Five days had passed since Akkuron had discovered a Vice Dungeon’s existence, but still, they’d done nothing other than reconnaissance.
However, during their reconnaissance, they had discovered that the dungeon was not the Dungeon of Greed but the Dungeon of Lust.
A developnt they welcod.
Mias detailed that they were happy about such a developnt because: ’It was much easier to deal with Lust than Greed.’
Or at least that’s what Mias had heard the scar-faced General say.
That was most likely due to the fact that, as Greed had suggested, their goal wasn’t to conquer and eliminate Lust.
They wanted to use Lust.
Either by subjugation or negotiation...
At first they were waiting around so they could gather intel.
Now they were simply waiting for Greed to leave — it was common knowledge that a Vice couldn’t wander from their dungeon forever.
Akkuron had no idea how long Greed would be staying with Lust, but they seed intent to wait years if need be.
That was simply a testant to the power of a Vice.
It was also a testant to the greed of a nation during warti.
Despite Akkuron and their spectating, Greed had gone out nurous tis to release her power, causing constant frenzies in the Scar.
The death toll was staggering. At this point, it breached the thousands as new beasts were drawn by Greed to join the slaughter.
The scale of the skirmishes did seem to lessen as the native population died out. Neighboring Dungeon Masters also learned of their losses due to this weird entity, forcing them to hole up in their dungeons for the ti being.
Still, the remaining rogue beasts continued their endless brawl.
Vale, during this ti, hadn’t been exactly idle, but neither had he made any open movents.
His Champions remained inside most of the ti, only going out every now and then to scavenge so corpses for free Aether shards and als.
’Quite the lucrative business.’
He was also skinning applicable beasts, mainly the bountiful rabbits with leathery skin. Scrounging up the other materials needed for tanning and sewing. Trying to get Tanner’s station up and running.
This all sounded good, if only there were no consequences...
’How long would it be before this place is ho to a Blood beast?’
Perhaps an Ergent Wretch or even Anathema would co to claim the Scar as their ho.
Beast, which, according to Mias and Salo, were much more fearso than the ones summoned by the Levels. Due to retaining intelligence and Traits.
Besides dealings in the Scar, Vale’s business had been focused on developing his new workers and mining more of the dungeon.
According to Greed, there was a limit to the space, but it was quite large.
Sadly, Greed wasn’t willing to part with much knowledge during her stay, opting to make Vale pay for anything he wished to hear.
Sothing the man of passion declined, having already been conned into a few unfortunate deals, but he had bought a few useful tidbits.
Such as all the types of Traits the workers could acquire. There were quite a few more than he thought. There were:
’Builder, Miner, Artisan, Leatherworker, Chef, Blacksmith, Tailor, Engineer, Enchanter, Alchemist, Herbalist, Fisher.’
There were also so specific skillsets an Imp could co to possess within those jurisdictions; ie, a blacksmith could also beco proficient at jewelcrafting; an Engineer could beco a Trapper.
Sadly, the price to pay for that information was his dignity...
Knowing he could shapeshift, she made him walk around shorter than her.
What a travesty!
As for how an imp could level up...
Greed didn’t give him a straight answer since he was quite cheap in the price he paid, but she’d told him they needed to develop a focus.
Sothing that he’d already been doing...
Perhaps he needed to be even more demanding of a focus. Like removing Larry and Ember from mining and building entirely.
As for the sector Greed wanted...
It was nearing completion.
Greed was starting to teach groups of imps how to play ’football’ with the [Classic Arican Football].
Out of curiosity, Vale had peeped in on a few of the lectures, and he couldn’t help but wonder...
’Humans played such a barbaric sport in Greed’s world?!’
What kind of hell was Earth?!
First, he learned that people could end the world with a thought. Now he learned that its inhabitants liked to charge headfirst into one another at full force during their recreation.
’How uncivil!’
Earth, as Vale understood it, must have had a terribly low life expectancy.
’Greed even alluded to the entire world going to war. Twice!’
Vale silently thanked his awfully circumstance as it seed Pandora was a much better place to be sent than that terrifying ’Earth.’
’No wonder that madman’s from that place.’
What other world could create a man such as Pride?
And Greed for that matter.
Technically Kaldora created all the Vice, but those summoned to Pandora in their representation were from Earth.
Vale shook out his wandering thoughts and counted his lucky stars.
Not that there seed to be much luck remaining for him...
When the filter of tribulation was stripped away from Vale’s life, he was living a pretty good one.
He had beautiful won around him, never had to worry about getting dirty, and was destined to beco one of the world’s strongest beings if he survived.
That’s not to say he was ’lucky’ with his circumstance, but more so, he wasn’t plagued by any bad luck yet.
He hadn’t faced a major setback...
Sure, he’s faced a few tough obstacles like the chaleons, Levels, Xina’s imprisonnt, Kindness, surviving the Council, Liora, and now facing Greed, but he hadn’t necessarily ’lost’ in any of those engagents.
As much as he didn’t want to jinx it or curse himself...
Vale prepared.
He was preparing his mind to lose sothing.
The world was cruel.
A cruelty that unearthed kindness.
But kindness could only exist with cruelty to dichotomize it.
Vale didn’t want to believe it or think it, but he didn’t know how much longer he’d receive kindness from a cruel world.
Especially now that the world had given him sothing to lose.
A world that now knew of his existence.
User Comments
0 comments from readers