LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 24: Curse You
Lollyp narrows her eyes as she glares at her new boss. "No. No, I'm pretty sure I would've remembered you mentioning something like 'the dungeon is cursed'. Please, tell me more. Now that I'm in, you know, a very long-term binding contract and all that."
Xenia looks to Guy, but finds no help there - quite the opposite in fact. "I have to admit, I do have some questions along those lines myself. The first time a message like that popped up, you didn't seem terribly surprised. I assumed you were just referring to your personal bad luck, but there's more to it, isn't there?" They do at least manage to distract Lollyp briefly, however.
"Oh! Oh, is that a dungeon guide!? ...I kinda thought they would look, uh...fancier? Oh, but yeah, back to the cursed thing - what the fuck?" The slime once again narrows her eyes.
Caught with nowhere to run, Xenia sighs. "Yeah. Yeah, there's more to it. C'mon, grab a seat because this might take a few, but if this is gonna keep happening I guess I gotta get into it." Leading the way back into her core chamber, she summons a chair for Lollyp to use before sinking into her own. "Alright, so first bit, and Guy you know this one already - I'm a reincarnator. Reincarnator Extraordinaire, actually, gotta keep the branding up, important to have a brand, you know? I suck at keeping my dumbass mouth shut so you mighta noticed me almost giving it away a few times last night, but when I die, I keep my memories and all that other shit."
Lollyp gasps, already seeming to have lost her earlier irritation. "So you've been around since like, the dawn of time?" Xenia chuckles.
"Nah, not that old at least. Probably done at least twenty rounds by now, kinda lost count, and I definitely don't remember how many years it's been but I don't think I've hit four digits yet. Assuming there's not much downtime between rounds, I pretty much always end up in places with different calendars and all that crap, so who knows. But...it's been a while. But it's the curses that kicked off this whole thing."
Guy swivels around the table where Lollyp and Xenia are sitting. "Sorry, did you say curses, plural? Was one to spend eternity reincarnating?"
The dungeon master shakes her head. "Naw, as far as I can tell it was just a weird combination effect in play. Some of it was my fault, the rest of it I pieced together afterwards from a lot of visits to like, witches and fortune tellers and that sort of thing. So, it all started off with my two friends, Rebecca and Becky."
Lollyp tilts her head. "Aren't those names the - "
"Don't ask. Anyways, the two of em were getting into this big witchcraft kick, and you gotta understand, in the world I originally came from, none of that shit was ever supposed to actually work, you know? It was just, superstition and shit, no mana or monsters or any of that. So the two of them said they wanted to practice out some curses they read about and I, uh...volunteered to be the target."
Guy scoffs. "A choice you've come to regret since, I imagine." Xenia actually has to think and consider her response, though.
"...Honestly, I've pretty much come to terms with it. There's been good times and bad, but given the choice I'd probably let it happen again. Probably would've lived longer that round if I hadn't, though. So, right, each of them tried out a curse on me. Rebecca gave me a curse to 'turn my luck around'. Which kinda sounded like a good thing at the time really, given I didn't exactly feel very lucky, but I guess on balance it probably set up the first of the dominoes for what came after."
Guy tilts in their version of a nod. "That would fit in with the first 'attribute', yes, to swap the good and bad luck of our intruders. A true curse for some, but perhaps a benefit to others."
"Pretty much. Then Becky hit me with a 'never to settle down'. Which at the time I assumed was gonna be about, like, the course of my actual singular life, and that didn't really sound so bad either. I moved around a lot, never had a steady relationship, so it all just sounded like more of the same. But I think that was the domino that really kicked off the reincarnation effect, since I guess it means like, my soul will never settle down? Always bouncing from one life to the next, or whatever."
Lollyp tilts her head. "I guess I can see it. Just the two dominoes, then?"
Xenia shakes her head. "Just the two on me. But I think that bad luck brought in the third one, cause in that life I got run over by a cursed truck."
The slime raises an imitation eyebrow. "...What?"
Xenia exhales a short breath. "Ah, a big heavy vehicle for carrying freight. Anyways, this was what I had to piece together afterwards, but apparently I was killed by a truck that was cursed to be 'attracted to danger'. I don't know who cursed a truck or why, it's really fuckin' difficult to investigate a curse from another dimension and years later. But I think it's why I was, A, kicked out of my safe, comfy little life, and B, almost always end up getting reincarnated into some super-violent shit. Like, statistically, most of my lives should just be as bugs or something, right? But that only happened once! ...And it was kinda violent, as things go, I guess."
Her guide pauses. "...You've been a bug?"
"Not in my top ten, I'll tell you that."
Guy pauses again, this time in thought. "So...going by the notifications, we still have one more hidden attribute to discover. Something about danger?" Xenia shrugs.
"Beats me, Guy, I'm just rollin' with the punches. Sounds like being a dungeon comes with danger as a default, though. Though uh, speaking of being a dungeon...hope this doesn't inspire any regrets, Lolly? If I can call ya that. Believe me, if I'd known this was gonna be a thing last night I totally would have mentioned it. If you're uncomfortable, I could...well, at the least I could probably put you back to sleep in the Well, might be an option in there somewhere to release you on to...y'know, whatever."
Lollyp shrugs. "Lolly's fine, I guess. As for the other thing..." The slime hops out of her chair, and appears to go through some stretching motions. After settling out, she reaches out an arm - and then suddenly stretches it out far enough to reach the opposite wall, albeit as a rather stretched out tentacle rather than a recognizable hand. Then she pulls it back, but reforms the end into a spiked mace shape. Testing her strength out, she slams it into the ground, actually causing a bit of a vibration to ripple through Xenia's chair and the water in the room's basin, before returning it to a traditional five-fingered hand. As a final test, she wiggles her fingers, causing small balls of elemental energy to form around each - Xenia can make out hints of fire, ice, and electricity before she extinguishes them. Finally Lollyp turns back to face Xenia, a wide smirk on her face.
"I haven't felt this limber in ten years, and even then I don't think I could stretch out that far. And I've still got all my magic! I think my mana reserves might be a bit lower, like back when I first trained up to Elementalist, but I'm guessing that's something we might be able to upgrade, especially if you could set up a wand or something for me. And I don't feel like I'm gonna rip open and spill my guts out anymore, so y'know, physically, top marks, would sacrifice my soul again. As for the rest...well, I guess it's gonna suck a little having to live in here from now on, but I feel like I'm gonna be a lot more useful than I would've been without my memories. I mean, I still got all my magic! I don't know if you know slimes, but the monster kind can't shoot elemental blasts, I can tell you that. So I'm...hesitantly positive?"
Lollyp pauses for a moment, and then as if testing something, she points a finger at Xenia and then stretches it out until it's gently poking the dungeon master in the arm. "Physical contact confirmed, good to know." She narrows her eyes again, but this time with a devious smirk on her face. "Don't suppose you were looking forward to a re-occurrence of last night, huh?"
"Ha ha..." Xenia laughs awkwardly, while side-eyeing Guy. "Maybe we should...talk about that later, yeah? But hey, if you're good, then welcome to Team Worthy! That room over there's gonna be your Boss arena, but I guess also kind of your living quarters for now? Maybe when we expand we can make some sort of like...special residential floor or some shit, especially if we somehow get more folks 'intact', but how'd you like to take over the design of the room yourself? I honestly don't know shit about how slimes like to live or fight, and you're gonna have to do both in one space, for now at least."
Lollyp raises her fists in excitement. "Woo! Dungeon Apprentice Lollyp! Mind if I can burn some mana on traps? I know there's some shit that's fine for us slimes but other mortals just haaaaate it." Xenia turns to Guy with a questioning look.
"Can you make dungeon changes yourself, without me pushin' buttons? We've got a lot of dungeon upgrades to do right now, thinking I give you and Lollyp an allowance of like, half our mana to do what she likes while I fix things up upstairs."
Guy responds affirmatively. "I can be given temporary control of a small percentage of the dungeon, indeed. More a concern for when a dungeon has more floors than a mortal mind can easily manage, but it would work well for this situation as well."
Xenia stands up and claps her hands. "Alright! No telling when we're gonna get more guests, so let's get busy! I've got a Boss Bunny to respawn...again...and some designs to update, so good luck with your Boss Slime room. Will check in when the mana is dry!"
Fortunately, many of the trap upgrades appeared to have happened automatically when the dungeon's trap level upgraded. Now at 'level four', the tripwires and pressure plates were still visible, but only if an intruder was actually putting effort into looking for them. Their reaction speed had also increased, although it seemed that the darts in the dart traps wouldn't improve until Xenia's separate dart quality went up as well. There was still plenty of other work to do, though - Xenia started at the front, upgrading Doorman to a higher quality of wood exterior, while hiding steel plate reinforcements between layers of wood. Using more steel in the exterior would have probably improved his endurance as well, but Xenia didn't want to give away the presence of their new upgrades too quickly. Likewise, the Barkbirds' room was left alone. The birds were unable to fly with any notable armor strapped to them, and it somehow felt unfair to go too hard on what was basically the dungeon's entrance room.
The Slip'N'Slide room did get one notable upgrade, though - a 'water' slime, placed in the center of the room directly over the chamber's exit key. Water slimes were apparently virtually invisible while sitting motionless in water, and if the monster could grab on to intruders and hold them in place, the stone traps would likely prove much more effective. The water layer was still shallow, but fortunately wide enough for the slime to stretch out and hide itself in.
The Bone Maze got even more upgrades. For starters, the orc skeletons got low-quality steel armor and reinforced wood shields to go along with their swords, significantly increasing their combat ability, or at the least decreasing the odds of them being destroyed in a single sword stroke. Additionally, 'acid' slimes were added alongside the skeleton archers in the upper level, ready to drop down onto the heads of unsuspecting intruders. It would probably be a grisly death, if it worked, but Xenia was willing to give it a try and adjust if it proved too much even for her.
Unfortunately, with the cost of resurrecting the Boss Bunny and half her current mana donated to Lollyp, Xenia was unable to add in any new features beyond that for today at least. She did however go back down and set up some doorways on both sides of Lollyp's new room - not with any special tricks to them yet, but merely for privacy's sake.
As she settles down into her core chamber and confirms that there's still a lengthy amount of time left before the next mana recharge, the dungeon master is just about to head next door and check on her new resident before an odd sound catches her attention. She first looks outside her windows to the abyss, but all remains as empty and quiet out there as it ever had been. Heading to the opposite side of the room then, it suddenly becomes clearer.
"Uhhhhhh, guys? I think there's something in the fuckin' wall..."
