poAhri wandered around the dungeon floors. She had been inside the dungeon for several days now and had familiarized herself with the layout of the dungeon's normal floors. She passed an area for the third time this week and thought 'he's been here' when she noticed the missing plants. Once again she stopped and changed direction with the thought that the seeds would be planted in the direction of the last plant he picked.

Several hours later she came back to her room exhausted with nothing to show for it, the old alchemist had proved as elusive as the first day he entered the dungeon. The only evidence of his existence is the large spaces that are barren of anything even remotely useful for alchemy and the occasional sprinkling of seeds.

Initially, Ahri intended to find the alchemist and possibly learn a few things from him while she tried to befriend the old man. However, she could never manage to find the man in question and she was starting to realize that he was avoiding her, although she could not figure out when she had offended him.

Early the next day she sat up on her hard bed that she brought from the university and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. 'today he's not getting away' she thought to herself even if she did not entirely believe it.

After slipping on something better suited to traverse a dungeon she exited the secret passage. She softly chanted a short spell then turned invisible.

Imprints of small shoes started appearing leading away from the secret entrance as Ahri stalked her prey.

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Lucifer watched her antics with his unique method of vision granted to him by being a dungeon, he sighed and flew away to find the alchemist.

Once he found him he said "the silly girl is now using invisibility to try and catch you unawares"

Rick replied "hey you ruined the fun, don't give spoilers"

"she will never get what she wants while continuing to go against me" returned Lucifer.

Rick smirked and replied "does she even know that you know because it seems you are being a little passive aggressive"

Lucifer snapped back "if she does not come to me on her own accord then I have no use for her. I need allies at the moment"

Smiling wryly Rick replied "no one does anything for nothing, perhaps if you show her your abilities she may be more receptive to becoming an ally"

Lucifer growled "as if I need another woman who only acts when there is something to gain from me"

Rick could tell that he had inadvertently stepped on a nerve which he found strange considering Lucifer was a dungeon, but he decided that it was best not to anger the being who had a leash on his soul. "well if you are interested in hearing my opinion. You have almost completely cut off communication between her and her old life and what she is doing now is only a desperate attempt to cling to her old master by being useful. Once she gets used to being here those feelings will fade and in my experience, after long years of being a captive, she will come to rely on you with an almost unhealthy attachment to you. At this point, she will be yours to do what you will to her."

By now Lucifer had calmed down slightly and managed to casually reply "you are talking about Stockholm syndrome which I am already familiar with, however, I don't intend to wait several years before I make my decision about her, by that time I would already have surpassed her usefulness".

After some thought, Rick replied "I guess we will see then". "oh by the way I have finished the artifact that you wanted".

Lucifer happily replied "good work, just leave it in your room and I will come get it later I have some things to set up now" before flying away.

Rick thought to himself 'That dungeon has issues' while reminding himself to watch what he said and thought 'it also seems like the dungeon has had a relationship that went sour?'. With those thoughts, he shuffled away and occasionally bent down to pick up useful plants only stopping to scratch his head at the confusing thought of a dungeon with a wife.

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Meanwhile, Salenia was riding north at a moderate pace, slow enough that it would not tire the horse out and fast enough that only someone in a rush somewhere would catch up to her.

At first, she was relieved after the last incident when no one came looking for her after the forest suddenly appeared in the middle of the day. However, she soon noticed the lack of animal movement, normally the birds would be chirping and competing in areal dances, but today they seemed still.

This stillness was not unfamiliar to Salenia, she had seen it several times before. The other times there were packs of magically enhanced wolves hunting her party. She could feel that the mana was sparse in the area so the chance of large predators in the area was slim to none, a lone best that was driven out of its territory would be possible but the animals would not act in this way if that were the case.

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In an area not far from her a group of hooded men on large lizard mounts spoke in hushed tones.

"the mages have communicated with all the groups and we have her surrounded"

"are there any chances that she could escape"

"no she is only on a small horse and she is wounded if the last group is to be believed." the man speaking patted a net of severed heads hung from the back of his saddle.

"good we will attack just before the sun sets. make sure to keep ahead of her and keep communicating with the other groups"

another man said "don't worry if she notices and tries to break the encirclement one of the men will activate one of their transmission gems which will tell all the other groups"