My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem

Chapter 1394

{You have tamed the monster, Apeman.}

The monkey turned to me and gave a thumbs-up of approval. I let go of Terra.

“Ahhn…” Terra moaned as she collapsed to the floor.

She turned to look back up at me, her eyes tearful and full of accusations.

“I-it was for the greater good.” I coughed.

Ultimately, after much work, I had gained the Apeman’s respect and incidentally tamed him. Rather than continue to let him witness my shame, I brought him into my soul world so that Terra could clean up without being stared at. I made sure to give her a towel, fresh panties, and a clean outfit. It was the only gentlemanly thing to do. Of course, Sapphire was also giving me hard looks.

“You didn’t touch me at all…” Sapphire pouted.

“I don’t touch little girls!” I cried.

“Are you still on about that?” Sapphire frowned. “First off, I’m a dwarf. We have a lifespan of over 1000 years, and age at about the same rate. Second, I was recreated by a dungeon, meaning my original lifespan stretches back much farther than that! Third, I’m your slave, and since you play with all of your other slaves, why am I the exception?”

I didn’t expect Sapphire to suddenly blow up at me. I was a bit stunned and didn’t know what to say. I looked to Terra for some support, but she had her back turned to me and was distinctly focused on cleaning herself. I called out to Alysia too but got no answer. She was in her sword form so that there was no chance that the Apeman would molest her while in the soul world, but she was completely silent.

“Sapphire…”

“Do you not see me as one of yours?” She asked.

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. She had come fairly close to the truth of it. When it came to attractiveness, Sapphire was very beautiful. Although when I first saw her, she looked to barely be over thirteen, she seemed to have grown since then. She looked closer to fourteen or fifteen now. She had a mature body. She even had larger breasts than Terra, although I’d never let Terra know that.

However, it was in her eyes, eyes that had seen a great deal of loss and had experienced much over the years that truly revealed her age. I had seen her soul and her story. She was mature, and there was no question of consent. I supposed the reason I had held back came down to the fact that I never saw her as my lover.

For all of the other girls, we had sort of been in a relationship from the get-go. We experienced some kind of sexual, emotional, or physical connection, and it felt like only a matter of time until our relationships became something more. However, when it came to Sapphire, as often as she acted flirtatious with me, I had never taken it seriously. That’s when I realized what it was. I didn’t see Sapphire as a lover. I saw Sapphire as a sister.

She was like the little sister I never had. She’d tease me and give me a hard time, and she had her own life and her secrets, but when we needed each other, we’d be there. That was the relationship I had felt with her younger self, and it carried through to this part of her too. Whether her name was Rubee, Garnet, or Sapphire, I felt like she was family.

“Sapphire…” my expression turned serious and I looked up. “I love you, Sapphire, bu… what?”

Sapphire was no longer standing in front of me. I turned around to see Terra waiting next to me. She pointed to the doorway leading out of the boss room which was now hanging open. Sapphire poked her head in from the hallway.

“I was messing with you, dummy.” Sapphire giggled. “Are we going or not?”

She turned around, her pigtails dancing as she ran off. Terra reached up and patted my shoulder.

“I thought Master’s confession was sweet.”

“Well… now I’m annoyed with her.” I narrowed my eyes.

Chapter 1395

With the tamed Apeman, we began the attack on the next territory. After a taking a break for the night, we managed to break through to the boss room early in the morning. I used the Apeman and the girls to battle the territory boss, who happened to be some kind of carnivorous plant. I wasn’t able to find a way to tame it, and we had it near death when Terra came up with an idea. We used the mana source gaia and then created a combination skill out of Submission called Plant Subjugation.

Upon using that, the plant finally submitted and I was able to absorb it and temporarily put it in my soul world until I could get back home. The skill seemed like a somewhat silly thing. After all, how often did we encounter monster plants? The deep was the first place I had seen so many, and I had no desire to conquer them.

That’s when Terra suggested that being able to control plants might have more perks than I thought. I could order plants to grow in specific ways, or make them react how I wanted. That reminded me of a book I had read that suggested high-level farmers seemed to be able to ask plants for favors and get them to perform by talking to them. I had originally written such a thing off, but now that I had experienced so much of the world, why couldn’t a high enough level just tell a plant to grow and make it grow?

Perhaps, all those seeds from my world could become a profitable crop sooner rather than later. I also had my farm in my soul world which I could control to some level, but I’d bet it’d be even better with a farming job. I wasn’t able to explore that yet as the entire garden had recently been trampled and uprooted by the dwarves. It wasn’t easy feeding three hundred people.

With the carnivorous plant boss and the apeman, I felt there was enough time to at least venture into a third territory before we needed to be back for the blacksmithing competition. I was also feeling the pressure of Twilight’s inevitable attack, and wanted to bolster our strength as soon as possible. It turned out we didn’t need to go far before we encountered the boss. Since the dungeons that once formed these territories no longer existed, the bosses weren’t bound to remain in one area and could wonder. Some were grounded, like the plant, while others just preferred an area where they were strongest, like the Apeman.

The cyclops was just roaming down the halls, and I wouldn’t have thought he was even a boss until my dangerous sense struck and we narrowly dodged a powerful strike. Thus began a long and exhausting battle. We depended on various techniques. Blinding the cyclops was the most obvious means of controlling him. Terra was able to create a dust cloud, but without Celeste’s wind magic, it was difficult to keep him sufficiently blinded without blinding us as well.

I’d like to say that I came up with some trick for this one, but he was a battle junky, and it took just beating him down. Terra’s impressive constitution could take just about any hit, along with Sapphire, the Apeman, and me dealing damage, and we finally wore it down. The carnivorous plant was still weakened from our earlier battle and couldn’t participate. With my White Mage spells healing us, we were ultimately able to outlast the cyclops, and it finally bowed to me.

{You have tamed the monster, Raging Cyclops.}

{White Mage has increased to level 66.}

{Monster Tamer has increased to level 55.}

{Apprentice Blacksmith has increased to level 33.}

{Blacksmith has increased to level 9.}

Sapphire had also reached level 72 in Blacksmith and I decided to switch her over to Weapon Smith to increase our chances of making a better weapon, so that made it to 28. We were as prepared as we’d ever be.

Chapter 1396

“Oh, so you’ve showed up. I thought you might have run off from fear!” Gabbro slapped his knee as we entered the room from the far side, causing the other dwarves to break into laughter.

They had chosen one of the currently bossless boss rooms to set up their forges. They had also seemingly built them on top of a stage and created seating all around it. The dwarves were quite industrious when they wanted to be. The entire place looked like an arena, and all three hundred dwarves as well as Pait and Dav were sitting in the stands. Pait had his arms cross, looking irritated by the noisy dwarves who were all chatting excitedly, that was when they weren’t cheering or singing loudly.

“M-master… I’m sorry I teased you early. I regret everything. Can we please surrender?” Sapphire’s voice was very high-pitched.

“Sapphire, you need to do this.” A woman declared, approaching the pair of us.

“M-mom?”

Lapis bowed her head to me politely and then turned to her daughter. “How many deep dwarves do you have memories of interacting with since reaching the surface?”

“Ah! That… our tribe… only fifteen.”

“You may not have known this, but blacksmithing is a bit like a sport for us. We take it very seriously.”

“I can tell…” I said dryly.

“What are you trying to say?” Sapphire asked.

“For all intent and purposes, the child I called daughter died a long time ago on the surface.” As Sapphire opened her mouth, her mother raised her hand. “I accept you as my daughter, and I love you. I believe that my husband felt the same in the end and that his sacrifice was made for you as much for his people. However, while I have accepted you back as the princess, many of the other deep dwarves have not. I’ve noticed that you have intentionally avoided them and remained near your Master, and while they would never question me to my face, I’m sure there is some doubt deep in their hearts.”

“That’s rich, considering you were all bound in Twilight…” I grumbled.

“It’s true that none of us truly have a right to our lives. Deek, you are our benefactor and none of us will deny it.” She nodded to me before turning to Sapphire. “And it’s perhaps for that reason that there hasn’t been more pushback. However, speaking as your mother and a queen, I must tell you that this competition is important. Only with brother’s approval will they start to see you as a truly one of us.”

“Once again… this would have been something better to tell us before this point!” I narrowed my eyes.

Lapis stiffened, her cheeks darkening. “It’s been a busy couple of days. I’ve been keeping everyone together and on task, and you’ve been away the last few days. I can’t possibly fill you in on every nuance on the deep dwarves in only a few hours of speaking.”

I lowered my head. “Right… sorry.”

Although it wasn’t like time had stopped when they were in Twilight, it had slowed down. They had only felt like they were in twilight for a year or so. Had her worlds not had a time delay, surely more if not all of them would have broken down throughout hundreds if not thousands of years. Even the deep dwarves weren’t that onery. That still meant that it felt like everything had been lost in the blink of an eye. One minute, they are surrounded by darkness, and only a few days ago they found themselves waking up in another world where they were an endangered species and their kingdom had fallen. Perhaps, this competition between uncle and niece meant more to the deep dwarves than I had originally thought.

“Alright! It’s time to begin! Show me what you got!”