Azaria 2 - 6

Good Morning Everyone!

Chapter 6: A bit of Pest Control

Lance Teron

I glanced around nervously. We were on the other side of the city. It wasn’t quite a bad neighborhood, but it was hard to call it a good one. I guess the best way to describe it would to say it was lived in. the buildings looked old, with a decent amount of weathering, while the businesses appeared to have attempted a few face lifts over the years.

As we made our way from the parking lot to the dungeon entrance, I got more than a few glances. Not that I blamed them, it might be the end of summer, but it was still hot out. Here I was wearing an oversized hoodies, gloves, and long as pants. I mean, I was hotter than hell in the getup, but without the scales it was the only way to move around without someone yelling about a monster.

Luna had said that I would be fine, but I felt quite exposed without the scales to cover my monster features. All I had was a oversized hoodie that she had found in her closet. We stood in line for station twenty-one with three other parties. It looked like this dungeon was popular enough to have a full booking this early in the morning.

“Are sure about this?” I whispered to Luna.

“We do occasionally dive other dungeons. Yeah, we prefer station …. But that’s for our side business. We don’t gain much experience in there anymore,” Luna explained.

“I see, but I don’t see how that helps me!”

“I’m just saying that it’s not weird for us to bring newbies every now and then. With that card, you’ll be fine as long as you don’t do anything stupid.”

“Stupid…”

“Right. This is you we’re talking about. Just… just don’t say anything,” she said covering her mouth as she tried not to laugh.

“I’ll remember that,” I growled, with maybe a bit too much force. We got a few glances from the party in front of us.

“See. Already about to blow your cover.”

I reached up with two fingers and mimed zipping my lips. I had to do this to pay her back for unlocking my collar. While I could probably make a run for it, all she had to do was name me and all these divers would be on me like flies on a pile of cow shit. I sighed to myself and tried to sink further into my hoodie.

“Next!”

The party in front us entered the dungeon while the one before them were taken to the side. Standard procedure. “Hey. What exactly are we getting ourselves into?”

“Station twenty-one. Has a known floor count of five. Dived to capacity given the quantity of materials that are dropped from its weaker than average monsters.”

“If they’re weaker than average, why do you need me?”

She shivered then cleared her throat. “It is an insect dungeon. While the others are fine with that, I’m not. Then…” she glanced behind us and I followed her gaze. While they were trying to be nonchalant, it was obvious they were eavesdropping. “I’ll tell you the rest when we’re inside.”

I nodded though the thought of conversing in the dungeon didn’t make me feel much better. I would be set by that point, and given my experience with Azaria and what Anna Highlock said, the dungeon would likely be listening in. I was starting to wonder if even my thoughts were private when it felt like everywhere I went there was someone or something that wanted to listen in.

It took almost two hours before it was our turn to enter the dungeon. The original subway station met our gaze like normal. In the distance, I saw the real entrance. It looked like we would be going into a swamp or forest again. I guess considering she said it was insects that made sense.

“Alright. Give me the real rundown now.”

She nodded then leaned against the wall. “Unknown to the Agency, and most of my own group, I’ve found the path to the sixth floor. The problem is that the monsters jump in strength so much that it that seems unnatural. Insects are hard enough for me to deal with, but it was too much. Any way we retreated, but not before we managed to identify an item that I want to use to get a promotion.”

“Okay. I think I’m following. You don’t want the others in your group to know about it since they might call you out?”

“Something like that. I think given your individual strength you should be able to retrieve the item. Do that and I’ll even wipe half of the debt from our last encounter too.”

“Now you’re talking.” I could get rid of the debt while gaining strength on my own. I was a bit worried about absorbing insect monster parts, but at this point it didn’t matter. I needed strength equal to the big guns in the city. Fuck it if I lose some of my humanity in the process.

“The item is a flute that is enshrined toward the center of the sixth floor. You have to defeat the boss to claim it.”

“A flute?” I asked surprised.

“Yes?” She replied with a raised eyebrow.

“I was just expecting something a bit more… You know what, never mind.”

“Okay… Here is a map and details of everything in the dungeon. I’m going to wait here if you don’t mind.”

“Sure.” That would make it easier for me to go crazy and speed this process up. I pulled the hoodie and pants off and handed them to her. The leather armor still covered in blood from Kylie and his lackeys. There was also some damage from the fight, but I was lacking any way of getting my stuff repaired. “I’ll be back.”

~~~

Spinning in a three-sixty, I brought my cleaver around and completely removed the head from the prey-mantis. It fell to the grow, green ickor spraying out and melting the ground where it fell. The creature wasn’t that hard to defeat, but the surprising acidic blood spray had nearly taken my hand the first time I’d encountered the monster.

“I’m on the third floor. Not bad for just under an hour.” Forests and plains were the theme of this dungeon with monster to go along with them. Grasshoppers, crickets, prey-mantises, bees, and several others joined the list of monsters that roamed the floors. As Luna had said, they were weak as crap though.

“I wonder what Azaria would say if she saw this place,” I mumbled to myself as I walked. The map was quite clear on the path to take, so I had no trouble moving down the floors of the dungeon.

Something interesting did happen while I was on the second floor. I had finally hit level thirty, but that wasn’t the amazing thing. I wasn’t sure if it was due to my level, or from using the skill so much, but my Harvester skill had changed. Now when I looked at the parts, I saw what would change on my body as well.

It let me consume things much more readily without having to worry about the physical changes when I knew what it was going to do to me. With that I’d gained a few more abilities from the insects, though mostly just the prey-mantis on the third floor. The other insects were just too weak to justify the absorption.

Lance Teron

Age: 20

Level: 30

Race: Human

Type: Harvester

Aether: 2000/2000

Skills: Harvest

Harvests: Heart of the Chimera – Breath of Fire

Incubus Tool – Mental Fortitude

Scale of the Corrupted Lizard – 50% Poison Resistance

Goblin’s Soul: Malice, Dark Vision, Concentrated Breathing, Dominate, Black, Heart’s Armor, Poison Breath, Natural Weapon, Eat Anything, Durable, Keen Hearing, Gluttony

Physic Toad: Telekinesis, Jump, Increased Tongue, Toxic Breath

Prey- Mantis: Acid Gland, Scythe Blade, Exoskeleton

Human’s Heart – Chaos

Human’s Lung – Fortitude

Human’s Brain (x2)

Fire

Water

Tunnel Rat Tendon – Scurry (+2)

Lower Mimic Storage Sac – Storage

Achievements: Trading With Chaos – You achieved something few could claim. While it might appear to be dumb luck, even luck has a place in the universe. Aether gain +1 per hour.

Solo Hunter – You defeated a dungeon on your own. Very few can claim the same. Great achievements deserve great rewards. Aether +1000

Unlike the goblin dungeon, this dungeon felt more like it was tailored to helping the human race. The monsters allowed us to gain levels and I knew that several farming communities outside talked about the benefits of making fertilizer from the organs of insect monsters. I had just never looked that deeply into it. It made me wonder if there was a dungeon host like Azaria here that was clearly thinking for itself. She couldn’t be the only one.

A crash pulled me from my thoughts as a prey-mantis twice the size of the others on the floor crashed through the underbrush. It hissed at me before charging at me in a rage. It must not have liked the fact that I was standing on one of its brethren with its body torn to pieces.

I flexed my left arm and a scythe made from scale and bone popped out from along the edge of my arm while I tightened my grip around my cleaver. Concentrating, I used telekinesis on the ground at my feet and flung myself forward. The boss monster hissed angerly and lunged with his blades. I countered, blocking with my own scythe and used the force to get me on to the monster’s back.

I took a deep breath, then unloaded a fire blast onto the trashing prey-mantis’s back. The monster went crazy and threw me off, but not before I brought my cleaver around and tore a large gash in the thing’s back. The boss twisted around with a wild swipe as I fell to the ground and I quickly activated Heart’s Armor. The blow struck my upper arm but failed to penetrate. I corrected myself and charged, bringing both the cleaver and scythe blade up as I ran under the large monster.

The prey-mantis hissed loudly as I tore two long gashes down its belly. It tried to turn to continue the fight, but it lost too much blood. The boss collapsed the to the ground twitching as it bled out. I moved over and brought the cleaver down like an executioner and put it out of its misery.

I checked the boss over quickly then harvested the parts that I could absorb right now. After that, I put the rest in my storage. I really needed to go to a dungeon with shapeshifters when this mess was settled. Taking that ability would save me a lot of trouble down the road and would let me absorb everything without worrying about what I looked like.

After putting away the body, I looked around for the loot of the boss and found it in a nest nearby. Storing the items, they would go a good way to clearing my debt, even if they were worth only a few thousand dollars. While I was checking my storage I found the ability vial from the goblin dungeon. I had completely forgotten about it since then. The event with the divers having washed a lot of that to the back of my mind.

I pulled it out and stared at it before looking around, I moved to the stairway to the next floor to be safe. I had horrible luck when it came to draws and it made me worried about drinking this, but any ability I got should be helpful one way or another. “Better late than never, I guess.” I pulled the cap out and downed the liquid.

My knees went weak and I dropped ot the ground. “That can’t… be good.” Before I could say anything else, I blacked out.

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