DD 302 Ch 27

“So does that, like, pay off your debt to Lady Frey, or how much did you get paid for that?” Des asked as we made ourselves comfortable back at camp, distributing the loot. Because even if it was a job to kill them, there was nothing that said we couldn’t take their belongings for ourselves. And apparently that incubus had been fairly well supplied.

He had a gemstone that worked like the inventory on my CID. And that inventory was filled to the brim with all sorts of goodies and plenty of items I had never seen before. But I could count mana crystals, and he was rich. Or at least very well off.

Part of me wondered if Lady Frey had sent me after someone who was both a competition and a jackpot on purpose. I wouldn’t put it past the Lady to send me on missions as a way to push me forward.

Regardless, all the wealth in the world would not get me the strength and leveling I wanted.

“Good work tonight. Let’s get some rest so we can grind hard tomorrow.” I said, putting away the incubus’ storage gem to continue going through it at another time.

“Such a dungeon-head,” Des rolled her eyes. “Doesn’t even stop to appreciate his ill-gotten gains. Things are always nicer when you don’t pay for them.” She draped a jewel encrusted necklace over herself. Though, I doubted she’d use it since the stats were so poor. Really, I had no idea why the demon had kept it.

“They aren’t ill-gotten.” I scowled at her. “What happens in the dungeon stays in the dungeon, right?” I winked at her.

Those words earned me an eye roll from her and the rest of the group.

The only one who had come out of the raid disappointed was Felin, whose ears drooped.

“There was no demonic cream. What type of advanced race doesn’t have cream?” she scoffed. “Besides, who makes technology out of rocks?” She held up one of the gemstones, which was carved intricately with what I could only assume was some sort of magical circuit.

“Until the all-powerful race of the dungeon decides that only those with cream get to be considered ‘advanced,’ it’s not our call,” Des scoffed.

Felin made a face and then tossed the gemstone to the side, only for Des to dive and catch it, juggling it before it could hit the ground.

“Careful with these. There’s precious stuff in it, even if you don’t like their food.” Des admonished Felin, who in turn stuck out her tongue and then curled up into my lap.

“Well, you can play with the gemstones. I’ll take Ken. Seems like a fair trade to me, considering you like what’s in there.” Felin said.

Before I could say anything different, Felin had already squirmed her way into my bedroll.

“Didn’t you say it was time to get some sleep?” she said, patting the spot next to her.

“Well, I’d be an idiot if I went back on something that important. But don’t think just because you’re cute you can get away with stuff like that forever.” I told her.

Felin tilted her head in what might be one of the most adorable expressions Nekorians made. “Uh huh,” she said, and then snatched me, dragging me fully into the sleeping roll and curling up against my side.

If she wasn’t asleep immediately, she had me fooled. She began snoring softly before my head even hit the pillow.

Des glared at her, but left it at that. There wasn’t much you could do against a Nekorian looking that cute and still have a conscience.

“Whatever. I should get some sleep too. We all should,” she said with a tone of finality, and slipped into her own bedroll as she gave a small glare at Felin, settling in for the night’s sleep.

***

The next morning, I awoke, unsure what had roused me. However, I quickly realized it was Frey’s signal stone. Once again.

Reaching over, I grabbed it.

“Yes?” I answered groggily, touching the stone as Lady Frey came into view wearing a blue blouse and baggy brown pants.

“Oh well, hello to you too. My, you seem cranky,” Frey chuckled, she was lounging on a couch.

“Don’t take it personally. I always wake up like this.” I grumbled, still not enjoying being awoken by the stone.

“Oh, peachy. I’m glad to know it has nothing to do with me. Still, I do think I would prefer a little peppier introduction to the day.” Lady Frey told me with a too sweet smile. “It’s important that you understand and practice how the hierarchy works.”

“Woohoo,” I said, feeling mildly interested in putting forward effort to amuse her.

Apparently my nonchalant stance came through the stone, because she clicked her tongue a few times in admonishment. 

“Fine, be that way. Any way, I do think you’ll want to wake up for what I have to tell you next. It seems, in our haste to kill the target last night, you may have been discovered.” She pinched her fingers together, and I resisted a loud and obnoxious groan.

“Care to give me that in an easier-to-understand way?” I asked, half wondering if she’d planned that.

“Oh, well, I thought it was pretty easy to understand. You see, sometimes demons have what we’re just going to go ahead and call curses planted in them. And the one you killed last night had as much. So unfortunately, when he was killed, that curse activated and informed anyone who cared to know that someone killed him. So congratulations on that.” Lady Frey told me. “I hope you don’t have any plans for the near future.”

“So, they know I killed them. Do they know where I am?” I asked.

“Roughly. The curse will give off something that can be tracked for a week or so after pinging his last location.” Lady Frey waved in the air.

“Okay, so people are out to kill me. I guess that’s nothing new.” I replied.

“Well, I’m glad you are so confident in this one. Because there are people who would very much love to kill you.” She told me.

“Do you have any more details for me?” I asked, trying to keep my tone even and not let my frustration leak through. She should have told me about these curses. It sounds like they aren’t uncommon.

“Nope, that’s all. Toodles.” She let go of her end, and the vision of her on the couch faded away, leaving me partially awake and slightly frustrated. Beyond being slightly more careful, there was really nothing I could do with the information Frey had just shared.

“You OK in there?” Des poked her head in.

“Peachy. Lady Frey called.” I held the stone still in my hand and wiggled it about. “Warning me that apparently I’m now at risk of being hunted by demons after last night. Something about killing that one demon setting off an alarm.”

Des winced. “That does sound unfortunate. On the good news… we’re all here, and if they want to come, I’m happy to kick some butt.”

“Remind me why you weren’t so thoroughly taken, or all the other men in the world idiots?” I said, smirking at her.

“You would think so,” Des grinned back. At least I had a permanent ally in her. I doubted that I would ever need to even ask help from Des. It would be there before I even needed it.

“Did the Lady give us any timelines?” Des asked as I came out and joined the rest of the group by the morning campfire.

“Timeline for what?” Charlotte asked, looking up from her station.

“Apparently there’s going to be retaliation for last night.” I answered.

Charlotte grunted. “Of course there is. Makes sense. Does that mean it’s going to be immediate?”

“Yes, the last time was fairly urgent as well.” I shrugged. “Not a clue. Hopefully we find out soon enough. Given how quick the other one happened, my bet is they’re coming right now.”

I frowned at the thought, and then realized there might be an actual way for me to find out. I asked [Eyes of Wisdom] to announce which direction the demons hunting me were coming from.

A clear beam of light shot out, straight toward what I knew were the stairs to the floor below us.

“Well, they’re not on this floor yet,” I said, realizing there was a decent limitation in the ability built in like that. And then I thought of something else.

I asked the ability to give me a line if they were coming in my direction, and a blue line immediately appeared.

“Hmm.” I frowned at it. “Well, they’re coming. Whatever that means, I’m not entirely sure.”

“I won’t hold my breath,” Penny said. “But do keep an eye on all of that. If they get close, it might help us significantly to know with a bit of warning.”

I nodded in agreement, once again finding myself immensely grateful for the ability.

“Oh absolutely. I think the reason Lady Frey likes you so much is just because of that,” Des said, and then paused. “Is she watching right now?”

I could only shrug, having no clue how the damn stones worked. It seemed that demon tech was advanced even if it was a bunch of glowing rocks.

“Let’s just assume she is. Besides, apparently they can track me through the dungeon in some way. I mean, Frey had to know I was near the other target in order to set up yesterday. We might as well assume the demons have a better idea of where we are than we ourselves do.” I answered.

“Probably something simpler than you think,” Penny said. “It’s not like they’re omniscient.”

Everyone in the group felt a little uncomfortable at that thought. The demons were clearly at least more advanced, and whatever technology they had tied into the dungeon was ahead of humans by a long shot.

“So then the plan today is just grind?” Charlotte asked. “Are we going to go somewhere and lay a trap?”

“Where did my cute little Charlotte go?” Des wrapped her arms around the back of the druid and rubbed her face against Charlotte’s. “Used to be such a good girl.”

“Blame Ken and the dungeon.” Charlotte shot me a look that wasn’t angry but held some hidden emotion. “It doesn’t take long in the dungeon to realize the rules are that might makes right, and the law only gets you as far as you can personally enforce it.”

Our entire group was nodding along. The dungeon wasn’t a place that the UG could enforce, they couldn’t even do anything to me after I’d gone against their request. The Orkai had their arbiters, but it was clear that the Nekorians considered it a mild nuisance at best.

“Seems the demons have very similar thoughts as well.” I offered, killing each other in the dungeon was acceptable, even if they tried to create things to dissuade it.

Charlotte pulled a pot off her makeshift camping stove and pulled wooden bowls out of her CID, lining them up along the counter before she began to pour porridge one after another, garnishing them with berries on top. We ate well in the dungeon, especially with Charlotte’s help, though there were times I missed Fayeth’s cooking.

“Still didn’t answer the question.” Des pointed at me. “Are we grinding, or are we setting a trap?”

“Why not both?” I smirked. “We’ll farm in a smaller area and put some tripwires in a wide berth around it. We might get some false alarms from the monsters, but it should help us in case they manage to sneak up on us.”

Felin made a face. “No stinking demon is going to sneak up on me.” She slammed a fist into her chest.

“That’s right. We have the best kitty in town,” Des teased. “She can smell cream from a dozen miles away.”

Felin only nodded vigorously enough to make her ears flop up and down. “Damn right you do. And besides, this is why I get to keep spending time out here before Bellaire kidnaps Ken again. I’ll be damned if a bunch of demons are going to ruin it for me.”

I chuckled. “It’s not that bad.”

But based on the looks I got in response, I learned that I might need to reassess that statement.

“Besides, it’ll be fun to surprise someone who thinks they can hunt the great Felin.” I said trying to get into the mood.

The Nekorian punctuated my words with a playful growl, though there was enough teeth to the noise that whoever was coming after us ought to regret their decision sooner rather than later.

“Okay, so we make a big barrier, farm up,” Des ticked off on her fingers, “and then spring a trap and kill demons before we loot them and head back to a nice cushy hotel to get ready for an interview. Sounds like a fun day.” She curled all her fingers back into a fist. “Hopefully whatever mojo they’re using to find us isn’t good enough to track us back to Earth.”

I smiled at Des, the predator inside me already excited for the prospect of combat in the near future.

“Don’t worry, Des. Sometimes it’s the low-tech solutions that are really the best. Besides, they can’t track us if they’re dead, now can they?” I smiled and began chowing down on Charlotte’s breakfast. I was going to need energy for what was to come. The hunt was about to begin, and I was feeling excited. It was good to be back in the dungeon.