I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 432: The Curse of Immortality

Gauss looked left and right.The devastated ground around him showed no signs of any living, moving creature.

If he hadn't been certain he clearly heard a familiar voice speaking just moments ago, he would have thought he was hallucinating.

"Are you still alive?"

Gauss tentatively transmitted a voice using his mental energy.

"Yes."

The voice continued to come from beside him.

This time, Gauss was absolutely certain he hadn't misheard.

"Then where are you? I don't see you."

Whether with his naked eyes, mental energy, or sixth sense, Gauss couldn't detect Eden's presence.

"Demon King Seeds like me are very difficult to kill completely." Eden's voice came again. "You can think of my current state as waiting for resurrection. At this stage, I have no physical form and cannot be perceived."

"After some time, I will be reborn again."

Eden explained in a very natural tone.

Gauss felt a sudden realization.

So that's why Eden acted so unafraid of death from the very beginning—this is a special characteristic of Demon King Seeds?

Connecting this with the [Demon King Killer] title he just obtained, whose effect is to gain the qualification to completely kill Demon Kings...

Then, do all Demon King Seeds possess this power of undying regeneration?

"Do all Demon King Seeds not die?"

"And what exactly is a Demon King Seed?"

Coincidentally, Eden itself mentioned Demon King Seeds, so Gauss could ask it directly.

After all, before this, he hadn't seemed to hear about similar knowledge—at most, he only knew about the existence of demons and Demon Kings.

"No, not all Demon King Seeds can be undying like Eden."

"According to the knowledge in my inheritance, only a small portion of Demon King Seeds possess this ability. Moreover, Demon King Seed itself is a special qualification that only an extremely small number of monsters possess. And among Demon King Seeds, only one can become the Demon King."

"As for what a Demon King Seed is... I'm actually not very clear about that either."

"The moment I awoke in this body, I was already a Demon King Seed."

"Awoke?" Gauss caught another puzzling word from Eden's mouth.

"Mmm." Eden's voice couldn't help but become somewhat nostalgic. "Before coming to this body, I was actually a human too."

"But that should have been a very, very long time ago."

"After I died, my memories first experienced a period of chaos, then I was born into this Slime body."

"I wandered in the outside world for a while, then accidentally entered this Maze due to some mishap, and time was completely frozen."

"It wasn't until your arrival that time within the Maze started flowing again."

"So that's how it is."

Gauss also understood why Eden, a monster Slime, had been so friendly toward him, a human.

And the strong desire to communicate also had an explanation—within the Maze, it probably couldn't find many beings to converse with. Even the mushroom creatures with decent intelligence levels were, ultimately, monsters.

Monster thinking is different from human thinking.

"I never imagined a human soul could reincarnate into a monster's body."

This was the first time he'd heard of such a thing.

He did know some special professionals could transform themselves into monsters, but Eden's situation was clearly not like that.

"I'm not sure either. My situation should be extremely rare." Eden's voice held some confusion.

After the Maze opened, it experienced immense confusion about its own existence.

Plus, with no beings around to communicate with, even though it became the Lord of the Maze's fifth level, it always lived a reclusive life and couldn't be bothered to command the monsters on this level, letting them roam freely.

It was the mushroom creature race that misunderstood something and domesticated all Slimes that looked similar to it.

Originally, there weren't that many Slimes on this level—just scattered few.

It was under the mushroom creatures' diligent farming that the Slime population massively expanded.

Only when Gauss and others stepped onto the fifth level did Eden sense that familiar yet strange aura again, eagerly rushing here to meet with Gauss's group.

Gauss silently exchanged a few more words with Eden, feeling he had gained considerable knowledge about monsters.

So to become a Demon King, one first needs to meet the prerequisite qualification of being a Demon King Seed.

And it's not just Slimes that can give birth to Demon King Seed qualifications—other monsters have the probability too.

After possessing the Demon King Seed qualification, one is naturally stronger than other monsters and also possesses a portion of inherited knowledge and abilities. Of course, Demon King Seeds aren't born extremely powerful—they just have more outstanding innate gifts than regular monsters. If they don't work hard themselves, they could still end up weaker than ordinary monsters.

Eden, the King of Slimes, is a living example.

According to its own account, it actually didn't train very hard.

Most of the time, it was sleeping. Yet its Demon King Seed talent still quietly raised it to level 9 and easily granted it actual combat power capable of crossing several levels.

Yes, Eden didn't exert 100% of its full strength when fighting Gauss.

For it, becoming stronger seemed like an unimportant matter.

After all, it couldn't die. Even if temporarily "killed," it would just resurrect again after some time.

At the very beginning, it even tried suicide, but not long after, it was reborn again.

Plus, possessing memories of a previous life as a human made it instinctively feel extremely awkward about its current Slime body. Sometimes, it couldn't help but wonder: if it truly died once more, could it resurrect into a human body?

But its undying talent prevented it from even seeking death.

So, ultimately, it completely gave up.

As for why it thought Gauss could kill it—it was because it sensed from Gauss a power that instinctively made its heart palpitate.

Unfortunately, it seemed it still hadn't died.

But it still saw a glimmer of hope.

Although Gauss didn't kill it, this resurrection time was longer than any previous one.

An invisible force seemed to be extending its resurrection time.

"Isn't being undying a good thing?"

Even though it became a monster, Gauss still couldn't understand why Eden was so fixated on seeking death.

Even if its human mindset made it disdain associating with monsters, it could simply keep to itself and quietly grow stronger.

"No, Gauss, you don't understand. Undying is the most terrifying curse."

"The longer I live, the less sanity I retain. The instincts of this monster body constantly erode me. I must struggle to resist to avoid being assimilated."

"And when I resurrect, my memories also experience slight disarray."

"Sooner or later, my consciousness will become completely unfamiliar."

Through Eden's explanation, Gauss vaguely understood its fear.

It was afraid of becoming a true monster.

Or rather, it already was one.

It's just that its human attachments still restrained it.

After all, this was Gauss's first encounter with such a special monster, and he didn't know what to say to comfort it.

"By the way, about my situation, Gauss, can you not tell others?"

"Sure." Gauss nodded.

To be honest, he somewhat sympathized with Eden.

After their conversation ended, Gauss's attention returned to reality.

With the "death" of Eden, the King of Slimes, the surroundings fell into silence.

He walked to the treasure chest spawned by the Maze and opened it.

Just like the fourth-level clearance reward, it contained many treasures.

There were even three precious high-grade magic stones. He might sell one to exchange for large amounts of other resources.

Additionally, there was an activation stone leading to the sixth level.

But starting from the 6th level, he would no longer have the Crystal Orb's map guidance and would have to rely on his own strength for exploration.

Gauss collected the rewards.

The other Red Dragon Guild members were still fighting a small number of mushroom creatures and Slimes.

After the 5th-level Lord, Eden the King of Slimes, "died," the other monsters scattered like birds and beasts, leaving only the last small group of blood-crazed monsters fighting the Red Dragon Guild members.

But given their numbers, they were clearly making a last-ditch resistance.

Because members from other adventuring guilds had gradually gathered nearby, and obviously, it wouldn't take long to completely "exterminate" these monsters.

Gauss had no intention of intervening.

He was still digesting the information obtained from Eden.

To be honest, he had always been very confident in his combat power.

Being able to fight across several levels gave him a sense of assured confidence when facing monsters.

But suddenly learning about "Demon King Seeds"—even though Eden said Demon King Seeds were extremely rare exceptions—they still existed.

If Demon King Seeds could all fight across several levels, he would inevitably encounter these troublesome enemies in the future.

Also, if Eden, belonging to the Slime race, possessing Demon King Seed qualification could become so powerful, what about those races that are naturally even stronger?

For example, Dragons, Titans—would they become even more powerful on their existing foundation?

Or perhaps they might not awaken Demon King Seed qualifications at all?

He felt his mind was temporarily somewhat confused.

Eden seemed to have rather fuzzy memories due to living too long and multiple resurrections, so even though it was happy to answer Gauss's questions, not every inquiry received useful replies.

According to its account, it vaguely remembered that long ago, before entering the Maze, while wandering the land, it encountered another Demon King Seed.

But the specific details about that other party, it had forgotten.

It only remembered they interacted for a very brief time before separating.

Additionally, it never encountered any other Demon King Seeds.

That's why it believed the number of Demon King Seeds was extremely scarce.

But as long as they exist, with Gauss's Adventurer's Manual that requires killing large numbers of monsters for self-improvement, he would inevitably come into contact with those powerful Demon King Seeds.

At that time, he, who could usually use his powerful talents to crush beings of the same level, might not necessarily gain much advantage.

He must raise his level and not neglect single-target kill skills.

Besides area-of-effect skills, he must also put great effort into practicing single-target spells.

Everything must be prepared in advance.

As for the Slime Eden, according to its account, it previously couldn't leave the Maze's 5th level. But after Gauss killed it, it vaguely felt it could use Gauss's existence as a coordinate for resurrection, which also meant...

It could break free from the 5th-level Maze's constraints.

Regarding Eden being able to leave the Maze environment, Gauss felt some slight hidden worry. But since Eden voluntarily shared this with him, he could only choose to trust its character.

After all, if it truly had other intentions as Eden said, it could have simply not mentioned to Gauss the information about using his location to leave the Maze.

He couldn't intervene anyway.

The two continued communicating via mental consciousness during Gauss's activities.

Perhaps Eden hadn't spoken to anyone for too long—it was like a complete chatterbox, constantly saying things.

For example, asking about his companions' names.

Then asking about his family, what type of opposite sex he liked, and similar questions.

Gauss only selected some to answer.

"You worked hard."

Aria ended her fight and came to his side.

"Is she an Elf? She looks so familiar. Right, I think I've seen Elves before too." Eden commented.

"Here's a high-grade magic stone for you. Stick it close during meditation—it should aid your cultivation."

Gauss gave one magic stone to Aria.

He also didn't reveal any information about Eden, since he promised it. One should maintain basic integrity.

"This is..."

Aria subconsciously took the smooth stone Gauss handed over. The next moment, she felt a comfortable energy flow through her entire body.

She certainly knew what high-grade magic stones were.

She had used Gauss's high-grade magic stone from the 4th level a few times.

The cultivation effect was indeed much better than usual.

She just never expected to have a high-grade magic stone of her own so quickly.

"This is too valuable... hehe."

Although feeling somewhat embarrassed, as a spellcaster, she instinctively desired the high-grade magic stone.

No spellcaster wouldn't want a high-grade magic stone unless they already had something better.

After all, it can enhance meditation cultivation effects. Over years, this creates a clear level gap with other spellcasters.

Not to mention, it can subtly nourish the body, improve mana purity, and make the owner's magic more powerful.

One could say this is a treasure that even large amounts of gold coins can't buy.

That's why nobles who own mines producing high-grade magic stones don't let such resources reach the market.

Possessing it increases the probability of a family cultivating high-level spellcasters.

"Just take it."

Gauss could clearly see Aria's contradictory words—just like children hypocritically refusing red envelopes during New Year in his previous life.

"Hehe, then I won't stand on ceremony. In the future, if I have any good things, I'll share them with you too."

Aria smiled, then happily hugged the high-grade magic stone and went aside to admire it.