My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem - My Dungeon Life - Chapter 25-27

Chapter 25

The group took on a strategy I was familiar with called kiting. As the zombie hoard moved forward, we kept backing up and taking a few at a time. The zombies were fortunately quite dumb, and the ambush set up yesterday was about as far as they could think. The cursed dungeon might have something akin to strategy and intelligence, but once the monster was created, it lost all control of what the monster did. At least, that’s how these guys explained it to me.

Thus, we took out a couple of zombies at a time, using some people to take potshots with arrows and slings, while others held them back with shields and swords. We’d back up to get some distance, rinse and repeat. The strategy was working very well, and the zombies were going down quickly. Only when things got terrible did I need to cast a group heal. So far, I’d managed to avoid taking any mana potions. Spirits were high.

Creeeeek.

A stone suddenly depressed an inch, and spikes came out to the side. This wasn’t under my feet. In fact, I was standing back from where they came, but the screeching metal certainly frightened me. The guy in armor was struck on the side, but he managed to jump away without being impaled.

“This dungeon, seriously… now it’s spawning traps?” The rabbitkin shouted as he swung a stone into the group of zombies and knocked one in the head, strong enough to leave a dent.

“This is a young dungeon.” The guild leader sighed. “If it had spawned farther away from town, it might have had time to grow and settle. This one is acting out of desperation. It won’t be able to keep it up. I suspect its ability to resist us will diminish soon.”

“Suspect or wish?” the wolfkin up front said sarcastically.

“Can’t they be both?” The guild leader shot back.

“Deek, let’s heal him quickly.” The big sister had helped the guy up as he limped over to me.

“Ah… yes.” I nodded, walking over to the man on the ground.

I waved my hand and healed him.

“Again,” he said.

“Ah… okay…”

“Again…”

Yikes! Well, it wasn’t too surprising that an armored guy like this would be an HP sink. In the end, I needed to heal him six times before he was happy. I ended up drinking a mana potion to recover. He stood back up, thanked me, and then went to hold the front line. Those blades must have really hurt. I had the feeling that if they had struck me, they would have been devastating.

Creeeek. Another trap was triggered.

As everyone dodged away, a door opened. Another horde of zombies came out from behind us. This was seriously bad! I cast Group Heal immediately. The spell rejuvenated the party, but it enraged the zombies.

“Watch out!” the big sister yelled.

I had some distance from the others, and for the moment, all of the zombies nearby were focused on me. I turned to run back to the party and safety. I wasn’t going to make some kind of last stand or anything. I wanted to live as much as the next guy. I ran towards the big sister, never feeling gladder that she was looking out for me.

Creeeeek.

This trap was indeed one I had stepped on. Crunch! The ground under me gave way. My last sight of the party was the big sister’s surprised face. After that, I was falling. I was certain I’d be falling on to some spikes, but I ended up in some kind of slide chute. When I came out, I skidded across the floor about ten feet. Standing up and feeling a bit dizzy, I tried to get my location figured out.

There were definitely zombies down here. In fact, they had me surrounded.

“Di-did you come to save me?” A voice came from behind.

I looked back to see a familiar girl. It was the slave animalkin that had been with the party before. She had no backpack on, and there were dirt and numerous scraps on her body. As for the rest of her party, they were gone.

“Just run!” I declared, grabbing her hand and heading off in the opposite direction of the incoming zombies.

Chapter 26

I had no intention of fighting the zombies. They were far too terrifying. Our only choice was to run. While a few zombies chased after us, these seemed to quickly lose interest. Thankfully, this floor wasn’t like the previous floor, which was swamped with zombies. Having stopped to catch our breath, my eyes fell on the girl in front of me.

“Don’t tell me that your master and party were killed.”

Naturally, I was able to see the comparison here. Her previous master looked like a bastard. She was all alone. I happened to have the hero title. She was a slave animal-girl. It was almost as if the events that made this dungeon were reenacting themselves. Was that what it meant by completing the lore? Did it need to end with us defeating the necromancer and her confessing her love to me? Was that the way to 100% complete this dungeon?

It was almost like the dungeon was seeking this resolution. Perhaps lore desired to be completed? It made sense that it would resist being destroyed, but welcome being completed. Every story sought a conclusion, right? Well, this was all my mind just jabbering. There was no way I was going to be able to complete this lore.

After all, I didn’t know this girl, and the likelihood of her falling in love with an overweight White Mage who could only drag her around as he ran like a coward wasn’t exactly a scene of romance. There would be no way I’d be completing this lore. Instead, destroying it seemed like the best idea, but that was for someone much stronger and more willing than me.

“No…” she shook her head, which she kept lowered a demure. “Master is alive. I can feel it.”

“Is that so…” Instantly, the situation was different, which made me feel slightly better.

“Mm!” She nodded, “One of his men fell in the battle, and so he ordered me to run outward and distract the zombies while he got away.”

“Is that so?” My voice was much flatter this time.

This noble who wanted to be called a hero really was a scum. Even I wouldn’t have sacrificed someone for my own life.

The girl was a catkin with a collar around her neck. Her ears and tail were black and orange with stripes. She had a small form, but average size breasts, that looked a bit big because of her skinny and short size. She wasn’t to the extent of a loli, but it was clear she had grown up malnourished and was a bit of a runt. However, her face was pretty, and her eyes were gold-colored with just the slightest hint of a cat slit. I really wanted to touch her ears, which twitched every time there was a noise in the distance.

“How did you survive then?”

The girl blushed. “I run fast. The zombies and skeletons don’t seem to have much interest in me.”

“Ah… well… do you have any fighting ability?” I asked.

The girl shook her head, her tail lashing shamefully, “I’m sorry… I have no skills. Master keeps telling me I’m useless for anything but fodder.”

“That’s… unfortunate. I, too, don’t have the ability to fight.” I admitted.

“Ahn?” She looked up, her cat ears twitching, “I thought you were the hero?”

“Haha…” I laughed tightly. “Well, I can heal alright. Look. I think we’ll need to work together if we’re going to get out of this dungeon. Will you work with me?”

I held out my hand, offering it. She looked at it suspiciously. Was even this more of a kindness than she was used to? Very slowly, she brought out her hands like a paw, and then put it in mine. I awkwardly shook it. A very slight smile formed on her face for a fraction of a second, and I couldn’t help but stare at how much more beautiful she looked when she smiled. I really wanted to make her smile again.

Before I could think of something to say, text started shooting across my vision.

{Lydia has joined your party. Experience will be shared.}

{Name: Lydia

Class: Speed Combat

Job: Commoner (Slave) – 8

Unlocked Jobs: Cook – 1, Swordsman – 1, Thief – 1, Scout – 1

Race: Tigerkin}

Chapter 27

Lydia was a tigerkin, not a catkin? I supposed that explained the black and orange stripes. I really had no clue about these things. Her class also looked pretty good. Speed combat meant she theoretically could bounce around these monsters with ease. Like me, she might have a strong affinity in this dungeon. However, we were both just too low of a level to really be able to protect ourselves.

Plus, she had Commoner as her job. Was there a way to set it so that she was using Swordsman?

{Lydia’s job has been switched to Swordsman.}

“Eh?” Lydia let go of my hand, looking around with a strange look.

“Did you notice anything?” I asked, a little surprised.

This must be a part of my support class. Being able to change people’s jobs would be the epitome of support. It was likely why I could change my own as well. As I came to understand more about this world, it seemed like classes could not be changed. You were born with a particular class, and it defined everything else about you. For example, Lydia was a speed combat class. It probably meant she had some bonuses to speed, which was how she was able to avoid the zombies. It also meant she probably did really well with jobs that needed speed, like thieving, swordsman, and scouting. Maybe it was easier to obtain these jobs for her. At the very least, they should level faster than any other jobs.

I wondered if anyone in this world knew about classes other than me. Jobs seemed to be an accepted part of this world, as well as job levels, but class affinity was something I had never heard the other adventurers talk about. I couldn’t help but wonder that if the noble knew her class affinity, would he have written her off as weak. Usually, you had to visit a priest to do a job change. I could do it because of my support class affinity, but if the slaver didn’t know about her class, then he never would have thought to change her job to something else. At least, that was my theory right now.

“You’re Lydia, right? A tigerkin?” I just wanted to clear the air with her.

“Ah, you know my name?” Lydia’s eyes widened in wonder.

“Your… um… master said it in the Guild before.” I responded.

“Oh…” Her head lowered again. “I’m a catkin. Not a tigerkin. Tigerkin is impossible…”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“They’re an animalkin variant that is exceptionally rare and coveted. There is nothing special about me. My master tells me that all the time.”

“Perhaps your master is just an idiot,” I muttered.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I said… I think we have a monster coming.” I had just noticed a skeleton coming around the corner.

Unfortunately, it noticed us and started heading in our direction. It had a sword in its hand, but it was of far nicer quality than the ones I had seen before. In fact, it looked almost as good as the ones many of the adventurers were using.

“Stand back,” I said. “I can usually kill these things by healing them to death.”

The girl cocked her head questioningly but did as I said. I waved my hand and cast Weak Heal. It struck him. He let out a cry that made my heart tremble. It was a lot scarier than the ones I had battled before. I cast a spell again. I should only need one more. I cast a third time. However, the monster showed no signs of slowing down. In fact, he was taking up speed.

“Wait… 1st floor had skeletons with rusty swords…” I voiced out loud.

“We’re not on the 1st floor, but the 5th,” the girl spoke quietly.

“Ah… I think we should run again.”