B5 C41: The Dreams of Demons

AN: Been a bit bleh for the past few days. Next chapter still planned for Monday. Slightly smaller chapter today, but mostly because I'm thi

AN: Been a bit bleh for the past few days. Next chapter still planned for Monday. Slightly smaller chapter today, but mostly because I'm thinking of combining this chapter with the first half of 39 to make it a bit more seamless instead of jumping around as much, and then maybe having the Cal reveal come after. In any case, happy reading!

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When the hulking demon before me revealed that she’d kidnapped me for my Spatial Magic, I’d figured it was a safe bet that she wanted me to help her escape the dungeon. It thus threw me through quite the loop when she said almost the exact opposite of that.

“You’re here to help me teleport something in.” Perhaps the intense, almost crazed look in her eyes would have been more off putting if she’d been at eye level with me, though from her vantage point, it looked as if she was trying to push me into the ground with her gaze.

Sensing the obvious question, she pushed on without giving me a chance to speak. “Why would I wish to escape? And more importantly, where would I escape to? With you? I am not yet strong enough to survive in regions without demonic mana, and besides, I’d be hunted down. Back to one of the hells? At my level and rank, they’re miserable places where I’d be pressed into service and then torn apart in some unwinnable war.”

Assuming she was an actual dungeon monster, she clearly wasn’t speaking from experience, so I could only assume she knew this the same way she knew how to speak Common. Probably some sort of racial memory? Or like everything else I didn’t understand, the answer was probably magic. Still, if the hells were as bleak as she was depicting them, I could understand her reluctance to leave.

“No! No running away. An entire paradise awaits me in the dungeon as soon as I grow strong enough to leave this region without suffering the consequences.” Crouching down and leaning in conspiratorially, she tried and failed to whisper her next words as if delivering a secret. “And to do that, we need more demons. Do you understand?”

Um. No? I was sure that would make sense to a demon, but I was sadly out of the loop on this one. I had a few scattered memories about demons from my time reliving High Priest Ephesis’s life, but otherwise, the only demon I’d met was Sett.

Seeing my cluelessness, Cezerra nearly bowled me over with a heaving sigh. “Demons! You know about demonic ranks, yes? With the dungeon’s help and a constant supply of demonic mana, I have slowly worked my way up to the rank of Knight, but I am stuck there. I cannot advance to Baron without suborning a large host of demons to my will and leading them in battle, and the dungeon has been preventing any from spawning ever since I gained a soul.” 

Lifting herself from her crouch, the demonic brawler flexed while staring into the distance. “Envision it now! You will summon an army of demons from the hells. I will lead them, growing in power until I can leave this region whenever I want. Our mana will wash over the dungeon until every region is thick with demonic mana, at which point I will conquer the remaining bosses with my legions. And in no time, we will have a whole country’s worth of demons, with me at the lead. A wonderful goal, is it not?”

Not really, but admittedly, I’ve heard worse. At least she was settling for dungeon domination instead of world domination. Hell, possibly discounting Arbor and Tal’Ket, she was probably the only monster in the entire dungeon with a soul, which meant that only deaths would be from dungeon monsters.

And in a weird way, I kind of get it? She was afraid of getting killed outside the dungeon and wanted a space where she could level up relatively safely. Not entirely dissimilar to my own issues with Antagonists, and if it weren’t for the initial “underleveled and trapped here with a broken mind” thing, this dungeon might have been exactly what I would have asked for. 

The only real difference was that my goals involved a lot fewer portals to hell and ruling demonic countries. Really just minor distinctions.

Naturally, there was one very large issue with her dream, though.

“I mean, I do have some space magic, but you know I have no idea how to open a portal to hell, right?” And even if I could, I imagined the pocket dimension we were in would have something to say about it, at least if we tried to bring in anyone with an evolved class.

With a meaty paw, she waved away my concerns. “Bah. You will learn. I have a few basic memories of how to summon lesser demons. The skill is very difficult to gain, but once you have it, it will level quite quickly. With that and a high enough Spatial Magic skill, I am sure you will eventually succeed.”

Damn. Should I tell her I already have the skill, or no? I’d never actually used it, but I’d gained it from my Watch and Learn ability while watching Ephesis’s life. The High Priest had summoned quite the number of demons in his time, and if I pushed God’s Mind, I could even remember some of the rituals he’d used, not that I liked to think about it. That didn’t mean I wanted to help a dungeon boss summon a portal to hell, but if she was right, it meant that maybe I could.

“So? What do you say? I have captured you fair and square and spared your life. You will help, yes?”

As if to officialize her request, a notification appeared a moment later.

You have received a quest!

Reading through the description, however, I quickly realized it wasn’t the quest I’d expected.

Demonic Outbreak

The demonic dungeon boss, Cezerra, is planning on breaking out of her region and taking over the rest of the dungeon. Slay her and any of her followers to prevent the dungeon from falling into her clutches.

Rewards:

+5000xp

Additional rewards may be granted based on your method of completion.

Before I could even think about accepting it, Cezerra crouched down once more, moving her head towards mine until I could feel the moisture from her breath blanketing my face. Her eyes bored into me, and in the face of the higher leveled demon, I didn’t dare move.

She took a deep whiff and opened her mouth as if to taste the air before finally mumbling to herself.

“Mmm. Good, I can sense it. Meddlesome dungeon. Let us remedy that.” 

Quest Updated: Demonic Outbreak

The demon, Cezerra, has invited you to aid her in her plans. Instead of slaying her, you may alternatively assist her by summoning demons into the dungeon and causing an outbreak from the region.

That casual display of power, more than anything else, threw me off. Was it because she was technically a dungeon creature, or how had she altered my quest? I wasn’t sure, and it didn’t feel like a good time to ask.

Then again, there was one question that I couldn’t hold back. “And… after? If I did all that for you, would you let me go? Or maybe even help the three of us escape?” Not that this was how I envisioned the last stretch of our dungeon run going, but if Cezerra wanted to fly over to the other two collection sites and wreck them for us, I wouldn’t say no.

Better yet, she seemed to be considering it, too. “Possibly. Eventually. What would that entail?”

Here we go, social skills! Failing that, here we go, Charisma! “We’d just need to destroy the remainder of the mana collection crystals like this o-”

“No.” 

Her abrupt refusal took me aback, but hopefully I could salvage this. “Why not?”

“Not immediately, at least. This crystal is the only supply of demonic mana until I grow strong enough for my mana core to produce it myself. It stays until then. And, in fact, now that I think of it, letting you escape would not be a good idea. If all the demons died in the dungeon, who would summon more for me? Ah! But you would be free to go once I take over the dungeon.”

I could feel myself wilt at her words, but then again, maybe it wasn’t as bad as I was imagining. I’d already been here for two years. Really, what was a little longer? “Do you know how long it would take?”

Cezerra wobbled her hand in a strangely human gesture. “Hard to say. No more than 200 years. Perhaps as little as 50 if we are lucky.”

Devoid of any Acting or Etiquette skills, I could feel myself shutting down, my face going blank. Centuries. I wasn’t entirely clear how long I could live with my heightened Constitution, but my lifespan wasn’t the problem here. Two years already felt like a lot. Two hundred wasn’t going to cut it.

I need to get away from here, then. I don’t know if the three of us can beat her, but if we can’t, we just run to the other side of the dungeon and train until we can. 

Cezerra had come back with burns and a lot of health missing, right? With what she’d said about her reliance on demonic mana, it sounded like she couldn’t leave her region for too long without suffering the consequences. I didn’t know if she could make it all the way to the prairie, but she could pursue us if we ran far enough, could she?

Unfortunately, it seemed that some of my thoughts showed on my face.

“Ha! You are thinking about running away. It will not work. This is the only building in the region you will not take in an excess of demonic mana, and the more mana you use, the worse it will be. By the time you escaped with spatial magic, you would collapse, and if you rely on your stats and Running skill, I will catch you.” 

Really wishing I had a longer-range teleport spell right about now. But she was wrong. Given enough time, I was sure I could figure out how to counteract the demonic mana, either with a skill, or by making something with the frost treasures I still had, like I had for Verin. The real issue, like she said, would be her. 

Exactly how fast was she? And if she caught up to me, would I stand a chance? The level gap was no joke, especially considering she was a sentient being with a class. Then again, with my Epic class and all the stats I had from being a Protagonist, maybe I could overpower her Uncommon class?

Either Cezerra was far more perceptive than I would have guessed or my poker face was failing me today. Her lips quickly split her face with a wide, sharp-toothed grin, and she raised her arms as if to throw a punch.

“You are curious, yes? You wish to know how you stack up. Good! I have been lacking a good sparring partner for a long time. Come, further away from the crystal.” She shifted behind me faster than expected, scooping me up in her massive hands before flinging me away. Following behind, she moved back into a battle stance once again.

“Truthfully, I was planning this either way. First, I will mop the floor with you. Then, once you understand, we will start on your lessons. Prepare yourself!” Thus said, the fearsome boss wasted no more time.

With her wings flared and her arm already thrusting forward, the demon charged towards me with a challenging roar.