Chapter 36: Salacious Summoning
The succubus stopped a few meters short of Bandit.
“…This monster is called a succubus. I think it’s very rare. …Have you heard of it during your time with the Guild?”
“No, I don’t think so. It just looks like a woman but with some demon parts, sort of?”
“…Yes, that’s how it seems. The male version is an incubus but I chose not to expose you to one. …So you’ve really never even heard of a succubus?”
Bandit shook her head. “But! But there’s a lot I haven’t heard of!”
“…That’s true. I’ll explain. …A succubus is generally known to prey on men. It tempts them and in the most extreme cases devours them.”
“Th—That’s scary!”
“…I’m just describing succubi in the most general sense. This succubus is capable of tempting men, but not devouring them, I don’t think.”
“Oh.”
“…I’m guessing the trick to defeating succubi and incubi in dungeons is for the party to not get outnumbered by the type that targets them. If a party of four guys encounters four or more succubi, they’re probably in trouble.”
“What about girls?”
“…Same idea. If your party, five girls, encountered five or more incubi, you’d be at an extreme disadvantage.”
“Isn’t that too powerful, though?”
“…I haven’t tested it, but I imagine it only works if the creature is at a similar level or higher than your own.”
“Oh, that’s not as bad.”
“…I bet it’s also unusual for succubi and incubi to just form groups like that. Outside of my dungeon, at least.”
“You’re being scary again!”
“…Regarding manipulation, I figured you could make use of a monster that gives you an advantage over men.”
“Why not give me an incubus instead? Then I’d have an advantage over women, right?”
“…In theory, yes. Perhaps I’m being foolish, but I think it’s more important to protect you from men in this world.” Alenia briefly flashed across his mind, but he disregarded the thought. She was the exception that proved the rule, probably.
“Okay.”
“…Just keep in mind, a succubus only seems to be able to target one opponent at a time. Also, I’m not entirely sure you’ll be able to learn to summon it. …We’ll need to test it. I think we’ll know after an hour or so.”
“Let’s try it.”
“…I’m sorry I’m not giving you something cute and cuddly like most of the other girls have.”
“That’s okay. Defeating enemies is more important than cute things. Besides, you can still summon the same monsters as the other girls can while I’m here, right?”
“…Of course. Anyway, from what I’ve seen, you just need to maintain physical contact with the monster for a while outside of combat.”
It was a little awkward, but Bandit sat down in the succubus’ lap. For the next hour, she chatted with DM about how her time in the Twin Cities had been going, including her missions and her solo responsibilities as a Guild Agent. DM didn’t need much of a formal report since he’d been spying on her for most of the important parts anyway.
He reciprocated by telling Bandit about the intrusion by Daphne’s group. Bandit laughed at DM’s account of the various ways he tormented Daphne and her friends. After the description of chess, Bandit insisted that she wanted to try playing, so they ended up killing some time reviewing the basics of chess. Bandit agreed to keep chess a secret until it spread around the Twin Cities via a separate means.
“…I think it’s been about an hour.”
“You’re just saying that because you don’t want to lose!” Bandit picked up a chess piece and slammed it back down, knocking DM’s defeated piece off the board in the process. “Your move.”
DM moved his piece. “…Checkmate.”
“What!?” Bandit’s eyes frantically traced the board, trying to make sense of what just happened. “Oh…”
“…You’re doing well for a beginner.”
“But Daphne’s party beat you?”
DM paused longer than usual to respond. “…I felt bad for them.”
“Huh!? You felt bad for them!? What type of dungeon master are you?”
“…People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, Bandit.”
“What does that mean?”
“…What would a normal dungeon master do when an escaped cat-girl slave ran into his dungeon?”
“Oh…”
“…As long as people don’t truly wish me harm or want to hurt my friends, I don’t seriously want to hurt them either.”
“But… we’re just talking about winning or losing a game, right?”
“…Spending too much time in a potentially hostile dungeon is quite taxing. It’s different for you, but imagine if you had to spend day after day in the Upper Gordu Dungeon before I took control of it.”
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Bandit seemed to understand.
“…Okay, try getting up.”
Bandit hopped off of the succubus’ lap and stood next to the morphling who had been moving chess pieces on DM’s behalf. “Now what?”
“…I don’t know. Try summoning a succubus the way the other girls can summon their own creatures.”
Bandit held out a hand in front of her and grunted. Not getting anywhere, she increased the intensity of her effort, scrunching up her face and straining herself as she tried to somehow force a succubus to appear. It still wasn’t working.
“…The first time one of you succeeded, it seemed more like luck than anything else. Maybe you just need to really want it to appear?”
“Let me try.” Bandit switched her focus from forcing a succubus to appear to wishing one would appear. A brand-new succubus appeared before her with a matching level. “I did it!”
“…Interesting. Its level is lower than the minimum level I can summon it at, but it still worked.”
“Is that okay?”
“…I don’t see why not. It still has the ‘tempt male’ ability.”
“Let me try it!”
“…Wait.”
“What?”
“…Just how are you going to try it?”
“Oh, yeah… There’s nobody here.”
“…That’s not even the point. Were you just going to use a monster ability on a random guy you came across?”
“No…” Bandit paused. “Maybe?”
“…Even Lupy is exercising good judgment regarding when to summon her minotaur and who to use it against. At least so far.”
“Urk.” That one clearly stung. “I—I get it. I have to be, uh, responsible.”
“…That’s right. On the other hand, you weren’t completely wrong, either.”
“I wasn’t?”
“…You need to test out abilities before you use them for real, right?”
“Yeah!”
“…I’m sure your Guild Agent job will put you in situations where you can afford to try out an ability, but just be careful not to reveal the fact that you can summon a monster.”
“Okay.”
Bandit said her goodbyes and continued her journey north to investigate the Union’s activities.
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Despite everything DM told Bandit, he actually really wanted to test out the incubi and succubi more. Hypocritical as it was, he was willing to use their powers on random people in order to plan for how to deploy the demons in the future.
Of course, DM wouldn’t physically hurt the innocent, and he’d safely release anyone as soon as he tried out whatever he was testing, but he wasn’t above skirting the law so long as he’d get away with it. If the citizens had a problem with that, they could complain to whoever decided to make DM a monster and a dungeon master in this antiquated world. Most likely, they’d just be complaining to some outdated computer algorithms left behind by whatever creatures or entities developed the dungeon and combat system many years prior… but too bad.
Still, DM knew he couldn’t push it too far. If he let his morals slip too much, he’d lose the ability to guide Bandit and his other subordinates toward lives they could be proud of. Perhaps his connection to the humanoid races is what would allow him to maintain his own humanity despite his otherworldly form.
DM turned his attention to a bat he’d sent scouting around the Lower Gordu Forest ever since he gave up the other dungeon to all those soldiers. So far, he didn’t spot any Union scouts himself, so he expected Bandit would have no trouble at least making it to the border. Actually, wait. There were people in the forest. The bat began circling the area, magically spying on the people below for DM.
The group looked like adventurers, although they weren’t proceeding towards the dungeon. Perhaps they were just hunting and gathering in the forest, as was not at all uncommon. DM generally left such groups alone. Generally.
Losing out to his curiosity, he started counting up the breakdown of the party. Three males plus one female mage taking up the rear, huh? They must have left the city before the Guild Master was informed about the Union’s activities. Oh, now they were arguing about something. The bat swooped down and clung to a random nearby tree branch, granting DM the ability to listen in.
It seemed they were split on whether to just continue foraging in the forest for a while or instead to sneak in the dungeon and get more experience that way. The dungeon was friendly towards adventurers, one claimed. But you needed permission from the Guild to enter, another countered. The Guild wasn’t currently paying any attention to the dungeon. But the dungeon had a reputation of punishing those who didn’t follow the rules. On and on it went.
Eventually, they settled on just entering the first one or two levels of the dungeon and leaving at the first sign of anything odd. Hopefully, the dungeon wouldn’t act funny if they just dipped their toes in.
Perhaps it was time to test DM’s theory about party composition. DM summoned a gaggle of succubi and incubi on the third floor, then sent four of the former and one of the latter up the stairs. DM wasn’t willing to test the ‘tempt’ ability out on Bandit both because she was his friend and also because she was a bit too young for such things. These four were all a few years older, based on appearances. They were suitable, and also quite generous to volunteer themselves as Guinea Pigs like this.
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The first floor of the dungeon looked more like a Guild branch than a monster’s den. After confirming nobody was in the area, they explored around, searching for anything of value. Finding nothing, they decided to proceed down from this lobby-like space to floor 2. One of them whined about how they should probably give up and return to the forest, but it was still a bit premature for that. They hadn’t encountered monsters, loot, or anything else. Just a waiting room with some counters and the like.
Descending the stairs in formation, they didn’t spot any monsters in the first room. Could it be that the dungeon is pretty much empty unless something is pre-arranged with the Guild? How lame would it be if they walked through floor after floor and found nothing but empty rooms? After passing through a couple of similarly-empty rooms, they finally noticed something new.
Footsteps? The four turned towards the source of the noise and spotted a person approaching from around the corner. This person was wearing some type of sheet over their head and upper body like a cloak, but it was pretty obvious she was female. Was she squatting here? The dungeon did seem empty; however, squatting in a literal dungeon a couple hour’s walk from the city seemed like a bit much.
The woman made eye contact with the lead adventurer of the formation. After a moment, she gestured for him to approach and he dropped his weapon as he walked towards her. His fellow adventurers shouted in alarm, but he ignored them. They weren’t important anymore. What really mattered was the wonderful creature in front of him. He was hoping she would remove the cloak so he could get a better look at her beautiful form.
They kept shouting at him from behind, complaining about how he broke formation and all that. Claiming that the wonderful girl before him was probably some type of monster, like he should care. The bliss that waited for him in those outstretched arms was his only focus.
As he neared nirvana, his allies sprinted past him, pulled back the goddess’s hood, and cut down his beloved. After another moment, awareness returned to him. Just what in the heck had he been doing?
Following a couple of minutes of everyone throwing out theories about what just happened, they decided the dungeon was too dangerous to explore anymore. They’d make a quick exit. Proceeding cautiously down the hallway they originally came from, they reached a room that they fully expected to be empty. But it wasn’t.
Two more of the beautiful women stood before them, immediately bewitching half of the party. The remaining two, one young man and one young woman, looked at each other, silently sharing their plan. They would, once again, cut down the odd creatures that ensnared their allies. They tightened their grips on their weapons and flexed their legs, ready to spring forward. This time, they’d each have to cut down a target on their own, so the difficulty level was much higher. They had no choice, though. They couldn’t abandon their friends here, and they didn’t want to fall victim to this strange threat either.
More footsteps behind them. They probably should have ignored the arriving footsteps while they proceeded to cut down the first threat, but instincts took hold and they looked back to see what was approaching from behind. The man saw a beautiful woman. The female adventurer saw a beautiful man. All the tension left their bodies immediately.