With Natalie's victory decided, the elevated platform began to slide down into the ground with a cacophonous grinding, rejoining Natalie with her team.

 Thoroughly exhausted, Natalie sat on her ass, still catching her breath. Slowly, her teammates came into view. The platform sealed itself flush into the ground with one last shudder.

Four pairs of eyes stared at Natalie—and the aftermath of her fight.

Natalie and her clone, both breathing heavily as they sat on their asses, recovering. Cocks soft, wet, and glistening. Flushed and sweaty. Then, the Hellhound. Malice. Collapsed on the ground, mumbling incoherent nothings as she was splayed out with her legs spread, both her holes leaking from Natalie and her illusion's combined loads. A sticky, goopy mess pooled down beneath her legs, the excess leaking out. Even by Natalie's standards, it was a lewd sight. Even Jordan had wide eyes as she took it in.

"You had fun, I hope?" Sofia huffed. "Meanwhile, we were fighting for our lives." She pushed back a strand of loose white hair with an irritable motion. A series of red lines were visible against her thigh: probably a swipe from one of the wolves. Otherwise, she looked to be in decent shape, as did the rest of the team. "You won, though. Good job." Her blue eyes glanced at the Hellhound, and even faster away. She shook her head. "But why are there two of you, Natalie? You can do that?"

Other-Natalie leaned over to pat Natalie on the shoulder. "Good luck with everything, then. Glad I could help." She gave a quick salute, then immediately dissipated into white motes of light, vanishing.

Natalie stared at the empty space.

Her illusion could pick when to vanish?

And honestly, Natalie had wanted her to stick around for a bit longer. So they could talk. What was life as a temporary illusion like? Not that she was actually sapient, just a construct controlled by magic to appear so, imitating Natalie's own personality, but still.

Natalie opened her mouth to reply to her gawking team—and also started to rise to get dressed, since she felt pretty exposed, sitting there with her cock out—but she was interrupted before she could. Once again, the ground rumbled, like it had when the platform first elevated. Natalie's heart immediately started galloping, and she finished standing and orienting herself. Her team tensed as well, Sofia drawing her rapier and looking around for the source of the noise.

But nothing dangerous appeared. A thin opening split the ground between Natalie and her team, from which a pedestal slowly raised. In a clawed grasp—literally clawed, like the paw of a wolf—an orb was held. Pink. It reminded Natalie of a monster core: perfectly smooth, with murky coloring in its depths. Except larger, and Natalie had never seen a pink monster core.

Of course, she inspected it by instinct.

***

Carnal Boss Capture Core

Epic

Lv. 2

—

***

Before she could finish reading the description, Natalie's attention shattered, seeing that word.

"An epic?" Sofia choked out.

A ripple went through the team as they each read the rarity indicator. Natalie gaped at the pedestal. As did Sofia, Jordan, Liz, and—well, no, Ana didn't, but she had slightly raised eyebrows, which was as close as that woman came to gawking.

Natalie had gotten used to their luck when it came to item drops. And rares at such a low dungeon level were exceedingly uncommon, but at least feasible. Other people got them, too.

An epic, though?

Epics didn't drop at level two. Well, Natalie hadn't actually done significant research on the topic, but she was pretty sure that only a tiny collection even existed across the entire world, if any at all. Possibly none did. Or in reverse, maybe more than she thought. The point was, she didn't know. Because for the most part, as far as common knowledge went, it simply didn't happen.

Not that Natalie and her team had stumbled onto one of the strongest artifacts in existence. It was still a level two item. A level two epic was probably less useful than a level five uncommon, for example. Level mattered much more when it came to raw strength.

But still, the shock stemmed from the fact that epics didn't drop on the second floor of the dungeon. 'A level two epic' was a ridiculous sentence.

And each rarity came with significant boosts in usefulness. So it would almost certainly be their best item yet.

Hastily, Natalie continued reading.

***

Carnal Boss Capture Core

Epic

Lv. 2

 

Effects

- NOTE: THE DUNGEON DISLIKES THE FORCEFUL APPROPRIATION OF ITS PROPERTY.

- Capture. Claim a defeated Carnal Boss and store their essence inside the Capture Core. Claimed entities can be summoned as a familiar to aid in combat. When assisting, any experience earned by the captured entity is instead granted to the summoner. Claimed entities match the level of the Capture Core. They are not perfectly obedient. Reduce the likelihood of rebellion by properly caring for the claimed entity.

 

Description

A level two monster core altered by a divine influence.

***

The word 'epic' alone had shocked Natalie and her team into silence. Reading the full description, much less the emphasized 'NOTE,' made them freeze entirely.

"What does that mean?" Liz asked, breaking the stunned silence. "The dungeon dislikes 'the forceful appropriation of its property'?"

"Is it saying we shouldn't use it?" Sofia asked.

"We can claim a dungeon mob? As a familiar?" Jordan said, baffled. "And it gives us their experience when they fight? Assuming she's strong, that'd nearly double how fast one of us would level up, wouldn't it?"

Again, the team went quiet as they absorbed that.

"It is an epic item," Liz said. "And one of Natalie's, too. So yeah. Wow."

"Holy crap," Jordan said.

"It means she can't level up herself, though," Ana said, sounding interested. "And it specifies the monster matches the level of the core. So there might be a way to level up the core, instead? Or receive new ones?"

"How would that work?"

"The dungeon dislikes its property being taken?" Sofia repeated loudly, cutting into the discussion. "Are we ignoring that? Hello? Even if it's the most amazing item in the world, it literally says it'll upset the dungeon to use it."

"A pissed-off dungeon doesn't sound great," Jordan agreed.

"It also says, altered by a divine influence," Ana said. "So clearly, in contrast, Natalie's sponsor wants us to use it. Or at least she provided it for her. Are there conflicting desires, then? Between major entities?"

"Honestly," Liz added tentatively. "I'm more scared of angering the dungeon than a maybe-goddess, by ignoring her gift." She winced, looking up at the ceiling. "No, um, offense?"

Natalie rubbed her face. Her head spun. She glanced down at Malice, who was lying in a sweaty puddle on the floor. She'd really been fucked senseless. Her eyes were closed, having passed out—or at least briefly become catatonic. Natalie supposed it had been an overwhelming experience, especially when further compromised by a guard break. At least it afforded Natalie and her team a moment to speak alone.

"Well, we're not leaving her," Natalie said. She assumed the capture core was what allowed Malice to accompany them. That she couldn't just follow along normally. "What would even happen, if we didn't claim her? Would she go back to being mindless? A normal monster? How does her transformation even work? She's a person now, basically. She was talking to me. Like, full conversations."

That troubled her teammates, as it should.

"Shouldn't you ask her if she wants to be captured, then?" Jordan said. "If she's a person, she can make her own decisions."

Natalie paused.

Uh. Yeah. Obviously. That was the conclusion Natalie should've made herself. However much the 'rules of the game' said Malice became her property after winning, Natalie clearly wasn't going to treat another person as an actual reward.

"Except that decision affects us, too, not just her," Sofia insisted. "Am I going insane? Angry dungeon? I prefer not dying, personally." Her eyes flicked down Natalie's body, before quickly flicking back up. "And can you please put your armor on, Natalie?"

Natalie looked down at herself.

Right.

Still mostly naked.

Natalie scooped up her discarded armor pieces and brought herself back to modesty.

"If she wants to be saved, then we're saving her," Natalie said firmly. "Her name is Malice, by the way."

At the words, Sofia opened her mouth, then deflated. Giving the woman a name had the effect Natalie was hoping for: Sofia rubbed her face.

"Yes, of course," Sofia said, though sounding frustrated. "If she's really, what, sapient now, and not—I don't know, a maniacal monster, then we have to. We can't leave her to the dungeon."

"There are practical benefits to capturing her as well," Ana said. "Even if we ignore the altruistic aspect. The item is amazing. So my vote is that we do; it's worth an adverse reaction from the dungeon, whatever shape that might take. Surely it won't kill us outright—else Natalie's patron wouldn't have gifted the item to us."

Sofia flicked an annoyed look at Ana. Natalie somewhat agreed; the 'practical benefits' weren't what mattered, here.

Ana paused. "Though, of course, the practical benefits come secondary to saving her," she said, almost sounding questioning. "Because that's the moral thing to do?"

Sofia shook her head and refocused on Malice. Her nose wrinkled, cheeks coloring as she looked at her. "You really left her a mess," she said, exasperated. "Can you wake her up? Obviously, we need to talk."