Chapter 11: Hmmm

  I watched closely as Silvie blinked in surprise, my heart filling with dread at what she would say next. ‘Why did I have to go and do that? Why?’ I thought to myself. Suddenly, Silvie answered me, breaking my panicked chin of thought.

  “Yes.”

  This time it was me who blinked in shock. “Uhm… I guess I’ll see you at Fredy’s Bar at 7 tomorrow then.” I said my voice shaking slightly. “It’s date!” Silvie said brightly. ‘Uh-oh. What kind of date? I never got to find out if she was gay. Hmm, this could get interesting. Oh well, it sounds fun.’ My thoughts were churned into a storm from her reply, and I turned on my heel and left before she could see the blush creeping up my neck.

  I exited the door of the guild and almost instantaneously, my thoughts turned to Aria, and guilt slammed into me. I didn’t know what to do. I liked Aria, wanted more than what we currently had, and yet, I had still asked Silvie out. At the end of the day, it was possible that she hadn’t took it as a date date. I didn’t even know if I had meant it as one. Oh well.

  I walked down the street in a daze before coming to a swift conclusion. I wanted to punch something.

  I faced the dungeon rift that I had found down the street, checking my screens before I entered it:

  I took a deep breath staring at the green portal in front of me. It was an uncommon dungeon rated for people of roughly level 40 and with my ascent tier it brought me up to roughly a level 70. So, why was I so nervous? The attendant had seemed slightly shifty when I asked what kind of creatures populated the dungeon, but it was so weak that it hardly posed a challenge. I took a deep breath and steadied myself before I felt a hard impact from behind, shoving me headfirst into the portal.

  The portal pulled me in by my head, sucking me into it and shoving me through the tunnel at what felt like an insane speed. It shoved me out the other end with what felt like more force than usual. Then again, I usually walked through portals not tumbled. ‘What was the deal with that Attendant? Why did she push me?’ Time passed slower in dungeons, a slight decrease at lower levels, but it quickly became more apparent at higher ones.

  I quickly got off the ground and readied for a fight. This was supposed to be an Arachnid type dungeon, but the oddly humanoid looking things with pointy ears said otherwise. ‘Elves? Here?’ I stared at the armoured elf in confusion, wondering what was going on. I had heard of dungeons changing their types for what the dungeon perceived to be incredibly tough challengers. After all giving a strong challenger a bunch of weak monsters to murder was just wasting energy for the dungeon. Dungeons survived by sucking up energy provided from the challenger. This was usually from death, though I had heard stories of dungeons draining people of whatever kind of energy they had. I wasn’t sure on the specifics of how it did that. Hopefully I wouldn’t find out.

  ‘Hmmm, maybe this is just a normal iteration of this dungeon, and I was just lied to.’ Whatever the case, I had contemplated for long enough. It was time to see what these Elves could do against me.

  I left the starting safe zone and entered the main part of the dungeon. I stared into the eyes of the elf before me, daring her to attack me. She did, charging straight at me. Deciding to test out something new, I activated all of my passives, [Hair Stretch], [Hair Strengthen] my improved [Stat Sapping Hair] as well as my new [Enticing Hair] flowing through my hair, making it immensely dangerous, far more so than the level 30 Elf Warrior should be able to handle.

  I flung my hair up like a wall in front of the elf as she charged, and she ran right into it before she could stop. She looked around frantically as my hair closed in around her, enfolding her in the soft embrace of my hair. My contact-based passives activated then, [Enticing Hair] and [Stat Sapping Hair] activated. The once proud elf warrior was helpless to resist and her eyes glazed over, surrendering herself to the feel of my hair around her even as her stats were stolen from her, 85% of her stats being transferred to me in about 45 seconds.

  I could feel the boost in power as it happened, although as she was just a level 30, it wasn’t much. If the elf had had any chance against my hair, she certainly didn’t now. I almost felt bad that I was going to have to kill her, but then I thought about it. ‘What if I just didn’t? What harm would it do?’ I nodded, my mind made up.

  I sliced through a lock of my hair with my sword, and used that 8-metre-long lock of hair to bind her hands and feet together. I had mostly let go of her by this point, with my hair just around her throat to keep her under [Enticing Hair]. I had no idea whether it would still work with my hair being cut off, but I decided to err on the side of caution and kept my perk active. I let go once I was sure she was secure and stepped back, admiring my handywork.

  She sat there, her hands and feet tied together with a long lock of golden hair, with 2 bows to accentuate the look. Her eyes looked at the hair in adoration and I knew that [Enticing Hair] was still working on her. I probably could have knocked her out, but I didn’t want to. This seemed better.