CHAPTER 11

The guard was looking around in total confusion with the others. The enslaved prisoners were nowhere to be found either.

“What is going on here.” Yelled the guard in confusion.” He turned to one of his subordinates. “Can anyone get a hold of headquarters. I am only getting static.” The man yelled at one of his underlings. The underling grabbed to get in contact with headquarters but got all they got was static as well.

“Well, this is just great.” sighed the guard. He wanted to blame his subordinates for the issue, but rather had a feeling it was DF-1202’s fault. When I find that kid, I am going to make him slowly die in the most excruciating way possible. The lead guard’s thoughts were interrupted by his underling running back.

“This doesn’t look good.” The underling said in fear as he ran back to the lead guard. One minute they were having fun making people suffer and now they found themselves in some weird wacky world. The lead guard was pausing to think of what to do. His thoughts were interrupted by system announcement for all the guards.

Welcome to the Psychotunes dungeon… now initializing…

KEVIN’S POV

Kevin knew he needed to get his wounds healed fast. The burns and 1 HP were killing him. His regeneration for health wouldn’t recover from the poison and sickness debuffs. He had lucked out with the new ability. He made sure to have the dungeon almost unbeatable for the Shadow Corps guards. He had counted around one hundred guards in all. He also knew he needed to get Maria’s attention somehow.

Kevin looked over the options of the dungeon while he was sitting waiting in the boss room. He was messing around with the creation options. He could change anything with the dungeon. That included location, difficulty, player count, and more.

The first thing Kevin did was separate both of the Shadow Corps and enslaved players. He couldn’t do much for the players in terms of dungeon control. He wished he could give them more items to fight with or items. The dungeon wouldn’t allow him access to that sadly. His next move had him up the difficulty to rank SSS for the guards. He wanted to make sure Shadow Corps didn’t survive the ordeal. He made several additions to the dungeon. Like making himself the final boss. He wanted to go completely medieval on the guards. His final and most important selection had the dungeon appear wherever Maria was currently. He really needed her help now that he was in a game of limbo.

He set everything up. Now he just hoped to survive until Maria could get there.

SHADOW CORPS POV

The lead guard and others had tried to leave the dungeon but couldn’t. They were given an error message saying the fifth-floor boss had to be beaten into leaving. They had to move on. The Shadow Corps crew found themselves in a cartoon style forest. The group could see endless waves of trees in every direction that were dominated by white mountain peaks. To progress, the system for the dungeon told them they needed to find the cave of Garrett Grizzly Bear to get to the next floor. Everyone thought this would be easy enough. They soon would be proven how very wrong they were.

The lead guard had them look at their status screens beforehand. They all had a number listed as 1-100. They were unsure what that was all about. All they cared was getting out of the new situation before things got bad. Some of the guards said they should look for loot while others just wanted to get out.

“Honestly, this doesn’t seem so bad. Maybe the kid couldn’t figure out how to make a dungeon work after all.” Remarked one of the guards. The whole scene was making them more confident in getting out.

“He could just be toying with us. Remember there could be traps or anything lurking around.” The lead guard scolded one of the underlings.

After about half an hour of walking the group came up to three figures standing in a clearing in front of a sign arguing. The guard messaged them to stay back. As they got closer the lead guard could get a better look. One was a bear in brown fur. The bear was only wearing a pair of torn blue shorts that looked too small to fit. The bear’s stomach bulged out from the shorts. The bear was arguing with a mountain cat. The lead guard had no idea who the person was. Like the bear the cat was also fat in appearance, only wearing red shorts. The two animals were busy ripping off a sign that said “Grizzly Bear Season” or “Cougar Season”.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The third figure is what really caught the guard’s attention. To him the man looked human except, the man looked like he had seen better days. He was pointing a crudely rusted rifle at either of the two when they tore the sign. The man was bald wearing a soup can as a hat of all things. The man’s clothes were in no better shape. He was wearing torn overalls on one side. That seemed to be hastily patched with laziness. He wore glasses that were way too thick to see with. The guard guessed the man was blind with how thick they were.

The guard wasn’t sure what to make of the situation. He had his men stay at a distance to not cause trouble. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned. One of his underlings got to excited as they got a better look at the characters. “Oh my gosh, is that Garrett Grizzly and Carl the Cougar?” He yelled with excitement. The lead guard told him to keep it down. The underling then spotted the third man. “Oh my gosh I think I have died and gone to heaven. There is Maniac Mich.” At this point the underling ran over to the three despite the lead guard’s protest. As the underling got within 50 feet of the trio the ripped sign turned to “Guard #25 Season.”

The underling didn’t see the danger coming. They were finished off before they knew what hit them. In the blink of an eye. Maniac Mich fired his rusty rifle turning the underling into a pile of ash. A message popped up for all the other guards in the group.

It read. A trap has been triggered. You must now find the cave of Garrett Grizzly Bear. Once the cave is found everyone will be warped to the next floor. Every five minutes a random team member will be killed off. Maniac Mich, Carl the Cougar, and Garrett Grizzly Bear are now invulnerable to all attacks. 5-4-3-2-1…

At this point a few in the group lost their composure and tried to attack the trio. They all met a fast and violent end. The lead guard now had an issue to deal with. The lead guard in a desperate state of mind with his underlings losing control. Had everyone break off. All they had to do was find the cave.

Another 30 mins had passed before the cave was found. The group was then teleported to the next floor. The lead guard had realized he had lost 15 if his men. He was now down to 85 members. I am so going to make that kid slowly beg for mercy as I slowly kill him for all of this.

KEVIN’S POV

I honestly didn’t think someone would be dumb enough to trigger the trap. I was hoping if they found the cave they would have to fight the trio as a floor boss. Oh well, at least I got some results from this. Kevin sat there with a wild grin as he watched the Shadow Corps struggling with the first floor. He then watched as they approached the second floor. He could see the leader of the guards was very mad.

The Shadow Corps group had made their way to the second floor. The lead guard was wary with the group. “Alright you little pests. Do not run ahead like the last idiot or I will make sure you will suffer a fate far worse than death. Everyone is to follow my orders. Is that clear. We don’t need this kind of idiocy at Shadow Corps.” The lead guard barked out his frustration in anger. Everyone just nodded in agreement. The group came up to the next floor entrance, it was so small everyone had to funnel out one by one.

They all gasped when they stepped onto the new floor. “Either the scenery is bigger, or we are smaller.” One of the guards said with their mouths hanging open. Another guard spoke saying. “This looks like a tale from Jack and the beanstalk. Referring to the giant furniture. They group had found themselves looking at large room.

The lead guard had been in dungeons where objects were bigger but nothing on this scale. He had to guess they had to be three inches in height. This made him nervous. He wasn’t sure what to expect. When the last of the group came through the entrance they came from. The wall was sealed off. He realized the entrance was a mouse hole.

A new message popped up in front of the group. You are currently In a safe spot. You need to make your way to other mouse hole across the room to get to floor three. Watch out of the cats…

That was all the warning they got before a mass of black blurred into an invisible barrier surrounding the group. A loud hiss was heard followed by a deep growl.

A new message popped up for the group. The cat has alerted the others… Safe zone will despawn in one minute. The other cats will join every one minute.

Debuff triggered Hysteria. Causes players to lose self-control and awareness.

At this point everyone in the group lost their cool. Everyone went into survival mode. Some of the group began fighting one cat. While others made a run for the other mouse hole. The whole ordeal lasted only two minutes. When everyone made it to the other mouse hole the situation was even more grim. The lead guard was given the news.

The dungeon was so high in difficulty. Even they high spell casters couldn’t stop the debuff. “The debuff was nothing I have ever seen. It couldn’t be countered at all. A few of us out there tried. In the end it was useless. It only broke when the first person ran into the hole.” A mage reported it to the lead guard. He just sighed. Most of them still were stuck with the hysteria debuff too. He had lost another 15 men. With another 20 injured. Luckily, the healers were able to do their job and patch them up. The leader was thankful for that.

KEVIN’S POV

Kevin was laughing as the group ran literally like mice for their lives. Choosing to have the hysteria debuff uncounterable was a great idea. They couldn’t stop themselves from losing there composure. Some of them are still stuck with the debuff. HAHA. I am kind of upset the healers were unaffected. I believe I see about five healers left in the group. Need to finish off the stronger players on the next floor. Kevin watched as Shadow Corps licked there wounds and headed for the next floor…