Stuck As A Dungeon Mob

The adventures of Blood and W through the swampy terrain could only be described as bland and boring. The marshlands were flat and unchanging.

W could also see the area starting to become foggy and Bloody's view was slowly being  obscured. Though it was worth mentioning that Bloody's eye was not that great from the start.

The bouncing blob of blood continued to navigate and float swiftly through the water like a curious child. Not once did it mind its inability to properly see things. After many hours of travel, W couldn't help but start to feel rather regretful.

'This is too much downtime' If Ed respawned and he was nowhere near the mushroom cavern W would be increasing the chances of him dying mysteriously.

The scenery of the marsh was very boring, yes, but that didn't mean it didn't have its dangers. W was quite honestly surprised the lizardmen even managed to make it through the swamp waters and reach the cavern with as many as they did.

Bloody and W were only having an easy time since Bloody was capable of floating. W was confused by the fact that it was at all possible but he didn't think much of it either.

'Maybe the slithering skill is what is helping' If it was based solely on density there should have been no way for Bloody to float on the swamp water. It was quite dirty and turbid but it wasn't to the extent of allowing a giant clot of blood to float.

As the two continued they fought monsters like the Salm O' Nella, a salmon-like fish that seemed to be ridden with disease and poison. Both W and Bloody were practically immune so they were able to easily integrate its blood.

They also found other creatures but they didn't integrate them lest Bloody sink to the bottom of the swamp. But these other monsters included the Afanc, which resembled a crocodile or beaver. It was an ugly and weird platypus without even a fedora for style.

The Afanc was overall a weird creature. The monster encyclopedia seemed to have nothing but weird myths on it. Simply put there was nothing substantial about its abilities.

W had experienced it first hand and as a creature shrouded in myth, W felt he and Bloody hadn't given it a chance to show its full arsenal. It was possible it was a tricky opponent.

'Actually, that's true for a good chunk of the creatures here' They eliminated some promptly and barely gathered some information on them. W didn't think the creatures were weak but that Bloody was too strong. The monster encyclopedia still had nothing on the creatures even after they killed them labeling the dungeon as a cave of myths suddenly seemed very apt.

'I wonder if the dungeon did this deliberately' That seemed like the only explanation and if true, Ed had to praise the dungeon for thinking it through carefully.

Humanity's ability to acquire and use Information was one of its greatest strengths. This however also meant they greatly depended on the information. Taking advantage of this reliance was pretty simple with the system's expansive knowledge.

After some more aimless wandering, W was about ready to call it quits when suddenly, Bloody bumped into something.

'Is this… a barrier?' W thought back to the barriers made by the dungeon and couldn't help but find some similarities.

'I don't think I'll get a spirit shard from this though' Doing that a second time would be no different from courting death. He had plenty of other consciousnesses too so spending spirit shards wasn't all that great an idea.

The barrier was surrounded by a blanket of gray fog but it seemed to hold a deep cosmic purple shade. The activation of the Sixth Sense skill did not change the color either. It was more likely to be a space barrier.

'But why is this here?' W asked himself while Bloody started to circumvent the barrier.

The most reasonable explanation was still the dungeon but W was reminded of a certain individual he let loose on the floor.

'Eon, the sage of space' The most likely culprit was of course Eon. Why Eon formed such a thing was beyond W but he could come up with a couple of conjectures.

'Maybe he made a base here?' W didn't believe the middle of anywhere in a swamp to be an ideal base location but who was he to judge? His base was a fungi-infested cavern.

After some more circling, W and Bloody were now on the other side of the dome-like barrier. Somehow, the fog seemed to be thinner on this side so W suggested Bloody to press its eye against the barrier.

Bloody was curious to begin with so it did as told. Unfortunately, nothing could be seen anyway-

'Woah!' The barrier suddenly opened on that side causing Bloody who was pressed against it to float forward.

Bloody was happy by this development as it didn't like for anything to be hidden from it. What if there was some delicious blood behind the barrier? No way to know if one didn't go through it!

W reacted entirely differently, however. That was because Bloody's vision showed a silhouette of armored lizardmen boarding boats. These boats were just that, boats. They weren't large vessels or ships but it was still a culture shock.

'Th- The barrier couldn't have been set up by them too right?' The boats themselves were a normal discovery for intelligent creatures in such an environment. W was simply not expecting it.

<"Monster in the perimeter!"> A lizardman within one of the boats shouted.

Bloody was a red blob that floated above the water. While not moving Bloody sunk quite a bit but not enough to be submerged. The word conspicuous didn't begin to describe it.

Within moments of the shout, a spear ignited with bright runic carvings shining green and was then tossed towards Bloody with frightening accuracy.

The spear created a huge splash after hitting Bloody and directly passed through its body. Its eye which was usually at the center managed to, fortunately, dodge in time but Bloody still had a hole in its body.

'They spotted us, metal body! Quick!' W transmitted to Bloody who abided by the command. Its brain wasn't up to snuff as it didn't exist so relying on W for combat tactics was the right call. Wait… W didn't have a brain either.

<"It submerged. We can't let it stay inside the tribe, get someone to work on that"> The lizardman from earlier commanded. Monsters waiting next to the barrier was not uncommon so they were already developing a protocol.

Bloody and W who was now in the murky water could not see anything. But luckily W still had his consciousness skills.

The sixth sense was activated and blue highlights of all sorts started to appear in Bloody's vision. They were surprisingly sharing this skill too.

The blue highlights came in all shapes and sizes. From plants, to bugs, to the lizardmen themselves. This gave the two plenty of references for moving about underwater.

For the record, they couldn't see through walls and floors but there were many lizardmen walking on the dock. With the cut-off silhouettes it was still simple to know where a dock was.

'Should we leave?' If the lizardmen closed the barrier while he and Bloody were still inside the consequences could be dire.

W didn't know how often the lizardmen opened and closed the barrier so leaving seemed like the smart decision. Bloody was however the one controlling the body.

Using Slither to maneuver and swim through the water, Bloody seemed to actually be heading deeper into the settlement.

'Hey, I asked a question you should answer before acting' W complained to Bloody who shrugged it off like a rebellious teenager. Bloody's keen senses for blood were not to be underestimated.

'Hm?' Bloody's metal body wore off and it started to perform blood integration on the water. W felt mana enter Bloody's body from inside the washed-out blood.

'How did you even find this? We are connected?' W asked confused but Bloody continued to dart about integrating as much blood as possible before inevitably floating.

"Cough Cough" A hacking cough then occurred followed by blood that dripped into the murky water.

Eon's body was in an eternal state of deterioration. All mages ended up with lots of mana in their body and their final death was not easy. This mana which had stalled their death now prolonged it.

The healing nature of the mana made one recover from wounds faster than an average Joe but this also meant some mana was subconsciously spent healing the wounds. As the increasing lack of mana was the root issue the disease would only continue to worsen.

That was why although Eon had already spit out gallons of blood during the past month he was only slightly pale. That was also why there seemed to be mana in the blood he spat out.

Though this was unknown to W, seeing that Eon was the one spitting the blood made enough sense for W to justify the mana in the blood. If a sage's blood wasn't full of mana then whose blood was? Bloody's?

<"Cough, ah?"> The aged man finally spotted the red blob which had silently risen from the depths.

<"A slime? No, what is it?"> Eon was curious about the thing but he also acknowledged it was a monster and was ready to eliminate it. That was until it noticed that Bloody appeared to be eating up its blood.

His mind was starting to get some ideas that maybe, maybe it could help his situation.