Dungeon Menagerie 18 (Patreon)

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRei

Dungeon Menagerie

Chapter 18

-VB-

Hestia looked at Bell and Lili with slacked jaw. 

“What?!” she nearly shrieked with fearful worry. “How would you even -?! An infant dragon?!” 

Hestia knew from talking with her friends and other fellow gods and goddesses that infant dragons were the gatekeepers between the Upper Floors and the Middle Floors of the Dungeon. They weren’t a floor boss like Monster Rex was (according to Hephaestus) but her children were only Level 1’s! They shouldn’t have been that far below in the first place! 

She hurriedly looked over them and realized that they weren’t too hurt. A lot of scratches, rashes, and cuts, but there was no serious injuries on them. Lili actually didn’t have any at all. 

Bell sighed tiredly, and Hestia realized she was keeping her kids standing unnecessarily longer than they had to. They must be tired! 

“Go get yourselves washed! I’ll have food out for you two.”

“Thank you, Hestia!” Bell smiled and Lili muttered the same, attaching a lady in front of her name. 

She giggled and sent them on their way. 

Once she got her children to eat and rest, she was going to march over to Athena’s place to curse up her child. 

At the same time, she wondered how much her children must have grown to have fought and survived agaisnt an Infant Dragon as Level 1’s. Bell wasn’t close to reaching the peak of Level 1, but with this achievement, he might have gotten just enough excelia to boost himself up to the Level 2. 

It made her tremble just a little in anticipation. 

Her child was skyrocketing toward success! 

… And that left Lili. With how little damage she had on herself, it was obvious to Hestia that Lili might not have taken part in the fight. If she didn’t fight, then her excelia gain would have been quite low. Should she encourage the girl to become something more than a supporter? 

-VB-

Vanessa sighed as she laid on one of the three couches in the living room of the familia home. 

With how much she’s worked and how well she did it, this was the kind of result she deserved.

Right? 

Right. 

She lifted the paper she’d stared at half a dozen times now, if only to confirm her reality. 

Vanessa Meinhardt

Level 1 > 2

Basic Abilities

Strength - C620 > E001

Endruance - C481 > E001

Dexterity - D572 > E001

Agility - C650 > E001

Magic - F339 > E001

Skills

Celestial Menagerie “Let not the mortals dictate your future but these friends you find.” Friend Summoning through accumulated Essence. Essence: 400.

Material Extraction. “Not all monsters are meant to be friends.” - Gain material goods instead of a Friend. 

Yeah, she leveled up from killing that Infant Dragon. I

She glanced over to the wall opposite from her place and saw the latest addition to the house’s furnitures: a bookcase filled to the brim with books. She got it because she wanted something to remind herself of her past, but it honestly didn’t do that because, aside from how expensive it had been to purchase all of those books and how utterly different that was different from her past world, most of the books weren’t for entertainment but for practical things. Like education.

She sighed as she got up from her couch and walked over to the bookcase. She rummaged through the books before she found what she was looking for: a ledger. 

Then she took it upstairs to her room and sat down at her desk which looked less like a woman’s desk and more like an office desk with how much paper was on it. 

She picked up a rudimentary pen, shuffled some of the papers over so that she could see their numbers, and got to work.

Accounting. 

As her income grew in size, she needed to keep track of everything, and just jotting down what she earned and spent was no longer good enough, especially since she needed to start keeping track of things like depreciation and taxes. 

Also, she and Athena started spending a lot more money, as much as that irked her, and because it was impossible to keep track of everything, Vanessa wanted to know what the difference was between what they thought they spent and what they actually spent. 

And, of course, her goddess always spent more than she did. 

She paused as the Menagerie bloomed again, reaching up towards something. She blinked as she felt the Menagerie grab something large, cold, and … logical(?). It was a machine of some kind. Quite a brutal one, too, from the feel she got from it. 

It was supposed to be something called a Khopesh, but not knowing what it was, she wanted to see it herself. 

She finished the last of the day’s accounting and then walked outside. She found Athena, the short wastrel, walking around with a gaggle of children from around the neighborhood. Sure, her house was isolated with large tracts of land and built into a large tree, but ultimately, there were kids who came around to play in the open fields. 

“Athena!” she shouted after her goddess, who looked up from what play the kids roped her into playing with them. “I’m going to be summoning a new creature. Don’t let the kids come close.”

“Okay!” 

Then Vanessa, after making sure that she didn’t see any of the kids straying from their little group, “dropped” the Khopesh into being. 

There was a dim flash.

Then a rumble as something big landed on the ground. 

She slowly looked up at the … thing. It was big. 

It had a big “torso” that was one and a half times as wide as its six multi-digit legs and a prehensile grabber that hung above its head/torso. 

And she immediately realized what she’d summoned. 

It wasn’t a living being like Mori and Chauky. Hell, even Bubbles, the card that was now an infinite bar of soap, had more wants than this thing did. 

This … was a warmachine. Some kind of automated drone. 

And those were guns. And rocket pods. Big guns. Big and many rockets. 

Its photoreceptors blinked red as it turned on, and it spotted her immediately. It looked at her and then -.

[Network manager. Confirmed.]

Did that thing just speak into her mind? 

Then before she could question that, it spun in place, taking a good look at its surroundings, and spotted Athena and the kids. 

Athena immediately bristled. 

“What did you just summon, Nessa?!” she shrieked in outrage. 

The Khopesh locked in on her and -.

The gun turret on its nose spun in preparation to fire and the covers on its rocket pods opened up.

“Stop!” Vanessa immediately shouted, and the Khopesh stopped. She let out an explosive sigh of relief. 

Well. That was one massacre she just prevented. 

“C-Change to standby … mode?” she tried, and it immediately obeyed, closing its rocket pod covers, pulling its gun back into some compartment, and lowering itself to the ground. 

Athena, on the other hand, was now stomping up to her. 

“Explain!” 

Vanessa sighed. Today was supposed to be a peaceful day, too. 

-VB-

A/N: Khopesh, or deathbringer, from Horizon series.