Two days later, Thesa emerged from the healing chamber, clad in mythril chainmail, having left behind her sword, shield, and celestial armor (which bore magical attachments to Beautuk).
Merijest waited at the hallway entrance to the main room. Beside her was a loaded pack topped with a single tent-roll.
“Ready? Today we’ll tackle the first few [Floors].”
“How’re you going to wear that with your wings?” Thesa asked, gesturing to the equipment.
Merijest’s expression was flat. “You will be carrying these.”
Thesa grumbled as she hefted the supplies onto her back. She was certainly athletic enough for the job, but she didn’t have to enjoy doing the demoness’s unwanted tasks.
“What exactly will we be doing on these [Floors]?” Thesa asked.
“Looking for any monsters you missed on your way down.” Merijest explained, “Lower [Floors] tend to have fewer monsters, but those monsters tend to be higher Level. Not to mention most of the monsters down here were already my [Familiars] and I would know if you missed any of them. It's unlikely we will find anything but anything we do find will make a powerful ally.”
Thesa nodded and followed the [High Devil] through a series of hallways until they reached an ovular, blue door. Merijest muttered a hex under her breath and traced her hand over the door in a distinct pattern. The blue receded, revealing an entrance to the chamber where Thesa had died.
“Why can't that portal just take us to the surface?” Thesa asked.
“It's a [Dungeon Seal], not a portal. It makes my dwelling technically not a part of the [Dungeon] even though they are structurally connected. It protects my home from some of the [Dungeon]'s nastier effects and protects anyone inside my home from the prying detection of adventurers using abilities to map it.”
“In that case,” Thesa wondered, “why even bother waiting in the final chamber? You could have hidden from me altogether.”
“Living at the bottom of a [Dungeon] isn't just about security. I am deeply familiar with many of the [Dungeon]'s most potent magical properties. Being within its bounds allows me a better fighting chance than hiding in my bedroom.” Merijest said. “Of course, I hadn't expected to respond to the death of my last [Familiar] like…that.” Merijest’s usually confident voice returned to a trace of the vulnerability she had displayed when Thesa first saw her. Although the demoness stopped speaking and maintained a confident face, her tail had raised a notch.
Past the chamber where Thesa had slain the Crow-Lion, they ascended a staircase up to the 100th [Floor] of the [Dungeon].
***
The first room they entered was a long, narrow hallway with pendulum blades swinging irregularly. Thesa recalled crossing this gauntlet from the other side during her descent. The solution was to activate a lever on one side that retracted the pendulums for a few seconds. Before, the trick was to pull from across the dangerous hallway, but now, they were beginning on the lever-side so it wouldn't be a problem.
Thesa pulled the lever and began to walk forward only for Merijest to put a hand on her shoulder.
“Stop,” said Merijest. “Many of the traps in this [Dungeon] have a second twist for those leaving from the bottom Level.” She picked up a pebble and tossed it across the room. Each time it touched the floor, the pendulums emerged for three swings before being retracted again.
“I always wondered why anybody would spend so much money on an [Escape Spawn],” Thesa said. It always seemed like a lot of resources for a quick exit, but Thesa had never asked for clarification. During her training, [Escape Spawns] had come up right after Thesa got a talking to about asking too many ‘unnecessary’ questions.
“Did you have one?” Merijest asked?
“No,” Thesa shrugged. “I guess it just slipped my mind. Once I was at a high enough Level to delve here, I was told there was no time for additional preparations… I think I had one on me, but I didn’t prime it on the surface so it was useless and I ended up selling it…” She trailed off before continuing, “Still, why would that be necessary? If an adventurer got all the way to the bottom, they would have killed the [Dungeon Core]. What's to gain with extra traps?”
“Not all [Dungeons] have a [Dungeon Core], " Merijest shrugged as she made gestures to cast [Levitation] on herself and Thesa. “Rather than wasting time looking for a core, I found a naturally occurring [Dungeon] that I could inhabit. It's only more dangerous if you're an imbecile.”
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“How can a [Dungeon] be naturally occurring?” Thesa asked.
“About half of all [Dungeons] are actually Imitative Caverns, an extremely large relative of the Mimic family. The more adventurers are lured in by treasure and fame, the more [Mana] it can consume. Even without magical means, you can usually detect them by how disconnected the theme of each [Floor] is from the next.”
Thesa had thought a [Deity] needed to have a realm or at least a [Dungeon], but she wasn’t sure. Being deep in the mouth of a giant monster made her a little queasy, but she tried to swallow the information and present a collected demeanor. On the positive side, she was intrigued that the [High Devil] Merijest would need to seek out a [Dungeon] at all. No matter how powerful she seemed, she had limits that Thesa would need to discover if she hoped to escape.
Thesa and Merijest passed through several empty chambers with only the superficial remains of Thesa's descent. Delivering someone to Beautuk removed most evidence of the creatures, so most of the blood was Thesa's own.
As the pair entered the last hallway of this [Floor], they found their first monster. A Chimerblin came barreling toward them on its clawed, ape-like limbs. Its tiger's head drooled as it approached, pausing every few steps but never looking away. Feathered wings curled behind its back and its tail flicked in the air.
***
image [https://alicepow.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/chimerblin.jpg]
Chimerblin
Rank: C
Attacks: Claws, Kick
Notes: Chimerblins are semi-social. They prefer to keep to their own territory, but a network of solitary Chimerblins will often provide mutual defense against larger monsters.
***
For the first time in a long time, Thesa prepared to fight a monster with nothing but her hands. She was relieved and a little embarrassed to see Merijest stepping forward with her hands raised. However, rather than casting a spell on the creature, Merijest merely crouched and met its gaze. She blinked and looked away as if uninterested. Her tail lay uncurled beside her. The Chimerblin paused its steps again and seemed caught off-guard as well. Its tail lowered ever so slightly, but when it looked up at Thesa its tail raised again.
Merijest stepped in front of Thesa and met the creature's gaze again with a harder stare and low growl, raising her tail more than the Chimerblin’s. The Chimerblin finally lowered its tail completely and plopped down on the floor.
“What did you do to it?” Thesa asked.
“‘Monsters’ are just like any other animal. If you learn how they communicate, violence need not be your first choice,” Merijest said as she slowly approached the Chimerblin and cautiously began scratching its chin. It immediately melted into relaxation and even rolled over on its back. “I’m good with animals. Having a tail helps too and I'm particularly good with cats since I used to have one…as a [Familiar], I mean.”
Thesa wasn't sure why Merijest had hesitated or clarified the cat was a [Familiar]. Did she just have like a pet cat at some point? What would that even mean for a [High Devil] to have a pet cat?
Merijest put her forehead against the Chimerblin's, then after some time, she looked up at Thesa. “This creature has granted me permission to give it a sigil. This will make it a [Familiar] to me while alive and if it dies, it will automatically be spared into a half-life revival. Having the sigil in advance will also eliminate the restoration time needed after the revival.”
Merijest reached a claw into her own mouth and yanked a dagger-sharp tooth out of her gums. The demoness moved her hand over it and Thesa watched as the tooth split in half and crumbled in on itself before floating ethereally through the fur on the Chimerblin’s chest.
Her mouth filled with a stream of blood, dark blue as the night sky. The [High Devil] looked up at Thesa to say, “they grow back. My teeth.” She smiled, a bloody smile.
Thesa started to realize how odd this adventuring party was going to be. A demoness, a Level 0 [Fighter], and now a Chimerblin.
Thesa had originally made her way down most of the [Dungeon] above with the help of hirelings whom she had released from service around [Floors] 95 so that they could [Escape Spawn] to the surface without risking their souls in Merijest’s clutches. Knights rarely had anything resembling a normal, permanent adventuring party, but her current team still felt like a new level of strange.
***
As the ambient light of the [Dungeon] waned, Merijest told Thesa to make camp. Meanwhile, the demoness watched the Chimerblin.
“This pack is pretty heavy, but I’m surprised you managed to fit two tents in a single roll,” Thesa said as she unbuckled one of the straps that was keeping it secured to the pack.
“I didn’t,” Merijest replied without looking up. The Chimerblin continued wandering the campsite, investigating various smells and rubbing its face on things. “There are two bedrolls but we will be sharing the tent for cover.”
Thesa nodded, but as she unrolled and set up the tent, she started to realize just how small it was. She felt a rush of blood in her cheeks.
“That’s ok, I’ll sleep outside.”
Merijest shrugged. “Do as you will.”
----------------------------------------
BONUS VIGNETTE
Thesa struggled to sleep with only the thin mat between her and the floor.
Most of the time, Thesa tried her best not to look at the base of the demoness’s tail. That would be…imprudent. However, when Merijest had crouched in front of her, raising her tail and hips to communicate with the Chimerblin… Thesa had not looked away as fast as she should have.
To her utter dismay, she had noticed the demoness’s soft curves and arched back.
Tortured at the thought of being– of being– she refused to finish the thought. She would just have to forget it happened and stop thinking about Merijest’s…backside…
This same line of thought returned night after night.