CH47 Ki’s first dungeon.
A day earlier…
Ki had just completed the plague isolation tree houses when more nymphs arrived to help monitor the humans. Within a day, people began panicking about those returning from the wastes exhibiting signs of feather growth. Distinguishing between malnourished and sick humans was challenging, especially since some had classes like 'survivor,' which granted skills to reduce food and water requirements. The stone ax tribe must have faced severe hardship if shamans allowed their children to adopt a class primarily focused on avoiding death by starvation or dehydration.
Some people showed signs of turning female or growing feathers and were isolated to prevent the spread of bird flu. Ki, a forest nymph, had free time and was curious about the reactivated dungeon. Initially, people avoided it, fearing punishment and believing it was underwater. Most of the stone ax tribe couldn't swim, and only the girl with the mermaid pendant had experience inside. While water nymphs could stay underwater indefinitely, Ki risked damage from contaminated water. However, Fufi and Alex's experiences suggested it wasn't an underwater dungeon. Ki, with her long green hair, contemplated the obelisk in the adventurer's guild basement.
“Hmm, I wonder if running the dungeon is even an option to begin with,” Ki inspected the dimly lit basement. She placed her hand on the pillar and it broke apart into floating spinning chunks. The parts orbited in a circle in the air. As they spun, a portal appeared in the middle.
“I didn’t think that would work. I remember when I was a child my father told me that the dungeon portals in the kingdom only worked for humans.” Ki called for another nymph to come down and approach the portal.
The flower-haired nymph opened the trap door, walked towards the portal and it went back to being a pillar. “I’m sorry cousin Ki, the rift doesn’t seem to like me.”
Ki shook her head. “Don’t worry, I thought it wouldn’t like any nymphs but it seems like after getting a class I’m different. At least I think so? Who knows, maybe I just don’t know how the kingdom was running things before it fell. My dad was just a baron in a border region after all.”
The two nymphs parted and Ki entered the rift. “I hope this doesn’t count as leaving my tree. Foolishly walking through a portal and having your soul severed from your body would be an embarrassing way to go.”
Ki's magical transportation left her feeling nauseous. As her vision cleared, she found herself standing on a manicured lawn in front of a log cabin. A gravel path connected the cabin to a larger dirt road, where a dilapidated wagon was parked. The lawn was bordered by trees, which also lined the road. Approaching the cabin, Ki noticed a sign hanging from the door.
The sign read: “Your magical girl is sick. Demons are coming to eat her brains. Create a cute garden to protect her rest so she can get better.”
The green-haired nymph boggled at the sign. “What a weird dungeon. I was expecting caves, levels and a boss, not this. Anyway, are demons going to start coming in from the forest? If so, which type?” She was fairly confident in her ability to fight most opponents in a forested area. A root strike would turn most grounded creatures into skewers.
Ki approached the wagon and called out, “Hello I’m Ki is anyone in there?”
A fat man with brown hair, a lazy eye, wearing a tunic and a cauldron for a hat waddled out from the wagon. “Hello senorita! I'm Manuel el loco, welcome to my shop.”
Ki tilted her head, “This is a shop? What does it sell?”
Manuel lifted a cloth, showing the wares of the wagon. “I sell seeds! Let me show you my wares.”
The inside of the wagon was lined with shelves that had many packets of seeds. Each had a price written on it.
“I don’t have any money though.” Ki showed her empty pockets.
“You don’t have any money yet! Sometimes those greedy demons drop coins when they die. I’ll give you some basics in hopes for future business.” Manuel handed the nymph two packets.
One of them had an overly cute looking drawing of a sunflower and the other a cute looking drawing of what might be witch hazel.
“Thanks Manuel, I think we got enough plants around here to do the job but I’ll give these a chance when I get to it.” Ki accepted the seed packets.
“Give them a shot, you won’t regret it!” Manual boomed, then proceeded to laugh insanely.
Ki made her exit back to the cabin and patrolled around the lawn. After doing a loop and coming back around to the cabin door and saw a new sign sitting next to the first one.
“Wave incoming, prepare your defenses.”
“Should I plant these seeds from that suspicious human?” Ki lifted the seed packet aloft. The nymph tested her root strike ability using the trees around the lawn and it worked fine. A root shot out of the ground more than twice the size of a man.
Ki was warned by the local plants of a demon approaching from the forest. Listening to the tree's senses, she learned the demon was small and flightless. Ki had some ideas about the demon's type, but the trees were too young to provide much information, having only existed for less than a day.
Ki launched a root strike at the approaching imp, launching the ugly little red-skinned creature into the air. A floating '0' appeared over its head, indicating the attack had not impaled it. The imp landed with a thud, and another '0' appeared. Undeterred, the imp continued its chittering advance. Ki repeatedly struck the creature with root strikes, but the attacks only knocked it back; she was unable to inflict any damage.
Ki was frustrated. "Stupid demon! We killed thousands of you during the war. Why won't you die?!" After countless failed attempts, she decided to change her approach. Ki planted one of the seeds in the lawn and used her plant growth ability to accelerate its growth.
A peculiar yet adorable sunflower sprouted from the ground. The flower head displayed a smiling face, resembling black lines drawn onto the petals. It swayed gently back and forth.
Ki's attention was drawn to a new sign near the two existing ones on the cabin. It was larger and depicted a sun symbol with the number 1 beside it. Another line was present below the symbol.
Sun collection: 1
To test the theory, Ki planted one of the other seeds and used her magic to grow it to full height. A witch hazel sprouted out of the ground and began flowering. Only it didn’t look quite like a normal witch hazel. The flowers were pink and heart shaped. Like the sunflower, it seemed cuter than it should be. Both plants swayed slightly to a non existent wind.
“So far so good, maybe that Manuel guy isn’t a scammer despite how he looks. It is hard to take a guy who wears a cauldron on his head seriously.” Ki touched the plants, one with each hand to figure out what they could do. “It looks like the sun flower empowers the garden. That is what that sun icon with the number must mean. It is how much sunshine is stored up.”
The nymph grimaced as the imp advanced onto the lawn, gibbering in an infernal tongue she didn't understand. No one wants demons on their lawn. The witch hazel's flower petals fell to the ground, and a seed pod burst open. With a "pew pew pew" sound, the pod fired a series of small projectiles at the imp.
The demon was rapidly struck by the seeds. With each hit, the number "-1" appeared above its head. The projectiles created pink hearts, blue bubbles, and yellow sparkles upon impact, instead of blood and gore. The defeated imp fell to the ground.
As a bonus, the lawn remained unstained. The imp vanished from existence after being defeated.
Ki defended the cabin against the wave of enemies by planting witch hazel around it. The witch hazel protected the cabin from all angles, and none of the imps reached it. After the wave ended, Ki leveled up to a level two Baroness of Beauty and gained a new skill.
Empower Flower:
Range: Inside caster’s domain.
Duration: One minute per level.
Description: Adds +1 cuteness per level of the affected plant.
Cost: one sunshine.
“I think I see the point of this dungeon. Just because root strike is really good that doesn’t mean it is everything. I shouldn’t rely on racial skills for everything. Why even get a class if I’m just going to default to how things were before?” Ki smiled back at one of the smiling sunflowers. “Well, I better head back. Alex and Fufi should be here tomorrow.”