Chapter 6: My Congratulatory Gift
[ Congratulations, dear Dungeon Lords. This notification marks your first twenty-four hours in this world. ]
[ Not one of you has fallen into the hands of the vile human creatures! ]
[ Let there be rejoicing! ]
"And that’s it? No little gift? No small +200 mana or anything?"
Freya was making her way back up the dungeon’s freshly dug tunnels, narrow and winding, the fifteen bodies floating behind her in Aria’s wake.
"I could be your congratulatory gift, mistress."
Huh? Freya went blank for a second at such bluntness. The demon tossed out lines like that with a disarming ease, and normally Freya would stammer, look away, change the subject. But not this time. This time, she’d decided not to let herself be thrown.
She turned and lifted a hand to Aria’s cheek. The demon flushed instantly at the touch, scarlet, caught off guard. Freya held her gaze, despite her own hammering heart and the shyness she was fighting down with everything she had.
"We have a great deal to do right now, Aria." She let a silence stretch, just enough. "But when we have the time, I’ll gladly accept that gift."
And with that, she turned away and quickened her pace down the tunnel, rather pleased with her little effect. Still, her heart was pounding, far too hard for someone who’d just played the confident woman. She needed to think about something else, anything, and fast.
Her mana did the trick. She opened her reserve out of the corner of her mind. Fifteen. A crease formed on her brow. Not sixteen? Then it came back to her, the point the farm swallowed every day. She had a habit of forgetting that one already.
By the time she’d chewed over that little detail, her heart had settled back to a normal rhythm. The tunnel opened onto the Heart chamber.
"Strip their belongings, then put them into the Heart."
Aria complied without dawdling, stripping the bodies before feeding them one by one to the dark, pulsing mass.
[ Absorbing 13 human corpses. ]
[ Calculating amount of mana harvested... ]
[ The Dungeon Heart has absorbed 172 mana points. ]
"WHAT? 172 points?!"
Freya spun toward Aria, grabbed her hands, and started bouncing on the spot, unable to contain her joy.
"Aria! 172 points! 172, with just a handful of bandits! That’s over thirty-four hours gained in one go!"
"Congratulations, mistress!" the demon answered, just as radiant.
They stayed like that a moment, hands clasped, savoring the news. Then Freya became aware of their fingers laced together, of Aria’s smile so close to her own, and the memory of the tunnel came rushing back, her palm on that cheek, the promise. Heat rose to her face. She let go of Aria’s hands and took a step back, groping for some composure.
"Anyway." She cleared her throat. "We’ve got our work cut out for us. First off, can you interrogate those two?"
"Of course, mistress. I’ll see to it a little further off, so as not to soil this room, nor trouble you with their eventual screams."
"Make it quick. After that, we’ll need to set up a camouflage camp in front of the dungeon entrance."
"Very well."
She started to turn to leave, but Freya called her back. Something held her. She was thinking of the village, of what those men had done, of what they must have done to how many others before that one. The mother’s throat slit without a flicker. Naïa dragged by the hair, her little sister crushed under a boot. And the words those men had spoken, too, what they’d meant to do to them.
Every trace of embarrassment had vanished. Her voice, when she spoke again, was much lower.
"Aria. Actually... take your time. Make them regret, to their very last breath, what they’ve done."
A slow smile stretched the demon’s lips. She dipped into a graceful curtsy, her eyes gleaming.
"It shall be done as you desire, mistress."
Then she vanished with them into the tunnels.
On her end too, there was plenty to do. But before anything else, one priority stood out above all the rest.
"System. The gachaaa, please ~ !!!" she called out, giddy, already forgetting everything else.
[ Initiating Gacha! ]
Like the first time, the wheel materialized before her and the letters began to blur past.
Then it stopped on a D.
Ooooh ~ not bad at all!
She was relieved, almost as much as pleased. A part of her had dreaded blowing all her luck at once on Aria, so landing a D the very next day was reassuring.
Then the summon appeared. A pen. A pen... with feathers?!
[ Congratulations! You have summoned a Magic Quill Pen, Rank D. ]
How does it work? What’s it for? And why Rank D?
At those questions, just like with Aria, a status window opened before her.
[ Magic Quill Pen — Status ]
[ Skills: Telepathic Comprehension | Soul Link | Infinite Durability | Ink Magic | Ego ]
"Ink Magic?"
At the words, the pen beaded a pool of ink at its tip, which spread into a wall, then reformed into a sword, then cycled through a dozen other shapes in a row.
Woow... And if I understood right, you can hear my orders through thought too. She instinctively raised her hand, as if casting a spell in a manga. Ink wall!
The ink wall rose at once, born of her will alone.
She kept at it a good ten minutes, stringing together mental commands, more and more amused, until the pen came to nestle in her hand, its wings and feathers folding slowly, as if exhausted.
Ah. A mana limit, then. She concluded it needed to recover, and slipped it carefully into the inner pocket of her jacket.
Once again, her summon of the day delighted her. Useful, magnificent, and full of promise. She was already picturing herself drafting dungeon reports for hours on end without ever tiring her wrist, letting the pen do the work for her.
Incredible. Truly incredible.
And, like the day before, one thing was already on her mind: the next pull. Twenty-four hours to wait, an eternity.
But she knew it, the gacha was only one part of everything that thrilled her in this world. Because now, she too had mana to spare. Plenty of mana. And a whole host of things to do with it.
But first... a little trip to the chat ~ !
[ Dungeon Lord Chat ]
[ LucasBraveheart ]: congrats everyone! only one day in, but we’re making good progress, all of us together! — +1... +15... +67
Honestly, he never misses one, our dear Lucas.
[ FreakyBoy14 ]: yeah nice one guys lmaooo! barely 24 hours and we’re already all declared enemies of humanity! congrats to us! — +1... +10... +82
Him neither, apparently.
But Freya let it slide. She knew now: linking to the surface had, in the end, been the right call. She’d gained a cover among the locals, information, and on top of it all, free mana. The others could grumble all they liked.
[ HoneyedBee ]: "humanity" is still optimistic. There might be other races in this world. Elves, dwarves, demons. They could all band together against us, outsiders to this world after all. It’d be more accurate to declare us enemies of the whole world. — +1... +27... +175
[ ShoeSize? ]: ELVES?! — +1... +12
Freya huffed through her nose, exasperated, as much by the username as by the message itself. She didn’t even know what to make of it.
[ HoneyedBee ]: ohhh no...
[ SilverLady ]: guys, please, a little seriousness. Our lives are on the line, after all.
[ ShoeSize? ]: shoe size?
[ LucasBraveheart ]: just ignore him. More importantly: everyone making good progress? Anyone got news to share, or need a hand?
Freya started to think. Do I say it?
Speaking up would inevitably give away that she was the one, the famous one who’d linked her dungeon to the world. She’d also lose whatever head start she might have on the others, assuming she had one at all. But on the other hand, it would push every Dungeon Lord to get moving, to hunt for mana elsewhere, and to draw attention onto themselves, the most ambitious ones first.
[ DarkVortex ]: small update: I chucked pretty much everything I could find into my heart, and nothing worked except ore for getting mana.
Well. We’re all in the same boat, after all. Might as well have each other’s backs. Especially since it’ll work to my advantage to do so.
[ Maid ]: Hey everyone! I accidentally slaughtered about a dozen people, lmaooo—
She deleted the whole thing before sending.
... Okay. More natural, Freya. You can do this.
[ Maid ]: mana is obtained first and foremost through objects or beings that carry it. — +1... +9... +84... +292
Ugh, that’s completely robotic...
[ FreakyBoy14 ]: wait. BEINGS? how would you know that? like you killed humans to find out, lmaoooo?? — +1... +69... +126
Perfect!
It was exactly what she needed. Freya had decided to tell everything from her very first message, with a plan in mind, and good old FreakyBoy14 had just done the work for her without realizing it.
[ Maid ]: yes. That’s exactly it. — +14... +176... +592
Then, without even waiting for the reply, she closed the chat window.
The system hadn’t cared to offer them a gift for their first twenty-four hours in this world? No matter. She’d just taken care of that herself. A lovely little present, handed to the whole community: a valuable piece of information, a lead each of them would rush to follow.
Except this gift came with a price none of them would see coming. While they all threw themselves at the mana, searching, killing, scrambling, they’d draw the whole world’s attention onto themselves. And she, off in her corner, would stay quietly tucked away in the shadows.
A poisoned gift to celebrate their twenty-four hours. The kind you offer with your sweetest smile.
She felt like a true, accomplished Dungeon Lord.
Aria would definitely be proud of me.
And on that thought, she decided it was high time to spend her brand-new mana points
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