Dungeon Item Shop - Chapter 4

The many winding streets of the city all blur together into a vivid collage of colors, sounds and smells. Wooden booths and bright decorative banners dot the many ways which are filled with high-spirited people moving about in all directions. The streets of the city are flush and flowing with life, as if they were part of a nurturing river. Winded, sweaty but determined, she breaches the final street and enters into the plaza on the far side. There stands a large, ominous gate, a blue’ish, cloudy aura seems to wave and sway around inside of it, contained by the construction. Behind this obstruction, just barely visible, was a single, gigantically large staircase that heads straight downward. This has to be it, there’s no mistake.

All around the circular plaza are run-down houses and tents, it looks far more raggedy and worn down than the front market square of the city. This quarter appears to be a lot less prosperous in general, she notes in surprise, watching as the people went down towards the dungeon, passing through the blue mist in groups; or sometimes alone. Others would walk past them and back out, carrying large sacks filled with items and grizzly trophies. Some of those people looked a little worn and worse for the wear, but satisfied. She wants that look too, she thinks.

A dungeon, huh? She ponders for a second, but still walks towards it, winded and flustered. She doesn’t have any equipment, she didn’t have any money for any and she didn’t know anything about this world at all. But if this was anything like any of the dungeon-fantasy worlds that she was familiar with from the stories she had known in her old life, then she could maybe just go inside. There should be a first, floor, right? Something easy. Something for beginner adventurers like herself to sharpen their teeth.

Maybe there would be some ridiculously easy monster types she could… uh… she looks at her hands. Pummel? Punch? Kick? She doesn’t feel very strong, but… is confident that she could maybe take down something small, like… uh… what kind of monsters were there here? She looks around at the many people walking by with their bags filled with stuff and listens to the voices of those exiting the dungeon. Small globs of green goo held in glass jars and mushroom caps were the most common thing she saw. So… slimes and… some kind of mushroom creatures? Those seem like low level monsters, she’s pretty sure that even she could take down something like a tiny slime.

Even if she had never fought anything or anyone ever before. A tiny mushroom monster? She’d just grab a rock and smash it. Yeah! The plan seems simple enough. It was too easy, too classic. It couldn’t go wrong. She steps towards the blue mist, having crossed most of the plaza now.

“Did you hear, there was another murder-“ whispers a hushed voice from a group walking past her.

“Another one?” asks a man quietly.

“Yeah… apparently, people are saying tha…” the voices trail, becoming indistinct as they distance themselves into the noisy crowd.

The girl supposes that things like that could even happen in a world like this. Some things never changed. But some things will. She looks towards the blue mist and places a foot inside. She’ll make sure of it. She’ll change it herself, swears the girl quietly. She will. Her heart beats hard, her arms shaking in nervous determination as the strange, soft feeling envelops her.

Her vision goes entirely blue, before fading to a white that then lets out slowly, as she now stands beyond the blue mist. Looking around, she doesn’t see anybody. The dozens of people that had entered here, were no where to be seen anywhere. It was just her, just her and the slowly whirling mist behind her that led back to the city outside. The staircase was extremely wide, easily enough for ten people to stand side by side at arms length. Burning torches lined the way down towards a single flat floor, that she could already see from up here.

“Maybe there’s a tutorial area…” she says to herself, stepping down the first steps, wondering if this was that kind of ‘gamified’ fantasy world. She supposes this will be the moment she finds out. With any luck, there would be some sort of starting equipment. An old, rusty dagger, maybe some stale bread and an ugly hat? That was the typical trope and she’d be happy with any of it. At least she has some boots that she likes. The sleeveless robe isn’t ideal though.

Reaching the bottom of the steps, she looks around the perfectly flat, roundish room. It is entirely featureless, the walls made out of an ancient stone brick-work and the floor simply flattened earth and dirt, from which grew some old roots out of sparse nooks on the walls. She looks around a little confused. There’s nothing here? It was just a room and the staircase that led back up. Wait. No. There! On the far wall, there is another aura like the first one up-top, but it isn’t blue. It is a faint, warning toned red. She steps towards it. Something presses against her front, stopping her from going further.

“Is this way blocked…?” she looks around, maybe there was something she had to do first, before it would let her go deeper into the dungeon. Maybe there was a lever or a secret switch, or a block puzzle or something cliche like that?

Something rustles behind her and she turns around to look at the source of the noise. It crawls out of a dark crevice, from beneath one of the large gnarled roots. A strange, shifint mass. It’s… a tiny mushroom creature. She looks at it, as its small, beady, black eyes focus on her from the distance. It’s minuscule, only maybe reaching her knee at best, though it is a little wide. The brim of its cap easily thicker than her whole body is. That was fine though, she nods to herself, taking a deep breath. It was exactly as she had expected. Everything was going to plan!

Looking around, she grabs one of the torches from next to her on the wall. Suddenly, something appears before her.

“Huh?”

Apparently there were menus after all, good to know! But not the most important detail now. Touching it, she notices it feels like a piece of cool glass, as she swipes it away. The mushroom-creature has reached her now, as it hops forward with rather silly looking bounces. Its eyes sparkling, its small, pouting mouth making tiny squeaking noises, its cheeks flush pink and puff in and out with every strained bounce towards her. Holding the torch ready as her weapon, she looks at the monster, feeling a little sympathy for the small creature. It looked as winded and exhausted as she had felt running just a few meters. It was kind of cute though, it made her feel warm to look at.

She narrow her eyes. She’s going to kill it. Does that bother her, she wonders? No. Not really.

The fire of the torch burns in front of her eyes. She had never killed anything before, apart from the odd mosquito or fly. But nothing like this, nothing… ‘real’. But… she plants her foot back behind to get ready, getting ready to swing the torch in her first strike towards the future. The little mushroom is upon her now, its adorable eyes are wide with the most fury that they can muster. Enough to maybe spook a small turtledove. But she was going to do it. She was going to do this and work hard to earn the life she always wanted.

*NYAH!* squeaks the mushroom with a comically high tone, as it lunges with delightful anger at the intruder. Her heel planted firmly behind herself, her eyes shining, her soul ready to run straight towards her destiny, she swings the torch to strike the creature in mid-air with everything she has. With all of the feelings that are inside of her, burning so bright like this fire she clutches. It trails through the air, leaving a streak as it thwacks against the face of the mushroom, who falls back down to the ground from the impact, squeaking in terror as the fire singes its face.

*NYAAAAAaaaaah~…*? the dramatic squeal fades off rather quickly and the mushroom looks a little confused, staring around itself, not sure what just happened. It looks up to the new window that has appeared next to the girl. They both pause for a second to stare at it.

“What...?” she eyes it up and down, not sure if she is reading this right. Did something go wrong? Her eyes nervously look back to the mushroom that was now staring back straight at her. Their eyes meet. It lunges.

*NYAH!*