by Matthew Peed
Azaria Highlock
Age: 14
Level: 3
Race: Dungeon
Type: Doll
Subtype: Goddess’s Chosen
Aether: 3,479
Floors: 3/3
Skills: Creation
Deconstruction
Summon (7/123)
Teleport Matrix (1/1)
Enchanter’s Melody
Uncontrollable Proliferation
Random Ability
Achievements: God Killer – Killed a God, albeit a weak one.
Reigning Power – Permanently enhances abilities by ten percent.
The Surface – When a dungeon reaches the surface, the world opens up to them. Aether hourly gain (+10)
I wasn’t sure when, but I had leveled up again. I suppose I had defeated quite a few parties recently. The biggest change since I’d last looked at my status was that my Undefeated had become Reigning Power. I had hoped that I could continue to build it even higher, but it was capped at five percent. Not bad, considering it was moving up at tenths of a percent every time.
“Lovely night, don’t you think?”
I jumped and found a boy sitting next to me. He was looking up into the night sky, and I wasn’t sure he was actually talking to me. At least until he turned and looked directly at me. I moved to the side, and his eyes followed me.
“You can see me?” I asked carefully. I was still not sure what could truly harm me in this changed world, but if someone could see me, then that meant they might be about to do something to me. I wanted to edge away but thought that might invite an attack.
“I sure can. But that is about it.”
I looked him over, thinking he looked a bit sickly. I could barely feel any Aether coming from him as well. The only bit I could detect was from his eyes. He had black hair, and I felt he was just a bit older than me at seventeen or eighteen. I wouldn’t call him a looker, but he had a sort of handsomeness to him.
“How did you get up here?”
He smiled mischievously. “I have my ways.” He fell back and lay on the roof, watching the sky. “I saw you a few days ago and thought you looked incredibly lonely up here. So, I decided to pay you a visit when I managed to work up the strength.”
“I see. I’m sorry if I don’t trust you on that alone.”
“I would call you a fool if you did. Personally, I wouldn’t trust anyone in this world. Not anymore.”
“That seems a bit harsh. Surely there are still a few good people in the world?”
He gave me a sad smile like he felt sorry for me. “Oh, I don’t doubt it. I just haven’t had the privilege of meeting them.”
“I guess you’ve had a rough lot in life?” I said, landing on the roof but keeping some distance between us.
“You could say that.”
“I suppose I’m sorry to hear that,” I said and truly meant it. I felt like this guy should have been in a hospital, not on top of a roof in the middle of the night.
“You are cute. I thought so the first time I saw you, but I really think so now that I’ve gotten a closer look at you,” he said, and I backed away a few more inches.
But I knew I was probably blushing. The only people who called me cute before were my parents. This was the first time I was hearing it from someone of the opposite sex. Even if I wasn’t sure I technically qualified as being a girl anymore.
“I bet you tell all the girls that,” I said.
“Maybe, maybe not. Doesn’t change the fact that it is true.”
I laughed despite myself. “I can’t tell if you’re a player or just awkward.”
“Probably the latter. I don’t get out much, to be honest.”
“Girl! We need to work on your dungeon!” I heard Starburst shouting from inside the dungeon.
“I guess . . .” I started to say as I looked over to the boy, but he was gone. “That sucks. I didn’t get his name.” It was the first person outside of the dungeon that I had talked to since Lance. I wanted to talk more.
I sank through the roof and found Starburst in the destroyed section that Lance had wrecked earlier. I sighed and got to work. Thankfully, since it already existed, it didn’t cost much Aether to repair. Though, I decided that next time I might bill Lance if she was going to repeat this.
Chapter 28: Plans of Revenge and Hunting
Lance Teron
I hadn’t been quite as nervous as I was when the Highlock couple was interrogating me. They just wanted to know what had happened to the mansion, and I told them one of our mages overdid it. It was known to happen and usually caused about as much damage as was done. While I was talking to them, I noticed something I couldn’t file away. Azaria reminded me of Anna Highlock.
My interrogation under the guise of Erica quickly came to an end. This time I’d made sure to get as many answers about her personality as I could before I assumed it. Just parading around as Friz for a few days had been hard enough with knowing at least a little of his background.
They let me go, and I took a cab to my—Erica’s, rather—apartment. She got a few messages on her phone, but I ignored them for the most part, only glancing at them to make sure they weren’t important. I had a day or so to plan my attack on Kyle, then I might actually be free to return to my original life.
It was nice not having to walk the streets. I had a feeling I would be jumped again if I did so. Plus, Erica was loaded. I paid the cab once we reached her apartment building and made my way up to the fifth floor. Once inside, I found she had a small but decent place. She lived alone, so I didn’t have to worry about anybody showing up unannounced.
I collapsed onto her sofa and rubbed my shoulders. They were stiff from the events of the day. Slapping my cheeks, I sat forward and grabbed my phone. I needed to plan my revenge. Kyle was powerful. Having dived with him as a Harvester, I knew that. His telekinesis made it almost impossible to get near him.
I needed an ability that could get through that. The only time his goons had protected him was when a magic-based attack had threatened him. Anything with physical mass, he would just block with his ability. I concentrated and pulled up my status.
Lance Teron
Age: 20
Level: 19
Race: Human
Type: Harvester
Aether: 1000/1200
Skills: Harvest
Harvests: Heart of the Chimera – Breath of Fire
Incubus Tool – Mental Fortitude
Scale of the Corrupted Lizard – 50% Poison Resistance
Goblin’s Soul: Malice, Dark Vision, Concentrated Breathing, Dominate, Black, Heart’s Armor, Poison Breath, Natural Weapon, Eat Anything, Durable, Keen Hearing, Gluttony
Human’s Heart – Chaos
Human’s Lung – Fortitude
Human’s Brain (x2)
Fire
Water
Tunnel Rat Tendon – Scurry (+2)
Lower Mimic Storage Sac – Storage
Achievements: Trading With Chaos – You achieved something few could claim. While it might appear to be dumb luck, even luck has a place in the universe. Aether gain +1 per hour.
Solo Hunter – You defeated a dungeon on your own. Very few can claim the same. Great achievements deserve great rewards. Aether +1000
Right now, I had three abilities I thought would work on Kyle. Breath of Fire, Poison Breath, and Chaos. Chaos would be a bit of a wild card, while my breath skills had short range. If I could get close to him, then that would be fine, and at the party that might be possible. Though, considering he had gone after me as a guy, it might be harder than I anticipated.
Even if I did get close to him, I would run into the problem of the others at the party. I bit my thumb as I thought. I didn’t particularly want to kill everyone there. Not to mention, I was worried that one of the city’s heavy hitters might be there. I would be fucked if Neo showed up. He was rumored to be about our age.
“Looks like I’ll have to lure him into the dungeon after all . . .�
�
I would see if he would let me join his party to help me get revenge on the dungeon for killing my party. I would promise him whatever I had to if it would get him in the dungeon. Kyle was a coward though. I doubted he would go into a dungeon where ninety-five percent of the people who entered died.
Leaning back, I spotted a laptop. I pulled it toward me and checked the reports on Station 64, or Azaria’s dungeon. As I expected, the reports were grim. Though, the fact that I was able to give them information on all the bosses helped fuel optimism in finally breaking through to lower sections of the dungeon.
While looking through the articles, I spotted one that perked my curiosity. Clicking the link, I read through the information quickly. Apparently, when I accidently caused Erica to explode, one of the penguins was thrown from the building. The thread it was made from could be used to create clothes that were excellent for Aether conduction. There were already calls for people to start harvesting the material.
“I doubt she’s going to be happy to hear that,” I said with a chuckle. I thought about Azaria pouting when she saw people coming to her dungeon wearing clothes made from her penguins. The image of cuteness only lasted for a few seconds before one of bloodshed and gore after Azaria killed said people replaced it.
Closing the article, I opened the diving list for the dungeon. As expected, the slots were filling up. I did spot one that made me grin. It looked like Kyle might be a coward, but if money was involved, he was willing to move. I would have to make sure I got invited into his group at the party.
With that part of the plan finished, I moved over to a monster catalog. I really would have preferred an ability that neutralized Kyle’s telekinesis altogether. Filtering based on monsters that had that ability, I found one in Station 39. A frog that had telekinesis as well as telekinesis-blocking abilities.
Studying information on the dungeon, I found it wasn’t too frequented but still had a cultlike following. The same three parties were registered every day for the next ten weeks, the max that the schedule went up to. That type of registration had to have cost them a pretty penny. Falling over sideways, I stared at the ceiling. Looked like I would have to sneak in.
~~~
An hour later, I was standing outside Station 39. Like usual, there was a single guard standing watch over the entrance. Though, compared to the guard in front of the goblin dungeon, this guy was wide awake and watchful of anyone that passed by. Thankfully, I had called in help.
Mollie stood next to me with her blank eyes. “This is simple. I want you to go over and distract him. Do what you have to,” I said, pointing at the guard.
She simply nodded, then moved out of the alley. She unbuttoned her shirt and pulled her shorts down slightly, revealing hints of a black thong. I didn’t wait to see what happened and moved around through the alley to the other side of the street. On the opposite side, I waited for the man to have his attention fully taken by Mollie.
“Ma’am, please return to the street. I am on duty.”
“Just a few minutes won’t hurt you. In fact, it will make your night,” Mollie said in sultry tone. I couldn’t help wondering if that was something she was originally capable of, or the Chaos skill control was giving her.
The guard gulped before looking around but shook his head. “I will only warn you one more time.” He pulled a Taser from his belt. The moment his back was turned completely to me, I activated Scurry and rushed into the entrance. It took me about three seconds to cross the distance, but the guard was fully focused on Mollie, who was baring her chest for him to see.
Once I was inside the stairwell, I heard Mollie say, “Fine. Your loss,” followed by the sound of footsteps walking away, along with the sound of regret coming from the man.
I made my way down the steps until I came to the real entrance to the dungeon. It felt like I was stepping into a swamp. I pulled my cleaver from my Storage dimension and grinned. Time for some hunting.
The first floor mainly had poison-based plants, but with my Poison Resistance, I had little issue. I was halfway through the first floor when I wondered if plants could have harvestable materials, and I stopped to test my Harvest ability. Spots lit up all around me, mostly grays, but a few whites as well.
I took a few minutes to harvest the spots. As they were white and gray, I wasn’t too worried about absorbing them in the middle of the dungeon, but on the off chance that something extreme happened, I would rather have been in the safety of an apartment. Plus, it would have sucked if something changed to a plant on my body.
This dungeon was only four floors deep, but the frogs I wanted were on the second floor. Stepping on the second floor, I wasn’t sure where to start. The site with the information on the dungeon wasn’t very clear on the details of what areas certain monsters inhabited on the floor.
Moving forward, I felt like I was in a swamp that was in the middle of becoming a rainforest. Large trees grew along a small river that ran through the floor. The ground was moist, and I felt like I was sinking with every step I took.
Walking through a section of trees, I suddenly felt my body grow lighter. I wasn’t sure what was happening until I found myself flying through the air at what I thought had been a knot of the tree. When two reflective surfaces appeared, I realized I’d found my target.
I waited until I was only a few feet from the frog before I unleashed my Breath of Fire at it. It had sounded good in my head, but once the frog caught fire, its hold over my body was gone. I fell close to twenty feet. I managed to grab a branch just before I hit the ground, but the pain from my shoulder sent a burning sensation through my body.
The smoldering corpse of the frog dropped through the air next to me and slammed into the ground. I dropped the rest of the way down, landing next to the corpse. Looking at the grilled meat made my stomach grumble, and I realized I hadn’t eaten in close to twenty-four hours again. Frog meat was said to be delicious. With a shrug, I used Harvest and decided I would eat a leg afterward.
Chapter 29: Seeing Double and Carnage
Azaria
I got everything cleaned up before the first party of the day came. Looking them over, they seemed to be the best outfitted of the parties so far. The main defender guy looked more like a tank than a person. Just like every time before, I was pulled into the separate room and began playing my music. I was feeling a bit lethargic today, and that spilled over into my music.
They made it past Stella and were working their way over to Lucy when I noticed they had some sort of aura covering them. It didn’t take me long to realize they were blocking out my music. For some reason that bothered me more than I expected it would. I glanced at the piano, though I was playing the violin today. If only I had a way to play both.
My arm jerked suddenly, causing the bow to screech as it went over the strings. I gasped, feeling like something was trying to come out from inside me. Something ripped along my back, and I saw a pair of arms pulling another body out from inside me. While it wasn’t painful exactly, it felt extremely uncomfortable.
The next thirty seconds felt like hours as another me emerged. She stood like a doll, just staring at me. It felt like looking in a creepy mirror. “What are you?” I asked.
“I am your new ability. Mirrored Perception. I will exist until you dismiss me.” The voice was exactly like mine, only monotone at the same time. If I could sleep, I might have nightmares about it.
“You’re not going to try to take me over?” I had seen and read plenty of movies and books in which that had happened.
My copy just tilted her head. “I cannot. I do have a warning. When you dismiss me, everything that I have experienced will be absorbed by you.”
“I see. What happens if I dismiss you and then reuse the ability? Is it you?”
“A copy of the you of that moment will be created. There is no individuality to me. My personality is altered, as I am created due to the spell, but essentially, I am you.”
“This is confusing,”
I mumbled. “I guess I’ll just call you Zaria for now. You play the piano. I’ll take the violin.”
My copy nodded and moved over to the piano. She looked at me as I took up the violin and started a piece that had a piano and violin pair. The party had already defeated Lucy by this point and were making their way up to Starburst. The new music washed over them, and I was glad to see it actually have an effect this time, though not as much as I was hoping for.
The party was well rounded and knew exactly what they were doing. Starburst gave them a hard time, but the main defender had intentionally taken a blow from Starburst and managed to grab hold of him while the rest of the party dealt him blows. Seeing Starburst get defeated made me both sad and angry, but I had to serve my purpose. Once Starburst stopped moving, a chest rose in the center of the room that contained a bar of gold.
“Just gold. Great! I got stabbed for nothing!” the armored man shouted.
“Now, now. We’re the first to actually clear the first floor of this house of horrors,” another man said, taking the gold from him. “I’m willing to bet that the dungeon isn’t too happy about that.”
“You and your idea that dungeons can think. Whatever. The next floor better have more pickings.” The armored man looked around. “How the hell do we get to the next floor!?” he shouted, slamming his double-headed ax into the wall.
“Try pulling one of the books off the bookshelf, it might reveal a staircase,” said a woman with a snicker.
The armored man glared at her before he swung his ax, tearing three of the shelves from one of the bookshelves. As luck would have it, the mechanism for the hidden stair really was hidden there. The fireplace at the back of the room slid back and up to reveal a stair heading down.
“Fancy that,” another woman said.
The party moved to the next floor as the first party to ever do so. The cave maze greeted them. Though in my boredom, I had painted the walls pink and generally made it look as girly as possible. The party consisted of seven people, four of which were men, thus the reception wasn’t very strong.
