You must be this old to enter the Dungeon

58) Have we been here before?

Sitting back against the edge of the desk I could hear a stack of files slip off of it and spill out on the ground from where my hip had bumped them, but I didn’t really pay any attention to that.

I had something else to think about.

A rank two Stone.

This wasn’t something that was supposed to exist until the Dungeons became stronger at the end of twenty five days. Getting access to one of these early meant I could get ahead of everyone else.

I would be more powerful… more, special.

“Damn it.”

That wasn’t something I wanted or needed. I had stepped up to do this Dungeon killing thing for the sake of me and mine, not be some sort of attention getting hero that would be sure to be in demand.

Some idiots out there were keeping old people out of some Dungeons for what I had guessed was an arms race so they would have some geezers that kept risking their lives to keep up with every other country’s overachieving old farts.

To keep up with the rest of the world, they needed Rank Two Dungeons to have people at sixth level or above, and having this stone meant the people who had gotten stuck at fifth, had all the points they needed for sixth but couldn't go any further until they could get one of these.

I looked at the huge Stone in my hand and then glanced up at Hiram for a moment as he asked me “Harry? Are you Okay?”

“I’m thinking, just… just stop talking at me for a minute. I need to figure something out, alright?”

He nodded, then his eyes went wide as he turned to point his flashlight and shotgun up at the ceiling, remembering that there were evil bat creatures out to kill us.

Reaching out, I patted what had to be Wylina by the height of the furry head. “Good girl, I’m just thinking.”

The coyotes, they understand me now, right? Is it appropriate to say things like ‘Good girl’ anymore? I mean, I wouldn’t say that to a human person. Well, maybe a little kid.

Should I change that, and talk to them more like people so others don’t treat them like pets?

...not the time or place to think about that. What was I… Right, Rank Two Stones.

If I get to Level Five and use one of these suckers to get to Sixth before anyone else, I could get called up to deal with a Rank Two Dungeon the idiots let them get that powerful and turn into problems.

But only if they know… I glanced at Hiram, yeah they would find out.

But I didn’t have to use it, did I? I could sell it, and let someone else be put on the spot to deal with the problems the idiots in charge were creating.

Maybe not legally thought. The government was still demanding we turn over all the stones to them, which I was pretty sure no one was doing.

How's that go? Don’t make a law no one will obey. But it’s still on the books as far as I know.

Even with that in mind, I think that I want to make it known to everyone that I got a Rank Two Stone and that I’m selling it so no one gets tempted to get rid of some old nobody in order to keep the existence of these Stone this early a secret.

The legal stuff can get sorted out later, after all, I got two lawyers now.

I nodded to myself. Right, I got a plan now. “Okay Hiram, let me get some more food in my belly then we can get a move on.”

Hiram turned and grinned. “Make sure you drink something too Harry, hydrating is important.”

I stared at him, then nodded. I mean, he’s right. I guess I’m just not used to him having anything all that helpful to say.

A few stale discounted brand energy bars and a few swings of tap water from an old pop bottle later the five of us began creeping out of the door to the fake doctor’s office.

I noticed that both of the pups were now standing at the shoulders well above my knees. Nearly as big as their mother had been before I had healed her, and Wylina’s head was now above my elbow.

My best guess is that she’s now the size of a wolf, at least in height and length, but with a slimmer build.

Now she’s got me wondering how much bigger she can get, and if her pups will get even bigger since they are growing up as spirit beasts from near birth rather than starting off full grown.

And I should be paying attention to the whole ‘wandering around a death trap thing’ right now instead of thinking about stuff I don’t need to figure out right now.

I gave Hiram a nod as he opened up another door in the hall. This one without another plaque on the wall next to it.

Peering through the narrow gap between the partially opened door and the frame, the Grinning man turned to whisper at me, “It’s another hallway…”

Then something thumped up on top of the partially open door and claws began to dig at it as an evil bat monster landed and tried to claw the door open.

Hiram fought back by pulling on the doorknob with both hands in order to keep the door mostly closed, and even seemed to be having some trouble fighting off the thing. Which was weird since I knew from dragging one of them off of a pile of bats that they only weighed in at thirty some pounds, but then the old guy was probably a buck twenty himself.

In any case, pushing the tip of my shotgun between the top of the door and the frame and sending a load of birdshot into the thing’s belly took care of the problem.

And made Hiram wince before rubbing at his ear as the shotgun went off a few inches to the side of his head.

So, goggles, and earplugs next time. Lessons learned.

The place proved to become pretty predictable from then on. We had plenty of hallways with doors seemingly placed at random along the walls.

Some of the doors just opened up to other hallways, while other ones, the ones with plates, led to other office rooms.

All of them copies of very the very first office room each time.

Each weirdly long room had the same desk covered in varying stacks of files and another fake typewriter.

And the same lab coat hanging on a coat hook.

The first one Hiram blew apart, and I did the next one when he hesitated.

We looked at the second shoddy thin cotton coat riddled with holes from the birdshot where it lay, entirely evil bat free, below the pock marked holes in the wall below the coat hook as Hiram shook his head sadly. “I think the place might be messing with us Harry.”

I could only nod in agreement.

Other rooms did have more of the white bat monsters, but we eventually figured out the coyotes could tell which ones were coats, and which ones were Rank Two monsters after sniffing at the room.

And a load of birdshot wasn’t cutting it on the larger fake coat ones.

Shooting them with the lighter pellets hurt them, and even shredded their wings. But that just made them jump off of the coathooks and start scampering across the floor on all four. Moving in a creepy way on their long wings and little hind legs.

I had to pull up Hiram’s shotgun before he fired another shot into the one that came across the room at us. “Hold up!”

The ones on the floor were the coyote’s job, and the Grinning man had almost put a blast of shot into Wylina’s back.

A fact which she realized afterwards, and by her glares at the Sabatour, she wasn’t going to forgive him anytime soon. Or at least never forget about it.

He did apologize to her. Repeatedly. “I’m sorry girl. I wasn’t thinking, and it was all my fault.” He gave me a wink after saying that like he knew he just had to say it, not mean it.

“Her name’s Wylina. Use it. I don’t want people talking them like they’re… less than us.”

That got me an odd look from Hiram, but he shrugged and then apologized to the mother coyote as “Wylina” rather than Good Girl, but with a look on his face that made it clear he was just humoring me.

I’d take it.

Make them fake it until it becomes a habit, and the rest will follow.