“I’m sorry!” bawled Faeyna.
Alysia, the red-headed Osterian knight, and general who braved dungeons and fought unbeatable monsters, was in my lap crying like a baby. I was stroking her hair as she cried out her significant trauma. Faeyna was in the corner, also crying. The witch had incidentally covered Matty’s eyes at just the right time, and he didn’t experience any trauma, but she had a slightly helpless expression on her face as well. This is why I needed to provide support! When I didn’t get involved, it was always someone’s ass on the line.
“Master! I finally found Pait and the rest of your party!” Celeste blissfully spoke up just as I was praying for a distraction.
“We’ve broken through the 5th level!” Elaya came shortly after.
“Damn it! I surrender!” A voice echoed throughout the dungeon.
“Oh, thank goodness.” I sighed. “Um… Alysia…”
“Master… am I… damaged goods now?” She asked me.
“Whaaaat? Noooo…” I realized my voice sounded just a bit too enthusiastic. “Ahem… I mean, absolutely not.”
“Th-then… you’ll still kiss me?”
“Geh… ah… ahem… of course.”
I didn’t know much about the ratio between forms. When Alysia killed someone and there was blood on her blade, it wasn’t like when she showed the human form she was still covered in blood and viscera. Therefore, it stood to reason there was nothing wrong. I mean, there was nothing wrong anyway! Alysia was my precious ally. She was my princess and my sword. I wasn’t going to spurn her when she needed me the most! I gave her a quick peck on the lips. One second kiss. Three-second rule, it was fine.
“Sorry, got to go, dungeons and all.” I used the dungeon to send me to the 1st floor and then escaped, ahem… calmly went into Gram’s Passage to accept his surrender.
Of course, Alysia turned into light and ended up flying into my hand before I left. When your souls were tied together, it wasn’t like you could separate that easily. Besides, Gram’s passage was quite a distance away and also enemy territory. It was best that I had her with me even if she was emotionally distraught at the moment. I would spend some time soothing her later.
Our soldiers had already been recalled back to the dungeon, and my generals were waiting at the entrance. The man in the cloak was also standing there waiting for us. When we approached, he stiffened slightly.
“It seems that I underestimated you.” He spoke tightly before bringing out a glowing orb. “Here you go. This is the lore to my dungeon. All of my spatial magic and then some.”
Having already seen Matty do this once before, I was caught off guard. This wasn’t the true dungeon lore, but a copy. It appeared like when one dungeon surrendered to another, it was customary to offer up your lore. This isn’t the curse, but the collection of knowledge. It would allow the dungeon to create more mobs, more traps, and various other things. Currently, my dungeon had extracted various lore, although at the time I didn’t know that was what I was doing.
For example, Xin’s soldiers were a template of the demonic knights that I devoured when I took out the mining town near Alerith. Once I incorporated this knowledge into our dungeon, we’d be able to start making various types of goblins and orcs. I took the orb, but I wasn’t happy with that.
“Where is the party? That’s ultimately why I attacked. Celeste?”
“Ah… Master… as to that… they were still asleep in the Passage. Most of the dungeon was near the base, we never got close to your party traveling down the passage. That’s why it took so long for me to find them.”
“You mean that Gram never touched the party?” I blinked.
“Why would I? You’re the dungeon master threat!” The cloaked man growled.
“I see…” That entire situation could have been diffused a lot easier.
Oh well, all’s well that ends well.