My Dungeon Daddy System: Raising Monsters and Waifus Underground-Chapter 96 – Scales & Salve

Reed stumbled out of the elevator, his heart still doing a frantic tap-dance against his ribs. The effects of the "Rocket Fuel" were finally fading, leaving him with a heavy, leaden exhaustion that settled into his bones like wet sand.

He rubbed his eyes. The afterimage of the super-speed cleaning session in Grika’s workshop still lingered, ghostly outlines of tools flying onto pegboards and blueprints rolling themselves up.

"Never again," Reed muttered, steadying himself against the wall. "Dwarves are built different. My liver just filed a union grievance."

He pushed off the wall and headed toward the Pizza Forge. He needed a chair. He needed water. He needed to make sure the rest of his chaotic family hadn’t burned the place down while he was playing alchemist.

The heavy iron door to the staff quarters was warm to the touch. Inside, the massive brick oven bathed the room in a constant, flickering orange glow. It usually smelled of rising dough and tomato sauce.

Today, it smelled of fever.

It was a thick, dry scent, like hot copper and old leather. The air was stifling, heavy with a heat that wasn’t coming from the oven.

"Sera?" Reed called out softly.

There was no answer. Just a ragged, rasping sound from the far corner of the room, where the pile of "Shadow-Moss" pillows formed the communal nest.

Reed walked over.

Seraphine was there. The General, usually the picture of terrifying, pristine, Amazonian strength, was curled into a tight, shivering ball. Her twenty-foot emerald tail was wound around her human torso like a protective cage, but the scales were wrong.

They weren’t the brilliant, jewel-hard green that usually shimmered in the dark. They were dull. Ash-gray. Along the thickest part of the coil, patches of dead skin were peeling away in jagged flakes, revealing raw, weeping flesh underneath.

And where the acid from the Sniper Lilies had hit her during the Garden raid, the damage was catastrophic. The dead scales had fused to the new ones growing underneath, creating a rigid, crusty scab that prevented her from moving.

"My Lord," Seraphine rasped.

She tried to uncoil. She tried to rise to salute him.

CRACK.

A sound like dry wood snapping echoed in the room.

"Ah!" Seraphine cried out, collapsing back onto the pillows. A line of blood welled up between two of the fused scales. She squeezed her eyes shut, her body trembling with the effort of holding back a scream.

"Don’t move," Reed ordered, dropping to his knees beside her.

He reached out, his hand hovering over the damaged section. The heat radiating off her was intense. She was burning up. Her cold-blooded physiology couldn’t regulate this kind of trauma. She was trapped in her own skin.

"I am fine," Seraphine lied through gritted teeth. Her skin was pale, clammy with sweat. "It is just... a difficult molt. I will shed it by morning."

"You won’t," Reed said, his voice hard. "The acid fused the layers, Sera. It’s essentially scar tissue on top of necrotic plating. If you try to force it, you’ll rip the new skin right off the muscle."

"I have to force it," she hissed, her eyes flashing with a desperate, feverish light. "The Spire... the defense... I cannot be weak. Not now. Not when you have hired the Plant-Witch."

Reed paused. "Amara?"

"She is strong," Seraphine whispered, looking away. "She is a Legacy Boss. She grows the food. She makes the nectar. And I? I am just a broken shield."

She tried to curl tighter, hiding her face.

"You should replace me, Reed. The Gilded Rose... that Duelist... she is faster. Amara is stronger. I am... obsolete."

Reed felt a sharp pang in his chest. It wasn’t the Void Shard. It was heartbreak.

"Luma!" Reed shouted over his shoulder.

SPLAT.

A blue puddle dropped from the ceiling rafters. Luma coalesced instantly, reforming into her humanoid shape. She wasn’t smiling. Her usual bubbly demeanor was gone, replaced by a dense, serious opacity. She was holding a bucket of warm water and a stack of clean towels.

"I’m here," Luma said softly. "I’ve been trying to hydrate the scales, but the crust is too hard. It won’t absorb the moisture."

"We’re doing it manually," Reed stated, rolling up his sleeves. "Get the Aloe-Slime extract. And the Numbing Gel."

Luma nodded, her form rippling with determination. She transformed her left hand into a dispenser, producing a glob of glowing, mint-green gel.

"Seraphine," Reed said, grabbing a pillow and placing it under her head. "This is going to hurt. A lot."

"I can take pain," Seraphine scoffed weakly.

"I know," Reed said. "But you don’t have to take it alone."

He positioned himself by her tail. The damaged section was about three feet long, a gnarly patch of gray, cracked armor that looked infected.

"Luma, coat the edges," Reed instructed. "Numb the connection points."

Luma poured herself over the tail. Her slime wasn’t cold this time; it was lukewarm and tingling with anesthetic mana. She worked her way into the cracks, soothing the raw flesh.

"Okay," Reed breathed. "Elara, keep her cool."

I have her, the ghost whispered in his mind.

A spectral chill lowered the temperature in the room. Frost patterns formed on the floorboards, countering the fever heat radiating from the Lamia.

Reed gripped the edge of a large, dead scale. It was the size of a dinner plate.

"On three," Reed said. "One. Two..."

He pulled.

RRRRIIIIIIP.

It sounded like Velcro being torn off a microphone.

"NNNGH!" Seraphine threw her head back, her back arching off the pillows. Her hands clawed at the sheets, shredding the fabric.

Reed didn’t stop. He couldn’t. If he stopped, the pain would just prolong. He peeled the dead layer back, using his thumb to separate the fused tissue from the new growth.

Underneath the gray rot, something shined.

It was blindingly bright. The new scales were soft, wet, and colored a deep, iridescent emerald that looked like liquid jewels.

"Beautiful," Reed murmured, tossing the dead husk aside.

"It... burns," Seraphine gasped, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.

"That’s the air hitting the new skin," Reed said. "Luma, seal it."

Luma slid over the fresh area, coating it in a protective, soothing layer of slime. Seraphine’s breathing hitched, then slowed as the pain turned to a dull throb.

"Next one," Reed said grimly.

They worked for an hour. It was gruesome, exhausting work. Reed’s hands were covered in green slime, old blood, and gray dust. His shoulders burned.

Seraphine drifted in and out of consciousness, muttering deliriously about defending the perimeter.

"Almost done," Reed whispered, wiping sweat from his forehead with his forearm. "Just the acid burn left."

This was the bad one. A cluster of scales fused together into a hard, black lump where the flower-acid had melted the keratin.

"Sera," Reed said, moving up to hold her hand. "Look at me."

She opened her amber eyes. They were hazy, unfocused.

"I am... sorry," she mumbled.

"Stop apologizing," Reed said firmly. "Listen to me. Amara grows pumpkins. Isolde runs away from feelings. You are the only one who bleeds for me."

He squeezed her hand.

"I don’t keep you because you’re a tank, Sera. I keep you because you’re you. Because you’re the first one who stood between me and the dark. You aren’t equipment. You’re my partner."

Seraphine stared at him. The fog in her eyes cleared slightly.

"Partner?"

"Partner," Reed confirmed. "Now, squeeze my hand. This is the big one."

He signaled Luma.

Reed grabbed the blackened scab with his free hand. He channeled a tiny pulse of Void Mana into his fingertips, vibrating them to loosen the bond.

He ripped it free.

"RAAAAAH!"

Seraphine screamed. It was a raw, primal sound. She crushed Reed’s hand, nearly breaking his fingers. Her tail thrashed, knocking over a table.

The scab came loose with a wet shhh-luck sound.

Underneath, the skin was raw and pink, but healthy. The infection was gone.

Luma immediately engulfed the wound, humming a low, healing note.

Seraphine collapsed, panting. Her grip on Reed’s hand loosened, but she didn’t let go.

The room went quiet. The only sound was the crackling of the fire and Seraphine’s ragged breathing.

"It is... done," she whispered.

Reed inspected her tail. The gray was gone. From her waist to the tip of her tail, she was a seamless, glistening river of new emerald scales. She looked reborn.

"Yeah," Reed said, slumping against her coil. "It’s done."

He felt a warmth spreading through his chest. It wasn’t the Void. It wasn’t the Rocket Fuel.

It was pure, golden light.

[SYSTEM ALERT]

[Event Complete: THE MOLT]

[Emotional Bond: MAXIMIZED]

[Soul Mana Generated: +60 SP]

Reed checked his HUD.

[Current Soul Mana: 110 SP]

He laughed. A tired, broken little laugh.

"We did it," Reed whispered. "We have enough."

"Enough for what?" Seraphine asked, lifting her head weakly.

"For the upgrade," Reed said. "The Molting Chamber. The permanent one. Next time, you won’t have to suffer like this. You’ll just soak in magic water until you’re shiny."

Seraphine looked at him. She looked at her new scales. She looked at Luma, who was currently napping on her tail.

She pulled Reed’s hand to her lips. She kissed his knuckles, right over the bandage where he had cut himself for Vesper’s potion.

"You are a strange Lord," she murmured, her voice thick with emotion. "You act like a servant."

"Farmers, not butchers," Reed quoted, stroking her hair. "Rest now, Sera. You have to be ready for the tourists tomorrow."

Seraphine closed her eyes. For the first time in weeks, the tension in her body vanished. She uncoiled slightly, draping her tail over Reed like a heavy blanket.

"I will be... terrifying," she promised, drifting into sleep.

Reed sat there for a long time, trapped under the weight of his favorite monster.

"System," Reed thought.

Yes, Daddy? Elara giggled.

Reed chuckled. "Buy the Molting Chamber."

[SYSTEM: -2,000 GOLD. -100 SP.]

[CONSTRUCTION QUEUED: ABYSSAL SPA UPGRADE.]

Reed winced at the gold drop. He was back in the danger zone financially.

"Worth it," he whispered, looking at the sleeping Lamia.

Now he just needed Riva to actually deliver that potion to the Dwarves, that was a potential gold mine waiting to happen, especially while the Casino was slow.

[QUEST COMPLETE: SCALES & SALVE]

[Reward: Seraphine Fully Healed]

[Reward: Soul Bond Tier 2 Unlocked (Loyalty)]

[Status: BROKE BUT HAPPY]