Chapter 19: Spreading Influence
The morphling in Ardreth’s form led Daphne back to the dungeon entrance. At DM’s request, she gathered her white mage and brought him into the entrance chamber.
“…Leave us for a short while.”
“Huh? Why should I?” Daphne asked, belligerent as always.
“Daffy, let’s do as he says.”
“Okay…” She exited the dungeon to join up with her other party members.
DM addressed the mage. “…There’s something I need to tell you about Daphne.”
“Is she all right!?”
“…Yes. However, I used the ability infect on her. …This way, I can keep an eye on her like I do for Ardreth’s party.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“…Infect is easily removed with healing magic.”
“Then—”
“…I need you to ensure infect is not removed for the time being.”
DM proceeded to explain what Ardreth had learned about infect. Reluctantly, the mage agreed to avoid removing infect while healing Daphne.
The morphling and Daphne’s mage exited the dungeon.
“…What will you do now?”
“We’ve gotta get ourselves to the Twin Cities,” the elf responded.
“…What will you tell the Guild?”
“I’ll just say we encountered a whole bunch of monsters at the dungeon entrance and ran back out.”
“…That works. Your run-in with the tentacle monsters might make for a good drinking story some day.”
----------------------------------------
DM monitored Daphne’s party walk to the Twin Cities Guild branch and report in. She didn’t reveal anything unnecessary and successfully brushed off the Guild’s questions.
The beast girls arrived at the dungeon later that day, as expected. They raced to the bottom level.
“DM!” Kat shouted as the five entered the boss chamber.
DM waved his appendage from a spot near the console. The girls lunged at him either to embrace him or tackle him. He wasn’t sure which.
“…How is adventuring going?”
“It’s amazing!” Shiba shouted, perhaps a bit too excited. “The Guild taught me how to cast magic properly.” Her dog-like tail wagged from side to side.
“They helped me get axes too!” Lupy declared proudly. “It’s fun bashing in monsters’ heads!”
“And I have a real sword!” Vulp reported.
“…I know. I was keeping an eye on you all during your adventures. …Also, are we going to gloss over what Lupy just said?”
“I’m going to be getting more special training,” Bandit interrupted.
“…I may have missed it. What’s the latest?”
DM didn’t necessarily monitor every conversation, especially now that he was paying attention to multiple parties. Apparently, he’d missed some crucial information.
The Guild Master had informed Bandit that a specialist from the capital branch would be arriving soon to provide more advanced training. Although not explicitly stated, Bandit suspected he or she was one of the Guild’s top assassins or enforcers or undercover agents.
With her sensitive raccoon ears, Bandit had also overheard snippets of conversations between the Guild Master and others due to her often being pulled away from the rest of her party. With her limited vocabulary, especially when it came to matters of nobility and governance, she didn’t understand much of what she heard. However, talking it over with DM, it sounded like the Guild Master and the Lord of the Twin Cities were at odds. Conceivably, the tension was part of a greater conflict between the Guild and the nation as a whole.
DM also inquired about Olivia, who had been detained after delivering a letter to the Guild. The girls had not been able to learn anything new. He hadn’t given up on her, but he wouldn’t sacrifice his current operations by overextending either.
DM summoned some LVL 6 creatures for the girls to whale on. Eventually, they all reached LVL 7. In Kat’s case, he used his experience touch ability to transfer experience from monsters to Kat, since she didn’t care for physically attacking other creatures.
“…Let’s discuss what happens next.”
“Okay!”
“…You’re all becoming mid-level adventurers at what must be record-breaking speeds. It’s very important that you keep your connection to me and this dungeon a secret for now.”
The girls nodded.
“…I want you all to become, or at least seem to be, dependable members of the Guild who will take the side of the Guild, even if there is a battle between the Guild and the city’s guards. I expect they’ll be delighted to have talented members declare their loyalty. …Just, don’t overdo it and make it obvious that you are pretending.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Okay,” Kat acknowledged on behalf of her party.
“…Bandit, please continue to receive the special training. Even more so than with the other girls, you need to make it clear to the Guild that you will be entirely loyal to them for so long as they are committed to you.”
“I will.”
“…If the Guild orders you to do something that is too difficult, pretend you will go along with it, then escape at the first opportunity. I’ll be able to protect you so long as you still carry the infect status.”
Bandit nodded with a serious expression. DM believed she understood what he was getting at.
“Oh, DM, what was the deal with that party? The one with the elf?” Kat asked.
“…Ah, right.” DM summarized his encounter with Ardreth’s party, the battle with the wyvern, and Daphne’s visit.
“Daphne’s funny!” Vulp decided.
“Yeah, I want to meet her,” Shiba agreed.
“I want to fight a wyvern!” Lupy declared, perhaps a bit foolishly.
“…I don’t think you all are ready for a wyvern yet. I can help you out a bit, though.”
DM determined that high-tier sensing magic is rare. He could safely provide abilities to the girls without them getting discovered too easily. However, if they revealed unusual powers to others, it would be difficult to explain.
He used his ability touch skill to provide each of the girls a few new abilities. He could only provide abilities of a lower tier than he already knew himself, so he didn’t have many options. He also couldn’t teach them tentacle slap since they didn’t have tentacles.
The girls each gained regenerate (T1), fireball (T1), and sense (T1). He neglected to provide fireball (T2) because they wouldn’t have the MP to support its use very well anyway. DM also elected not to provide them spawn tentacle or absorb equipment. They could grow very powerful with those abilities, but they could also draw way too much of the wrong types of attention.
Also, DM was worried if he gave the girls charm touch they would abuse it. Who wouldn’t feel tempted to assert control over another, especially at such a young age? DM could always charm or use affection on an opponent on behalf of the girls if needed.
----------------------------------------
The girls spent the night in their room at the bottom level of the dungeon. Ardreth’s (technically Sasha’s) party was still proceeding north towards the Empire’s capital, and Daphne’s party was staying at an inn.
While everyone slept, DM decided he’d finally conduct a very important experiment. What would happen if the dungeon master exited the dungeon?
DM sent a few monsters ahead to scout the area around the dungeon, but it was vacant, save for a bit of wildlife. He ascended the final stairs to exit the dungeon, finding himself in a familiar spot in the Lower Gordu Forest. After all, he had watched many people and monsters come and go from this area.
He didn’t feel anything particularly special by being outside. Of course, he no longer had access to the dungeon console, but he still had a mental connection of sorts to the dungeon and to the monsters he had spawned. Combined with his infect ability, he could monitor and order around his minions to an extent while he was away from the console. He would need to be using the console to operate the dungeon at maximum efficiency, though, especially in a defensive situation.
“…Here goes nothing.”
It was a fairly dark night so DM doubted he’d be spotted for what he was about to do.
“…Let’s try flying very slowly outside.”
DM activated his float ability, rising into the air. He kept a couple of LVL 6 bats with him just in case. Although the speed he could fly with this ability was low, he still rose above the treetops after what felt like just a few moments of ascending.
Once over the trees, he got a better view of the surrounding area. There wasn’t anything in his surroundings that he hadn’t seen before through infect, but it still was nice to see things with his own eyes for once, not that he had any.
He rose higher, and higher, not sure what altitude he was at. Although lighting was poor, he could still make out the Twin Cities without too much difficulty. It wasn’t lit up like a modern city, but it still had plenty of small light sources. He got an idea.
“…Why don’t I test the range on spawn tentacle?”
Generally, to use spawn tentacle outside of the room he was in, he would need to infect a creature and send that creature to the new location. In contrast, when he was outside, could he spawn a tentacle on the terrain of a distant mountain? It didn’t seem to work with infected creatures, but perhaps it would work if DM himself was the one peering at the scenery?
He glanced in the direction of the Twin Cities. His view of most portions of the city was obstructed by walls, buildings, and other structures or trees. A few portions were unblocked, allowing DM direct sight. In addition, he continued to climb, improving his viewing angle.
He toyed with trying to infect someone from all the way over here, but he decided against it. DM didn’t want to misstep and alert the city to his actions. Instead, he turned north towards the Upper Gordu Forest and focused on one of the barren hills which extended above the canopy of treetops.
Focusing on a particular spot of dirt, he was able to make a tentacle appear, as evidenced by a tiny vibrating dot. Apparently, even that distant hill was considered in view of the caster. Ideally, he’d use that tentacle to infect a nearby animal or monster, but at this range he just wasn’t able to make that happen. Of course, he could send an infected bat if he wished.
“…Hell, why don’t I try to extend my reach a bit more?” DM returned to his dungeon.
Since it was a fairly dark night, DM felt comfortable sending a bat to fly over the Twin Cities. He searched for opportunities to infect a small number of people. He wouldn’t hurt them, but he also didn’t feel guilty about bending the rules of civility when people were repeatedly trying to murder him for things that were out of his control.
DM spotted one man walking along a path, adjacent to the large river bisecting the city, all by himself. Nobody else seemed to be around at this moment.
“…Is that a dwarf?” DM glanced over at the copy of Ardreth which was still vocalizing all his thoughts for him. “…Is it weird that I have a morphling vocalize my thoughts even when I’m talking to myself? Whatever.”
DM was interested to see what dwarfs were like so he decided to pull the trigger, so to speak. A tentacle appeared behind the dwarf and wrapped around his ankle. The dwarf stumbled, too focused on catching his fall to worry about what it was that he tripped on. By the time he lowered himself to the ground and looked behind him, the tentacle was already gone.
“By my beard.”
The bat continued searching for opportunities. A female knight rode a horse up the main road, shiny armor reflecting what little light there was. The horse neighed and broke into a gallop that was not commanded by the knight.
“Whoa!” The knight skillfully brought the horse back under control. She looked behind her but couldn’t see the ball of horse manure which had struck the horse’s rear. Further, she wasn’t magically skilled enough to notice that the projectile manure had been enchanted with infect and charm.
“…That was some charming dung if I say so myself.”
----------------------------------------
Ultimately, DM had spread infect to half a dozen targets throughout the city, including the dwarf and the charmed horse. There wasn’t much point in continuing since he couldn’t manage that many more connections anyway. Not only would monitoring the new infected people and animals give him clues into current events in the Twin Cities, but watching them go about their lives was kind of like watching a television show. It was a show where he could jump in at any moment and change its direction. Who wouldn’t find that fun?