17 Brutal hospitality.

MARKUS.

The monster dragged the sobbing girl by her golden hair, her legs scrabbling at the floor, just as her hands fought with ineffectual desperation to loosen the creature's iron-like grip.

All as Markus watched with forlorn eyes, mind already receding in on itself as he followed meekly at her heels, thoughts racing with terror-fueled uncertainty…

He was lugging his feet all the way along the short journey with bleak misery, scarcely keeping the hope that he might somehow manage a worthwhile plan that, sadly, never flashed before him in a heroic moment of genius.

And then, he was there, standing at the bonfire, feeling a dispassionate gaze upon him as the monstrous woman stared at his person.

He didn't need another warning…

Without a second's thought, Markus dutifully nodded his head as he began pulling off his clothes with shaking fingers, doing his best to avoid looking up and into those blazing red eyes.

He wasn't sure why this was happening; in fact, this was so far beyond his comprehension that he honestly thought it might be a nightmare!

Y-yet, if it meant he wasn't going to be 'skull fucked’, he rather felt he'd be cooperative until something better came along.

Even if this was a dream, her threat wasn't something he was willing to risk, real or horrible, terrible fantasy or otherwise… The young man simply doing as he was told while their party’s official leader wept at his side.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry-im-sorry-im-sorry-im-sorry-im-sorry!" Alicia continued to whimper, tears streaming down her cheeks as she was once more lifted bodily in the air so the hob could look at her face to face, the terrified girl cried and quivered as she dangled, desperately trying to claw for purchase at the monstrosity's forearm to alleviate the pain of her own weight held by little more than her scalp.

Then, she was dropped, screaming in agony as her ankle hit the floor at a lousy angle, Markus flinching as he watched her body crumple as if in slow motion, his eyes fixated on the improper way the leg bent with her outcry...

"Do her after you're done with yourself," the hob commanded, her bizarre accent fading away to yet another, though this one was far colder and more menacing, as though she'd simply been playing some game and, now, had grown bored with it all.

"And no potions or funny business; I've got great senses and will know if you misbehave." Her last words were almost cheery, but the implications of her unspoken threat made Markus's skin crawl with the sensation of spiders.

Then, the aberration wandered off towards Huebert's continued struggling voice as Markus pulled his robe over his shoulders, meeting Alicia's terrified eyes the moment after.

He felt exposed now that he was down to his skivvies, yet he continued to work as the other mage stared wide-eyed at him, the occasional heave and moan causing her to mewl as she shifted her likely broken ankle…

"Why are you disrobing?" She cried with a pathetic whisper, "What is happening?"

"It wants us alive for now…" Markus hissed, glaring at the other mage, who seemed nearly broken in both spirit and body…

"I'm not letting it eat me!" she sniffed, then growled, her eyes abruptly hardening as something within Alicia’s mind snapped.

Almost faster than he could react, her hand darted for his wand which lay carefully atop his clothes, but not before he grabbed her by the wrist, floundering with the woman while trying to talk some bloody sense into her.

"Stop fighting this!" he warned, his crazed eyes filled with a manic desire to survive! "It-will-kill-us-both! Just do as it bloody well says until we get a chance to—"

"Run away?" the monster called, not even bothering to look over her shoulder while digging a foul-mouthed and frothing Huebert from the pile of bones.

Both the mages froze at that, staring in disbelief at the creature that was half a room away and still clearly listening to them intently.

It was then that Alicia allowed her struggles to fade as she tucked in on herself, rolling into a haphazard ball while their party’s ‘unofficial’ leader shouted out all the ways he was going to fuck their dungeon-boss host right up her arse, all the while she manhandled him with notable ease.

He too was tossed to the dirt beside the others, the man snarling as the hob dusted her clapping hands as if just finishing a difficult job in the garden, planting them on each hip once she'd done so.

"Strip."

"Oh, you can fuck right off if you think I'm going to lift a shit-covered finger for the likes of—"

"Strip," she reiterated, half growling and half purring with delight, "or I will spit-roast you over the fire for a snack. I'm not hungry per se, but I could enjoy a good munch or two."

"Piss off, girlie; if you wanted me dead, I'd be dead!”

The monster blinked at the redheaded fighter's unwavering backbone, earning herself a sneer as the man hawked back and spat at her.

Naturally, given his grooming habits, half of it caught on his voluminous if not scraggly beard, but at least some did make its way onto her legs, which caused the creature's eye to momentarily twitch.

For a moment, all was silent, yet when the monster did react, Markus felt his blood run cold with the manifestation of her expression.

She smiled, something unknowable abruptly departing from her gaze, despite the attempt at serenity; then, she plucked the man by the throat with a single hand and launched him into the bonfire!

Huebert's wide gray eyes met with Markus's own in what seemed like an eternal moment, both of them staring at the other in complete and bewildered speechlessness before he smashed into the roaring blaze and screamed as his flesh was seared in near-instant blisters!

The sound of tormented agony filled the chamber with its harrowing echo as he pleaded and begged for what seemed like an age...

His limbs flailed and snatched at the ever-toppling logs, which simply burst into crackling ash, his horrible screams outright vanishing to a distressed burble amidst the smoke and embers that swallowed him as they bloomed.

The worst part? Markus watched every single moment that his shadowed and blazing form desperately tried to dig its way through the tumbling array of wood all around him.

It did not take long before his struggles slowly stilled, body becoming disturbingly silent as the crackle and hiss of roasting flesh and fat resounded through the cave with its sickening serenade as he cooked.

"What an unpleasant individual… Insane that I actually thought he was sort of funny for a few moments there."

The chattering of teeth was enough to bring the nightmare's attention back upon Markus, who, quite honestly, could do little but try and steady his strung-out nerves as the creature's malignant gaze fell upon him.

She seemed to note with some satisfaction that he had done as instructed, though she clicked her tongue when her eyes drifted to Alicia, the very same who simply cowered and curled up tighter upon herself, rocking back and forth while chanting a prayer to the great mother of mothers.

Her words were desperate as her voice was a shivering whisper, yet, despite her miserable plea, there was no divine form of intervention upon their behalf…

"You know," the monster began, squatting down and yanking Alicia towards her. The scream of terror, pleading, and hopeless kicking all added to a cacophony of chaos until a horrible crunch flattened her skull as the hob punched it with a hammered fist! And, disgustingly, the girl's head exploded like an overripe pumpkin that was dropped off a bridge.

"I sort of expected a lot more from all of you… I mean, I was even having a bit of a goof and hamming it up to try and hide what I really am, but, apparently, I should have just killed you all from the start."

"Y-y-you're not a dungeon monster then?" Markus whispered with shaky breaths, pointedly not looking at the dripping gore that slopped off the hob's hand as she pulled it away from the carnage… giving it a few lazy flicks as if drying her hands...

"No, I am a dungeon monster," the creature corrected, yawning and exposing rows of razor-sharp teeth before collapsing on her rear and crossing her legs to sit. "That being said, I've got a few questions, and if you answer them correctly, I might let you live. Pretty good deal, all things considered, no?"

"You—want questions?"

"Answers, actually, but I get it, you must be pretty out of sorts."

"B-b-but—w-why? You're a—"

"Monster?" the creature offered, chuckling ruefully as Markus felt his heart sink to the pit of his stomach. "I am a monster, just a rather smart one! I mean, I was smart, even before the whole—mhm, attribute thing the system has going on, but hey, we don't need to talk about that. What I'm interested in is you guys!"

Markus's eyes shifted, glancing towards Alicia's unmoving form, then at the glowing outline of Huebert, who looked to be made of more char and embers than ‘human’ at this point…

And, though he couldn't see her, Markus visibly recalled the exposed brain of Lisa as the rock had taken a veritable chunk out of her head.

All the images of his team's final moments flashed through his mind and caused his body to shake with involuntary apprehension…

"W-we're all dead…" he began, his voice cracking as his nerves wound to a near-breaking point. "What's there to even care about?"

Curiously, the hob took in a sharp breath through her teeth, looking as though she herself were slightly displeased that everyone else was gone. Still, the moment passed as she shrugged her broad shoulders and leaned back on her hands.

"Ehh, I guess I'd say I'm interested less in you specifically and more in your culture? I want to know about the outside world, the city, its people, the government, whatever this ‘guild’ thing is I keep hearing about, you know, the basics!

“Honestly, I'm sort of really confused by this whole suppression team thing; I mean, yours is the second I've fought, but like, what do you even do? What's the point? And how many teams like yours are out there?"

"You want me to—betray my people?"

"That's an ugly word," the monster cooed, grinning but now absent the darkness that was present when her emotions vacated her gaze. "I'd think of it more like a transaction! You give me what I want, and I, in turn, figure out if it's worth enough to let you live."

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

For a moment, Markus considered the creature's words, wondering if, only for the sake of his crumbling hope, she might actually honor any kind of bargain they might strike…

He wished he knew a spell that would magically bind and enforce that sort of promise, yet he was hardly out of the academy!

Sprig's tits, he wasn't even level seven yet…

Granted, much like Huebert, Markus had regretted choosing mage as a class rather than a profession, as he generally disliked fighting after getting a taste of it, but that was neither here nor there at the moment.

Still, he knew that the primary concern the monster would have with him leaving would be that he would be taking her secrets with him.

Worse? Everyone, even idiots, knew that the best way to keep what one didn't want to be shared was to make sure that nobody was alive to gossip about it…

Markus felt his throat bob, his thoughts racing as he tried to figure out how he could escape, and failing that, how could he convince the terrible creature watching him to let him walk out of here alive?

She wasn't stupid; that much was obvious. Doubtless, the only reason she was being so casual about everything was that she felt herself to be in complete control.

Ha!

Markus couldn't even argue the sentiment!

He'd seen just how quick the hob was when she desired to be so, and he held no compunctions about his ‘chances’ at pulling off a fast one in such close proximity…

If anything, he’d likely just wind up like poor Alicia—

Splattered on the dirt…

"Well?" the monster inquired, waiting expectantly with her gleaming grin.

Slowly, Markus found his head nodding in the affirmative, noting how the hob's eyes lit up with glee that he was willing to play along.

Naked as he was, save for his underwear, of course, he didn't think it was such a surprise, but given how everyone else was dead? Yeah… he really didn't have many options.

Maybe he really was the oddball of the group…

After all, who tried to make deals with monsters and expected anything save for a grim ending filled with lots of teeth?

N-not that Lisa got much of a chance to save herself, but what was done was done. Sadly, absent any better alternatives, Markus would play along, hoping against hope that his destiny wouldn't involve moving through a nightmare's intestinal tract…

"Where do you, umm, want me to start?" he whispered, the creature's expression broadening to the point it sent chills through his veins…

"How about you begin where you think is best, treat it like you're giving a history lesson to a kid. If I've got a question, I'll ask."

"Okay… uhhh… well, you wanted to know about the city, right? Okay… okay… The city is Taeldra, and it's quite old… Once, it was the capital of an empire, but now, after its collapse, it's just one of many city-states that share a sort of merchant alliance with a handful of others that dot the coast and managed to survive the last desolation."

"And that desolation was?"

"A kind of ‘end of the world' moment," Markus explained, feeling slightly silly that he was giving a basic first-year academy lesson to what was essentially a descendant of the terrors that had caused it all.

"The system appeared when dungeons did. Monsters were already around at that point, but the dungeons ‘did something’ to them and started churning out armies of monstrosities that wiped out significant portions of the world's population.

“Cities, towns, villages, most of the northern continent that we call 'Pannore' is still entirely uninhabitable due to wild dungeons that were never put down, slaughtering anything around them.

“Not even animals live there anymore, though, there have been efforts made by some nations to reclaim what they can… By contrast, we are currently on 'Pannsuu', the southern half of the old world continent that was split by archmages when it was deemed the north was too far gone to save.

“That's where everyone lives now… Though wild dungeons still make traveling outside a walled city somewhat dangerous, the stories of the north pretty much put anything down here to shame."

"How high are the walls?"

"P-pardon?"

"The walls," the monster pushed, rolling her hand as she did so. "Are they, like, hundreds of feet tall or more normal and castle-like ones?"

"What would be the point of a hundred-foot wall?"

"Super tall monsters?" the hob offered, earning herself a somewhat confused look from Markus, who struggled to follow along.

"Most monsters aren't that big," he stated, speaking slowly as he chose his words carefully. "And those that are, like dragons and their like, typically don't care much for them in the first place. Most nightmares of that variety are long since gone, though.

“Perhaps, they were around during the desolation itself, but that was hundreds of years ago! When I said it was dangerous to wander around outside a city, it was because of the roving hordes of—well, goblins and kobolds, all the dire wolves and giant spiders and zombies… You know, normal monsters!"

"And they're all dungeon mobs?"

Markus felt his cheek twitch at the rather curious word that the hob used to describe the creatures, but figured she'd likely picked it up from one of the presumably many victims she had under her belt.

Given how easily she'd made a mockery of their team, Markus had a reasonably solid presumption that this ‘thing’ he was conversing with was, in fact, responsible for all the missing delvers.

"They were dungeon monsters…" the young man explained, chewing on his lip as a kind of plan began to emerge in his mind.

True, he couldn't beat this thing in a fight, but maybe he didn't have to…

"But," he quickly added, trying to force down a smile, "once a monster leaves a dungeon and isn't killed in the outside world, its connection to it is severed! It takes time, but that's how most modern-day monsters came to be!

“There weren't this many types back in the old days, just the undead really... Once they break free, they're like animals o-or people, for that matter. They slowly gain minds of their own and adapt, and are even capable of reproduction.

“It's truly fascinating, and the academy has an immense amount of information if that's what you're after! I could even—"

"Stop," the hob grinned, lifting her hand up to forestall the rising excitement in the mage's voice, her expression somewhat softer than it had previously been. "I already know I can leave. And I intend to do so at some point, but keep going with where we were; you're doing very well, by the way."

Markus deflated a fraction, nodding as his little scheme was cut down at the knees before it had even started. Yet, she had offered him something of a chance, unwittingly or otherwise, one that he would be broaching again when he decided he might get away with it.

All he needed to do was convince her to leave with him, to make a deal on her behalf with the city, and he'd be free!

Plus, Markus might even be heralded as a hero for helping capture the dungeon's notorious killer, the very same who had been striking fear into the hearts of the city populace as her rampage continued without end in sight.

Yes, all he needed was to get her to agree to come outside…

"Alright… so that's basic history, I guess. Not too much else to really say without a textbook. Umm, the city is pretty big, I suppose, one of the largest in the area. There's a king who still calls himself emperor, and without getting too deeply into it, he’s pretty much hamstrung the power of the city's nobles when he took the crown and used their wealth to save the city from financial collapse.

“There’s also the Taeldrian College of Wizardry which is the largest school of magic worth any real scholar's time within a year's travel in any direction! It's massive and part of the reason, in conjunction with the dungeon, why the city is so wealthy. O-or, why the city's nobles were, at least..."

"Is that why the dungeon’s kept suppressed?"

"Y-yes and no…" Markus allowed, though, again, alarms were rising in his head over the monster's apparent knowledge. For a creature within the dungeon's depths to know it was being willfully suppressed meant that the greater entity itself was likely aware as well.

He had no idea how it happened, but clearly, the dungeon was waking up again, and it had created something to fight back against those who'd chained it. Worse, it had proven frighteningly adept at its grisly work…

In fact, it had truly reached a point that many would call disastrous.

Without the numbers before him, all Markus could say on the matter was that this creature was indeed hurting the city, and not just economically either. No, it went well beyond that as new delvers began turning away from what ‘had been’ the most popular beginner's dungeon on the continent.

Many youths previously overconfident that ‘nothing bad’ ever happened were now being a good deal more cautious about going near it. And that, naturally, upset many people who were financially tied to the business of ‘delving’.

Likewise, the academy was suffering as well…

A large part of its success had come from the certainty that its scions could test themselves in a sterile environment that was just dangerous enough to push them, but not so much that it ended in deaths.

Sure, kids could still find themselves at the wrong end of a goblin spear, but that was why the guild worked so well hand in hand with it. Constantly churning out capable combatants who were paid to take lower-level mages on as part of their teams.

It was all a well-oiled automaton of grand design, yet one monster had proven it to be built upon a house of cards…

"The dungeon is suppressed primarily for its economic importance," Markus muttered, carefully considering what he should say and what he should leave out. "But most of that has to do with corrupt nobles that fill their coffers…

“The 'great families' that ran the city were the ones who initially put the process into motion and who most profited from it all until Justinian wrested control from them. Yet, before that, they used it to cement their place as the city's de facto rulers. Essentially, they created a monopoly on resources plundered from the dungeon, as well as controlling access through the early days of the guild.

“However, as the population grew, their ability to maintain that control eroded, becoming weaker and weaker. First, the guild broke free from their influence, then the city, along with many other institutions within it.

“There's actually been quite a lot of talk about trying to strike a bargain with the dungeon and allowing it to start growing again, a lot of people that have recently found themselves in power are discontent that the majority of the populace is so low-level…"

"Because everyone leaves to go find a dungeon where they can actually improve themselves once they graduate?"

"Not everyone leaves; the city made a habit of making that rather difficult, and cities with a tame dungeon are few and far between. Though again, much of the reason behind it all can be attributed to those previously in power. It was deemed easier to control the city with fewer people who could fight back… But again, that changed once Justinian conquered it."

"There's still war? Even with monsters roaming around?"

"Of course!" Markus laughed, though it was a sour thing at best. "What ‘king’ ever set aside his ambitions just because a few hundred skeletons roam the woods at night? Monsters of the sort that live on Pansuu aren't very capable against professional soldiers.

“Maybe, back when the system and dungeons first showed up, there were issues, but nowadays, soldiers are chock-full of powerful skills and highly leveled besides! War just means that the winning side becomes even stronger.”

The monster-woman was silent for a time, seeming to consider his words while chewing at her lower lip, the shadow of her bewitching face shifting in the firelight before she emerged from her contemplative thoughts with another question. "If I were to leave the dungeon, they'd try to kill me, wouldn't they?"

"N-not outright!"

"Then enslavement to dissect me... Or to study me, or whatever else they might try to do so I couldn't return to the dungeon and revive," she calmly noted, shutting him down with a calculating look.

"Don't bother trying to deny it; I know what I've been doing in here is ruffling feathers, and it's not lost on me that I haven't once seen a hob or a goblin adventurer wandering around in here. It's just all humans and elves, honestly, it's sort of disappointingly vanilla…"

"O-other races do exist in the city…"

"As slaves?"

Markus winced, shying away from the large woman who smirked in response.

"So," she continued with a languid purr, "that either means you don't allow your ‘property’ to level themselves in the dungeon, or they're in segregated communities and are less owned and more considered subhuman and therefore undesirable."

She chuckled at that, seeing how Markus's face reddened slightly for being read so easily, the monster's throaty amusement resonating through the chamber as though she found it far more funny than it otherwise should be.

"Would it be prostitution then?" she asked, her tone filled with mirth. "My body sold to the highest bidder once I was magically collared and contained? I'd imagine I'd make quite a prize given my appearance, monster or otherwise, I've seen where your eyes linger when sneaking glances at my flesh…

“Do you desire me?" she smirked, all sultry smiles and dripping honey, meanwhile, Markus was very much forcing himself to maintain his visual aversion… "Really?" she cackled, still somehow reading his thoughts without Markus saying a word!

"Even after what I did to your friends? Well, isn't that interesting… Would that be considered a sort of—fetish in your world? Lusting after a monster like myself? I admit, I might be open to it—it is quite lonely being the only one who knows that water is good for more than drinking around here…"

Markus shifted in his seat, mortified by the way his mind began punishing him with decidedly problematic thoughts.

Worse? He felt himself stir beneath his undergarments, the part of him that was a young and virile young man unable to deny certain realities about the being that sat with him.

Huebert hadn't been wrong.

The monster was captivating…

Still, he refused to offer his baser instincts their time of day, ardently keeping to his vow of abstinence, at least where seven-foot-tall nightmares of violence and death were concerned.

His older brother's words of wisdom played on repeat as he sat there, his face brighter than a tomato as he tried, and failed, to fight back against the rising culmination of some very confusing teasing.

Never stick your prick where it wasn't meant to be...