Fleon sprung from his chair. “You’re back Sir Boyd! What news? Has the Palace of Unbridled Lust been liberated?”
All five Combatants sat in the same room for the first time in a few days. Boyd noticed the groups Mana array was glowing and read 50/50. That was a good sign. The group was now staring at him critically, all sets of eyes and sensors and anus/vents upon him.
Jellybean Jenkins smelled the air, “This one stinks of demon sweat and human hormones. It has been breeding.”
Salia, in a rare instance where she was outside of the her VMR, fluttered over to Boyd, “He’s right, you reek of sulphur and self-pity. You need a shower.”
Gmol started a healing spell but then started shaking and let the spell die. A mouth appeared in the rune on his chest and began a hearty guffaw. A series of runes appeared. Everyone understood them to mean, “I thought you were dying but you’re just full of genital poisons. I’ve never seen someone so fully engulfed by sexually transmitted diseases. This is why I mitose my man. No one is fucking with Gmol’s reproductive system but Gmol. I think you might be the first person ever to acutely die from a brothel visit.”
Fleon stood and clapped Boyd on the shoulder, “I am sure you are mistaken. Sir Boyd was on a holy mission to cleanse the Palace of its sin, weren’t you good Sir?”
Boyd had never felt bad lying to priests, but the look on Fleon’s face was too much to bear. “Fleon, I have to admit that I faltered in my mission.”
Fleon gritted his teeth in anger, “Sir Boyd, please say you didn’t let the demons defile you?”
Salia returned to the VMR which lit up. A light focused on Boyd’s crotch, “It appears like he’s spent the last couple of days barebacking Succubi. You didn’t even use protection? With Succubi? Are you suicidal? Oh wait…” The lights on Salia’s VMR shone brightly and then refocused on Boyd’s midsection. “Oh my God, a Rock Golem? What did you ever do together? How did you even do things together?”
Boyd said sheepishly, “We mostly just talked.”
“You realize I just scanned your genitals right? Unless you have a mouth down there I don’t know about, you definitely did more than talk.” Salia bristled, “No one leave me alone with this guy unless I am in my VMR, I no longer trust him.”
“Hold on Salia, it ain’t like that. Ya’ll are pretty quick to judge here, maybe I was just making my first trip there to scout it out. I plan on going back and finishing what I started. I was laying the groundwork for the next stage of the mission.”
"You laid something alright,” Salia said.
Fleon sharply punched the table with a gloved fist, “I am heartened to hear of your successful reconnaissance Sir Boyd, but I fear that I must intercede. If you have been cavorting with these Demonesses, I have to mark your Quest as failed. It pains me to do this, but you have clearly lost sight of your goals.” Fleon gazed blankly at nothing for a few seconds, before saying, “Strange, Sir Boyd, I do not see the Quest in your Quest log.”
“Oh, yea, it already did the failed thing and it disappeared I think. It’s gone now. Bummer huh.”
Fleon straightened himself, “You shame our Foray. I will pray to the Goddess tonight for forgiveness for halting your Divine mission, but we must sally forth and commit to our first Descent. We do not have time to repeat this Quest. While you were away, our fellow combatants have filled our first Mana array. This means we can travel to the descension chamber. Because we are so very far behind our intended pace due to your unfortunate lack of movement abilities, we should discuss how far we will initially descend. As you are all aware, we can descend to anything between the second and tenth floor.”
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“Tenth floor,” Jellybean Jenkins said.
Gmol’s rune became a thumbs up sign.
“All ten,” Salia agreed.
Fleon said, “I also feel this is most appropriate. We should attempt to catch up to the higher level groups. Most of the first ten floors will be devoid of Mana as we have observed here. We need to get back ahead of the primary pack.”
“Sounds good,” Boyd said. “When do we leave?”
It became very silent in the room.
Gmol’s stomach runes lit up, but Boyd couldn’t quite tell what they said.
“I will tell him then. Human, because you are weak and untrained, you will struggle to survive the 10th floor. The Maze becomes increasingly more difficult at a dramatic pace as we descend. If we were to go a single floor down, your current power level would leave you with the potential for success. On the tenth floor, you will be a miserable weakling. Your only hope is that you are capable of quickly gaining experience to increase your Rank, but Gmol’s presence will hamper this. The tenth floor will provide a modest challenge for the rest of us and we will not have time to watch you dawdle or protect you from insignificant dangers. In addition, it is likely we will encounter other Forays, potentially even those that are hostile to us. Were this the case, your only hope of survival would be an outright and dominant victory due the rest of our prowess or that your ridiculous Inherent Ability somehow mitigated your instantaneous death into some miraculous recovery.”
“So maybe we just go down a single floor then? Hey wait, didn’t you tell me I could just exit and go back to Oklahoma? Why do I have to descend at all? Where is the exit if we have enough Mana?”
"Your ineptitude has left our pace sluggish and without the needed Mana to sustain the pack. You will continue with us. I will not waste what has been gained on you.”
“That’s not what you said. You told me you’d send me back to Oklahoma!”
Jellybean Jenkins rushed across the room and grabbed Boyd by the throat. He held him aloft as Boyd kicked his feet. “AND NOW I SAY YOU WILL CONTINUE. YOU WILL NOT JEOPARDIZE MY PLANS.”
Boyd struggled and desperately looked towards the others. None of them seemed particularly interested in helping. “Help!” Boyd struggled through the choking. “Jellybean, please…” Boyd struggled to wave his fists as Jellybean Jenkins’ gripped tightened. “Who…is…my Special Boy?”
Jellybean Jenkins eyes flashed and he had a sudden change of heart. “I have acted in haste. This is not the behavior of a Good Boy. I will unhand you.” Jellybean Jenkins set Boyd on the ground. “I am a Good Boy, correct?”
Boyd, desperate to stay alive choked out a few sentences. “Yes, Good Boy. Good Boy Jellybean.”
“Jenkins.”
“What?”
“I share the name of my human family. I am Jellybean Jenkins.”
Boyd, still struggling to breathe, said “Jenkins. Jellybean Jenkins.”
“Thank you.” Jellybean Jenkins said. He walked back to his seat at the table. His tail jutted through a whole in the back of the chair where it was furiously wagging.
Salia said, “Look, we are doing ten floors. I didn’t come here to fuck around and collect 50 Nodes. We are at least a week behind the top crews, and probably several hundred Nodes down. I am came here to cap Nodes, not babysit. We’re going deep or I’m leaving. Unlike him, I can make it back to Venia no problem.”
Fleon nodded in agreement. “There is no discussion needed Salia. As leader of the Foray the choice is mine and I agree. Boyd, you can come with us or not. If you have issues with Jellybean Jenkins you will need to take care of those separately. We leave for the descension chamber in the morning. Everyone get a good night’s rest. Sir Boyd you are welcome to leave with us in the morning. You may choose to exit or descend. I will leave that choice to you.”
Boyd slept little that night. Neither choice seemed particularly favorable. Also his dick burned and he kept vomiting small chunks of rock. The noise became frustrating enough that Gmol eventually cured most of his diseases and he fell into a deep and peaceful sleep. He awoke a few hours later.
Rockrot hits you for 5 damage. Rockrot cannot be cured without Essence of Earth.
Boyd said aloud, "I guess that one is going to stick a while."