I could feel mana shift from my body into the dungeon body. The stone atomized within the walls and the weight of the massive slabs shifted. First, there was a settling, then it slipped. Finally, it dropped, like a rock unsurprisingly, and the whole room shook as dust and small pebbles followed in its wake from the ceiling, from the stone-carved upper platform, and of course from the stairs too.

I watched as one, two, and then a final third giant slab of stone dislodged itself from the ceiling and crashed down. Each one splatting green plant goo out. The last one caused the large vine to wriggle for a few instants before it dropped limply, and stopped moving.

“Wha!” “Shit!” “Fuck!” Were the responses of various soldiers around me. Our dungeon-engineered passageway collapse was complete, and it was a rousing success! I could tell from my brief and cursory witnessing of Naan’s senses that this dungeon itself seemed to be designed for this. That was to say, the original designer had intended to make sealing these passages easy to perform at a moment's notice. That explained why one might have been triggered by accident earlier. It made me glad that we were the ones with our hands on the lever, and not some other dungeon watching us from the darkness.

Imagining someone wandering into this place only to have the walls collapse on either side of you, slowly dying of hunger and thirst sounded horrible. Let alone having a slab dropped on top of you, though that seemed only possible because the plant was… a plant? It only seemed to resist Naan’s influence when it was antagonized, not that it made sense to me that a plant could be pissed.

“Relax.” I replied evenly, “That went just as expected. A perfect result!” I cheered.

Devin set his hand on my shoulder, “Doesn't mean that people can’t be surprised when something suddenly causes the whole place to shake.”

“Yeah…” I agreed. It was hard to remember that my private mental chats with Naan were just that, private. I had a feeling that given more time this was going to get worse. While Naan and I still had separate minds we were sharing experiences, and while I refrained from devoting much conscious attention to its sight I was gradually adapting.

Surely it would take a while, but someday we might begin to actually understand each other instinctively and blur the tiny lines that presently kept us separate. I’d be lying if I said that I looked forward to the idea of us becoming even more intertwined. But at the same time, I couldn’t deny that some parts of this weren’t bad. Naan’s sight was useful, if mostly off limits. I was already getting the impression that Naan was becoming more understanding of me, if not other creatures as well. Though maybe that was me reading into things. It wasn’t like we’d had a lot of time to really focus on any of this either.

I could feel our mana shift at Naan’s attention and the stone began to carve away. Rather than watch, and give myself a sudden dizzy spell I glanced at the others and explained that we were carving a path.

A few seemed dumbfounded by that.

“You’re using magic? From here?” One of the men asked.

I scratched my head, “I guess?”

How did I explain this? I absorbed a sentient rock that has a separate consciousness from me, and we can multitask and use weird dungeon powers? Just thinking about what I might say to myself made me sound like I’d lost my mind. Best I just keep things simple, “It’s more an ability than magic, and it's hard to explain.” I offered as honestly as I could.

A few seemed to more or less get that. I was getting the impression that various people had abilities, and almost none of them really understood them. They were as best I could determine magic that the mind learned to do naturally through its own efforts. Or at least usually, I supposed my succubus abilities were more given to me by Naan. But my ability to convert semen into mana was something I’d somehow developed on my own. Some people probably had things like that, some maybe not even realizing that what they were doing was in fact magic on some level. I could easily see how someone might develop an extra sense and think it was just a gut feeling. Had Naan not explained that I was full of mana I might have actively fucked until I exploded like some kind of debauchery-fueled explosive.

That honestly made me laugh nervously. It was both horrifying and utterly absurd.

“What's going on in that head of yours?” Devin asked.

“Just thinking how weird things are sometimes.” I posited.

“Sometimes?” he quieried.

“Usually?” I offered back.

He shrugged, “You feeling better now? You seem more… level.”

“Yeah. I think so.” I agreed not quite sure what else to say.

Devin wrapped his arms around me holding me against his chest. He rested his head against my own, “Sometimes things are just a bit too unexpected with you.”

“I really did leave the rails at some point, huh?” I said considering it.

“Rails?” He asked as I reached up hugging his arms.

“It's nothing… it's just… I think I overdid it this time.”

“This time?” He asked with a touch of sarcasm.

“You think I’ve overdone it before?” I asked back.

“That one time outside the camp, definitely.” He pointed out immediately.

I thought back, “Was it that bad?”

“It's basically the same thing.” Devin insisted.

I mused over it just enjoying his warmth and body holding me tightly. I got the impression that we were actually talking about two different things. Or at least perspectives. But at the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder if my ability had made me more susceptible to… whatever this was.

The pleasure I felt from men releasing inside of me was nearly enough for me to orgasm now, when I first came to this world that would have seemed ludicrous. But now that was simply my own common sense. I’d always enjoyed pleasuring men, it turned me on, which in turn helped me get off. But what had once been a turn-on, or fun, or just foreplay, was now something I was actively seeking almost instinctually. It was a bit frightening to think how much my response to it had changed. While I still actively wanted to engage in sex rather than just give out blowjobs, what happened earlier wouldn’t have been remotely possible the day I arrived.

I simply wouldn’t have had remotely that many orgasms. I wouldn’t have so eagerly agreed to let Devin claim two holes for himself. It wasn’t that I regret that. Rather, “Did you enjoy your special treatment?” I asked.

Devin cleared his throat, “I…” He said not quite sure how to reply.

“You’re not mad, right?” I decided to shift away from a question that had no real purpose.

“Just a bit. Though maybe mad is a bit of an overstatement. I wish you would have listened. Or that you wouldn’t have done that at all. But like you said… I’m glad that you let me be special.”

“So no angry sex later?” I asked.

Devin snorted, “You want me to be angry?”

“No… not really. It's more that I can’t but want two things at the same time. Like a constant tugging in two directions. I want this…” I said relaxing in his arms, focusing and feeling him there, comforting me just by being. “But I want the fast and rough sex… Sometimes I feel like I need it more than want it.” I said just letting the words tumble from my lips.

“You want to be loved… but you need me to fuck you?” He asked after a moment.

“Is that strange?” I asked.

“Don’t know honestly. I’ve only really loved one other woman. Probably. Though I guess I don’t really mind doing both. Maybe things will change over time, or maybe…” He drifted off in his own thoughts.

“Maybe?” I asked after he didn’t resume.

Once more he didn’t immediately reply, it took him a few moments before he spoke again, “I’ve decided to trust you. Just remember that above all else, alright?”

I squeezed his arm, “I will. You’re my first, and only knight after all.”

“You’re still going on about that, huh?” Devin asked back.

“Of course. It might just be silly pretend for now, but one day… when we leave here, when we head towards the capital… things will change. Besides I have two subjects that can only come out in a dungeon.”

“Emmett…” Devin groaned.

I chuckled, “Yeah.. him, but also Kay.”

“She’s the one I killed right?” Devin asserted.

“She is.” I agreed, feeling him tense up.

“But I don’t think she’s going to hold a grudge.” I pointed out.

“Seems hard to believe.” Devin asserted.

“She's a kind person. And I think she regrets her actions or something along those lines at least. I really wish I could bring her out and speak to her some more. I want to actually hug her… but for the moment I can only do that in a dream. But even then I don’t really have time to speak to her… I really hope she isn’t mad that I’ve been ignoring her.”

“It’s not even been a week since we pulled you out of that elvish dungeon.” Devin pointed out.

“Sure… but that’s nearly a week she's been locked up inside her own head. I don’t know if she's just dreaming, or if she only dreamed because of my ability. Before I had a body I floated in what felt like nothingness for a while. Though I guess I didn’t think it was unpleasant either. But I don’t want to keep her that way. I want to hug her, to talk to her. I remember not too long ago I felt like she was little more than a nuisance that I was constantly trying to avoid… But now, I miss her….”

“As long as she's with Naan that's not going to change right?” Devin pointed out.

“I guess… but I can’t help but feel a bit like a failure when I think about Kay… not just because of what happened, but because I haven't brought her out even once.” I explained.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself. We’ve been busy.” Devin pointed out.

“I know…” I agreed mostly.

I took a breath and glanced over at the passageway for the first time. Naan had carved the path from our side first. I guessed it wasn’t going to take much longer. Still, it wasn’t quite so tall as to let Devin walk through without crouching. I supposed you could take the dungeon out of its core, but there was no way to take its frugal nature out of the dungeon, at least completely.