Chapter 154: An Alliance with the Gray Humanoids, the Raxan

Liam kept his pistol raised.

No one dared let their guard down.

The meadow continued to tremble beneath their feet, even though the giant mole had yet to reappear.

Jordan kept his fists ready.

Carol watched every corner of the terrain.

Small sparks danced between Emily’s fingers.

Lena held her massive black hammer.

Chuck had one of his knives between his fingers, ready to throw.

Even the gray humanoids remained motionless.

The tallest among them looked at the squad.

Then his voice once again echoed inside their heads.

"Why are you protecting us?"

Emily looked at Liam.

Then she looked at the humanoid leader.

"I have no idea."

The leader seemed confused.

Emily shrugged.

"But if Boss says we have to do it, we listen to him."

Everyone looked at Liam.

Liam sighed.

"Now isn’t the time to talk."

The ground trembled again, and everyone raised their weapons.

They waited several seconds, but nothing happened.

Little by little, the trembling began to subside.

Liam lowered his pistol slightly.

"I think we should escape."

He looked around.

"We need to find a safe place."

The leader of the gray humanoids looked at the others of his kind and remained silent for several seconds.

He seemed to be communicating telepathically with his people.

Liam couldn’t hear that conversation.

Finally, the leader nodded.

Lydia approached Liam.

Her other slime copy also began moving toward them.

The two green masses touched, a small wave rippled through their bodies, and both merged back into a single Lydia.

Then a message appeared in front of Liam.

[Your Slime has consumed Explosive Worm.]

[Your Slime has learned Worm Grenade.]

[Your Slime has reached Level 68.]

Liam smiled.

"Lydia."

She turned toward him.

"Yes?"

"Looks like you finally consumed the worm you had stored."

Lydia’s eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Liam pointed at the message.

"You leveled up and learned a new skill."

Lydia smiled.

"Then my powers are working again!"

"Looks like it."

She raised both arms.

"Awesome!"

The leader of the gray humanoids spoke telepathically again.

"I’ve spoken with my people."

Everyone looked at him.

"We agree to escape."

Liam nodded.

"Good."

"I used my powers to observe the surrounding area."

The leader pointed toward the meadow.

"It seems the underground creature has moved away."

Liam frowned.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

The leader looked toward the horizon.

"We won’t have a better opportunity than this."

Liam nodded.

"Then let’s go."

No one knew which way to run.

But they all started moving.

Liam’s squad advanced alongside the gray humanoids, moving as quickly as possible away from the place where they had fought the sub-boss.

Flowers rushed past them on either side.

The wind struck their faces.

Liam ran while observing the enormous meadow.

’Where’s the exit?’

He couldn’t see it. He didn’t even know which direction they had come from.

’The dungeon has completely changed...’

Before, he had been inside a kind of dark dimension filled with floating platforms.

Now they were in an open world.

A meadow.

Mountains.

Sky.

Sun.

’Maybe we have to clear the dungeon before we can escape.’

He didn’t like that possibility.

If they were really inside an SS-Rank dungeon, completing this mission could be far more complicated than he had imagined.

But first, they needed to survive.

◇◆◇

Several minutes passed.

The group finally found a small cave at the base of a mountain.

It wasn’t very deep, but it seemed sufficient to hide them temporarily.

Liam entered first and looked around.

There was nothing inside.

"We can rest here."

Everyone began entering.

The gray humanoids did as well.

The atmosphere was much calmer.

There were no tremors, no worms, and no monsters.

Liam felt like they could finally breathe easy.

Chuck and Jordan gathered some dry branches.

Emily used small electrical discharges to light a fire between some stones.

Soon, the flames began to grow.

Jordan pulled out several cans of raid food and placed them near the fire to warm them up.

Chuck sat against one of the walls.

"Now this is a reconnaissance mission."

Carol let out a small laugh.

"Definitely."

Lena looked at Liam.

"Boss, are all your missions like this?"

"No."

Liam stared at the fire.

"Thankfully."

The gray humanoids remained on the other side of the fire.

They no longer looked as terrified.

Some of them were even watching the cans Jordan was heating with curiosity.

Their leader sat across from Liam.

After several minutes of silence, he spoke telepathically.

"Our people are called the Raxan."

Liam nodded.

"Raxan."

"Yes."

The leader looked at the fire.

"We don’t know what happened to our world."

Everyone listened attentively.

"We were in the middle of a war."

Liam remained silent.

"Against beings very similar to you."

The Raxan leader raised his gaze.

"They destroyed our world."

Lena frowned.

"They destroyed it?"

The leader nodded.

"Our world was a place of eternal night."

Liam remembered the lights he had seen at the beginning of the dungeon, the only source of light in all that darkness.

"We lived alongside the star fireflies."

The leader continued.

"Darkness was our home. But they came."

His voice became more serious.

"The other humanoids destroyed our world."

Liam looked at his body.

"And they looked like us?"

"Yes."

The leader slowly shook his head.

"That’s what we thought."

He looked at Liam.

"But now that I can observe you properly..."

He paused.

"I realize that you are a different kind of humanoid."

"What are they like?"

"They have red skin."

Liam slowly nodded.

"Then there are still more beings out there."

"Yes."

The leader lowered his gaze.

"And we don’t know where we are."

Liam remained silent for several seconds.

Then he spoke.

"When I heard that you treated us as if we were responsible for destroying your world..."

The Raxan raised their heads.

"...and that you were trying to drive us away from here, I figured you weren’t evil."

The leader stared at him.

"I thought you were simply protecting what belonged to you."

Liam looked at the others.

"Maybe we can talk."

The leader remained silent.

"Maybe we can reach an agreement."

Liam pointed toward the Raxan.

"And now that you’re weakened, I feel like we should protect you."

The leader’s eyes widened slightly.

"Why?"

Liam smiled.

"Because we want to make it out of this place alive too."

Lena, who had been observing the Raxan, raised a hand.

"I have a question."

The leader looked at her.

"Why are you so skinny?"

Lena pointed toward one of the smaller Raxan.

"You were much taller and more muscular before."

The leader looked at his own body.

"We don’t completely understand what’s happening either."

He looked at his hands.

"We aren’t used to being in a place like this."

"Because of the light?"

The leader nodded.

"We lived in darkness."

He looked toward the cave entrance, where the blue sky could still be seen.

"The star fireflies were part of our environment."

Liam remembered the tiny lights from that first area.

"Maybe this is some kind of adaptation."

The leader nodded.

"That’s what we believe."

Lena looked at his body again.

"Then does the sun weaken you?"

"We don’t know. We’ve never been this close to one before."

The leader shook his head.

"But our bodies are changing to adapt to this new environment."

Liam frowned.

’Our new environment...’

Then a question came to his mind.

A question he hadn’t considered until now.

Liam looked at the Raxan leader.

"Then..."

Everyone fell silent as Liam pointed outside.

"Is this not your world?"