“Well that was quick.” You receive a reply some time later.

*Groan*

Apparently Spiera didn’t agree that the guild heads return message was expedient. We have been whiting on an answer long enough that lord Oak flagged down the maid we meet earlier and order some tea, but not long enough for it to arrive.

“LOG”

You re-activate the skill for it had timed out in the meanwhile, and start logging the names. You start with Princess ‘Charming’, the fire-lizard girl an adventure suggested be called a Charkin, but when you entered it into the log the name came up as Lesser Charkin, suggesting at least one evolution.

Next was Princess Soulle who under the same logic was a Lesser War-Turtle and princess Barst who was a Lesser Greenback.

Then there was the problem of who to choose, and it seemed like Guild Master Oak’s solution was to hold a quick vote in the guild hall. The results of which was over half of the votes going to the Charkin girl. You trusted there judgment, it would be a while before you would learn a majority voted for no strategic reason and only because they liked the way she looked.

“Lord Oak, I have come to my decision.”

“Finally!” you hear in stereo, apparently both Spiera and Lara though I was taking too long.

You extend your hand the fire-lizard girl “Princess Charming, I would be honored to escort you to the Indigo Castle.”

Quest completed Rewards gained: Lesser Charkin princess is now your ally, Port Periwinkle’s north gate is now open, Lesser War-Turtle princess is now your enemy

Oh you knew that hidden reward was going to be trouble. You turn to the round, bubbly beast girl and she her face is red with rage.

“You picked HER? You couldn’t find a more unsuited person for the empty throne then that arrogant, disrespectful, trash mouthed hot head. She will bring this land to ruin, why ever did you choose her.”

The lanky Lizard girl reached out and grabbed your hand and you help her to her feet. The first thing you notice is that she is much taller than Spiera, not that that’s at all a difficult feat seeing how ridiculously tiny the thunder mouse girl is, but the Charkin’s unimpressive four foot nothing height still brings her over a head taller than the miniscule two foot eight inch Sparkin. Not that your one to talk, your Halfling blood makes it that your barley taller then Charming.

Chaming turns to look at her enemy Soulle, “Of course he choose me, it’s plainly obvious even to the most lowly of common folk’s eyes that I have the noblest blood of the three of us, for it is only I that is descended from the mighty dragons bloodline, so it is only I who should rule as the next empress. So little turtle feel free to go back to cowering in your little iron shell like your good at and let a real queen of monsters worry about the empty throne.”

You can start to feel yourself sweat as the Turtle girl grows even redder in the face as your new ally continues to antagonize her.

Lara took this chance to act. Before you know it, she was kneeling in front of the blue princess and holding her hand. “Lady Soulle, I can’t stand ideally by and let this uppity Kolbold and her pet fool run amok.”

“KOLBOLD!!” a shrieking Charming squawks in affront to the label. You are starting to get really nervous, this doesn’t look to be going anywhere good.

“Let us join together, with our powers combined, we’ll defeat the dragon and take back the throne, than you can bring peace to land and sea as a great benevolent empress.” Lara exclaims, looking deep into her chooses eyes.

Princess Soulle looks taken aback, and a bit awed by the display. You kind of want to start applauding, both the Doppel and the War-turtle are great actors, much better then Charming, who is clearly uncomfortable playing the part of an arrogant dragon princess and is, in your honest opinion is kind of hamming her lines up to much. You get that kind in story dungeons all the time, a good boss monster is not often also a good actor, so you get some hammy villains.

“I would be honored Lady Lara, please be at my side in these upcoming times if trial.” The Turtle Princess said misty eyed.

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“Then with your permission my lady” Lara released one of her hands holding Soulle, and with it started going through a sires of complicated hand signs.

“Let my magic root you down so you my better hold your ground.”

Lara cast Knock-back Down lvl 1 on Soulle

“Let my magic fortify your body and strengthen your will.”

Lara cast Resistance Up lvl 1 on Soulle

“Let my magic fill you and grow so you may be more then you once were.”

Lara cast Embiggen lvl 2 on Soulle

The doppelganger that was playing Lara cast three support spell upon the monster girl, then Soulle, who was the shortest of the three, swelled up until she was even bigger then Barst who was the biggest.

“Let’s put the kolbold and fool in their place. Sorry little Ash, but this is gonna hurt.” Your god given ‘Rival’ says to you before the up-sized War-Turtle turns towards your party.

You are quite understandably frightened by this development, but your new ally seems to have a differencing opinion as she draws her sword.

“You one to label other fools, all you have accomplished is making the bumbling turtle a bigger target for my blade.”

Then the fight was on. Charming darted in and out of melee range, scoring Scratches on any exposed part of Soulle’s body before she could get her shield up. Occasionally Soulle would try to Tackle the nimble lizard girl but so far she has missed, more often though she would whip her tail out, this caused no damage but every time the squirrel like light-blue tail brushed her she would receive a debuff called Defence Down. Charmy would sometimes respond with a primal animalistic Growl that applied an Attack Down debuff on her enemy but more often she would opt to keep on the attack. It would seem to be going well, Charming was whittling her enemy down little by little, but everything changed when she was hit by a fifth Tail whip.

Lara cast Stone Fist lvl 2 on herself

Lara came out of know where and clocked the Charkin with what looked like an oversized gauntlet carved from solid rock, knocking her out cold.

The shapeshifter then turns to you. There’s a look in her eye that you remember from your childhood, one that promises pain. You back as far away from her as you can, but she just follows.

“That was a pretty pathetic show little Ash, you just standing there and letting the princess defend you. You are supposed to be a team, but with team work that bad, you two are never gonna get far. Heck, I’d be surprised if you could make it as far as Fort Viridian alive. Now I’m not gonna kill you, but I still need to knock you out to count as my win, so say goodbyYyYyYyYyYyYyYyEeEeEeEeEeEe!!!!!”

Lara then collapsed to the ground twitching and spasming. That’s what happens when one is struck by magical lightning. Soulle turns around to see whare the surprise attack came from and received Spiera’s second thunder shock strait to the face. It was super affective. Both Lara and Soulle vanished in a puff of smoke.

You received 1 silver and 75 copper, Spiera is now lvl 6

“Let’s get out of here, I’m getting hungry.” Spiera than grabs the still unconscious Charming by the tail (just below the flame) and starts dragging her to the door.

That’s when the maid returned with the tea cart, Spiera then spins around and drags the sleeping princess back into the room and sits down.

You decide to just stay where you are, huddled in the corner. Spiera’s having tea, Charming is face down on the floor at her feet, Barst is laughing and Lord Oak and his maid just look lost and confused.

You have a dreading feeling that this is just the beginning of a long string of scenes like this.

~~POKeMON~~

“Well, that was traumatic for me. And what’s worse, if I know my story dungeons like I think I do. Lara has already respawned somewhere further in the dungeon and is now even stronger than just now. We need to ready ourselves.”

It’s been a few hours, and you’ve just finished checking out the item store. You now know where Spiera’s sackcloth tunic came from, most of the stuff there was equally poor quality. The most useful thing you found was a crude map. It consists of about eleven colored squares connected by numbered lines, there are also a few circles that mark places of interest like the large forest north of the viridian square that Spiera says she’s originally from.

“The tea was nice, but I need something more filling before bed.” Spiera said, you don’t think she was listening to you at all.

“Yes, I too need an evening meal and a good bed to fully recover from my wounds.” Said Charmy, she had awoken mid-way through Spiera’s tea time. “Secure it for us at once servant boy.” *Clap,clap*

You think Charming’s acts going to grow real old real soon, and hope she gives it a rest in the near future.

“Well, the Inn’s right there. We should rest up for the night before hitting road one.”

You open the door for your two companions and suddenly find yourself in the death grip of some horrible dungeon monster, it screeches your name as it tries to squeeze the life out of you.

Yes, is all the earlier chaos you had completely forgot that this town had another doppelganger, one that was playing the part of your mother.

“Ash, it is so good to see you again.” The dopple-mon says as she crushes you with all of her love.

You suddenly revaluate how likely this dungeon is to kill you.