by Matthew Peed
The armored man took one look at the place and turned on his heel. “Nope. I refuse.”
The other men also turned to head back, but the women grabbed their shoulders. “No. We’re getting paid!”
All the men groaned, and I took that as a win. They started moving down the tunnel and, from what I could tell, were soon lost. It helped that my music had a greater effect on the second floor. They had essentially started going in a loop and had passed the same section about nine times already.
They came to a stop to take a break near one of the teddy bears they had managed to avoid so far. It waddled over to them, and they jumped to their feet while drawing their weapons. It looked up at them with big button eyes and held out its arms as if it wanted a hug. The women all oohed and awed at the action.
“It’s a trap!” the armored man shouted as he brought his ax down on the bear.
Tenderheart’s bears had never seen any combat, so I wasn’t sure what would happen. The bear leaped back before the ax hit it and dropped its arms. A single tear fell from its button eye before it started to bulge grotesquely. It went from being just under a foot to nearly eight feet tall with terrifying claws and fangs.
The now much-deadlier bear roared and charged the man who’d attacked him. With a solid slap, the bear sent the armored man flying down the tunnel, where he collided with the wall. Blood sprayed from several of the armor’s holes. The rest of the party quickly responded by sending spells or arrows at the beast, or charging to get within range for their weapons to hit it.
One of the men, likely the healer, ran to check on the armored guy and stepped on a hidden panel. The wall opened and dozens of spears shot out, piercing through the man in several places. Needless to say, he died instantly.
Watching on as the party was slowly slaughtered by the bear, I found that I wasn’t as bothered by the bloodshed as I was just a few weeks ago. I knew I had slipped a few times when I lost to the dungeon instinct, but I was sure I was in my right mind this time. I just shook my head and continued to play. It was scary what a person could adapt to.
It didn’t take long for the bear to defeat the party, leaving the main defender lying in a pool of his own blood. As usual, one person managed to escape, though not through any act of mine. The woman had peed herself, then taken off running. The rest of the party were soon splatters on the wall. The bear walked down the tunnel to the armored man and picked him up. He proceeded to give the man a bear hug until the man’s head literally popped off. I’d had no idea that could happen.
With no more humans in the area, my dungeon absorbed all the bodies, and I got a lot of Aether for them. The woman reached the entrance to the second floor, and when she went through it, she was teleported outside. No one had ever gotten this far, so I’d forgotten to move the teleport matrix.
I glanced outside to see if another party was going to enter the dungeon, but it looked like the guards were going to debrief the woman first. I shrugged and moved over to Starburst’s room. After a few seconds, his body re-formed in front of me.
“That was not fun. I’ll need to be more careful when charging,” he said, shaking his head.
“Good work. It will be a minute. One of Tenderheart’s bears tore through the party like it was butter. The guards are talking to the woman who escaped right now.”
“I see . . .” Starburst said, then paused as he looked at me. “Why are there two of you?”
I looked behind me, and Zaria was there as well. “Mirror Perception. Thanks to my Random Ability.”
“I thought I heard both the piano and violin playing. That explains it.”
“Yep.”
I was glad to learn my copy could help, and while she and I cleaned up the damage from the last party, I felt a large Aether source outside. Turning my gaze, I found the man who was dressed in black was back and appeared to be talking to the people who coordinated my dungeon. I really wished I could hear what was being said.
From the looks of it, people were raising their voices, but the man just shook his head. After a minute, it looked like they all calmed down, then over half the people in line started to walk away. Looking at the angry faces, I decided that I should give a better reward for the first floor. I didn’t want people deciding that I was better off destroyed.
Chapter 30: Crippling Debt
Lance Teron
Regret. I hadn’t had much of that lately. My actions were all born from a sort of desperation due to my situation. That had changed now. I deeply regretted my decision to absorb parts from the frog monsters. Still, the telekinetic ability I’d gotten from absorbing the brains of the frogs had been extremely useful, even in just the few hours since I had.
What did I regret then, you ask? It was the nearly foot-long tongue that I now possessed. I should have realized that something like this would happen when I absorbed the part. The goblin parts had changed my body, after all. I guess I had grown lax after the last few parts hadn’t changed my body externally.
At least the legs hadn’t gone too badly. Mine were much thicker but just made my figure better. I felt I could live with it as long as it didn’t get much worse. The benefit was that I could cross distances like a pro now. I had already managed to cross the twenty-foot mark after some practice jumping.
The new prowess gave me the ability to take out the frogs before they even knew I was there, as long as I found them before they found me. The ones at the beginning of the floor were easy enough to find, but the ones farther in had much more developed camouflage. It made finding them a bitch until I knew what to look for.
It wasn’t long before I reached the stairs leading to the next floor. Given that I had only been in the dungeon for about two hours, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to head farther down. The frogs were getting boring as well, and they had provided what I was hoping for: an organ that would give me the ability to resist telekinetic abilities.
As I walked down the passages, the temperature started to rise. The last floor had been warm but cool enough that I didn’t start sweating unless I exerted myself. This time, I was sweating before I even went through the entrance to the actual floor. Bracing myself, I pushed through to the inside.
Taking a look around from the clearing around the entrance, I was surprised and yet not by what I saw. A forest much like one would find in the Amazon grew around me. The floor had to be several hundred feet high to accommodate all the tall growth. I couldn’t even begin to fathom how big the floor itself was, as I could barely see a few dozen feet in.
“All I need is a whip,” I mumbled as I thought about the adventurer who braved temples in some old movies.
Shaking my head, I looked around and tried to decide which direction to head. I took a breath and used Harvest. A few plants lit up, drawing my attention. I walked over to them carefully. I really didn’t want to be poisoned. It was good that Harvest ignored that. I swung my weapon and chopped a plant down, then poked it with my finger to use Harvest.
I felt my veins burn for a moment before it passed. The plant had only been orange, so I hadn’t been worried about being rendered immobile by it. Checking my status, I found the new entry.
Taratata Plant – Toxic
I concentrated on using the ability, and while I could feel some fumes being released, I couldn’t detect what exactly it was causing. I figured I would have to find a target to truly get to the bottom of the matter. I went ahead and absorbed a few more of the plants since they didn’t cause any physical changes to my body.
I started moving deeper into the floor, looking for a target. A few spots looked suspect, but I didn’t find anything at any of them. I was sure I was halfway through the floor and still hadn’t found a single monster. When I considered that the plants right at the entrance of the floor were poisonous, I guessed the dungeon might not have any monsters on this floor in the first place.
Continuing to move farther, I finally found something. The ground started to rumble underneath me. Not wanting to take any chanc
es, I leaped back up into one of the trees. That was when I found I’d made a mistake. The tree branches started to rope around me. I struggled but they were equal to industry-grade ropes if not better.
I extended my claws and fangs and started biting and clawing to get free. The more I bit and sliced, the more there seemed to be. I struggled and managed to turn toward the tree trunk, gaining more gashes and cuts than I cared to count. Pulling in a deep breath, I released my Breath of Fire.
The tree actually screamed from the pain. I was flung like a speeding bullet toward another tree. I tried to twist to catch myself, but I was moving too fast. I slammed back-first into the trunk and slid to the ground, then lay there as my back throbbed worse than anything I had ever felt before.
At least I got to watch as the tree monster burned to the ground. I planned on spitting on its pile of ashes later. I just needed to rest for the moment. I tried to suppress the fact that I couldn’t feel my feet. My vision darkened against my will, then I passed out.
~~~
Something was tapping my face, and I groaned.
“You alive?”
My eyes jerked open at the sound. A man stood with a few other people around him. They looked like divers, but at the same time, they didn’t. “Yes, I’m alive.”
“Good. I hate having to report dead people to the Administration. We have quite a few that show up in here,” the man said.
While I was listening to him, I tried to move my toes. Thanking whoever was in charge of fate, I was happy that I could feel them. I still felt a twinge in my back, though, and made sure to make a mental note to get a healing soon. I carefully sat up against the tree. I wasn’t worried it was a monster, as it would have had plenty of time to eat me before now.
“Here. Eat this. It will heal anything you might have wrong,” a woman in the party said and handed me a pill. I eyed it critically but took it. Again, if they had wanted to kill me, they could have when they’d found me. I used Harvest to check the pill and had to stifle my surprise when I saw it glow purple.
Carefully, I bit half of it off in my mouth, and only absorbed part of it while actually consuming the rest. Relief flowed through my body, and the parts that had been burning from pain quickly cooled down. I didn’t try to hide my sigh of relief.
“Thank you. That was some serious shit,” I said, getting up carefully.
“We have our resources. Which raises the question, why are you here?” the man said, giving me a raised eyebrow.
I coughed nervously. They were likely the first registered party to head into the dungeon for the day. Jail time for line jumpers was the least of their problems. Depending on what the standing rules for the area were, some found themselves at the other end of a shooting range, unofficially of course.
“I am a little desperate for cash. I saw that only a few parties ran this dungeon and thought something profitable might be in here,” I said, most of which was true.
The man took a deep breath before rigorously running his hand through his hair. “Every time. I told you that having every slot registered is what attracts these people.”
“Not much we can do until we get enough to buy the place,” the woman said, shaking her head.
Buy the place? That was ambitious! Dungeons cost a pretty penny and were not something your average dungeon party can buy. The fact that they were apparently on track to accomplish this was also mind blowing.
I gulped and twiddled my thumbs. “About this . . . If I lose my dungeon license, I will literally die! Please, anything but reporting me.”
“Don’t worry. We understand. We need you to recoup the cost of the healing pill, anyway.”
“And that would be?”
“Don’t worry.” The woman smiled in a saintly way, but I couldn’t help but see a devil behind it. “It is a nice even number. One million dollars.”
“One million!?” I exclaimed, wanting to fall back to the ground again.
“See? Nice and even,” she said. “The name’s Luna by the way.”
“Yay. So how’s this going to work?” I asked, leaning back against the tree. “I doubt you plan to just let me leave.”
“Don’t worry about that.” I was starting to get tired of hearing that from this group.
The woman held out a vial of red liquid. I wasn’t naïve enough not to realize that it was anything other than blood. “We have it covered.” She held out a business card next. “You’ll be able to leave the dungeon with us in a few hours. Call me on that in three days and we’ll . . . discuss your payment.”
I held my fist in the air and repeated, “Yay . . .” With a sigh, I fell into line behind the party.
Chapter 31: Peace and Quiet
Azaria
The commotion outside had completely died down by the time the sun set, so I moved out onto the roof. While Zaria knew me inside and out, she didn’t appear to want to join me on the roof. I was sort of glad though. It gave me an odd feeling being around her for long periods of time. Like looking in a mirror that was following me around.
Secretly, I hoped the boy would show up. He was honestly the first person who hadn’t tried to use me, attack me, or kill me. He might look sickly, but I found him relaxing to be around. Biting my lip, I worried it might be some sort of trick, but I didn’t want to look at everything with jaded eyes.
Watching the moon lazily drift up into the sky, I heard a soft cough. Glancing next to me with probably more hope than I should have, I saw the boy from last night. “You came back!”
“Somehow I knew you wanted the company,” he replied with a smile.
I could tell it took him some effort to make the smile, but the reason eluded me. I hoped it wasn’t because of me. Maybe he heard about me destroying another party earlier today and didn’t like that. He was one of the humans in the end.
“Are you sure it’s not you who needed the company?” I asked, crossing my arms at the way the last thought made me slightly defensive. I knew it probably wasn’t the case, but the thought had already taken root.
The boy looked at me for a long moment without changing his expression. He made the same smile, then nodded. “You are right. I did need some company. Because of some things in my life, I am rather lonely most of the time.”
“Want to talk about it?” I asked, happy that it wasn’t my fault.
“No, that would just bring the mood down. That would be rather ungentlemanly of me, considering I’m in the presence of such a cute girl.”
I pursed my lips but didn’t press the issue. This was only our second time talking. I wouldn’t want to talk about anything happening around me either. “Alright.” I let the word hang, as I really didn’t know what to talk about. I was trapped in my own dungeon, cursed by what I had become. I couldn’t get out and explore or spend the day around the city, not that I ever had the chance to do that anyway. At the end of the day, I was a rather boring person. “Tell me something fun,” I said, though I could hear the desperation in my voice.
He grinned and I was sure it was real this time. He pointed in a circle around us. “You might think we are landlocked, but I still managed to get to the beach the other day.”
The image of him sunbathing nearly bent me over from the laughing I ended up doing. He didn’t seem to mind, though, and looked like he was enjoying my laughter. I coughed and sat back up. Then as elegantly as I could, I gave him a small go-ahead gesture like a lady at a ball from an old movie might. “Please continue,” I finally said with a blush.
“There is a dungeon in town. Some friends of mine helped me reach it, since they thought it would be good for me. Never mind the four floors of monsters that wanted nothing more than to help me be free of my flesh. We finally reached the beach after two days inside. I’m not sure how it did it, but the dungeon managed to re-create the beach with such accurate detail that I was sure it had done it before. At least until the sharks walked up on the beach and tried to kill us all.”
“What’d you do?” I asked, leani
ng toward him. When I realized it, I quickly leaned back.
“My friends decided it would be a waste to turn back and slaughtered everything in sight. After close to ten minutes, rather than a picturesque day in summer, it reminded me more of a horror-movie nightmare.”
“That’s horrible!” The image made me cringe, but as a dungeon I thought the dungeon was pretty clever, since, after all, a lot of people couldn’t swim.
“In the end, I couldn’t rest and had them take me back. Two days wasted.”
“Sorry to hear that.” I thought I might make a beach for him when my dungeon leveled up again. I knew it might be a while though. I barely got any experience points from people who died on the first floor. The caves did give me a nice boost when the party died in there, but I didn’t intend to let people get lower on purpose.
“Yes, it was an experience that I will likely not forget about for a while. Either way, it made me want to come see you.”
I wasn’t sure if I had to cover up a blush, or if I was even able to blush, but I looked away all the same. “I don’t mind. It’s nice to get to talk to people,” I said, not adding the That don’t want to kill me part. I played with my fingers as I thought about what to say. “I guess your friends are divers then?”
He nodded. “Yep. We’re not the strongest, but we get along fine.”
I gulped as I thought about how I wanted to ask my next question. I was sure he knew I was the dungeon, but to admit that seemed to admit defeat for some reason. I decided to go down a different path and pointed down at the manor. “Do you plan to dive this dungeon?”
He glanced at the roof we sat on and gave me the sad smile from earlier. “It’s possible, but not for a while. We decide our dives on our needs. One of our members needs a new weapon, so we’re in the middle of retrieving the metal for it from a different dungeon.”