Dungeon Menagerie 27 (Patreon)

Dungeon Menagerie

Chapter 27

-VB-

For the first time since she became an adventurer, she found herself in a truly desperate situation. It wasn’t for herself but for one of her friends who got hurt because he just happened to be near her. 

She wasn’t going to lose a friend when she could stop it! 

To that end, she got the rest of her friends aboard for a blitzkrieg through the Dungeon.

They needed as many magic crystals as soon as possible to save Chrysalismon. And to do that, she needed all of her combat capable friends to pull their weight and operate semi-independently.

“Are you all ready?” she asked as she looked at her friends: Mori and Chauky. Even if Mori hung back most of the time and Chauky acted as their mule, both of them were still capable fighters. 

Mori looked at her and then cawed as if to say “of course, I am.” Chauky trilled with his maw and “stomped” its many legs to show its anticipation for the coming battles and to help their fellow friend. 

“Wait!” 

Vanessa froze and then looked over her shoulder. She’d been facing her familia home when that voice had called out to her, and now, she was looking at Bell and Liliruca running up toward her. 

It was only for a moment but she froze before whirling towards where Athena was looking down at her from a third story window sill. She glared up at her goddess. Her goddess, in turn, just raised an eyebrow before thumbing behind her at Chrysalismon’s general direction. 

‘Your friend comes before your annoying insistence on avoiding the boy.’ That was the gist of it, and Vanessa… she had to agree. Right now, having as many hands as possible for help was what she needed to do. Anything else was tantamount to reducing her friend’s survival chance. And that wasn’t going to happen.

So even after she narrowed her eyes up at her goddess and gave her the standard “I’m watching you” gesture with two fingers, she turned to greet Bell.

But Bell spoke first.

“I heard about what happened! One of your tamed monsters need a lot of magic crystals to survive, right?!” he blurted out loud while gasping for air. He must have run all the way here from the church his familia was at.

That … that was a gesture of friendship she couldn’t deny. 

Bell really did consider her a friend, which only made her feel awful about constantly avoiding him.

Ugh.

“Yeah, he does,” she replied with a sigh as her shoulders drooped. 

Liliruca glanced at her, gasping for air as she was. Vanessa returned the glance. It was obvious to both of them that they both knew something else was also up. Liliruca didn’t know the details, of course, but it didn’t change the fact that something felt off to her.

Instead of complaining about the little thief’s astute nature born from a decade of hardship, Vanessa looked over it without answering and straightened herself. 

“I do. I’m going to be killing everything. We already fought a dragon once, Bell. We might do it again.”

She was also Level 2 now. She could do much more with what she had on hand compared to before. She was more skilled, stronger, faster, and tougher. 

A dragon that died when she was a mere Level 1 would die to her even faster now that she was Level 2. 

And that speed was the name of the game now.

“I’ll help,” Bell declared with a cute determined light in his eyes. “I’ll watch your back.”

Mori shook his body before cawing before she could respond. “Great!” Bell grinned. 

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened her eyes as she breathed out. 

Yeah… Yeah, this was the absolute best that she could call upon. She couldn’t complain. She shouldn’t complain. 

Her feelings came after her pragmatic concerns were addressed, and her pragmatic concern was ensuring that the Void infection Chrysalismon suffered didn’t kill him or change him into something horrible from the Void. 

Because if she found herself in a situation where she needed to kill Chrysalismon herself… she was going to very, very sad.

-VB-

Freya looked upon the burgeoning party of three adventurers and two monsters. 

And she was … irritated. 

Not only was the Girl mingling with the Boy, but the Girl brought about some sort of sickness from beyond the veil. A place Freya and other deities had no idea about prior to its arrival. She doubted that any other god or goddess knew about the situation right now. She only knew about it because she happened to have been looking in that direction at the time.

No.

This could not stand. That sickness could infect Bell. It could dirty his soul. His pure, white soul that mustn’t be corrupted. 

Because allowing something so unique like that to become … average? 

To all deities around the world both in the Mortal Plane and in Heaven, that would be a sin.

And gods and goddesses rarely allowed True Sin to go unnoticed. 

What to do… What to do…

She couldn’t send Ottar. 

Well, she could, but sending Ottar would make it clear who delivered the judgement. At the same time, Bell and his party was already venturing down into the Dungeon and would enter it in no more than an hour. 

Once inside, the Girl would grow stronger. More powerful. 

And perhaps… out of reach.

She grew about as fast as Bell had. Who else could reach Level 2? Not even the Sword Princess did. 

No, she needed this to be taken care of delicately. To make it seem like it happened naturally and certainly not by her directive. 

“Ottar, love.”

“Yes?” her ever present guardian stepped up.

“I need a team of Level 1’s and 2’s who are not afraid to get their hands dirty and be quiet about the job.”

“... Not from our familia?”

“No. It would make it obvious, and I would oh so hate to have Bell hate me for it.”

Ottar didn’t move, not because he was seething in jealousy but because he was ruminating on who he needed to collect and what he needed to do.

“And the time frame?”

“It must be done within the day. Bell must live… but his party? All of them must die.”

“I see.” He paused. “I will need Soma, goddess.”