Lewd Dungeon, Book 18 Prologue

Prologue – Trade Chat

(Adventurer’s Guild Official Forums, Miami Branch)

SunnyBunz, MightyMouse, ImAPally, DontYouWantMe, AsaAkiraIsBae, BestGirl, LatinHeat, Salty, Backpage, Craig34, l33tpally, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, RedFox, Kimiko, DonnyJuan, Crusader, BadCompany, HurricaneGal, Ambassador, Scholar, Righteous, Id10t, Satyr, DarkEnchanter, RangerMiguel, ScoopGirl, VenusFlyTramp, MagicMike, TsundereHealer, Max, LightningLegacy, SwiftTaylor, Domino, Bacchus, Aegis, Temptation, and Lord_Kickass are in the chat.

Salty: Hey, guys, looking for a few more to join up for the regular vurlock purge. Their numbers are getting back up there. Need to cut them down or they’ll invade the beaches again.

Domino: Sorry, Salty. I’m heading up to deal with the goblins this week. Their levels are still only in the 10 to 20 range, but you know how fast those things replace their numbers.

Id10t: I’ll go with you, Salty. Need to work on my underwater combat for the next time I head to the dungeon.

Kimiko: Hey, anyone have a supply of [Purified Essence of Water] they’d be willing to sell?

MightyMouse: I might. Have to check my storage when I get back home. What you need it for?

Kimiko: I just got back from fighting the undead up in Disney. Got a recipe drop for my Alchemy. Combine the [Purified Essence of Water] with a couple other things, and you get a high end mana potion.

DarkEnchanter: It is also useful for a mid-level mana regeneration enchantment. More expensive than some of the higher-level recipes, but the materials are less… distasteful.

Righteous: You mean they are actually legal to get and own.

Craig34: Do I want to know?

Scholar: Let’s just say that necromancers and assassins have the easiest time gathering some of the materials.

Craig34: Got ya. And ew.

DarkEnchanter: Power comes with a price, naturally.

Anonymous4: Hey, anyone near Swamp Town got a moment to check something out for me?

SunnyBunz: Depends on what you need, Anon.

Anonymous4: Well, we know those blue-haired chicks were aliens, right?

Righteous: Sure. The blue hair is a clear indication that they’re either aliens or anime characters.

Anonymous4: Well, they had to have a ship to get here, right? I mean, there isn’t any way of teleporting across light years or anything like that, right?

Ambassador: That is not entirely correct. Teleportation spells are possible, but by Tier 2, you are likely only going to be teleporting places on the same planet. Teleporting between star systems, especially to systems you were not familiar with? They would have to be Tier 4, at the lowest.

Max: How many Tier 4s are there in the galaxy?

Ambassador: Perhaps a few million? But the galaxy is a very large place, so you’re rarely going to find them together.

DontYouWantMe: Where you going with this, Anon?

Anonymous4: Well, it has been two weeks since they entered the dungeon, and they haven’t come out. Since they didn’t sign a contract with the Demon, then that means they’re probably dead, or worse, right?

DarkEnchanter: Yeeesss. Is there a point?

Anonymous4: Well, what happened to their ship? Is it up for grabs? I’m willing to pay money for someone to get it and turn it over to me.

Anonymous3: What, going off to see the universe?

Anonymous4: Well, after I put claims on a bunch of real estate. Get some off-world industry going.

Temptation: Unfortunately, you are not the first to consider that prospect.

Anonymous4: OH, COME ON!

Crusader: What have you done, fiend?

Temptation: Oh, it is simple, really. I ‘acquired’ their ship the second day they were in the dungeon, thanks to the hard work of some of my trusted agents. By the time they ran into the goblins, I’d already taken their ship for my own.

Crusader: You vile bastard! Just wait until they get out of there, and reclaim it!

Temptation: Oh, that won’t be happening.

Crusader: What? But they were all almost to the third tier!

Temptation: Yes, and they were really doing quite a good job at getting through the dungeon. Better than you ever did, certainly.

Backpage: So, what happened?

Temptation: Turns out, it doesn’t matter how high level you are, Atlanteans still need to breathe, especially when magic is being suppressed.

Backpage: How did they get trapped?

Salty: It was that damned button, wasn’t it? Green to kill everyone, and red to set them free.

Temptation: Not surprised you figured it out, Salty. You certainly had first-hand knowledge of it.

Salty: *shudder*

ImAPally: Uh, so that bit in the dungeon guide about how if you press the green button it kills everyone is true?

Temptation: Oh, yes. One got spitted almost clean through by the metal spike, and the others drowned, eventually.

Salty: Yeah, I still get nightmares about the impaling thing.

Crusader: So, they’re dead, then?

Temptation: I never said that.

Scholar: Did they have some kind of get out of death free token?

Temptation: Oh, no. The one who died was a former slave that they managed to free. She got the spike, and the three sisters drowned. But, before they died, the Dungeon Law for that floor came into play.

Scholar: What kind of law?

Temptation: Basically, on hardcore mode, there are some… mechanics, we’ll say, that reset the floor. If someone fails to complete the Water Temple floor on five consecutive attempts, then they are immediately enslaved and bound to the dungeon.

Crusader: YOU BASTARD! LADY POFMIS WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS!

Temptation: Your ‘Chainbreaker’ goddess has failed every time her champions come to my realm. I am Lord and Master of the Forbidden Chambers of Exotic Pleasures, and none hold primacy over me in my domain. The Atlanteans who, in slavish obedience to a goddess whose whims they did not understand, dared challenge the Dungeon without signing the contracts that would have stayed my hand, holding back the greater part of my power out of a sense of fairness, shall find redemption in eternal service, bowing to the one they sought to defy.

RangerMiguel: So, what are your plans for the ship?

Crusader: How can you just move on and allow this atrocity?

Temptation: Hush, you. Or I’ll put together a ‘greatest hits’ compilation of your delve, and post it on the internet.

Crusader: Bastard!

Temptation: As for the ship, Guildmaster, well, the System informs me of another dungeon on the Moon, for instance. I was thinking of sending a team of my followers to make contact with it.