Dungeon Menagerie 17

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRei

Dungeon Menagerie

Chapter 17

-VB-

Vanessa blinked as she stared at Bell.

He looked at her in surprise and a big fat grin on his face. Next to him was someone I hadn’t met in person before but was familiar with from her stature, appearance, and the big backpack on her back: Liliruca Arde. 

Had he gone through that much of the canon storyline in the time she was struggling to get used to her Skill? 

Damn, now she felt like a latebloomer or something. Like she was lagging behind. 

… What was she talking about? Of course, she was lagging behind! If it wasn’t for her Skill, then she would still be picking away at goblins by her lonesome! Instead, she had a headband and a sword called Justitia that Mori gave her from his own Essence, she had a mount in the form of a fearsome giant bug-worm-thing she affectionately named Charky (like Sharky but Charus because it kind of reminded her of sand shark and -.), and Keramon, which was a nice friend but still nevertheless scared the hell out of her on more than one occasion. 

Keramon, in particular, scared the crap out of a lot of people because of its appearance, particularly its smile. 

Her baby boy was just playful! It wasn’t his fault he was born that way! 

But anyway, Bell looked like he wanted something from her.

She stared at him and felt … wary. Even without getting involved in the canon plotline (or was that simply the narrative fate of the world?), she was having a lot of trouble on her own.She also had issues of her own right now. As much as she appreciated how Mori went out of her way to exhaust himself to give her the Justitita sword, she fought with a spear up to this point. She had little to no idea how to effectively fight with a sword! 

‘I mean, I did practice,’ she thought to herself as she sighed and gave into whatever call of adventurer Bell was getting. “Hello, Bell.”

“Hi, Vanessa!” he grinned up at her and then gave her a salute. “Have you met my new Familia member before?” he asked. 

“No,” she replied as she looked down at Liliruca. Something about how she felt about the little thief must have shown because Liliruca immediately tensed up and became defensive. “Already a member, huh?” she hummed. “Hestia must have been busy.”

Bell suddenly froze up before laughing nervously. “A few things … happened,” he grimaced. 

She glanced at him but didn’t pry. Instead, after staring at Bell for a few moments and then looking back at Liliruca… 

Vanessa felt irrationally upset. She wasn’t sure. It was envy or jealousy. It wasn’t obsession or protectiveness. 

It was anger. 

She avoided Bell as best as she could, but she ended up interacting with him enough that she got a real sense of his character. 

So it angered her that this thief in front of her hurt him already. 

‘I could have been more intimidating if I had all of my equipment on me,’ she thought. Too bad, she was just on a grocery run. 

“So what’s your role?” she asked “amicably.”

The cold smile was anything but. 

“L-Lili is a supporter.”

“A supporter, hmm?” Vanessa hummed. She already knew that, of course. “Bell?”

“Y-Yeah?” He obviously realized that something was wrong from her tone. 

“How about we go dungeon diving today? I want to see how much you’ve grown.” She paused before giving him a softer smile. “If you’re okay with it, that is.”

Bell was her … junior, in a sense. Hestia was Athena’s friend, so as the more senior adventurer before Bell, she had a duty of sort to put the fear of God - or goddesses in this case - into Liliruca. 

She remembered that Lili was infatuated with Bell because of how different he was from the other adventurers. He was far more kind and selfless than the average adventurer. A little stupid, a cynical person might even say. 

Which only meant that she should do something to help, right? It’s one thing to completely avoid him, but that’s kind of not possible unless she straight up told him that she didn’t want to see him.

And she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to go that far. The kid’s been nice to her. He was attentive to her lessons. 

So she just, you know, wanted to make sure that a suspicious person close to him, regardless of how that person might currently feel about Bell, remains wise. 

And considering in that her last memory of the canon series, Lili doesn’t break through Level 2 to Level 3 jump even after ten books, it was a pretty good bet that what Vanessa could do and show her would remain with her. Because she already knew by this point that even if her stats didn’t say that she was Level 2, she was already Level 2 from the sheer amount of her friends and their gifts. 

“Sure!” Bell smiled oh so innocently and naively. 

Ugh, the lady killer rabbit didn’t even know what he was doing. “Alright, then let’s get hunting today! Do you need to go and get anything else?”

-VB-

Liliruca Arde. 

Everyone called her Lili. Or brat. Or rat. 

Whatever they thought hurt her the most. 

She hated her name because it was a weakness for a reason she didn’t know. 

But then Bell called her Lili. He always called her that. Or Miss Lili. 

When he said her name, it made her feel better. 

He was different. He cared. 

But then this bitch came along and made it worse. 

As Lili walked behind Bell who walked next to this “Vanessa,” Lili tried to figure out just what kind of a person she was. It was obvious that she was some sort of tamer from the three monsters following her around.

Though … she never saw those monsters before. One was a giant black insect bigger than most adventurers. Another was a giant blind black bird. The last was some sort of a demonic doll. Its smile was creepy as hell.

Lili also didn’t like how they moved. Each of the monsters reminded her too much of adventurers. They weren’t … swaggering. They were confident. Like they owned the world. 

Except for the bug. It looked a little dull. 

But the doll and the bird? Those two moved like Level 2 and 3 adventurers. 

They were dangerous. 

Especially the bird. 

It didn’t make any noise when it moved when even most Level 3 adventurers did. 

Lili glanced around.

They were now down in Floor 10, which was one of the three lowest of the Upper Floors. She’s been here before as supporters for Level 2 adventurers (some of whom were no longer alive), but even Level 2 adventurers maintained a level of caution. Part of this was because of the thick fog that covered this and the next two floors that made scouting hard. 

Vanessa didn’t, and Lili couldn’t tell if this was because she was a Level 2 or something. Lili didn’t get to ask Mister Bell about that yet because Vanessa stuck to Bell’s side pretty closely. 

… It couldn’t be that the bimbo liked Bell, right? 

The bitch couldn’t be her competitor, right? 

It made sense. It’s probably why she was half-glaring at her half of the time. 

She took a deep breath in. She couldn’t afford to -.

“Alright!” 

Lili paused. The bitch sounded far more cheerful than before. She turned around and looked at both Bell and Lili. She reached over to the bug, which had been carrying the bitch’s bags and weapons, and grabbed the slab-like sword covered in bandages and had feathers for a crossguard. It was also longer than Lili. 

Was this bitch trying to say something? 

“Alright. It’s been, what, a few weeks since I last saw you? I want to to see how good you are at fighting,” Vanessa said with a smile.

“Okay! What should I do?”

‘Mister Bell, please, you sound too much like a kid …’ Lili wanted to complain but kept her mouth shut. 

Vanessa nodded. Then she raised her sword and slammed it down on the ground.

Lili looked at her with wide eyes as the entire ground rumbled.

“That should be enough to get a few monsters’ attention, right?” she asked with the same smile as before before she pulled her bandages wrapped around her forehead down over her eyes. Could she even see with that on? Was she just trying to look cool?

“SQEEEE!!!”

Lili froze. 

That wasn’t one orc. That was … that was at least five. A single orc could brutalize a Level 2 with one good hit!

Lili opened her mouth to warn them before her eyes widened as the vibrations tickled her feet. One pair of feet… four pairs … six pairs …?! 

Ten pairs?! 

There were more monsters than just orcs coming toward them.

“Mister Bell, we have to run!” she nearly shrieked in panic. 

“Mori!” Vanessa shouted louder than how Lili shrieked. “Do it!” 

“Mori” the bird crowed before it lifted one of its feet up and slammed it down.

Lili frowned, sweating with wide eyes at the nonsensical display she just saw. They should be running away RIGHT NOW and -! 

And then she heard shrieks around them and bones cracking and snapping. She whirled around, trying to see what was happening through the thick fog. 

“You made sure to keep some alive, right?” 

Lili whirled around and looked at Mori and Vanessa. The two looked like they were having a walk in the park. 

Then there were thumps. A lot of them. 

But not the heavy thuds of falling orcs. 

“Oh good,” the crazy bitch hummed. “Well, there you go Bell! Orcs for you to show off your skills on.”

Bell gulped. 

“Mister Bell, I don’t think -”

“Shush, girl,” Vanessa drawled. “Bell’s here to be an adventurer. Besides, he’s not going to fight alone.”

With that, she lifted her sword back up and dashed forward into the fog. Bell quickly followed after her, leaving Lili with the bird, the doll, and the bug. 

She glanced at them.

The doll, which was only a head shorter than her, looked back up at her, meeting her gaze with its blank thousand yard stare. 

And then it smiled. 

She shivered. 

“Uhh… hi,” she muttered. 

The demon doll raised its hands and arms before waving them at her. 

… She supposed that the thing was saying hello back to her. It was polite at least. 

Then she heard yells and slices. Her head shot back up and she looked toward where she thought the fighting sounds came from. Then she heard a pig squeal to her left. Her head snapped toward it. She heard Bell yelling and attacking something while the bitch was far quieter… but also much deadlier. 

While Bell fought, orc squeals and thumps of dropping bodies rung out more around him than with him.

And then there was a gust of wind, and the thick fog dispersed, leaving only the distant fog of the floor visible. 

Lili looked around. There were corpses everywhere. And then she found Bell and the bitch.

---

Bell ducked underneath a horizontal swing of the orc’s wooden club and when the orc overreached and showed him just a bit of its back, he lept forward and swung his right shortsword into its ribs and then sliced at the shoulder with his left shortsword. 

The orc squealed as it tried to shake him off, and he easily kicked off of the orc’s meaty body. He jumped over the retaliatory swing of the club and then landed safely on his two feet, his knees bending halfway down to cushion his fall just like Vanessa showed him how to do before. 

He blew out a stream of pent up air and sucked in a short but deep breath. 

And smiled. 

He could do this. 

He could become a hero! 

When the orc, wounded and in pain, came at him again with a vertical top down attack, Bell waited until the last moment to dodge out of the way, moving into the orc’s guard. It tried to kick him but Bell instead chose to directly stab the orc in the knee. 

And then pulled himself up along with the momentum of the heavy limb’s trajectory. He briefly left the ground before he stabbed up with his remaining shortsword, driving it directly underneath the jaws and into the monster’s head. 

The orc spasmed before it keeled over to the sound and crashed onto the ground, dead. 

Bell pulled his blood soaked swords out of the orc and looked up. 

Vanessa was fighting an orc by herself, and she struck with her giant black sword. 

And five cuts appeared. 

Bell stared in shock.

Was that magic? 

She slid across the ground and around the orc, far faster than he could move, and then attacked again. 

The orc screeched in pain before it fell forward, landing first onto its knees, and then after just a moment kneeling on the ground, crashing forward with a thump.

And Bell saw five deep cuts along its back, severing the spine at multiple locations. 

He shivered. 

When did Vanessa get so strong…? 

He looked up and saw Vanessa smiling serenely as if she hadn’t just downed an orc with … two attacks? Or were they ten attacks? 

“Alrightie~! Let’s start gathering those magic stones!” 

He chuckled as he loosened up before looking around. Now that the mist had been blown away (somewhat), he could see the fullscale of the battle’s aftermath he’d just fought. There were far more monsters than either he or Vanessa killed, which meant that, whatever it was that her tamed bird did, it killed dozens of monsters, most of them horned rabbits, in one attack. 

He let out a stream of air. 

He thought he was growing fast, but that wasn’t the case, was it? Mori and ‘nessa were both growing as fast as he was if not faster. Bell only knew how to use a shortsword. Vanessa used both spears and … whatever that blocky sword was. She could ride monsters, tame even more monsters, and was even faster than he was. 

He was jealous of that kind of growth. 

“Oi, Bell!” Vanessa shouted from where she was kneeling next to the orc she killed. “Are you going to just stand there or help? Even your supporter is helping!”

Her words brought him out of his introspection and he blinked. And smiled. “Sorry, sorry! I’ll be there, Miss Vanessa!” 

“I told you to just call me Vanessa! Drop the miss.”

---

Lili got to see the bitch fight… and she knew that she was staring at a Level 2 adventurer. 

She once saw Chandra, one of the two Level 2 adventurers in the Soma Familia, fight, and Vanessa was as fast as he was but struck far faster and harder than he did. 

Lili decided to stop thinking about her and start doing her job. She pulled out a knife and walked over to the closest monster, a horned rabbit. 

It was then that she realized there was far too many monsters. 

A cold sweat dribbled down her neck and she glanced over at the eye-bandaged bird.

It was … it was some kind of magic-using monster. She never heard of that before. 

It was even scarier than the bitch because unlike her, he could kill things without even looking at them and kill them en masse. 

She shivered as she turned back to go back to her job of plucking out the magic stones from the dead monsters. 

-VB-

It took one major fight on Floor 10 for Lili to be cowed. 

Vanessa was happy with that. She didn’t need to bully the girl(woman?) or anything like that. She just needed Lili to understand that if she fucked around, then she will find out. 

Vanessa stopped walking abruptly as a realization hit her like (h)eureka struck Archimedas. 

… Damn, she really was becoming an adventurer. A bloodthirsty one at that. 

What normal woman from 21st century western world thought that it’s a good idea to risk her and her friend’s life to put the fear of God into her friend’s other friend?

Not a 21st century woman, that’s who. 

But it was the first time that she had a full party (of a sort), so she got a bit excited! 

She saw how her priorities and perspective had changed so far. It wasn’t like she hadn’t noticed it before, but this was … really drastic compared to her last enlightenment. 

She really was a member of this world now, and the thought didn’t unsettle her. 

Why would it? 

She had a family here. 

She had power here.

She was loved.

She had friends. 

She didn’t have any of that back on Earth. 

Vanessa smiled. 

It was good to be happy, and she wouldn’t give it up for the -.

Krr…

She stopped. 

“Did any of you feel that?” she asked as she looked around at her friends. 

Both the summoned friends and her human(ish) friends shook their heads. 

Except Mori.

He looked straight ahead like he always did when something was in their way, but unlike before, his feathers were on their ends and his wings and legs were bent, ready to jump in or away at any notice.

“Mori…?” she asked as she grabbed her sword back off of Chauky’s back and looked toward the same place that Mori looked toward. “What is it?”

The ground shook.

Unlike when the orcs and bunnies came swarming, this tremble came from a single source.

Krrrnggg…. 

Mori quietly hissed. 

Run.

But it was too late. 

Her eyes widened as she saw what was in the distance. 

“Oh hell no,” she muttered to herself as a reptilian monster revealed itself. It was … big. Bigger than three orcs put together. 

And it spotted them. 

Her eyes widened in momentary fear when it lowered its long neck and rushed at them. 

“Bell, grab Lili and run!” she shouted as she fully drew Jusitita Sword. 

Mori squawked at her.

“I ain’t leaving you behind, Mori,” she snapped right back at him.

Bell … stepped up to her side. 

“Bell…!” she hissed as the infant dragon drew closer, and the ground shook like a tremor with increasing intensity as it grew closer. 

“S-Sorry, Vanessa,” he grinned weakly. “I don’t think I can. It’s just too fast, you know?” 

“Idiot,” she muttered before ruffling his hair. 

He squawked indignantly. 

“Keramon!” 

She blinked and saw Keramon standing atop Chauky. He opened his mouth and -.

Her eyes widened when she saw a red glow in his mouth.

And then he fired a trio of fireballs as large as volleyballs.

They flew forward as fast as arrows did but with fluttering flames trailing behind them, and slammed into the charging dragon. Right on contact, the fireballs exploded, leaving behind black smoke spewing from where they struck.

But then the Infant Dragon charged through the smoke almost as if it hadn’t been hurt.

Almost. 

Because Vanessa noticed burns across its neck and face where the fireballs struck.

“I didn’t know you were that strong, Keramon,” she grinned. 

They could do this. 

They could defeat an Infant Dragon! 

“Mori!” 

Mori cawed before thumping his feet.

Half a black ropes appeared around the dragon’s neck and pulled up. The dragon winced and roared as it fought against the attack.

Vanessa charged forward. 

The dragon noticed and tried to tail swipe her. 

She jumped over it. 

“Firebolt!” 

And then Bell’s magic spell struck its tail and sent it tumbling. 

The Infant Dragon screamed in anger and Vanessa chose right then to strike as she landed back down on the ground. 

Her Justitia Sword was special. Aside from the fact that it was made with Mori’s Essence, it had a special ability just like how the Justitia Bandage had special abilities.

Every time she struck once… it struck five times. 

She swung her sword.

So her Justitia Sword swung four more times from different angles. And it didn’t just attack the body of her target. It attacked their soul. Or whatever passed for a soul.

Her sliced through its thick neck skin five times, but failed to penetrate through its muscles. 

The dragon screamed in pain and focused completely on her. 

This time, it tried to swipe at her with its front legs as Mori’s hanging ropes kept pulling it up. Vanessa glanced at the ropes as she finished her strikes and sprays of blood glittered in the air. 

The ropes were starting to fray, which meant that Mori’s attacks, despite him focusing it on one individual, wasn’t enough to hold it back, never mind kill it immediately like it normally did. 

The dragon glared down at her as she dodged out of its front paw strikes, and she grinned as she retaliated with an attack on the right paw. 

Then she spun around with the momentum of her first attack and struck higher at the neck.

This time, the dragon pulled back.

But not far enough and got struck by the other four impossible attacks that came at the same time. 

This time, she was starting to make her way through its muscles. 

“Keramon, now!” she shouted as she jumped back.

And even though this was his first time fighting, he got the command immediately and launched more fireballs. 

They all struck the stuck monster and exploded. 

“Bell, take its rear!” 

And he did. He ran around the dragon while she took up the front and its attention.

“Come on, you big fat donkey!” she shouted up at the dragon with a laugh. “Is this it? Are you a dragon or a gator that’s being farmed?!” 

Whether it understood me or not, the dragon roared down at her. It tried to attack her again, but the ropes have been pulling it up quite a bit. It was now on its two hindlegs, and its front legs were too short to strike at her. So it spun in place to hit her with its tail, but Bell used that chance to stab at the dragon’s lower back.

“Firebolt!” 

And the dragon cried out in pain. 

But he wasn’t done yet. He attacked as he spun, making dozens of gashes along its rear where it couldn’t get at him. 

And then she jumped up and struck the dragon.

One swing. Five cuts. 

She struck deep into its flesh, and made a cut that had blood spewing out like a fountain. 

“Again!” 

“Firebolt!” 

And this time, lightning and fire combined spewed out along with the blood. 

And the dragon died. 

Vanessa stared up at the dead dragon’s hanging head before she grinned and allowed herself to fall back onto her ass. 

“Did you see that, did you see that?!” Bell laughed as he came back around and crashed alongside her. He looked like shit, too. Was he having mind down? 

She laughed. “Yeah, I saw that. When did you learn to use magic, huh? Trying to surprise me?”

He grinned despite the pain he must be feeling. 

… Well, he didn’t look too hurt.

Vanessa looked over her shoulder and looked at her friends and Lili.

And gave them a thumbs-up.