The infant dungeon waited, while his mother vented her years of abuse through crying. Not that there was anything else he could have done. Once the emergency shelter was finished there wasn't anything more to do but wait. For her to enter, for his DP's to replenish, for the next problems to show themselves.
Just.
Waiting.
But the thing about having over a hundred eyes?
It's that they tend to see things.
It has now been confirmed that this is indeed a brothel.
All of its customers are human men.
All but two of its thirty-odd workers are slaves. Many of them wearing only their collars.
And nearly all of those slaves are beastkin girls.
Several wolves or dogs, a few cats big and small, lizards, birds, a boar-girl working in the laundry and even a bunny, among other kinds.
[If I could save them, I would. But I'm having enough trouble just trying to protect my mom.]
. .
[How can I not be excited by watching this though? It's like having a crystal for a brain gives you totally different neurochemistry as compared to a hairless ape.]
. . .
[It's been hours, but I still haven't gotten any DP's yet. Seems probable that daily means just once per day, at a specific time.]
. .
Shortly after, she finishes crying. She dressed, then confidently paces toward the stairs.
[Finally. Time for my mom to officially penetrate my inner sanctum.]
As she paces through, her now erect ears brush their tips against the ceiling and its ever so gently glowing moss. Her slit-pupiled fox eyes meant for the dark of night just like a cat's, letting her see without any trouble.
[God I wish there was someone else I coulda joked about that with. The looks on their faces woulda been absolutely priceless.
A real Kodiak moment.]
It only takes a couple of minutes for her to reach the end. But when she does, the look of *disappointment* on her face is strong enough that it can be felt. She looks back the way she came. Shakes her head in disgust. Then settles down to sleep on the hard floor.
[Shit! I forgot about that.] {Inventory}
With no DP's and a limit of 5 kilograms total in his Inventory, normal bedding isn't an option. The best he can do is swiping unattended clothes and cloths from the cleaned section in the laundry or the closets. However, only the unattended things could be affected by the dungeon. So when a worker opened up one closet, to restock it, it was temporarily closed off for him. He kept at it until the teleported pile was big enough to resemble a twin-size mattress.
Then the fox-woman resettles on her first soft bed in over six years.
.
Other than the brothel upstairs cycling through more customers, absolutely nothing happens until the evening comes.
. . . .
That evening
One of the two workers makes her way down the original staircase with a bowl of some type of gruel.
She pulls a key ring out from her pocket. Then sifts through them with her free hand until reaching a particular one. Opens the door and .. spots the open pit on one side. And a distinct lack of any slaves.
In her surprise, the bowl falls from her hand. Splattering its continents across the floor the fox-woman spent so much effort this morning to clean up her own blood off from.
[Rude. That's the third-deepest scowl I've seen in both of my lives. Well, I guess I'm living two new lives right now. So then all of them.] Then she marches back up the stairs.
Three minutes later the abusive hag from the morning comes back with 2 burly men in tow.
"Someone dug into mah storeroom an stole mah property. I want you two ta scout it out."
[Well, looks like it's game over on day 2.]
"We'll have to sign a contract first."
"And have it sent to the Guild."
"Fine, fine, whadya want?"
.
While they're quickly discussing the finer points of finance, and to a slightly lesser extent 'playdates', the sun finally sets. And when it does:
----------------------------------------
Day's end
You have earned 52 DP's from Intruders
----------------------------------------
{OH, Thank Deus Ex Machina!}
The dungeon then does the dungeony thing and adds in a few 5 meter deep pit traps. Unfortunately they don't come with any cover. But they're easily covered up by using a bit of stone from the new Resource tab. With matching rockfall traps, triggers included.
This has the added benefit of unlocking a new type of trap: Hidden Pitfall. Which has the benefit of copying this design with a single proverbial click.
And just in time, as the three make their way down into the tunnels. They brought the torch with them from the storeroom to light their way. But when he saw them grab it, he was a quite surprised.
[They just grabbed it where it was burning? Why didn't its fire affect them? Maybe it's a magic item.] {Identify}
Stolen novel; please report.
----------------------------------------
Everburning Torch
Emits light but not heat.
Longlasting.
Grade E item.
----------------------------------------
They all happen to avoid triggering the first fall. Seemingly out of luck, as there was no indication that they even noticed the trap.
But the second fellow managed to catch his boot on the latch with the second one. The floor fell away from underneath him leaving him stumbling til he went tumbling. Scrabbling on the edges as he went, but to no avail. The 5 meter drop would have been likely to break a bone, or twist an ankle. At the very least. If not for his decent stats as an iron rank adventurer. As it was, he was merely trapped until someone could bring some rope or a ladder.
His fellow should have been shocked, or maybe horrified at this. But-
"Oh, Oh shit! You know what this means, Chubby?"
"That I'm trapped in this stinkin hole, pal."
"This's a new, unregistered dungeon! We're sure to rank up just for reporting it!"
He then hops over his 'friend', squeezes past the protesting matron and rushes out the way they came.
But before he could get there, the dungeon had capped that 2.4 X 1.6 meter hole. This time without a trap attached.
Seeing that, he spewed a cartload of profanity. With no way out, he decided to press forward and once more reached the first pitfall trap.
Finding the trigger they all missed the first time.
And finding himself in an identical situation.
Of course all of this commotion awakens the vixen down the hall. Although it was already plenty of time. Enough that she probably should have awoken already.
At this, the matron spewed her own impressive dungheap of profanity. That done, she knew her only option was to go through it alone. Stepping over the first adventurer to drop.
When she got to the third corner, with the third pitfall trap, she was at least clever enough to jump over it.
.
Directly into the fourth. Sealing her fate.
Twisting both of her ankles, as she wasn't so robust like the pair of adventurers.
And sending out another dungheap of profanity.
The eventual mother, the fox-woman saw what happened to her tormenter of nearly seven years. Curious and gleeful, she silently padded her way over to gloat.
[I don't really want to kill those two guys, but I can't just let them go, now that they know about me. But I also can't leave them there. And there's no way to bring them with, even if I wanted to. However that bitch deserves death. No, much worse than death. A forced existence where even a painful death would be a pleasant alternative. But again, there's no way to accomplish that. So, death to all three.]
When the matron saw 'her slave' peeking over the edge of the pit, her confidence began to return.
"There ya are, ya stupid slut. Get me outta here, now!"
A smile slowly spread across her face before replying "I can't, devil. And even if I could, I would not."
"Whadya mean? Thatsa order!"
The slave runes still perform their function of draining her mana. Just not quite as well. Even without the slave collar to drain her Spirit, practically eliminating her mana regeneration as well as willpower. .
At this point, the dungeon took the slave collar back out from his Inventory, placing it at his mother's paws. Seeing it appear, she reacted instinctually in her disgust. Kicking it into the open pit.
After bouncing off the walls twice, it struck the matron directly in the face. Still gazing up expectantly at her surprisingly defiant slave.
"Tha fuck is this!?" she shouted, while clawing furiously at the black hoop of metal resting atop her face, brow to chin.
There are two things to know about magic equipment. First is that they can temporarily change their size to be easier to wear. And second, cursed items seem to want to be worn. No, it's more than that. Like they're absolutely terrified of ever NOT being worn.
While she was trying to get a grip to throw it off, it twitched, almost as if alive, to bounce off from her flailing fingertips. Then expanded in width by several centimeters. That it could settle on her neck, just like its previous perch until that morning.
{WHAT!?} [I wasn't planning on it, but I'll take it. Wow.]
"Oh shut up down there, you vile bitch!"
With every invective hurled up from the pit, both women felt their mana drain by a little. The fox thought it was because she refused the order to bring the matron out of the hole. That was true, but only half of it. What neither realized, because the slaver guilds kept it a total secret from outsiders, is that the runic geas actually creates a two-way battle of wills. With both sides spending mana like bullets. When they clash, the one with less mana loses. Suffering from mana burnout. Coupled with a cursed item that prevents one side from even having almost any mana in the first place, it's a simple and easy way to enforce 'following the rules.'
But simply switch who's wearing the collar, and their roles are reversed.
Right now, Dara is defying her former owner's order to help. But at the same time, Jodie is defying her new owner's order to "shut up, bitch." Both acts are draining mana from each side at roughly the same rate. And this first clash in their new roles depends upon their reserves. With Dara having her normal mana capacity restored. Along with her mana completely refilled for the first time in literally years. And Jodie having lost a couple hundred, almost half, from her capacity the instant the collar was worn.
But later, when recovery comes into play, the matron wouldn't have any chance whatsoever.
The next few minutes are spent with one side glaring and grinning with maximum force. Trying to keep her worry hidden. While the other side attempts to burn her opponent's fuzzy ears off with words alone.
. .
Until the gordian's knot sized string of curse words is cut by a pain filled scream.
The matron, having run fully out of mana is now suffering from mana burnout. A splitting headache nearly as painful as dipping one's hair in a bucket of burning gasoline. Then trying to smother the fire using only hammer strikes.
The fox crouches down next to the pit, resting her elbows on its edge. Then taunts her former captor "Looks like you're MY slave now. Don't worry, I'll treat you just as nice as you've treated me all these years we've been together."
The dungeon uses more of his stone resource to lay a curved beam across the twin pits. Even though only one of them was opened. This allowed his mother to walk across them safely to the other side. There was even a direction arrow embossed on its length.
"What does that mean? . . I guess whoever's helping me wants me over there now. Can't think of any other reason."
When she rounds the corner, there is a stone cylinder waiting next to the other pit. Just a single centimeter narrower than the corridor, and the same height as width. Another direction arrow embossed on it, pointing further in.
"Am I supposed to climb over? Or push?"
"Don't push it, help me outa here!"
"Who's there!? Show yourself!"
"That's - kinda the problem right now. If you get me outa this dungeon's pit trap, I'll make sure you get rewarded by the Guild."
She thought: [The Guild! Those adventurer scum are the ones who stole me from our tribe. They killed my parents! They raped my sister in front of her dying husband! They would have raped me too, if I wasn't so young back then!]
She pushed against the huge wheel of stone with all of her might. Even though it must've weighed at least a ton. Likely more. Eventually it rolled far enough to tilt into the hole. A panicked scream was let out, until it was ended with a loud thud.
While panting from the exertion, another stone plug capped the pit trap. Completely covering it up. This time without a trap.
The other fellow, hearing all of that that he could, tried to shimmy his way out of the pit by himself. Before it becomes too late.
The fox noticed this, with her beyond excellent hearing. Rounding the next corner, she saw there was another 99 cm stone wheel waiting for her.
It wasn't any easier for her this time, though. And he was furiously working his way up in the meanwhile. He won their race, but just barely. Reaching the pit's upper lip, to pull himself out faster.
But only a heartbeat later, the stone rolled far enough to crush his grasping fingers. This was enough to kill its momentum. What's more, the grisly mess acted like a doorstop. Keeping it from rolling any farther, no matter how hard she tried pushing.
Meanwhile he kept screaming and thrashing. Eventually getting his hand free. Well, most of it at any rate. Once free though, he lost his grip on the walls and fell back down into the pit.
On the top side, she had decided since pushing it wasn't working, maybe a running start would help? With her current Move stats and running skill, coupled with longer legs than a human's, she could max out at just over 40 kilometers per hour. Though how much of that she could use with only 9 meters of track was seriously in question.
Not wanting to hurt her shoulder, she gave it a running drop-kick. Hurling herself at it paws first, with her highest speed possible under such circumstances. It was barely enough. Causing the stone wheel to grind the fingers to pulp on its way over the ledge.