Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 328 MEDUSA

Inside the trial after the Black door was another long hall. This one was far wider than the last though. About 100 feet across there was a large blue pool ahead of us. 

“I’m assuming we must move past this water?” Hancock asked. As I moved to the side wall she walked to the water’s edge. Kicking a small rock into the pool she noted, “I know I can swim, but I don’t trust this water. It feels like there are monsters deep down.” 

“We won’t be swimming,” I said. Feeling the wall I felt the trick brick. I decided to wait to push it in as I moved to the water’s edge. “Care for a stroll?” Instead of stepping out onto the water though I stepped onto the wall. Using chakra to stick myself to it I stood horizontal with the ground. 

“Of course,” Hancock said. Moving next to me she and I held hands as we walked over the water. 

“You get the skill too?” I asked. She nodded, her long black hair nearly touching the water as we walked at a leisurely pace in case there were traps. I could see the end of the pool far ahead so I wasn’t too concerned. 

“I must admit, this is proving rather lackluster,” Hancock mumbled. 

“I…agree,” I said. “I used to love these stories because they were always a weak to impossible strong tale. But we are mildly strong already. I’m sure it will prove difficult later.” 

“I hope so,” she admitted with a yawn. She eyed me as we walked. “I am glad you appear more yourself.” 

“Do I?” I asked with a smile. “I sure as hell feel better with most of that weight off. But I’m not perfect.” 

“Oh no, you need to stay like this,” she said. “I would prefer to be the skinny one in our relationship.”

“What? You get to be the skinny and beautiful one?” 

“Yes, they don’t call me the most beautiful woman in the world for nothing?”

“I assumed you killed all the prettier women?”

“Ha! I did not give myself that name,” she said. “But yes, I would have. I nearly killed your Robin and Nami when I met them.”

“They are gorgeous,” I said, missing them. The conversation lulled and we passed over the last of the water. 

“Perfect,” I said. “Time to turn around.” 

“What? Why?” She asked.

“We have to use one of the many cheats of the protagonist,” I said. Walking us back, she didn’t seem to care much. Mostly happy to be together as we walked. 

“What is this MP on our status screens?” She eventually asked. 

“That is related to the power system of Second Life Ranker. I don’t remember what it is exactly. But it should be magic. So the MP is short for Mana Points.” 

“What could the protagonist do?” 

“What couldn’t he do?” I asked, struggling to remember what his power entailed. “He got all these cheat items, but I don’t think mana becomes important for a while. Let’s ignore it for now. Focus on our physical.”

“I don’t know, old me in this world was obsessed with magic.”

“Like Harry Potter?”

“Oh yes. In between model jobs she would spend her time reading since my mother was so domineering,” Hancock said. “Oh my god, could we go there? To Harry Potter?”

“Maybe? Past me might have picked that as a world.”

“I would love that,” she whispered as we jumped off the wall and landed back where we started near the black door. “Now why are we here?” 

“Well, each trap gives stats. I wanted to at least pass this easy test.” I pointed at the pool. “But something I remembered was the protagonist skipped that water entirely.” I moved to the wall and pushed in the trick brick. Bricks sliding into the floor a new path appeared. “I figure we might as well get all the cool stuff before he does.” 

Hancock clapped excitedly as we headed in. 

“Dungeons are those places you spoke of?” Hancock asked as we began to descend a set of stairs. “Why are they special?”

“I’m guessing more than one group can find and participate in it. Kind of like an area where everything is reset when someone else tries to challenge it,” I said. I guessed I wasn’t ruining the protagonist's luck. It sucked I still couldn’t remember his name, but he would be easy to recognize when I did meet him. 

As the stairs ended we came into a large cavern. I was surprised to see the walls sparkling golden light though. “Do you see that?” I asked, moving to the wall. 

“What?” Hancock asked as I stopped by the rocky wall. 

“It’s sparkling,” I said.

“The white mold?” Hancock asked. I frowned and used Identification on the glittering wall. 

“It appears white to you?” I asked. Hancock nodded. I remembered my nature description. 

“Cool,” I said. I guessed easier to spot meant they would sparkle like stars. Taking my pack off I began scraping as much of the White Moss as I could into a small bottle I had brought. 

“What?”

“No idea, but this is probably important later,” I said. We continued forward, the area dark. Neither of us missed the large centipede as it moved from it’s hole in the ground. Both of us stiffening, Hancock drew a long knife from her side as I pulled out both of my daggers. 

The red centipede moved silently toward us. Climbing on the wall it was easy enough to see with our Spiritual Energy. When it was above us I hit the air, making the cave shake as spiderweb fractures appeared against my fist. The rock the centipede was holding onto broke off and Hancock coated her weapon in Haki. Slicing up she practically bisected the large centipede down the middle. 

The monster’s legs twitching it dropped to the ground and we began to move on, but then it began to sparkle to me. Moving closer I noticed a bright spot in its chest. Bending down I carved out the beast’s heart. Lit up to my All Seeing Nature, the ID said the heart was used in Alchemy as well. It had a Rare rarity rating. I couldn’t help but wrap both hearts of the centipede in the blanket and throw into my pack. 

“Not the blanket,” Hancock whined. 

“Don’t worry. I have plenty,” I assured. 

“Where?” She asked. 

“Around. It’s a surprise,” I said. She grumbled but we were on our way. 

Running into bats, lizards, smaller centipedes, and a few other minor monsters, we killed all until we came to a cave filled with blue ants. All of them about a foot or 2 tall there were large white ant eggs littering the walls around them. 

“This is going to be messy,” Hancock noted, but drew her blade. 

“Kill them all,” I said and we started. The ants weren’t overly strong and a stab into the eggs made them burst. We got credit for every kill and continued on. As the blue ant bloodbath continued on, I received a new notification. 

I guessed this was from when I made shadow clones to help those injured in Block A. The last notification was the most worrying, I didn’t like being watched while I was still weak. I pushed it out of my mind as we continued to kill. Eventually we got to the big bad boss Queen Ant. 

Over 9 feet tall the winged queen attacked us, but with me on one side and Hancock on the other we cut away her legs and made short work of the giant ant. 

“I am starting to get tired, husband,” Hancock said, annoyed. 

“Let’s push through, babe,” I said. “I would like to get to the open worlds before we stop.” Hancock sighed but nodded. Nothing too sparkly on the ant queen we moved past only to see a door built into the cave wall. A path leading further into the cave beside it, Hancock and I shared a look but headed for the out of place door in the wall. 

Taking the lead I opened the old wood door and stepped in. Inside was a large room. 2 braziers lit with green flames spewing out, behind them against the wall was a stone statue that glowed red. 

“What is this?” Hancock asked as she walked between the braziers toward the statue. 

“I’m guessing the Shrine of the Vampire Monarch,” I said. 

“You are so helpful, husband,” she mumbled, but her eyes were focused on the statue. “Why is this statue familiar?” 

“It looks like Medusa,” I said, and the statue did. The stone figure was carved into a beautiful woman. She had slitted snake eyes, but vampire fangs sticking out of her mouth. Her hair was a mass of dozens of stone snakes all hissing at us soundlessly. In her fist was a red handled dagger with a blue glowing curved blade. 

“Medusa?” Hancock asked. 

“Probably more of a Western myth,” I noted. “Medusa was…Greek? Anyway she had snakes for hair and if you look into her eyes-” 

“You turn to stone, right,” Hancock finished, mesmerized by the statue. “That sounds an awful lot like me.” 

“Uh yeah, true,” I said. I tried to use Identification but nothing showed up. 

“Can I try for the weapon?” Hancock asked, stopping herself from reaching out. 

“Sure,” I said. “This feels a little familiar. Maybe it’s important.” The protagonist didn’t die in Second Life Ranker so I didn’t think it was too dangerous. 

Hancock reached out for the dagger and took it. No traps clicked. My mind was focused on the Spiritual Energy, just in case. Pulling the dagger back the statue didn’t move, but the dagger pulsed Spiritual Energy as Hancock’s arm became coated in a black aura. 

“What’s happening?” I asked, feeling her fear. 

She gritted her teeth in pain, but hissed, “notification.” I brought up her notifications. 

Long seconds passed as the black aura moved from the dagger to her arm. Hancock yelled out in pain. About ready to step in she received another message. 

“Woah,” I said, watching as the dagger turned black and disintegrated. The Spiritual Energy of it slowly moved into Hancock as the blade disappeared into her right arm. “That’s amazing, babe.” 

Hancock wasn’t listening though. Turning away the black aura disappeared from her arm. It took her a moment of stunned silence to somehow understand the skill. As she yelled in glee a large black jaw appeared from her arm. The jaw made of the black aura that was coating her arm before, I could feel the same Spiritual Energy from her arm as the dagger had. 

“This is amazing,” Hancock said as the jaw disappeared from her arm. Like some summonable weapon the jaw disappeared and reappeared, clamping down on empty air. 

“It is,” I noted. A little jealous. I was upset I couldn’t remember if the protagonist had the same skill. I assumed he did, but I could not recall how he passed this test. The test felt like it was made for Hancock. 

“Look,” she said, showing me the back of her right hand there was a black tattoo of the dagger imprinted on her. 

“That’s awesome. Shall we test it out?” 

She nodded happily and we made our way out of the room. More blue ants appearing it wasn’t long until Hancock was calling the black maw. The jaw bit down on the ants and the beasts turned from blue to gray as they were sucked dry. 

“I feel so much more awake now,” Hancock said as we continued down the hall. 

“Good. Let’s kick some ass,” I said as we continued on.