Chapter 20: Delvin.

As Catherine progressed down the stairs she noticed an oddity, not matter how much she ran she could not see the bottom. Stopping, she looked back to see if she could see the top of the stairs but found that she could not. Now wondering if she was stuck in some kind of trap after not reaching the bottom for so long she turned around and started to head up the stairs.

“Are you fucking kidding me!?!” The stairway shook as a booming voice resounded, causing Catherine to shrink a bit, her tail moving between her legs.

She stood still, not moving from her spot “The heck was that?” she asked herself, now sure she was in some sort of trap she started to climb the staircase again.

She did not get very far as the hallway shook “Get your fat ass down here!” the voice shouted, the stair case flattening into a ramp causing Catherine to loose her foot hold and slip, landing on her belly she slid down the now slide.

As she slid, she questioned what was going on, clearly she had some how managed to piss whoever this was off, but how she didn’t know. Knowing it wasn’t a good idea to let whoever this was to have their way, Catherine lost her form, becoming just a blob she tried to attach herself to the wall but found the surface too smooth. She then tried to expand herself to get herself clogged, finding that also not working she quickly gave up just intime to hit the bottom of the stairs and bounce off the ground, flying at a high speed before crashing against a metal door.

Rolling to a stop Catherine heard the voice again, this time more subdued “Well? Get in here!” she heard from behind the door. Catherine stood up, looking back to find the stairway gone she sighed, not having much of a choice she threw open the door, entering a room filled that was like a vast field, complete with flowers and single tree at its center.

Under the tree Catherine saw two figures, one of them was a human looking girl with light green skin and long white hair adorned with flowers, but that is were she stopped looking like a human girl as her bottom half was entirely engulphed in a giant purple flower with vines extending in different directions. The second figure was standing ontop of one of the flower petals, a very short purple skinned imp with white hair parted by two large horns and blue eyes who looked thoroughly pissed, stomping her little hooved foot on the petal.

The imp pointed at Catherine “YOU!” It screamed, yanking its hand back. Catherine felt a magical force grab her followed by a strong pull as she was suddenly pulled towards the two, finding herself under the tree and face to face with the duo. “Do you have any idea how fucking annoying you are!” The imp yelled.

To Catherine’s surprise she found herself unable to speak, or even move from her position and could only listen as the imp voiced her complaint. “You fucking set off almost every goddamned trap on multiple floors, and for what? Shits and giggles?! You know how fucking expensive it is to set some of those up?!” The imp leaped towards Catherine, landing on her chest she grabbed ahold of her hair to keep herself in place. “Now normally it’s all fine, adventurers come and go, and I get it, can’t avoid every trap. I am not being unreasonable, I expect quite a few of them to go off on a daily bases, that’s their job after all.”

The imp then grabbed the leash on Catherine’s chest “What I am not fine with is some fucking variant organization pet dog coming into MY dungeon and being a little annoying shit! And setting them all off!” With a yank the imp pulled the ball from Catherine’s chest and leaped back towards the half-plant girl, landing on one of her petals “Especially when they still have you on a fucking leash, so my dear idiotic pet, before you evaporate what the fuck are you doing in here fucking up my place?” The imp laid back on the large petal, twiddling the ball in her hands.

Catherine felt the magic power from earlier vanish, letting out a gasp she looked towards the imp “You are the dungeon master?” She asked.

The imp spread her arms wide “What? Expect some one different? Yeah I am Delvin, got a problem with it?” Delvin said, fiddling with the ball some more.

“uh, no.” She glanced towards the plant girl, who noticing her gaze simply smiled “Just thought you’d be, uh… never mind.” She honestly didn’t know what to expect, after hearing the stunt she pulled to piss off the organization she might of expected someone, bigger? More intimidating? Her danger sense not even reacting to the two, but what ever force pulled her earlier made it obvious Delvin was strong. ‘if I could I’d throw this skill in the trash…’

“So? You are on a somewhat short fuse here, what did those assholes up top want?” Delvin held up the ball, shaking it side to side.

Catherine blinked, coming back from her train of thought “Oh, right. They wanted me to explore the lower levels, try to capture this place, and try to bring you back to join the organization or, erm, kill you.”

Delvin stared at her, looking up from her position on the petal at the half-plant girl before looking back to Catherine “Oh this is rich!” She laughed “Tell me, what did an annoying ass slime like yourself do to get the attention of the organization huh? What in her Holinesses name made them think that you could even make it past floor thirty?”

Catherine questioned the unfamiliar term but decided it best to answer, “Killed off an entire scouting ship.”

Delvin burst out laughing “I bet you fucking did!” kicking uncontrollably in the air she laughed “I’d bet my left horn it was a bunch of no named idiots fresh off their tiny little rock they call a home world!” she sat up shaking her head “Oh the poor souls, think of the families they had! Little Jianna without her father!” she mocked, tossing the ball towards Catherine and with a *plop* it settled back on her chest.

“Fuckers deserved it.” Delvin huffed “Sorry little slime, your dungeon crawl ends here, tell your baby sitters Delvin still says as long as that massive stick up their ass remains firmly lodged into place.”

Catherine tilted her head “So that’s it? You are not going to do anything to me? And I cant keep going down? I kinda wanted to.”

“Yup yup, I pity you, as fucking annoying as you are. You are leashed, don’t have a choice in the matter.” She shrugged “And so what? You can absorb skills? Sorry sister even if I pity ya I am not going to let the organization gain more power.”

Catherine was shocked “Wait, how do you know about that?!” She asked.

“I can see fucking everything that happens in my dungeon, dumbass, you Literally used the same magic after you killed the goblin. You know how much of a pain in the ass it was to move every monster that had skills or magic away from you?” Delvin crossed her arms “Not as annoying as resetting all the fucking traps…”

“Wait, is that why all I encountered were fucking orcs?!” Catherine said “What the fuck? Why would you even do that?!” She then found herself unable to move again, Delvin leaped towards her, ripped out the leash and shoved it into her eyeball.

“You are on a fucking LEASH the organizations DOG, a yes man, a water fetcher, they tell you to jump you jump!” She leaped back and landed on a petal “You are no different than that other imp, eventually you will submit to them and by that time if you have fewer skills thanks to me then all the better!”

Able to move again Catherine frowned “And what if I can get away from them? If I had more skills or understood more about magic, then it would help?”

Delvin narrowed her eyes “You have no clue what that little ball does? It doesn’t matter if you split your body from it, leave it in a ditch, or stuff it in some inventory. You do something wrong and it will go off and end you.”

Catherine spread her arms, armor rising up from her body and the core moving to embed itself in the armor, then Catherine stored it, the armor and ball vanishing “Wanna bet?” She smirked.

Delvin sighed “Yeah, I saw you do that, remember? I can see fucking everything. I just said they can see it in your inventory when you do that, and it will act if you fuck up.”

Catherine’s smirk widened “They can’t see in my inventory, I think, they can force me to empty it.”

Delvin paused, turning to the girl behind her “Violet, if you would.” She asked, the plant girl nodding and stared at Catherine, who herself felt magic wash over her but nothing happened. Delvin watched Violet’s face squint “Well?” he asked, the girl answered by forming an “X” with her hands and shaking her head no. “Interesting.”

“Told you.” Catherin said.

Delvin faced her “All that proved is that we cannot see inside it, that did not get rid of the important bits to worry about.” She then jumped down from the petal she was standing on, magic forming around her “I’m sacrificing one of my toys for this, you better not drop dead.” A magic circle appeared on the ground, and after a second of channeling a large naked man with his eyes gouged out and two bleeding holes on his back appeared on top of the circle before it vanished.

Catherine looked at the man, who was groaning but otherwise did not do anything “uh, this is?”

“A very high-ranking individual, well, not anymore. This fucker would absolutely set off that fucking leash if you so much as plucked one of his eyebrows out.” She kicked the guy, who just groaned in pain “Out of all my toys it is unlikely he has been abandoned, for a number of…reasons…” She giggled innocently.

“So, all I have to do is hit him?” Catherine asked, approaching the man. “And if this works, then the leash won’t activate inside my inventory, right? Then you’ll let me continue in your dungeon?”

“If you don’t go out of your way being a fucking asshole, yes.” Delvin jumped on top of the man, a smile brought to her face when he groaned in pain “But, we are going to go the extra mile. Kill him.”