasped over my head from the back and I was engulfed in warm, slimy darkness.

"But the Human meat, I can never say no to that."

The voice echoed within and around the cave.

The Queen had swallowed me whole.

.

.

.

"She is taking her time. Imagine surviving on the glowing sticks for fifty years. You are her treat, young hero. She is savoring your taste."

I shot, slashed, and smashed at the intestinal wall with all I had. Niper, Tolliver, Muk, fist, feet... to no avail.

Then my surroundings had gotten brighter just as I was s.u.c.k.e.d deeper into the Queen's stomach, where the remains of the Sand Crystallites stuck all over the place and gave off an eerie, bluish light.

It was then that I was facing Mataki, younger than I remembered and with both legs this time, standing in front of me.

I had experienced something like this before. The Level Gate at the Colosseum Ultimatum was close to opening, and the energy discharged from it powered the Reptilian television-equivalent of the Orb, helping another soul within me materialize before my eyes.

"So, magic?" I shrugged to the hideous Goblin, looking even more gruesome with the blue lights around us.

"I know nothing about magic. I am just a simple Goblin," Mataki shrugged back irresponsibly.

"Or more like a 'bug.' It's not the first time I've seen dead NPCs pop up like nothing happened due to glitches."

"I do not understand. What does Olothi being an insect have to do with this bizarre phenomenon?"

I did not expect Mataki to understand the etymology of the word 'bug' in computer systems. Nor did I have the energy or willingness to explain the whole thing.

"I'm just guessing the Sand Crystallites are doing its thing again and diverging a soul from another soul?" I said unconvincingly.

"You may be right, but I am afraid I am not qualified to weigh in my opinions on such esoteric magical matters."

"What do you mean you're not an expert? You trapped your soul into an Orcish dagger. If anything, this is your expertise!"

A foul, acidic smell ran up through my nose, and I started and jumped onto a pile of solidified crystal. The Queen was ready to digest me.

Mataki, an incorporeal representation of a soul, was standing still, contemplating over what I had said to him.

"It was so long ago, and I did not want to take his suspicious Skill. Soul Manipulation. It just sounds so evil, would you not agree, young hero?"

"No, I think it sounds fascinating, given that it can help me get out of here alive, maybe? But take your time, please, I'm only minutes away from melting in these awful-smelling stomach acid."

I pointed at the ceiling and fired Tolliver once more. Nope. Not even a dint. The stomach lining simply absorbed the fired bull-rat and looked as wrinkly and unharmed as before.

"It was an accident, my acquirement of the Soul Manipulation Skill. Sure, I had the ability to steal others' traits whenever I plucked their heats out or bashed their skulls to dust—"

"Wait, bash? No, no, that's not how it works. You have to kill them instantly, like in stabbing a knife through, you know, as in critical hits... So you're saying everyone who got their head bashed by you, they died instantly?"

"That is how a good bash should work, no?" smirked Mataki, and not without a hint of smugness.

"Just how strong were you?"

"In my younger days, I could take on two fully-grown Orcs at once."

"Yeah, but in your older days, you got your legs cut off by them."

"... I did not want to stab the heart of the Orc shaman, for I feared I would turn hideous like them."

"Funny. Now, cut to the chase and show me other Skills you've got."

"I have nothing else. I lived very carefully not to take on others' traits."

"Are you kidding me?"

"I am a simple Goblin, young hero. I did not like to rely on anything else other than my own, well-earned experience."

"But the Soul Manipulation—"

"—Was an accident. I had regretted almost all my life before I finally put it into good use, once and for all."

"... So you've got nothing on you. No new trick? No genius way to get out of this monster's belly?"

Mataki looked around the grotesque inside of the Queen's stomach, which wriggled and jerked whenever it pumped out a new spill of the stomach acid.

"I do not know about you, but this place feels cozy to me... To be inside of the woman I loved, once again—"

"Ew, gross, Mataki! I don't need your sick story, especially not in my last minutes of living!"

What was Benedikt doing? Did he get on the Dwarfighter and shooting at the Queen? If he were, it was too quiet outside. Or the Queen was just that big and thick, insulating sound from both within and from the outside.

Then I pictured Elysia, mad with rage and sadness, swinging the flamethrower and gunner arms in tears. My heart ached, and I hoped that at least those two were safe, at least for now—

"... Then you must have it too."

Lost in my thought, I only caught the last words from Mataki.

"What was that?"

"When you absorbed my soul as a Perk, you should have inherited all the Skills and Perks I had with me. Except for the essence of the Unique Perk itself and the relevant Skill that made the conditional withholding possible. Namely, the Soul Manipulation."

I took a moment to open up the interface and check the list. And there it was.

Skill

Soul Manipulation - Limited (Secondhand)

The system did not register it as my own active acquisition, hence no usual notification.

"Uh, Mataki? It says it's 'limited,' because it's second-handed?"

Mataki thought for a moment.

"Skills and Perks come with conditions all the time. We have no other choice than to test it right here on the spot."

"... For a simple Goblin, you know quite a lot about the Perks and Skills system."

"I had a good teacher."

There. I felt his presence again.

"You knew Alpha too?"

"... I did. Now, what I want you to do is—"

"And you pretended you didn't know anything about him. When I asked you about Alpha and Velonis, about Colosseum Ultimatum... how could you, Mataki? I thought we were friends."

Mataki looked hurt, but he did not seem weak or exposed.

"Forgive me, young hero, but I made a promise."

"With who? Alpha? I'm telling you, that shady bastard's everywhere I go—"

"—Because you are following his footsteps, and he has designed it such."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"... First, we have to get you out of here. The plan is simple. Tear my soul from yours and put it into one of your weapons, preferably the knife. I know from experience that consuming crystals is toxic to the bearer's soul. Right now, Olothi and the original ant queen must be on the verge of breaking apart from all the crystals they ate together. I have a feeling that I only need to tip the first block to make the rest of the dominoes fall apart."

"I didn't know Goblins played dominoes."

"We do, with Human bones."

"Great. You ruined dominoes for me."

I ran over what Mataki told me and realized the crucial part of his plan.

"... You plan to die here, with her."

"Young hero, that has been the plan all along."

I braced and took out Muk. Now, Muk was not an ornate Orcish blade, but it was a fine knife on its own.

"All right, how do I do this?"

"Follow your guts. If I could do it, then you can do it too. Will yourself to take apart my soul from yours and fill it up into the knife."

The procedure was simple enough, so I went on with it right away. Meanwhile, the stomach acid was rising up fast.

"Splitting the soul, now—"

I activated the Soul Manipulation... and the pain hit me hard. It came from within and everywhere. I did not stop myself from screaming.

I could not even curse out loud. It hurt so crazy that tears were flowing from my eyes. It did not just hurt physically.

"Do not stop, young hero. We are almost there!"

"But it hurts... so... much!"

I felt Mataki's soul leaving me again. The images I had seen earlier played back in the reverse order.

And it was over. I was shaking and breathing, face covered in tears, numb from the shock and pain.

"... And you did this with your own soul."

I was holding Muk tight in my hand. The military knife was glowing red just as Mataki's Blade had done... but the light was weaker, feebler.

"Mataki, talk to me."

[... I only have a few minutes to spare, young hero. This is where we say goodbye, for the last time.]

"Your soul... it gets torn and damaged each time you manipulate with it," I said hollowly, understanding why Mataki said it was evil and that he had never wanted it in the first place.

[Pity me not, young hero, for my soul has been torn since the day I abandoned the love of my life. I am merely paying the price for my folly... not just now but throughout the course of fifty shameful years.]

Souls died just as bodies did. Soul Manipulation granted souls some freedom to move about from one body or object to another, but at the cost of a shortened lifespan.

And Mataki was dying, for the third time now, and for what?

My tears had not stopped. Before, it was like losing a strange, helpful friend when Mataki's Blade broke and I absorbed the Goblin hero's soul. But now, having formed the bond and to have it broken away so suddenly and in such a short time... it was unbearable.

[Now, Beta, we have a job to do.]

I raised the glowing Muk over my head, ready to throw it down onto the bumpy intestinal floor.

"... Remember when the job was just to carry you across the Gate and land you home? It's been a long way, right, M?"

I waited for his response. Our last talk.

[No, we are right where we want to be.]

Right. I knew he would say that.

I thrust down the knife, red lights fizzing upon contact with the slimy surface.

[She is home.]

Right. I knew that too.