Dungeon Enslaved

by D. R. Rosier

  How fucked up was that?

  She also couldn’t blame him for loving them both, they did spend a lot of time together, and were obviously sharing the sheets. She could see how that could happen, even if it wasn’t a normal monogamous relationship. Even then she didn’t feel any real jealousy about the idea of sharing, because Sophia would be hers in that way too, if not more hers than his. Still, she needed time to wrap her head around the concept, not to mention to figure out how she really felt about him. It wasn’t something she dwelled on often.

  She loved them, but was she in love? She didn’t know, but she did know she’d be devasted if she lost either of them. Was that an answer?

  She also wasn’t disgusted, which was her feelings when all the other males had proposed marrying and starting a family. Not exactly love, but was it enough? Not on its own it wasn’t, but it might indicate her feelings were deeper? Maybe?

  She was so confused.

  Lastly, it did explain why he wanted to leave, the church would never allow them to get married in some triad of love and family. Not because of the gods, but by tradition, and control.

  The silence dragged on while her mind raced.

  He said, “Well this is awkward, training?”

  Sophia cleared her throat nervously, “Sounds like a plan.”

  She said, “I’m not saying no, I just need time to think. You did kind of blindside us with it.”

  She also wanted to talk to Sophia about it, and she suspected saying yes to such a thing meant no more playtime with Anne and Regina, who she cared about too. Though, neither of them would even think about getting close to a man, not even Andy. They were even more messed up in the head about intimacy and love from the damn masters than her and Sophia were, and that was saying a lot.

  He gave her a mock confused look, “You need to think about training?”

  She snorted a laugh, and accused, “You’re a clown. Let’s go.”

  He winked, and they headed for the dungeon.

  Chapter Nine

  It was another day, and there’d been another five rooms of growth, split between the two new levels. My absorption rate had gone up by a tiny infinitesimal trickle, with the new mobs put out, but nothing appreciable at all that would impact build speed. Not yet anyway.

  “They’re coming back.”

  Astrith tilted her head cutely, “Who? The three church people?”

  I replied, “Yup.”

  She frowned, “I want to try leaving. We can see if they still sense a change or presence with me gone. I’m pretty sure that’s my fault, you shouldn’t feel any different to them awake or asleep, and you’re doing a great job with maintaining your power levels. They might have felt me though, even in my home and asleep like I was.”

  I considered that, “It couldn’t hurt to try, and would buy us time I think. I’ll let you know when they’re close.”

  We continued to chat about nothing important. My revenge plans were still nebulous, and my build plans were on schedule even if I was still missing four levels of mobs for my plans. As far as a relationship, that was premature as well, but it seemed like a good idea to get to know each other while I continued to grieve my past and my late wife.

  Astrith was ambitious, she wanted to accumulate more power, and see me succeed, just like any other dungeon imp’s ambition for power and knowledge was a driving force in her life. That’s where things took a radical departure from the norm. She was also sweet, exuberant, and wanted more than those things. She was also very attractive, but that was the least of it, even if it was a consideration. She was also chock full of energy, and constantly moving around in an alluring way, even when she stood in one place, she had a tendency to absentmindedly bounce on her toes a bit, which did interesting things to her body.

  I also knew she longed for more, love, family, a deeper connection, but that was her ambition and what she wanted, and told me very little about who she was.

  Some of what we talked about was downright silly, such as hobbies, favorite foods and colors, and we even spoke about music. I learned she had an amazing singing voice and took joy in music, and her favorite colors were red and black, which I suppose shouldn’t have been all that surprising.

  She was also patient, despite her stated ambition, it was clear she was content to be patient, until I’d learned about her and had finished grieving, although we never even spoke of that latter part of things it was obvious. Perhaps it was a little strange, and backwards, but then neither of us exactly had a huge dating pool to work with, and the possibility of intimate companionship was a draw in and of itself.

  She also wrinkled her nose and tilted her head cutely whenever she was thoughtful, and her laugh was tinkling and sweet, a balm on my soul. The more I learned about her, the more the idea didn’t seem so crazy, and was attractive, but I wasn’t even close to there yet. It’d only been a day since I’d heard of the idea.

  She was also a little touchy, and she had a short temper but was equally as quick to forgive. That just made her more fascinating to me though, and no one was perfect. It made me want to tame her, and her lack of perfection just made her seem more real to me and even more attractive. Between her exuberance and touchiness, I imagined she’d keep me on my toes, figuratively speaking of course.

  I didn’t have toes.

  Lastly, she was endlessly inquisitive, she’d already fallen for me in a way, or perhaps she’d just fallen for the possibility of us and in being in love, but all that had happened from stories from my mother, and wishful jealous thinking. Point was, she wanted to know about the real me, and not just me as seen through the rose-colored glasses of my parents.

  We had shared interests of course, magical knowledge, spells, and power was the obvious overlap, but there were more commonalities as well. Neither of us were into casual sex, and we wanted more than that. Of course, the obvious problem was I’d already had that, and lost it, time to come to terms and move on was necessary, if it was even possible.

  The only reason I was able to even come close to thinking about that logically, is because I had my grief portioned away in its own partition. I was glad of that, or I may have been unkind and rejected her out of hand, and Astrith’s happiness was already important to me.

  It was odd for me in a way, I already felt less hollow, and that perhaps revenge wasn’t the only thing life still had to offer me. Although, I’d never give up on my revenge, but I was starting to open up to the possibility of being more than a cold stone filled with vengeance.

  Her idea worked as well, when my descendent showed up with the paladin and other cleric, they didn’t feel an extra presence without her in the room, or really feel anything different at all. I only know that, because they talked about it before they left…

  A month passed slowly.

  It was a little boring actually, and not anything like my father’s dungeon which was full of adventurers of diverse rich backgrounds. The church continued to control me as far as the first six floors, while I kept the rage in its own partition at me being treated like a puppet.

  I’d built those six levels, a fourth level for both the undead and elemental four floor sections, and the four animal and forest levels. I’d even gotten the monkeys casting spells, sort of. They could cast two spells, a curse that would eat through magical protection spells, and an earth attack that would send sharp stone projectiles, tipped with metal. They were bigger than arrows, but smaller than javelins. About two feet long. I’d not given them any fire spells for obvious reasons, they’d burn down the whole level if a fire got loose. I wasn’t worried the adventures would use that weakness against the levels, because the first ones that tried would find themselves choking to death on smoke.

  Just in case though, I built fire breaks between the rooms with air and water enchantments that would soak and starve the fire. That way I’d only lose one room.

  Even closed off from the active and current first six levels, my dungeon was doubled, and I got about half again
the trickle of life force coming in, because a fighting level would always yield more energy from expended spells leaving residual magic and for other reasons. At the same time, it was less mana to maintain, since I didn’t have to re-spawn the mobs.

  Point was, I’d started building the additional four levels, the final four levels of master class. I had four golem types developed, wolves, bears, humanoid, and giant, although I was working on more they weren’t really needed. The wolves and bears weren’t much more dangerous than their live counterparts offensively, but they were defensively very hard to kill, highly protected from both magic and physical damage via both magical warding and their construction.

  The humanoid golem versions in flesh, stone, and metal depending on level, were just as tough, but were most dangerous with magic. They had a lot of offensive spells, and steel armbands to at least defend against melee weapons. Lastly, the giant golems could soak up an insane amount of damage, and had a variety of physical weapons, swords, bolt launchers on their shoulders, and of course their very bodies.

  All four levels were also mazes filled with traps from above, below, and on the walls in the tunnels between rooms. It would be quite easy to get into a fight with a golem, and accidentally step wrong and get incinerated from a spell trap, dropped in a pool of acid, or have a hundred bladed ton of stone fall on their heads. In fact, my golems were programmed to herd opponents into traps if they could, and to use those defenses in their fighting strategy.

  The final room was as nasty as I could get, a veritable killing field. Perhaps for a normal dungeon that would be overboard, but as soon as I activated and joined the new levels, and had escaped the control spells enslaving me, they’ll be out to kill me, not just beat my dungeon for bragging rights.

  As far as the four levels between the forest levels and golem levels for mid adept to mid master, I had nothing. No new ideas, and no monster races had turned up to serve. It’d been a month, and I only had about three weeks of building left to do, so I’d have to make a decision soon.

  I just didn’t want to settle, and double up on anything. I did consider adding four levels of combined threats. Undead, animals, and elementals all together and supporting each other’s weaknesses and complementing strengths, but I’d rather something completely original and separate if I had a choice.

  How did I feel about Astrith after a month of spending time with her?

  She was vivaciously cheerful, teasingly sexy, endlessly fascinating, and obviously available to me. Of course, only that latter one if I felt the same way for her, she didn’t want to be used, which I suspected was why she’d been so patient. Point was, she was mine for the taking, always had been since the moment she appeared.

  It’d only been a month, but I was also finished with the grieving. As a dungeon I’d been able to focus a small part of myself on doing nothing but that, for a month straight. It was probably the equivalent of a normal human grieving deeply for six months or a year, I was ready to move on, although I’d never let go of the need to avenge her death, I was able to personally let her go. It was enough, that I removed that partition altogether.

  The same went for getting to know Astrith, it was a constant thing and we were always together. Even as I constantly built, planned, experimented with mobs, spells, and enchantments, designed, planned my revenge, and all the rest of it. Point was, at the same time as all of that, I was also completely and constantly focused on the irrepressibly sexy imp that had turned my life upside down. That had to be the equivalent of two humans hard core dating for several months, if not over a year or two, given only several hours a week.

  Whatever it was, I was quite attached to my lovely imp, and I couldn’t imagine my existence without her in it anymore. Which, pretty much said everything, didn’t it?

  She’d pulled me out of the darkness, figuratively speaking.

  I was ready, and I wanted her so much it was almost painful. She was stunningly beautiful on all levels, if rather tumultuous at times.

  I said, “Hey gorgeous, got a minute?”

  I wasn’t even sure what she was doing, but she looked damned good doing it. She was lying down in her bed with a thoughtful look on her face, but she’d left her door open so to speak, the whole wall facing me really. She almost never closed it to hide from me, unless she was angry about something, and that never lasted long.

  Astrith smiled softly, probably because I called her gorgeous, and her foot started to tap the headboard right before she got up. She stretched and twisted her body back and forth at the waist, I suspected to merely to give me a show, and being a rock I could stare at her like a pervert and do so without getting caught, not having real eyes and all. Her body was pure sinful curves, and her breasts were scrumptious.

  She was wearing something called yoga pants and a sports bra, which looked amazing on her and left nothing to the imagination. She’d told me it was casual sleep ware for women and comfortable workout clothes in another reality, but I wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth, or if she just wanted to tempt me with her body, maybe both? Her supple bubbled ass was a work of art in those skin tight black stretchy pants, and her perfectly rounded and far too big for her size breasts defied gravity. Proportionally, they had to be the same as a five-foot-tall relatively petite woman with double D breasts, and they didn’t sag at all, probably a perk of being an immortal demoness.

  Her lovely nature just made her sexy body even more attractive.

  She beamed at me, “I always have time for you, master.”

  Her body flashed, and she was suddenly covered by a rather conservative looking red and white sundress. Yeah, sundresses were more clothes from another reality, she was pretty obsessed with it, hair styles, make up, endless dress and other clothes styles, and music which she sung for me often. Of course, it wasn’t hard to pay attention, or even painful at all, when she was the one modeling all the stuff for me.

  It was a hobby we didn’t share, I didn’t really give a crap about any of it, except of course how she looked in it all. I cared about her though, so I listened when she went on about it every once in a while.

  I asked, “What were you thinking about so hard?”

  She blushed again, perhaps at the obvious true interest in my voice. It was hard to tell sometimes, she was shameless in some things, and at other times she blushed like an innocent girl. I wasn’t entirely sure if it was her complicated personality, or if she was using artful innocence as a seduction technique.

  She was a demoness after all, but I’d decided a couple of weeks ago to give her the benefit of the doubt. There was no doubt in my mind she was a multifaceted and very complicated woman. In other words, she was someone that as a man I’d never completely understand, even if I’d had a manual and advisor. Which was fine with me, it kept things interesting.

  Either way, true innocence or seductive technique, it was very effective on me.

  She replied, “Nothing that important. I was reviewing your dungeon as built so far, to see if I had any suggestions. I was daydreaming about steak and lobster. I was also wondering if you were watching me.”

  I said, “I’m always watching you, unless your home is closed up.”

  She blushed again, and bit her lip, but she also looked very pleased at that information, smug even.

  “So, did you?” I asked, “See any possible improvements I mean?”

  She shrugged, “Nothing major, it looks good. Variety?”

  I replied, “Some. Every night I’ll move all the traps, and I’ll mix up the groups of mobs a little, manually. I’ve also programmed in disparate rewards for each mob type, it’ll actually happen randomly when they die so I don’t have to micro-manage that part of things.”

  I paused for a moment, and then asked, “Steak and lobster?”

  I knew what steak was of course, but what the hell was a lobster?

  She nodded, and said wistfully, “It’s a thing in the other reality, very tasty combination of foods.”

  That see
med like a good opening. I felt a little nervous about it, even if I already knew she wanted me. Of course, it wasn’t that bad without a physical body, lust, fear, grief, and other emotions were just a bit flat being a rock, without the attendant chemical reactions, adrenaline, and other physiological bodily reactions under emotional coercion.

  There was also a whole lot of anticipation as well.

  “Would you like some? I can’t actually create it, but with a spell we could eat a virtual one, as long as the flavors and textures are in your memories. We can also meet face to face, instead of face to stone?”

  Her face broke out in a beaming smile, and she bounced breathlessly on her toes for a moment.

  “I’d love to Narian.”

  She spun about and ran back to her home, which was probably a good idea. The spell would make us unaware of our bodies, well it would make her unaware of hers. I’d still be connected to the dungeon, only one of my partitions, the one with the primary focus would be inside the illusionary mind trap spell. Point was, she’d be safe in there during our date.

  When her home was buttoned up, I’d swear I’d heard the beginning of an excited squeal as the wall finished closing, I spun up the dark spell’s configuration, and sent it down our bond of dark magic. Then I followed it with a part of my mind and was sucked in.

  Chapter Ten

  The floors and walls were marble, with various throw rugs with reds and blacks in designs. There was a large king-sized bed to my right, and a large tub across the enormous room. The walls had art hanging, and torchlight. There were a few marble stairs past the head of the bed that led out of a set of double doors onto a large veranda. There were also a lot of flowers and other flora.