Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

<strong>Eleven hours before the battle against Kuzu.  </strong>

The trio was resting in the lab of their newly conquered Lab Dungeon. They spent quite a lot of the time coming up with a strategy and hearing Kamiya's strategy out.

"I have a final confession to make..." Kamiya said, "I have changed the Hogosha dungeon's structure and I want you to take a look."

"You have what?" Reon frowned. Hitori was okay with whatever Kamiya had done, he knew Kamiya would not just do something like changing a dungeon's structure for no reason or just to make the dungeon look stylish.

Kamiya opened their territorial menu screen and swiped up to the Hogosha dungeon level fifteen. Two tabs appeared: Monsters and Floors. Kamiya went with the 'Floors' option.

Hitori hoped to see ten floors popping in front of him but instead, only five floors appeared in front of them. The previous ten floors dungeon was now a five floors dungeon.

"Instead of having fifteen to sixteen monsters on each floor, I decided to club them up on a single floor. So... it turned into a five floors dungeon."

"Looks good to me though."

"The previous ten-floor dungeon model would have asked our enemy for more time--"

"But there is no use buying time for us!" Kamiya interrupted Reon, "What is the use of buying time if we can not defeat them in the end?"

"I said it looks good to me," Hitori said.

"And I think it is better to assault them with twenty-five monsters at the same time instead of fifteen, fifteen on each floor."

"Yeah, it looks good to me---"

"Okay, okay! Fine," Reon sighed, "you guys know it better than me." Hitori nodded and so did Kamiya.

Uragi and his nine men, after losing an Ahklut and clearing the wolves' floor, were headed to the second floor.

The minotaurs were not a problem for them either. Yeah, it would have been a problem if Kuzu was not the one sending Ogres and Dungeon Trolls reinforcements to Uragi's unit from time to time.

The stupid Ogres and mindless trolls smashed every minotaur that came in their way. But by the time they reached the third floor which consisted of flame tigers, only one healthy troll and two healthy ogres were remaining.

On seeing the tigers, Uragi's unit charged forward with a Troll and Ogre taking the lead. But blasts of fire erupted from the sides of the walls and killed the Ogre and the Troll.

Uragi clicked his tongue in annoyance, 'These traps are getting on my nerves, at least we Scientists use some brain and create traps better than fire, ice, water, and fuck.'

But as soon as the tigers spread around and covered Uragi's men, Uragi hesitated before pulling his greatsword. 'What is happening?' he thought, but still could not draw his sword with confidence.

His men closed in the distance between their boss, they started moving closer to Uragi by taking a few steps back with each passing moment.

Twenty-eight tigers were surrounding them with drool falling out of their lower jaw, a frowned snout, and deadly eyes.

Hitori was watching the fight but his mind was somewhere else, 'What if they reach Fierce and do what they did to Eimi?'

Hitori could not control his thoughts, "They will... the same way they... Eimi," He muttered.

Then Hitori looked at the screen as Uragi and his men were chopping the tigers one by one. 'But there are no Akhluts this time...' Hitori thought, 'Maybe it would not happen again?'

After five minutes, Uragi and his two other men walk out of the third floor. One of them was heavily injured but Uragi was out of meds and health kits. They walked through a portal.

Faint moonlight fell on them from above. The roof was translucent which revealed the night sky. Uragi looked ahead, prepared for another monster, to his surprise-- no monster attacked them.

Uragi pulled his walkie-talkie, "Kuzu, I am waiting," he said.

"Yeah, they are on the way," Kuzu replied.

Hitori got up, "I am go---"

"You are not going anywhere, sit down." Reon pulled his cloak as soon as he got up.

Kamiya glanced at Hitori, "You will ruin our plan, Hitori." Kamiya said, "If you had a problem with my plan, you should have informed me so beforehand."

"I wish it was that easy, Kamiya," Hitori looked down at him, "but I never thought it would be so hard to watch your pet die."

That made Kamiya quiet. Even Kamiya was having a hard time watching this fight.

"Bare it." He still said, "We will win our dungeons back," Kamiya spoke as if he knew the future.

"But Fierce...."

"Only Uragi and his only man are left, one is heavily injured. Even if Kuzu summons monsters, he must have a limit to do so. They would not be able to kill Fierce, we know it." Kamiya gave Hitori a tight nod.

He recalls how peacefully Fierce sleeps in her next.

She was sleeping peacefully when suddenly the wolf-like creatures attacked her out of nowhere. One grabbed her head, another scratched her body, while another one tore her wings.

It was not enough, the orcs stabbed her while Uragi sliced her body parts with the help of his sword. Only imagining it made Hitori feel anxious about his dear pet.

Even Kamiya was worried about Fierce but he knew it was necessary for her to die. Kamiya's actual plan was to defeat Uragi's unit in the Hogosha dungeon and not let even a single person advance forward.

Currently, Uragi and his men were still confusingly glancing around the fourth floor-- the treasure floor, so it was no use watching them anymore.

Kamiya shifted the view to Gigi's unit. They were inside the Pontianak lair already, fighting through the path that used to be the shortest path to reach the boss but after Kamiya merged the two paths together, all of the monsters came into a straight path.

Gigi and his men were fighting with Gibbering Mouthers. Among the most wicked and depraved, this creature is the composite eyes, mouths, and liquified matter of its former victim.

Gigi fired cannonballs at the gibbering mouther's body that was an amorphous mass of mouths and eyes that propel itself by oozing forward. But the cannonballs went through nothing. It was as if the gibbering mother devoured the balls too!

A Mouther that was on the other side, oozed forward and flowed over a player. The Mouther's mad ranting paused as it gnawed and swallowed the living flesh.

The Mouther's prey was liquified, it moved forward and left nothing of its prey. Then the Mouther started murmuring, chattering, each with a different voice: Deep and Shrill, wailing or ululating, crying in agony or ecstasy.

After the victim's body was consumed, its mouth and eyes boiled to the surface-- ready to join the chorus of tormented gibbering that welcomes the Mouther's next meal.

"How would they defeat that creature?"

"A Gibbering Mouther..." Magus thought for a while, "It can not be killed with weapons, but its condition immunities may be used aginst it."

"Condition what?"

"It can be poisoned, paralyzed, charmed, etc."

Kuzu pulled his walkie-talkie down. A few men entered the Pontianak lair and Kamiya watched in curiosity. The two pairs of men were wearing anti-posion masks.

Gigi ordered his men to retreat, the left the checkpoint and walked back to the Mahas. The pair banged their poison pumps on the ground, pulled their pipes, and sprayed the poisonous gas over the Mouthers.

The Mouthers were slow as they only cralwed like slime, so the men were able to cover the area and poison every single Mouther.

"And now the Ghost Mansion." Kamiya recalled, "They will waste their time there." Kamiya sighed. He shifted his view back to the Hogosha dungeon, the fourth floor.

Uragi and his two men were nowhere to be found. Kamiya played the reply and found that Uragi killed his own dying member-- no surprise. Actually, as expected from him-- collected his drops and found the portal to the boss floor.

So Kamiya shifted to the fifth floor. Suddenly, his eyes widened and his hand that navigated through the map stopped moving and started trembling. His heart beats picked up the pace.

Three black and white wolf-like creatures stood in the entrance. Two orcs, blue and green hue, stood right behind the Orca-wolf hybrids.

Uragi and his only partner was still standing at the end of the entrance-- not willing to step inside behind the Akhitars or the Akhluts.

Kamiya opened his mouth and tilted his head (not his eyes) to his right but decided otherwise. He decided to check on her first.

"She is a sleepyhead, she would not know about their presence unless they come in her five-meter radius but... by the time she wakes up, she would have her head detached and wings eaten."

His view turns to the otherside, over the rocks and to his surprise... Fierce was awake!

A hand sweaped over her head then reached down her neck. She closed her eyes in pleasure and ecstasy as the hand embraced her feathers. She still sat in her nest but was awake.

Kamiya's eyes followed the hand that took him to a man clad in bluish-purple cloak and a hood that covered his head who sat next to Fierce, in her nest.

Kamiya's hand trembled as he lifted it. "Hitori." He turned his eyes to the right-- the throne next to him was empty, Hitori was not in his throne.

Reon raised her head and peeked past Kamiya, "W-- what? how?!"

Kamiya pulled his hand to his head. "Why?" He demanded.

Uragi and his men still stood looking out for the boss while Akhlut and Akhitars stood like statues in front of Uragi's men.

"Hitori-san...." Reon sighed.