The next day for Worthy Dungeon was a day of death. Perhaps surprisingly, only one of those was the death of a Challenger - an Advanced-class human Mage who found themselves impaled by one of Dips' javelins. No further parties attempted the dungeon after that, which was unsurprising - the Challengers community around Grassbrook was still small enough that every death could lead to a lull in attempts for at least a day or so. The rest of the day's deaths were still to come, though.
Sable Bluehair stared into the eyes of Sable Bluehair, and shivered. "Whoa. I don't know if I should be getting creeped out about this, or horny."
The second Sable grins back, but with a certain amount of toothiness that the original would never display. "Both would be good options, yes." She pauses, then as a realization crosses her face, she amends her statement. "Actually, no. Do not become horny for me! I can already feel the urges spreading and they are extremely disturbing! I would like to request the removal of my genitals, please."
Xenia sighs, a sound heard only by the second of the Sables. "Dunno if I can do that, Dips, I...actually, maybe I could? Is it kind of weirder that False Mortals do have genitals than it would be if they didn't? Are the gods expecting that people - no, I don't wanna finish that thought. But just power through it, alright, this probably isn't going to take that long."
The false Sable grumbles as she begins to pace around Taly's boss arena, the eyes of many following her as she does so. It was quite the gathering of dungeon residents, split into three general groups. In the center stood Xenia, Guy, and Sincere, examining Xenia's latest brilliant idea. On one side of the arena stood Sable, Taly, and Lilly, and on the other stood...Sable, Sable, and Sincere. Or rather, Tank, Dips, and Lollyp, recently resummoned into False Mortal forms and provided with Illusionary Demon spells to take on appearances that were somewhat less disturbing to look upon. Xenia claimed it was because using pre-existing appearances was faster for her, but more than a few of those present had suspicions that she just wanted to see three Sables in a room together.
Lollyp-Sincere steps forward, and as she speaks her voice sounds much like Sincere's, although the tone is all slimegirl. "I - gah, almost tripped again! Is it alright if I just stand in one spot and start blasting spells and stuff? I mean, how do you even move around with all of these bones!? I tried to move sideways a little and I felt like I almost broke something in my knee! Do I really need bones for this?"
Xenia nods. "I think so, yeah. Not saying anything against slimes, but cutting open a slime isn't that big a deal given that you can see a slime's insides all the time anyhow. Blood, guts, flying limbs, that's the stuff that gets the heart pumping!"
Lilly, unable to hear most of the conversation going on, asks a question to clear up some of her confusion. "I'm sorry, but why is it that you needed to, ah, re-body all your floor bosses for this training session? I thought one of your main issues with your False Mortal monsters was that they were much weaker than a normal monster form. Isn't this making it too easy on Taly?"
Taly sighs as she takes charge of explaining to the mortals. "The difficulty isn't supposed to be in the combat. It's about getting me used to, you know...killing Challengers. After my fuck-up yesterday. I don't know if this will help, exactly, but I guess I can't complain."
"Hey, don't sell yourself short - even soldiers don't usually have an easy time killing folks, even when it's their own lives on the line." Lollyp moves to pat Taly on the shoulder, and instead practically slaps her in the face. "Gah! I didn't - the arm is too heavy! Too much momentum!"
The Rogue chuckles at the attempted physical contact. "It's the thought that counts, I guess. But uh...you ever have an issue with that sort of thing, Lollyp? You seemed to take to the place pretty easily."
The slime-demon grimaces, although it takes her three tries to get the facial expression right. "Well, I'm no expert on the matter, but I guess us slimes generally don't feel the weight of it as much as some other folks. It's not exactly that unusual for one of us to die before we're even fifteen, you know? On the other side, I've heard there's elf communities and the like who have total vows of pacifism, because they value life so much...not that we're likely to ever meet one of those sorts. I do worry about it, a bit, but I'm pretty sure every single person I've killed here's been older than the typical slime life expectancy. Twenty years isn't a bad life if you do it right. It's more than some people get!"
"I'm not entirely sure that helps me, but thanks."
Tank-Sable raises a fist as he provides his own contribution to the conversation. "Why should killing be avoided? When I claim a life - not that I have as often as I would like - it brings me sheer joy! Even thinking about it - now that I have a heart, I can feel it pumping with anticipation! And...and...ah! Why do my pants suddenly feel so confining?" As Sable stares on, a little wide-eyed, Tank reaches a hand into their pants to do their first undershorts rearrangement. "What is the purpose of this!? I wasn't planning to attack anyone with it - or is this a form of special weapon?"
As Sable quickly pulls Tank and Dips aside to explain a few details about how to handle mortal anatomy - especially a mortal anatomy based on hers, Guy slightly sighs. "This is the downside of having reincarnated dungeon monsters, one must suppose. As you've seen, normally a monster takes on the traits required to suit their role. Doorman, as you've seen, is quite content with simply being a door. Likewise, our 'typical' bosses like Tank, Dips, or DEATH are designed to kill. Thus, as you can see, they do enjoy it."
Xenia nods along, although not entirely in agreement. "Yeah, and if I was one of those dungeon-formed souls myself, maybe I would prefer that too. Now that I've seen what both types of bosses are like though...I think I'm really lucky that I do get reincarnated bosses. I mean, no offense to the duo or nothin', but if I was gonna spend a thousand years in here with nothing but a full crew of Dips for company, I'd probably go nuts. I'm just hoping we can make it work without giving anybody trauma in the process."
Taly chuckles. "Which is why you've decreed that today is 'Taly murders people over and over' day, huh?"
"Hey, it's - exposure therapy! It's a thing! I mean, maybe doing it for murder is new ground, but I think it's got potential!"
"I almost hope it doesn't. But let's give it a shot. How we doing this - three on one?" Taly readies her bow, prepared to take on as many opponents as she needs to.
"Let's start if off easy, the point is for you to win the fight, after all. Dips! You're up first!"
Dips lifts her sword and shield, a rough copy of Sable's in appearance but without the holy enchantments. "Very well! Foul dungeon monster! I have come to stab and rob you! Prepare to be chopped into itty pieces! Rarrrrgggh!" Shouting her battle cry, Dips-Sable charges across the arena, preparing to swing her blade at Taly's neck...and then falls dead at five paces, an arrow lodged into her eye socket. Her corpse actually rolls forward a few feet further, but she still fails to cross half the distance towards Taly.
Lilly gulps at the swift execution. "You, ah. You didn't appear to have much trouble with that, Taly."
Taly lowers her bow, a little surprised herself at the speed of the 'fight'. "Yeah. Maybe we're making too much of this? Though like I've mentioned before, it's not like I've never killed someone. I guess...if we're looking for differences, Dips was yelling and ranting at me, and swinging a sword in my direction. I've never exactly had trouble with taking down folks who've been acting like that. Lyota was half-disabled when I had my shot at her, you know?"
Xenia sighs as she manually despawns and resummons Dips, burning extra mana to speed up the dungeon's automated boss reset system. "Yeah, think maybe we need to change up the scenario a little. Tank, you want to take a try? Try acting, uh...more pathetic."
Tank-Sable nods. "I shall base my performance on the most pathetic Challengers I've seen yet!" Keeping his sword sheathed, he approaches Taly at a comfortable walk, before falling to his knees in front of her.
"Oh, terrible dungeon boss! I beg for your mercy! Reflect upon my extremely attractive visual appearance, and the occasions on which we've performed sexual intercourse, and you will see that you cannot find it in your heart to slay me!"
Taly freezes, her eyes widening slightly. "...Someone told Tank about that?"
Sable-Sable gives an awkward grin. "...Was I not supposed to tell people about that?"
"I didn't even know you were hanging out together! I mean, I'm not ashamed or anything, but - "
Taly's rant gets interrupted by a comment from Xenia. "Tank is still alive, which means so far this approach is scoring way better than Dips'...somehow."
"Oh, right!" Taly raises her bow at Tank's face and pulls back her arrow...and hesitates. "...Fuck! I've never executed someone before, even knowing he's just faking it makes it tough. Hells, should I even be killing Challengers who are surrendering?"
Xenia actually needs a moment to think about it. "If it's in the sense of 'I surrender my soul to the dungeon', then no. We want boss applicants who go through the process we're setting up. If it's the 'please don't kill me, I got children to feed' sort of surrender...god, I guess I'll leave it up to you. They did make the choice to come in here, and we do need the killcount, so I'm not gonna feel that bad about it, but I'm not going to force someone into going that far if you're not comfortable. That fury demon wasn't surrendering though, she was just at your mercy, which ain't the same thing."
"Right." Taly takes a breath, and then plants an arrow into Tank's forehead. "...I don't think I would do that, normally, but you're right. I should have killed that demon while I had the advantage and I didn't, that was the issue."
"Hrmm, yeah." Xenia summons up a dagger, and tosses it at Lollyp-Sincere's feet. "Lollyp, here's the plan. You and Taly are going to knife-fight, no magic."
Lollyp grabs for the dagger a little nervously. "What? You've seen how I move around like this! I wouldn't even beat actual Sincere in a knife-fight, let alone an Expert Rogue!"
"Exactly. Put up as strong a fight as you can, don't surrender, but don't feel bad if Taly kicks your ass. Now - go!"
Quickly setting aside her bow for her own blade, Taly rushes forward as Lollyp does her best to take a fighting stance. After closing the distance Taly backs off for a moment, allowing Lollyp the opportunity to make the first attack, and leaving herself dangerously wide open as she does so. The banshee is able to easily grab on to Lollyp's arm and flip her over with her monstrous strength, and while Lollyp does manage to dodge Taly's first knife attack she's clearly immediately on the back foot.
She doesn't even manage to fully stand back up before Tally's stepped in and shanked her in one shoulder, and as the Rogue continues to move in for attack after attack, all of Lollyp's combat skills are only able to just barely defend her most vital parts. Her False Mortal body lacks the endurance to withstand very many wounds, however, and before long she's obviously flagging in her attempt to swing her own blade. One final side-step by Taly leaves her standing behind her target, one arm locking Lollyp's weapon-arm in place while the other places her dagger against Lollyp's neck. Lollyp attempts to escape the hold, or stab any part of Taly she can reach, but the former slime is simply too unfamiliar with the concept of a hold she can't just slide out of. "I'll - I'll get you in a minute! Just...just gotta...fuck! Why is it so hard to move! And it hurts..."
Although it's a hard show for anyone to watch, Xenia keeps her voice calm as she plays coach. "You have your opponent - but no Challenger is ever alone. You've got a short window before you're surrounded and taken down."
"Gah! It's just - any bandit I ever got like this would surrender!" She puts her blade closer to Lollyp's neck, drawing a slight bit of blood from a faint cut, but no more than that. Sighing, Xenia turns towards the resummoned Tank and Dips.
"You two, go in, and don't stop til Lollyp's dead." The pair of Sables nod and charge, but before they can reach Taly, the Rogue gives a cry. With a sudden slash Lollyp's throat opens up, and the boss tumbles to the ground, grasping at and choking on her bloody wound. The pair freeze as Xenia's halt condition is reached, and Taly stares at her blade for a moment.
"I killed her. Yaaaaaay." Her voice is flat, lacking even a proper sarcastic tone, but Xenia puts some comfort into her own words as she walks over and pats her on the shoulder.
"It's nothing to be proud of. To be honest, part of me's glad that you are the type of person who wants to hesitate. And a bigger part of me hates that I'm trying to train it out of you. I wish this was an easier eternity I had to offer you. But what do you say? Do you think you can handle it, or should we find another floor slot for you?"
Taly's eyes rise to meet Xenia's, and the Banshee Queen nods. "I can handle it. I hope I never enjoy it, but...I can do it."
Xenia nods back, before resummoning Lollyp back to the arena. "Alright then. Next round then - from the top!"
DaScoot
We have fun here in Worthy Dungeon!
Enjoy!
The next day for Worthy Dungeon was a day of death. Perhaps surprisingly, only one of those was the death of a Challenger - an Advanced-class human Mage who found themselves impaled by one of Dips' javelins. No further parties attempted the dungeon after that, which was unsurprising - the Challengers community around Grassbrook was still small enough that every death could lead to a lull in attempts for at least a day or so. The rest of the day's deaths were still to come, though.
Sable Bluehair stared into the eyes of Sable Bluehair, and shivered. "Whoa. I don't know if I should be getting creeped out about this, or horny."
The second Sable grins back, but with a certain amount of toothiness that the original would never display. "Both would be good options, yes." She pauses, then as a realization crosses her face, she amends her statement. "Actually, no. Do not become horny for me! I can already feel the urges spreading and they are extremely disturbing! I would like to request the removal of my genitals, please."
Xenia sighs, a sound heard only by the second of the Sables. "Dunno if I can do that, Dips, I...actually, maybe I could? Is it kind of weirder that False Mortals do have genitals than it would be if they didn't? Are the gods expecting that people - no, I don't wanna finish that thought. But just power through it, alright, this probably isn't going to take that long."
The false Sable grumbles as she begins to pace around Taly's boss arena, the eyes of many following her as she does so. It was quite the gathering of dungeon residents, split into three general groups. In the center stood Xenia, Guy, and Sincere, examining Xenia's latest brilliant idea. On one side of the arena stood Sable, Taly, and Lilly, and on the other stood...Sable, Sable, and Sincere. Or rather, Tank, Dips, and Lollyp, recently resummoned into False Mortal forms and provided with Illusionary Demon spells to take on appearances that were somewhat less disturbing to look upon. Xenia claimed it was because using pre-existing appearances was faster for her, but more than a few of those present had suspicions that she just wanted to see three Sables in a room together.
Lollyp-Sincere steps forward, and as she speaks her voice sounds much like Sincere's, although the tone is all slimegirl. "I - gah, almost tripped again! Is it alright if I just stand in one spot and start blasting spells and stuff? I mean, how do you even move around with all of these bones!? I tried to move sideways a little and I felt like I almost broke something in my knee! Do I really need bones for this?"
Xenia nods. "I think so, yeah. Not saying anything against slimes, but cutting open a slime isn't that big a deal given that you can see a slime's insides all the time anyhow. Blood, guts, flying limbs, that's the stuff that gets the heart pumping!"
Lilly, unable to hear most of the conversation going on, asks a question to clear up some of her confusion. "I'm sorry, but why is it that you needed to, ah, re-body all your floor bosses for this training session? I thought one of your main issues with your False Mortal monsters was that they were much weaker than a normal monster form. Isn't this making it too easy on Taly?"
Taly sighs as she takes charge of explaining to the mortals. "The difficulty isn't supposed to be in the combat. It's about getting me used to, you know...killing Challengers. After my fuck-up yesterday. I don't know if this will help, exactly, but I guess I can't complain."
"Hey, don't sell yourself short - even soldiers don't usually have an easy time killing folks, even when it's their own lives on the line." Lollyp moves to pat Taly on the shoulder, and instead practically slaps her in the face. "Gah! I didn't - the arm is too heavy! Too much momentum!"
The Rogue chuckles at the attempted physical contact. "It's the thought that counts, I guess. But uh...you ever have an issue with that sort of thing, Lollyp? You seemed to take to the place pretty easily."
The slime-demon grimaces, although it takes her three tries to get the facial expression right. "Well, I'm no expert on the matter, but I guess us slimes generally don't feel the weight of it as much as some other folks. It's not exactly that unusual for one of us to die before we're even fifteen, you know? On the other side, I've heard there's elf communities and the like who have total vows of pacifism, because they value life so much...not that we're likely to ever meet one of those sorts. I do worry about it, a bit, but I'm pretty sure every single person I've killed here's been older than the typical slime life expectancy. Twenty years isn't a bad life if you do it right. It's more than some people get!"
"I'm not entirely sure that helps me, but thanks."
Tank-Sable raises a fist as he provides his own contribution to the conversation. "Why should killing be avoided? When I claim a life - not that I have as often as I would like - it brings me sheer joy! Even thinking about it - now that I have a heart, I can feel it pumping with anticipation! And...and...ah! Why do my pants suddenly feel so confining?" As Sable stares on, a little wide-eyed, Tank reaches a hand into their pants to do their first undershorts rearrangement. "What is the purpose of this!? I wasn't planning to attack anyone with it - or is this a form of special weapon?"
As Sable quickly pulls Tank and Dips aside to explain a few details about how to handle mortal anatomy - especially a mortal anatomy based on hers, Guy slightly sighs. "This is the downside of having reincarnated dungeon monsters, one must suppose. As you've seen, normally a monster takes on the traits required to suit their role. Doorman, as you've seen, is quite content with simply being a door. Likewise, our 'typical' bosses like Tank, Dips, or DEATH are designed to kill. Thus, as you can see, they do enjoy it."
Xenia nods along, although not entirely in agreement. "Yeah, and if I was one of those dungeon-formed souls myself, maybe I would prefer that too. Now that I've seen what both types of bosses are like though...I think I'm really lucky that I do get reincarnated bosses. I mean, no offense to the duo or nothin', but if I was gonna spend a thousand years in here with nothing but a full crew of Dips for company, I'd probably go nuts. I'm just hoping we can make it work without giving anybody trauma in the process."
Taly chuckles. "Which is why you've decreed that today is 'Taly murders people over and over' day, huh?"
"Hey, it's - exposure therapy! It's a thing! I mean, maybe doing it for murder is new ground, but I think it's got potential!"
"I almost hope it doesn't. But let's give it a shot. How we doing this - three on one?" Taly readies her bow, prepared to take on as many opponents as she needs to.
"Let's start if off easy, the point is for you to win the fight, after all. Dips! You're up first!"
Dips lifts her sword and shield, a rough copy of Sable's in appearance but without the holy enchantments. "Very well! Foul dungeon monster! I have come to stab and rob you! Prepare to be chopped into itty pieces! Rarrrrgggh!" Shouting her battle cry, Dips-Sable charges across the arena, preparing to swing her blade at Taly's neck...and then falls dead at five paces, an arrow lodged into her eye socket. Her corpse actually rolls forward a few feet further, but she still fails to cross half the distance towards Taly.
Lilly gulps at the swift execution. "You, ah. You didn't appear to have much trouble with that, Taly."
Taly lowers her bow, a little surprised herself at the speed of the 'fight'. "Yeah. Maybe we're making too much of this? Though like I've mentioned before, it's not like I've never killed someone. I guess...if we're looking for differences, Dips was yelling and ranting at me, and swinging a sword in my direction. I've never exactly had trouble with taking down folks who've been acting like that. Lyota was half-disabled when I had my shot at her, you know?"
Xenia sighs as she manually despawns and resummons Dips, burning extra mana to speed up the dungeon's automated boss reset system. "Yeah, think maybe we need to change up the scenario a little. Tank, you want to take a try? Try acting, uh...more pathetic."
Tank-Sable nods. "I shall base my performance on the most pathetic Challengers I've seen yet!" Keeping his sword sheathed, he approaches Taly at a comfortable walk, before falling to his knees in front of her.
"Oh, terrible dungeon boss! I beg for your mercy! Reflect upon my extremely attractive visual appearance, and the occasions on which we've performed sexual intercourse, and you will see that you cannot find it in your heart to slay me!"
Taly freezes, her eyes widening slightly. "...Someone told Tank about that?"
Sable-Sable gives an awkward grin. "...Was I not supposed to tell people about that?"
"I didn't even know you were hanging out together! I mean, I'm not ashamed or anything, but - "
Taly's rant gets interrupted by a comment from Xenia. "Tank is still alive, which means so far this approach is scoring way better than Dips'...somehow."
"Oh, right!" Taly raises her bow at Tank's face and pulls back her arrow...and hesitates. "...Fuck! I've never executed someone before, even knowing he's just faking it makes it tough. Hells, should I even be killing Challengers who are surrendering?"
Xenia actually needs a moment to think about it. "If it's in the sense of 'I surrender my soul to the dungeon', then no. We want boss applicants who go through the process we're setting up. If it's the 'please don't kill me, I got children to feed' sort of surrender...god, I guess I'll leave it up to you. They did make the choice to come in here, and we do need the killcount, so I'm not gonna feel that bad about it, but I'm not going to force someone into going that far if you're not comfortable. That fury demon wasn't surrendering though, she was just at your mercy, which ain't the same thing."
"Right." Taly takes a breath, and then plants an arrow into Tank's forehead. "...I don't think I would do that, normally, but you're right. I should have killed that demon while I had the advantage and I didn't, that was the issue."
"Hrmm, yeah." Xenia summons up a dagger, and tosses it at Lollyp-Sincere's feet. "Lollyp, here's the plan. You and Taly are going to knife-fight, no magic."
Lollyp grabs for the dagger a little nervously. "What? You've seen how I move around like this! I wouldn't even beat actual Sincere in a knife-fight, let alone an Expert Rogue!"
"Exactly. Put up as strong a fight as you can, don't surrender, but don't feel bad if Taly kicks your ass. Now - go!"
Quickly setting aside her bow for her own blade, Taly rushes forward as Lollyp does her best to take a fighting stance. After closing the distance Taly backs off for a moment, allowing Lollyp the opportunity to make the first attack, and leaving herself dangerously wide open as she does so. The banshee is able to easily grab on to Lollyp's arm and flip her over with her monstrous strength, and while Lollyp does manage to dodge Taly's first knife attack she's clearly immediately on the back foot.
She doesn't even manage to fully stand back up before Tally's stepped in and shanked her in one shoulder, and as the Rogue continues to move in for attack after attack, all of Lollyp's combat skills are only able to just barely defend her most vital parts. Her False Mortal body lacks the endurance to withstand very many wounds, however, and before long she's obviously flagging in her attempt to swing her own blade. One final side-step by Taly leaves her standing behind her target, one arm locking Lollyp's weapon-arm in place while the other places her dagger against Lollyp's neck. Lollyp attempts to escape the hold, or stab any part of Taly she can reach, but the former slime is simply too unfamiliar with the concept of a hold she can't just slide out of. "I'll - I'll get you in a minute! Just...just gotta...fuck! Why is it so hard to move! And it hurts..."
Although it's a hard show for anyone to watch, Xenia keeps her voice calm as she plays coach. "You have your opponent - but no Challenger is ever alone. You've got a short window before you're surrounded and taken down."
"Gah! It's just - any bandit I ever got like this would surrender!" She puts her blade closer to Lollyp's neck, drawing a slight bit of blood from a faint cut, but no more than that. Sighing, Xenia turns towards the resummoned Tank and Dips.
"You two, go in, and don't stop til Lollyp's dead." The pair of Sables nod and charge, but before they can reach Taly, the Rogue gives a cry. With a sudden slash Lollyp's throat opens up, and the boss tumbles to the ground, grasping at and choking on her bloody wound. The pair freeze as Xenia's halt condition is reached, and Taly stares at her blade for a moment.
"I killed her. Yaaaaaay." Her voice is flat, lacking even a proper sarcastic tone, but Xenia puts some comfort into her own words as she walks over and pats her on the shoulder.
"It's nothing to be proud of. To be honest, part of me's glad that you are the type of person who wants to hesitate. And a bigger part of me hates that I'm trying to train it out of you. I wish this was an easier eternity I had to offer you. But what do you say? Do you think you can handle it, or should we find another floor slot for you?"
Taly's eyes rise to meet Xenia's, and the Banshee Queen nods. "I can handle it. I hope I never enjoy it, but...I can do it."
Xenia nods back, before resummoning Lollyp back to the arena. "Alright then. Next round then - from the top!"
DaScoot
We have fun here in Worthy Dungeon!
Enjoy!
