NOVEL NEXT 8. A Succubus in distress
I have three Customers.
One is a Skeleton who I absolutely don’t like. And we don’t even know each other for 5 Minutes.
The other is a Woman with a terrible Lack of… own thoughts? She seems to be unused when she doesn’t know what to do.
The Last one rushed in with excitement, but tries to play everything cool after coming in.
He especially, seems to fake his behaviour, maybe to leave a better impression?
Whats surprising is my “Knowledge” on how to lead this business.
Pricing, Timetable and even how the Visiting Dungeon Masters are determined.
So I know only one is supposed to visit.
And that there is a penalty to commission multiple Monster in one Visit.
Anyway…
“Don’t try to get cocky Boneface. I am pioneering a completely new fiel. Not being able to create a gigantic all-destroying Giant is only natural. So depending on what you need it’s either a yes or no.”
”Ah ha, so you don’t can necessarily help us. How about that, we order something in your capabilities and refrain from our likely impossible order to you, and we get a discount.”
”You know that I can Blacklist someone? And what’s that Proposal? Go kidding someone else.”
”Ahh, you have no Respect!”
The Skeleton is only annoying. That self-righteous face as he said that hits my nerves, really hard.
“So what do you want to commission?”
I ask the Woman.
”Aehm, well, i would like to commission a monster wich makes other confused on where they are, currently. It would need some explaining. Would it be fine?”
”Go ahead. With the Mal you can show me your dungeon or parts of it, if you need.”
”Thank you.”
She began explaining about her circumstances and dungeon.
She comes from another Dimension, a young succubus who makes her first Contract. By Chance, this Contract was to act as a Dungeon Master for the Dungeon of Temptation, giving the Advantages and handicaps fitting for it.
She can’t use Demonic Energy, since it would interfere with the Mana, which got bound to her to keep the Dungeon Intact, and neither can her Summons.
Because it’s her Race, she got Succubus. Because of an advantage of hers, she also got incubus. The Advantage makes one get every version of a species which attracts People in different aus or after different criteria’s, and has to be distinct different.
So her last Monster, the Treasure Mimic, didn’t unlock her near identical Mimics.
Her big Problem is the Temptation part.
The Treasure Mimic can move only slowly, and hen found while moving, can’t activate her ability to tempt someone with greed.
The Range is roughly across a slightly big room.
She designed her dungeon with many floors and rooms.
From the Rooms can always come Succubus and Incubus, when they notice intruders.
Or there can be Mimics, who Tempt someone to get close. That this can be fatal, should be self explanatory.
The thing is, her Mimics are useless.
A Person who ist strong or slippery takes a peak, gets automatically tempted, and when he tries to get inside, he gets stopped by someone strong.
The Mimics ability needs a line of sight at the treasure chest, so the look straight at the floor.
When they see the feet of the chest, they just destroy them.
Her Succubus and Incubus do a better job, but somehow not.
They get out of the room if they hear something, and begin to attack.
When the intruder can’t handle them, they use smokescreen and run away.
Since her Demons don’t learn in the Dungeon, and don’t know how to use their hearing effectively, it’s always work.
And when the intruder fight, then they win most of the Time.
It rare someone dies because of that.
The biggest Crux is, that she can’t change the Behaviour by much.
She need mor accomplishments for finer control, but without finer control, she can’t get much accomplishments.
A vicious cycle.
The biggest Problem are her Handicaps
Her Second advantage is, that Mental resistance is lowered inside her dungeon.
Only as long as the attack is non-damaging, but still valuable.
Her Handicaps are basically, only Monster who have non-damaging Mental attacks are allowed (even when unusable).
Traps must either have a lure or placed before a lure, which she doesn’t have unlocked.
Can’t have different Monster who can tempt people inside a room. Only when the range of temptation doesn’t overlap and freedom of movement is restricted, so they can’t overlap until dragged from intruders.
The last one is a bit weird. When one Monster can tempt someone within 10 Meters, and the Others with 12 Meters, then no what, their not allowed to go nearer then 22 Meter to each other.
The only expectation is, when intruder aggro them and walk into the zone of another Monster.
The Woman didn’t use aggro or something, but I am sure she meant something like that.
She used most of her Resources than for a fog machine.
It was simple but effective. The Demons get mostly disoriented by the sudden loss of sight.
They are less precise, because the relay in sound, but definitely deadly.
She also paced Mimics randomly on the corridors, which was very effective.
To get tempted by her Mimics, one has to make out a treasure chest.
So if they recognise the Silhouette, one is already done.
Later they used rope to bind them, and began to retreat after a shorter time, since every fight wore them out.
She nearly could make profit from her fog machine, as it happened.
Because of her lack of accomplishments, she only has one floor.
But the worst was, how the fact was abused.
They placed a giant magic tool in front of the entrance, which blows the fog away.
The Intruder invest some of theirs gains to keep the device up, but it’s much more profitable now, as it was with the fog.
Humans really find always a way to cheese something, huh?
I Understand her request.
She asks if I have something similar or can make something similar effective as the fog, without it being blown away.
Like a Monster wich makes darkness, wich can’t be dispelled by torches or something.
I have something in my Mind.
My ability to create skill, and an Item I have been eyeing could help. But if it goes how I expect it, is the Question.
Oh, her name is Layla.
The Abacus, Part of the Customer Service Set, automatically begin to move. I know exactly what it’s suppose to mean.
”The Pre-payment is 3000 Gold, for this commission. The Payment after that is determined by the product.”
”Ehhhhhhhhh!”
The pricing makes the Skeleton exclaim in a loud Voice. Layla just nods, resigned. She probably expected that.
It’s a monster wich can have many uses. And more importantly, she gets the blueprint to make one herself.
Not one Monster wich can do that, but as many as she likes and can effort.
Additional, her biggest Handicap is restricted to monster which can tempt, but this Monster doesn’t. It only makes one disoriented, so she can have this one everywhere.
And it’s nature makes it that one Monster can permanently make an Intruders Journey a Hardship.
Bye the Way, it seems her first floor is randomly generated, each day.
Something very expensive, even tough it’s comparatively cheap, being the first floor.
And the Magic tool seems to not only blow wind, but dispels normal Mist and Fog.
What a tragedy, for her at least.