Chapter 32. Alternating

Chapter 32: 32. Alternating

"Hey Silver, let’s put on a show for muffin."

"What are you talking about? We are crawling down a damn tunnel. And the only show I’m going to be putting on is violence."

Dr. Rhiannon looked back, teasing me, swinging her hips on purpose. I’d been caught! She was playing with fire with that one. Hopefully Seraphine didn’t notice.

Seraphine powered through the tunnel, as did we. It was the end of the maze. The traps weren’t a challenge at all, but now we were moving to the second stage. This was hardly what you’d call a tunnel, though, more like a clean cave hole someone had dug.

My mind was making up theories at the worst possible time.

"Stop!"

Seraphine shouted, and we followed her lead. I was a bit slow and almost stuffed my face in Dr. Rhiannon’s ass for a moment. The blue soul fires moved further to light up the newfound space.

"There’s a drop in front of me. I’m going first, wait, then follow me, be careful."

Seraphine poked her torso out of the cave’s mouth, gripping the corner to pull her legs forward and jump down. The sound of her feet hitting the floor echoed a few seconds later.

Then it was Dr. Rhiannon’s turn. She followed the exact same movements, except she added a little kick as she went. Not teasing this time, just her usual self. Then it was my turn.

"Come on, I’ll catch you, muffin."

Dr. Rhiannon had her arms open like she was rescuing a kitten from a tree, lips rounded, playing innocent. It didn’t bother me, but I’ll give that mommy privilege to Saelith alone.

"No thanks."

I jumped down, being extra careful. Dr. Rhiannon puffed up her cheeks, mad that I didn’t play along.

"Kids these days. You better start listening to your elders!"

Another thing to ignore, but she didn’t get any madder about it. I looked around and the first thing I noticed was dark patches on the wall, floor, and ceiling, scattered randomly, some with a hard bud in the middle.

I got closer to one of the buds and found out it was disgusting, it was stuck to the wall and had an insect-like smell, but an unfinished one.

I backed away because the smell was unbearable, but Dr. Rhiannon had no trouble inspecting it.

"This sure is disgusting. My guess is these are dead hummer beetles, the new kind, and these were juveniles."

"How can you tolerate that smell?"

I asked, and immediately regretted it.

"Muffin, I’ve smelled other disgusting things. I’m a doctor, you know."

Okay, for one, there was no sign of a double meaning in her facial expression, just her words. She went straight back into inspection mode.

"The bud seems to be the main core body. And these bark-like patches are probably the result of the semi-transparent slime drying up."

Dr. Rhiannon said, focused and on point, touching the patch to inspect it further. Then she took a scalpel out of her pocket.

"I should probably take a few of these for myself."

I decided whatever Dr. Rhiannon was about to do next, I wasn’t going to watch. I’ll give her the space. It’s good that she’s doing doctor stuff for a change, but I’m not into it.

Moving to Seraphine, she had her eyes closed, hand cupped to her ear.

"What are you doing?"

"Listening. It’s quiet, no sound. At least nothing living or hostile. We’re safe for now."

Possibly a valkyrie thing, or just a Seraphine thing.

"Quick, let’s see that data hub and move on to the third stage."

The data hub caught Dr. Rhiannon’s attention, she’d finished collecting the newfound juvenile beetle corpses.

From there we moved deeper, following the layout. The deeper we went, the more patches began to appear, some with two or three buds, until the whole wall was covered with them.

I said before that the smell was unbearable, but now it had become insufferable. I’d never seen puking as a luxury before.

We stopped to examine a few more rooms as well, but they were mostly empty, filled with other disgusting sets of things. The rooms didn’t have doors, despite having door hinges.

We were all forming theories, and they fit quite nicely.

"These many beetles surely suggest they destroyed everything they could in an attempt to escape, or to fill their bellies."

I nodded as Dr. Rhiannon pointed out the obvious, though not many people would’ve reached the same conclusion. Seraphine, over here, didn’t give a fuck.

"I hope the data hub isn’t destroyed. I’m hoping you’ll reveal some weakness of the new hummer beetles after your data analysis."

Dr. Rhiannon’s eyes sparked at Seraphine’s words, she pointed a finger like a nerd and smiled with enthusiasm.

"Don’t worry, most data hubs are protected, and actually I can find the weakness..."

This was the first time I’d seen the two of them talking like friends.

"You know, I have my own theory. The narrow cave hole we just came through might be a blocking point, cast by someone trying to seal the beetles in. That’s why it looks out of place."

Yeah, they didn’t listen to my theory, because they were having their own conversation, and I felt embarrassed talking to nothing but air.

We proceeded and slowly got closer and closer. We were just a few rooms away from the data hub. This stage didn’t have any real challenge to offer, it was like a walking simulator.

Or so I thought.

When the heavy metal door with magic seals came into view, we knew it was the data hub. After a long, boring walk through a shit hole, we were excited.

And we made the fatal mistake of lowering our guard and sprinting toward the door.

"Wait, you two!"

Seraphine called out, but it was already too late. Me and Dr. Rhiannon stepped into a magic circle and activated a trap. Seraphine stopped in time, but what happened next caught her too.

We looked around as the magic circle faded and the whole structure started to shake, dust and beetle buds falling from the ceiling. A white barrier divided the structure into smaller chunks, in the blink of an eye.

Dr. Rhiannon and I found ourselves in a new place, no sign of Seraphine.

"Where’s Silver? She’s the only proper fighter in our party. Wait–"

Dr. Rhiannon panicked for a second, then rested her back against the wall, crushing a few beetle buds in the process. She cast the Steward’s Eye again to scan the layout.

Blue soul fire formed a completely new layout of the second stage. This time Dr. Rhiannon didn’t focus on the first stage, and instead mapped out the second. And third.

The layout of the third stage took form, a few rooms and halls, then a massive space that kept expanding further and further down, with small rooms attached around the hole.

The space was massive enough to be out of range for Dr. Rhiannon. She only managed to scan half of it, the layout cutting off like a mango sliced horizontally. The third stage was twice the size of the first and second stages combined.

That scared me.

Then markings appeared, and Dr. Rhiannon knelt down to think through the next plan of action, possibly. The massive space was marked as an "artificial habitat." After reading that, I could finally say this wasn’t some cheap research facility.

There were several other markings which I ignored, because I didn’t want to overexhaust my brain.

"This dungeon is a pain in the ass, who built this? Were they unemployed or something?"

Dr. Rhiannon complained, frustrated and amazed, but quickly shifted focus to the important things.

She pointed at two yellow dots, one us, the other Seraphine. She was in the completely opposite corner from us, and between us, right in the middle, was the data hub.

"Silver can probably figure out the layout has shifted. But she’ll have a hard time finding us. I can’t communicate with her, I’m drained."

"We know where she is, so why don’t we go find her."

I asked, and somehow offended Dr. Rhiannon. She crossed her arms, cheeks puffed up.

"Yeah, we can, but that would take time. How about we stop by the data hub first, then go after her."

"But–"

I was going to make an argument, because in scenarios like this, sticking together is the best move. Seraphine had confirmed there weren’t any enemies nearby, but this shifting structure had caused a lot of noise and probably alerted the beetle woman. The data hub shouldn’t be our priority.

So why didn’t I stop her? Because I wanted to get laid.

This was my perfect chance to seduce Dr. Rhiannon, have sex, earn some juicy Casllay, and pump some life force back into me.

"Yeah, you’re right. Seraphine doesn’t even like nerdy stuff. We’ll stop by the data hub, get the data, and move on to the third stage."

Dr. Rhiannon lit up with excitement, she loves her work almost as much as sex. Definitely lower than sex, though.

"That’s what I’m talking about. Let’s go see what that beetle bitch is about."

I matched her energy, fist clenching together like a child. I knew this would happen, we’d end up together somehow. Now I had to be myself and focus on her.