“AaaaaaaAAaaaaaaaAAaaaa-!!?!”
Stil in a panic, Mia was throwing everything her mana pool would allow her to. The room was frozen over, a thick layer of ice and snow covering everything while shafts and blades of weapons along with pillars of ice littered the once fancy dining room.
[Mia, Mia! It’s time to calm down.]
‘No what is that thing?! What is-! It’s scary! Scary! Creepy gross!’ Mia screamed in her mind, refusing to stop her wild onslaught.
[Ok, but Mia if you don’t stop now you will be out of mana. Or if you really want to get away from it…may I suggest loading?]
“AAaaaa.a…aa..oh yeah…” Mia paused mid throw of another spear, when she put it like that it seemed less scary, she was at less risk. Still, it was insanely scary.
“Oh? Are we done?”
Her breath caught in the back of her throat, Mia heard Cy’s voice. Slowly she turned to face them, paling at seeing they were unharmed. No scratches or cracks in their chitin, any ice on them melting away, all of Mia’s previous efforts were for nothing. “What are-?”
“Oh deary, have you forgotten in your panic?” She rose into the air, clattering of her many feet resounding with many audible clicks and clacks, hallow thumps beating as it rose to their peak “I am Cy’bogbi! The bog wrym! And this, is my dungeon.” A short, sickening gurgle was heard before they spoke next “And you, little rat- no, little fox, have peaked my interest beyond what I normally give.”
She gulped, backing away from the towering figure as she began charging magic into her fist “I-Interest?”
“Oh yes!~” Cy lowered herself, shoving her toothy maw down to Mia’s eye level “You see, as you may have surmised, when adventurers come into my dungeon I turn them into dolls, mindless servants…”
Watching helplessly, she saw Cy’s mouth open, hot damp breath hitting her and causing her face to wrinkle. Then small strings shot out, Mia tried to get up and get away but ended up tangled in the mass of white sticky string “Eh? S-stop!”
“Now the clothes, they have nothing to do with it.” Cy rose, lifting Mia up into the air, the little claws gripping the strings and pulling Mia closer.
[Suggestion: Loading.]
‘Just a bit longer…’
[Staying longer is, for lack of a better term, stupid.]
“I have standards, and I expect others to have the same before they dirty my halls.” The claws lifted up Mia, spinning her around, snipping, cutting, cleaning, fitting, she felt herself become dizzy with how fast she was being moved around “Even now with my interest peaked, I cannot offer any exceptions, especially with my interest peaked, it will just not do!”
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Mia then found herself slammed to the ground, on top of what used to be a chair “E-eh?” she felt, weird, shaking her dizziness away she glanced down “W-hat?!” finding the source of her weird feeling, she had been stripped and dressed in a black shirt and skirt with a cowl placed ontop. Her fur had also been groomed, her tail no longer looking ragged and her hair straight and clean.
“Well, a small fib, I feel this suits you better with your attitude. Less of my taste but, I will offer you that.” She then thrust one of her mandibles into Mia’s chest “And before you ask is it cursed, I do not have that power in the first place, now, before I make you into one of my precious little dolls. What are you?”
Mia frowned at the clothes, not feeling it was right to force it upon her but sighed “A fox beastman.” She spat, wondering what more could she want from her.
“Oh no, I know that, that much is obvious.” She poked her with her mandibles again “What isn’t is what you are besides that, and adventurer? HA! You lack the equipment, a runaway slave? While the clothes match you miss the collar and I doubt one could hold you anyways… although…” she rose away from her, her head swaying from side to side “tch, stupid bugs…”
‘Well, she was right about the slave.’ Mia thought, and while Cy was seemingly in deep thought she tried to get up, only to find she couldn’t move “eh?” she struggled in place but besides her limbs and head, she couldn’t move, she had been anchored in place by the new clothes she was wearing.
[Now can you load?]
‘One more minute’ she replied, the magic in her hand still charging with what was left of her magic.
“Putting the state of my web aside, maybe you are a runaway slave. It would certainly fit with what I do know of that war.”
“Eh? War?” Mia perked up ‘how did she know about the war? How much did she know?’ she wanted to try and ask, but all that came out was a blunt “how?” to her annoyance.
Cy gurgled “Well, they recently raided a village of your tribe, but I was under the impression it did not go so well.” She shook “Idiots, all of them.” She then approached her, sticking her maw once again in Mia’s face “But back to the what, another issue is that I cannot fully appraise you, I can tell you have a high level of disguise, and that sheet is the most blatant li-“
“Done.” Mia had finished charging the remainder of her magic, she quickly dumped all of her remaining stat points into INT and then thrust her hand forward, unleashing her stored magic all at once in her last stubborn gambit of defiance. A full 400 points of mana boosted by her suddenly increased INT score of 1,370.
A bright flash and a squeal filled the room, blinding Mia as she suffered from her intense recoil.
She felt herself losing consciousness, her health reaching zero, but managed to force herself from dying just long enough to see Cy, rising into the air with a few shattered teeth before Mia finally dropped dead.
‘All that for just a few teeth…Hrm?’ She awoke in the void, or, she should have.
Instead, she found herself in a clean white hall “Huh? Where?” she glanced around, not finding any of this familiar. There wasn’t much to look at in this hallway either, just a long white marble hall with two wooden doors at opposite ends “yeah…I’m too exhausted to deal with any of this.”
She tried to open her panel to load, sighing when she saw her Int back to the un-pointed 670, and tried to load file 3, relieved to find herself outside Cy’bogbi’s door with two frozen dolls next to her.
“Not this door then.” She nodded, she did not want to deal with that thing again, and was now more determined than ever to find the exit. The only question was if she should go deeper or back out and try her luck at diving, now less afraid of the concept of drowning after seeing THAT.
As she was deciding what to do, she heard a rumble, followed by loud clattering and finally was left to watch as the stone wall in front of her was broken, the familiar chitinous mass of teeth and claws burst furth from the other side.
“Even more! My interest is grasped!” Cy’bogbi yelled, having already discarded her disguise her form started filling the hallway as she clambered inside “Little fox! You are truly much more than I could have ever imagined!”