Dungeon Bound 2

by Bastian Knight

  A loud crack of flesh on flesh rang out. The baron nearly fell off the dais after she slapped him with one bony hand. His head spun, his eyes widening in shock.

  “Elaine?” he moaned.

  “This is all your fault! I should have taken Kelith and left years ago!” she screamed. Her face grew pale, and her shoulders shook. She wrapped her frail arms around herself and ran from the room.

  “No wonder you did so much raping, you limp-dicked asshole,” Reyna chortled. “You’re absolute crap with women, ain’t ya?”

  “We’re finished here, Reyna,” Gabriel called out, and she flinched.

  She turned that angry glare on him again. This time her bloodshot eyes gleamed with unshed tears, but he held a hand out to stop her protest.

  “The three of us,” he said and pointed to his bonded. “Are leaving. That prick is all yours. But don’t take too long. You still have to help us track Estrial down.”

  Her furry face split into a wide grin at his words. “Don’t worry, I’ll catch up with you after the baron and I have a nice little heart to heart. Gonna make the bastard squeal before using that crystal on him.”

  Gabriel glanced at the broken noble one last time before turning to leave. He helped Cindra toward the doors as Sthuza explained how to activate the S-Crystal.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  “Back to inn, Packmaster?”

  Gabriel paused, then almost tripped over his own feet in the process. “Actually, we should go back and loot those guards in the throne room. They had a lot of enchanted gear. We could dump it in the dungeon to get Meri some extra DE. All that crap Kelith’s people had was worth a decent bit.”

  “I am afraid that would not work the way you expect, Master,” Sthuza said as she caught up to them.

  He turned to the gorgon. “Why not?”

  “The creation or acquisition of Dungeon Essence is controlled by certain rules. The relevant one here being that the threat posed inside the Core’s official Domain is all that increases the return,” Sthuza explained.

  “So if we carried it in and had Meri stick it in the Inventory, we wouldn’t get anything for it?” he asked with a sigh.

  “No, Master, we would acquire the lowest conversion rate. Pound for pound, it would be roughly equal to the waste that Lady Merideva’s goblins produce,” Sthuza said with a slight shudder.

  Gabriel nodded and thanked his Prime for keeping them from pointless work.

  “We should check the dead and perhaps the rest of the castle while our temperamental companion vents her frustrations on the baron though, Master. There might be a few useful items lying around,” she said.

  “I thought of that, but I don’t know the first thing about removing the enchantments that mark everything as the baron’s. We wouldn’t be able to sell them to anyone locally.” He looked over at the smiling gorgon, then grinned when he realized what she meant. “But if we found anything we could personally use, then it wouldn’t matter.”

  She nodded. “Precisely. I do not know if Miss Reyna will remember to loot them. I fear seeing the baron has dredged up a lot of painful memories. We might find something which could be useful for her, though, if you intend to add yet another furry female to your bonded.”

  “Cindra thinks Packmaster should take her in. Grouchy Panties is packless,” the hellhound said.

  He paused to think the idea over seriously.

  She has the filthiest mouth I’ve ever heard. Bet she could make a dwarven sailor blush. Still, she seems reasonably dependable in battle, though the idea of having two hot-headed fighters is concerning.

  ‘You should not worry that the gray one will remain an unthinking berserker forever, Master. She is young and, as a dog, can learn a few new tricks.’

  Gabriel glanced over at Cindra and started to frown at Sthuza’s words before sensing a trace of humor across their bond. He laughed at his Prime’s joke and shared an amused look with the gorgon.

  “So you are not opposed to inviting her to join us?” he asked. “Assuming things go well with the hunt for Estrial.”

  Sthuza turned serious and nodded slowly. “I believe she could be useful. However, I agree that you should wait until she has proven herself trustworthy in pursuing the traitorous elf.”

  “Fair enough. And thank you for being so supportive about all of this. I know you still have a few concerns.” He stepped closer to Sthuza and placed a hand on her slim shoulder.

  “My focus now is to serve and protect you, Master. Just as yours is to protect Lady Merideva and all of your bonded.”

  “Still, thank you,” Gabriel said with a grin. He leaned down and pressed a light kiss to her lips.

  Sthuza made a pleased cooing sound, and her eyes fluttered closed until he pulled back, and her shoulders slumped.

  “You are teasing me, Master?”

  “Never, my beautiful Prime,” he replied as his grin broadened. “But for now, we need to search this place. I’m hopeful Reyna won’t take too long, since we don’t know if Elaine will open the gate for the city watch.”

  “As you wish, Master. Though, I doubt any of them would be eager to face off against us after everything that has happened,” Sthuza replied, then stood straight again. “Cindra, go back and search the upper floor for anything that would be beneficial for us.”

  Gabriel was surprised at Sthuza’s command, but the larger monster girl nodded and started back up the stairs.

  “Do you honestly believe she’s going to come back with valuable loot?” he asked.

  Sthuza burst into uncontrolled giggling. She blushed and slapped a hand over her mouth.

  “No, Massster, I do not.”

  “Then why send her?”

  Sthuza cleared her throat and met his gaze. “I think that she will remind Reyna of her obligations to you. And no doubt Cindra will endlessly suggest they hurry and rejoin us. She does not like to be separated from her Pack.”

  He chuckled. “That’s not a bad idea.”

  “If we are lucky, the lycan may even think to sort through whatever Cindra collects, so she does not drag down all the corpses.”

  Laughing outright now, Gabriel shook his head and moved to the first door on the left. “You take the right, and I’ll go through the left? Then we work our way down, floor by floor?”

  “Of course, Master,” she said and moved to open the opposite door.

  They spent the next fifteen minutes plundering through the third floor.

  After the slaughter upstairs and the mess they’d made on the first floor, Gabriel saw no reason to be polite. He jerked drawers out and tossed them to the floor. Cabinets and dressers got similar treatment as he dug through piles of fancy clothing and the various items collected in the bedrooms that made up most of the floor.

  Several rooms had open spaces on the walls where something had been removed.

  Did the baron start selling off his possessions?

  Gabriel grumbled and kicked over another pile of expensive but useless clothes. Nothing he found would fit anyone in their group. Another trip back into the hall left him standing before the last unopened door on the floor.

  Again he activated Magesight to check for magical traps. The door was locked, but a solid kick near the ornate handle fixed that, and he stepped into the room.

  Thanks to the ostentatious cloak that hung from a rack next to the door, he recognized where he was right away.

  Kelith’s room.

  That bastard had more than one of those garish things?

  Gabriel pushed the thought aside, along with the flapping cloak, and moved to the large chest situated at the foot of an oversized, white-and-gold bed.

  Not wanting to risk triggering a trap, he focused inward and quickly reactivated Magesight.

  Nothing?

  Gabriel was surprised by the lack of traps, but grateful the lazy mage hadn’t bothered to protect his belongings better. It took less than a minute to locate the key and pop the trunk open.

  He gasped at the co
llection of potions piled on top of several leather pouches.

  Was he secretly studying alchemy? I don’t remember him ever hinting at it in school.

  Shrugging, Gabriel gently collected the vials and set them to one side. Beneath them were four bags filled with assorted powders, which would also seem at home in an alchemist’s lab.

  He set those next to the potions and then dug the last item from the chest. A dark brown leather bandolier for holding the slender metal vials.

  This could be useful.

  He slipped it on and adjusted it to fit, then spent a minute filling each flap-covered slot with the potions he’d found.

  Need to have someone identify them first, but they could come in handy.

  Each vial had a symbol embossed on one side, but he wasn’t sure what Kelith would have put in them and wasn’t willing to trust the dead bully to have labeled them as expected.

  Too risky to try without verifying the contents first. Still a nice haul. Maybe I should try to find an alchemist to recruit for the dungeon.

  None of Kelith’s clothes would fit anyone in their little group, and Gabriel didn’t really fancy seeing anyone dressed like the flamboyant mage every day, anyway.

  When he didn’t find any larger bags, he tore the cloak off the rack. He used it to bundle up the pouches full of alchemical reagents and tossed it over one shoulder before leaving.

  Just as he stepped out, the Interface flashed with the words Level Three.

  What the… Sthuza, I just leveled up.

  ‘Master? Did it happen during the fight earlier, and you just now noticed?’

  No. I was heading out, and the Interface popped up.

  ‘That is… strange, Master. Fortunate, but strange.’

  Yeah. Once we get that crystal back, I want to spend some time figuring this stuff out.

  ‘Of course.’

  He’d intended to drop the topic then, but there was a new entry when he opened his personal page.

  Prime-Bonded Monster: Unassigned

  Sthuza.

  ‘Yes, Master?’

  Still want to be my Prime-bonded?

  ‘Of course, Master. More than anything. Why?’

  Gabriel focused his mind on the line and grinned when it popped up a list of his bonded.

  Sthuza’s name glowed, while Cindra’s was darkened. He concentrated on the latter to see what it meant.

  Insufficient Affinity.

  Maybe that’s what Meri meant about sex boosting affinity?

  He pushed the thought aside and chose Sthuza.

  ‘Master!’

  Congratulations, my Prime. It’s official now.

  ‘Thank you so much, Master!

  Sthuza met him in the hall a minute later with a well-worn leather backpack slung over one shoulder. Apparently, he’d startled her so much that she had dropped her illusion. She broke into a run and leapt at him.

  He managed to brace himself enough to catch the now undisguised gorgon as she wrapped herself around him.

  “Thank you ssso much, Massster!” she cried before smashing their lips together. Her legs clenched tight around his waist, and her head-snakes nuzzled his face as the pair kissed.

  ◆◆◆

  When Gabriel’s legs started to weaken several minutes later, Sthuza finally pulled back. Her face was flushed, and she panted for breath.

  “It just makes it official, Sthuza. I already said you were my Prime.”

  She uncrossed her ankles, and he lowered her to her feet. Several head-snakes stared at him with a frightening intensity.

  Still blushing, she swallowed twice, then hefted the bag and adjusted its position. “I see you were successful as well, Master.”

  “Yeah, found some interesting stuff in Kelith’s room. Overall there was a lot less to steal than I’d expected.”

  “Yes, I noticed that as well. It appears that the baron has struggled with financial decline for some time. A definite change from the last time I traveled through here.”

  “Seems strange that he’d have spent the money to buy Reyna if he was selling off possessions,” Gabriel said.

  “True, Master. But many people engage in self-destructive habits. Perhaps mistreating beastkin provided him with a feeling he valued more than money, and he was unwilling to give up that experience.”

  Gabriel considered her words, then shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, let’s go to the next floor.”

  She nodded and followed him down the stairs. They made their way past the four dead guards and started to search the rooms.

  Most of them were offices for the various administrators and servants who kept the castle and the city as a whole functioning.

  “It’s strange that we didn’t encounter anyone except guards and the baron’s family here. Shouldn’t there have been a lot more clerks and city officials?” he pondered out loud.

  “I believe it is the end of a week, is it not, Master? As memory serves me, most of the bureaucrats who infest the city do not work during the final two days of each week,” she said.

  He stared at her. “You mean, weekend?”

  Sthuza smiled, nodding. “Yes, that, Master. They work for the first five days, then rest for the last two, correct? I recall hearing adventurers lament their laziness whenever I visited the Guild.”

  Laughing, Gabriel nodded in agreement. “You’re probably right.”

  Minor worry alleviated, he entered another cramped office looking for anything of value.

  Tons of scrolls and even a few books. Too bad it all likes the sort of crap merchants seem to love. While Sthuza likes books, kind of doubt she would care to read about taxes and land use claims.

  They spent just as long exploring this floor as they did the one above but came away with only a couple of minor enchanted items.

  He’d found a magical quill that could create a myriad array of colored inks and a heavily enchanted, leather-bound book whose pages constantly swirled, concealing the contents.

  Not sure what it contains. Would be nice to learn the enchantment protecting it, though.

  Worry that the baroness might let the watch into the castle receded as the minutes passed during their search.

  Most of the rooms were filled with the trappings of bureaucrats. Gabriel found reams of the specialized parchment commonly used for magical contracts.

  Hard to believe that less than a week ago, I wanted to work in a place like this.

  They had just finished the last suite and were preparing to head down when Gabriel walked over to Sthuza and put a hand on her shoulder.

  “Do you think less of me for not wanting to stay up there and torture Alberik?” he asked quietly. The question had been brewing in the back of his mind, and he needed to know.

  She turned an inscrutable gaze on him. “No, Master, I do not. You are neither a cruel nor hateful man, and I am grateful for that. From what you revealed of your past on the night we bonded, I suspected that you had an innate kindness, and I still believe that to be true.”

  “Really? What about the way I killed Kelith?” Gabriel asked past the lump swelling in his throat.

  I didn’t even hesitate at unraveling his soul.

  Sthuza grinned at him, clearly having overheard his thought. “You will find that I would be the last to denounce your actions, Master,” she said with a smile. “You did it to save my life if you recall.”

  “Yeah, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. But shouldn’t I feel guilty for doing it to him? For telling his parents the way I did?”

  She paused, then shook her head, which sent her head-snakes whipping about. “No, Master. You defended those close to you against a man driven solely by greed.

  “As for telling his parents, they deserved to know the truth. Will his mother be eaten up by guilt or anger because of it? Maybe, but they brought it upon themselves,” Sthuza said.

  He gave a slight smile, and when she stepped close to hug him, he wrapped his arms tight around her delightful body.

  “I
f you wish to obsess about the feelings of others, perhaps you should look to those closest to you,” she whispered in his ear. “Like your new Prime.”

  Gabriel shivered when her tongue flicked teasingly against his skin.

  Subconsciously he pulled Sthuza tighter and drank in her scent. They kissed again, and his Prime was even more enthusiastic than before.

  It took him several deep breaths before he could let go and step back from the enthralling monster girl.

  She watched him closely as he pulled back, and her bright green eyes revealed the slightest sliver of concern.

  He grinned and shook his head. “Silly gorgon, I’m not repulsed by you, haven’t you figured that out yet?” he teased. “Unfortunately, I think I heard movement above us, so it’s time to get going.”

  Sthuza restored her disguise and adjusted her light armor before she stepped up to his side. They watched as Reyna and Cindra descended the stairs. The hellhound had an absolutely massive bundle slung over her shoulder.

  “I’m telling you, you fat-breasted crotch-muncher, he’s not going to approve of you trying to bring all of that shit with you.”

  “Packmaster said to get stuff that’s useful and nice, so Cindra did!”

  The short werebadger threw her hands up with an exasperated sigh and stomped down the stairs.

  “Oy! Your fleabag decided to loot everything,” Reyna said.

  Gabriel paused and took a closer look at the oversized bundle his bonded carried.

  A clear trail of blood traced their path back up the stone steps. It was hard to tell how much of the mess dripped from Cindra’s makeshift pack, and how much was from the blood-soaked pair.

  “Did you take the equipment off the corpses before you collected it, Cindra?” Sthuza asked quietly.

  Something about her stern tone caused the hellhound to flinch. “Um, sorta.”

  “How do you sor—never mind. I don’t want to know.” Gabriel shook his head. “Drop that bloody mess, and let’s see what you found.”

  Cindra bobbed her head eagerly and let go of the heavy cloth she’d been holding.

  Her burden landed with a squelch, and blood splattered in a ring around her. She blushed and grinned. “Maybe Cindra got too much?”