I Hate Dungeon School

We raced down the hallway as it twisted one way or the other, not bothering to be careful or even make notes of which way we went. Thankfully, there were no branches or side chambers. It didn't even have traps or monsters, and the presence of dungeon mana was nonexistent.

Soon, we came to a bare wall that Smitty just crashed right through as though it had been made of driftwood. I had never seen her so angry, but I'm glad it was directed towards our foes.

I looked around to see where we were. It looked like the inside of the manor house, or at least what I would expect the inside to look like. It had obvious signs of past opulence, replaced by the dust and decay of untold years of neglect. We moved slowly through the main hall, trying to figure out where the mage had run off to.

Our question was answered by a flash of light and the smell of burning alchemical reagents.

We quickly moved to the source and confirmed my fears.

Burnt onto the floor was an ornate circle, with designs and runes.

"Damn, mage used a single-use teleportation circle. We're too late!" Myth let loose a string of curses that I'm grateful I didn't really understand.

I sighed, sheathed my blade, and paced a bit, trying to think. We had no idea where the mage had teleported off to. It couldn't be too terribly far, as magic like that didn't have amazing range, but it could be far enough that we couldn't catch up.

Looking around, I saw an awful lot of papers and books.

"We should take the time to search this place. This could be a feint. At the very least, we might find some evidence for Noah to use against these bitch-born bastards." I scowled.

"Since we're out of the dungeon, can we at least take these masks off? I can barely breathe right now." Mariana whined.

"We should be good. Don't get careless, though." Cori said, unhooking her mask and putting it around her neck. We all followed suit, taking a breath of the stale, dusty air.

"I'll check the upper floors. Myth, could you back me up?" Cori asked the wood elf, who nodded in response.

"Smitty guard bottom floor. Make sure no one sneak in. Smitty crush any who try to sneak." The large hound-like Kobold huffed resolutely.

"I'll go link up with Farina and those knights, I guess. Let them know what's going on." Mariana said, before heading out of the room.

"We got the bottom floors," Eira said as the others left. I looked around the room and sighed at the expanse of loose papers everywhere.

"For a conspiracy, these guys are untidy," I said as I picked up some documents that made little sense to me. Either they were far above my head, or written in some script I couldn't make any sense of.

Eira and I kept quiet as we moved through the large manor, just in case someone was lying in wait to ambush us.

Thankfully, nothing popped out at us. What we did find was strange indeed.

We found a locked room that opened with just a bit of pushing. The wood of the door frame had rotted some time again, so the lock seemed more a formality than anything else.

Inside was what looked like some kind of store room. It had feathers, claws, vials of blood, strange fleshy bits in preservative jars, and small crystals. We found cases with some kind of reptile skills, fur of every color imaginable, bones of all sorts of shapes and sizes, many of which I had no hope of identifying.

There was a ledger of some sort as well. I opened it, and it confirmed one of my concerns. What we had stumbled across was a storeroom of reagents for various magical purposes. And mostly from monsters and Mortal Races that had once legally been monsters before petitioning the Alliance.

Parts of orcs, drakekin, goblins, kobolds, Bastetians, and more were listed. But what took up most of the ledger were harpy parts. At a glance, I had to guess these bastard mages and their knight lackeys had parted out dozens, if not more harpies, right in this very building.

For what I couldn't imagine, but I had a bad feeling it had something to do with whatever they had been doing in that basement.

"Those idiots. Those bleeding fool arse idiots!" Eira swore as she flipped through another ledger she found.

"What is it, Eira?" I put the ledger I found in my storage pouch. This would be critical to whatever case Noah and Adhara were putting together.

"I can't make out most of this, but I think this has to do with whatever nonsense they're planning with the false cores, the people, and everything else. It's a lot, Alta. I can't even believe someone would do this." She said, her eyes full of shock and distress at what she read.

I started to reach for the book to read it myself when I heard a sound on the floor below us. Like a soft squeak or chirp. I looked down and saw the rug beneath us, which was a dirty, ugly thing.

I lifted it and saw the handle of a trapdoor. I bent down and put my ear to the floor. I heard that chripping sound again, and some kind of spoken words I couldn't understand. It didn't sound even remotely like Mortal Common.

"There's something down there," I whispered.

Eira nodded and hummed a tune that caused a sphere of bright burning light to appear in her hand. She stood ready to throw it if needed.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I took a deep breath before seizing the handle and throwing the trapdoor open, ready for anything.

Or so I thought, but what we found wasn't hiding mages or knights. It was two humans, barely clad in clothing, and they were dirty, and their faces were terrified. They huddled together as far from the open door as they could.

I then saw that they had wings, arms that were clawed, and their lower halves were closer to the legs of a ptarm than a person. And set into their foreheads were little crystals. One had bright blue hair, the color of the sky, while the other had green, the color of spring grass.

I was confused for a moment before it finally clicked what I was looking at.

"Harpies?" I gasped.

"Harpies?"

"Harpies!" I pointed, which caused one of them to squawk in fear and nestle into the other.

Eira dismissed her spell with a sputter and bent down.

"Oh, the poor things. You don't think-" She started before deciding not to say anything more.

"You are not humans. Elf? Elfes?" The blue-haired one said and sniffed the air. "You do not have the smell of the robed ones or the metal turtle men. Are you a new evil? I will kill if you hurt Sasa!" The sides of her head bristled, and I realized she had featherly tufts where ears would be.

"Lele no! Do not anger the point-eared ones! Our egg!" The other pleaded, it was then I saw cradled in her arms a speckled the size of a summer melon.

"We need to get these two to safety, Alta. Are there any others?" Eira asked the two.

"You help us? Save us from the robes and the iron turtles, yes?" The green-haired one asked.

"We are the last. The others were taken by the robed ones. Sasa's mate was the first. Mine was next." Lele, if I heard her name right, said with a mixture of anger and sadness evident despite her thick-accented speech.

I was angry for her and her fellows. I was angry beyond words. But I had to push those thoughts down.

"C'mon, we'll help get you out of here," I said as I reached my arms out. Lele looked at me with suspicion, but looked at Sasa, who nodded and said something I couldn't understand.

Lele helped Sasa into my arms as she held the egg close to her chest, and I lifted her. She was startlingly light, and I was able to lift her with ease. I carefully set her down. It was then that I realized that what I thought had been clothes were just more feathers. The harpy was completely naked.

I looked around for something to cover her with, finding folded cloth in a corner, and I wrapped it around her to give her some kind of modesty, but I had no idea if harpies even had taboos against being naked. I didn't know a thing about them, truth be told.

Eira helped Lele out of the hole and likewise found her a covering. Lele looked around for a quick moment and held Sasa before she did likewise.

It then occurred to me that many of these parts belonged to their fellows. And their mates. I felt sick at the thought. I felt ashamed that I hadn't considered that earlier.

"Let's get out of this room. Grab the other ledgers, Alta." Eira ordered me before turning to the harpies. "We're going to get you out of here. We have some friends who are with us. Some humans, some elves, and a kobold. The kobold is kind and will protect you till we can leave. Do you understand?"

She spoke in a kind tone, as one would speak to a child. I could tell she didn't do this to patronize them, but to make absolutely sure they understood.

Sasa said nothing, but Lele nodded and made a clicking sound with her tongue.

We helped them to the main hall, slowly, as they were awfully weak. I wondered how long it had been since they properly ate. I looked carefully at them and realized they were terribly emaciated.

I hated the knights for what they had done to me, what they had done to Myth, but that paled at the hatred I felt for the sins they had committed in their manor. I doubted any law could possibly do enough justice to these bastards.

We made it to the hall and found Smitty patrolling, shield and spear at the ready.

She turned and saw the two harpies.

"Bird? Bird ladies? Freed?" Smitty asked.

"Yes. We found them imprisoned in a locked room. Can you protect them while we find Myth and Cori? We need to touch base and figure out our next move." I explained to the kobold.

"Yes yes. Can protect. Smitty strong kobold, bird ladies! Protect! Strong!" The kobold huffed proudly and hunkered down in front of the two harpies.

"Dog protect? You promise you protect Sasa and Lele?" Lele asked, unsure. "You do not smell of the evil either."

"Protect egg?" Sasa whimpered, breaking her silence.

"Yes yes! Smitty protect! Smitty mother too! Understand." She nodded, her tail wagging behind her.

She ushered them towards a little nook towards the entrance, and kept them close, warming them in her thick fur, and made reassuring sounds.

"Well, we should find the others and get-" My thought was interrupted by a sudden scream of alarm and pain, followed by the splintering of wood as Myth came crashing through the banister from the upper floor.

I didn't have a chance to register what was happening as Cori followed close behind, landing on her back in a sickening crunch. Myth groaned in pain while Cori lay there in silence.

I rushed over to them, letting go of a sigh of relief when I saw that Cori was still breathing.

"What happened, Myth?! Are you ok?" I asked her.

She tried to speak but coughed and spat up a little blood and a tooth. She pointed above at the doorway she had flown out of.

There was a figure, tall, lithe, almost humanoid.

They stepped from the shadows and looked every bit like a nude woman, or scantily clad at the very least, but I realized something wasn't right.

Their skin was green, with strategic patches of their body covered in something that looked like tree bark. Atop their head were two large leaf-like protrusions that would look like the bunny ears I had seen on some of the girls' costumes in the petals district.

"Dryad!" Myth said, her voice croaking.

"Well, what do we have here? More elves, a kobold, and it looks like some stray birdies. Goodness gracious, so many guests and I'm so poorly prepared." The dryad said, their voice silken and sultry in a way that made my skin crawl.

I stood, drawing my sword while Eira did her best to help Cori and Myth. Smitty deployed her shield, extending its extra panels, and made herself into a living wall to protect the harpies.

"Ah, I see. You're the rambunctious type. I don't mind. You all fall to my charms anyway. Just like the others." She sneered as I could hear movement from the floors above. From the wings were armed people, a mix of knights, workers, maids, and more. I recognized some of them from town. They moved jerkily and had glazed eyes. Some of them even drooled.

"Mind control? From the pollen?" I said to myself. I then remembered the succubi venom and the fertilizer in the greenhouse. I didn't know much about dryads, but I had a gut feeling this wasn't a normal dryad, and her pollen was a bigger threat than just making people delirious.

"Do you like them, elf? My own little entourage. You should join them. You'd look ever so lovely." The green woman purred.

"I'd rather not. I have a girlfriend already, and she's way hotter than you." I shot back at her as I tried to muster some mana for my sword. I figured ice magic would be very effective against this plant demon woman.

"Is that so? A shame. Maybe my pollen can convince you otherwise?" The two leaves on her head began to shudder, and some kind of dusty mist began to emerge.

"Masks on!" I shouted, pulling mine on. I didn't want to take my eyes off the dryad to check everyone else, so I had to trust they knew what to do.

"Cunning pests aren't you. Kill them, my lovelies." The dryad ordered, and the controlled mob began to surge forward, climbing down the walls and the stairs and began approaching from all sides.

"Well, this is less than ideal. C'mon then you bastards, let's do this!" I snarled and readied my blade, ready for the worst.

And then I heard pounding on the front door. At first, I thought it was knocking, and then it became louder and more insistent.

Just what I needed. More enemies. Today was in the running for the worst day of my life.