Looking at his status, Aki was rather surprised that his class had both evolved and ranked up to epic rarity, his physical stats gaining a boost from the points he would have received were he to have leveled this class five times.

He'd fully expect it to evolve to begin with, sorcerers being known for they innate powers and whacky bloodlines that gave them useful abilities.

As someone born on earth, he had no fantasies about such. He would either make his own bloodline or take one. His chances of awakening one of those naturally was actually a thousand times smaller than that of anyone of this realm.

His image cultivation had worked wonders with the energy given however, allowing for the refinement of his 'self' into that of something more monstrous.

The bloodlust and unthinking nature of it fit well with him. Giving into his instincts and desires was quite freeing, so he really antes to do it again.

"But instincts can only take you so far no matter how ridiculously overpowered." He muttered to himself, a heavy quality to his words as he walked into the new prison.

Looking at the five men and women he'd patched up and restrained, Aki was rather proud of his work on the fifth floor and the extra area for people he intended to keep.

All but the pugilist were asleep, the woman not actually doing much other than meditate or look at nowhere in specific with vacant eyes after exploring.

He stood there for a while, leaning against the railing of the observation area, preparing for what was to come by refining his idea.

In this case, quite literally.

*****

Frieda found herself well and alive after waking up, neither strapped to some torture device nor stuck to a wall, rather spouting cotton garments and under garments instead of her monster gear, none of her items even close. Her bedding was actually quite comfortable, a different kind of feeling making her unwilling to move.

Her willpower would not be overwhelmed by such however.

Getting up, the low light of the cave ambient she and her still asleep party found themselves did not really illuminate much, though a torch would hardly be better. The temperature was also mildly comfortable, humidity allowing for some soothing cold.

It was a big room, clearly men made. To her left and right were polished rock walls with doors, a platform and rails visible in the end of her vision. Ten bunk beds and twenty trunks filled the north and south walls, space for three people to pass between them.

Walking to the left door, she got close enough to see that it had a plaque with both drawing and writing indicating it was the bathrooms. Her first thought was that'd it would not be great to share one room for everyone and that'd it get worse if more people were brought here, but behind it there was a corridor wide enough for two people and seven doors, three for women, three for men and one with a simble she didn't recognize.

The women's bathroom were all the same, but the facilities in each were something that rich merchants would use to imitate nobles, tiled floor and all. And that was when she figured they were in a dungeon.

Above the toilet, paper dispenser, sink and next to the shower, there were small plaques with nothing on them, which was odd at first, but upon simple wondering, she received a status message telling her the name, use and method of use in each apparatus.

By the door, she also found a similar sign saying people would only be able to enter with her consent or in case she tried to harm herself in anyway. But that she'd still be able to hear the complaints about hogging the room.

The notion made her snicker, though there seemed to be many notions at play with the simple functions.

After relieving herself, Eda tried opening the other four doors, subsequently being called a pervert by a new notification and told she should either have a male let her in or change her gender in her status page.

The mere notion of such was ridiculous for her, but considering the door at the end of the corridor was apparently for people with both genders, she questioned whether this place was ment to hold only humans.

Orcs were commonly known as the most populous race with hermaphrodite individuals after all, and for all she knew, elves could at some point choose to change genders.

Wether that was a natural feature or a result of a magic ritual was irrelevant to her.

Exploration of this side done, she saw to try and wake up her companions, but only Alexander had enough energy to even be awake for long enough to tell her he was exhausted.

This was a rather confusing result since she felt completely invigorated, more so than normal despite her unnatural...

'We are in a regeneration field. They are suffering from the amount of damage they rapidly recovered from if what I saw and heard are any indication. I better look for some food and make them swallow.' Determined the pugilist, her own regeneration abilities much higher than her colleagues, which made her experienced with the situation.

Strolling through the door on the right side, she was yet again surprised by what she found.

The cave to which the door opened to was the size of a city block. A great circle divided into eight pieces.

Above the door she'd passed through there was a big and bold 'H1', followed by 'H2' to her right and ending at 'H6' to her left, though there seemed to be a conical indentation between the doors 1 and 6, 3 and 4.

From her point if view, she saw that the 3/4 space was a training room, some equipment inside and marked spaces for sparing in front of it. In the 1/6 there were some wooden chairs and stone tables, so she was quite happy to find fresh fruit, jerky and what she assumed were bags of milk. Less so to find the giant spider behind the stone counter holding those.

She was surprised at first, but than she studied it a bit closer.

It was very fluffy, it's white fur looking like an expensive rug instead of a sheep's wool, standing at two meters tall with six limbs. The four 'arms' ended in what looked like spikes, but the underside of those had several small indentations that allowed it to grab and manipulate items if the cups it was cleaning while waving a her were an indication. It had two big blue eyes and a small mouth mostly covered in fur it used to make a cute sound, like a purring kitten.

Strangely enough, she felt very attracted to the idea of petting and hugging the monster.

Shaking the notion away, Eda stepped forward and focused on the bronze sign in front of it, receiving another system prompt.

[This is Mr. Cuddles, the prison's quarter master. He likes to cuddle, napping, spending quality time with Ms. Cuddles and watching his children play skitter ball. Talk to him for food and clothing. To redeem better items, exchange points at the counter.

Warning: Violence will be answered with restraining cuddles. Mr. Cuddles is specifically trained for that.]

It was only after she'd read the prompt a fourth time that Eda dismissed it, still partially not believing the description.

"Hello?" She tried, the creature cooing her and putting the cup and cloth behind the counter. "Me and my friends need food. They are still recovering, so they need something light." Seeing the... Mr. Cuddles nodding and cooing made her want to pet it, but the small distraction was enough that it had put some white bread and a milk bowl in the counter, a wooden spoon next to it.

Looking back at it, the previously empty claws now held trays with much the same food as her's. When he walked forward, part of the stone counter went into the ground, revealing that he walked on two stubby, fur covered legs with no toes, making her wonder how it kept its balance. Seeing as the door swung open for the walking wall of fluff, the blonde warrior sighed and turned to her own meal. She'd look into eating something heavier later and have some fruit and jerky ready for the team, but there didn't seem to be much to do around but train.

She thoght the notion weird, but then again, she'd just seen a very cuddly and friendly monster that could manipulate the enviroment and had however long she'd spent unconcious to do anything it wanted to those present. Had she not experienced it herself, she'd have laughed her ass off at whoever sugested the notion.

The two that had captured them likely had something to do with the dungeon here, but it was hard to say when or even if they'd have some kind of contact. It'd be their best chance at an escape, but even if they had their full equipment, and they didn't, there was simply no use in trying to fight through all the floors of an uknown dungeon. Be it traps or hordes of monsters, it'd be near impossible.

If it went to the trouble of making them prisioners, them it'd not let them escape. It was a surprise that she was not some kind of seed or egg sack already, but it indicated there was a chance for her to stay so.

Drinking the rest of the milk in the bowl, Eda set to explore again. Unfortunately, trying to enter one of the other H rooms made a prompt asking wether she'd like to move her things there appear, then it explicitly said this was a one time thing since there were open slots in said room, she'd not be able to change again without management autorization.

This left her with the training area, though she wasn't planning on actually exercising, but it'd be a pity to not have cheked for signs there.

Her boredom quickly proved her correct, the area with the weights having a smaller counter than the one on the other side quickly coming to attention. There, she found a sign and a desk bell. The sign read the description of one Ms. Cuddles, the prison coach, though the warning part said she was a bit of a sadist that enjoyed tickling her victims till they cried.

Unabble to control herself, Frieda ringed the bell. A higher pitched sound than that of Mr. Cuddles sounded through the imediate surroundings, the stone wall behind the counter receding into the ground and letting out a twenty centimeter smaller, purple eyed and pink ribbon wearing version of the almost aracnid she'd seen before, who cooed at her as if asking what she could help with.

"I wanted to ask about the points mentioned on the other side, and the sign here doesn't explain what is the reason for this area, so i was also wondering about that." She said, following the poised and feminine movements of the monster that stood as tall as her while being half again as large. It was then that she noticed a small metal glean on the collar of Ms. Cuddles, a small tag with numbers and letters she couldn't read thanks to the amount of fur in the way. She wondered if it was a present from her husband or something of the like, though it was strangely familiar for some reason.

The female monster nodded and cooed at her, a prompt appearing again. This one had her worried however cute the being in front of her was however.

[While staying in a dungeon, adventurers and other non-dungeon entities provide a minuscule amount of power to their host, the amount staying fixed with the power level of the individual and never being a problem in normal situations. Several things can raise the amount of points given by any one individual for some time however, such as regenerating resources while having full pools, extrenuos training and extreme emotions.

As an incentive for long term productivity however, guests are encouraged to better themselves and rewarded with a tenth of their point generation per day, which can be ussed by asking the quartermaster to redeem everyday comodities, luxuries, games, books, collectibles and even general area upgrades for the confort of your comunity.]

Frieda was not the smartest person she knew, she never thought so really, but even she could see this was some kind of trap.