Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 21 (Patreon)

And here we pick up again with our favorite band of soldiers as they once again meet the 'demon', and once again he makes them a terrible offer.  

Chapter 21 – Zombie Lust

Hicks was visibly having trouble keeping things in his pants. This was worse than the typical reaction men had while in the dungeon. The effects of his contact with the Seeder Bush had, it seemed, left him with a permanent erection. Such a condition was, as one might have expected, difficult to walk around or fight with, but it was doable. It was the fact that he was GROWING that made things problematic.

Things got worse during the second attack by slimes in the mist. Hudson had accidentally ‘found’ one of the damnable pink mist traps, dosing the group with the gas while they were fighting a mixture of slimes. They just barely made it out of the fight before things heated up too bad, but given the situation, Hicks had to suffer just getting some oral relief. Still, what was important was that they had reached the boss room of the second floor. 

They were in a small stone chamber, lit by magic torches, and blessedly free of mist. There was a large, black stone door in front of them, carved with images of demons and humans in… compromising positions. Clearly the door to the boss itself.

  

You have entered the Boss chambers for   the Second Floor. All potion effects limited to the Second Floor are now   expired.

Your group chose:

Hardcore Mode x0

Hard Mode x0

Easy Mode x5

For taking the easy way out, you receive   the worst possible rewards, and the challenge of the boss fight has   increased.

You receive:

Scroll of Seduce Monster

Scroll of Enhanced Fertility (Monster)

Potion of Sexual Healing x3

Hicks groaned as he looked at the rewards. “What the hell is up with these rewards? Who would ever use these scrolls? And what the hell is a Potion of Sexual Healing?”

Hudson grimaced as he began identifying the potions. “Well, apparently the potion doesn’t actually heal you. Instead, it turns your… fluids into a concoction that will heal your partner during sex. Only does minor HP healing, and increases risk of pregnancy by 250%, but it can remove diseases or afflictions. So you can take this, and fuck a cancer patient to full health.”

Hicks grunted. “In other words, really good for groups without a dedicated healer, but otherwise, not very useful. Wonderful. Well, put it in the bag, it’ll be something for the base alchemists to go over. All right, is everyone ready?” When they nodded, he pushed open the door.

When he saw what was facing them, Hicks just groaned, and shook his head. ‘Challenge of the boss fight has increased’. No fucking kidding!

(Dungeon POV)

The looks on the poor soldiers’ faces when they opened that door were PRICELESS! But then, that was only to be expected when they stepped into the boss room, and saw the forces arrayed against them.

Twenty fungal zombies were in the room. Fungal zombies were basically people who had been taken over by the Cordyceps fungus. Unlike that zombie ant stuff, this was a more magical version. Basically, it infected the brains of its victims, and reduced them to two simple desires: eating and mating. Probably the most disturbing part about them was the fungal growths emerging from different parts of their bodies, almost like barnacles on a ship. They were all dressed in the tattered remains of clothes and armor, like the adventurers who had died in my dungeon before. In the center was the soldier who died the first time this group came to my dungeon.

Behind the zombies was a raised dais, and on it was a throne, with my core inset in amber above it. Of course, I was sitting on the throne, and for this encounter I had both Felicity and Keisha kneeling beside me. They were dressed for fighting in the form-fitting outfits I made them, but both had collars around their necks, with chains leading to my hand. Neither looked especially happy at the moment, but I didn’t care about such things.

“Ah, if it isn’t my favorite group of soldiers. I had hoped that you would test my newest floor for me, but I’ll admit that I was a little disappointed that you chose the easiest route. I trust your new Captain has enjoyed her first foray into my home? It was amusing watching her squirm while the Slime Lord seeded her.”

The Captain blanched, and said, “Y-you were watching that?”

I got a wicked smile on my face, and said, “Oh yes, I was watching that. And everything else you said. Like my minion, Dana, said, I see all within my borders, and there is very little that goes on here that I do not know. Your amusing dance with Captain Hentai is the only reason you’re standing there, instead of having been ‘encouraged’ to take other paths that would have ended with your death.”

I looked at the others, and said, “Now, I am not adverse to working with the military, but the System that binds us all makes the creation of creatures not based on plants or slimes rather expensive for me.”

I waved a hand, and an illusion appeared in the air. It was simple light magic, but I used it to display some of the local headlines I’d seen since I’d hooked the dungeon up to the internet. Oh, I restricted communications within the dungeon to prevent cheating in the floor proper, but now people could access the internet from the safe rooms. “As you can see, after your last tribute, I have been able to keep an eye on the world outside my borders.”

A picture of the area to the north, near Boca Raton appeared. “You perhaps want to train in the art of fighting goblins, to try and push back the group in Boca Raton?” The image shifted, to an article talking about the lizardfolk in the swamp. “Or perhaps you want to test yourself against the savages of the swamp, without hunting through their home turf to do so?”

I dismissed the image, and said, “I can do these things for you, but they require sacrifice. While a dungeon gains power passively simply by having living creatures or monsters within it, and I do gain some measure of power from my slaves, the most basic, and effective, means of empowering a dungeon is through Death.”

Captain Knox recovered her voice at that point, and said, “You can’t expect us to just kill people for you!”

“Oh, that would certainly be the most effective way. Bring in your criminals, your homeless, your undesirables, and a simple slit of the throat gives their power over to me. Enough lives and I can create an entire course just for your military.”

“But no, I can see already that you won’t consider that, not yet. Your human morality gets in the way of your ambition. I could, of course, offer a different path. It is longer, slower, and more treacherous on your part, but it does not involve simply killing off those who you deem expendable to society.”

Knox gulped, and said, “And what would this be?”

“As you might already know, monsters and creatures who die within a dungeon have their… pattern, for lack of a better word, made available to the dungeon. Just like with the weapons and armor you sacrificed. The dungeon is not advanced enough yet to have steel available, for instance, so that limits what I am able to produce. But if you had fought the zombies instead of the plants and slimes, you would have found that they do occasionally drop ammunition for rifles and handguns now.”

“If you were to gather as many of the Goblins and Lizardfolk as you could, and drive them into my dungeon, then I would have a population of the monsters to begin working with, once some of them died, or allowed me to bind them to the dungeon. But increasing their variety is very expensive for me, unless certain rare conditions are met in the field. This is why the Slime Lords and Seeder Bushes exist. They take a creature’s strengths, and add it to their ‘offspring’, often creating variant creatures. The same would be true of the goblins and lizardfolk.”

Hicks cursed. “In other words, to be able to get things like the goblin shamans that have been reported, you’d need to… breed goblins with people?”

“Yes, and for a shaman, I’d say you’d need a spellcaster of some kind as the other party. Male or female is less important in this case, but in the case of females, they would have to remain within the dungeon until the child is born, so that the child is a Dungeon Born monster. I have no control over creatures born outside my influence.”

“But I have talked for too long. Since I do want some of you to survive this, and bring my offer to your commanders, my pets and I will only involve ourselves in the fight should we be attacked, so you may wish to limit the strength of your fireballs, Ms. Knox. Now, BEGIN!”

I waved my hand, and a burst of Enflaming Gas shot up from all around the soldiers. At the same time, the zombies which I had been holding back with my will, moved as one. They were fast, but not faster than a normal human would be, pre-System. Still, twenty on five is not good odds.

Bad odds or not, though, the soldiers were still trained fighters, and they knew their business. Weapons, which had been lowered but never put away, came up, and they quickly backed up to the door, with the four fighters forming a wall to keep the zombies off the fire mage.

Fortunately for them, fungal zombies were weak against fire, unlike their movie counterparts. Being living creatures with nice, flammable fungus growing out of their bodies meant that it was not a good time if they got caught in one of Knox’s fireblasts, but she was limited to single shots, to keep from hitting her allies, or me.

It wasn’t all good, though, as Drake screamed, a pair of zombies pulling him from his feet, and dragging him into the crowd. Vasquez was the next to get pulled into the throng, and they could hear her screaming curses at the zombies who attacked her.

Hudson was not happy, it seemed, because I heard him screaming something about “Game over, man!” as he freaked out about the way the battle was going. To be fair, they were down two, and a little over half the zombies still remained.

“EVERYONE DOWN!” Knox screamed, before unleashing a torrent of flame at chest height, sweeping it in an arc before her. She had limited the range, so there was still several feet between the end of the flames and my pets, but she managed to get all the zombies that weren’t busy with Drake and Vasquez, and Hicks and Hudson had managed to duck before the blast.

Drake had defensive wounds on his arms, from zombies biting and clawing at him, and was, disturbingly enough, mounted by a female zombie while he tried to fight off another that was attempting to eat his face. Vasquez was in an even worse position, as she had been ‘spitroasted’ by two zombies who grabbed her.

Once the two were saved from the zombies, Adrenaline passed, leaving only the unfulfilled desire of the Enflaming Gas. I decided to distract them, since they had already provided me with a great deal of entertainment, and I did actually need them to deliver my offer.

Clapping my hands, I said, “Nicely done. Nicely done indeed. And here are your rewards!” A chest appeared in the middle of the room. I’d been fairly generous with this one. Five pieces of gear, namely a low-quality enchanted weapon, for each of them, depending on their needs. I wasn’t lying when I said that I couldn’t produce guns yet. Well, not proper guns, like assault rifles. Older firearms? That was a possibility. But it would be so much easier in a couple levels when I gained access to steel…

Anyways, there were soldiers to send on their way. “Now, away with you, and tell your commanders my offer. Remember that I will require more power if I am to help you anytime soon, so you must decide what you are willing to sacrifice.”

Either way, it should be fun to watch.