Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Dungeon

 

The two hour walk it took for the group to reach the dungeon was a bit of a moderately terrifying and tedious experience. They first planned to all move as a group, but that almost had disastrous results as only Catnip, Mia and Zack were really prepared to deal with the thrall of lost souls of the mist. Within 10 minutes, several of the group fell under the thrall of the creatures, the larger number of people apparently attracting multiple of them at once. Those not under the thrall were forced to pull them back to the crevice while the scouting crew engaged them, Flora briefly joining in as her plant manipulation was decently effective against them, the magical nature of the conjured plants allowing them to hit the beings. She escaped suffering from the screams all that much, the lucky bastard growing a vine and giving it a command to attack the spot the soul was in, but only after running a ways away from the battle. Apparently despite being incredibly loud, the actual damaging part of the screams had a pretty low range. Catnip later asked Flora about how she left a conjured vine with a command, only to learn that it was an incredibly mana intensive use of her magic that she couldn’t practically use, only doing so now because she had time to let her mana regenerate and because the screaming really sucked.

 

After that disaster, the scouting team escorted everyone over in small groups that didn’t attract too many enemies and that they could manage if they fell under the thrall. The only problem with this was it took a lot longer than just all going as a group did, requiring the escorts to take the 2 hour walk multiple times, and after the entire scouting expedition it was already evening at this point, forcing the last groups to be escorted very late into the night. In addition each group got to experience a hearty serving of incredibly painful screeching from the dying mist beings, this time Flora not quite escaping the experience but still somehow only being slightly hurt. Dacre in particular seemed quite shaken by the screams and pain it caused, not as used to injury and fear as everyone else. As a trained combat maid, Fresia was fine, having previously fought off various assassins and monsters when needed, often without her lady even knowing the threat was there. The mercenaries and Frank were of course fine too. Being blinded and still working on techniques to detect anything more than a few feet away from him, as the current crude ‘warrior sense’ he was using was not really cutting it, Frank had to hold someone’s hand the whole way over much to his embarrassment. 

 

Everyone felt like shit once they did reach the dungeon, all piling into the empty mushroom filled room and sitting at various corners, unsure of the safety of the rest of the dungeon and choosing to explore those areas in the morning. Frank and the mercenaries were able to confirm the mushrooms were a common edible type that presented no danger, but were still unnerved by the dungeon being called Infested. The fungal infestation of this part of the dungeon was benevolent, but Infested was not a good word. Not at all. 

 

Regardless, they all went to sleep that night tired but satisfied despite the shitty nature of everything. They had achieved a lot that today, had a food source that would last them, and had confirmed that there were some things they could fight and level off of. Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to escape out of the wilderness after all. Catnip immediately recognized the thought process as jinxing things, but tried to stay positive. Jinxing something wasn’t a real thing, it was just a coincidence. Hopefully. 

___

In the morning, they had another meeting, Frank once again leading, and decided on some tasks for different groups. The mercenaries, Frank, and Dacre would all get experience leveling off the mist beings, partially because they knew it was something they could level some and also so they could get used to the danger of the mists, in case they ended up having to journey through them to eventually escape. Meanwhile, Flora, Mia, Fresia, Catnip and Zack would scout out the dungeon. Carefully. Everyone having nice and organized tasks really helped stabilize the mental health of the group, each person coming to terms with their predicament and the events of the preceding days in their own ways. 

 

As always for safety purposes, Catnip led the group. They started by going straight forward through the archway at the end of the room. 

 

“Clear,” Catnip eventually said, looking around the musty space they entered. The room had nothing but stone benches and some mushrooms, the end of the room having what looked like two guard stations placed on either side of a heavy looking stone door, or at least the remains of one.  It seemed like the carvers checked people or something before they could enter the main space of the labyrinth, the prior room and this one being just a place for people waiting to be confirmed safe. 

 

Catnip headed over to the crumbling door by the guard stations at the end of the room, first checking to see if there was anything interesting about the guard stations before continuing. Flora joined them, the rest of the party poking around the rest of the room and finding nothing. 

 

The guard station had a stone counter facing outwards, whatever was stored under it, perhaps paperwork, rotting away, but there was something engraved on the back of the station. Catnip read it of course. 

 

Eastern entrance, The top line simply said, but interestingly enough another carving was scratched into the stone underneath it. 

 

50 entos fine for any caught drinking on the job!- Guard captain Rosares 

 

Catnip traced the carving with their fingers, and glanced over at the other station, seeing a similar carving there that they couldn’t read from this distance. 

 

“Whatcha got there?” Flora asked curiously, having found nothing herself. 

 

“Oh, just this carving on the wall here. Says this is the eastern entrance but some guard captain got fed up with his people it seems and added a bit about fining those who drink on the job. Sort of interesting I guess,” they said, shrugging. 

 

Flora stared at them in confusion. “Wait a minute… You can read that?”

 

“What do you mean, did you think I was illiterate or something?”

 

“No you silly goose, I know you can read and speak Liversin fine, but that right there is clearly gibberish from another age,” she said. “How on Aeternus can you read it?”

 

“What’s Liversin.” 

 

“The main language on our continent that you’re also currently speaking?” Flora replied, raising an eyebrow. 

 

“Huh. I thought I was speaking in English this whole time,” Catnip replied, shrugging. 

 

“English? What’s that?” 

 

“Oh. Maybe because I’m an otherworlder I get a hidden universal translation ability or something. I never saw that typical isekai perk on my status but if I’ve been speaking another language the whole time then -” Catnip mumbled to themselves. “- wait does that mean I got multiple cheat perks or is this a thing for all otherworlders and why isn’t it on my status- “

 

“So what I’m hearing is you can read or speak in any language because of cheaty bullshit.” Flora said. “Okay then, well, at least that’ll be good for diplomacy. I suppose I never really considered the fact that the otherworlder heroes would have come from somewhere that didn’t speak our language.” 

 

“Yep. And I can get all the juicy world lore that I otherwise would never have been able to understand!” Catnip exclaimed in excitement. “I can be the best historian the world has ever seen if I want to!” 

 

“Nice. If you find cool shit make sure to tell me about it.” 

 

“I intend to!”

 

“Um, are you guys ready to move on? Uh, we’ve uh finished checking this room ages ago,” Mia spoke to them, looking nervously at Fresia who stood neatly and calmly despite the clear annoyance emanating from her. Zack as usual just looked blank. 

 

“Oh yeah, right, that.”

 

After that little exchange they actually finally entered the dungeon proper through the ruined door. Pushing it open, Catnip traveled through a stone corridor before it suddenly opened up rather dramatically, revealing much more than they had predicted for a simple dungeon. 

 

A stone brick street winded through utilitarian building after utilitarian building, glowing stones high up on the ceiling putting everything in a dim light. It almost looked like an underground living space for a number of homes, or shops or something. The cavernous area extended out into the distance, a small town's worth of buildings occupying the area, with exits leading off in different directions from the inhabited area, the space clearly carved from the rock into an almost perfect circle. It looked somewhat cracked and aged in places and seemed built in a style prioritizing practicality over aesthetics, but it was awe inspiring all the same. Mushrooms periodically popped up all around the area, although they grew in quantity in one particular direction. 

 

“Wow,” was all Catnip could say. 

 

“Really? It’s a bit boring really. I mean sure, carving a vast living space out of stone under a mountain is kind of impressive, but it’s far from grand looking.” Flora replied

 

“I think it’s uh… interesting enough,” Mia said nervously. 

 

“Milady would like investigating such a place as well,” Fresia stated.

 

“This is supposed to be a dungeon though so where’s all the -”

 

As if on cue, skittering sounds filled the streets and creatures began to pour out of buildings, ready to serve their dungeon and prey on the intruders in their midst. They looked a little like insects, colored the same gray as the stone around them and having several sets of feet, their grasping mandibles and several sets of eyes giving them a fearsome appearance. Zack, who had been going ahead unseen, looked at them in alarm as they crowded towards the entrance where their party lay, but the creatures didn’t notice him, not being smart enough to get past his presence suppressing magic. He simply walked up and stabbed one of them harshly while it ran past, the creature stopping and looking for what hurt them only to find nothing, Zack remaining behind its body just out of sight and continuing to stab it, creating a pool of green blood. 

 

Stone Hexapede lvl[??][Rank 1][DM(Dungeon Monster)]

 

The rest of the party sprang into action while Catnip pondered how they could fight against such a hoard. Flora’s vines crashed down on them harshly, hurting them but not killing them, while Mia and Fresia dashed forward, flashing through the horde and targeting them with knives and blades of wind. These were much more standard monsters then the mist beings, and most of the group was actually pretty well equipped to fight them. 

 

So Catnip dashed forward as well. They thought about slicing into their wrist to get ready to send sickles of blood when needed, but didn’t want to alarm Flora and decided to just use the blood they’d likely get from the wound they would soon suffer, instead weakly enforcing their body and trying to fight like Mia and Fresia, slashing at the segmented limbs of the creatures with their claws. Although it was mostly ineffective, dancing between and over the snapping mandibles and lashing limbs of the creatures was good practice, Catnip finding Feline Instincts easier to understand and react to the longer they fought, allowing them to understand the battlefield around them. And occasionally they did manage to cut them a little at their weakest points. 

 

Your group has defeated Stone Hexapede lvls [35 - 46][Rank 1][DM] * 5

 

A poorly timed dodge and overextension allowed one to slash them across the back harshly, dealing a surprisingly immense amount of damage that halved their HP, but Catnip took it as the chance they needed, forming the blood dripping from her wounds into sickles and launching them at weak points, actually succeeding at hurting them. As they continued the fight, they also tried to control the blood of the green blood of the creatures themselves, as supposedly they should be able to control the blood of those at least no longer alive, as they no longer needed the creatures consent. It worked, but it quickly drained their mana to manipulate the large amounts of foreign blood, Catnip sending out a few attacks and switching back to their own blood. The green blood blades seemed to hurt the creatures somewhat more, but Catnip would run out of mana rather quickly if they kept trying to use them. 

 

“Catnip! Help over here! There’s some weird shit!” Flora called out, easily handling the creatures with her crushing vines but seemingly disturbed by something else. They answered her call, finding her holding back a much larger Stone Centipede covered in a yellow substance, its eyes blank. 

 

Infested Stone Hexapede lvl[??][Rank 2][DM]

 

The yellow substance drifting off the creature seemed to hang in the air around it, sticking to Flora’s vines and seemingly damaging it. The spores drifted further afield, affixing themselves upon the bodies of the other stone centipedes, who didn’t seem to notice at first. Small growths started appearing on the spored part of Flora’s vines, Flora creating other lashing plant growths to cut away the infected regions. The rank 2 Monster was unphased by all this, continuing to eat through the barrier she was creating and further spreading its yellow dust. 

 

“Wonder what happens if you breathe that stuff in,” Catnip pondered as they reached Flora, sending out several sickles of blood at the thing's eyes. It looked slightly annoyed by that, but hardly hurt, the yellow substance which was likely spores or some fungal matter shifting to form a sort of armor that blocked the hits. 

 

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“Nothing good,” Flora muttered, concentrating on holding it back while the rest of the group still fought the other horde. “I hope you didn’t cut yourself to get that blood by the way.” 

 

“It’s from a wound I took earlier from a hexapede,” Catnip explained. “Plus, I kind of need blood to fight, so I still don’t really see the problem.” Using some of the last of their mana, they formed another sickle of green blood out of the dead bodies of several hexapodes, launching it at the fungal insect and managing to actually slightly cut one of its legs. 

 

“I know you do, it's just…” She had to dodge to the side from a hexapede that snuck past the others, one of the plant growths on her main vine lashing out briefly to kill it before getting back to cutting off infected portions. “The mental aspect of thinking it’s okay to hurt yourself for just a little strength like that that’s concerning. Even if you’re physically okay in the end and quite used to pain, it sets a harmful precedent.”

 

Catnip didn’t know how to respond to that because they just didn’t know what else to do when a distraction appeared in the form of Mia shouting out in surprise as the hexapedes they were fighting suddenly moved as one, stopping their fight to instead run and swarm the infected hexapede. They were clearly no match for it, but busy still dealing with Flora’s vines and Catnip’s blood attacks, it gradually got swarmed and started to slow down, although it’s spores spread further over it’s attackers, the swarm of insects abandoning or evening attacking their members that got too many spores on them. Catnip grabbed Flora’s shoulder, jolting her out of the stupor that came over her as she watched the battle between monsters, saying something about how ‘damn that’s so metal’ under her breath. They and the rest of the group left the beasts to their battle and gathered inside an empty building, seemingly a home from another time, considering things.

 

“So, a war between insects and their infected kin. Cool,” Flora said. 

 

“More like concerning” Mia muttered in response, “ That sudden organized response by the monsters to fight back against their infected kindred was interesting and alarming. Maybe the dungeon itself told them to fight it or something?” 

 

“Could be that I guess, yeah,” Flora replied. “The fungal infection is far worse though, seeing what it did to my vines. I have a feeling if we head in the direction with more and more mushrooms we’ll be seeing a lot more of that, and I really don’t want to touch those spores.”

 

“Oh right. Spores.” Catnip noted, looking at their hand. Briefly spores had fallen on it and they’d kind of forgotten about it during the fight. Now though, they realized that there was literally growth and seemingly infected flesh there. “Hey, can someone cut off my hand real quick?”

 

“What? Oh shit, that’s pretty nasty”

 

“Hmm,” Zack said, his first comment about all of this. It was unclear what it meant as well. Fresia looked at their hand in disgust while cleaning her knives. “Make sure to deal with that vile thing before returning to camp. I wouldn’t want Milady to see something so disgusting as that,” she said coldly. “Here, I’ll help you deal with it myself” she said, suddenly seeming to flash over to Catnip and bringing down one of the knives she was cleaning in a smooth cut, as casually as one chops up and dices ingredients for a meal.

 

“Oh wow, thanks!” they responded, giving her a smile, and absentmindedly watching the blood spurting from their hand. The infected flesh kind of gurgled on the floor in an unpleasant manner  when Fresia waved her hand and it simply disappeared. “A maid must know how to clean things, you see,” she explained simply. 

 

“Huh, how does that work? Could you use that in combat or anything?” Flora asked.

 

“No, it’s only purpose is to clean and disappear unclean matter,” she replied, “It unfortunately cannot be used to dispose of similarly unclean people, only clean their bodies.”

 

“Still sounds pretty useful,” Catnip noted. “Plus it would be pretty scary if you could just wave your hand and disappear living things like that.”

 

“Indeed,” the maid replied, “Although the world would be much better if it could.”

 

“Huh. But I feel cleaning the bloodstains off things is an important part of the experience of permanently removing unwanted individuals,” Flora commented, “Although I’ve never tried it out myself. But blood y’know.”

 

The maid looked at Flora with a tilt of her head. “Perhaps, but it gets tiresome before long.” She stopped cleaning the knife just used to sever Catnip’s hand, her face flashing in irritation. “Plus things can get… messy if such evidence is discovered.”

 

“Huh.”

 

“Anyway, do we want to explore a bit more or head back to the group?” Catnip inquired, getting a little uncomfortable with all the talk of murder and disposing bodies. 

 

“I say we go back to at least tell them about the whole spore thing,” Flora replied, “Plus I bet Feria’s lady would enjoy discovering the history of this place herself, based on her whole thing with dungeons.”

 

“That is perhaps correct, although I myself wish she did not have to see the violence of this place,” She sighed. “Perhaps it is time I stop coddling Milady.”

 

“Uh, yeah, that would be a good idea,” they replied. “Mia, Zack, opinion on returning?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Um, it would be nice,”

 

“Okay, we’re all in agreement, so like let's head back,” Catnip replied, “Although I might search this house for any interesting lore first.”

 

“Sounds good,” Flora replied, twirling out of where she was sitting and marching over to Catnip. “I’ll join you.”

 

“Me - me too!” Mia said quietly. 

 

“Cool.”

 

They unfortunately only found a really old rusted kitchen knife in the end, most interesting information likely written in books or paper that had since rotted away. They hoped that at least somewhere in this dungeon the carvers had chosen to use stone tablets or something, or used some super epic preservation magic, but they didn’t get their hopes up. They all headed back through the empty town, skittering sounds starting to return after the conclusion of the insectoid civil war, and returned to the entrance rooms after blocking the door somewhat with the ruined door. It was better than nothing. 

 

___

 

“D’ya think everyone else enjoyed their time in the mists?” Catnip commented once they had returned, reaching out a regrown hand for Flora to hold. She took it, and they went off to chill in a corner. 

 

“Probably not. I kind of cheated and got out of dealing with most of it, but the small bit I did experience wasn’t exactly pleasant.” She looked in thought for a second. “Though actually, I kind of want to try really bleeding from all my orifices, or see what someone looks like in such a state.” She grinned and moved closer to Catnip. “I bet you’d look cute with all that blood dripping down your face.” She frowned, “Although on second thought I don’t really want to see you in pain.” 

 

“Flora, never change.”

 

“I won’t. Still, as cute as you'd look covered in blood, please try to not have it come from your own self harming,” She looked a little defeated. “I’m increasingly getting the sense that you’re going to keep doing it because you ‘need it to fight’, and I doubt I’ll change your mind, but at least just remember, neither your body or mind is something you can just throw away like trash, even if it does regenerate. You’re worth more than that.”

 

“... I very much doubt that,” they eventually replied. “Maybe this body should have gone to someone who cherished it, unlike me.” Catnip curled into themself. “They would deserve it, and not treat it like trash like I do.”

 

“... I don’t know what you’re on about about how you don’t deserve your body and all that stuff, but, well… You deserve to be you, and although I would like you to treat yourself better, that’s for your sake, not the sake of your body. I want you to treat your body well because you’re the one in it, not the other way around,” She rubbed her head a bit. “Fuck, this is hard to phrase or something, like, what I mean is… your body isn’t something you’ve been lended and are being scolded for damaging. I’m scolding you for damaging it because doing so damages your mental health, self worth and your physical self. The part that matters the most is your mind, your soul, the you inside that I want to be happy. The body is just a vessel, and you’re its owner. You shouldn’t feel guilty for having it, the reality is your body was given to you, not someone else.”

 

 Flora paused for a bit, stretched her back and then leaned on the ball Catnip currently was, pulling them into a half hug. She tried to get her to open up from their ball state a little, but they didn’t budge. She sighed and continued. 

 

“When you’re not bogged down by the idea that you don’t deserve this, you’ve always felt very comfortable and natural as the cute little cat girl you are. You seem like you’re happy to be one, and I see no reason to feel bad about that. I don’t really know what your body was like before you were apparently given this one, presumably when you traveled to this world, but it doesn’t matter. This is you if you want it to be.” She looked into Catnips eyes like she was glimpsing into her soul. “So be you.” 

 

At that moment, there were about a million objections Catnip had to Flora’s thought process. They wanted to admit that they weren't a real girl, show exactly why it was different from Mia’s case, explain every single reason why she simply couldn’t be herself. No matter what, she knew she couldn’t allow herself to be happy. She just knew. But at that moment, her voice stuck in her throat for some reason. She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t continue on the tirade filled with self hatred, she just couldn’t even though it was all true. Why? 

 

The young woman finally untensed, unrolling from her ball. She touched her head first, feeling the soft ears and flowing hair, running a smooth strand through her fingers. She flicked her tail playfully, wrapping it around Flora sitting beside her. She cupped her breasts, their softness giving a strange sense of comfort, a sense that felt like it filled a deep void in herself she had had all her life. She ran her hands down the smooth skin of her arms, and then her legs, feeling no coarse hairs to her amazement. She reached down and felt the lack of anything between her legs, felt the joy of realizing that she never again would have that thing act against her wishes, never again see it in the mirror. Catnip took a moment, and enjoyed being herself. It really was wonderful to be a woman. 

 

She turned to Flora, who had been watching her actions in fascination, and cleared her throat. 

 

“I’ll try,” she said, and almost believed it. “I’ll try to be myself.”

 

“...Okay. Just know I’ll be there for you every step of the way,” she promised with a quiet determination. 

 

They sat together then, thinking about their days, their lives, their fates. Flora thought of her village. Of how they had reacted when she finally stopped acting. Of how they had rejected her, had only wanted the act back. Of how lonely she had been. And of how much she wished there would have been someone there for her, like she was trying to be for Catnip now. 

Catnip thought of her old life, her lonely existence, her yearning for the body she now had, her unending hatred for herself. She thought of Mia, the life she had lived, the rejection that had suppressed her for 5 long years, and of the struggle she now endured, living in a body not of her own while knowing it could be better. That others had gotten the chance to have their wish granted. She thought of her undying existence, her self-harm based fighting, her unending future, her infinite selflessness and selfishness in equal measure. 

 

They hugged each other closer, and waited for the others to return from the mist.

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