Soul Merger

Alissa frowned as she leaned against the wall of the meeting room. "I'm ending up in far too many planning sessions for city wide problems." She looked at Rosalina. "This is your fault, isn't it, Miss Protagonist."

"This never happened to me before I met you," Rosalina replied, crossing her arms. "And if anything it's your girlfriend's sidequest. Don't complain to me."

Fili bushed at that, so Alissa gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Fair enough."

At least the group was smaller this time. Her friends, Fili's co authors, that Trevor kid and four of the others they'd pulled out. And of course their employer. The dragon merged man wearing Tower robes and their weird hat was pulling out a number of maps and contracts and arranging them on the large table.

After a few moments he cleared his throat. "Apologies for the wait. I am Gerald, Dean of Dungeoneering at the Husky Tower. And before you ask, the position was named before common parlance determined they should be known as Labyrinths." That got a few chuckles out of some. Alissa was more curious about why, but she figured she could ask Fili later.

"I'm here on behalf of the city council, and have been authorized to negotiate on their behalf. So yes, that means you will be paid for this." He gave a smile before returning to his serious expression. "Most of you already know, but we discovered a number of devices designed to amplify ambient magic in the area. They were likely distributed by a demon, and probably were used to cover up the raid on the Tower's rare earth materials.

"It's possible those materials will be used to create an atomic or, as they're commonly known, an apocalypse bomb. However, no one, including the tower, knows the specific details to properly generate a full device. It's likely they'll have to use a magical ritual to construct the bomb. Based on this information we've narrowed down the places said ritual can be held."

Maria put a hand on the table. "How do you know where the ritual will be held? Why would it require a special place?"

Clara spoke up as well. "I thought the Tower didn't understand demonic magic."

"We don't," Gerald admitted. "There's a huge number of things we don't understand and can't use. But we know some important details. One of the most common rules is that to perform an action the demon doesn't understand, they need to perform the ritual in an area that has a connection to the desired effects. As such creating this weapon will likely require a ritual performed in the old naval base, the old armory, or the old tower campus." He tapped the three locations on the map.

Alissa decided to get her question out of the way early. "So why us? It seems like something that would be better handled by a big guild and a proper raid."

The man nodded to her. "Correct. That's what the city is doing for the other two locations. However, the labyrinth over the college is a rarity. It's what we call a 'quiz' labyrinth." Alissa and Rosalina groaned as the others looked confused. No wonder it wasn't part of the guild's labyrinths.

Fili patted her hand. "Yeah. Sorry." She turned to the others. "Instead of having a set of common monsters and items, there's a lot more puzzles, traps, and unique monsters that require specific methods to defeat. In addition they have limits on group size. This one is six people per team."

"So the dungeon can't be swarmed," Akari mused. "Interesting. That explains why we need small teams to handle it. Now why is the tower hiring us instead of a stronger squad?"

"That damn succubus," Gerald stated simply. "If this is where the demon is performing their ritual, it will be guarding the place along with other demonic minions. That means we need a double team, preferably with members strong against mental attacks. And our labyrinth specialists are all magicians who hire extras to fill out party space. That won't cut it."

Alissa had to admit that made a lot of sense. She wasn't sure if Trevor's status as blessed would defend him, but if it appeared as a succubus their team would make short work of it. And if it appeared as an incubus Alissa's presence would send it into a frenzy. Either way they'd have a better than usual chance. Though she hoped it'd be in succubus form. She didn't want to lose control like last time.

"So we have to save the day again," Rosalina said with a smirk. "I suppose we can oblige. But how are we going to get through five floors of labyrinth designed around the most cunning traps, tricks, and monsters reality could imagine? I hope we're getting some supplies and support as well."

"You actually have a serious advantage," Gerald stated. "As much as their insistence to publish everything they get their hands on is annoying, our little trio of monster researchers are better than anyone below professor rank at monster identification and elimination." Alissa smelled the joy wafting off Fili at the praise. "Fili will travel with her party, Brian with the other, and Sally and her familiar will help with research up top. We'll be providing magical items to allow long range communication between groups and with us."

"That's nice, but what about actually beating the monsters," Clara asked. "Knowing how to win is good and all, but kinda meaningless if we can't follow through."

Gerald pulled out a large quiver and a rainbow sword grip. "True. Which is why we're going to be lending you this fully stocked versatile quiver so you'll have an arrow for every occasion. Meanwhile Brian is enough of a polymath that he can use this elemental shifter to a similar degree. Your groups will have to corner the enemy to get a finisher in, but you'll always be able to deliver the killing blow."

That was a pretty impressive item Alissa had to admit. Probably why it was being leant and not given. That solved the issue of monsters. And she'd be able to deal with traps. Which left Fili to cover puzzles.

She looked over to the other team. It seemed like one of the kids had started up as a cleric or something, so he'd be their fallback. Though Rosalina could probably help out between floors. Fili claimed Brian was decent with traps so that'd have to do there. And the kids were decently cunning. Past that they'd have a link to people with the knowledge to churn through tests if needed.

Which left the most important question. "So what's the pay?"

"Two thousand each," Gerald said. "Plus all items found. Also the demon has a one hundred thousand gold bounty, and that succubus a three hundred thousand gold bounty."

Trevor blinked. "Wait, the succubus has a higher bounty?"

Alissa felt her lips twitch towards a snarl. "The true demon didn't go on a city wide rampage of murder and assault." Fili gave her hand a squeeze.

The young man winced at that. "Fair. From what you say I suppose that was before she met that man so we can't even say it was his fault. Either way they should face judgment."

His aura flashed a bit at that, and Alissa noticed Kotori's wings fluttered before she frowned at him again. That was something she should probably talk Clara or Akari into smoothing out before they went on this delve.

For now though she had more important things to handle. "Four thousand each."

Gerald frowned. "Four hundred per layer per person is standard rate."

She sniffed. "Four hundred per layer is the average. And only because no one does standard rates for fifth layer runs. Fourth layer is usually one thousand per person. Double that for fifth."

"Quiz labyrinths have less instant death monsters," Gerald countered. "Two thousand five hundred."

"Instant kill traps still kill you," Alissa replied. "Three thousand five hundred and we keep the gear."

"Not a chance, that gear is worth far more than that," Gerald said. "Three thousand five hundred base."

She looked at the others who gave her a nod. "Done."

Trevor pulled out a piece of paper and started writing down. "Hire a trained negotiator."

"I could threaten to kill them," Maria faux whispered.

"We need to know what's reasonable to ask before we do death threats," the kid replied. Alissa chuckled. Well they were learning quickly.

Clara shouldered the quiver. "We have a timeline for this?" she asked Gerald.

The man shook his head."As soon as possible, though honestly I expect you to need a few days to work out strategies and plan for a joint effort. I'd also suggest a trial run of the first layer to get used to the eccentricities of a quiz labyrinth."

Sally sighed. "Yes, it's something best experienced rather than explained."

"I guess we're doing a quick run then," Alissa said, rolling out her shoulders. A few floors shouldn't be too bad. But she'd make sure to keep on her toes. And warn the kids they shouldn't get cocky either.

Then again maybe she didn't need to worry about them. They were unfortunately used to deadly quizzes. She hoped whatever Akari had done to the dragon's soul stuck.