The Hero Became a Succubus, and the Only Way to Level is to… What?!

 

A few days into their journey, and everyone was beginning to feel the fatigue. Extreme dry heat in the day and extreme frigid cold in the night had done a number on their morale. Vizier Duran was the only one who was perfectly fine, having grown used to the weather as a native Saviran.

They tried to pass the time during the day with card games of the low-stakes variety. A few coins exchanged hands at a time, much to Edina's dismay and boredom. Not that it made playing against her any easier. She still wiped the floor with them in Poker, and Alicia only came close to winning a few times. Or so Kanae thought.

After Kanae, Claudia, and a charmed highwayman folded, it was down to Edina and Alicia. The time came at last for them to reveal their cards. All eyes went to Alicia's hand, which laid down a straight. There were only five other hands that could beat her. When they turned to Edina, she revealed a full house.

"Tsk. My loss again." Alicia sighed.

"That's ten wins in a row!" Claudia threw a fit. "I don't believe it. Who the hells is even Lady Luck? I've never heard of that demigod before. Isn't relying on divine intervention basically cheating?"

"What's wrong, Claudia? Thought you like getting your ass railed!" Edina cackled and swiped the stack of ten coins off the table.

"Kuh… I feel like I'm being degraded more than anything…" She spitefully chewed on her thumbnail.

The entire carriage lurched to one side and groaned. Harsh winds whistled with greater intensity, becoming a guttural howl from every direction. Kanae made the mistake of opening the window, and a powerful gale entered the cabin, blowing the cards all over the place.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Close that shit. You're getting sand on my fur!" Edina complained.

"Is it just me or are the winds getting a lot stronger? Should we be worried?" Kanae asked.

"Could it be elementals again? Or that Dancing Dervish?" Alicia suggested.

It didn't feel like either of them to Kanae. Elemental would have been more violent. Sofisa would be enthusiastically introducing herself and demanding a rematch. Kanae put on a facemask and apologized to Edina before opening the back door. She flew out to sand skittering across the earth's surface in waves.

Kanae descended to their second carriage and knocked on the window. A moment later, a groggy Duran opened the slat. He wore an eye mask pulled up to his forehead. It looked like he had been sleeping. Petyr was seated upright on the opposite side, arms folded and eyes shut in… meditation?

"Yes, Kanae? Can I help you?" Duran yawned.

"How are you able to sleep through these? The gales are getting worse. Our carriages aren't going to get blown over, are they?" Kanae asked worriedly.

"Doubtful. They are designed to withstand even frequent sandstorms, and—" He poked his head out of the carriage, brows furrowed and gaze focused in the distance. "Perhaps it would be prudent to find shelter. While sandstorms are common in Savir, there are occasionally those that will sweep even the hardiest of adventurers away. This might be one such sandstorm. I recognize this path. Ishmael's Road. There should be a spire with heavy rope tied around it farther down. Take a right, and in three kilometers, we should reach a mining village owned by my cousin."

Kanae returned to her carriage to relay just that. Stone pillars were a common sight around this part of Savir. They jutted between ten to twenty feet up from sand dunes, and their shadows gave the terrifying impression of large claws primed to carve into the surface.

The spire Vizier Duran mentioned actually had a large, winding rope that wrapped around it. Thicker than Kanae's arm, they appeared to be made of dried desert grass woven tightly together. They reminded her of shimenawa back in Japan, which were straw rope with a deep spiritual symbolism in Shinto faith.

From there, Edina ordered her undead beasts to turn right. Not half an hour later, the sand dunes gave way to a crater-like canyon. A small town sat nestled within, protected from gales by the natural geological barrier around it.

Their two carriages weren't the only vehicles on the way in. A wagon pulled by a centaur man and two brown rhinocerine beasts paused to stare at them.

"Hail! Friend or foe?" the centaur asked, drawing a large pickaxe from the back of his wagon.

"Friend! We're seeking shelter from the sandstorm!" Kanae emerged from the carriage and shouted.

He thought for a moment before putting his pickaxe away and said, "Follow me. No funny business, succubus."

They followed the centaur to a narrow canyon passage just wide enough for their vehicles to enter. Sand trickled down in light showers from above. Wind still carried through the rocky corridor, singing a sharp and piercing note. But it was less violent than what was outside. The carriages stopped groaning and weren't on the verge of being blown away.

The end of the corridor was the start of a large town. Large, in that it was sprawling with warehouses, mining equipment, and carts. Homes were far and few in between. Pillars of smoke billowed from smithies while steady waterfalls of sand piled up on the ground. People sweeped up and loaded piles into wagons to be ferried out. This was more of a labor encampment than a residential town.

Kanae and her companions hopped out of the carriages, stretching their stiff limbs. A couple of miners shot them some odd looks, but quickly returned to work.

"Name's Brax. I'm the foreman of Watering Hole." The same centaur who led them in here extended a hand.

"I'm Kanae. These are my friends. We're adventurers on the way to Bravost." Kanae clasped his hand and shook.

"Adventurers?" His eyes went wide with apparent relief.

"This place is called Watering Hole? Where's the fucking water?" Edina asked in exasperation.

Brax tossed her a leather waterskin, which she promptly emptied the entire contents into her mouth. He thumbed to a well in the middle of town.

"You're welcome to stay until the sandstorm passes. But I'd like to ask you adventurers for a favor: we have miners trapped underground from a cave-in yesterday. Can you save them for us?" Brax asked.

"Good man," Vizier Duran interjected before Kanae could give an answer. "We won't be here for long. The sandstorm is already at its strongest and will likely pass within the next half hour. Bravost awaits, and we cannot be delayed any longer."

Kanae pulled him aside and whispered, "These are your people. Don't you want to help them?"

"Ensuring my cousin's safety will help all citizens of Savir. Whose life is worth more? Some miners or Sultana Dudula?" he inquired seriously.

Petyr overheard and glared at the vizier.

"Miners are the backbone of every country. Who staffs your mines and supplies your metals when they are gone?" Petyr purposely loomed over him with a menacing glower.

"F-Fine. Do as you wish, but return promptly before the sandstorm passes!" Duran exclaimed and retreated into his carriage.

"I didn't expect an Ortesian noblewoman like you to stick up for the little guys," Kanae teased the elf.

"Hmph. Save your patronizing. Unlike my peers, I understand the value of hard labor and backbreaking work. If we're going to save those miners, we should go now. They may not live long cut off from the surface," she explained.

Kanae went to tell the others, and they were all willing to lend a hand in the rescue. Compared to their last operation, this was going to be a piece of cake. She winced at the thought, then rapped her knuckles on a nearby wooden cart to avoid being jinxed.

"You're a strange group," Brax began with a sigh as they stood in front of him, "but I'll take any adventurers. The cave-in happened last night in level seven. A week ago, one of the miners reported strange architecture and wanted to excavate deeper. I gave him and nine others the green light. Wildest thing I've ever seen. A large corridor with architecture I've never seen. Machines everywhere, made of dark metal. Stifling and humid. I had them continue excavating. Last night, they didn't come back. I went down to check myself. But I couldn't go any further due to the rubble blocking the way."

Underground corridor, machines, hot… It couldn't be…

Brax escorted them to the south mine entrance, It was where the miners had last descended. Kanae noticed Petyr following without her new suit of armor. She normally always flaunted it, too.

"Not wearing your plate?" Kanae asked.

"It was comfortable when we were in Radevic. In Savir, not so much. It isn't just because of the heat either. All the sand gets into the gaps." Petyr grimaced.

Before entering the mine, Brax tossed each of them a hard hat with a crystal embedded into the front that shined a bright light. The succubi of the group stared at the hat in disbelief. Kanae placed it on her head, only for the horns to get in the way. The rest didn't even bother. Petyr also didn't want to put a dirty hat on that could ruin her beautiful hair. They went without. Brax shoved lanterns into their hands instead.

Directly inside, two forking paths led farther in and a third was a vertical shaft that went straight down into the depths. Brax ushered them onto a platform with a complex pulley system, but didn't come on himself.

"You're not joining us?" Kanae asked.

"Whenever sandstorms blow in, the miners and I have to constantly cart sand out of the town. Otherwise, we'll get buried alive down here. I already have some boys down there working on the rubble. They can give you a more accurate assessment than me. Please, save those miners. Some of them I've worked with for decades," Brax said, then pulled a lever that started the platform's descent.

As they slowly plunged into the mine depths, the sound of pickaxes against rock clinked louder and louder. Minecarts grinded against their rails. Echoes from miners shouting to each other traveled far to reach them.

Alicia shuddered the deeper they went. Claudia responded by holding her sister's hand tightly. 

"You don't have to come down with us, Alicia. I doubt this is going to take very long anyway," Kanae said.

"No… I cannot cower forever," Alicia muttered, more to encourage herself than as a reply.

The platform reached its terminus, and heavy locking mechanisms clicked into place. They stepped off and into the dark mine passage, illuminated only by their lamps. Large wooden support beams reinforced the walls and ceiling. Pickaxes and shovels were strewn about. A minecart full of rocks embedded with red gemstones sat unmoving, waiting for someone to load it onto the platform.

"Yoink!" Edina pinched a hefty ruby-encrusted rock from the cart.

"Edina…" Kanae groaned.

"What? I'm just accepting pre-payment for the rescue op," she said.

Petyr pointed out another light source deeper in. It was the miners Brax had mentioned, who were trying to excavate the cave-in.

"Brax sent adventurers down to help us, eh?" A harpy man stared lecherously at Kanae's chest. "Well, you'll be tickled pink to know this isn't the rubble that trapped our missing miners. It's farther inside. This one happened early this fucking morning. We've been at it all day!"

"Seismic activity, huh? Happened a lot when we were living underground," Claudia said.

"You had cave-ins like this, too?" Kanae asked.

"Yeah, but they weren't bad. We had enthralled Geomancers to placate the earth. Doubt the miners here have someone crowned that class, right?" She turned to them, and they returned a shrug and shook their heads.

Petyr pushed to the front and pressed a hand to the rubble. She walked along the width of it, which stretched maybe thirty feet across and twenty high. All of the stone and debris looked fairly entrenched. Getting all this out might take weeks by hand, and according to them, there were more cave-ins beyond.

"What's on the other side?" Petyr asked.

"It's the weird ass giant corridor," the harpy said. "We punched a hole through it to get inside a while back. Musta weakened the support structure or something. When the earthquake hit this morning, it just collapsed."

"I'll open a path," she said.

"Open a— Wait, y-you can't be serious?" Kanae stammered.

The paladin lifted her warhammer and lightly struck different sections of the rubble. Miners who caught on what she intended to do made a run for it.

"You're gonna hit the damn thing? Won't that just make it worse?!" Edina panicked.

"Get behind me!" Claudia shouted.

Petyr infused her warhammer with Smite and hit the lower section of the cave-in. The earth shuddered. Stone and dirt flew inwards into the corridor, and new rubble showered down from above.

Kanae, Edina, and Alicia peered over Claudia's shoulders. The impact had some blowback to it, so some stones had flung out and hit her. They clattered harmlessly to the ground. Thankfully, the cave was intact. The secondary collapse didn't completely cover the new hole Petyr had made, and it was just wide enough for them to crawl through.

"You're batshit crazy, bitch!" a miner shouted from behind.

"What did you say?" Petyr glanced back and snarled.

"Er… what I mean is, well done!" he corrected himself.

"Lemme send some scouts first just in case." Edina summoned a few undead mice to scurry into the opening. The necromancer's eyes glowed with a fiery lavender from seeing through her minions. When she came back to her senses, her demeanor wrinkled.

"What did you see?" Kanae asked.

"Well, it's safe. I think you'll wanna see for yourself, buddy." She gestured through the hole.

Kanae nodded to her companions and went first. She noticed the heat first. Sweltering, but not dry like Savir. It was incredibly humid, and she was beginning to sweat already. The debris looked and felt like they could collapse at any moment, so she tried her best not to brush up against any part of the side.

Finally, after a grueling ten-foot crawl, Kanae pushed herself out of the hole into a massive steamy corridor. The walls were made of large cut stone reinforced with black metal steel beams. Pipes ran along the length of it, shooting out scalding hot steam from broken sections. Unlit lanterns hung from the ceiling, their fires long gone out. The metalwork was reminiscent of dwarven engineering and architecture of Ha'Vavish.

"The dwarves were in Savir, too?" Kanae murmured.

Petyr came out of the hole next, followed by Edina. Claudia got half her body out until she wouldn't budge anymore.

"I'm stuck!" Claudia complained.

"Your ass is dummy thick! Bruised up from all that self-spanking maybe?" Edina pointed and cackled.

"Your flat ass is the next I spank if you don't get me out of this already!" she yelled.

Kanae and Edina each grabbed a hand to pull. Claudia came through inch by inch until it got to her lower waist.

"Edina's right… Your cheeks are actually keeping you in there!" Kanae continued pulling to no avail.

"It's not me, all that fried food back in The Diamond— ah! Help! I think Alicia's poking my butt with her dagger!" Claudia cried.

Petyr suddenly pushed Kanae and Edina aside and grabbed her hand.

"Oh! I always knew you had a soft side for me, Petty!" Claudia grinned.

"Don't call me PETTY!" Petyr yanked Claudia out so hard, she flung her into the opposite wall and left an imprint.

The last one should be Alicia, but she sure was taking her sweet time. Kanae kneeled down to look in the hole. Her vice-captain was clenching a dagger and hyperventilating.

"Alicia? Oh, no. Hey, look at me! You're almost out!" Kanae shouted, extending a hand that she wouldn't take.

"What's wrong? Alicia!" Claudia wrenched herself free from the wall and came over.

"I'm going in to help her out." She crawled part-way in and realized that the hole had shrunk a little.

All the weight must be pressing down. Of course, the hole Petyr made wasn't going to last. Alicia's gaze wasn't focused anywhere in particular. Her pupils were severely dilated. If she continued to hyperventilate in this enclosed space, she might pass out. And that could easily go from bad to worse.

"Where am I? Why is it so dark? I don't like it here… I don't like it at all…" Alicia whispered repeatedly as though in a trance.

"You're not alone. I'm right here!" Kanae reached out, but as soon as she grabbed her hand—

The dagger sprung forth, and the tip of the blade bit into Kanae's shoulder. She winced painfully, and the others started clamoring from behind her asking what happened.

"Kanae?!" Alicia gasped, having come to her senses. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to… I…"

"It's alright. I can heal myself once we're out. Just hold on to my hand and don't let go," Kanae said.

Alicia swallowed hard. Their fingers locked together. Kanae gave her companions a single, and they pulled her by the legs and tail. Luckily, Alicia didn't have as big of an ass as Claudia's. Both of them slipped out of the hole, and Kanae casted Flash Heal over her wound.

"Forgive me… Perhaps you four should continue without me. I've proven myself to be a detriment to the group. I'll… stay here until you return." Alicia hung her head in shame.

"That's not true." Claudia hugged her sister. "Whatever you're going through is just a rough patch. You've gotten over worse."

"Claudia's right. I'm not leaving you behind. Dwarven ruins tend to be dangerous, and we don't exactly have a great track record with them. I need you with us. Knight-Commander's order." Kanae winked.

Even though Petyr pretended not to care, standing away from the group and watching them from afar. Eventually, Alicia swallowed a deep breath to steady her nerves and shaking.

"If you will have me, my blades are yours." Alicia nodded.