by Robin Rhodes
"True," Dana agreed, imbued with the new knowledge the woman had just given her. She understood the basics of how to maneuver the boat and sail it in the direction they wanted now. That would hopefully be enough to get them through this area of the dungeon and into the next room.
They set out heading in the opposite direction of the coast. They'd ruled out following the coastline in the hopes they came across the exit because it seemed too obvious. They didn't just want the XP of having completed the dungeon, they were after loot, too. Dana had had her short sword since the beginning now and it did limited damage despite her being a higher level. She really need either a new sword, some Credits, or something she could flog on the marketplace to buy a new sword herself. The problem with buying things was that it required the blacksmiths to have made them, and judging from the marketplace so far it didn't seem like anyone had been spending lots of time on their chosen profession. The available weapons were very low level and priced extortionately high.
This dungeon seemed well crafted, so the chances of finding some decent loot in here were high. That was what they'd concluded.
So they headed out into the open ocean, sure there would be some islands dotted with loot around the place.
They came across the first easily. A deserted island, tiny and flat. It was covered only in sand, but there was a chest in the middle.
They anchored their sailboat and hopped off the boat into the sand. Dana was the one who opened the chest, crouching down and pulling open the lid. It was a shield. Her shield was still Level 1 too, and so she couldn't complain. She vanished the one she had equipped to her inventory and slung the new one over her back. It was lighter.
"Great," she said, standing up. "Let's get going."
The island was so small there couldn't have been anything else hidden there.
At least that was what she thought, right up until she was about to climb back onto the boat and a lizard slunk its way around her leg. It darted up until it reached the bare skin of her neck and then sunk its teeth in.
She swatted it away, expecting intense pain but getting a mild sting instead.
It landed easily on the sand and immediately burrowed back into it.
"We haven't had any dungeons with lizards yet," Jason said. "I'm not sure what all of them do. Are you okay?"
As adventurers they'd been given the information on the kind of monsters dungeons might be filled with, but none of the specifics. "I'm okay," she said. "It didn't really hurt. I'm just worried about what might come next."
Anything could happen to her.
She put it to the back of her mind and hopped up into the boat again after shoving it away from the shore. When they had set their course in a random direction, still pretty sure they were heading away from the coast they'd come from, Daryl approached.
He looked at the bite on her neck, and healed it with a small spell. "The actual bite is gone," he said, running the back of his fingers over the mark then rapidly pulling them back.
Dana's stomach flipped and she gave him a small smile, hoping her cheeks weren't as red as they felt. "Thanks. I'll just hope an actual lizard found its way down here somehow and I'm not going to be hit with nasty side effects soon."
Daryl's smile was tense. "You'll be fine." It was like he was convincing himself rather than her.
Dana just hoped he was right.
Chapter Nine
Aaron liked this group of adventurers. They were the first people who had come into his dungeon with some actual knowledge of how their new reality worked. They'd obviously been gamers before the Braxian Expansion had hit. They knew how to utilize all the tools they'd been given rather than only reactively engaging with things. All of them wore buffs from the healer that he actually remembered to replenish the moment they ran out. They thought to ask the woman in their minds questions instead of just barreling in head-first and hoping for the best. They researched everything.
This was perfect.
When they survived, they would have the credibility of actually being good at the game. People would think that as long as you knew what you were doing, his dungeon was good. It was the fault of the people who had come in during the early days without any idea what they were doing that they lost people. They'd been ignorant.
And the lizard hadn't been deadly, either. It would have a mild aphrodisiac effect on Dana. He hadn't unlocked anything as powerful as the charm spell he used on his slaves for the lizards. It was just going to turn her on, and he didn't think that would be enough to give her more than mild discomfort.
They found two of the loots he'd placed in his biome within an hour and so when they started heading straight for another island with loot he decided to alter their course. He wanted some good reviews of the dungeon, but he couldn't afford for them to completely strip it dry, not when he'd already spent most of his Credits on remodelling.
He brewed up a strong wind and sent them off course. He put them in the direction of the exit, and of his own ship.
The direction he was guiding them in led them through a set of rocks where he'd placed the sirens. They were curled on rocks just beneath the waves, waiting for their prey. Aaron was sure the travelers would be able to overcome them, but he wanted to see them in action anyway.
The boat headed through the spiked rocks easily enough. He lowered the wind so it was smooth sailing—they didn't have to deal with rapids or strong currents trying to force them into the rocks. Instead they sailed slowly through calm waters, perfect targets for the sirens.
Two crawled out of the water, revealing naked glistening bodies. They seemed to fly from their rocks onto the ships, hair flapping behind them.
They smiled as they sang, beautiful vocals that even made Aaron's body tingle from where he watched miles away on his own ship. The two men on board were immediately lulled, leaning toward the women as they advanced.
Dana was more resistant. She watched them with narrowed eyes, and although her gaze stuck to the breasts and hips of the women and the aphrodisiac coursed through her veins, she wasn't taken like the others. She resisted.
Aaron was surprised. Maybe it was because she wasn't gay—maybe no matter how beautiful the woman was, Dana would have never been taken by her in the same way as the straight men she was with.
She drew her sword, and advanced on them. She was clearly wary in case the men in her party chose to defend the sirens instead of attacking them with her.
One of the woman pressed herself entirely against the healer, naked breasts pushing against his chest. Through his thin healer's robe, Aaron knew he'd be able to feel the hard nipples. She wrapped her arms around his neck and stopped her song to kiss him. While she kissed him, she drew him backward, closer and closer to the edge of the boat where she could pull him over the side and into the ocean below.
Dana's sword slid into the siren's flesh without resistance, straight through the back and up into her chest cavity. The siren broke the kiss to let out a high-pitched wailing sound, before she went limp on the sword. Dana was grimacing fiercely, and glared at Daryl equally as hard when realization started to dawn on his face.
"Shit," he muttered.
"Yeah, shit," Dana hissed. She turned her back on him and headed toward the remaining siren who was pressed against the side of the boat, ready to take Jason into the deep blue sea in seconds. Dana decapitated that one, spraying blood all over Jason as her head fell into the sea.
After he'd come around, he made a face, wiping blood from his cheeks. "Was that really necessary?"
"I could have let you drown if you'd have preferred," she spat, turning her back on him and disappearing below deck without another word.
The two men looked at each other, as if mentally debating which one should follow her into the cramped space down there.
It was the healer who bit the bullet and followed her down.
Aaron wasn't sure when he'd started rubbing himself through his breeches, but he knew exactly
what was coming when it was the healer who shut the cabin door behind him and walked down the wooden stairs to find Dana.
Since being turned into the dungeon core Aaron had gotten better at reading people. He'd been able to study their faces and body language without trying to hide his stares or interest. Now he knew how people acted when they felt different things, when they were about to do different things.
So he could read the jealousy all over Dana's expression and body language.
Watching Daryl kiss that beautiful naked siren, combined with her own horniness from the lizard bite, had pushed her over the edge.
This show was going to go one of two ways, and Aaron knew which one he was hoping for.
There were some dim candles lit in the area below deck, and Daryl paused for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the light. Dana was standing against the back wall, staring at the ceiling and running her hands through her hair, trying to calm down. Her shield and sword belt were on the floor beside her.
She was breathing heavily. The bite from the lizard was wreaking havoc on her, that much was obvious. Flushed cheeks and her thighs squeezed together just a little bit too tightly.
Daryl approached with his arms crossed over his chest. "Dana, what's wrong?" he asked.
It was the wrong question to ask, of course. "Nothing," she said, turning around and bracing herself against the wooden wall of the ship. "Just leave me alone. It's the lizard bite, I think it was some kind of frenzy-inducing bite."
Daryl hovered, and for a moment Aaron thought he was really going to just turn around and leave Dana to get over it herself. Then he said, "You should come back above deck, we might hit something we need to fight soon. You can put that frenzy to use."
"You mean I need to be there in case any more hot naked women start trying to kill you and you can't think with anything but your cock?" she spat.
That made him angry, and he squared his shoulders. "It was obviously some sort of magic. I'm not that much of an idiot, Dana."
She turned around, eyes wild and hands balled into fists by her side. "Well, excuse me for thinking you might both just be being your typical selves. Normally it's half-naked women in bars conning you out of money, so when they've got no clothes on at all I wouldn't be surprised if they can get to you walk over the edge of a boat with them."
Daryl took a step forward, so they were just a foot apart. "Why are you coming after me? You know as well as I do that they were magical. Don't play stupid. You know they were sirens. And what bad decisions I make in my love life are none of your business."
Dana opened her mouth then closed it again. "But what if I wanted it to be?" Her voice was suddenly small. "You really have no fucking idea what I'm upset about right now?"
When Daryl hesitated for a moment, Dana threw her hands up into the air and then pressed herself fully against the healer, kissing him deeply.
Daryl might have been lost for words, but he knew what to do then. He wrapped his arms around her armored body and kissed her back, shutting his eyes.
Aaron stroked himself as he watched them making out. It wasn't long before Dana was working at the straps on her armor, trying to get them off so Daryl could touch her properly. She ignored her chest plate and pulled at her pants instead.
She knew exactly what she wanted.
When they clattered to the floor and revealed her panties and smooth creamy legs beneath, Daryl pulled back, resting his forehead against hers. "Are you serious? Jason is just upstairs. He could come down any time."
"I need this, Daryl," she begged, palming him through his robes. "I need this now. I need you now."
Of course he wasn't able to resist that. Instead of turning Dana around, like Aaron would have done to fuck her into the wooden wall from behind, Daryl pulled his robes over his head, his boxers down to his ankles, and then lifted her legs to wrap around his waist. From here he could still kiss her as his cock slid into her waiting cunt.
They kissed passionately, curses and moans falling from their lips in the odd time they broke apart.
At one point, Daryl broke their kiss to say, "I've wanted this to happen for so long."
Aaron hadn't seen anyone fuck like this before in his dungeon. It wasn't just fucking, it wasn't just lust. He was watching something incredibly intimate, and he felt more like a voyeur than he ever had before.
He opened his eyes before they finished, cock limp in his hands.
Would Elizabeth or Delilah ever look at him like that without him using his charm?
He'd never really had a relationship before. Nothing serious. A few flings in college that he'd wanted to go somewhere but which never had. He couldn't say he'd ever actively tried to date before either, though. He'd gone on Tinder enough times, but never worked up the courage to actually message anyone, or reply to any of the messages he received.
Now a stark pang of loneliness completely killed the mood.
He was going to have a harem of slaves down here in the Braxian Expansion. Women who would do whatever he wanted.
Women who would choose to kill him and never see him again, the first opportunity they got.
Chapter Ten
Elizabeth lay on the bed, gaze squarely facing away from where Delilah was still strapped up in the stocks at the end of the bed.
They'd already argued multiple times about whether Elizabeth was going to let her out or not. Elizabeth refused. It had nothing to do with the residual effects of the charm, which gave her an invasive thought about whether Aaron maybe wasn't as bad as she thought every now and then, and everything to do with self-preservation.
She'd been spared today. Her indiscretion of trying to pull Aaron off Delilah had been overshadowed by Delilah's refusals. She was lucky Aaron hadn't magicked a second pair of stocks to string her up the moment he'd gotten himself off.
She absolutely refused to incur any more of his wrath by directly disobeying his order now.
When Delilah said, "Elizabeth, I need you to do something for me," Elizabeth immediately shook her head.
"I can't. You know I can't let you out. He'll do it when he comes back, I'm sure it won't be long."
"No, it's not that. It's something else. I have a cell phone in my top. I need you to get it out and message my friends."
"No way," Elizabeth said. "He'll know. He'll know and he'll punish us."
"We have to get out of here."
"We can't get out of here. We're trapped, and we can't kill the dungeon. We're stuck. My boyfriend is on the police force. He'll be coming for us. We just have to wait it out."
Delilah was still struggling against her restraints, even though she'd been trapped in there for hours. "I'm not sitting around here until he forces himself on me, or until he does whatever he did to you to me. I'm getting out of here as soon as possible. My friends, they beat him. We killed his avatar and they completed the dungeon. They'll come back and kill the whole thing. I just need to get in touch and tell them everything we know about the dungeon now."
Elizabeth had been shaking her head for so long she felt nauseous. "I can't," she said, voice small. "He'll know. He can see everything all the time. If you don't want him to force himself on you then you need to just lay low and do what he says. It's the only way."
She didn't mention that meant accepting him without struggling. She could still remember riding him. She'd not been charmed then, she could have said no, she could have protested.
But that would have meant being strapped up and spanked with the sword to the point of bleeding again. She knew which was worse.
"He can't watch everything at once," Delilah argued. "And he hasn't been back here in hours. He's obviously out there with new people in the dungeon, eyeing up the next woman he's going to force to be his slave. We need to stop him before someone else ends up like this."
Delilah had switched her tactic from it being about their escape to preventing anyone else getting hurt, and it was exactly the right move. It tugged
on Elizabeth's heartstrings to imagine someone else joining their group of misery. She desperately didn't want anyone else to end up in the same position she was.
"He's not watching us right now," Delilah pressed on. "He's sitting watching his next slave, I promise. I know he is."
Elizabeth stood up on shaky legs, looking around the room as though she'd be able to see Aaron's eyes peering down on them. "He's sitting watching us, waiting for us to do something wrong," Elizabeth whispered, taking stiff step after stiff step forward. "He's going to appear and smash the phone and punish us the second I get it out of your top."
She still pulled the device out, though. It had one weak bar of signal.
Delilah gave her the pass code and then the name of the person she should be texting. They put in all the information they'd gleaned since being trapped down there. They told Mark about everything that had happened when Elizabeth had been going through the dungeon, and everything that she'd learned since. When she'd been lying with Aaron, she'd been able to see the entire layout of the dungeon when she closed her eyes. She relayed as much of that information as she could to him now.
She told him about the types of monster, the different effects they had, and small tidbits of information Aaron had revealed to her about his plans for renovating when they'd lain together. Aaron liked to talk, and he didn't have much to talk about except his dungeon. He'd told her about how he wanted to make the desert bigger and deadlier, about how he was going to put more lizards in there that had more effects, about how he wanted tribes of orcs to roam the desert in killing squads.
And when she was done typing her message, she asked Delilah if she wanted to add anything onto the end.
"Just tell them that I need them to hurry."
Elizabeth sent the message and flinched when the tick indicating it had gone through came up on the screen. She was dead.
Aaron was going to kill her.
And if he was going to kill her anyway then she might as well send a message to Aiden, too.