The Dungeon's Worst Little Mistake

Trudging along through more of the steel and concrete halls that run through the internals of Dungeon's walls, what should have originally been deeply hidden and secreted away only to be accessed by hidden passages and false walls turned entrances, the party continues exploring. The occasional room shows more signs that people had once lived in these halls, and facilities like bathrooms, a cafeteria, a gym, and even a swimming pool of all things starts to reveal just how much was going on down here. Though most of the water had been boiled out of the pool, and now all that is left is a knees deep puddle of soot and debris filled water.

It wasn't just that people lived here. No, people had lives down here.

From the cafeteria with its tables that still had words and marks scratched into the wood, or the gym with its dented and worn equipment, to every apartment that is decorated differently, with each inhabitant having clearly different tastes and interest. Going though peoples drawers revealed private things like journals and little notes or reminders, love letters sent to coworkers and even a little pink diary with a heart shaped lock on it among over things. Searching though desks revealed pieces of candy that had been squirreled away and even little toys that were probably played with while bored from work. Regrettably, on the subject of found toys, this also include very, very, private things that were obviously never meant to be seen by anyone other than their owner, much to Bug's apparent horror when she found one.

Searching under someone's bed in the dozenth of so room along the way, Bug found a particularly wiggly, and concerningly long, pink rubber object. When Bug had crawled back out from under the bed with it in her hands and asked Susan what it was and what is was for, Bug had nearly screamed in fear and disgust at the thing she learned she was holding. Bug ended up smacking Susan with it before throwing it across the room and taking a canteen of water out of her Inventory to desperately wash her hands.

Mimmie just points at the wiggling pink thing as it gyrates on the floor like a dying snake, "Can I have that? It looks funny."

Susan immediately stops laughing her ass off and both her and Bug quickly shout, ""NO!""

Leaving that behind to hopefully be forgotten about, they continue heading in the general direction of the Safe Room and the stairs to the next floor. Along the walls, terminals can sometimes still be found flickering with the last dredges of life as their lights reflects off the charred and blackened floor. Even when interacted with, most of the terminals fail to do anything, their screens forever glitched and locked where they are as they flicker. Some of them do work however, and when Bug curiously presses her hand against them, it will cause a nearby door to try and open. Usually this fails, what with all the doors more often than not being half melted into what is left of the walls. Other terminals that seemingly do work will instead flash red and return errors stating that Bug doesn't have permission to enter the door she is trying to open. This is usually for people's rooms and leaves Bug sort of happy to know that they were apparently afforded some level of privacy.

If I had one of these rooms, I would have hated it if someone could just walk in whenever they wanted without my permission. I wonder which room would have been mine anyways? The System didn't want me to leave the first floor originally, so would I have had a room up there? I wonder if every floor has these backroom areas running through them? Are they all exactly the same, or do different floors have different stuff? Wish I could explore through the more intact ones.

While searching through people's stuff and stealing anything useful and/or valuable is fun, Bug does still want to hurry up and progress already. So, when it starts to look like they aren't going to find anything truly useful beyond random junk, toys, and whatever clothing hasn't been reduced to ash, Bug hurries them along. Although, the kitchen in the cafeteria did end up being a gold mine of cooking supplies and food. While most of everything was destroyed, like everything else on this floor, many of the stuff that was stored low and inside of containers managed to survive mostly unscathed. Pots and pans, knives and spatulas, plates and silverware, etc. Everything Bug could get her hands on and that still looked usable got thrown in a bag and then stored away along with any decent looking food.

But it is when they are nearing the stairs down that the group comes across an interesting sight. Propped up against the wall and what appears to be a door is a small group of charred corpses, much like the Harpy that had been found earlier.

Getting closer, and also because they have to move past them to get to where they are going, Bug and Susan look over the bodies and quickly come to an idea of what had happened.

"Looks like they were trying to get through that door when they died." Susan points to the one still laying against the door, their hands still held in a fist like they were banging on the steel.

Bug, consciously trying to keep from scratching at her burned face, just nods and says, "Looks like it…"

"What's on the other side?" Susan asks. "They must have thought it would save them, right?"

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Bug just shrugs and, wanting to get away from the crispy corpses, says, "Let's find out."

Pulling her eyes away from the bodies, Bug hops up onto the slowly healing walls of the Dungeon and then looks down into the small room these people had been trying to get into. Susan quickly hops up as well and joins her, the two of them looking down with confusion. Mimmie was left on the floor because she was hungry and wanted a snack.

"Why were they trying to get in here, it just a square room?"

"I don't know. It clearly didn't survive the attack, so it's not a bunker or anything like that." Bug points out.

They both hop inside and look around but nothing immediately points to the room being important or special in any way. When Bug is about to give up and leave, she turns and stops, the claw on one of her toes getting caught in the floor. When she looks down and past the black soot, she finds a line running from one end of the little room to the other.

"What's this?"

"Hmm?" Susan asks as she joins Bug on the floor.

"It looks like the floor opens up… I think this was a hatch." Bug explains as she tries to work her claws into the seam and pull it open.

"It must lead down. You think it goes down to the lower floors?"

"Probably." Bug grunts as she pulls with all her strength. "Ah, won't even budge… I don't see a terminal anywhere to open it, and if it does lead down, I doubt the Dungeon would let me open it anyways…"

"That sucks. Considering they lived here, they definitely need a way to quickly move from floor to floor, so this is probably how they did it." Susan says as she looks down at the hatch and then straight up to where it probably used to extend before it was all destroyed by the Cleaner. "Not like they could take the stairs like us adventurers. Would have risked running into us and would've had to go through the Boss Rooms as well."

"Yeah, can't open this. Dang, I would have liked to see if I could capture one of the people living here. I have plenty of questions I would like to ask before I kill them… Meh, let's get going, Susan. I want to get back to grinding out some levels already. I haven't leveled up in a while, and it's starting to annoy me." Bug sighs as she wipes the soot off her hands onto her shorts.

The two hopping back over the wall, they find Mimmie working on her second body, slowly pulling it into her treasure chest body and consuming it bite by bite. Leaving her to finish eating, Susan turns to Bug and keeps the conversation going.

"I still find it unfair that you get stronger from killing things. No training, no practice, just kill and get stronger. Some serious bull…"

Bug just shrugs, "Give it a few years and everyone will be able to. You already got invited into the Beta; whenever that is starting. Before long, everyone will have the S%$#3&."

Susan grimaces, "I don't think that would be a good thing."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Just look at what you've been able to do. And you've been alive for what, less than two months? Now just imagine everyone in the world being able to do the same."

"…hmm."

"Yeah, hmm… I really hope that these dev people that you keep talking about know what they are doing." Susan says with a concerned look as she watches Mimmie finish swallowing her second body.

When Elaine pulls herself back out of the depths of the small chest, which really shouldn't be able to contain her entire body plus the two entire adult sized corpses she just ate, she tries to reach for the third and final one but Bug stops her.

"You ate enough for now, sweetheart. Just put that one in your Inventory for now, and you can eat it later."

"Mmm~ But their tasty!" Mimmie whines.

Bug just looks at the last burnt corpse and its face that is locked in final death screams and cringes. Her face itches just from looking at it and it takes all her willpower to not itch it.

"I'm sure… it does. But you don't want to eat too much and get fat, do you? Do you remember when you were still a brick, and you got to the point where you couldn't even close up your shell anymore? Do you want to end up like that again? Do you want to be a fat treasure chest?"

Mimmie looks down and pouts. "No… Fine, I'll eat it later…"

Reaching over, the little girls taps the corpse's foot and it disappears in a small flash of light as space is distorted.

"Good girl. Besides, it's good to save tasty food for later than to eat it all at once. What if you want something tasty later, but you had already eaten it? By saving it, you can have it basically whenever you want."

"Like your box of cookies?"

Bug gives her a big smile.

"Yup, just like my box of cookies. I could definitely eat them all in one sitting, and I would definitely enjoy it. But then what about if I want a cookie tomorrow, or the following day? I would be all out! Wouldn't that be horrible?"

Elaine's eyes go wide, "Oh, that would be bad! But couldn't you get more cookies?"

Bug shrugs, "Maybe. But I can't guarantee it, and that's why it is better to be safe than sorry."

Elaine nods her head, her golden hair shaking back and forth until Bug gives her a pat on the head.

"Good girl."

Susan is just watching the two with an exasperated look on her face.

"You know, that could have been a cute and heartwarming lesson… if it literally wasn't about treating people's charred corpses like they're snacks."

Bug points at Susan without stopping giving Mimmie head pats.

"I don't want to hear that from the corpse eating Ghoul.

Susan counters with a deadpan expression, "And I don't want to hear that from the Necromancer that turned me into one."

"Eh, potatoes tomatoes…"

"Wha-what does that mean?"

"I… I have no idea? Just one of the many weird phrases the S%$#3& put in my head for some reason."

"Weird."

"Yeah, regardless, let's get going. If we spend any longer here, I'm going to get the smell of smoke and ash stuck in my sinuses for like a week. Let's just get to the next floor already." Bug says as picks up Mimmie and helps her get on for another piggyback ride.

"Plus, I need to get some fresh bones so I can remake Mimmie's spider mount again. You want to be able to zoom around again, right?" Bug asks Mimmie over her shoulder with a big smile.

The little girl starts making excited noises as she bounces around on Bug's back.

"Yes yes yes! I want to go fast again! Thank you, Mommy!"

"Hahaha, ok then. Let's go and find a good monster to turn into your ride then."

"Yes! Oh, can I eats the meat?"

"Sure, I don't see why not. I'll cook it up and we can have it for dinner."

"Yay!"