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“She’s a minor!” After Misty revealed the identity of Guildmaster River, that was the first thought to strike my brain as soon as she pulled back her hood.
From the get-go, her body looked to be very short and not at all voluptuous. Even Diamond had a little bit of charm with her behind and long legs, but River just looked like a runt. When I finally got a look at her face, I was even more confused. River had baby white hair that was tied into pigtails, but her face was that of a twelve-year-old girl. There wasn’t a hint of age on her face. Her blade was a thin rapier, and some lumps suggested she might have other weapons behind her cloak.
“Guildmaster? I don’t know how old she is but she is been around a very long time. She built our branch of the guild, and that’s at least fifty years old.”
“She’s a loli baba! The legends were true…”
“What are you talking about?” Misty asked, making a weird fast.
“Nevermind! She’s entering the dungeon now. She didn’t even pray to a goddess. What do you think our chances are?’
Misty gave me a side look. “Our chances? About ten percent.”
“Ten percent survival? You know, ten percent isn’t that bad.”
“Oh, survival? No.”
“What! What do you mean no!”
“She’s already at the stairs.”
“What? The second level? Not possible!”
I turned back to the screen. She had practically run through the first level, easily jumping over the pits as if they weren’t even there. She seemed completely unconcerned about treasure. Rather, it looked like she was on a mission. She was skipping down the stairway, looking like nothing would slow down her momentum.
“Release the rats! All of them!” I ordered Squee.
“It won’t work…” Misty whispered.
You’re not helping!
I kept my mouth shut though and my eyes glued on the screen. Over two hundred rats flooded into the hallway. I didn’t leave any back for breeding. If I died, what was the point of holding onto a couple of rats? However, I did leave the rat king behind. He wasn’t a fighter anyway, and I didn’t think one more rat would make a difference. He could always capture more passing rats if we needed it.
River reached the bottom of the stairs only to see hundreds of red eyes staring at her from the darkness. If she had been any of the other heroines who had entered my dungeon, she would have spun around and fled. Even the likes of Diamond or Misty might have been frightened by such an overwhelming force. No matter how good someone was with a rapier, there was a power in numbers, and this flood of creatures could be considered a disaster even in a B-ranked dungeon.
Yet, River didn’t react at all. She didn’t even draw her weapon. She merely stared back at the hundreds of eyes as if they were no consequence to her.
“Attack!” I cried.
“Squee!” Squee ordered the attack, his voice filled with confidence.
The flood of rats emerged forward. Every rat was the size of a small dog at least. Once entering the dungeon and falling under Squee’s control, they all began to grow larger. Rats outside the dungeon weren’t usually this powerful, let alone be able to function as one single fighting force with a battle strategy. It wasn’t a great deal of strategy, but under Squee’s control, they were still far more dangerous than they would be on their own.
Given the rat’s size and numbers, they filled the hall, with rats standing on other rats as they all scrambled toward River. It was truly a horrifying scene, yet as they grew closer and closer, River continued to watch them without concern. Just before the first Rat reached her, her hand touched her hilt. There was the sound of metal being drawn, and then I didn’t see anything else. A moment later, she was gone, and the rats were falling toward the spot she used to be.
It took me a few more seconds to realize she was on the other side of the rats, standing there with her hand still on the hilt of her blade undrawn. However, she didn’t bother to look back. Instead, she started to continue down the hallway. At least, she was no longer running, but her stride was still confident and sure. I ordered the rats to turn around and chase her, but that’s when I got a message from Squee.
“Squeee!”
“What do you mean, they are all dead?”
It was only then that all two hundred rats fell into pieces. Every single one of them had been cut in half. I couldn’t help but shiver. What was this strength? This wasn’t even fair! I couldn’t help but glare at Misty. Although I had no eyes, Misty flinched as if she could feel my displeasure.
“She is likely coming here for me,” Misty admitted, lowering her head. “When the time comes, I will face her.”
“Can you… defeat her?” I asked nervously.
“I… don’t know.” She admitted. “In any spar we had, I never defeated her. However, now that I have become a demon, I am stronger than I used to be. There might be a chance.”
Although she said that, the tone of her voice suggested that she didn’t believe it.
My eyes returned to the progressing River. As she passed the crack where the Rat Emperor was hiding, she glanced at it. I tensed up, and I could feel the Squee shivering in his spot. He had grown a bit cocky since I had given him a name, but he quickly reverted to his former terrified and cowardly self after watching his entire army wiped out in an instant.
I could only watch as River continued. She reached the alcove with the tentacle monster in it. Her eyes landed on the armor left in the alcove as a tempting trap. She cocked her head in consideration, and for a moment I was hopeful she might fall into the trap. If the tentacle could bind her, even for a bit, it might be possible to defeat her. Yet, she only shrugged after a few moments of consideration and then continued to the next floor. This was the ice floor.
“Sandy, you don’t need to do anything.” I gave her a warning.
“Help, Master…” She looked away shyly.
I could feel the warmth in her heart. We naturally had discussed many contingency plans for adventurers that were more than we could handle. Sandy wanted to use one of these methods to try to restrain River. It was dangerous for Sandy, and she might even die, so I told her to forget it. After all, Sandy was one of my named monsters, and so I didn’t want her to get hurt. This caused her to feel even warmer and insist on helping.
River approached the ice and then frowned for a moment. She reached down and touched the ice. She lifted her fingers and sniffed.
“Schlick Jelly?” She muttered, looking confused.
I blinked. “What did she say?”
“So, it is the same.” Misty blushed.
I looked over at her. “What are you talking about?”
“The… slime innards you placed all over the ice cave. It’s a product some women use. I wasn’t sure because I never bought it before, plus it’s supposed to smell like flowers.”
I cocked my head, instantly interested. So far, I have already found the evil bone and the tentacle monster both produced products. It seemed like more stuff came from monsters than normal women were aware of.
“I could modify the stuff to smell good.“
“Right… well, women use it to… if they don’t get wet, they can use… what I mean is… they apply it, down below…”
I blinked. “Personal lubricant?”
“It’s called Schlick Jelly because women use it to…” Her face looked too embarrassed to continue.
To see a demon-looking girl look so shy and embarrassed, in another situation, I’d have my way with her.
“I understand… but wouldn’t it hurt them? I mean, it eats clothing…”
“It doesn’t hurt down there. I heard it tingles slightly, but that makes it more sensitive and enjoyable. As for clothing, it takes a lot to damage clothing. There is a common joke about women who have holes in their underwear being particularly horny.”
Her words seemed reasonable. The way I designed the dungeon, the women would be crawling in barrels of lubricant for four-plus hours. Plus, they were dragging their clothing and armor along the icy ground. It only made sense that holes and rips would form. How long would someone use this lubricant to touch themselves? It probably felt like the sensitivity lubricants. As for holes in underwear, how common did that happen? It probably only was a bit more common for those girls who used a lot of lube.
Either way, I now had another item I could produce. My poor slime would have to generate more. Maybe, I should give him a name to facilitate his new role. I shook my head. None of that would matter if Rive continued to progress.
She had looked at the ice briefly in disdain, then lifted her hand. Fire erupted from her palm, filling the hallway. It was super hot! I knew my consciousness was in the core, but the entire labyrinth was an extension of my body. Blowing fire down my halls didn’t injure me, but it wasn’t comfortable either. Her flames died and all that was left was a slushy mess. The hallway had seemingly grown about a foot in every direction, showing the black burnt walls beyond.
The ice would reform with time. That was the nature of these hallways. Even if a wall was blown up, as long as there was mana, it would heal. That said, the healing did cost, so my DP earning speed decreased slightly, but compared to what River added by her presence, it still went up rapidly.
Water dripped down from the ceiling and walls, landing on the floor and creating a mixed slurry with the lubricant about 2 feet high. When she stepped into it, there were no signs of slipping whatsoever. It was nothing but a wet hallway now. I wondered if there was anything I could put on the ice so that if someone else did this, they would face a different deterrent. For example, what if I put a pool of piranhas in an adjacent crack? When the ice melted, the piranhas could then swim into the hallway and attack anyone who chose this method.
Well, all of that was dependent on my survival, yet River seemed unaffected. She had sturdy waterproof boots on, so even her feet wouldn’t become wet or cold. I could only feel my fear increasing. When she reached the split in the hallway, she didn’t even hesitate before turning toward the accurate path. It was like the dead-end didn’t even tempt her, not that it would have slowed her down with the ice melted.
She had to make more fire to melt this hallway as well. A few minutes later, she began to move, her steps finally slow as she had to step through two feet of greasy slush. Yet, one step at a time, she conquered my third floor faster than anyone before her. That’s when the voice sounded out.
“Help! Help me!”
River paused and then took a few steps forward toward the next intersection. At the end of the side path, there was Sandy in the treasure room beyond. She had her foot locked to a chain, and she was wearing the rags left of a former heroine’s outfit. We had scored many of those by this point. This was ultimately the trap plan. Rather than the treasure and goblin combo, she would be the helpless heroine in distress again. The intent wasn’t to attack River like Sandy had once attempted with Misty, but simply to get her in the room. Sandy would escape while trigging a prison trap, locking River up for the time being.
Rather than racing to save her though, River’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. ‘Who are you?”
“My name is Sandy. I’m a heroine from Passion’s Summit! This dungeon captured me forcefully!” Her words came out far clearer than when she tried to communicate.
It turned out that when she was intentionally mimicking someone, her performance was greater than her normal cognitive abilities. Even I would have believed she was the real Sandy who desperately was looking to be saved after being captured by a dungeon. Even River seemed to relax slightly, her eyes opening and a sympathetic expression appearing on her face.
“I’m sorry you had to go through this.” She sighed. “I met the rest of your party. They are alive, although a bit traumatized. One of them denied assistance, while the others are currently rehabilitating.”
“Please, save me,” Sandy begged.
“I will, dear.” She nodded. “Let me just deal with all the threats first.”
“No!” Sandy cried out and then winced. “I’m afraid you won’t make it back.”
River tilted her head and then smiled. She started to move toward Sandy, and Sandy sat up, a hopeful expression on her face. She was preparing to make her move as soon as River entered the room.
“Have you seen a girl?” River asked. “A girl with green hair. She’s… ahem… very curvy.”
Sandy looked for a second, “I think I did, she left shortly after she arrived. My throat was sore, so I couldn’t call out to her.”
“Is that so?” River smiled.
River moved forward steadily, but I felt something was off. Only about halfway toward Sandy, she pulled out an axe hidden behind her cloak and threw it in a single motion. Sandy was already wound up to move, so as soon as River moved, Sandy did too.
She dived to the side as the axe hit her arm, cutting it off in a single motion. She let out a shriek as River leaped at her, her rapier already drawn. Sandy hit the trap button in a panic. The door slammed shut, but River had already crossed the rest of the hallway. She just reached the door as it shut. Even though she was moving with incredible speed, she stopped just as quickly, only a few inches from the closed door. Sandy had already fled the room while cradling her missing arm. It would grow back though, she was a mimic after all.
“You did the best you could,” I told her to comfort her.
She blushed slightly, looking a little less upset. As for River, she put her rapier up and then snorted.
“How boring.” She turned away and returned to the main hallway that headed to the exit.
I noticed that this side path didn’t have all the ice melted, but she had still run up it and left without slipping once. I couldn’t help but shiver again.
River ended up on the fourth floor. She passed the break room and went straight into the room with the bone.
“Take a rest. There is no rush.” Her mind told her.
She frowned. “Are you the dungeon?”
I immediately fled the bone in a panic. The bone was filled with sexual desire. It would only try to get her to succumb to her desires. I had no desire to watch a girl with that kind of body play with herself. Instead, I intended to possess the bone of corruption to delay her and possibly make her more amendable to the dungeon. How could I have guessed she’d not only know it wasn’t her voice but immediately predict it was dungeon deliberately tampering with her?
She didn’t say anything more after I fled. Instead, she read the riddle and frowned. She then walked up to the bone and pulled her blade.
“Open the door or I cut it off.”
“This…” I couldn’t even believe I heard this.
That was breaking the rules!
“Suit yourself.” She raised her blade slowly.
I opened the door immediately. I had put a lot of time into that bone. It had even evolved. I didn’t want to have to replace it. Thankfully, once she saw the door open, she put her rapier away and nodded to herself. She then headed to the next puzzle room. This time, she didn’t even bother to threaten me. She walked directly up to the gelatinous cube and then sliced it with her blade. Even though the blade shouldn’t have been long enough, the cube still split in half. The key fell out just like that.
The cube wasn’t dead. It could be put back together. The only way it really could die was by burning it. Thankfully, she didn’t do that. As she bent down and picked the key up, some of the cube slime got into her hands. It sizzled slightly, not even enough to cause a burn. However, it did cause a small aphrodisiac effect.
“Hmm, how interesting…” She muttered, “And dangerous.”
She stood up, unlocked the door, and was finally with the last puzzle. As she approached the wall of hands pathway, she drew her rapier. I sighed and had one of the hands toss her the key. Then, all of the hands moved aside. It wasn’t like it could stop her. I might as well let her face the next area.
“Cyclops, Misty, get ready. You two are taking her together.”
Misty glanced at me, but she didn’t say anything. She merely started sharpening her blade. Meanwhile, River unlocked the next door and headed to the fifth floor. This was no longer the boss room, but the goblin village. Unfortunately, no goblins were born yet, so it was mostly the barebones the goblin champion had built.
“Gobby, you need to get out of here!” A very pregnant Archer tried to push Gobby.
“No.” He grunted. “Gobby must protect Master. Gobby must protect the pride of the dungeon.”
River walked through the eerily empty village. It was constructed in a way she had to make a few loops before finally coming upon a goblin throne made of bones. Sitting on that throne was Gobby, and all around him were five pregnant girls chained at his feet.
“Are you the boss of this dungeon?” River asked.
“Mm.” He nodded. “Defeat me, and the spoils are yours.”
“I don’t care about your spoils.” Her face twisted as she drew her rapier. “Give me Misty, or die.”
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