Reia slipped out of bed. It was early in the morning. Normally she wouldn’t get out of bed at this hour, preferring to sleep, but someone was knocking on the door. The other girls weren’t home, having gone to the market an hour or two earlier. She briefly considered grabbing some panties and a shirt, but then she remembered that annoying thing about being a pet. She can’t even dress herself anymore without the clothes falling to the floor. Still as annoying as that was, it was better than being a slave. Slipping out of her bedroom she headed down the stairs and peeked out the door via the peephole. Outside, she saw a well-built man in full plate armor. She noted the symbol on his chest plate indicating that he was a member of the Church of Light. She didn’t open the door. There was no way she was going to open it and let some man see her naked, so instead, she asked through it, “Can I help you?”

“I was looking for a group of adventurers that live here. I heard some of its members were on the team that evaluated this dungeon. I wanted to ask them some questions about the dungeon,” said the man.

“Well, the team had some shopping to do. So they went to the market. I stayed behind to guard the house,” said Reia.

“Do you know when they will be back?” asked the man.

“They will be back around lunchtime,” replied Reia.

“In that case, I will just wait for them. Mind if I come in?” said the man.

“I’m not allowed to let strangers in the house,” said Reia, wishing the man would just go away.

“Not allowed? Guess I’ll just wait out here,” said the man. Reia took that as a sign the conversation was over, and went into the kitchen. Settling into the nearest seat, she drifted into thought. Meeting Mira had turned out to be one of the best things to happen to her. Mira had changed her status from slave to pet, which she found to be an improvement. She had been quite ecstatic about the change in status when it happened. She had just been released from slavery from the delusional, idiot pervert of a man that had the audacity to enslave her, and transferred to a pretty little dragon girl, who was older than she looks. It was no understatement that she was grateful that the girl had killed her former master. It saved her from the embarrassment of being rescued by her clan. So it was no surprise that when she unexpectedly released her from slavery and made her a pet she was even happier.

As for her clan, they were now aware of her new status. In fact, the house next door was home to a few of her sisters in the clan, and they were keeping an eye on Mira to make sure she wasn’t mistreated. She was finding the whole situation to be a learning experience. Her clan had chosen to leave her as a pet to Mira for several reasons, one of which is that they felt she needed the experience. Honestly, she didn’t even care. Mostly because her new status let her get closer to Mira, and she wanted to get in her pants. So far her efforts seemed to be working. Last night, had been particularly good. As she had managed to play with her one on one. She was remembering the other girl’s taste when she was broken from her thoughts by a commotion at the door.

She looked up just in time to see the door open. Mira, and her other fellow pets, Michael and Delilah who were carrying the purchases. Mira saw her in the kitchen and approached her before leading her towards the bedroom. While saying, “Let’s get you decent before our guest sees you.”

She smiled and followed her without resistance. Being a pet she had the freedom to resist her master’s desires. Not that she wanted to. She was looking forward to today’s outfit. Mira often had excellent tastes, and she was always learning new things about fashion thanks to her.

Once in the bedroom, she stood still, and cooperated as Mira picked out a pair of panties. She lifted her legs so that Mira could slip them on her more easily. Once they were snugly fitted onto her butt, Mira went back to the drawer of the wardrobe and picked out a matching bra. She turned around when brought it over, and let her put it on her. Mira looked her over and then satisfied with her choices went back to the wardrobe, and selected a dress. The dress was colored a lovely red, and hem of the dress was frilly and decorated with flower patterns. A V cut into the neck of the dress would nicely show off her cleavage. Looking at it she knew it was a bit nicer than what she normally wore. It also had a small diamond in the lower stomach that would show off the magical tattoo just above her crotch. It had formerly been her slave brand, but thanks to her change in status it was just a magical tracker. The brand had changed shape and function when Mira had released her from slavery.  It now showed the image of a dragon curled possessively around a young girl.

Reia lifted her arms, let her pull the dress down over her head, and then admired herself in the mirror on the dresser while Mira selected some shoes. She came back with a casual set of sandals. Reia sat on the bed, and let her strap them on. She had gotten used to Mira dressing her since she could no longer do it herself.  In a way, it felt like having a servant, but only some of the time. Unlike with a servant she didn’t actually have a say in the clothes she ended up wearing. On the bright side, Mira had good taste, and unlike Flamewind she was actually willing to listen to her opinions. 

Mira stepped back and admired her choices for a moment, and then said, “Alright let's go meet our guest.”

“I’m guessing the armored church guy intercepted you at the door?” said Reia.

“Yeah, he was waiting at the door. I was under the impression he spoke to you through the door,” said Mira opening the door.

“I did. The guy seemed interested in the dungeon,” said Reia as she followed her through the door.

“Best not to keep him waiting. The church can be bastards, after all,” said Mira. They found the church guy easily enough, talking with the other two in the kitchen. 

“The dungeon? Take my advice and stay out of it. The monsters aren’t too difficult if you prepare, but the traps are more trouble than they are worth. Especially the ones linked to puzzles,” said Michael.

“Yes, that's why I wanted to talk with you. I need to search the dungeon for a quest, so I’m doing research. Having been in there I wanted your impressions of the dungeon,” said the man.

“Well, we didn’t get very far on our run. We might have gotten further, but we weren’t prepared for the pheromones,” said Delilah.

“Anything you can tell me, would be of help,” said the man.

“The first floor was easy. It has a simple layout, mostly a straight path with a single dead-end. Our rogue had no trouble finding the simple traps on the floor. As for the monsters they were low level and not a challenge. So we breezed through it in no time at all. After beating the floor boss we proceeded into those safe rooms, that all dungeons include after a boss fight early on. Not a true safe zone of course, but safe enough for a brief rest. Three halls branched off from the room, we checked all three, but quickly found ourselves stumped on how to proceed. We ultimately concluded that to proceed we had something to do with the puzzle rooms. We started with the one on the right. I stayed outside the room, keeping watch for any demon patrols that may have respawned,” said Michael.

“Can either of you tell me about this puzzle?” asked the man.

“I went into the room, but I didn’t really look at the puzzle. I got a little impatient and left to wait outside with Michael. Who I might add was a man back then. I found him playing with himself. The pheromones had made both of us horny and being alone he had decided to relieve some stress. I lost control of myself, and sometime later our rogue came out and found us having fun,” said Delilah.

“You mean our bastard of a rogue. I wish I could have cursed that backstabbing moron to a life as a girl,” said Michael.

“I take it this man had something to do with you becoming a girl?” said the man. Michael said nothing, and Delilah remained silent. So Mira who had been standing by the door and remaining silent took this opportunity to interject.

“You would be right with that. She is still uncomfortable with what happened, so don’t push her too much on that,” said Mira.

“I kind of got that impression as well,” said the man. Then he turned to Reia, and said, “You must be the young lady I spoke to earlier.” His gaze was locked on the tattoo on her stomach.

“Yes, I’m Reia and you are?” asked Reia.

“A humble man of the church. My name is not important,” responded the man.

“Humble!!? I doubt that. Humble and the church don’t mix. Your all a bunch of pompous arrogant jerks,” replied Reia.

“You have quite the tongue there. Young lady, you should really watch your words. They will get you in trouble, but I guess they already have. Given your status as a slave,” said the man.

“I’m not a slave!” shouted Reia, and then she muttered in a small voice, “I’m a pet.” 

Mira pushed Reia towards a chair, saying, “Why don’t you sit down, before this gets out of hand.” The man took a second glance at the symbol and then used to analyze. As she was sitting down, he said “My apologies. I should have paid closer attention to your mark. Mind telling me how you got it? It seems to be quite unique.”

“That’s kind of private, and I’m not comfortable telling the story,” said Reia.

“I’ll respect that. Anyway, anything else you can share about the dungeon?” asked the man.

“Well as I was saying earlier. Our dive went wrong after the pheromones got to us. When our bastard of a rogue came out and found us having fun, he lost his temper. Which led to what killed our team, and ended our run. Our next run happened days later. A team of rookies had went into the dungeon, and hadn’t been seen coming back. We were asked to locate them. We were assigned three new members to our team. That run might have gone fine, if the mage we were assigned wasn’t so overconfident. Then again it might not, seeing as we ran afoul of a playful goddess,” said Delilah. The man showed a slight shift in expression at the mention of a goddess.

“That goddess is the big reason our team never went back into the dungeon. We have heard stories that she is still playing with adventurers in the dungeon, but she is holding back somewhat compared to us,” said Mira.

“Can you tell me anything about this second run? Before you ran afoul of a goddess?” asked the man. Reia looked towards Mira, confused. She had not heard of this second run. The three looked at each other briefly, and then Mira began to speak again. “It really isn’t the best run to use for information. We ran afoul of that goddess pretty quickly, and well most of us didn’t really know each other all that well. It was our first mission together. One thing I can tell you is that this dungeon is a little harder than the norm. Best you bring people that you know, and can work well with.”

“Mind telling me which goddess you ran afoul of, so I know who to look out for?” asked the man.

“Tina, The Dark Goddess of Mischief,” replied Mira.

“Interesting, she is one of the more difficult goddesses to deal with. Especially given her disregard for the rules,” said the man.

“What do you mean by ‘disregard for the rules?’” asked Mira.

“Well as a Paladin I have ended up interacting with the gods often. Both the Light and the Dark gods have their own little rule books. Don’t ask me what the rules are, I only know some of them. One of the more well-known ones has to do with demonic and celestial dungeons. These dungeons because of their special energies always have a patron god or goddess. The territory of these dungeons are considered to be extensions of said patron gods domain. This means that other gods can’t really interfere in the dungeon’s territory outside a certain set of rules. Tina doesn’t really care about those rules and has been known to interfere regardless,” said the man.

“You seem to know an awful lot about this,” commented Mira.

“I have had dealings with Tina before. Mostly helping my god clean up her messes,” said the man.

“In that case, you know what to expect,” said Mira.

“It was nice talking to you girls,” he nodded, and then he got up to leave.

---

Around the same time, Misaki was having a brief chat with Phyllis.

“That does sound like a problem,” commented Phyllis who had just spent half an hour listening to Misaki tell her concerns about this high-level paladin.

“It is! You are in no condition to fight, and my only real defense against this paladin is my traps and puzzles. He’ll chew through my monsters in no time,” said Misaki. Clearly a bit agitated over his presence.

“Well, first you need to calm down. You won’t be able to solve the problem if you aren’t thinking. Maybe it's about time you add a few more floors?” said Phyllis.

“That will help a bit, but I only just finished the ritual chamber. I will need a few days to get the resources to build them,” replied Misaki.

“Well, it sounds like he won’t go in right away. That just gives you time to plan, but just in case he enters before you can add them, maybe you should talk with the Stormwinds. You have a decent relationship, and they may be able to help. It would also be a good idea to talk to Milith,” said Phyllis.

“Milith? What good would that do?” asked Misaki confused.

“She is quite knowledgeable, and she might be able to help you get a decent deal if we are forced to summon her grandfather,” said Phyllis.

“I guess that makes sense. That book she gave me was very enlightening, maybe she can help me make better traps or something,” said Misaki.