Gamer’s Guild Dungeon (Floor 2-3 Break Room.)

--- Joshua ---

With the last of his enemies gone his song began to fade as he was hit with a sudden wave of exhaustion. One notably different than when he’d overused his powers and yet somehow eerily familiar.

(Fuck… that was… a thing…) He couldn’t help but realize as he took a breather on the steps to the boss room.

(“So uh, you doing okay?”) The GM eventually asked him. (“You’ve kind of been just sitting there for a minute.”)

“Yeah, I’m fine… just needed to catch my breath.” He admitted, before looking at the various bits of loot he’d have to gather before leaving the room.

(“Oh, let me get that for you.”)

He heard a faint snapping sound and all of the various loot drops turned into pixels before reforming in a pile at his feet. “Uh, thanks…”

(“No problem.”) The GM dismissed as he collected his loot. (“Shame you didn’t get the boss drop though.”)

“Wasn’t that one of these fang things?” He asked, said fang in hand as he began making his way to the floor treasure room.

(“Yeah, but he was supposed to drop this elemental ring that lets you shoot… lightning bolts I guess, but he seemed to screw with his drop at the last minute just to spite you.”)

“I thought the drops are supposed to be random?” He frowned.

(“They are but the monsters can nudge it a bit if they’ve gathered enough Madness to become sapient. It’s a system I set up a few years back when I was running this Undertale campaign where you had to befriend the monsters rather than killing them…”) The GM explained, before mumbling something about it being (“Kinda disturbing how no one figured that part out.”)

“Yeah… That’s uh… Yeah.” He agreed awkwardly, before forcing his attention to something significantly more important. (Namely my treasure chest.)

(“So, what’ll it be? A weapon upgrade? An upgrade for your jacket? Some potions? Or more Madness?”) The GM wondered.

He considered it for a moment. (I mean if my ink whip eats weapons like my jacket supposedly does, then both of those could be good. But at the same time those might be random drops or I could buy them from the store. Which is a similar reason not to get the potions, so…) “I’ll take another Madness chest.”

(“Alright-y then.”)

Just like before the three chests in front of him burst into a storm of pixels before reassembling themselves into another black and gold chest.

Walking up to the chest he grabbed the lid before forcing it open, idly noting how the GM wasn’t using an iconic tune as he did so.

Inside he found a blue sphere of Madness that seemed to be almost drooping in place, and as he began to absorb the sphere he found a sort of soft sadness building up in his chest.

(“Oof, sorry.”) The GM apologized with what he assumed was a wince. (“Wasn’t expecting you to roll a Melancholic Madness.”)

“It’s fine.” He assured her as the sudden bout of melancholy slowly faded away.

(“Yeah, that’s uh… I’ve never really used that one all that much.”) The GM admitted. (“I mean I’ve got a few converters to change that resource into something else but I don’t really know what to do with it myself.”)

“Mm, I’m sure I can figure out something to do with it.” (After all, some days you just feel the need for some blissful blues.)

Shaking his head at that odd thought, he started towards the stairs to the next break room, trying to figure out how something ‘melancholic’ could help with the cabaret. He unfortunately didn’t have enough experience with Wonderlands and Madness to just do whatever with the Melancholy, but given what little bit of the Cabaret he’d managed to restore he did have a few ideas.

(If I’m lucky Avery might be able to remember what the old boss would use this stuff for... If not then I guess I could use it at the bar to create a new drink, or I could see if using it in the dressing room unlocks any new costumes…) It wasn’t much but it was something at least. (If worst comes to worst I can just feed it to Doodle and see what happens.)

Rolling his shoulders he stepped into the dungeon break room before making his way over to the merchant and seeing if anything had unlocked by beating the last boss. (That’s how it works in video games at least.)

“Got a selection of good things on sale, stranger.” The Merchant told him before opening his coat as the store screen appeared in front of him.

Scrolling through the Buy menu he found the only new thing to be a treasure chest based on the previous floor. Something he found wasn’t worth the price, though given how he’d taken something of a beating with those Elite Kobolds he decided to go ahead and buy a couple of potions to help him through the next floor, in case the ones he had weren’t enough.

From there he switched to the Treasure Trade menu and looked at the three items he could trade his kobold fangs for. (Hmm, if I buy one more floor treasure from the store then I could get this dragon totem thing, but I’m not actually sure how much good summoning a cheap minion will be. On the other hand if my jacket can absorb this necklace and talisman then I could give myself a pretty solid boost to my stealth.)

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Decision made he confirmed his selection.

The merchant laughed giving him a nod. “Nice choice.”

Reaching into his coat the merchant pulled out a necklace covered in little fangs, what looked like an old dream catcher, and a pair of red and blue vials.

“Uh, thanks.” He nodded, accepting the items and stashing the vials in one of his pockets. “Now, uh, how do I do this…”

(“Since the jacket is still technically part of my Wonderland you’re going to have to use the upgrade screen rather than your own powers.”) The GM warned him, which was probably a good thing since it meant he didn’t have to admit to having no idea what he was doing even with his powers.

“Right, upgrade screen.” He nodded, reopening the Merchant’s store before switching to the appropriate tab, where he found a list of items featuring his Ink Whip, his jacket, the necklace, and the talisman.

Clicking the line for his jacket, a second list popped up featuring only the kobold necklace he’d grabbed.

“Hey, what gives?” He cried. “Shouldn’t this have the necklace and the talisman?”

(“Eh, I said it could absorb similar equipment.”) The GM corrected. (“That means it can absorb any armor, but not weapons or accessories.”)

“But aren’t both of these accessories?” He asked, glaring at the pieces in question.

(“Accessories are special items that you attach to your gear but don’t wear, while armor is anything you wear such as rings and necklaces.”) The GM told him as if that was obvious.

“Isn’t that kind of arbitrary?” He felt the need to point out.

(“Nope.”) His fellow Wonderlander disagreed before happily explaining that, (“Arbitrary means ‘something without reason or system’. Meaning that since we’re using my system it isn’t arbitrary in the slightest.”)

He was quiet for a moment as he considered that, before saying, “You’re a rules lawyer kind of player aren’t you.”

(“No, but my brother is a real lawyer.”) The GM admitted. (“Besides if our roles were reversed you’d be making the same argument and you know it.”)

“...”

(“...”)

“You’re… not entirely… wrong…” He conceded knowing that he absolutely would do the exact same thing if their roles were reversed.

(“Ha!”)

Shaking his head, he went ahead and set his jacket -which the GM had apparently dubbed the ‘Gifted Ravenous Tailcoat’- to absorb the necklace. An action that, according to whatever system the GM was using, would grant him a +1 to either Stealth or Trap checks (whatever that means.)

Once more confirming his selection the screen closed before the sleeve of his jacket seemed to turn into a series of tendrils as it wrapped around his arm, leaving his hand trapped in a blob of black ink.

“Okay… this is a little weird.” He told the GM, before watching the tendrils retract leaving him with just the talisman in hand. “Um, does this mean it worked.”

(“As far as I can tell.”) The GM seemingly shrugged.

“Uh, isn’t that something you should be able to tell?” He pointed out.

He could feel the GM roll their eyes. (“Power interactions are weird, and since that coat is half your powers there’s a few blurry spots when I try to scan it.”)

“Uh, fair enough.” He admitted, just a little sheepishly as he started towards the stairs to the next floor. Figuring that even if the last boss gave him a bit of trouble he could probably still fit in one more level before he was too tired to continue.

“Come back anytime.” The Merchant told him as he clipped the talisman to his belt.

“Sure thing.” He called back as he left the break room, figuring the Merchant probably had a little more life to him than his expy status implied if he was anything like those kobolds from the last floor. (Speaking of…) “Are there any… surprises I need to worry about with this floor? By which I mean has anyone modded this floor like the last?”

(“Nope. Since this floor has this special gimmick thing going, it’s a little easier to clean everything up than the last one was. Especially since there weren’t any weird power interactions going on.”) The GM assured him.

“Cool.” (Hopefully that means this floor is a little easier than the last… Though there is that gimmick they mentioned.) “So what exactly is the ‘theme’ of this floor?” He asked as casually as he could.

(“Goblins.”)

“Goblins?” He repeated. “Why have another starter dungeon after the Kobolds?”

(“Because goblins are one of those fantasy races everyone wants to fight in their fantasy epic.”) The GM explained. (“And from there, their multiple classes make their middle floor placement slightly better than kobolds, though it switches back around the fifth floor. But either way I always try to set them before the dungeon’s difficulty curve really kicks in.”)

“Huh, that makes sense I guess.” At least from his understanding of the situation, since he didn’t really have the best frame of reference on this one even as a fellow Wonderlander.

Coming to the doors to the next floor, he pushed the stone doors open before finding himself staring at a trio of goblin statues featuring one wearing armor and carrying a sword, one wearing a hood and carrying a bow, and a third wearing a mask and carrying a staff.

“What’s up with the statues?”

(“Oh, that’s the floor gimmick.”) His fellow Wonderlander answered. (“You see I’ve rigged this floor and a couple others to be customizable by those who’ve beat the dungeon. That way I can up each dungeon’s replayability so that I can get a few repeat customers here and there.”)

“Smart.” (I should also figure out if I can do something similar with the Cabaret once I finally re-open it.) (Maybe offering recordings my shows to the fans?)

(“Now normally the challenge marker here would be off limits to someone doing their first run of the dungeon.”) The GM told him in a playful tone. (“Bu-ut since I’m trying to help a Wonderlander out, I’ll go ahead and unlock this for you.”)

“Thanks.” He half-chuckled as a fourth/empty pillar appeared in front of the other three.

(“All you’ve got to do is put whichever class of Goblin you want this floor to focus on and I’ll up their spawn rates while lowering the spawn rates of the other classes.”) The GM began to explain. (“Now the cool thing with that is that each class of goblin has its own loot drop dice, so whichever class you prioritize also changes what kind of loot you get.”)

“Alright.” He nodded, looking the three statues over. “But who drops what?”

(“The warriors are clearly the tanks, so they’ll drop more weapons or armor. Then you’ve got the rogues who use a mix of stealth and archery, but they drop a bunch of Tool items and gold. And lastly we have the Shamans who buff and heal their allies but drop a bunch of potions and accessories.”) The GM listed for him.

“Well the weapons and armor could upgrade my whip and coat,” he admitted. “But the Tools sound like they could be interesting, as do those accessories if they function like the stuff the merchant was selling.”

Giving it another moment of thought he eventually decided to leave the statues as they are.