Dungeons and Dalliances

7.88 – The Vault

"The Vault," Natalie repeated. "Yeah. What was up with that?"

"Seems reasonable that there would be a special room in the Basement," Vanetta mused. "Would make sense if there's more than one, really. But from how she phrased it, once the Vault is open and raided, that's it. For the whole City. It's one time and done."

Natalie had also gotten that impression from Cheri's phrasing. "Just what kind of rewards are inside?" she muttered. "Even regular loot is insane here. A Palace Basement special vault that's hard to find and open?"

"We don't want to pass up this opportunity," Vanetta said succinctly. "We're staying here until we find it."

Natalie raised an eyebrow. "That might be a commitment."

She shrugged. "One I'm willing to stick through. Also, she said something about 'trials'. That we were uniquely positioned to deal with. Any idea what was up with that?"

"No, but I'm sure we'll find out."

Natalie remembered that Cheri had glanced at Vanetta with an obviously amused expression when she'd said that part. Normal logic dictated Natalie herself would be the person who would have some special ability or be in some special circumstance to open the Vault, considering that she was god-sponsored. Yet the implication seemed to be that Vanetta was? Or maybe she was reading into a quick glance too much.

What would be special about Vanetta, in this context, that would make her the one able to open the Vault, or pass a crucial trial?

A possibility dawned on Natalie.

Oh. Yeah, that could definitely be it.

"We'll find out," Vanetta said with a shrug. "We should get moving. Hopefully not every encounter is as … involved … as Cheri's was."

"Stop pretending you didn't enjoy yourself," Natalie retorted, though it was an automatic reply.

Did she bring her theory up? It was just that—a theory. But a plausible one. Especially as a 'special condition' that would seal the Vault off from most, if not all, people who had managed to work deep into the Basement.

They would deal with that when they got there. It was just a guess, anyway.

"We should backtrack and make sure we didn't miss anything," Natalie said. "There's nothing saying we didn't already pass it, whatever it might be."

It sounded like the 'hidden entrance' could manifest as anything. Cheri hadn't told them what it would look like; she'd explicitly said 'trap door', 'secret passages', and 'all of that nonsense'. So it was probably randomized, determined by whatever rooms were generated.

With the necessary discussions out of the way, they returned to their adventure, first by backtracking. To her relief, the vine trap from the previous hallway remained inert; she didn't have to be stuffed full of insanely potent aphrodisiac a second time. Scouring the room and hallway leading up to Cheri, they found nothing. Natalie hadn't expected to, but it would have been foolish to ignore the possibility. She would have felt awfully stupid if they'd worked through twenty more rooms and the Vault had always been lurking at the beginning.

Passing over the mass of vines a third time, Natalie released her breath, happy that they weren't scooped up and groped. There was going to be plenty of that in the upcoming rooms, surely, so repeating the vines would've been a bit much.

And indeed there was 'plenty of that'. Combat was more common than lewd encounters, but this was the Palace Basement, which meant they could expect some manner of perversion—usually with a moderately strange quirk to it—every few rooms.

As it turned out, though, Cheri's encounter had been special. Over the following two hours, they only ran into one other sapient monster demanding 'combat by sex'. The other encounters were inanimate, or semi-animate like the vines. That other sapient monster wouldn't even give them her name. Natalie tried to speak with her, but unlike Cheri's open and talkative nature, mentioning Malice and the Passions instantly shut her up. She was all business afterward … which wasn't wholly disappointing. The monsters employed by Lust knew how to treat a girl well.

The fourteenth room they explored was significantly more decorated than the ones prior, a two-story library with rows and rows of shelves. The writing inside each book was gibberish like all dungeon-generated material, but they were interesting to flip through nonetheless.

Considering how much more densely packed the room was than average, the moment they walked in, Vanetta had said, "If there's a hidden passageway, I bet it's gonna be somewhere in here."

The search took more than an hour, which, while tedious, Natalie didn't mind, because having a cooldown between lewd encounters was nice. She liked sex as much as the next girl—well, probably more, considering a goddess had sought her out—but the back-to-back-to-back nature of the Basement was wringing her dry. It wasn't that she was tired of sex, rather that she was getting tired from sex. A girl could only have so many orgasms back to back before she started to ache all over … if in a somewhat satisfying way. Regardless, she appreciated the long break.

Vanetta was the one to figure it out, which didn't surprise her. She was the rogue; they were often the most attentive and perceptive on any given team.

Natalie didn't see what happened, only heard a grinding noise as she searched the second floor on the other side. The library was tiered, but the center was open; a walkway with a wooden railing oversaw the first floor. Hopping down and hitting the wooden flooring with a grunt, she jogged over to Vanetta. There, two bookshelves had slid inward and sideways to reveal a passage large enough for two people to walk shoulder-to-shoulder down.

"Had to pull the candlesticks in a certain sequence," Vanetta said, gesturing at said arrangement of four candlesticks, two of which were bent at an angle.

"Classic," Natalie said. And also something she wouldn't have found in a million years. Okay, maybe she would've. She wasn't that terrible at puzzles and sniffing out secrets. But it was by no means her forte. She'd probably have given up on this library before finding that particular trick.

"Think this is it, or is it something else?" Vanetta asked.

Hefting her hammer up, she took the first step into the passageway, scanning the wall and floor for traps. "Let's go see."