Shadow Monarch: Heroines Could Hear My Thoughts?!

Chapter 24- Lava Mansion (Part 1)

[Are you ready, host?] The system asked as it saw Rin stand up again and dust his clothes off. He rested for almost 30 minutes before deciding to continue his journey.

'Yeah. I feel like I'm close to the end. The dungeon boss should be around somewhere. I didn't intend to end the dungeon in one single take but well it is what it is.'

[Good luck, host.]

Rin's eyebrows rose as he looked quite surprised by what he heard. He never thought his system will say something decent ever.

[I can hear your rude thoughts, host.]

'No seriously. Since when did you start saying decent stuff?'

[Probably before you even were born, host.]

'That's the system that I know. You weirded me out with that 'good luck'.'

[I will try to weird you out as much as possible, host.]

Rolling his eyes without answering, Rin continued walking and hunting whatever creature he stumbled upon. He really didn't know how long it will take for him to reach the boss but he had a hunch that it was close… very close.

Then, as if telling him that he was right, a weird notification appeared in front of him.

[Boss area detected!]

[Boss area has been penetrated!]

[Boss has awakened!]

'Oh, where is it?' He looked around him quickly but couldn't see anything.

But, in his ears, he could hear the sound of something approaching him. Yet, nowhere could he see any such creature. Listening more to the sound, he finally detected the anomaly in it. It wasn't the sound of something approaching him but something… falling from the sky.

'Shit!'

*BAAAANG*

Instantly, a huge frame collided with the ground at an enormous speed, and a big crater was carved down as rubble was thrown everywhere.

"Cough, cough… Fuck! That was way too much for a grandiose entrance." Rin coughed as he sounded his complaints at whatever was in front of him.

As the dust was swiped away, he was able to take a good look at the boss and the first thing he thought of was…

'Muscular.'

In front of him was an overly muscular deer triple the size of any other deer he hunted in this dungeon. Its fur was way whiter than the others and its eyes were an even darker shade of blue. The other noticeable difference was the two huge horns on its head.

They were at least a meter in length or more. The sharp tip of the horns shone ominously as if it was waiting to pierce him and skewer him.

Looking at Rin, the deer noticeably frowned before it screeched loudly and charged at him without hesitation.

Rin pulled his daggers out and jumped to the side quickly to avoid the deer's horns. The latter continued its run before stopping 40 meters away from Rin.

"RAAAAAA!!!"

The deer clearly didn't like the fact that he avoided its horns and became even more outraged and angry at him.

'Give me a second to at least prepare myself. Dammit!' He cursed under his breath.

Activating his skill, the shadows quickly linked and the deer's charge froze for a moment. The moment he applied his skill on the deer, he felt more than half of his mana vanishing quickly and the rest was depleting at a fast speed while he maintained the shadow bind.

'I have to be quick.'

Rin knew that it will be free before he could even reach it so he threw his dagger at it. The blade split the air as it flew quickly toward the deer.

The latter resisted and tried to free itself but the blade was a split second faster. However, even with that, it only pierced the side of its neck as the deer freed itself the next moment.

But, even with that, the injury was deep enough for Rin to feel satisfied with it. The amount of blood the boss will lose slowly will eventually accumulate and make it lose strength to continue its rampage.

pA n,dan(-)0ve1.c0m However, the fact that he had to resist this giant thing until the bleeding took care of it was a problem in and out of itself.

[Do you need a helping hand, host? I can call a butcher.]

'Hahaha! Your jokes just seem to work wonders on pissing me off!!' Feeling riled up because of the system, Rin glared at the deer as he ran towards it.

"To hell with this! I will just face it head-on!!" He shouted loudly.

Jumping in the air, he stabbed with the dagger at the deer using all of his strength.

"RAAAAAAA!!!" The latter shook the blade that plunged into its body away and countered with its horns.

*CLAAAANG*

The dagger clashed with one of the horns. The sound and the numbness that assaulted Rin made him clench his teeth from the pain. However, with sheer willpower, he held on as he slid the dagger across the horn and twisted his body to the side to get closer and closer to the deer's skull.

But, things didn't seem to be that easy. With a simple shake of the head, the deer ruined Rin's balance and almost threw him away.

Rin quickly grabbed its horn to keep himself from falling down.

*Swish*

"Woaaah!!" His body was jerked left and right like a leaf getting toyed with by the gushes of wind.

"This not fuuuuuunnn!!" He yelled and changed the grip on his sword.

'Think… think!' He tried to find a way to change this really bad situation.

"RAAAAA!!!"

"Ugh! Fuck it! It's already bad so I might as well do it!"

Checking his mana, he did have a huge amount of mana but because he was facing a creature that was stronger than him, he had to use a huge amount of mana to keep it frozen for 5 seconds.

But, he sure knew that if he didn't use shadow manipulation now, he was basically fucked.

'Backlash or whatever, I have no other choice.'

Activating the skill again, Rin felt a strong pain in his mind as blood leaked out of his nose. He knew that the pain will be strong but he ignored it and focused on the deer and tried to stop its reckless rampage for even a moment.

He just needed half a second to be able to turn the tides of the fight back in his favor. Luckily, his mana was enough for that to happen.

"Ugh!!" He groaned audibly.

Then, with his two arms, he used the horn to start spinning around it to create momentum. After that, he launched himself into the air right above the deer.

"Die, fucker!"

*Swish*

His dagger plunged into its skull and destroyed its brain. The latter tried to resist as a last resort but quickly fell down dead. Blood splashed all over Rin and covered him in crimson, horrifying color.

"Haaah… Haaah… Haaah…" Rin's lungs were screaming for air and his mind was assaulted by a terrifying headache that almost knocked him cold if not for his strong will.

"I… never thought it will be challenging… I should've just kept dodging till it died or something."

[You gained some points for being cool, host.]

"Really?"

[You will attract the opposite sex with that wild aura you had, host.]

Feeling slightly better, Rin sat down on top of the deer to rest. His legs were shaking and he was sweating profusely. He knew the reason for that, it was 'Mana depletion'.

When someone overuses his mana and ends up emptying his mana pool completely, he starts to feel tired, powerless and may even lose consciousness.

Rin was having these symptoms now and that affected his thought process a lot. But, he had no other choice but to try and recover as much as possible.

Luckily, having a huge mana pool means that your recovery speed is equally fast.

[Host killed E-Rank boss Sky Deer King.]

[Would you like to consume it?]

Rin quickly accepted and the process started. Soon enough, the whole deer vanished inside his shadow.

[Consumption successful!]

[You have gained 50 Action Points!]

[You have gained Sky Deer King meat!]

[You have gained a new skill: Berserk!]

[You have finished the main quest!]

[You have gained 150 Action Points!]

'Oh, this is great! I finally got a skill!' Rin's eyes lightened with excitement when he saw that he got something other than meat and fur.

A skill was something valuable for Rin, especially at this point when he was still stupidly weak. From the name alone, he could already predict how it worked.

'Let's check it now.'

However before he could even do so, something unexpected occurred.

[Shadow Monarch has been detected!]

[Dungeon Morphing started!]

[Dungeon Level is changing!]

[Quest section has been updated!]

Rin's mind wasn't able to process what was happening as the next, more shocking thing happened. A weird, black portal, double the size of the portal that led him to this dungeon appeared in front of him out of nowhere.

Then, as if it was some kind of vacuum, the door started pulling Rin inside.

"What the fuck?!!" He instantly grabbed both of his daggers and plunged them into the ground. His body was getting pulled in with a strong force. Tightening his grip on the daggers, he didn't know what to do at all.

"N-No…. I'm losing my grip!!"

Rin was sure that he won't be able to resist for long so his best bet was to at least get pulled in with his daggers with him instead of trying to face a losing fight and end up inside that thing, whatever it was, without any weapons.

Taking such a hard decision, he pulled his daggers out and instantly got pulled inside the portal.

"AAAAAAHHH!!"

[Dungeon has been detected!]

[Welcome to the D-Rank dungeon: Lava Mansion.]

(Time for some fun! Rin is totally fucked lol!! How was the chapter? :) )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for reading. Any support you give me is always appreciated no matter how small it was. Let's all keep it up :)