Dungeons and Dalliances

5.47 – Surfaced

Despite having escaped the Hellhound cave, the dungeon wasn't quite finished with them. But its temper was at least cooling. The encounters thrown at them were successively easier—if still far more difficult than usual. Malice's claim that its moods were 'ephemeral' seemed to be accurate. Intense but fast-passing.

When they finally found an exit portal and threw themselves through, Natalie's entire body was aching. She was used to coming out of dungeon expeditions exhausted, but not to this extent, having undergone a vigorous sex fight followed immediately by the dungeon's vengeful wrath.

The good news, if there was any for such an onslaught, was that they had racked up a lot of kills. The dungeon's temper tantrum had resulted in quite an efficient leveling expedition.

Materializing in a random spot inside the large chamber that served as Aradon's dungeon entrance, Natalie finally allowed herself to relax, swaying on her feet. She looked around, checking in on each of her teammates. They were all alive and none too badly hurt. That was all that mattered.

They had stored Malice inside the Capture Core just before exiting. Natalie didn't want to deal with explaining how a definitively non-human creature had accompanied them outside the dungeon. Now or possibly ever. Malice's existence in general posed a whole slew of complications.

"Alright," Natalie said. "To the healers."

Their team was hardly the first to stumble from the dungeon in poor shape. For exactly those situations, there was a healer's hall connected directly to the main chamber. There were even medics on standby to rush to a delver's immediate aid if necessary. They weren't in that bad of shape, though. If admittedly Natalie wobbled on her walk over, feeling light-headed.

They passed the squat obelisk of black stone—the actual portal that led into the dungeon—as they went, then promptly had their wounds tended to. Liz had been caring for them as well, alongside health potions. Combined with the higher-level spells from the healers servicing the dungeon exit, Natalie would be sore when she woke in the morning, and possibly have a few faint lines on her stomach and thighs to remember the wolves' vicious claws by, but otherwise, she'd be fine. They all would.

Scars were cool, anyway.

After getting patched up and staggering into the evening air of Aradon's streets—feeling ten times more exhausted, now that adrenaline wasn't holding her up—Natalie and her team said their goodbyes to Leah. The rescued party poured their thanks onto them, trying to insist on payment, but they declined. As far as they were concerned, Natalie and her team had only done what was expected of them. They would hardly leave a group stranded in the dungeon when it was entirely within their capabilities to help. And the actual chaos had been of their own making. The mundane challenges associated with saving Leah's team hadn't posed much difficulty at all.

The team of five trudged back to the Tenet campus and convened in Natalie's shared dorm. Considering the amount of grime, blood, ash, and other unidentifiable messes that had come with their adventure, they peeled out of their armor, stored it in monster cores, and took turns getting cleaned up so as not to ruin the furniture and flooring of the dorm.

Finally, they collapsed in the living room. Sofia took the recliner, and the rest of them piled onto the couch. It wasn't meant to seat four people, but they crammed in anyway, exhausted enough that they didn't care that their shoulders were touching. For a while, they simply sagged into the soft cushions and stared vacantly into the distance, decompressing.

Even Liz and Ana, the mages of the group, were worn out. Magic didn't drain the body in the same way as physical activity, but too much exertion of that inexplicable muscle would definitely lay a person on her ass. Natalie would know. She was drained in both ways.

But Liz especially had been casting nonstop, having to patch up a group of ten. Her mana pool had likely been completely emptied. She'd overextended herself for certain. Like all of them had, to varying degrees.

After several minutes of exhausted silence, Sofia finally asked, "Loot?"

Liz groaned, wiggling on the couch, venting her protest. "Five more minutes?"

"Let's get it over with," Natalie grunted, forcing herself to sit up.

Jordan snorted, though even that sounded exhausted. "This has to be the first time a group didn't want to sort through their boss earnings."

"I don't know about 'don't want to'," Liz said. "I mean, they're even Natalie items. So they're gonna be good. Just … ugh."

"Ugh," Jordan agreed sympathetically. "The sooner we sort everything out though, the sooner we can crash."

"It's definitely gonna be an early night," Natalie said.

She was so tired, in fact, that it might be the first time since their arrangement had started that she didn't take advantage of having Jordan in her bed. The thought felt nearly blasphemous, but in her current state, knocking out early really did sound like the highest form of bliss in existence. Better even than sex.

"Should we bring Malice out?" Ana asked. "In what way do we consider her part of our team? Does she get loot?"

That suggestion brought a brief silence to the room.

"Of course she gets a share," Natalie said. "She's risking her life alongside us. She's not our pet."

At the word 'pet', the group paused, their attention turning to Sofia. Sofia's eyes narrowed, and she glared at each of them in return, a blush rising on her cheeks.

Except, Natalie was too tired to tease Sofia, even with such an easy opening. She hadn't thought that would be possible, but apparently it was.

"Is she risking her life, though?" Ana asked. "If she dies, wouldn't her soul be reclaimed by the dungeon? Who knows how dungeon entities work? Much less captured ones."

It was a good point, Natalie supposed. But it didn't matter.

"She's still out there, fighting with us. She's a full member of the party."

"Of course," Ana said smoothly. "We'd be stupid not to equip her anyway, considering her contribution in combat. But I'm stating relevant facts. This is a discussion that needs to be explored properly. It's an unprecedented situation with far-reaching implications. A sapient dungeon monster, extracted from her home."

Which, again, was fair.

"Can she even be released while we're outside?" Jordan asked. "I wouldn't be surprised if she couldn't."

"I don't know if I can get my brain to think about all this stuff, right now," Liz groaned. "It's maybe better we put this off till tomorrow."

"And leave her trapped in the orb till then?" Natalie asked, frowning.

"We don't even know what that's like," Jordan said. "Maybe she's sleeping."

"You can let her out and ask," Liz said. "I just meant … the full discussion. Her dynamic in the squad. To what extent we reveal her to the outside world."

That last part was the more important one. As far as Natalie was concerned, the wolfgirl was a full member of their adventuring group—but permanently freeing her from the capture core and letting her wander around with full autonomy? She wasn't their pet, but the possible ramifications of that were too big to ignore. Everyone recognized that.

Natalie almost hoped the capture core didn't allow them to free her outside the dungeon. It would simplify things. At the same time, she obviously didn't want that to be the case—primarily for Malice's sake.

They needed to talk with Malice and get her opinions on the matter, as well as how the core worked itself.

"Loot first," Natalie said. "And then I'll chat with Malice. Privately. The specifics depend on how she feels about everything."

Sofia grunted. "Loot first, then."

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