The Dungeon's Worst Little Mistake

"Dang, that thing really dealt some damage, huh?" Bug comments as she looks out through an open side of what used to be a hallway of the Dungeon, which now just terminates at a sudden opening that looks like someone had sliced through the brickwork with a hot knife.

Standing on what is effectively a giant pyramid that had been carved out of the middle of the Dungeon, Bug is happily looking around and taking it all in. Her long shark tail is happily wagging back and forth behind her, ecstatic to finally be seeing the Dungeon having taken some real, tangible, damage.

Bug looks back and gives a big toothy smile at Susan who is holding her sister, Elaine, or Mimmie as she also goes by, in her arms. The poor little girl growing out from the inside of a treasure chest Mimic had regrettably lost her primary mode of transportation when the rat city got destroyed and so now, she needs to be caried in order to get around. She can move on her own, it's just that it would be incredibly slow as she would have to hop around or grow a snail's foot under her treasure chest shell and move around like a, well, very big snail… Regardless, she looks perfectly happy to getting caried by her big sister, her little arms wrapped around Susan's neck as she looks around and takes everything in with big curious eyes.

Bug turns back to observing all the damage and whistles, two hands on her hips as she just takes it all in and basks in the afterglow of victory.

"You know, despite not being the one that did this, I can't help but want to take credit for it." Bug puts a foot on nearby rock and then shakes her fist at the open air. "You hear me, Dungeon!? That's right, I kicked your butt! You thought that was enough to kill me? HA! Try harder, LOSER!"

Mimmie raises a hand a cheers behind her, "Loser!"

"Yeah! Come on Susan, join us. Loser!" Bug says to the pouting red headed Ghoul.

Mimmie cheers again, bouncing in Susan arms, "Loser, hahaha!"

Susan just sighs, "How about we, not, piss off the Dungeon even further? Not sure if you're aware, but we almost didn't survive that. Heck, we almost didn't even survive that fall. What if we had landed on our heads and died?"

Bug just dismissively waves a hand and blows a raspberry at that, "Pfft. We survived, don't worry about what ifs so much."

"Uh huh… and what if it, the Dungeon? Or the weird, garbled word thing you told me about? What if it sends another one of those things after us? I'm not sure about you, but I know for a fact that I can't take that thing."

"The Cleaner?" Bug looks up into the now open underground where several floors of Dungeon used to be. "It's long gone. If it was going to kill us, it would have earlier."

"And if they send another one?"

"Then we're screwed?" Bug shrugs. "Not like I can do anything about it. Regardless, I don't think they can…"

Susan tilts her head curiously as she readjusts her hold on Elaine and then walks over to the opening. "What makes you think that?"

Still looking around at all the damage, Bug responds as she scratches at the burnt half of her face and picks at an itchy scab. "Redacted said in one of her earlier messages to me that the Dungeon had been locked out of using more Cleaners. Apparently, the Dungeon got in a lot of trouble after sending that big spider after me."

"But that diamond thing was a Cleaner though, no? How did it send another one then?" Susan asks with a raised eyebrow.

"My best guess? The Dungeon didn't send it, and not for us. This one was probably sent by the S%$#3& itself, or maybe even those above the Dungeon, to get rid of all those rats. Hmmm… Knowing how petty the Dungeon is, I wouldn't be surprised if it knew that something like this would happen and then set everything up to try and kill us in the process…"

"So, it was hoping we would get killed by collateral damage?"

Bug just shrugs and then bends over to pick up a rock and throw it outside, watching it bounce and tumble all the way down the side of the pyramid. "I mean, it almost did, no?"

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"I'm not sure if that is brilliant, or utterly stupid… I mean, look at all this damage. All of this just to kill us?"

Bug just giggles, "I know right? I'm not sure if I should feel flattered or if I should feel pity, haha."

Leaning out through the opening and looking straight up, Bug says, "Hey, I can see the second layer from here."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's all on fire now. Cleaner must have ignited all the mushrooms and caused a forest fire up there… I wonder how far up the damage goes. You think it reached the surface?"

"I hope not… Goddess, I can only imagine how the city must be faring up there." Susan says with a concerned look up at the distant ceiling, her thoughts and prayers going to everyone living in Silest.

"Who knows." Bug shrugs. "Maybe this will be enough to get people to finally evacuate before I finish killing the Dungeon?"

Susan gives Bug a weird look.

"What?" Bug asks when she notices.

"No, I just thought you didn't care if the people died or not."

"I don't. We've been over this, Susan." Bug throws another rock and shrugs.

Susan gives the little mutated Gremlin a nasty look but stops herself from saying anything. They've had this argument enough times already, and Susan already knows that Bug isn't about to change her mind any time soon. Standing in awkward silence for a bit too long, the quiet eventually is broke by Elaine poking Susan in the cheek.

"What are we doing?" The cute little girl asks with a tilt of her little blond head.

"Good question, what are we doing, Bug? Or are we just going to stand around and talk all day?"

"Mmm, mostly I just wanted to see how bad the damage was, but… How many floors do you think we could skip if we climbed down?"

"No idea…" Susan says as she looks over the side again, trying to tell where each floor begins and ends. "What floor are we on right now anyways? We fell pretty far when I jumped."

Bug looks at her notifications and scrolls through until she finds it, "Floor 24, I think it cut all the way down to the 26th, maybe 27th floor, maybe further? … Want to climb down and skip some more floors?"

"What happened to wanting to beat the Dungeon fair and square?" Susan asks as she adjusts Elaine in her arms.

Bug just shrugs, already working on climbing over the side. "Dungeon cheated, so I'll cheat back for a bit. Fair is fair, no? Besides, look at how much of this floor alone is missing now. I wouldn't be surprised if the stairs got destroyed and we have to climb down regardless. Here, pass me Mimmie."

"True. Here you go. Careful."

Susan hands over Elaine and Bug picks her up with her outstretched wings, bringing the little girl to her back and holding her treasure chest safely in place. The little Mimic is more than happy to wrap her arms around Bug's neck and give her back a nice and tight hug as soon as she is in place.

Elaine lets out a little cheer and giggles into Bug's ear, "Yay, Mommy giving me a piggyback ride!"

"Mhm, yup. So, hold on tight, ok sweetheart?"

"Ok!"

With the special cargo secured and ready to go, Bug and Susan start to carefully climb down the side of the pyramid. Climbing down and over severed lengths of piping, most still dripping with water, navigating past clusters of sparking wires arcing with electricity and audibly sparking. Bug can't help but to want to examine all the things that had been hidden away behind the Dungeon's impenetrable walls, now left open and exposed like a massive flesh wound showing muscle and bone.

"What is that stuff?" Bug asks as she points to an exposed length of wiring and the bright flashes of light that happen every time it sparks, or an arc of electricity strikes an exposed pole of rebar or a puddle of water.

"No idea." Susan answers. "But it looks like lightning sort of."

"Huh, I know what that is because of my magic knowledge, but I've never seen lightning before. Is it dangerous?"

"Yeah, keep far away from it. The stuff is deadly and can act weird with how it moves."

"Yeah?"

Susan continues as she keeps climbing down. "Knew a mage who could use lightning once. Was always complaining about how it would sometimes not hit what he actually aiming at. Sometimes it would just randomly veer off and strike something else for no apparent reason. Once, he even almost killed an ally because his lightning went backwards and hit the guy standing behind him. Guy was out for like a week and covered in these weird burns that looked like a tree."

Susan shakes her head, "Stuff is scary, I kept my distance."

"Wow." Bug says as she takes some extra distance from any wires she sees.

"Yeah… He killed himself sometime later, I heard. The mage, not the guy that got burned. Apparently, while trying to train and make some kind of new spell, he screwed up and shocked himself! Dropped dead right there on the spot. Just bang," Susan snaps her fingers, "dead."

Still carefully climbing down, Bug narrows her eyes suspiciously, "Wait, how would he kill himself with his own spell? Mages are immune to their own magic while casting, plus have an innate resistance to their own element. Even if a Fire Mage were to get caught in the blast of their own fire ball, there is still a good chance that they could survive. How did he screw up so badly as to end up killing himself?"

Susan just shrugs, "No idea. I wasn't there."

"Hm, well, I'm glad I'm not a Lightning Mage then…"

"Yeah, instead you're just a Necromancer that desecrates the dead, spreads deadly poisons and plagues around, mutates her own body into looking like a little monster, and is trying to get revenge against a literal hole in the ground while not giving a single care for the consequences of her own actions. So much better…" Susan respond, laying the sarcasm on thick and hard.

Bug just smiles, "Yup, much better! Now hurry up, we're getting close to the bottom."