Chapter 29 - Meurig
Unable to move his legs due to his fear, Yuki stood still as he watched the shadow.
"I'm so lucky I put on this coat. Without it, I would be dead."
"I can't use 'Lucky Sword' or 'Fallen angel of hell' since all it would take is one tap from him to make them disintegrate."
"From the looks of it, it can't see my blades until they leave my hand. Secondly, I can actually do damage to him using any object. However after 1 second it'll disintegrate. I'll have to continue to rely on my daggers."
Yuki opened his inventory once again. He took out as many daggers as he could hold, which was 8 daggers within each gap in his fingers. He threw 4 of them all at once to serve as a decoy. Next, Yuki ran behind Meurig at incredible speed and threw 3 more daggers and left one behind just in case.
Meurig caught all 7 daggers and made them turn to dust. Enraged that all his efforts went to waste, Yuki charged with his last dagger.
"You can hide your body but not your intent to kill," Meurig spoke.
Meurig grabbed onto Yuki's arm with his left hand and removed the dagger in Yuki's hand with his right arm and made it disintegrate.
"I guess I was too cocky. And just when things were beginning to get fun."
Instead of disintegrating, Yuki's body fell to the ground.
"Why are you trying to kill me? What did I ever do to hurt you?" Meurig asked.
Yuki was still recovering from the attack he had taken.
"How am I not dead? Does that mean he can control his ability and why is he keeping me alive?" Yuki asked himself.
"Right! I need to calm myself down. He still can't see me which means that the only way he can sense me is by detecting my emotions."
Yuki took some deep breaths and began to formulate a plan. He needed a way to kill Meurig without having to sacrifice a treasured blade. As Yuki continued to evaluate his choices, Meurig decided to give up on finding out who his attacker was.
"Why is he sitting down again? Is this part of his strategy?" Yuki began to panic.
"I don't understand why you would attack someone you've never met. Do you get some sort of enjoyment from murder. Is that your secret fetish?" Meurig said out loud.
"Am I seriously being lectured by a monster? Why is he trying to reason with me? Isn't his only purpose to try to kill me?" Yuki thought.
While Yuki was still suspicious of Meurig, he couldn't sense any bloodlust or other evil intentions behind his words. Yuki wanted to learn more about Meurig and the dungeon as a whole. While Yuki knew the basic composition of the world, he didn't quite understand everything. He had only informed Zero what he had dreamed of. All the specifics were dealt by Zero himself.
Yuki hesitated but nevertheless he decided to incinerate a conversation with Meurig.
Yuki: Why aren't you trying to kill me?
Meurig: What do you mean? Is it normal to go around killing anyone without having a reason?
Yuki: But you're a monster. It's your job to kill the player and it's also the player to kill you.
Meurig: Who said it was my job to do that?
Yuki: The system did! Zero is a fragment of my supreme form. I know for a fact that he didn't make any mistakes when he was making this world!
Yuki: Matter of fact, give me a second.
"Zero! Heed my call! Speak to me at once!"
...
"Yes master, how may I be of assistance to you at this moment?" Zero replied telepathically.
"Did you make a mistake when you created the 6th stage of the undead dungeon?" Yuki asked.
"No I have not. I have made it so that there is not a single mistake within this world," Zero answered.
"So why isn't this monster trying to kill me? Explain yourself!" Yuki was beginning to get irritated. Even though Zero was infinitely stronger than him, Yuki had gotten used to looking down on Zero.
"Yes my master. It would be an honour to explain how this stage works," Zero replied.
"Meurig is a monster which is able to make anything disintegrate under the condition that they are weaker than him. This was why you stayed alive instead of turning into nothingness like your daggers. Under normal circumstances you would either kill him or be killed depending on who's stronger. The problem is that you have a different outlook on this world. While others will ignore his pleading, you decided to analyze him. This wasn't because you are generous, it was just a simple matter of understanding. If you didn't know about the configurations of this world as well as having me as a backup plan, you would have surely killed Meurig with no hesitation."
"Was that explanation to your liking master?" Zero asked.
Yuki pretended to understand what Zero had said.
"So what you're basically saying is that Meurig is just a psychological trick?" Yuki replied with a question of his own.
"You could say that." Zero replied.
Yuki now turned his attention to Meurig.
"Before I finish you off, I have one question for you. Why are you so sad all the time? For some reason I can hear your thoughts and you think so negatively about yourself." Yuki asked while he didn't understand why he could do so. His first and only hypothesis as to why he was able to do so was because he was telepathically speaking to Zero and in doing so while keeping his attention on Meurig, he was able to speak telepathically to Meurig as well. Another simpler thought would've been that it was just part of the stage.
"Master, I might have the answer to that question." Zero spoke.
"When creating this world, I created a history for it which never existed. All the creatures, including NPCs, have false memories implanted into them. I thought it would bring more realism to this world."
"Well done Zero! You never disappoint me!" Yuki congratulated him.
"I greatly appreciate your words. It is an honour to be praised by you." Zero replied.
Yuki thought for a couple minutes. He didn't want to waste the opportunity to gain something powerful. While it would be considered cheating, Yuki didn't care. Why should he not take advantage of the privilege he had?
"Hey Meurig, what would you say to being my ally? You can leave this dump and explore the world with me and we'll also find a way to cure you of your unreasonable sadness," Yuki asked.