DD 203 Ch 29

Chapter 29

The Royal College never ended up joining us. After Prince Albar and Professor Gafar had been killed, it seemed they had retreated in the opposite direction. Perhaps they were in search of food, or they simply didn't feel welcome amongst the other colleges after their attack.

Good riddance, if you asked me. Despite my promise to save Basma and everyone else, their college's collusion with Prince Albar to attack the others had sealed their fate.

I wasn’t too concerned with them, our own fate occupying far more of my mind than theirs.

Fayeth had gotten to work immediately as soon as I had brought her the demonic boar meat. It turned out to be quite tasty. And being such a creative chef, Fayeth even figured out how to scrape black salt out of the volcanic crags on the floor below. Salt went a long way making anything taste better.

Rather than immediately pushing down, everyone had settled in, enjoying the safety of a zone to return to at night. Even if we had to set up guards to watch each set of stairs, it was far easier to guard four entrances than it was to guard an entire perimeter. Plus there is safety in numbers.

The monsters were still increasing in level, but we had some stability.

Elysara sat down next to me, tugging a ruby strand of her hair behind her ear. She sat with the poise of a princess, which was always a tell for me when she was being serious. "I'm sorry about ol’ Nellie," she said, a hint of sarcasm behind her words. 

"Ol’ Nellie," I laughed. "Going to use that one again." 

Neldra just stuck her hands on her hips. "I'm not at all sorry for what I did. The princess had no business in the midst of that battle." Neldra crossed her arms.

"That's fine. I know how seriously you take guarding my love." I reached over and squeezed Elysara's hand. "But I feel like you came to tell me something a little more." 

Elysara wiggled her nose distastefully. "I don't like it when you know that I have bad news." 

I frowned at her. "And what would the bad news be?" 

Neldra spoke up for Ely. "As soon as Crimson gets back, Elysara needs to return to the Elven world. And she may not come back for some time." 

The princess scowled at Neldra. "Something like that. As much as I hate to say it, I think I need to return to the throne or at the very least assist my father. This dungeon shuffle has been a disaster. No doubt, the rest of the Elves and everyone else for that matter has been thrown into absolute chaos. I would love to continue to dive the dungeon with you, Ken, however, I must be there for my people." 

I squeezed her hand again. "A little time away only makes the heart grow fonder." 

She twisted her hand around and squeezed mine back, pulling me closer until we were pressed to each other, the princess like poise gone. "Unfortunately," she began, "I told Fayeth..." She trailed off, my expression turning sour. 

"And she's going to stay with you?" I asked. 

Neldra glanced at me. "After all of this, her level will be high enough. Technically, she could train as a Royal Censor." Elysara wrinkled her nose again at that, but didn’t deny it. "I think she would like to grow stronger," Neldra said. "All of this has put a certain amount of strain on her, and I can't blame anyone for seeking out strength." 

Shaking my head, I didn't know what to say about it, but I pulled Elysara into my lap and wrapped my arms around her. "You two are able to make the decisions you wish, and I love that you both are seeking your own path. You don't have to be with me every step of the way."

Each of the women were their own person. I had my goals of diving the dungeon and I knew Elysara would always have another great responsibility that would compete for my time. It was just a little sudden to realize she’d be taking Fayeth with her.

My mind was wrestling with the new information, but I was happy that Fayeth would take a path that she wanted.

She twisted in my lap and kissed me on the cheek. "Yes, but without Fayeth here, you're down a tank. I hate that I’d be making your party lacking." 

At her words, a certain blue-haired frost knight appeared in my mind's eye before I could stop it.

Elysara poked me in the chest. "Already lusting after others," she said teasingly. 

"No, I just had a thought." 

Elysara hummed. "Well, you should make sure that they're a good fit. After all, we will be back," Elysara said.

"It's not like you're leaving just now." I reached into her robes and ran my hands along her skin, wanting to be closer to her. Elysara bit her lip and glanced over at Neldra. "Could we have a little privacy?" 

The older elf chuckled and did a sweeping bow as she stepped back. "I will be just outside. The two of you have fun."

***

I left Elysara ragged, having worn the princess out, and dragged Felin in as well. This cheeky cat girl had come in and peeked.

Only after exhausting both ladies did I feel remotely satisfied.

I checked the seal on my pelvis, seeing nothing wrong with it. With this sudden increase in vigor, I had even asked Des to check it out. The so-called exam had historically been our excuse for some alone time.

And while this time she took her role seriously to make sure it appeared fine, Des did once again seduce me the moment I gave her full access. But I always enjoyed spending more time with my favorite temptress.

After wearing her out too, I put my clothes on to see what else was happening.

I exited the tent to see Fayeth and Charlotte casually chatting amongst the camp we had set up in the safe zone.

More than a few people were going up to the bosses attached to the safe zone. It provided a new challenge after we had finished with the raid. People were also reorganizing back into groups of five. It was important that after all of the growth we had in the raid, people once again learned to coordinate in their chosen groups.

I had even done a few runs with my group, though I had rotated Elysara and Felin around, given that my harem had now gone past five. Every time I left one of them behind, I felt rather terrible.

While the other Haylon groups were more than happy to pick up one of the talented women and run them in their group, I still didn't like having to pick and choose. 

I stole a glance at Penny, my mind wandering back to the loss of Elysara and Fayeth.

The blue haired frost knight had grown out her hair since she started school. At first she’d been openly antagonistic to me. Her father had placed a chip on her shoulder and she made me a target to smash in the first year.

Only after we crossed weapons and things settled, it seemed her opinion of me had done a one eighty and she started writing 74 Wives, a smut story about me and my life in Haylon.

Obviously, it was wildly embellished.

I wondered what effect me stealing her from her current group would have for the organization of our class.

Those thoughts brought me all the way until I sat down next to Charlotte, wrapping my arms around the shy druid's hips.

Bun Bun had been in her lap, and I squeezed him between her legs as I scooted her over. The rabbit squealed angrily at me, jabbering explosively before jumping on my head, kicking me several times with powerful hops, and then shooting off to angrily try and rifle through Fayeth's supplies in some sort of righteous anger. 

"Just let him have a few," Charlotte told the glaring Fayeth. "He's not getting a whole lot of vegetables, and it's not like he can suddenly switch to eating meat."

"Why can't he?" Fayeth gestured at the rabbit. "It's not like he's an actual rabbit. He's a monster."

Bun Bun grasped at his chest, letting out a squealing gasp, before putting a hand out of his forehead and pretending to faint. 

"Fayeth, you know he doesn't like being called a monster," Charlotte said, causing the elf to roll her eyes. 

"That's exactly what he is, though." 

Bun Bun, who was already fainted on the ground, somehow rose up and fainted once again, making the three of us laugh at the rabbit's antics. 

"Fine, he can have a few carrots," Fayeth sounded exhausted, "but it's not like we're having vegetables springing up. Right now all we're eating is meat, meat, and meat."

"Yeah, but we're adventurers. We're barely human, or," she gestured at Fayeth, "elf. We don't necessarily need the right nutrients anymore; we just need calories. Our bodies are far more capable than they used to be, able to make just about anything they could need, as long as they have the energy." 

Charlotte glanced at me, and I shrugged. "That’s what they say. We are really just balls of muscle running on mana at this point."

Fayeth rolled her eyes. "It's not just about nutrition. It's about texture, variety, and complex notes that go beyond salty meat."

"Delicious salty meat," I corrected her. "Whatever this drop is that the demonic pigs are leaving behind, it's like pork belly wrapped in bacon."

Even Charlotte hummed in appreciation. "I don't know if I'm ever going to get sick of it."

Fayeth threw her hands up. The chef of an elf, who was exasperated with our simple food preferences, huffed away. "Fine, I will remind you this next time you ask for something more gourmet."

Fayeth came over and sat on my other side. It seemed the elf wanted some physical attention too.

Since we had defeated the naga and stayed in a safe zone, we had only encountered the dwarves twice more, and they were scattered numbers.

A lot of the tension that had been in our group since we had been stuck in the raid had slowly begun to evaporate. We were still pressed to return one day, but some of the urgency that had come from the disaster was now gone.

“Fayeth, Ely just told me about her plans and… it seems yours.” I told the elf.

She sighed and closed her eyes, leaning against me. “I want to be as reliable as Neldra or Tish.”

“Not Miriam?” I asked.

The petite elf cracked an eye and glared at me. “No. Not Miriam. Anyway, I feel like I could definitely grow here with you. But…”

“But you could grow more going off and training with Neldra. If she could give you one on one training…” I trailed off as she nodded with me.

“It’s also about Ely. I think she need someone by her side to be not just a guard or a subordinate, but a friend. Since we are Adrel, I would get to break a few decorum rules and be there for her in a way that the other Censors can’t be. That and I expect you to get enough mana to make your own portals soon.” She smiled and poked me in the chest a few times.

“I promise,” and I meant it. It would be a great loss for me for the two of them to step aside and focus on their responsibilities.

Yet, I’d just have to make the most of the time remaining.

***

Crimson sat in the meeting room with the president of the UG, and many other high-level adventurers. Several analysts stood across the front of the room with projections on the wall next to them.

They were discussing various points of the reclamation of the dungeon. Reclamation was what the UG was calling the effort to restore order in this section of the dungeon.

The slide they had most recently put up had several hundred boxes at the top, each one representing a city on the surface of Earth. The next line had one-third the number of boxes, indicating fifth-floor safe zones. The pattern continued before it began to branch out. There were several nodes noted deep into the dungeons, ones that Crimson had been sent into and used Portal to rescue any isolated adventurers.

Arthur Renard sat next to Crimson, a scowl on his face as he glanced over. He wasn't happy that she hadn't gone to retrieve the Haylon contingent. "Are they at least still alive?" Arthur asked.

Crimson's eyes flashed blue as she used [Eyes of Wisdom]. "Of course they are alive. If I thought the answer would be any different, I would have gone in long ago. It isn't time yet." There was a devilish smile on her face.

What the man did not know was that Crimson had already gone and found them. She would never have risked Ken.

But what she had found was that they had sealed themselves inside the raid using sand. At that point, Crimson had an idea. If they were barricaded inside, just how hard were they working to grow? And that's when she asked, with [Eyes of Wisdom], an even more important question. "Would Ken grow stronger if I left him down here?" The answer from [Eyes of Wisdom] was a resounding yes. 

Crimson had known this entire time that though she wished to protect Ken and the rest of the class, her presence would always be a crutch.

There were countless stories of adventurers, including herself, who had gotten stuck in the dungeon at one point in time only to experience explosive growth.

The more she went about saving pockets of humanity for the UG, the more she was relearning the same fact. Adventurers often grew when there was nothing to rely on and they needed to survive.

There were even some scientists coming up with interesting theories after the Dungeon Shuffle. Many groups had explosive gains in levels.

There were scientists, the kind that worked on the CIDs, studying the mana channels within humanity that allowed them to gain stats, had several theories that under high stress situations, the mana channels in humanity were becoming even more flexible and adaptable, going through phases of high growth that coincided with extreme strain. 

Crimson had a smile on her face as she thought about Ken growing even quicker to the point where he could join her in the dungeon. "I don't like it that you're smiling," Arthur said. She smiled a touch wider at him.

"Deal with it.” Crimson pulled a chip bag out of her CID and popped it open, throwing a few in her mouth with a satisfying crunch as she focused back on the analyst and what he was saying.

“We've recovered an estimated 60% of those we believed to be in the dungeon." The analysts finished mapping out several other potential areas believed to house isolated adventurers. 

The president of the UG turned to Crimson, "If you would be so kind as to enlighten us."

Crimson asked [Eyes of Wisdom] once again which direction held the most remaining humans. "Far right, 2nd from the edge," she pointed. The analysts quickly started taking notes. Then she pointed to the very bottom, "Deeper, uh oh. Very deep," she said. "Possibly around the 70th floor."

The analysts paled, and the president of the UG shook his head, "70th floor. That could be tricky for us to reach." He gave Crimson a pleading look. They already estimated that about 20% of adventurers had perished the first week after the Dungeon Shuffle.

She asked [Eyes of Wisdom] once again if Ken was ready or had finished his explosive growth. The answer was a resounding no. She shrugged. "Sure, I'll go there. Have we heard anything about the elves?" she said.

"We've had several encounters here, here, and here." The analysts flipped through the slides quickly to one that showed encounters with other races and continued his presentation. There were several that contained warnings about naga and dwarves. Meanwhile, there was also a primer on a brand new race that had been seen once thus far in the dungeon shuffle. 

Crimson looked at the blurry pictures, wondering about the winged race. The picture held a green-skinned humanoid, and a winged woman flying behind him. They didn't know if it was a single race, or if it was two of them, but it certainly had Crimson's interest.

"The reason I've gathered you all here," the President of the UG looked around the room, "is that I would like to send several strike teams to break up the Dwarven colonies we have noticed." 

The analysts flipped back to the correct slide as the President of the UG continued to talk about how humanity would reclaim the dungeon and stabilize the region that connected directly to Earth. It was still going to be a long road. Even after several months, they had only begun to understand the situation. 

Crimson leaned on her fist, smushing her cheek against it. She was ready for Ken to finish his growth so that she could go pick him up.

***

Fayeth smashed another succubus aside. We’d been pushing deeper into the section below the safe zone.

This time, the monsters the demoness commanded were a little less pig and a little more human. They had been growing stronger on the lower levels. At this point, luckily, the level of the monsters seemed to have solidified. It appeared that the boss floor for this section of the dungeon was going to be level 55.

We were still a little under-leveled, but it could have been worse. I was not going to stop. Even if it took us all the way to the bottom of the dungeon to come back up and rejoin humanity, that's exactly what I would do to get home.

Fayeth looted the pig monsters of the boss floor. They had dropped even more pork.

I shook my head, wondering if it was still ethical to eat them once they started standing on two legs.

“Up ahead. Boss doors.” Charlotte had stepped around an outcropping of black rocks.

Looking up, my eyes landed on the boss door up ahead, my eyes narrowing.

Charlotte had been right; the iconic bronze doors were ajar.

I was curious to see what we would find inside. Given the demons and succubi we had encountered along the way on the floor, I suspected the fight might pose a danger to me.

For whatever reason, I had been insatiable lately, even exhausting Des on several occasions. It was possible it was all just stress relief from the stress of being stuck this deep down and having further to go, but I had to at least acknowledge the fact that in this state a succubus boss could potentially be quite dangerous.

But I would not know until we tried. If it started to overpower me, there was always retreat to try again.

Smiling to myself at the thought of progressing further, I walked with my party towards the bronze doors, ready to see just what we would find on the other side.