Room for One More

This one was late because I was sick for 4 days straight. Sorry friends

Carving the useful pieces from the beasts didn't take very long. Unlike when Mark killed a monster in his dungeons, these ones didn't shatter into fragments. The cooling corpses of inhuman things littered the floor, most of them having been carved into by one tool or another. Supposedly, crystallized Mana can appear inside derelict Gravezones. This one must not have been around long enough to have formed them, or at least that's what Mark heard people saying as he worked to load his sled with the various collected pieces.In total, five porters were working away at the task of gathering everything, one cart purely containing the removed heart of the Fishmonger. With the cannibal, at least by the Observe's output, butcher's size, the heart alone was as large as Mark's entire torso. It was equal parts interesting and horrifying to look at. As for Mark's cart, it was full of pieces of the various Gutrots: scales, hearts, organs of one flavor or another. Piling them all together was somehow more disturbing than the singular heart.

With everything collected, now came the rough part. Mark got into position, hands on the push bar of the cart, and started his effort. All the collected pieces were heavy and it took a good shove to get them rolling. Tarps were placed over the contents to cover them. While mark found it odd, the reason became apparent when, in groups, they left the Gravezone after some distance. They kept stride for maybe ten or twenty feet before, one by one, disappearing back into the void-like world.

Mark wondered idly why leave the zone as they started yet again disappearing when his cart crashed into solid air, the bar hitting his stomach and knocking the wind out of him. 'Ah... That'd be why.' With a mental note to learn more about that later, he continued on with the group, Zone by Zone until they returned to the headquarters of the Wardens. The carts were all placed to the side and lines formed so people could confirm their payment. When Mark was through the line, he was sent on his way, the evening free to do as he pleased. From the battle to now had been maybe an hour of walking and line shuffling but it had all passed on a somewhat mindless haze. It wasn't until a window showed itself that the fog cleared after the tiring haul.

'Oh, that's bullshit, when did I-'

You accessed your inventory to draw your knife, that tripped the detection. Maybe keep that thing on you, dumbass. I won't retcon the results but I'll give you another chance at it later so you aren't allowed to complain.

Mark grumbled his annoyance at the technicality but couldn't argue. Now he had to decide what to do with the rest of the evening. He could visit the mall and finish off the Ripples Beget Waves quest, though it was well into the dark by this point. On the other hand, he could do this puzzle dungeon. He was full on Mana and HP and the dungeons apparently scaled, so going in alone shouldn't be that big of an issue. Deciding to just go for it, Mark put his will behind opening a puzzle dungeon and went through the motions to open the Zone. What he was met with was rather austere.

The room was a plain rectangle, the long side maybe twice as long as the shorter, with a door along one of the shorter walls. The entire thing seemed to be made of stone bricks. While the bricks were hewn a little rough, the floor seemed fairly level. Mark stood on the opposite side of the room from the door, a bell mounted to a pole embedded into the ground. To Mark's left, more in line with the door, was a wooden platform that was slightly raised by a simple scissorjack mechanism. The last thing of any note in the room besides smokeless torches for light was a wooden platform flush with the ten foot high ceiling in the opposite corner from Mark.

Taking the small cord attached to the bell's clapper, Mark rang the instrument, causing the platform in the ceiling to lower to the floor on ropes. A crate was set on top of it and when Mark removed the box, the platform rose onto the ceiling once again. 'Fairly simple to start so far, easy box puzzle to set the mood,' Mark's thought as he placed the box on the raised wooden button. The door opened when the weight of the box settled, maybe thirty pounds in a two and a half foot wide box crate. The weight didn't seem to shift at all, as if the thing were one solid mass.

Going through the door to the next room, another simple puzzle was presented. Glass walls separated four rooms. The largest was the one Mark stood in now, only the now closed door to the previous room inside. Connecting the central room to the other three were simple double doors that opened and closed on their own, going clockwise around the room, starting at the left-most room. Inside it was another medieval button. Across from that room, to the right now, was a room of the same size, this one with another platform and crate, already lowered to the floor. Mark went and retrieved the box from that room when the door to it opened, placing it on the button and returning to the center room as the doors' rotation allowed. Lastly, across from where he had entered, was the room with the exit. Grumbling about the familiarity of these puzzles as he exited the small test room and was met with what confirmed his suspicions.

The third test chamber was just as he remembered. A glass wall showed another room with an open doorway on the wall to his right. As Mark looked out, he got to see exactly what he expected to find. On a rotating mount in the center of a room a floor lower than Mark stood, though the ceilings were level, stood a white device roughly the size of his forearm. Round in the back with a tubular protrusion in the front, a set of three arms were equidistantly spaced around the far end of the tube.

"A portal gun. An honest to god... Gaia, I guess, portal gun." Mark's thoughts were leaking out of his mouth at this absolute asset flip of a dungeon. "Do you know how many times I've played this damn game, Gaia?"

All Mark received in response to his tiny tantrum was a text box.

Wasn't me who made this one.

'Not her? Who the fuck else has the power to make something like this?'

As he wondered just who was behind the dungeon, Mark could see a glare behind himself in the glass. Turning, he saw a reverse of the typical shattering of enemies, shards connecting like three dimensional jigsaw pieces into the form of a girl. On the shorter side at around five feet tall, the most striking thing about her was, far and away, her eyes. An intensely bright, almost neon green color to a somewhat wide iris, their defining feature was the horizontal rectangle that were her pupils. In spite of the oddity, the goat eyes felt right at home on her when paired with the horns coming from the top of her head. They weren't grand or sweeping, only curving backwards a little bit as well as slightly outwards.

A blue dress with a sort of plaid hatched patching on the bottom several inches of the skirt went down to her ankles, a leather colored belt at her waist to help accentuate full hips and a fuller chest, somewhere in the ballpark of literal watermelons on her chest. Mark didn't even have the framework to even try to put a number to those behemoths but 'painfully large' felt adequate. Around her neck and over said chest was a thick grey shawl, strands of golden hair dangling and curling over the shoulder in a haphazard manner. Then, of course, was the rest of her hair. Golden blonde and extremely curly towards the ends. The hair only went to maybe the middle of her back but, if straightened, would likely have been long enough to cover her ass.

The last thing Mark noticed, or at least wanted to notice, was the style of the hair. A simple and elegant tumble down the shoulders, the exact same style as his mom had been attached to. The sorrow made his eyes get misty but he contained it. The girl's calm and nonthreatening posture became concerned, saying in a comforting voice, "I see... I am sorry for my choice in hairstyle, I thought you might find it endearing, or at least appealing. I did not realize it would cause you grief."

Just like that, without needing to move herself in the slightest, the woman's hair changed to a three strand braid down her back. With this sudden display, Mark finally realized he needed to be warry of new people, especially in his own dungeons, doubly so when they appear from the shattered fragments of enemies he hadn't killed yet. He drew his knife from the sheathe on his belt, having taken Gaia's earlier advice. The chipped tip hard to ignore as he took a stance. "Who the hell are you," he demanded. Pain and loss filled his voice, making it come out rough and low.

The blonde held her hands up to try and pacify him. "I am a friend, I promise you. Think of me as part of your abilities, as I exist only within them and your mind. I mean you no harm."

There was a moment of processing on Mark's part, simple confusion giving way to a small realization that helped verify the claim. "You were the one who gave me this quest. That's why the popup felt off, it wasn't Gaia."

"Correct," she said with a nod, slowly returning her hands to her front, one grabbing the wrist of the other. It made her tits squish together in an incredibly distracting way. "I hoped to get the details right but I realized after the fact I had chosen the wrong font. Regardless, you may call me Heidi. It's nice to finally meet you in person, Mark Mason."

Mark slowly lowered the knife, letting it return to his belt. He looked at this 'Heidi', appraising her mentally, before trying to mentally ask Gaia. Silence yet again. 'Some help she is...' that thought was met by an impact to the forehead that felt akin to a strong flick.

Cut the shit, asshole. Not gonna hold your hand, make your own decisions.

Mark labored a sigh and shook his head. "Alright... I'm going to tentatively believe what you're saying but I need something to know you are what you say you are."

"Was the quest and the dungeon insufficient as proof? I suppose I could tell you what you're thinking about at the moment. Then again, it might not be much of a surprise if I simply say you're distracted by my body. Perhaps this then; last night, you began a romantic relationship with Imara Ingram, the Pillar of Obsidian as denoted by your name tags. At first, you kissed her. Then, she kissed you and you were somewhat hoping for tongue."

"Well then... I at least believe you're in my head. Does that mean you-"

Mark was cut off by Heidi, nodding. "Just like Gaia, yes. I know you're wondering if my breasts feel real f I'm just a construct tied to your powers. Good thing for you, I'm just as physical here as you or the monsters." As she finished, she unwrapped the shawl and let it shatter into shards, starting to unbutton her dress. Mark quickly moved towards her, stopping her hands after the third button. She looked up at him, confusion plain as day on her face. "Is something the matter?"

"You can't just undress because you read my mind, that feels... weird and perverted on my end!" Much as Mark may have liked to see two different pairs of tits in 3 days, he'd rather not have this girl just expose herself to him.

"You were curious. Still are. If I was, I'd want to know. Now I'll ask you please stop fussing." She pushed his hands away and went to undo the remaining buttons when a voice echoed through the chamber. It was feminine and commanding, coming from nowhere.

"Alright lovebirds, as much as I'd love to this dissolve into Mark's attempt to get laid, and I do expect something scandalous from you two later on, you've still got a dungeon to finish. Heidi might have just done a rehash in a new style but let's see what momma Gaia can cook up. Oh, and this is replacing that other quest by the way."

The voice of Gaia at last and, of course, she said something to make him feel embarrassed. That didn't last long, as the entire place began to glow. Walls, ceiling, and floor all gained that same shimmering brightness of something about to shatter and, on instinct, Mark pulled Heidi in close in an attempt to shield her. Closing his eyes against the growing brightness, Mark heard a loud crash as the world turned to shards around him.

Come join us on Discord! https://discord.gg/cZfV6Ymcwr