Chapter 23 Dungeon Dive.
Refresh.
I slept for 7 hours for a change, instead of the usual 3-4 hours I had been getting as of late.
Once I woke up, I got showered, morning ablutions and got dressed, made some phone call, sent some emails, basically did the bare minimum to maintain the illusion I cared about the job I gained through nepotism. #FirstWorldProblems
Return
Back to Abaddon after a day's absence.
It's night time and it's busy with a mix of necromancers, lizardmen, trolls, undead and demons about. It's real multicultural or something. Possibly insane?
I have two notifications. One simple and the other decidedly less so.
I have gained a level up as a result of `taxes' of experience. Apparently 10% of experience from twenty thousand or so citizens is more useful than when lording over several hundred Trolls.
[Viridios, God of Nature, values the actions of your populace, where the strong devour the weak, this displays your people's acceptance and appreciation for the cycle of nature. As a reward to their leader you can choose the path they follow, bloody teeth and claws or systematic slaughter. Effect: You can now grant the Job of Farmer to suitable citizens. You can also assign the task of hunting fresh prey to Hunters. The path of the Druid lays open before you.]
I glanced through the Druid requirements in idle curiosity before dismissing it for the moment to get an update on what had happened in my absence.
Recap
I met up with Ren who gives me a recap of recent events.
Trolls have been renamed by the system to Troll, Stone Troll & Iron Troll.
The ones that have drunk my blood evolved into Onis, the ones who have drunk the blood of other vampires/dhampirs have not.
Apparently my Demon King blood pushes my minions down a different evolutionary path. Oh what fun. I guess I'll have to bleed for my people.
Gulch now is an Oni Lord due to him being the leader of the Onis and the Trolls.
Angus is a father of 6 now, 5 males and 1 female in Barta's Litter. I missed their cute puppy stage, they grow up way too fast. There are other pups about though...
Feminism has made it's presence known, with Morganna being it's main proponent. I'm kind of amused and annoyed at the same time. The Troll Females and Lizard Females have gathered under Morganna in a pseudo feminist movement in the Mage Guild/Library. Apparently they don't want to be mere baby factories any more, they want their own lives and careers. They are educating themselves to improve their options or something.
Maybe there was a hardcore feminist within the programmers for this world. Or considering the proclivity of feminists, a male programmer was forced by social media pressure into adding one to appease the feminists. Who knows. Its an unusual Easter egg whatever the original impetus.
It's an inconvenience to projected population growth but the influx of freshly spawned demons, Lizards and Trolls will suffice for now.
Iren has set up a gay sauna in the Township, where frustrated Troll males and Lizard Males can get their rocks off by pounding Iren and several dozen bisexual, pansexual or just plain gay vampire men.
Quite a bit of blurring of boundaries have happened during my absence. Most of the necromancers have become Blood Thralls of at least one Vampire or have become a sub vampire to a Master Vampire.
Others have made the trip to the Hell Mouth and have become demon summoners or simply made use of the undead available. These undead are different to the usual breed as they are the physical manifestation of the recently deceased projected from another plane of existence, rather than just reanimated corpses.
Long story short, it means they have memories of their former life and less inclination to murder their chosen necromancers as it's more of a partnership of convenience rather than necromantic slavery. This means that the necromancers don't need to waste mana or mental focus to dominate these undead and frees them up to engage in more involved defensive or offensive strategies.
The demon summoners have put in the hard work necessary to level up their Imps or their Hell Hounds by pitting them against other necromancers summons in the Arena.
At level 10 Imps turn into Familiars, gaining stronger fire magic and fire resistance. At level 50 the Imps become Demonic Gargoyles, gaining a layer of Hell Stone Armor, which increases defensive power & inflicts burn damage at close range. Demonic Gargoyles are a darkish red and their wings grow twice as large making them capable of longer flight time and capable of carrying heavier loads. Some of the Demon Summoners are literally carried by their Demonic Gargoyles for short joy rides (only the level 100 Necromancers who have Mana Shields up).
The Arena is now a popular place for death matches between minions.
The Township is making use of the influx of Wild Trolls to up their stats. Wild Trolls are drained by the vampires and either added to the collective forces under Gulch or used as fodder for the Arena depending on their performances.
Wild Trolls are used to help level up the Doom Wolves, a couple of level 50 Doom Wolves bringing down a level 70 Troll gets them quite a few level ups and extra stats.
Level 70 Trolls level up by fighting Lizard men and Lizardmen level up by killing Bunny Duplicates.
Gregor helps to keep the deaths to a minimum by using holy magic to heal combatants on the edge of death. Sometimes he miscalculates and screws up the timing and they fall off the edge.
Those who die are added to the armies of the necromancers, necromancers use the lower level dead to help level up imps or other undead. Some of the Necromancers have started to `adopt' the legions of undead in the Hell mouth.
A lot of the Trolls & Lizardmen have become the Blood Thralls of the vampires as well, though their relationship is more of a symbiotic partnership than would have been the case in Ratede. Since the Lizardmen and Trolls aren't captives or slaves, they have the ability to gain extra levels, which means they can be drained more often and give more back to their vampire `sponsors'.
Now Viridios' `blessing' makes more sense. My minions are ripping each other apart to get stronger faster. I don't know whether to be proud or horrified at this development.
Ride
I picked up [Disguise] from Elandra in her temporary shop in the Township which would allow me to pass myself off as a level 110 Druid Warrior with normal stats. I did have to use [Blood Filtration] to lower my stats by several thousand to pull it off.
It was a bit risky as any Mage over level 120 who used [Check Status] on me would see through the disguise and see my actual skills and spells. If I was discovered before I went into the Dungeon it would become a serious problem to my leveling up plan.
Before I left for my dungeon dive, I gave Ren a goodbye kiss which inevitably led to a goodbye quickie fuck against multiple nearby surfaces. After a few orgasms we went our seperate ways. Ren was definitely a keeper.
It was time to head out, just a man and his doggy.
Part of the disguise was shifting out of my normal outfit and into something more Druid Warrior like. I switched into a loin cloth and rode Angus bareback out of Abaddon past the layers of walls. Various necromancers and Lizard Mages were working on Enchanting the walls with various sigils of protection and defense to make them harder to knock them down or alter.
Caleb was leading efforts to further improve the aesthetics of the Abaddon by leading teams of Necromancers, Trolls & Lizardmen in construction. They all looked very busy and engaged in their work. It was good to see my city so lively.
It felt weird to ride Angus, since he had no saddle and his fur felt nice on my balls and being the pervert I was, I had a hard on. I shapeshifted to alter the lines of my face and to reduce the size of my dick by a few inches. Now I just looked like some average Joe, not the king of Abaddon.
I rode Angus for several minutes, bringing back memories of my teenage days of learning how to ride horses at that posh private boarding school in England. It was entertaining for a while what with learning how to fence and ride horses.
I had entertained idle fantasies back then of learning how to joust, which I did a couple of times at a nearby renaissance fair but it turns out trying to penetrate guys with your oversized wood is a lot of effort when they're wearing armor. That and the equestrian crew were a bunch of new money socialite scum, that and their cocks were decidedly unimpressive.
I rode Angus to the outskirts of Kratos and watched the activity on the border between Olympus and Kratos troops for several minutes.
The atmosphere was tense with an increased presence of Olympian troops patrolling the border with no Manticores in sight.
In geopolitical disputes in the real world larger national powers tended to annex smaller nations. However in this world, levels and resurrections create an interesting power dynamic.
Smaller nations could be overtaken by larger stronger nations but armed conflicts were generally avoided between two disparate forces.
There was a reason for this, while larger nations tended to have larger populations with military forces with higher individual levels than the smaller nations, larger nations tended to have more to lose even if they were successful in their conquest.
In armed conflicts the smaller nations may lose quite a lot of people but those who remain usually gain a lot of levels from killing higher leveled combatants. The forces of the smaller nations tend to gain skill levels & levels faster than their counterparts, which makes armed occupation hazardous and in the long term draining to the occupying power.
Falling from level 101 to 100 isn't a big deal, falling from level 200 to level 199 on the other hand is a massive loss. The higher you progress, the harder it is to level. A level 199 may need to kill thousands of level 100's to gain back a lost level and get back to level 200. A level 100 only needs to get lucky and kill one level 110 and gain at least one level, maybe even two.
The gods favor an underdog. It's more exciting. Sure a lot of level 100's can get killed by higher leveled Champions or Natives but with resurrection it adds a complicating factor to the matter. Especially if high level Priests get involved and use [Mass Resurrection].
Instead of larger nations being formed by military conquest of smaller kingdoms, most larger nations are a result of smaller kingdoms merging through marriage and mutually beneficially trade arrangements.
The only exceptions to this precedent is the Undead Empire and the Holy Empire. The Undead Empire doesn't care how many of the undead fall as they can always use the monster spawn zones to send endless waves against their enemies.
The Holy Empire, don't so much take over other nations as infest the continent with churches to Helios. They'll set up a church in a `pagan' kingdom' with a certain amount of Priests and Paladins who get paid by the nobles to preserve high value areas with holy magic.
They ingratiate themselves with the public for Curing certain medical conditions that alchemy can't touch. They also have regular sermons to convert the public to their religion to give more power to their god through the power of gold & belief.
Oddly enough both Empires paradoxically provide each other with benefits despite the fact that they're theoretically diametrically opposed in values and constantly at war.
The Holy Empire gains followers who wish to destroy the Undead Empire and a training ground for Paladins and their Priests to level up by killing the undead.
The Undead Empire incidentally gain the corpses of thousands upon thousands of barely trained and poorly outfitted peasants with dreams of glory. As well as a steady though small supply of premium Liches and Death Knights for their armies.
The public is ground between the two forces in an apparently endless meat grinder. Neither side seems that eager to end the war any time soon.
Raid
I made my way through the border guards with some old fashioned lying and basic bribery, a handful of gold improves the moods of the guard captain on duty, who let me enter into Olympian territory.
I arrived in the southern border fort town Coeus in Olympia, where it plays host to it's own dungeon. It's highest leveled monster is level 200 according to the online wiki.
I asked the guy in front of me "Is this the line to the dungeon?"
"Yes it is." the man responded turning around to address me.
We looked each other up and down, me with a giant doggy at my side and him with his arms crossed.
"Thanks for the information, I'm Derek, just wanted to make sure I wasn't in the line for bread or something."
He gave me another lingering look. "I'm guessing you're not from around here. My name is Dominic and this is my son Luc."
Luc gave me a quick glance up and down and turned back to his aimless staring into space. I wasn't so much offended as curious as to what he was looking at that he found so fascinating, or maybe he was just lost in thought.
Luc was lean and skinny, looking very boyish in a barely legal, probably jail bait kind of way, very cute though. The fact that he had two short daggers sheathed at his sides, made me think he was probably going for a general thief build, quick strikes, reasonable damage dealing, poor tanking ability. He wore brown leather tunic & breeches, with an oversized brownish back pack on his back. He had a pert little backside, that gave a rise to the beast in my loin cloth as I idly wondered what he'd be like under me. Would he be a quiet repressed boy muffling his moans or would he be an unleashed hellion in the bedroom, begging to be railed harder?
Dominic his dad cleared his throat loudly, bringing my attention back to him. Daddy Dominic wasn't dressed dissimilarly except he wore a light chain mail vest and had two swords at his waist. Daddy was kind of beefy, in a solid man of the earth kind of way, broad shouldered, big biceps and thick thighs. They didn't look too much alike, this father and son pair, which made me wonder if they were truly father and son or daddy and twink, then again it could just be a lazy programmer, they were Natives, judging by their status profile colors.
Either way Dominic was a tasty DILF. He spoke bringing me out of my fantasies. "So where are you from?"
"Oh I'm from Kratos. Came here to try and get some levels."
"Well I hope you like being shafted then."
"Huh?" I was a little shocked at how forward he was being, not that I necessarily objected but still...
"Kratos' citizens are having 99% of their dungeon loot seized so not many are coming here." he explained oblivious to my assumption.
"Oh. That's what you meant."
"What did you think I meant?"
I looked away a little embarassed by my presumption that he had been propositioning me. "Um nothing."
There was silence for a moment. "Oh. I wouldn't be so presumptious... Um well not without a few drinks in me."
I saw him blushing just a little, it was awfully cute seeing him so wrong footed by our little misunderstanding. I decided to be a bit cheeky. "Just for the record, I'm not opposed to being shafted, as long as they buy me a drink first."
He looked at me frankly, his eyes glued to my bulging loin cloth. "That's good then."
He trailed off and I left the silence linger, becoming more pregnant with meaning or something.
"How about you?"
"I'm not a fan of being shafted. At least not unless I'm wasted."
"Good to know but I meant why are you here in the line for the dungeon?" It was kind of fun messing with Dominic.
"Oh, we do a little harvesting in the dungeon, the city takes half but it allows us to make a decent living. My son wants to be an adventurer but equipping him is expensive."
"Cool. What are you harvesting?"
"Wolf pelts." he said with a slight quaver in his voice as he glanced at Angus.
I laughed it off caressing the soft fur of my soul companion, Angus didn't care for any Wolf that wasn't in his immediate pack, species solidarity was not a concept he was familiar with or interested in. "Makes sense, the fur is soft and the leather is durable and it can boost agility nicely. I'm guessing you two are locals then?"
"Yeah born and bred here."
I gave him a perverted smile, thinking about being bred here myself in this line. "Sounds hot." I said licking my lips lewdly.
Dominic blinked rapidly, trying to figure out what I was going on about before realizing the inadvertert innuendo in what he said. He looked behind me to where there were people lining up behind me and to the side where his son was nervously. "Would you like to join us for a bit on our harvesting? We could really do with your assistance!" he emphasised the ass in assistance a little longer than strictly necessary. I was intrigued.
"Sure why not. You can help get me all warmed up." I said, placing my hand on his right shoulder, pressing my hip against his. "So does it always take this long to get inside?"
He gave me an odd look, I couldn't tell if he was amused or annoyed, maybe he was bemused. "It's busier due to the conflict with your country, everyone is trying to prepare for the worst. Makes my job harder."
Luc gave us a brief look of confusion, his hands quick to grab onto the hilts of his daggers before looking at his father's acceptance of my touch and loosening his grip on the hilts, he drifted closer to his father's right side.
Luc was a strange one. He kind of looked like someone who would fall over in a stiff breeze but he had a strange intensity, though it could only be noticed briefly whenever he was out of his trance like 'normal' state of being and keenly observing the world for danger or something.
"Well hopefully I can help you out with that hardness."
Over the next hour I chatted/flirted with Dominic, who helpfully shared quite a bit of information with me. I was kind of shameless in that I used any excuse to touch Dominic. Checking out the leather of his tunic, making suggestive comments about the size and quality of his sword, exclaiming on how big and hard it was. Or asking him about what kind of exercise he did to get such big biceps, squeezing his biceps and commenting on their size. It was a bit hammy but I hate waiting. Waiting is the worst. I get bored so easily and when I'm bored, I tend to get into trouble.
During our chat, I got some basic info from him about the two of them and about the Dungeon.
Dominic was 33 and his son was 16, Luc was lean, bordering on malnourished and Dad was solid beef. Dad is level 60 while Luc is level 40. The mother is no longer in the picture due to a fatal illness several years ago.
At some point Luc went from staring at the sky to staring at me and his father, mostly me.
Luc didn't speak at all during the hour, Dominic apologised for Luc's lack of response to any of my questions claiming Luc was shy around new people. It didn't look like it the way he was staring at me with his hungry hazel eyes but I liked the quiet types. They tend to be freaks when you get them warmed up.
We finally made it to the front of the line and the Guard explained the process indifferently as if he was sick of saying the same thing over and over again for hundreds of people.
"Auto collection of loot is 50% for Olympian citizens, 90% for foreigners and 99% for Kratos citizens. Line up for the sigil over there." He pointed to another line where a bored looking Mage Enchanted one person after another with Sigil. "Any disputes within the dungeon should be addressed between individuals. Any attempts to monopolize certain floors will be firmly discouraged. If you are advised by a member of the army to vacate, it is in your best interests to comply. If you haven't already, you should make arrangements with the nearest Temple, Church or Divinity in case of need of resurrection. For all other enquiries you may ask the Dungeon staff located within. Move along."
We kept moving, entering the line with the Mage, he was a level 130 Mage, I sweated bullets, if he discovered my true list of spells and skills, I might have to fight my way out of here and that could get really really messy.
I went last after Dominic and Luc, just in case.
"Nationality?" he asked in a bored flat tone.
"Kratos."
He looked up at that. "You are aware that the collection rate for Kratos is the highest."
"Yes."
"And you still wish to proceed knowing that 99% of any loot gained from this dungeon will be the property of Olympia."
"Yes."
"So be it. No need to do a check on you then." He slapped his hand on my bicep and a faint feeling of mana flowed into me for a moment before settling. "This rune will automatically transport all loot to another site to be processed. I'd recommend following the trail blazers and staying out of trouble. There are those who will wish you harm."
"Um thanks." I moved on relieved at the Mage's disinterest in confirming my nationality. I guess it's unlikely that anyone would lie about being in the highest tax bracket after all. That comment about people wishing me harm was a bit worrisome but that was a problem to be dealt with by future me.
I'm less concerned about loot and more about gaining level ups. The sooner I can get to level 200, the better. Another interesting thing about dungeons is that there's a time dilation of 3 times, so you can spend 3 hours in a dungeon and 1 hour will pass outside.
I go with Dominic & Luc, flanked on my left by Angus, into the blueish purple portal in front of us. There's a quick lurch within my stomach as we are jolted from the 'normal' world into this new enclosed world of concentrated mana.
I looked up and there's a small sun in the sky and no clouds. A perfect day for monster hunting I guess. Beneath our feet is a solid dirt road trailing as far as the eye can see deep into a forest.
From what Dominic has told me during our wait outside, this Dungeon has the same set of monsters from level 1 – 100 as those found within Kratos on floor 1 to 10. There are twenty floors to this dungeons, after floor 11 things would get more challenging.
On the first floor, there are Demon bunnies, demon deer and monstrous boar scattered throughout this unnamed forest. It has the same smell as Beast Forest, that's for sure, a weird mix of cedar and animal musk.
There's a group of armed Olympian troops waiting on the path ahead.
Dominic saw me looking at them and explained "They're the Trail Blazers, they'll escort you to the Floor you want for a payment. Did you want to make use of them or shall we head off alone. I think between you and your wolf we should be fine to get to Floor 6 ourselves."
"Is there a particular method to travel between Floors or something?"
"No all you have to do is follow the Trail until the end of the floor and take the portal down."
"Someone on the programming team must have been a fan of the Wizard of Oz."
"I don't understand." Dominic said.
"Nothing important. We'll forge our own path, it'll save us some money."
I lead the way, killing the random beasts that attacked us with ease. Some low leveled Natives, trailed after us collecting the loot left behind. I don't bother collecting anything from my massacre, it's not worth it for me. Neither do Dominic or Luc, Dominic explained that they wanted to collect only the wolf pelts and get Luc to a higher level.
By the looks of it, the scavengers must be Olympian citizens judging by their fervor in collecting the japtem.
As such I end up with a trail of free loaders on my tail as I approach the end of the floor. I'm not fussed. Wouldn't be the first time I've driven the bus, somewhat different circumstances but whatever. It's easy to be magnanimous when it doesn't cost you much.
Dominic helpfully explained the two portals that appear at the end of the zone will either take you out of the dungeon or deeper into the dungeon. The one on the right leads deeper and the one on the left will take you out of the dungeon.
I go deeper, working my way through the next few floors with little excitement, flanked by the father son duo with cheapskates following behind us, collecting the spoils of our efforts and avoiding the cost of official trail blazers.
Dominic is more aggressive and experienced, wading into battle against goblins and hobgoblins with little fear or concern for injuries. Luc is a lot more cautious, only engaging in one on one fight and retreating back to me whenever he runs into more than one monster at a time. His sword strikes display reasonable experience at killing low level monsters.
We kill our way through the masses of monsters, it's not that difficult. There are a lot of adventurers around, some of them following after official Trail blazers so they can save their energy for bigger prey, some harvesting pelts and others just randomly killing stuff as they wander around.
These trails remind me a little of Diablo 2, they lead you to the next area but you can still get attacked unlike the Runed Roads I had grown used to in Kratos.
Monsters die quite easily, they're outnumbered by the sheer numbers of people out.
The further we go down, the less people we have to deal with.
We reached the Doom Wolf floor which is an area that has a smattering of trees around, they're spread apart, making it easier for Doom Wolves to ambush their prey.
I helped a little by using [Bind] on these wild Doom Wolves, making it easier for Luc to gain some levels and practice on insta killing Doom Wolves, while they're bound. A slice of the throat, a penetrating strike to the eye and into the brain and the classic, decapitation. Admittedly decapitation is a lot harder when the Doom Wolf is able to move, still it's good practice for Luc. He has to borrow his father's extra sword for the last technique.
They collect as many Doom Wolf pelts as they can carry, which means they kill twice that number to collect half as many pelts. It would have taken them much longer to do without my help since Dominic would have done most of the heavy lifting with Luc doing the busy work of slicing up the dead animals.
Luc has leveled up to level 50 with all the Doom Wolf kills he's racked up. He's now able to gain another class, providing he can find a Master that will teach him the basics. Natives have to actually do more work to get new Classes compared to Champions.
Once we were done, they thanked me or Dominic did at least. Dominic gives me a bear hug and a grope which gets me horny and hard so that when I'm giving Luc a good bye hug my stiff prick is pressed against his leather. He blushes but doesn't look away from my hard cock.
"Don't forget to meet us at the tavern once you're done, we can have some fun."
"Looking forward to it."
We had arranged to meet later that evening for some drinks at Dominic's expense considering this outing was not particularly profitable for me if calculated based on money earned. Frankly this outing just cost me money.
At the end of the 6th floor trail I said goodbye to the father son duo with regret as they exited to the third portal, which took them straight out of the dungeon. At floor 5 an extra portal had manifested that gave you the option of exiting to the previous floor. Right led you deeper, center, took you one floor up and the left took you out to pasture.
Back to being bored, killing things by myself. Well Angus was still with me but he didn't really talk so it was kind of boring. Soul communion allowed me to share thoughts with Angus and I got feedback from him but it was all in images and instincts rather than words, so I could tell when he was hungry, horny or sleepy but couldn't really have a deep and meaningful with him.
I continued onwards through the Dungeon killing Ogres, Trolls and Giants. It's not that hard, I simply use [Bind] to stall my enemies, then [Aura Blade] to finish them off. Angus covers my back to help me from being overwhelmed by superior numbers or being surprised from a sneak attack from behind.
I'm doing my best to keep up the image of my alter ego Derrick the Druid Warrior, so I can't use any AOE attacks that might draw attention.
A trail of scavengers follow me from Floor 6 – 9 picking up all the stuff I'm leaving untouched. Considering what they're doing I don't really feel like partying up with them. Some of them level up in the process, gaining levels from somewhat participating, throwing heals my way or using long distance attacks while I tie up the enemies with vines.
It won't improve their skills to be carried this far but they'll gain important level 100 bonuses and gain stats that will make it easier to farm the lower leveled monsters. Some may die due to overconfidence of being higher leveled than their talents would merit but that's their problem not mine.
Floor 10 is where I lose most of the free loaders as it's the floor with level 90 to 100 Lizardmen, it's a marsh similar to the Swamp I'm used to. It's nostalgic killing the Lizards, reminds me of simpler times, when monsters were just mobs to kill for experience and not minions I needed to manage. I'm actually happy to not have to see any trees on this Floor as after 9 floors of it, I'm over trees for the forseeable future.
At floor 11, it's time to go recruiting for some assistance to complete the dungeon. Admittedly I could easily swill a bottle of my own blood and gain MAXED stats to complete the dungeon solo but that would be too flashy. I don't want to alert the Olympian authorities to my true identity when I could use this as an opportunity to recruit some talented individuals to my side and also practice my own skills without all the convenient power ups.
I find five good looking guys to form a temporary party with, I go for a complete D&D set... A thief, A mage, A priest/Cleric, an archer & a Monk (unarmed Warrior).
I take the role of front line attacker because Druid Warriors being weirdos, bathing in blood is not uncommon, Angus of course is my beast companion and mount.
David is a level 103 Native Thief armed with two daggers for dual wielding attacks. He's kind of a glass cannon, burst damage, final hit kind of guy. It's an unusual class selection. Thieves aren't a popular class, most go for the Rogue, similar skill set, less problematic reputations. He's sort of a striker/sniper, stabbing his knives in whenever an enemy is distracted before running away to hide in the background/shadows.
Rogues slip into places for sexy times with married women, while thieves slip into places to steal jewels from rich men. People think Rogues are romantic while thieves are considered squirrely bastards out for your valuables. I don't really see much of a difference personally. They both lust over what others have, they just have different targets.
Pyroclast is a level 103 Mage specializing in you guessed it fire magic and is another Champion, hence the stupid naming choice. He's a glass cannon too, high damage, low survival chances when his mana/mana shield runs out.
Zelmy is a Native member of the Helios Church and a Priest. Hard to avoid them, they're everywhere after all. He provides heals and cures for negative status effects. He doesn't provide much assistance to me as I naturally regenerate health quickly. He mostly focuses his help on the Monk and the Archer who he was with when I met him.
Lester is your standard Archer/Ranger combo Native, he likes flaming arrows. Long distance support only.
Rennyo the Monk is the only one to provide additional support to Angus and I on the front line. It's interesting to see him fight without a weapon, just using his fists and feet to fight. He's dressed in multiple layers of cloth, like a shaolin monk with one shoulder bared and the top of his shirt? Hanging over loose fitting pants.
Floor 11 had Manticores for us to fight in a desert terrain, a little more difficult to fight when their numbers were in the thousands.
Manticores don't pose too much of a threat individually but it's important to avoid being poisoned or being overwhelmed by their speed and or numbers.
Pyroclast helped to keep the Manticores from grouping up as he used the spell [Combustion] to set fire to large groups of enemies when they clumped up.
My loin cloth was burned up the first time he used it. It was just a normal loin cloth after all.
I kept fighting naked, much to the discomfort of some of my new party members but I didn't really care about their protests as I found it funny.
Floor 12 had Chimeras
The Chimeras was where I really had to pay attention and stay alert, they were a new threat and I didn't have nonsensically high stats to rely on. Chimeras were a hassle to fight as they were the unholy combinations of random animals and sometimes men.
There were weird goat chimeras with scorpion stingers & dog chimeras with the faces of children and this really disturbing squishy thing with vines for arms and legs. The squishy one inflicted paralysis when touched, Zelmy had to Cure me of the negative status effect before I got absorbed. Nightmare fuel attained.
Floor 13 had Beholders.
Beholders floated above the ground, firing off bolts of power with their single eye. They involved a lot of running back and forth with Lester slowly knocking them out one by one while the Monk and I distracted the beholders. We couldn't tank their hits as they either hit with a bolt of intense fire or turned you to stone.
Luckily Zelmy provided some [Cure] to counter the petrification effect of the Beholders before they could shatter us and [Heal] for glancing shots from the flaming eye attacks.
After dealing with the Beholders, things got a lot more painful with a menagerie of annoying flying types.
Floor 14 had Rocs, giant Eagle like birds with wingspans of 16 yards.
The Rocs were tedious, they would try and swoop you up and try to drop you to your death.
Lester was again quite useful as was Pyroclast with their long range attacks bringing down the annoying birds.
The monk and I provided protection for them while they used their attacks, with the Priest keeping up the heals whenever anyone got injured.
When Lester shot down one of the Rocs, I used [Bind] on it and used [Telepathy] to form a [Soul Contract] with it. I named it Pidgeot because in some ways I have the mentality of a 5 year old. Pyroclast gave me a shitty look but when I offered him a ride, he was quick to change his tune. For a little while anyway.
Since I gave Ren 5 of my bunnies, I had 5 slots to fill up. I figured some high level pets would help for dealing with some of my current problems. I healed the Roc of damage and I sat on it's neck while Pyroclast sat behind me. For some reason he didn't want to sit in front of me, possibly because I was hard as a rock... on a Roc, get it ? I'm terrible.
Was fun riding the Roc, it was more fun stroking my cock while Pyroclast was behind me unable to get away, it made him super uncomfortable, judging by how much he whined about it. The fact that it made it even more amusing, the wind caressing my naked body, my hand stroking up and down on my unnaturally enlarged cock, the feel of a robed dude pressed up against me, while he said I was a pervert and a madman and a freak and I shot my load. Mmm is there anything more satisfying than having an orgasm when you're not supposed to. Or maybe I just liked my new pet. It was big. It would make for a useful way of getting around, that's for sure. Walking sucks.
After we dismounted he complained endlessly to a generally disinterested party. The Natives had more in common with each other than they did with us Champions. They just wanted to see how far we could get in the Dungeon before they called it a day. They didn't much care for Pyroclast's sexual hang ups. I was LARPING as a Druid Warrior, Druids were expected to be borderline insane, what with the living in trees and communing with nature and having animals as 'companions'. No one would expect that I was suspicious, simply because I was being far too outlandish to be considered a normal stealthy spy.
Floor 15 had Thunderbirds dominating the skies of a mountainous region.
The Thunderbirds combined the danger of a flying opponent with the power of a magic user...
They would fire off lightning from the sky, pelting us with damage. We had to temporarily retreat into a cave to regroup and recover from multiple electrocutions.
They weren't the only issue as some of the Olympia troops were using the place to train up their resistances and gain levels for the battle. The further down into the dungeon you went, the less monsters there were and the slower they were to respawn.
At floor 1, there were apparently 20000 assorted beasts with an hour respawn rate, similar rates of reproduction did apply but the sheer volume of people killing them off regularly made it less of an issue than if they were outside the dungeon. Floor 20 only had a single creature, the boss of the dungeon, a level 200 something Titan, which respawned after a day.
Similar rules applied as it did upstairs and outside, if a respawn happened and the area wasn't cleared, the population would be added to existing numbers of monsters, clash with other beasts in area or people. If the dungeon wasn't regularly cleared, the levels and numbers of the monsters would continue to increase until they broke containment and swarmed.
The Olympian troops allowed us to tag along as long as we understood that they wouldn't protect us if we continued on. Their mission was simple, they had to clear the dungeon up to the last floor.
A squadron of 100, 75 warriors of which 50 were protectors of the 'glass cannons' and support classes and 25 were vanguard warriors. There were 20 Mages of varying specialities and 5 Priests.
One of the Olympian Warriors went on a ride with me on the back of a Roc and got more than he bargained for, he wanted to get a lay of the land and though he did get that, he also was forced to watch me try standing up while wanking. It wasn't super sucessful, I kind of fell down and ended up dangling one handed on the Roc's right wing, my other hand busy jacking off, I was trying to do an aerial bombardment with my jizz but the spoilsport archer pulled me up before I could finish. Never mind, I can tick that off my bucket list later I suppose.
He went on for a bit about me endangering the mission and blah blah blah. I kind of tuned him out after the first ten seconds.
Brockton, the Guard Captain told me if I wanted to come along, I would have to behave and wear some clothes. I submitted to his authority and put on the spare tunic he had brought along. Brockton was butch and manly, with a deep voice and the kind of build I liked in a man, muscly and handsome. I couldn't imagine getting any work done if he was my boss, I'd be too busy thinking about sucking his dick or riding his dick or getting him naked to do anything even mildly productive.
Eventually we won against the thunderbirds as we climbed a mountain to get to their nest, drawing them into a close range battle to protect their eggs. I tried picking up an egg and it disappeared automatically, damn auto collection. I just wanted a look at the damn thing.
I picked up a few Thunderbirds, adding them to my collection of pets. The soldiers helped as they didn't have any Beast masters on their pay roll. Druids weren't particularly common in Dungeon Delves and druids tended not to hang out in the cities.
Floor 16 had Wyverns flying over a barren desert wasteland.
The next floor had the Wyverns, the cheaper uglier version of dragons; leathery skin, giant bat wings and a barbed tail. Oddly enough they were easier to kill even though they ranged from level 170 to 180.
Wyverns are dumb, they swoop in one at a time, giving up their aerial superiority allowing them to be attacked by various mid range fire spells/arrows which they're surprisingly vulnerable to.
My three thunder birds, Huey, Dewey and Louie helped to slow down the Wyverns by hitting them with various electrical attacks which made it easier for my expanded team to take down the Wyverns.
I filled my last slot with a Wyvern I called Brutus, because it was an ugly brute. What can I say I wanted to catch them all.
Floor 17 was a large swamp setting with lizardmen of various types, they posed the most trouble so far for the team, these Lizardmen varied between speed, strength and spell casting. The speedier versions were the shamsir wielding four armed Lizardmen Shadow Assassins, they were fast and their weapons were poisoned. The strong versions were Lizardmen Brutes and Champions, they were 8 feet tall, bulging with murky green muscles and covered in head to toe in tough scales, they were ambush predators, appearing out of the water to drag down their prey. The spell casters were Draconic Mages, they had large mana pools and cast various spells within the safety of Mana Shields while protected by at least a couple of Lizardmen Brutes.
The Lizard men posed the biggest challenge as they were smart enough to use tactics and would fade into the background whenever they started losing. Luckily for me, Angus could sniff out our enemies, making it easier to chase them down.
I asked Brockton how they usually dealt with them. He told me they usually just wiped the entire area out with high level gravity magic, or had a dozen mages use Flame Wave repeatedly until everything in the area died.
The outing gave me plenty of practice using Aura Mastery to improve my internal defenses and general strength of my body, granting me [Enhanced Body].
Floor 18 there was an abundance of annoying Hydras who regrew their heads after they were damaged. They hid in a marsh, with high reeds, which masked their presence until you were right up to them. Even Lester's enhanced sight wasn't of much use in spotting them.
Brockton had ten of his mages plus Pyroclast, just bombard the area with fire magic, Hydras couldn't regenerate flesh once they were burned.
Floor 19 was set in a windy, dusty canyon that had Ettin Warriors and Shamans led by an Ettin Chieftain, they were two headed version of Ogres that were 8 feet tall on average and used a variety of warrior skills and spells to be a nightmare in fights.
Ettin Warriors used Warrior type abilities to increase their strength by going into a beserker mode. Their punches obliterated rock and their steps caused the ground to quake and break beneath them.
They were backed by Ettin Mages who cast [Beserk], [Stone Skin] & [Lightning aura] on them repeatedly.
Beserk increased their attack speed, stone skin increased their defense and lightning aura inflicted lightning damage on enemies, reducing the speed of attack from attackers.
Trying to take down the Ettin Mages directly wasn't much use as they weren't soft and squishy like typical mages as they still had the bodies of Ogres and could wallop you hard if you got too close.
The Olympian troops protected their Mages and Priests in a circular formation as the Mages entered a war of attrition with the Ettin Mages while the Olympian warriors fought against the Ettin Warriors as needed.
Even though there were only a thousand of these Ettins, we couldn't bring them down easily or quickly. Reinforcements arrived from above, another couple of squadrons, which helped to somewhat even up the numbers between the Ettins and humans.
With 300 Olympian soldiers on our side, we took out the Ettins after a few hours, just in time for another two squadrons to arrive from upstairs. They were planning to lay seige to the Titan. My temporary team mates called it a day, except for Pyroclast who just wanted to try out his combustion against the Dungeon Boss.
Floor 20 had a single Titan, a 30 foot tall Giant with the power of thunder.
The Titan kicked our asses and we were forced into a retreat. Titan is the equivalent to a high ranked Magical Warrior. His body is harder than steel and he wields lightning as a short and long range attack.
The Olympians decide to wait at the entrance for further reinforcements. The problem with challenging the Dungeon Boss is you can only portal out after you get around or through him.
Once there were a thousand Olympians, they managed to defeat him. I helped very little, setting my newly acquired flying types to attack the Titan. Brutus the dumb ass kept using close range attacks, until he died, my Thunder Birds hovered around the Titan raining Lightning on it repeatedly to little effect and Pidgeot just let me fly around dropping aura enhanced rocks on it. My attempts to use [Bind] on the Titan had little effect, slowing it down for only a fraction of a second.
All in all it was a productive day, I gained 5 flying pets, 50 levels and some new acquaintances.
I left through the left portal to discover a horrifying truth.
Olympia sucks.
My newly acquired pets had been collected the second I left the dungeon.
I went to find out why and was told that ANYTHING acquired from the dungeon living or dead would be transferred to collection. As a general rule 'living loot' would be transferred as soon as owner exited the dungeon so as not to inconvenience owners during a battle. I guess that explained the lack of tamers making use of the Dungeon.
"We do graciously offer those who have gained something in the dungeon that they can't bear to part with the opportunity to reclaim it for a reasonable price."
After hearing the price tag, I was tempted to go all Dark Derek and inflict a plague on this city or a tide of undead, or open a Hell gate or use a max powered earthquake to level the city but then I couldn't take up Dominic on his offer of drinks and shafting... and that would be a shame, also morality or something. Who am I kidding? Morality can go fuck itself. The stupid city survived only because I wanted to get laid.
Anyway I submitted to the evil uncaring bureaucrat and bought back my new pets. Fuckers. Olympia was now on my shit list.
Revelry
After dealing with that I really needed a drink and a fuck, maybe several of each.
I went to the tavern, named the Golden Cock, it was the middle of the night so it was lively, with a mix of hard drinking adventurers and those just stopping by for a 'quick drink'.
I looked around and spotted Dominic, sitting at a table with Luc. Dominic looked well into his cups while Luc looked depressingly sober.
I walked over and greeted them with a "Hello guys, did you miss me?"
"Who are you?" Dominic asked looking at me bleary-eyed.
"Derek" I said at the same time as Luc.
It's the first time I've heard him speak and he sounds as expected. Like a moody teenager annoyed at his drunken dad for embarassing himself in front of someone he liked, it was kind of adorable.
"I Didn't recognize you With Clothes on." He said oblivious of the crowd around us.
People looked at us oddly and Luc went back to sipping at his drink as if he didn't know either of us. I was kind of impressed. Little shit. I'd teach him.
I unequipped the borrowed clothing leaving me buck naked in a bar. "Better?" I asked.
"Much." Dominic said with a drunken leer.
"Going to buy me a drink daddy?"
"Yes, Yes, then shafting."
I looked to Luc who just shook his head helplessly at the two of us, saying nothing. Dominic handed me his drink, sloshing some over the top. I took the proffered drink and quaffed it down eagerly. I needed it. It had been a long day, after all considering the dungeon, I was spending 9 times my life out of reality. I don't even know how that works.
It went down my throat nicely. Very alcoholic with a pleasant aftertaste. This is what I liked about this world, the attention to detail.
Dominic had a little trouble standing up so I kind of half walked/dragged him to the bar to get more booze into me.
"Hey barkeep can I get some booze please?" He glances over and does a double take, I've got a drunken Dominic hanging off me and I'm hard and horny, with a little bit of the spilled drink trickling down my body. I'm a bit of a spectacle at this point. The bar hasn't gone quiet like in a stereotypical western saloon but a lot of eyes are drifting my way.
A barbarian comes my way and I know he's a barbarian because he's only got a furry loin cloth on and has a large battle axe swung casually over his shoulder. "I don't think your friend can keep up with you, why don't you join our war band for a drink, we'll keep you entertained."
I looked over at the table he was pointing towards, there were 3 other barbarians similarly attired and each holding a clay mug up, talking animatedly with each other, they seemed in good spirits, or maybe they were drinking good spirits, hard to tell at this range.
"Well that sounds lovely, but first this one owes me a drink and a shafting." I said.
The barbarian gives me a long look which is disrupted by Dominic mumbling "Yeah he mine's first."
I looked down at Dominic, he's a little red in the face, he's become a somewhat sloppy drunk. He's dropped about 20 points in the hotness rankings. I glanced back at Luc who simply shrugs and sips. That damn boy being all inscrutable, I totally need to fuck his brains out later. "On second thought, I need to make sure this one gets home okay."
I picked up Dominic with one hand and carry him over my shoulder. Luc loses the stoic teen routine and finishes his drink and stands up hands on the pommels of his daggers as he strides forth. The Barbarian not one willing to give up the fight so easily throws out "How about we keep you company, it's late at night and you never know what trouble you might get into on the way there."
"If you want to cum, I won't stop you."
Luc stood in front of me "Leaving?"
"Yeah I think your dad has had quite enough for tonight. Lead us homewards." Luc glanced at the barbarian then at me. I explained "This strapping man and his friends are going to keep us safe on the way there."
Luc rolled his eyes and simply walked off. I really needed to spank that tight ass...
"I guess that's our cue to leave."
"Ugh. I don't feel well." Dominic said.
"If you throw up on me, I will leave you in an alley way."
"Harsh dude." The Barbarian criticises.
"Whatever."
I followed Luc trailed by 4 horny barbarians.
By the time we got to Luc's place I was eager to offload Dominic and get Roldan's cock inside me. Roldan was the Barbarian's name and he had his hand on my ass for half of the trip and his fingers inside me for a quarter of it.
The other three were Wolfe, Wymer and Yates.
Luc took his sweet time opening the front door and finally I offloaded Dominic onto the floor where he lay sprawled unconscious with a clay bucket next to him.
Roldan wasted no more time pulling out his 7 inch cock from out of his loin cloth and slamming it deep into my butt. "Yeah that's what I needed."
Wolfe the barbarian with a thick luxurious pelt of fur on his torso, is quick to push me down onto his thick 8 inch erection "Suck it!" and I'm effectively spit roasted between the two horny men.
Wymer and Yates stripped off their loin clothes, leaving them naked and hard with no holes left to fill. Wymer rocks a long 9 inch cock and Yates a 6 inch cock. They take up positions on either side of me and I take hold of each of their hard cocks, slowly stroking them as I'm fucked in both ends. I can't speak and Roldan and Wolfe are too eager to play with their new toy to bother doing more than grunting as they fuck into my holes repeatedly.
Luc drifts off before I get a chance to lure him onto my stiff aching cock.
Yates slips out of my grasp only to wrap his warm wet lips around my cock, bobbing up and down with practiced ease.
I fuck back and forth, fucking myself on Roldan's nice curved cock and fucking into Yates welcoming throat.
During the excitement I lose track of Wymer as well.
Roldan says "flip over" and they all disengage without a word and I'm abruptly staring at the ceiling of Dominic's domicile for five seconds before Wolfe's hairy cock is filling my mouth again. Roldan slams back into my ass and Yates is riding my cock like there's no tomorrow.
Heat and pleasure rushes through my body leaving me pleasantly in the zone as cocks are being shoved into me and my wood is expertly ridden. This was a good way to spend a night. Whatever night it was now.
Roldan is the first to shoot inside me and Roldan pulls out of my butt and is immediately replaced by Wolfe who slams his hard prick into me, he rams me hard.
I moaned deliriously, wanting more cock, I look around and neither Wymer or Luc is around and Dominic is still passed out on the floor dead to the world.
Yates leans over and makes out with me. "Fuck me dude, fill me with your cum."
That tips me over the edge and I unload in Yate's hole. "Fucking hell". I moan out as I blow my wad. Yate rocks back and forth on my cock as he strokes his cock furiously. He sprays my chest and abs with his cum... with a little whimper.
"Fuck, fuck fuck fuckkkk." Wolfe babbles incoherently as he rails me harder and faster until he unleashes his cum into me, he pants like a tired racehorse afterwards.
He keeps his hard cock in me as I do mine in Yates.
At some point we disengage and go looking to see what trouble Wymer has found.
We are shocked by what we find.
Luc on his knees sucking on Wymer's cock. That part isn't that shocking, it's the 11 inch cock sticking out from Luc's slender frame that's most surprising.
Luc gets up.
"So it seems that 'little' Luc here is a total top so I'm going to fuck you, while he fucks Yates."
Yates and I look at each other and with a shrug we end up 69 ing each on the floor as Wymer shoves his big hard cock into my wet hole and Luc fucks Yates. Watching Luc ram Yates repeately gets me all worked up for Wymer's cock inside me.
Wymer fucks me with slow steady fuck strokes, taking his time, making me feel every inch of his cock as he fucks me. Yates does a remarkable job of keeping me just on the edge of orgasm with his mouth all the while getting railed by Luc's long cock.
I can't say I can focus as well, a little distracted by how dominant Luc is while he's fucking Yates. Grabbing onto his shoulders, biting him, running his fingers over Yates lean body, spanking his ass. It's fucking hot. I want to be Luc's bitch.
Wymer takes about 15 minutes before he blows inside me and pulls out of me, our little fuck pile dismantles and Wymer and Yates leave us to our own devices.
We share a look and it takes less than a minute for me to be in Luc's bed, with him on top of me, my face pressed against his pillow as he slams his narrow bony pelvis into me again as his long cock deep dicks me.
"Oh fuck me, fuck me hard. I need it."
Luc obliges, by treating me like the horny bitch I am. His long delicate looking fingers, tightly wrapped around my throat as he choke fucks me. It's hot. It's crazy. Luc was a little hottie.
Ten minutes later after Luc has finished abusing my insides with his oversized dick, we wander out of Luc's bedroom to find Dominic on his back naked, with his legs spread as the barbarians amuse themselves with his body.
Roldan was slamming into Yates hole, alongside Dominic's 8 inch cock, Wolfe is fucking Dominic's face, his hairy butt bouncing up and down. Wymer is fucking Dominic's ass.
They're a moaning, groaning, grunting pile of man flesh. It's depraved, it's fucked up and I'm horny again.
I like these barbarians, they know how to party. I looked over at Luc who said, "Dad always wants it bad when he's trashed."
"Don't we all?"
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Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took me forever to finish. I was sick for the last week and it just didn't seem to want to come together. Still not perfect but it's the best I can do at the moment. Feel free to send any cookies my way.
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