Lucifer watched a group of adventurers delve into his dungeon which had become his hobby since becoming a dungeon. he licked his imaginary lips in anticipation as the group fumbled around the third floor, Lucifer was not waiting for this group to be killed, however, instead, he was hoping that this group would be able to spot the recently created "GIANT GAPING HOLE IN THE WALL".Unlike the last few groups who managed to pass by completely oblivious to it, even sending Lucky over to play with them didn't put him in a better mood, regardless of how "imaginative" she was.
Just as they were passing the opening like the last group and Lucifer was considering "sending Kuro to give them an encouragement mauling in the right direction or add some lighting near the hole" (probably the former), the group scout stopped and sniffed the air. Moments later she said, "I smell a different place".
The mage of the group replied "vague as always, I don't know why Lee tolerates your kind"
"I don't know how he tolerates "your" kind either" replied the mage tauntingly.
hmph*
Shaking his head the group leader shook his head and sighed before directing the group "stop fighting amongst yourselves, there are plenty of enemies around for that. Show us the way towards the new area Lex".
Lucifer sent a mental command to Kuro "take a rain check on the mauling lil Kuro, they seem to be going in the right direction". Large claws retracted into the paws of the silent predator prowling above the group as it melded back into the shadows and disappeared.
Slowly the party Lucifer was observing made their way towards the hole, once they entered the group looked around briefly before leaving the area, then they started to head back out of the dungeon at a brisk pace.
Lucifer quickly sent a message to Lucky "come here quickly, there is a group of people who pissed me off royally." he growled then continued in an almost whisper "I want you to use orange".
Luckys reply came back almost instantly in a timid voice "a-a are you sure you want to use...orange"
before he could reply he overheard the mage say "we can earn big at the guild if we report a new floor and its location, and better yet we can get some other idiot to see if it's safe", Lucifer paused for a moment then replied "wait, it turns out they were not as bad as I initially thought, you can take a rain check on orange this time"
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somewhere a fairy gave a great sigh of relief then flew back to play with some cute panther kitties.
gaww*
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Meanwhile, in another part of the dungeon, a certain fox girl stealthily moved around the dungeon while invisible. Ahri had initially thought that becoming invisible would mean she would easily be able to catch Rick, however, he proved to be more slippery than a greased up deaf guy.
She had tried just walking around areas with large amounts of alchemical ingredients, but after several days she had to give up after she noticed that when she went to her room for sleep, all the plants she had just passed were now missing and the idea that he was following her the entire time was a major blow to her self-confidence.
She tried to wait in an area he was likely to visit, but whenever she became tired and fell asleep for a moment she would open her eyes a second later and find all the plants missing with no old man in sight.
She tried setting traps for him, but not only did she not manage to catch the old man with physical or magic means, she only received praise from the dungeon for setting traps that managed to kill a few adventurers which appalled her. The dungeon simply replied "even if its a non lethal trap that doesn't mean that its not lethal when your running away from a giant cat trying to maul your face off", he even told her that it has become a habit for the some of the Panthers to wait near the traps she set just so they could play with the swinging prey according to Lucky. Worse yet, when she went to take down the traps after failing to catch the old man she somehow managed to end up caught in her own trap.
As she hung there wondering how she activated the trap when she was sure she didn't put a trigger there she heard muffled high pitched giggled coming from the bushes nearby, Ahri started to panic at the thought of being seen in such weird position so she started to cast a spell to cut the rope, however, half way though the chant the dungeon spoke startling her "I had no idea you were into this sort of thing you should have told me, I could have made a special room for you to "play" in so you wouldn't be seen... although being seen might be half the fun for you... well then don't mind me carry on"
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Ahri refused to come out of her room for a week after and a certain fairy got a newly created painting from her master named "foolish foxy" from the image he captured of the incident, which now hangs in her own dungeon boss room.
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Later
Ahri finally came out of her room after a week, the only other time she left her room was briefly to receive a message from the mages guild.
In her hand, she held a small circular disk with a golden arrow that occasionally spun slightly in the middle, this is what she had spent the week working on. This disk was something she enchanted after numerous failures, normally she would have given up after the 5th or 6th failure but after the previous incident, she couldn't stand to give in to the slippery old coot and promised to catch him if its the last thing she did.
The pin spun several times then slowed to a specific direction and halted, she smiled in such a way that it did not reach her eyes giving an eerie feeling to anyone if they saw her.
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Meanwhile, Rick practically flew around the dungeon collecting ingredients. The past few weeks were heaven for Rick, the number of alchemical ingredients here for the taking made this place a virtual paradise for any alchemist when they can move around freely without the threat of monster attacks or worse, dungeon attacks. He had accomplished more in a week than he had in a year outside, unless he wanted to venture out into the deep forests where the savage beats ruled, yet even an ancient like himself would not live long in those places that could rival this area in terms of rare plants.
Once he became a grand alchemist Rick ventured into those lands where normal humans could never go and long story short he left faster than he came, even the rarest of ingredients that have been absorbing mana for hundreds of years could not sway him to return there, he had learned the hard way why humans continued to wage war against themselves and the other races when there were so many unclaimed lands to take. It's not that there is not enough land for all the races to live peacefully, they only occupy around 10% of the landmass, It's because the lands the races occupy are the only areas the truly scary monsters allow them to live, areas so barren of magical energy they could not be bothered to claim it themselves.
This is what made Swadia such valuable land, the dragon vein that ran underneath it was close enough to give its inhabitants a boost but deep enough underground to stop anything from taking a closer look.
While reminiscing about his childish past when he was only a couple hundred years old he noticed the fox girl was closing in on him for the third time today, 'this girl is getting better' he thought then changed direction to avoid crossing paths.
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An hour later he felt her presence once again, he sighed in resignation, he could keep avoiding her forever if he wanted to but that would cut into his collecting time significantly and he didn't have the energy for that, so he chose to wait for her to hear what she wanted to say even though he could guess what she wanted anyway.
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Ahri stalked closer to the old man who suddenly stopped for no apparent reason, she paused too for a moment before continuing slower and more cautiously than before. The hair on her tails spiked up and her eyes unknowingly became bloodshot, each beat of her heart was like a drum in her ears, as she got within pouncing distance from her prey it began to speak.
After failing time and time again to capture this one she was not about to let the prey escape again so she leaped with all of her muscles empowered by buffs she spent the morning applying.
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Rick was about to say "we meet again little fox", but he only got to the first syllable before he found himself tackled and rolled down a small hill with limbs and tails fumbling about.
When they came to a stop Ahri yelled: "I'VE GOT YOU NOW!!!" with a savage triumphant smile.
Rick layed there underneath the crazy woman dumbfounded that the mute girl would act in such a way, he began laughing and when he saw her confused face he laughed even harder.
After she finally came back to herself and noticed what she was doing she jumped back while blushing down to her neck as if her head was about to explode. Rick was only chuckling at this point "it seems your the type of beastmen that easily succumbs to instinct"
Ahri began to spell in the air with magic when Rick waved her off "you don't need that right now, your basking in your beast mode at the moment so to speak, which is to say you should be able to speak right now"
Ahri tried to speak and was surprised when the words easily flowed even with a stranger around even if it sounded a little gruff "I- I can't tal-- ... it seems I can, how did you know"
Rick replied, "I've been around for a long time and I've seen more than a few mutes, bestmen are a little easier to treat in that aspect because your kind can enter the "savage", at least I think that is what your people call it. simply put a few well-timed triggers can cause beastmen to go towards the more best side of their nature."
"so does this mean that I can talk to anyone now," she asked
"not really no, some beastmen can activate the savage whenever they want, but that requires training from an Elder shaman which I am not. speaking of which it is quite strange that you don't know about something that affects all of your race"
Ahri smiled wryly and decided to use this opportunity when she can speak to tell her story, perhaps she might earn the goodwill of this senior or maybe she will get another perspective that she had not thought of and she might be able to get past her traumas and regain her voice permanently.