Azaria The Doll Dungeon 7

Changed the second half of this chapter

Chapter 7: A-MAZE-ING

Azaria

What was happening to me!? I licked the blood of that person like it was icing on a cake! And I liked it! Was I truly becoming a monster? Starburst said it was just my dungeon instincts working, but how much of that was true. Maybe deep down I was always like that?

Still that guy felt strange. I couldn’t really understand the Aether at work but something told me that there was something up with him. Maybe if I sliced him up…. Stop me! Damn it. What was wrong with me?

“Girl!”

“Girl or mistress, chose one!” I shouted at him. I looked up from the ball I was huddled in and realized my body was fading. In less than a minute, I couldn’t see my body anymore and the clothes I’d made fell to the floor. I reached out to grab them only for my hand to go through them. “I hate this!”

“Girl. Calm down. The others are worried about you,” Starburst said. I looked up to see the penguin warriors, nutcrackers, the moles, Lucy and Stella all gathered around me.

“I’m fine everyone. Sorry for worrying you all,” I said waving them off. Everyone went back to what they were doing leaving only Starburst. “Ah~ I missed out on my chance to cuddle with you.”

“Maybe next time. Here are the things the boy traded. There not the best in the world, but quite nice for a dungeon starting out. You’ll be able to make more after absorbing them.”

“Is that poison? Its totally poison isn’t it,” I said looking over the things Starburst dropped on the floor in front of me. While the scale appeared to be just a hard material, the vial of purple liquid screamed poison. The bones also seemed to give off that vibe.

“This will really help compliment your dolls. They will be much harder for the divers to deal with if they have trick weapons on them.”

“That seems a bit much…” I said tapping my fingers together.

“You’d be able to absorb the Aether from people that deserve it,” Starburst said with a equine grin. I gave him a glare and flew off. I didn’t want to deal with him anymore. He just wanted me to kill everyone that came in here. And apparently, part of mind was right there with him. 

Kill. Kill. Kill. That was all that Starburst wanted me to do. I didn’t want to be some killing machine for the people that put me here. Though… I didn’t want to die either. I grabbed my head and spun in circles as I tried to figure out my feelings. 

“AHHHH!” I screamed then took a deep breath. “Putting that aside for now.” I motioned putting a box to the side. 

What was it? Work on another floor, right? I flew over to the gap that the moles had formed while I was contemplating life. I flew in circles as I tried to think of what to do. Coming up with a blank, I flew back upstairs.

“STARBURST! I can’t think of anything for the next floor!” I whined landing on his back. I stared at the ceiling kicking my feet and flailing my arms.

“Gah. Don’t throw a tantrum on my back,” Starburst yelled while trying to throw me.

I laughed at the action. “HAHA, I’m a ghost so your movements don’t bother me!” I said.

“You’re an astral projection, not a ghost!”

Starburst bucked as I remembered something I meant to ask him earlier and I flew off. I spun around and wrapped my astral, I guess, arms around his neck. “Hey. Hey. How come my body came back yesterday? Well? Well?”

“Normally you are in this form, but when a human wishes to have dealings with you and you don’t have a minion set to receive them, then your body will be recreated. There are other times when it will happen, but those aren’t likely to happen for a long time.”

“EHH! I have to wait for a human to come in?! BOO!” I said with a pout.

“Nevermind that! Your second floor. You normally have to kill a few people to be able to open a second floor. We need to build it since you can.”

“Roger!” I gave him a salute. “What to do?” I tapped my chin trying to think it over.

“AH! Just set it to random!”

“I CAN DO THAT?!” I shouted back.

I flew to the center of the hollow and used the floor spell. Aether poured out of me as the surroundings changed. Soon, I found myself in a square box of a room that had three doors. I flew through the door to the next room and found it was exactly the same only with more doors. After more rooms than I carried to count that went up and down, I made it to the second floor of the mansion.

“How does that work?” I mumbled. “Magic, I guess.” 

“What did you get?” Starburst asked.

“A maze… I think.” They looked like a random assortment of rooms to me. I would need to decorate them later. Just boring stone rooms was lame. A bit of pink wouldn’t hurt. I already had an idea for a doll for it. I ordered the moll dolls to start digging towards the next floor.

I moved to the center of the maze and pictured what I wanted to summon. While I could use the complicated system, Starburst told me of an easier way to do it. Most of it would still be random but this would get most of the idea into the creature, or rather doll that I attempted to summon. 

Magic sparks started to jump through the air as a magic circle formed in front of me. I had a good image in my head, so the magic didn’t take long. A pink teddy bear that came to about four foot stood in front of me. Once all the Aether finished flowing into him and the magic died down, he blinked coming awake for the first time.

“SO CUTE!” I screamed as I tackled him with a hug. Of course, I couldn’t feel anything as I flew right through him. The only one I appeared able to even partially able to interact with was Starburst.

“What! What is it!?” aforementioned unicorn shouted as he bounded down the stairs into the maze.

“Look how cute it is!” I said

Starburst looked at me then back to the pink bear several times before he just shook his head. “How is that going to stop anyone from getting through this floor?” he demanded gruff tone. 

I grinned but decided not to tell him. It would ruin the surprise and I really didn’t want him to force me to change it if he didn’t like it. Whether the divers got through or not wasn’t my concern. I know he said it would be dangerous for me, but I hadn’t met anyone but that guy and he hadn’t done anything to me.

“Secret! You’ll just have to find out when some people actually get here,” I said sticking my tongue out at him.

“Fine! Don’t blame me if you get killed!” Starburst shouted at me then cantered off. 

“Sour head!” 

Looking around at the dull maze that the magic created for me, I decided to brighten it up a bit, but first I looked at my new friend’s stats. I went ahead and named him Tenderheart.

Tenderheart

Age:0

Level: 2

Race: Sentient Doll

Type: Manipulator

Another manipulator? I just shrugged, lucky me! He was also a higher level than Lucy and Stella after just being summoned. Maybe because he was summoned on the second floor. He did cost more Aether to summon.

“Can you talk?” It tilted its head then shook it. “No. That’s too bad.”

Tenderheart nodded then bounced on its feet. “What do I want you to do?” I thought it over for a second then nodded. “Go ahead and summon some of your monsters for this floor. I’ll give you some Aether.”

It nodded then started waddling down the passage. A tiny version of itself would pop out every twenty feet or so. The only got between a foot and two tall. I couldn’t decide if Tenderheart or Starburst was cuter as I watched him walk down the passage.