The Dungeon was quiet. Suspiciously quiet.

Reed walked through the Knight's Gallery. Usually, this room echoed with the sound of Seraphine drilling, scales scraping against stone, the whoosh of her spear cutting the air, or the terrified whimpers of adventurers being "measured."

Today, the gallery was empty.

The Heated Rock Island in the center of the room was vacant. The thermal vents were hissing into empty air.

"Seraphine?" Reed called out.

No answer.

He checked his map. The Guardian dot was there, but it was stationary. It was located deep in the back of the Floor 2 cavern, in the private sauna annex Reed had built for her recovery.

"Maira," Reed said into the air.

Maira materialized from the shadows near a pillar. She was holding a basket of laundry.

"Master," she acknowledged.

"Where is our tank?" Reed asked. "We have a party of B-Rank hopefuls scheduled for this afternoon. I need her on the dais, looking scary."

Maira adjusted her glasses. Her expression was… complicated. It was a mix of professional annoyance and biological sympathy.

" The Guardian Unit is… indisposed," Maira said delicately.

"Sick?"

"Molting."

Reed blinked. "Molting? Like… shedding her skin?"

"It is a natural reptile cycle," Maira explained. "But she is… dramatic about it. She refuses to leave the steam room. She claims she is 'hideous' and 'unfit for perception.' She has barricaded the door with her tail."

Grika walked by, carrying a bucket of grease.

"She's itchy, Boss," the goblin laughed. "Have you ever seen a snake try to scratch its own back? It's hilarious. She's been rubbing against the walls for three hours. It sounds like someone sanding a floor."

Reed winced. "Is it painful?"

"It is uncomfortable," Maira noted. "The old skin tightens. It dries. It restricts movement. And the new scales underneath are hypersensitive."

Reed looked at the door to the sauna.

"Okay," he said. "I'm going in."

"Take this," Maira said, handing him a large jar of viscous, amber liquid.

"What is it?"

"Hydrating Oil," Maira said. "Industrial strength. If you want her back on the front lines, you are going to have to help her… shuck."

The Sauna

The heat inside the sauna was stifling. Steam hung in the air like a thick, white curtain. It smelled of sulfur, lavender (Maira's influence), and dry, dusty musk.

"Seraphine?" Reed called out, stepping into the mist.

A low, miserable hiss answered him from the far corner.

"Go away," the voice rasped. "I am… decomposing."

Reed walked through the steam.

He found her coiled in the darkest corner of the room. She wasn't wearing her Thermal Dreadnought armor. She was bare.

And she looked… rough.

Usually, Seraphine was a gleaming emerald jewel. Her scales shone like polished jade. Her skin was bronze and flawless.

Now, she looked dull. A greyish, milky film covered her entire body. Her scales looked dry and flaky. Her human skin was pale and patchy. Her eyes, usually bright amber, were clouded over with a blueish haze, the eye-caps preparing to shed.

She looked up as he approached. She tried to cover herself with her tail, but the movement made a dry, rustling sound like dead leaves.

"Do not look at me!" she hissed, hiding her face in her hands. "I am a ruin! A dusty, flaky husk!"

"You're not a ruin," Reed said softly, kneeling beside her. "You're just… exfoliating."

"I am itchy," she wailed, her voice cracking. "My Lord, I am so itchy. It is under the scales. It is everywhere. I cannot reach it. I rubbed against the rock until I bled, but the skin will not break!"

She shuddered, a ripple of misery moving down her twenty-foot length.

"I am useless. Leave me to rot."

Reed set the jar of oil down.

"I'm not leaving," he said. "And you're not rotting. We're going to fix this."

He rolled up his sleeves.

"Uncoil, Seraphine."

"No," she whispered. "I am ugly."

"You're never ugly," Reed said firmly. He reached out and touched her arm.

Her skin felt like parchment paper—dry, crinkly, and tight. But underneath, he could feel the heat of her body radiating furiously.

"Trust me," he said.

Slowly, reluctantly, she lowered her arms. She uncoiled slightly, exposing her torso and the upper length of her tail.

"It… pulls," she whimpered. "My skin is too small for my body."

"Then let's take it off," Reed said.

He opened the jar. The oil smelled of eucalyptus and mint. He scooped out a handful. It was warm from the room's heat.

"I'm going to apply the oil," he told her. "It'll soften the old skin. Then we peel."

Seraphine squeezed her eyes shut. "Do not mock me."

"Never."

Reed rubbed the oil between his hands. He reached out and laid his palms on her shoulders.

Seraphine gasped.

"Oh."

The oil soaked into the dry, dead skin instantly. The friction vanished. Reed began to massage her shoulders, working the oil into the boundary between the old skin and the new.

"Is that okay?"

"It… tingles," she whispered. "Keep going."

Reed moved his hands down her arms. He found a loose edge of skin near her elbow. He worked his thumb under it.

Scritch.

The dead skin tore. It peeled away in a long, satisfying strip, revealing the fresh, bronze skin underneath.

The new skin was impossibly soft. It glowed with vitality.

Seraphine shuddered. "Air. I can feel the air."

"Good," Reed said.

He moved to her back. He coated her spine in oil. He dug his thumbs in, finding the itch that had been driving her crazy.

Seraphine moaned. It wasn't her usual sultry purr. It was a guttural sound of pure relief.

"Yes," she hissed. "There. Harder. Tear it off."

Reed peeled.

It was oddly satisfying. Like peeling dried glue off your hand, but on a massive scale. Large sheets of grey, dead skin came away, leaving her back smooth and gleaming.

"My Lord," she breathed, leaning back against him. Her head rested on his shoulder. Her cloudy eyes were half-closed. "Your hands are… magic."

"Just mechanics," Reed said, sweating from the heat. "Now for the tail."

The Great Peel

The tail was the challenge. There was twenty feet of it. And it was covered in heavy, interlocked scales.

"This is going to take a while," Reed noted.

"I have time," Seraphine murmured, practically draping herself over him now. The relief from her upper body had made her boneless.

Reed moved to the base of her tail, where human skin met scales. This was the transition zone. The scales here were grey and lifted slightly at the edges.

He poured oil directly onto the scales.

"Luma?" Reed called out.

Luma popped her head in from the doorway. She was wearing a towel over her head like a babushka to keep the steam off.

"Present!" she chirped.

"I need hydration," Reed said. "Can you mist the tail? Keep it wet so the oil works better."

"On it!" Luma dissolved into a mist form, hovering over the tail like a sentient humidifier.

Reed got to work.

He found a loose scale. He pulled.

CRACKLE.

A sheet of dead scales, linked together like chainmail, lifted away.

Underneath, the new scales were breathtaking. They weren't just emerald; they were iridescent, shifting from deep green to teal to gold in the dim light. They were soft, not yet fully hardened, and incredibly sensitive.

When Reed touched the fresh scales, Seraphine's whole body jerked.

"Ah!" she cried out.

"Too hard?"

"No," she panted. "Sensitive. It feels… raw. But good. Please. Continue."

Reed fell into a rhythm. Oil. Massage. Peel.

He worked his way down the length of the tail. He peeled off yard-long sections of dead snake-skin. They piled up on the floor like discarded parchment.

Seraphine was writhing now. Not in pain, but in sensory overload. Every inch of fresh skin was firing signals to her brain.

She wrapped the upper, already-peeled part of her tail around Reed. She squeezed him, needing the pressure to ground herself.

"My Lord," she groaned, her voice thick. "You are… undressing me."

"I'm grooming you," Reed corrected, peeling a stubborn patch near her mid-section.

"It feels the same," she whispered. She turned in his arms, pressing her face against his chest. "I feel… exposed. Naked. And you are seeing it all."

"You look beautiful," Reed said honestly.

The new scales were mesmerizing. They looked wet even when dry.

"You… think so?" she asked, looking up at him with her cloudy blue eyes.

"I know so. You're shiny."

Seraphine let out a long, shuddering breath. She tightened her grip on him.

"Then finish it," she commanded softly. "Free me."

Reed worked down to the tip. The very end of her tail—the sensitive spade—was encased in a hard, dry cap of old skin.

He oiled it. He rubbed it gently.

Then, with a gentle tug, he pulled the cap free.

POP.

Seraphine arching her back, a high-pitched cry escaping her lips.

"Done," Reed said, tossing the last piece of skin onto the pile.

The Aftermath

Seraphine lay on the heated floor. She was panting.

She was new.

Every inch of her glistened. The dull grey was gone, replaced by vibrant bronze and deep, shifting emerald. Even her eyes were clearing, the blue haze fading to reveal bright, burning amber.

She lifted her tail. She flexed the muscles. The new scales slid over each other silently, perfectly lubricated.

She looked at Reed. He was covered in oil, sweat, and flakes of snake skin. He looked exhausted.

"You stayed," she whispered.

"I told you I would."

Seraphine moved. She didn't slither; she flowed.

She wrapped herself around him. All twenty feet of her. She created a nest, a cocoon of fresh, sensitive scales.

She pressed her body against his.

"I am sensitive," she warned him, her voice low and dangerous. "My scales are soft. My skin is new. I can feel… everything."

She rubbed her cheek against his. Her skin was incredibly smooth.

"Every breath you take," she whispered. "Every heartbeat. I can feel it against my coils."

"Seraphine," Reed warned, his voice shaky. "We have adventurers coming in an hour."

"Let them wait," she hissed. "Or let them watch. I do not care."

She kissed him.

It wasn't like Grika's aggressive assault. It was slow. Tasting. Exploring.

"You cleaned me," she murmured against his lips. "You cared for me when I was a husk. Now… I belong to you. Every scale."

Maira walked in.

She stopped. She looked at the pile of shed skin on the floor. She looked at the shiny, clinging lamia. She looked at Reed, who was being actively swallowed by affection.

Maira adjusted her glasses.

"Productivity has been restored," Maira noted.

She walked over to the pile of skin. She picked up a large piece with tongs.

"This material is high-tensile keratin," Maira observed. "Grika can use this. It will make excellent waterproofing for the trap seals."

"Maira!" Seraphine hissed, embarrassed. "That is my… refuse!"

"It is a resource," Maira corrected. "Nothing in this dungeon is wasted."

She looked at Reed.

"Master. You have 30 minutes until the B-Rank party arrives. I suggest you… detach yourself. And shower. You are oily."

Reed tried to move. Seraphine tightened her grip.

"Five more minutes," the lamia growled. "My scales need to… set."

"Five minutes," Maira allowed. "But I am starting the timer."

The Knight's Gallery – 2:00 PM

The B-Rank party entered the gallery. They were expecting a fight.

What they found was a Golden Goddess.

Seraphine sat on her dais. She was radiant. Her scales were so shiny they reflected the torchlight. Her armor was polished. Her eyes burned with a renewed, intense fire.

She looked down at them. She felt light. She felt fast. She felt beautiful.

"Welcome," she purred. Her voice was smoother than before, rich with confidence. "I hope you are ready."

She slid down from the dais. She moved so fast she was a blur of green and gold.

"Because I feel… brand new."

The adventurers didn't stand a chance.

Up in the Core Chamber, Reed watched the screen.

[MONSTER STATUS: SERAPHINE]

Buff: [Fresh Molt]

Speed: +20%

Sensitivity: +50% (Dodge Rate Increased). Mood: Radiant.

"She's fast," Grika noted, eating a slice of leftover pizza. "And shiny. Really shiny."

"She's happy," Luma beamed.

Reed rubbed his shoulder, which still tingled from where Seraphine had held him.

"Yeah," he said. "She is."

[BOND LEVEL INCREASED]

Seraphine: Loyalty 25 (Worshipper).

Note: She will now be extremely touchy for the next 48 hours.

Reed sighed.

"I'm going to need more oil."

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