Dungeon Chapter 19 (Patreon)

I was almost happy to get out of Desmonda’s room, though I guess I was really still in there.

Pulling at my collar, I was feeling rather hot and bothered. Even if I was trying to show restraint, I was still a man and Desmonda was… was… very attractive. Almost too attractive. Then again, maybe she had some succubus in her blood if her family had some demons in it.

That was when I realized I was wearing my yoroi again in this darkness with a pentagram that glowed like burning coals.

As I focused on it, fire bloomed into a massive pillar that swallowed me and the entirety of the surrounding darkness.

I shielded my face as it faded and a figure too small for how explosive the fire had been stepped out.

He was a ruggishly handsome man with curling goat's horns coming from the side of his head. He was bare chested and wearing nothing but a loincloth to hide his bits.

For which I was thankful.

“Haha.” The demon laughed. “A measly level two dare challenge me? You must have been fooled, little boy.” He tossed his hair like some sort of Fabio before striking a pose.

My CID wasn’t on my wrist anymore, but my mind still activated a page that appeared before me, identifying the demon in front of me.

Name: Demon Lord Snusnu

Level: 45 (Boss)

My mind fried at the level on his stat sheet before I even got to the numbers that made me wonder what the hell I had gotten myself into. The thought was sobering and any lingering distractions of seeing Desmonda tonight fled, replaced by cold concentration.

This was the 45th floor’s boss, and I was supposed to fight it for control of my mind?

“Can’t speak?” Lord Snusnu laughed. “Just pick an arena and choose the weapon. I’ll give you that advantage and we’ll get this over nice and quick. We are in an all girls’ school?” He grinned widely. “Oh, I’m going to have so much fun with your body.”

My mind was spinning, looking for a way out.

Desmonda had warned me that demons could be physically powerful and smart, but maybe this one was too confident.

Maybe I could use that.

A straight up fight was out.

No, I needed something that I could do better than this cocky showman of a demon.

Then it hit me.

“Weapon, we’ll choose stealth. Arena, the dorms.” As if my words had power, the floor stretched out underneath both of us to become the school campus at night, just like when he entered to sneak to Desmonda’s room.

“Huh?” The demon lord looked genuinely surprised. “What is the challenge?” He got serious.

“You have to sneak from here to a room on the third floor without someone alerting the staff. Who ever gets the furthest or if we both complete it, whoever does it quickest wins. We go in two separate rounds.” As I laid out the rules my body became invisible and The Demon Lord stood up straight.

“I see. We just can’t get caught?” He smirked so widely, I knew there was a catch. Even though I seemed to have become invisible, he could see and talk to me, but I couldn’t seem to interact with the building.

“Yes. Just get there without anyone raising the alarm.”

Demon Lord Snusnu walked right through the front door.

“Excuse me—“ The girl at the front desk started, but was cut off.

“Charm.” Snusnu snapped his fingers and the girl at the front desk’s eyes filled with pink hearts and she fell over the table and crawled over to the demon lord.

“You are handsome.” She leaned against his thigh, completely in love.

“I know.” he ran his hands through her hair. “You could just lift up that loin cloth and get to work.” He threw a look of pure satisfaction at me, like he had already won. “Though this isn’t the real thing, I should hurry up and finish this so that I can enjoy you in the flesh.” He told the girl and moved on.

Though she trailed after him like a lovesick puppy.

He walked right out into the lobby and smiled. “Mass Charm.”

Instantly all the girls were on him, rubbing up against him, begging for him to help them with a project back in their room.

Lord Snusnu just laughed it off and causally strolled through the throne of adoring ladies. “Please, please, I’ll get to each and every one of you in time.”

He didn’t sneak through, he just charmed every girl he encountered as he made his way up the stairs to the third floor.

Now there had to be almost a hundred girls with hearts in their eyes begging for his attention as the third floor door opened.

Harley stood there, her posture shifting as she saw Demon Lord Snusnu. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Haha. Your future bed mate. I love that pink hair of yours.” He leaned in to touch her hair and she leaned away.

“Don’t think so.” Harley scowled.

Snusnu frowned. “Charm.” There was a lot of force in his voice. As he blasted Harley with the spell. “There, come grovel before me. Maybe if you are a good girl, I’ll forgive you.”

She stared back at him blankly. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

“Impossible. Charm. Charm.” He snapped his fingers several times before Harley yelled for the teachers.

The world around us both shattered and I was thrown back down to the ground outside the dorms as everything reformed. Only Lord Snusnu was invisible and I was there in my yoroi.

It was just like when I’d tried to sneak in earlier tonight.

“What was that?” The demon lord was confused. “She… she… resisted my charm. No woman can resist my charm.”

“Harley isn’t interested.” I smirked. All I had to do was make it past Harley.

“At all?” Demon Lord Snusnu was baffled. “How? How can some girl not be attracted to this?” He gestured at his body rippling with muscle, but I was already moving.

I’d done this before and I could do it again.

Going down the side door and waiting for a student to walk out, it felt like a video game where I was repeating the same level.

I hid behind the door as one girl tried to convince the other to ask me out.

Then I distracted the lobby by throwing a stone at Taylor and hurried up the stairs only to hide from another wandering student and finally I made it up to the third floor.

Where Harley opened the door.

I didn’t hesitate. “Harley, I’m here for Des. I am going to try to make a harem.” Something about saying that was strangely freeing. I would need to talk to Charlotte first, though.

She grinned from ear to ear. “I knew you had it in you, Ken. Hold on, let me distracted Victoria.” But when she turned back, the world dissolved, and I was back in the darkness with Demon Lord Snusnu standing in the giant pentagram.

Thank you, Harley for being you. Never will I tell you why, but I will say thank you tomorrow. I will never tell anyone how I won this challenge.

“No.” The demon frowned as chains shot up out of the pentagram. “No!” This time with more force. “I, Demon Lord Snusnu, do not lose! Metamorphosis!”

The demon lord’s body bubbled up with muscle and mass as he became far more of what I expected of a demon lord boss on the 45th floor.

He was a hundred foot tall red giant with eyes like bonfires, and fire bellowing out of his mouth with each breath. “I will not lose.” His voice shook the space we were in even as more chains shot out of the pentagram and tried to drag him back in.

My grappling hook appeared in my hand and I spun it behind me as he wound up with his giant palm to smash me.

Even if I won the challenge, it was the 45th floor boss, and it seemed he could struggle as the ritual tried to absorb him.

I had one shot.

My grappling hook flew out of my hand in a perfect arc, hitting and wrapping itself around his horn as he leaned into the swing.

I jumped and clung to the rope, flying out of the way, and then he stood and I used his momentum to shoot myself up and out of his reach. Another glowing chain shot up and captured him further.

“Nooo!” He strained against the chains, but all I had to do was stay out of the way long enough for the pentagram to work.

Landing, I went into a tumbling roll to protect myself and turned around, well out of reach as he clawed and fought, but the chains won.

As his head was being dragged into the pentagram, those bonefire like eyes glared at me. “You’ll regret this.”

“No. I don’t think I will.” Smiling, I watched as the last of him disappeared into the pentagram.

I had done it.

The darkness faded from an eerie pitch black to something more normal before my eyes fluttered open and I felt oddly comfortable with something soft pressed against my side.

I tried to move only for my wrists and ankles to be chained to the bed. I struggled for a second and that only made something soft jiggle against me.

Des groaned and lifted off of where she’d been sleeping against my chest. “You’re done?” She yawned.

“Yo-you slept in the same bed as me?” I blurted out, my face suddenly going red as I realized the comfortable

“Glad to see it is you, Ken, and not some demon.” She smirked. “What kind of demon was it?”

“A demon lord?” I was never to say that name aloud. Oh god, please don’t tell me it was going to be in my CID.

“That’s just a classification. They have types even then. Let’s see where the tattoo ended up. That normally tells us.” She grabbed a candle and brought it over.

Her hair was messy from sleeping and one of her shoulder straps had fallen off, just the slightest shift and it would fall. Her nipple would be free.

I stared at it a little too hard as she lit up my body with the light.

“Like something you see?” She smiled and focused on my body. “Nothing on your chest, nor your face, from what I can see.”

“Wait, I almost got a face tattoo?”

She raised an eyebrow as if that was my greatest concern. “Really?”

“People with face tattoos have a reputation, one that I don’t want.”

She hummed and looked me over. “Well, there is one more place to check.” She moved down my body to my last defense, my boxers.

“Wait, what are you doing?” I tried to stop her, but I was still chained to the bed.

“Checking to see if it was an incubus type.” The candle light made it clear. I was still very erect.

“No need.” I stopped her. “I’m pretty sure it was.”

“You could have said that earlier.” She was enjoying this too much as she tried to fight the smile.

“Can we get the chains off?” I asked.

Desmonda ran a finger over my abs, noticing them for the first time. “Are you sure you want to go already? There is still plenty of the night to go. You could stay awhile.”

My body begged me to say yes and spend the night with Des. “You are beautiful, and I am sorely tempted.” I was honest with her. “Des, you are driving me absolutely wild, but that’s why I should turn you down and go home tonight. My head isn’t clear.”

She frowned, and her fingers glided along the top of my boxers. “It is Charlotte, isn’t it? I’m not your type?”

Just the feeling of her hands that close was driving me wild. I almost worried about what I’d do if she unchained me.

“Yes, and no. I promised that I’d tell Charlotte before I did anything with you. If I did something now, it would be cheating.” I groaned, never before did I think I was a cheater, but I also never thought I’d be chained up in a seductive beauty’s bed before. “You are tempting me in ways I didn’t know I could be tempted.”

She sighed and stopped teasing me, going down to my ankles to undo the cuffs. “Fine. But I need to tell you something. This ritual is technically for my husband. If you ever meet my father, he’ll be able to tell and we’ll have to lie or he might kill you.”

I swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, in front of your father, I’m happy to say that you are my woman.”

“I hope you’ll say it in front of other people one day.” She moved up to undo my wrists and her hair fell over her face in a way that made her seem sad and lonely.

So when I was free, I moved, wrapping her in a hug. “Sorry, Des. I…”

“Don’t worry. Go back to your place, wash up, and get ready to fight Penelope tomorrow.” She put a hand on my arm despite her words, keeping me here as I had my arms around her.

For the first time, I saw more than the determined woman that had been in class and the dungeon with me.

She was, in her own way, lonely.

By doing this ritual with me had closed a gap between me and her, I understood her a little better.

“Des, do you have a secondary class?” I asked, suddenly looking over her shoulder at her.

“Yes, I do.” She held up her CID with her warlock stat page before she made some gesture over it and suddenly it changed. She held her finger on the class that appeared.

Secondary Class: Demon Born

As a human born of two parents with demon secondary classes, you have the potential to awaken your demon blood with the blood of a full demon of your choosing. Grants the skill, Blood Awakening, grants bonus stats.

She made the same pattern on her CID screen and it went back to just being a warlock.

I hugged her tighter. “Thank you. I know you keep that hidden for a reason. If I win the challenge and Crimson takes me down into the dungeon, what kind of demon blood do you want?”

She patted my arm softly. “It is funny that you think you’ll still win. Even if you beat Penelope tomorrow, you still have to get through me. I’ll go down with Crimson and get whatever demon blood I want.”

I chuckled. The confident woman was still there, even if she was showing me trust and vulnerability right now. “Okay. Then let’s compete tomorrow.”

As I started to let her go, she grabbed my wrist.

“Show me your CID.”

“Right.” In everything, I had forgotten.

As I pulled my CID up, she leaned back against me, brushing her rear against my erection that just wouldn’t go away.

I brought up my sheet.

Ken Nagato

Class: Aberrant

Secondary Class: Demon Lord

Level: 2

Experience: 15/300

Strength: 13 +

Dexterity: 14 +

Stamina: 30 +

Magic: 18 +

Mana: 23 +

Skills:

Dark Strike, Earth Stomp, Charm, Metamophisis.

“Woah.” I couldn’t help but blow out a heavy breath as I saw my stats, the little plus signs, still blinking for me to add more.

Hesitantly, I pushed one of the plus marks next to dexterity. It instantly rolled up to fifteen.

“It worked.” Des turned in my arms to smile at me. She kissed me on the cheek. “Congratulations.”

It was stunned both by the kiss and still by my stats.

“Demons, and especially one like you absorbed, are a powerful monster type. Incubus specialize in magic and… stamina, so you didn’t get a tremendous boost to your physical stats.” She continued looking at me as if expecting something in return.

I kissed her cheek, feeling that if I kissed her lips, we would end up back in her bed. “Thank you. I owe you more than I can verbalize.”

She pouted playfully at my reluctance to do more. “You should come back in a few days. Let me check on the seal. It does need a little maintenance.”

“Yeah. Check on the seal.” I repeated, not really believing that excuse for a second, but it would likely get me back in her room and with little clothes.

I swallowed at the idea, very aware of where that would lead. “Is there a way to hide this?”

“Crimson would have to set it up for you. Those fighting towards the 60th floor have special access that can hide it. But if I know Crimson, she always seems to be ahead of all of us.”

I groaned and nodded at that.

She must have taken it differently, because she wiggled against me. “You can stay.”

“I can’t, I really can’t, Des. Tomorrow I’ll talk to Charlotte and tell her that… that I’m going to pursue you too.” My voice filled with resolve after all of this and the obvious feelings she was showing me. I needed to be a man and decide. I was choosing to try for both Charlotte and Des.

That decision was to accept her feelings.

“That’ll have to do, I suppose.” She slipped out of my arms. “See you tomorrow, Ken.” She gave me a smile that was trying a little too hard to be happy.

I slipped back on my yoroi and went out her window, running across campus back to the visitors’ center. The cool night air was just what I needed.