Utilising Marble's sonic attack had not been as effective as I hoped. After seeing the way it rendered Coal unconscious, I thought there was a chance the acoustics in the stairwell might amplify the effect and knock the whole group out at once without Marble having to get close enough to be seen. It did not work out that way, so maybe that close proximity is necessary for the target to actually be knocked out or perhaps just need a better means to focus it than the stairwell can provide.

Regardless, I did consider that it would not work and that is why I had the imps on standby. The humans were disoriented enough that they were easily ambushed and none of the imps got hurt in the process, so I will still count it as a success.

While Rose is organising the transport of their captive, one of the imps who stayed up on the roof to keep a lookout makes his way down to the fifth floor, one of the new ones with the mottled skin. As soon as he drops down through the hole in the ceiling of Room 7 I meet him there to hear what he has to say.

Has something happened?

"More human," he reports.

How many more?

"Lots," he declares, spreading his arms out wide.

Can you be a little more specific? How many is 'lots'?

"Lots of lots?" He replies with some hesitation.

Okay, nevermind. Can you tell me what they look like or what they are wearing?

The imp frowns and scratches his chin for a moment before brightening.

"Green!" He cheers with a wide grin.

The humans were green.

"Yes. Green like leaf," he confirms.

The people who are attacking us are wearing black body armour, so I would expect reinforcements to be dressed similarly. In contrast, the military soldiers from the city usually wear green, if I recall, so it could be that the promised assistance has finally arrived.

Thank you, you can go back up now.

Shortly after the imp leaves, there are more humans coming up the stairs after the group that was already making their way up and Rose soon reports hearing more gunshots, but it is not the imps who are being shot at, which is encouraging. I will not let my guard down yet though.

I follow along as Rose and the other imps drag our prisoner up the stairs, occasionally giving him a little bit of mana to compensate for any that he loses along the way from not following the path. He is not losing mana every time he crosses over the path because with the irregularity of it, some parts are close enough that he crosses into one step of the path before leaving the previous step, so it is not too difficult a task.

At first, the human looked terrified as the imps dragged him up the stairs, but once he acknowledges the fact that they are not going to kill him, at least not yet, he just starts to look bored and uncomfortable, particularly when he bumps the back of his head on one of the steps.

When they finally reach the fourth floor and are dragging the human through the door into the hallway, I feel a tapping on my core. With Lily's current condition, I did not want to put her at risk by letting her join the other in fighting the humans, a decision which she protested, but I managed to convince her by giving her another task so she could actually feel like she was doing something instead of simply waiting around for everything to be over. I asked her to monitor the radio and to let me know if the humans tried speaking to us again.

If she is trying to alert me now, she must have heard something from them so I go to check on her.

Did you hear from the humans?

"Yes, I think they want to talk to you," Lily confirms.

This is a task for Rose, so I call her up to deal with it. The imps dragging the human can get him the rest of the way without her direction. All they need to do at that point is keep him there and not kill him. Just to add some further encouragement for him to not cause any trouble, I will send the hellhounds to keep an eye on him as well.

They are currently standing guard in the hallway on the fifth floor, watching the door for any intruders who might foolishly attempt to invade.

Noctis, the imps have a captured human on the next floor down and I would like you to go and keep an eye on him. He is still alive for now and I would like him to stay that way, at least until I say otherwise.

Noctis barks at the other two hellhounds, commanding them to follow her, not that they need much persuasion as they likely would have followed her anyway even without instruction. Calla, who was sitting with them, moves to follow as well until I stop her.

Not you Calla, you stay here please.

"I go too," she protests

Not this time. I want you to stay with your mother for now.

Noctis nudges the little imps back to cut off any further objections and Calla reluctantly stomps her way back to the core room where her mother was waiting, pouting the whole way. Lily had left the door open just a crack to allow her daughter to come in if she felt like it, since the child was far too short to reach the doorknob, so all she would have to do is push the door open.

With how good the imps are at digging their claws in to find purchase, she probably could climb up to it if she was determined enough, but I do not want to encourage such behaviour more than necessary as it does always damage the wall a little every time they do it.

While waiting for Rose, I hear the voice from the radio that prompted Lily to alert me.

"Are you there Magentam? This is Sergeant Hothman, come in please, over," a male voice says.

When Rose arrives, she gets back on the radio again.

"What is it?" She asks.

"Is this Magentam speaking? Over," the man on the radio queries.

"Yes," Rose replies curtly.

"Right, well, we came here at the request of the Dungeon Management Office to intercept potentially hostile forces. Most of them surrendered without much resistance. They had forces guarding each entrance to the building, some of which fled on foot as we arrived and are currently being pursued. We caught some as they were climbing the stairs and have yet to find signs of any others. As far as we can tell, they are all now either captured or on the run, unless you can direct us to more of them. Over," he reports.

"There were more climbing stairs. Before you arrive. We dealt with them," Rose relays.

"I see, do you need us to come collect the bodies? Over," he inquires.

"No. We will handle them."

"Very well. A man named… William Blake will be here later for a proper debriefing. Is there anything else we should be aware of? Over," the sergeant asks.

"No. Thank you for your help," Rose finishes.

"Once we're done rounding up all the targets, we'll be taking them back with us, their vehicles too. It shouldn't be too much longer. Out," the human concludes.

It is nice that the D.M.O. and their associated military finally came through for us and helped when we needed it. Maybe that means they are actually serious about being our allies. I hope that is the case as it would mean the time and effort put into negotiating with them has not been wasted. It would also mean that I need to get more serious about providing something of value in return; I doubt they would be satisfied with only an occasional mana stone being tossed their way.

They did say that William will be coming later so we can start discussing the possibility of a proper trade agreement later, one in which I will offer a more consistent supply of mana stones in exchange for more things useful to us.

That is something to think about when he arrives. Right now though, I have a prisoner to interrogate.

Down in the meeting room, the human has taken a seat at the table. The imps have not made any attempt to restrain him, but they hardly need to. With so many imps hanging around and the hellhounds blocking the door, his chance of escaping if he did try would be approximately zero percent.

Some of the imps are keeping a constant eye on him, growling if they think he moves too much, while others have gotten distracted and are playing games and chasing each other around, at least as much as the confines of the room allow, and few have pressed themselves up against the window and are looking at the street down below.

I wait for Rose to rejoin us before starting the interrogation, but once she arrives I focus my attention on the human.

I have some questions for you.

"Who said that? Where are you?" The startled human demands, looking around wildly.

The imps watching him growl at the sudden movement.

I am the controller of this dungeon and I am speaking to you telepathically. And like I said, I have some questions for you.

"Okay…well, why would I answer any of your questions?" He argues, then looks around nervously at the imps. "I mean, you're probably just going to kill me anyway, right?"

If you answer my questions without making a fuss, I will let you go. Alternatively, if you want to be stubborn instead, I will let you choose between the imps or the hellhounds. Hellhounds are the large animals by the door, in case that was not obvious.

The human glances at Noctis who, like some of the imps, has not taken her eyes off him.

"And what exactly would I be choosing for?" He inquires.

Who gets to eat you. I cannot guarantee either would take the time to kill you first, so it comes down to whether you think it would be worse to be eaten by three large creatures or many smaller ones. And just to be clear, if you are thinking about trying to stall for time and waiting for rescue, do not bother. Your companions are already being dealt with. No one is coming to save you.

"Oh…so, what would you like to know?" He replies with a nervous chuckle.

That is a good choice.

I honestly thought he would put up a bit more resistance than that, but a single threat was all it took to make him fold? I am almost a little disappointed. The last humans I questioned while threatening to kill them made it clear that they would not back down or give up their client even at the cost of their lives.

Maybe this one is still planning to try lying to us, so I will not just believe what he says without question, but it would be nice if he just saves us all the trouble and makes it easy.

You came pretty well equipped, but you do not seem to be with the military, so I assume you are part of a mercenary group, though I did not notice any identifying logos or insignias. Are you with the Honey Badgers?

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Yeah, they wish," the human scoffs. "Honey Badgers are a bunch of chumps compared to us."

Is that so? They made it a lot farther than you when they came here.

"Okay, so maybe 'chumps' is an exaggeration," he concedes, "but they're still not on our level. If you think they did better than us, they probably just got lucky."

So who are you then, if not Honey Badgers?

"Snake Bite; the best mercenaries anywhere on the east coast," he declares proudly.

Though petty, the pride in his tone irks me a little and makes me want to take him down at least one peg.

'Snake Bite' sounds like kind of a stupid name.

"It's better than 'Honey Badgers'," he says mockingly, making air quotes with his fingers. "Who would even be intimidated by a badger? We don't even have them in this country. And have you seen their logo? It's so dumb," he rambles.

That ticked him off a little better than I expected and he seems to have a lot to say about the Honey Badgers. I wonder if there is some kind of rivalry between the two mercenary groups.

"Does he actually have anything useful to say or is he just wasting our time?" Rose interjects, approaching the human.

Seeing her, the man's eyes go wide and he shakes his head.

"Please don't let that one near me," he requests, pointing at Rose.

Seeing his reaction, Rose pauses and tilts her head before a mischievous smirk plays at the corner of her mouth. She takes one exaggerated step towards the human and he tries to scoot his chair away from her, eliciting more growls from the imps.

You must have made quite an impression on him. But we should hold off on teasing him too much, for now. I want him to focus on answering my questions and we have gotten a little off track.

"Fine, just give me a signal if you need me to intimidate him again," Rose says as she steps back with a smug grin.

So Mr. Snake Bite, what exactly was your objective here today?

"Retrieve the dungeon core and kill anything that gets in the way, pretty straight forward," the human answers.

That much was to be expected, but it is good to have definitive confirmation to avoid any confusion or misunderstandings.

What can you tell me about the client that hired you?

"I mean, not much. It's not like they'd share all the details with us grunts," he shrugs.

So you do not know anything?

"Well, there were some rumours going around that it was some fancy guy from Waltech or something and that we weren't the first people hired for this job."

What is 'Waltech'?

"Some big business conglomerate or something that basically produces everything these days," he explains.

Would Walters Munitions happen to be related to Waltech?

"I don't know, probably, I guess," he responds dismissively.

You cannot give me any more concrete information about your client?

"Nah, that's all I got," he confessed.

Really? It could not be that you simply need a little help remembering? Maybe something to jog your memory?

"No, I really don't know anymore," he insists.

Bite him on the leg…gently. I instruct Rose

She steps forwards with a wide grin, showing off her teeth and snapping her jaws to taunt him.

"No, no, no," the human panics, falling off his chair in his hurried attempt to move away from her.

As he scrambles to stay away from Rose, the rest of the imps take action. The ones who were watching him pounce immediately while those who had become distracted by other things quickly converged on the human, rejoining the others and grabbing a hold of him anywhere they could.

"No, wait! Please, I really don't know anything else. They don't share those kinds of details with me and I don't ask. I just go where I'm told and follow orders," he pleads.

I stop Rose just before she sinks her teeth into his thigh and she steps back and glares at the human.

You know what? I believe you. So we will not eat you…yet.

The other imps are still holding him tightly so I tell them all to let him go and give him some space so he may retake his seat.

He stands hesitantly, casting furtive glances to the imps arrayed around him.

"Can I?" He asks, gesturing at the recently vacated chair.

Of course.

Once seated again, we continue.

Now that your mission has failed, what will the Snake Bites do next?

"It probably depends on how many of our guys survive. We invested a lot of resources into this mission after all," he suggests.

The military seemed more interested in detaining your companions rather than killing them so a fair few of them should survive, though I imagine their equipment will likely be confiscated.

"Wait, military? Don't tell me you've got the army backing you up?" He exclaimed.

We do. You did not know?

"I had no idea and I doubt anyone else on our side did either or we probably wouldn't have taken this job in the first place," he laments.

Even if the client was offering an exorbitant amount of money?

"As a general rule, we try to avoid any jobs that would have us fighting the army. It's not a conflict we want to deal with. Maybe if a client offered enough, we might still take it, but our leader wouldn't send us into a situation like that without telling us," the human despairs.

If only you had thought to ask questions, maybe you could have avoided this.

"Yeah, maybe," he says with a resigned chuckle. "I don't think you'll have to worry about seeing us again after this if you've got actual military backing."

Do you think the client will find someone else to take the job?

"Maybe, who knows? Wave enough cash around and it's not hard to find chumps willing to do just about anything," he answers.

I see. Thank you for being cooperative. I do not think I have any more questions for you.

There are probably some more questions that I could ask, but this human does appear to be all that knowledgeable and I have more reliable sources I could talk to and probably get better information than what this one can provide, so I will not waste my time dragging this out any longer.

"Great, So I can go now?" The human asks, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

Not yet.

"What? But you said you'd let me go if I answered your questions," he demands, rising to his feet.

The imps close in a little and growl at his sudden outburst and the human raises his hands and slowly sits back down.

I did say that, but the soldiers who are detaining your companions are still downstairs, I just thought you might like to wait for them to leave before heading out yourself.

The human immediately deflates as he sinks into his chair.

"Oh, uh, thanks, I think?"

When Sergeant Hothman eventually contacts us again to say that they are done and getting ready to leave, I let our prisoner know that he is now free to go and instruct the imps and hellhounds to let him pass. Before leaving, he pauses at the door.

"Wait, don't the stairs have that windy thing going on?" He asks, waving a finger through the air in a snake-like pattern.

They do, yes.

"Okay, but I can't sense that shit, so how do I get down?"

That is not my problem.

"Oh, come on. You brought me here, the least you could do is show me how to get out safely," he complains.

Still not my problem. Now go, before I change my mind.

He complains some more, but I do not care enough to listen. I am, however, curious to see what solution he comes up with for getting down the stairs. His first idea is to stick as close as he can to the outside wall as he makes his way down.

The dungeon path does run along the wall for about half the way down so it is not a bad strategy for reducing the amount of time he leaves the dungeon's territory, but only by half so there is still a lot of mana to lose before he reaches the ground floor and I am not helping him this time. I do not know how many times a human can handle losing mana this way in a short time period before it kills them, or at the very least knocks them out, but today might be the day I find out.

"Are you really planning to just let him go after he came here with the intention to kill us?" Rose protests.

No. I just wanted him to think that so he would answer my questions. Now I am amusing myself by watching him try to get out. Let him get outside at least, if he can even make it that far, then you can do what you want to him.

Rose and the other imps followed the human at a distance as he slowly made his way down the stairs, pausing every time he stepped off the path. He moved even slower as he passed the bodies of his dead team mates.

Once at the third floor he sat down and leaned against the wall to rest. Rose had experienced the effects of mana depletion for herself before, so she understood why he felt the need to rest, but she was becoming impatient at his lack of progress.

She stared down at him from the landing above and when he waved at her, she only glared back in response.

Finally he started moving again, except he didn't stand up this time. He seemed to have come up with a new idea. He laid down flat on the floor and stretched his arms out to their full length in front of him. From there he crawled down the steps in that position, keeping at least one arm fully outstretched at all times.

Like that, he would likely be able to get the rest of the way down without ever fully leaving the area of the dungeon. Rose had to admit that it actually was a good idea for someone in his position, but it frustrated her to no end that he was now moving even slower than before.

Eventually she got tired of waiting and marched down to confront the human. He tried crawling faster when he noticed her approaching but there was no possible way for him to outpace her while moving like that and she was soon standing in front of him

"Up," she commanded. "I help. Here," she directed, pointing at one of the steps that was part of the dungeon path.

At first the human doesn't move, not trusting her. He looks back over his shoulder and sees the other imps behind him, at a distance, but still following.

"Now!" Rose demands.

He hesitates for a little longer, but fearing what she might do if he disobeys, quickly stands up on the step she directed him to and was relieved to not feel the energy drain again as he complied.

"Oh, you weren't lying. Does that mean you're actually going to help me now?" He inquired.

Rose stood beside him and pointed to the edge of the step they were on and moved in that direction until she couldn't go any further, then moved four steps down and pointed at her feet.

"Here," she instructed.

The human quickly picked up on what she was trying to convey and followed her directions. Soon she was easily leading him down the stairs without having to give any more verbal commands.

All of the other imps rushed down to join them, falling in behind the human and following the path in a long procession, even though it was entirely unnecessary for them.

When they finally reached the ground floor, Rose pointed towards the lobby.

"Out," she ordered.

The human wasted no more time, rushing towards the building's main door as fast as his exhausted body would allow. He was followed by the imps, but Rose stopped them at the door and they all watched the human leave.

"No chase?" One of the imps asked.

"Not yet," Rose clarified. "Let's give him a little head start," she said with a malicious grin.

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