Reborn As A Ghost: Time To Build My Undead Army!-Chapter 1811: Floor 31, Corpusum
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Before departing, Maria evolved Nia's Dream Weapon spear, allowing it to manifest even more of its true power.
The spear gained elegant wing-like decorations, and its tip now resembled the sharp beak of a mighty bird.
Its golden hue deepened with streaks of green metal and transparent jewels, radiating far greater power.
"I feel a deeper connection with my Dream Weapon now," Nia said softly. "I guess maybe I can do this...?"
The spear suddenly dissolved into green and golden light, merging seamlessly into Nia's body.
To everyone's astonishment, she fused completely with her Dream Weapon and underwent a stunning transformation.
FLUOSH!
Green and golden feathers appeared along her arms, legs, and neck.
Her long hair transformed into flowing feathers, and two pairs of large, majestic wings unfurled from her back.
Above her head rose a golden horn shaped like a bird's sharp beak, gleaming like an ornate crown.
"Oh my! I-I changed quite a lot?!"
Her hands and feet had become powerful bird-like talons covered in scales and tipped with razor-sharp claws.
She exuded an immense aura of power. The bird folk sensed her presence from kilometers away, as though their goddess had descended among them.
"Wow, mama...! You've grown so strong! So cool!" Celes exclaimed, his eyes sparkling with pure admiration.
"Hehe, is that so?" Nia giggled, her voice warm and delighted.
When they moved to the next world, the people they had saved gathered to bid them farewell.
"Have safe travels!" Hawken called out.
"We'll be forever grateful for everything you did," the princess added.
"Indeed! If you ever need help, come to us!" the king said with a firm nod.
"I'll consider it," Maria replied, smiling as she waved. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
As she stepped into the portal, she felt the winds swirl around her gently for the first time—soft and grateful, unlike their previous fierce resistance.
"Are the Winds thanking me?"
She passed through the Heavenly Staircase and pierced another dimensional membrane.
The air grew humid and warm...
When she opened her eyes, red walls surrounded her on every side, and the floor felt strangely soft and wet.
"Hm?"
She looked around in confusion, then realized with a jolt—she was inside a living being!
"What in the world?! What is this crazy thing now!"
Everyone beside her stared in equal shock.
Melianna and Ferleen glanced around, their faces twisted in clear disgust.
"Welcome to Floor 31, Corpusum..." Ferleen sighed. "It is exactly as you think—this is a world... inside a gigantic being. Nobody knows how big it is or what it even looks like."
Maria gazed in stunned silence at her surroundings, then at the fleshy path leading onward.
"Whew, this is something..."
They walked forward, each step producing unsettling squelching sounds against the living floor.
Veins pulsed visibly with blood, threading through everything around them.
"This is... disgusting, and that's saying something—I usually eat raw meat," Lucifer muttered.
"It's icky," Nyx agreed quietly.
"I can't get used to this smell... Let's get out of here as quickly as possible!" Emeraldine pleaded.
At the end of the corridor, they emerged into an open area. A pool of green acid bubbled at the center, encircled by a small village built from bones and fleshy tendrils.
Among the Players stood strange creatures similar to the one named Splex that Maria had encountered before.
They were slimy beings. At first she had assumed they were slimes.
But as she observed their varied shapes, she realized they were actually enormous, human-sized cells, amoebas, bacteria, red blood cells, white blood cells, and more.
All of them could speak and move with purpose.
"Wow!" Nyx exclaimed, looking around in fascination. "I wonder how big this world is!"
"Nobody knows," Ferleen replied.
"It's not a nice place to stay. We moved out of here as quickly as we hunted some monsters to complete a quest," Melianna added.
"But if you don't get any, that's for the better," Ferleen laughed.
"Yeah..." Maria nodded, scanning the bizarre landscape. "Let's keep moving to the entrance. Where is it?"
"Farther away from here. We have to walk beside large blood rivers and then climb a bone mountain... It's weird, but it's there," Ferleen explained.
"Damn, okay," Maria said.
For a moment, as they traversed this grotesque world, Maria considered killing the being and turning it into a zombie.
The thought vanished almost instantly, it would be too cruel and entirely unnecessary.
Still, she wondered whether this entity even possessed a soul.
While walking and observing the strange vistas, she closed her eyes and extended her aura throughout the entire world.
She pushed deeper and deeper, searching for a soul.
She also wanted to gauge just how vast it truly was.
"It keeps going and going and going... It has no end?"
Confusion gripped her. Her eyes widened in disbelief.
As they made their way toward the entrance to the floor below, she continued seeking any response.
But there was... nothing.
It was an endless living being without a soul.
"What the hell is this?"
It was perhaps the most unsettling world she had ever visited.
She also noticed that no one harvested the flesh, bones, or blood.
The markets sold food made only from creatures that lived inside.
The reason was simple.
"Ah yeah, people that eat the meat or drink the blood go mad and then mutate into horrible monsters," Ferleen explained. "So nobody eats it. I've heard vampires once tried to set up a blood extraction plant here, but the blood drove them insane and they had to stop."
"Damn..." Maria fell silent.
They soon reached the portal.
It was better to leave quickly. Nothing threatened the inhabitants, and nothing held real value for her here.
Still, for a moment she pondered the mutations and what powers they might unlock.
"Hmmm..."
She decided against taking flesh but collected some blood from the river and stored it in her inventory.
Its mutagenic properties could strengthen her Undead. She sent the sample to Necroterra so they could experiment and seek the perfect mutation.
"Well, at least I got something out of this."
They spent barely an hour in that place before departing for the next world.
Passing through the dimensional membranes, they arrived in an instant.
And to everyone's surprise...
It wasn't a strange world at all.
In fact, it was a beautiful, perfectly normal one.
They emerged in the middle of a vast, rolling grassland.
In the distance stretched a great forest brimming with spirit energy. Emeraldine immediately sensed fairies and gnomes living within.
Even farther away, snow-capped mountains framed the horizon.
The sky was a clear blue, the clouds pure white, and the sun a warm yellow.
No abnormalities. It was...
"Finally, a normal fantasy world?!"
"Hah, yes, this is Runeterra!" Ferleen said cheerfully. "It's a world of Magicians and Sorcerers. In the distance lies the Magic City of Runecraft—many academies of magic are there. This is where we came to learn magic and awaken it."
"Yes, some of the teachers can be really annoying though!" Melianna added with a grimace. "But they're good at teaching!"
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