Chapter 8: Adopted by the Dungeon
“Where’s the girl?”
The charmed man answered his partner, “She’s inside the dungeon. We need to bring the other slave girls in there as well.”
“What? Why? GUH!” A tentacle appeared behind the partner and grabbed him by the neck. While he struggled, the charmed man ordered the four slaves to follow him.
As they neared the entrance to the dungeon, a couple of zombies passed them walking the other direction. The girls shrieked but calmed down when the zombies completely ignored them.
Inside the dungeon, they followed the man all the way to the boss chamber. They saw their fellow cat girl slave twice. One copy of her was lying in a bed, the other was standing next to a large tentacle monster. The slaver tossed his whip on to the floor and walked out the chamber and back up the stairs.
“…I will explain what’s going on,” the standing version of the cat girl told them. “…Your fellow slave is the one lying in the bed resting. …I am a being that copies the appearance of others so that I can speak with them. …I promise you are safe now.”
At first, the girls couldn’t take their eyes off the tentacle monster. It didn't seem to be moving or reacting to anything, so they each slowly returned their attention to the speaking copy of the cat girl. She needed to repeat herself again now that they were focused on her.
Each girl reacted differently to the explanation, from crying to doubt to apparent apathy. Then, one of them called out, “Look, her collar’s off!” Both the standing cat girl and the sleeping girl wore no slave collar. They fixated on the slave collars so heavily that they practically forgot a large monster was still in the room with them.
“…We will remove your collars now. …Who would like to go first?” They all eagerly raised their hands, including the one who had seemed apathetic a moment ago. “…Stand still for just a moment.”
A tentacle appeared behind each girl, absorbed the collar, and then disappeared.
>Absorbed slave collar.
>Unable to learn ability, control.
>Charm Touch has increased to T5.
>Absorbed slave collar.
>Unable to learn ability, control.
>Charm Touch has increased to T6.
>Absorbed slave collar.
>Unable to learn ability, control.
>Learned ability, Charm Guard (T1)
>Absorbed slave collar.
>Unable to learn ability, control.
>MP cost of Charm Touch decreased.
DM thought to himself those slave collars sure are quality items, as far as equipment absorption is concerned. He inquired as to the effectiveness of Tier 6.
>Charm Touch (T6): Charms target upon physical contact. Effect will persist until removed. Chance to resist removal.
Next, he absorbed the interesting whip.
>Absorbed slave whip (T2).
>Learned ability, Pain Touch (T1)
>Learned ability, Pleasure Touch (T1)
>Absorb Equipment has increased to T2 through usage.
DM could understand the purpose behind enchanting a whip with pain strike, but he wasn’t quite sure regarding pleasure strike. He pushed the thought out of his mind. Absorbing equipment would probably go more quickly now that the ability leveled some. Perhaps he would have been unable to absorb some higher level equipment with only a Tier 1 ability, but he wasn’t sure.
“…You will never see those two slavers again. …What do you want to do now? …Do you have families or homes to return to?”
“I want to…” As one of the girls trailed off, another ran over to the bed where the first girl was sleeping.
“A bed!”
“Me too!” The girls all ran over to the bed. Presumably, they hadn’t had a chance to sleep in decent accommodations in a long while, if ever. The bed was a bit tight for five girls, so DM summoned up a second one. A couple were reluctant to disregard their situation and climb into a mysterious bed, but eventually, they all conked out.
DM didn’t mind giving the girls a place to rest, but he really wasn’t equipped to feed them or otherwise take care of them. “They’re cute, but hopefully I can send them somewhere safe.”
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When the girls finally stirred, the morphling politely lined them up to resume the discussion. “…Let’s figure out what to do next. Do any of you have any preferences?”
The girls looked back and forth among one another. The cat girl decided to speak for the group. She glanced at the motionless tentacle monster, then back at the morphling. “No.”
“…Uh, I see… …Then, what do you want to do?”
“Not be a slave,” she retorted immediately.
“…That much is no problem. But, besides not being a slave, what else do you want to do?”
“Can we stay here?” She looked to her allies, and they all eventually nodded.
“…Hm. We don’t mind, but you would at least need to go outside of the dungeon to take care of hunting food and the like.”
“Okay.”
“…Okay?”
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“That’s what we were doing before… hunting, preparing food, and that type of stuff. Except now we can talk, right?”
“…I see. Yes. In that case, let me uh, create a separate room for you.” DM played around with the console and created a separate room next to this one but still protected by the puzzle door. “…You can all live in there for now. I’ll set up a fake prison next to your room. …If the dungeon ever gets invaded and I won’t be able to stop them, you should all pretend to be locked in the cell. That way, you’ll be rescued by the intruders.”
“Okay…”
DM wasn’t sure if the girls really understood, but the issue probably wasn’t urgent. The five all ran into their room to explore it and the sparse furniture DM laid out. “…We need to get them better clothing, but I’m not sure how to do that…”
He got an idea. They’re already in a dungeon, and he’s the Dungeon Master. Can’t he level them up until they’re self-sufficient? Beast people may be treated poorly out in the world, but if they are all capable, they should be able to manage.
Morphling walked into the girls’ room. “…How is it?”
“Good!” several of them shouted.
“…I have an important question for everyone. …Pay attention, please.” As the fox girl swallowed, the morphling continued, “…Do you want to learn to fight like adventurers?” The girls’ reactions were a bit mixed, but overall they did want to. “…If so, you should think about what role you want to have.”
“Role?”
“…A couple of you will likely want to fight with melee weapons like daggers, swords, clubs, and axes. A couple of you will likely want to use magic either to attack or to heal. …Maybe one of you should do something special like be an archer or some other class I’m not aware of.”
“Oh!”
“I want to use magic!”
“Can I use two axes?”
“I don’t like to hurt people or animals…”
“…It sounds like we have our black mage, a warrior, and a white mage. Fox girl, Raccoon girl, do either of you want to learn daggers and swords?”
“I will!” the fox girl decided.
“…Raccoon girl, do you want to try archery? …Maybe, wait and see what role makes the most sense later?”
“Okay.”
“…I’ll admit, I don’t really know how starting out in a new class goes, so this will be an experiment. Please bear with me.”
“Okay!”
“…Oh, one other thing. Later, I’m going to send you to the city. I’ll need you to be spies. …Do you know what spies are?”
Some girls did and some did not. “When you pretend to be someone you’re not?”
“You collect secrets and then share them when you get home?”
“…More or less. If any of you are opposed to being sneaky or keeping secrets, let me know now. I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to.”
The girls didn’t seem concerned. “I don’t mind,” the cat girl responded. The other girls nodded.
“…Also, before we start training you, do you want different names?” The girls didn’t react strongly to this question either.
“I’ve always been called Raccoon girl…”
“Yeah, same for me.”
“I’d like a name!”
“You do? Then maybe I should ask for one…” Eventually, all the girls agreed they would let the Dungeon Master give them new names.
“…I’m not very good at this. Hold on.” He thought about simple ways to come up with names for them. Cat was easy since it was already a common nickname. “…Cat, you are Katherine, but Kat for short.”
“Ohhh, okay!”
“…Dog, we’ll call you Shiba,” he decided, hoping nobody would notice the reference to a breed of dog from Earth.
“Shiba.”
“…Fox, how about Vulp?”
“Okay.”
“…Wolf, you can be Lupy.”
“Lupy!”
“…Raccoon, let’s say you’re Bandit.” Although an unusual name in most places, it was used with affection in a few specific regions, DM had found in his previous life.
Bandit stared but didn’t say anything.
“Let’s train!” Kat demanded.
“…All right. First, let’s figure out mages.” DM called forth a couple of zombie mages and goblin priests. He sensed their staffs with magic. “The zombie’s staff is enchanted with a fireball spell. Shiba, take one and see if you can cast the spell at that spider over there.” A LVL 1 spider came around the corner and settled down.
“Okay.” Shiba took a staff from one zombie mage. She pointed it at the spider and grunted, but nothing happened.
“…Hm… I guess it won’t be that easy. …This might be a bit gross, but can you try hitting the spider with the staff? …I’ll tell the spider not to attack you.”
“Okay…” Shiba did as she was told and wacked the spider.
>2 damage.
“…Good. It took 2 damage. …Do it again to take out the remaining 8 HP.”
>2 damage.
>2 damage.
>2 damage.
>2 damage.
The spider collapsed and disappeared. “…You can have what dropped.”
“Okay!”
“…Can you tell how much experience you need to reach the next level or anything else?”
“Hold on… hm? I think so! This never happened to me before. I think I see it!”
DM figured the girls were purposefully prevented from doing anything that would register them as any type of combatant. Probably, equipping a weapon and defeating a monster in a dungeon was enough to undo the slavers’ prior efforts.
Shiba thought she only needed to defeat a few more spiders, so DM summoned them. Eventually, she leveled up. “I’m LVL 2!”
“…Good job. Can you see how your MAG stat changed?”
“It went from… 3 to 6? I think?”
“…Good. Have you noticed any progress on casting that fireball spell?”
“I don’t think I can. Hm? I think I’m still learning how to do it. Am I half-way there?”
“…Let’s continue then. I’ll summon LVL 2 imps.”
Shiba needed about 11 hits now to take down an imp. After a dozen rounds of this, she leveled up.
“I’m LVL 3! Wait!” She pointed her staff at a wall. “Fireball!” A small fireball struck the wall. “Yay!” Her friends also cheered for her.
“…Good job.” DM summoned LVL 3 zombies. “…Try seeing how many you can cast against these zombies.”
She cast a fireball and dealt 15 damage. The second fireball did 14 damage.
“…The zombie is almost defeated. …Strike it a couple of times.”
She struck it twice and it fell. DM summoned the next LVL 3 zombie. She went through the same cycle three more times before her MP started running low.
“…Let’s stop there. Vulp, grab a dagger from a goblin.” Vulp took a dagger with poison strike and whaled on some LVL 1 creatures. After leveling, she whaled on LVL 2 creatures. Then she whaled on LVL 3 creatures.
“Wow, I’m LVL 4!”
“…This really does feel like cheating. …Lupy, you’re up.”
“Do you have axes?”
“…Not right now. …Why don’t you use maces for the time being?” DM summoned a pair of gnolls which handed over their maces. Rudely, Lupy smashed the maces into their faces. Even after the creatures turned to dust, the weapons persisted. Lupy worked her way up to LVL 4, just like Vulp.
“…Kat. Take a staff from a Goblin Priest.” She did as she was told but balked at whaling on creatures. “…Hm. How about a slime. You can hit that, right?”
Kat didn’t love the idea but the slime didn’t really seem like an animal, so she was able to strike it. At LVL 2, she struck a gargoyle, which really was just stone when it wasn’t moving. At LVL 3, she gained the ability to cast the staff’s heal spell.
“Wow!” Healing was right up her alley so she was excited.
DM called a Goblin Archer. “…Bandit, take the bow.” At first, she struggled to use it correctly. With a bit of practice and coaching, she was able to strike enemies and level up. The arrows would magically replenish. DM speculated this was because the bow came from a monster rather than from a person. Normally, a monster would never let a person take and use their weapon.
Following the training, everyone was either LVL 3 or LVL 4. DM had them take armor from three Goblin Archers and robes from two Goblin Priests. The clothing problem wasn’t solved, but the situation was a bit better now.
“…You five must be getting hungry. I’ll trust you that you know what you’re doing. …Go outside the dungeon, hunt, and do whatever else you need to. Be especially wary of other people.” DM gently applied infect to each of them with a brush of a tentacle. He also stationed a quick-response team of minions just inside the dungeon entrance in case help was needed. Morphling went along to observe, still in the form of Kat.
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While the girls were out taking care of their needs, DM decided to experiment a bit more. First, he told two goblin priests to drop their staffs and wrestle. While they were fighting, he gently grabbed one of their ankles with an appendage and applied the pain touch ability. That goblin was quickly overwhelmed and pinned by the other.
“I guess that’s one way to use this ability…” He repeated the experiment with the pleasure touch ability to similar results. He tried using the projectile ability to apply status effects to distance creatures. It worked, but only with the success rate of a strike ability rather than a longer-duration touch ability application. He supposed it could come in handy if his summoned tentacle was preoccupied, or to infect a creature by lobbing the projectile over a wall to a place he can’t see and getting lucky.
Next, he reworked the upper two floors of his dungeon. With some effort, he managed to install a secret stairway that his minions and the girls could use to quickly get to and from the living area on Floor 3. He decided his next objective was to send a team of minions out to hunt monsters and hopefully raise the dungeon to LVL 4.