TDH Vol. 1 pt. 26

A different guard ended up catching me and Elanah in the act shortly after we started, but that didn’t mean we didn’t still have some fun while it lasted. Too bad it also meant that we got kicked out of the training room and sent back to our cells.

Stefan later dropped by to let me know that surveillance was going to be set up in the training rooms to make sure that it didn’t happen again. Apparently, that was something they had planned for a while, but they never got around to it because they didn’t think it was necessary.

Because of the mess and scent me and Elanah left in the room… well, they apparently decided that it was finally necessary.

I couldn’t blame them. And honestly, it was inconsiderate of me to leave that mess behind. I didn’t even think of what we were turning the room into. If my mom found out about that… honestly, I couldn’t imagine her being mad about what we were doing, just that we left a mess for others to clean up.

Thinking of my parents, I wondered how they would feel about me and Elanah.

I had a feeling they would accept me in my new body no matter what I looked like.

I also knew that they would be overjoyed for me to finally be with a woman.

But what would they think about me being with a woman with my new body? If anything, I was worried about what they might think about Elanah for being willing to do those sorts of things with me.

At least when it came to me, I was just their son finally having sex with a woman.

But when it came to Elanah, she was having sex with… well, me. Somebody that looked like a small beast. And she barely knew me yet believed we were destined to be together.

Yeah. Dad might be a bit creeped out by her… but my mom would probably love her. She’d just be happy that I might finally get her grandchildren. But seriously… what would they even look like if I’m in this body?

Elanah probably had some idea at least. If she lived with people who all believed in loving people based off their soul and they had no problem with soul beasts and transbeasts, then she probably knew a thing or two about what sort of kids might pop out from such unions.

Seriously, what would my kid even look like? Wait, what if I have multiple kids? Wait… why am I seriously thinking about having kids?! I’m still too young to be a dad! And—wait, I’m not young at all. If anything… I’m late. Everybody else I grew up with had kids years ago. I… I guess I should hurry up and have some after all—no, wait! I shouldn’t be thinking of having kids at all right now! But… would I even be a good dad? Even if I was in my old body, would I be a good dad? I doubt I could ever be as great as my dad, but if I could be even a tenth as good as him, then maybe I’d be able to raise a kid up right.

I realized the mistake of all my thinking and came to a stop.

I was supposed to be putting on a show. After all, it was a new day and I was back in the dungeon. I had to entertain everybody if I wanted to stay around. That meant no getting lost in my thoughts.

But at the same time…

I was barely paying attention and managed to make it to the third floor. Sure, I was aware that I was fighting and dodging that whole time I was thinking about being a dad, but it also felt like I wasn’t really there at the same time. Like my body was moving on its own.

Was that the result of growing stronger? I was already improving from getting live training in the dungeon, and then Elanah gave me about an hour straight of evasion practice which was probably more time in total than all the time I spent dodging attacks in the dungeon before it.

Between my repeated attempts at clearing the dungeon and gaining live experience, and my training with Elanah, I managed to get to the point where the first few floors could be done with zero effort.

Fighting rats and goblos became natural. Like a second nature. Fighting them was as easy as walking through the halls. I still had to put in a tiny bit of effort to dodge their attacks, but their attacks were predictable. Every battle against them made them even easier to predict and work around. As long as I didn’t get myself overwhelmed by too many opponents at once, it was impossible for me to lose against the average enemy on the first few floors.

There was something else unpredictable, though, and that something else was the one in control of the dungeon.

I was brought to his domain as I descended to the fourth floor again.

I already knew exactly what I wanted to say to the dungeon’s master. “Asshole.”

“How mean!” the dungeon master replied, feigning offence as he placed his hands over his heart. If he even had a heart in that body of his. He might have looked like a Chosen, but I knew he wasn’t one. He was a core mimicking the appearance of one at best. “Anyways.”

It was nice to be able to actually talk to somebody, but I also wanted to talk to anybody other than him. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option. “Let’s get straight to it. And I’m not trying any gambles this time.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes.”

“But gambling is so entertaining! Have you already forgotten what happened last time?”

“No! That’s exactly why there won’t be any gambling this time!”

“Hmm. Technically speaking, because your options will be completely random, that on its own is gambling.”

“That doesn’t count. Don’t you have to potentially lose something for it to be gambling? Getting to choose a specific thing doesn’t make it gambling, either.”

“Hmm. Technically speaking, every time you change floors, you may or may not get to come here. Does that count as gambling?”

“I—I don’t think so? I don’t know, I’m not a gambling expert.”

“Interesting. Considering that you felt bold enough to correct me, I assumed you must be.”

I suddenly felt kind of awkward. Was he mad that I corrected him? Well, I wasn’t even sure if I really corrected him or not. I was just going off of what little I knew about gambling, which really wasn’t much.

Fortunately, he laughed which got rid of some of that awkward tension. “Worry not, I am only teasing you. That being said, you did not fare too well against your opponent the last time we saw one another.”

“What did you expect? I heard that thing was way over what I should be fighting.”

“Oh, it was. I had no hope in you winning against it. You did, however, put up more of a fight than I expected. I almost wish to reward you for that, but that would not be very fair toward the others who come and die within my halls every day.”

“I promise to keep it secret if you give me a little boost here and there.”

“I am sure you would, but I will not be doing such a thing regardless. What I will do is this.” He waved his arm over the usual table, causing three different options to appear above it. This time, they all looked like abilities seeing as how they were all swirling orbs of energy. Honestly, that was probably the best possible outcome for me since items were more or less wasted on me. Anything other than a collar, or maybe a vest if there were even any in my body’s shape, would have been worthless. “Here we are. You have three rather interesting options here, if I may say so myself.”

With the lift of his hand, he raised me into the air so that I could get a better look at my options. One orb was golden and crackled with energy. The next was brown and swirled much more slowly than the others. Then the final orb was green, and the swirling energy around it sounded like rusting bushes.

The dungeon master placed his hand over the first, golden orb. “A passive boost falling under lightning magic. Should you wish to move even faster, this will significantly increase your speed. Of course, it comes at the cost of being as obvious as a distant bolt of lightning. There will not be any sneaking around should you choose this. Next, we have another passive boost. This will harden your skin, making you much harder to injure as a rat’s fangs would not even be able to pierce your skin, but you will move far slower and I doubt you will be doing any jumping with this. And finally, an active ability. This spell will allow you to conjure a single vine that will follow any command you give it, and giving a command will be as simple as thinking it.”

“What’s the downside?”

“There is none. It is a spell. It is not as powerful as your first two options, but it comes without any detriments. Now, the choice is yours.”

I looked over my options and already knew which one I wanted.

The first one—the lightning one that would boost my speed.

But.

The fact that it would make me louder completely countered my ambush ability, not to mention that it would make improving my stealth and getting new abilities for it even more difficult.

At the same time, speed was my main focus at the moment. I wasn’t worrying about stealth so much as I was focusing on dodging my opponents’ attacks and killing them before they could hit me.

Stealth versus speed.

The defensive option wasn’t even a choice as far as I was concerned because it would make me useless. Sure, rats wouldn’t be able to bite me, but what about stronger enemies on lower floors? Not to mention that I wouldn’t be able to dodge or jump. How was I going to reach the vital points of enemies who weren’t as tiny as me?

The spell option could also be useful, but I wasn’t able to rationalize it as more useful than the lightning boost.

My mind was made up as soon as he explained my choices to me, and it wasn’t going to change no matter how hard I thought about it.

“I’ll take the lightning,” I said.

“I figured,” the dungeon master replied, levitating me close enough to the orb for me to touch it with my paw. As soon as I did, the orb dispersed its energies to swirl around my body. They ended up stopping around my legs where they produced a passive, crackling sound that would undoubtedly give my position away to anything close by. Not to mention that the energy glowed, so hiding in the dark wouldn’t be a good option, either. “Try it out.”

He lowered me to the ground and I had no intention of refusing him. I wanted to see just how fast I could get with my new boost. So, I looked at the nearest wall, which was lined with bookshelves full of ancient tomes and scrolls, and ran toward it at full speed.

I expected a boost to my speed… but not one as extreme as this.

I reached the bookshelves in half the time it should have taken me. No, a little under that. I was just over twice as fast as normal. It came with the downside of producing even louder cracks of lightning the faster I ran, but that was alright. It wasn’t like I’d be trying to be quiet if running at full speed in the first place.

“You look excited. I cannot recall you looking so happy in my presence before,” the dungeon master said.

“Yeah, well, you never gave me anything as nice as this before,” I replied.

“Your body is a far greater gift.”

“Is it? I’m pretty sure I’d be better off as a Chosen.”

“That is because you have no idea what potential your body holds. Do yourself a favor and defeat the first boss on the fifth floor before you assume your body to be worth so little. Furthermore, I am the one who gave you your body. That alone should be enough to earn your faith.”

“You’re the core of a dungeon that makes us all participate in a death game where we die and resurrect over and over again. Also, I’ve talked to you for less than an hour total. It takes more than that for me to trust somebody.”

“Is that so? You speak to me awfully familiarly for somebody so cautious.”

I was going to say something but stopped when I realized that he had a point. Normally, even if I didn’t like him, I wouldn’t be that honest and blunt with somebody. I’d just nod and play along and get out of their way so that I wouldn’t have to deal with them… excluding the event that resulted in me coming to the dungeon in the first place.

Yet, when I talked to the dungeon master, I felt at ease even if everything from his voice to his face pissed me off. I even felt closer to him than Elanah in a way.

Well, maybe it was because I could actually talk to him and couldn’t talk to the others.

Or maybe there was something else to it. He told me before that he had total control over all souls within his territory. What if he could change my soul to make me like him more?

“Did you do something to me?” I asked. “Are you forcing me to like you?”

“If I am, it is the result of my natural charisma, soothing voice, and flawless physique. I know, I am rather incredible. I seduce everybody around me without even having to try. Does that count as force? If I am so irresistible that you simply cannot help but to be my frien—”

I left through the way I came in and found myself at the beginning of the fourth floor.

The halls were a bit wider and taller, and there was more lightning to go with them, too. All of that benefitted me considering I wasn’t going for stealth anymore. Well, at least not until I died again.

There was one specific thing on my mind, though. The dungeon master said that there was a boss on the fifth floor.

I heard others talk about the bosses in the dungeon. They were located every five floors and were powerful, lone enemies who needed to be defeated before one could move on to the next floor. They also offered random rewards upon defeat.

I had no doubt that I’d be able to defeat the enemies of the fourth floor since there was no way-above-my-level beast getting summoned as the result of a coin flip, so that meant the real test of my new speed would be up against my first boss.

Part of me was excited.

The other part of me was worried.

Seriously worried.

I was used to fighting weak, small beasts that I knew all the tactics of. Even with my increased speed, I’d be going up against a stronger and most likely larger beast that I never saw before, meaning that I’d have no idea what its moves were like.

There was a pretty high chance of me screwing up and dying in no time.

But that didn’t mean that I wouldn’t try my best to kill it on my first try.

First, though, I had to reach it.