Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 375

Chapter 375 – Market

The marketplace as divided into two basic parts. You had the stalls on the street, and shops in the buildings. Discounting a couple food stalls that were selling things like meat skewers and grilled mushrooms, most of the streetside shopping looked to be low-level items and materials, or purely cosmetic items.

Cosmetic items under the System generally came in two forms. The first were the simplest ones, jewelry, clothes, and other accessories that didn’t have any System-related abilities other than the durability that their materials offered, but were made to be aesthetically pleasing in one way or another. Just like they had been before the Initialization. The other group, though, included things like [Appearance Stones].

An [Appearance Stone] was an item that could be used to ‘store’ the appearance of an item it touched, and then later overlay a glamour over an item of the same type, making it appear as the first item. In other words, it was like the ‘transmog’ system you saw in a lot of video games, especially MMORPGs.

Unfortunately, not all [Appearance Stones] were created equal. The [Appearance Stone I] were single-use. Once you took an item’s appearance and applied it to another item, the stone crumbled, and that was that. The [Appearance Stone II] was only ever able to store one appearance, but could be reused time and time again, while the [Appearance Stone III] had unlimited uses for both new appearances and casting the glamour. Naturally, the more impressive stones had an exponentially more impressive price tag. Worse still, they were separated by Tier, so a Tier 1 [Appearance Stone III] couldn’t affect a Tier 2, Level 1 piece of gear, being unable to either copy its appearance or place the glamour over it. And, obviously, higher-Tier stones were more expensive.

Most adventurers, at least in the Miami Guild, didn’t bother with [Appearance Stones], for the most part. The only ones who really used them, from what she’d heard, were the people who hunted the Necropolis dungeon, or made a habit of clearing out the goblins in Boca Raton and the undead in Orlando. Some of the gear you could find in those places, or could get made from the materials you recovered, could be quite powerful, but were… off-putting to look at, to say the least. So, if you could find a way to get a more pleasant look to your gear, while still keeping the effectiveness, why wouldn’t you take it?

Of course, she’d also heard some darker rumors on the Guild forums. Talk about underground arenas and fight clubs where people fought for the cheers of the crowds and a slice of the prize money. More than one rumor said that people were using [Appearance Stones] to deliberately hide their true strength, since you could usually discern how dangerous someone was by the type of gear they had, and what condition it was in. Sometimes could even get a read on their abilities that way, too.

Gracie wasn’t interested in such things, of course. The type of people who went for those kinds of fight clubs tended to be either too desperate to have a choice, or the kind of twisted individuals that loved killing for killing’s sake. She wouldn’t hesitate to kill when it came to fighting, but it didn’t bring her any pleasure, so she didn’t involve herself in that scene, and she didn’t let her pets get into it, either. And it wasn’t like they were strapped for funds, since diving dungeons always provided plenty of materials and gear that could be sold off. They might not be millionaires, but they weren’t poor, by any means.

Still, if they were going to spend any real length of time on these floors, then it might be a good idea to pick up a few [Appearance Stones]. Most of the weapons and armor she could see at the different stands that would normally be made of metal were made of bone and chitin. Leather goods looked much the same as normal, though in exotic styles. As for cloth goods, they looked to be mainly silks. Spider silks.

Movement distracted her from looking at the wares on offer. Ricardo was getting twitchy. Not surprising, considering that nine out of every ten people they saw in this strange town within a dungeon were Dogik. It was only her orders and the compulsion of the Slave title keeping him from doing something… unfortunate.

“Ricardo, you may rest in my shadow until needed.”

“Thank you, Mistress!” The Shadow-Blessed Human breathed joyfully, before literally diving into her shadow. While he still would be able to ‘see’ the spidery aliens around us, looking out through a shadow, instead of doing it normally put a filter of unreality on things, and made it easier for him to deal with his fears.

King shook his head. “Lasted longer than I expected he would. But we’re going to need to find something to help him with that, if we’re going to be working these floors. The raid will almost certainly have these Dogik, if they’re here, now.”

“Yes, that’s a fair point,” Gracie admitted. “This is a bandage, not a cure. We can’t have our Master Assassin running wild or getting twitchy with his blades, but something that would blind him to spiders would be even worse. And I don’t like the idea of getting someone to go in and rewrite your brains. Too much could go wrong with that.”

Logan shook her head. Out of any of them, the High Wizard had the largest array of potential spells. “I know a spell to alter memories, but nothing for removing or blocking deep-seated phobias. And trying to suppress or block fear on a long-term basis could be habit-forming, or have side-effects, like making someone so ‘courageous’ that they no longer consider the possibility of failure,” she said, before looking down the street. “Should we check some of the stores, Mistress? See if they have any specialty gear that might help?”

Gracie decided that was as good an idea as any, so they headed towards the first store they saw. The writing was in some strange script they hadn’t seen before, but, once they stepped through the door, it was clear that this was a slave-trader’s shop. A Fimaazro man wearing nothing but a [Slave Collar] and a loincloth stood by the door, and bowed as they entered. When he spoke, it was in a purring voice that tickled her fancy, like a cat licking her cheek. “Welcome, Mistress, to Sherush’s Slave Market. The Mistress is currently tallying new stock, but is there anything this slave may do to assist you in the meantime? Are you looking to buy? Sell?”

Gracie shook her head. “No, I’m not looking to sell. My pets are combat slaves, primarily, although they do provide me much pleasure. Selling one of them would mess up the way the party works together. I might consider buying, depending on what is available, though. But first, do you know of an enchanter or someone who can do some work on managing fears?”

The catlike alien bowed his head to Gracie, and offered her a tablet that lit up as she touched it. “If it pleases you, Mistress, please view this catalogue of our current stock, minus the latest arrivals. May this slave be excused to ask the Mistress about your concerns?”

Gracie smiled, and said, “Of course.” As soon as the catman left the room, she turned to the others, and said, “Well, I don’t know about you all, but that was pretty hot. Anyways, Liam, I require a chair. The rest of you, be good, and don’t touch anything. I don’t want to find out we’ve accidentally agreed to buy anything that costs more than we can afford without selling one of you off, after all.”

Liam grit his teeth as he got down on his hands and knees so she could sit on his back. At this point, the archer was strong enough that her weight was practically nothing to him. However, he still had moments of pride that she needed to properly deal with, in case he started getting ideas about betraying her, like that guy from the Crimson Claws did to his Master. Fortunately, orgasms usually served to soften the blow of any discipline she gave him.

The tablet was set up with a list of slaves, with tables so that you could sort them alphabetically by name, by class type, profession type, level, sex, and more, as well as filtering out unwanted options. Naturally, she filtered out anyone or anything below Tier 2, Level 25. While getting a dedicated pleasure slave might be nice, if she was going to purchase a slave, she wanted them to be somewhat useful in the fights they were going to be facing.

Next, she set the sorting function to divide by role types: Tank, Healer, Attacker, Magic, Stealth, and Support. Then, she filtered out the Stealth, Healer, and Attacker roles. King was a good Tank, but having another dedicated Tank would be good, instead of using their Healer as a backup. More Magic and Support could also help, as well. A solid Support would allow for more battlefield control effects to go out, limiting the necessity for a second tank, while more Magic would burn through enemies faster.

The problem was that the slaves on offer in those categories, and at the level she asked for, were not cheap. The average price for a Tier 2 slave was roughly 25k gp per level, including the levels from Tier 1. Of course, that wasn’t the whole story. Slaves with better titles cost more, obviously, while slaves with less useful classes and professions were cheaper. There was also a solid 25% markup on female slaves, pretty much across the board, and higher markups on the ones with Charisma-related classes and professions, like Flame Sorceress or Dancer. Gracie didn’t have to guess what caused that price difference.

Interestingly enough, the slaves on offer were not all ‘people’. Not just ‘not human’, but not eve elves, or space elves, or giant space spiders. One example that immediately caught her eye was a Dire Hellhound with the Unholy Defender class, and the Sworn Defender profession, basically making the mutt an extremely effective guardian. She set a star by that one, so she could come back and compare later.

Sherush

Dogik Female

Level 20 Mindwarper / Greater Slave Master

Titles: <Hidden>

A scuttling of claws against stone announced the arrival of the shop owner before they even entered the room. Sherush was a Dogik, and definitely in Tier 2, with that class and profession. Greater Slave Master was a generic upgrade to the Slave Master profession, focused primarily on the merchant aspect of it. She’d been offered it as a choice when she Tiered up, but had gone with the rarer, and more combat-focused, Battleslave Commander profession, instead.

The giant spider was garbed in what could almost be considered a robe of silk, though ‘draping’ would be a more fitting term. Non-armor items on a creature like the Dogik were just weird, at times, and their version of clothing was definitely in the weirder side of things. Still, the blue and white made a nice contrast from the black and brown of her furry body, popping nicely, without actually forming too sharp a contrast, that would distract a viewer. Definitely a designer piece.

When she spoke, her voice was silken, but carried a hint of predatory interest. “My, my, my! It has been so long since the last time we had outsiders in Khav-Szarol! And such fine specimens you have with you! I see you have been doing a wonderful job in raising them. But my pet mentioned you were perhaps looking to buy? And that there was something you were seeking? Oh, but where are my manners? I am Mistress Sherush, Mistress of this slave market, and who might you be?”

Gracie made herself smile at the spider. She might not be an arachnophobe like poor Ricardo, but even she got a bit twitchy when a spider the size of a car started getting a predatory tone around her. As she rose from Liam’s back, she said, “Ah, Mistress Sherush, I am Mistress Gracie, and yes, I was thinking of picking up a secondary defender or supporter for my party while I was here. However, I do hope you could point me in the right direction for another issue. One of my pets, currently residing in my shadow, has an unfortunate fear of arachnids, so I am looking for a solution that will not compromise his effectiveness, or have long-term complications.”

“Oh, yes? I can guess what you mean well enough. Dealing with ingrained fears is not something easily managed over the long term, especially if you are not skilled enough in mental magics to do proper ‘rewriting’ yourself. Avoiding the situation, or patching over it with a [Courage] spell is the simplest solution, but if you are to spend much time in Khav-Szarol, or press on to Khav-Srokzas, the Shadowed City, then that won’t do at all, will it? Don’t worry, though, I do believe that one of the enchanters in town knows a thing or two about this type of problem. But, in the meantime, have you noticed any of my stock that interests you?”