Bloody Banks

He was at a bar to gather information, specifically about the dungeons.

Somewhere unknown, past the cracks and borders to hell, the sky was jet black and the surrounding rocks were red with gnarly, dark swirls. Two demons were trying to cut down a large pink tree, the color, and texture of muscles. A skinny, almost completely bones, said, "Have you seen where the water woman is? I'm thirsty."

"No clue. I haven't seen the parrot either." the other one replied, scars covering his entire body. "They mentioned something about a white crack in the air though."

"What?"

"Yeah, the woman told me it was exerting some otherworldly energy, her babies crawled through and survived."

"Another world? Like the living one? Interesting. I wish I could go back, see what's different."

The ground rumbled like a hungry stomach and it tore open, screaming, tormented souls burst through like lava from a volcano and created ear-splitting screeches. The skinny starved one jumped over to it and put his face into the volley of flying souls which split apart and reflected off it like a mirror, blasting away.

Cracks appeared in front of the two. The one with the scars touched the white cracks in mid-air created an invisible ball in his hands and swung at the cracks. The ball hit the cracks and was stopped, his hand stopping at the same place. The force of the ball was able to cause the cracks to open faster and spread. He was suddenly pulled through the cracks and appeared in a dark, damp area.

'Maybe I should go ask that Dives Lofucle guy. Nah, he just keeps asking me to join them. he would probably use the information as leverage to get me to join.'

Black said to him, 'Zeeth, I've thought of something. Why don't we form an undead battalion? A truly independent and undead society with you as the leader.'

'What do you mean? How would we do that?'

'So far, you have seen three creatures with powers like my own, I have personally seen tens. I want us to go around the world, collect as many beings with powers like mine and Eltons to create a society that will live forever, even after your departure. Perhaps we may even learn a thing or two about immortality.'

'This sounds like a plan for you to live forever in power after my death. But I agree, this would be quite a legacy to leave behind. I don't mind what you do after my death, so long as you assist me to the best of your abilities while I'm alive and don't ruin my image after death.'

'Perceptive. Then it's a plan. Because I sense an immense power like mine not too far from us.'

'Really? I had no clue they were so common.'

'They aren't, we just somehow meet a lot of them. I'm not sure if they sense us yet but it is stationary, we can get there in a short sprint.'

'The let's go,' Zeeth told him, getting out the bar. 'What do you know about dungeons.'

'I've only been to three, the first was as boring as you could imagine. The monsters were simply stronger versions of normal creatures, the second was done for a rumored lost item and the third was for a race I participated in. The hardest was the second where I retrieved the Violet Halberd.'

'Violet Halberd?'

'A magical ax spear hybrid created to allow the greatest damage from a single swing. A fantastic weapon befitting my abilities. I no longer know its whereabouts.'

'What a shame. But what were the monsters like? Any tips for a dungeon explorer?'

'Yes, always remember your way out. The dungeon I was in was far too large, I lost my way out. Never underestimate the size. Not all dungeons have something at the end, I think most people just want the bodies of the strengthened animals to sell.'

They finished talking and arrived at the entrance to an underground cave. The tunnel led down into a dark hole they couldn't see past. All around it was people sitting behind chairs guarded by people covered in glowing armor and gems planted into them. They had been watching charge up to them, the wind he created blew their hair around. What looked like a team of buff hunters wearing armor glowing with white veins were staring at him, a little surprised and possibly annoyed.

"Why did you use a skill to run here? You should save your mana for inside the dungeon." one of them asked, a young girl covered in pale white armor holding her similarly glowing helmet in her hands.

"But I wa- dungeon?"

"You came here not knowing it's the Bloody Banks?" one of her taller teammates asked, eyeing him up and down. "Are you even a hunter? What a shorty."

"Stop it, Russel." the girl said. He took a step back but he scowled at Zeeth. "Listen, we're short one team member, what rank are you?

"Bloody banks. I'm a C4 hunter."

"Tsk, that's it? " Russel scoffed. "Were all better than you. Avery, let's just leave him here."

'Wow, this guy reminds me so much of Puq. I hate them both so much.'

'It seems ever since the dragon apocalypse, people have become a lot egotistical. Those who were too nice must've died trying to save others or people simply became more conceited in response to the drastic decrease in humans. You were lucky to have met mostly black and white people so far, either helpful or outright terrible, but there are a lot more of these annoying guys than you think. You can't legally kill them but also can't stand their face.'

"It's enough for us." she shot back, "can you be a tanker?"

"Sorry, I think I'm just gonna go alone."

"Okay, one, this is Bloody Banks, you think you can do this alone? And two, that's illegal. It is a global law that no one, without the right authorities giving their approval, can enter a dungeon alone, and without a team, you will have to wait for us to finish with our five hours before you can enter with your own team."

"How do you not know this?"

"How many people do I need to enter a dungeon?"

"For this one, six."

"So I will make your sixth member? Sure."

"Are you sure you want to come at night? They are stronger when it gets dark, I don't think it's worth the extra money." one of her other members asked. A girl about her size, much timider than the other two.

"Reya, why are you trying to convince him to leave? We finally secured a member!" Avery cried.

"I-I just didn't want to have him come with us with the wrong idea, it would be like lying."

"I don't mind. Let's just go in." Zeeth said, dispelling their argument.

"Great, what's your name." their fourth member asked. She had short, black hair and was taller than anyone else in the group. He told her it was Zenith, she scribbled his name on a screen and told him, "I'm Diane. Where is your gear?"

"It's this sword and shield."

"That's it? Is it at least magical?"

"Yeah, the sword will release a second slash every tenth swing and I can make it shake at super speeds for easy cutting. The shield expands to twice its size and attacks back when struck." he spent quite some time in the bar working on the circles for the sword and shield, adding new circles and new ideas when they came to him. Now that he only had two items on him, he couldn't use one circle on every item like before, he had to put multiple circles on one thing. It decreased the durability of the area a little and put more strain on the materials, but it was his best choice at the time.

"You don't even have armor? Poor people, I swear." Russel ridiculed.

"That's pretty good, let's go then." their fifth member said. He couldn't tell who it was that said that, they had their entire body covered in glowing armor from head to toe, this was the only normal statured person closest to his height. He walked to the front of the six, expanded his shield with a jerk of his arm.

'Black, the immortal army member three is in here?'

'Yes, undoubtedly. Surprisingly, they still haven't noticed me despite its strength. It isn't very smart. The creatures in here have a strong mana current but they aren't that strong, they can't control them too well. But beware, they could have unforeseen abilities.'

Thirty seconds of walking later, his shield spiked a little. Something he hadn't seen hit his shield before he could do anything? Something cold hit the top of his head. Behind him, Reya shrieked and jumped up as the same thing seemed to have hit her. Russel tried to hold her shoulders but she twisted out of his embrace.

"Russel, stop trying to hold me, something touched my neck!"

"I'm just trying to comfort you."

"I've told you before, I don't need it! What was that?"

"Its blood," Zeeth said. He wiped the top of his head and saw a smeared stain of red on his palm. He looked up to see a horned wolf suspended in the air by a stalactite stabbed through its stomach. Its neck was cut open, hanging it by an inch of skin. From the wolf's bloody neck, a deep red lizard crawled out. Spikes covered the lizard, a red tongue whipped out and licked some blood off the wolf. The lizard jumped at Reya but Zeeth attached his shield to the end of his sword and smacked it away, spikes shooting out at the lizard at the same time and stabbing through it. The lizard skittered away, leaving a trail of blood in its wake. They followed the trail of blood, which ended not far away, with no lizard. He saw a black and green alligator crawling past, the bloody lizard in its mouth.

The alligator crawled away, uninterested in the humans.

"You're just going to let him take the lizard like that? Let's kill the alligator." Avery said.

"That's not worth the trouble. Just leave it be."

'These are the monsters? Did I overestimate dungeons?'

But the alligator stopped before it could hide in the darkness. Something red wrapped around the alligator's face and brought it up into the air. It smashed the alligator against a stalactite and killed it. Blood poured out from the alligator which was collected by the red thing. It jumped out of the shadows. It was a massive blood-red slime, a slime very different from his usual slimes. They didn't have a thick membrane, water simply splashed around like it was in a plastic bag. Zeeth was about to rip it apart with water magic but he stopped himself.

'I should fight this without magic, my lack of slimes has really shown my weaknesses.'

"Distract the beast," Avery said. He rushed into the slime and hit it with his shield, spikes poking it and tiny leaks pouring out, which were quickly healed.

Avery threw a throwing knife. The slime curved to the side like a bow and dodged it but Avery pulled on something and the knife came flying back, nicking the back of the slime. Zeeth activated the supersonic shaking to cut the slime, but it was somehow a master at evading and dodged most of his attacks. His tenth cut was able to surprise the slime and slice a gaping wound. Blood poured out but a new scar was quickly made over it and kept its shape, losing only a little size. He put the sword against the recently opened wound, which was now harder and less flexible than the other part of the body, and pushed it in like a thumbtack. Blood once again poured out, even faster than before, the slime tried to smack Zeeth away while the rest blasted it with magic rocks and fire. He blocked its attack with his shield and punctured it again.

Russel threw a spear at the slime, which extended while hitting the slime and punctured it. The slime took both the spear and sword in itself and absorbed it all.

'If only I still had Gul, this would be easy. I really miss my slimes.'

"Allow me!" Reya yelled. She flew past his head, above the slime and created a massive icicle atop the slime, and dropped it. As it dropped, she kept adding more length to the icicle until one massive icicle punctured the slime from top to bottom. She grabbed the spear, muttered, "Blue Rose Bush!"

The long icicle inside the slime grew branches of ice, growing like thorns on rose bushes and bloating the slime with branches of icicles. Tens of sharp ice tips slowly shoved themselves outward from the squirming slime, poking through its skin. Enough came through that the slime finally popped, blood rushing out in a tidal wave.

All that was left was its loose membrane and the ice structure.

They went to pick up their weapons and Avery took her time trying to stuff the slime into a bag.

"This guy will bag us so much cash," Diane said, money in her eyes, looking at all the dead creatures around her. Zeeth flicked his wrist and used its blood to bring the alligator and the horned wolf down. "You guys wanna go back?"

"We haven't gone that far yet, let's go further," Zeeth said.

Avery tried to push the rest of the creatures into her bag, "guys, we are already pretty full, we can't go much further. Any other creature killed will have to be carried back."

"Then you bring the bag back with anyone that wants to leave and I will continue."

"No, we can't. If we come out with a missing member we have to report them dead or missing, and you are neither. Let's just go back. We can come again once we sell all these."

"Let me carry it then. I will carry all the monsters, what's a tanker if not strong, right?"

"Fine but if you've reached your limit, tell us."

Zeeth took the bag, it was different from Page's spatial bag. This one was larger but it seemed to hold fewer items. He could see ten circles drawn onto the edges of the opening, each more complex than anything he's ever made.

The bag was also heavier than Page's but not too heavy. They went through the dungeon, killing anything they came by and stacking them onto a board he made from a few rocks. It was becoming more and more apparent to him that without his slimes, he was just one lucky normal man. All the impressive skills and the large variation were skills his slimes had that he was controlling them to use. During the time when he didn't have his slimes, he decided to hone his personal skills as much as possible. Without a hundred slimes all over him, each of his steps and movements were unbelievably light, something he didn't bother to notice when he lost them since he was in the midst of a heated battle.

The slimes he fought became increasingly more common but he was also getting more and more used to their battle style and was killing them much faster.