Meet Magnos

I’d tamed Astra, and then she’d run off on me. To make matters (much, much) worse, she’d made enough noise in the taming process that she’d attracted some shambling undead to the house, which had already made their way upstairs.

“What should I do?” I asked Holly as a loud thud slammed into the door. There was a crack, and I didn’t like the sound of it. I didn’t know what would give first, the wood or the hinges, but either was a disaster. I was already pushing over a large chest towards the door, but the rest of the furniture didn’t look like much good for a barricade. The shelves were too unstable, the bed was too light, so for now I just threw my body weight against the door and hoped a rotting arm didn’t punch a hole through it.

«To start, you could use your item box to block the door»

Oh right. I had an item box.

I closed my eyes and pictured my inventory, looking for anything I could use. The riding lawn mower was big but unwieldy. Weedwhacker. T-shirts. Ground meat. Fresh tomatoes. Crowbar. Then I came to Joy’s furniture, and hope surged. A couch, an armchair, her nightstand, a large boudoir. But best of all was the forty-year old refrigerator. It fit into place perfectly by the door, and I started adding the rest against it as they kept slamming against the door on the other side.

“There. They should give up soon, right?”

«That’s not how it works. The zombies are making noise. Noise attracts more zombies. More zombies means more noise. More noise means more powerful zombies»

“Ah… well. Crap.” Personally, I was impressed by just how calm I was as I imagined being torn limb from limb, smelling rotting flesh as they bit into my neck and tore out my throat.

«Roshi, stop panicking! Screaming is just going to attract more zombies!»

“Do you have a better idea?!”

«You tamed Astra. Her level is much higher than Joy’s, so you definitely leveled up. Check and see if you got a new skill.»

New skill. Right! The last time I’d leveled up, it’d given me the exact skill I needed for the situation. Maybe it’d done the same thing this time? I checked my status, visualized my skill list, and saw a brand new one at the bottom.

All Night Long : Your endurance has been heightened to a superhuman level, letting you make love to one or more lovers for hours on end. Increase your Stamina by 1.

I read the skill out to Holly. “We’re screwed, aren’t we?”

«Not yet. But we need to start acting fast. You remember that room we snuck into last night? It’s right next to this one. Most of Astra’s equipment was kept there. Including the ansible radio. So our next step is grabbing that»

As Holly explained, the wall between this room and that started turning transparent in my robot eye, and one item in that room started glowing green. It was bulky, planted on the floor, a large box shape for the base with what looked like a giant pawn piece made of black glass sticking out on top of it.

«Grab that, get to safety, and we can call for a rescue»

“That… that might work.” I went to the window and started to open it, only to find it wouldn’t budge. Shattering the glass with the crowbar might draw some more attention, but it was too late to worry about that. I stepped out onto the awning and started to make my way to the other room. Holly was providing an x-ray scan of the zombies, and as I climbed inside, I saw that one of them had started shambling down the hallway. I didn’t have time to shut the door, so I did the next best thing and summoned the riding lawnmower right in the doorframe.

It was noticeably bigger than the doorframe though, and the result was a loud crack and dripping gasoline as both the structure and machine were ruined. But! It was an effective wedge.

«Grab what you can and go!»

“I’m going, I’m going!”

I snatched the radio, then hastily shoved everything else—boxes, shelves, even weapons that might have been useful in a fight—into the item box, knowing that even if I managed to kill one of the undead, there would be a dozen more to take its place.

I stepped back to the awning and could see more undead shambling, some of them jogging. My instincts were telling me to get to higher ground, but Holly wasn’t.

«I’ve highlighted the path you should take to the exit and marked every enemy I can see. Aim for the grass and try to roll»

“Here goes…” I dropped down from the awning and landed feet first, then fell forward onto my hands. Too much weight on my left arm. The one with the recently dislocated shoulder. I didn’t dislocate it again, but… even with all of the adrenaline pumping through my blood, that pain was cutting through.

«Run! Sprint!»

As motivating as Holly was, she wasn’t nearly as effective as the gargling groan behind me. I took off at a full sprint, swinging my arms as the wind whipped past me. And that’s when I realized that the difference between zero and one points of stamina was like night and day.

Intellectually, I knew that a single point in any stat was incredible. Humans hadn’t invented classes, but we had invented the system of measurements for their effects, and by definition, a point in a stat was superhuman. Without enhanced stats, olympic athletes ranged in the 0.5 to 0.8 range. I didn’t have a single stat higher than 0.3 until now, but as I ran through the backyards of the zombie-infested neighborhood, I was seeing what a full 1.19 points of stamina was like. And it was like I’d just guzzled a gallon of rocket fuel.

After running at full tilt for more than a minute, I wasn’t even breathing hard. If it wasn’t for the circumstances, this would have been incredible. Unfortunately, the circumstances weren’t great.

«You’ve got to go faster! Three runners are catching up with you»

“Can’t! Go! Faster!” I replied, not wanting to waste time turning to look back.

«You have to! Roshi!»

Now Holly was panicking, and I couldn’t blame her. Even if she might survive the attack, she’d told me that the implant was a one-time deal, like a rocket that had shed its boosters. I thought about how lonely she’d be, sitting in my destroyed skull for years until her battery ran out.

And then I thought of how not to die.

Still running, I opened up the item box and grabbed the rotisserie chicken, chucking it over my shoulder and still running.

“Did that work?!”

«Oh! No, they ignored it. But raw meat! Try raw meat!»

The ground beef went next. The first I tossed without thinking of getting it out of the packaging, and the next two pounds I took the time for it, tossing it back. And then the steaks. Probably should have started with those, but some idiot part of me had still been looking forward to eating them after paying a premium.

I still hadn’t looked back, just tossed a bunch of food and kept sprinting.

«You shook two of them off, but the third is still coming. Get ready to jump through the exit»

Thankfully, the exit was coming up close. Parked at the side of the road, tilted into a ditch, was what looked like an old moving van with flat tires. Holly had highlighted the back of it and I had a full eight seconds to get the cargo door open and get inside. I just had to keep calm and…

«NOOOO!!!»

Holly wailed in my ear, making me wince and slow down for a second. “What happened?”

«The door’s locked! It’s got a padlock!»

Okay. I had seven seconds to snap the padlock with my crowbar, open the door, and get inside. I could do that.

I came to a stop with my left hand hitting the van’s back door, yanked the crowbar out of the item box, and promptly fumbled it with my right hand, the damn thing bouncing underneath the van.

Five seconds to get the crowbar back, snap the padlock, open the door, and… and that running was loping towards me on all four legs. It was more like two seconds before it tackled me.

«Roshi!»

The runner leapt towards me, and I did the only thing I could think of.

“Astra!”

The summon was so fast it was like a flashbang, blinding me for a few seconds. When my vision cleared, the zombie was on the ground, bisected at the shoulder into two pieces.

“Tch. Reflect. Next time I’ll dodge,” Astra promised.

“Wait! If I die, then you do too.”

“Better dead than a ****.”

And then Astra took off again. I had thought that I had been going fast, but even with nothing to hide behind in sight, she’d become a streak of movement and out of sight in seconds.

Whatever. I could deal with her later. For now, I grabbed the crowbar and used it to leverage the padlock. The door opened up, and on the other side was not the interior of the van, but a sweltering blast of heat that made the humid summer heat of this dungeon level look mild by comparison.

And no surprise why. The ground and walls were made of a red rocky material, cracked and steaming in places. Everything was illuminated by the glowing orange ocean of lava that stretched out ahead of me, bubbling and popping like some kind of demonic soup. When Holly had said exit, I’d thought she meant to a higher level, closer to the surface. But no. We were heading deeper. Not like I had a choice though.

I climbed inside, then pulled the cargo door shut behind me, the horizontal slats of metal looking completely out of place against the stone wall. I might have just stepped into hell, but I didn’t see anything that looked like it was trying to kill me that very instant, so I let myself collapse, back against the wall, and caught my breath. I had enhanced stamina, maybe, but it wasn’t quite as bottomless as I’d first imagined, not when I’d been running as fast as I could every step of the way.

“We did it,” I said as I pulled out a plastic water bottle and started gulping it down. I’d been soaked with sweat when I entered this floor, and this place felt hot as an oven. The water was warm and didn’t do much to cool me down, but at least it was wet.

«Keep drinking. It’s a hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit in here and it’s not going to get any cooler»

“At least it’s a dry heat,” I said, wiping sweat from my forehead. I took in my surroundings, and the air shimmered with heat waves, distorting the view of the lava lake. The rocky terrain was treacherous, with cracks and fissures revealing glimpses of the molten river beneath. In the distance, pillars of stone jutted out, some crumbling into the fiery abyss below. The ceiling arched high above, stalactites dripping molten droplets that sizzled when they hit the ground.

“So first it was zombies, and what’s in here?”

«It’s the tenth floor. A guardian floor»

Out of the frying pan and into hell then. I knew enough from movies that a guardian floor was bad news. Even a veteran like Astra would stay away. The monsters inside were a big jump up from previous levels, and once you entered, you were trapped until you defeated that guardian.

“What the hell, Holly?”

«It was a calculated risk»

“Yeah?”

«95% chance of you dying on the safest route to the upper floor, 30% chance that you’d die on that floor waiting for rescue, for a survival rate of 3.5%. The lower level route had only a 70% chance of ****, and the odds you’ll die here before rescue is only 80%. So a 6% chance»

Funny, a second ago I’d been burning up in this heat, and somehow my blood still turned to ice.

«Roshi, it’ll be okay. The odds went up to 20% as soon as we made it inside, and there’s still no sign of the guardian, which means it’s probably the type that only responds if we try to go further. As long as we don’t move around much, the odds are climbing to 50%. The biggest danger right now is that you’ll die of dehydration before help can come»

I glanced over towards the ocean of lava, “No time to waste then.”

The ansible radio was simple and durable. Getting it set up wasn’t so hard, but the question became who to call. Communication within the dungeon wasn’t easy, and most of the bulk was in the things battery. Astra was going to use this to communicate with whatever bastards wanted to get rid of my mother, but it’s not like I could dial them up to say I’d escaped.

Astra…

She’d been blazing a trail to leave the dungeon. I could summon her and try to **** her to fight the boss for me, but I decided against it. She’d made it clear she didn’t want to help me, and even if she did, those that could fight a guardian on their own were rare. And if I did summon Astra, then she would be stuck here too. When a beast tamer died, all of his captured beasts were lost with him, whether they were currently summoned or not. But Astra must have had a good reason to get so angry, so I’d let her enjoy freedom.

More cynically, the enemy of my enemy was my friend, right? And however angry Astra was at me, it paled in comparison to her previous owners. If I was lucky, she might even send for help. Yes, she’d abandoned me to be torn to shreds by a horde of zombies, but that was in the heat of the moment. Hopefully by the time she calmed down she’d show a bit more gratitude. Or at least more of a sense of self-preservation.

But back to the radio.

“Who can we call?”

«Leave that to me. Just press the buttons I’ve highlighted»

The machine let up in augmented reality, and I followed the directions Holly gave me. First was the calibration process. Initial scan. Route finding. Establishing a connection with the dungeon’s beacon. Going into low energy broadcast mode. Finally it was time to set a frequency.

«There’s an emergency line for dungeon rescue. Read this script exactly as I tell you, okay?»

There was the sound of static crackling, a dial tone, before a quick three-note jingle. «It’s recording!»

“This is Hiroshi Jones. I have been kidnapped and taken into the Central Wild Dungeon #13. I am currently on Floor Ten and in need of immediate rescue. My coordinates are as follows: south, east, east, west, south, south, south, east, south. Please relay this message to my mother, Miyu, with the utmost urgency.”

The cardinal directions were the standard shorthand for dungeon paths. The direction the entrance faced was north. The first exit clockwise from it was considered east. Counter-clockwise was west, and whatever was in the middle became south.

I repeated the message three more times before hanging up, then powered the radio down and put it back into storage. According to Holly, there was still something like 48 hours until Silver Star first went missing, and the idea that she could lose to the floor guardian didn’t even cross my mind.

All that was left to do now was wait, try not to die of heatstroke, and pray that whatever monster was lurking on this floor kept its distance.

Over the next few hours, I managed to calm down. I got my arm back into a makeshift shirt sling like Astra had made for me. I ate some fresh bananas from the item box, pulled out a pillow, and tried to get some sleep.

When I woke up, my throat was so dry it hurt, but at Holly’s urging, I drank the water slowly, swishing it around my mouth first before swallowing. I had two twenty-four packs of bottled water, enough to last for days, but it was so hot and stuffy, I was going through a bottle an hour and losing most of it to sweat.

When I finally got hungry, I checked my options. I still had the generator and induction burners, but that gasoline engine would make too much noise. That meant the rice and pasta were off the table. That left a bag of potato chips—not the time for salty treats—some more bananas, five apples, a loaf of plain sandwich bread, some canned beans and peas—good for the water inside, at least—and as I was sifting through the item box, I saw that big collection of candy bars Astra had shoved into a duffel bag.

I took one out that was filled with caramel, unwrapped it, and bit down. Sweetness flooded my mouth and I closed my eyes. Just had to stay calm and survive. The less I moved around, the less I would sweat, the more time I could buy until the rescue.

That was the plan assuming the floor’s guardian didn’t attack, but as I finished the candy bar, I saw something moving under the lava. Swimming closer, and as it reached the shore, a large, scaled head on a long sinuous neck poked out. Bright red with the jaw a more tan shade that extended down its neck and belly. Black horns that curved into sharpened points. Glowing golden eyes. Big teeth. Big claws. Big dragon.

I remembered seeing a giraffe at the zoo and marveling at just how big it was. And this half again as tall, somewhere around thirty feet, with a massive body about three times the length before we started talking about the tail.

I could see it glaring straight at me as it stepped out of the lava, shaking itself dry like a dog, sending molten rock scattering, and then it was prowling towards me with an unblinking gaze.

“Sorry, Holly. We did our best.”

«Roshi…»

There wasn’t anywhere to run. No chance of fighting that. I closed my eyes and braced. Maybe it’d use its fire breath and it’d be over in an instant? Or slap me into paste under its claws. Out of all the things it might do next I was imagining, I didn’t expect what it actually did.

“I SMELLED CHOCOLATE. WHERE IS IT?”

I opened my eyes to see the dragon looming overhead, yet keeping its distance. And a good thing for that, because even at this distance I could feel the heat radiating off of it. The monster had been swimming through lava, so just touching it would cook my hand in seconds.

And it’d asked for… chocolate?

“Chocolate? I uh… okay? Hold on.” I reached into the item box, then tossed a candy bar over to the dragon. “Oh. It’s got a wrapper. Did you want me to get that for you, or…?”

The dragon shuffled back a step, then lowered its head down low, opening its mouth to run its surfboard-sized tongue over the cavern floor, scraping up the candy bar. It then lowered itself into a rest position, belly on the ground, and closed its eyes.

“ACCEPTABLE.”

“You’re not going to eat me?”

“DO YOU WISH TO BE EATEN?” The dragon leaned in closer, let me see its teeth. Two bites. I think it’d be able to finish me in two bites.

“No! Definitely not!”

“DO YOU DESIRE THE TREASURE THAT LAYS BEYOND?” The dragon turned its head to look back towards the lava ocean.

“I don’t even know what that is.”

“DO YOU WISH TO TEST YOUR MIGHT AGAINST MINE?” Its wings stretched out, the shade they provided from the light and heat of the lava actually feeling quite nice.

“You’d kill me in an instant.”

The voice was low and deep. I could feel it in my chest. It rumbled through the cavern and echoed off the walls. That was just a matter of volume though. The actual tone came across as soft-spoken and at-ease.

“DO YOU HAVE MORE CHOCOLATE?”

I brought out another bar, this time taking the time to remove the wrapper. I tossed it high and hard, and in spite of the dragon’s size, its head snaked towards it in an instant, snapping shut around the candy. The dragon froze, and then a few seconds later its tail thumped against the ground three times, each one sounding like thunder, stalactites falling like raindrops into the lava ocean.

All that for a hershey’s bar?

“Not that I’m complaining, but why are you keeping me alive?”

“LOOK AROUND YOU. I AM A PRISONER WITHIN THIS SPACE. I’VE BEEN KEPT HERE FOR YEARS, LONGER THAN YOU’VE BEEN ALIVE.” The dragon brought its head closer towards me, squinted its eyes. “ROUND EARS. A TALLFOLK THEN. LONGER THAN YOUR GREAT-GRANDFATHER HAS BEEN ALIVE THEN. EVEN SHOULD I REND MY OWN THROAT, **** IS STILL NO ESCAPE. THE ONLY THING TO LOOK FORWARD TO IS WHEN ONE OF YOU SMALL THINGS INTRUDES.”

“That sucks.”

“INDEED!”

I winced, my ears ringing after that last outburst. I felt bad for the big guy, so I took out another candy bar and tossed it its way. The dragon caught it in its mouth, licked its lips.

“ENOUGH. SUCH DELIGHTS SHOULD BE SAVORED.”

“What should I call you?”

“THEY CALLED ME KINGDOM BREAKER. MOTHER OF DRAGONS. MAGNOSTRUDOOM.”

“Can I call you Magnos?” The dragon gave a simple nod. “I’m Hiroshi. Hiroshi Jones. And since you’ve not got anything to lose, I’ve got an idea that might get you out of here. But…” After the experience with Astra, it didn’t feel right to keep it a secret.

“It’d come with some drawbacks. Your life would be tied to mine, and I don’t know what would happen to you after I die. You might be sent back here or you might cease to exist. And it’s a taming skill. You won’t be able to hurt me, and I’ll have the power to summon and dismiss you whenever I want to.”

The dragon went silent, its body then shaking, before it craned its head straight up and began to chuckle.

“THE FATES HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR! VERY WELL, WEAKLING MORTAL. DO YOUR BEST TO TAME ME INTO YOUR TOOL, AN UNSTOPPABLE WEAPON OF PURE DESTRUCTION AND ANNIHILATION. YOU SHALL SEE THAT NO CHAINS CAN HOLD BACK MAGNOSTRUDOOM!”

When Silver Star came to my rescue twenty hours later, she found me waiting by the moving van. I’d been hiding/resting in the front seat, and came out when I’d heard the screams of the undead. I almost felt sorry for them. A hero of my mother’s level could take care of the threats on a 9th level floor easily. But Silver Star had the class of Paladin. On top of her incredible martial prowess, she also had Holy Magic, a set of skills that could heal wounds, cure disease, empower herself and allies… and summon up a giant pillar of light that turned any undead around her into nothing but piles of ash. It was like mosquitos trying to defeat a bug zapper.

She came flying towards me, the only other person she’d brought jogging to catch up. Normally, Silver Star is the spitting image of a professional superheroine. Calm, collected, facing danger with a smile on her face. Embarrassing as it was, she dressed like a standard superheroine too, wearing a high-cut silver leotard with far too much material missing around the chest. Thankfully it had a long cape dangling from the bulky armored pauldrons, but the internet was full of amateur snapshots from when the cape was flying up that showed just how little that leotard covered from behind.

You cannot understand the psychic damage I took in middle and highschool, my friends all showing me their favorite pictures of my mother’s ass.

Sigh.

The point I was trying to make was, normally, my mother is the consummate professional and never wears her emotions on her sleeve. But right now, her face was red, her eyes were puffy from crying, and she was sobbing as she charged straight towards me.

“Hiroshiiii!!!”

“Mom, hey, slow—” You’d think that after twenty-eight years of being her son, she’d have learned to hold back a little. But no. The woman tackled me off my feet and kept me upright with a rib-cracking bear hug that left me gasping for breath when she finally let go.

“Sorry, sorry! I just… when I received your message, I thought for sure I’d be too late! I came as fast as I could, but the fourth level, it took us so long to find the last exit, and… and I’m just so glad you’re okay!” I could tell that she really wanted to hug me again, so I did it for her, wrapping my arms around her and while she lightly rubbed my back.

“It’s okay. I’m okay.”

The dungeon explorer that my mother had brought with her finally caught up, hands on his knees to catch his breath. A professional, he was wearing a faded blue jumpsuit with an armored vest on top, lugging around a large backpack. No matter how good my mother Miyu was, even she couldn’t explore unknown floors of a dungeon all by herself. “Hahh… when she told me her kid had no class and was waiting on the tenth floor, I thought for sure it was a prank. How the hell did you wind up down here?”

“Mr. Moodie?” I’d recognized that gruff voice of his, though it’d been years since I’d last seen him. One of my mother’s old friends. Judging from all the gray in his hair, I put him in his late 50s just like her. I wouldn’t doubt that she’d dragged him out of retirement just for this emergency.

“Just call me Henry,” he said as he straightened back up. “Good to see you’re still kicking, kid.”

“Did you break your arm? Hold still.” My mother put her hand on my shoulder and closed her eyes. Warmth flooded from where her hand touched me, soothing my aching ribs, the dislocated shoulder, a dozen scrapes I’d picked up her and there, and the burn on my palm I’d been hiding.

“Hahh… thanks, that’s so much better.”

I’d been thinking of an explanation, and the one I finally settled on was, an argument over money. I gave them an abridged, altered version of events. For one, I omitted Joy’s **** from the story. Obviously. For two, I replaced Astra with a giant musclehead with a thick beard, eyepatch, and thick Russian accent.

“When he found out I was Silver Star’s kid, the guy freaked out. He demanded he get triple the cash, and when whoever hired him said no, he decided to cut his losses and escape. Before he left, he showed me how to work the radio and told me what to say.”

“It’s my fault, isn’t it? They came after you because of me!” My mother rubbed at her eyes.

As melodramatic as she was being, I knew it came from a place of sincerity. After all, the whole plan hinged on the idea that Silver Star would give her own life up if it meant she could save her kids. That self-sacrificing nature is why she kept her distance too, to protect me and my sister. Especially me, since as someone without a class, it’s not like I could be expected to protect myself.

“Not your fault. Fault lies in whoever it was that leaked the information. Question is, who could that be,” the guide said.

“Henry, we can worry about all of that later. For now, the important thing is that everyone is safe. We can figure everything else out once we’ve left the dungeon.” She said in a tone that said there would be no arguing. Only to completely shift when she turned back to me. “Can you walk? Do you want me to carry you? Maybe we should make camp so you can eat something first?”

I had to resist the urge to point out that it was only two years until I turned thirty, but then, I imagined she’d still be like this thirty years from now.

With the route mapped out, it took us around three hours to escape the dungeon. Natural sunlight had never felt so good on my skin. Silver Star gave me one last hug, told me she loved me, to call if I needed anything, promised that she would bring those responsible to justice, and then took off into the air, leaving Henry and I behind.

“You’d think she’d be a little more lax now that the cat is out of the bag,” Henry remarked. “C’mon, I’ll drive you to the hotel you’ll be staying at.”

“Huh?”

“You just survived a ****, and none of the people responsible have been handled yet,” Henry said as he led me to his black SUV. “You’ll be going to ground until the crisis is over.”

It turned out to be a long drive that took us across state lines, though with Henry at the wheel, the time was cut down a lot by his Retrace Path and Rapid Exploration skills, the landscape whizzing past us as we ignored the standard speed limits. His Perception skill was high enough that only a few people in the country were stealthy enough to watch us without him knowing, and with Pass Without Trace, we were practically invisible to the outside world. He explained all of this on the ride, since we had nothing but time.

I’d thought my mother had brought him along just to guide her through the dungeon, but an Explorer class really did come in handy.

“Back in the old days, Miyu, Layla, and Sam, we’d spend weeks in the dungeons. She ever tell you about the one inside a spaceship? Strangest thing. The original ship must have been even bigger than the dungeon itself.”

Henry had an easy way of talking about the past, and it made the time fly by as he told me more about what my mother was like way back when.

We eventually made it to a city, Henry pulling into the parking lot of one of the nicest hotels I’d seen. He gave me a scary big wad of cash, and gave me his number to call if I had any problems. Alone again, I looked at where I’d be staying for the foreseeable future. Sleek glass panels and old stone carvings around the entrance, along with the first set of revolving doors I’d walked through in more than a decade, leading to a massive lobby, the crystal chandeliers overhead not looking at all out of place. I could hear some soft string music playing, and the place even smelled nice.

The whole “****” and “secret family” side of having a top superheroine for a mother might suck, but I couldn’t say there weren’t any upsides.

As soon as I talked to the receptionist, I was told I’d been expected, given a keycard, and given directions to room 512.

The elevator was silent and smooth, the hallways were empty, and when I made it into my room, it was just as nice as I’d expected. Plenty of room, a king-sized bed dominating the center, neatly folded with fresh linens and clean, fluffy pillows. A cozy armchair and small table by the corner, and the far wall almost entirely made of glass, giving me an excellent view of the city skyline as the sun was setting.

Alone at last.

I checked the status of my… pets? Should probably think of a better word for them.

Joy was still faded out, the countdown showing she had forty more hours to go before reviving. Astra was shown as being active and healthy. I could try summoning her again… but I bet she’d jump straight out the window the second I did, and there was no reason to keep her in storage.

That left only the newest member of the team. Magnostrudoom. The Collar Villain skill had worked—though even that brief touch had left my hand burned until my mother had healed me—but it’d been different from what I’d been expecting.

Joy had been transformed after being tamed, restored to the prime of her youth. Astra was already in her prime, so nothing had happened to her physically that I’d been able to tell. And Magnos…

Well, her size had become a lot more manageable. Instead of the red-scaled reptilian head in her portrait, there was the face of a red-haired young woman with a pair of prominent horns.

Name: Kingdom Breaker, Mother of Dragons, Magnostrudoom

Class: Dragon

Skills: Emit Heat, Absorb Heat, Dragon Wings, Dragon Breath, Immortality,R̵̩̻̤̒̊ű̶͇͉̍ñ̵̡͘ę̶͚͕͐ ̷͔͈̈́͜C̵̳̲̿r̵̟̀͋ä̵̦̗̉̚f̴̱͊͋t̵̤̜̖̅î̷̢̖̐̃n̶̤͛g̶̡͖̽̈́̉,̷͓͝ ̷̝̎S̷̺̥̐p̷͕̳̠͗̌a̵͔̅͠c̶̬͔̃ī̸͔a̷̪̖̓̍̇ļ̶͍̦̅ ̶̣̾̐W̷̦̫͕̃̆̕a̵̬̳͎̍͛r̴̼͚͈͊̄͠p̷̹̀͜͝,̷̧̢͖̎͊ ̸͉̋̎̎A̸̱̱̭̚b̶̢̕̕j̷̣͙͊̿ͅǔ̴̫́̈r̸͎̗̀̀̑ȇ̴̺̠̉ ̶̨̾M̸̰̞̗̌̅͆ȧ̷̧̖g̷̬̞͌i̵͍̦͉̋͌̈́c̷̡̬̉̈́͜,̵̛̖̄͐ ̴͎̈͛P̶̛͖͉̭͂ô̶̹l̵̝̺͈̆̆̓y̴̠͋̋͑ṁ̵͔̻ö̴̥̪́̐͝ŕ̴̹̅͌p̵̛̣̱̈́̍ȟ̷̢͚͍̓,̶̧̯̮̈́̓̒ ̵͓̯̚Ṭ̵̲͓̅͊ŕ̴̜͋u̶̟̼͂̈́͒e̴̛̞̞̐͗ ̴̹͝F̵̳̝̺̏ȍ̴̮̜͇r̵͈͋́͗m̸̢̞̈̏͝,̷̜̞̈́̈̇ ̶̺͌̕Ẳ̴̢͓͒b̸͍̿̅s̴̛̖̯͂͜o̴̬̠̼̔̓l̶̘̫̐̓͝u̸̱̹̦͑t̴͇̐̒͘e̷̪̗̞̅̄ ̴̛͓̦̯͂͠Ṟ̷͖̲̉̄e̸̠̔̀g̴͔̫̻̐̎ë̶͚̬͗̀n̷̮̳̓́͜e̴̦͗͘r̶̬̮̱̀̿̅ă̴͓̟͜t̷̡̗͑́͌ḭ̴́̿o̴̥̺̕͝n̸̦̳̼͘.̶̢̌̀̊.̸̖͉̇ͅ.̸͈̰̦͌͆L̸̦̋͌ǫ̵̥͇̺͌̓r̸̤͈̆ȇ̷̜̙͂͆m̴̦̒ͅ ̴̡̛͙̠̏͝͝i̶͍̊̽͜p̸̻̒̿̏͑s̵̢͍̩̫̆̚u̵̠͋̅͌̄m̶͚͛ ̶̲͓̭̃ḑ̷̻͖̺̓ö̵̧̫̺̼́̍͐ľ̶̞̝̮̆͌͝ö̷̯͒͋̋͜r̸͕̚ ̴̯̫͈̓͛s̶̥̆̑̕i̸̹̖̬͙̕t̸̡̳͔̀͘͠ ̸̝͇̼̩͆̿̔̒ȃ̸͕̀̿͜m̶̬̗̪̭̍͒̕è̶͔̳͎͋͑̓ţ̵̞̰̭̀̄͂̕,̵̛̭͍̞ ̸̛̪̺̈̇͜c̶̯͊͆ô̴͔̝̰̈́ͅn̷̮̙̺̪̆̇́͘s̷͇̜̿̈́͂͘e̸̦̒͘ç̷̟̋͝t̵̗̅ê̸͈̥̆ẗ̷̢̳́́̿̀u̴̻̯̽̒̂e̵̜̯͖̪̅̈́̐r̴̫̱͈̰̄͛̃ ̴̨͙̗̔ȧ̷̱̩̝̱d̵̦̪̼̒̉̃͘i̵̛͔͆̚͠ṕ̸̮̺̬̉ͅḯ̷͍̌̓s̷̙̪͍̙͆̀͘͘c̴̢̣͙͍̈́̽̑͘į̸͖̝̃n̴̳͍̺͋ǵ̸̫̂ ̷̗̗̖̽̾͂͠e̸̫͚̲̾l̴̘͍͛̿̄͗i̸̡̨̋̓ţ̴̫̱́̇̇͝.̶̡̣͉͊ ̷̧͔̹̳̅̅̓A̸̤̦͂̈e̷̹̬̣̎͛ṇ̸́̑̑̀ĕ̶̟̜̇a̶̧͋n̶͈̅ͅ ̷̲̀͛ć̸̪̏ȏ̵̮m̴̝̣̅m̶̨͖͕̦̅͝ǫ̸̖̀̍d̴͍͙͌̅ǫ̵̱́͌̐́ͅ ̸̜̝̈́̅͒̈́ͅl̵̲̣͔͒̃i̴͇̱͇̅ͅg̴̟̰̰̘͆̑͝ú̵͉̜̖̈́̓l̴̲̯̋ă̶̲̟̏̀͐ ̵̝͙̈́̂̇̌e̴͖͛ğ̶̼̭̂͌̎e̶̯͚͒́̇ẗ̵̡̛͚̒͝ ̷̱̺͙̀͋͝d̴̙͋͑̓o̷̼̅̾͜l̸͕̹̀͠ò̴̞̙͚̑̉̕r̵̲̚͠.̸͈̳̣̊̓̃͘ ̶̛̹͖̙̮̃̆À̷͚͈͗e̶͕̤̻̊͜n̶͚̋e̵̝̹̽ͅả̶͔̞ṅ̶̩̥͒̕ ̸͍͝m̵̙̓̓̉ą̷͖̜͒ͅs̴̙̎̀̀s̶͚͎̲̑̆a̵̦̦͕̾.̸͇̙͒͋ ̶̡̇̂C̶͉̬̏̕͝ừ̶̧̞̦̎m̸̹̯̻̤̀̈́ ̴̢̃͋ș̴͘ò̴̱̝͜ċ̴̙͔͈̈́̈́i̸̱̰͇̔̀͘ì̴̢̝̮ș̴͍͙̓́̾ ̵̛̜̣̿̀̀n̷̨͉̊̄̑͘a̷̩͇͒̒̔͜t̴̝͕̿̂̂̿o̶̻̺̻͎̒̀q̵̟͎͕̍ư̶̲̰̩͂̃͘e̴͉͘ ̷̫̂̓p̶̧̟̑͋̆̌ȩ̷͖͉́͊͛͐n̸̜̎a̴͔̓̓͜ţ̸͓̣̂̌͜ĭ̷̼̋͘b̸̢̨̮̰̒͘u̴͙̘͔̅̚͝s̷̮̓ ̸̜́͑̂ͅę̴̱̊͊̾t̷̛͍͕̒̿ͅ ̸̯̓͒ḿ̸̨̨̬͓̇̌ą̷͍͔̓̾ͅg̶̯̲̾͆́͝ñ̴̞̖̓͑̕í̷̠͕s̷̜͖̦̾ ̴̨̱͙̲̆d̴̮̫͎̒́͆ͅi̴̺̪̼̔̈́̂̈́s̶̱̮͈̣̓̐͒ ̵̺͎͊̈́̈̕p̸̧̞̫̈́ả̶̬̤̗͛r̶͈͗̏̽t̸̖͇̫͚̐͑͝ú̷͔̝̺̈́̎r̷̬͕̩̉̚̚͝i̶̧̮͎̐͌̆e̸͇̥͛̿͝ń̷̢̋̏͋t̴̹͓̳̳̔̓ ̸̣̻̙̓̉͗͝m̴̳̋ȯ̶̩̯̙̓̄͂n̸̪̬̱͍͝ṫ̷͇̤̖͂̓ȇ̵͔s̴̨͖͔̚,̴̡̻̟̲̇̐̀ ̴̡͇̰̲͒n̸̛͇̤͒͑a̷̖̪̔͛̎̒s̵͖̱͖͌c̷̬̮͠e̵͚̭̩͛t̴̯̟̉ů̴̧̻̹̚͝r̸̢̛̪̜̻̄͂ ̵̨́̿̎̚r̸̬͓̒ĭ̵̡͈̲̒̒͝d̵̗͗̈i̶̟̣͗c̴̣̆̊̿u̸̬̒͝l̷̘͆u̶̖̇̐̄̌ṣ̴̭̳̙͆̉̔̚ ̵̞̮̯̈́̓ͅm̸̫̩̣̌̓u̵̝̒̾̿̈́s̶͈͉͝.̶̮̞͕̎̄̽ ̴̡͇̦̝̅̽Ḋ̸͚̾̃o̸̯̣͓̟̓͑ń̷̞̩̺e̵͚̜̊͗͑̓c̵̥̹͎̈́͆͑̉ ̴͎̤͆̈́̐q̸̧̪̣̮͆͗̀̅ǘ̴̪ȧ̶͖̳̊̿̕m̸̲͙̉̓ ̶̜̂͆̒͆f̷̜̱̯̆̔e̸̪͙͇̾̏͜l̸̢̫̭̋̐̔ï̷̮s̷̳͔̀,̶̯̈̇́̎ ̷̧͒̔̈́u̸͇̿͆͒l̵̹̇̓ẗ̷̮͘͠ŗ̸̖͙̃ḭ̶̡̧̱̅c̷̭̀̐̈i̵̫͖̩̝̐͐ȩ̴̣̦̇ş̵͓̮̄̿̄ ̶͍̞̤̀͑͐̚n̶͙̭͉͇̽e̴̛̙͔͙͛͋͆ͅc̵͓͙̝̣̿̎̂̎,̶̛͔̟̟̰̿̂͘ ̷̮͎̗̓͒͋̑p̶̨̽ḛ̷̢̳͈͒͐͒͆l̶̘̳̩̃̇̆͜l̶͇̩̃͆ë̶̯̥n̸̝̽̍t̶̢̥͈̣̽͊̓̽ê̶̹̫s̶̛̜̾͝ͅͅq̵͔͖͙̎u̶̘̓e̶̩̓̀

“Holly, what the hell is wrong with the UI?”

«Hey, don’t blame the tech. It’s linked up to your brain and your skills. You already had two villains captured, so adding a third was pushing it, and you went and tamed a freaking dragon.»

“Are you saying it was a bad idea?”

«No, no. It’s just, I knew your Class was crazy, I just didn’t imagine it could already pull off something like that at your level»

“Speaking of, I need to level the class up some more if I want it to stop glitching, right?”

«Yes. Probably. Maybe. Over capacity beast tamers have the issue, but no one has ever tamed a dungeon monster before»

That was comforting news to hear.

I decided to pull out the duffel bag full of chocolate bars ahead of time, dumping the contents on the bed. Magnos had already eaten half of them while we worked together to raise her affection level to 100, but there was still a big pile of the stuff left. Hopefully that would help to stop her from freaking out when I summoned her. And hopefully she wouldn’t trash the room either.

Only one way to find out though.

I held out my hand and focused. There was some pressure behind my eyes as I did, some pain I’d not felt when summoning Joy or Astra, but the skill still worked. The golden motes gathered into the form of a woman,and Magnostrudoom appeared in the middle of my hotel room.

I’d realized she’d become a woman from the portrait, but I hadn’t realized just how small she was now, only coming up to my shoulder. Large breasts squeezed into a too-small tube top, spilling out, plus even wider hips covered up only by a narrow loincloth did a lot to dispel the notion of her being immature, while the wild, messy mane of red hair gave her a wild look. The red scales along her side and running up her arms, the soft red tone of her skin, the pointed ears, and the horns… well, unusual features weren’t super uncommon in this world, with around 5% of the world showing some class traits, usually in the form of strange skin textures or animal traits. If she put on some normal clothes, she probably wouldn’t draw too much attention.

Magnos was shocked, eyes scanning the room before locking onto the window. The sun had gone down and it’d become reflective enough that she could see herself staring back, and her mouth was hanging wide open as she took everything in.

“What did you… why am I… Hiroshi, this is NOT what we agreed on! I should rend your flesh from your bones!” She said, branding her very small hands with their neatly trimmed nails. “Grahhh!!!”

“Before you do that, maybe consider the upside. Have you ever eaten so much chocolate you wanted to throw up?” I gestured with both hands to the pile I’d made on the bed. At least ten thousand calories, mostly sugar. Tiny little specks of flavor for a giant dragon. But for someone this tiny…

Magnos’s eyes went wide as saucers, and her tongue pulled itself out of her mouth as she became entranced. “...I have not.”

“Do you want to?”

Magnos didn’t answer in words. She answered with a squeal of delight as she jumped onto the bed and began to feast. It wouldn’t be until her third bar that I was able to convince her to remove the wrappers first.

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