Chapter 34: Ch 34 – Considerations

Past the camp, a few more hours north we arrived in a cave. I was so glad to get off my feet that I practically just collapsed in a corner onto a pile of pelts that the goblins had left there.

“How I’ve missed these…” I sighed in delight.

Devin who was wandering in behind me gave me a strange look, “You missed some animal hides?”

“Haven't you? I mean we both spent quite a few days in those… closets. After that, I was in what amounts to a cave for days.” I explained.

“I mean I’d love a bed.” He offered.

“That's what this is silly.” I tried to explain.

He leaned down and felt at the pile of pelts, some of which had been sewed awkwardly together with tendons, either a certain goblin had been working on making more clothing, or that was remnants of when we’d worked on mine. “I guess that's one way of looking at it…”

Back towards the entrance, I watched as the goblins seemed to be deciding something. I could faintly hear something about guard duty, and they didn’t sound eager for the task. I didn’t blame them after the long day.

The goblin girl was among them and when I looked over she waved. I gave her a wave back. But after that she seemed to be pulled into whatever they were doing. Maybe they were telling the story of my rescue?

I leaned back against the wall and after a few moments watching them. But I eventually gave up and turned my attention to Devin.

He had taken a seat next to me, leaning against the wall.

I tentatively reached over to him setting my hand on his leg.

He opened an eye, peeking over at me, “Seriously?”

“If you don’t want to... Then that's fine.” I said. I could admit what I wanted most was the energy, the rush of mana in my veins that could cure this fatigue and make me feel like I’d barely spent the day leisurely strolling. But it would be fun right? Maybe I was being strange?

“It's not that I don’t want to. I just don’t have it in me. There's only so much a man can do… and need I remind you about my injury. Besides...” He reminded me, with a glance at the goblins.

I knew that… but It might have slipped my mind at the moment. I nodded, “I know…” But that didn’t mean I didn’t want what I wanted. I wanted so many things, the simplest would just be to be held. But I didn’t want to strain his injury. “Go ahead and lay down then,” I said gesturing at my lap.

He raised an eyebrow at me.

“What? Unless you want me to sit in your lap you can lay your head on mine.” I offered.

“This isn’t some weird trick to get me to do something?” He asked eyeing me skeptically.

“Trick? Me?” I asked in mock shock.

“You…” He groaned.

“I’m kidding!” I announced looking back at him and trying to be more serious.

He looked at me for a few more moments studying my face. “Alright…” Turning to the side he slowly laid down, after a few moments he finally set his head down on my lap.

I set a hand on his head, stroking my fingers through his scraggly hair.

He smiled up at me, “You really are a nice pillow.”

I giggled down at him, “Get some sleep. I’ll need your services when you're better rested.”

He slowly shook his head, and I just closed my eyes.

“Naan…” I thought.

“Yes?”

“You’ve been awfully quiet for most of the trip.” I said.

“Mana collection.”

“I thought we already decided I’d be taking over that job.” I pointed out.

“The more the better? Unless you think that my time is better invested otherwise.”

“I don’t know. I was wondering where we might go, or what made sense for us now that we’re together again.” I offered.

“This is a good question.” Naan agreed, “You previously mentioned various things you wanted, things that we could not have in a cave.”

“Yeah, and while the goblins have been growing on me if we can be involved in a village, town, or city of some kind, just think of the mana I could harvest.”

“Your appetite for such things has only grown I see.” Naan pointed out.

“Hmm? Has it?” I asked.

“I believe you had once suggested picking who you would have at night. Based on your new wording you’re suggesting that you would simply be engaging with the whole population?”

I snorted out loud before catching myself, “That's not what I meant!” I mean damn… but… no that’s not what I meant!

“It’s not?”

“Not every man is going to be interested in me. Also sometimes they just need to rest…” I said looking down at Devin who hadn’t been shaken at all by my momentary mirth. “The more options that are available, the easier it will be for us to get a steady supply of mana. Besides I’d prefer to find men to join us, rather than just using them temporarily.”

“Is this in some way superior for mana production?” Naan asked.

I considered the question. Which would be better? I supposed if I had to say it would be to just fuck all day, every day. Then again as much of an incurable slut as I was, I had physical limits. Plus wasn’t there also too much of a good thing? If I really did do nothing but have sex wouldn’t that sort of ruin it for me? Maybe? I wasn’t entirely sure. But I got the impression that this might be the case. Even if you love reading, if you do nothing but read for days, or weeks maybe you would want a break?

Ignoring how much sex I’d be willing to have in any time allotment for the moment I decided to think of it purely in the sense of what would be the most efficient. I didn’t need to agree to it. But considering my options wouldn’t hurt.

“Have you gotten sidetracked?” Naan asked.

“I was trying to consider our options. But it's not exactly like picking my favorite flavor of ice cream…” I noted.

“You say strange things… What purpose would creaming ice have?”

“Ignore that…” I said, “I was more thinking about what sort of situations we could aim for. Like if I had several men that regularly serviced me for instance. We wouldn’t need to go looking for them, we would just have them on hand.”

“So men like Devin?”

“Its an option. But at the same time, I sort of like the idea of having multiple at the same time…” I said recalling a certain wonderful day. “So ideally we would need men willing to engage that way.”

“I don’t understand why you think they must be willing. We could simply capture these men, force them into slavery and give them orders.” Naan said.

“Uhh… I can’t say that I’m really into that.” I offered.

“Why? This would be efferent. Hundreds of prisoners would be easier to house and feed than hundreds of… citizens? I suppose that is an apt description.”

“Does that make us a country?” I asked briefly side tracked from the other more questionable points.

“Or a town? If nothing else I suppose this would be accurate. As a dungeon, I can form contracts and force allegiance with mana. Though I suppose so far you’re the only one with such a contract.”

“So you intend to force the goblins and Devin into such a contract? Force them to work for you?”

“Once we have a sizable group that can pressure decisions with force, we won’t need to give them benefits or otherwise.” Naan stated as if it was obvious.

I didn’t like where this was going, but the moment I decided to at least humor Naan. “I mean how good are your contracts at ensuring obedience…” I asked.

“They are as good as they are worded?” The dungeon replied as if it was obvious.

“So there are various choices?”

“Of course. In addition, there is room for more specific clauses.” Naan pointed out.

“Alright… so you’re talking about slavery, which honestly kind of curdles my stomach. But just for the sake of exploring our options, what’s the contract?”

“We can claim either their body or soul. Then force them to serve the dungeon.” Naan noted as though that explained it entirely.

“That's super vague.” I pointed out.

“How so?” The dungeon asked.

“How is it not? Serve the dungeon? So you gotta micromanage them? Sounds like a pain.” I pointed out.

“I don’t understand.”

“You’ve never heard of malicious compliance have you?” I asked.

“No… Explain.” Naan stated.

“Better to just give you an example. Tell me something you might order someone to do.” I said instead.

“We are traveling, so I suppose I could order someone to follow us.” The rather unimaginative dungeon replied.

“Great, so while they are traveling they drop their cargo, or intentionally break tree limbs.” I pointed out.

“Why would they do this?” Naan asked, “I don’t see the point.”

“The point is to follow the orders in a way that actively ruins your day, month, or life. Depending on the amount of animosity they feel towards you, at least in this case.”

“I see… So I would need to order them to carry the cargo as well.”

“And to not damage it.” I pointed out, “And neither of those solves the other problem.”

“With broken tree limbs? What is the purpose of this?”

“It's just a thought, maybe I’m wrong, but if someone is out in the woods they might follow an obvious trail right?” I pointed out.

“So the elves could find our new home?” Naan clarified.

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“In this example yes.”

“Alright. I see your point. Voluntary servitude would avoid this?”

“Obviously… if they get on board because of the benefits we provide them as long as they remain interested in those benefits they won’t try to screw with us intentionally. Unless they betray us...”

“But outright betrayal should be prevented by said contract.” Naan stated.

“Maybe… But I’m not sure how much we should trust your magic contracts without seeing how they work. Unless you can give me more concrete examples.” I pointed out.

“I see. Perhaps I had placed too much faith in the knowledge of the contract without considering its function.”

“So how exactly do these contracts work anyway?” I proceeded.

Naan proceeded to explain. It boiled down to four classes of contract, a simple agreement, what I decided to call citizenship, outright slavery, and our partnership. The slavery and citizen options could be forged with either body or soul as the focus.

“Beyond that, a contract once forged can only be canceled should both parties both desire and agree to cancel it. Each contract, and canceling has specific phrases that must be used, as a form of ceremony. The magic itself is also a function of the dungeon, rather than of me personally.” Naan finished.

“Why that last bit? Are you just saying that this type of magic isn’t something you can just do willy-nilly?”

There was an obvious pause, I was about to try and explain what that last phrase meant when Nann continued, “Rather it is normally not meaningful. However, in our case, it does. It is to say that you can use this magic as well.”

“So I should learn the phases?”

“Ideally.”

I decided that at least made sense. I could see how having the ability to make magically enforced contracts could be quite useful.

So we spent several hours going over the details and drilling them in the most unusual fashion imaginable. As it turned out uttering the phrases aloud, or over Naan’s strange telepathy would trigger the magic and consume mana. Or at least that was the reason we choose to do things awkwardly. Neither of us really wanted to start making weird magically binding contracts to try it out. Still, they weren't complicated. But I was sure I was going to forget it if we didn’t at least go over things a few times more. I decided to not worry about the partnership option as well, seeing as how the idea of doing that again was worrying.

After our impromptu bidirectional tutoring session, our conversation veered back to where we had begun. Specifically what we were planning on, long term.

“Since you have made your case in denying having a prison of slaves that can pump you full of mana, what would you prefer?”

Why did that sound so hot? I shook my head trying to focus, then sighed, Naan seemed a bit sour about the whole slave thing being shot down. “Well I see two ways I either recruit willing participants and make a harem. Or we run a brothel or something like that where men come specifically to fuck me.”

“This is a thing?”

“Sure… men like fucking, they even pay for it.” I pointed out.

“Curious…”

“Why would they do this? The goblins just take what they want.”

“That type of shit doesn't fly in civilized societies!" I replied perhaps a bit too firmly. I took a breath and continued on the original point, "Still as far paying for sex goes, it depends. It may be more or less tolerated, and I don’t know the specifics of any culture or whatever… Like for all I know elves don’t do this because they throw weekly orgies.”

“Hmm… But you think that this would work in the human territory?”

“Probably. But it's not quite as simple as you are thinking. For one I’ve never heard whore-house with one whore. Even if I’m magic.” I noted and smirking to myself a little at the utter stupidity of my position.

“Perhaps this would be a use for another soul? I could try and make a second succubus.”

“No.” I insisted instantly.

“Why?”

“No.”

“You’ve failed to make a case.” Naan insisted.

I sighed and tried to put my opinion into words, “If we had another succubus… I can’t help but feel like we’d get territorial. Besides, would that really be that useful?”

“I fail to see the problem. As for useful, it might be possible that we could train them to produce mana as well.”

“Which would only complicate matters more because of contracting?” I pointed out.

“Their returns would be obviously reduced, however not insignificant if they are equally as productive.”

“Wait… what about men?”

“What about them.” Naan asked.

“Can you make them?” I asked.

“Depending on the soul.”

“So would that work? You could make me a harem of monster men or something?”

“It’s a theory?” Naan offered.

I considered and thought about it, “On second thought maybe that wouldn’t work… The idea of using mana-based creatures to make more mana sounds… broken.”

“Broken?” Naan offered.

“As in if it works we could basically just create unlimited mana.”

“Yes, quite productive.” Naan said missing my point.

“Right, which sounds too good to be true.”

“Hmm… We must test.”

“I guess… how would we go about doing that?”

“I have a male soul, so I could need to manifest them. However our mana reserves are lacking, so you must replenish them first.”

“Right… Well, I guess maybe tomorrow? Depends on Devin.” I pointed out. Back to the other option, “As for building my own harem, Devin I think is a nice start. But I must also admit that I don’t think finding men that get along with each other while also fucking me is going to be an easy task.” I pointed out.

“Explain.” Naan insisted.

“The kind of men I want are strong, fierce creatures. They won’t want to share me with one another. I’m not even sure about Devin. It’s happened once, but if I actually confronted him with the choice. I doubt he’d like it. People can deal with a lot I think. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't wear them, dealing with, and wanting something is a very different thing.” My own mind recalled the goblins, the men in the elvish city, and even the guards. Where did any of these fall for me? At which point did I choose, and deal? I wasn’t entirely sure, it was a blurry line.

“Curious… I understand what you mean at least, the man Devin was quite insistent on finding you. If I didn’t know you were incapable of such an act at the time I might think you had created a contract with him. I was surprised by the goblins as well. The scout-”

“Scout.” I corrected him.

“… What?”

“I’ve named him Scout.”

“That…” Naan said perplexed.

“Just go with it…”

“Very well, Scout’s conviction for me to act to help you was more than I could have expected. It is one of the many reasons why I find you fascinating. But I don’t see what there is left to discuss in this option. It would be the natural outcome of recruiting over a longer period.”

“True… But there is that monster angle too. How does that work anyway?”

Naan considered that for a long moment, “Manifesting souls you mean?”

“Right. You have a soul that doesn't have an affinity right? How would that go?”

“Uncertain, I’ve not had the resources to experiment, in theory, the soul manifests its own body.” Naan explained.

“So you give it mana… and it just grows a body?” I asked.

“Yes, though the mana body must remain within the dungeon’s body to remain maintained, outside of it will mean the body will weaken and eventually break down.”

“Alright…” I said thinking about it. Then after a few quiet moments, I asked, “So where do you think we should set up? What would be our best move going forward? What do you want to do?”

“I believe we should find somewhere near enough to a settlement you can interact with. Far enough that goblins and other recruits work unseen. As for what I want to accomplish. That is very much an interesting question. I’ve always considered that living in a dungeon made the most sense. Recruit creatures and monsters, claim what I could, and grow stronger building my mana stock over time and learn and grow.”

I nodded along, it made sense with what I understood of Naan.

“With you, this seems slow and practically simplistic. But because of that, I find myself wondering what my actual goal is, I find that I had set myself on a path without really knowing where I wanted to go.”

“What do other dungeons do?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“I imagine each one has its own desires in the end. Perhaps influenced by the souls and creatures it recovers not unlike my own. In that sense, there is likely a dungeon out there that seeks to wipe out all life. But also a dungeon that desires to create a vast underground wilderness that can never be tamed.”

“Wildly different ideas…” I noted.

“Indeed, and merely just my own speculation and observation. I can’t help but wonder how different I might be if I had used that other soul instead of you.” Naan mused.

“You might still be in that cave.” I replied thinking about it.

“Or I might have been destroyed or recovered by the elves. It is truly impossible to know.”

I nodded, “True…”

A long pause came as we both went quiet. I felt my eyes growing heavy and so I decided it was time to call it a night, “Alright Naan, I’m going to get some sleep.”

“Very well.”

I smiled as I focused on Devin’s warmth on my lap. It was truly impossible to know.

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