2 - 4. I Want to See You Smile.

Nyx sits up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and letting out a long, disappointed sigh. She had almost heard what a dungeon was. It had been only a day since she laughed it off, but after seeing the dream continue two days in a row, she’s a lot more willing to accept it’s real. Quite a few things are lining up too. At the very least, it’s interesting. She tilts her head back, staring up. The sky above her head is still dark, though the stars are as gorgeous as ever.

It’s good she’s doing better now. That hero. There are still too many questions left unanswered, but she has no control over that. Nyx is only an observer. Turning her head back down, two blue fireballs greet her.

Jolting backwards and hitting the rock she had used as cover from the sun, one hand rests on her chest. Her panicked breathing and flushed face are obscured as she glares and lets out a huff.

“Good morning, Summoner.” Jun is sitting a few paces away from her, as if he’d been there the whole time. Nyx lets her head drop down and to the side as the tension drips away. Combing her bangs back with her fingers, she gives Jun a look before standing up.

“Are you leaving again?” Nyx stares out across the desert. She had slept at the top of her mountain, far from her two companions after yesterday’s incident. Now, Jun was in her space. Her nose wrinkles and she vanishes. For a half second, she’s back in the house, then she’s gone again - teleporting to the edge of her territory.

Jun is already in front of her, arms crossed.

“Noel was worried. Upset.” Play the guilt card all you like, Nyx thinks, walking towards Jun without any hesitation. After all, Noel is worried. Jun isn’t worried. Nyx scoffs and crosses her arms. She has enough guilt without having more put on her plate. Even though Jun is almost a head taller than she is, she steps closer and closer until he finally shifts to the side.

“You are being cruel.” She’s being cruel? Nyx’s eyes fill with spite as she snarls, teeth bared, and spins around to face Jun.

“I don’t know how it was before, but you are not the only person here anymore. If you are reckless, it puts all of us in danger.” Her left hand hits her right elbow as she forms an obscene gesture with her right hand. Jun’s eyes turn to her hand before he lets out a small ‘hmm’ and disappears. She’s not alone, is she? They’re a team now, are they? They had let her wander off into ‘inhospitable lands’ on her own just yesterday, but now that they’re a team, she can’t? Nyx grinds her teeth.

Crossing her arms tightly, Nyx walks off with only her guilt as company.

・

Being alone with her thoughts and a dying creature she couldn’t save only redoubles the guilty, heavy feeling in her stomach. She kicks the wall in front of her a few times, walks in circles at the bottom of the well, and finally slumps onto the ground. Jun had said the land drains away magic. That bear woman, Melia, had - No, I can’t just be putting stock in random dreams. No matter how realistic they are. Still, it lined up, and Jun had no reason to lie about something like that.

Which means this plant creature is probably dying because… Because it’s at the bottom of a well with no food, no light, in a place where magic is drained away constantly. It was probably at least one of those. Probably. She bites the inside of her cheek and hauls herself out of the well. Even if she hadn’t known the why, she had checked if she could include this well in her dungeon only a day ago.

Right now, the number of points she had had increased to twenty-six. Thirteen points a day. She scratches the back of her neck and frowns. Recovering the 400 points used for her living quarters would take more than 30 days, and of course the Fate-Cutting Scissors are an impossible prospect. There’s no good breakdown of why it’s thirteen points, but she can guess. Three inhabitants brings it down to a nice round number, so the remaining ten is probably some sort of freebie. If there wasn’t a freebie, it would be like falling into inescapable debt. No food, no ability to grow, no comrades - a special isolated hell.

Or, knowing the system’s disposition, there was some absurd calculation that involved rounding numbers off, strange divisions, and so on. Even if she found out that she was getting a third of forty points because there were three people managing the dungeon, she’d have no choice but to simply nod her head and sigh.

Nyx steps over the boundary into her domain and immediately teleports to her living quarters. Noel is curled up on the couch and lifts her head to see who it is, then flops back down.

“You’re back.” Nyx takes a step backwards, hand sliding for the doorknob. Noel’s eyes are red again, but her voice is even. Cold. Nyx licks her lips nervously and steps into the room, nodding. She can hear Jun in the other room, messing around with something. Stepping into the kitchen, she opens the oven and the pot inside it, spotting the dungeon core inside.

Turning back around, she walks up to Noel and stares at her for a while.

“What.” The gentle, elegant tones she’s used to are gone, replaced with something dry and blunt. Nyx closes her eyes and sighs, then dips at the waist in apology.

“Do you know what you did wrong?” Getting on her knees, Nyx rests her chin on the couch and stares back at Noel. She has a few ideas. Asking Noel to touch the core is foremost in her mind, but…

“You can’t decide that we’re a team, then run off on your own. You treat us like equals one time, then subordinates and lackeys another. You’re open one second, then shut us out the next. It’s exhausting.” She can’t explain, she wants to object, but she knows she’s just being reckless and impulsive. Nyx could have taken the time and explained it slowly. It’s not that they didn’t listen. She just gave up and called it a foregone conclusion that she didn’t have the time for. Of all the things she thought Noel might say, this was the one thing that she hadn’t expected and the one thing that cut to the heart of the problem. Shame creeps into her stomach and throbs inside her head angrily as she bites her lip and nods.

“We’re not your toys.” The pain in her head only grows worse as Nyx stares at the floor, fingers clamping together helplessly. All the feelings of spite and frustration she had run off with last night had turned into shame, festering. Forcing her gaze up to Noel’s, Nyx gulps down her heartache and nods. ‘Sorry’, she mouths, enunciating each syllable clearly.

“...Okay. And...”

“We have to apologize as well.” Jun has a steaming mug of water in his bony fingers, which he sets down next to Noel. “We found out. That we’re… discount summons.”

“Bargain bin trash.” Nyx blinks, her concern with the way Jun spoke vanishing as Noel’s derisive, hateful voice cuts in. The succubus’ expression is twisted in anger and her sharp teeth are plain to see as her lips curl. An inkling of frustration and spite bubbles in Nyx’s stomach as she frowns as well, then shakes it off.

“Although our cute friend promised not to replace us, didn’t she?” Noel’s voice is suddenly teasing as she smooths over her expression, letting out a little laughing sigh. Puffing up her cheeks a little, she turns to Jun and raises an eyebrow.

“My ledger notes previous purchases. It was written there.” Jun’s eyes vanish as he crosses his eyes. “Let’s take a break,” he says suddenly. “We could use a little rest. The topics coming next will require composure.”

・

“-comes crashing in here, how are we going to handle it?” Noel’s cheek is smushed upwards as she flicks her thumb upward as if turning a page.

“I don’t know.” Nyx never noticed the way Jun’s bones shift with his breathing, but it’s so obvious when he sighs like that.

“Welcome back, Lady Nyx.” Nyx holds her objections and takes an even breath, then frowns - one corner of her mouth creasing sharply with dissatisfaction. They were supposed to start this conversation together.

“It wasn’t on purpose. I was just glancing through the lower boss list and...”

“We came to the conclusion we are deeply out of our depth.” Nyx scoots up as Jun finishes speaking, finding her place at the table as she sweeps her hand out. The grandiose gesture brings her menu out in its wake as she navigates through the dungeon management panes.

======================================

Summoning

PP, P, Points: 26

- | Basic Summons

- | Boss Summons

- | - | Random Lower Boss ( 800 Points )

- | - | Random Medium Boss ( 1200 Points )

- | - | Random Higher Boss ( ??? Points )

- | - | Boss Listing

======================================

Wait.

Wait, wait, wait. Nyx’s brow furrows as she stares at the menu again. These numbers aren’t correct. The random summonings are more expensive than before. Basic summons and the boss listing are unlocked now, but why did the prices increase?

“The listing of bosses is limited,” Jun begins, gesturing to the bottom half of the interface as Nyx ponders, “but it contains things like a giant scorpion, a giant orc, a giant octopus, a giant bee, and a giant.” Ah. She’d almost missed the system’s sick sense of humor. Nyx lets out another huff and shakes her head. It doesn’t matter anyway, she’s not going to go choose any of them, but the costs are exorbitant. These are all lower bosses, but the prices are 1000 points for the scorpion to 2000 points for the octopus. She points at the prices, tilting her head to the side.

“We guessed it’s because we’re in a desert.” Noel is still leaning into her hand, face squished, and gestures loosely towards the basic summons. Nyx’s frown tightens as she raises her hand. Tapping her lips and making a small gesture with her hand, she motions backwards.

“What were we talking about before?” Nyx snaps, pointing at Jun. Exactly that. What were they talking about before? “If a giant were to crash into the dungeon…”

“We couldn’t beat it, even together.” Noel finishes Jun’s train of thought, sipping from her mug and leaning back in her chair. Crossing her legs, the demon’s eyes droop as a thoughtful expression overtakes her face. She doesn’t have to say any more for Nyx to understand - the difference in power between the bosses of her dungeon and most bosses was quite large.

So that’s why. That’s why dungeon bosses get replaced. If all she saw were points, the 800 points she spent on Noel and Jun was weaker than a random lower boss, so as she accumulated points, it would make sense to keep getting stronger and stronger bosses. At the very least, discount lower bosses are significantly weaker than lower bosses.

But so what.

Nyx turns her head up towards Jun and Noel and shrugs, with an ‘It can’t be helped’ expression. A promise is a promise, after all. She had decided to summon these two, what good would it do to blame them because of her decision?

“You’re too nice,” Noel whispers.

“What was that, Noel?” Jun leans over, cocking his skeletal head towards Noel.

“She’s feeling protective of us,” Noel whispers, covering her mouth and pointing at Nyx. The woman in question, rifling through the basic summons, didn’t hear any of it. She turns her head up to see Noel giggling and pointing at her and Jun making his ‘ohoh’ noises. She smacks her hand against the table, glaring at them both, and glances back at the summon list.

Most of the options are still grayed out but monsters that are undead, demonic, or are suited to the desert seem to be cheaper. So the costs of the dungeon are adjusted based on the location and the bosses, which in turn is dependent on her own psyche. In other words, the dungeon is telling her that filling her dungeon with skeletons, fungi, and imps is most suitable for her.

I don’t think so. They’re not cute. She glances up at Jun for a moment, who immediately turns to stare back at her.

“Summoner…?” Her head turns back down immediately, caught thinking something rude. Why is that skeleton so damn sharp sometimes? Jun clears his non-existent throat and gestures at the menu.

“There’s another reason the other summons outclass us. A giant is summoned with a club to match its size and may possess skills befitting its nature. As an example, regeneration. Basic summons have similar traits.” Nyx turns her attention to the menu and navigates to the items, gesturing. Last time she had checked this, most of these had been grayed out, but if a giant could be summoned, then surely something like a giant’s club should show up here…

[ Giant’s Club: 600 Points - An oversized piece of wood. Discounted slightly if you have a giant in your dungeon. ]

Oh.

Oh that’s just fucked up.

Nyx holds her head in her hands and lets out a long, strained sigh of disappointment. Why the weapon of a giant costs a little less than the random summoning for a giant or sizable fraction of the cost of summoning a giant, she doesn’t understand.

“As you can see. It would be difficult for us to equip ourselves. Skills are also costly. We lack the funds.” Spoken like a true accountant. Nyx frowns, searching for any sort of skills in the menu. Jun had mentioned one earlier. Regeneration.

[ Regeneration: 1000 Points - Recovers the user’s stamina and heals wounds. Efficacy is increased based on the disposition of the user. ]

So not only was this skill unreasonably expensive, it read as though it might just not work at all if someone was the wrong type of creature or had the wrong attitude. And to make it worse, the giant summon was 1600 points, the same as the total cost of these two things. She glares daggers at the menu, at the system, for presenting such a bogus set of options. The feeling of being in front of a candy store returns, but this time it’s open and she knows she’ll never be able to afford it. The screen flashes in front of her.

[ TEEHEE. ]

“Ah, um… Lady Nyx, did your menu just… ‘teehee’ at you?” With a helpless expression and completely at the end of her rope, Nyx glances at Noel and buries her face in her hands.

“There is something within our budget. Water breathing, 20 Points.”

“Jun, my dear, aren’t we in a desert?”

“I suspect that is the reason we can afford it.”

“Goodness…” Noel takes a sip of her mug and shakes her head. “It seems the more useful an item or skill is, the more expensive it becomes. Traps, monsters, skills, anything that can improve our chances of defending ourselves or improving our combat strength is out of reach. A dungeon exists to defend its core, yet the means to do so is far out of our reach.”

“To the contrary, luxury goods are cheap. I can purchase a cake for a nominal fee.”

“This may be a little rude, but can you taste a cake, dear?”

“No.” Jun shrugs. Nyx is scrawling across her one sheet of paper again, quickly running out of space.

[ Strategy. Spending. Isolated, no immediate danger. ] Nyx pushes the paper forward, staring at her two companions.

“Regarding our budget,” Jun begins, prompting a little laugh from Noel.

“You sound so official. Our budget. Were you the accountant for a big company or some sort of treasurer?”

“Ahem. Regarding our budget,” Jun continues, eyes blinking out, “I recommend we simply split the budget three ways. If there is a large purchase, we can pitch in equally.”

“How do we make sure no one overspends?” Noel leans forward, somewhat conspiratorially, but Nyx waves off her concerns. She takes a while to write down what she wants to say, but both her comrades wait patiently for her to finish.

[ We can just check. Purchase history. We should define major goals, not how to prevent each other from hurting one another. Not blind trust, but mutual cooperation. ] She pushes that paper forward, wondering if she’s explained her thoughts well enough. This isn’t a company or a government where introducing checks and balances or defining precise roles is necessary. It’s a bit more like a home, she thinks. Assuming the worst of her housemates, her family members… You’re being silly. You’ve only known these two for a few days.

“I get it. Then, how should we make decisions? Majority vote?”

“I disagree.” Jun folds his arms, eyes still closed. “There are only three of us. A majority vote does not seem appropriate.”

“But requiring unanimous approval puts all the power in the hands of the dissenting party,” Noel counters, raising her eyebrow.

“I agree, Noel. I am suggesting we do not vote at all. We will never call for an official vote between the three of us to silence a discussion. The consequence is that the status quo is maintained.”

“If we can’t decide, we do nothing? Discussions strongly favor us over our Lady, however.” Nyx has one hand on her chin, thinking over the discussion, and shakes her head at that.

[ It’s fine. ] She understands that Noel is trying to delicately point out that she’s differently abled, but the idea of voting seems far too much like government. Make a decision, then leave to your own business… It’s a disadvantage, but it’s better than voting. [ Be patient with me. ] It takes her another moment to scrawl that out.

“Always.”

“Hm.” That’s as close to a yes as Jun is going to give, Nyx thinks, then rolls her shoulders.

“Then, there is just one final sensitive topic to breach. It was mentioned briefly earlier but...”

“Yes. What is a dungeon? What is our dungeon?” Jun’s glowing eyes retreat deeper into the sockets, giving him a slightly somber expression.

Nyx closes her eyes, exhaling softly. What’s the point of a dungeon? Well, it’s full of monsters and things to defend the core against… invaders. To kill invaders. Her eyes snap back open and she shakes her head furiously.

“Yes. Although other dungeons may be different, our dungeon exists to protect the dungeon core and ourselves.” Jun’s voice is solemn as he grunts. “It would be normal to kill invaders.” How had she let the conversation get this far? How had she let herself get so swept away by the conversation that they reached here?

Nyx raises her arms above her head, crossing them. Absolutely not. Even if this world is just like that. Even if that’s how other dungeons do it. Even if that’s the accepted way. She closes her eyes and thinks about the goddess, about Aura, about how similar both of them are. About how life is precious. The dignity of a living creature… The right to live. And how she feels, so sincerely, so clearly, the same thing as when she saw the Alraune at the bottom of the well…

[ I feel as though I’ll lose something important. ]

Those words bubble out of her and practically write themselves on the page, leading her trembling hand. Her head feels as though it’ll split apart. To kill. To murder. To take a life. Her breathing quickens as she clutches the table, counting backwards in her head.

“Summoner, it’s fine.”

“For better or worse, we’re in the middle of nowhere. We have time. It’s not as though I’ve ever killed a person.” Technically, Noel leaves off.

“I feel that I have, but I take no pleasure in it.” Both women whip their heads around to stare at Jun. He doesn’t shrink back in the slightest. “It is just a feeling. We can protect the core without killing. We will.”

“Ah, what if we created a fake cave?” Noel immediately proposes an idea, moving the conversation forward quickly.

“A fake dungeon and a hard to find spot for our core,” Jun continues. Nyx racks her brains for something to add on and snaps her fingers.

[ Trick people into destroying a fake core. ]

“As you see. Whether it is or isn’t possible, there will be a way. If not, we will create it. We will find a means to protect ourselves without having to hurt others, Summoner.” Jun nods, leaning forward and letting out a single, short scoffing laugh. Nyx relaxes and smiles broadly, dipping her head at both of them. Lucky. She’s lucky to have these two that understand how important this is to her. She beams at both of them, the tension draining out of her. Staring back at her smiling face and leaning forward ever so slightly, Noel glances at Jun for a moment and smiles as well.

“We also don’t want to lose something important.”