Agonizing

Chapter 15

It was an hour before I calmed down enough to make a new niche in my chamber of machinations. Into that I placed a simple stone vase and then the leather roses - though I kept one in my inventory. I couldn’t really feel them, beyond a vague sense of holding something, but I found them soothing. That was something I needed a bit of, so I kept one in my inventory so it would be easy to take out if I wanted it. On a better day I’d wouldn’t have been so frazzled. To be fair, on a better day I wouldn’t have been throwing up glowing rocks though, so it was a moot point.

Focusing I opened my inventory and inspected the item. All of the information came up gibberish save for one, Boon, its name. I’d received a boon of all things but from who, and why, I had no idea. I tried to look it up in the encyclopedia but turned up nothing form than a basic definition which was helpful. I needed more information and that meant talking to Agony.

“Hey!” His cheerful voice surprised me, and I nearly jumped up to the ceiling. I hadn’t heard the mirror activate.

“Ha! Totally got you,” he added as I floated back down.

“Yeeep,” I agreed unhappily.

“So, what’s up sad sack?” he asked, and I still hesitated despite needing to ask him.

“Let’s do the rest of the tour,” I suggested, wanting to put some distance between myself and the denizens who could possibly overhear and understand our conversation. He nodded and got back on my shoulder and we continued up.

“So, this will be a patterned boss fight once I-” As we arrived at the second stack boss room, I found the moles out and waiting for us. Without prompting they started drumming their feet on the ground before preforming an intricate dance. I watched, dumbfounded as they went through the complex routine.

“Sweet!” Agony said while I went through my display to find the creatures stats. I found them and confirmed that they were sentient but still couldn’t find a means of communication. Even the normal monster panel option was greyed out as unavailable.

“You really know how to put on a show!” Agony said cheerfully and I looked up to find him by the boss mole. He offered it a fist bump and it accepted, coming out only a little singed thanks to its fire resistance. The moles took a bow then rapidly burrowed into the ground, still in sync.

“I really need to figure out how to communicate with them,” I said, frustrated by the failure but curious if I could make something like an enchanted playback screen. I wanted to show the hounds and skeletons the dance number without having to use my interface every time. If I could pull it off, then it would also be useful for playing raid footage back to use as a teaching tool.

“Well, they’re deaf and functionally blind - you’ll have to get creative,” Agony said, and I nodded, then double checked what he said. I hadn’t noticed deafness being listed but found it grouped under diminished senses along with their impaired sight. I found it strange since I was pretty sure that on my world the opposite was true.

I put correcting the issue on my to-do list while I looked over their stats more carefully. It looked like they were optimized with tremor sense and fast reflexes, but it looked like an uneven build now that I was paying better attention. I’d gotten too hung up on trying to communicate to realize where the problem was and added an apology to the list of things I would need to do once Agony left and I got back to work properly.

I was a little sad to leave the moles, half-wishing they’d put on an encore so I could delay talking with Agony a while longer. While we continued upward, I checked on the bats. I’d written them off as non-sentient the first time but made a point of inspecting them. Unlike with the moles it didn’t seem that they lacked intelligence due to an impairment.

The bats were drones, subject to the leadership of a large monstrous bat pairs rule. I hastily searched out and found the correct creatures, adding them into the boss room as Agony took his time appreciating the architecture of the levels. The bats didn’t put on a show when we arrived, but they were behaving in a coordinated fashion, which was a positive improvement.

“You really put a lot of work into the environments,” Agony said, flicking a small insect that flew nearby, causing it to burst like a piece of popcorn.

“I try, I think it would be boring for everyone if all they could do was stand around and wait for adventurers,” I said and shrugged. I’d added moss that leaked a sweet liquid and a couple innocuous insect hives to the bat encounter so the bats could eat. I hadn’t realized they were drones at the time, but I didn’t regret it. Them behaving somewhat naturally was more interesting for me even if they didn’t care.

“Alright, top floor, it’s mostly aimed at materials gathering,” I said as we emerged in the chamber with the teleportation seals.

“Cool, it’s good to set up things like this. Makes it more enticing and gets people talking,” Agony said approvingly, and I stuck my chest out happily. He didn’t have much to say as we explored the entrance layers layout. At least not until I turned the corner into the entrance tunnel without slowing down.

“42, aren’t you getting a little- fuuuuuck!” he shouted the last as I floated through the mouth of the entry tunnel out onto the stone platform I’d constructed.

“What!?” I said, freaked-out by the yelling in my ear. Agony didn’t respond at first, just sitting on my shoulder where I couldn’t really see him. It was only the bit of warmth that I could feel from him that let me know he was still there. After a minute he floated off my shoulder, going to the edge of the platform and looking up at the night sky.

Not sure what was going on I joined him and hovered like I was sitting on the edge, my tail hanging over. He was looking at the stars from what I could tell, and his expression was rapt, so I sat quietly and let him enjoy it. On the first day when I’d arrived and was still sorting things out, I’d watched day fade into night. The sunset hadn’t been as colorful as the ones from my world, but the night sky was dazzling along with the multiple moons.

“You know, this isn’t against the rules. Even so, out of all the dungeons that get placed, only about five have ever bought outside land to work with,” Agony said quietly after a while, breaking me out of my own stargazing.

“I figured it out by accident. My raid alarm was muted so I didn’t realize what was going on. Thanks to being disoriented I messed up on a regular tile purchase,” I admitted. I’d told him about some of what had happened that day but hadn’t thought to mention the outside purchase at the time.

“Well, through luck or not, you’ve got a rare feature now,” Agony said, eyes still fixed on the sky.

“Uhm… about luck. That day I. Well, I took a human as an employee,” I said and felt a little relieved. It was a baby step compared to what I was going to have to tell him but at least the conversation could be considered begun.

“Just racking up the exotic stuff,” Agony said, looking over at me before snickering.

“Yeah, about that, he’s lawful good,” I said, and Agony gave a long slow blink before bursting into laughter.

“What the fuck? How? Just how?” He asked, surprised but not alarmed which I was thankful to see.

“I helped him cure his mother of a disease,” I answered. I’d done quite a bit more than that, but I did genuinely feel that was why he’d agreed to work for me.

“Okay, well congratulations, you are officially unique,” Agony said, laying back on the stone platform with his hands on his face as he laughed. He was melting it a bit underneath him, but like the hounds steps the stone would repair itself once he moved.

“Is it a bad thing?” I asked, wanting to be reassured I wasn’t fucking up after recent events.

“No idea, no one’s ever managed it before…Though I guess it’s fine,” Agony said, sitting up and looking at me seriously.

“Okay, that’s good. Only, so I was editing my skeletons which gave me the idea to edit Elim, my employee, and I paid for a blessing which-” I stopped when Agony’s expression became one I couldn’t read. For a moment I thought he’d passed out standing up since he didn’t so much as blink.

“Uhm…am I in trouble?” I asked.

“No? I mean… This is all new to me. The only real rule for new stuff is that if the system doesn’t block it, then its okayish. Or at least you shouldn’t get in trouble even if a rule comes out to block it in the future,” Agony said, seeming less than certain. It was still better than nothing and I felt a little better overall.

“Okay, well, I paid for a blessing and then coughed up a crystal labeled as a boon,” I said, rushing to finish rather than wait for him to think of a possible negative. I needed to tell him everything before my courage gave out and I went back to huddling in the dark. Agony nodded, looking like he was weirded out by the news but not alarmed. He took a couple minutes to think and I didn’t interrupt him.

“Most sentient species have a pantheon of gods, and individuals can have their own set outside of that. Heroes can receive the benefits of blessings, but that doesn’t stop the gods from bestowing them on others. It’s just really hard for them to get activated, so a farmer can have six and never get anything out of it. Curses, though, work universally,” Agony informed me.

“So, the god who blessed him gave me a present?” I asked, not really associating how I’d gotten it with anything pleasant. I actually been wondering if boons which were normally described as favors or wishes were toxic to dungeon cores.

“It would make sense, they like it when their blessings go through,” Agony said then shrugged, not knowing more on the point than I did apparently.

“Is there another way for blessings to be activated?” I asked, curious now that I knew a little more instead of just scared.

“Temples should have crystals that can do it, but they rarely let anyone. Just like level assessments or class changes, you have to be rich or a hero to get access to stuff like that,” Agony said, and it matched what Elim had said and expanded on it. I’d have smiled if I had a mouth.

“Hey, this is everything I’ve bought up here,” I said, showing Agony my map so he’d know I wasn’t trying to take him out of the dungeon.

“Follow me,” I said happily.

“This is dramatic,” Agony said as I lead him along and up the staircase to the plaza, he looked with wide eyes on the temple entrance. It was still rough but much more dramatic than the simplified chalk drawing in my chamber of machination had let on.

“Damn, 42, planning on starting a religion?” Agony asked, inspecting the carvings of the triptych with interest.

“Isn’t Lorrel already worshiped?” I asked, her entry had some details on the point but nothing about how recent the practice was.

“Not widely and mostly by the Lepusan,” Agony said and shrugged.

“Then maybe I will. Elim has access to item storage and is lawful good. Wanna bet he can get into a room with one of the fancy crystals with a little financial help?” I said, extremely pleased by the idea. I didn’t need him to steal, just get it into the inventory for a moment so it would populate to the store.

“I love it when you talk dirty,” Agony said and started laughing.