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Luka's Story-Paradox	By : Ditmag Category: +M through R > Monster Girl Quest Views: 2709 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Monster Girl Quest Paradox is the intellectual property of Tortorro Restistance. I make no money from this.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
The entrance to the mine looked about as I expected the entrance to a mine to look. Alice, Ilias, Sonya, Nuruko, Lime, and Flappy were with me. Flippy wanted to accompany her best friend, but Flappy had prevailed upon her that a mine was no place for one whose greatest talent was flight. Flappy was more of a brawler than she was. Lime had insisted on coming in case there might be chests to open. My argument that there would be no chests fell on deaf ears. Nuruko was not about to miss this, as she had missed the battle with the orcs. I hadn’t taken her for a combat enthusiast. Then again, I couldn’t determine anything at all about the strange creature who wasn’t really a monster.
“Smell anything, Alice?” I asked.
“Nothing too surprising, but dangerous enough,” Alice answered. “Ropers. Probably spiders and other cave dwellers as well. The scent of ropers is strongest, though.”
Ropers. Great. Ropers were remorseless killers and I had no power, or spirits. I bucked myself up. I’d fought a roper early in my first journey with Alice and had prevailed. My natural strength was enough to break out of their tentacle holds. If ropers were the worst thing we faced in there, we’d probably be fine.
“Luka, you stay in the middle this time,” Ilias said. “Ropers are predators. They’ll mainly be interested in you. I’ll take point with Nuruko.”
“Shouldn’t Luka simply not go in at all if he’s the one in the most danger?” Sonya asked. “It’s a gold mine. We’re going in to get gold and that’s it. Luka doesn’t have to be in on every mission.”
“As long as I’m vulnerable, Luka stays close to me!” Ilias insisted. “Besides, if we do run into trouble in there, we can only use his power if we use it together.”
“Luka’s power against ropers and spiders?” Alice scoffed. “Even in your reduced state, monsters like that are no match for you. I agree with Sonya. Luka should remain out here.”
“That doesn’t work for me either,” I said. “Historically, whenever I’ve been alone, I’ve been attacked. Even with ropers around, I’m safer with all of you than out here in the open alone.”
“Then I shall stay with you,” Alice said grandly.
“You’re just afraid of the dark!” Ilias said accusingly.
“Am not!” Alice objected. “Besides, I can see in the dark very well. I have infravision. Why would I be afraid when I can see just fine?”
Ilias got a wicked grin on her face. “It’s because you’re deathly afraid of….. of….. Shit! I forgot! Damn my little brain!”
“Would you mind saying that again, Ilias? I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing you say that.”
“Kyuu!!” Nuruko scolded before I could. I of course knew exactly why Alice didn’t like roaming around in dark places she was unfamiliar with. I was also hoping to avoid any situations like that this time around.
“Anyway, my enemies are powerful,” Ilias said. “It’s possible they could have set a trap for me in there. It’s Luka’s job to protect me, so if I go in there, he goes in there. So if anyone is going to stay outside, it will be me!”
“We’re all going in,” I said with finality. “if anything, it was the harpy tower I should have never entered. Compared to dozens of horny harpies, a few ropers aren’t all that worrisome. Let’s go.”
That settled, we entered the mine. I’d been hoping for some artificial lighting. For some reason, every cave I’d ever been in had some lighting, either natural, artificial, or magical. But the Midas gold mine had been abandoned for too long. There wasn’t a bit of light. And I hadn’t thought to buy anything that could give us light. I could have used my power, but…. Well, you know. Ilias was way ahead of me, however, making her whole body glow for us. I knew that Alice would have no problem seeing, but I wasn’t sure about the others and I definitely knew that Sonya and I would be hopeless without light. Ilias and Nuruko took point, as planned. Alice and Flappy brought up the rear. Sonya, Lime, and I stayed inside the pack.
“So how do you find gold in a gold mine?” Sonya asked.
“Well, we don’t need much,” Ilias explained. “Check the walls for ingots. You don’t need to go over them with a fine tooth comb. What we want will be something you can see easily. The areas nearest to the entrance would have been mined first. So we may have to go in pretty deep.”
“Stay alert,” Alice cautioned. “The smell of ropers is everywhere.”
We exited the entrance tunnel into a larger chamber. There was abandoned equipment everywhere. Tracks went in four different directions into other tunnels.
“Pick a tunnel, any tunnel,” Ilias said.
“Me?” I asked.
“You’re the leader man. They should all lead to gold, so there’s probably no wrong answer.”
I looked at each tunnel. They all looked the same to me. Ilias’ light illuminated only the entrances. I turned to Alice.
“Alice, are any of those tunnels more monster free than the others?”
Alice sniffed the air. “Argh. That roper smell is everywhere. I can’t tell. We should have brought Pochi. Her sense of small is even sharper than mine. She’d be able to tell you their age and who they ate recently.”
“Why didn’t we?”
“Too dangerous. If a roper grabbed her and got away with her in the darkness we’d never see her again.”
“I thought you said only Luka was in danger here?” Sonya asked.
“Ropers will eat anything they can grab and dissolve,” Alice replied. “They like males best. My worry was that his smell would draw them in a way ours would not unless they were extremely hungry.”
I wasn’t sure who was supposed to be keeping track of where we were in the mine, so I chose the tunnel directly ahead. If we stayed in a straight line, we wouldn’t get lost. Ilias nodded and we continued on. In the narrow tunnel, it was easier for Ilias’ light to illuminate the walls. Alice was watching for telltale signs of gold, as was Sonya. Sonya found a small nugget embedded in a wall. She pulled at it, but couldn’t get it out.
“Let me,” Lime said, touching the small ingot and oozing around it, letting her slime slip into the crevices. With a small grunt of effort, she pulled the ingot out.
“That’s so cool!” Sonya said as Lime handed her the small piece of gold. “I couldn’t get leverage with just my fingers, but you can get your hand into anything!”
“Aren’t you glad I came?” Lime asked, flashing that infectious smile she had.
Two more small ingots were found. It probably wasn’t enough, but at least we were making progress. After about fifteen minutes of slowly moving through the tunnel, we emerged into another chamber. More mining carts and tracks could be seen, leading into even more tunnels. Six this time.
“Which way, Luka?” Ilias asked.
Before I could answer, I heard a skittering sound in the chamber. If I could hear it, so could everyone else. We all looked around, trying to find the source. Alice began staring to her left.
“Do you see anything?” I asked.
“Something is hiding behind that cart,” Alice said.
“Roper?”
“Not a roper. Ropers don’t skitter. Could be a spider. Or something else?”
“Something else leaves a lot to the imagination,” Sonya said, voice quavering. “Like, how bad can something else be? What’s the worst it could be?”
“The worst?” Alice mused. “Certain kinds of spiders are pretty strong. But it would be rare to find one of those on this continent.”
“What should we do?” Lime asked.
“We should choose a tunnel and keep moving. It hid because there are a lot of us. Cave dwelling monsters aren’t very intelligent, but they can count, and they don’t cooperate with each other. As long as we stay together, they’ll be reluctant to attack.”
“Which way, Luka?” Ilias prompted.
There was no tunnel directly ahead, so I chose the next best thing, one slightly to the northwest of us. We continued on, some of us occasionally tripping over the mine tracks that lined that particular passage. Alice located another ingot, yanking it out herself.
“I don’t know how much any of this is worth,” Alice said. “How much do you think we have so far?”
“Um…. It’s unrefined gold, so I don’t know how much we’ll get for it, but maybe…. Three hundred?”
“Is that a lot?”
“I started out with five hundred, so no.”
We entered yet another chamber, this one with only three exits. “How big is this place?” Sonya asked.
“This is just the first level,” Ilias replied. “At some point we’ll probably reach a lift which will take us hundreds of feet down. I’m hoping we find what we need here without having to do that. I don’t want to rely on a lift that hasn’t been maintained for years.”
I heard the skittering again and jumped. Sonya clutched me from behind, making me jump again.
“Don’t be afraid, guys,” Alice said. “Remember, we are many and they hunt alone. Just stay close and we might get out of here without getting att-“
“Wah!!!!” Ilias cried as a tentacle wrapped around her waist and pulled her into the darkness, extinguishing her light. That meant we were all plunged into darkness.
“Alice!" I yelled. "You’re our eyes! Did you see what grabbed Ilias? Can you see her?”
“Definitely a roper!” Alice yelled. “I don’t see her!”
“Ilias!” I yelled into the darkness.
“Luka!” I heard her voice answer back, from where a tunnel to our west had been.
“The roper grabbed her and is trying to escape to kill her prey more leisurely,” Alice said. “Ilias shouldn’t have too much of a problem. Stay together and watch for another attack!”
We waited in silence. I was getting worried. “Ilias!” I shouted again. No response. A mere roper couldn’t have eaten Ilias, could she? That fast?
“Damn goddess!” Alice cursed. “She’s probably writhing in pleasure. No willpower.”
“We’ve got to save here then!” I exclaimed.
“I guess we do. She was taken down that west tunnel. Nuruko, lead the way!”
“Kyuu!” Nuruko confirmed, and started toward the tunnel, which I couldn’t see. I couldn’t see anything, actually. Sonya was holding onto me.
We slowly made our way to the tunnel. Or at least I thought we had. I bumped into a wall. “Nuruko!” I shouted.
“Kyuuu!” I heard back, but way ahead of me.
“Nuruko, wait up! We can’t see! Wait, never mind, save Ilias! At this rate we’ll never reach her in time!”
“Kyuuu!” was Nuruko’s response, even further away.
“Alice, we’re going to need you to guide us.”
Alice didn’t respond. “Alice?” I asked again. Nothing.
“Luka, I’m scared,” Sonya whispered, still holding onto me, her nails digging into my sides.
“This is what I get for not buying torches. Maybe we should just stay here so our friends can find us. Nothing here should be a challenge for them. I’m sure they’ll be back.”
“Staying here sounds good to me,” Sonya replied, voice quavering.
Suddenly, I heard skittering, very close. Too close! I was bowled over by something large. Definitely an insect like creature, but definitely not a spider. It had armor of some sort. I got to my feet, ready to fight blind if I had to. Then I realized that Sonya was no longer holding onto me.
“Sonya!” I shouted. Nothing. “Lime! Alice! Nuruko!”
If I hadn’t been such a veteran of so many battles against much stronger entities I might have panicked just then and run smack into a wall. Despite my rising fear, I remained still and didn’t make a sound, searching the darkness for an enemy, or preferably, an ally. Listening in the hopes that I’d either hear one of my friends call out, or see a threat before it hit me.
The same large form appeared in front of me. Reflexes still as quick as ever, I struck at it with my sword and made solid contact. Angel Halo cut through her armor like butter, causing whatever she was to retreat a few steps.
“Don’t…. like….” She said. Okay, so definitely a monster, not that there was much doubt. Even in a fantasy world, there was no such thing as a giant insect. A giant insect girl, sure.
I cautiously advanced, trying to keep the creature in sight, not wanting to be ambushed by it again. I was ambushed anyway, grabbed by tentacles from behind. Roper!
Let me tell you a little aside about fighting monsters. Every monster has an identifiable pleasure “signature” so to speak. Each one feels unique, and each one is very intense. Once you feel it, you never forget it. So when that roper wrapped those tentacles around my body and her digestive juices burned through my clothes and began attacking my body, even though it had been centuries since I’d last felt a roper’s touch, I recognized it immediately.
With a roar, I burst out of the roper’s tentacles and struck viciously with my sword, using an old technique I hadn’t used in quite some time, Thunder Thrust. I was actually impressed at how well I executed it. The roper would have been as well, had she not been instantly sealed.
The second creature, which I still hadn’t identified, was less impressed, taking advantage of my distraction and knocking me down. Since the roper had been kind enough to render me almost naked, the unidentified monster girl placed her weight on top of me, a giant crevice opening in her midsection, engulfing my penis.
I was assaulted by a new sensation of countless small tentacles rubbing my penis, all while the sexual organ sucked and squeezed. My sword had been knocked out of my hands. Granberia had scolded me endlessly about how easily I lost hold of my weapon in sparring sessions. I think I’d managed to disarm her only once. She’d done it to me countless times. In the dark, I’d have no hope of finding my weapon. Still, all hope was not lost. I’d been pleasured by the best, so I wasn’t even close to considering surrender. Compared to Alice or Tamamo or Alma Elma, this was nothing. It would still make me orgasm quite reliably if I let it continue, but I had no intention of letting it continue.
With a tremendous heave, I moved her off of me, my dick pulling free of her…. Whatever that was. Best not to think about it. She attacked again, using the same tactic, trying to knock me down. This time I was ready, however, setting my feet and pushing against her. Our upper bodies locked like two Greco roman grapplers.
Finally, in the darkness, face to face, I saw what I was up against. It was a Meda. I’d never fought a Meda before, but they weren’t too tough, so long as I could see. And had a weapon, which at the moment, I did not. Her own tentacles began to wrap around my legs, trying to take me down again so that she could resume sucking me with her orifice.
“Luka!” I finally heard a voice yell.
“I’m here!” I responded.
Thank goodness my grappling skills had only gotten better over the years. I’d gotten to the point where even Tamamo’s tails couldn’t reliably take me down. This weak Meda and her tentacles weren’t going to succeed where an Ancestor had often failed. I soon found out who had called out to me when I felt slime wrap around both me and the Meda’s upper body.
“Sorry!” Lime said. “I can’t see in the dark! I just grabbed whatever I could! I’ll stay away from your penis!”
I felt Lime begin to move and sighed at the pleasurable sensations. She wasn’t stimulating my penis, but my upper body was getting some nice massaging. For the Meda, however, it was too much, as Lime’s slime found her breasts and pleasured them. More of Lime’s slime found her orifice and entered it. With a shudder, the Meda came, and simply fell over, without a word. Lime removed herself from both the Meda and me.
“Have you found any of the others?” I asked.
“Sonya’s all right, but I can’t find her now!” Lime responded.
“I’m right here, Luka!” Sonya yelled, only a few feet away. I pawed around in the dark and my hand landed on a breast. Sonya, to my relief, said nothing, embracing me.
“Alice! Ilias! Flappy!” I yelled. Sonya and Lime joined me, calling into the darkness.
“Kyuu!” Nuruko responded.
Suddenly, I saw a light down the western tunnel. Ilias! Finally able to see, I rushed to the light, Sonya, Nuruko, and Lime close behind.
“Oh, I feel fuzzy,” Ilias said, sitting in a corner. Next to her lay a roper, not moving.
“Ilias, did you...?” I asked.
“Kill it? How the fuck should I know? Nuruko was the one who dealt with it!”
“Kyuuu….” Nuruko said, shrugging. I had no idea how to check a roper’s vitals. In the dim light, however, I saw her chest move. She was alive.
“Can you move, Ilias?” I asked.
“She’s in critical ecstasy. Stupid weak goddess.”
Alice! I turned to see Alice approaching, my sword in her hand. She handed it to me and checked on Ilias.
“That’s odd,” Alice said. “Is it your angel body? There’s no sign of any damage.”
“Luka!” Sonya exclaimed. “You were grabbed by one too! Let me check your body!”
I turned red as she closely inspected my naked body. My clothes had finished dissolving, leaving me completely au natural.
“Nothing,” Sonya reported. “Is that not normal?”
“Luka is human,” Alice said. “I didn’t see how long the roper had him, but it would be very unlikely that his clothes would completely dissolve and yet his body would be free of acid burns. Ropers can control their acidity, but generally they don’t. They aren’t known for being merciful. Their only concession to the concept of mercy is that they kill with pleasure only. And that’s only because they don’t want their prey to struggle.”
“We’re still missing Flappy,” I said. “Did you see her, Alice?”
“I saw her get grabbed and pulled into a tunnel. She’s a seasoned warrior though. I can’t imagine even taken by surprise in the dark that a roper could overcome her. Unless….”
“Was it just me, or were they working together?” Sonya asked.
“That’s also unusual. Something is definitely not right here,” Alice mused. “They used a coordinated attack to remove Ilias and me, then picked the rest of you off one by one. Or tried to, at least. The only one they actually defeated was Ilias.”
“That felt reaalllyy good,” Ilias said euphorically. “I don’t like pain, but this pleasure thing I could get used to.”
“You don’t feel- ?! Ugh, of course,” Alice said, annoyed. “Great, another person in our party vulnerable to pleasure attacks.”
“Hey! I got taken by surprise! Those harpies couldn’t even touch me! So I got grabbed one time! At least I didn’t take out one of my allies!”
“We have to find Flappy,” I said. “We don’t know how weak Flappy is to pleasure attacks either.”
“Actually, I think Flappy found us,” Alice said. “And she’s got someone with her.”
I looked around questioningly, but then realized that Alice could see in the dark much better than any of us, and Ilias’ light only extended so far. Less far than before given her current state. Flappy emerged from the darkness, another creature in tow. It was a monster girl the likes of which I’d never seen before. She was humanoid but had a pumpkin for a head.
“I found this Jack O Lantern after I defeated the roper that grabbed me,” Flappy reported. “She admitted to being their leader.”
“Leader?!” Alice exclaimed. “No one leads ropers. Or Medas for that matter!”
“Do you have a better explanation for their behavior?” Flappy asked.
Alice ignored Flappy, staring at the Jack O Lantern girl. Abruptly. Alice ripped the girl’s head off!
“Alice!” I cried, shocked at her brutality.
“I know it’s dark, Luka, but you can’t be that blind,” Alice replied.
It hadn’t been the darkness, but my focus. I was staring at Alice holding the Jack O Lantern’s head in her hands, not noticing that the girl in question still very much had a head. It just was no longer a pumpkin, but a human head.
“What are you doing down here, little girl?” Alice asked. “And why are you masquerading as a monster? Were the monsters down here actually fooled by this?”
“Hey!” the girl yelled indignantly. “It was a great disguise! It worked, didn’t it?”
I felt like I was at the ending of a Scooby Doo episode. I was waiting for her to tell us that she would have gotten away with it if not for us, but I wasn’t yet sure what exactly she’d been getting away with. The girl in question was obviously human, about sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing a tattered dress and covered in dirt from head to toe. She looked as if she’d been living in the mine for years.
“How long have you been down here?” I asked. “More importantly, why are you here?”
“It’s a long story,” the girl replied. “I grew up in Midas Village-“
“I don’t care,” Alice said abruptly. “What I want to know is, are you controlling those monsters? And if so, how are you doing it? Your life story is of no interest to me.”
“Alice!” Sonya scolded. “Be nice to the little girl!”
“She’s like a year younger than you!” Alice retorted.
Sonya approached the girl. “Were you controlling those monsters? Is that why they didn’t really hurt any of us?”
“Uh huh,” the girl replied. “I didn’t want them to hurt anyone, but they have to feed. I just wanted them to keep you occupied while they captured that boy.”
She pointed at me. “Why did you want them to capture me?” I asked. “And what’s your name?”
“I’m Cynthia,” the girl answered nervously. “They’re my friends and they need to eat. I taught them not to kill. That way they get to eat more.”
“Eat more by not killing?” Alice asked. “Please do not tell me there are men down here.”
Cynthia wouldn’t meet Alice’s gaze. “Maybe a few,” the girl said uncomfortably.
“Oh, this is giving me such a headache. Well, Cynthia, all you accomplished was to get your friends beat up. Please refrain from having them attack us again. We’re just here to get some gold and leave.”
Cynthia nodded in agreement. Sonya and I just looked at Alice as if she was missing something rather important.
“Hello!” Sonya yelled. “Little girl in a mine! Men trapped down here, prisoners of these monsters! We have to save them? Ilias, back me up!”
“If they aren’t going to kill me, could you have the ropers attack me again?” was Ilias’ reply.
“The goddess herself, ignoring her own commandment about sexual relations with monsters!” Alice chuckled. “I knew you were a hypocrite, but I’d always assumed that you were serious about that one commandment!”
Ilias ignored Alice, instead weakly kicking the unconscious form of the roper next to her. “Wake up! Do that thing with the tentacles again!”
“Alice, Sonya is right,” I said. “if there are men down here, we have to free them!”
“Take a look at the goddess, hero,” Alice retorted. “That’s every man down here in this mine. They don’t want to be rescued. They get pleasured every day. They are hopelessly addicted. It’s a waste of time.”
“Even if that is true, Monster Lord,” Flappy interjected. “it is still a warrior’s duty to rescue the weak. In the darkness, no mere human could navigate this mine and escape it. We must at least give them the option.”
Alice impatiently flicked her tail around, then surrendered. “Fine,” she said. “There’s probably gold in whatever direction we go. Cynthia, please take us to the men being kept prisoner here.”
Cynthia nodded and began walking back the way we had come. I picked Ilias up and carried her. She must have weighed forty pounds soaking wet. The goddess wrapped her arms around my neck and smiled in appreciation at my chivalry.
“Cynthia,” Sonya asked. “How do you find your way around here? Do you have light of some sort?”
“I can answer that,” Flappy said. “After I defeated the roper, I saw a light further down the tunnel I’d been dragged into. It was Cynthia, holding a lantern. She attempted to flee, but I flew down the corridor and overtook her.”
“I guess since we have time, you might as well tell your story,” Alice said begrudgingly.
“O-Okay,” the girl replied. “I was born in Midas Village. People picked on me a lot. So I made friends here in the mine and helped them find a better way to live down here.”
“Okay, now my head is really throbbing,” Alice said, her annoyance only increasing. “You skipped over everything relevant. How did you control the monsters?”
“The kids made fun of me because I was friends with the animals. I could talk to them.”
“Animals? Not monsters?” I asked.
“Monsters too, at least the less intelligent ones,” Cynthia confirmed. “The smart ones like the snake girl are mean to me just like the kids in the village.”
“Shame on you, Alice!” Sonya scolded. “Bullying this little child!”
“I wasn’t-!” Alice started, then sighed. “Never mind. Just tell the story the way you want.”
“There’s not much else to tell,” Cynthia said. “The monsters here were my friends, people weren’t, so I stayed here with them. In exchange I taught them to not hurt men that come down here looking for gold. That way they never go hungry.”
“And so why did you need to disguise yourself as a monster?” Sonya asked.
“At first they attacked me even though I could talk to them,” Cynthia replied. “So I put a pumpkin on my head so they’d think I was a monster. Then they didn't attack me anymore.”
“Everyone in this cave is an idiot,” Alice muttered. “Still, that’s interesting. You have a gift. I wonder if it has to do with the increased amount of holy magic in the atmosphere since the Great Disaster? I wonder if we’ll encounter any more humans with strange gift?. So you can just…. Talk to animals? You don’t have to learn how to cast a spell to do it?”
“I’ve just always been able to do it since I was a little kid.”
Living in the mine, she had clearly failed to thrive and mature. Her speech and mannerisms were closer to that of a nine year old than a teenager on the brink of adulthood.
“You need to get out of this mine, Cynthia,” I said. “It’s not good for you to live down here.”
“Hey, I know!” Sonya exclaimed. “We can take you to Iliasburg! I know some monsters who would love to be your friend! Maybe you could even get a job with one of them. They all have jobs now!”
“We’re not going to Iliasburg,” Alice said.
“Luka is in charge, remember?” Sonya countered. “Luka, do you think we should take this little girl to Iliasburg?”
“As much as I’d like to do that,” I replied. “it’s west of here and the Tartarus is southeast. Maybe someone could escort her? I mean, If you want to, Sonya….”
Sonya sighed. “I guess I could,” she said reluctantly. “Oh well, at least by the time I get there we’ll be able to finally have some Ama Ama Dangos.”
“On second thought,” Alice said quickly. “We should help this little girl in need. We might be able to teleport there.”
Cynthia led us to a small room that looked as if it must have been some kind of break room for the miners when the mine had once been active. Sitting on the ground were five men in tattered clothing, beards down to their chest.
“Oh, what a stink!” Alice exclaimed, wrinkling her nose. “I will never be that hungry.”
“Ropers, Medas, and spiders, are not choosy,” Flappy said. “From what I understand, they actually find the sweat, grime, and urine on these men tasty.”
I stared at the poor men. They gazed back at me, clearly having not seen a fellow man in decent condition in a very long time.
“How long have you men been down here?” I asked.
The man with the longest beard spoke up. “Two years.”
“Well, we’ve come to rescue you so that you can go back to your families. If you are strong enough, get up and follow us. We’ll lead you out and take you to the nearest village. Cynthia, what have you been feeding these men?”
“I gather fruits and berries outside,” Cynthia answered.
No wonder they looked so emaciated. Fruit would keep them alive, I guessed, but they certainly wouldn’t get any meat on their bones with just that. The men weren’t moving.
“Come on, let’s go!” I said, putting Ilias down, who could stand by that point. “You guys are light, I can carry one of you. I’m sure Alice can carry one of you as well.”
“I can carry a man too,” Flappy offered.
“We can walk just fine,” one of the other men said. “Don’t wanna leave. We get treated good down here.”
Treated good? I understood loving the pleasure, but there is more to life than insane amounts of pleasure. They looked like hell. If I had been in their condition, a warm shower would feel better than having sex with Alma Elma. Okay, maybe not that good, but close!
“I warned you, Luka,” Alice said. “Still, you guys can’t stay. We’re taking the girl out of here. Once she’s no longer controlling the ropers, they’ll come in here and eat you.”
“No they won’t,” Cynthia corrected her. “I don’t make them not kill the men. They just didn’t know that there was a better way. Now they know. I told them.”
Huh. In her way, Cynthia was doing exactly what I had been doing. Teaching monsters that they didn’t have to kill men. Men are quite willing to feed themselves to monsters as long as they won’t be killed or taken prisoner. Unfortunately, it was a well documented phenomenon that once a man was captured, he didn’t need to be guarded. He usually wasn’t going anywhere. I just never thought that it could be this bad. The only other men I’d known who had been taken and kept were at Harpy Village, where the men were well cared for, even pampered, and the Monster Lord’s castle, where the Heavenly Knights hadn’t been nearly as kind, but had at least kept them fed and given them the tools to clean themselves. The unbelievable amounts of pleasure the Knights could deliver took car eof the rest. The first change that had been ordered when I married Alice was that all the men in the castle would no longer be slaves and would have freedom to move around the castle at will, whereas before they’d been locked in the dungeon. I tried not to think about who my friends had been before I’d taught them to be better people. Even Tamamo.
“I’m afraid these men are a lost cause, hero,” Flappy said. “They are happy here. As we harpies learned when we were kidnapping men and keeping them not too long ago, the way to a man’s heart is through his penis.”
Suddenly, a possible solution slapped me in the face. Or perhaps that was my own hand, as I must have slapped myself in realization.
“Flappy, you’re a genius!” I exulted.
“I have never been accused of intelligence before,” Flappy responded, a confused look on her face.
“The actual way to a man’s heart is through his stomach! Hey guys, how long has it been since you’ve had a juicy steak?”
That got their attention. “A steak?” one of them said. “It’s been so long…”
“Well I just happen to know where you can have steak. Follow me out and I’ll show you.”
“But… our women!” another one of them said.
“Look, if you want to come back here, you can. But how about we all discuss it over dinner. Maybe you’ll feel different if you get some good food in you, get cleaned up. A good shower, then a nice steak dinner might make you feel civilized again.”
The men looked at each other, then began to rise. I guess I know what’s on the menu tonight! I thought, quite pleased with myself.

With no further threats to our party in the mine, Alice and Lime had chosen to search for more gold while the rest of us made our way out. Between Alice’s great eyesight and Lime’s ability to extract the toughest to reach gold ingots, we soon had a pretty good amount. But Alice had found the motherlode deeper in the mine, so she grabbed her magic bag and placed what seemed to me to be over one hundred thousand gold pieces worth of the unrefined metal in it. The next day we’d go to Midas Village and convert the gold into currency.
One of the maids led the men to a shower. Ratty, still in need of one herself, followed the men into the shower room, whereupon screams of ecstasy could be heard over the sound of the water. Steak dinner followed. The men sighed in pleasure at the taste of the food I had prepared.
When dinner was finished, everyone as usual complemented me on the food. I was pretty proud of it myself. I’d done my best work, hoping to entice the men to return to civilization, where they could have such things regularly. Perhaps the critical ecstasy had clouded their minds to the point that they had forgotten the luxuries civilization provided.
“So what’s for dessert, Luka?” Pochi asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Pochi, I was so absorbed with the steak dinner I forgot desert,” I replied.
“It’s okay,” one of the men who had introduced himself as Steve said. “We’ve been eating nothing but sweet things for years. I’m about all sugared out.”
“But what about us?” Rami whined.
“I know what I’m in the mood for!” Lime piped up. “Semen!”
The monsters began to pound the table.
“Semen! Semen! Semen! Semen! Semen!”
“Luka, Sonya, Ilias,” Alice said calmly. “It would probably be best if none of you were here to witness what’s about to happen. If you would, please exit the dining room quickly and quietly before the feeding frenzy begins.”
Sonya made a face and immediately got up and left. Ilias, to my surprise, seemed less disgusted but also decided that it was time to retire. She’d had a rough day and would need several hours of sleep to fully recover from her critical ecstasy. That left Alice and I to walk down the hall as the noises from the dining room echoed down the hallways.
“Looks like you get a day off, hero,” Alice said, smiling. “Well done. Was that part of your plan?”
“Honestly, no,” I laughed. “But I admit, I was getting a little worried about having to feed all those monsters. If some of the men stay, it might take some pressure off of me.”
“You’re not off the hook yet,” Alice chortled. “But at least now we can add allies without having to worry as much about you being out of action all the time. Assuming they stay, that is. They probably will. Maybe we can wean them off of monster sex over time so that they can eventually return to where they belong. Obviously tonight isn’t going to help. Those monsters are hungry.”
“And more importantly, we have more money than we know what to do with.”
“Luka,” Alice said. “I know it’s not that late yet, but everyone else is going to bed. You want to come with me to my room? I don’t need to eat yet. We could just cuddle. I’ll carry you back to your room before everyone wakes up. I mean, unless you want to go into the dining room and spend some quality time with your friends.”
I turned to listen to the sounds coming from the dining room.
“AAAAHHHH!!!! That’s so amazing!!!! Please do that again!”
“I think I could use the day off,” I said. “A cuddle would be nice.”
Taking my hand, Alice led me to her room.
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Luka's Story-Paradox