Jonathan A Countyman
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Chapter Twenty-Two Floor Additions, Rituals, and...
🕑 Added 2023-01-14 17:20:41 +0000 UTCAs Misaki was considering her third-floor boss, she had a thought. She laughed, a delightfully evil thought. With a thought, she opened the store, and purchased a trap she had seen earlier. It was a blueprint for a floor transfer trap. It was a risky trap if not done right since it would move adventurers deeper into her dungeon.
Armed with a new trap, she went back to her second floor, and changed one of the two puzzle traps. Both puzzles for unlocking the gate that led to her boss were trapped. The traps were on a timer the moment you answered the first question, which was randomly generated from a pool of questions she had created. None of them were too hard, but her pheromones would make it harder to think. Failing to answer all the questions correctly before time runs out, and boom the trap would spring. It would also be sprung, by answering just one question wrong. The original traps would drop the floor out from under the entire room, into a spiked pit, or rain sharp spears from above. The new trap as the name suggested would transfer everyone in the room to a different floor, but not just a different floor, but a prespecified location on said floor.
Misaki’s evil idea involved a location near the end of the map on the third floor. She picked a Harpy nest on a large floating island, directly over the location of an Arachnid nest. With the trap set, and the location picked, she began making a few modifications. Making the exit point for the transfer trap into a lovely cell block for the poor adventurers. Setting up dungeon laws for the area, and providing an exit for them from the nest. One that would drop them through a vertical shaft in the mountain below, and right into an Arachnid Nest, the biggest one she had built. She set something up to arrest their falls, so that it would not kill them. Set up similar laws for the nest, and an exit point from the nest right outside the floor boss’s room. Speaking of which, having thought about it more, she had made a choice. With that choice in mind, she began building out the boss room.
The young girl stretched, and glanced in the mirror after getting out of bed. Today was huge, she and her brother had finally paid off that debt, and now they were free to adventure as they chose. She blinked, who was the debt to? She couldn’t recall, but that didn’t matter. Who cared about a paid debt?
Pushing those thoughts aside, she took in her form. She was a fairly average girl all things considered. She had lovely brown hair framing a cute pixie face, she had soft brown eyes a shade lighter than her hair. Her skin was nice and supple with a bit of a tan from all those hours she spent in the sun. She thanked her good fortune that her skin was so nice despite her lifestyle. Height-wise, she was just a bit below average at one hundred fifty-four centimeters tall. She was perfectly fine with that, she didn’t want to be one of those super-tall girls, nor was she sure about being ultra petite so being almost average was perfectly fine with her. Even if most girls were a little taller than her. One feature she was quite proud of was her bust, they were just a bit bigger than average, and her nipples were delightfully sensitive. Better yet, her family had a nice inherent trait she had been so lucky to get, as her boobs had no need for support nor did she have to worry much about chafing.
Reaching into a drawer, she pulled out a brush, and fixed her hair. A moment later she shed her night clothing. She tossed her old panties into a bag, pulled out a fresh pair of panties, and a simple bra. A simple sports type that offered little in the way of support, but would keep her boobs from bouncing too much. Perfect for an adventurer such as herself. She slipped them on, and then pulled out her armor.
She sighed, her armor was alright, but she often wished she had better. It was made of leather, reinforced with thin iron inserts, and padded with thick cloth. The result was decent protection, without hampering her mobility. She slipped on the pants first, followed by the greaves, gauntlets and boots. She strapped on the thigh pads, followed by the skirt which left her standing there topless in the mirror. She looked kinda sexy this way. Now it was time for the interesting part, first she slipped on her under armor, which was just a thickly padded shirt, before proceeding to buckle on the breastplate. It had been molded to fit her boobs which gave a nice bump where her chest was. The shaping was kind of cute, a bit sexy honestly, but she had seen more aesthetically pleasing armor. Unfortunately those were heavily enchanted and out of her reach. She just didn’t have the coin to spend on that.
Finally to finish off her look she pulled out her only piece of enchanted gear. A family heirloom the headband was laced with Everbloom flowers. It looked lovely in her hair, if rather delicate. At first glance one would think it was cute, but no substitute for a proper helmet. They would be wrong of course, this little hair band provided protection superior to any of the helmets in her budget. In fact her head was better protected than any other part of her body, thanks to this little delicate headband.
She twirled in front of the mirror for a moment, and smiled. Satisfied that she was looking good. Done getting dressed, she packed her stuff into her bag, strapped her knives and quiver onto her belt, and secured her longbow to her back. Then she decided to check her status.
Name: Amy Drake
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Level: 17
Age: 18
Health: 100% (Perfect Health)
Class: Ranger
Shields: 1700/1700
Subclass: Magic Archer
Mana: 1275/1275
Titles: ??? (Title hidden)
Skills:
Novice Quick Draw Grade B
Novice Piercing Shot Grade C
Novice Magical Shot Grade A
Novice Knife Fighter Grade C
Apprentice Scout Grade A
Novice Trapper Grade B
Novice Trap Detection Grade D
Novice Disarm Trap Grade E
Novice Fire Magic Grade E
Novice Lightning Magic Grade D
Novice Wind Magic Grade C
??? (Skill Inactive)
??? (Skill Inactive)
??? (Skill Inactive)
Journeyman Inspect Grade B
Traits:
Racial:
Adaptable
Quick Learner
Improved Fertility
Inherent:
Drake Family Blood (Dormant)
Natural Archer
Mystic Talent
Enhanced Constitution
Enhanced Strength
Ageless Skin, and Body
Superior Senses
Acquired:
Potent Mana
??? (Trait Inactive)
??? (Trait Inactive)
??? (Trait Inactive)
Peerless Bow Arm
Sniper
Agile
Superior Flexibility
She sighed, when she saw her level. It was a constant disappointment for her. Many of her peers had pulled ahead of her level wise, and here she was sitting at level seventeen. Most people her age were of a higher level, well humans anyway. Her level wouldn’t be too out of place for an elf, they tended to level slower. Part of that was culture, but the quick learner trait that was innate to humans improved leveling speed, and boosted the acquisition and development of skills. The difference was small, but the impact it had was huge. Amy had been an Adventurer since she had turned twelve. There was a story behind that, but not one she felt like telling or thinking about. You would think after six years she would have a higher level. Not to mention many did. Unfortunately, her own circumstances had stymied her advancement. Perhaps soon that would change?
Taking one last look around, she stepped out of her guild-supplied inn room to find her brother Thomas already waiting for her, a goofy grin on his face. She had been looking out for him for years now, while he was the older one, that didn’t make him the more responsible one. He could be a bit of an idiot in fact.
She sighed, “okay, let’s hear it.”
He pulled out a piece of paper with that big goofy grin, “I found this search quest, with your ranger skills, I think we can do it. Seems the Third Princess of Stormwind has gone missing after a brush with bandits. They are looking for parties to help find her, and the hideout of the bandits that attacked her.”
She blinked, for once it seemed he had found something interesting. She snatched the paper and looked it over. Pay was good, it was system backed, and offered experience. It was a group quest, and likely to be easy experience. It was infinitely better than any of the usual quests available. Only problem was that the quest area was in the kingdom of Stormwind, and possibly parts of the Borderlands. At the moment they were in a small town in the Rosewood Empire. It was near the border, but that was still a fair march.
“I guess we can do this. Unlike that last quest you brought me, this one looks doable. I mean seriously, what made you think we could take on a Level 159 Stoneskin Ogre?”
He scratched his head, “but that would have been epic, we could have been heroes!”
She scoffed, “No, you would have been dead, and I...”
Amy trailed off, no one liked to think or even speak about what Ogres did to women. It was terrible. After a moment, she grabbed his hand, and dragged him down the hall.
It wasn’t long before they reached the guild reception counter, but there was a man ahead of them. He was tall, very tall as he towered over her. His build was quite muscular, and his cropped purple hair was beginning to gray. She couldn’t see his face from behind, but his voice proved pleasant with a deep distinguished rumble. “Hello there, I am Phillip Greybeard. I heard that there was an opening for the position of guildmaster here.”
The young woman at reception paused, gave him a look, and then her gaze fell. “I’m sorry sir, if we had known you were coming we would have delayed the selection. I’m afraid the position was filled just yesterday.”
He sighed, “I see. I guess I better get going then.”
The receptionist stopped him, “Wait! If you aren’t too busy, there is a special quest that a person of your reputation and talent would be perfect for. Several Villages to the east of here are having trouble with a Stoneskin Ogre. We have called the army, but being a border village, it will take some time before they can mobilize enough knights to deal with it.”
He nodded slowly, “Yes, I see the problem. A tier three monster like the Stoneskin ogre can’t be fought off so easily by the locals. I might be able to help, but I need more information. How strong is it? Where is it? Does it have any subordinates?”
As he was asking questions, Amy took a moment to inspect him.
Name: Phillip Greybeard
Gender: Male
Race: High Human
Level: 188
Age: 89
Health: 100% (Perfect Health)
Class: Arch-Spellsword
Shields: 188,000/188,000
Subclass: High Mystic Knight
Mana: 160,740/160,740
Titles: S Rank Adventurer, Hero of Five Kingdoms, Honorary Knight of Five Kingdoms, Former Member of the Party ‘The Royal Knights of Bluewood’,Champion Candidate
Amy blinked. She wasn’t expecting to encounter someone of such a high level. Tier three was not easy to reach and getting that close to tier four took some doing. This man was something special.
Aki greeted the gargoyle leaders as the village was coming out for the night. It was first dark and it was time to prepare the fields for seeding. Aki had done what she could but that had been limited to clearing space. Getting rid of trees, clearing stumps, roots, and stones from the area around the village.
The woman she had been speaking with last night looked around appreciatively, “You’ve done better than I thought with the defenses. These look like nice walls and” she gestured at the keep they had just emerged from, built right on top of the entrance to the village proper. “This looks like a solid keep.”
"It’s mostly made out of wood which we coated with layers of stone, and hardened earth. Might not be the sturdiest thing, but we made do with what we had.” Aki responded demurely.
She nodded, “Don’t be so modest, it’s a solid design, more than enough for our needs.” then she looked out at the space for the fields, “on a different note, care to join us in preparing the fields?”
“I have been curious. You mentioned a special ritual that needs to be done, may I ask what exactly that involves.”
She nodded, “The ritual isn’t too difficult. We dance and sing to invoke nature’s energies, and sow the fields with our milk to bless the land.”
Aki blinked, “Milk? Why milk?”
“Well for one, it’s rich with mana, and two there is the symbolism involved. That makes it quite the potent tool for invoking the magic we seek. Once the land is blessed, we can be assured of plentiful harvests, more than enough to feed our clan.”
Aki, curious about the ritual said, “hmm, it might be fun to participate. Count me in.”
Comments
Jonathan A Countyman
I plan to
Black Unicorn
I have one question? Will Misaki be having kids again? I really wanted to see how you would portray that as it's rarely done, and even when it is done it's often done badly.
