Book 3: Chapter 34: Gilbert's Message and Pillow or Rug
Lone, Sophie, and Breena, approached an employee desk. There were no expedited desks for higher strengths like in Golden Pass City but this place was far less lively so that wasn't needed just like in Milindo and the Farwinds.
"It's an honour to meet you!" the young Crimson Foxtail woman with one tail who was manning the desk beamed at Lone, her tail wagging furiously all the while. "I mean, your people disappeared a century ago and then you pop out and with nine tails to boot! I'll be writing about this in my diary, you can count on it! How can I help you?"
Lone smiled. That was a pleasant attitude to harbour. "We'd like to register for this quest, please. Sofia and I are B-rankers and little Sarah here will be our porter."
"Of course! Can I see your plates, please? I'm sure you know, but I need to register you guys! Unless you're new? I can sign you up for the guild if you are! There's not even a test involved to get your wooden plate!" The woman asked, a smile still spread across her face the entire time.
Lone leaned over the counter and whispered, "Can I level with you? Sarah here doesn't want to show her plate. She has former connections to the clan that she doesn't want brought up. Can I trust that the guild will keep her identity a secret if we show you her plate?"
The foxkin seemed startled at their proximity for a moment. Her tail even froze in its tracks. "Gosh, you're very handsome. And, oh, um, of course! Adventurer privacy is a given! We're trained to never give out adventurer, staff, or client information even under duress. It's all in the employee contract."
Lone leaned back and gave the employee a warm smile. "I know, I just had to make sure. Here ya go," he said, sliding over his gold-silver plate, Sofia's silver plate, and Breena's recently promoted from copper to bronze plate.
"Thank you! Just give me a moment to confirm your information to make sure you're all eligible for this quest!" the peppy employee said before dashing into a backroom.
Lone glanced down at Breena. "You don't mind that I decided to do that, right?"
She shook her head. "The guild is, um, the guild can be trusted, that is... It'll get out eventually anyway... We're just buying time..."
"She called you handsome," Sophie stated coldly, completely shifting topics.
Lone laughed and gave her a rugged grin. "'Cause I am. Can't blame the woman for having eyes."
"No, but we could remove them," Sophie threatened.
Lone chuckled and leaned down to kiss her which she welcomed. "Don't get your knickers in such a twist. You can see just as I can that her interest in surface-deep, likely born from my uniqueness, and will never be returned."
Sophie grunted in response but seemed otherwise appeased by the kiss. The rest of the guild was in shock at Lone being in a relationship with a human but neither of them paid any mind to that.
A few minutes passed before the employee returned. "Good news and bad news! You two being B-rankers and having perfect records means you're more than allowed to do this quest! Congratulations! Miss, uh, Sarah, right? Miss Sarah here doesn't meet the needed standards. Can she prove her value for the quest somehow? If not, she won't be allowed to go, I'm afraid. I also have a message for you, Lone Immortus, from the guildmaster but we'll get to that after this is settled."
"I'm! Um..." Lone was surprised to see Breena speaking up for herself for a first. Surprised and filled with pride. "I'm, um, going to be carrying the rewards from the, um, dungeon. A porter is a useful role, r-right?"
The employee smiled brightly. "Of course it is! Heck, in dungeon-oriented towns and cities, porters are a common and very well-respected profession. Not everyone has a dimensional storage item or one big enough for all the loot. Mister Immortus did say you'd fill that role, but I needed to hear it from you. Great job! I'll just fill out a form or two and then you'll be on your way! While I do that, Mister Immortus, you don't mind if I give you the guildmaster's message, do you?"
"Sure. I'm just glad I don't have to stay here today. I was worried that'd be required given what happened," Lone replied.
The employee giggled. "Right? You were unjustly attacked, but you're a free person! We can't hold you here against your will. The message is as follows, ahem: "The local elders, not the real Elders - if you know about them - are being very annoying. They're refusing to accept what happened yesterday as reality. Politics. I'll sort this out and you'll get your due recompense, but it could take a few days. I'm also dealing with correspondence from my own clan for our personal matter, so I can't meet you for a while. If you want to see Grimsley or Shana, here is their address." And that's about it!"
She slipped a sheet of paper with an address and general instructions on how to reach it before saying, "Now you three wait right here! I'll fill out these forms and go collect a dungeon manual! There are rules that need to be followed in a renewable dungeon, you see. Rules from the Dungeon City Collective, and rules from the dungeon owner, that being the clan itself."
'Huh. Dungeons never really interested me since normal one-time ones just have a flat percentage chance for rare goodies to pop up, though that's yet to happen with the three we've cleared. Maybe renewable ones are different and are highly regulated because of that? Why let adventurer's clear it though if, what, rare loot is guaranteed? Ack, I'm asking too many questions. Go in, kill shit, level up, get stats, Soph and Sophie get used to their new MP total. Stop overthinking, Lone,' he chastised himself mentally.
A few minutes quickly passed before the employee was done and handed a little booklet that was to be returned once Lone had memorised its content as the party's leader.
The rules essentially boiled down to three points.
One, don't physically harm the dungeon itself. It took an incredibly long amount of time for structural damage to self-repair in a renewable dungeon so damages caused intentionally or otherwise warranted heavy fines. The dungeon wouldn't activate again until it was fully repaired, after all, which meant lost loot.
Two, most dungeon masters for renewable dungeons had already been negotiated with centuries or millennia ago. They could kill intruders but no one was allowed to kill them or the dungeon would collapse. For that promise of non-lethality on the intruders part, the dungeon master was required to increase the amount of loot dropped in the dungeon. Some dungeons were safer than others because of this. It depended on the dungeon master's personality, but generally, they wouldn't go out of their way to kill intruders if they had entered a deal with the Dungeon City Collective.
And finally, three, a local rule for this specific dungeon was to be kind to the local dungeon master. They were immature despite their immense age due to being a spirit and they were very insecure about their appearance. In had been reported that prior cases of intruders being too brash, dismissive, or demeaning to them, had resulted in the dungeon renewing itself up to 70% slower, meaning less loot and thus less income for the clan.
"I wonder who the guide will be..." Breena mumbled to herself as she walked in Lone's shadow.
It was required that a local dungeon keeper would follow them in their efforts to try to prevent any of the rules from being broken though they apparently wouldn't interfere unless the dungeon's structure was threatened or it looked like the intruders were going to kill the dungeon master.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The guild employee had told Lone that the dungeon keeper role was general used for bad eggs to punish them since it was a boring job most days. They weren't particularly powerful due to this but they held dangerous items to be used in cases of emergencies.
"Apparently it's a local one," Lone said as he held his chin. "Think you might recognise them?"
Breena shook her head. "I... I don't recognise anyone. I, uh, I didn't even know the clan had a renewable dungeon..."
Lone narrowed his eyes and 'hmm'ed. "Is that so..."
'So much nothing,' Lelta Redtail thought to herself, chin in her hand as she sat outside of Eltoro's Grave just staring at the rolling hills and incredibly distant pagodas.
This job was the worst. You weren't allowed to train, you weren't allowed to engage in any hobbies, you just had to sit and guard. The contract magic made sure of that. It was a punishment for those who weren't exactly the best of contributors to the clan.
If nothing else, at least it would end when the group of adventurers who decided to pick up the quest cleared the dungeon. She'd be reassigned then. The problem was that most of the qualified groups were busy with the sanctions skirmishes. Still, good news had arrived via communication orb only a half hour ago. Someone was coming to free her from this position.
'I wonder which group'll do it this time? Most people are busy with the fighting against those blue bastards, so there can't be that many option- Wait. Who's that?' Coming over a hill Lelta could see two people.
One was a very attractive foxkin with way too many tails, way too many awakenings, and much too luscious fur that was seemingly golden. The other was a short female human. Probably. It was hard to tell since she was dressed head-to-toe in armour. Lelta had never actually met a human before but she'd heard the stories and this woman's figure, while small, fit the description.
She got up and grabbed her spear. "Halt! Identify yourselves! Why are you approaching clan property?!"
It was probably the group that was going to clear the dungeon, but she'd always wanted to do that. It was so empowering. Lelta had to hold back a smile as she felt adrenaline coursing through her system.
The Golden Foxkin smiled at her and replied, "We're adventurers. We took on the quest to loot this place. I'm gold-silver plate adventurer Immortus the Immortal. These are my companions, silver plate Sophie Vladimirovich, and bronze plate Sarah Redtail."
'A third?' Lelta narrowed her eyes and barely noticed a small teenaged red-tailed foxkin skulking in the man's shadow. "Can I see your adventurer plates?"
Since the fun of her roleplay was over, it was time to be serious and do as her contract demanded.
Without hesitating, the man swiftly and accurately tossed three small bits of metal with chains attached to them her way. Using her free hand, she grabbed them out of the air, inspected them, and nodded. "These look... in order. I guess I'm your guide then? Did you read the manual about the dungeon the guild provides?"
Immortus the Immortal nodded. "Sure did." He retrieved their adventurer plates and added, "Shall we hop to it, then? I'm in a bit of a hurry to get at least one level up today. Daylight's a'burnin' and there's stats to be earnin'."
"... What?" Lelta was immediately confused.
'What. The. Fuck. Is. Going. On?' Lelta asked herself. She was on the verge of having a crisis of faith, so unbelievable were the things her eyes were being forced to process.
Eltoro's Grave took a normal group helmed by an A-ranker about 12-hours to complete. Closer to half that for an experienced group and about a third longer for worse groups.
Hell, Lelta had cleared it herself before with a group and it took then a full 14-hours to do it. The dungeon wasn't complicated. It was the grave of an X-ranked spirit fox that had passed away of old age. Its spirit lived on after the body failed and it became the dungeon master of its own grave.
It loved the clan so even though it had some... personality issues, it didn't make its dungeon hard or anything. Very little was overly brutal or lethal in here but it still took time and effort to clear.
This trio however- no, not 'this trio', this man. He hadn't stopped moving even since they entered the dungeon. The human woman would say the location of a monster even though she couldn't see it and then the man would blindly follow her instructions and unleash a torrent of various magical spells until the monster was dead.
Sometimes, they would enter a room that was filled with crippled enemies, but she didn't know how they had ended up that way. They all were either missing limbs, were unconscious, or were bleeding profusely from the mouth as if they had internal injuries. The man always cleaned those rooms up without so much as a comment.
Immortus the Immortal and the woman would then move on, leaving the corpses for their Crimson Foxkin companion to clean up alongside any loot that popped out or was already present on their arrival, which had happened for almost every encounter so far.
This Immortus fellow wouldn't even winch or so much as look at a monster that didn't immediately perish to his magic and actual hit him with an attack. It was like he didn't feel pain at all!
One bite from these lesser fox spirit would be enough to make Lelta faint. They targeting more than just your fleshy body, after all, what with them being spirits and all.
But this man would just ignore them! A few seconds of being chomped on and his floating balls of blood would pry the beasts off of him and dangle them in the air for them to only helplessly wait for death by magical onslaught.
How did he have such an unending stream of magic? What were the two blood spheres floating around him and the one floating around the human's helmet? It made no sense! Gold-silver plated adventurers were strong, but not this strong!
It had only been half an hour but they were already mere minutes away from the boss room on the fourth and final floor of the grave.
"Is this... Is this normal?" Lelta asked her fellow Crimson Foxkin softly.
The sweating teenager jolted at being addressed. "Um, yes? No? I-It was faster the two times in the, um, Farwinds... Um, sorry? I, uh, what's normal?"
'The Farwinds? They've been to dwarven lands? That sounds awesome! I bet they don't have boring hills underground,' Lelta mentally commented, not really paying attention to the girl's awkward nervousness.
"Oh no... Why... It's so cute!" The female human exclaimed in horror.
The Golden Foxkin turned to face her and raised an eyebrow. "Well hello, Soph. We gotta beat it up no matter how fluffy it looks."
"But... You'll understand when you see it. It's right through there," the human said, pointing to the boss room door. "I'm gonna pet it."
"If it tries to hurt you, I'll break its legs," the man replied.
The woman who he'd been calling 'Sophie' up until now but had suddenly decided to give a new pet name stuck her tongue out at him and jogged over to the boss room door. "It would never. Floof heals, it doesn't harm."
Immortus the Immortal held his face in his hand and waved his other hand, resulting in the two blood spheres circling his head to follow the woman as she entered the boss room.
Lelta quickly rushed forward to ensure the safety of Eltoro's spirit. Her job was to make sure the clearing group didn't kill it and that they only cleared the dungeon but she was more than surprised by what she saw when she entered the boss room.
"Ahhhh! I love you! You're so precious! Who's a big floofy strong fox, huh? That's right, you are!"
Lelta's jaw almost him the floor when she saw that the human was hugging the magical spirit that had once protected the Crimson Foxkin for eons like it was a simple house cat or family dog.
What was even more shocking, however, was that instead of acting in anger upon being called 'precious' like it usually did when being likened to a cute or adorable existence which infuriated it, it was lolling its tongue out and happily accepting the human's affection as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
The foxkin man entered the room with the teenaged porter right behind him. He sighed and muttered, "You and your fuckin' Luck. Or is it because spirits are sensitive to true emotions? Could be it feels your sincerity and appreciates it. Gotta research spirits more. That guy's strong. High A-ranker, maybe? Very strong for a C-ranked dungeon. Must be because it's a benevolent dungeon master..."
"You're so soft! Not as soft as Lone's tails, but look at you! So much fur! So loveable and squishy! Lone, can we keep him? At least until Kyuubi grows big and strong enough to be ridden?" the woman asked the Golden Foxkin.
"Absolutely not," Lelta stepped in. "And it isn't a 'him'. It is Eltoro, a spirit. It's... It's very uncommon for Eltoro to be so friendly with someone here to clear its dungeon, but it cannot leave. It can only exist within this dungeon."
"Like Shale and the Farwinds. Bet that could be worked around somehow. Too many possibilities in this world for that to be unchangeable. Anyway, you heard her. Do we beat it up now or can you convince it to let the dungeon be cleared on its own?" Immortus the Immortal asked.
"You will, sadly, have to damage it enough to count as it being defeat-"
Congratulations! The host has cleared the [C-rank] Dungeon: [Eltoro's Grave].
"Thank you! You're so sweet! I'm glad we didn't have to hurt you," the human said as she squeezed Eltoro tightly. "This was awesome! We should clear this dungeon more often. You gotta make the dungeon big and strong again so we can meet soon, 'kay? You're too floofy for this to be our only encounter."
"... Would it make for a better pillow or rug?" the Golden Foxkin muttered unhappily, sending shivers down Lelta's spine.
Thankfully, they were magically ejected out of the dungeon before he could act upon those dark ideas.
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