Chapter 174

 

Dream State

 

My teeth are grinding and I’m edgy. I feel angry and annoyed that I’d been humbled by that lizardman shaman.

It had been really close in that combat encounter.

My frustration mounted until I visited each of the girls one by one for a lot of fun. Today I only fooled around to a minimum after coming into the dream state, which was a first for me; but it was so that we could train harder than ever before now that I see that I need to be stronger from my recent wake up call. And because of the pheromones of course they are all disappointed that we aren’t just doing endless bouts of sex, both Sylvie, and Asakura.

They keep trying to get me going again by French kissing me after surprising me from behind. And I expect like usual that I’ll have spent a good chunk of the eight hours in the dream state with both of them begging me to fuck them. That’s very intoxicating considering the extreme exotic beauty of the foxgirl, and the giant boob girl.

Of course before any of that we gave the naked Doppel-chan a massive dose of pheromone juices that I’d saved up. We have to stay true to the treatment; true to consistency and harvesting all available body fluids, I even mixed in some real strawberry juice with this stored in a glass bottle with a stopper that I’d carried around carefully to disguise it and help her psychology accept it as some special dessert like ice cream. I have even added some Asakura milk. Now that we’re here we ended up giving Doppel-chan another set of seizures as she’s dosed hard in the face with it.

“It won’t be long now,” Sylvie laughed maniacally.

“I agree,” Asakura chuckled while laughing so hard her bust shakes.

“But how do we know how many doses is sufficient?” I asked.

“That’s a good question. Don’t stop until you break her mind. She’s too dangerous,” Asakura retorted.

Sylvie just shrugged apologetically at me. “That works I guess.”

“Still this has been how many times now? When she does fall, she’s going to fall hard.”

This has made me think that I won’t have too much longer to break Doppel-chan and her will to win her over.

It’s like…after fighting the lizard man shaman I’ve come to realize my own mortality and how much I need to not pass up any available tool; which means I’m stepping up our treatment on Doppel-chan. I barely matched him blow for blow during the day and it was touch and go for a long time. I’d never had a stale mate since before when I was completely powerless.

We did spend some time taking turns milking topless Asakura. Like this, it will help keep her breasts from getting too big too. I’m amazed at how much demon milk she’s producing though. If we didn’t keep milking her she’d probably get too hard to even stand up right; but when a good looking woman with a skinny waist has milk swollen breasts dribbling milk hanging that harshly, it’s so hot to look at.

I also kept Cid the necromancer’s slave crystal unsummoned since I don’t know what that will do to his mind yet. I’d considered equipping it because it might be interesting to see what will happen if there’s a skill carry over; but it would cause trouble and be hell if he had memories of being inside my head while I was feeding from Sylvie or Asakura. That for sure cannot be allowed to happen!

After a brief feeding from Sylvie and Asakura, which was kept to a minimum, we decide to work really hard today to train. Both Sylvie and Asakura are disappointed however, when it’s cut short.

Though it feels like dealing with the devil we’ve taken up Doppel-chan on helping us train.

“We should dose Doppel-chan again today before you leave. She’s never shown true compliance before and this might be it,” Asakura said.

“Wait is that safe? I mean we’ve never done two massive doses in the same night with her,” I said worriedly.

“Yeah that’s true, what if it like hits her like an overdose?” Sylvie said.

“She’s not human. She does have a strong constitution,” Asakura said.

“But if we spill that pheromone cocktail on us it could give us seizures,” Sylvie said.

“Oh man, I didn’t think of that. You two need to be very careful that you won’t get that spilled on you,” I coached.

Thus a whole containment procedure discussion began, discussing handling the pheromone cocktail safely for both Sylvie and Asakura. Jeez, the way they describe it its like they are talking about nuclear waste. It almost hurt to hear it talked about like its dangerous. They both apologized profusely when they realized I was emotionally hurt by it…still too much of that spilled on Sylvie and Asakura, I’m not sure what would happen.

“I agree,” I said as we concluded that meeting.

“I agree most of all. But be careful. She wants to be free too and that can’t happen. She’s still too dangerous,” Sylvie said.

To do that is tricky though just like before. And again this is the second dosing of pheromone soup we’ve put on her today. I’d saved up a bunch of my body fluids consisting of saliva and seminal fluids full of pheromone and dosed her first using stun. We don’t dare deal with her when she’s not dosed.

After the stun wears off Doppel-chan is licking her face and hands where the fluid is. She wasn’t in seizures for quite as long this time. I don’t know if that’s good or bad though. It would be bad if she became immune or built up immunity to it. But the fact that she’d even offered to help us even if we don’t trust her is proof that it’s working for some gain.

I still don’t know if it’ll ever be safe to ever let her out of her cage.

We keep going in circles trying to figure this out.

Dang it!

“Are you ready to work out a deal?” I asked Doppel-chan when she was close to being done.

“Ahem? So Shun…we might be able to work something out. But I need you to let me out of this cage,” she said.

“Don’t do it. She’s crazy!” Asakura objected.

Doppel-chan frowned. “Well actually I am crazy, but try to be nice OK? It hurts to hear that. And I want to be treated nicely too,” she said.

“Uh, sorry,” Asakura gave a slight bow.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m scared of me too. You wouldn’t believe my colorful nightmares…all…in red…” Doppel-chan added. She almost sound bashful.

“That’s too much information,” I said.

“Ah right. Please forget that part,” came the reply.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea yet to let her out Shun. We need you to prove who you are and what you can do to help us,” Sylvie said with her arm protectively around my shoulders. She’s giving Doppel-chan a bit of a hard core look while she leans into me.

But when Asakura sees it I feel warm milk slosh on my arm when she fails trying to put my opposite arm in her cleavage and it forces spurts of milk out. “Um….oops…sorry about that,” she blushed when Sylvie and I look at the thin trails of milk going down my arm.

“Wow that’s hot. I want to join you guys for real,” Doppel-chan licked her lips. I can’t tell if she meant that at me or Asakura though.

It feels nice to be guarded by both of them.

“Even if she’s serious about cooperating with you Shun, that doesn’t mean she’ll cooperate with us,” Asakura said to me.

“Asakura is right. Sorry,” Sylvie told me by patting my arm.

“So how can you help us get stronger?” I asked.

Doppel-chan smiled. “You see I was summoned by the dungeon. That dungeon is linked to your demon box. Did you know a demon box and a dungeon labyrinth are a similar type of existence?” she asked.

“Hmm, OK but where are you going with this?” Asakura asked with her arms folded.

“I know how to utilize the box better than you do. Partly that’s because of it summoning me, but also because I’m closer to the demon realm. So by using the dungeon’s tools and access I can set up a dungeon for you to farm. If you do this it will help you to farm monster cores. And I will be able to be a bit less bored than usual and get something to snack on,” Doppel-chan said. I noticed she was looking at me when she said that. She has a look on her face that isn’t really smug, but its self confident like she expects me to take her offer.

“Farming monster cores? Wow,” Sylvie is shocked.

“What does she mean by snack on?” Asakura looked at Sylvie and me.

“Oh that part makes me a bit jealous. I think I know what she wants,” Sylvie glared at her.

“Yeah that can’t be good huh?” I said.

Sylvie just kept her glare up and stared back.

“Wait, I mean the energy transfer! I totally won’t go cannibal on you I swear!” Doppel-chan said.

“That’s so gross,” Sylvie said.

“How do we know you are telling the truth?” I asked Doppel-chan who is leaning against the bars with wide open sincere looking eyes.

“Umm, let’s see... I guess you don’t huh?” Doppel-chan laughed daintily while looking embarrassed.

“Our only choice is to do a verification like trust and verify system,” Asakura said.

“OK, let’s do that,” I said.

“Go slow, we have to control every point of this with her,” Sylvie said glaringly.

Doppel-chan continues to pace around her cage as if she’s the one in charge and that scares me. All the while she’s with a slight smile on her face. “I guess we could do that. You probably need to know that I can be trusted huh? That will take some time…” she sighed but somehow was smiling.

She sure has good posture and a nice body. Its hard to not be captivated, watching her move.

“Um got anymore of that yummy syrup?” she asked with wide eyes.

The other two looked at me. I folded my arms and glared back. “You have to earn it,” Asakura said in a huff.

“What? Come on! Give me a freebie! I don’t want to be a lowly pawn,” Doppel-chan complained. She’s shaking the cell bars making them creak violently but yet they hold. Unconsciously we ended up stepping back a bit.

“You won’t be a pawn but we expect loyalty in the highest commitment,” I said.

“Yeah what he said,” Sylvie sneered jealously.

Wow, Sylvie is jealous? Usually she’s the more level headed one.

Doppel-chan glanced at them and then back at me. “You …can’t do this.”

“What they said,” I confirmed.

“F-fine,” she continued to pace.

“But how does the efficiency work on that?” Asakura asked.

“Come again?” came the reply.

“Well how does the dungeon get energy to call forth minions if we’re just killing them without it being able to kill us? It would seem like it’s only losing energy and not gaining anything,” Asakura explained.

Doppel-chan nodded back at us while looking down from her cage, “I can see why you might think that. But dungeons gather energy from the world they are in through a type of mana gathering technique called ‘gaia harnessing’. All dungeons harness mana from the planet this way, over the breadth of their territory, thus a larger dungeon will pull more mana harnessing in. That’s an official term too, but don’t be going on blabbing about it, it can get you killed to do so. Gaia harnessing is a serious secret that can get you killed just by knowing about it. That’s why a bigger dungeon will be able to pull more energy and more monsters because the buildup of the daily energy it acquires is put to use efficiently, even though it seems to also be using a lot of energy to support those creatures without having a negative net energy flow. Then that energy of its own monsters also gives off energy. So even if some of the creatures are lost it will still have energy gain and be able to recover.”

“Wow that’s complex,” I said.

“What if she’s lying?” Asakura asked.

“I doubt she’s lying but we’ll find out either way. All we have to do is cross check the data with some mages,” Sylvie said.

“Good idea, thanks,” I said to Sylvie.

Asakura is jealous I noticed, that I gave Sylvie attention.

“She could lie but doesn’t seem like she is. I don’t know if she intends a half truth deception though,” Sylvie said to me.

“And you’re sure other mages could know about this ‘gaia harnessing’ thing?” I asked.

“I think so. But it depends on how well connected and educated they are,” Sylvie said.

“She could be right too but lets manage the danger carefully is my advise for you,” Asakura said in regards to Sylvie’s comment.

“OK, thank you both,” I said.

“I would have you listen to your advisers, since their advice is good. But in this case I don’t have anything to gain from your distrust. Plus I want more of that yummy syrup you gave me before,” Doppel-chan said, looking unfazed. It’s weird that she seems perfectly at ease despite always being a deadly prisoner too.

“But how do we know you are telling the truth? Can you give me some reason to trust you?” I added while looking straight at her.

She smiled broadly back at me. “Oh I will try to probably kill you if I get lose. So don’t trust me and don’t let me loose but we can move by inches towards each other. And I don’t lie. I don’t need too when I’m this powerful. When you are as powerful as I am you can get anything you want with raw power. So lies are weak when it’s easier to conquer. You see one of these days I will go free. Someday you’ll get careless or you’ll forget to guard my cage enough. Or you’ll think I’m tame and let me go. Then I’ll take your head right off your shoulders. But I’m patient see. So I don’t need to lie.”

She gave me the chills the way she just said that while staring at us leaning against the bars with her forehead, and her hands gripped to the bars.

It’s weird that she’s too confident.

The others are afraid to comment about it and glance at each other and then me.

Then she blew out a puff of smoke. It’s dark thick inky smoke that is stuck together like a long snake that is slowly slithering to the floor of the arena. When it’s done flowing down ward it flows into the shape of a door in the middle of the air but touching the ground.

“How odd,” Asakura mused.

“Is it safe?” I asked.

Doppel-chan shrugged. “Safe is relative. I would say count on it to not be safe if you really want to be safe but that’s not because I plan anything bad. It’s a door to a dungeon. It’s a tool, and dungeons are like that. What do you expect? There’s no free lunch here. So the dungeon will try to kill you but you can harness its power if you are strong. But I don’t intend to let you win easy. This is my chance to test you too in a way. Remember that. But make sure you come back so I can get more syrup.”

Asakura and Sylvie flinched at the mention of syrup and looked at me worriedly.

“It definitely smells like a dimensional portal of some kind,” Sylvie said while sniffing it. She is gently without touching it pacing around it while sniffing.

“Where does it go?” Sylvie asked her.

Doppel-chan thought for a moment. “Actually it’s random. Even I don’t know. So don’t blame me if there are injuries. But it is something that should be doable for you. Of course it will try to kill you. It’s a test see. It will be flowing with monsters just like the other place you went before that had imps in it.”

Asakura is carefully thinking about it. “I don’t like this. She’s not one of us. At least not yet, and I don’t know if she ever will be. How can we just go with this?”

“We need to grow and fight though. Let me push us through,” Sylvie said.

I glance at her.

“So what do you think about what Sylvie just said?” I asked Asakura again.

Asakura turned to face Doppel-chan. “How do we know we can come back? How do I know we won’t be trapped in there? Does the exit come back into this dream dimensional pocket?”

Doppel-chan frowned. “Sorry I almost forgot about that.”

“I can’t believe we’re doing something so reckless,” Asakura said.

Then she blew out a whole bunch more inky black smoke which floated down just like the first trail. When it gathered into a cloud, it then seemed to pool into a gooey blackness and then it melted away leaving a door that looks and feels almost ethereal like. It also has this weird vibe of like having waviness about it, as if the whole thing is in a massive amount of heat.

“Huh…hell magic?” Sylvie said, almost like a mumble while glaring at it.

“It’s called infernal magic actually,” Doppel-chan corrected her.

“Hell magic…wow,” I couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.

“Hmm so you can feel and sense it?” Doppel-chan didn’t seem disappointed but just giggled instead.

“Yeah, definitely some kind of demon hell magic…the door I mean,” Sylvie said.

“Hell magic sounds…tricky and not something we should mess with,” Asakura said.

“Exit,” Asakura reads aloud what is marked on the door.

And at the same time, “Entrance” was formed on the other door. There are two of them of course with the same effects.

“Are you happy now?” Doppel-chan said boredly as if condescending to us.

“So why are you helping us?” I asked.

“Well your white syrup stuff tastes so good. I can’t guarantee I wouldn’t rage out of control if you let me loose though. I should stay locked up. But this can be like a trial,” Doppel-chan blushed.

“I second that!” Sylvie said with her extreme alertness.

“Me too,” Asakura said.

“Well…you don’t have to agree so quickly. Jerks…” Doppel-chan said to them with a smirk on her face and with a sexy leggy posture with her arms folded.

That made the other two flinch. They don’t like how she looks at them or me.

“I still can’t tell if she’s on our side or not,” Sylvie said.

“Me either,” Asakura noted.

“It’s like that for me too. I feel a sway to want to destroy you still. So this is strange, the feeling in my mind. DNA from demons is trouble I tell you. Make sure you try to stay as human as possible,” Doppel-chan said. I can’t tell if she’s mocking this time or serious.

We stood there blinking and listening not sure what to say, since she’s so …I don’t want to say she’s batshit weird, but she’s weird.

“You know I was pulled here by the demon box to slay you guys. It’s not my fault that I have divided loyalties until you master the box and beat it. So I’m forced into fighting you sometimes. I have dual loyalties right now. But it’s not like I want too. This situation is like when you meet an opponent you really like an admire and you have a tragedy of being forced into being adversaries,” Doppel-chan said while leaning on her elbow and glancing at her sharp nails.

It was sad in a way, if that’s what she really thought.

Would we have to keep her there in the cage even when she’s ‘on our side’? It’s not like we can let her out. She’s too powerful. I mean the fact that she can even create a dungeon like that out of mana smoke shows she’s not something I want to take a chance with.

How do we even know that cage won’t break down too? And is that cage stable and strong enough to hold her? There is such a thing as metal fatigue, even if it is enchanted right?

My worries kept growing.

“Well go on then. See what you can do. This is your chance at training,” Doppel-chan said with an evil laugh.

So that’s how we entered the dungeon rift intersected by Doppel-chan’s doors. At least that’s Sylvie’s theory. She believes Doppel-chan only intersected an existing dungeon tunnel system but didn’t actually create this dungeon.

It goes without saying that we had Sylvie form an illusion shirt over Asakura’s chest in case we run into intelligent creatures in the dungeon. The illusion shirt, also seems to make Asakura’s cup size diminish a small amount to look more reasonable, but she still looks a bit ‘blimpy’. We also put up full buffs before going in the entrance.

As we’re going in I heard Doppel-chan giggle in a strange harsh way and that made me break out in cold sweat worrying about if it was a trap.

When we entered the door we came out once again on the demon realm part of the world in a tunnel system not too much different from before.

But it was definitely tricky.

The place was filled with ogres. Trust me, anything more than just one of them, feels like ‘filled with ogres’. The first room had three of them, big fellas that look awful. It shocked me. Before we can even react they are charging at us.

Using barrier I locked the corridor to prevent two of the ogres from reaching us. Then we hit the first ogre with a stun ray. Asakura and Sylvie both from opposite ends, surrounded the trapped ogre and finished it off.

We’re lucky they worked fast because I hadn’t anticipated how creative the ogres might be. They can force their way through in other ways that we hadn’t thought of. To get around my barrier fence they’d actually crushed the wall area around it to make a hole to slip through.

As one of them stuck the top half of its body through to crawl through I hit it with magic missiles. Asakura stands guard on me while I’m surprised when Sylvie then shoots the same magic missiles as I have. Sylvie’s spell is similar to mine, except I shoot white hot looking darts, while hers look like fiery red darts instead. She shoots forth six of them in one shot, which end wounding the other ogre.

Sylvie is pretty powerful isn’t she? She copied my spell, changed its makeup and then adapted it further. Still the ogre is alive but she did well. It’s also proof that I can exploit skills and strength through our Soul Link ability.

Still he’s not dead…was a shock.

“Shun…these aren’t super ogres are they? Did she put us in here with some ogre version that’s on steroids?” Asakura asked.

“Oh man…let’s slow down and go real slow,” Sylvie cautioned.

“What?!” I’m surprised.

“Through soul link I’m able to use that spell of yours,” Sylvie laughed while explaining.

“OK, but the ogres are stronger than normal,” Asakura stated.

“That’s true. I’m worried,” I admitted.

“So that goes two ways right? Shun should be able to use some of your abilities?” Asakura guessed.

“Some but only my weaker abilities and simpler skills at first,” she said.

“Ah, that’s cool,” I gave Asakura a high five.

“Amazing!” Asakura exclaimed.

We then fire off another volley of magic missiles each of us. All ten of them from both of us strike the ogre. To our shock he doesn’t die. He’s just more enraged and trying to act like a mad bull.

It was then I realized how badly Doppel-chan treated us. These weren’t just ogres, these were like some kind of badass variant enduring type. We’d only gotten lucky on that first one because he was stunned to be knocked prone and unable to move while both Sylvie and Asakura had struck him in the neck repeatedly while he tried to recover. And even with the soul link upgrade thing helping us this is ridiculously dangerous and hard.

The wounded ogre is now through the hole and rushing towards us while the second one behind it is scrambling to make the hole bigger so he can get through it. After all, his body is bigger. He’s already trying to fit through.

I hit the ogre charging us with a movement de-buff spell while Fox hit him with six more missiles.

He’s still not dead?!

The magic missile spell is useful, and very basic. It would be surprising if it killed something like an ogre. But with repeated uses I’m surprised that the buildup of nearly twenty darts hasn’t done it in. I can wear him down as he tries to get closer and then him with something hard at the right time or a stun.

We all scramble to dodge out of the way while using my fireman’s axe Asakura blocks the ogre’s attack. The strength of such a beast is so incredible that the axe carries a jarring concussive vibration that pushes Asakura back. She only managed to not be injured from that blow because of the ghoul DNA I think.

She’s trying to pick herself off the ground while Fox and I hit with more magic missile darts.

Now it’s looking bloody and screams while we hit it.

Asakura dodges out of the way rolling towards me while the ogre tries to crush it with a rusty sword.

Ogres like these all carry weapons but they are scavenged stuff from prey they’ve killed, not anything they made themselves. This and the others are carrying clubs, hammers, and corroded weapons I’ve noticed.

Asakura tries to do another block that sends her flying back another six feet from such a terrible blow.

If that’s what the blows do when they are blocked I can’t imagine how awful they’d be on a full impact.

This time Sylvie hits it with six more darts and I hit the third ogre with a de-buff now that it’s running towards us. He’s still a good forty feet out, but he will be here soon.

“Watch the second one,” I shouted.

Asakura rolled out of the way again to dodge the ogre. But she’s tiring and also scratched up. I’ll need to heal her soon.

As the ogre near death tries to do a follow up strike on Asakura we hit it with more magic missiles. It finally dies.

But we’re tired. This is hell.

It took about thirty of those little magic missiles? What the hell kind of ogre is that?

My concentration is forced at the third and only surviving ogre coming at us now. I hit him my stun spell when he’s almost at us.

Then the ladies neck chopped him like they had the first one.

“This type of fighting will probably work right?” I asked them while healing Asakura’s scrapes and bruises. Technically she’s not hurt badly but just was thrown around. But nobody likes being thrown around like a rag doll.

“I don’t know. It seems like we had a rough time,” Sylvie noted.

“I agree. And I couldn’t do anything. Doppel-chan is really trying to kill us this time. I mean this is the first room and there’s already guys like that which are nearly impossible to kill?!” Asakura shakes her head.

“Well, we’re stuck here because if you haven’t noticed, she caved in the door when we went in,” Sylvie pointed out.

As we look behind us we can see that the door is melted shut and now looks like a bunch of rock that caved in.

“So is she killing us or helping us?” I wondered.

“Just now I remember she said she can’t help but have a dual nature right now. I guess that’s it,” Asakura said.

“Yeah probably…”

We all swore curse words.

Nobody wants to fight ogres. They are freaking nasty. And we all know the story of Sunghee nearly getting smashed to death by one in the battle at the dwarfs’ fortress.

But then I remembered the dwarves have a gold bounty on ogres. We stashed their heads in my inventory box. Still they don’t have anything else of value for these three. And they smelled so badly that even if they did have something of value I’d question whether or not it was a good idea to grab it.

This is going to be some serious money…but only if we can survive it!

We continue down the tunnel carefully with Sylvie leading the way. With her being a foxkin she can smell if there’s something ahead. Plus she has an alertness that is a step ahead of Sunghee’s, though I think Asakura could probably handle it too.

We got to the next room and noticed a refuse filled lake of algae slime that’s long ago been polluted and stunk like a sewer.

That’s when we saw the other set of ogres.

“Shit,” I cursed.

This time there are four of them.

Immediately one of them shouted an alarm and the giant beasts are running straight at us a hundred feet away. And the worst part is that they can see us because of all the glowing lichen and strange mushroom like creatures that grow here as if they are an underground plant.

Damn they can run fast. And how they run while angry with their weapons out makes them look even scarier than before, when they already looked scary and towered over us.

Sylvie chants her magic, drawing runes in the air. Then she puts her hand up and a lightning bolt shoots out that sends tremors of light through the cavern as it’s going off. There’s also the terrible roar of the energy echoing in the cavern as it races through them almost faster than we can see. Massively powerful blasts send the two of the ogres fly through the air as the lightning arcs through their bodies while screaming. Then they hit the ground without getting up.

“Nice!” Asakura said.

The other two worry me though. Somehow we kept shooting magic missiles into them. But they kept getting closer.

“Not really. I can’t spam lightning bolts endlessly. I need some recovery time before I can shoot another bolt,” Sylvie tells me.

Crap that means it’s up to me.

As the two other ogres get close I put up a barrier cage around the one. But because it’s so strong as it’s enraged from being captured, the barrier cage is sliding on the ground from its inertia despite supposedly being anchored into the floor, which shows off the massive strength that ogres possess. You see the barrier cage isn’t built to move on the floor; only something with herculean strength could pull off the slight movement across the ground that they are doing.

“My gosh, they never stop!” Asakura cried out. Then Asakura blocked the attack of the remaining one. Like before she’s thrown back several feet from the log it was using striking part of the fireman’s axe.

She cries out in pain.

We rush to her aid.

She rolls out of the way of its next strike, while I finally have an opening for the stun ray.

The stun hits it full force in the head.

Then Asakura and Sylvie sever its neck arteries to let it bleed out. They don’t leave it like that though, and keep hacking at its head until the neck vertebrae are showing and it’s like screaming without being able to do so.

“I hope this isn’t a very big dungeon. Those things are too strong,” I said.

“My arm hurts! Shun!” Asakura cries out to me.

“Backup, backup,” I called repeatedly to Asakura.

Shit.

Fear clutches at my heart.

“Is it br-broken?” Sylvie asked.

Using mana sensing I’m trying to feel her arm. That hit was too heavy. I think she’s bruised all throughout that arm. And the bone is cracked even though it was an impact on her weapon and not her arm directly, such is the extreme strength of the ogres. Still the bone is together and won’t have to be reset, which was my primary worry.

Still she’d acted on protective instinct to try to help me. I have to protect them. This will tighten my resolve to be more protective in the future. I’ll remember what happened here. I feel guilty. It was stupid of me to do something like this.

We spend some down time while I’m healing her. After several heals I noticed that broken bones don’t get healed immediately. And for some weird bizarre reason, regeneration is more effective on broken bones than the normal heal is. Is it because the bone needs time to recover? And because there’s a matter exchange involved in the blood chemistry?

It has something to do with the way mana recovery magic works I’m sure and not any defect in my skills. Perhaps other heal type mages had this problem too? But perhaps I still need to get stronger.

We work for a good hour while Sylvie is standing guard. But Asakura is near the back now, nursing one arm while she’s sweating like crazy and trying to just stay on her feet.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” I told her.

“It’s OK. Master, of course I’d protect you. Just keep me with you please!” Asakura pleaded.

We take a look at this cavern.

More ogre heads are put into a smelly sack along with the other three heads. Then they are transferred to my inventory slots. We’d gained what little ground we could because we were able to use the huge size of the cavern against them to kite them. But that wouldn’t have worked if it’d been a smaller cavern.

The ogre camp is around the pond or lake in this cavern. But the lake has been abused for too long by the ogres and it’s now sick.

We investigate their camp, going slowly and carefully while hiding ourselves. Sometimes I feel Asakura brush up behind me as she’s almost glued to me and scared like the rest of us.

There’s nothing of value.

Their camp consists of various smelly fur tents with half rotted furs as the bedding. None of us wants to sleep or look in the three tents there because of how gross and dirty everything us. It also seems that the fourth ogre was a youngster and probably the child of one of those other three that it was with.

“If this camp is their home does that mean there are more of them off hunting that could come back at any time?” Asakura said in fear.

We all glance around.

“She’s probably right. We need to be careful of friends showing up,” Sylvie said.

While Asakura is nursing her arm we tied it into a sling.

Somehow we need to live through this.

I spammed a few more heals and regeneration spells but I think Asakura is out for the rest of our time here.

We trudged around the lake hunting carefully and staying low.

On the way we killed two more ogres, each also solo falling ambush to Sylvie and I executing dual surprise attacks at the same time. Because they were solo we were able to stun them and cut their heads off like the others.

+2 ogre heads near the end, for a total of 9 ogre heads for dwarven bounties.

Naturally the dwarves are going to wonder how we got so many of these.

But with the war going on they shouldn’t be too uptight that we did something to help them win.

We tried a different tactic on the next skirmish.

And it was lucky we did.

The next room was a homestead site for ogres like the previous room. And it had five ogres.

Sylvie shot a lightning bolt again which wounded three of them terribly but only one fell over dead. Then we kited them through the tunnel following us while shooting at them. The others are trying to flee now that they realize that for us to be this deep in means that something has happened to their brethren.

I de-buffed their movement speed while Sylvie shot down one of the heavily wounded ones.

I should use the de-buffs more. With the movement speed de-buffs on them and plus movement speed buffs on us, we can actually kite them around as much as we want provided we don’t get ourselves boxed in and trapped by being stupid.

“Three left,” Asakura called out.

We were shocked then when we realized how fast they are when they are mad.

I managed to get a mana wall up blocking the corridor just in time while the three of them are slamming into it hard. They were slamming so hard into it that for a second I was worried the wall might break.

We pulled back another hundred feet. By doing so we’re now completely at the site where we fought the first four of them.

We tried to catch our breath some more while we wait.

“I don’t know. This is a terrible idea to be here,” Asakura said.

“I agree. We should never go into anything that Doppel-chan sets up. It was crazy to do this!” Sylvie also said.

The barrier keeps shuddering under the extreme force of three ogres hitting it. Each hit is like a car wreck in force. While I think that, I apologized to Asakura for having to block them. It was stupid. I could have gotten her hurt.

What was I thinking?

She’s the most important person to me. I felt like crying.

“Hey it’s going to be OK,” Asakura put her good hand on my shoulder for comfort.

“I was wrong. You guys aren’t worth risking this over. We shouldn’t have come here,” I said.

She was about to say something else when I heard Sylvie cry out.

“NO!” Sylvie said in shock.

We turned towards what she’s looking at.

“Shun! Help!” Sylvie called out.

Somehow the ogres were so strong they broke the rock formations clean through that the barrier wall was put up against for anchoring. So in other words the barrier wall was still there and unhurt but every bit of rock that it was anchored to has been broken clean through so that the wall is now flat down on the ground like an open drawbridge waiting to be crossed over.

“Holy shit!” I exclaimed.

Sylvie and Asakura both are screaming in terror.

Now three ogres are running straight at us.

Sylvie puts her hand palm up towards the monsters. Then chants another spell, just like that she shoots another lightning bolt out of her hand that strikes two of the ogres, and we’re lucky they stay down.

But there’s something off about the last one.

He’s bigger, tougher, and stronger. Plus he looks meaner with rotten sharp teeth as he screams at us. He’s also got some kind of two handed sword that he swings at us almost like a short sword for him.

A boss?

I hit him with a movement de-buff. Theoretically we should be faster than he is.

“That’s definitely their leader,” Asakura said.

We kited him for two hours of repeated stuns, buffing, and de-buffing, since he can somehow get through mana forcefields with some effort. I even resorted to saving the stuns for when he was about to catch up to us, rather than using it offensively. This is what thinking ahead requires for extreme enemies and I’m glad I have been strategic and not just firing my spells blindly.

If I’d been greedy or stupid then Asakura, Sylvie, or both would be dead already.

It was hard work.

For starters, even with the movement de-buff he’s ridiculously fast because he’s like nine feet tall with the huge height advantage. So that means we’re using the lake cavern to move around in. First I have to stun him, then we run away while shooting magic missiles at him. At some point he gets up and he’s running faster than we are while we run away while he’s catching up.

Somehow we’re able to have my stun cool time work out just before he hits us and we do the whole thing all over again.

By the time we finish we’ve run ragged and decide to not do any kind of dungeons involving Doppel-chan ever again. At least not for awhile.

The ogre chieftain’s weapon has to be worth something though. It’s a jewel encrusted two handed bastard sword that looks like it came from a knight or dwarf of some kind.

We can probably get it appraised.

The rest of the ogre’s camp doesn’t have much of value we originally thought.

In one corner we resisted the urge to puke when we find a stack of human, and demi-human heads that’s got about thirty victims in it, plus some of their rotted ribcages all in a pile. The ogres had been building some kind of bone monolith statue with the remains, probably to mark their territory.

We ended up burning the ogre tent encampment.

There’s nothing of value here, and when we’d killed the leader, it was then that we found the exit to the dungeon.

Even though it wasn’t a very big dungeon, I think this was the hardest we’ve ever had to work so far.

“Hey I think I see something,” Asakura said.

I forget she has really good night vision.

She came back with a smelly sack of money.

We deposit in an inventory slot without mixing it with the other money yet because we’ll need to wash it off. And whatever we wash it in is going to be disease ridden. So this won’t be any fun at all.

Total ogres heads, 14!

Before leaving I had Sylvie help me check my abilities to see if there were any gains.

Runic Mana Shielding +62%; can be applied by touch to team target, self, or any target within 21 feet of caster; Duration of up to 24 hours; cast range bonus increase +2

Resistance to elements and magic, +67% bonus absorption rate above base; target must be touched to apply buff or within 9 feet. (Cast range increase +1, + increase to raw affectivity);

de-buff; Lower Resistance to elements and magic, 18% decrease;

Movement buff, up to 15% movement speed buff, + 3% attack speed increase. Target must be touched to apply buff or within seven feet. (Will stack with equipment buff);

Starry Missiles (up to 4 missiles, +39% damage each); (missiles+1, +increase to raw damage);

All around mana conservation of 13% for all spells.

Weapon Damage de-buff; -17% damage when cast on weapons;

Stun Ray, lasts up to 15 seconds, lasts less with more resistance; has a cool time of one usage per minute. Can be used in ray form or as target only with small range;

While I didn’t get a gain on it this time I realized that I’d forgotten to check the stats on my Circle of Protection Team Defense aura skill recently.

Circle of protection; (+7 feet additional radius, + 9% to energy defense field, +2% damage absorption)

It made me curious about this dungeon run’s results.

Was the psychological influence of the ogre’s terrible attack strength and Asakura getting wounded what influenced my mind to feel a need for increasing my de-buff strength? Did exposure to real danger affect the stat gain? The last time I’d checked the weapon damage de-buff wasn’t that close to 17% decrease.

Before leaving the dream state I ended up healing Asakura’s arm a few more times to speed things up. I can feel its knitting together well but I will have to keep her safe for a while still while working on her arm, until the bone totally settles. It will heal faster than without heals but there’s a limit to what healing spells can do.

Still she’s happy I kept them safe.

That ends up making me feel more guilty, because I was the one that put them in harm’s way in the first place.

When we came out Doppel-chan was there. “Eh?! You guys are still alive after all that? I can’t believe it!” she gave us a stunned look.

“I mean…I’m glad you are alive. I get more yummy syrup…” Doppel-chan then just shook her hips and exposed breasts at us. It’s hard to not get distracted by her sometimes because she doesn’t wear clothes while in that cage.

We glared back at her.

“That was mean,” Asakura shook a fist at her.

“Wow, I’m just like shocked you guys are alive after I tried so hard to kill you,” Doppel-chan said again.

“Why did you do that? Can’t we be friends?” I asked.

Doppel-chan shrugged.

Sylvie won’t even talk to her but has her hands on her hips.

“Well I guess one ogre den isn’t enough huh?” Doppel-chan said back to us.

“Doppel-chan we’re not the enemy you know,” I said trying to reason with her.

“So if one ogre den isn’t enough, maybe we should go for two next time?” she said aloud while thinking to herself.

Sylvie and Asakura don’t want to do anymore Doppel-chan dungeon activities anymore.

“I’m on strike!” Sylvie said forcefully. She was looking at Doppel-chan though and not me.

“Me too! No more! I want to retire with Shun in peace!” Asakura is trying to be mad but somehow ends up hugging me from behind while pushing her boobs into my back and wrapping her arms around me.

Wow, this feels good.

“Hey uh…got any more of that special juice you guys make?” Doppel-chan gave us a Cheshire cat grin.

Then Sylvie told her to fuck off.

Later we checked on the Ayumi slave crystal. It’s almost like she’s very close to finishing whatever change is going on. But she’s been changing so slowly too. That part I don’t understand. All the other changes were much quicker, and nearly within a day. She still looks feverish with discolored skin that looks bruised everywhere and that scares me. While being almost in suspended animation or stasis we can still see the drops of sweat on her forehead.

Repetitive heals don’t seem to help any.

And I don’t want to wake her up. This is going to be tricky.

Also the transition of changing the dream state’s arena to look like a tropical island isn’t finished. But we do have plenty of palm trees now but they are small. And those are blending in nicely. Little by little things are looking better here. We don’t have to focus on new plants as much now, but instead on trying to get them to grow.

We practiced trying to help them grow.

We have a tomato seedling area where we keep the smaller ones together. At the same time we’ve been transplanting different coconut and normal palm trees around different parts of the arena and using the alter reality to grow them.