The iron, metallic smell wafting into the air made love with their nostrils.

Salome stood at the epicenter of the carnage; countless chameleon beats lay dismembered and disembowled at her feet. Her adorable pupil was relegated to one knee next to her and drawing draining breaths, but still in alright shape due to Salome's protection.

Salome greedily absorbed the splatters of blood staining her pale skin and addressed the one wearing the skull crown.

"What's the goal with all of this, fool?"

The leader of the chameleons just stared at the two who'd fended off over 30 of his Warriors. Blinking awkwardly as it was completely unbothered by the mutilation of its subjects.

In a monotonous, groggy voice, it repeated its go-to phrase:

"Kill… Lust…"

Salome just sighed, her usual smile drained from her face by the familiar throes of battle.

"Yeah, yeah… you've said that plenty enough by now."

Salome took a stance once again and sent a volley of quills at the Chameleon Dungeon Master, but just like before, the Chameleon Warriors threw themselves in front of the projectiles and absorbed them with their body; all while their leader watched with a motionless gaze.

After the wave of reptilian soldiers fell, the king spoke once again:

"Fool…"

A moment later, the beast drew the end of the horn to his mouth and blew into it once again, sending an echo throughout the Terracotta Scar. Then, it just turned around and walked into the rock, disappearing from view.

The rest of the Chameleon Warriors followed suit while keeping their eyes trained on the two while retreating.

Instead of continuing the massacre and following after her foe, Salome watched until the last one disappeared into the fake rock, which hid the dungeon's entrance. As it did, she said one last thing to their backs:

"I don't forgive easily… You asked for death. It will come…"

Salome turned to face the tiny goblin who, finally free to ease up, let her head fall; a few splatters of blood caused her hair strands to clump together while beads of sweat traced the outline of her leather outfit.

"That was–"

Salome cast a guilty gaze back toward her new home, the Dungeon of Lust.

"A trap… I know."

'They should've been able to handle fifteen, right?'

***

Vale, who'd ignored the befuddled Ximena and sat down with his back against the wall, absentmindedly stared into the air.

"Rich…"

His mouth involuntarily opened. He couldn't hold back the words begging to flow out.

"We're rich!"

Even with his exuberant scream, Ximena remained in her trance; she was frozen like one of her victims.

♥︎♥︎♥︎

Name: [Valentin Laurent]

Title: [Fifth Advent of Lust]

♡♡♡

Dungeon Class: [Vice]

Dungeon Core Rank: [Nascent]

♡♡♡

Aspect: [Lust]

Class: [Vice]

Core Rank: [Nascent] - (13/700)

♡♡♡

Aether: [85]

Satisfaction: [13]

Traits: [Rudimentary Shapeshifter] [Charm] [Ember of Lust]

♥︎♥︎♥︎

'85…'

They'd gained 85 Aether from the attack!

'Wait…'

Vale couldn't help but remember that the two Warriors of his that died returned 5 Aether when they were killed; and when he killed one of the chameleons, they were called Chameleon Warriors…

'Does that mean…'

That for beings 'created' by Dungeon Masters have a half return rate on their summons that die? Or at least a portion return? Or was there something else at play? Rank and class?

From what Vale knew, you could receive more Aether depending on what level of foe you killed; however, his Warriors and the invaders dropped the same amount, and the chameleons who dropped five didn't seem on Ximena's level at all…

There was another mystery too…

Salome's kills… While he was being notified of them, he wasn't receiving any Aether. The corpses being outside the dungeon was probably to blame for that… but what Vale was more curious about was why the system relayed those kills when it hadn't done anything like that when Salome killed wild beasts before.

His only guess at the moment was that the targets she killed were members of another dungeon… But also, where the hell did Salome even encounter them?

'Who cares?! We're rich!'

Vale can just ask Salome when she returns.

While Vale would have loved to operate at max efficiency and immediately get to putting his spoils to good use, quite frankly, he needed to rest. Well, first, he needed to clean off.

'But… how?'

Vale, still covered in frozen blood and guts, looked over at the stupefied Ximena, who stared blankly across the room. But, as he looked toward her, he couldn't help but juxtapose the pristine view around them with the bloody scene it had been moments before.

The foreign blood that had stained the gray floor and walls had disappeared…

Vale drew his gaze down to his blood-soaked pants. Then he slid his knee up and looked at the bottom sign, finding it half cleaned…

'Eureka!'

The dungeon, to Vale's understanding, absorbed foreign Aether as fuel. Or maybe it was better to say Aether that had lost its host. In any case, Vale knew how he could at least get… 'clean?'

While he didn't know if he could render his state clean, he could at least absolve himself of the frozen blood.

But before he rolled around like a pig in fresh mud…

Vale called out to the glacial owl.

"Hello…"

The beautiful owl just flapped her gums as the air around her continued to grow colder.

Vale called out again:

"Terra to Ximena?"

Ximena's stare slowly drifted toward Vale, sitting against the wall; her eyes unblinking.

"Wah… oh, yeah?"

Vale spoke as he touched a strand of his hair, frozen rock-solid by the blood on it. And, the situation was only getting worse as the temperature was dropping.

"Could you contain your… aura, please?"

Ximena still stared listlessly at Vale.

"Yeah…"

Then, with an explosion of crystal, her wings juttered and folded in on themselves until they slid under the sash and remade her outfit. Then, the sash, which had been fashioned into a makeshift coat, undid itself while simultaneously tiny crystals popped up on its surface.

The sash began to flow around her, as Ximena spoke:

"I'm gonna go… guard the entrance, Master Vale."

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