I woke up Monday feeling like trash. I considered just laying in bed all day, but that would leave me alone with my thoughts which meant it wasn’t an option. Having decided I couldn’t just stay with my thoughts I got ready to leave the house and visit the burgurhouse. Tom had told me to figure out my stuff and all that, but what I needed was to work. I was at the door with this plan when my phone buzzed. I pulled out my phone to look at who it was, and I froze.
[Jake: hey Ethan, sorry about the wait, no wifi in the dungeon, meet me round roots?]
Just like that my fledgling plans for the day were derailed. Jake was here, and he still wanted to be my friend! Luckily I was already geared up to leave the house, and so with my new destination in mind I set off. I had been so worried that Jake had forgotten about me or abandoned me, but I had been wrong. He had been in the dungeon which had no reception. My friend was back and I was feeling genuinely excited for the first time since returning home.
Maple lane was the most crowded I had seen since arriving, but the shops were barely being touched. I wasn’t sure why until I got closer to the roots, and could see the source of the traffic. The doors to the dungeon swung wide open, and a flow of people were constantly filing in. I tried to look into the dungeon through the opening, and inside I could make out… nothing. All I could make out was a foggy expanse above the stream of people. Just what was the dungeon like? The equipment people had on them also raised more questions. Some were packed light, with just some armor and a weapon, others looked like they were going camping, with large backpacks with sleeping pads and more attached to them. Did people sleep in the dungeon? actually no, better question, how big was the dungeon exactly? I had imagined maybe the size of a large building like a mall, but with the amount of people filing in it had to be massive. Come to think of it if it was massive that kinda explained the sleeping question. Just how big would it have to be for people to need to camp out inside though?
After that mental tangent I realized I was probably getting in the way of traffic, so I got back to moving, climbing up the stairs to the top of the roots. Looking down at the crowd from atop the roots I wondered how I was supposed to find Jake in this crowd? Just then a hand tapped my shoulder and I turned in surprise to see Jake standing in front of me. He looked mostly like I remembered him, his blond hair just a little overgrown past his ears. his bangs hung just above his blueish eyes. The thin scar below his left ear was new though. He was more fit than I remembered, his muscles clearly more defined even through his casual black t-shirt. He also had a black backpack, the only dotable feature of it the silver tree shaped emblem pinned to the right strap. Despite all that was different his grin was exactly the same as I remembered, and for a moment it felt like no time had passed since I had last seen him.
“Hey Ethan.” he said simply, and I knew I was grinning ear to ear.
“Jake! You have no idea how good it is to see yoaahh-’ that last part was unplanned, but when a silver wolf up to your shoulders jumps on you the brain tends to throw plans out the window.
I was still panicking, trying desperately to get free when the wolf lowered its head and to my complete surprise gave a happy bark and started licking me. I struggled to escape, first for fear of life, then to avoid getting absolutely slobbered.
“Oh don’t be scared, you remember Ms. Wiggles, don’t you?”
After a moment the wolf paused giving kisses and I realized that it wasn’t quite a wolf, I had just mistaken it for one in the moment because of the size. Now that I could see clearly I noticed its face and body weren't quite that of a wolf, no, this was a giant silver retriever. And from Jakes comment this wasn’t just any retriever, it was Ms Wiggles, Jake's formerly golden retriever. Once I gotten to my feet and gotten my bearings back I glared at Jake
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“You let her do that on purpose didn’t you.” I accused.
“Well I couldn’t stop her from giving you some kisses, she’s been missing you, haven't you ms wiggles?” Jake shifted to dog affection mode, giving a few scritches behind the ear of the giant pupper who, in classic Wiggles fashion, wiggled.
“How did Wiggles get giant… and silver?” I asked, and Jake answered without pausing lavishing pets to the doggo.
“Well, animals can grow when you give them origin shards, you know what those are right?” I nodded and he continued. “Right and when they do they grow bigger and can get powers like monsters. Ms. Wiggles has become quite a menace in the dungeon." Ms. Wiggles barked to punctuate the statement, and I noticed her metallic fangs that looked like they belonged in a particularly sadistic bear trap.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, but she’s still just the same crazy goofball as before, just much better at fighting monsters now.” Jake gave a few more scritches, and then turned to properly give his attention to me. I wasn’t sure where to begin so I asked the first question that came to mind.
“Still want to hang?” that was a stupid question, why would you lead with that? Fortunately Jake didn’t see it the same way as I did, and he easily responded
“Of course, I’ve literally been waiting for years. your house or mine?” he replied easily, and my smile fell for a moment at the mention of my house. Jake immediately picked up on it.
“Oh, mine then, got it.” We started to walk down the ramp and toward his house, any foot traffic parting to let Wiggles through.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked softly, and I shook my head.
“No, the ONRR said they would take a look at it today, and then they will let me know what they can do. Until then I’m just putting it out of mind.”
“Alright. Going to the ONRR first was definitely the right choice.” he let the topic drop there and started up a new conversion. “Do you want to hear what I’ve been doing?” he asked, and I agreed, glad that he had recommended something new to talk about, and Jake started telling me the story of how he had arrived.
“So I arrived year one on Wednesday. I woke up on the ground outside of home, and I saw the maple in the distance. It was just a few blocks away so I decided to investigate, Wiggles came with me because she was spooked. I found the dungeon and several people armed with bats and knives and stuff standing guard around the entrance. They gave me a bat of my own and explained what they had figured out so far about the primordial, the dungeon, and origin shards. I should have been more careful, but instead I was like: “sick, monsters, I love that fantasy crap”, and I charged in there and started whacking beetles. I joined the dungeon guard when it was founded to help people stay safe, you know, great power, great responsibility and all that. Fast forward to year two and the second layer opens, and while we're scouting it I find the hidden shrine and get my second avatar-” he kept talking for a moment past this, but paused when he noticed my confusion.
“Oh yeah, I should explain, so you know how the dungeon has the primordial shrine at the entrance?” One look made it clear that I did not in fact know the shrine and he backpedaled further. “Okay, my bad, so when you enter the dungeon you enter a pocket dimension filled with monsters. Outside the entrance there is a building called the primordial shrine where you can go and that's where you make your avatar. Well somewhere in the dungeon there is a second one called the hidden shrine that's in a different place for every person. It gives you a second avatar that you can layer over the first one, and if you're smart you can use this to become much more than twice as strong.” I wasn’t fully following but it was enough for now and I nodded along.
“Alright, I would keep going, but it's mostly more of the same thing, and we're here.”
I looked away from Jake and noticed that we were in fact there.