Sorry if I surprised you guys, but I felt like something was amiss with this chapter, so I had to update it a bit. For your curiosity, I only changed the last third of the whole chapter.

Chapter 6
Nightmare

"Let's end the training for tonight." After what felt like three or four hours of practice, Alice exhaled a long sigh after she declared that. After doing her best to tutor Luka on the very basics of swordsmanship, she felt a bit burnt out. Also, it was getting quite late now. The moon was visible on the cloudy sky, and the sound of crickets was particularly loud at this time.

As for Luka, even though these past five years didn't teach him anything in regards to swordsmanship, they had prepared him to endure through all of the training that Alice put him into. Still, that didn't mean that he was 'just a bit tired'. In fact, the words that just left Alice's mouth felt like the Goddess Ilias herself had specifically called his name.

Saying that this training was exhausting was an understatement, he felt his limbs almost giving up on him, as seen at how he collapsed on his knees as soon as the training officially ended. His face and back were covered in sweat, his muscles ached a lot… Both were familiar sensations that he would never get used to when they came out at the same time.

However, if he was told to go through this kind of training once again, he would definitely agree.

This training may look cruel from an outsider's point of view, but Luka definitely learned stuff from it. And even though Alice acted preposterously while she taught him how to really wield a sword, she was also kind enough to give him a basic technique to practice on, so that he would feel progress on his swordsmanship every time he used it in a fight.

Demon Decapitation, that was the name of the technique. It used the movements of the bust in conjunction with speed to strike at a vital point, the throat; and along with Luka's small stature, he would have an easier time executing this technique without being intercepted as he can just charge in and use it at the right moment.

According to Alice, there was a Dark Elf named Zack who gave fame to this basic technique by using it to cut off the heads of 100 people. It was a truly marvelous achievement according to her, by using such a basic technique to win against so many enemies. It was as marvelous as it was morbid for Luka to hear, though.

He thought that using the word 'Decapitation' for a technique would make it sound cool, such as his 'Spinning Decapitation', but when he learned the technique, he truly understood the meaning behind that word. Cutting off heads, killing people through decapitation…

Fortunately, by the time he learned the technique, he was already exhausted, so he didn't think too much about it.

Exhausted, Luka directly crawled back to the campfire, where Alexander was waiting for them to finish training while sitting on his backpack. He saw everything, and frankly, Alexander was impressed by the rate at which Luka was learning.

Maybe the five years he spent getting beaten up weren't for naught…

To assist the tired Luka, Alexander went for the former's backpack and retrieved his sleeping bag, handing it out to Luka.

"Thank you… Oh, by the way, there's another one there, give it to Alice." Luka instructed Alexander as he took his own sleeping bag so he could finally rest his tired body. Meanwhile, after Alexander picked up the second sleeping bag in Luka's backpack, his gaze wandered to Alice, who was simply staying where she was before to teach Luka, but this time she was looking deep into the forest near the road.

"Hey Alice." At his call, said Lamia twisted her head in his direction. Alexander waved the rolled-up sleeping bag in his hand as he told her: "I've got your sleeping bag here."

After a second of silence, Alice refused the offer. "I don't want to sleep inside something that tiny…" Once she said that, her gaze wandered on the closest trees before she approached the biggest one in the immediate surroundings. "I'll just hang on here."

When she finished talking, Alice slowly coiled around the tree and climbed it up with her snake tail, until her figure was barely visible through the leaves and branches.

Alexander merely shrugged at her decision as he put out the campfire. Using the natural light left in the night, he found his way back to his bag and pulled out his own sleeping bag. Well, rather than a 'bag', it was more of a portable mattress with a blanket included. Just like Alice, he also found sleeping bags to be restrictive, but he wasn't that weird to start climbing up trees to sleep in there.

He calmly laid on the unfurled mattress with his long black hair already loosened, and released a relaxed sigh. Looking up in the sky, he stared at the bright stars that were visible between the black clouds covering half of the starry firmament.

It has been a while since he had done it, but he's going to sleep outside again.

"Hey, Alex." Luka suddenly called out, bringing Alexander's attention to him. He hummed, showing that he was listening, and Luka gave out his question. "Where will you go after reaching Iliasburg?"

"After reaching Iliasburg, huh." Alexander repeated those words as he thought about his next destination. "Well, I was thinking about going to Midas Village first, using the opportunity to also visit Happiness Village, which is in the middle of the way."

"Oh, I see." Luka replied in understanding. "...Well, I hope you can find your dad soon."

"Thank you, although I doubt it will be anytime soon. If a whole guild specialized in gathering information can't find him, it will be very hard to find him. I just hope that I don't have to go to Hellgondo… Imagine if we meet there per chance, that would be hilarious."

A chuckle escaped from Luka's mouth at the thought. "Yeah, I'll be there to fight the Monster Lord while you're still going to look out for your father in one of the most dangerous places in the world."

"Hey." All of a sudden, Alice's relaxed voice came from the tree where she was sprawled on. "Do you really think a human can just go to Hellgondo as they please? There is no way your dad can ever be there."

"I don't know… He's plenty strong." Alexander replied at Alice's disbelief on the idea being remotely true. "He was the commander of the Grand Noah Army's first regiment before disappearing, and also the champion of the Colosseum situated in the city. Whether it was man or monster, he defeated them all."

"You do realize that the monsters in Hellgondo are completely different from the ones that could possibly live in Grand Noah, don't you? He's going to get split apart if he ever steps foot in there."

"There were also particularly strong monsters in the Colosseum, though." Alexander rebuked, trying to defend his father's image as a strong warrior. "He easily beat Minotaurs, Slimes, Lamias, even Succubi…"

"A Succubus in a Colosseum?" Alice asked with a hint of surprise, interrupting Alexander. "Why would a Succubus go to the Colosseum?"

"No idea, but she was quite the good fighter though, always coming up in second place. I couldn't even see her movements, but my dad could still see through where she would go, and defeated her."

"..." Alice remained silent for a bit before a strange question came from her. "What's the name of the Succubus?"

"Kyuba." Alexander replied immediately after. He didn't know why she asked that question, but he didn't really care about anything this late in the night.

"Hey Alex, you never talked about your mother." Luka suddenly said, wishing to keep this conversation ongoing.

"Oh." Alexander merely replied half-heartedly. "Well… From what I heard, she died shortly after I was born, so I grew up only with my father. But even if that was the case, my father still did his best to make me happy."

"You really look up to your father, huh?" Luka muttered in a particularly somber tone. Noticing that, Alexander followed up with his own question. "What about your father, Luka? What kind of person was he? I know that your mother was a very good person, but you never talked about your father too."

"..." Luka remained silent for a few seconds, but Alexander could feel the anger within him sparking for an instant before he spoke. "He's just an idiot, an idiot doing idiotic things until his last breath."

Alexander was taken aback from Luka's judgment of his own father, never expecting him to ever act in this way. He turned around, looking right at Luka as he asked him with curiosity: "Did something happen between you two?"

"No…" With an exhausted tone, Luka replied. "Nothing happened between us, he did it all on his own. Anyway, he died before my mother did, so it couldn't be said that we shared any relationship at all, except for the one in our blood."

"I see." Alexander nodded in understanding before he gazed at the dark silhouette in the tree. "What about you, Alice?"

"Hmm?" From the tree, a humm was heard, which prompted Alexander to elaborate. "You said that you would follow us to see Luka's dreams crash down on him, but why would you even consider that decision? Don't you have places to be in?"

An hesitant silence followed that question. Upon hearing nothing back, Alexander simply gave up on digging for more information from Alice out of curiosity and was about to sleep, before he heard her speak up.

"I wanted to see the world, so I set out a few days ago. Since you two were already prepared to travel, I thought that I may as well take the opportunity to move around while also watching this disappointment of a swordsman failing miserably. Basically, killing two birds with one stone."

"I won't fail…" Luka's voice was as thin as a whisper, but neither of the other two members commented on it.

"Hmm, I understand… Well, I hope that your trip through the Ilias Continent won't be too bad." Alexander jokingly told Alice, who replied back in a sarcastic tone. "I'm already prepared to be disappointed."

"Heh." Alexander gave a small chuckle before he turned his body around, laying on his back once again. "Well, I'm going to sleep now. Good night, guys."

"Good night." Luka returned it with a quick reply, while Alice simply hummed back and gave a half-hearted comment. "Be careful."

"?" Alexander paused on his thoughts as he looked at where Alice was supposed to sleep, not understanding why she would say that. However, even though he wasn't as exhausted as Luka, who immediately collapsed as soon as the conversation ended, he was still quite sleepy.

He didn't try to make sense of Alice's weird way to say 'Good night' and simply closed his eyes, finally having the proper opportunity to rest his legs after the long walk. It's a bit hard to do so when you are just sitting, after all…

Soon, though, he would wish he paid attention to Alice's last words.

He didn't know how much time passed since he closed his eyes, considering he was more focused on sleeping, but he felt a pair of eyes really focused on him with a particularly lustful intent. He couldn't really sleep with that, especially when the source of that gaze was slithering closer to him.

Was it Alice? Did she suddenly feel horny or what? The lower bodies of Lamias are quite the turn off for him, and he doubted that Luka would go along anyway if asked, so he will have to refuse whatever request she wanted to ask him for.

Alexander opened his eyes again, feeling particularly tired just from doing that action, and looked behind him where Alice was supposed to be.

Unfortunately, the slithering creature at his side wasn't Alice.

"Wh-" By the time Alexander's gears clicked together, the monster lifted her large lower body and smothered Alexander with a pile of sticky and dense jelly-like substance. The monster in question had the upper body of a noblewoman with black curly hair, pale skin, and dressed in a dark dress covered in sticky substance, while the rest of her consisted of a massive slug-shaped tail also covered in mucus.

She was clearly a Slug, a type of monster who is infamous for stealing crops from human settlements. However, it could be said that Alexander truly got the short end of the stick, because the one currently slithering on his face was a High Slug.

As mentioned multiple times, strong monsters will eventually weaken when they step into the blessed lands of Ilias Continent. However, that counts only for their magical abilities.

High Slugs don't use their magical power anyway, but they're way worse than normal Slugs, who simply use their mucus to pleasure their prey. In what case they're worse? Well, their mucus is highly acidic, making them one of the voracious monsters living in the Ilias Continent.

So, one could just imagine what Alexander was going through by having the crushing weight of an acidic slug sitting on his face, as one can see from his legs that were kicking around, trying to pull himself off from her…

What about Luka, you may ask. Well, he's going through a similar experience, but he was lucky to be targeted by two normal Slug monsters rather than a carnivorous High Slug. Because of his body being already weakened after the exercise with Alice, he couldn't even struggle as he was overwhelmed with the immortal pleasure of being between two molds of soft and warm flesh.

"Fufufu, enjoy it while you can." The High Slug standing on Alexander said, feeling the weak movements of Alexander through her elastic lower body. Meanwhile, she spread her acidic mucus through the blanket covering his body, which quickly melted both the blanket and his clothes underneath, leaving only his naked body carrying a few burned spots due to her mucus.

The High Slug licked her lips before she downed on his dick, enjoying both the taste of his crotch on her mouth and the taste of the human flesh below her slug body. But while she felt like she was in Heaven as she was tasting the familiar and delicious taste of human meat, Alexander was going through the worst of the tortures.

Alexander continued to struggle, but as he was now, there was no way for him to get out of the High Slug, and he also felt the strength of his body leaving, replaced with an abnormally great sensation of pleasure that shouldn't have any business being there since he was getting his flesh being digested out by the acidic mucus of the High Slug.

But even when his body was being overwhelmed with a substantial amount of pleasure, his mind had been completely overtaken by a suffocating despair.

What was going on? Why was he being devoured by a High Slug? What did he do to her? Why did she come here so late in the night? Why did she ambush him in such a cruel manner?

Many questions shot out through Alexander's mind, but he couldn't answer almost any of them. How can he find a solution to any of those questions when the situation they were based on was completely unfair?

Even though his face was completely melted off, leaving only part of his muscles and his skull out in the open, or more like in contact with the High Slug's mucus as it was slowly digesting its way through his orifices to reach for his brain.

But even then, his thoughts birthed by the despair of slowly dying out were as clear as ever.

What did he do to deserve this? He just wanted to look out for his father's shadow, he wasn't like Luka, who wanted to fight the Monster Lord. Was he really that unlucky to be caught as a prey for a High Slug who liked the taste of human flesh?

Is there even a point answering any of those questions if he is going to die now? Why is he still seeking an answer even at this time?

Because…

Because he is angry. What he truly wanted was not to seek answers to any of his questions, but to get out of this dangerous situation and… And then what?

What would he do if he came out from the High Slug's acidic slug tail?

'Kill her… I want to kill her! I want to kill her! SHE HAS TO DIE! SHE DESERVES TO DIE! I DON'T CARE IF THAT'S HER NATURE AS A VORACIOUS MONSTER, SHE HAS TO DIE!'

"...!" A wave of lightness assaulted the wrathful Alexander as he lifted his body up, breaking every restriction on the way. He didn't know where this kind of strength came from, as his focus was all on the High Slug that wanted to devour his flesh for her own pleasure.

Taking this opportunity of freedom, he immediately scrambled on his feet as he sat up from his bed, just to take notice of a particular detail.

There are no Slug monsters in the surrounding area.

There was no High Slug melting down his flesh and his clothes, which were still on him, and Luka was sleeping peacefully at the other side of the extinguished campfire.

Alexander touched his face, and felt that it was as smooth as ever, untouched by any kind of digestive fluid. He didn't feel the smooth surface of his skull, his lips were still there just like his cheeks and his eyelids, and the weird pleasure he felt before felt more like a phantom sensation to him.

'Was it just a nightmare?' Alexander thought as he realized that nothing truly happened. Was the pleasure he felt just some weird-ass wet dream? How could that be a wet dream? That was just disgusting to think about… Who would like for their first time to be with a carnivorous High Slug? He may as well hire a prostitute, or if it was necessary, ask Alice about it considering she is already here and also capable of transforming into a human.

As he relaxed on the bed again, he exhaled a long sigh to calm down his anger. What a terrible way to start his journey…

Taking notice of some movement near him, he glanced to his left to see that Luka had been shaken awake as well. Was he also having a nightmare? Alexander didn't try to pry on him, he just wanted to sleep again. Hopefully, he won't have to face the same dream again, he had enough of staying awake in the night.

However, it doesn't seem like he will, because he just felt a pair of lustful eyes landing on his head from behind. This time, he didn't try to guess the identity of the person who was staring at him as he quickly grasped the lumberjack ax at his side that Hans gifted to him.

He didn't pick his spear because he didn't care, as long as he had a weapon on his hands. It's not like he had some favoritism over which weapon to use like Luka, he was fine with anything sharp and solid enough in this case.

Turning around, he tried to look at the source of the gaze, but he didn't see anybody in the forest, and the lustful gaze his instincts were warning him about also disappeared without any trace.

There's a monster, that's for sure.

For a moment there, Alexander cursed himself for his lack of attentiveness. They were sleeping in the wild now, for the Goddess' sake, so they should take the proper precautions against possible nocturnal monsters hunting for them in the night.

If he remembered correctly, the territory between Iliasville and Iliasburg should be infested with Slimes, Slugs, Imps, and a few Mandragoras. There could be more, but not only were monsters in Ilias Continent way too little in number, it was exceedingly rare to meet any monster out of those four and their relatives.

The only ones that don't normally act in the night are the Imps, so he can take them out of the equation. Mandragoras never move around as they sleep for most of the year, so he can also disregard them, leaving out only the Slimes and Slugs.

Both are monsters that can act in the night, even though Slimes just don't need to rest since they are entirely made of jelly, so it was hard to guess which kind of monster may be trying to ambush him.

However, he had the feeling that it would be Slugs… Maybe the dream he just had was influencing his decision? But as he noticed a particularly foul smell, he finally confirmed that there wasn't any Slime hiding behind the trees.

It was just Slugs.

"Huh? You're awake too, Alex?" Luka, noticing Alexander moving a bit, casually looked at his direction when he saw his friend still awake.

"There are monsters." Those were the only words Alexander spoke to Luka, but they seemed to have an immediate effect on him as Luka shook himself awake as he scrambled back up on his feet and picked up his sheathed sword. "Monsters?! Where are they?!"

Alexander merely stood up on his feet and pointed into the forest with his ax. Luka, seeing that, also turned in the direction that Alexander was looking at, and took notice of three women creeping out of the trees they were hiding on, knowing that they had been found out.

Meanwhile, Alice, who was awake for the whole time, simply threw a glance at Alexander and left a small comment that nobody heard.

"He's really perceptive."