Long white hair fell just past Lusafeen’s shoulders. Despite its color, she looked young, probably mid-twenties. She wore a large, purple hat that set stereotype-defiant witches back a hundred years, and her soulless, purple eyes followed Orb as he hovered in her cabin. A long ebony robe clung to her body, and she wore a dark, snakeskin-like satchel bag by her side.

The demonic panther Dremmon was large, his long, slender body coming up to Lusafeen’s torso. He had black fur with purple streaks running along the sides of his body. Two horns that formed just behind his ears trailed backward, looping, and then sticking out toward his rear.

Dremmon quickly singled out Mousifer and Bleedy, who at some point had gathered to share the fruit in the room’s corner. Bleedy’s mouth looked swollen, like he was having some kind of allergic reaction or had been stung by a bee. Dremmon approached, backing them further into the corner, and then with a huff, turned back and nodded at Lusafeen.

Suspicious eyes locked on Orb. “Who brought you here? Why would you make a dungeon of my home?” She scanned the walls. “No… you haven’t assimilated with this place. So, how are you moving freely?”

Orb caught himself shaking. Lusafeen had a powerful aura about her. They were clearly outmatched. He rested his weight on the desk behind him to try to quell the nervous motion. She can’t hear me. What does she expect?

The witch’s head tilted. “Can’t you talk?”

“I don’t think you’ll be able to hear me,” Orb projected in her general direction.

“Why not?”

Orb jumped back. How did… so far, he’d only been able to speak with Charlie and their minions. How was she able to communicate with him?

“I’ve… uh…come seeking magic to make my minions stronger. We didn’t mean to intrude.” Orb watched her eyes. So far, she seemed to completely ignore Charlie. Had she not noticed him? Orb couldn’t see Charlie without rotating on the desk to face the floor below. He decided against it. He didn’t want to draw her attention to the baby now.

“I see… a dungeon core that can move of its own volition. Perhaps it has something to do with the egg?” She looked at Dremmon now, who shrugged. “We should take him with us. Lord Cendra will want to study him. Kill the creatures.”

“Wait, can’t we mind-talk this out?” Orb asked. He redirected his thoughts so that only Mousifer and Bleedy could hear. “Get ready to run,” he said to them. Mousifer was hiding in Bleedy’s fur. Bleedy went slack, playing dead. “Oh, come on! You’re a raccoon-beaver hybrid and that isn’t a defense mechanism of either!”

Lusafeen reached a hand out toward Orb, and a black hex formed between them. A string of darkness shot forth and wrapped around him. The magic slowly drained from his body. He shot to the left, trying to break free from the spell’s effect, but fell to the floor below. His magic was no longer strong enough to support his hovering.

Dremmon snarled, approaching Mousifer and Bleedy, and opened his jaws. He was toying with them. Things were bad. Orb tried to look around but was slowly losing the ability to see. Soon, he’d go blind and lose all perception. Wait. Where was Charlie? What would she do to him? Where is…

His vision faded.

***

Charlie

“Where am I?” Charlie wondered. One moment he’d been sitting on the floor of the cabin. The next, he was here. A large, cavernous space, completely devoid of light. Yet, for some reason, Charlie could still see. His hands shot up to his face, his head hurting all of a sudden. Something wasn’t right.

Dungeon Integration Complete.

“What?” Charlie asked. He looked at the ground and realized a soft blue glow seemed to be coming from his face. He brought a hand close and realized the light was coming from his eyes. “What’s going on? Orb, where are you? I’m scared.”

Current Status

Class: Dungeon Core Baby

Passive: Rock Skin. The walls of the body are reinforced to maintain dungeon integrity.

Auto Ability

Palmar Grasp - An enhanced version of the reflex commonly seen in babies. Significantly increases the user’s grip strength.

New Abilities Unlocked

Transfer - Allows the user and allies to shift in and out of the dungeon.

Devourer - Allows the user to force others into the dungeon.

Dungeon Manipulation - Control over dungeon interior.

??????? - Skill conditions not met.

Notice

Effects of Sentience have been enhanced.

Charlie blinked. It felt like he’d woken up from a long nap. He looked around and the realization hit him. “I’m in the dungeon! But where are Orb and the others?” He remembered what happened just before he’d come here. He’d been playing a joke on Orb when the door opened behind him. There was a blue light, and then he was here.

This wasn’t the first time he’d seen the light flash. It happened once when Bleedy attacked him, and again when he’d gotten onto Bleedy’s back. The subtle flash of blue light. Each of those occurrences had unlocked a new ability. Rock Skin and Palmar Grasp. But Charlie couldn’t understand then. It was like his brain wasn’t able to make sense of it, so he’d simply forgotten.

But now, Charlie understood. He’d been given a way to protect his friends. He’d been given a way to keep them safe.

A series of images flashed across his mind in quick succession.

…crawling on a strange kitchen floor.

A man stood up from his chair.

A blue ball fell from the man's pocket.

It landed directly in front of Charlie. He grabbed it.

“Charlie, no!” a voice said.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Were these memories?

The image blurred and reformed.

Charlie saw what was going on in the world outside.

In Lusafeen’s cabin.

His friends were in danger.

He didn’t have time to think about the weird vision he’d seen.

It was time.

It was time to play dungeon.

He held a hand out and thought the name of the ability he wanted.

Transfer.

Charlie reappeared in the room, and it was like his perception exploded.

Before him, Lusafeen was using some evil looking spell. He felt it affecting Orb. Draining the dungeon core of his power. Mousifer and Bleedy were to his left. They’d retreated under the bed. Dremmon swatted furiously at them, trying to pull them from under the bed and into his reach. They wouldn’t last long.

Even now the bed threatened to break as Dremmon rammed his heavy frame against it, trying to stretch his arm in further.

Lusafeen was the first to notice Charlie. Her concentration broke for only a second.

“What… a baby?” Her eyes shot open; she could feel what Charlie was doing. She could feel his magic seeping into the air around them. “Dremmon! Stop him!” she cried out. The creature whipped around; his eyes homed in on Charlie. He turned toward the boy, ready to pounce.

Bleedy opened his mouth to bare teeth, revealing the real reason for his swollen mouth. He’d managed to rip out the jaw from the mounted wolf's head earlier. He was using it as a prosthetic. His very own set of wolf-teeth dentures. Before Dremmon could attack, Bleedy shot out from under the bed and latched onto his foe’s tail, hard.

Dremmon kicked out furiously, knocking Bleedy loose. The teeth remained embedded.

“Thank you. That bought me enough time.” Charlie sent a thought to Bleedy.

“Baby,” Bleedy responded, slowly rising from where he’d been kicked.

Charlie focused on Lusafeen and opened his mouth wide.

DEVOUR.

Her spell ceased immediately, and she was slowly sucked into the raging vortex coming from his mouth. A portal into the dungeon. Her body twisted and contorted in horrible ways as reality warped it to fit into a portal the size of a baby’s mouth. In less than a second, she was gone. Charlie turned to look at Dremmon, who seemed confused, then angry. He bared his teeth at Charlie. But Charlie wasn’t interested in playing with him at the moment.

TRANSFER.

Charlie, Orb, Mousifer and Bleedy all instantly shifted into the dungeon. Leaving Dremmon alone in the cabin.

Charlie was alone with Orb in the cavern. Scattered objects from her room laid in a pile around them. Lusafeen and the minions were nowhere to be seen. He realized they must have been sent to different parts of the dungeon. Orb was unusually dim, and Charlie approached, taking him in hand. There was a tugging sensation as magic left Charlie’s body. Orb instantly shot into the air, hovering before him.

“Charlie? What happened?” Orb asked. He realized he was floating and spun in a circle quickly. “And how did my magic come back so fast? That keeps happening.”

Charlie smiled. “I think you absorbed some of mine.”

“You seem… different? Where are we?” Orb asked, spinning to look around at the large, cavernous room.

“We’re in our dungeon.”

“Oh. Good. That witch wanted to take me somewhere to be studied. I don’t know how you did it, but you did a great job getting us out of there. We were goners for sure.”

“Actually, she is in here somewhere as well,” Charlie admitted.

“No, seriously. I really mean it. You saved us, Charlie. I know I don’t tell you enough how grateful I—” Orb paused, realizing what Charlie said. “SHE WHAT?!”

Charlie nodded. “I separated her from the monster. Now it’s four on one!”

“Charlie, she’s a witch! Our team is a baby, a mouse, a raccoon-beaver hybrid, and a freaking marble! We are no match for a witch!” Orb bounced up and down in the air to emphasize his point.

Charlie looked down one of the halls that led into the massive chamber they were in. “Well, that’s not good, because she’s here.”

Orb rotated slowly to look. Lusafeen was strutting down the hall. Her heels clacked against the dungeon corridor as she walked. Each footstep louder than the last. She closed the distance quickly, her witchy silhouette reaching the end of the hallway. She paused for a moment, readying herself before entering the room.

She took a breath, brushing back stray hair from her face. The edges of her long robe just barely grazed against the floor. “Where is it?” she demanded. A scowl on her face.

“Where’s what?” Charlie asked, projecting his thoughts.

Orb slowly rotated in surprise. “You can talk to her too? Weird.”

“My bag! Where is it?” Lusafeen shouted.

Charlie looked around, he didn't see a bag. He shot a questioning look at Orb, who shook slightly from side to side in denial.

Lusafeen growled. She stretched out her hands on either side of her and began muttering under her breath. The words repeated, slowly getting louder until finally Charlie could make them out. “Void Hex Violence!” she shouted. Two spinning discs of darkness shot forward. Each of them sank deep into the dungeon floor on either side of Orb and Charlie and continued spinning.

After a moment, they dissipated, leaving behind deep fissures in the ground.

“Next time I’ll separate your arms from your body, little one. So, think very carefully. Where did you hide it? Where is my bag?” she asked.

Charlie didn’t have an answer for her, but he knew if he told her that, she would take away his arms. Charlie didn’t want to lose his arms. He was quite fond of them. His thoughts went to the abilities from earlier. Transporting back and forth between his dungeon and the outside world wouldn’t solve anything. He didn’t think his ability to grab onto things would do much good, either. But there was that other one. Dungeon Manipulation. Maybe that could help?

He looked up at the ceiling, concentrating like he had before when he’d teleported them all.

Lusafeen had sensed what he was doing before, and she could sense that he was doing something now. She readied her own spell, and the flying discs emanated from her black, glowing palms. Both of them finished readying their spell at the same time.

Unlike before, this time, no words came to him. Instead, it was more of a magical interpretation of his will.

He wanted to stop Lusafeen.

He didn’t really care how.

The crunching of rock drew her attention, and she looked toward the ceiling. Several sharpened stalactites formed, nestled firmly against one another. As one, their connection to the roof severed and they hurtled toward the dungeon floor. Lusafeen flung her two black discs upward, to try to destroy them a moment too late.

The rock collided with the earth where Lusafeen was standing.

Dust filled the room, and Charlie held a hand up to cover his face. Orb hovered next to him. “Uh, Charlie… I think you killed her,” he said.

“Killed her?” Charlie asked. The word was a new concept for him. He’d heard it before, of course, but now, the way Orb said it had a certain weight to it. “Does that mean we won?”

Orb realized his mistake. “Hmm, how do I explain this while avoiding a lengthy explanation on the finality of mortal life…it’s kind of like when you put someone to sleep. Forever.”

“Do they have good dreams?” Charlie asked.

“That… I don’t know.”

“I hope she has good dreams.” Charlie smiled. Not a malicious thought in his body. The smoke settled. The stalactites were now rubble, smashed against the ground. Just barely visible under the rubble were Lusafeen’s shoes. They pointed upward toward the ceiling above, the rest of her body presumably crushed.

Charlie frowned. “That doesn’t look very comfortable.”

“Oh, she’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Let’s find the others and get out of here. There’s no place like home after a hard day’s work,” Orb said.

Charlie nodded, and the two turned as familiar squeaks echoed from a hallway behind them. Mousifer and Bleedy ran into the room. The snakeskin satchel Lusafeen had been wearing earlier hung from Bleedy’s mouth, flailing in the air behind him as he ran.

Charlie laughed as Bleedy and Mousifer jumped toward him. The three embraced.

The echo of crumbling rock interrupted the heartfelt moment.

“There’s my bag,” Lusafeen said. She rose from the rubble, wiping dust from her tattered cloak. “Now why don’t you be a good boy and hand it over?”