Before long, the dungeon grew full of clients.
Opening day for the dungeon was – well, it was about as successful as I figured it would be. Some people might have thought I must have had high expectations for the dungeon to be so busy that Cani’s restaurant came into use and grew full of waiting players in no time, but I would say that my expectations were perfectly normal. After all, it was a dungeon for sex in a game full of perverts that was made by perverts.
Why wouldn’t it be popular?
There was the fact that the dungeon was for monster sex instead of normal sex, but the game had enough fellow degenerates of culture who were into that to make it popular nonetheless.
Then one player came up to us who I had a bad feeling about as soon as I saw him. He looked like the kind of player who purposely made himself look like some sort of “alpha.” His armor was heavy and flashy, his hair short and masculine, and his face was sculpted to look as stereotypically macho as possible.
But even though his looks might have given me a bad initial impression, I wasn’t going to judge him only for that. Maybe he was actually a cool guy. It wouldn’t have been the first time I saw somebody like that.
“Yo,” he said after walking up to the table me and Thera were manning. Cani was busy in her bistro handling all the waiting clients in there.
I realized that we were going to need a lot more monsters if we didn’t want to have infinite waiting lines.
“Hey, nice to have you here,” I said.
“Thanks. Looks pretty busy. What’s the wait like?” the player asked.
“Depends on who you want. Some monsters will be busy for the next few hours and some will be available in… about ten minutes.”
“Are all the girls an option?”
I wasn’t surprised by his question. Not in the slightest. “It’s an option.”
“Fuck yeah. I’ll have some fun with the girls. Can I pay for all of them?”
There was a problem with that. While I wasn’t opposed to letting anybody have fun with all the girls at once if they could afford it, there were plenty of other people waiting for a shot and that would significantly increase the wait time for everybody who wanted some fun with them. I had an idea for what could be done about that, though. “We’re too busy today to let somebody have an hour with all of them, but what about reserving a slot for another day?” I had another idea. I wasn’t sure how effective it would actually be, but it sounded like a good idea in the moment for that and more. “Our weekends are actually reservations only specifically for big requests like this.” I figured that we would be getting enough big requests like that to make it officially a thing.
“Huh. Well, I guess that works. I’ll pay for one of them today and have all of them on the weekend. It’s not like the wife’ll care at all.”
“Sorry?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. Just talking about my wife. If she’d actually spread her legs every now and then, then I wouldn’t need to bust a nut in a fucking video game. Whole damn reason I started playing this is because of her. And let me tell you, when she actually is in the mood? She’s like a fucking dead starfish in bed. She just lays there not doing anything, not making any expressions, doesn’t even make any noise. If it wasn’t for the fact that her body is warm then everybody would think she’s dead.”
And there went any potential respect I might have had for him. “Does she know you’re here?”
“Pfftt. As if. If she found out what I’ve been doing, I’d have to deal with her being a whiny little cunt. Actually, who knows? She’d probably just feel bad and keep it to herself. Not like she ever talks to me about anything. Huh. That gives me an idea. Maybe I should let it slip up that I’ve been doing this. That might make her jealous and motivate her to actually make things interesting for once.”
I realized my mistake and sighed. There was something important that I forgot to leave off of the rules sheet. The only question remaining was whether I should be polite or not about it. Given that there were other customers around, I didn’t want to make things too awkward for them nor give us a bad reputation, so I went with being polite. At first, at least. If he didn’t want to listen then that wouldn’t be leaving me with much choice. “I appreciate that you’re interested in our services, but we can’t accept you here.”
The man looked confused before his expression was replaced by anger. “Why the fuck not? Wait, don’t tell me that it’s what I think it is.”
“You clearly don’t have your partner’s consent to be here. While we have no issue with those who are in open relationships enjoying our dungeon, we don’t promote nor tolerate adultery here.”
“Are you serious? You run a fucking dungeon for screwing monsters, and you care about some stupid shit like that? They’re not even real! They’re fucking NPCs! That’s like getting mad at somebody for looking at porn without permission! You can’t fucking cheat on somebody with something that isn’t real in the first place! It’s not like I’m going around screwing a bunch of real women!”
Well, even when it came to porn, I still believed that such a thing should be discussed with partners in a relationship to make sure that everybody was alright with it. But that wasn’t something I was going to judge somebody for too much because I never believed it was a big deal in the first place. Regardless, I knew that wouldn’t convince him. I couldn’t even really bring up that there was a difference between jacking off to porn and fucking a virtual NPC because I already knew that he would make the comparison to using a sex toy. People usually did.
Honestly, I didn’t have a good argument for my position. I was well aware of that. I was somebody who worked in porn and made a living off of all things sexual, yet I believed that people should talk with their partners to make sure they’re comfortable with looking at porn, and I also believed that going into a game to pursue sex with NPCs was practically adultery even though, realistically, it wasn’t that different from using a sex toy to masturbate with.
But it didn’t sit right with me. To me, there was a huge difference between jacking off with a toy and going into a game to have sex that was just as realistic as the real deal with a partner who, when it came to sex, was just as realistic as a human. I knew most people disagreed with me and that was fine.
Even so, it made me uncomfortable. I wasn’t going to accept somebody that I knew I would regret and feel guilty over. If his wife consented and knew about it, that would be fine. I wouldn’t care in the slightest in that regard.
But I had absolutely zero tolerance for anything even close to adultery. Consent was important to me, and that included having consent to be sexually active with others while in a relationship.
“I’ll admit that it was my mistake to forget adding that rule to the sheet, but it’s still a rule even if it’s not on there at the moment. It’s as simple as that. Get your wife’s permission if you want to enjoy my dungeon,” I said.
He wasn’t happy about that. “Fuck off with that. You some sort of moral crusader even though you run a dungeon for this sort of shit?”
“One, I already told you that we don’t support adultery of any kind. Two, at this point, you’re just an asshole and I have no interest in serving assholes. No establishment would accept your behavior.”
“Yeah, sure, maybe if they had real fucking people in there, but aren’t these just NPCs? Who fucking cares!”
“I do. It’s as simple as that. If you don’t want to respect the rules, you can leave.”
“Fuck you. You can’t make me do shit.”
That was when a third party who I knew I could always count on spoke up. “He doesn’t need to,” Thera said. “After all, my darling is a busy man who has other clients to assist. It would be a pointless waste of time and energy for him to spend even a second longer on you.”
The belligerent player took a step back when he saw Thera glaring down at him. Even though she might have made half of her body look like that of a normal, beautiful woman, there was still the fact that her other half was that of a giant spider. She easily stood taller than any normal player when she extended the legs of her spider half. Between that and the cold glare she perfected before I even met her, she knew how to intimidate.
And if none of that worked to intimidate, there was the fact that she was a known, famous player among anybody who knew anything about the game’s PvP.
“You’re a sellout to somebody like this?” the player asked her.
“Not in the slightest. If anything, my darling has never given me a single coin. I am always the one supporting him,” Thera answered.
I looked up at her and asked, “Should I start calling you my sugar momma?”
“Please don’t.”
As for our cheating problem, he got in a few last words before leaving. “Fuck you. Moral crusaders ruining everything.”
A few other clients waiting around left, too. Maybe they didn’t like me. Maybe they thought the whole situation was cringe-worthy and overly dramatic for a game which killed their mood. Maybe they were also in relationships and looking to fuck around without their partner’s consent. Whatever their reason was, we lost about a quarter of the players still waiting around.
“Sweet,” one of the remaining players said. “Less waiting for us.”
A few of the other players around laughed or at least smiled from the little remark. I doubted that the player who said that meant to do anything other than make an opportunistic comment that he thought was funny, but he did a good job of relaxing the mood and returning things to normal. I was going to make sure to give him a discount when it was his turn.
The rest of the day went smoothly, thankfully. There were even a few players who wanted to make reservations for the weekend after hearing me talk about that to the asshole we had to refuse service to.
Now, with the dungeon closed, it was time to sit back and relax.
Lily and Akorya logged off without ever returning since it was already late for them. Lily wanted to come back to the dungeon first since she felt bad about not saying goodbye in person, but I wanted her to get to bed right away so that she could get the rest her body needed. Ordering her to go to sleep was required for that. In response, she promised to hug me extra hard the next day.
I was looking forward to that.
As for Cani, she spent a bit of time cleaning things up her in bistro before splitting up the day’s earnings and taking her share. We were only open for about half the day, but we managed to make way more money than I could have ever expected. It turned out that running a dungeon for sex was extremely profitable. Who would have thought? We made more money in a single day than a month of grinding dailies for profit would make. I made sure that the earnings were split up equally, too. Me, Cani, Thera, Lily, and Akorya. Each one of us received the exact same amount of money. As for me, since there was more than I needed and I was sure I’d be making even more, I deposited most of it into the dungeon’s treasury. I didn’t even know that was a thing until Thera told me about it.
I really should have checked out all the different dungeon mechanics there were instead of only thinking about the sex side of it.
As for our earnings, I was worried that I wouldn’t find any good help for the dungeon because it was supposed to be an unpaid position, basically. I didn’t have the money to pay anybody for help and I wasn’t planning on charging clients enough to cover somebody’s salary.
Cani proved in a single day how stupid I was to worry about that. Part of me was still a bit uncomfortable with charging other players so much just to have some fun since I wanted to make sure that everybody could afford it. Though, if somebody came along who wasn’t able to afford Cani’s price, I could always give them a special discount. I had no intention of turning away a single person who wanted to enjoy my dungeon. Well, so long as they agreed to all the rules and whatnot and weren’t major assholes.
“Well, that was an eventful day,” Thera said as the two of us relaxed in the hot springs together. “Are you satisfied with its results?”
“I am. Wouldn’t have gone anywhere near as good as it did without you,” I answered. “Thanks for being my wonderful sugar momma like always.”
“I thought I told you not to call me that?”
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I won’t do it again. Promise.”
“Good. Though, I am concerned about making enemies like that. It will only be a matter of time before the dungeon is assaulted when I am not here to protect it.”
“Well, with the money that we’ve made, we’ll be able to hire some players to guard it easily.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of upgrading the dungeon’s defensive capabilities. That, and acquiring some stronger monsters. After some research, I came to the conclusion that wolves would actually make the best monsters to fill the dungeon with at its current level. They are cheap to summon, perform better the more of them there are, and evolve into powerful variants.”
“But what’s the point of getting a bunch of wolves in the dungeon if they can’t fuck any girls who come in here?”
“I know it may be difficult to accept, darling, but not every single monster within the dungeon has to be involved in sexual matters. I am speaking of using them in a purely defensive manner. Also, what will happen if there is an attack while all the monsters are busy with clients? It would do us good to have monsters whose sole purpose is defense.”
“I guess so… but there’s one more thing they can do since they’ve suffered the cruel fate of being virtually neutered by the developers.”
“What would that be?”
“They can be cute and play with people while they’re waiting.”
“I – I suppose that is an option, yes.”
“Just imagine it. A bunch of degenerates waiting their turn to fuck or get fucked by a monster, passing the time by cuddling with a pile of wolves. Playing fetch. Petting them. It’d be great. Some can even hang out in the bistro to turn it into a wolf café. You know, like those cat cafés but with wolves.”
“I know, darling.”
“Alright, you’ve convinced me. We’re gonna get a bunch of wolves.”
“I feel like you did most of the work in convincing yourself.”
“But it was your idea, so I’ll give you credit.”
“On the topic of ideas, my plan for Akorya’s bully is going well.”
“Yeah? What have you been doing?”
“Oh, nothing too interesting.” Thera leaned back. “Simply pretending to be you on an alternate character and gaining her trust.”
“That’s… not really something I’m cool with.”
“Don’t worry. I have made sure to be nothing but a gentleman with her. She has already offered to send me nude pictures of her real body, but I turned them down and reminded her of how dangerous that is while citing your very own video.”
“Seriously?”
“Indeed. I will admit that part of me thought about accepting the pictures and spreading them as far as I could, but I knew you would not approve. Also, I didn’t feel like getting into any legal trouble. Especially while pretending to be you.”
“Thank you for that. So, why are you pretending to be me?”
“To gain her trust. I also wanted to get a better idea of what kind of woman she is. As it would turn out, she is rather vile. I dropped a few hints about personal changes she could make as a person, but she wasn’t interested in any of them. Or rather, she agreed that the traits I talked in general about were horrible traits for people to have… while making it clear she believed she did not suffer from a single one of them.”
“I guess you won’t be getting her to change how she is then.”
“Not at all.”
“So, what’s gaining her trust going to accomplish?”
“Fun. That is what it will accomplish. You see, she has her own guild composed of men who are rather unhealthily obsessed with her. As of yesterday, my alt is now a member of that guild who has already been promoted to the rank of a new officer. Should I convince her to promote me to an even higher rank… well, there is much I will be able to do with such power.”
“Good. So, we’re keeping the fuckery to the game instead of doing anything too serious.”
“Of course. I know you would not approve of anything that impacts her real life. Her virtual life in this game is the only thing my plan intends on destroying.”
I nodded and relaxed before a sudden thought grabbed my attention. “Shit. I completely forgot.”
“Yes?”
“I have to help Wally’s friend tomorrow. Sorry, but will you be able to manage the dungeon without me? I promised him I’d help his friend out. I’ll make sure to tame a wolf while I’m out, too.”
“Worry not, darling. The dungeon will be fine in your absence.”
“Thanks. So, is there any specific type of wolf I should target?”
“The most generic one there is. A wolf. A normal, low-level, starter-zone wolf.”
“Got it. What sort of things will they be able to evolve into?”
“Dire wolves for one.”
“You mean… I’ll be able to have a dungeon full of giant, super fluffy wolves?”
“That is exactly what I mean.”
I couldn’t have been more excited for the idea of that.
Not only was I going to have a dungeon for sex, but I was going to have a dungeon for giant wolf petting and cuddling, too.
But first was helping Wally’s friend.
“You mean… I’ll be able to have a dungeon full of giant, super fluffy wolves?”
ITS SO FLUFFY IM GONNA DIE!
@Ace_Arriande are you drooling over the fuffyness?
Puppies!
Fluff is the best. I approve.
Fluff for the soul, after a hard day at work and then sex. Sounds divine.
I wonder if any of those wolves will be rock themed...
Also another good idea would be to get the equivalent of zubats for the dungeon. Swarms of annoying mobs that inflict tons of nasty debuffs, and are very hard to escape. Maybe a sonic attack that messes with a person's balance, and gives them motion sickness for example. As long as it can affect max level players it should be good.
Basically the idea is to make the fights as unfun as possible. That way players would need strong motivation to cause trouble.
Another tactic would be lots of attrition warfare. So things like unending waves of cheap cannon fodder to literally bury invaders in bodies. Kind of hard to make progress when a literal wall of bodies blocks a passage, and necromancers keep raising them as undead.
Maybe use teleporters or portals to connect must areas. That way when the dungeon goes into battle mode the invaders now have to use much longer routes to get places, and the shortcuts can become traps. One way portal to the dungeon dungeon anyone? It would also provide a way for defenders, and staff to quick move around.
Having doors that seal main passages, and then fill them with stuff could also be useful. Well as long as there is a way to easily clean up the mess. So stuff like filling a corridor with sand, mud, water, tar, glue, sewage, oil, permanent dye that can alter an avatar's skin colour, honey, etc. The more soild options would provide obstructions that wouldn't normally appear in combat. How many builds have mud shoveling as a skill? Most attack skills will just displace it, and there isn't much extra space in a cave. To combat earth mover skills, things like wood chips, or glass shards could be used.
Have fun tunneling though a corridor filled with a literal block of glass while being swarmed by screeching bats, and vampiric undead turnips that can drain the life force of any race.
O.o ....... you really thought that out there...
Zubats with giant d*cks, I agree.
That aside, all of those are definitely good ideas! I can't say that the story is ever going to get as in-depth with dungeon defenses as that since it's not really the point of the series, but if I ever do want to include more about properly defending the dungeon, these are definitely some good ideas to keep in mind!
@Ace_Arriande Yeah I was intending to just go with suggesting the zubats, but I got on a roll and things snowballed.
Actually a serious suggestion for a second pain in the ass, but potent monster, would be something like the mandrake swarms that appeared in Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Those f*ckers could only be hurt by certain attacks (a property of all swarms), and they had this blood drain attack that hurt your constitution stat (for those unfamiliar this would lower your max hp, weakens some abilities, and when it hit 0 you die outright instead of bleeding out like at 0hp) that couldn't be blocked. They had enough health that they could easily close to your character's space if you didn't use some of your best attacks on them.
Damn I am on a roll again! Lobstermen from X-Com: Terror from the Deep might also be an interesting option. Those f*ckers had op armour stats due to a bug in the first game (difficulty would always reset to easy after the first mission) causing the sequel to get a difficulty spike, and the error to be unknowingly fixed. The only real sure fire weapon that could hurt them was melee weapons. That's right you had to bring a knife to a gun fight to have an easier time.
Those f*ckers had otherwise normal stats, were armed like the other races with weapons that could one shot you on a lucky damage roll even in endgame armour, had a built in melee attack, and appeared in large numbers. While they didn't show up right from the start, they did enter the mission pool fairly early, and eventually became the main enemy type.
A similar monster might exist in EDO in the deep seas (the can easily survive on land too), and could therefore have op stats because no one bothers to go there. They would also offer an interesting monster type that rarely appears in games.
so how do enforce consensual agreement from a wife or gf in a videogame that they probably don't have an idea of in the first place? Sorry author while its your story and you want to stick to your morals this makes no sense no matter how i look at it. not to mention you can not enforce this policy if somebody just stays silent. if you going to run a s*x shop your best bet is to just ignore your clients personal situation with a dont ask dont tell policy
Obviously it can't be enforced if somebody decides to stay silent, but that doesn't mean that it can't be enforced to the best of one's ability. It's like when you try to prevent minors from looking at po*n. Nothing is stopping a kid from lying about being 18+ to look at po*n, but you wouldn't show them po*n if you knew they were underage. As for Damian, he's always been idealistic and has never compromised his personal morals. They're not the most fitting morals for somebody who wants to run a s*x shop, but that doesn't matter to him. What matters to him is that he sticks to his ideals as best he can, and this is his way of trying to do so, even if he knows that it's not perfect.
That's fair. silly in my opinion but I understand the thought process behind it
@Ace_Arriande Damian's morality is borderline stupidity. Comes a point in time when a spouse has to own up and do their spousal duties which includes seeing to the needs of their spouse, all of them, if physically capable. If they are not able, due to reasons other than simply not wanting to, that is one thing. But, if their sole reason for not meeting the needs of the partner they exchanged oaths with is simply because they don't want to, then they cease to be a spouse and become nothing more than a glorified roommate with legal complications. (Formal marriage is a legal contract after all, not a social construct, though it is based upon a social construct.)
At that point, the spouse being ignored has a few options: 1) live with it 2) counseling 3) seek alternative means of getting those needs met (often leads to counseling depending on what the need was, if it caused a breach of relationship boundaries, and how bad the breach) 4) divorce
The case you made in this story is probably the most common example by a wide margin of all the stories I hear of relationships floundering on the rocks. The wife simply quits having s*x with the hubby. Personally, I think ERPing in a game is pretty much the same as any other cheating if the spouse is in the dark on it, that said, it also isn't my place to judge because if someone is doing that, then there is also a good chance they are doing in this manner to minimize the impact on their partner because they still have feelings for them.
In my case, I would have advised the macho man to consider trying to get her to attend marriage counseling and if that didn't work, getting permission to open the marriage up for him, or divorce.
Getting on the moral high horse that Damian always has ready to go is never, ever the solution. It only makes matters worse and causes resentment in others, if not outright hatred. The man had a problem. Sure he wasn't handling in the best way, but I find as much fault with Damian in this encounter as I do with the cheater.
I still think the "friend" is wally's new account and wally's a trans woman.
If I'm right about this, or you are otherwise added a trans person to a story, and you want advice on how to write a trans woman feel free to dm me, I am a trans woman, and can get you in touch with other trans and nonbinary people if I can't help.
There's no I think about it at this point. i'm inclined to agree with you about "Wally" being a trans woman, considering A: Wally isn't 'his' real name, B: he dresses very conservatively (in terms of skin coverage), and C: if he was just gay (or bi or pan), he would have already admitted to liking/having a crush on Damian. not being comfortable in your own body is a great way to kill interest in romance, after all.
Ah yes, the "friend." I can't wait to see her
penis
Excellent author's note
10/10