Dungeons and Dalliances

7.58 – Palace Basement I

In the end, Natalie came to a decision: she couldn't justify ending their delve when the three short days they'd allocated came and passed. Not with possible rewards in the form of Epic and possibly Mythical items sitting in the Emporium. While leaving her team without their primary tank for an extended period was far from ideal—and in some ways, leaving them in the dark on whether she was alive at all was worse—the potential for benefit was too great.

Thankfully, both downsides were mitigated. As for them lacking a tank—Malice, [Divine Invigoration], and hopefully [Aura of Blessed Advancement] were helping them along. They would be making decent progress without her.

And for Natalie's well-being, [Divine Invigoration]'s persisting effect would indicate she was alive and down in the dungeon, having extended the delve for one reason or another. Considering how two god-blessed individuals had entered together, she was sure Ana, if no one else, would suggest that the dungeon had taken special interest in them and thrown them into an extended challenge. Though [Divine Invigoration] would expire after a week, so they would eventually lose that assurance.

Also, Natalie had made contact with two parties leaving the City of Eros, paying them to send messages to Tenet and her teammates. Assuming something odd wasn't going on, such as a memory effect or similar, Jordan and the others would receive news of her being alive. There was no guarantee, though; communication could only leave the City, not enter it.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

So, not ideal, but not horrible, in regard to her teammates. Natalie intended to make it up to them by bringing back loot. Plus, her benefit was their benefit since skills scaled on level. So if she were to level up again, [Aura of Blessed Advancement] would work even more effectively on them. And there were few benefits as substantial as faster leveling.

The first week passed with a variety of adventures. Mostly, she received Arena and Bordello assignments. The expected Coliseum event with Elida, shockingly, didn't appear, and neither did the scandalous Palace Basements.

Natalie received two non-standard assignments: one night, to go "punish criminals secured in pillories", which was, uh, a rather fun one, and another day, to "engage in carnal relations with three other citygoers", which had also been an enjoyable experience. Picking up girls was always fun, and being paid to do it? Even better. Especially when said other girls had gotten their own share of rewards.

She was starting to recognize faces on the streets, which made the City experience more flustering in some ways and less in others. Because while there were a few hundred people at any given moment in the City, a few hundred wasn't that many, and since Natalie mostly paid attention to the girls, the pool was cut in half.

She was starting to be recognized in return, too. It wasn't common for girls to have permanent extra equipment, apparently, which made her a point of interest in its own right. Never mind that she and her team were from Tenet—as few groups here were, since most delvers in general weren't elite delvers by definition—and not just that, they were some of the best of their year.

As it turned out, acting as a regular, full-time delving team was only slightly less effective at earning tokens than engaging in their assignments. So their squad of five turned to that often, whenever their given tasks were too uncomfortable. Heading out into the Ruins and hunting bosses, then bringing those coins back to trade with city-folk, wasn't quite as good as engaging in the way the City wanted, but it wasn't far off.

Only for their team, though, because of how efficient they were. The vast majority of groups avoided the 'points of interest' in the Ruins like the plague. Which was fair. Even their team struggled with some. And most delvers weren't looking to get themselves killed. Even the more prudish would rather lounge about in a Bordello and entertain guests than risk permanent maiming. Tenet students were just a special brand of crazy—and her group in particular.

So, that hunting efficiency, combined with a better-than-expected trading ratio between regular coins and enchanted ones, made the endeavors fruitful. Doubly so because there were a subset of city-goers who had happily sunken into full depravity and were quite … efficient when it came to enchanting tokens. Some of the stories she'd heard scandalized even her. Most of those originated from the Palace Basement. A certain reputation had been built up for that place, and Natalie was slightly apprehensive for when she eventually received an assignment there herself.

Which was, it turned out, on day seven.

Reading that simple snippet—venture into the Palace Basements and return with at least one piece of loot—had Natalie's stomach both sinking and her heart rate picking up in anticipation. The situation evolved for the better when she checked what Vanetta had gotten and received a grunted response of, "Palace Basement." They'd gotten it together, on the same day. The assignment didn't specifically tell them to go together, but—the option was there.

Learning that Natalie had also gotten it, Vanetta paused. Normally, she would have rejected this strangest and most perverted of the common assignments. But with Natalie also assigned?

"Is teaming even allowed in the Basement?" Vanetta asked dubiously, glancing at the paper again.

"It is. It's a whole thing; you just have to hang around the entrance and see if anyone wants to." She'd heard people talk about it; after a week in the City, she'd chatted with enough of the other denizens to have a good idea of how everything worked. "The challenges adjust, though, I think? So it's not necessarily an advantage. You split loot. And you lose your—privacy."

"Ah, yes," Vanetta said sarcastically, "if you're gonna have sex with a monster, you should at least have your privacy."

As a distinguished monster-fucker herself—thanks to Malice and her insatiable appetites—Natalie defended herself, "They're humanoid. They even talk. Nothing wrong with that."

Vanetta grunted. "That they talk is crazy in its own right," she muttered. She wiped a hand down her face. "You're gonna make me go with you, aren't you?"

Natalie didn't point out that Vanetta could decide not to on her own prerogative. She grinned shamelessly and gave the other girl the excuse she was looking for.

"Please? It's dark and scary. I don't want to go alone."

Vanetta glowered at her since she was laying it on thick.

"Besides," Natalie said, "we'll have a choice in what happens. The encounters are hard, but we're good. If we're not feeling it, we can fight our way out and leave."

There was always the risk of 'not feeling it' and losing anyway, though, or falling into some trap, so venturing down into that place was essentially giving blanket consent. So Vanetta hesitated for a long moment.

But for all her accusations of Natalie's own pervertedness, the other girl was clearly curious. Because it didn't take that long before she got a hesitant nod.

"Fine. It's the second-best way to earn tokens in the City, isn't it? Might as well see what's going on down there."