My Dungeon Daddy System: Raising Monsters and Waifus Underground

Waking up in the Dungeon of the Teasing Tomb was usually a soft, warm experience involving feathers, slime, or scales.

Waking up in the Iron Works was like waking up in a vice.

Reed opened his eyes. He couldn't move. His arms were pinned to his sides. His legs were clamped together. He was suspended three feet off the ground.

He looked up.

Terra was looking down at him. Her orange eye-lights were dim, set to "Sentry Mode." She was sitting on her reinforced steel chair, and Reed was tucked securely into the crook of her stone arm, held against her chest plate like a teddy bear made of meat.

"Morning," Terra rumbled. The sound vibrated through Reed's entire skeleton.

"Terra," Reed wheezed. "You have to let me go. I need to… pee."

Terra processed this. Her internal gears whirred.

"Biological function," she noted. "Inefficient. Stone does not leak."

"I am not stone," Reed reminded her.

"Pity."

She slowly uncurled her massive fingers. Reed slid down her leg and hit the floor with a stumble.

"Thanks," he said, stretching his back. Being cuddled by a golem was great for security, terrible for lumbar support.

Grika was already awake, tinkering with the Stone Doll MK II on a workbench.

"Hey Boss," she grinned, waving a soldering iron. "Sleep well? You looked cozy. She barely crushed you."

"She's possessive," Reed said, rubbing his ribs. "Is the drone ready?"

"Ready and upgraded," Grika said, slapping the stone doll. "I streamlined the hips for aerodynamics. And I added a camera lens to the eye sockets so you see in HD."

Reed looked at the doll. It was still a chibi version of him, but Grika had added little stone goggles to it.

"Cute," Reed said.

"Functional," Grika corrected.

Maira walked in, holding a tray of coffee. She looked at Terra, who was currently dusting herself off.

"Golem Unit," Maira said. "You have soot in your joints."

"I am industrial," Terra replied. "Dirt is my aesthetic."

Maira's eye twitched. "I will fetch the pressure washer."

Reed grabbed a coffee. "Okay. Mission briefing. We know the Necromancer is north. We know he's hostile. We need to know what he's building."

He looked up at the ceiling vent.

"Riva!"

Swoosh.

Riva dropped from the rafters, landing on Reed's shoulders.

"Shiny Boss!" she chirped, nuzzling his ear. "We fly? We spy?"

"We fly," Reed confirmed. "But I'm taking the doll. My real body stays here."

"Aww," Riva pouted. "Doll is hard. Boss is squishy."

"Doll is safer," Reed said. "Seraphine?"

The lamia slithered out from behind the blast doors. She was wearing her armor, looking grim.

"I will guard your husk," Seraphine promised. She coiled around Reed's legs. "While your spirit wanders, your flesh remains mine."

"Comforting," Reed said. "Okay. Let's do this."

He sat in the command chair. He closed his eyes.

"System. Link to Construct."

[ASTRAL DRONE ACTIVATED]

Target: Stone Doll MK II.

Signal Strength: Good.

The world shifted.

Reed opened his eyes. He was two feet tall. He was made of stone. And he was being held by a harpy.

"Ready!" Riva shouted.

She launched herself into the air.

The Flight of the Stone-Boss

Flying with Riva was always terrifying, but doing it while weighing fifty pounds gave it a new dimension of peril.

"Heavy!" Riva grunted, flapping hard as they exited the chimney shaft. "Doll ate too much pizza!"

"Just fly straight," Reed's tinny stone voice echoed.

They soared over the forest. Below them, the trees changed.

Around the Teasing Tomb, the forest was lush, green, and vibrant (thanks to the mana overflow). But as they flew north, the color drained away.

The leaves turned grey. The grass turned brown. The air grew thick with a yellow, sickly mist.

"Smell bad," Riva complained, wrinkling her beak-nose. "Smell like… old meat."

"Necrotic mana," Reed observed through the doll's enhanced eyes. "It kills everything it touches."

They crested a ridge.

And there it was.

The Necropolis.

It wasn't a dungeon. It was a scar on the earth.

A massive, open-pit mine had been dug into the valley floor. In the center stood a fortress made of black bone and obsidian. Green fire burned in iron braziers.

Thousands of skeletons labored in the pit. They weren't building infrastructure; they were digging up more bodies. It was a mass grave being harvested.

"Gross," Riva whispered.

"Get closer," Reed directed. "I need to see the Core."

Riva banked, gliding silently on the thermals. Her [Stealth] stat was high, and Reed's stone body had no scent. They were invisible.

They landed on a gargoyle perch high above the fortress courtyard.

Reed looked down.

He saw Him.

Standing on a balcony of bone was a man. He was tall, gaunt, and wore robes made of stitched human skin (which was a choice). He held a staff topped with a screaming skull.

[TARGET IDENTIFIED]

Name: Malakor.

Role: Necromancer Avatar.

Core Level: 3.

Vibe: Maximum Edge.

Malakor was shouting at a minion.

The minion wasn't a skeleton. She was… a Banshee.

She drifted above the ground, translucent and pale. She was beautiful, in a tragic, ghostly way, wearing tattered funeral shrouds. Chains of green mana bound her wrists to the balcony railing.

"Inefficient!" Malakor screamed, striking the Banshee with his staff.

The Banshee wailed. It wasn't an attack; it was a cry of pain.

"I need more yield!" Malakor roared. "The bone harvest is slow! Scream harder! Scour the minds of the living!"

"I… cannot," the Banshee whispered, her voice like cracking ice. "I am… drained."

"Then you are useless," Malakor spat. He raised his hand. Dark energy crackled. "Perhaps I should recycle you into a Wraith."

Reed felt a surge of anger so hot it almost cracked his stone doll.

"He's torturing her," Reed hissed.

"Mean Man," Riva growled, her talons digging into the stone perch. "Bird hates him."

"Look at them," Malakor gestured to the pit of skeletons below. "Mindless. Perfect. Tools do not complain. Tools do not ask for… pizza."

Reed blinked. He knows.

"That Aberrant to the south," Malakor sneered, pacing. "Playing house. Treating monsters like… pets. It is an insult to the System."

He turned to the Banshee.

"We will crush him. We will strip the flesh from his waifus and add their bones to my walls. And you, Spirit… you will lead the van."

He tightened the magical chains. The Banshee gasped.

"Prepare the Corpse-Wagon," Malakor ordered a nearby Death Knight. "We march at the blood moon."

Reed had seen enough.

"Riva," Reed whispered. "We're leaving."

"Steal?" Riva asked, eyeing the Banshee's chains. "Steal Ghost-Girl?"

"Not yet," Reed said. "Too heavy. Too guarded. But we're coming back for her."

Riva nodded. She spread her wings.

But as she pushed off, a loose piece of slate on the roof shifted.

CLATTER.

Malakor's head snapped up. His eyes glowed green.

"Spies!"

He raised his staff.

"Gargoyles! FEAST!"

From the towers around them, stone statues cracked and came to life. Four massive Gargoyles shook off the dust and took flight.

"Fly!" Reed shouted.

Riva didn't need telling twice. She dove.

The Dogfight

"Fast! Fast!" Riva screamed, pumping her wings.

She was fast, but she was carrying a fifty-pound rock doll. The Gargoyles were gaining.

"SCREEE!" A Gargoyle swiped at them, its stone claws missing Riva's tail feathers by inches.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Reed yelled.

Riva banked hard right, diving through a dead forest. She weaved between the grey trunks. The Gargoyles smashed through the branches, brute-forcing their way.

"They are heavy!" Riva panted. "I am tired!"

"Drop me!" Reed said.

"NO!" Riva shouted. "My Boss! My Pocket-Rock!"

"I'm just a doll, Riva! My real body is safe! Drop me and you'll go faster!"

Riva looked at the stone doll. She looked at the approaching Gargoyles.

"No," she hissed. "Mine."

Her eyes glowed gold.

[LIMIT BREAK]

Riva activates: [Turbo-Glide]

Stamina: Draining Rapidly.

She surged forward. A burst of wind magic exploded from her wings. She broke the sound barrier—or close to it.

BOOM.

She left the Gargoyles in the dust.

She flew until her wings burned. She flew until the grey trees turned green. She flew until she saw the familiar crack in the hillside.

She crashed into the chimney shaft, tumbling down into the Core Chamber.

Home

Riva hit the floor. She rolled, clutching the stone doll to her chest.

She lay there, panting, feathers ruffled, exhausted.

Reed disconnected instantly.

He woke up in his real body on the dais. Seraphine was holding his hand.

"My Lord?" she asked.

Reed ignored her. He ran to Riva.

The harpy was trembling on the floor. She looked up at him with tired eyes. She was still hugging the stone doll.

"Kept… him," she wheezed. "Didn't… drop."

Reed knelt down. He gently pried the doll from her grip.

"You crazy bird," he whispered. "You could have died."

"I am… the best… scout," she mumbled.

Reed picked her up. She was light, her bones hollow. He carried her to his bed.

"Maira!" Reed yelled. "Food! Water! Now!"

He laid Riva down. Seraphine coiled around the bed, adding her warmth. Grika ran in with a slice of pizza.

Riva took a bite, chewed slowly, and swallowed. Her color returned.

"Shiny Boss," she whispered. "Saw the Ghost-Girl?"

"I saw her," Reed said darkly.

"She was sad," Riva said. "Crying."

Reed stood up. He looked at his family.

"Malakor isn't just a rival," Reed announced. His voice was cold. "He's a slaver. He tortures his own units."

Seraphine hissed, her scales rattling. "Unforgivable."

"He's coming," Reed said. "At the blood moon. He's bringing a Corpse-Wagon."

Grika cracked her knuckles. "Let him come. I'll turn his wagon into splinters."

"No," Reed said. "We're not just going to defend."

He looked at the map. He looked at the red dot of the Necropolis.

"We're going to steal his Banshee."

Riva's eyes popped open. She grinned weakly.

"Heist?"

"Heist," Reed confirmed. "We're going to liberate his workforce. And then… we're going to bury him in his own pit."

[QUEST UPDATED: WAR FOR THE SOUL] Objective: Defeat Malakor.

Secondary Objective: Rescue the Banshee (Waifu #7 Potential).

Time Limit: 3 Days (Blood Moon).

Reed looked at Terra, standing silently in the corner.

"Terra," Reed said. "How are you at throwing things?"

Terra's eye-lights flared.

"I can throw… anything."

"Good," Reed said. "Because I have a plan. And it involves a Fastball Special."