A Dungeon’s Survival

Connie

“I serve the mistress.”

What?

My mind quickly ground to a halt as I tried to process what just happened. One moment, the awkward bundle of nerves that was the apprentice alchemist was handing over the materials Archie had demanded of him and his group. In the next, Archie was debating the merits of history as a subject with a drunkard mage who, seemingly, didn't even want to be here, and then, out of nowhere, that nervous wreck had thrown a handful of who-knows-what at him.

That shouldn't have been a problem. Regardless of what that colorful powder had been, he'd thrown it at a random Trenti after all, a simple, unmodified monster that I'd created for Archie to puppeteer and nothing more. Even if it was subject to whatever effect the stuff produced, Archie was nowhere near the site of the magical impact. He wasn't even on the same floor as it, so why was it that, after it connected, Archie was having his proxy answer the guy's questions without the slightest hint of hesitation? It made no sense to me.

“The mistress? Who's that?” Lawrence shouted in response.

“She is–”

Stop! Don't answer that! I yelled into Archie's mind, willing for my order to be obeyed, Don't answer anything else he asks!

A moment later, I was experiencing a whirlwind of sensations, most of which I was struggling to comprehend. There was pain. That was the easiest thing to identify, especially because of how excruciating it was. The suddenness of it paired with the intensity, though, was enough to thoroughly disorient me, which made it all the harder to realize it wasn't even my own pain that I was feeling, let alone anything else.

Once I got over the immediate shock of suddenly feeling like my mind was about to burst like a squeezed grape, however, I did eventually manage to make sense of things to a certain degree. If the extent to which I was feeling my trusted advisor's emotions in the forefront of my mind was any indicator, it seemed as though the assault on my mind was actually somehow an assault on Archie's or, more accurately, an assault on the mind of the Trenti he was controlling. It was as though his mental link with it was being enhanced and used against him. Then, continuing upstream, the effect, whatever that might have actually been, was making its way to me through our mental bond.

At least, that was the conclusion I came up with after the apprentice alchemist repeated his question, and I blurted out mentally for all of my monsters to hear, It's me. I'm the mistress, before I could even realize what I was doing.

Needless to say, my mind wasn't exactly working to the fullest extent of its capabilities under these circumstances, so once I came to that answer, I didn't question it. I just directed what brainpower I could toward finding a solution instead.

Archie, cut your mental link with that Trenti! I ordered my friend before doing everything in my power to block out his thoughts from my own mind.

What came next was another surge of extreme discomfort from my alchemist. Seemingly, he couldn't cut off his connection to the other Trenti. I knew that because I could feel him trying and failing to do so. More concerning than that was the reason I could tell that much, however. As it turned out, I'd also failed to cut off my connection with him, and all I'd actually managed to do was make our situation worse by giving him an order he couldn't carry out. This was bad.

As quickly as I could, I changed tactics. If I couldn't escape what had been done to me, I at least needed to find a way to alleviate the pain while I figured something else out. For that reason, I told Archie to repeat after me and gave a vague yet accurate answer to the question he'd been asked that would also hopefully redirect the group's suspicions. Immediately, the pain and tunnel vision I was feeling through him subsided, and I was able to think properly again. Sadly, I couldn't say as much for Archie.

Even if I could feel that he was no longer in pain, that didn't mean he was back to normal. Through our bond, I could feel his thoughts dying at the surface of his mind as whatever magic was at play forced him to focus on the apprentice alchemist's words in full. It was clear from that alone: we needed external help.

Vie, Pee, I only hesitated to call on them for for the briefest of moments, the fear that they'd end up affected by whatever that powder had been quickly assuaged by the fact that I'd already been forced to yell into their minds once without any apparent adverse effects, deal with the intruders!

I almost missed their affirmative responses as the feeling as though I needed to scream but was unable to due to conflicting magics returned. Lawrence had asked another question.

* * *

Lawrence

“Who do you work for!?” I yelled at the Trenti.

“I serve the mistress,” was its immediate response.

My heart sank. I trusted in my master, so when he said this thing was actually being controlled by a person, I accepted his words. Still, the part of me that had been in denial of the situation had held out some impossible hope that he'd been wrong, that everything here was as it seemed. The creature's–no, person's–response, however, made it clear how foolish those hopes had been. This thing was no Dungeon monster.

“The mistress? Who's that?” I followed my question up with another after a short delay.

“She is–”

This was it. Whatever he said next would determine how bad the situation really was. Knowing that, I found my grip on the small black orb I was still hiding up my sleeve tightening as I waited with bated breath for the rest of the answer to my question, an answer I was slowly realizing wouldn't come. All at once, a pit opened in my gut, and sweat began to form on my forehead. This was bad.

“Who is the mistress!” I yelled again out of desperation.

Silence was all I got in response. My heart was pounding a mile a minute in my chest, and I was finding it incredibly difficult to ensure I didn't accidentally activate the orb. Out of all the possibilities Gyle had prepared me for, this silence indicated it was one of the worst case scenarios. It was just a question of which one.

The powder I'd used was actually a mixture of five different concoctions, all with their own effects and all of which I'd taken precautions for ahead of time. One targeted mental links, allowing the others to have influence over anything or anyone its target was connected to so long as they had a mind. It was limited in the amount it could spread and was less effective against things like constructs, but it could infect even entire mental networks so long as everything within them was only a link or two apart at most. That paired with the agent that prevented mental links from closing should have been enough to ensure this went smoothly. Apparently it wasn't.

The fact that it wasn't carried certain implications, but as bad as they might have been, this situation wasn't entirely unexpected. With how complicated the mixture was, it had certain failing points that my master had known about. I just needed to figure out which one it was, and as it stood, there were three possibilities.

The fault had to lie in one of the other components, the ones responsible for immobilizing a target, forcing them to answer questions honestly, and disrupting their thinking alongside their ability to control mind-based magic. That was my starting point. From there, I was going to need to test a few things to get a sense for which it was, or at least, that had been my plan before the creature spoke again, fast as though the pressure from holding back its answer had finally built up to the point that it could no longer be contained, bursting forth.

“The mistress is the will of the Dungeon itself! That is merely a name I came up with for it!”

I was taken aback by the abrupt answer I had screamed at me. Considering the very real risk we had of getting ambushed, that was probably a bad thing. Realizing that, I immediately scanned my surroundings, eyes darting across the room as I looked for anything out of place. Thankfully, besides Oct letting loose a string of obscenities, nothing seemed wrong, at least for the moment. I sighed in relief at that. That was when the words the goblinoid spoke actually sank in.

The will of the Dungeon itself? What is that supposed to mean?

It was a nonsensical answer that I couldn't understand, but that was barely a concern at this point. The fact that it had taken so long to get it in the first place was a much larger reason for concern than the answer itself. It meant something was wrong here, and until I figured out what that was, I needed to keep my guard up, and I was unable to fully trust anything I was told. Figuring out what was going on was my greatest concern, and doing so swiftly was a must.

Outside means, either thanks to not being immobilized or due to another person being present, an inability to tell the truth, an ability to circumvent doing so, mind-based magic still working, or higher brain capacity not being properly suppressed,I ran through the possibilities at play in my mind. Some were worse than others, but in the end, regardless of what it took, I was going to figure out which it was and get as many answers as I could. I had to. There was too much at stake here, too much damage I could prevent should I succeed. Failure wasn't an option, so with the intent to fish for more hints as to what the problem could be, I waved off my concerned party and asked another question.

* * *

Connie

“Who are you?” the boy asked.

Tell him that you are Sir Archibald II, a proud alchemist and awakened monster of this Dungeon, I fed Archie his answer.

“What's an awakened monster?” came the apprentice alchemist's response.

Only two questions in, and I'd already made a mistake. Adventurers didn't use the term, 'awakened monsters.' I groaned mentally. My irritation paired with the pain of Archie holding off answering until I fed him another line was getting to me. There was no escaping my current predicament, though, not yet, so I pushed the annoyance down and came up with another response. It wasn't like my answers had to be perfect anyway. I just needed to buy my snakes time.

“Awakened monsters, static monsters, there are multiple names for the same things, much like how I refer to the will of the Dungeon as the mistress.”

If nothing else, I hoped that would at least reinforce the half-thought-out will of the Dungeon thing I'd come up with on the spot. I didn't plan on giving away my sentience, but I also wasn't beyond spinning things to come across as there being something System related at play. I just needed to figure out how I could describe myself in a way that wouldn't reveal all my secrets.

“Do you control the the two-headed Shadow Viper and that Horned Draco?”

And, immediately, my train of thought was derailed. So much for the will of the Dungeon. That question came out of nowhere, and I hadn't been prepared for it. As a result, it took me longer than I'd have liked to come up with an answer. Eventually, though, I did.

“I have influence over them.”

“But you don't control them?”

“Not directly.”

“Can you influence them even now?”

Yes.

After telling Archie what to say, I waited for him to repeat the simple word and for the pain to abate. Neither of those two things happened.

Uh, say no?

“No!” Archie shouted at my urging.

Well, that's not good.

I technically hadn't asked Archie to tell an outright lie yet. Apparently, though, even if I did, he couldn't. I hadn't even meant for that to be a lie. I could influence them. He, on the other hand, couldn't even form basic thoughts. In hindsight it should have been obvious that he couldn't influence their actions. I just wasn't thinking straight.

Regardless of whether I initially wanted him to answer the question in that way or not, however, the answer he gave seemed to elicit an effect on our interrogator, and it was an odd one at that. Immediately, his eyes went wide and he started looking around frantically. That confused me at first, but his next question was enough for me to put the pieces together.

“Are either of them coming for us right now?”

He was scared. I briefly wondered if I could use that to my advantage before dismissing the idea. It was better that he didn't know what was going on.

Vie, Pee, I started, actively manipulating the answer to be what I wanted it to be, change of plans. Hold off for a bit. Archie, say no.

Again, he failed to repeat my words. It took me running the question over again in my head for a moment to realize why. He'd said, 'right now.' 'Right now,' had already passed, and at that exact moment, my defenders had been going for the group of adventurers.

Ugh, I screamed internally.

Then, I calmed myself and fed Archie the only answer that I could.

“Yes.”

“Can you stop them in your current state?”

“No.”

My hand was forced. Lying was impossible, and up until the moment it became more worthwhile to just endure the pain than it was to feed them simple, vague answers, the truth seemed to be what they'd get. If nothing else, things had at least worked out in a way to give me the edge of intimidation. I just needed to use it to my advantage.

“Can they hear and understand me?” Lawrence asked, cutting my train of thought short once more.

“Yes.”

“They want to protect the Dungeon Core, right?”

“Yes.”

I momentarily had to wonder what it was that the alchemist's apprentice was trying to accomplish and where he was going with this. That was when he pulled out a strange black sphere. He held it out in front him, and I soon had the answer to my unspoken question.

“This is, uh, a mana disruptor? I think that's what he called it anyway. Uh, well, the name isn't important. Just know this, if I activate it, it will, well, uh, disrupt the mana around here? Ugh, if I'm being honest, I'm not really sure how this works. The point is, it's a magical bomb!

“The way I understand it, it's enough to incapacitate mages like us, but for magical items, it's worse. It can break things like enchantments, and as for Dungeon Cores, it will shatter them on the spot. I will activate this the moment I see either that snake or the lizard. Understand me!? Now, knowing that, are they still coming for us?”

What!?

His words completely blindsided me. For all intents and purposes, that sounded like a magical EMP. I could only gawk at that orb and hope he was bluffing.

He had struggled a lot with that explanation after all. That could've been a tell, him being too awkward to lie properly, but it also could've been due to a legitimate lack of understanding. Either way, I wasn't keen on taking that risk. More importantly, though, I'd been left with some serious questions.

Where did he even get something like that!?