“Xicackna? Where are you?”
As the adrenaline from the fight wore off, she finally heard Kol-Gaar's voice. She emitted position pheromones in response and he quickly appeared in front of her, followed by a few soldiers who protected his rear.
He looked relieved to see her still alive, glanced briefly at the leader’s corpse, then pointed to the portal:
“We have to hurry to cross. There are still about a hundred goblins left and even if they are quite confused by the beginnings of the Dungeon’s collapse, they can still attack us. Their Chaos bonus could even be reinforced by the situation… Did you search the boss’s corpse? They usually drop valuable items.”
She crouched down near the remains of the monster and searched them with disgust, sweeping the body with her “Observation”. A curious metal circle was on the ground. The Goblin was not carrying it on him, it must have been an object that had fallen from his inventory. Picking it up, she discovered that it was slightly stained with blood. Rare stones were embedded in the structure.
Torygg’s Bloody Crown [E] [Increases Mana by 2] [Head Armor]
Having made sure there was nothing else to take, she headed towards the portal and passed through, soon followed by Kol-Gaar and the surviving soldiers. Finding herself back in the small military outpost, she noticed a flurry of activity taking place there: the workers seemed to be packing up all sorts of things while the soldiers watched the portal carefully, ready to attack whatever came out.
“Can... monsters get through here?”
“No,” Kol-Gaar replied, “not as a general rule. However, there may be a few exceptions where a monster, or even a group, manages to get through the portal. It's exceptional, but it's better to be prepared for it.”
They turned to look at the green portal. It was undulating strangely, its edges like bubbling water. The shape of the circle was distorting at times.
“The Dungeon should disappear within ten minutes; the outpost will then be dismantled: without the Dungeon it is useless. Since it is a type of ‘recurring’ Dungeon, another similar one will appear one day or another, but not in the same place.”
“And these soldiers who enter inside, what are they doing?”
“They are going to clean the area to allow the workers to come and take away the useful resources, especially the mana stones. With the defeat of the ‘Boss’, the adventurer limit for this Dungeon has been removed. A dungeon of this level has little interest, but it should not be wasted.”
The two nobles collapsed to the ground, letting the tension within them escape through this release.
“Pff,” Kol-Gaar breathed, “I only had 1235 Energy Points left... If we continue at this rate, I'll have to use an Energy potion... They're rare and expensive...”
“And I only have 28 Hit Points left... Oh, no: 26... I was convinced that was...”
“Idiot!”
Surprised, she jumped and stood up, glaring at the prince. Strangely, he looked more worried than angry. Before she could complain, he explained:
“You're bleeding! A hemorrhage! We need to treat that right away!”
“Ah, that's right, I forgot...”
Rustlessly shoving the princess, Kol-Gaar looked at the wound and vomited a regenerating acid, restoring 18 Hit Points and healing the flesh.
“I... I really don't know how I could have forgotten something like...”
“It happens... The System disrupts our sensations and we can forget the source of the pain we feel, or even get used to being in pain to the point of forgetting it. It's one of the dangers that awaits us... In any case, congratulations on your victory against this boss. His power of repulsion could have turned the battle against us.”
“Yes… I almost died… Well, I would have fled under the cover of invisibility if I had lost a few more points, but you never know: if the monster had made another critical hit…”
A realization slowly dawned on Xicackna’s mind and she looked at the prince in surprise. Had he complimented her? Him? Well, he had still called her an idiot just before, but he had also congratulated her…
Not knowing whether or not she should point out these facts, she chose to focus on the loot. With the exception of the Mana stone, her winnings were new things. The Dungeon Heart and the Crown… Observing the latter more closely, she began to scratch it frantically, in vain.
“But? These blood stains won’t come off!”
“Let me see.”
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She passed the crown to Kol-Gaar who studied it briefly before handing it back to her.
“That's normal: blood is part of the description of this item, so the System prevents it from being removed. At least it's dry: you can put it on your head without any problem.”
“But, it's disgusting!”
“The important thing is the bonus. In the life of an adventurer, you shouldn't complain about the aesthetics of the objects you find and focus on their contributions: survival is sometimes played out by a Hit Point...”
With a grimace, Xicackna placed the object on her head. By some mysterious optical effect, it adjusted to it perfectly.
“Okay, it doubles my Energy... So, it's useless for the moment. And this Dungeon Heart, what exactly is it? I have to eat it, right?”
The prince observed the small gray sphere and moved his head positively.
“Yes, exactly. Each Dungeon boss has a Dungeon Heart in its inventory. You can swallow it: although it seems solid, it is immediately absorbed by the body unlike Mana stones. As stated in its description, you will obtain one of the indicated benefits. If it is a skill, then you will have the choice to replace one of the ones you already have or to convert this skill into experience points.”
The princess looked warily at the small sphere that radiated a gray, slightly white color. Was it really possible to absorb it? Could she?
“I... Can I really take it?”
“If you hadn't earned it, if I thought it would be a waste to leave it to you, it would already be out of your hands.”
Sweeping aside her apprehensions, she swallowed the sphere. This thing had no taste and, as promised, disappeared almost instantly, as if melting inside her body.
You gain the skill:
Camouflage (E) [Supernatural Power] (Allows you to take on the color of your environment, only for your natural parts).
You have no skill slots available. Please select a skill to destroy, or the option to convert this skill gained to 200 XP.
Damn: a skill she already had and at the same level too. The only difference would be that one was natural and the other supernatural. Well, extra XP was always welcome.
Kol-Gaar had of course observed her choice via "Analysis", unless she had managed to prevent it using "Falsification": she was not systematically informed of the failure or success of her actions. She turned to him and asked:
“And now, what do we do?”
“What do you think? We go back. I only have a third of my Energy reserve and you really need more advanced care. There is no one here with healing skills: they are posted on the side of more dangerous doors. We also need to replenish our stock of soldiers because we lost half of them and the survivors really need a break”
So, they made the journey in reverse to the hive of Xéméne. Once there, Xicackna stopped at Xer-Shola’s to get treatment. The mature princess was delighted to see the young one again but gave her a strong reprimand for her imprudence when she heard the story of her adventure.
“You should have retreated when the soldiers were swept away: a princess should not fight alone. Even a prince should not be so imprudent!”
She promised to be more thoughtful in the future and took her leave. Following the prince, she found herself back at the observatory. She assumed that Kol-Gaar had already given the queen an account of their adventure via the hive mind. In any case, he was in no hurry to go there personally and contented himself with slumping down on the cushions, falling into a deep sleep. Of course, he had taken up the best part!
Grumbling slightly, she tried to collect as many cushions as she could and settled herself as comfortably as she could in the remaining area. She too fell into a deep, restorative sleep.
When she woke up, Kol-Gaar was still asleep. He slept for the rest of the day as well, and then a good part of the next. Sometimes he would wake briefly to have a snack brought by the servants, then fall back asleep.
At first, Xicackna would consult the documents present to occupy herself, or those sent by the queen from the library. She was beginning to want to do something else, but when she wanted to go out for a walk, a massive guard blocked her way: without a noble accompanying her, she could not move around the hive.
Occupying her time, she played with the tools present, observing the landscape during the day and the stars at night, having fun stacking objects on Kol-Gaar without the pile collapsing, recovering the cushions on which he slept without waking him, drawing on his shell using charcoal...
“Okay,” Kol-Gaar said after being crushed by a pile of amber tablets when he woke up, “I would have liked to take care of it later personally, but deep down, given your level, a simple soldier will do just fine. I haven't even recovered to half my Energy yet...”
Although in a bad mood (you had to admit that it wasn't the best of awakenings), he remained relatively calm as he brought the princess down from his tower. He accompanied her to an army training ground and gave instructions to the soldiers present. Turning to the princess, he explained what awaited her:
“So, to put it simply: when I saw you wielding your sword, I discovered a level of mediocrity in its use that I would never have thought possible. I know that you little princesses don't play with swords, but to go from there to handling them like badly wielded clubs...”
“Hey! I know a princess who plays with swords!”
Xicackna protested rather for form's sake, feeling a little offended by the tone of these remarks, but she knew that it was relatively true: the only princess she knew who was interested in weapons was Xafara. And even then: before the Disaster their mother had had her collection of sharp objects confiscated.
Instructed by Kol-Gaar, a soldier suddenly advanced towards her, dominating her with its monstrous mass. As she instinctively shrank, it handed her a sword whose edge was visibly dull.
“You take!”
The smells emitted by these foreign soldiers were too strange for her to interpret their sentences in a more complex way. She quickly took the weapon.
“You hit.”
He pointed to a sort of pile of earth, recently moistened to prevent it from drying out. It was probably some kind of training target because it showed many marks of blows. Obediently, she tapped the target.
“Not good. Holding like that.”
The gigantic soldier unsheathed a massive sword and showed her how to hold the sword. It then took a long straight root and used it to correct the princess's posture without risking piercing her with its solid pointed legs. It did not hesitate, however, to tap quite hard with its wand when she was slow to follow the movement it wanted to impose on her.
Understanding the uselessness of protesting these rudenesses to the soldier, Xicackna turned an angry head towards Kol-Gaar...
He was no longer there. A cry of rage and despair burst from the princess's chest when she understood that she would remain there, to be lectured by one of these stupid soldiers for hours, until the prince deigned to come and deliver her.
He would pay for it! She did not know how, but she would definitely make him pay!
“You hit. Faster!”
Constrained and forced, she concentrated on her lesson.