"A, B, C, or D's,

Who will come with me?

On my plight today,

Designed to take my woes away.

You are not it!" with her finger pointing at Sweet C, Veris makes a sad face.

"Sorry sweetie, today's not your day," Veris informs the dejected looking Vagabond.

"Aww, but... I need the most XP to catch up! Shouldn't that mean I should come out with you regardless?" the sad Sweet questions Veris' way of deciding the rules.

"You know how it goes. Someone has to stay here and be the Boss whilst the others are out levelling. You agreed, just like the others did when I suggested it," she counters.

"Yeah, but.." she begins whilst pouting her lips and making her eyes as big as can be.

"No, buts. Hehe, butts. You'll come out with me after we get back, like always." Veris interrupts, paying no attention to the sad looking face in front of her. Instead, her mind is elsewhere and a mischievous grin appears on her face.

"If you keep complaining, I'm going to have to set another example, ya know?" her grin widens as she disappears into her own shadow and then immediately rises out from the defiant Sweet's. Veris takes a knee next to the startled Sweet and says nothing as she stares into the sparkling eyes of what should be a terrified person.

Peaches and the the three other Sweets don't say a word toward the strange event that is playing out in the almost-empty Boss Room. It always goes this way and has done ever since Veris was allowed free roam from the dungeon as long as a Boss was present. Taking their seats on the futons Abi graciously provided, Sweet A pours everyone a cup of tea as Veris and C continue their heated act.

"It looks like I'll have to be extra thorough today!" Veris exclaims with a slight giggle in her voice.

"But I haven't said anything else yet?" confused at the sudden hastening of her approaching punishment, C smiles on the inside as she portrays a face of shock that she knows Veris will appreciate.

As it turns out, she's almost as crazy as her mentor, but on the opposite end of the scale.

C drops to all fours not losing eye contact. No longer hiding her excitement, she slowly begins to crawl towards Veris. The head seductress herself wastes no time preparing and takes a knee infront of the wiggling woman.

As C reaches her anticipated destination, she drops over the waiting knee to receive her awaited reward. As this happens, Peaches slurps her tea to drown out the escalating sound coming from behind.

"Maybe one... morning we won't have... to listen to the... sound of paddling," she says after an extremely loud slurp.

"Don't count on it," Sweet D's dashes her hopes with an eye roll.

"A Paddle!" Veris exclaims, momentarily pausing Sweet C's punishment, before continuing "That's what I should ask for!"

"Yes! A paddle!" hearing this, Sweet C voices her agreement on the subject. This however, only earns her a few raised eyebrows and one very confused look from a rather attractive slime-lady before Veris resumes what Peaches so rightly described as paddling.

Dungeon Stories Volume 1

Disappointed with the last feature I just placed outside, and because I'd almost ran out of the DP that was set aside for that area, I move my spending back indoors.

I decide to check in on Barry and I notice that his entrance has almost filled in. I try to shout out to the large driller yet he doesn't seem to hear me as he doesn't appear after a short while. Getting a little worried I decide to send the first person I see, which happens to be Veris for some reason, to retrieve him. I still can't enter the spaces he creates due to not owning them myself.

After what felt like longer than it should have taken, which was almost an hour, Veris jumps through the now smaller opening, right before Barry ploughs his way through reopening his entrance.

"What are you doing digging so far in?" I question the big lug instantly, who slumps his shoulders in response and points inside. He also makes strange groaning noises as though he is trying to communicate but he doesn't do very well unfortunately. I can sense that he has found something he likes inside but that's all I can manage to understand. Luckily for him, Veris is on hand to help him out with actual words.

"He was taking a magma bath, Boss." In response to Veris' words, Barry slumps his shoulders in disappointment with himself.

"Is that all?" I ask and begin laughing happily. "I thought something bad was happening and I'm just glad you're OK. You can rest whenever you want, Barry. You do a lot of work around here and I'm super grateful for it and for you." The Mythril Golem's black cheeks flush red in an unexpected display of human emotion and I swear his face looks as though he's smiling.

Er, Me. How is he doing that?

Err...

Yeah. That's what I thought. Let's ignore that for now.

"What did I tell you about the entrance closing though? Do you remember? I don't want you getting stuck, or forgetting the way back here if it closes up. In fact, wait there for one minute Barry," I wonder if I'm strong enough to acquire these tunnels without harming myself now. I mean, I can do it with the land outside my dungeon, right?

It's worth a shot and if you try a small section first the damage should not be as bad as last time.

With this advice from my partner I enter my overview mode and look over Barry's connecting tunnels. It's strange how I can view it from above but when I try and peek in from the ground my vision is distorted.

Ahh, such stupid dungeon rules are my life now. As such, I will adapt to them and take advantage of them in the best way that I can.

Barry's tunnel, or should I say tunnels, have surrounded the entirety of my fourth floor. They're interwoven and cross in many different places, at many different intersections. The multitude of tunnels head up and down the long winding floor in every direction possible and stretch further out than my own tunnels do. Inside a rather wide room at one of the Cross-sections, a very clear stream of magma is flowing from one end to the other.

Guess I found his hot spring.

I purchase the first 100 foot section of tunnel and brace myself for any damage I am about to receive.

Fortunately though, I'm spared from pain of any kind.

With this new revelation, I slowly begin to acquire the appropriate sections in order to reach the room Barry was relaxing in. Doing this will give him a permanent space that he won't have to keep digging out as it will be classed as a part of my dungeon.

I gave up on the idea of hiding the monsters in my dungeon after what Elric said to me on his tour. He wasn't going to give me the option of ending the tour at the priests. Any Categoriser that comes here in the future will have to be dealt with one way or another. Everyone has a price, or so I've heard.

Either that or I could hide the dungeon? I'll put a pin in that for now.

With Barry's room complete, I fill his home and passageway with luminaires and luminites. This unlocks the fourth evolution for the small-luminescent creatures, which are still tiny even at that tier. They're not intended for battles and they don't add to the monster count for some reason.

They're just... Lights.

Maybe the system just sees them as bugs? Although, she probably sees everyone that way.

Barry shows his appreciation by performing a dungeon salute before returning to his magma bath, after he confirms that his entrance wont close.

Veris has been waiting patiently all this time, which I find very out of character for her. She usually doesn't shut up and always has an opinion. Flags are going off in my head and something must be up.

"What's the matter, Veris?" Trying my best to not be surprised at her change of behaviour, I ask for the reason behind her wait.

"I wanted to ask if you would spruce up my room a little more? The futons and tea set are cool but, it's been a while now and I feel as though I've been very patient." Veris answers with gratitude and conviction, and maybe a hint of threat. Again, another flag goes off in my mind.

"You know what? I agree, Veris. You have been very patient. Alright, let's go," with those words we appear in the almost empty room and I instantly feel like a shoddy boss. Light shines down from a Large Light Cluster, painting and illuminates a good section of the room in the shape of a circle. The outer walls and corners are darkened out as I was trying to make the room seem bigger than it is.

"I'm not going to lie, Veris. I don't think we'll be able to fit a castle in here," with my thoughts on the size of the room fresh in my head, I inform Veris that one of her requests has zero likelihood of happening.

"Can't we just make my room bigger at some point?" I guess she really wants a castle as she tried to offer a solution the moment I stopped speaking.

"I don't think I can yet, Veris. I'm really sorry but I get an error each time I try to move past the outer layer of the first floor. I'm still not strong enough."

"In that case, I want a swing." she says

"One with a frame or do you want a tree to hang it on?" I ask

"Can it hang from the roof? And instead of a seat, can it have three leather adjustable straps?" a mischievous smile spreads across her face as she innocently asks her question.

"Are you joking? You can't have something like that in the boss room!" I shout out a little shocked, although I don't know where my shock has come from. This is definitely more the Veris I know. However, now I know what brought on her earlier patient and charming act.

"But why not, it's just a swing?" she asks, still trying her best to act clueless. "What about a paddle?"

"Don't play dumb with me girl, I made you. That means you came from me. I'm like the allmother as far as you're concerned. Or in another manner of speaking, I know everything. I know what you want that swing for and I'm telling you, it's not going in this room. I also know why you want a paddle and that ain't happening either. If for some reason I do decide to finally accept a feature like that in my dungeon, it definitely won't be here. The Boss Room is not a Pleasure Palace!"

As if my voice carries the weight of the world, Veris' room begins to shake. Four white pillars rise from the ground in positions that form the shape of a square, just inside the boundaries of the light. High strung banners stretch from pillar to pillar in matching colours of purple and blue. Each one has a different symbol, yet the one that leads to the exit has a large golden A shining brightly.

A magnificent purple couch, with exquisite golden framework, appears in the centre of the room. This isn't the only item of furniture to arrive as the room has been stocked with other various seating features as well as other decorative items. Each piece looks to be made from the finest materials and I'm beginning to worry that Veris has spent my DP somehow. Not as worried as the large swing, that was briefly described to me moments ago, hanging in the corner is making me feel.

"What the hell?! Everytime. Everytime." I call out in outrage, shocking the very pleased looking Shadow Walker.

This is most certainly... very... Veris.

Upon checking myself over, I haven't actually spent a single point on the attractively decorated room.

Yes, Me, but why? Why is it very, Veris? I didn't confirm this, or choose it anyway.

I assume when you mentioned the 'pleasure palace', Veris took that name to heart as it somewhat identifies with her. Surely you know that Boss Rooms tend to feature the same traits as the Boss itself.

Veris moves towards the small white column near the centre. On its surface rests a solitary paddle and as she raises it her eyes gleam and her lips curl into a deviously beautiful smile.

I suppose it's too late to do anything about it now as it would crush Veris' heart.

Well Shit.

Go me.