"Who did it! How could such a weak attack possibly kill him! Without the Hero, what meaning is there for me, the Demon King, to exist anymore!!!"
"No, he definitely isn't dead. Only the Demon King can kill the Hero, and only the Hero can defeat the Demon King!"
"But what if some monster was playing tricks behind the scenes?"
The Slime Queen herself understood that within this Underground Mine, every blade of grass, every tree, every beast, and every insect was under her control. The Geo Slimes sent to assassinate Lu Mings Clone would absolutely never betray her.
However, filled with anger and the fear of death, the Slime Queen just needed an excuse to vent. She needed to heal her panic with the wails and blood of monsters.
"There is a traitor among you!"
"We are innocent!"
"I don't eat beef!"
Thus, to vent her emotions and to kill the chicken to warn the monkeys, the Slime Queen cruelly slaughtered all the monsters in the five levels of the Underground Mine and then devoured their corpses completely.
Grinding her teeth and sucking blood, slaughtering monsters like flies—this was the most accurate and vivid depiction of the Slime Queen.
"Send down the order: no monster is allowed to kill any human who trespasses into the Underground Mine without authorization. Otherwise, they are my enemy, and I will let them know that the title of Queen is not due to my 'benevolence'!"
"Bloody Queen was the title given to me by the enemies in the Underground Mine of the previous generation. Believe me, you do not want to know the origin of this title!"
...
Drip!
Drip!
In the dark, abandoned mine, water flowed deep beneath the rock walls, gathering into small pools. Starshrooms grew tenaciously on the damp rock surfaces.
The Starshroom was a fungus with extremely tenacious vitality, named for the shape of its cap resembling a five-pointed star.
In the harsh environment of the Underground Mine, Starshrooms growing and propagating over large areas were the most common flora here, as well as an important food source for many weak monsters.
This Mushroom had a characteristic: after it matured, the center of its cap would split open, emitting a yellow powder containing the spores of the Starshroom.
A terrifying legend circulated among the intelligent monsters of the Underground Mine: the spores scattered after the Starshroom matured possessed the same tenacious life force as the mother body. Once inhaled, they would absorb the host's flesh and blood to grow, finally breaking out of the host's back to completely turn them into a puppet of the Starshroom.
It was said that in the world above ground, there was a wild boar unfortunately parasitized by a Starshroom.
However, to most adult monsters, this was merely a trick to scare the young ones. A Mushroom growing out of one's back? How could that be possible!
Many monsters guessed that the origin of this terrifying legend was that the spores emitted when the Starshroom matured easily caused adult monsters to sneeze. To prevent the playful little monsters from bringing this Mushroom back to their caves, which would lead to the cave being overrun by Starshrooms the following year, the adult monsters united to fabricate this story.
"Achoo!"
"Achoo!"
"This damned Mushroom, I hate this yellow powder!"
The Dark Geo Vishap constantly cursed the culprit while digging out a cave buried by stones. The culprit was constantly spreading pollen due to its maturity, filling the entire cave with a 'yellow mist'.
The Dark Geo Vishap's sharp claws cut through the massive stone block before it as easily as slicing tofu. It had a premonition that a huge secret was hidden within this deeply concealed cave.
As a member of the Geovishap clan, closely connected to the Azhdaha, the Dark Geo Vishap had recently awakened a special ability: the power to gain the memory of a stone by touching it.
Initially, the Dark Geo Vishap was dissatisfied with this awakened ability because it believed this power did not enhance its combat strength, nor did it increase its chances of defeating the Slime Queen.
But upon thinking about the mysterious origins of the Slime Queen, the Dark Geo Vishap rarely used its brain and began to ponder.
"If I can find the oldest stone in the Underground Mine, I can definitely find out the origin of the Slime Queen. Perhaps I can even discover her weakness!"
The Dark Geo Vishap was not an indigenous creature of the Underground Mine. It was originally an ordinary Geovishap that accidentally entered the world of the Underground Mine on one occasion. As an outsider, it was ostracized at first, which was also why its attitude towards its own subordinates was so terrible.
The Dark Geo Vishap's greatest virtue in life was holding grudges. When it was young, it accidentally entered the Underground Mine while trying to sneak attack and take revenge on the adult members of its own kind who had bullied it.
It would retaliate one by one against the enemies who bullied it when it was weak.
As for the Slime Queen, who had always made it suffer setbacks and held deep malice towards it, the Dark Geo Vishap had always wanted to find an opportunity for revenge.
However, the creatures of the Underground Mine were extremely tight-lipped about the Slime Queen's origins; they knew nothing when asked.
And today, taking advantage of the Slime Queen falling into a rage and being busy punishing the monsters on the fifth level, thus having no time to pay attention to it, the Dark Geo Vishap took the opportunity to head to this heavily sealed cave. Its instinct told it that the oldest rock was inside.
As a favored child among the Geovishap clan, the Dark Geo Vishap possessed superior digging abilities compared to its kin. It was like a tunnel boring machine; no matter how hard the rock, it could not stop its progress.
Rumble!
Finally, thanks to the Dark Geo Vishap's efforts, this cave sealed by dozens of giant stones saw daylight again.
The Dark Geo Vishap was overjoyed. It eagerly rummaged through everything in the cave. It discarded Mora and gems as if they were dirt, but it looked at the dirty, dusty crystal ball with the gaze of someone who had found a treasure.
"Haha, I finally found it."
The Dark Geo Vishap immediately stopped hesitating, pressed the crystal against its forehead, closed its eyes, and began to communicate with the oldest, best-remembering stone in the Underground Mine.
"Wake up, wake up! Hand over your memories and let me see!!!"
Seeing that it could not escape, the crystal ball had no choice but to obediently surrender its memories.
The moment it accepted the crystal ball's memories, the Dark Geo Vishap's pupils contracted, its face filled with disbelief.
"So that's the origin of that guy? It's really... laughable... Ah!"
"So I'm just a minor BOSS in this Hero Trial? Why is that guy the final Great BOSS! Even if its strength is just a little bit stronger than mine, it's just a little bit smarter than me, and has just a few more subordinates than me, but..."
The Dark Geo Vishap became less confident the more it spoke. The gap between it and the Slime Queen was indeed quite large.
Now it finally understood why the Slime Queen was so happy when she learned the Purple-Winged Bat was dead, and so furious when she heard the human who killed the Purple-Winged Bat was dead.
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