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

These halls extended forever with seemingly no destination in mind. It was like walking through the palace corridors of Aidenhall, but without all the life to populate the place. They went south, following a compass. The fact that this tunnel continued north lent to how enormous it might be. 

Along the way, Kanae and her companions passed smaller tunnels that had also collapsed, leading to who knows where. Large rusted rail tracks ran along the length of the path, but they most likely weren't laid by the Saviran miners of town Watering Hole. Far too big for regular mine carts anyway.

The miners from the initial cave-in followed them with tools. It took a bit of time to clear the hole after the collapse, but putting in support beams to prop up the ceiling and against the walls stabilized an entrance. For now.

"How much farther is the cave-in that trapped your miners?" Kanae asked one of the men.

"Shouldn't be too far now. See them carts? We should be getting close," an elf said, pointing to the mine carts in question filled with stone and left unattended.

"Why even go down so far? Aren't you digging for ore and crystals?" Petyr asked suddenly.

"Listen lady, we just follow the foreman's orders. When we found these ruins, he probably thought there were riches down here. As you can see, we ain't found nothing like that yet." He shrugged.

Petyr met Kanae's gaze and gestured for her to come closer. They walked a little farther ahead than the rest of the group, just out of earshot.

"I don't buy it," Petyr said.

"That they haven't discovered anything?" Kanae cocked her head.

"That Foreman Brax was hoping to find treasure. If it's the riches they want, the miners are already digging it up. Dwarves also aren't exactly the gold-hoarding type," she explained.

Maybe Brax was lying to them. Maybe not, and he was just omitting some important information about this place. Either way, there were miners that still needed saving. They could question with him later.

The crew arrived at the second cave-in to heavy rubble and sand blocking the entire tunnel. It wasn't an exaggeration to say it had been completely sealed off. 

"Hey!" one miner stepped up to the blockade and shouted. "You guys still alive over there?"

No answer except his own echoes.

"Uh. That's not a good sign," the earlier elf said.

"I'll make an opening." Petyr brandished her warhammer, but Amethyst Hall jumped her this time.

"You're just going to cause another cave-in!" Kanae exclaimed.

"Our boys might be passed out on the other side, too! What if you crush them?" another miner cried.

Edina plunged the Pillar of the Damned into the ground and wrenched the Scythe of Soul Reaping from a portal. The brazier on her staff ignited, lighting up the dark tunnel with greater luminosity than everyone's lantern combined.

"No one's giving me a ticket for necromancy here!" Edina summoned a single specter, whose ghostly body vaguely resembled a human man with no discernible features.

A couple of the miners fainted.

"Edina, what are you doing now…" Kanae sighed.

"What? Ghosts can pass through walls. I can check the other side with 'em. Lookie." Edina snatched Kanae's hand and made her touch the ghost.

Specter Lvl. 0
STR	-	Harmless ghosts without malice or grudges that roam places where the dead have been buried. They are drawn to necrotic energies.
DEX	-
INT	-

 

[Ethereal: Intangible to the physical world and cannot interact or affect its surroundings. Extremely susceptible to holy damage.]

"Is this the afterlife? It sure has a lot of boobies," the specter said.

Petyr swung her holy energy-infused hammer through the ghost's body, which shimmered a little and took the form of an elderly man.

"No, I don't want to pass on yet! Not before I can bury my face between those honk—" He vanished before finishing his sentence.

"Whaddya think you're doing?!" Edina complained.

"Oops. I acted on instinct. I won't destroy the next one," Petyr promised.

Grumbling, Edina summoned another specter. This one wasn't a boob fiend. She ordered it through the rubble. As expected, the Ethereal passive skill allowed the specter to pass unimpeded. The necromancer's eyes glowed as she looked through her undead, then her face soured.

"You're not gonna like what I see… Remember what we found in Ha'Vavish?" Edina asked.

"Dwarven sex automatons." Kanae put a hand to her face and groaned.

Several of the men shifted forward.

"Hey, I liked the sound of 'dwarven' and 'sex'. But what's an automaton?" one inquired.

"Back off horndogs." Edina threatened them with her scythe. "Anyway, the automatons I see are broken. Looked like something took a big chomp outta them."

The earth shuddered again. Cracks formed on the stone and metalwork of the tunnel. Dust knocked loose from the ceiling rained down on them, and sand spilled from fissures in the rubble. Everyone braced for a collapse, but when the shaking ended, nothing had fallen except for another pipe breaking and gushing out steam.

"Is all this seismic activity normal?!" Kanae asked.

A miner shook his head. "After digging mines for ten years? Not really. Maybe it's just this tunnel, but I haven't had many bad ones in the others I worked in."

Seemingly satisfied that a cave-in wasn't imminent, the miners didn't hesitate to get to work. They tossed loose stone into mine carts, carried off larger stones, shoveling dirt and sand, and chipped away at the debris.

"I'm no miner," Claudia began as she watched them work, "but even I know this is going to take a while. We aren't seriously going to just wait for them to clear everything, are we?"

"The cave-in's like twenty feet across, too. I counted when I sent my specter through," Edina added.

"I really don't see any other way…" Kanae frowned.

While the miners did their thing, the rest of Kanae's companions looked around for signs of another way through. A separate passage, a switch or lever to open a hidden entrance, anything.

At some point, whether out of frustration or impatience, Petyr started tapping the walls with her warhammer. Worried that she might try to pummel a way through for them, Kanae followed after her.

"If you think I'm planning to bash an opening, relax. I don't want to be buried down here with you," Petyr said.

"Okay, I'll bite. What are you doing?" Kanae asked.

"Some parts of the wall sound hollower than other sections. There might be rooms or chambers on the opposite side," she explained.

"That makes sense. How are we going to get in— Wait, you really are planning to bash an opening!"

At that moment, Petyr slammed her hammer into the wall. Everyone winced, and the miners threw themselves to the ground and covered their heads, thinking it was a cave-in. When the bricks piled to the ground, a hole into a room had opened up.

"I should have left you behind…" Kanae glared.

"You would have been stuck here, twiddling your thumbs." Petyr sneered.

The hole led into a warehouse chamber that contained all manner of objects. Crystallized mana, bolts and lugs, tools, lanterns and more inside heavy metal containers on multi-tiered shelves that reached the ceiling. There was a door at the very end of the room, situated exactly where they needed to go— around the rubble.

Some of the miners poked their heads in, unable to believe there were other rooms just a few inches of a wall away. They probably thought this was just one giant tunnel.

"Hello, money!" Edina grabbed handfuls of crystallized mana from the boxes, even summoning a few undead to help her carry them.

"We can come back for those later. Let's get to the other side!" Kanae hollered to her party.

The earth started shaking again, but it was much more intense than before. Crates fell from the shelves, spilling their contents on the ground. Stone and metal groaned as if in pain.

"Kanae, get back!" Alicia shouted.

Kanae followed Alicia's gaze to the ceiling just as it gave way. She darted back, but it wasn't the usual rubble falling into the room. Large worms with specks of iron and shining jewels poured in.

"Stone borers! I think we found what's been causing your cave-ins!" Kanae yelled.

The mineral-eating insects lunged every which way. Most of them made a beeline for the crates of crystallized mana, gorging themselves on the magic-rich morsels. One in particular went right for Edina, who was holding a bunch of crystals— Until Petyr smashed it with the flat of her hammer and sent guts, metal, and dirt flying everywhere, of which mostly landed on Edina.

Numerous stone borers continued to fall through the hole in the ceiling. They didn't just eat the crystallized mana, but also the metal on the wall, shelves, crates, and tools. A miner fell backwards trying to run away, and a borer crawled onto his legs. Kanae shot a bolt of fire from her ring, killing the creature. She helped the man up and pushed him towards the exit.

"It's too dangerous here! Get everyone back to the surface. Leave finding the other miners to us!" Kanae ordered.

"Yes, ma'am!" He tucked tail and raced out in a hurry.

Back inside, the elite members of Amethyst Hall were cutting down dozens of stone borers at a time. Alicia sliced through them like they were butter, and not a single one could match how light she was on her feet. Edina raised the killed ones back to life, ordering them to consume their living counterparts. But there were just so many.

"They just don't stop coming!" Petyr growled, bashing one into the wall and stomping on another.

"That's what she said!" Claudia joked.

"I'M COMING FOR YOU NEXT!" the high elf bellowed.

"Edina, we need a distraction!" Kanae suggested.

"Arise, Death Knight Cantu! Serve your master!" Edina carved open an abyssal portal for the former necro lord to emerge from.

"As you comm— Oh, joy. You want me to be a glorified insect exterminator?" Cantu groaned.

"Drop the attitude and just do as you're told!" she ordered.

The Corpsestitched abomination's many gorag arms made short work of stone borers, and they didn't exactly eat decomposing flesh and bones. That made undeads their perfect counter.

Kanae corralled everyone to the other side of the room. But when she tried to open the door, it wouldn't budge. Petyr pushed her away to do the same. The paladin threw her shoulder against the door and succeeded only in bending it. Sand and dirt spilled in from the seams. Debris on the other side must be blocking them in.

Even with Claudia joining in to help, the two still weren't able to brute-force their way out. They continued to punch, bash, and push. Meanwhile, Kanae, Edina, and Alicia fended off advancing stone borers that made it past Cantu.

"Move! You're in my way more than you are helping!" Petyr yelled.

"I'm in the way? These monsters are probably swarming us because all your violence lured them here! I'll get this open. You stand aside!" Claudia fired back.

"Can you two get along and work together? We're going to be in grave danger soon!" Kanae shouted.

The bickering pair glared the other down, but neither were willing to give an inch.

"How hard is your head?" Petyr asked.

"Why…" Claudia squinted. "Hey, wait—"

Without answering, Petyr picked Claudia up and charged the door like a battering ram. The succubus' head hit the door with a sickening crash. Not from her skull breaking, but from the door's metal frame bending and creaking.

"Ahh! Yes— THUNK! The abuse… the pain! THUNK! It's so exquisite… THUNK! Ahehehe… Everything's getting fuzzy… THUNK!" Claudia passed out on the last hit, but the door had given way for them to crawl out the top.

Petyr hurled the unconscious succubus out, then beckoned to everyone to follow. They climbed through a hole between the door and the frame. As soon as Kanae crawled out, she slid down a mound of dirt and sand. Once everyone was through, Petyr lifted a heavy boulder and covered the way they had come out of.

"No one hurts my sister other than me," Alicia snarled, brandishing a dagger dripping with venom in Petyr's face.

"It's okay, Alicia. I'm pretty sure Claudia enjoyed it." Kanae cradled the former Mistress of Pain, whose head rolled limply from one side to the other.

"And then… to be discarded right after… I think I just climaxed…" Claudia mumbled.

"Yeah, you're okay." She casted a Flash Heal and dropped her.

Just as Edina had described, the immediate surroundings were full of dwarven sex automaton parts. The stone borers probably had a feast on them. That would explain their odd injuries.

"So, you think the miners got done in by the sex bots or stone borers? My money's on bugs," Edina said.

"Stone borers are violent, but they don't eat organic material. The automatons probably took them somewhere," Kanae concluded.

They found their answer not much farther in. With the lanterns lighting their way, Kanae and her companions found themselves impeded by a giant door in the way. She, Claudia, and Alicia shuddered at the sight of it, because the vague outlines of a devil from were etched on it. Although long-faded from age, they knew who it was right away— the devil of lust, Satine.

Just like the door from the sunken temple near Barken, which turned out to be a monastery of the Cult of Lust and Depravity, there was an epitaph that the three could read. Alicia opened her mouth to say something, but after muttering the first inscribed word, she clenched her jaw shut instead.

"This magic…" Alicia spoke through gritted teeth. "It's powerful. I feel compelled to speak the words…"

"What does it say?" Petyr asked harmlessly, not at all expecting what happened next.

And with that, Kanae and the two sisters answered in unison.

"Three temples must be powered, two calamities must befall mankind, and a single disciple must don Her regalia. Doing so shall sow the seed of depravity and impregnate the empire to birth Her anew," they uttered in a trance.

"Ugghh… I feel like someone else talked in my place. That was the bad kind of pain." Claudia pressed a hand to her head.

"Hey, you okay?" Edina patted Kanae reassuringly on the back.

"Yeah. That felt exactly like when we were at the temple. By Her, it probably meant the devil of lust. Three temples must be powered… two calamities… a single discipline?" Kanae wondered aloud.

"Temples likely mean the engines," Alicia said. "Calamities, I am unsure. Regalia, I presume, refers to Thistle, the Matron's Regalia."

Of which Kanae and the Queen-Mother wear separate pieces of.

Before they could ruminate on what the epitaph meant, the door began to groan open. The heavy stone sank into the floor, revealing a large worship chamber with an on-going orgy inside. All of the miners were in the middle of being fucked or fucking an automaton. A statue of Satine stood vigil over them, as they blew their loads into glorified sex dolls.

"This room is in need of cleansing…" Petyr said menacingly.

"HOLD ON! These are the miners we're looking for!" Kanae held her back.

All of a sudden, the sex bots turned their way. Lifeless, glowing eyes scanned the party. They climbed off the miners, much to a few's disappointment.

"A fresh body for the engines has been detected. High elven prude detected. Updating parameters to utterly humiliate and break until doddering mess." One automaton sprung a massive cock with ridges and warts all over it.

"Keep calm, Kanae. You're stronger than this!" Edina shouted.

"Why are you telling me like I'm going to let myself be fucked by them?" Kanae pouted, wiping the drool from her lips.

"I'm going to grind them into dust!" Petyr raced in and pummeled the crap out of every single automaton. They didn't even have a chance to defend themselves. Nothing about their defensive capabilities, which Kanae and her companions previously had trouble against, matched the paladin's rage-induced warpath.

By the end of it, Petyr made good on her promise. She reduced the automatons to scraps of metal and rubble.

"No, you cruel bitch! I wanted to marry this woman!" a beastman cried, holding the remains of a bot to his chest.

"They were never alive to begin with…" Kanae sighed.

After a quick headcount, they confirmed that all of the miners had been accounted for. Edina and Alicia scoured the room for anything else of import, but aside from another entrance that was completely buried on the other side, that was it.

By the time the party returned to Death Knight Cantu, he was buried in a mountain of stone borer corpses and needed rescuing. Rescuing in his case was just Edina opening an abyssal portal underneath him, and letting everything including the dead stone borers to fall through.

The rescue miners welcomed their trapped companions back with open arms, and together, they returned to the surface to fresh air again. Well, not really. But going from stifling humid to dry heat was a welcome relief. All that humidity underground did a number on their bodies. If the miners were down there for another day, they might have succumbed to heatstroke. Especially while having such intense sex with the dwarven sex bots. Kanae and her party were covered from head to toe in sweat, but nothing a few casts of Prestidigitation didn't clean.

"You found them!" Foreman Brax came running over, filled with relief. "Thank good—"

Kanae charmed him right away, and his body tensed up. Fear washed over him like prey caught in the jaws of a predator.

"Tell us the truth. People don't just happen to stumble upon dwarven ruins while excavating. You were actively searching for it, weren't you?" Kanae asked.

"Nh… Yes, but wouldn't you… want to know, succubus… We'll bury it all… before you sex demons can get your hands… on the temples!" Brax explained frantically.

"Bury it?" She gasped.

"Might be hard to believe since we're succubi, but we don't give two shits about the temples. Hells, we prefer them to stay buried," Claudia said.

"Huh? Er… Sultana Dudula ordered that if I'm to ever find dwarven ruins, that their tunnels must be collapsed and made inaccessible. I sent you in there hoping to get you caught in cave-ins. You're telling me I almost sent you five to your deaths?" he stammered.

Kanae slapped a hand to her face. She was about to give Brax a scolding until Petyr beat her to it.

"You were willing to sacrifice your miners to kill us?" Petyr's fury exploded, and she lifted the centaur off the ground by his throat.

"You don't… understand… The dwarves… They have a vast network… of underground roads, cities… and temples…" Brax choked out.

"Let him speak." Kanae motioned for Petyr to put him down, and she did.

"Okay, listen…" He rubbed his bruised neck and winced. "I'll tell you the truth. I have to since I'm under your control anyway. That Mutt of Avanesse has been attacking our Bravost's many mines. We learned that he's sending people down to search the Under Roads. Whatever they're looking for, Sultana Dudula doesn't want it in Cerberus' mangy hands."