Azaria The Doll Dungeon 24

Chapter 24: HouseKeeping!

Azaria

The world came back to me in a blur. I would have shaken my head a few times to clear it if I hadn’t been back in my ethereal form. The time in the other place had only felt like a few minutes, but when I checked outside it was almost dawn. People were already lining up outside for their turn to get in the dungeon.

I went looking for Starburst when I noticed that I had much more Aether than when I left earlier. I found him in his room dozing off. I wanted to glare at him for being able to sleep when I couldn’t. I had moved past it over the month that I worked on my dungeon.

I got right next to his ear and took a deep breath. “Starburst!”

He jumped into the air and brandished his horn until he realized it was me. He dropped back to the ground. “Girl. You’re back. I’ll ignore that because I know you went through something very interesting.”

“So, you know what that was about?”

“Yes. The Moon Gathering. All the cores for a particular area gathered to talk and discuss. Even with your minds stripped, your human souls will go insane without company once in a while.”

“That’s that. I want to know why my goal is supposed to be to kill all humans!?”

“There’s more to it. You know how it is. I literally am unable to speak of it.”

“I’m going to need some answers soon. This is getting tiresome. There were others there that still had their memories. They warned me that if it came out that my memories were intact, bad things could happen to me.”

“That was very risky of them to talk to you like that during the Moon Gathering. Yes. You have a constant noose hanging on your neck. I can’t talk about it more until you gain more power. You need to be able to cut a piece of the world off for yourself.”

I floated up as I stared at him. This was a lot to take in, but at the same time didn’t change my situation. Only that there were more people that wanted to end my existence. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“To be honest?” he asked, and I nodded. “I forgot. As for the memory thing, I was on the fence about whether I wanted you found out or not.”

“Because it would mean your freedom?” I asked trying not to frown. I knew that he hated his new lot in life. Maybe I should have tried harder to see from his side of things.

Starburst averted his eyes as he looked at the wall. “No. I would still be a soul trapped in the core. If you were erased, the next consciousness might be, well, normal.”

“I get it.” I circled around him as I thought about what I needed to do. I glanced at my status to see where I was at. 

Azaria Highlock

Age:18

Level: 2

Race: Dungeon

Type: Doll 

Sub-type: Goddess’s Chosen

Aether: 4,580/2,100

Floors: 3/2

Skills: Creation

Deconstruction

Summon (7/127)

Teleport Matrix (1/1) 

Enchanter’s Melody

Uncontrollable Proliferation 

Achievements:

God Killer – Killed a God, albeit a weak one.

Undefeated – Remain undefeated. Enhances abilities (1.15*x) X being the number of attempts on the dungeon. X=8

The Surface – When a dungeon reaches the surface the world opens up to them. Aether hourly gain (+1)

“Did something happen while I was gone? I have a lot more Aether,” I commented after looking at everything. 

“The Lance girl came back. Every once in a while, she’s been throwing a torn apart body out of her sealed room and the dungeon had been absorbing it. A lot of screams coming from that area too.”

“What is she doing?”

“She’s human. How should I know?”

I shook my head at him and went to check on Lance. Poking my head through the wall, I found blood covering pretty much every surface in the room. Lance laid on the bed breathing smoothly despite looking like she had just come from a battle. Her armor was gone, in fact all her cloths were gone. Her illusion was also missing and without her cloths, she really gave off a monster vide. 

Parts of her body had scales, while others had hide. Her hands were much more along the lines of claws. Her face, while mostly still human, possessed an unnatural beauty that wasn’t there last time I saw her. If you gave her some wings and a tail, it would be hard to cover the monster qualities up. 

“Hello? You alive?” I called.

Lance’s eyes shot as flames started leaking from her mouth. A jet of fire crossed the room and blackened the wall where my head was sticking through. I couldn’t feel anything from the flames, but it was rude of her to attack me like that.

She finished waking up and cut off the flames. Coughing up some smoke, she said. “Sorry. I… was in a bit of a place last night. I’m better.”

“I can see that,” I said glancing around the room. “What did you do, slaughter ten people?”

“Sixteen actually. I might have gotten a bit… into it after the third or fourth.”

“Do you need help?” I asked truly concerned about her. I knew the world had changed in the year I was asleep, but surely this wasn’t good for her, seeking revenge or not. 

“No. This is the path I’ve decided to take since I harvested the first goblin heart.”

“Okay. I won’t say anything more, but you should put some cloths on.” I turned away from her as she was on full display. What was it with nudity around me lately? First the Moon Gathering, now this. Was it a side-effect of my luck?

“Sorry. Yeah, after the first body splatter my sleeve, I took my clothes off so I wouldn’t be red by the end of it.”

I nodded then thought about cleaning the room. I couldn’t absorb it while she was in here, but I could affect the area around the room. I made a bunch of holes in the floor and ceiling then created a couple hundred gallons of water above the room. A rainstorm took place washing the room and Lance clean of the only slightly dry blood.

When it was over, Lance flicked the water from her face. “Thanks. Next time, could you make it a bit warmer?”

“I really don’t know if there should be a next time,” I commented looking over the mess. 

“What time is it?”

“A few minutes before dawn. Probably ten give or take.”

“Just enough.” Lance reached up and a black swirl appeared as she started pulling cloths from it. She dressed quickly and with over eight minutes still, she left the hidden room. “I’ll try to get a party for later today, but it will more likely be tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I said waving as she made her way out a back window. Starburst walked up next to me, and we watched her go down the cliff behind the manor. 

“That girl has some of the worst luck I have ever seen. Its bad enough to twist her perception of the world.”

I looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?”

“You have luck equal to close to hundred million people. That gives you a happy-go-lucky attitude for most of your life. That girl has negative luck. I’m quite amazed she is still alive. Either way, she will see the world through a sort of tinted glass.”

“Any way to help her?”

“Kill her and let her reincarnate. Only way.”

“Yeah, let’s save that for a last resort. Surely there is something more humane we can do?” I asked. 

Starburst shook his head. “It is set by the universe, even the gods can’t interfere.”

That was bull. I hated the idea everything was set from the moment we were born. If I was so lucky, how did I end up like this? I felt like there was more to it. With a huff, I moved down to the third floor.

Emelia had worked on a few things in the day or two since I summoned her. I was periodically sending her Aether to summon her own minions. Looking around, I found that she had completely changed the floor. A nice pathway extended from a circular stair that led back up to the second floor maze.

While we still hadn’t gotten any plans for the theme park, I had explained what I remembered from my time as a human. She had managed to take that and build the basics. A central plaza area that was large enough for a few hundred people to gather sat at the center of the floor with branching paths that led off in various directions.

“Mistress! I am pleased thee cameth to visiteth. How doth thee liketh what I’ve done?”

“It looks amazing!” I turned to find Emelia walking towards me with a small army of what looked like old robots. I think the term the internet used for them was steampunk. Certainly, they puffed a lot of steam as they walked, but they looked like they could do quite a lot of things.

“Mine own children. Those gents art most wondrous f'r helping buildeth this wond'r,” Emelia said gesturing to the robots behind her.

“They do look cute,” I commented floating around them.

I talked to Emelia for a while, but she hadn’t done much more than work on the paths. She needed the engineering plans to build the park rides. She could build her own version, but we didn’t know how much they would differ from the Earth version. I told her it was okay. We would get something hopefully next time when Lance visited.