Chapter 32: Elven Interrogation:
Daphne looked at each of the caged monsters, wondering how she and the others would go about killing them. Even the more benign monsters like dogs and cats from a dungeon were vicious in combat. As a result, most explorers didn’t have any compunction about using deadly force against them. A portion of the population hated to use violence against creatures of any type, sure, but they tended to stay away from dungeons and other places where monsters roamed.
The monsters in front of Daphne were behaving in quite an atypical manner. Instead of bearing their fangs, growling, or snapping at the bars of the cage, they cuddled together, whined, and made sad eyes at the predatory adventurers. Even the morphling in Daphne’s form was acting like this, and it was rather off-putting.
“Do we really have to slaughter these, uh, pitiful creatures?” said Daphne.
“Clearly,” Alenia answered. “Unless you’re volunteering some of your own blood?”
“No…”
“And the rest of you?” Alenia turned to look at Daphne’s three friends, but they all shook their heads vigorously. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”
The fighter picked up the two buckets and inspected them while Alenia explained the plan.
“You four, figure out how to get four liters into a five-liter bucket. Once we have the answer, we’ll take care of it.” Alenia gestured to her two friends who were not seeming anywhere near as squeamish, although they didn’t look pleased either.
“Right!”
Daphne’s group started discussing options for how to fill and empty the buckets. They soon realized the solution involved pouring blood back and forth between the buckets, so their options narrowed down considerably. The white mage narrated where their thinking was so far.
“Yeah, so we’ll fill the five-liter bucket, pour it into the three-liter bucket, leaving two liters behind. Then, we’ll dump out the three-liter bucket and, uh, wait what’s next?”
“Obviously, pour the two liters of blood into the three-liter bucket,” the fighter snapped back.
The white mage grunted but continued. “Okay, so now we’ll have two liters in the three-liter bucket, and we’ll refill the five-liter bucket. Then, we’ll pour from the five-liter bucket to the three-liter bucket until it’s full, leaving four liters behind?”
“I think there’s an easier way…” the fighter complained. “Can’t we start by pouring three liters into the five-liter bucket? Then we can refill the three-liter bucket and pour again leaving behind one liter. After that, dump out the five-liter bucket, pour in the one liter and then another three from the three-liter bucket?”
“Arg, it doesn’t matter which way we do it so long as it works!” Daphne shouted.
Daphne’s group walked Alenia through both solutions.
“Very good. Go back into that hallway. I can’t have you all feeling sick when we still have so far to go.”
Daphne’s party didn’t object; they hurried out of earshot. After a few minutes, the druid stepped over and called them back. A five-liter bucket filled eighty percent of the way with monster blood sat atop the designated surface, and a freshly-opened doorway leading to the stairs down awaited.
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The next several floors proceeded at a similar pace. Most of the group was getting both physically and mentally exhausted. They had to sacrifice some gear in order to unlock doors, solve more puzzles, answer riddles, win at more games, and finally defeat waves of monsters. The monster waves weren’t heavily emphasized, likely because the moment Daphne’s party was getting overwhelmed, the older elves would step in and make quick work of the monsters.
The toughest challenge was the water level. They needed to cross surprisingly large pools while defending themselves from monsters of the swimming and flying variety. Once again, Alenia and her friends proved invaluable here. She had insisted all throughout that the group should never split up, and that policy was paying dividends now.
Descending stairs again, they reached the final doorway into the boss chamber. Stopping short, Alenia turned to Daphne.
“Daphne, take your friends back up to the previous level and wait by the stairs.”
“You’re not going to hurt him, right?” Daphne pleaded.
“No, we won’t hurt him. We do have some questions for him though.”
“Just questions?”
“Whatever do you mean, Daphne?”
“Are you planning to… do anything else to him?”
“Be specific Daphne. Otherwise, your friends and I won’t understand exactly what you’re trying to say.”
Daphne turned red and gave up, leading her friends back up the stairs. None of them seemed particular broken up about missing out on the opportunity to meet the dungeon master.
“Finally,” Alenia uttered almost like a curse.
She led her two friends into the boss chamber, spying a 3-meter tall purple tentacle monster and a morphling in Daphne’s form off to the side.
“…Welcome.”
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DM pulled up his stats and abilities for the first time in a while.
Name Dungeon Master Species Tentacle Monster (Tier 3) LVL 10 HP 872 MP 2525 STR 108 DEF 81 MAG 76 MDEF 65 AGI 50 LUCK 2 Abilities
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Offense Touch (Poison T1, Slow T1, Berserk T1, Mana T1, Charm T6, Pain T1, Pleasure T1, Health T1, Ability, Paralysis T1, Experience T1, Stone T1, Confusion T1, Sleep T1), Projectile (T1), Ice Shot (T1), Affection (T1), Tentacle Slap (T2), Fireball (T3), Ice Spear (T2), Lightning Bolt (T2), Air Blast (T2), Earth Spike (T2)
Defense Guard (Poison T1, Ice T1, Charm T3, Fire T2), Reduced Damage from Monsters (T1), Reduced Damage from Males (T1), Shield of Protection (T1)
Utility Bonus Damage to Monsters (T1), Infect, Heal (T1), Sense (T2), Antidote, Regenerate (T2), Absorb Equipment (T3), Disguise, Float, Spawn Tentacle (T2), Howl (T1), Hide, Root Attack (T1), Bonus Damage to Humans (T1), Sprint (T1)
DM hadn’t leveled up even when the dungeon reached LVL 9 a while back. He figured he was getting close to LVL 11 as the dungeon itself was nearing LVL 10. Although now wasn’t the time to worry about it, he was looking forward to seeing what monsters would become available next. After all, he was planning to offer one to Bandit as a “summon” in the future. That is, if he survived this encounter.
Normally, this is where he’d compare his stats to the intruders’, but they were actually too high-level for him to see their stats at all. Their levels were all in the mid to upper forties, with Alenia’s being the highest. DM knew he had no chance of winning here if battle should break out.
“It’s an honor to finally meet you, Dungeon Master.”
“…Please call me DM.”
Alenia nodded and continued. “Have you been able to determine why we journeyed here, DM?”
“…Perhaps you need someone to underwrite an insurance policy?”
It looked like Alenia was struggling not to visibly react to that strange response. Ignoring it, she eventually said, “No, I can’t say that’s it. Well first, let me thank you for helping
Daphne several weeks ago. From what Daphne said, you saved her and her friends when tragedy struck the Adventurer’s Guild, and that’s after you helped her out here in this dungeon as well. Yes?”
“…Something like that may have happened.”
“Did you really ambush her party with a horde of tentacle monsters?”
“…It was a carefully controlled experiment.”
“DM, what were you hoping to learn from that… experiment?”
“…The behavior of tentacle monsters. They obviously don’t speak like I do, although it’s through a morphling interpreter.”
“True, I’ve never even heard of such an intelligent tentacle monster before.”
“…In the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is king. Being the smartest tentacle monster isn’t something I’m particularly proud of.”
“There it is again. You commonly address others using idiomatic expressions, cultural references, and other sayings that the average citizen of this nation wouldn’t recognize.”
“…Mere tentacle monster things.”
“I think not; they seem very much human-centric. By the way, what did you learn from your experiment?”
“…Tentacle monsters like to grab and capture people with their tentacles but don’t seem to hurt them. They don’t have any obvious objectives beyond possessing their targets.”
Alenia looked back and forth at both of her compatriots, a complicated look on her face. “That’s all they did?”
“…Yes.”
“What tier were they?”
“…Tier 1. Why?”
“You know how higher-tier monsters are more intelligent, correct?”
“…Uh, I suspected as much.”
“Do you know how the higher-tier tentacle monsters behave normally?”
“…I… haven’t tested that. Should I?”
“DM, don’t let me tell you how to run your dungeon. That’s not why I’m here. By the way, if you are going to test that, please do it when Daphne’s not here, or wait until she’s older.”
“…I really don’t like the sound of that.”
“The reason why we’re here is actually to assess what threat you pose outside the dungeon.”
“…I’m a friendly tentacle monster.”
“It seems that way, yes. Alas, misrepresenting yourself as a friend of humans, elves, and dwarves would be a simple task for one with your considerable abilities.”
"…I earned the trust of the Guild, and it was not easy.”
“I’m sure. Still, I need to know your capabilities and your intentions. To be clear, your efforts to tire us out on the way here will not dissuade us.”
“…Suit yourself.”
“It wouldn’t be right for me to demand answers and not offer up some of my own. Shall we take turns?”
“…Very well.”
“Do you have anybody at all charmed right now?”
“…No.” Technically, one person was under ‘affection’, but that didn’t count. Technically! “When is the right time for curious elves to journey out of the village?”
“When they are old and mature enough to defend themselves from the threats of the greater world. Young elves are particularly desirable targets for all sorts of criminals after all. DM, do you use charm to manipulate people outside your dungeon?”
“…Rarely. I generally don’t like controlling people with magic so I keep it to the bare minimum. Where else do elves live besides your forest home of EarthGlen?”
“Interesting. I’m not objecting, but why do you dislike controlling others with magic? Oh, there are scattered elf villages all over the continent, although not in the Union, I believe. Some are hidden, and I don’t even know where they all are. Ours is one of the biggest ones.”
“…I make an exception for the truly evil or those who seriously threaten me, but I find forcing others to carry out your will against their own is, in and of itself, evil. Such powers shouldn’t even exist.”
“I see…”
“…Why did you really come here?”
“Well, there were several reasons. The first, as you already saw, was for us to thank you for rescuing Daphne in her time of need. The second was to get a sense of what you’re really like. Between your mind-controlling abilities, infect, which you seem to use liberally, and that outrageous spawn tentacle ability, you could pose quite a threat if you wanted. You could easily tear down a Kingdom with judicious usage, although I get the sense such an effort does not appeal to you.”
“…You’re right. Too stressful.”
“Hah. The third—“
“Wait, this part I’m not interested in,” the druid interrupted Alenia, exiting the boss chamber and ascending the stairs to wait with Daphne’s party.
“I figured,” was all Alenia said in response until the druid was out of earshot. The third elf didn’t react in any particular way. “As I thought, she was only interested in reason number 2.”
“…And reason 3?”
“You made us go through a lot of effort in order to get to you. Don’t think we’ll be leaving empty-handed.”
“…Empty handed?”
Alenia pointed to a treasure chest sitting in the corner of the room. “I’m referring to that.”
“…Treasure?”
“No, not quite.” Alenia drew her bow and launched an arrow at the tentacle monster before her, destroying it with a single blow. “You’re a LVL 10 dungeon master. That actually puts you at Tier 3, doesn’t it? You should be larger and red in color, no?”
She didn’t receive a response, so she turned towards the treasure chest again. “I see you hiding over there. Come on out.”
Releasing the disguise ability, DM took on his true form. His morphling was still available to speak for him. “…There’s no pulling the wool over your eyes.”
“Now that’s the physique of a tentacle monster! You’ll grow further and turn teal at LVL 16, but this is good enough for now. You’re a dungeon master, so you run one tier higher. Even I don’t know what you’ll transform into when you reach LVL 30!”
“…That’s a long ways away.”
“Before we go, have some fun with us.”
“…No thank you.”
“I wasn’t asking. The fact that you used to be a human man somehow makes this much more exciting than usual.”
“…This is one of those ‘evil’ things I was talking about.”
Alenia and her friend stepped towards DM from both directions, boxing him in.
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“Oh, come down from there!”
DM was using his float ability, hovering near the ceiling in the corner of the room, well out of reach of the elves.