Chapter 6: Chap. 5 : Company

When Zoemie woke up the next day, something in the dungeon's ambiance felt different. As she got up, waiting for the what she called "the black glitter" to pass, what is medically known as orthostatic hypotension – that thing that happen when you get up too quickly. Once that was over with, Zoemie went out, bumping on the doorframe by accident.

"Fuu... Hi." said Zoemie as she looked at the strange, mechanical-looking woman in a maid outfit that was in the corridor. She had long, stringy, dark pink hair, and dark blue, electronic eyes. Her clothing was a fairly typical maid's outfit, although purple, agremented with dollike frills and with a metallic texture.

The strangest thing about her was her purple skin and black sclera, which gave the woman a strange appearance despite otherwise being seemingly humanoid. "Greetings" she said, almost mechanically.

"You are... ?" asked Zoemie. On one hand, I have no fucking idea who you are, and you're in my ruins. On the other hand, you're not a human and you don't feel hostile.

"An avatar of the dunge- what you refer to as "big guy"." answered the maid with a quick bow. "My name is Xajymzia." she introduced herself.

"Oh, okay." Zoemie sighed, trying to find words. She was legitimately surprised, having not expected something like that. "Thank you. For... for everything. For... letting me stay and giving me food and water and... everything, really." It's been real fucking nice so far.

"All in a day's work. It's what I was created for a long time ago." answered Xajymzia calmly, albeit with a smile on her face.

"Do you remember your creators ?" asked Zoemie afterwards, curious.

The maid's eyes clouded over. "All too well. Perfect memory is not always a blessing." Xajymzia quite preferred not to remember. It still hurt after all this time, just a bit less so. Maybe one day it would be better.

"True. You always remember every single embarassing thing you fucking do. It's awful." Zoemie sympathized with a nod. "I'm... gonna go grab breakfast." she then said, a bit awkward, before going into the room and doing just that.

"Everything's ready. I also set your old clothes to wash."

Zoemie emitted a happy grunt as her first answer. "...Thanks for everything. Again." said Zoemie, not sure how to express her gratitude, before going into the kitchen and starting her routine, which will be skipped because it's boring and no one cares. Once thoroughly fed, Zoemie went to the bathroom for her bath while Xajymzia...

Xajymzia had moved into the experimentation room, and she looked at the cursed metal slab. A crude, but effective tool to test's one abilities. With almost no warning, a pair mechanical arms tipped with sharp blades came out of where the woman's shoulderblades would be and promptly lashed out, striking and slashing the metal.

The maid-shaped avatar's legs withdrew within her thighs, allowing her to float around, while she turned her hands into magical facsimiles of modern firearms, and started shooting magical projectiles. First came slow, powerful cannonlike blasts that could batter down thick plating, then rapidfire gatling-esque shooting ideal for scattering.

Not just that, but the maid switched to various elements while shooting, alternative between fire, light, dark, and wind elements, strafing and teleporting around while keeping a calm, analytical look on her face. Satisfaction.

Despite the abuse it suffered, the metal slab had regenerated all. If it wasn't for the magical traces, one would not be able to guess that it had recently served as a firing target. Quite useful, Xajymzia considered. She would need to ask Zoemie to reinforce the dungeon's walls using these curses. She checked the time. Need to set the laundry to dry. Also tell the los... Zoemie to conjure herself more outfits.

The maid moved as so, going into the utility room she had built on B1F. Zoemie's quarters were fairly close to the entrance, but Xajymzia was quite confident Zoemie would move her bedroom further down when the dungeon would welcome more long-term guests.

---

Zoemie finished drying herself. Taking baths like this every day was really nice, it gave her alone time to ponder things. She hoped it wasn't too much of a drain on the dungeon, though. She had to ask Xajymzia about it. She had a lot of questions for Xajymzia, questions which she had spent much of her bath thinking about.

So, Zoemie decided to ask Xajymzia these questions now. These could wait in theory, but Zoemie would rather not. She looked around for the maid, before simply using the map within her head to look for her rather than scream. Definitely more useful than going Dad ? Daaad ? Or more convenient, at any rate.

"She's... on the first floor. That's why I couldn't find her." Zoemie teleported herself to the room's entrance, and knocked on the door. "Hey. I have a few questions, if you don't mind."

"Certainly." answered Xajymzia, as she was hanging up what appeared to be laundry. There were more utility products behind her, although Zoemie couldn't quite say what they were for.

"So... what are you ?". asked Zoemie first. As she saw Xajymzia's expression, Zoemie elaborated. "I mean, are you more like a robot ? A golem ? Something else entirely ?", the maid's expression changing as she understood what Zoemie was precisely asking about.

"I... don't quite know. I can tell for certain that I am inorganic in nature, but to be quite honest I am not very sure." answered Xajymzia. "My body is primarily magical, but I am not an animated statue eiither. Quite frankly, I want to say the best term would be something like "automaton" or "magitek droid"." she elaborated.

"Fair enough." answered Zoemie, satisfied seemingly. "Second question. Does the dungeon have a supply of energy it needs to conjure stuff ?" Don't wanna run out by accident. That would fucking suck.

The maid went into thought for a while, seemingly trying to find an answer, before she finally answered. "Yes. There is such a supply of energy, but over time enough was accumulated that it is no longer an issue." The maid spun towards Zoemie. "I have lived for... a very long time. Decades, if not centuries passed in exile.", getting a startled chuckle from Zoemie.

"Jesus fuck. That's a lot of time.", Zoemie eventually answered, a bit shocked by the timeline. Before Zoemie could continue, the maid started speaking again. "A thing to be aware of is that the energy consumption of a conjuration is lower if the dungeon has some of the means of producing the conjured item."

"So like, if you build, say, a chocolate processing factory, conjuring chocolate is gonna be cheaper ?" asked Zoemie, her furrowed brows clearly marking confusion. The maid nodded in return. "Precisely. Most of it will be things I'll handle on my side for self-improvement and convenience alike."

Xajymzia had a few plans – small pineapple and cacao plantations, chocolate processing, a mill and bread processing chain, maybe a blast furnace for cheaper metals ? Later, though. Those would be fairly expensive and the furnace in particular was admittedly rather questionable. A clothing factory might be of worth, too ? To be decided further down the road. No point overcommitting now.

"That explains the facilities I could summon..." Zoemie noticed, connecting the dots. "They make monsters cheaper to summon by... like... Right. If I summon a environmental facility, like, say, a cursed forest, monsters native to that environment become cheaper to summon and upkeep. But after that you run into questions of "it is worth or not" and that mostly comes down to maths.", she continued, drawing upon her gaming experience.

To which the maid answered with another nod. "You understand things quickly. It is convenient, I must say. A thing to be aware of is that it's not quite as simple as hard-and fast math rules for summoning and optimization."

"Yeah, it rarely is for real-life shit." Zoemie chuckled. "Does that means you had facilities for reducing cost before ?" she asked after, to which Xajymzia nodded., and answered "Yes, but I no longer do. I removed them a while ago for upkeep reasons.".

Zoemie went into thought. "What else was I curious about ? Ah, yeah. Is your outfit part of your body ? Like can you change outfits or are you always gonna wear it ? I was curious, since it's kinda metallic-looking..." Zoemie said, trying to explain her curiosity but mostly coming off as digging herself deeper.

"Sometimes, it is better to know when to stop talking." laughed the maid. "But to answer your question, it's indeed an outfit. Although I don't know what it's made of. Speaking of outfits..." explained the maid, waiting for Zoemie to assent with a monosyllabic grunt. "You should conjure yourself more clothing.", which Zoemie acknowledged with another grunt.

Zoemie decided she'd do it later. For now, more important priorities lied. "What season it is ? Like, back over there it was I think winter ? Or maybe early spring ? Here it feels like late spring, more or less.", she asked. Urgh. I hate winter. Or rather, Zoemie hated the cold and rain common to winter, although snow was nice because it was an excuse to stay home and not go to school.

"Roughly, yes. I believe it would be late April by your standards." answered Xajymzia. Zoemie acquiesced with another grunt. So that means the two places are desynchronized seasonwise. Okay. Which kinda makes sense ? No reason the two planets would have synchronized rotations. She then moved on her next question. "Do you sleep ?"

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"No. This avatar do have a sleep mode, but as the dungeon itself, I do not sleep." Xajymzia explained, Zoemie nodding in return "...Anything else I should think of ?", Zoemie asked.

"From a day-to-day perspective, not really." said Xajymzia. "...But there is one thing I would like to bring up." Zoemie grunted inquisitively. "I owe you my own thanks.", to which she got a surprised grunt from Zoemie.

"Okay, but... why ?" Zoemie ultimately asked. She couldn't quite fathom why, especially as someone who has never received any form of gratitude in the past.

"I'll tell you exactly why... later. It's probably for the best.", Zoemie answering with another grunt, before confirming with an "Okay." Zoemie considered what to do for a short while as Xajymzia finished hanging up the laundry, before Xajymzia kicked up the conversation again.

"Hiding in the mountains was a pretty clever idea, I must admit." she said, something that got a nod from Zoemie.

"Yeah, I didn't want to have to leave the rui... dungeon in the open, sounds dumb." Zoemie thought about it, and reminded herself of something. "I was curious about these teleportation anchors.", something that got an annoyed mechanical noise from Xajymzia, startling Zoemie a little.

"I don't know who did that, but they're more powerful than me" said Xajymzia, clearly seething, but trying to keep calm. "My original plan was to teleport the dungeon to a deserted island, but someone interupted and anchored the dungeon here." she continued.

Zoemie decided to leave, a bit spooked by Xajymzia's anger, and return to her bedroom, shaking a little. Who could do that ? Zoemie asked herself. She considered what to do, and ultimately settled on "gaming for a while.", to calm her nerves a little.

---

"Done with enemy rush." said Zoemie, as she finished her gaming session. "What now ? What now is that I need to... right, Xaj wanted me to conjure some extra clothes." decided Zoemie. At least that's easy and mostly effortless. Mostly. There were a lot of clothing items that Zoemie could not tolerate because their feelings against her skin were unpleasant, typically too rough.

Zoemie started by conjuring a variety of summer shirts, mostly in white and light pink and purple, although with a few black ones. She also conjured a variety of skirts in similar color, as well as white panties. "Do I need bras ? Hmmm... meh, let's conjure a few", before summoning a few white bras. Better have it and not need it than the other way around.

"What next ? Socks, probably." Short white summer socks, long black winter socks. "I need to find a way to ensure they don't get separated..." Zoemie grumbled. Her socks always ended up mismatched. She decided to put a spell on each pair to ensure she could find the matching one. "Here. Done." Heh. A point for magic, I guess.

Zoemie cocked her head to the side. "What else..." before she conjured a few long-sleeved shirts, hoodies and sweaters for colder days. She also conjured a few tracksuits as well. In Zoemie's experience tracksuit trousers were better for cold than denim, plus they're significantly more comfy.

"Enough for now." If I need more I can conjure it later. Zoemie considered her next options, before she decided to conjure items for her combat equipment, or at least try it out. Simply going hard into an option is a stupid idea. I need to try out crap and see how it feels.

At least, that was her first intention, before she decided to focus on something else instead. "Let's give this Fusion ability a swirl." So what was Zoemie going to fuse ? Well, she had thought about it, and decided to fuse something first that would be simple and mostly harmless no matter what.

But as she sat down on her bed, Zoemie decided to do this somewhat differently. "I am going to need a workshop room..." Makes things easier and safer to handle. Plus it doesn't clutter my room further. Zoemie was a rather messy person, and was all too aware of that fact.

Therefore, Zoemie turned the room closest to the training room into a workshop, making it bigger, and adding a large desk, several comfortable chairs, power outlets, and adding next to it a storage room.

Said storage room was given a cosmic enchantment that made it significantly bigger on the inside, and another one so that anything it contained would be in stasis, not affected by the flow of time. She then changed slightly the enchantment to not affect living beings, as well as Xajymzia specifically since Zoemie didn't know whether she would qualify.

Satisfied, Zoemie grunted with a nod, before teleporting to the workshop and sitting down on the chair. "So. What am I going to fuse ? Something simple, harmless, that allows me to test out my powers... Oh. I know." Zoemie then conjured a short, metallic skirt-cage, a dark pink skirt, and a steel ingot. "Alright. Let's see what happens when I fuse this."

Zoemie activated the fusion ability on the three items, which started glowing white and melting into eachother like sludge. It was frankly pretty disturbing to watch. The three items fused together, as Zoemie felt the strange feeling she felt when dealing with the scanning device again, something being drained from her. She made a mental note to ask Xajymzia about it.

Zoemie was almost about to get bored when the process finished, leaving behind a strange-looking skirt. It had kept the same color it had before, but it was obviously metallic, and furthermore the cage had fused with the skirt, its bars having become part of the fabric. Zoemie looked at the fused item, uncertain.

"Hmmhmm... that's... certainly a result.", she concluded. Zoemie then reconjured the same set-up of items, but this time added to the mix a paper with a resilience-increasing curse. Fusing the items again – eliciting a slight grunt of disgust from Zoemie, taught her a few extra things. Will never get used to watching this. "Adding more items definitely increases the... drain ? Let's call it drain, yeah."

Zoemie did, however, sense that the curse became part of the item. Moreover, she couldn't remove the curse anymore, but she could curse the item again. "What next ? Hmmhmm !" Zoemie grunted in brilliance, checked it out, and realized she couldn't fuse already fused items. Useful to know. Means I have to figure out... Okay.

Zoemie sighed. As she considered what to do, Xajymzia poked her head in. Zoemie acknowledged her with a grunt, and Xajymzia started talking. "Is there anything you wish for dinner ?" in her normal voice , which made Zoemie wipe sweat off her brow internally, while she went "Rmmm...Mmm... Can't think of anything specific.", to which the maid nodded. "Anything else ?"

"Your mana reserves are low." commented Xajymzia as she looked at the bizarre, deformed skirts on the workbench. This got a surprised grunt from Zoemie. "Mana ? What's that ?" Judging by the name it's probably used to cast spells, but...

"Mana is used to cast spells.", which got a nod from Zoemie. "It regenerates over time."

"Ah, so that's the sludge that's been draining when I cast spells and fuse things." realized Zoemie. "Kinda surprised the manual-in-my-head didn't notify me about it, but... ?"

"To be fair, said manual-in-your-head can only extrapolate from your current knowledge. It cannot tell you about mana because you didn't know that mana existed, whereas you know about, say, teleportation.", explained Xajymzia, to which Zoemie nodded thoughtfully. "These are some strange skirts." she commented.

"Yeah, I know." concurred Zoemie. "Been fucking around with my fusion ability. What I got so far doesn't look too impressive, though." Xajymzia looked at the skirts, a bit confused. "Fusion ability ?" she asked eventually.

"Hold on, gimme a sec." answered Zoemie who teleported to her bedroom, fetched the scanning gizmo from the other day, and teleported it in her workshop, to which Xajymzia simply smiled. "Ah yes, that device."

Zoemie simply activated the device. "Where it is... there it is. The fusion ability is here.", said Zoemie before showing the screen to Xajymzia, who read it and nodded. "That is an extremely versatile ability." Xajymzia concluded. "Where does it come from ?" she asked, clearly curious.

"I ain't got jack for an idea" answered Zoemie. "It was here when I arrived." Xajymzia acknowledged it with a bow masking any emotions she may have, before leaving while mumbling something about honey. Zoemie, meanwhile, returned to her workbench.

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