At the top floor of the Sword Guild's headquarters, the Guild Master sat behind his desk, hunched forward and displaying his exemplary finger technique.
His concentration was honed in on the object of his affection, his fingers bent and inserted, the pressure squeezing them tight. A slight moan escaped his lips, with the ecstasy sparkling within his eyes.
At that moment the door to his office was flung open, and his secretary barged her way in.
The shock of the sudden intruder made the Guild Master nearly jump out of his skin in surprise, his fingers coming out of the tight space and dripping on his desk.
Staring at him in silence, his assistant could only feel disappointment before becoming animated once again and shouting at him.
“Guild Master! How many times have I told you not to do that in your office!? You will stain the desk! Not to mention you have an image to uphold!”
The miniature doll's house he was in the process of assembling fell to pieces, with its parts scattering across the desk, and all the while, glue dripped from his fingers and stained the rich mahogany.
Fighting back tears and not able to wipe his eyes even if he wanted to, the Guild Master sucked his lips in and nodded in agreement. Then, as if it only just occurred to him, his attitude instantly changed, and he spoke up.
“Wait, Cynthia, what did you barge in for anyway? Has something happened?”
Holding a clipboard to her chest, she straightened up her glasses and then handed over the paperwork.
Wiping the glue off his hands, the Guild Master started to thumb through the information, while Cynthia gave her report.
“Approximately one hour ago, the inspector who was assigned to the abnormal Level 1 Dungeon is believed to have been killed by the lizardmen inhabitants. There is only one eyewitness testimony from a guard under our employ. Her testimony is in the file.”
The look of utter annoyance was plain to see across his face as he skimmed through the file. Letting out an incomprehensible curse word, the Guild Master slammed his head to the desk in defeat before sitting up once again, now with a small wooden door stuck to his forehead.
“Eurgh, this is bad. The amount of money we're going to lose.....Send out a collapse order for the Dungeon; any of our Guild's parties should suffice, so whoever is closest.....And also, make sure the media doesn't get wind of this; pay off whoever you need to.”
Cynthia made a series of notes on her tablet before she spoke up.
“Yes, sir. The deceased inspector has no next of kin, but his residence is under our jurisdiction. Should I arrange for his property to be cleansed?”
Studying the file in his hand once again, the Guild Master pursed his lips in thought before replying.
“Yeah. Tell his neighbours he moved house. Oh, and send someone competent there; that inspector was a weird one, so it wouldn't surprise me if he booby-trapped his house.....Hmmm, send Henrietta; she can incinerate anything problematic.”
Cynthia nodded along while inputting more information into her tablet, before handing the Guild Master a small glass bottle.
“Yes, sir. It is the glue remover for your face; it has a child safety cap on it. Do you need help?”
Staring at Cynthia with a deadpan expression, the wooden door glued to his face showed no sign of budging.
“I'm fine; I'm not a child.”
Laughing internally, Cynthia kept a perfect demeanour while she replied.
“Hmm. Yes. Of course.”
“I don't want to leave you, Bob! Please don't make me!.... Can't I just hide in the hole with you? I'll even dig it big enough for me as well?”
Suzy pleaded with Bob while she clung to his leg, desperately trying to make him change his mind.
Fulfilling his familial bond, Ted came to his rescue and pried the pink lizardman off his brother. Holding her fast, Ted replied in Bob's stead.
“You know the plan, Suzy; Bob's already gone over it enough times.”
Suzy went to argue, but then saw Bob's face, his expression solemn.
“Look around, Suzy; everyone's hiding separately. If you hide with me and we get found, that's us both dead. I don't want to bring you down with me if it fails.....Plus, I'm just going to be below you; you can even see me from your position!”
Suzy stopped struggling against Ted's hold and seemingly accepted the words she heard.
Now released, she silently approached Bob and locked lips with him. Their passionate kiss continued, although it mostly consisted of copious amounts of licking, owing to the shape of their species' faces.
Ted had made himself scarce, deciding she had accepted the situation; he busied himself with his hole.
Suzy finally ceased her romantic gesture when lack of oxygen became a problem.
“You promise me it will be okay, Bob? That we can be together outside of the Dungeon?”
Smiling at her, Bob handed her a small rock he had sharpened into a blade and then replied.
“I promise you, Suzy. When we get out of here, we will go and explore the world and see what it has to offer.....Now use that knife I gave you, for when you need to cut your binds.”
Holding the sharpened rock tightly, she felt as if a part of her beloved Bob was with her.
“I will. This would have been so much easier if those idiots just let us destroy the Core!”
Smiling outwardly and choosing not to answer, Bob agreed inwardly and cursed the other idiots from their village.
The lizardmen who revere the Dungeon Core had put the whole village in a do-or-die situation, one they had no control over.
Burying those thoughts, Bob took hold of the binding that hung loosely around Suzy's neck and proceeded to stuff it into her mouth, gagging his companion.
Suzy vanished from sight, making her way up the tree to tie herself up out of sight from the expected Adventurers.
Flopping to the ground, Bob looked about and could see several of his brethren's hiding spots, only visible to him as he knew their location beforehand.
At the far end of the Dungeon, a large boulder next to the boundary wall hid a lizardman, securely tied up and out of sight.
Several of their number had taken the same method used by Suzy and hid high up in the tree canopies.
The smallest of their number was mimicking Bob and Ted and half-burying themselves underground.
"Soon I'll be gone from this place if it works out as planned. I at least have a vague understanding of what the outside world is like now. That human's memories have merged with mine; slowly I can feel them solidifying, giving me more knowledge without having to think hard about it, almost as if they were the real memories I've always had......The real issue will be when we escape: where do we go if we don't want to get immediately killed? The humans will hunt us incessantly...... I suppose I could try and talk to them, explain the situation and hope they don't kill us?........Eurgh, actually, from his memories, there's no way that would work. I would be shipped to a lab and dissected......The only thing I can try is the pervert with the weird fetish."
Climbing down into his hole, Bob spoke loudly.
“See you both on the other side.”
In response, two sets of muffled noises reached his ears.
Letting out a breath to ready his mind, Bob stuck his own gag into his mouth and then tied his hands to the large stake at the bottom of the hole. Using his large tail, he then set about using it to drag the dirt beside him and fill the hole in.
By the time the hole was covered by dirt, Bob was thankful he could still breathe through the loosely packed soil. To add the finishing touch, the end of his tail that stuck up from the ground was then inserted into a shrub that was to his rear.
The warm feeling of being packed in and surrounded from all sides gave him a comforting feeling that lulled him off to sleep.
The noise of gravel crunching under the tyres could be heard from inside the black limousine, which slowly pulled up at a safe distance from the Dungeon portal and away from the swathes of Adventurers.
A rear blacked-out window silently rolled down, allowing its sole passenger to observe the goings-on more clearly. From the driver's seat, the immaculately dressed maid, Philomena, glanced through the rear-view mirror and spoke to her master.
“Mistress, I believe you will have to admit defeat with this endeavour. The subjugation party is preparing to commence their operation, and there is no way you can acquire that thing.”
Without taking her eyes off the Adventurers, Henrietta replied in a cold tone.
“First of all, it is not 'it'; the word is 'he'....And I am saving him, not acquiring him.”
“Yes, of course. Mistress, my apologies.”
Henrietta seemingly accepted her maid's insincere apology, her tone changing to her natural way of talking once again.
“They're waiting for nightfall before they attack. That way, if anything unexpected happens, then there will be fewer civilians in the streets, or at work....It's going to be tricky, but I will save Red, that I promise!”
The cogs inside her head turned as she went over different plans that she could implement to infiltrate the Dungeon. Unconsciously, she bit down on her lip, the slight pain helping to focus her mind.
Philomena noticed her mistress's bad habit and spoke up.
“Mistress, your bad habit is showing again. May I ask, but why are you so set on saving it, I mean him, so much? Would we not be better trying a different lizardman-centric Dungeon?”
Taking hold of the necklace that was hidden under her shirt and out of sight, Henrietta gently caressed the red scale she had taken from her beloved.
“Red is my one and only; no one else will do....Philomena, you've never been in love, but the first moment I locked eyes with those beautiful, cold-blooded eyes, I knew he was the one!....I could see he wanted to devour me, body and soul. It sent a shock to my heart, one that permanently etched his love within me.....He is my destined, my soulmate, a gift from God!”
Philomena could see the genuine love in her mistress's eyes, a fanaticism that bordered dangerously close to violence, and firmly mired in devotion. Unable to refute her claims, or naysay her love, she instead centred on the last word she spoke.
“I did not think you believed in God, Mistress? I distinctly remember you despising your theological lessons when you were younger.”
Changing from her joyous expression, Henrietta suddenly changed to a neutral one and replied before becoming elated again. The swings in her emotions unfortunately made her raise her voice.
“It was only a figure of speech.....Is what I would like to say, but I genuinely believe a higher power brought me and my destined love together, Philomena! He will be mine; I will claim my prize no matter what!”
At that very moment, an uninvited guest made their presence known, appearing outside of the limousine. Their face blocked Henrietta's view of the assembled Adventurers and immediately filled her with equal parts loathing and worry.
Sporting a pair of black sunglasses and equally dark, slicked-back hair, the man wore a suit of the same colour.
His cheery face and smile were at odds with his dress, but Henrietta knew him well, and knew his real nature was calculating and cruel.
“Ohhhhh, what's this, if it isn't Henrietta. Who's this love you're talking about, one of the Adventurers that you've been eyeing for a while now?”
His appearance had taken them by surprise; neither Henrietta nor Philomena noticed his presence until he had made himself known. The surprise did not show on her face, though; neither did the hatred that she held for the man.
“I see you're sneaking about as usual. I'm not sure if you're a rat, or just a normal arse kisser.....Now why are you spying on a woman's private conversation?”
Still maintaining his smile, the man replied without a hint of annoyance.
“Now, now, Henrietta. I am just an ordinary Overseer; without my contributions, Adventurers like yourself would go unpunished for misdemeanours.....But don't worry, I know you're an innocent lady.....Now to my initial question: who do you have your eye on?”
Henrietta stared blankly at the man, without even saying a word or giving any signal; her maid Philomena acted according to her unsaid wishes.
The window closed, and the engine started, with the black limousine driving away and leaving the man standing alone and grinding his teeth in frustration.
His cheery nature had completely vanished as he withdrew his mobile phone and made a call.
“It's me. Send a message to the head of security on the Level 1 Dungeon that's set for destruction today. Tell him to add Henrietta and Philomena to the denied entry list.......Yeah......Probably trying to secure a lizardman corpse.....Okay, I'll accept.....Bye.”
With the phone secured back inside his pocket, he lit up a cigarette and inhaled deeply before letting out a puff of smoke into the air.
“Ahhh, dogs always stress me out.....Of all the weird proclivities though, I wonder if there's truth in it?...... Time to go.”
Finishing his cigarette off with a final deep inhale, the smoke he let out obscured his body. A second later, the cigarette butt dropped to the ground, leaving no one in sight.
Henrietta's limousine sped past the Adventurers congregating around the Dungeon portal, scaring one of their number in the process. Now out on the open road, Henrietta finally spoke up, breaking the silence that she had been using to think.
“I really hate that rat bastard.....It doesn't change anything though; we will have to go in through the front and do a bit of acting.”
Keeping her eyes on the road, Philomena accelerated down the motorway in the empty VIP lane, the only one that was devoid of traffic, and allowed them to pass the numerous cars stuck in gridlock.
“Mistress, my acting skills are rather sublime if I do say so myself. Whereas yours, well.....Anyway, do you think he will prove a hindrance?”
“He shouldn't. That useless prick never works overtime, and he was on the day shift today. Hopefully he thinks I just have a stupid crush on one of those degenerates. Then again, that's a disgusting thought. Eurgh.”
Smiling internally, Philomena replied, but quickly caught herself mid-conversation.
“Do not worry, Mistress; everyone knows you are a virg....I mean, selective about your love life.....We will be back home in ten minutes.”