With all the girls gathered, I probably could have attacked Calypso now. She’d assuredly be weaker on the first floor where her miasma was thinnest, and escaping from the battle would be easiest here. While some of her Bandits might be strong, I was confident that we could also fight them off. Calypso herself was also likely very dangerous. Still, even if it was a fight we lost, I felt that we could probably escape.
Even if I was worried about my ability to use magic, we could always break down to the 5th floor, use the safe zone, and then we could come out swinging. There was no reason to continue to fool Calypso if I didn’t want to.
The reason I didn’t do it was because I had a feeling it wouldn’t go well. At the end of it all, there was a dungeon at the root of all this. While Calypso may have taken control of the dungeon and warped it into a machine that she used to conquer the southwest corner of Aberis, even if we defeated her, the dungeon would still exist. Furthermore, a copy of Calypso might be created who would carry on her work, even if she died. Then, of course, there was the fact that she had that knife. A single scratch was enough to almost kill me. I couldn’t imagine tossing my girls against her and the knife.
Therefore, I felt that the best plan was to take our time. The dungeon was there to level us up. We should take advantage of it. Any monsters we killed and any treasure we claimed only weakened the overall power of the dungeon. Furthermore, the dungeon had to have some kind of lore behind it. I hadn’t seen the name of the dungeon when I entered since I was unconscious, but using my Dungeon Diver skill I was able to ascertain the name.
It was Bandit’s Respite like she had named it, but I had a strange feeling wasn’t the original name. At some point, she must have renamed the dungeon. Was that even a thing? I wouldn’t know until I saw the murals, which was one more reason that I had sent the girls to look at the first-floor kiosk. Once registered, all it would take is a Party Swap from the safe room on the 5th floor and I’d be able to see the first floor myself.
“Good luck,” Siti said as I finished packing my bags early the next morning.
“Are you going to be okay?” I asked worriedly, “Your… time… with Calypso is coming up.”
She smiled. “I look forward to servicing Master.”
I didn’t know what was happening to Siti. At first, I thought her calming down was reasonable, but now I was thinking there was something more insidious about it. I didn’t think she had been killed and replaced with a doppelganger, but there was still something wrong with her. I had decided to keep her out of the loop and not mention that my slaves had managed to infiltrate the dungeon. At this point, I didn’t think I could trust her anymore. Was this how other Bandits felt as they saw their brethren slowly become Calypso’s slaves?
Siti… I will find out the secrets of this dungeon, defeat it, and free you from Calypso’s grasp. I swear it!