It is again Thursday, the first dungeon visit since the latest disaster.

Like the past few days, Iris accompanies me when I go to nuke the flood monsters in the morning. She still has to get the basics down but she is making steady progress with her magic skill. With her lower stats, she doesn't gain much exp per trip yet but that will hopefully soon change. Not that she can make more than one per day, she has only the basic regeneration from [Sleepless] to work with and no other regeneration bonuses, which leaves her at full regeneration over about 23 hours compared to my 9 hours.

Well, at least gained a bit more exp per day than the others. The rest got about 180 exp per day, and Iris about 260. And even that is a drop in the bucket compared to my roughly 2000. Area damage really is a game-changer.

We really should focus more on the others learning and improving magic for area damage and therefore exp gain during the flood.

Well, that's a problem for later, first they need a class with something like [Create Food&Water] so we can stay longer in the dungeon and I need something so they can add more classes in the first place. Though I can achieve that already with Summoner level 15, which should only be a month away if my exp gain stays consistent.

Anyway, on to today's dungeon visit, "Looks like everyone is here."

Lydia stays unsummoned for now to not cause unneeded panic, and everyone else stands ready, even our new guy Ephran. Aside from being properly dressed in leather armor this time and wielding a flail, not a thing has changed about him since I last saw him in the vault. Still the same unkempt red beard.

"So, to keep things short, we'll take things a bit more slowly this time to see how it goes with our new member Ephran."

Marca asks, "Do you plan to experiment on monsters again? Last time it almost cost us dearly."

Yeah, yeah, "I know, Marca, and no, I won't. If that is everything, is everyone ready to go?"

They agree and we enter the dungeon again.

Inside Chloe frees herself from Ephran's embrace for a moment, "Jared, Therese gave me the Class Core you 'requested' for... Iris."

"Ah, good, we'll put it to good use later", she hands me the item and I place it in my inventory.

She warns me, "You know that this isn't right, Jared. The application was for Iris to gain a combat class which she by now already has."

"I don't see the issue, Chloe. I will use it to gain a class that increases the number of classes my spirits can have. And one of my titles will then spread that additional class to her as well. So indirectly the Class Core will be used to give Iris an additional class EXACTLY as intended, or am I wrong?"

Chloe sounds disappointed, "No, you're not. And I know that we can't afford to hold anything back. But-"

I interrupt her, "Happy to hear that, so if that's all, let's get going."

We enter the cave-like floor and start fighting the monsters. We face the usual suspects like Crawlers, Math Rabbits, Rat Bears, Floor Mimics and Trash Bags.

New guy Ephran doesn't contribute too much, he doesn't have any good combat skills, not even a form of weapon training so he breaks a lot of weapons. By the time we reach the boss on the tenth floor he has already wasted a dozen weapons.

Since Ephran isn't a familiar yet - not sure if I really want to keep him around - he'll suffer from sleep deprivation soon, so we agree to fight the first boss and then escort him to the exit, afterwards we'll continue without him for now.

On floor 10 we meet an old acquaintance, a huge green wall made of slime. Though this time it stretches to the ceiling of the room, so even if we still had the skill, we couldn't backstab it with Maria's [Trust Fall] anymore.

A few new tricks, but at least numerically it is weaker.

Lydia seems to talk with it, at least there can some muted bubbly sounds be heard. Please don't draw its attention while we are still preparing, you damned pile of rotten pudding!

I sigh, "Great, you again. What is new about you this time?"

As usual, monsters have overpowered skills. For the same cost, I can hit only one target and have to pay extra for the status effect.

I just hope it at least follows the rule of any skill that uses MP to require a 3-second cast instead of being instant like SP-using skills. At least that held true so far for everything I've seen.

That leaves only one conclusion, "In summary, if the Dread Lightning hits you get the hell out of the room. Or better, don't even let it get that far. If you see it starting to cast, run."

That leaves only one unknown skill.

"Uh, no, it isn't. I guess my title beats that again. Anyway, Elly, Maria and Lydia, you three be extra careful, with its [Summon Disjunction] passive probably any hit of the boss will kill you instantly. Wait, Lydia, where are you going!?"

The purple slimy mess floor dives again forward, inching closer and closer to the boss.

After a few moments, she stands directly before the wall and starts wobbling with her arms. Haze ceases to be a wall and reforms into a similar humanoid shape to Lydia.

Maybe I just lack the eyes for the intricate differences but aside from the colors, I can't tell them apart. Not that that says much if both are just formless masses of slimes. Yep, totally not my fault.

After it is done changing its shape, Haze also starts wobbling around with its noodly arms, then both of them raise their arms as if at a rave party, swinging their bodies from side to side.

What the hell am I witnessing here? Is it slime mating season or something?

The strange, uh, dance continues for a while but then Lydia drops her arms as if disappointed with something, slaps Haze and slinks away again.

Haze rubs its cheek where Lydia hit it and then it starts bawling its eyes out.

No one says anything about this strange performance.

"Lydia, I know I can't understand you but what the hell just happened?"

In response, she just shrugs.

When I look towards Haze again, it honors its name and dissolves into dust as if we had defeated it. But no exp or items are gained from this questionable victory.

I should really check my blood donors better, one of them must've been totally high...

"...whatever. Ephran, can you still go on or do you want to turn back now?"

Ephran answers confused, "I think I'd rather end it for today. This was... something and honestly, the memory of it would just distract me going forward."

"Yeah, I can understand that. But let's rest for a few minutes and then we'll bring you back."

He responds, "Yeah, no problem. I'll just have strange dreams tonight."

So would I, but neither can I sleep anymore nor would Lucia let me.

Speaking of, "Hey, Lucy, do your womanly instincts tell you what we just witnessed?"

She grins, "Not something you would understand in the slightest."

Or in other words, she has no idea either, "Right, if you say so."

I take out a set of playing cards and hand them to Elly, it is her turn to shuffle the cards.

However, Geoffrey takes me aside, "Can I speak with you for a moment?"

"Yeah, sure, what's on your mind?"

He takes a moment to collect himself, "It is about... offspring. Marca and I have... been making plans about eventually having kids and...", he trails off.

"I don't see where the issue is. As far as I'm aware I've already abolished all laws that would stand in your way. But as for the practical side... I'm undead, I can never have kids myself", though certainly not for a lack of trying with Lucia, "for advice on raising children I'm certainly the wrong person."

Geoffrey objects, "That wasn't exactly what I wanted to know but I'll keep it in mind. I was more concerned about how the familiar status plays into that. Does [Ageless] prevent us from having kids at all? Would they automatically fall under your bond as well? Could they even grow up or would [Ageless] keep them as babies forever? Those are things we're concerned about. But also how we arrange to raise our kids with our duties to you."

I try to lessen his worries, "That's a lot of things at once... well, [Ageless] doesn't say about that, only [Undead] does, so you should be good to go. Also, I have no plans to add everyone to my familiars, I can only have so many, so that shouldn't be an issue either. Even if we could, well... I honestly don't know how it would affect them in growing up. We should observe Anna for that, she's the youngest and has the most growing up to do out of all of us. But now that you say it..."

Geoffrey sounds concerned, "You think she may be stuck at her age?"

I rub my chin, "Yeah, that's certainly a possibility. I can't cancel that bond so we can only wait and see how it turns out for her."

He agrees, "I see, and about our duties while Marca is pregnant and afterwards when the child grows up?"

"We'll discuss the details when it is time for that but unless we're in an emergency I don't see why you two couldn't take the needed time off, and we should probably be able to hire some servants to help you out in raising your kids. Though you'll probably find time for a couple of hours away from your child, as you are you don't need to sleep. Well, we'll work something out by then."

After some more small talk, we join the card game players to distract us from Lydia's strange stageplay previously and then start to head back so little Ephran can get to bed on time.

Floors 9 through 3 are as devoid of monsters as we left them. However, when I try to pass through the safe zone barrier separating floor 3 from the in-between room, the green shimmering shell melts into goo and then disappears.

And optimism I had that this would be a relaxed dungeon exploration is gone, "Shit, this can only mean trouble. We need to get out now right now, let's hurry!"

We run through the empty floor 2 but when we arrive at floor 1 it isn't as empty as it should be. About thirty humanoid zombies guard the place. Luckily, they haven't noticed us yet.

Something feels a bit off, "Aren't the stats a bit too high for regular level 1 monsters?"

Elly warns me, "You should disable the skill filter, they have one skill you should have a look at."

Why? I only have [Mindless Monster] on that list, what else could it hide?

Damn...

"I guess that explains a thing or two, not... Anyway, Lucia and Iris, you cast an area spell at the same time as I do, we focus on the center. Repeat immediately afterwards, everyone else readies ranged attacks and picks off any survivors from the initial spell barrage, don't draw their attention before then, just focus on the ones with the least remaining HP. Once they get in melee range, we switch to close combat. Everyone got that? Then let's start."

We do exactly as planned, I ready my fire spell.

"Fire!", and the spells go flying. Two explosions erupt from their center and Iris' rock cannon causes many debris to fly around as well.

I quickly check the zombies that were hit directly, 435/3192 HP left. Some arrows start flying towards them and soon after they drop dead, we three casters prepare another volley of spells to severely injure what remains of that surprise battle. Then Chloe, Geoffrey, Marca and Anna rush in to finish the weakened zombies.

"Good, that's taken care of. Let's move on before anything worse appears, the exit is right ahead."

After leaving the substitute for the previously missed boss battle behind us, we leave floor 1 and head to the entrance room. It is emptier than it should've been.

Chloe arrives there first and points out, "Where the hell is the exit?"

A voice booms through the room, "I removed it, you don't deserve to leave now after what you've done to my friend!"

That's Dan, isn't it?

Lucia demands to know, "Who are you? Show yourself!"

"That's probably the same accursed thing that haunted me a while ago. It called itself Dan."

The voice gleefully answers, "Yes, that's indeed me. So you still remember me?"

"Afraid so. So what do you want? What have we supposedly done to your friend? Who are you even talking about!?"

Dan gets mad, "Haze tried to invite your friend to play but got called stupid and ugly by them."

I yell at her, "LYDIA!?? What the hell have you done!?"

Lydia ashamedly twiddles her arms.

I tell her, "Lydia, you go at once and apologize!"

She shakes her head and then crosses her arms, stubbornly refusing to do as I told her. Guess I now know how parents feel when scolding their kids...

The Dan-geon voice objects, "No, that's too late for that now anyway."

Geoffrey asks it, "Hey, can we talk about that? I'm sure she didn't mean to-"

But the disembodied voice doesn't let him finish, "No, no, no, that's not how we do things around here. So here's how we'll do things", its tone gets more sinister, "I'll call my avatar here to hunt you. You can try to fight it if you want but I estimate you have no chance against it. Anyway, your goal is on floor 100. If anyone of you gets there I'll teleport the rest of you there as well. However, you lose if I get any 5 kills on you, in that case I'll collapse the dungeon on you and we can have another go next time, right? Hmm... to mix it up I'll change the layout and population a bit. Yeah, we'll have some fun. Now, get going."

Just as it finishes telling us its insane rules, several blue orbs appear around the room and then gather where the exit should've been, forming what could only be described as a true monster. A slightly translucent, black mass, covered by dozens of mouths with teeth longer than my arm. No legs or other appendages to discern.

Before I have a chance to [appraise] it, its mouths twitch and two of us are already dead...

That was way too fast. As far as I could see, its mouths stretched from its body, bit my two spirits, and fell back, and all of that took just a fraction of a second.

The dungeon voice reminds us, "I told you to get moving, didn't I? I give you until I count to ten, okay? Eight, nine, what? I never said I'd start at one! So, nine! And!"

Dumbfounded and in a panic, we start running.

I dare to look behind us to finally get an idea of what we're up against.

We can't fight that thing. That's easily on the level of Basluth, if not worse...

When I look forward again, I'm no longer in a cave but in what looks like a brick-and-mortar castle cellar and everyone else has disappeared as if they never existed.

I stop and look around again.

Solid walls everywhere, no light sources but the hallway is still somewhat covered in dim light. In the distance, I can see a few passages to the fight.

It is a labyrinth now, isn't it?

And to top it all off, where I came from is now a solid wall. This will be fun...

3QGN73

I kinda wanted to keep Haze (last seen in Ch. 40) as an "evil opposite" to Jared but I got nothing suitable for a counterpart to Dread Lord. Haze already had Summon Disjunction and Acid Skin as counterparts to DL's better summons and Life Eater Armor, so instead, it got the Fear Eater stuff as a counterpart to some of the things Jared got from his vampire extras.

The glitched [Mindless Monster] skill only exists because I had a bug in my excel sheet so some monsters got 20 levels of stats they shouldn't have had, so instead of going back and fixing a lot of math, I gave it that dumb reason.