Amy stepped through the door, to find Mira already settled on the sofa. Did she get the time wrong? She’d been invited to the guild for a meeting, something about a quest her party was suited for. “Um, did I get the time wrong?”

  Mira looked up, “I just got here as well.”

  The other door opened and in walked Misaki the dungeon avatar, and the guildmaster’s lover. Coincidently she was also currently in charge of the guild. Something Amy would have questioned the wisdom of, but she figured Misaki was reliable enough. Misaki smiled, “Ah excellent, you both are on time.”

  “Both?”

  Misaki took a seat, and gestured for Amy to sit down. Leaning forward slightly, “Well I’ve been expanding the dungeon tely, but with the... serpent incident it's gone rather unnoticed. Floors six through eight are ready now, and I’ve got floors nine and ten mostly done. What I need now is someone to run the floors, or preferably two someones. And of all the adventurers in town I trust you two the most.”

  Mira blinked, “I don’t even run the dungeon, but are you suggesting what I think?”

  She smiled, “Sure am, I need a couple of testers. I will open the sixth floor to your parties. I know neither of your parties have beaten my fifth-floor boss but I think you’d both stand a good chance against her. More importantly, I need the feedback of level-appropriate parties. I could ask Phylis, but bancing around her wouldn’t be... fair.”

  Amy giggled, “Yeah I don’t want to run that dungeon it would be brutal. Still this does sound interesting, but I have to ask what’s the payment?”

  Misaki produced a paper, “I believe this is a fair payment of gold, along with your choice of a free weapon from my smiths and new armor.”

  Mira looked it over, “It does look to be an agreeable amount, and I’ve seen the equipment people have been getting from you. It's generally pretty good and I’ve been needing repcement gear for a while.”

  Amy frowned, “What about failure penalties?”

  Misaki chuckled, “Well naturally they’d be waived while you are working for me, consider it a perk. Think about it, you get the gold, new equipment, plus the challenge of facing my new floors. I think it's a very good offer.”

  Mira nodded, “I thought so, failing is part of the job, we need to find the fail conditions and help her figure out which sections are too hard or too easy. Failure penalties would just not work, and yeah this does look like a good start. What are the exact terms?”

  Misaki produced another document for each of them, “My initial write-up of the contract, with the proposed rewards. Pretty much just a draft, we can work out the exact terms now.”

  Amy took her draft and started reading it over. There was nothing wrong with it, it seemed pretty good, but she saw a few points for crification and a couple of things she’d like to ask about.

  The Abyssal Town ofAbyssgate:

  Kati blinked twice as her eyes took in the sight. Mistress Silia’s cute face entered her vision, “So how do your eyes feel?”

  “Better, I can see now.”

  “Good, good, looks like the change has taken well. Now I’m sure being in pieces can be rather boring, mind if I bring your head around today?”

  She felt a rush of excitement, “Oh are you going to show me around finally?”

  “Sure am, I figured you’d enjoy it. Besides you’ve been coming along really nicely”

  Kati would have shrugged but her shoulders weren’t attached, and she didn’t really know where they were. “Gd to hear it, it's kinda hard to tell when you aren’t...”

  “Assembled? I know, and it's so fun pying with your body. So very responsive and you’ve got such cute parts!”

  She smiled, it was nice seeing how happy Silia was with her body, even if she couldn’t feel what was going on with it. Mistress Silia had severed her senses on purpose, saying it was best if she couldn’t feel her parts. Mistress Qualia usually left her senses intact, but found it quite amusing to disconnect her from her pussy. Warm feelings surfaced as she recalled the st time Qualia had done it, there had been something exciting about being in pieces and not knowning when and how she’d be bred. When Qualia had put her back together she’d found herself well into a pregnancy. Now that she thought of it, she didn’t know how her babies were doing, but she figured they’d been quite useful to Qualia. “Sounds like you’ve been enjoying them, gd you like them.”

  “Sure have!” said Silia as she secured her in a nice carry basket. Allowing the small Siurean girl to easily carry her head around. Kati was quite happy that she had a good view from within as well.

  “So where to first?” said Katilia, changing the subject, but all she got was a mysterious smile from her cute Mistress. Thankfully it wasn’t long before she found out. After passing through several corridors they had emerged into a room that could only be described as a nursery.

  The floor and walls were covered in a dense mat of interwoven organic material that pulsated slowly, and pced evenly rising from the floor were numerous small cribs that almost seemed to be growing out of the floor. Up above she could see a number of long tentacles hanging zily from the ceiling, some tipped with barbs, others had a tip that looked like a strange fleshy flower, and a few ended in what suspiciously looked like a boob. Even from here she could see many of them were occupied, while several naked females moved about seeming to monitor the young.

  “I’m doing a check of the nurseries, this one is for females.”

  Looking into the nearest crib, “You seem to have a lot of them, I’d have thought a Dick Breeder would have more males.”

  “Males are certainly more valuable to us, but females aren’t without use. They make a base for monster material and are required for breeding more males. Not to mention they are excellent workers, among other things.”

  “I see” she replied, then commented, “But this one doesn’t seem that healthy. She looks a little thin and her pallor.”

  Silia giggled, “I think she’s missed a couple of feedings and may have been poisoned. Perfectly alright, it's just a third-css female.”

  “Third css?”

  Silia smiled, “All babies are tested after birth for quality. The most promising ones are those rated first or second css. They will make excellent breeders or materials. Third and below just aren’t as useful.”

  “I see, but poison?”

  “It's given randomly to weaken or kill some of the females, to make room for new ones.”

  Kati smiled, “Ah! Yes that makes sense actually, but what do you do with the dead ones?”

  “Biomass, I need them to make more of the Syresh.”

  “The Syresh?” she inquired with a frown?

  Silia giggled and turned her for a better look of the room, “See all the interwoven tendrils and dark flesh growing in this room? That’s the Syresh, it's vital to the nest.”

  Her mind fshed to the first room she’d seen covered in the stuff with dicks sprouting from it like mushrooms. “Right, you were using it like soil to grow dicks.”

  “Oh yes, it's very good for that, but that’s not the only function of the Syresh. In here it pys a vital role in the care of the babies.”

  “It can do that?” she replied just as one of the zily hanging tentacles moved. The fleshy flower dropped into a crib with surprising speed like a snake striking prey before suddenly lifting the unsuspecting infant up into the air with equally impressive speed. The infant's wails let her know it was fine, and she seemed pretty well supported by the flesh flower as it pulled her into a space out of sight.

  “Of course, it can,” responded Silia as the wails grew louder and the tone changed, “The Syresh is a living thing.” she pointed to a flower-tipped tentacle, “Those are sensing organs for the Syresh, but also a grabber. It uses them to move the infants,” she pointed at a barbed one, “and that one ends in a stinger used to deliver poisons, the Syresh uses it to protect itself but also to harm the infants, and of course the st tentacle type you see is used to feed the infants.”

  “The Syresh can even produce milk? Impressive.”

  “Oh, it can’t do that. Instead, it milks ctating females and processes their milk. That processed milk is then stored and distributed as required by the Syresh. There are a lot of benefits to feeding them this way.”

  “I can imagine, but doesn’t that mean the Syresh can also poison the milk?”

  “Yup, it does that too, it's one of several methods we use to poison the babies.”

  Recalling Mistress Qualia didn’t mind babies dying either, she inquired, “So what’s the death rate?”

  Silia smiled, “I’m proud to say it's around fifty percent, that’s about where I want it. As it ensures sufficient females mature to become workers while providing enough biomass to feed the Syresh.”

  She mentally noted that down, “So does that hold true for the other...”

  “Of course not, second and first css females are much more useful, so death rates among them are much lower,” said Silia as they left the nursery.

  Silia took them into another one shortly after. Kati looked around noting it was much the same at first gnce, but she saw fewer barbs on the tentacles. Looking into the cribs, the young within seemed generally healthier as well. “So second or first?”

  “First css, I figured you might want to see the babies you brought me,” said Silia as she was led over to three cribs in particur. Within were a trio of familiar infants selected from Mistress Qualia’s stock, but her gaze fell on the middle one. The other two looked perfectly healthy, but the one in the middle seemed feverish with strange growths on her body. Her left arm was also missing.

  Katilia frowned, “Are we killing the middle one?”

  Silia chuckled, “While first css isn’t exempt from the occasional culling, no. Actually I chose to start the monsterification process early on this one. She’s doing better today, she wasn’t breathing that well yesterday. If the trend continues we should have a little monster in a few days!”

  “I take it you normally don’t do it with babies that young?”

  “It can be rather taxing on the body, if done too early it can lead to death. First-css babies are already more likely to survive the process than second-css, but the death rate for early monsterification is still rather high. Survival rates improve dramatically after three years, so about half the babies selected for the process have their first treatment on their third birthday.”

  “Huh interesting, so you are doing something simir to me?”

  “Simir perhaps but your mature body is able to handle a far more involved process. Qualia wanted a proper ascension for you, but you will see what I mean when I show you your body.” replied Silia as she took her out of the room.

  Milith watched the ground below her, having finally finished cleaning up the Abyssal town, she was heading back to the capital. She needed to have a chat with Arrieta, the girl had mentioned something else worth checking out, and she wanted to talk about the weird lizards. None of the girls in the b really knew what the Atarli were doing with them, but they had revealed to her that about a hundred of those ‘baby hunters’ had been shipped to a pce called Abyssgate.

  It seemed to her that these lizards might be important, but what the abyssals were pnning with them, she didn’t yet know. Exactly what these ‘baby hunters’ were supposed to do wasn’t perfectly clear, but if she had to guess? It seemed likely it had something to do with babies. Regardless, leaving them to run around seemed like a bad idea, she was going to hunt them down and eliminate them.

  Given how well entrenched that nest had been, there were likely others. Milith had little doubt that she was looking at months of work to clean this up. She was going to need allies, recruiting would help but it would be far easier to make them. That was going to require resources she didn’t have at the moment however, even if she did have the knowledge. The question was what race would be best suited for the task at hand? The Swarm was great for its ability to grow quickly, incorporate new agents and gather information, but they weren’t the best fighters. On the other hand there were the Draviri, they were a winged race practically designed for battle. They could be trained fairly quickly, and grew at a fair clip, certainly faster than her own kind.

  The Draviri were a race her kind created to serve as a natural warrior species. Something they took to quite well, they were technically reted species since they shared the same root DNA, which meant the Draviri were in turn also reted to Dragons. Dragons had their signature Dragons Breath, and Soleans like her had the ability to use the simir but different Skylord’s Breath. The Draviri however didn’t have an ability like that, instead they had a natural talent for making and utilizing a unique magical weapon, the Vakir. Vakirs fired deadly red energy spheres of concentrated non-elemental mana, which they could use to bombard their foes from range.

  It was individually weaker than a dragon’s breath but the Draviri bred faster and could amass rge armies. A few hundred Draviri raining destruction from above was a potent force and the Draviri were well known for bringing down dragons in aerial combat. While a Solean could do it one on one, the Draviri would require a numerical advantage.

  The real question in her mind was did she need a warrior race more, or would the more versatile Swarm be the species she wanted? Of course she could always try and create both, but doing both would mean more materials and mana from her. It wasn’t an easy choice by any means.

  A sigh left her as the city of Salmus came into view, she could shelve the discussion for now. Instead she swept her senses out over the city, and soon located the girl she was looking for. Taking a breath, she dived down and into the city, spreading her wings wide when she got near to break, and soon made a graceful nding on the balcony of her church room, where she sensed Arrieta within. Only to stop for a moment at the sight, Xiri was lounging on the sofa with a bunch of pying cards in her hand, while another girl sat more seriously across from her.

  Yet that wasn’t what drew her gaze; rather instead she focused on the bed where she could see Arrieta and Xiri’s not-so-talkative mother. Milith took a moment to recall her name, Zavi. “Um? Arrieta what are you doing to...”

  Looking up from her work, “Pregnancy exam, I haven’t really had a chance to monitor her progress in a few weeks.”

  Milith sighed, “That doesn’t expin why you have her womb exposed and open to the air. Where did you learn that?”

  “Mother does it this way, but she tends to care less about the baby so her methods aren’t as... gentle.” Arrietta waved a hand to reveal a barrier around the organs and the baby, “I took precautions she wouldn’t.”

  Milith sighed, “Of course that menace taught you to do it this way. You do realize you don’t need to expose the baby like that.”

  “Sure you can learn a lot without opening the womb, but sometimes it's required and this is one of those times,” she replied as she pulled a tool out, “It seems some ass punched her in the stomach, her babies are suffering.”

  Milith blinked and drew closer. Quite quickly the damage was apparent. Zavi had a small litter in her womb, four well developed young girls but all of them were bruised and bleeding. Worse now that she was closer she noted the bruising around the womb “Damn, who did that to you Zavi?”

  Zavi didn’t say, but Arrieta interjected, “Unfortunately I see this all too often, and the worst part is that bastard is going to get away with it. Anyway I doubt you wanted to talk about treating unborn babies.”

  “No, I wanted to ask what you knew about Abyssgate and if you knew about any more Abyssals.”

  “Well while you were off I did look into a young boy and his sisters, something had been off about them. Turns out Lydia was not their first Mistress, the poor boy ran from his mother after she was taken over by a Qayan Body Shark.”

  “I’m not familiar with that one.”

  “They are nasty parasites that take over the bodies of young women and abuse their children.”

  “That doesn’t sound so bad,” replied Milith thinking of the other abyssals as she leaned in watching Arrieta work. The half-breed was quite skilled using a mix of magic, cutting and sewing with it to treat the wounds. With every second the babies seemed healthier and less distressed.

  The other girl scoffed, “Yeah well you didn’t have to experience that boy’s memories or those of his sister. It ain’t ordinary abuse, and the damn thing had been pnning worse.”

  “So where is this thing?”

  “Small no-name fishing town, several days travel south of Bleakwater.”

  “Care to show me the way?”

  She sighed, “I’m afraid I have a prior engagement. I’m taking Darrel and his sisters down to the Moonlit Departures guild in the morning. I promised to find them a new home, I only waited this long since the guild had to conduct repairs thanks to a flooding incident.”

  “I see, well what about this Abyssgate pce? Know anything...”

  She shook her head, “Afraid not, Mom mentioned it once or twice and said she had some big customers there, but she never shared where it was.”

  Milith sighed, “I guess I’ll find it on my own then.”

  Arrieta looked up, “Once I’m done with Darrel I’ll help you look. I have a few sisters I can talk to, maybe they will know something?”

  “Wonderful...” commented Milith hoping they weren’t as bad as their mother. Yet she suspected they’d be just as bad if not worse.

  The cart jumped a bit as the wheels rolled over a rock. Discomfort aside, Emily’s eyes weren’t really on the road but the sky. The clouds had grown dark today, it seemed likely that it would rain soon, she just hoped the rain wouldn’t fall before they reached the vilge. It could very well slow them down. Further deys just weren’t something she wanted to deal with, but reality didn’t always conform to your wishes.

  The only good news was that the wetnds east of the Greywood forest had decent roads. A fact that certainly helped them maintain a good speed and more importantly meant she didn’t need to leave the cart behind. Something that would have made things much harder for her.

  Suddenly she felt Amber press against her, “Hey um Emily? What is that?”

  Her eyes followed where the bee girl was pointing, it was right off the road where she’d expect trees and muddy soil, she instead saw trees engulfed by a strange pulsing mass of woven tendrils that spread out across the ground like some kind of ominous carpet. Strange tentacles wrapped around the branches of the trees and formed a dark canopy that cast deep shadows on the ground below. Several long tentacles hung zily over the ground, giving her a more clear view of their tips that could only be described as fleshy flowers. Honestly it was rather creepy and unsettling.

  “Um, I don’t know, but I’m not pnning on finding out either,” she replied as she turned the cart to avoid entering the area covered by it. “How are my girls?”

  “They fell asleep,” replied Amber. The bee girl had been helpfully keeping them occupied by pying games with them. Help that Emily had much appreciated since it let her focus more on the road.

  “That’s nice, well assuming it doesn’t rain we should be at the vilge in about an hour.”

  Amber pressed against her suddenly, “Plenty of time to chat!”