Chapter 15: Dungeon Level 9
“…And finally, for every action there is an equal and opposite reac—holy crap!”
“What is it!?” Vera’s physics lesson was rudely interrupted by DM himself, but she had no idea why.
“…Hold on.”
DM turned his attention to Lupy who had suddenly entered battle against three humans. He hadn’t noticed what caused it. He was cycling through his infected allies and suddenly noticed Lupy surrounded and defending herself. DM primed himself to spawn a tentacle, if needed. Before he could, Lupy split the first guy’s head in two.
The other two surrounded her, weapons drawn. DM prepared himself to intervene the moment either man made a move all-the-while trying to figure out what could have caused this situation. Before the men could attack, Lupy summoned the minotaur, and they simultaneously struck down both opponents.
If Lupy was simply defending herself, DM wouldn’t fault her for it. This world was more dangerous than his previous one. People needed to be tougher, and victimization was common. Although fights to the death could be quite traumatizing, DM suspected Lupy would be able to move past this without too much difficulty. That was only if Lupy was entirely in the right here.
Lupy had previously shown signs of enjoying violence. While DM never saw her do anything particularly unreasonable, he knew the other girls would often advise Lupy so as to prevent her from taking an action she would regret. One example was when the girls were attacked by Nar Union adventurers after leaving the Upper Gordu Dungeon. Lupy was reminded not to kill the fool who engaged her.
Perhaps leaving Lupy to her own devices was a mistake. DM had noticed she wasn’t too happy about being left out of the other girls’ various activities, but he didn’t have any immediate ideas for how to help her. He couldn’t exactly accompany her around outside the dungeon. Ideally, she would find some extracurricular activity the same way the other girls had, but it hadn’t happened yet.
Lupy could freelance at the Guild when the other girls were away. The problem with that plan was that she wouldn’t be able to become a core member of another party since she wouldn’t be fully committed. Bouncing from party to party was kind of like playing a sport but hopping to a different team each week. Even if you loved the sport, that would get old quickly.
DM decided to bump up on his priority list his efforts to help Lupy. First, he needed to assess the current situation. He monitored Lupy after the battle. She dismissed the minotaur, and then cleaned off her axes using the clothing of her now-deceased enemies. Finally, she sheathed her axes and walked away like nothing ever happened. She didn’t run or even look the tiniest bit distressed; she just sauntered into a nearby alley.
DM returned his focus to Vera, who was patiently waiting. “…Do you know any good child psychologists?”
----------------------------------------
Daphne’s party departed her home with three additional elves accompanying them. Alenia even arranged for horses for everyone.
Unlike Daphne, who had felt hesitant to adventure far from home of late, her fellow party members were still eager to explore. Also, Alenia had offered to provide training to the group while they traveled. Personally, she would teach Daphne how to use her bow more effectively. Her two friends would instruct the others.
The first, a female druid similar to Ardreth, but older, would provide magical training to the white mage. The second friend of Alenia carried multiple blades of varying lengths. She would instruct the swordsman and the female fighter together. The fighter was eager to learn from a veteran warrior, but the swordsman just seemed happy to get any attention at all from the elf.
Alenia informed everyone that they would first travel to the capital, Ereacht. She had muttered something about her last visit there being a few decades previous, but Daphne’s party pretended not to hear it. The plan was to check in at the Guild and accept any viable missions before turning east. Daphne was honestly surprised Alenia was showing such restraint.
----------------------------------------
Each time Olivia stopped by with adventurers, they’d dump a few spare items into the dungeon as a form of payment. These items would get absorbed by the dungeon and turned into experience. It had been a while since the dungeon leveled, but it was about due when DM received a notification.
>Dungeon has reached LVL 9.
>Dungeon Floor 9 now available.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
>Additional creatures now available.
Surprisingly, DM didn’t level up when the dungeon did. That was disappointing, but probably made sense since DM going from LVL 10 to LVL 11 was likely a much bigger deal than the dungeon going from LVL 8 to LVL 9. Acquiring the Upper Gordu Dungeon could have also possibly had an influence. DM didn’t really mind anymore provided he continued to level once the dungeon exceeded LVL 10. He’d need to pay attention to how the Upper Gordu Dungeon leveled as well when the opportunity arose.
DM could now summon Kobold Champions, Ogre Mages, Treants, Dragonoids, and Cyclops. Unlike kobolds, who relied on their steal ability, Kobold Champions had enhanced stats that made them more difficult to defeat in combat. Ogre Mages could cast tier 2 elemental attack spells by default, so DM absorbed them all as a nice upgrade to his existing tier 1 spells. The treant had a strange root ability that allowed it to attack enemies from below. DM wondered if he could copy the attack using his appendages in lieu of a root structure.
>Learned ability, Root Attack (T1).
Apparently, he could. Now, he could assault opponents using appendages without having to engineer openings in the floor first. The range wasn’t much different than his normal attack range, but he now had another way to attack enemies from below besides his spawn tentacle ability.
The dragonoid looked like a cross between a person and a lizardman. Unlike most monsters, it fought with fists. It had enhanced stats favoring agility, but no equipment or unique ability. Finally, the cyclops was capable of an eyebeam attack. Shockingly, DM was unable to learn abilities that required an eye.
DM gave some thought to the new monsters and whether or not one would make a good companion for Bandit. They weren’t bad choices, but he got the urge, for whatever reason, to wait for one more level before recommending a creature.
----------------------------------------
Short Side Story Published on April Fools (canon but doesn't necessarily take place right at this point in the story)
The five beast girls lined up their schedules so they could party up at the Guild. Lupy in particular was ecstatic after the way she had been left out so much recently. The other girls recognized this and even took turns apologizing to her.
As they prepared to venture out into town, a tentacle spawned and gestured to them. Kat handed it a piece of chalk and it drew a simple picture on the floor. The picture depicted five people, presumably the girls, traveling to the dungeon. Clearly, this was an invitation.
DM’s tentacle then drew a picture of people swimming in water. The girls realized that they would need to be prepared for the water level. They made a detour by the clothing store seeking clothing and gear that would enable them to swim. The Twin Cities weren’t near any large bodies of water, so the options were limited. Still, they found the minimum equipment necessary.
As they walked toward the dungeon, Lupy asked if anyone could think of a good reason why DM invited them to come explore the water level. The girls discussed some ideas, but none of them were very convincing. This invitation seemed to come out of nowhere. Perhaps something interesting had happened in the dungeon since the last time they were there.
When they arrived at the dungeon, neither Olivia nor any other groups had arrived, or at least not yet. A morphling came over to greet them.
“…Welcome back.”
“DM, why did you want us to explore the water level?” Kat asked for the group.
“…Oh, I don’t want you to explore it. Follow my morphling, I’ll show you why I invited you.”
The girls followed along as it escorted them down to level 7, which was still the designated water level. Entering from the stairwell, they saw a large beach overlooking an azure-blue body of water. No way was the dungeon chamber actually as big as it appeared. Most likely, DM was somehow using illusions to make it seem like the group was really on a tropical island of some type. For their purpose though, it was a beautiful setting.
“DM, this is!?”
“…I thought you could all use a beach episode.”
“A what?”
“…An opportunity to just have fun.” The morphling gestured towards a separate chamber which would serve as the changing room.
The girls raced to change into their water-friendly gear and then dove into the surf. DM had even managed to create gentle waves which broke along the shore. Kat seemed the most hesitant to get fully wet, but even she came around.
After the five played in the water for a while, Shiba was the first to climb back on to the beach. She started digging a big hole in the sand despite not having any equipment to aid in that purpose. This also got Lupy’s attention so the two worked together.
“…Why don’t you dig a moat around a sand castle or something like that?”
DM couldn’t produce specialized toys for playing in the sand, so the girls wouldn’t be able to make anything too impressive, but they were still having fun, and that’s all that mattered. The other three eventually joined in until they erected an impressive structure of sand.
Next DM spawned some fish and had them swim dangerously close to shore. The girls easily caught the fish and then built a fire using materials provided by DM. They cooked the nutrition-enhanced fish over the fire and then ate together.
“DM, why don’t you join us?” Vulp suggested.
“…Beach episodes aren’t supposed to have large tentacle monsters.”
“Really?”
“…Actually, now that I think about it, I’ve seen several beach episodes with tentacles of some sort. Fine.”
A few minutes later, DM joined the girls on the beach. He didn’t have eyes, so they didn’t notice the glint in them. He gave the morphling one more line to say before he sprung into action. “…During a beach episode, tentacle monsters are the enemy.”
As the girls pondered what DM meant, he reached out his appendages at them, grabbing them and lifting them off the sand. Before they could resist, all five were dangling upside down in the air either screaming or laughing depending on their personality.
In reality, some of them could probably bust free if they really wanted to, but they knew DM was just playing around. What a surreal scene this was.