After we finished getting cleaned up, Kiki was laying his head on my lap on the couch while we watched some anime. He put on just an oversized sweater, while I put on a shirt and some pajama pants. I ran my fingers through his hair while we talked,
“So… Harem?”
He nods his head and says,
“Yeah! All the super strong adventurers have one! Same with nobles and rich commoners! Were you not planning on having one?”
I shake my head and admit,
“Honestly, no. Those are… Pretty rare in my world. Almost everyone is monogamous, though polygamy is becoming a bit more common. So, if I had to answer your question, you’d be member number one.”
Kiki shakes his head and sighs,
“I don’t see how a single lover could manage the stamina of the adventurers in this world. Those poor people…”
I raise an eyebrow at that. I inform him,
“Uhm, Kiki? Magic doesn’t exist here. Or at least, people don’t know how to use it.”
I correct myself as I can still feel Magic in the air. In fact, quite a lot of it. He looks at me, completely confused and asks,
“Really? Are most people in your world no-mag?”
I shrug and shake my head,
“I have no idea. I didn’t believe magic was real either until that portal appeared in my closet yesterday.”
He looked at me with shock and confusion, sitting up and gaping,
“What?! You just started learning magic yesterday?! That’s impossible!”
I shake my head and chuckle before teasingly saying,
“Really? I must be amazing then! The absolute coolest!”
Kiki nods his head and leans back down with a huff before saying,
“Of course you are! I wouldn’t let just anyone do the naked boing boing with me!”
I snort loudly at this, before breaking out into laughter. Kiki flushes and his ears twitch slightly as he buries his face between my thighs to hide away. I pet his head and say,
“Oh, gosh. Naked boing boing, huh?”
He looks back up at me with pure embarrassment clear in his baby blue eyes and says,
“I… meant sex…”
I snake my hand under his and cup his cheek before saying,
“I know what you meant, little kitty. That was adorable though. I swear, I dunno what gods your parents were to make such a cute, sweet, and precious baby. Not to mention dat ass!”
He flushes and sits up before lightly batting at my arms and groaning,
“Uuuugh! Staaaaahp teasing meeeeee!”
He throws a pillow at me as I chuckle. He puffs his cheeks up cutely before laying his head on my shoulder and muttering,
“Meanie…”
I smile and nuzzle the top of his head before placing a kiss on it. I whisper into his ear,
“I really like you.”
He nuzzles back, lifting his head to rub our cheeks together and says,
“I really like you too.”
I smile and give him a peck on the lips before saying,
“Alright, Kiki. I’m gonna head back into the dungeon. Do you wanna stay here or go with me? I won’t force you to do either, baby.”
He looks at me and looks back down while fiddling with hi thumbs. He pushes some damp hair behind his ear and asks,
“Will you… Be gone for long?”
I shake my head and lift him onto my lap before wrapping my arms around him,
“No, I won’t. Time seems to run faster in there. I went in for a few hours earlier, and only thirty minutes or so had passed out here.”
He looks down in shame and starts shaking before saying,
“I… I think I wanna stay here…”
I nod my head and kiss his forehead before pulling it down into my shoulder. I rub his back comfortingly and say,
“You don’t have to feel ashamed, baby. I completely understand. After going through what you did, I wouldn’t wanna go back in either. Don’t worry. I’ll stay safe, okay? After all! I’m probably the scariest thing in the dungeon!”
He chuckles and nods his head before leaning back up and smiling at me with a tear in the corner of his eye. I wipe it away and give him one last kiss before lifting him off my lap and bundling him up in a soft blanket. I kiss the top of his head before saying,
“I’ll be back in a bit, little kitty!”
After getting back into the dungeon, I put the scholar’s outfit back on and head out. I go ahead and get past all the regular mobs on the first floor with ease. A few lightning bolts to the head of the kobolds, a wave of holy magic to the skele-bois, a few ice lances to the hearts for some salamanders.
I get back to where Baraqiel was and find him standing there again. I tilt my head and wave at him;
“Hey! Glad you’re back! Alright, go ahead and die for me again!”
This time, the battle was laughably easy. Despite him being capable of using holy magic, he still had the undead weakness to said magic. It took about two waves and a couple slashes to kill him, but he dropped his armor and sword again! I could probably sell these outside! Consider yourself a target for farming, Baraqiel!
I didn’t get another copy of the basics of holy magic, though. Instead, he dropped a copy of some religious text from this world and a green crystal again. It’s called The Illum.
I shrug and toss it into the sack. It might be worth something.
After finishing him off, I walk through the door behind him. As I suspected, it leads deeper into the dungeon. This one doesn’t have the stone brick walls floors and ceilings. It instead has raw stone, like a cave. It still has torches illuminating it, but they’re fastened to wooden support beams. Almost like this is a mineshaft.
As a child, I yearned for the mines…
Just kidding. I’m claustrophobic as fuck. Thankfully, the cave is still pretty wide and open. Plus, I have earth magic anyways.
I continue on, keeping myself primed and ready to cast. Eventually, I come across a rather strange looking creature. It’s bipedal, and clearly undead, but it’s furry and hulking. It looks like a zombified werewolf thing? It’s hard to tell because half its face is all skeleton.
I decide to give Baraqiel’s spell a try. I coat my arm in the holy aura and run forwards, lightening myself and casting wind magic behind me. I slash forwards, sending holy energy at the creature. It turns towards me and snarls,
“GRRRRRRAGH! GRRRRRA!”
It charges forwards, ignoring the spell cutting towards it. Its eyes are locked to me as the holy aura cuts through its right arm, causing it to crumble to the floor while the rest of the beast charges at me. I smirk and swipe my arm sideways, sending a slash horizontally down the cave. It cuts into the sides of the walls, slashing through them with ease.
When it meets the zomwolf, it cuts right below its eyeballs and travels straight through the body, continuing on for about two dozen more feet before stopping.
The zomwolf falls over, its top half sliding off the bottom half onto the ground limp.
“Ugh… Disgusting…”
I cast a wave of holy magic to vaporize the body and grab the orange crystal before continuing on.
After walking for a while, I come across two zombie werewolves. They don’t seem to like eachother very much, as they’re currently biting and scratching one another. Though, the second they spot me they come running over.
I cast another wave of holy magic, but am shocked when it doesn’t kill them…
“Shit!”
I end up having to dodge down to avoid their attack. With a burst of wind magic, I send myself flying backwards while casting an aura blade at them, severing their lower halves. This doesn’t kill them, but it does make them far less of a threat.
“GGGGRAGH! KIERRRAGH!”
They snap at me and start clawing the ground, trying to get to me, so I put them out of their misery. One quick slash and they’re cut in half! Then, I cast a wave, which destroys their bodies and leaves me with two orange crystals… And a dagger? I grab it and inspect it, finding that it’s part of a set that drops from zombie werewolves!
[Rotten Lupix’s Fang: A dagger that is part of the Rotten Lupix set. It inflicts rot damage to all beings aside from holy, infernal, or fire attribute beings. (Effects: 4x Rot Damage) (Set: ⅙)]
That’s pretty good. Though, I dunno if I wanna deal rot damage. I’m not red enough for it to be cool, and my name isn’t Malenia. I’ll keep the dagger though!
After tossing it into my bag, I continue on, running into a few more rotten Lupix, and getting a total of thirteen orange crystals. Sadly, no more parts of the set drop. Eventually, I run into something a bit more strange.
It’s a hulking mass of flesh and bone, squeezing down the cave slowly. When it spots me, several eyes across its surface face towards me and sharpened bones start to protrude from its surface. I barely have time to react as I throw up a wall of stone to block those bone needles from shooting at me.
*TUKTUKTUKTUKTUKTUKTUK*
It sounds like hundreds of them are impacting the wall every second! Jesus, I’d be dead if I hadn’t used earth! Well, shit, it’s still attacking…
I take a few steps back and cast more earth walls before creating a wave of holy energy at the other side, sending it down. Of course, this doesn’t stop it, so I cast more and more of them. With each wave the amount of needles becomes smaller and smaller before eventually disappearing completely. I create a small hole in the walls to see through, and the tunnel is now completely clear aside from a singular green gem, and a long, pointy rapier made of bone.
I let out a sigh of relief and let the walls collapse. I walk over to the rapier while collecting the third green colored emerald I earned. I scoop it up and inspect it next.
[Undead Slime King’s Rapier: A rapier created inside an Undead Slime King. It deals bonus poison damage against all beings not of the holy or infernal attribute. (x0.5 Poison Damage over time)]
Huh? What does x0.5 poison damage over time mean? Does that mean it deals .5 of a creatures entire health over time or .5 of the damage dealt over time? Does it just mean that it does .5 times the normal damage poison does over time? If so, that’s not bad for a weapon that isn’t actually coated in poison. Obviously, it could be way better too. I’ll stash it for now. Sadly, it seems it isn’t part of a set, so there’s no use farming those Undead slime kings anymore.
After walking through the dungeon for a few more hours, I eventually come to the boss room. I’ve collected another two green crystals, fourteen more orange, and two more pieces of the rotten Lupix set. A hood and a pair of gloves. Despite their name, they’re not terrible looking. They’re a dark, thick leather, so I went ahead and equipped them. These are their status screens:
[Rotten Assassin’s Hood: Hood created from the rotten leather of a Rotten Lupix. It lets the wearer see in the dark and obscures their face in shadow. It also causes the user’s eyes to glow dimly green. (Effects: x1.5 Agility stat)]
[Rotten Gauntlets: Gauntlets created from the thickest part of the Rotten Lupix’s pelt. They increase the wearer’s physical strength, but majorly increase their grip strength. (Effects: x1.5 Vigor stat, 4x Grip strength)]
As you can see, they’re both pretty useful. I think I was spoiled by the Scholar’s set, because these don’t give nearly as much of an increase to my stats, but they still help me quite a bit.
Speaking of stats, let’s take a look at mine:
~~~~~
Stats:
Vitality: 12(18) / 26
Agility: 19(29) / 47
Mind: 438(1752) / 98,260
~~~~~
Yup. Lookin good! Alright, now that I’ve got everything in order, I lean forwards and push open the doors. They’re heavy, but with my new vitality, I’m able to push them open with relative ease.
When they’re fully open, I see a large, open room. Torches start to flicker to life on the walls, starting from the furthest point from me. They illuminate a figure, floating in the air, wearing ragged robes. As the last torches light, they suddenly flare up, revealing the figure of… A lich…