While yes, he had been expecting them to happen, he was still surprised when the cold stagnant water started raining down around them, the smoldering remnants of what Davin could only call some monster of the week movie gone wrong. It was several minutes before the smoke finally stopped, and he was glad when it did, it stank, a mixture of burning plastic, burnt hair, and something he dreaded thinking about, the roasting flesh of a creature, his stomach turned as he waited stuck in the auditorium while the hall that the creature fell in, the splashing oil and shortly following flame ball locked him in. Having tried the emergency doors after his first few minutes backed up the idea of this being some kind of pocket dimension, having pulled them open only finding a wall of solid harmless light preventing him from leaving. He didn’t even know if Hugh had made it out okay… the roar of the flames and then the immediate torrent of water destroyed any chances for a conversation.

The short set of buzzes that came from his pocket pulled him from his thoughts. Pulling out the whisper stone from his wet pockets, a noticeable glow peaking with each buzz. A smile spread over his face as he said.

"Hello?"

"Oh good, you're still alive, with all of this rain I was concerned you might have drowned." His tone sarcastic.

"Nah, there is a floor drain anyway, so it would have taken far more than this to drown me, hell I walked to school in worse rain than this." Quipping back at his friend.

"I think the fires are all out, but I do not suggest trying to come through that hallway." Hugh let out a retching sound. "Did the projections give you any trouble?"

"Yeah, was thinking of climbing into the projection booth, want to come give me a hand up? I have no intention of trudging through that pile of gross." Davin's face twisted into an expression of disgust. "As for the projections, they popped as soon as the troll went up in flames."

"Sounds like a plan I'll head up now, luckily I think that the rain is contained into that space there and not anywhere else."

Davin made his way up to that back wall, the leftover trash was starting to flow down to the lowered floor near the screen.

"Oh, did you loot the thing?" Davin asked as he leaned against the back wall to wait for Hugh.

"Yes! And you were right, a small key and a few other odds and ends that you should look at." His excitement was clear in his tone.

"Nice, yeah, as soon as I get into some dry clothes, then we can get out of here." Davin heard the faint echo of his words and then the thump of someone hitting the wall above him.

Hugh's face retched as soon as he put his head in the window. "Th..at…is…the…worst…smell….ever." His head quickly ducked back into the booth.

"Yup and I've been marinating in it, so let's get me out of here."

The rope dropped down and Davin hadn't been as happy to see anything else before. He climbed it quickly, only slipping a little as he scurried through the windows opening. Touching down on the dry floor, his clothes dripping, puddles forming under his feet, he took a breath, the air far more tolerable.

"Okay, the stairs aren't far, let's get going." Davin started to move as Hugh pulled up the rope.

"And none of that is normal for your world?" Hugh blurted out.

Davin burst into laughter. "HAHA, Oh gods no, you'd only see stuff like that in movies or video games, but none of it was actually real."

"Good, because I was really concerned after the fight with that thing, especially with no magic, if we hadn't had those bottles of oil, that fight could have been a whole lot rougher."

"I'm glad that the fire didn't have a chance to spread, that could have gotten nasty." Davin looked for any signs of it coming up to the booth.

"How did it rain? Especially without any magic." Hugh asked as they started down the stairs behind Davin.

"Similar to the plumbing that I've seen in The Rainbow Bastion, but all kept under high pressure to spray rather than dribble."

"Ah, how did it know to go off?" Hugh now looking for the sprinkler system that Davin had pointed out earlier.

"These ones have a small thing that melts when they are introduced to enough heat, and they tend to be localized so only a single area will usually go at a time."

"Hmmm, interesting, I can see its usefulness."

The bright lights of the lobby were a comforting sight, glad to be out of the dark and stink. Davin started to strip off his armor and clothes, taking his clothes over to the small sink in the concessions stand to give them a basic wash, his armor would just have to air out naturally, giving himself a sink bath after his clothes were clean, he was just glad that they had hot running water.

Pulling up his status and checking his xp still felt weird to him, but he'd be sure that he'd get used to it eventually.

"Oh, lame, the extras that it summoned during combat didn’t give us anything." Pulling on his fresh clothes.

"Doesn't seem so, likely since we were facing the 'boss' and his minions didn’t count as a result." Hugh also seemed to check his as a result.

"Plus I don’t think I landed a blow on any of them."

"It did seem to go up fast… is that 'film' stuff flammable?" Hugh asked as he finished packing the last few things into the trunk and starting his ritual to bring out his floating disk.

"Is it ever, and when it melts it becomes sticky and keeps burning, it's pretty awful."

The deadpan stare that Hugh made at Davin. "What is wrong with your world? Is everything out to kill you?"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Pretty much?" Davin shrugged deeply.

Hugh started his ritual, having placed the few odds and ends that he had found on the counter for Davin to examine while he worked. Looking at the assortments of odds and ends that were left over, mentally comparing it all to trash, since it was more bits of film, a slightly dented plastic theater cup, a few dollars, and a heavy piece of glass that Davin could only guess was some kind of paperweight. Holding up the paperweight up to his eye and looking through it proved that it was just that, but since it had been dropped by a monster he didn't think it was what it seemed. Looking at the pieces of film he saw single monsters, many from the heyday of what he thought of as monster movies. The dented cup was the weird one out, especially since from what he'd seen this theater used all paper cups, the lid was strangely undamaged, none of the little buttons had been pressed to denote what was in it, and there were a lot more than what would normally be in them as well, the overwhelming urge to press the button in was very childish in his mind, but it was still the classic thing to do.

COLA, DIET, RB, OTHER, the classics were all there, then there were a few new buttons, W, SODA, SPORT, pushing his classic go-to of RB for root beer. The pop of the cup reforming and the bent straw unfolding itself the slight buzz of a carbonated drink pouring into a cup as the weight of the cup increased coming to a sudden stop, the small button popping up. Davin tentatively opened the cup, the smell of root beer quickly hitting his nose, shrugging, he took a small sip, and the cold refreshing drink splashed into his mouth, at once tasting like every root beer he'd ever had and like none at the same time, as if it was trying to be the perfect idea of a root beer. Looking at the cup, blinking his eyes, he was amazed, then he dumped it down the drain, replacing the lid, he pushed the one marked with a W, the same feeling happened, the cup filling once again, when the button popped he opened the lid to see good old fashioned water, taking a sip, noticing that it was cold, and now that he was thinking about it, the root beer had also been soda fountain cold. It was weird, he'd drank from glasses in the afterlife, but here in this small space, drinking from a plastic cup, made him think of what he'd been drinking, most of it had been chilled, but nothing had been what he'd ever consider cold. He finished the cold drink, feeling weirdly more refreshed by it than he had since before. He tested the other buttons each of them being the most iconic version of their description, the weird ones were the Soda, sport, and other buttons. Soda was just that, simple soda water, similar to that of a club soda, where it would likely make for a good base for anything or removing blood stains if he remembered correctly. Sport was an iconic blue color, the tangy flavor reminding him of every time he did any day-long trips where he knew he would do a lot of walking, he laughed a bit as he poured it down the drain as well. Other seemed to want to do something, but upon touching it he felt a force stopping him, not like it was more solid, just that it wasn’t time for that button.

"Hey, you ready?" Hugh called out as he stood in front of the locked door, swinging the key back and forth on its lanyard.

"Yup! Let me just toss this stuff in my bag." Davin pushed the button marked W again as he put the other small pieces into his pockets, holding the lens he walked out from behind the concessions counter and headed to the door, stepping passed the floating trunk. "Water?" Davin asked as he held the cup up to Hugh.

"Oh! Yes please, that 'soda' stuff was pretty good, but my mouth could use a rinse." Sipping off the straw as he passed the key over to Davin.

Putting the key into the lock made energy buzz through his body like the door wanted to be opened as if it was ready. Turning the key slowly, not sure what to expect from the other side, the click that it had been unlocked, pushing the door in slowly, listening to the room just in case there was something horrible behind it, the crack in the door brought with it a flash, and the next thing that Davin knew, he was standing in the woods, back to the portal, key still in hand. Hugh followed shortly behind, almost bumping into Davin who was still a little awestruck at where he was.

"Oh? We're outside again?" Stepping aside the trunk followed behind him.

"Apparently. Now we should be able to close it somehow?" Davin backed away from the door.

"Let me set up my tools." Popping open the trunk and pulling out a few of the smaller devices. "It looks like this location is stable, so yes, you should just be able to will it closed."

Holding the key up, he thought of the tear in space like he would a door, picturing a door in his mind, the shape morphing in his mind to something more akin to a double push door like those that sat at the front of theaters, willing the key to the lock, he turned it. The tear in space let out a mixture of sounds, the ripping of fabric, the crashing of glass, and finally the slamming of a door, opening his eyes that he hadn't realized that he'd closed, he started at a door, clear glass showing the open space of the lobby on the other side.

"Huh, weird…. Should let Compass know…" Davin blinked repeatedly. "Shit, I haven't checked the logbook!"

Sixteenth entry:

Twenty minutes is accurate, will watch stability from this side, will add updates as I see them.

Be safe, I still suspect that the location might not be fully stable inside. Corruption may be rampant.

-C

Seventeenth entry:

What did you just do? there was just a huge spike in the mana in that area, the anomaly is growing quickly, I only know that you're still alive I don't know what will happen if you fall on that side of a tear.

-C

Eighteenth entry:

The area is stable, and I hope for a quick return.

Nineteenth entry:

Made it out, space has stabilized into a doorway, have a key, can you conceal? Gonna start making my way to the next town, should be half a day away, hoping it's protected, too much to go over to try and squeeze in here.

-D

Davin jotted the half-thought-out message as fast as he could, assuming that it would get to the patron faster.

Hugh looked over the instruments, having pulled out the book he'd been comparing all of their results to.

"Good news I hope?" Davin asked as Hugh was tapping on one of the strange devices.

"Well, from what I can tell, this area now has a higher base mana rating than it has had at any other time in its history." Writing notes into the book.

"Is that good or bad?" Davin asked far more concern in his voice this time.

"It's good, it means that we can claim the discovery of this dungeon, there isn't much to it, but a new dungeon hasn't happened in a long time."

"This is how dungeons are made?" Davin asked in disbelief.

"From what I have been told, yes, this one will grow in time, but when it's opened again, it will be like it was when we went in the first time."

"Damn, that’s amazing, and we could keep going in and getting more stuff?"

"Yup, but we are in no condition to do that," Hugh stated as he looked over Davin and then looked into the sky. "We only have a few hours to make it to the next town before nightfall, and I really don't want to camp outside again."

"Agreed, and we don’t know how bad this disease will be on either of us." Davin massaged his sore arms.

"That too, so let's get walking." Repacking his tools."

The forest was dark as they walked through it, the foliage above too thick to let too much light through, so when they stepped out of it into the open field was almost blinding, staring into the last dregs of the sun as it started to set on the hills in the distance. The walk to town was fairly peaceful seeing very few people out and about, assuming that anyone left out would be making their way home or to a pub.

"How much does it cost to stay?" Davin asked as he patted his pocket, thinking of his meager amount of coin.

"Most places are relatively not expensive from what I've been told, but at the same time I was expecting some better treasure than what we had gotten, we might be able to sell some of that 'soda' from the cup."

"It is weird that we got money from my world…" Holding the bills out in front of him.

"I think your world is just one of the only ones to have moved past coins?" Hugh shrugged.

"Coins? Do dungeons normally not give tokens?" Davin asked confusedly.

"That I don't know, most of the time they use the finds from the dungeons as trade goods."

"We didn’t get much besides the popcorn and candy?" Thinking about the boxes that were in the trunk.