Chapter 18: Chapter 18L

Luna downed her second health potion, then tucked the empty vial back into her belt. Can only use one more, this delve. The encounter room hadn’t been terribly difficult, but it hadn’t been a piece of cake either—hence the need to use a health potion. 

The four goblins that had been manning the large room—inelegant, incomplete, like most of the dungeon, besides the entrance—had been level three, each, and as a single level four adventurer, it’d been a close fight. 

Definitely not beating the floor boss. Not that she’d expected to as a solo delver, however young the dungeon was. Still, it’d be nice if she could reach the boss, so she knew what to expect when she went back to town and put together a party. 

If anyone’s willing to party up, for a dungeon like this. Not everyone would be as … excited … for the dungeon’s nature as she was. Though certainly some would be. Talia might. And honestly, she snorted, most guys. Though, at least for the men she knew, she doubted being violated by writhing vines would be popular. Maybe they work different for boys, though. But being used by the curvy goblin women? Luna expected they’d like that part.

Luna would like that part, too. Boy, girl, goblin, human, plant-monster, she wasn’t especially picky. 

I can see this dungeon becoming very, very popular, in the coming months.

The four goblins had dissipated into mana, leaving Luna alone in the square room with the chest they’d been guarding, tucked into the back wall. Loot. Her first chest ever. She knew it wouldn’t be anything good, but she was vibrating with excitement. 

[

Chest
Tier 0

[

A dungeon could only make chests up to an equal tier-quality as themselves, but the best possible chests would be at boss rooms. This encounter—a simple four goblins—were protecting a weaker chest, a tier-0, which would have cost much less for the dungeon to manifest. A paltry reward for a paltry encounter.

She flicked open the two latches and lifted the heavy lid. 

She blinked at what was inside. Then laughed.

[

Regeneration Potion
Potency II

[

Whether dungeons influenced the loot that manifested inside chests, nobody knew. But seeing how she’d been thinking about how she’d need one of these if she wanted to enjoy the vine trap longer, that it had shown up … it almost seemed like the dungeon had read her mind. Dungeons are sentient, in some way. The extent, not fully known, but the consensus was they possessed some primitive form of sentience. Maybe it saw how sad I was that I needed to stop early.

She grinned and took the vial, tucking it into her belt. Like she’d known, a tiny yield—a single potion, and only a moderately strong one for her level—but this was a baby dungeon, and the chest had been tier-0. She hadn’t expected something amazing.

I’ll put it to good use, Luna thought. Next time, I promise. She wouldn’t even use it for the upcoming encounters; she’d save it for having fun with the vines.

Luna continued forward. Before she knew it—and after a fair amount of backtracking and mapping out the tunnels, and a few more easier fights—she’d found the boss encounter room. Considering how young this dungeon is, probably the dungeon boss itself. She doubted there would be a stairway down to the next level; with how starved for resources its half-complete construction suggested, she would be shocked to see that this dungeon had a second floor.

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Either way, she wouldn’t be making it past the room, or claiming the loot the floor boss guarded. As a single level four [Mage], Luna didn’t stand a chance against a boss. In a normal dungeon she would have turned around and left, resupplied, partied up, and came back for a second attempt. 

But this wasn’t a normal dungeon. And defeat wasn’t quite as devastating … assuming the dungeon held to its promise, that she’d only be filled up and used rather than killed. By the goblins, or the floor boss? Honestly, either sounded nice. Though her adventures through the small complex had sobered her up in some small way, her stomach still squirmed with the unfulfilled desire the vines had left her with.

She walked into the arched chamber. 

Besides the entrance to the dungeon, it was the room with the most obvious effort spent constructing it. Still not much, though, and certainly nothing compared to one of the Five Great Labyrinths, but a mark more impressive than the shoddy build of the rest.

Lounged insolently against a stone throne at the far end of the room was a gray-skinned woman, her cheek resting on a fist. She watched Luna arrive with passive disinterest. Her orange eyes gazed down on her, and Luna felt abruptly like an insect. Something small and insignificant.

Wow. She’s really got the intimidation act down.

[ 

Aseri
Lv. 3 Shadowstepper / Infernal
====
Stats
====
STR: 6
INT: 3
AGI: 12
MAG: 2

[ 

A Named monster, not that she’d expected anything else. 

She was lower level than Luna, but Luna wasn’t so much a beginner she took that as an indication she was stronger. Luna’s primary stat might even be higher than hers—14 MAG to the infernal’s 12 in AGI—but stats and levels were only useful for comparing like to like. For Named dungeon monsters, stats and levels went further than for an adventurer. A level three boss would require a team of four to five level threes to take down, even with equal stats.

Luna was, most decidedly, not a full team of four to five adventurers. She would be losing this fight. It wouldn’t be close. And she couldn’t wait.

Though, if she were being completely honest, she’d been hoping for a guy. Not that Luna didn’t enjoy women, but she’d wanted to be filled up. Oh well; she was still more than happy. Especially for this infernal in particular … the cloth armor hugging her body displayed impressive curves, and those condescending orange eyes were definitely doing something for her.

Is she the Avatar? Or are they remaining hidden? An answer she doubted she’d be finding out any time soon, and certainly not this run.

The infernal—and Luna supposed it made sense such a powerful monster would be the Avatar of this strange dungeon—finally sighed, then rose from her chair. She unhooked her daggers from her belt in a languid, fluid motion, baring her weapons before she’d fully stood.

Luna was struck, briefly, with sadness that communication with dungeon entities was nearly impossible. It was established fact that these people—Named monsters—were intelligent, and even highly so. But the Barrier scrambled any attempts to communicate with them. The denizens of above and beneath were strictly barred from complex interaction. The bargaining that occured for lost souls was about the closest it got. And some of the Great Labyrinths had implied treaties in place with certain polities … but those were complicated, and exceptions. 

She should probably focus.

Not that I’m trying to win, she thought amusedly, raising her staff and preparing herself for a thorough flouncing.

Come and get me, Miss Glower-y.

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