Frost let go of me and pushed himself slowly from the pond. Immediately I felt like I had lost my form.
It was as if acceptance of that request had wiped or rather transformed my existence.
"No"
Frost said outright staring at the curious master.
"No?"
the man was momentarily confused.
"No what, you haven't found the crystal? Come on, keep on looking," he said urging the boy back toward the pond.
But Frost did not return because now he was no longer Frost.
It was Frost and me.
I could now feel myself taking up the new body.
This felt like what should happen in the final arc of a mad anime.
Thing is, it was happening simply in the beginning of my rebirth as a dungeon...just when I was about to lose everything and face my Sethcond death.
an array of notification now blared all over Frost's eyes. But now those were my eyes as well.
'this is sick' I thought to myself... I could see Frost's freaking mind, his crazy ambitions, his stupid regrets, and he could see mine.
Well, to some extent of course, because there was still the aspect of his weak ability to assimilate foreign mana.
But I knew in a short while he would get there too.
He would see that I was indeed not even from this world, that I had been reincarnated as a dungeon.
Frost would be me and I would be him.
Well, I was him already.
"Get on with it, boy. I don't have any more patience and frankly, I don't think your friend has any more time. So you might want to hurry up."
"You might want to leave."
The boy looked petrified for a while there.
For a moment I thought he would tell me not to use his mouth, but I could see as much as he was struggling, he was beginning to realize how this would play out.
I was in control for now and he seemed to realize it would be the best thing to let me run this part of the show.
We were partners now, though not once, with an equal stake.
The master stared at the boy for a few seconds then laughed absurdly.
Frost slowly stepped out of the pod.
"Has something gotten into your brain, kid? You want to fight me? I assure you...."
But whatever he was going to assure him, I did not let him.
The first wave of energy moved between us, sweeping the master clean from his feet.
In a few seconds he was slammed with a death-sickening thud against the cave walls.
He should have at least collapsed but then I recalled this is a freaking E rank master.
I knew in cultivation terms he was still weak, but based on the opposition he was facing, he was more than equal to the task.
Not to mention, he had already ingested some sort of vial that seemed to have enhanced his capacity to handle damages and assaults.
He gave out a brief groan which was more like one of disappointment and less that of being hurt.
When he rose up I could see that what had happened was not lost on him as well.
"How could you be this foolish? Kid, you have signed your own death.
And with that he immediately ran further into the cave, towards where Frost's friend was still collapsed.
As soon as we had struck a deal, I had already freed the boy of the suffocating slime.
But he had not yet regained full consciousness.
Frost was quick enough to pursue, but he had no choice but to halt.
I did not overrule his decision, though my intention was to close that distance and continue my attacks.
Time for negotiation had ended.
"Stay back. If you come any closer, I will rip your friend's throat apart."
I didn't doubt for a while that he was more than capable of carrying out his threat.
I mean, he had already been prepared to murder the two boys as soon as he got possession of the crystal, this setback had most likely infuriated him even more and made him even more murderous.
"Let the kid go and I might spare your life." I said just to make frost see that I had tried.
"With a few broken bones, of course"
the master smiled.
" See, it's not you talking, it's the core. You stupid boy, you have bonded yourself to a dungeon. Do you honestly think that it will let you go now? You have signed your own death warrant."
"Yeah, yeah, you have said that old man. So how about you let the kid go?"
"I'm not naive. You first unbind yourself and I will let them go, both of them ." he warned as he tightened his choke on the boy.
"Sorry, no deal." And I'm afraid there's going to be more than one death here.
"I'm not a freaking apprentice, you know. I'm a master".
"an Erank master?" I spat "most likely it's a self-given title."
"Who the hell named you a master at E rank you shit"
The man grinned but I could see the truth behind his feigned smile.
"doesn't matter. The fact is that I will rip this boy's throat and then I will proceed to wreak havoc to the body you are occupying right now. If you think taking me will be easy, I assure you it won't."
I could feel frost Petrified at the threat and I knew it was what the man hoped to achieve.
He wanted to scare the boys body to becoming hostile and uncooperative to my command.
" That's fancy talking for someone hiding behind a helpless teenager."
"Yeah, it's called stray..." .
That was the oldest trick in the book.
Let your enemy think you're in the negotiating process then wip the shit out of them just when they're in the middle of trying to deliver a punchline.
That is exactly what I did to the master.
To be honest, I did not give much fuck about Frost's friend.
I had been willing to kill him anyway.
My only business was with the Frost.
Without warning I shot toward them in another burst of crazy speed.
The impact was bone crushing.
Each of them fell in a different direction.
I did not give the master an advantage this time.
There's one thing that dawned to me here.
He might be an E ranker, but my bond with Frost had triggered something weird.
I had not even received any notification telling me our new power status or rank.
It was just a new form of existence with only a few notification telling us that Bond had been formalized.
But boy was it tough.
Not too much, but based on the current situation, I did not believe the master stood a chance.
And I wasn't about to give him more time to find out.
With another burst of speed, I closed the distance between us.
Just as a dagger came dancing in a lightning speed from one of his concealed pockets, I felt it go clean into Frost's belly and a pang of pain shot through his nerves.
I didn't care because now my hands had gone around the master's throats.
"I did warn you, I would have just taken a few bones..." I said calmly like the dagger buried in my vessel was but a scratch.
"Now I'll take this."
With a clean move, I tore out the throat and both his gut and tongue came out spiraling down.
I could see blood seeping from both Frost's belly and his chest being covered by blood that was spurting from the falling master.
But nothing could beat the glee inside me.
At that moment, Frost's voice finally succeeded to dominate my overwhelming effect.
"I'm fucking stabbed. I'm dying. You idiot, what did you do that for?
" oh please, quit being a fucking a cry baby. It's just a dagger.
" JUST A DAGGER driven straight into my belly. Ouch."
He was cut off as I pulled the knife clean out of his stomach.
" You better get used to this kind of situation, kid. This is not child play, you know"