Once Rex eventually finished up with madam Jodie's 'services', he left to return to his usual inn's room for the night. Which he was sharing with Vela, his wolf girl. Even though there was only one bed. As requested. While the other three slaves shared a single room without any bed. Because it was cheaper that way.

¤

[Okay, I've got 352 DP's to spend on defenses. Not a whole lot, really. It woulda taken a thousand just to make something barely enough to hide the rusty Hyrule sword in.]

[I need a good plan, one that'll make use of my already existing tunnels. Cause that's where he'll come looking.. tomorrow.]

..

[Didn't one of those dungeon stories I'd read do something like this? There was an inferno mage using a compass-type device to look for a specific macguffin it had agreed to hide. So it dumped a lake into the deeper tunnels he was searching through. Flushing the bastard away, and smashing him against all the bends and corners.]

reference: Blue Core. If you haven't read it yet, I strongly suggest you do so. If you have time

[I don't have a lake though, and even if I had time to fill one, I have nowhere to put it. But there is a river. I don't have a huge network of tunnels to flush him down into. But I can put in a nice big septic tank. Heavy on the septic.]

[That's probably the best I could try within my budget.]

. . .

[He's level 63 though. At best it would be an embarrassing inconvenience. And as a stone mage he could simply dig himself out of whatever I throw him at.]

[Hide ourselves. Kill him. Or capture him. Those are our only options.]

[Wait- capture! What about that chloroform movie trick I mentioned for the plan. We could try that out. They mentioned him having slaves. If he wears their collars, he'd become their slave! And that's prob'ly why he didn't go for it as soon as he learned about it. He'll have to bring them along for backup.]

[Doesn't really help me in the long run though. But that's no reason not to free beastkin slaves, like the Gods requested for me to do here. But then they'll likely switch sides as soon as their collars are off. Or even at the mention of it being possible.]

[Then I could pay them to protect me (and my mom) with my Unique Skill, Modification. That's something no one else would have anything like. The ability to permanently raise someone else's stats, among other improvements. But it requires physical contact. So for that they'll either have to wait for my birthday, or come find my core self. Which isn't really a problem for me.]

[Back to the issue with the soaked cloth. There's gotta be a person to use it. And a good excuse for why they should get it close in the first place. At the face in the second. And hold it there in the third place. . Homerun! - I mean Eureka!]

[Okay, let's do this.] {Shop: Chloroform . 960DP} [DAMMIT!]

¤¤¤

"Damn it all Rex, you need to go and check it out now!"

"It's already over a week past. Whoever it was is long gone. Besides, Jodie said there were lethal traps in that tunnel, so I need to wait until my team is refit."

The adventurer's guildmaster fought to calm himself. [I can't give away that she might be the Mother of Destiny, pregnant with the next Hero.]

"How long will that take you?"

"Two full days. Earliest we could go is tomorrow evening."

*sigh* "Alright, but take me with you."

Rex raised his eyebrow at this. . . "Is there something I should know?"

"Whoever it was should be a lot more capable than I've let on publicly. Honestly, I'm not sure you could do what he did down there. Don't worry, you'll still get the whole reward anyway. I just miss getting out in the field. I want to stretch my legs a bit."

[Wow, It's a good thing I spent the 73 DP to extend into his office last night. I was afraid of being found out 'by the feel of my mana' again, but this intel is worth the risk. Plus seeing that there's now an S Ranked level 145 Titan Brawler hanging out 'in my territory' I should get a significant boost to my DP income. I'll have to change the plan though. A pie to the face wouldn't cut it as a good excuse twice at the same time.]

[I might just have to have mom run away instead.]

¤¤¤¤¤

Evening of next day, just after second DP replenishment onto the remaining ~280.

[Okay, let's do this again.] {Shop: Chloroform . 960DP . Purchase} {Shop...}

¤

Between them, Rex's slaves had estimated 35-36 gold in total for repairing and replacing their damaged equipment. It actually cost them 38 though. Earning Rolaf and Pan each a hard slap in the face for underestimating their costs.

Which they were ordered to give to each other. It made no sense in hurting his own self when disciplining "his beasts" for them being stupid.

But now they had their equipment repaired and replaced as necessary.

Along with a week's worth of rations, just in case. And his water magic for drinking.

But at least they were ready now.

So now it was well after dinner and shortly after sunset. Rex and his wreckers met up with master Willarm at the guild hall. The six of them then proceeded to our brothel in question.

¤

{Okay Mom, they're on the way now. Tell her to go finish the set up like we discussed.}

[I really didn't want to do this. But now your luck. Has run out.]

Jodie got busy in the tunnels, sprinkling a quarter of the bottle of 'sleeping potion' on the dungeon's floor. Starting from the back end, then working her way out. While he sang to himself the lyrics from Metallica's song 'No Leaf Clover.'

Once she was out, she placed the open bottle of chloroform on the floor. The dungeon Inventory-ported it onto the new drop-trap in what was previously the room at the end. Then he activated it. Smashing the bottle into the holding cell at its bottom. The shards were then moved into a random trash pile outside.

A minute later, Rex's Wreckers (plus one) entered the brothel's lobby.

Jodie happily greeted them right away. "Welcome, welcome!" *clap* "I see yer ready ta get started. Let me show ya where. This way" she said. Before leading them to the basement.

..

"The report said it was closed off somehow." complained Rex.

"It was." Jodie answered from the top of the stairs.

"Then why is it opened up again?"

"He knows we're coming." offered the guild master.

"Who‽" the mage demanded.

"That's what yer here for. Ta figure these things out.

And bring back tha dang fox."

"Let's get it over with, Rex."

He started muttering something too quietly to make out. A few seconds later raising his glowing hand toward the pit-stairs leading to their destination.

When he finished, it rearranged itself into a normal sized set of stairs.

*hm* At his signal, Lule the tracker slave started to go down. Immediately followed by Pan the shield warrior tigress. Guildmaster Willarm inserted himself as third in the lineup. With Rex himself after. Then the wolf twins, Vela and Rolaf, brought up the rear.

Their next problem was that two of them were taller than the 2 meter tall corridor and had to crouch down. Rolaf by only just under 5 cm. But Pan was 40 cm too tall to fit through. For Vela, the ceiling only bent her ear-tips downward. The other three didn't notice any trouble.

"Do you smell that?" asked the rat.

"Not yet, Pan?" replied Rolaf.

"Are you always so free with your slaves?" complained the guildmaster

Rex answered "Only when it could save all our lives."

"That matron was down here. Perhaps recently?" she answered the previous query.

"No. Well, that too. There's death down here. Close."

"Whuff, I scent it now." offered Vela, bringing up the rear.

The tigress' nose was more human-like than hers, so it wasn't nearly as strong. But still much better than any regular human's.

"Master, this stone is different. The floor in the corner. May be trapped, can't find anything yet."

*hm* He extended his mana sense into the specified location. "No trace of magic use. Though it has been about half a month. It may simply have dissipated."

He muttered a few unintelligable words. Causing the cap over the first trap to vanish.

"""YE GODS!"""

""Such a stench!""

"I think we found one o your missing adventurers."

"Check it out. Rat, go down there. Tiger, brace the rope."

""Aye, guildmaster.""

. . .

"There's a big wheel down here! Stone, big as the whole pit! The guy must be squished right under it! (mutter: and the stench down here is even worse than being your slave.)"

A bit more muttery hand-glowing and the stone wheel also vanishes.

"I . . didn't think it was possible."

""""What‽""""

"He LOOKS even worse than he SMELLS!

Wait, I think.. Yes, I see his guild tag. Do ya want me to bring up the whole corpse for burial? Or just the tag?"

"Or we could leave him be until the return trip." interjects Vela.

"Yes, that. Come back up." ordered Rex.

. . .

After a similar find at the next corner, Lule voiced a new concern.

"I'm starting to feel a bit.. drowsy."

Vela: "Me too."

Rolaf: .. "Me too."

Rex: "Me as well. It's likely some kind of poison in the air. Take your antidotes."

"I didn't bring any." the guildmaster admitted, embarrassed.

*sigh* "Take one of mine."

.

At the third corner.

Pan piped up "They didn't even try to hide it this time. But this one's an even bigger pit. If anyone fell for this one, that's on them for becoming too complacent."

"We already found both adventurers. The only others to come through here was the Matron Jodie and our targets."

Rex pointed out. "The fox girl and whoever dug out the tunnel in the first place."

"I've only scented two. One the matron, the other scent foxy. Whoever dug all this out, they never came here." said Rolaf.

"Are you sure‽" his master demanded "Even I would have trouble building all of this remotely."

[Then it's a good thing I'm not you.]

"That's why I insisted on the two of us." Willarm responded.

"No traps here. Well there were, but they were sprung, then left open. They laid this plank across the pits after."

"Pits? plural?" requested Willarm.

"Yes, two separate traps with a single drop."

"So you jump over one." Started Vela.

"And right onto the other." finished her twin.

Pan: "Clever. And right after two single pit traps."

"Compliment the bastard later. Right now, we're trying to catch him." barked the guildmaster.

[C'mon! Just cause my parents aren't married, that's no reason to be mean to me.]

They hurried past, as fast as checking for traps first allows. Reaching the former 'bed'chamber in short order.

"Is this new?" Rex asked. While pointing toward the pit at the chamber's back.

Willarm stated "Only the matron reported. And she claimed to never reach this far. It could be how the fox got taken away, or it could be new today."

Rex asked "if that's the case, then how did she get away?"

The guildmaster slowly turned to the slaveowner and replied soberly. "With all the strange goings-on, are you truly willing to wager everything that she in fact did get away?"

"You mean-"

"They would have had to get the matron to work for them somehow."

"I can't think of a way that's even possible to force her."

The rat added "Maybe she was bribed then?"

"No point speculating for now, just continue on."

. .

They made their way down the 10 meter tall pit. The way was easier after Rex modified one side into a ladder.

Once Pan made it to the bottom first, she warned the others there was a 3-meter drop into the next chamber.

So they tied a knotted rope to the ladder before joining her.

Now they faced a choice before continuing.

"Left or right?"

Rex pulled out a coin to flip. "Crown, we go left. Keep, to the right." *flick*

It settled on 'keep' "Right then, off we go."

But while he bent down to pick up his coin from the floor, he finally succumbed to the chloroform.

Its vapor having no way to leave the underground, and being thickest down below the knees.

And his Con Attribute the lowest of all those present.

[Time to get rid of this.]

The rope they intended to climb back up with vanished.

If they were directly under it, they might have been able to see that the top half of the pit they climbed down was filled back in.

Leaving them stranded.