by Matthew Peed
Azaria Highlock
Age: 14
Level: 2
Race: Dungeon
Type: Doll
Subtype: Goddess’s Chosen
Aether: 4,580
Floors: 3/2
Skills: Creation
Deconstruction
Summon (7/127)
Teleport Matrix (1/1)
Enchanter’s Melody
Uncontrollable Proliferation
Achievements: God Killer – Killed a God, albeit a weak one.
Undefeated – Remain undefeated. Enhances abilities (1.15*x) X being the number of attempts on the dungeon. X=8
The Surface – When a dungeon reaches the surface, the world opens up to them. Aether hourly gain (+1)
“Did something happen while I was gone? I have a lot more Aether,” I commented after looking at everything.
“The Lance girl came back. Every once in a while, she throws a torn-apart body out of her sealed room, and the dungeon has been absorbing them. A lot of screams coming from that area too.”
“What is she doing?”
“She’s human. How should I know?”
I shook my head at him and went to check on Lance. Poking my head through the wall, I found blood covering pretty much every surface in the room. Lance lay on the bed, breathing smoothly despite looking like she had just come from a battle. Her armor was gone. In fact all her clothes were gone. Her illusion was also missing, and without her clothes, she really gave off a monster vibe.
Parts of her body had scales, while others had hide. Her hands were much more like claws. Her face, while mostly still human, possessed an unnatural beauty that wasn’t there last time I saw her. If you gave her some wings and a tail, it would be hard to cover the monster qualities up.
“Hello? You alive?” I called.
Lance’s eyes shot open as flames started leaking from her mouth. A jet of fire crossed the room and blackened the wall where my head was sticking through. I couldn’t feel anything from the flames, but it was rude of her to attack me like that.
She finished waking up and cut off the flames. Coughing up some smoke, she said, “Sorry. I . . . was in a bit of a place last night. I’m better.”
“I can see that,” I said, glancing around the room. “What did you do, slaughter ten people?”
“Sixteen actually. I might have gotten a bit . . . into it after the third or fourth.”
“Do you need help?” I asked, truly concerned about her. I knew the world had changed in the year I was asleep, but surely this wasn’t good for her, seeking revenge or not.
“No. This is the path I’ve decided to take since I harvested the first goblin heart.”
“Okay. I won’t say anything more, but you should put some clothes on.” I turned away from her, as she was on full display. What was it with nudity around me lately? First the Moon Gathering, now this. Was it a side-effect of my luck?
“Sorry. Yeah, after the first blood splatter got on my sleeve, I took my clothes off so I wouldn’t be red by the end of it.”
I nodded and thought about cleaning the room. I couldn’t absorb the gore while she was in there, but I could affect the area around the room. I made a bunch of holes in the floor and ceiling, then created a couple hundred gallons of water above the room. A rainstorm took place, washing the room and Lance clean of the only slightly dry blood.
When it was over, Lance flicked the water from her face. “Thanks. Next time, could you make it a bit warmer?”
“I really don’t know if there should be a next time,” I commented, looking over the mess.
“What time is it?”
“A few minutes before dawn. Probably ten, give or take.”
“Just enough.” Lance reached up and a black swirl appeared. She started pulling clothes from it, then dressed quickly. With over eight minutes still on the clock before the sunrise, she left the hidden room. “I’ll try to get a party for later today, but it will more likely be tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I said, waving as she made her way out a back window. Starburst walked up next to me, and we watched her go down the cliff behind the manor.
“That girl has some of the worst luck I have ever seen. It’s bad enough to twist her perception of the world.”
I looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?”
“You have good luck equal to close to a hundred million people. That gives you a happy-go-lucky attitude for most of your life. That girl has negative luck. I’m quite amazed she is still alive. Either way, she will see the world through a sort of tinted glass.”
“Any way to help her?”
“Kill her and let her reincarnate. Only way.”
“Yeah, let’s save that for a last resort. Surely there is something more humane we can do?” I asked.
Starburst shook his head. “It is set by the universe. Even the gods can’t interfere.”
That was bull. I hated the idea everything was set from the moment we were born. If I was so lucky, how did I end up like this? I felt like there was more to it. With a huff, I moved down to the third floor.
Emelia had worked on a few things in the day or two since I’d summoned her. I was periodically sending her Aether to summon her own minions. Looking around, I found that she had completely changed the floor. A nice pathway extended from a circular stair that led back up to the second-floor maze.
While we still hadn’t gotten any plans for the theme park, I had explained what I remembered from my time as a human. She had managed to take that and build the basics. A central plaza area that was large enough for a few hundred people to gather sat at the center of the floor, with branching paths that led off in various directions.
“Mistress! I am pleased thee cameth to visiteth. How doth thou liketh what I’ve done?”
“It looks amazing!” I turned to find Emelia walking toward me with a small army of what looked like old robots. I think the term the internet used for them was “steampunk.” Certainly, they puffed a lot of steam as they walked, but they looked like they could do quite a lot of things.
“Mine own children. Those gents art most wondrous f’r helping buildeth this wond’r,” Emelia said, gesturing to the robots behind her.
“They do look cute,” I commented, floating around them.
I talked to Emelia for a while, but she hadn’t done much more than work on the paths. She needed the engineering plans to build the park rides. She could build her own version, but we didn’t know how much they would differ from the Earth version. I told her it was okay. We would get something hopefully next time when Lance visited.
Chapter 26: New Image
Lance Teron
Sitting at the café, I was starting to get nervous that the control effect on the woman was only temporary. It would be just my luck for it to be as such. I took a sip of my latte while waiting for the time to pass. I needed to get to a place I could print stuff later. Part of my deal with Azaria was plans for theme parks.
While I wasn’t sure how in depth I should get, I figured just a basic layout and some designs for rides should do. They were public knowledge, as the world had more pressing matters to deal with nowadays. I glanced toward the door for the dozenth time as someone entered the café.
The woman named Mollie from yesterday walked in. She glanced around until she saw me, then made her way over to me. She sat down without ordering anything, but the staff knew better than to ask questions, given most people could kill you with a flick of their wrist. Her hand was wrapped up in bandages.
“How are your injuries?”
“Better. It will be a few days before I’m completely healed.” With magic and enough money, you could replace lost fingers easily enough.
I nodded and turned back to my phone. I had thought about what to do with her yesterday but hadn’t hit upon a good idea yet. I had debated forming a team with her. That way if more than just myself emerged from the dungeon, it would look less suspicious. The problem was keeping her alive. Azaria made
it clear that she wouldn’t be pulling any of her punches.
“You’re a bounty hunter. Do you have any obligations that I should know about?”
“I must complete one contract a week or risk losing my license. I have four days until my next head is due. That can be extended slightly due to my injury.”
“How do you know your targets?”
She reached into her pocket and handed me her phone after pulling up an application. Looking it over, I noticed quite a few people from the black market I was at the other day, as well as a couple of the thugs who had jumped me. This would make things easier.
“I have to scan the target’s retina, and it will mark it ‘claimed’ on the app,” Mollie explained as I handed her phone back.
“You don’t have to turn the bodies in?”
“No. There is an organization we call that cleans up the mess. A lot of time, the body is barely recognizable due to the fighting.”
I thought about my own fighting and nodded in agreement. It can get messy. I was probably an outlier in that scale, but there were plenty of people with known powers who could rip a person limb from limb. Just take Kyle for example.
“Alright. Here’s the plan. I want you to go to the local library and print off as much information as you can from the items on this list. I will be heading into the dungeon once I gather a party.”
“Is that all, Mistress?”
“No. Next time we meet, I will be wearing a different face. Keep that in mind.”
“Understood.”
I pulled up the app on my phone for the parties. It only took me a few minutes to find one that was taking members. I had to stifle a chuckle when I saw that all but one of them were on Mollie’s bounty app. I had to wonder about our society when murderers and rapists could be easily found with a single click on an app.
Mollie and I left the café at the same time, and she headed a different direction down the street. I had about an hour to kill before the party I’d joined would be journeying into the dungeon, but I decided to make my way there now, as it wouldn’t be the first time that a party got in early due to another party falling in the dungeon.
When I arrived, I found my party talking to the last person in the world that I wanted to see. Kyle and some of his goons stood chatting with the leader of my pickup party. They looked to be good friends at that. I dug my nails into my palms to control myself. I might have been able to kill him right then, but given that I had almost zero ways of dealing with telekinesis, I could have been throwing my chances away if I didn’t succeed.
“Ah! Friz! Glad you decided to come earlier. The party before us has already wiped. We’ll be heading in soon,” the leader, a woman by the name of Erica, called to me.
“Erica.” I held my hand out to shake. I didn’t want to say anything else in case I lost my control.
“Sorry. What were you saying?” Erica said, turning back to Kyle.
“I said you need to come to my party in two days to celebrate my recovery,” Kyle said, placing his hand on her shoulder. I felt there was more to the story than just he and Friz being friends. That and I thought he swung toward men. Though, it wouldn’t be the first time a person in power covered that up by taking a few women every now and then.
“Next party! Five minutes!”
We turned to the dungeon attendant, and Erica shouted her acknowledgement before turning back to Kyle. “I will do my best.”
We made our way over to the dungeon while I tried to hide my grin. I had my target for this party. I would make sure she suffered for being friends with that monster. My illusion-concealed claws itched to slice through her skin.
This party did much better than any so far. We defeated both of the dolls on the first floor. The second party to do so, after one this morning accomplished it as well. From what I heard, Azaria had the highest death rate of all the dungeons on record. I found that ironic, considering she seemed to loathe killing.
On the second-floor landing, we didn’t see much, only a few rooms on either side of the landing and a large doorway right in front of the stairs. I got on one side while the other rogue got on the other, and we pushed in. We looked in to see Starburst standing in the center of the room.
“Is that . . . a unicorn?” Erica asked skeptically.
“Damn. First dolls and now a unicorn. I feel like we’re in some little girl’s playhouse,” the mage of the party said with some annoyance.
“No one is sure how the dungeon gets their theme. Maybe there was a dollhouse in the station it was born from,” I said with a shrug. Considering Azaria, a girl’s playhouse was pretty close to the target.
We moved into the room with some trepidation. For sure this was the first true boss of the dungeon. That only meant it was even stronger than the two dolls. I pulled my cleaver out while the others also drew their weapons. I moved toward the side and back some—I was a rogue type, after all.
The battle started without a sign. Starburst charged across the room in a second flat, aiming directly for the main defender. His horn pierced through his shield, and the man was sent flying a dozen feet. Erica and another melee fighter slashed at Starburst with their swords, but Starburst parried the leader with his horn and took the blow from the man.
I thought he had been made of cloth, but the sword acted like it’d struck metal. The party’s mage channeled Aether into a spell of what looked like ethereal blades. They sailed through the air and stabbed into Starburst’s flank. He whipped his head toward the mage, and I felt more Aether fill the air as he flashed forward.
The next thing we knew, the mage was impaled on Starburst’s horn until they impacted the wall. There was a loud crunch sound, and the mage instantly stopped breathing. I took in the situation and moved behind the group’s archer.
When Starburst turned to charge the other mage in the group, I reached up and wrapped my hand over the man’s mouth. After that, I stabbed the man through the back with my clawed hand and ripped his heart out. He fell to his knees before collapsing all the way.
“What the fuck are you doing!?” Erica shouted at me. She really should have been paying attention, as Starburst’s back legs came up and kicked her across the room. After that Starburst finished off the rest of the party in less than a minute. I moved over to Erica’s prone form and kicked away her sword.
“Revenge. Sadly, you’re going to help me get it. Whether you like it or not,” I said, kneeling next to her.
Chapter 27: Explosions and Stargazing
Azaria
“She just couldn’t help making a mess, could she?” Lance had gone off the deep end with the woman she’d captured earlier today. I was actually becoming quite worried about the woman. Lance had already broken most of her fingers and was using her cleaver to slice off pieces of skin along her arms.
“I’ve told . . . you everything . . . I know,” the woman named Erica said for the tenth time. I’d been keeping count, so I was sure. I wasn’t into the torture and was only keeping tabs for the safety of my dungeon. The last thing I needed was for something to happen and one of them explode or something.
“I don’t believe you, but that won’t matter much longer,” Lance said before placing her hand on the woman’s chest. I blushed, as I didn’t think Lance would go that far, but it turned out she was using a skill of some type. “Chaos!”
The woman screamed as her body started to expand grotesquely. Lance backed away with a look of bewilderment. She obviously wasn’t expecting that to happen. I sensed that the amount of Aether building inside the woman was going to be quite powerful.
“Lance, get out of there!”
She heeded me and ran for the secret entrance just as the woman exploded. There was enough energy that the blast managed to take out half my east wing. Even the dungeon magic couldn’t withstand the damage, and the upper half of the floor collapsed into rubble.
“Girl! What happened!?” Starburst shouted as he came running.
“Lance detonated a bomb inside
me!” I replied, my anger leaking out.
“That’s not what happened last time I used the skill!” she retorted from where she knelt, looking at the damage.
People outside were starting to gather to inspect what was going on. I poured Aether into the walls and had them repaired before anyone had the bright idea to use the gaps instead of the main entrance.
“What do you expect from a skill named Chaos!? I should be happy you didn’t blow more than a few rooms of my dungeon apart.”
“I’m sorry, Azaria. I didn’t expect that to happen, I swear.”
“Whatever. Did you get what you wanted from her?”
Lance had changed her form again. She was the correct gender but was a bit older than her actual self by a few years. With the appearance of a foxy woman in her late twenties, she would probably be attracting new kinds of trouble her way.
“I hope so. I might be able to get my revenge in a few days!” Lance said with her eyes taking on a crazed twitch.
“Good for you. Try not to blow up my walls for a few days.”
“No guarantee. I plan on getting myself in that monster’s party and persuading them to come here,” Lance said. She started making her way gingerly through the debris and gathering up her stuff from the still-damaged room.
“At least warn me next time.”
“Will do!”
After a few minutes, Lance started limping but made her way out of the dungeon from the main entrance. The gathered crowd rushed to her aid. I noticed that my parents were outside, observing the situation. A haze of Aether washed over them, making it where I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I was glad just to see them alive and well.
My parents took Lance to a separate section of the tent and seemed to question her. I wanted so bad to rush to them, but I was bound to this spot. For all I knew, I would never get to leave again. That would be sad, as I had always wanted to see the world. I watched until my parents eventually left, my ethereal arm reaching out for them but unseen by everyone.
“I’m sorry, girl.”
I jerked as I realized that Starburst was standing next to me. “What’s done is done. All that remains is the future and how we move on from here,” I said, then moved away. I made my way to the roof of the mansion and sat down to watch the sunset and the stars start to roll in. Since there were a few minutes until the stars really came out, I pulled up my status.
