The Dungeon's Worst Little Mistake

While packing their stuff and getting ready to get leaving in the morning, Susan looks over at Bug's back.

"So, are you going to explain what all that was yesterday? Freaking out over a lost skeleton."

Bug stops packing, her body going still as she thinks for a short while. Eventually, she starts moving again and speaks without turning.

"I overreacted." Is all she chooses to say.

"Yeah, no crap. But why?"

Bug remains silent for a short while as she finishes packing the bag, the whole thing disappearing as it gets pulled into her inventory. Standing up, she brushes her hands on her shorts and takes a breath.

"… Bob was my favorite. He was my first named minion along with Billy. Bob the archer and Billy the retriever. They're supposed to be together… Regardless, it's thanks to Bob that I was able to get this far. Back when I was a lot weaker, having an archer that could take enemies out from range just made everything easier. A lot easier. I was even able to get Sam and Zax because of him… And now Sam is gone too… Thanks for that by the way."

"No problem."

Bug just gives Susan a look, which is returned with a smug smile from the Ghoul.

"Anyways… Bob was important to me. And I just spent all that time trying to get him back! I knew that the Dungeon was just messing with me. Stalling me. Trying to delay me by even just one more day and keep me from heading deeper… But I had to get him back!" Bug says through clenched teeth, her fists all clenched to the point of claws digging into her palms. She lets out a long, tired breath. "And now I can't…"

Bug walks over to the fountain to start storing away all the canteens and waterskins filled with fresh water.

"Are you sure that you can't?" Susan asks out of curiosity.

"Yes. The Dungeon was just delaying me until you could catch up and kill me. It kept me here by keeping it possible to get them back… But since you failed, it has no reason to give Bob back anymore. It can just keep him here like a prisoner. Dangling him in front of me like a prize I can never reach." Bug says as she turns her gaze to the side, looking at one of the walls.

"So, what're you going to do? We leaving now?" Susan asks, looking a bit too smug about Bug clearly being depressed.

Bug just gives another sigh, her eyes not leaving that spot on the wall. Susan can't sense what Bug does, so she wouldn't understand. Last night, the Dungeon had moved Bob while she was sleeping.

He's in the wall.

Stuck there.

And Bug knows she can't get him back out.

All she can do is step forward and place a hand against the cold bricks, the tears that she had been so desperately holding back starting to spill from the corners of her eyes…

Behind her, Mimmie moves her mount up beside Susan and gives her a punch in the shoulder.

"Ouch! Hey!?"

"Don't make Mommy sad! Bad Sissy!"

"She started it…"

"How would Sissy feel if you, hmm… lost your sword? And couldn't get it back. No matter what! You'd be sad too, right?"

Susan thinks for a bit, looking at the sword her teacher had gifted her.

"Yeah, I'd be pretty upset…"

Susan keeps thinking as she looks at the child next to her, remembering something. Bug is only about a month old at this point. If she had dedicated a week of more on trying to get her skeleton back, then that means that she had dedicated a solid quarter to a third of her entire life so far, just on this one task. What if Susan had done the same for her sword? Spent nearly ten years of her life doing the same? And when she finally found it, she discovered that it was, despite being right in front of her, impossible to retrieve?

At that point, a bit of rage would be justified, no? Punching a wall and trying to break through with everything you have, even as you forget the world around you… Probably would have ended with Susan getting drunk in the bottom of a barrel in some bar by the end of the day…

Still. Despite understanding. It doesn't change the fact that she doesn't like Bug. She killed Susan's friends, and Susan herself. And she very nearly hurt Elaine in her rage yesterday.

I'm not going to apologize, but I will at least not pick on her about this anymore…

While Susan was thinking, Mimmie had moved over to console Bug, wrapping her up in a tight little hug.

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"I'm okay, sweety. Thank you. You're such a good girl. Well, when you aren't trying to eat me, that is…"

"Hehehehe~"

Bug gives Mimmie a kiss on the top of her head and squeezes her back, returning her hug.

Hugs feel weird… It's warm… and nice. I should have hugged Hannah more.

Using the hands on her wings- as her other four are all occupied with hugging- Bug wipes away the tears from her eyes.

"Thank you, Mimmie. Mommy will be okay now. Hah… I don't need Bob anymore. I don't need to talk to mindless minions to keep me company. That's right, Bob isn't a person. Just an object. I have you and Susan to keep me company now. I… don't need, Bob…"

Pulling one hand away from hugging Mimmie, Bug places it against the wall again. On the other side, she orders Bob to do the same, the two separated by roughly two feet of brick and metal piping.

A fresh tear falls from Bug's eye, "Goodbye, Bob. I'll keep Billy safe for you. I promise. Thank you…" and then severs the connection.

Bug shudders as the line that has remained a constant in her mind for so long is suddenly gone, Bob's presence vanishing entirely from her perception.

She goes back to fully hugging Mimmie, and lets herself get lost in the living warmth of her adopted daughter, burying her face into that golden hair while trying not to poke the girl with her horns. Mimmie just giggles and tighten the hug even more, burying her face into Bug's black and grey hair in return, and happily bonking her forehead against the side of a horn as she whispers into Bug's big fluffy ear.

"Mhm, Mommy has Mimmie. Love~"

…

Susan is just watching from the back, awkwardly as the two hug, not knowing what to do with herself. After a long while, with the hug not seeming to be ending any time soon, Susan can't help but ask, "Uhm… are we going to get going, or… not?"

Bug is the first to break the hug and nods her head.

"Yes, we should get going. Sorry about that… Uhm… Anyways! I'm sick and tired of this dang layer! Mimmie, Susan, let the get the heck out of here!" Bug practically yells as she pumps herself up.

Mimmie shoots her hands up in the air and cheers, "Yeah! Wait… where we going?"

"Deeper into the Dungeon, to kill the Dungeon."

"Oh, ok. Yeah! Kill the Dungeon!!! Oh. Mommy, wait."

"What is it?"

"Can I eats the Dungeon?"

"… Maybe?"

"Yes! Kill the Dungeon! Eats the Dungeon!!!"

Bug just smiles and gives her daughter a pat on the head.

"Ok, so Mimmie is ready to go. Susan, you ready?"

"Not like I have much of a choice…"

Bug just thinks for a moment and then shakes her head, "No. You have a choice. If you want to leave, you're free to do so."

"What?"

"You're free to leave. I gave you free will, remember? You're not a Dungeon monster, so you can leave the Dungeon whenever you want."

"What happened to having me stay by your side until the end, and all that eventually becoming friends bull crap?"

"We can still do that… I was just really desperate and angry then. Honestly, I would rather that you stick with me because you want to. Not because I forced you…"

"Would you let me take Elaine with me?"

"No, she stays with me. Besides, she can't leave the Dungeon yet. She would die out there."

"I mean yeah, people kill Mimics on sight on the surface. She could just hide in her chest as I carry her away. Pretend that I took some treasure back out with me as I fled from the Dungeon…"

"No, I don't mean humans killing her. I mean that we can't live outside of the Dungeon. We need its mana to sustain our bodies. Without it, we die. And besides, she's mine."

"What!?"

"She mine."

"No, not that! She'll die if she leaves the Dungeon?"

"Yeah?"

"Then why are you trying to destroy the Dungeon!? If you need it to live- How were you planning on living on the surface afterwards!?"

"Oh, yeah, don't worry. I'll figure that part out later. For now, though, we just need to get stronger. The stronger we are, the longer we can stay on the surface without dying. I just need to figure out how to make it permanent… I'll figure it out." Bug says with a shrug and a smile.

"Hah…" Susan just sighs. "Well, I'm not leaving without Elaine anyways. And if it means going to the bottom of the Dungeon to see that she stays safe… I guess I'm stuck with you for now. At least until we find a way for her to live on the surface."

"Try not to sound too excited…" Bug says, already sort of starting to regret turning Susan into a Ghoul instead of just killing her. She's not going to a be a downer the entire trip down, is she?

"Sissy's coming with! We'll kill and eats the Dungeon, together!" Elaine cheers. Licking her lips, she tries to imagine what a Dungeon tastes like. Surely, it must be tasty!

Bug just smiles at Mimmie's excitement.

"Alrighty then. Let's get going, and let's make it quick. Full speed charger ahead, no detours, just stairs and boss fight! And when we get to the next layer, how about we eat that cake that Redacted sent me? I know I said we would eat it sooner, but the moment sort of got ruined…"

"Yay, cake!" Elaine celebrates.

Susan just shrugs as she adjusts her sword on her belt.

"Works for me, let's get going."

With that, they leave the Safe Room of the 13th floor behind for the final time, never to return. Not too far away, Bug's army of the Undead are patiently waiting near the stairs. Bug, Mimmie, and Susan approach the stairs under the gaze of a nearly two hundred rotting corpses.

"Minions, listen up! We shall be charging forth into the Dungeon. Upon reaching a new floor, spread out in every direction and kill every living thing you encounter, except Mimmie here, of course. Designated leaders, upon finding stray Undead, you are to add them to your group and continue following the previous order. Upon finding the next set of stairs, a single unit is to remain by the stairs and send a signal pulse of three bursts through our connection, followed by a long pause, repeating, in order to get my attention. The rest will continue down the stairs. We will repeat this with every floor until we find the boss door on the twentieth floor. Are my orders understood!?"

The Undead under her direct control nod their heads, the wild Undead following their lead a second later.

"Good! Then get moving, down the stairs, go go go! Charge! We will teach this freaking Dungeon why it is that you don't make an enemy out a Necromancer!"

As the army is streaming down the stairs to go and spread Death, Mimmie whoops and cheers, "Kill the Dungeon! Eats the Dungeon!!!"

Susan just watches and points toward the charging horde. "Isn't this cheating?"

Bug just shrugs. "Dungeon started it by cheating first. I'll go back to clearing it like normal after we get to the next layer. This is just me teaching it to not mess with me again. A little show of what I could do, if I felt like it!" Bug finishes by yelling up at the ceiling, clearly directing her words to the Dungeon itself.

"Come on, let's get moving. I want to see what the next layer is like already."

And with that they set off down the stairs, following as Bug's army rips and tears through the Dungeon one floor at a time, only growing in size and strength, and spreading Death like an unstoppable plague as the monsters of the Dungeon desperately try to fight and hold back the tide. After two days of casually following behind a wave of corpses rushing forward through seven floors, the three make it to the boss door.