Dungeon Item Shop - Chapter 13

Fresh looks at the blue-cloud gate of the dungeon that the two of them stand in-front of. It has grown to later in the day now, the afternoon having started about an hour ago and the city is as busy and as full of bustling life as ever. People walk all around them, entering in and out of the dungeon on both sides of the two who are standing rather awkwardly in the middle of the way.

“Stay up behind me, okay?” says the small person. Fresh nods, willing to let them take the lead. “You have to go in first though. I’ve already been down a bit deeper this week, so we’re better off taking yours since you probably haven’t done much.”

Fresh isn’t quite sure she gets their meaning, but steps inside nonetheless, letting herself become enveloped by the light, as she hears the small boots coming in up just behind her. The light in her eyes returns to a normal dim, dungeon shade as Fresh finds herself atop the familiar staircase. Jubilee enters beside her and goes down the steps.

“We shouldn’t let you even step foot in here, honestly. But if we’re gonna do this then we need to get some stuff and I can’t carry it all on my own.”

Fresh walks after them, down the steps, still wondering if they’re a her or a him. The small figure is however, heavily obscured and their voice is rather undefined, though a little high-toned. Fresh nods with a quiet “Mm!” wanting to agree with the figure, but not feeling brave enough to say or ask anything else; lest her brashness cause new trouble. They reach the bottom of the steps.

“The fuck…?” swears the small figure, as they look together now at the first floor. A rather grayish looking, ironically moldy block sits next to the burning hole. All that remains of Mr. Mushroom. The torches that she had planted in the dirt are however, still burning as bright as ever, the magical fire not subdued even a little. Jubilee looks at the bite-marks on the thing and then back to her.

“Did you… You didn’t. Did you?” they ask in disbelief.

Did she do something wrong again? Fresh pokes her index fingers together, looking away from the stern eyes facing up towards her as she sheepishly speaks. “I was hungry…”

“You we… - YOU DUMB COW! YOU CAN’T JUST EAT RANDOM MONSTERS!” yells Jubilee, as they grab the sides of their own head again, their now-gloved fingers clearly digging into their scalp with immense pressure, as they tear at the hood. “I want to beat some sense into your empty head, but you’d die!” They turn away from Fresh, their hands clutching their masked face as they scream into their gloves.

Fresh waits for them to finish, feeling nervous about this now too. “Was that bad?”

“Only if you like being alive, which you apparently don’t! At least from what I’ve seen!” yells Jubilee, violently kicking Mr. Mushroom’s body over once and he rolls back into the fire. The fuzz on his body hisses, as the flames scorch it away and singe his sides black. “Monsters need to be carefully prepared! You can’t just bite into them like some rabid animal! Especially the Mush-Mushes! They’re literally poisonous mushrooms!” Jubilee points back to Fresh angrily. “How are you even still alive?!”

Fresh thinks for a moment, but then shrugs. “He didn’t taste go-“ she stops herself, looking at the burning body. “I mean, he tasted fine. But I don’t think he was poisonous…”

Jubilee stares at her and even though she can’t see their expressions beneath the wooden mask, she still somehow reads it as ‘lost’. “…He?” asks Jubilee.

Fresh raises a finger with a smile. “Yeah. That’s Mr. Mushroom!”

Jubilee stares at her, silently. “Mr… Mr. Mushroom?”

Fresh nods.

“I… I don’t know if I can do this,” says Jubilee and turns to walk down towards where the red-fog was, shaking their head, a hand planted onto their mask as they mumble a vague series of unintelligible words. Fresh looks at them, as they walk on around the bend. Did she say something wrong? But feeling that she is alone and left behind in the dungeon, she grabs a torch, ignoring the window that pops up and runs after Jubilee; descending down the new, very wide staircase here.

Visible immediately from the top was already the second floor of the dungeon. Another simple room, made out of a mixture of compacted dirt, roots and ancient brickwork. As Fresh reaches Jubilee, a small window pops up.

[New Floor!: 2] {Deeper, Darker}

Then a second later, it vanishes as they both look at it for an instant. Jubilee sighs again. “You really are fresh.”

Fresh thinks for a moment, wondering in which sense the word was intended. But simply opts to silently nod ‘yes’, that seemed like it could do no harm. She looks around, but there is nothing here for her to see.

“Are there monster’s here?” she asks quietly.

“Yeah. Floor two has some more Mush-Mushes, but… it’s just two. Not even worth the effort really. These first ten floors are basically ‘baby’s first dungeon’. Though apparently some ‘people’ have actually managed to die here before. Sad fucks.”

Fresh scratches her cheek, laughing meekly.

“You stay up here. Always up the stairs, okay?” Jubilee leans towards her. “You NEVER come down a single step until I tell you, okay? If you die, I swear to whatever god you pissed off, I’ll sell your body to the necromancers!”

Fresh nods, not liking being yelled at or bossed around. But… what was she going to do to be of use anyways? She wasn’t useful. She rubs her arm. “Okay.”

“Good. I got the key, that makes me the party leader. So I run this show, got it? You need to listen to me if you want to live.”

Fresh thinks for a moment, does that bother her? No. Not really. She was never the type to take charge of a group. She was never good with pecking orders or any of that. She just wanted to be herself without other people making it weird. “Okay,” she says again, plainly.

Jubilee nods and steps down a step, bending forward to grab a fist-full of loose dirt from below. Some, sharp, crackling crystallizing sound can be heard from between their gloved fingers. Fresh watches on in curiosity, as the small figure walks towards the center of the empty room. She wonders where the Mush-Mushes are, there aren’t any holes this time. Jubilee stops, two trails make themselves seen in the dirt. As some things are burrowing around the room from both sides, just below the surface.

“NYAAAAAAAH~*!” cry out a duo of large mushrooms that spring out of the dirt from both sides, with wide open mouths as they lunge towards the small, obscured figure.

“Ah! Look ou-!” shouts Fresh, taking a quick step forward.

Jubilee throws the handful of dirt down at their own feet in that instant, as the two mushroom creatures lunge at them. It smashes against the floor and… shatters? Some colorful sparkle catches Fresh’s eyes, as the tiny fragments of glass shimmer in the torch’s radiating firelight, rebounding all of the colors around them like sparkling rain. It only takes a moment, but the world explodes in light as two prismatic spires burst out of the ground, shooting out faster than her eyes can register.

*NYAA-*” both of the mushrooms are cut short in their cries, as the glass that shot out of the ground lances through their cores in an instant, skewering them and holding them aloft in mid-air, suspended by two long razor-sharp crystals that jut out of the dirt like spears.

You got [4/10 Experience] ! (Party)

You got [6/10 Experience] ! (Party)

The screams die off, as the two mushroom creatures gurgle out their last breaths and Fresh looks on in awe as Jubilee turns to keep walking down the next flight of stairs ahead. “Come down and get those caps off, would you?”

“That was so cool!” yells Fresh, running up to her party member. “Was that magic?! Can you show me how to do that?!” she asks with excitement, holding her fists clenched tightly in-front of her.

“Just get the caps,” says Jubilee, somewhat agitated.

“Pleeeease?” begs Fresh. Was this some kind of glass magic? It seems really dangerous, but also really, really cool. She wants to learn it.

Jubilee waves her off. “Don’t cut yourself when you get the mushrooms down,” and walks off, leaving Fresh there alone with the bodies that are still skewered at head-height on the two crystal pillars.

She looks at them, wondering how she’s going to get them down, when a second later, just as she sees her own reflection in one of the prismatic shards, the glass shatters, sending both of the monsters crashing down into the dirt face first.

Happy at the lucky break, literally, Fresh carefully steps forward and gets to work, eager to prove herself to her new and only party member. She hasn’t given up yet, she’s going to make this right and then some.

Found: [MUSHROOM CAP (Orange)] !

Found: [MUSHROOM CAP (Orange)] !