Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 368

Chapter 368 – Rest Stop

Catalina Zorita and her team sighed as they stepped out of the portal to the sixth floor. They’d done well to get through the first five floors in a single day. The Misty Swamp, Goblin Town, and Lizardfolk Swamp were all slogs to get through, but it was difficult to rush through even the swamp on the first floor, with its traps and bosses. No one enjoyed it when Captain Hentai caught a group unawares.

Instead of heading to the platform where the Water Temple’s ‘fun’ began, Catalina merely waved to the succubus standing vigil over the floor, and turned towards the Safe Room. Technically, the whole beach was ‘safe’, since the Vurlocks didn’t come out of the water, as a rule, but most spells and magic items didn’t work on the floor, not until you got through the last lock at the bottom of the Water Temple. They could have set up camp on the sand, but, well, why bother with getting sand everywhere, when there was a Safe Room? Plus, no one had ever tested it to see if the vurlocks stayed in the water if a team didn’t enter for long enough, and Catalina didn’t care to try it, now.

Her Lord had apparently made a concession in this regard. Supposedly, the Safe Room had originally been in the water somewhere, but without being able to use most of the spells and equipment adventurers had at their disposal, no one had managed to find it. So, he changed the entrance to be in a stone structure on the beach, but put a timer on the key fragments groups needed to find if they weren’t taking one of the optional ways to open the temple, so that they teleported back to their original position one hour after being removed from the water. He couldn’t make things too easy on the adventurers, after all.

As they entered the Safe Room, Catalina could have begun giving orders, but everyone already knew what to do. Jonathan, her scrumptious Blade of Devotion, moved towards the kitchen area. As a ranked-up version of the Paladin class, he was their main defender, but right now his Master Chef profession was what drove him. They always ate well when Jonathan was cooking.

Dante, her Demonsoul Protector, was also a Master Armorer, which was why he went straight for the workbench. As everyone began taking off their armor, he did whatever maintenance and repairs were needed. At least for the ‘normal’ armor types. His skills didn’t extend to cloth armors, like wizard robes, or exotics, like Catalina’s own specialty armor. But for everyone else? He worked wonders.

Charity, her Shadowblade Assassin and Master Weaponsmith, took care of weapon maintenance. Of course, they all knew how to do basic maintenance on their weapons, and their armor as well. But that was just keeping them from falling apart with use. When someone with a profession or skill did the work, the gear actually showed increased effectiveness the next day. Oh, sure, it was only a couple percentage points increase, but that made a difference in a dungeon.

Ryan, their Hellfire Sorcerer, was also a Master Alchemist, which was why he went over to the crafting area to start brewing antidotes and other useful things with the ingredients they had picked up along the way in the dungeon. Most importantly, he was making [Scent-Blocker Gel]. This item didn’t last long, and washed off in water (or with sweat), but while it lasted, it blocked the person from smelling anything. Very useful for the boss fights where you knew ‘Lewd’ template creatures were going to be about. Fortunately, his robes had a mending enchantment on them, so it didn’t matter that Dante couldn’t give them his attention.

Then, of course, there was Jose, their Magitech Knight and Master Artificer. Despite the class name, he was more of an all-arounder than a pure defender. He used his Artificer abilities to create a Magitech suit of armor that, well, wasn’t quite power armor, but definitely had inspirations along that line. He’d also made his own weapons, and helped with building gear for the rest of the party, as well. However, the equipment he made was too exotic for the other crafters in the party to do more than basic maintenance with.

Actually, her own armor was another bit of Jose’s work. The Dominatrix class couldn’t really do heavy armor. She’d used leathers, like a rogue, in the early going, and the base of her armor was still leather, but with magitech bracers, and some other accessories added to the leather catsuit she wore. He’d also made the electro-whip she now used as her primary weapon, as well.

While the others were setting about their chores, Catalina went over to the computer to check her messages. She was still a guild leader, after all, so, if she didn’t at least check in, people would freak out. Naturally, she had filters on when she went into a dungeon, so only really important messages or a daily report would get through. Looking at the inbox, she saw no emergency messages, but there was the expected daily report from LA, and the ‘all-hands’ message notifying people that the Dark Sage that let his team die had been added to the blacklist. Normal stuff.

No, wait. There was another message, that just came in. From her Lord’s email address! No emergency tags, so she wasn’t worried, but there were several attachments. When she opened the message, she couldn’t help but smile.

“What is it, Mistress?”

Catalina looked up to see Jose looking at her from where he was tuning his Magibow, which was the ‘official’ term for his ranged weapon of choice, a magitech bow that shot bolts of force at targets. She grinned, and said, “Oh, Lucia is enjoying her time with Daddy, it seems. And is getting to meet some of the other denizens of the dungeon. In fact, Lord Kuronoth invited the Succubus Sisters from the Black Temple to have dinner with her, and they brought their hellhound with them. They included pictures, too!”

“Did I hear someone mention puppy pictures?” Charity asked, already phasing through shadows to cross the room in an instant, so she could look over Catarina’s shoulder at the screen. “OHMYGOODNESS! THAT’S SO CUTE! AWW, I JUST WANT TO SQUEEZE HIM AND PET HIM AND CALL HIM GEORGE!”

Catalina winced at the squealing sound Charity made as she spoke. The girl was silent and deadly when it came to fighting, but whenever she was confronted by something cute, she went full teenager. “Yes, yes, don’t fucking squeal in my ear, Charity! And you’ll get to meet the dog soon enough. That’s Bitchtaker, the Dire Hellhound they have at the bottom of the Black Temple floor. But he’s usually not so cute and cuddly.”

“So, what does the letter say about the little Princess?” Jonathan called out from the kitchen area as he cooked. “And what did Lord Kuronoth feed the girl? I hope he’s not giving her too many sweets! She’s a growing girl, and needs her nutrition! Especially since we don’t know a whole lot about Succubus physiology!”

“Oh, here’s a picture,” Charity said, in a much more reasonable volume. “Oh, wow. That hamburger looks like it is as big as her head! And with cheese fries? Mmm. Damn, that looks awesome.”

“Please tell me he at least has a salad or something so she can get her veggies!”

“Relax, Jose,” Catalina said, before he could get too worked up. “I’ll mention healthy eating when I reply, but one dinner with junk food isn’t bad, as a change of pace. Sure, I’d complain if he was feeding her McDonald’s every meal, but this is different. Plus, it is a special occasion, with her getting to spend time with her father, for once.”

Ryan nodded thoughtfully. “I remember hearing about how Lord Kuronoth would stop by the LA office about once a week after the guilds did that whole unification thing, to make the American guild. I assume that he was coming to ‘chat’ with you, Mistress?”

Catalina sighed. “Yes, we tried to make a long-distance thing work, at first. Something that should have been easier, since he can just appear when he wants, provided there is a shrine of him somewhere nearby. Unfortunately, timing became a problem, especially as my pregnancy advanced. Then, there was that issue one of the healers brought up after doing some research on the System Shop, indicating that there were some issues we needed to be aware of with divine parents.”

Dante frowned. “What kind of issues?”

“Well, it isn’t just with gods, or divine creatures, and it isn’t just with ‘divine dads’. Basically, individuals with incredibly high power levels have an ‘aura’ about them, even when they aren’t trying to do anything. Depending on their stats, that can have a lot of different effects. But these can cause issues with young children. Especially in the first couple years.”

“So, gods can’t see their kids without causing problems? And what kinds of problems?”

“Depends on the type of power the more powerful parent has, but it can range from dependency, to slavish loyalty, to allergic reactions, and more. Depending on just how young they are, or how powerful the parent is, the child might even have a physical addiction to their parent’s presence. And that’s without the problems of a bratty kid trying to wrap a divine parent around their little finger with the power of cuteness. So, after I gave birth, we kept our meetings to the office, and in secret. Of course, I told him all about Lucia, and her development.”

“So, he never got to actually meet her before now?”

“No,” Catalina shook her head, “but he did help, when and how he could. But it seems that even gods have limits on what they’re allowed to do, when interacting with the mortal world. Fortunately, a bit of ‘inspiration’ sent followers of his to go look for specific things in the System Shop, getting us the information we needed for things like how to properly feed and care for a succubus.”

“Ah,” Charity said, nodding. “So that would be why you said it didn’t matter if Lucia was watching us, during the Christmas Orgy? Because of something you found in the System Shop?”

“Precisely,” she nodded. “While it is still far too early for her to actually engage in any practices, even if she had the desire, a succubus is, by nature, a sexual being, so it is best for their mental health if they are raised in an environment that is as open and honest with their sexuality as possible. Can you imagine the damage growing up in a strict Catholic household where everyone’s repressed all the time would do to a baby succubus? Especially when someone finally realizes that the hunger pains she is getting is because there isn’t enough sex going on around her? Even when she hasn’t even hit puberty?”

“So, to sum up,” Dante said, trying to cut that line of conversation off, “Lord Kuronoth could not visit her in person, because of how too much exposure to his presence might warp her personality, but he still did what he could for little Lucia, making sure you had the System Shop equivalent of parenting guides?”

“Not equivalent. Actual guides. There are methods to turn people into demons, after all. They’re relatively rare, but in a galaxy with uncounted souls all living their lives, it isn’t unheard of, or undocumented. And those changed people sometimes have kids. Or you have some ‘interesting’ parent combinations resulting in hybrid children. So, guides were printed to help new parents deal with some biological and cultural facts of life.”

“So why bring her here, now?”

“Because she’s almost five, which means her Succubus biology has settled, for the most part, until she hits puberty. And she’s old enough to understand that her Daddy has to follow the rules, so he can’t be around all the time. Coming to the dungeon helps, as well, since Lord Kuronoth’s aura dissipates throughout this place. So, she would have to stay for months, perhaps years to start having negative effects on her body. And her Daddy would only be the first of many to try and deal with whoever caused her actual harm, so she’s safe enough with him.”

“Hey, Mistress, did you see the end of this message? There’s a note from our Lord, here. Seems he wants to know of you’d like to take a hellhound pup with us, when we head home, to be a companion for Lady Lucia.”

Catalina chuckled. “I bet Lucia looked at that hellhound, and reacted just like Charity. Probably offering the pup so he doesn’t have to deal with his daughter trying to steal the dog. And she would, too. Even if she doesn’t have an unlocked class, or anything. She would totally take on a god for a ‘cute pet’. Might as well say yes. But we’ll pick one out after we survive the monsters ahead of us.”