This is a story of the Becoming Monsters Universe by AiLoves, setting used with permission.
The idea for this story and these characters comes from Moonwing.
---
Chapter 2: Dealer's Choice
The Catgirl and the Glass Slime stopped at a corner and listened carefully. No threat made itself obvious, and so they came around. Another empty hall. Sienna sighed. "I guess you didn't get a map, huh? How are we going to get out of here if we can't find the way? Just gonna be stuck wandering around until we either starve or meet one monster too many."
Heath wobbled a bit of a nod. "We just have to find a stairway up, right? Once we get back to the top floor, the monsters should be less nasty and we'll be easier to find. They're all past one of these doors?"
"I mean, that's what I've heard! Delvers who came through the Cafe used to complain about it all the time, unless you already know which door's which there's no way to tell which have stairways, which have hallways, which have rooms, and which have more monsters. Half the time it's stairs, they go the wrong way. No way we're gonna make it if we go down to the third floor." Sienna was called Hush by her friends for a reason.
"You said the only alternative is to starve or get eaten by a monster."
"Doorways it is, then." The problem, of course, was that they were five doorways in to this particular search already. The first had fortunately been an empty side room. Same with the third and fourth (though the fourth contained a small pile of debris that contained a few Silver coins and a swatch of chainmail). The fifth had led to the hallway they were now in. That second one? If Hush hadn't reacted as quickly as she had, the spider swarm within it might have gotten them. At least it wasn't snakes.
The stuff down here thankfully didn't travel in large packs all the time. The next corner had some kind of club-wielding skeleton, but it didn't last long under a focused assault of wand blasts, claws, and binding. Neither of them was really able to pick up the club, unfortunately, but the Coinage was nice. One other issue presented itself, though.
"Sienna? Every time we come across one of these things, I have to use mana to help kill it, which means health for me." Gooey was tired and obviously so, but was carrying on. "One too many of those and it won't matter how well we're doing. I'll drop unconscious and you'll be stuck alone. Pretty sure you don't have more reserves for me to siphon."
He's right, but I wish I did. And not just for his wand. Or... not THAT wand.
"You're not wrong. Maybe we can find a potion or something down here? A chest in a side room, or on one of these critters? Chug one of those and you should be good to go, even if you gotta use that big blast again!"
Gooey shook his head again. "Might work once if we get lucky, but unless the darned thing is labeled we've got no way to know if it's even mana inside."
Sienna leaned against the next door, resting her ear against it. "No noise in this one, Gooey. Might be a stairway? Can't hurt to check, I guess..." Gooey winced at her words as she opened the door, but was rather relieved when nothing immediately tried to murder them. "Alright, it's a side room. Come in, I guess? We can at least take a breather. No monsters that I can see, and nowhere for them to hide."
They ducked inside. True to Sienna's word, the room was small and sparse. A chair to one side, a mostly-empty bookshelf on the back wall. Nothing else but stone floor and the wood door. Heath looked this way and that, but closed the door behind them. "Looks like a safe room. They're sprinkled here and there, according to the pamphlets, the tourists just usually don't get a chance to use them unless they're a powerful strike team going to Floor Four. Monsters don't come in unless you open the door for them."
"So we, what, sit and chill until someone comes to find us? How would they even know we're here? Nah, we gotta rest up a bit, but then we have to keep going. Dunno about you, but I didn't bring snacks. Other than you, anyway."
Glass Slimes can't blush. Gooey tried anyway. "Uh. I'm good for a while on that. You're right, though, once we're ready we have to move." He instinctively turned away from her, despite both the fact that he couldn't actually turn pink and the fact that she could still see right through him. Without much in the room to look at, this led him to the bookshelf. It was, as first impression indicated, mostly empty. Thing is? Only mostly.
He started poking around a bit at the loose scrolls and books scattered sparsely across the space as Hush flopped into the chair to rest. Granted, it was kind of hard to pay attention to dusty scrolls when Hush's version of "flop" was so... enticing. She was posed like she expected to pull a cord and be doused with water for viewers' eyes. Every curve was on display despite being technically covered. Despite having just rocked her world less than an hour ago, Gooey could feel the boner creeping in.
Well, metaphorically speaking. No bones.
He got his attention back where it needed to be after a couple of moments of he-hoped-surreptitious ogling. The book turned out to be full of nothing but gibberish, page after page of random letters from a dozen alphabets in random order occasionally interspersed with geometric diagrams that could have been either elaborate schematics or complicated games of tic-tac-toe for all he could distinguish. He tossed it into his bag for the moment, it didn't seem useful for now but it wasn't heavy, and turned towards the scrolls.
These were somewhat more coherent. All of them had the exact same sequence of shapes on them. Circle, circle, triangle, square, circle, square, triangle. Easy enough to remember, like tossing a yoyo. What that sequence might MEAN was anyone's guess, but at least it was there. Gooey tossed two into his pack next to the book, one for each of them, then did some constructive laying down himself.
One could say he flopped bonelessly onto the ground. One would be significantly more literal than usual. He basically puddled up there to recover from the recent exertions. This changed fairly quickly when his Nekomata companion gestured at him to come join her on the chair, cuddled together in that space in a way that pretty much required them both to be as malleable as they were.
Both rested a few minutes in comfortable silence, which was interrupted by something neither expected. A knock on the door. Specifically, a
polite
knock on the door.
Both of them were on their feet and ready to rock. Hush was the one to call out "who is it?"
A rough man's voice answered back. "Oh good! I found you! Can I come in?"
The Slime and the Catgirl looked at each other. Gooey nodded. Hush looked back at the door. "Yeah, but slowly! Can't be too careful underground."
"Of course! Just... don't react too quick, okay? The Change wasn't all that nice to me."
With those ominous words, the doorknob turned and the door opened slowly. It revealed a... something. Gooey spoke up. "Glad you warned us, but good to have you."
The man... ish?... stepped inside. He wasn't wearing any easily-discernible clothing, but Gooey couldn't fault him for that all things considered. He was the size of a tall Human, about six and a half feet, and shaped like he was quite athletic. Thing is, his form was covered in midnight scales from head to toe. No hair was visible, and really no face besides a single white icon that seemed to represent an eye, scrawled across the surface of the front of his head. Completing the picture was a slow drip of inky blackness from several scales, as though he were sweating smoke. "My name is Erik Onasis. The monsters around here are acting like there are people around, so I needed to make sure of it."
"Ah, hi. Yeah, you found us. I'm Hush, this is Gooey. We're locals, but took a paid delve and it didn't go so hot. Do you know how to get out of here? I'd rather not starve, nor help feed one of these critters."
Erik laughed. "Can't blame you, there. I'm a fan of keeping my scales where they belong. Well, the answer is definitely 'kinda' on that. When I'm Below, I usually just meander around. Got a general direction we can head in, but no idea on the specific routes from here."
Hush shrugged. "I'll take what I can get, I guess. Just gotta get up to the First Floor and we can probably make it out from there unless we get jumped by one of the big packs. Gooey and I are ready to go if you are, we were just taking a breather for a bit to make sure we were good to go."
With a nod, the man turned to leave the room. Hush followed closely, but Gooey was slower.
Something doesn't add up. Who the heck is that guy to be casually 'meandering around' LEVEL TWO of a dungeon? I'd better keep an eye on him.
He did follow, though. Better to be together and nervous than alone and dead. As he left and closed the door behind him, though, he did notice one more thing. The doorknob was carved with a triangle. It felt important, but he couldn't quite put a pseudopod on how. Gooey turned and actually kept up.
Turned out the guy wasn't exactly kidding about meandering around, either. Their new route very strongly resembled their old one. This to say, not particularly directed. They wandered through halls and doors, and though their route may not have been particularly carefully chosen the were all quiet and observant. Taking only fights that looked to be over in a quick ambush, avoiding areas they might be spotted, conserving mana and stamina wherever possible. And health, in Gooey's case. All told, though? The three of them could do that a lot more often than the two of them could. It opened a lot more routes, and when he checked his Status screen Gooey could see something that he hadn't expected out of this ordeal.
Specifically, the fact that his Progress was at 95%. At the rate they were going, he'd be at Level 4 by the time they got out of here.
