Gamer Guild’s Dungeon (3rd Floor, Pt. 2)

--- Joshua ---

“What’s not good?” He smiled, flicking the ink off of his hand.

(“Um… Hey, you know how I like games?”) The GM asked instead of answering him.

“I suppose I do.” He admitted with a gesture the game that made up his current (stage.)

(“Cool, then why don’t we play a little mini-game me and my brother used to play whenever I was… in the middle of a fun time?”) His fellow Wonderlander suggested in a chipper tone of voice.

“Okay?” He nodded with an amused smirk.

(“Alright, so you’re having fun, now let’s make sure you can save the memory for later!”) The GM told him. (“First I need you to say five things you can see.”)

“Easy enough.” He shrugged before giving the room a once over. “Let’s see, I see a precious pile of glittering gold… A vial of brilliantly violent blue… A shattered sword’s shards… There’s our stage’s sturdy stone floor and walls… Let’s count that as one, so the last thing I see is… the billowing black coat you gifted me.” He finished with a flourish.

(“Good, now give me four things you can touch.”)

“Ooh, tricky.” He grinned gladly. “Hmm, like before there’s the black beauty you gave me… I could say the floor but that feels boring repeating the same performance over and over… So instead let’s go with the cool clear air that’s found all around. Third there’s the smooth, leather -I believe- of my shoes. And then finally we have the insatiable ink on my hands.”

(“Okay, now give me three things you can hear.”) His fellow Wonderlander continued.

(Hmm, this is starting to sound familiar… but why?)

“I…” He frowned before shaking his head. “I can hear: Well, I don’t think I hear you exactly but I can hear your Wonderland whispering in a wicked way. Hmm, oh! I can hear the beautifully brutal beating of my heart right here.” He tapped his chest with a grin before it grew into a full blown smile. “Ah, I also hear that sweet symphonic swing playing in the background.”

(“You do, huh?”)

“Yes.” He nodded, before remembering that the swing was supposed to mean (something…)

(“Alright, well then, give me two things you can smell.”)

He blinked, both because he wasn’t really sure if he could smell anything as well as the fact that he was pretty sure he’d seen Maddie play this game with his brother once. (But that wasn’t a good time…)

(“I know this is a tough one but we’ve only got one more after this.”) The GM told him in an encouraging tone.

“Er, right…” He coughed into his hand. “I can um, I can smell… smoke? From, from the campfire in the middle of the room.” (How’d I miss that?) “And… Um, I can also smell… books er, paper and ink I guess?” (Where’s that coming from?)

(“Good now I just need you to tell me what you can taste.”)

“Taste?” He frowned once more, because he was now positive he remembered Maddie asking his brother these questions while forcing him to sit still. “I can, I can taste… copper and something sweet?”

There was something important about that but he couldn’t quite remember it.

(“Okay, now I need you to close your eyes take a deep breath and count back from ten, alright?”)

“Um, yeah.” He swallowed, feeling an odd sort of anxiety he hadn’t felt previously, before closing his eyes. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. What now?”

(“Well that depends. How are you feeling?”) The GM asked him cautiously.

“I’m… I’m not really sure.” He admitted, rubbing at his eyes. “My head feels… kind of fuzzy?”

(“Yeah, do you um, do you know what just happened?”)

“I… you made me do the… panic attack thing…”

(“I did.”) The GM confessed without defense. (“Do you know why I did that?”)

His head throbbed as he tried to think. “No?”

(“Alright, well, you know how we Wonderlanders have a tendency to uh, get little… crazy?”) The GM asked.

“Uh, yeah. Comes with using Madness.” He chuckled weakly, not wanting to admit that he’d just thought that ‘crazy’ was a normal Wonderlander’s default before today. (Wait…)

It clicked in his head.

“I um… I was… I was having an episode?” He asked with no small amount of dread.

(“Yeah, you were.”) The GM sighed. (“When I was little, whenever I had an… ‘episode’ my brother would make me go through the list to try and drag me back from the edge of my… madness.”)

“That’s…” He began tapping his thumbs against his fingers as he found himself unsure of how to process both that and what it meant in reference to his own episode. And in the end what little he could process left him feeling like he should- “I’m sorry.”

(“Don’t be. It’s not your fault.”) His fellow Wonderlander assured him. (And who’d know better than her?)

“So, um, what now?” He asked, feeling a little directionless at the moment.

(“Well, that’s up to you.”) The GM told him. (“If you want you can go back and I’ll evac you from the previous safe room.”)

“No, I… I don’t like the idea of going back.” He admitted, feeling a little small since he knew that applied to more things than one.

(“Okay, then you can go right and it’ll take you to the boss room where you’ll be able to exit on your own after clearing the rooms between you and the safe room.”)

He glanced to the other door in the room. “And what’s past the left door?”

(“There’s a treasure room down that way, but you’d have to clear a couple more rooms full of enemies.”) The GM told him with an audible frown. (“But, uh, I wouldn’t recommend going down that way as beaten up as you are.”)

“Yeah, I probably wouldn’t recommend it either…” He agreed with a wry grin before heading towards the left door.

(“Uh, what are you doing?”)

Ignoring their question he asked his own. “Hey, even if I get my ass kicked, I’m not going to like, die in here, am I?”

(“Uh, no…”) His fellow Wonderlander answered with obvious reluctance. (“But why risk it?”)

“Because if you leave a single treasure chest un-open then you haven’t actually cleared the dungeon.” He explained. “Really, as a gamer shouldn’t you know this?”

(“... This is totally karma isn’t it.”) He heard the GM grumble quietly.

“Karma for what?”

(“It doesn’t matter.”) The GM sighed. (“Fine, but just so you know if you get your ass kicked you lose like half of your points.”)

That actually made him pause for a moment. “You’re scoring all of this?”

(“Yeah, it’s part of my whole prize system here.”) The dungeon master explained as he started moving once more. (“The better you do the more points you get, and when you exit the dungeon there’s one final shop where you can trade your points to get prizes based on all of the items available up to your last finished level.”)

“Huh… I’m guessing the amount of points someone gets is based on how much Madness you get out of them.” He figured, knowing that no gang leader would operate an event this large and with prize, if they didn’t get something out of it too.

(“Yep.”) Said gang leader admitted shamelessly. (“And don’t worry I’m not penalizing you for the Madness I’ve given you, though I am having to grade you a bit differently since I can’t really get much Madness from you.”)

(Makes sense, since we’re both apparently Madness sponges.)

“That’s fine.” He assured her. “After all it just means I’m a class all my own.”

(“Well, I mean, I did have to make you your own class.”) The GM conceded.

“Exactly.” He grinned as he continued to force all the bad thoughts into a little box he had zero intention of opening anytime soon. “Oh, look! The next room ‘s here already!”

Skipping over to the door as a bit of Madness continued to bubble just below the surface, he kicked the door open and screamed, “Do not fear the murderhobo is here!”

(“Pfft!”)

The goblins in the room all jumped at the sudden intrusion, leaving him free to throw out his Ink Whip and pull a nearby Warrior to him, before grabbing the goblin by the sides of its head and- “Hello, so sorry you’ve got to go!” -slamming it face first into his knee over and over until it finally shattered under the assault.

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Grinning like mad he didn’t notice the arrow flying towards him until it struck his shoulder and shattered into pixels after breaking skin. “Fuck, again!”

(At least I don’t have to rip it out this time, but still…) He turned a glare at the Rogue and began spinning his whip around his wrist and taking a step forward, and right onto a patch of greenery that quickly wrapped around his foot. “The fuck?”

His eyes shot to the Shaman standing behind the Rogue and faintly chanting, (Right support unit has a snare, got it.)

A movement from the Rogue had him bending out of the way of a second arrow, and putting himself off balance as he whirled his arms through the air. (Shit!)

Twisting his leg he stomped down to regain his footing before using all of his enhanced strength to rip his leg free of the vines that had ensnared it. Not taking another chance and seeing how it was the only real damage dealer he rushed the Rogue before tackling it to the ground and wailing on it.

He could hear the Shaman chanting still, and given how he knew it was supposed to be a healer he immediately knew what it meant when the Rogue started glowing with a faint green as little plus signs rose off of it.

“Oh, no you don’t!” He scowled toonifying his hand before punching the Rogue’s face into the floor hard enough to crack the stone beneath them as the goblin finally gave and broke apart into a swarm of pixels.

“Just you and me, friend!” He smiled at the Shaman that had given him a surprising amount of trouble this fight.

The goblin took a step back as he started towards it, and his hand shot out, grabbing the goblin by its throat and picking it up off of the ground.

His grip tightened as he began to hear a tune playing in the back of his head, before an arrow shot through his forearm forcing him to drop the Shaman.

“Shit!” His eyes darted to a rogue hiding in the shadows nearby, already knocking another arrow to fire at him.

Scowling at the monster he threw his hand out and grabbed it with his Ink Whip before pulling it towards him as he ignored the throbbing building in the back of his head.

Knowing that using his powers again was probably a bad idea, but that it’d take more than his bare hands to kill the Rogue with the Shaman healing it, he reached into his coat and pulled out the broken blade he gotten in his last fight and proceeded to stab the goblin through the chest shattering the Rogue into a storm of lights.

“Right, now then… where were we?” He asked the cowering goblin as he turned his attention back to it.

As a final desperate gambit the Shaman sent out a wave of greenery to try and snare him again. An attack he just barely dodged by throwing his body to the side hard enough to roll across the ground before shaking himself off and rushing the final goblin, where a quick stroke of the knife brought the fight to an even quicker end.

With no enemies left he couldn’t help but gasp as his aching body and mind made their grievances known. “Fuck, that fight shouldn’t have been that hard.”

(“Well you’re probably still suffering from the backlash of giving so far into your Madness.”) The GM pointed out dryly.

“That… is a possibility.” He grimaced, realizing that maybe he shouldn’t have decided to push his luck after his little episode.

He slapped his cheeks. (No, what am I saying. The show must go on!)

(“Uh, you okay?”)

“Yeah, just… just still having some… odd thoughts.” He lied.

(“If you’re sure though you really should reconsider tapping out.”)

He frowned. “I said I’m getting that treasure chest, and damn it I will.” (I’m probably also going to get my ass kicked but so be it!) Durands were all stubborn bastards.

Shaking his head he looked around the room before spotting a red vial, (Yeah, that’ll help me.)

Pulling out the blue vial he’d picked up from the previous room, he downed both vials before shivering as he felt something creeping and crawling through his veins. “Okay… That was weird…”

(“What was weird?”)

“Just, I… I think I felt your Madness… healing me that time.” He guessed, trying not to think too hard about the odd sensation.

(“Hmm, maybe you’re still feeling some Madness sensitivity from your episode too.”)

“M-maybe.” He admitted, before shaking his head again and gathering the various bits and bobbles dropped by the goblins. “Either way I hopefully won’t need another one today.”

(“And you just jinxed yourself.”) His fellow Wonderlander helpfully informed him.

“Whatever.” He turned towards the door to the next room. “Either way, one room down, two to go.”

(“Unless you count the boss route.”)

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Not helping.”

(“Wasn’t trying to~”)

“Let’s just get this over with.” He sighed exiting the room, and continuing through the Dungeon tunnels in relative silence as the GM seemed to content themselves with just watching him for the time being. (Or I’m pretty sure they’re watching me.) (Something was watching him after all.)

(Right, the Madness sensitivity thing is going to drive me crazy… Wait.) He frowned at that thought as he realized that might’ve been -terrifyingly- the point. “Hey, uh, you ever wonder if Madness is… purposely trying to drive us crazy?”

(“What? Oh, yeah, it absolutely is.”) His fellow Wonderlander confirmed.

He swallowed.

He’d meant the question as an idle thought, but with how quickly a confirmation came… “That, uh, that doesn’t worry you?”

(“Not really.”) The GM seemingly shrugged. (“I mean it worried my brother for a moment there but he worries about everything.”)

(This sounds like something we should be worried about.)

(“A way a friend of mine explained it is that it’s like every other genetic time bomb we’ve all got. It’s not something I can really stop, so why worry about it?”) His fellow Wonderlander explained. (“Even if I don’t use my powers it’ll just drive me crazier faster, so the only solution is to find people who will help keep me anchored and play the game as best I can with my class.”)

He didn’t necessarily agree that he shouldn’t worry about it, but he could see her point at the very least. (And having someone to keep me anchored sounds nice… an Alice to my Jack.)

He could feel the mad grin growing on his face once more and immediately forced it down.

Deciding that it might be best to ignore whatever weirdness was in that last thought, at least until he wasn’t so sensitive to Madness, he instead picked up his pace hoping to reach the door to the next room faster. A hope he fulfilled upon finding said door around a bend in the Dungeon tunnel. (Finally.)

“Alright, let’s get a preview of the next show…” He mumbled to himself as he cracked the door open a smidge to see the goblins within.

He blinked. “Um… Are they supposed to be doing this?”

(“Supposed to be doing wha- For fucks sake.”) The GM growled. (“Okay, I need you to kill my goblins. They aren’t going to fight back so it should be easy enough.”)

He watched the four goblins rocking back and forth in the middle of the room. “I’m… I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this.”

(“Look you remember how there was that weird glitch with my kobolds well the same thing is happening here, only instead of having cleaned it up like I thought, I apparently crammed all of the trauma into the middle room.”) The GM broke down for him. (“Now in order to completely fix this mess I need you to off my goblins in here.”)

He opened the door enough for him to step into the room, and had to suppress a flinch when the goblins started sobbing. “Do I have to?”

(“Hey, hey, hey! You’ve gone evil in my dungeon at least twice now, don’t go wimping out on me when I need you to get your hands dirty.”) The gang leader told him. (“Besides it’s more of a mercy killing than an actual murder.”)

Upon hearing that some part of him connected to his Wonderland couldn’t help but agree even if the rest of him was deeply uncomfortable with this whole thing. “I, um, this your Wonderland, can’t you… I don’t know, like… kill them with admin rights or something?”

(“No, like with the kobolds I need you to do me a solid and kill them so I can do a hard reset on their coding.”) The GM firmly refused.

The goblin sobbing was beginning to get on his already fraying nerves until finally- “Fine, it’s not really killing them after all.”

(“Nope, can totally respawn them after giving them more therapy than my brother’s put me through.”) His fellow Wonderlander assured him. (“Though it’ll probably be a while before I use goblins for any of my events again after this mess.”)

“Right, right…” He nodded, pulling his broken blade out of his coat again. “Just got to do this quick and painless.”

It was not quick and painless… for him at least. Each of the goblins were quick painless affairs, with one even thanking him in a way that was probably twice as traumatic as the rest of the kills combined.

“I feel so dirty.” He admitted, as decided to firmly repress the last five minutes.

(“Welcome to the Masquerade, where everyone is traumatized and we’re all laughing it off.”) His fellow Mask told him with faux cheer. (“Just be glad you didn’t have to perma-kill anyone.”)

“Yeah…”

(“Look if it makes you feel better, once I’ve got the goblins sorted out I’ll let you visit them.”) The GM promised in an attempt to cheer him up.

“Yeah, that… that might help.” He nodded, running a hand through his head as he felt his own Madness bubbling and a faint song playing in the back of his head. “How about we just skip to the next scene and return me to my emotional status quo?”

(“Not exactly healthy, but our power is Madness so you do you man.”)

Rolling his shoulders and straightening his coat, he reached out to the song in his head and stopped it from getting any louder, before turning and making his way out of this room. “I do hope you don’t mind cleaning up the mess I’ve left behind.”

(“Right, uh, I’ll just break this stuff down and add it to your end score.”) The GM told him.

After a few moments traveling through the tunnel, some morbid part of him felt the need to ask, “What uh, what exactly happened back there? Yesterday I mean.”

(“I don’t want to talk about it.”) The GM shut down with a tone that (spoke of trauma and regret.)

The extended bout of silence as he moved through the Dungeon firmly underlined the point of his fellow Wonderlander’s reluctance, as he began to notice several scorch marks on the walls that he could not see a practical reason for given how the goblins had been sticking to their rooms thus far. (Just how much damage did this pyromantic psycho do in here?!) (Don’t they know you’re not supposed to destroy your stage and venue?)

All in all between the kobolds, the way the goblins had broken down, the scorch marks, and the way the GM had reacted he was more than convinced that the people who wrecked the dungeon yesterday were monsters he was going to do everything in his power to avoid.

(Oh, look a new room where I can use the best method of distracting oneself, violence!) (Well second best if we include alcohol.) (But I’m sadly under age.)

Shoving the door open with a theatrical flourish he stepped forward ready to duke it out with whatever guardians there were for the treasure room, only to find it completely empty.

“Um, isn’t there supposed to be something I have to fight, like with the treasure rooms on the last floor?” He pointed out.

(“Since this was the first major fork in the road, I decided not to make players fight for the treasure chest and to even upgrade the rarity of it for choosing to take those two extra fights.”) The GM explained.

“That uh, makes sense I guess…” (Though it kind of defeats the whole purpose of distracting myself…) He finally spotted the large chest sitting in the middle of the room. (Then again I suppose I can use the fourth best distraction,) (shiny shiny, pretty pretty.)

(“Okay, so now that you’ve found the treasure room you’ve got two choices.”) The GM told him as he walked up to the chest.

“Uh, what choices?” He frowned. “I mean isn’t this supposed to be one of those things where I open the chest and find some random treasure in it?”

(“Technically yes.”) His fellow Wonderlander admitted. (“But since you’re pushing yourself so hard -and probably going to die to the boss- I’m giving you a special bonus where you can either open the treasure chest that has a guaranteed piece of equipment, or I can change the chest into Madness like the last two floor chest you’ve opened.”)

“Huh…” (That’s actually something worth considering. I mean if I take the chest I’ll get a piece of equipment that I can feed to either my cloak or my whip. On the other hand the whole point of this little venture was to gather Madness. Madness that would probably be less than what I need to upgrade my cloak and whip myself. Though I could probably use that Madness for things other than my cloak and whip…)

He tapped his thumb against his fingers as he eyed the chest, before telling the GM “I’ll take the equipment.”