DD 302 STF + Ch 1

The Story Thus Far

Last time in Dungeon Diving, Ken finished up summer training with Crimson and prepared for the start of a new year at Haylon College. It would be his third year at Haylon, though ostensibly his class spent most of their time down in Star City, deep within the dungeon. They were focused on continuing to grow as adventurers under the direct tutelage of Crimson rather than staying in a stuffy, castle-like school as many of their predecessors had done.

But while Ken was working to better himself, those who moved against him did not sit idle. In the wake of Crimson's battle with the Nekorians in the dungeon, there were plans being concocted to give Ken quite the headache. Lucian was being pushed by his father to settle the debts of his dead grandmother, who, in his father’s eyes, had coddled the child far too much. Lucian’s father wanted to harden him and to use vengeance against Ken for that purpose.

Unbeknownst to Ken, Lucian, with the resources of a deeper society within the dungeon, began to stalk him and gather information using the Orcai of Star City, a highly intelligent and strong race that Ken had learned not to refer to as Orcs. One of the Orcai was Karnak, who had become somewhat of a rival for Ken. Karnak had watched Ken testing himself in the gravity chambers all summer long. Ken had no idea that agreeing to such a good-natured duel was really a ploy to gain information and set the stage for attacks that would later occur.

In the meantime, class resumed under Crimson’s usual draconian teaching methods. The entire class had grown considerably over the summer and continued their lessons with their own challenges, seeking trial abilities like Ken’s [Liminal Speed] and Crimson’s [Limit Break]. Amidst their searching using [Eyes of Wisdom] to route their way through the dungeon, they discovered that the Orcai arbiters, the supposed paragons of justice, were destroying entire safe zones without much time for investigation.

The rumor was that the arbiters were swamped and had begun destroying those that might cause trouble in the new reorganization that always came after a dungeon shuffle.

Lucian made several attempts to draw Ken and company into a trap, including nearly destroying the White Tiger Guild in an effort to put humanity in its place as a lesser race of the dungeon, meant only to serve their betters.

In their dive of the dungeon, Ken also found a new race, the Whaleryn including Misha who found Ken as an incubus fascinating.

The group eventually found their trial monster after making their way deeper into the dungeon. But while classmates were each taking turns attempting to conquer the trial, Lucian struck again, this time with the aid of strange mercenaries intent on killing Ken. These mercenaries, however, were beyond simply strange. When killed, they revived themselves unless a worm nestled inside their bodies was also destroyed.

In the disastrous fight that followed, one of the worm-parasitized mercenaries fell through a portal into Star City, bringing the arbiters down on Lucian and his co-conspirators. Though Ken fought Lucian to the end, the mercenaries were wiped out, and the Orcai arbiters were present to clean up and root out anyone working with them.

This new threat within the dungeon escalated to the Nekorian council, which ultimately removed Lucian’s father from power. With those events concluded, Ken hoped life in the dungeon would finally settle down, letting him refocus on his studies and growing his abilities.

However, while he worked to sink himself back into classes, Star City’s finest prepared to welcome a delegation from the demons and reconnect Hell after the shuffle.

Chapter 1

I scratched my head with the pencil, staring down at the test sheet before me, before I filled in one of the bubbles. The correct answer felt like a toss-up between B and C, but 50–50 was far better than an even split across four answers. I consoled myself as I guessed at yet another question on the test.

Life had settled down from the hectic mess that followed the ambush. We had proven to the Orcai investigators that we were not currently being controlled by worms, and we were allowed to return to normal life in the city.

There were rumors swirling of demons in Star City, but I had been relatively cooped up studying, though Dez had done her best to make studying as enjoyable as possible. Her study methods were starting to become addictive, which I had a feeling was directly part of her plan.

“Do you have time to be daydreaming?” Crimson’s voice startled me out of my thoughts, and my hand jerked across the sheet, making a pencil line all the way across the row of bubbles. I cursed and began erasing the mistake.

“You did that on purpose,” I muttered.

“Quiet during the test,” Crimson scolded, punctuating the words with a whip crack, though I was fairly certain the sound was actually created by her fist passing through the air with enough force to ruffle the papers on the desks all around me.

This time I actually stopped looking at my test to glare at her, only to find the black-haired woman with piercing blue eyes pouting at me.

Though her moniker was Mistress Crimson, it had more to do with Crimson being her last name, and she leaned into it by wearing a red leather bodysuit. This outfit iteration, I was fairly certain, was made from hide dropped by a dinosaur she so aptly named Fred. Poor Fred was ridden into the ground before she farmed him and his ilk. Dungeon monsters did not have any sort of personalities, but I still felt for the dinosaur.

There was a certain camaraderie I could identify with in being tormented by Crimson, though she often liked to call what she did to me “training.”

“Just working on the test,” I told her with a tight-lipped smile.

Crimson’s pout remained. “Do you not like the test?” she asked. “I made it perfect just for you.”

“I think it’s difficult enough.” I grumbled. Knowing her if I say anything else she’d make it harder.

Those words only made Crimson’s smile grow wider. “It’s a shame. I was hoping it would be a little too difficult. I can make you work for the extra credit if your score is lacking.” She shot me a wink, which caused half the class to glance in our direction and remind me this was very much not a private conversation.

“We can talk later,” I tried to escape, only for Crimson to lean on my shoulder.

“Well, I will just stick around and make sure you don’t cheat.” She told me.

I worked hard not to keep my eyes on the paper in front of me. Crimson’s red leather bodysuit was currently open enough that I could feel her bare flesh pressing into the back of my head.

Modesty was not a core principle of really anything Crimson did. She was the type of person to give absolutely zero fucks about what others thought of her. Then again, she was the most powerful human adventurer. Most people went out of their way to avoid upsetting her or even judging her too harshly.

“Get a room, you two,” Helen grumbled from across the room. The fiery-haired paladin was not my biggest fan and had a problem with harems, but really she just had parental issues.

I could only roll my eyes in response, glancing over my shoulder at Crimson and giving her a swift peck on the cheek. “I’ve paid my toll. Now let me finish in peace,” I pleaded.

Crimson pushed against my shoulders, lifting herself off my back. “Fine, fine. But I wasn’t kidding about the fact that you’ll probably need extra credit, at least if those are your answers.” She waved vaguely at my test and strutted purposefully to the front of class, popping her hips back and forth with each step.

I forced myself to pay attention to my test, even though Des was trying to get my attention beside me, bouncing her eyebrows.

The demonic mage, who like me had left her humanity behind in becoming a demon, was my temptress and girlfriend. I had become an incubus using demon blood Crimson had gathered deep in the dungeon. Of course, that had also caused it to escape and turn a boss into a much more dangerous challenge than I’d expected, but we were alive and I’d grown stronger.

I sighed. I needed to focus on the test and attempt to salvage my score.

The section we were currently going through had to do with the history of the other races in the dungeon. It was a very different syllabus than a Haylon student would have had years ago, but since the dungeon shuffle and our discovery of Star City, learning about the other races in the dungeon had quickly risen to high priority.

Especially given that these ‘deeper’ races were filled with powerhouses that even Crimson couldn’t compete with.

But despite the importance, I was finding it hard to care about which Orcai warlord was the first to enter the dungeon long ago. I was fairly certain the name started with a G, so I circled D for Grakash the Mighty and moved on.

The next question, however, I got easily. It was a question about the demon hierarchy and how exactly that worked. That felt far more applicable, given it had a very personal interest to me. There were a number of subraces of demons. The leader of each subrace was a demon king or queen, and then typically a demon had a number of demon princes that served underneath them.

However, one key aspect about how demons organized was to prevent betrayal. They often sought the other subraces for the princes and princesses beneath them. Those princes and princesses could only become a king by helping their lord kill another, for example, an imp demon prince who served an incubus could only become a demon king, by killing the competitor imp demon king rather than their current master.

Of course all of that had dozens of other implications.

It was a tangled web, but one that we had discussed at length in class, and I quickly selected the first answer, filling in A on my sheet. I knew that a succubus princess would not work for a succubus queen.

I continued with the test, suddenly buoyed by the idea that I knew one answer at least was absolutely correct.

“Time,” Crimson shouted from the front of class, only to a chorus of groans. Crimson waved off everyone’s groaning. “What? If you haven’t gotten them by now, you aren't going to get them anyways. And most of you were done.”

She then pointedly looked at me with a smirk, and I wondered if she had distracted me on purpose. I wouldn’t put it past Crimson to try and make me need to earn my extra credit. I could already imagine just how much fun she would have coming up with tasks I needed to complete.

“Alright, pass your tests to the right. If you’re all the way on the right, then it goes back around.” She waved her hand, as if we needed an example.

The shuffle of papers continued, only for Candice’s hands to rocket into the air above her.

“Isn’t it Haylon policy that teachers grade the tests? After all, there are multiple long-form answers on this one. And it would be remiss of students to accurately grade those.” Candice waited for an answer hand still rigid in the air, clearly on edge.

Crimson looked down her nose at Candice and said nothing for several seconds, just continuing to stare while Candice’s arm stayed rooted in the air. After nearly a minute, Candice’s hand faltered and slid back down to her desk before she picked up her own paper and passed it aside, earning a victorious smile from Crimson.

“Wonderful. Now that there are no problems, let’s continue,” Crimson’s voice held fake peppiness as she gestured for us to all hurry up. “I will grade the long-form questions separately. However, there is no need for me to spend so much time selecting between multiple choice. Sadly, I’ve been told I cannot get one of those fancy readers sent down here. And the Orcai have only offered some sort of ocular implant that could do it for me at high speed…” Crimson shuddered. “So while I have all of your hands, I’m going to use them. Any other questions?”

Harley shot her hand up.

Crimson stared at her before stating, “No. Anyone else?”

“You can’t just say no,” Harley huffed and the bell tied into her pink hair jingled.

Crimson leaned over her lectern and very slowly enunciated, “No.” She titled her head, a dangerous smile spreading across her face as she stared at Harley. “See? I can do just about anything I want. Now, if there are no further questions, please, everyone, let us begin.”

Crimson gave a quick glare in my direction before she began reading out the correct answers. I knew exactly what had caused that look. I might have let it slip to Candice that Crimson was not fully grading all of the tests, and the blonde had a near meltdown, because how could she learn if she never knew when she was incorrect. Crimson had been just giving the woman 100s and she probably deserved them.

While Crimson did what she wanted, she had a vested interest in remaining our teacher. She needed to grade our papers, and apparently this had become Crimson’s solution to the problem. 

Harley slammed her hands on her desk and stood up. “When are we going back into the dungeon?”

Her question was met by silence as Crimson slowly turned her head in Harley’s direction. A profound sense of danger crawled through all of our collective senses.

“When you’re ready,” Crimson said sharply. “Which, unfortunately, is not today. There are brain-munching worms that take control of bodies currently loose in the dungeon. The Orcai are actively working on hunting said things and killing anything that might even potentially be possessed.”

Crimson was unamused as she leaned on the lectern. “All of that is to say that I wish to keep my students alive. And that I’m under significant threat from Haylon Academy, the United Guilds, and several other forces of which your many families are involved. I shall not let you run around unsupervised until the threat is more clearly defined.”

Harley scowled, but she smartly sat back down. “This sucks,” she said, then looked around the classroom as if others would join her protest.

Candice shrugged. “We are too likely to be suspected and summarily executed. I, for one, am fine staying put if it means waiting until that risk has subsided.”

“You would say that,” Harley pouted. “The rest of us don’t enjoy sitting in our rooms and reading books nearly as much as you do.”

Harley meant the statement as an insult. However, it certainly failed to come off as one, especially based on the way Candice smiled. The blonde clearly had no issue with that fact being placed firmly on her shoulders.

“If it is any consolation, we will be going back to the surface. And Haylon is arranging a sort of job fair for us to talk to other guilds.” Crimson told us.

Des shot her hand into the air and did not wait to be called on. “Why does that matter? We all joined the Silver Fangs,” Des said.

Crimson looked around the room. “Are you all staying in the Silver Fangs?”

There were a surprising amount of nodding heads. But a few, like Helen, refused to be so absolute.

“Well, then we’ll have to give everyone an equal chance. Besides, the guilds love to bitch if and dig their heels in when anything they consider unfair occurs. Now, as I was saying, question eight. C.” She tried to redirect the conversation back to grading the tests.

But while she moved on, it was clear my mind, and everyone else’s minds were having trouble staying in the classroom. There was far too much happening outside it for us not to feel cooped up in the current situation.

But Crimson continued through our grading, reading off the questions. The time blurred by until we all passed all of the tests forward and Crimson collected them gleefully. I knew she was just happy to have avoided doing all of the work herself.

Taylor raised a hand immediately. The sporty woman had been stuck for the first two years as a tank, even though she was a melee DPS class. “Is there any guidance on how long the investigations are going to take?” she asked.

In return, she received a dour expression from Crimson. “Very little is known of the present situation,” Crimson said, before more hands could fly into the air she continued. “However, while being chaperoned, you can dive into the dungeon. And I am actively speaking to the Headmistress as well as the UG to arrange enough chaperones so that you can actively seek out the trial monsters that are required for you to pass this year.”

The reminder of the trial monsters made more than a few of my classmates’ faces light up in gigantic smiles. The abilities killing one of the trial monsters granted put adventurers on a new level, as had already been demonstrated by Crimson and myself.