Dungeons and Dalliances

7.76 – Slime V

"Mm. A free answer? So gracious. I'll make it up to you later." Looking back to Vanetta, the slimegirl said, "In short, there's a hierarchy among us."

"A hierarchy? And who's 'us'?"

"That's its own question." Holding a finger up to cut off Vanetta's protest, she said, "No. Really. It is. There's a hierarchy among dungeon monsters—intelligent ones—and the reason I know Malice is because everyone knows Malice." Her eyes flicked to Natalie. "She doesn't know me, for the record."

Natalie found herself listening with rapt interest. She'd wondered about this subject for a while. Through context clues and direct explanations, it was clear there was much more going on with monsters inside the dungeon than any scholar would have thought. But even Malice, her ally, had been tight-lipped on the details.

She hadn't known Malice was a figure of importance. Every intelligent dungeon monster knew her? She had only been a second-floor boss, though.

A monster's placement on a specific floor must not say much about their rank. Malice had mentioned 'assignments', too. They could be moved around, apparently between floors. Was their strength tied to their current assignments, then, and not inherent to them?

Now that she thought about it, Malice had been positioned as the first viable boss for Natalie to use an erotite arrow on. That might have been intentionally planned by either the dungeon or Lust because Malice was important.

"She's important, then?" Natalie asked, since Vanetta was temporarily stunned by the whole, 'dungeon monsters have a society' concept. Natalie was also shocked to hear it stated outright, even if she'd been primed for the reveal from what she'd learned through Malice.

"Very," Cheri said. "A general, if you want to call her that, where I'm just rank and file. Not that that's an accurate metaphor. Hierarchy is as much by our age as our talent. But yes, Malice is important. That's why I recognized her name."

"Why do dungeon monsters need a hierarchy?" Vanetta asked, finally composing herself. "That implies, what, organizational goals? Hierarchies exist for a reason. She manages a part of the dungeon? Gives you commands? Toward what goal? And what do you mean by age—some of you are younger? Is there … birth? An actual society? Cities and stuff? Families?" Vanetta paused as she considered something, her eyes widening. "Wait, were you human once?"

Natalie twitched. It would explain a lot. But Cheri had been ready for the question, because she winked, not giving anything away. "Those are definitely

Vanetta bit her lip, seeming unsatisfied. She spun and faced Natalie.

"And how do you know her?"

"I'd love to know that too," Cheri chirped. "It was a shock to hear her name randomly thrown at me. By a human, no less."

"And you still have to explain Lady Lust," Vanetta said to the slimegirl. "But Malice first." Her eyes locked onto Natalie.

Natalie chewed her lip.

"So," Natalie said. "When a girl and a dungeon monster love each other very much, sometimes—"

Cheri broke out laughing, and Natalie grinned at her.

"Be serious," Vanetta growled.

"—Sometimes," Natalie continued, "the girl sticks a magical arrow into the dungeon monster, transforms her into a humanoid boss monster, and fucks her into obedience. Then consumes her soul into a magical Capture Core and takes her home to add to the team."

Cheri stopped laughing, to instead gape at Natalie like Vanetta was.

"Your parents never gave you this talk?" Natalie asked.

"You unbound her soul?" Cheri asked, disbelieving. "That … isn't possible." She paused, then shook her head. "Nothing that's been happening recently is possible. But … explain."

Natalie turned to Vanetta. "This is a secret, by the way. Please keep it?"

Vanetta seemed to recover from her surprise, furrowed her brow, and nodded.

"It was a whole series of events," Natalie sighed. "In short, I got an [Erotite Arrow] from a drop. Which apparently turns regular boss monsters into, uh…" she hesitated. "Lewd bosses." Cheri wouldn't have qualified, she was pretty sure, since she wasn't a boss. Not that Natalie had another arrow anyway. "Malice was the first one I bumped into that was humanoid even before a transformation, and since I didn't want to—er, deal with an actual monster, if there wasn't a significant transformation—"

"Boring," Cheri booed. "Where's your monsterfucking spirit?" Despite the ridiculous words, her eyebrows were still raised in incredulity, her teasing half hearted.

"—so I waited until Malice. Since she was already a wolfgirl. She just turned into an even more, uh, suitable one for the task. Then we fought, I captured her, and now we're …"

Natalie hesitated briefly.

Cheri gasped. "Girlfriends?"

"No," she protested. "Obviously not. I was just finding the right word."

"Yeah, right. Is there a marriage date set?"

"We barely know each other! Stop being ridiculous."

"So I can tease you," Cheri laughed. "It's just harder."

Natalie took a step back as the grinning slimegirl stalked toward her in delight. She put a hand out in front of her to stop her, though Cheri happily let her gooey body squelch into Natalie's palm, boobs squishing around her hand. She did, thankfully, halt.

"There's definitely something there, though," Cheri laughed. "I can see it in your eyes. A human and a monster. Star-crossed. How romantic!" Turning to Vanetta, she joked, "Hope you don't mind sharing."

"She's sleeping with half our school," Vanetta said dryly. "So that's kinda the default assumption."

"Half the school?" Cheri asked. She ran her gaze up and down Natalie as if freshly appraising her. "Good for you."

"Hardly half," Natalie said, squirming. "It's your turn to ask for something," she said to Cheri, just to divert attention away.

"I wanna know more about this capture core," Cheri said.

"So do I," Vanetta agreed.

"Is that your request?" Natalie asked. "Another question?"

Cheri pouted. "What, no more freebies?"

"Keep being generous with your answers, and I might be persuaded."

"Hmph. Fine, my next request." Humming to herself, she said, "Let's see. Something to make it worth my time."

She faced Vanetta, which didn't surprise Natalie in the slightest. The rogue straightened and stiffened. Really, Natalie didn't blame Cheri for her interest in Vanetta. She wanted to pounce the girl every time she saw her, too.

"Let's see," Cheri said. "How to escalate?" She considered for a little while longer. "Got it," she said, pounding a fist into her open palm while locking eyes with Vanetta. "Lemme eat your ass."