Mutually Beneficial Dungeoneering 20

Preparations to invade the Fifth Floor of the Dungeon started pretty much as soon as the celebrations for beating the boss of the Fourth Floor ended. That took a while, especially since the party had a lot of money to have fun. After splitting their fortune each of them requested the necessary funds to re-equip and recover.

Benny was going to be busy with Cupcake, working not just on new weapons but also on strengthening her existing ones, while Mara instead decided to go visit Rosie, who had been so immensely helpful to them through their journey into Kamadeva's perverted depths.

She did have to wait until the gatekeeper was off duty, though, but once she did, the two of them rented a private booth at one of the more out of the way, hole in the wall type restaurants, the ones that catered to the locals, and not the tourists or dungeoneering adventurers.

"Try the Fajitas, they're amazing," Rosie said, as she pointed at the foreign looking dish.

Mara eyed the rolled up tortilla, pepers and meat stuck out from the end. "What's the meat in them?" she asked, squinting a little, her nose scrunching up and her long ears twitching. "You know what, nevermind, I don't think I want to know."

They sat in front of each other in a brightly lit private booth, the table between them was packed with a lot of food hailing from the restaurant owners' place of origin, apparently somewhere far to the south west.

"Wise," Rosie replied. "So why don't you tell me a little of what's been going on? You guys were gone a long time after all."

Mara nodded. "Yeah, we had to go deep and stay there a while," she said, tapping her belly directly over her womb. "At least I've confirmed that everything works the same as... before," she said, tracing a line up her exposed stomach over her chest, sliding along the curve of her neck and then moving up to her ear, flicking the tip of it as she did. "I'm still not fully used to these."

"This is all very experimental you know, you're the only one I know who's been successful with this," she said. "How's your strength? You leveled up right, I need to know if your abilities match our projections."

"I think I'm even stronger than what we predicted," Mara said, "it's actually a little scary, I didn't think Elves were this strong," she muttered, grabbing the rolled up tortilla carefully not to spill the fillings, then demonstrating the same talents she had in the dungeon and taking a huge bite off of it, chewing slowly at first.

Her eyes opened wide and she blinked, trying to speak through the mouthful of food, thinking better of it, then rapidly chewing and moving the food about until she could swallow, noisily.

"This is great!" she said, "it's spicy but not in a bad way and the tastes all blend together but at the same time they're all distinct, it's like a party in my mouth!"

"Of course, have I ever disappointed you?" Rosie asked, smirking at the adventurer and then carefully cutting into a piece of meat, which seemed undercooked at first but apparently that was the exact temperature to cook it to. She popped the piece of meat she cut into her mouth, and made a very sexual moan as she chewed and swallowed it.

They both sampled a few more dishes before they got back on topic.

"Right, so... fifth floor huh? You guys really are impressive," Rosie said, wiping a strand of pink hair from her face and then using a napkin to dab at her cheek, cleaning up the orange sauce that had stained it. "But the fifth floor's different."

"Every floor's different," Mara pointed out. "But we've powered through all the same, so far the most dangerous thing in there has been other adventurers."

"Well it is said that the Gods abandoned us when they saw how dangerous we were," Rosie quipped. "And trust me, I would know about creators running away from their creations when they get too hot to handle," she said, her lips curling into a rather predatory grin as she jabbed her fork into a piece of meat, eating it savagely.

"Yeah I'm going to ignore that entirely," Mara replied, "honestly I could appreciate any advice on tackling the fifth floor. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a fight in my hands in that floor, and I don't mean the monsters."

"Well, the monsters there are nasty types," Rosie said, grabbing the metal cup that their drinks had been served in, downing about half of it and exhaling steam through her nostrils. "The fifth floor itself is actually a really simple place to navigate, it's mostly just large rooms connected by hallways."

"So like the fourth?" Mara asked.

"But worse. No open sky, and no cutting across the top of the walls," the gatekeeper responded, raising her finger. "Also some of the walls are covered in glowing lichen, don't touch it, it's poisonous and extremely itchy."

"Noted," Mara nodded. "What about the monsters?"

"The Fifth Floor is mostly Shadow monsters, in your current form you should be immune to their illusions, they can't fool your eyes, but your party members won't be so lucky," she explained. "You'll be able to see their true forms, but for Cupcake and Benny they should appear like much stronger monsters."

"Oh- so basically they cloak themselves in illusions to appear stronger?" Mara asked, rubbing her chin. "Cowardly. What about, you know, Kamadeva's proclivities? Sometimes it's weird about non-humanoid monsters."

"I don't recommend it, sometimes it's just not worth the effort or it's just too harsh," she said shaking her head.

"Worse than giving birth to an Ogre?"

Rosie chuckled, a wry smile on her face. "Yes," she said, simply and clearly. "I've seen and, well, engaged in some absolutely incredible things myself. I'm pretty sure I told you about that thing with the Minotaurs," she spoke, "but the Shadows are just too much."

"Okay that is a little bit frightening... What about weaknesses?" Mara asked, poking a sausage with a fork and popping it in her mouth, chewing and swallowing.

"Well, there's a couple means to counter them. The first," she spoke, "is to wear some Glowgems or use Glowgoo as makeup," she spoke. "Ooh, I've got a good set that would look great on you."

"Gems huh? Do you think I could pull off earrings? My ears are a bit sensitive," Mara said, tapping her cheek and looking pensive.

"Oh I wouldn't go with only that," Rosie said, raising her hands, shaking and waving them. "It's a full set, including nipple and clit piercings," she spoke. "I definitely recommend going for the full set, Shadows have a lot of offensive power but it gets massively weakened if you've got proper defensive gear."

"Is it really that bad?" Mara asked.

The golem nodded and grabbed a napkin, holding it up with one hand and then poking her finger through it. "Armor, even the strongest, might as well not exist for the Shadows," she explained. "And unlike most monsters in Kamadeva, these have neither mercy nor restraint, they absolutely will kill you if given half an opportunity."

"That seems out of character for this dungeon," Mara replied, taking a swig of her own drink.

"Some have theorized that it's actually an invasive species left behind by some failed experiment, people have tried weird things in Kamadeva a lot of times, no doubt trying to take advantage of the 'friendly' dungeon."

Mara hummed thoughtfully and then leaned back on the seat, sighing as she let her body process the food she was eating. "Ugh, I'm gonna have to convince Cupcake and Benny to put them on too."

"The Glowgoo also has a nice side effect of making you highly visible, which is good in the Fifth Floor because the Shadows can see perfectly in the dark anyway," Rosie explained. "Also it feels really good to rub it in. I personally prefer to get gunked directly, but you can buy a tub of glowgoo for a good price in the market."

Nodding, Mara hummed.

"Oh, right, I also have a ring for Benny, it's super important that he wear it," the golem explained, grabbing one of the rolled up tortillas and eating about a third of it in just a couple quick bites.

"How important?" Mara asked.

Rosie grabbed the rolled up tortilla cylinder, holding it horizontally, then she shoved two of her fingers into it, the meat and veggies making a slightly offputting squishy noise as she did, then she spread her fingers open and broke up the dish.

Mara leaned back, hissing through her teeth as the image went through her mind. "Okay, very important," she said. "Needs a better word, omni important," she said. "I guess that's what the clit piercings are for?"

"Correct, like I said, merciless, ruthless, downright evil!"

Mara sighed. "I guess that's what we get," she said, laughing a little. "Anything else?"

"Other than that, just be careful of areas that seem unnaturally dark. The boss of the area is one of the easiest ones to find. Every day a random room has a floating platform show up, all you gotta do is jump onto it and after about a minute, it'll drop and the boss will appear from it."

"Oh, that's easy at least. What is it?"

"Have you ever seen a Starfish type monster?"

Mara shook her head.

Rosie hummed, then grabbed a bunch of pieces of food, arranging them so five pieces of meat stretched out of a circular center, which was an onion cut so it resembled a blooming flower, battered and fried.

"Imagine this is a huge eyeball," she spoke. "Shoots lasers from the eyeball and the tips of the arms, and it has suckers that can attach to you and make it really hard to get away, if it catches you it'll try to eat you, some people are into that but, if you're not careful you really will die so make sure to avoid that."

"Noted," Mara agreed. "Okay then, I'll try to get through the fifth floor as safely as possible, see if those women really are waiting for us... I have a feeling, things are going to come to a head soon."

"Just make sure you're safe, you're a rising star and you're attracting attention, you're close to making a breakthrough and it'd be a shame to see your career cut down early," Rosie said.

"That why you're giving me special treatment?" Mara asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rosie laughed. "Goodness, no not at all," she said, "I'm giving you special treatment because you're feeding me," she said, winking and blowing a kiss.

Mara chuckled. The wisdom and knowledge was well worth the trade. They still had more time, and she intended to listen to even more advice regarding how to tackle the fifth floor.