Dungeon Menagerie 31 (Patreon)

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRei

Dungeon Menagerie

Chapter 31

-VB-

Vanessa stumbled away from the bodies. 

Her eyes jumped from the growing pools of blood to the bodies to the weapons to her hands and then to her weapons and the blood on those weapons and -!

“-essa!” 

Her head snapped up and she saw Bell grabbing her by her arms. His hands were stained with blood, too. 

“Vanessa, listen to me! What are we down here for?!” 

Her mind snapped right then when she heard him say that. 

She was down here to help one of her Friends. 

Right. She needed to focus on that. She needed to get more magic stones so … it could help her Friend. Somehow. Because he used it to grow. He can use it to heal himself, right? 

Right at that moment, the Celestial Menagerie blossomed again, and she stood still as she felt another Friend appear. 

Clank. Clank. C-Clank.

She looked around and stopped when she found a … machine shaped like a bull. Pristine. Glowing. Almost divine. 

The rest of her party also noticed him.

She stared at him before her mind provided the answer. 

“Chionis Tauros.”

The companion of Europa, the lover of Zeus, and the woman who the entire continent of Europe was named after. But instead of a magnificent bull, it looked like a mechanical facsimile of one. It was a bull, don’t get her wrong, but it was also … more. A machine in the form of a bull that was more than a bull.

A divine machine bull…?

Vanessa shook her head. No. This wasn’t the time to be distracted by a new Friend. She needed to get moving. 

But … at the same time … she knew that Chionis Tauros was strong. Very strong. Not as strong or diverse as Mori but strong enough to fight the Upper Floors by himself. 

“Tauros,” she called out. 

He huffed, waving his head up and down with life-like imitation and none of the clicking machine noises. 

“I need help.”

He stood at attention. 

“Will you help me?”

He stomped his massive left front leg down, making the ground around him rumble a little. 

“Good. It’s to save our Friend. Monsters need to be killed and their magic stones harvested.”

He got the gist of it. 

“Bell, Lili! You’ll be fighting together with Tauros here! Think of him as a Tank!” 

“Got it!” “Okay.”

It was time to put her nose back on the ground. 

And ignore the bodies and the blood until she was on the surface and Chrysalismon was safe again. 

She waited for the two to get on and turned to leave… when she noticed something. 

One of the dead adventurers had a bag. She could see something shining out of the small opening. She hesitantly walked over, knelt, and opened it. Her eyes widened when she realized what she was looking at. Magic stones, but most of them were small.

She even recognized one. 

It was one of the magic stones that she’d left behind in a hurry, which meant that they have been tracking her party for a long while. 

She gritted her teeth. They were waiting to kill them when they were at their lowest. She took the bag and got up, even though taking the bag felt like a petty insult to the dead. She hesitated a bit before spat on the corpse and went back to her friends. 

-VB-

Ottar frowned. 

It was taking the scums too long to complete their mission.

-VB-

Bell gasped as he stumbled up to “Tauros” and leaned against its big body. 

He was exhausted.

“W-What floor are we on again?” Lili asked from where she also leaned next to him. She was sweaty, equally exhausted, and disturbed by the slaughterfest.

“I think … 16?” 

Lili let out an explosive sigh.

“... How long have we been in the Dungeon?” she asked him.

“Two days? Maybe?” 

“It feels like it’s been longer,” she mumbled.

Well, he said two because they only set up camp twice.

There was a heavy clatter of magic stones, and he looked over his shoulder. He saw Vanessa finally sitting down with her entire body painted from top to bottom in blood. She looked … dead. Her eyes vacant. Her shoulders drooping. 

The entire situation was finally getting to her. 

He grimaced. 

“Monster Rex.”

He paused and looked at her as did the rest of the party and Vanessa’s Friends. 

“We’ll kill Rex, take the stone, and end it there. It should be enough to save Chrysalismon. Right now, we’ll camp here, sleep, and then fight it tomorrow.”

Bell slid down and sat. 

The Monster Rex Goliath. 

It was supposed to be the “noob killer,” and even got its spawn point named “the Wall of Grief” for it. 

Honestly? 

He was a little scared. And also a little excited. 

He was going to see the Monster Rex. He was going to fight Monster Rex Goliath! 

“Hey, Lili-,” he called to his familia member and friend, only to realize that in the short amount of time that Vanessa had told them about camping, she’d already gone over to a nice flat spot and set up tent. “Umm… shouldn’t we be checking if the area is good or not?”

Everyone, including Lili, turned to look at him.

And then he realized that Tauros, Mori, and Chauky were here as well as he, Lili, and Vanessa. For the Upper Floors, this was a very powerful team, especially since Mori didn’t even need to see the monsters to kill them.

He let out an embarrassed laugh before standing up and heading over to Lili to help her with the tent set up.

-VB-

A/N: next chapter: the final chapter of the Dungeon-Rush mini-arc. Vanessa’s Party vs Monster Rex Goliath!