NOVEL NEXT Chapter 31: Self-Destructive
It was early the next morning, and Alizz and her personally chosen team of dungeon delvers found themselves standing outside the door to Worthy Dungeon. Alizz herself was equipped with a pair of short wands, each ending in two long prongs like a pair of very unwieldy forks. Next to her was the party frontliner, Kelsey the kobold, while behind them stood a pair of human women; Sely and Taly of Highfalls. And of those four, it's no question as to which members of the party Doorman found most interesting.
"Well, well, well. Am I wrong, or do we have a pair of twins visiting us here today?"
Sadly this only brings exasperated sighs from both of them and a screech from Sely, marked by her white leather and chainmail, although with oddly bare, muscular arms. "We're not godsdamn twins! I'm a whole year older! All the hells, even the damn doors now are making that mistake."
Doorman reconsiders his next question, but plows on ahead anyhow. "...So would it be a bad idea if I were to ask if you two wanted to, you know, hang out later?"
Taly, the sister equipped entirely in dark black from her armor, to her masked hood, to her bow, laughs merrily before answering the question. "Hahaha! ...Yes, it would be a bad idea."
Doorman scoffs. "Sorry, wrong answer. You have failed the riddle, good bye."
Feeling that it's time to try and make this encounter professional, Alizz rolls her eyes and attempts to take charge. "That was not the riddle, door. Ask us the proper question, please."
"I'm the riddle door, here. I think that gets to be the question if I want it to be the question."
The drider narrows her eyes. "Fine, we'll do it the hard way then." Aiming her right wand at the door's handle, she stares at it intensely for a few moments before suddenly twisting her wrist. And with a sudden click, the handle turns and Doorman swings open, much to his own surprise.
"Wait, what? You can't do that! Only I get to decide when to open up!"
Alizz grins and blows on the tip of her wand, where a buildup of heat was causing small distortions in the air. "Sounds like somebody needs some better locks."
The next few rooms pose no challenge to the party, even with the recent upgrades. Alizz very much takes notice of those upgrades however, and brings them up to the group before moving on to the first boss chamber. "Alright, so let's review. First room, minimal challenge, traps upgraded but not yet invisible. Pretty standard for a low level dungeon, yes?"
Kelsey nods. "A-yup. Monsters made from local wildlife, nothin' special there."
Alizz continues. "Room two, interesting design, also has a very low level of resources required...except for the water slime in the center. This is our first confirmed slime in the dungeon, there was no mention of it in the Commander's scout report. Also notable, water slimes are not a bottom-tier slime option."
Sely chuckles. "Got a pretty good grip on him, too. With that being the only monster in the room, it's not too bad for newbies, y'know, as long as they know it's there. If the surprise works that setup could easily kill an Initiate."
"Quite. Third room, the skeletons. Fairly traditional, though the skeletons are using multiple kinds of equipment, so they're being continuously upgraded. But more notable is the use of acid slime ambushes. That makes at least two slime variants here, which guarantees a random wild slime did not just wander in here and get eaten."
The archer growls. "You think some sicko is feeding the place?"
Alizz shrugs. "Can't rule it out, but it sounds like Floor Two is where the place really takes a turn, so we'll see in a bit. First though...the 'consolation prize' loot." The group looks at the small chest by the door, then at Alizz. Preparing both wands, the drider points one at the pedestal where the chest sits, then raises the other towards the top of the nearby doorway. She spends some time gesturing and adjusting the wands one way and another, looking less like she's casting a spell and more like she's performing surgery. In less than a minute she finishes, and turns back to the party. "Mana link disconnected, we can take the loot now." Taly nods, reaching inside and scooping up a handful of loose change and low-tier necklaces while an inaudible woman shouts about robbery in the background.
With that Kelsey takes the lead into the next room, while Alizz prepares the team. "Alright, so, as we mentioned, the Floor One boss is supposedly an oversized rabbit, so just keep your...what...the?" She pauses as a laughing sound begins to emerge from the false cave entrance on the opposite side of the room. Or at least, something roughly approximating the sound of a laugh, although it clearly seems just a little off from human.
"Mrraaah aaah, mraah haha!" The group gets a brief glimpse of a short humanoid figure in the darkness of the cave before suddenly it dashes into the room in a blur of light gray. Taly launches a triple-shot of bolts made of pure shadow from her bow, but none even come close to hitting the figure. The being leaps and lands on Kelsey's heavy shield with both feet, kicking back off of it before he can react in order to knock the kobold to the ground. Far too late the kobold shouts out the activation word that lights his shield and sword on fire, but if anything it only makes it harder for him to climb back to his feet.
With the Warrior temporarily disabled, the monster moves next for Alizz - the largest target in the room. Scratches and claw marks begin to appear on her abdomen, not deep ones thanks to her natural armor, but worrying in that they form at all given the spellcaster spent a lot of time and mana improving her own exoskeleton. More worrying is that Alizz is the slowest member of the team in combat, her spells requiring attention and focus to work, and in this case she can barely even catch glimpse of the monster...in fact, is it getting faster over time? As she realizes the others are speeding up as well, the cause becomes more clear. "...Ssssllloooow ennnnchannnntmennnnt. Donnnn't leeee..."
The rest of the warning isn't needed, as Taly drops her bow and tackles the monster with daggers in hand. From there the fight disappears from view as Taly suddenly pitches the entire chamber into the the darkness of a moonless night, but wet stabbing noises and inhuman laughs continue. Finally the light returns, and Taly sits straddling the corpse of the most bizarre rabbit monster Alizz has ever seen. "Whhhhhhaaaaaat thhhheeee heeeeelll..."
Once again Alizz is interrupted, this time by Sely placing a hand on Alizz's back. "Okay, just chill a second, I gooooot yooooooouuuu..." She pauses as scratches appear on her arms at the same rate they vanish from Alizz's exoskeleton, and with her actions slowing down even as Alizz returns to normal speed. She tenses for a moment, closing her eyes before the newly formed wounds disappear from her own body. Finally, she shivers in a pleasure that Alizz has long learned not to question. "Ahhhh! Good stuff! Thanks for being such a good target, boss."
Alizz sighs. "I do it for you, Sely. But...what in the world, seriously? A rabbit boss monster? I've never seen a dungeon upgrade a rabbit to this level before. And that must have been ensouled, wouldn't you agree?"
Taly inspects the boss's gauntlets, though she doesn't bother taking them - if they're not mana-charged to the level of being loot items, they'd just vanish after she left the dungeon. "Yeah, though not actually that highly tiered. Still mid-level at best. Still, y'know...who invests this much in rabbits? I guess I gotta give em points for being unpredictable. That bastard was fast."
Kelsey turns off his flames, looking a bit embarrassed at how little he was able to contribute in that fight. "Yeah, no shit, last time I had to deal with a monster that fast was...fuck, I don't know? Some of em got quick attacks, but zippin' around the entire damn room like that? Definitely gotta write that one down."
Alizz collects herself before leading the team onward. "And from what I'm told, the second floor boss will likely be worse. But first...time to see what this 'moving floor' is all about."
Like Cerise's team before them, the party finds themselves quite impressed at the mechanical design of the elevator level, but not particularly threatened by it. The skeleton monsters are simply too weak even with their latest upgrades, the nuisance monsters are no threat, and the dart traps are unable to penetrate their armor if they even hit at all. Still, Alizz finds herself making a few notes before opening the door to the boss chamber. "I find myself particularly curious about what the effects will be of moving an entire floor, once the dungeon becomes more popular. If parties have to line up and wait for the platform to arrive, will they still go through the dungeon one by one? Or will they group up and end up doing the rest of the dungeon as a raid?"
Kelsey laughs at the thought. "Did you hear the way that shit was groaning every time it had to stop? I daresay that thing's got a weight tolerance on it, boss...maybe
two parties at once, but three or four? I'd just wait for the next trip down.""True, noted. Perhaps there's a way to shortcut with climbing or flying items...? But that would be a more high-level consideration. In any case, are we ready? We should expect the next boss to be more dangerous than the last." Again, the party nods, and again Kelsey leads the way forward, with Alizz close behind. As they step into the room, acrid chemical smells from the burning pools seem quite familiar to the drider. "Ah, yes...this does seem like a slime's natural - ahh!"
Her observations are cut short as said slime suddenly swings in her direction from a crack in the ceiling, yet it suddenly twists in-mid air to avoid an impact, slamming to the floor and rolling away from her. It recovers to its feet quicker than the team can attack, however, and a face turns in the drider's direction. "ALIZZ?!"
The named woman gasps. "Lollyp? What in the world are you doing here?"
"What are you doing - wait, no, this is your job. Dumb question. Forget I asked." The slime gives a crooked grin as a wand dances between her fingers. "Oh hey, Kelsey! And...you two must be the not-twin sisters?"
Sely steps forward angrily. "WE'RE NOT...oh, wait, you said not-twins. Yeah, that's us."
With no actual answer given, Alizz tries again. "Lollyp, what in the world are you doing? Are you...living in a dungeon? I mean, I know you did half the time before anyways, but this dungeon?"
The slime woman eyes the group slowly, clearly taking her time to consider her response. Finally she raises her wand in their direction, but as emphasis, not in an attack stance. "You didn't see nothing. You didn't hear nothing. You beat a normal slime boss and got some sweet loot. Not a word of this." Her look grows serious.
Alizz has trouble finding a response. "I...if that's...but...what!?"
Instead of answering, Lollyp's eyes once again turn mischievous. "Oh no, you got me!" With nothing further said, the slime suddenly jams her wand into her own chest - literally sinking several inches deep - and seconds later the woman explodes into a fireball. The team can only watch, dumbstruck as fragments of slime splatter across the room, including some across their own chests.
Shocked, Alizz wipes off her vest, staring down at the remains of Lollyp in her hand. "...Lollyp...what the fuck."
An hour later Lollyp feels herself wake up in her hammock, even as half of her body is still reforming from ambient mana. She is at least aware enough to see Xenia staring down at her, confusion and irritation in her face. "Oh! Hey boss...guess they got me pretty good, huh?"
Xenia sighs. "Lollyp...you are my MVP. I was watching, obviously." She leans in closer. "Lollyp...what the fuck."