Frozen Soul, and other works: Chapter 109

In the afternoon after I had finished the Crucible, I laid back on the bed in the master bedroom of my house in Have Dorei, watching as the sobbing Enchantress took her own virginity by thrusting her hips up and down upon me, working to a pace that Della set by cracking a low-level whip against the woman’s bare buttocks. Even naked, except for her new collar, the enchantress was high enough level that her passive regeneration healed most of the damage, since the whip was something any level 1 character might use. In Della’s hands, the purpose of the basic whip was not damage, but pain.

“Mmm. Such a lovely little pet you are, my slutty enchantress. How does it feel to be giving yourself to a man, even though men are such horrid beasts? You thought that you would be able to slip into the lands belonging to the drow and tame me with your charms alone, didn’t you? How does it feel to become a domesticated slut for my amusement? Speak truthfully, or I may decide to parade you in front of your father, naked and chained, your belly swollen with my progeny. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

Shyael sobbed, before another crack of the whip brought her thrusting herself down upon me with a moan. But fear of the image I’d just painted for her overcame fear of what I would do if she said something I disliked. “I-I hate you! I wish you would die a thousand deaths for what you’ve done to me! You have no right to debase me like this! I am not some common harlot like these tavern wenches you surround yourself with!”

I motioned to Della, and she began whipping the girl twice as fast. Shyael cried out and moved to keep pace, knowing that things would get worse if she did not comply. I smiled up at her, and said, “Ah, but you see, you are exactly like my other slaves. Warriors, mages, rogues, craftsmen, merchants, I have all of these under my collar. Even a few noble borns have shared my bed, both as free women and as my slaves. So where do you get off thinking you’re so much better than they are? No, you are just another one of my pets, but one who thinks more highly of herself than she ought, I’m afraid.”

“Now, I give you a choice. You can either continue getting ‘encouragement’ from Della, here, or you can begin moving of your own accord, but you had better convince me that you are doing your best to bring me pleasure with your body.” Another crack of the whip against her already sore cheeks drew a sob from the woman’s lips, and she began moving more naturally, her eyes closed, clearly trying to think about it as a job, and failing.

Later, as the elf stuck her tear-slicked face between Della’s thighs to reward her for her services with the whip, my seed leaking out of her newly opened snatch, I considered the rewards I had gotten from the Crucible, other than Shyael, of course.

You have gained experience! You are now Level 78!

Your actions have pleased Lolth. You gain the ability: Poison Blood

All your subordinates gain 2 levels.

You and all your subordinates have unlocked a second chance to undergo the Trial of Ascension, at level 100.

You and all your subordinates gain the following ability: Webwalk.

Poison Blood

Your blood has been infused with the blessing of the Spider Queen. This ability has been altered due to your race(s) and connection with Sharess. Your blood does not deal HP damage. Instead, those who ingest it suffer a -30% penalty to Charm Resistance, but gain Immunity to Fear for 10 minutes. Those with Celestial blood instead take -50% Charm Resistance, and are unable to use spells or abilities costing MP for 1 hour.

Webwalk

You are able to walk through webs (even magical webs) unhindered, unless they are created by a creature with divine blood.

Some of that was good, and some of it was kindof underwhelming. The Webwalk ability duplicated something that was already on my gear, but it also affected my subordinates, so I could deal with it. Of course, I had a feeling I went through a lot easier version of the Crucible than most, and the rewards reflected Lolth putting it on ‘Easy’ difficulty. I did have some ideas on how I could use Poison Blood, though. That would be interesting to see if I could make it work.

But now that the Crucible was over, it was time to consider the trip to the drow capitol of Amyaththalas. The trip would normally take about two weeks to complete, but with the detours we would be making to visit the dungeons Sharess had told us about, the trip could easily be a month or more, so preparation was essential. We stocked extra of everything, but especially rations and potions for healing and removing ailments. Running out of health potions and antidotes in the middle of nowhere was a Bad Thing™.

Of course, not everyone here would be going with me to the dungeons. Darkbunnys needed a bit of time to… reflect on the changes she’d been through just now. And even though I had already enjoyed taking Shyael’s innocence and using Fruitful Passion on her to ensure that she’d have a lingering reminder of this day, she, along with Jastra’s family, would remain here in Have Dorei, acting as maids and housekeepers for my property here, and given strict orders to attend to any guild member that came in, and to warm their beds if they so wished. For groups who were running the dungeon and hunting in the local area, that would give them a nice morale booster if they based themselves out of this place.

So, the next morning (such as morning is when you cannot see the sun), we saddled up nine great riding lizards, with a tenth holding extra supplies for our journey. These lizards were strange creatures, who had pads on their feet allowing them to climb walls and even hang from ceilings, an essential feature if one was traversing caves, which might have a chasm dropping to your doom, with no way to bridge the gap. The ‘saddles’ were in fact more akin to harnesses, keeping riders in place so they did not fall out of the saddle when the lizards inverted themselves.

Of course, learning to fight while harnessed was a whole new adventure. You’d think that those of us who used ranged weapons would have a leg up on the melee folks, but you’d be wrong. Picture trying to aim a bow, but gravity pulls the arrow up and to the left instead of down, meanwhile the blood is rushing to your head because you’re hanging at a forty-five-degree angle over a chasm. ‘Not fun’ is a major understatement.

Still, while the monsters we faced were strong, and we faced them fairly often, they weren’t the real horrors of the Underdark. We were still only a a day out from Have Dorei, after all, and the Drow made sure to send patrols through their borders, especially close to their cities, to keep unwanted pests from setting up shop and endangering travelers between cities. Oh sure, there were some kobolds or goblins in small tribes, who likely were raided regularly for slaves when the drow needed cannon fodder, and there were plenty of monstrous bats, spiders, rats, and all manner of other nastiness.

The one time we got into any real trouble was when we were about a day out from the first of the dungeons. The lizards were the first to notice that something was wrong, since they were attuned to the environment, and more acutely aware of the hazards here, along with the warning signs. Noting their disquiet, I called a halt, and examined the signs for myself. There was moss on the ground, but in the middle of the path, a wide section was completely free of moss, as though it had been scoured clean. Not liking this, I turned to look at the others and suggest we maneuver around the area.

Which, of course, was when the attack came. Slowly, but it came. Our opponent was a giant jello-like mass that was all but invisible in the darkness, if you did not know what to look for. Being digested was not on my ‘to do’ list for today.

Skoorok

Legendary Divine Ooze

Level 100

Picture, if you will, the humble Gelatinous Cube from one’s Dungeons and Dragons sourcebook. Now picture a gelatinous cube thirty feet on a side, with oodles of hit points, unique abilities, and the ability to somehow heal itself. That would be Skoorok. Honestly, no one knew how it came to be, or where it came from. The best guess amongst the drow was either that it was a wizard’s experiment that somehow escaped, or a normal gelatinous cube that had, somehow, managed to rank up enough to become what we saw before us.

The blasted thing was almost completely immune to weapon damage, and magic healed it! Oh, and the acid and paralytic slime that gelatinous cubes were known for was strong enough to dissolve a level 70 warrior’s body, bones and all, in two minutes, during which time the poor schmuck would be trapped in their unmoving flesh, unable to even scream as they were dissolved alive. As I said, this was NOT on my list of fun ways to die.

The only saving grace of meeting Skoorok was that the damn thing was slow as hell, especially compared to our mounts. That was the only reason that no one really cared about putting together a subjugation force to take the damn thing out. Unless you stumbled into it (and we would have, without the mounts), then you had a good chance of getting away from the thing. If you walked into it, though, you were boned. The drow basically ignored it, as Skoorok made an effective way of weeding out ‘dead weight’ in the gene pool, and was an excellent way to dispose of any inconvenient bodies one might just happen to have lying around.

Now, if this was a light novel about a heroic hero on a quest to get stronger so he could one day fight the Demon Lord and save the world from eternal darkness, the hero and his party would not only have just the right tool to defeat the legendary unique monster they came across by chance, but the hero would have some inspiring words to share with his comrades before they launched themselves into battle to rid the world of this great danger. Suffice to say, I did nothing of the sort. No, let others go off half-cocked into insane battles against nearly unkillable things. Frankly, the only time I do shit like that is when I don’t have a choice. I much prefer to fight things that are eminently killable and then proceed to kill them in as unfair a fight as I can possibly arrange.

No, we turned, and hauled ass away from that cavern, leaving the unique ooze to be fought by some other idiot. Sure, finding another passage around the area where we’d met Skoorok added another three days to just this first part of our journey, but that’s why we were carrying extra supplies. OK, so it was more in case there were cave-ins or other natural things that blocked our way, but we still counted on having to find our way through alternate paths at some point. Still, I wasn’t worried.

After all, how many unique unkillable monsters could there possibly be between us and these dungeons?

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Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):

Frozen Soul https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT

Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):

Volume 1 - Tutorial https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Into the Black (Sci-Fi LitRPG):

Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL

City of Champions Online (Superhero LitRPG):