Chapter 18: A Game of Tag
The tentacle monsters dispersed, leaving behind four tired adventurers and a male elf.
“Ardreth, what are you doing here!? Why are the monsters listening to you!?”
Ardreth peered back at younger elvish adventurer but didn’t respond.
“It’s me! Daphne!”
Ardreth shook his head from side to side, still saying nothing.
“All right. I know I shouldn’t have followed you. But I’m here now, so at least talk to me!”
Her companions stood up and looked between her and the other elf, wondering what type of relationship they had.
“Daffy, who is he?” the fighter asked.
“Ardreth is from my homeland. He left home to explore and I… followed him out of the village the first chance I got.”
“He seems older than you.”
“Yes. He’s like… an older brother to me.”
Ardreth turned to face away. “I am not Ardreth.”
“What!? Where’s Ardreth then!? Why do you look like him!? Is he—”
“…Ardreth is traveling in the Empire right now.”
“So he’s okay!” Daphne sounded elated.
“…Yes. He visited here not too long ago. …I copied his form so that I could speak.”
“Who are you, then?” the swordsman asked.
“…I am just a morphling. A mouthpiece for the master of this dungeon.”
“A morphling? Have any of you heard of a morphling before?” Daphne turned to her party, but they all shook their heads.
“…Morphlings take the form of a creature they encounter. This one took the form of Ardreth by chance shortly before he left to continue his journey.”
“That’s great news, then! Who is the master of this dungeon?”
“…I am the one speaking through this morphling. You can call me DM. …I reside in the lowest level of this dungeon.”
“DM, is it? That’s right! What level is this dungeon? We thought it was LVL 2, but there’s no way that’s true!” the elf girl shouted, as she often did.
“…This dungeon is LVL 6. It has grown rapidly.”
“LVL 6 huh? Already? No wonder we got our butts kicked! Wait, why did you swarm us with tentacle monsters!?” Daphne’s allies all had similar annoyed expressions on their faces as they waited for the answer.
“…I was experimenting to see how tentacle monsters would behave. I had never encountered one for myself until I gained the ability to spawn them recently.”
“Experimenting!? We had to go through all that for your experiments!?”
The morphling paused before finally responding. “…Yes. If I don’t defeat adventurers who enter my dungeon, they will try to slay me.”
“But did it have to be tentacle monsters!?” Daffy hugged herself as she asked her question. The fighter nodded along.
“…Would you have preferred ogres? One hundred zombies?” Daffy’s party members’ eyes widened at the thought of those encounters.
Perhaps emboldened by the fact that she felt like she was talking to her acquaintance Ardreth, she continued pushing. “You’re just a coward, then! Instead of hiding behind your monsters, you should deal with us yourself! Even if I lost, I’d rather get lifted into the air by the dungeon master than tentacle monsters!”
“…You wanted me to… deal with you myself?”
“Yeah! It didn’t need to be a fight to the death, but rather than relying on slimy minions, you could have earned our respect through your own action!”
“Daffy, what are you—“ The mage’s attempt to intervene was not quick enough.
“…Do you speak for your whole group? Or only yourself, little elf?”
“Hey! Don’t call me a little elf!”
The morphling stood silently, waiting for her to finish answering his question.
“Okay, I won’t drag the others into this. I do want the chance to hit you at least once after everything you did to us!”
“Daffy, we should apologize and then ask to leave! Whoever he is, he’s LVL 6!”
DM denied the fighter’s claim. “…I’m not LVL 6. Come, Daphne. Let’s spar a little. …If you’re lucky, you’ll get a hit in.”
“Fine! The rest of you, stay here or wait outside.”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Her three companions looked back and forth, shrugged, and walked towards the dungeon exit. The mage offered, “Please don’t injure her too badly Sir DM.”
“…Follow me.” The morphling gestured for Daphne to follow and led the way into the dungeon.
On floor 3, the pair turned a corner and reached a dead end.
“…Oh, I forgot I changed that.”
Daphne laughed hysterically. “You’re even more of a goofball than Ardreth!”
“…Ardreth didn’t seem like a goofball…”
“Takes one to know one I guess!”
The morphling wasn’t conveying DM’s emotions, so Daphne couldn’t tell if her occasional verbal jabs were getting to him or not.
The pair corrected their course and resumed a moderate walk. Eventually, they arrived in the boss room at the bottom of the dungeon.
“A slime!?” Daphne pointed at the disappointing slime sitting on a throne, barely paying any attention to her surroundings. “That’s almost as gross as a tentacle monster!”
“…Is that so?” The Ardreth look-alike paused for a few seconds. “Let’s begin.”
Daphne broke into a run, angling her path towards the far right corner. She kept her eyes trained on the slime while she drew an arrow and prepared to fire a shot. “I hope you’re not all talk!”
She released the arrow directly at the slime. The arrow caught the corner of the armrest and was deflected away harmlessly.
“Damn! That was aimed right at you!” In actuality, the slime would have been struck if not for the armrest.
“…I see why your allies were so quick to abandon you,” the morphling taunted from near the entrance.
“Shut up!” Daphne changed directions and ran again, trying to get a better angle on the target. She released her second arrow which struck the slime. The slime was clearly wounded, but hadn’t been defeated by the degree of damage yet.
“Hah! How do you like that!? I was careful not to kill you.”
“…I don’t care if you attack that slime or not, but you came here to fight the dungeon master, didn’t you?”
“What?” Daphne turned to look over her shoulder at the morphling, only to notice another monster standing right behind her. It was three meters tall, purple, and had appendages that seemed, somewhat unfortunately, like the same type she had tangled with earlier. “What…”
The monster didn’t have a face, but she could tell it was peering down at her, and it wasn’t feeling jovial. Her experience from the battle upstairs taught her that you need to get outside the monster’s tentacle range as soon as possible if you want a shot at winning. She laughed nervously, took a deep breath, and started to run.
It was obvious to her, as well as anyone else, that tentacle monsters are not fast. Their bodies are not optimized for running. If DM was a higher level than Daphne, and DM received a large stat boost—including AGI—due to being a dungeon master, who would win in a footrace?
Daphne had abandoned all attempts to use her bow and simply tried running away. DM moved to keep himself in between her and the exit at all times, meanwhile not letting her get outside of his appendages’ range. The mental pressure that she couldn’t escape his range cumulatively built up until Daphne couldn’t take it anymore and she collapsed into a heap on the floor.
“You win!” Daphne coughed and tried to catch her breath. “If you’re that fast, I doubt I can seriously hurt you.”
The morphling responded, “…It’s not over ‘til the fat lady sings, and there’s no fat lady here.”
Daphne didn’t get the reference so it took her a few moments to understand DM’s point. Right as the look of realization washed over her face, he reached out his appendages, grabbed her by her arms and legs, and lifted her into the air.
“No! Not again!” She squirmed and complained but had no chance of escaping DM’s grasp.
“…I’m not sure what you were expecting, to be honest.”
“I just wanted a bit of revenge! And what are you going to do now? Dissolve my clothing!?”
“…Do you… do you want me to dissolve your clothing?”
“O-Of course not!” She denied it vehemently.
“…Worry not. It will be some years before the thought of that appeals to me.”
“Wha!? Why you!”
The comedy routine lasted a bit longer before she eventually settled down.
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Daphne’s companions chatted among themselves outside the dungeon entrance.
“What do you think the dungeon master will do to Daffy?”
“He probably won’t hurt her.”
“I think you’re correct. It’s probably one of those things like, ‘I won’t hurt you, but I will hurt your pride,’ right?”
“What if he surrounds her with twenty tentacle monsters again?”
“Maybe she’ll learn something?”
“She’s our age, and she’s an elf, and she’s still a big baby.”
“She’s our leader. What does that say about us?”
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“…Have you calmed down?”
“…Yes.” Her response was just as delayed as the morphling’s.
“…Should I put you down now?”
DM wasn’t very experienced at interacting with people like Daphne, but from what he could tell she was pouting. She didn’t even respond to his question.
“…Why are you so…” DM struggled to complete his thought.
“Don’t say it.”
“…What?”
“I know.”
“…That makes one of us.”
“Ardreth knew I wanted to go on an adventure, and he told me to wait a few years but I didn’t listen! The spirits told me to go home, and I ignored them too!”
“…I can only imagine what the archery instructor’s opinion was.”
“AHHH!” she yelled at the top of her lungs, then took some deep breaths and calmed down again. “I’m such a failure of an elf.”
“…Can’t you just chalk this all up to youthful foolishness?”
“For an elf? Even at my age, I should be wiser than I am…”
“…Wisdom isn’t everything.”
“You saw what my archery is like.”
“…No comment.”
“When you’re not trying to grab me with your tentacles, you seem like a nice enough person.”
“…Do you want me to put you down?”
“No…”
“…I’m getting mixed messages.”
“Say,” she asked, changing the topic. “Why did the spirits tell me to enter your dungeon?”
“…They did?”
“Yeah. It was weird. I’ve never heard of the spirits telling an elf to go into a dungeon before.”
“…Have you ever heard of the spirits telling an elf to go home until they’re older before?”
“No… I’m probably the first elf who ever gave them cause to do that…”
“…Then you might be the only elf who would give them cause to usher you into a dungeon, as well.”
“Meaning?”
“…I’m not sure.”
“Oh! Like, for an elf like me, if I’m not going home, the next best place to be is here!?”
“…I’m kind of hoping that isn’t true.”
“What!? I take back what I said!” She glared at DM for a few moments, then broke into a laugh. “This feels like arguing with Ardreth, except you’re less mean.”
“…Ardreth really didn’t strike me as—“
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“…I’ll take your word for it.”
“Why are you a tentacle monster?”
“…A mistake.”
“You’re so normal… Nothing like a monster.”
“…Thank you, but, I did surround you with twenty tentacle monsters.”
“Well, we did come in here to kill you and all…”
“…I’m glad you finally see things my way.”
“I’m kind of envious.”
“…That I’m a tentacle monster?”
“No! Not that! Just, the way you aren’t failing to grow up and become more mature like I am.”
“…You’re all in your teens, right?”
“Yeah?”
“…I’m already in my twenties, and where I grew up was more advanced than this place, so I’ve got an advantage.”
“Grew up? More advanced? I don’t understand.”
“…Honestly, I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Oh, come on! This sounds super interesting now!”
“…It’s risky for me to give too much away.”
“At least, you weren’t always a tentacle monster, right?”
“…You’re right.”
“Does that mean you died and were reborn as a tentacle monster? With your memories?”
“…That is a very plausible explanation.”
“Of all the monsters you could have been reborn as! You should have become a dragon!”
“…”