The night in the dungeon wasn’t really so bad, all things considered. Sure, it was a bit lonelier than the throne room with its constant nocturnal parade of royals conducting secret business, but still, it was safe. I had a nice thick brick wall and a steel door between me and everything else. The only other living being in sight was Mug, who was cowering on the floor as far away from me as possible. The poor thing seemed scared out of his mind, muttering about how the prince would surely tear him limb from limb for leaving if he didn’t die in the next few days. Maybe, but first, we would have to face the demon of the mine.

  I used the time to examine the magical items that were currently in me. I hadn’t devoured them yet. The experience would be enough to get me to level 15, but I had a better idea. I was probably going to need mana for whatever I faced in the mines, and I wanted to have a ready supply of items to digest with Mana Eater to replenish me on the fly. Each weapon had about 200 mana—enough to keep me going for a while considering I had eight inside me.

  I had lied and told the king that I would help him track down whoever supplied the rebels with magical weapons, but now in the dungeon I realized that it might be helpful to follow through on that. Either they were a great enemy, which meant the kingdom—and more importantly, me—wasn’t safe until they were gone, or they were an ally who might supply me with enough mana to gain the levels and abilities needed to hightail it out of here. Either way, following through on my promise made sense. Me and my big mouth.

  ‘Hey Void, do you know anything about this demon in the mines? This wasn’t in any storyline?’ I asked, hoping for once Void would be useful without multiple prompts. It answered in typical Void fashion.

  NEGATIVE. I CAN ONLY GUIDE ON THAT WHICH IS KNOWN TO YOU. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT WHATEVER IS ATTACKING THESE MINES, YOU MUST SEE IT YOURSELF. THIS IS HOW KNOWLEDGE IS GENERALLY ACQUIRED.

  ‘Thanks, Void, you never fail to meet my expectations.’ I could swear I heard a computerized huffing in my head at my obvious sarcasm. I turned my attention over to Mug. He was watching me fearfully from between his fingers. Was this really my companion as I faced certain doom? Well, it could have been worse, I suppose. He probably felt the same about me. I realized that if we were riding into battle tomorrow, we would need to be able to communicate faster than the speed of note-passing. I asked Void for a menu of my Alchemical Recycling-eligible items and realized the solution was simpler than I thought. The mana welled inside me and a single earring popped out of my opening and landed at Mug’s feet; a fixed version of the broken earring of messaging that Vivi had fed me. He practically jumped out of his skin, but I simply sat and waited until, after many suspicious minutes, he scooted over to it and placed it on his ear.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  ‘Can you hear me? Is this thing on? Mic check, mic check? Hello?’ I asked, causing Mug to drop the earring and throw himself on the ground. “Oh, gods of earth, save me! The demon spirit speaks! It wants to invade my mind and drive me mad! It will make me gnaw off my fingers! It will make me soil my clothes! Eat my shoes! It will drown me in filth until I choke on it! Oh, gods of earth!” It took several more minutes, but eventually, he screamed himself out and placed the earring back to his ear.

  ‘Listen, Mug, I’m not gonna do, like, any of that. I’m sorry for roping you into this, but consider yourself roped. Tomorrow we are going to ride into this mine and fight… whatever it is mucking things up down there. We need to be able to communicate. Also, come on, there is no way I’m worse than Edvald.’ Mug sniffed and wiped his tears.

  “You do seem… a little nicer… than Master Edvald. Are you really not going to eat me or drown me in filth or drive me to madness or burn me with candles or make me eat sawdust or anything like that?” I tried to shake my head before remembering that I didn’t have one.

  ‘No. Also, what the hell? Is that what Edvald does? That guy needs therapy. No, I promise I won’t do any of that frankly disturbing stuff even if I could. But if we want to make it through the next week, we gotta work together. I don’t know what is coming, but my current body is a little limited, if you haven’t noticed. So wear that earring, listen to me, and we might just be able to keep breathing for a while longer. Well, I don’t breathe, but you know. Got it?’ Mug sniffed and approached me, so I used Polymorph 1 to make a small ‘arm’ with a lump of steel for a hand. He was startled but understood the intention and moved to shake my hand. It felt nice.

  “Master Lugenheld, I will do my best to not disappoint you or be a nuisance or drag you down with my wretched worthlessness. I hope that you will find me useful and not smite me for my insolence or uselessness.”

  'Er… sure. Okay, Mug. I will try to not be too much of a trashcan. Deal.'

  I had him throw everything that wasn’t nailed down into my trashcan, then triggered my Devour, having Void move the magical items to my internal storage and digesting the mundane items. I got a length of chain, some cloth, nails, and scrap wood and metal out of it. Nothing useful by itself, but it never hurt to have options. Eventually, Mug fell asleep on the stone floor, leaving me to contemplate my fate seeing as I didn’t sleep as a trashcan.

  Tomorrow was my first real adventure. It was scary, but also exciting? I couldn’t pretend I was that jazzed about facing a demon in the mines, but the idea of testing myself against an unknown foe with my life on the line? Okay, sure, it was very, very scary, but also filled me with a certain pride and glee. Every guy fantasizes about being strong enough, fast enough, skilled enough, just plain man enough to defeat a monster. Every boy wants to slay the dragon. Now I would get a chance to.

  Hopefully, it wasn’t my only one.