“Master…”

“Is this too much?”

“I’m exhausted…”

“I have been drilling you hard.”

“And dizzy.”

“I’m sorry, I just got a bit excited and just shoved it right in.”

“It was so hard, I thought I might break.”

“I’m glad you could take it this far.”

“Oh, dear…”

“Will you two stop having such suggestive conversations, you’re making my maid blush!” Pait snapped.

“I-I’m fine. Th-their Master-servant relationship is kind of sweet, isn’t it?”

“What are you saying? It’s completely inappropriate.” Pait declared.

Pait should watch his words. The look on Daz’s face appeared slightly hurt. I had already thought the pair were already in a relationship. After all, they often acted like an old married couple. It turned out this wasn’t true. Pait had a very rigid view on how a dignitary should act with servants, and so he had never crossed the line with Daz. From the look on her face, it appeared like she wanted him to though.

We were in my soul world living somewhat comfortably. As for my body, it was somewhere covered in several metric tons of rock. I had found there little reason to put clothing back on, as the amount of stone that struck me ended up tearing off anything I put on, so I was still basically naked. I also had to heal myself quite a bit before I ended up completely shredded.

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We were long past the lava, and were now in a space of dark black rock, working our way down into the darkness below. Alysia had worked as long as she could, but she had needed a break. Thankfully, I had a pleasant location of the soul world to retreat to. The Map’s ability to handle 3d got a little wonky when you introduced underground passages. It could do floors easy enough, but a pathway straight down, I wasn’t confident if I left it, I’d be able to come back.

As for whether we were on course or not, I had no clue. We’d keep going on for a week, then I might have to start rethinking my strategy. I felt like a week was more than enough time though. It was hard to tell just how fast we were moving, but we had to have traveled at least a few kilometers.

“Pait, I was thinking, if the Deep is a dungeon, does it have levels like a dungeon? Is there a progression from easy to difficult?”

The reason I had grabbed Pait was exactly to ask these kinds of questions. He was a smart guy, and other than Garnet, he was the closest I had to the dwarves. And from the sound of Garnet’s imager, it might not have even known the Deep was a giant dungeon, although I only saw a handful of her exchanges with Terra. Even though the Esmore didn’t like to travel down into the mountains, they had to hear things from the dwarves, especially a dignitary like Pait, who was the most well-traveled individual I knew.

He frowned thoughtfully as he nibbled on a kabob that I had made. The only way I had managed to calm him down after borrowing him was to make food. I was the best cook he knew, and within my soul world was current a garden of all of the best foods from Earth. I had naturally brought tons of revisions before leaving Chalm, so I was good to feed myself for likely years if I had to, just by growing crops.

“That’s hard to say… I only said it’s a theory that the Deep was once a dungeon. In truth, so much time has passed that the breakdown between levels would be great. I think you should be cautious anywhere in the Deep either way.”

I nodded thoughtfully. If it was a dungeon, I was wondering if there might still be safe rooms and a clear progression. It seemed like such a thing no longer existed.