The Whimsical Dungeon 7 A Rather Unfortunate Lich.

She then opened her dungeon's door, ever so slightly, and began to survey what lay outside of it.

"Nothing, huh..." she muttered as she saw only a wooden wall to her front, "nothing is good, I can deal with nothing with my eyes closed..."

Knowing that to her immediate left was the door she had barricaded previously in an attempt to flee from the army of twenty pirate skeletons, Crystal next focused her attention to her right.

Slowly, she peeked her head around the corner, inching her closet dungeon's door open as she did so...

She then finally spotted the rooms third inhabitant, the one which had prevented the claiming of the ship's brig.

It was a plain looking skeleton, which, unlike the others, wore no pirate themed garb, just a simple tattered white muscle shirt and a blue skirt.

Sat motionless in the farthest corner of the brig, inside of an open cell, it stared blankly towards the floor in front of it.

As the skeleton in question was missing both of its arms and legs, which were severed at mid-thigh and just below the shoulder respectively, there was really little else it could do but sit and stare at things.

"...So that's why it hasn't attacked us..." Crystal said with a hint of pity in her voice.

Realizing there was no threat in the immediate area, Crystal then opened her closet's door the rest of the way and proceeded to step out from it.

It was then that she felt something strange happen.

"Ugh...?' She groaned as she felt a sudden bout of dizziness wash over her, due, predominately, to the sudden return of her omnidirectional vision.

Her true avatar's vision, however, did not disappear, nor did it merge with said vision, it simply existed separately from it.

With her vision, she now saw not only the wooden ship wall that she had just stepped closer to, but the inside of the broom closet dungeon as well, and the backside of her own torch wielding self.

Crystal, upon realizing the origin of her new line of sight, quickly, and clumsily, turned herself around to see the current contents of the glorified wooden box that she had just stepped out of.

Staring back at her was, not only Crystal's first minion, the skeleton, but her slightly pink core as well.

"...Consultant," she said after a moment of staring, "why am I staring myself in the eye right now?"

"Vanity...?" the consultant responded in confusion.

To which Crystal rolled her eyes.

"You know what I mean," she then said sharply.

"I am a consultant, I can only consult, and am unable to understand the hidden nuances of your questions" the androgynous voice replied, "If you wish for me to be able to advise your words better, please upgrade the 'Dungeon Consultant' trait to the 'Dungeon Advisor' trait, using trait points. If you wish for me to a.s.sist as well, the 'a.s.sistant' trait would be-."

"Ugh, just shut up for a second, please," Crystal complained, "can you just tell me why there are now two of me. It's very unsettling... and disorientating."

The consultant took a moment to reply this time.

"A dungeon core can not leave its dungeon, regardless of its form," the consultant stated, "therefore your 'Core' has been left behind to maintain the dungeons existence."

A dungeon core based dungeon could not live without a core in the same manner that a human could not live without a brain.

"So I just have to live with being in two places at once whenever I'm not in the dungeon?" Crystal grumbled quietly to herself.

"...Is that question rhetorical?" The consultant asked back a moment later.

Crystal didn't bother answering, instead proceeding over to the wounded skeleton's location to perhaps have a more interesting conversation, or to earn some free experience points at the very least.

Upon entering the cell, and nearing the skeleton, the skeleton's gaze lifted to look at her, revealing a faint blue light at the back of either eye.

It simply stared, as if wanting something, but as it seemed unable to speak, and lacked both its arm and legs, staring was all it could do.

"Hmm..." Pondered Crystal as she returned the stare "can you perhaps... understand me?"

The skeleton seemed to think for a moment before nodding in response.

'I wonder if that would work?' She thought briefly, referring to the menu that pops up whenever she touches things of value.

She then, seeing no harm in trying, reached over and placed a her index on the skeleton's head.

[Name: N/A

Race: Lesser Lich

Gender: Female

Age: 228

Level 0

Affinity: Darkness, Water

Skills: 'Brawling' level A, 'Sword fighting' level C, 'Leadership' level C...

HP: 12/100

MP: 0/100

WIL: SS

END: B

PER: C

INT: C

STR: D

AGL: D

Would you like to 'Dominate,' 'Contract,' or 'Ignore,'?

Warning! Dominate requires a 'WIL' stat higher than that of the target!]

"I see, just wait a sec," she said to the skeleton before looking elsewhere, "consultant, am I able to fix her."

"You lack the forty three DP necessary to fix her," the consultant said firmly, but then continued "...though, you could simply let her 'borrow' the limbs from your other, non-sentient minion. Skeletons are very versatile like that"

"Eh?" Crystal exclaimed, not having realized that that was option, her eyes landing on her club wielding skeleton as she did so.

She then turned back to the lesser lich a moment later and spoke, "sorry for that. Oh my name is Crystal by the way, and it turns out I am actually able to fix your limbs..."

At those words the immobile lich's jaw seemed to hang open slightly in surprise.

"But I would need you to make a contract with me first," Crystal then added.

The Lich's head visibly drooped at those words, then shook from side to side a moment later, a clear sign of refusal.

Crystal's head then drooped as well in response.

'Dammit,' she thought gloomily to herself, 'I thought that would work.'

"...I'm sorry," she said apologetically to the lich as she traded weapons with her own skeleton, "but as a dungeon, I can't take the ship without first taking this room... and I can't do that while your still here."

She then raised the club overhead.

"...Wait..." a raspy, slow, yet somehow still youthful and feminine sounding voice suddenly said, "...you said dungeon...? Not necromancer... but dungeon...?"

The lich's jaw didn't move as it spoke, yet it was fairly obvious from both the sound's direction as well as her questions content that she was the one who was speaking.

"Um, yes?" Crystal replied as she tilted her head quizzically, "sorry, if you were hoping for a necromancer or something like that, but my skeletons are made from scratch using DP. I can also make crabs, but as they're disgusting, worthless, trash beasts of no virtue-... Anyhow, yeah, dungeon, not a necromancer."

The lich then spent a moment staring at Crystal in silence, before lowering its head to her.

[Notice! Nameless 'Lesser Lich' would like to permanently bind itself to your core as a minion!

Do you accept?]

Crystal, seeing no downside, immediately replied, "yes," to the request.

A pink mist then suddenly materialized from within Crystals body, somewhat startling her. It shot forwards without the slightest delay and completely enveloped the lich.

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A panicked Crystal, of course, quickly questioned her consultant about the event, but only received a simple, "this is normal," as a reply.

So she just let it happen...

The mist lingered briefly, prior to being absorbed by said lich, the whole process taking a mere couple seconds to complete.

Upon the last bit of mist being absorbed, the lich was revealed to have an almost completely unchanged appearance.

In fact the only visible change that occurred was an easily missed shift in eye colour, from pale blue to a vivid purple.

From the lich's perspective however, it was a very different story, for her the change was not subtle at all, but absolute, and profound.

Several odd thoughts and feelings had suddenly appeared within the lich's mind, unconsciously fed to her from the newly established link with her master, Crystal.

Curiosity, an odd sense of humour, mischievous impulses, a surreal sense of disconnection from reality, an unwavering pettiness towards enemies, these were only some of the mental influences which washed over the lich in that moment.

It numbed, and even somewhat eroded, the more than two hundred years worth of negative emotions she had been forced to experience in this very place.

The lich put up no resistance...

'Someone filled with such childish feelings... has no place in this rotten world,' the lich thought with certainty as it stared at Crystal.

Crystal, who was now across the room innocently asking a certain skeleton to hand over it's limbs one by one.

The lich then continued it's thoughts with resolve, 'I must protect her from it, no matter the cost, and this time, I won't be led astray by bitter truths and sweet lies, I'll protect her... from them.'