Chapter 25: Double Trouble Copycat

This time I paid attention to my notifications. There was nothing about gaining experience for making an invader leave my Dungeon. What gives, flight attendant lady? What do you mean I can’t pay for my next membership milestone using this coupon I found on the ground? It’s not expired! You mean to tell me I can’t level up through the power of love and friendship? Baloney!

Jellybee waved goodbye in the direction that the girl left and then looked up at me. “I like her. Do you think she’ll actually come back? I didn’t finish my tour.”

I chuckled. “I think so, Jellybee. Beats me for how long she’ll be gone though. In the meantime, let’s make the best of it. Walk with me.”

Jellybee scooped up Tiptap and followed along.

I could have easily ended my Soul Stroll and basically teleported my avatar into the basement to check on Jimbo-no quickly, but I didn’t see the rush. That boy could wait a while longer.

I wanted to see what exactly needed to be done. Our priorities had shifted. Granted, I could have also Soul Strolled away and focused purely upon my arguably superior Dungeon sight to survey the cottage, but I simply did not want to. I wanted the perspective. With my own two eyes, on the ground, next to those that were personally affected by the changes I could make.

Being a borderline omniscient being could be overwhelming and surprisingly distracting. I could easily get lost in my thoughts and lose touch with reality. I had the power to place myself in the perspective of a tree. Or down inside an anthill. Or just lay about on the roof like a lazy feline. It made me feel a bit of sympathy for my creator. If my Dungeon sight covered the whole entire world and I was given godlike control over the universe, I certainly don’t think I’d be able to answer any prayers in a timely manner. I’d be too busy chasing after butterflies.

Besides, at the end of the day, I was still a Dungeon Core. No matter what form my consciousness took. In the background I was vaguely aware of everything. Soul Stroll was primarily for communicating with others and giving me the illusion that I was still human.

We stepped inside the house.

I glanced at the wreckage of the home. We had made a lot of progress. But there was still so much work to be done.

In hardly any time at all, Tiptap got fed up with being held and scrambled out of Jellybee’s grasp. Only to scramble up his shoulder and take a short hop to perch upon his mushroom hat. She looked quite proud of herself for becoming so tall. I had to admire skeleton boy's neck muscles.

Er, I mean, spinal strength?

Whatever voodoo it was, he was able to balance a lot upon that hard noggin.

Which further explained to me why the common folk here might get all twitterpated violent or anxious around the walking dead. These four boney numbskulls of mine defied my suspension of disbelief so strongly that they might as well have been juggling it.

I could only imagine what a competent bunch of bone soldiers could be capable of.

I glanced at my Core. This was who I was. Beneath it all I was truly quite pretty, wasn’t I? A magical mauve crystal that slowly drew in puffs Mana like a creature breathed oxygen. Crazy to think that these people here got all up in arms over some geode that would have fit in perfectly on a shelf at the local mall back home. Like in one of those asian stores that sold tacky weapons and barely clothed fairy figurines.

Beyond that, at first glance I was merely a big ol’ lumpy rock sitting in the fireplace. Surrounded by ghostly green fire and a ghostly cat.

I blinked.

Where did this ghost cat come from?

Woah. Déjà vu. (Pardon my French.)

I took a double take. The bony skeleton version of Tiptap was still on the mushroom hat.

I was seeing double.

As my avatar and Jellybee approached, the cat opened one ethereal eye to glance up at us. It got up with a big stretch, looked up at Tiptap, then cocked its head to the side. Tiptap and the ghost cat meowed at each other. They had an identical voice. Like an echo or recording.

There were two… Tiptaps?

“This day keeps getting better!” Jellybee exclaimed.

****

Bonny Kettleflar felt like twenty-one fools. In so many ways she had felt like she had made mistakes.

It was stupid to buy a home she'd never seen in a far off town she'd never been to. Stupid to try to enter it alone. Stupid to trust a Dungeon Core. Stupid to parley with the dead. And stupid to move into a dungeon when adventurers could be on the way to ransack the place.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Bonny had bought her first home. And it came with illegal immigrants and war refugees! From what she had heard, country folk considered those to be worse than Dungeons! How would the town react once news got out? Forget the adventurers: she’d have a mob on her hands. They would be up here by the end of the day with pitchforks and torches.

“Agh, stop being dramatic! Get a hold of your thoughts, Bonny!” She told herself. “Stop being judgemental. You don’t know these people at all.”

She sunk her butt on the road against a big oak tree, shut her eyes, and took five deep, slow breaths. In and out. It helped, but her thoughts still buzzed. She focused on the sensations around her. The feel of the soft sunlight, the slight breeze through her hair, and the dusty dirt beneath her palms. She could hear birdsong and the churn of windmills around her.

And that was it.

It was so quiet here. Peaceful. Serene.

No vendors hawking their wares, no sirens, no train squeals, no boat horns, no city ruckus, no being on the lookout for danger around each corner…

The peace almost made her uncomfortable. She reminded herself that she was the foreigner here. This was also out of her element.

She finally noticed she was still wearing the glasses over her eyes. She stored them away neatly. And just sat and watched. Scattered chimney smoke rose from bakeries and forges rose into the sky. The river glimmered like jewels in the distance, reflecting the rings above. She watched the town of Poppymill below finally wake up. Contrary to what she expected, not all small farm towns were active before the sun rose. The people had no need to rush about to get somewhere else. A quiet life could mean a quiet morning of sleeping in.

Brill would be up soon. Or he might already be up.

That thought shook her out of her momentary fugue state.

Somehow, some of her mistakes were starting to work out.

Not only could the Dungeon Core be reasoned with, but it was… a fairly normal person. Granted, a person that might have come from some country she had never heard of and had an odd way of talking, but still! And she wanted to work for her? It was all too complicated and borderline to be some sort of trick. This was the real deal.

Bonny stood up–finding her confidence again–and set off down the winding roads that led into town. If she was quick she could intercept Brill before he handed off any letters towards Waye. With a little more luck, she could convince her uncle to come visit for tea.

****

Content with how the exchange went, Tiptap’s copycat spirit laid back down in the flames to curl around my Core. She closed her eyes and resumed her rest.

Without a doubt, this was also one of my Minions. Regardless of how many Minions my stat screen said I had. I could feel it in my soul.

I adjusted my glasses and peered through the green fire.

This was Tiptap. No doubt about it. Another version though. One without any real bones. While the original Tiptap had a dark aura of shadow fur with white bones beneath, this one was the inverse. She had a white ghost aura of fur with a black skeleton composed of some sort of shadowy material. I realized that her skeleton was composed of tightly wound, black Leyline threads.

Did I do this? Was this from her killing a Dust Hare on her own? Did she pick up some sort of copy ability? Or was this a natural result of the undead curse?

Or did it really matter?

I supposed it didn’t at the moment. We had a lot to do and I didn’t want to waste further time trying to puzzle out this seemingly harmless enigma. She wasn’t bein’ any trouble. So what if Tiptap could make herself double?

Good for her!

Ah, that reminds me.

Initially we had stopped by here to ironically check on the Neverwatch Pot.

I had guessed that over an hour had passed since the fluff battle. Sure enough, the timer on the cauldron had been updated to read as “4.”

Good to know. This world had a similar hourly system to Earth. That, or the System was translating everything to me to ease my poor addled brain.

Moving on.

The next logical step would be to carve out a new Dungeon Core room and have one of the boys relocate me. Even though our first crisis was supposedly averted, I still felt awfully exposed sitting out in the living room on the hearth.

At least, that’s what my instincts told me. In reality, I didn’t really feel the need. Having an easily accessible Core was a sign of good faith to Bonny. I wanted her to be reassured with this arrangement.

Besides,Tiptap and other Tiptap seemed to appreciate the location. It received a decent amount of sunlight through the window at certain times of the day.

On the other hand, I couldn’t get rid of that nagging voice in the back of my mind that I had to be prepared to ensure my safety. What tenant put their most prized possessions within sight of the entryway?

Tenants and homeowners that wanted to get robbed, that’s who.

I Stitched between the earth of the hearth and the cellar room below, ensuring all the space in between was part of my Dungeon. I Mana Dusted a vertical space in between, giving me a few points of Aana to work with.

I then repeated the same trap I had done in the tunnel earlier, setting up a solid layer of boards on the ceiling. Rather than being a tunnel collapse trap, this was basically an empty laundry chute.

In an emergency, I could erode away the fire pit beneath me. It would take a while to chew through all that hard stone, but it could save my life by quickly moving me down a floor. I was confident I could survive the fall, but to be sure, I placed a thick rug beneath the hidden chute.

Nothing suspicious here. Just cozy decor!

Momentarily satisfied with that precaution, I moved on to tidying up the house. Lucille had left distinguishable sword slices through the cottage on her way out the door. Lightsaber-esque cuts had been gouged through stone walls, two door frames, and several ceiling rafters.

As much as I wanted to repair those, I was lacking in Mana. Only two Mana had recharged automatically during the Battle of Fuzz Garden. Stitching and Gardencrafting the emergency chute had spent most of my resource piggy bank. I was down to only two out of my allotted twenty capacity.

That spooked me a little. Getting that low was one misstep away from putting Granny down for mandatory nap-time.

I trimmed the outer ends of the fallen wood log on the front porch, giving me two more points.

I left the remainder in front. Bonny knew how to get in through the back door. Anybody else that wanted in could shove off.

Alright, that’ll do for now.

“Let’s go help out our latest cripple. I'm done listening to him whine downstairs.”