(23) Queen of the Dungeon

Kraton descended down the stairs in silence, everything was new to him now. He reached the fourth floor and inhaled, the corridor wasn't bland rocks like his old dungeon had, but the walls were embellished with ornamental gems, added with the lack of light, the hallway looked like a passage into space, with shining stars glowing all around you.

Reaching the end of the passageway, Kraton grew somewhat wary and confused. There didn't seem to be any guards on this floor. Even though door guards were mostly useless, they were still more powerful than the other monsters in the dungeon because they were normally the previous fallen boss. As well as this, these guards normally served a more useful purpose of being an alarm, helping the boss get ready for the incoming party.

Kraton stopped in front a large double-door, much more fancier than his stone block, but it still gave a strong and powerful vibe. The door was made of what seemed like a fusion of metal and wood, and the edges were gilded in a dark-gold material with a texture that made it look like it was flowing.

There were four curved handles, rather large but were placed in opposite locations, two near the bottom, and two nearer the top, no monster known had arms in location such as that, unless they were mutated that was. The handles felt comfortable and warm to touch as Kraton wrapped his hands around the lower two handles, giving a slight pull, the doors opened relatively easily, and without much noise.

*Shhhhmmm*

The doors met a gentle resistance and stopped at around 150°, Kraton entered the newly built Boss Room, the room was better lit than the third floor, however the lighting was from the soft glow of crystaline orbs that were fitted in various places in the walls. The illumination pulsed, glowing slightly dimmer or brighter, but not by much, making the room seem more comfortable, yet eerie at the same time.

There were no stalactites or stalagmites, as they had yet to form, but this made the grand, open room seem empty, apart from a stone bed near the corner and a few other room necessities stationed in other corners. In the center of the room, there was a smoothened, rounded rectangular boulder with a portion of it sliced out to make a place to sit or rest on.

Currently, a figure laid on the chair, seemingly asleep. Like the Nagas on the third floor, the figure had serpentine tail, albeit longer and more shiny. The tail was covered in mostly violet scales, but there were also some red-tinted scales as well, not the sharp blood red, but a more softer, natural tone. The tail also ended in a slightly vertical shape, similar to tadpoles in a way, however although it looked as flexible as a tadpole's, it also seemed firm and sharp, capable of slicing through thin armour.

The figure's body was more or less human, except for an area on the back of it's hand were there were three violet scales covering a large portion of the centre of the dorsal side of the hand[1]. The figure's hair was was a lighter shade of violet than her scales and ran down past her shoulders.

What caught Kraton's attention after tracing the hair, was that two large dragon-like wings protruded from her back. Although large, the shape and size of the wings didn't seem to hinder any movements if she moved. The flexibility was most likely due to the feather-like scales which the wings were composed, each of these scales allowed the wings to curl and bend naturally.

As though feeling Kraton's gaze, the sleeping figure shivered and raised her head. Her face was pale and smooth like jade, but was a healthy shade, unlike the pale white colour that Psychi was. Her eyes opened, revealing larger, more human shaped eyes than the Nagas above, though she still had the snake-like pupils.

"You... you came back? Didn't you abandon this place?" Her voice was sweet, and only held a slight accent, not at all as annoying as the Nagas' accent.

"No, I didn't. Who are you?" Kraton replied rather gruffly, his voice sounded fierce and angry, yet a master would tell that there was no killing intent; the tone was fake.

The winged female on the other hand, only heard the fierce tone and this caused her tail to curl up in a protective position subconsciously.

"I'm Lysine," her voice slightly trembled, however she soon realised that Kraton was still glowering at her so she quickly added, "I'm a Lamia, I thought you left, so... so I brought the Nagas here to stay." Lysine's voice quietened down, Kraton's gaze made her feel guilty, however she really didn't know that he didn't abandon the dungeon and would come back. She feared being cast out of her new home, compared to the wilderness, a dungeon had it's privileges, and so did being the dungeon Boss.

"Why did you come?" Kraton didn't seem to care, he interrogated her for half an hour and managed to understand who she was and why she had came. Kraton learnt that she was the runt of the pack, and was cast aside by her family on the 23rd year due to the Lamia tradition of casting aside the weakest of the pack every year if the Lamias was above 20 years of age.

For several years, Lysine had created and expanded her territory in the wilderness, her more powerful, Lamia bloodline helping her be stronger than the common monsters. Eventually she became the swarm Queen of a large colony of Nagas, but as time went on, and her power expanded, she found the wilderness to harsh and started loking for any dungeon, whether they were raw dungeons like caves, or more developed dungeons like Kraton's Burrow, however prior to yesterday, she had no luck finding an empty dungeon, or one that was weaker than her.

Lysine had found Kraton's Burrow after hearing about him being the weakest Boss, she eventually reached the dungeon, and ploughed through the weak Goblins, establishing her authority over them, however to her suprise, there was no Boss on the last floor, only a ripped up sign that said: "Boss [rip] le-[rip]", Thinking that she was lucky that the Boss had left, she settled in, kicked out the Goblins, and renovated the dungeon. And then Kraton came back.

...

"Show me your Data Rock."