by Matthew Peed
Thoughts of my family flashed through my mind. I hadn’t seen either Mom or my sister in over two weeks. While I was worried, I had tasks that needed to be completed. I’d amassed a little power for myself, but I was nowhere near Kyle’s level. Even though his telekinesis was common among the power lists, he was probably among the top users with the ability and could crush me long before I got near him. Last time I heard him bragging, he said he was near level fifty. I was barely a third of his level. Not to mention, I was mainly geared toward frontal assault. I would need to get some long-range assets before I could think about taking him.
After that was the issue that he was rich. I wouldn’t be dealing with just him but also his hired goons. Plus, there was his “royal guard,” as people on the campus liked to call them. His three buddies who would protect him with their lives, if the rumors were to be believed. I would have to get through all that.
I took another breath of air, then turned and started walking down the street at a leisurely pace. I stopped at the convenience store where I’d once bought a bunch of random junk food and walked in, thankful that their hot deli was still open.
“Welcome to FastGo. What can I do for you?” said the attendant, obviously fighting to hold back a yawn.
I looked at the case for a moment. “I want a four- . . . no, make it an eight-piece chicken tender,” I said, holding back my drool. “Add in a large fry.”
“Anything else?”
“Largest cup you got,” I said, deciding to go all the way.
“Sixteen seventy-five.”
I handed over the money, ignoring the highway robbery. While he grabbed my food, I took my cup and filled it halfway to the top with ice, then soda. I walked back over to the counter and took my food. I hadn’t eaten anything warm or drunk anything cold for the last two weeks either. I took a bite out of one of the tenders and chewed before the taste even registered.
“That really hit the spot!”
Chapter 21: Isn’t That a Bit Large?
Azaria
We watched Lance—I was starting to wonder if that was really her name—leave the dungeon in her new form. The humans were super uptight, but she managed to make it through after a few minutes. I was able to see her leave the tent with what looked like no issues.
“I guess we have to just play the waiting game now,” I said to Starburst as we moved away from the window. It was nice to see the sunlight again, but I couldn’t feel the warmth of the rays on my ethereal skin. Something else I would have to dream about until I got a body again.
“That’s not true. Let’s go check the moles and see if they’ve managed to dig enough for another floor.”
I turned upside down as I looked at him. “But I’m maxed out right now. At least according to the screen.” Starburst was very strict about the rules. He should know my situation better than anyone else.
“Yes, but I want to test something. Since you started with two floors, I want to see if you get an extra floor since you leveled up,” he replied as he made his way down to the maze section.
I followed behind him, playing with his mane that billowed as he walked. It had to be a magical effect, as there wasn’t any wind down here.
“Would you stop it!?”
I made sure to swipe my hand through the mane one last time for good measure before I flew ahead of him to where the moles were working. They were cutting the stone away faster than when they were first created. Starburst had called them mindless drones, but when I saw they were able to improve, I felt they were far from mindless.
“Tokie!” I squealed when I caught sight of the cute mole with razor-sharp claws. He squeaked in reply as he tore a chunk out of the wall. I flew over and petted him, or at least imagined I did as my hand went right through him. I pouted after a few seconds of it.
Starburst cut into my affection. “Well, girl?”
“What?” I asked, looking back at him.
“Do you have enough space to make another floor!?” he shouted, beating the ground with his hoof.
“Oh.” I turned my head and stuck my tongue out before flying to the center of the large clearing. I concentrated on the space around me while feeling my Aether move into the hole. I waited for a long moment for the rush I’d gotten the last two times I’d created a floor. I was about to give up when I was knocked to the ground by the rush of Aether exiting my body.
The walls around us melted, flowing into my core, which had appeared in the center of the floor. I breathed heavily as the floor kept expanding. When it got almost larger than I could see from my spot, I threw a worried look at Starburst.
“Did I break something again!?” I cried as I moved behind him.
“I don’t know. This is all new to me too,” he said, sounding less like a grumpy old man and more like a worried teen.
The flowing rivers of stone as well as other things that had been pulled into my core finally came to a stop. All around us, a cavern opened up that appeared to go on for days. My core was at the center, but even then, I couldn’t make out any of the walls. I flew up and it took me a good thirty seconds to reach the ceiling.
Dropping back down like a comet, I pointed at Starburst. “What did I do?”
“Made a new floor,” Starburst answered neutrally, but he was looking around like he wanted to know the same thing. “Quick, check your status.”
I glared at him since this had been his idea but did as he said.
Azaria Highlock
Age: 14
Level: 2
Race: Dungeon
Type: Doll
Subtype: Goddess’s Chosen
Aether: 3,479
Floors: 3/2
Skills: Creation
Deconstruction
Summon (7/112)
Teleport Matrix (1/1)
Enchanter’s Melody
Uncontrollable Proliferation
Achievements: God Killer – Killed a God, albeit a weak one.
Undefeated – Remain undefeated. Enhances abilities (1.15*x) X being the number of attempts on the dungeon. X=3
The Surface – When a dungeon reaches the surface, the world opens up to them. Aether hourly gain (+1)
“I got a skill called Uncontrollable Proliferation,” I said after looking to make sure everything else was the same. “And it did count it as another floor.”
“Floor? More like another entire dungeon,” Starburst mumbled.
“Don’t look at me! I’m more of a prisoner in all this. I’m just playing this stupid game because I have no other choice!” I shouted at him and shot off. I still had to come up with an idea for this massive place. I didn’t even know of anything that could occupy this much space. I screamed at the unfairness of the situation.
~~~
A few hours and a lot of screaming later, I came back to the core where Starburst still stood waiting for me. He seemed to be mumbling something to himself, which he stopped when he saw me. I floated to a stop a few feet in front of him, and we stared at each other without saying anything.
“Girl, no—Azaria. Forgive me for the hard time I have been giving you. I was mad about my situation, and I know it was my fault for causing yours, so it was un-right of me to blame you for my own misfortune. I have decided to help you in every way I know.”
I blinked at Starburst’s sudden declaration. I couldn’t help it as tears started to run down my ethereal cheeks. I shot forward and wrapped my arms around him. I never understood why he was the only one I could touch, until now. I could just barely sense him wrapping his body in a layer of Aether. It served no purpose whatsoever but to allow me to touch him.
“STARBURST!” I cried, tears and snot running down my face. Why does a ghost have snot?
Starburst let me strangle him for several long minutes before he finally cleared his throat. I gave him a pout but released the unicorn. “Azaria.”
“Just call me girl. I’m used to it now,” I said, feeling weird when he said my name.
He laughed. “Girl
, then. I am sorry, but I have no idea what we should do with this floor. It is much too large for you to create anything with the amount of Aether you have.” He looked at the ground.
“I know. We’ll just have to think of it as we go! It will be a carnival!” I said, shaking my hands up and down like maracas. That was when a lightbulb went off in my head. “That’s it!”
“What?” Starburst asked, jerking his head toward me at my shout.
“A carnival! I’ll make an amusement park! It will suit my doll theme, as there are usually cute mascots.”
“I’ve never been to one of these amusement parks, but it sounds like it will work. Good job, girl,” Starburst said with a horsey grin.
I pointed my hands toward the ground and started my Summon skill.
“What are you doing?” he asked. “We don’t have the Aether to work on something like this.”
“I know. But I have no idea how to make most of the rides. We’ll need an expert,” I said with a grin.
I watched my Aether drop further and further. Finally, when I was still barely above full, the magic circle finished forming in front of me. An unnaturally tall doll that had to be close to seven feet formed in front of us. I wasn’t sure of the gender until the face formed completely and I found it was a girl.
Calling her slim would be an understatement. There was no way a human could live with a body like hers. There just wouldn’t be room for the organs. Pale white skin or plastic covered most of her body, except for a leg and one arm. They were made of gears and wiring that sparked occasionally.
She wore a leather jacket and pants with her unnaturally smooth stomach exposed to the air. Part of her head was also composed of the gears and wires. She was beautiful, but it was a type that would make you have nightmares for a few weeks. She had a neck that was almost eight or nine inches in length by itself.
The magic circle vanished, and she settled on the ground. She gave me a bow that wouldn’t have been out of place in an old Victorian Age–based movie. Steam billowed out of her mouth as she spoke. “Mistress, tis an hon’r to meeteth thee,” she said.
I raised an eyebrow at her speech. “Same. I think,” I replied, doing a midair bow that sent me spinning.
“What would thou like me to doth?”
“First I need to think of a name for you,” I said, screwing up my face as I thought of the dolls I used to have. “Emelia! That was an old Victorian doll I used to own.”
“Thank thee f’r mine own name,” Emelia said with another elegant bow.
“I’m going to have an amusement park here in the future. As I am a dungeon, I know it will have to have death traps and all that stuff,” I said before Starburst even had to raise his voice. After the last party, I knew my lot in life was set. Maybe Lance would be able to reunite me with my parents, but I don’t know if they would believe it was really me. Even Lance, who had interacted with me on several occasions, still didn’t trust me.
“A death park. While I knoweth of an amusement park from memories given to me, I shall needeth more knowledge ere I can maketh up hither,” Emelia explained—or at least, I think she did. I would need more time with her before I could understand everything she said.
If I understood her right, she needed to learn more about the amusement park before she could create one here. I nodded. I would have to have Lance bring some stuff on them. That seemed like the easiest plan for now. I spun as I thought about what to do. I supposed I needed to look at her stats. That might tell me more.
Emelia
Age: 0
Level: 3
Race: Sentient Doll
Type: Manipulator
Ability: Mechanic’s Knowledge
Matter Conversion
Crafting
My eyes widened at how many abilities she had just after she was born. Though, I had dumped more than enough Aether into her to pay for them all. We would have to play with them to see what the extent of her abilities were. For now, I was tired. Using large amounts of Aether usually did that to me.
I sent my eye outside and saw that the sun was about to rise. I wouldn’t have the chance to work on the dungeon for most of the day either way. I could already see several parties in line to enter the dungeon. At the forefront, I noticed Lance, who was talking to a few rather unsavory-looking people.
Chapter 22: Shopping!
Lance Teron
The first hot food in over a week made me drowsy, but I had work to do. While I could easily go find a place to sleep, I already had somewhere to rest in the dungeon. I needed to get a few sacrifices . . . subjects . . . victims . . . I shook my head as I couldn’t think of a good term to use. I would be leading people to their deaths after all. Other than “murderer,” nothing did it justice.
“I’ll just have to make sure they’ve earned it,” I mumbled.
Thankfully, I had a bit of information to go on. I pulled out Friz’s phone. For being a downright murderer, he was quite organized. There were several corporations he was part of that I’d heard about on the darker parts of the web. I couldn’t help the laugh when I found they all had apps.
“Slumbering Murder. Yikes.” That was some terrible naming sense if I’d ever seen any. Still, it was one of the most feared corporations that was rumored to exist. I decided to try a less advanced hurdle first.
Clicking on the app for Black Fist, I was autosigned in. I looked through the menus until I found what I was looking for. A party recruitment listing. There were several that were looking for members with certain abilities. It was similar to the one I had used to find parties to harvest for.
People used to get a laugh when the apps were first released. Many people who played online video games likened the apps to the dungeon or party finder that was implemented to make playing the game easier. Still, it was around even now because it was a system that worked.
I scrolled through the listing to see what my options were. The titles of the parties all sounded like I’d be murdered as soon as we met up. After a while of tweaking the filters, I was able to pull up only parties that were looking to dive Azaria’s dungeon. Only two were looking for someone with decent frontline abilities.
Eventually, I flipped a coin and selected a party called Signaled Evil. After I sent a quick message saying I had dived the dungeon once and had survived, I instantly got a reply with their acceptance. With a meeting set for tomorrow morning, I switched to the map app and found the nearest armor store.
“My clothing did take a beating. I’m actually more impressed it survived all it went through,” I mumbled as I turned on the street and headed toward downtown. Even with some of the leather armor I’d taken from the goblins, I wanted to upgrade to something a bit more, well, more.
I had been walking for almost half an hour when four men emerged from an alley, forcing me to come to a stop. Sure, I wasn’t exactly in the best part of town, but what were the odds of this happening to me? If this was a game, I would have blamed it on my luck stat being too low.
I gave each man a glance, then cracked my neck as I turned to the leader of the group. “Can I help you fine gentlemen?”
“You should know how this works. Give us your money, let us beat the shit out of you, then you might get to go home to see you mommy,” the biggest and ugliest man said. He even pulled out a knife and licked it for good measure.
I hoped he’d had his shots. Magic was a thing now, but diseases were still very much a thing too. “I hope you cleaned that,” I said, pointing at the knife.
The man’s nasty grin broke as he glared at me. “Yeah, I’ll wash it. With your blood! Let’s kill this fucker!”
The other men shouted in agreement and they charged me. At least they didn’t do the one-at-a-time attack pattern. I took a boxing stance, as I wasn’t sure I could handle a murder scene happening. It helped that they all appeared to be moving slow.
As the leader lunged with his knife, I stepped to the side and brought my right fist square up into his jaw and chin. I h
ad underestimated both my own strength and the durability of his jaw. With an explosion of gore, his mouth vanished as blood splashed against the building wall next to us.
Not able to process that their leader was dead, the other three kept coming. I reacted by twisting my body and bringing the heel of my left foot into the side of one man. He crumpled like a bent pipe and went sailing into the man next to him. They both collapsed to the ground, twitching.
The last man managed to hit my shoulder with a steel pipe, but I only felt a thump like someone patting your shoulder. Almost without meaning to, I backhanded him as I looked at the two men in a pile. I felt a sticky wetness on my hand and turned to see that I’d sliced his throat clean through. My hands might look normal, but the claws were very much still there.
“Well fuck.” I looked around but could only thank the stars that the street was completely empty. Which made sense since they’d jumped me first. I quickly double-checked the surroundings, then moved to the two men still alive. With two quick jabs of my pointer fingers, I impaled their foreheads and killed them instantly.
Looking at my mess, I only shook my head. The red tint was forming at the edge of my vision, but it was still at the level I could control. I was rational through the entire fight, mainly because they just weren’t worthy opponents. I held my hand out and absorbed the bodies into my Storage. I would harvest them later when I was in a place I wouldn’t have to worry about the Police Core being called on me.
“Where was I? Oh, right.” I turned and continued on my way to the armor store.
~~~
“This is the best we have in leather.” I groaned when I heard that. The armor seller was supposed to be the best stocked in the area.
“I see. How much did you say it was again?”
“Fifteen thousand dollars.”
My heart bled at the amount. I needed to go with leather because my fighting style, if you could call it that, required freer movement than a suit of armor would allow. That, and I could adjust it slightly to match my feminine features. Thankfully, I was as flat as a washboard, so I didn’t have to worry about my chest, but the common differences between the two genders gave me issues.