Ted was kneeling on a multitude of sharp rocks in front of the portal, his arms raised in the air while he gritted his teeth and focused on fighting through the pain.
His whole body was trembling; just when he was about to collapse with fatigue, Suzy's face appeared in front of him and nearly scared him to death.
“Ted, you can stop now. Your punishment is over.”
Ted did not have the energy to stand up; his legs were not currently responding to his wishes. Allowing himself to tip over, he fell onto his side and cradled his legs, the relief on his face being plain to see.
“Ohhh phew, thank the Dungeon Core! That was horrible and totally uncalled for, Suzy....How was I supposed to know the portal would blast me away if I stood too close to it when it activates!?”
No reply came from Suzy at first; she only scowled at Ted before she deigned to speak.
“It's common knowledge, Ted! Obviously everyone knows it, jeez.”
Thankfully for Suzy, Ted had not realised that she was lying, it being the case that not a single lizardman knew about the portal possessing that function.
The reason she was so angry and willing to lie to Ted, though, was the fact that when he collided into her, his spear had stabbed her in the leg, forcing her to open her mouth to shout in pain. Only at that moment did Ted's foot go in her mouth and make her retch.
Then, to add insult to injury, some of his toenails snapped off and made their way inside her stomach.
If it were Bob's foot that had made its way inside her mouth, she would have praised Ted as an exemplary wingman.
Bob had been standing off to the side, not wanting to get involved with them in the slightest, just in case he incurred her wrath, no matter how little that possibility may be.
Now, judging it the correct time, he joined them while tentatively poking his new spear he made into Ted's head.
“Stop moaning, Ted and get up. We need to know what distance we can stand before that blast activates.....And guess what, you've volunteered to be the test goblin!”
Suzy let out a happy cheer for the creation of the test subject.
“YAYYYY!”
Climbing to his feet on shaky legs, Ted was about to protest the job he had been given until he caught a glimpse of Suzy staring daggers at him. The fear he felt quickly made him get his thoughts in order as he replied in a dead voice.
“Ahh yeah, can't wait. Yay!”
Ted dutifully approached a line in the ground that had been marked out and stood there.
Bob and Suzy had scraped a series of lines in the dirt at various distances away from the portal, intending to see how close they could realistically stand to the portal upon activation.
The trio spent an entire week working with this method, gradually moving backwards a line every time that they respawned. In the process of their investigation, they found out the portal's blast also affected the sides and rear, forming a circle one could not stand in upon initial activation.
Each respawn, while they trained with their spears, tested distance and fought with the Adventurers, the pairs of eyes in the forest increased.
The other lizardmen began to grow curious and steadily build up hope when they witnessed Bob, Ted and Suzy being respawned and, after listening to them talk.
Positioned on the marked line, five lizardmen stood holding spears, all of them patiently waiting for the inevitable arrival of the humans.
Two of the pairs of watchful eyes had decided to join Bob, Suzy and Ted, leaving fifteen who were still unsure.
Outside of the Dungeon, a party of new Adventurers were preparing to enter through the portal and finally raid their first Dungeon.
The healer in their party was still conversing with a guard from the Sword Guild, extracting as much information as possible, and also trying his hardest to avoid an ongoing conflict.
The two main damage dealers of their party were a man and woman who just so happened to be a romantic couple, as well as a couple of idiots. They were shamelessly causing a scene and making their healer regret joining them.
Looking up to the sky, the man clenched his fists and then released them, trying in vain to dissipate the anger he felt at that moment. Failing miserably, he looked at the angry woman in front of him and started shouting again.
“For fuck sake, I told you it's nothing like that, Sharonete! I'm not that kind of man!”
Listening to his words only seemed to enrage her further; she repeatedly banged her fists on his chest.
Sharonete was an Adventurer, and as such, her physical capabilities were quite extraordinary. So at that moment, her boyfriend Mikail's health was steadily dropping with each strike.
“You liar, liar! I even trimmed your butt hair, and you didn't say thanks! You take me for granted and then....Then, you even did that, you bastard!”
Their back and forth continued relentlessly until Mikail had had enough and decided to enter the Dungeon, if only to escape the tongue-lashing and physical attacks he was receiving.
Standing off to the side, the healer received a piece of information that gave him an extremely bad feeling.
He was internally cursing the guard for only telling him now and not even deeming it as necessary information.
That being that the monsters inside the Level 1 Dungeon, the lizardmen, had been acting strangely and unpredictably, with the possibility existing of being attacked immediately upon entry.
Turning to try and warn his party members, he was too late and only saw the backs of them as they entered the Dungeon.
Mikail stepped out of the portal, still fully engrossed in his argument, with Sharonete closely following him. Their ongoing slanging match made them not realise the danger they were in.
“I didn't do anything with your mum and sister! It's a misunderstanding, Sharonete!”
“WHAT, WHAT!? A misunderstanding? You were naked in bed with them both!”
Mikail turned back towards Sharonete, exhausted from the arguing; he sought to put an end to it. That was when he saw her face had changed; it was not anger anymore, but pure fear etched across her face.
Sharonette was pointing behind him with one hand, while fumbling to undo the clasp that kept her sword safe on her belt.
“Eh, what's wrong with you?”
Before she could answer, the portal activated again and their other party member walked through and nearly had a heart attack. He instantly grabbed hold of Sharonete and made to retreat from whence he came.
It only dawned on Mikail what was happening when he felt a sharp pain and looked down, only to see a spear tip protruding from his stomach.
The weapon was retracted, causing a spurt of blood to be expelled from his mouth, as the same substance pooled underfoot.
Before he could be finished off, Mikail, through force of will, lunged forwards and stumbled back through the portal.
Sanity returned to the lizardmen, and with it, an enormous cheer went up from them. They had not only severely injured one of the invaders, but also succeeded in driving them back through the portal.
The lizardmen who were in the forest watching had been driven out into the open when the portal activated, and their senses dissipated. They could not contain themselves and rushed forwards to join in the celebration, making it a total of half of the village now raring to follow Bob's words.
Several hours before the expected time of fresh Adventurers stepping into their Dungeon, an unusual scene was unfolding with Suzy at its centre.
She stood surrounded by her fellow lizardmen, with Bob standing in front of her holding a reel of bindings he had made.
“I'm sure I misheard you, Bob; say that again?”
“I'm saying I want to tie you up; I want your eyes only on me, Suzy.”
Suzy glanced around at the many faces that looked on; the thought of so many people watching sent a shiver down her spine. A massive grin covered her face, which spoke to her inner thoughts.
“My eyes? Oh, so you want to do it face to face. I always knew you were a romantic type, Bob! I can also bend over if you want?”
Bob was seriously confused by the words that were coming out of her mouth, as was most of the lizardmen present, with only Ted understanding what was happening.
Whispering in his brother's ear, Ted quickly explained Suzy's thoughts before the situation escalated any further.
Bob's face dropped; he was incredulous as he looked around and realised she was willing, and with so many eyes on her.
“Damn it, Suzy, that's not what I meant!.... Now listen, after we sent the last Adventurers packing, the next ones will definitely come prepared to attack from the get-go. Now because of that, I want you to spectate and see what happens once....Well, IF, they manage to kill us....You have the best eyes out of our village, so you'll be able to see stuff we can't, even from this distance.”
“Ohhhhhh, I knew that! Ha Ha!”
After a few minutes, Suzy was sitting atop a high tree branch, with Bob sitting in front of her and steadily binding her tightly.
By the time he had finished, she could not move an inch; each attempted movement only made the bindings go that much tighter. That was when she realised the tightness made her feel a certain way.
Whispering to Bob so none of the others on the ground heard, Suzy spoke.
“Bob, how did you learn to tie me up in such a way?”
Suzy's words made him freeze; he had been tying her up and had unconsciously done so in the same manner the red-haired woman had been tying him up.
It then occurred to him that the reason she was asking was that she probably felt the same way he did at those times....Excited!
“Ahhh, ohhh, well.....That woman did it like this each time she tied me up, Suzy.”
Suzy's bright pink cheeks puffed out before she launched into a tirade.
“She did that to you, Bob, every time!? Made you feel this way, this good!? Damn it, Bob, it should have been me for f.....Mhhhmmmm!”
To quickly shut Suzy up as her voice had been steadily rising, Bob stuffed a wad of cloth into her mouth and bound her head to the tree trunk, firmly gagging her mouth shut.
Dropping from the branch, Bob landed on the ground and joined his fellow lizardmen at the starting line outside the portal's blast range. From that position, they could see the tree branch Suzy was bound to, with only her face visible if one looked hard enough.
The rest of her body was completely obscured by the numerous leaves that made up the tree's canopy.
Everyone stood ready, their spear-tips aimed towards the portal while they awaited their visitors.
In the distance, Suzy's muffled voice failed to reach them, be it objections or moans of pleasure.
From high up in Suzy's vantage point, she saw everything clearly; even so, her eyes turned red, and her mind clouded with rage. The portal had activated and turned every lizardman into slaves to their instincts.
No matter how much she fought against her bindings, they would not budge an inch.
She saw two Adventurers charge into the Dungeon with their shields raised, entering the unknown, wholly expecting an immediate attack. The battle was over extremely quickly with the advent of the rest of the Adventurer's party stepping through the portal.
Fireballs were cast, and arrows were launched at the lizardmen, all of them dying effortlessly.
The two shield bearers suffered multiple wounds, but none were fatal, only lacerations on their limbs that were quickly healed.
Suzy watched them as they surveyed the area, and after concluding it was clear, they began to converse with one another.
During that time, Suzy noticed many things, but was unsure if it would be of use to her beloved Bob.
The Adventurers' meeting was concluded as the noise of the rest of the lizardmen's village could be heard, with them charging forth brandishing their crude clubs. Before they got anywhere close to their targets, the approaching monsters were easily killed.
Looking around in confusion, the party of Adventurers was seemingly looking for something, with one of their number counting the corpses lying in front of them.
After several recounts, they became certain there was one lizardman missing, with the exact number of the monsters in the Dungeon being a well-documented fact.
Before long, they gave up and left the Dungeon, leaving a clear-minded Suzy restrained to the tree.
Wanting to be of as good a use as possible to her Bob, she endlessly played over what happened and honed in on details that may be of use.
Suzy felt a sudden jolt; opening her eyes, she realised she had fallen asleep. In front of her was Bob, now respawned and releasing her binds.
“Suzy, I'm happy you're safe!”
Suzy went to speak but could not; the gag in her mouth had been absent-mindedly left in position. Bob stood staring at her, waiting for a reply until he realised his error.
“Ahhh damn, sorry, Suzy...Here you go.”
“Eurgh...Grh...Pftt....That's better, thanks, Bob.”
The pair jumped down and landed with an almighty thud, the noise drawing everyone's attention; that was when Suzy noticed the entire village was there.
“Everyone's on board now, Suzy; so tell us what you saw!”
Clearing her throat, Suzy began to address the assembled lizardmen.
“Everyone, I noticed a few things, but I'm not sure how much use they'll be....For starters, the humans never checked behind them. When they came through the portal, they didn't look behind the portal until much later.....They also know exactly how many of us are in this Dungeon and spent some time looking for me....They seem to care a lot about their comrades; as soon as one became injured, the others would stop fighting to offer aid.....Ohhh, another thing: I'm not as good at understanding the humans' language as Bob, but I'm certain they spoke about the outside and said only four humans guard the outside of the Dungeon.....That's it, was it okay?”
A round of applause went up from the lizardmen, all of them realising the utility in Suzy's findings. Bob and Ted both seemed overly excited, giving one another a high five before Bob grabbed Suzy tight in an embrace.
“That was brilliant, Suzy! Thank you, I knew you were perfect for the job!”
“P-P-Pppperfect, you think I'm perfect!?”
Suzy lost herself in her own delusion, enjoying the word repeating within her mind while being embraced by Bob.
The lizardman in question then addressed the crowd.
“Okay, we all heard what she said, and I think we should position half of us behind the portal to make a pincer attack.....Also, it looks like when we decide to finally escape, it's going to be a lot easier than we expected!”
Bob was hoping for a cheer to go up; instead, he was met with confused glances.
Slowly he understood they were not looking at him, but at Suzy. The pink Lizardman, who had been lost in her delusion, had been licking Bob's neck the entire time in front of everyone.
Bob had been so excited that he had not even realised the nice sensation he felt was from Suzy.