At a certain moment after the sun had risen from the horizon, Karsten suddenly stopped, a feeling of eery familiarity washing over him. Curious, he looked around, soon realizing what made him feel this way.

“What’s wrong?” Otis asked, noticing his party member’s sudden stop.

“Nothing, I’m just having deja vu,” Karsten answered absentmindedly as he steered slightly off course, trying to find the exact place where he’d landed. The other party members looked at each other in confusion, but decided to follow their Bard to see what he’d get up to.

Only about ten meters later, Karsten found the place he was looking for: An unassuming, small puddle of mud. The mud was drier than when Karsten had face-planted in it, as it hadn’t rained since just before he teleported here.

Crouching down, Karsten looked around himself at the familiar sight. The trees around him and the sky up above were the first things he had seen when he came to this world, and it made him somewhat nostalgic to come back here.

He scanned the ground, and was about to stand up when he saw a glimmer coming from the mud.

Quirking his eyebrows, he leaned closer, inspecting the ground for what it could be. As the mud that covered whatever it was was dry, it was difficult to remove it.

Henry and the rest stared at him oddly, not knowing what their all-rounder was brushing at the ground for.

Getting an idea, Karsten stood up and cast Prestidigitation, using the application of the Spell that would allow him to instantly clean whatever was underneath. He took a step back, and a second later, blue energy surged within his body, flowing out of his outstretched hands quicker than the eye could see.

A slime-like substance entered the ground, and bobbed and ebbed like it had that time Karsten had cleaned his and Henry’s clothing. It only took a moment, and the source of the glimmer in the ground was soon laid bare for the party to see.

It was a wooden hatch.

Karsten frowned and scratched the back of his head. “This wasn’t here last time.”

Noticing the hatch, Henry leaned in as well to inspect. “What do you mean?”

“Well, when I fell here, there certainly wasn’t a hatch. Just a bunch of mud that destroyed my clothes and made my sneakers,” Karsten pointed to his shoes that were barely holding themselves together by their hopes and dreams, “wish they’d never been conceived of.”

“You ‘fell’ here?” Otis asked curiously.

It dawned on Karsten that he hadn’t given the Dwarf any real introduction to himself, only his name, Class and level.

Conjuring a folded up piece of paper and a small stick to point with, Karsten unfolded the large piece of paper and used the stick to point at three written points on the page.

“Basically, yes, I did.”

He pointed to the first of the points that read, “In the beginning, there was me.”

“I used to live in a small town to the north or south of here, can never be too sure these days, peacefully spending my days building my house.”

He pointed to the next sentence on the paper, reading, “Then, one day, some omniscient, bearded man, or whatever, Teleported me here!” He said, waving his arms at the forest around them.

He sighed, then pointed to the last point on the page, where there was a bad drawing of a man splashing around in a puddle of mud. “I landed in the mud, right where we’re standing,” He explained, gesturing toward the hatch, “onto the very wet and very cold ground. Mind you - there was no hatch when I landed. I’m pretty sure I would still have some cracks in my ribs if it had been...” Shuddering, he dismissing the stick and paper.

Otis nodded. “I see,” He said, as if the explanation made perfect sense.

Henry frowned. “You just believe him?”

Otis shook his head, a regretful expression covering his face. “There are many unexplainable things that have started happening in the world, Henry. From the increase in the difficulty of monsters to the heightened sightings of variants. And from the increase of the amount of dungeons that pop up, to even the increase of crime all over. I wouldn’t be surprised if more people than Karsten here have been inexplicably Teleported recently.”

“Do you know anything about the increase of dungeon difficulty, Otis?” Karsten asked hopefully.

Otis sighed, then shook his head again.

“Sorry, lad. I’m sorry, but I don’t. I know about it because I’ve been keepin’ a close eye on the slime dungeon by the city. You know…”

Karsten nodded, “Yeah, the Pinky. Also, why the hell does such a foul and fearsome beast get such a fabulous name?”

“Supposedly, there was a vote held when they had just been discovered, and some popular Adventurer suggested it.”

“A popular Adventurer… Do you know their name?” Karate asked. If his gut feeling was correct,, there was a rather high chance there was more to the Adventurer than met the eye.

“Don’t remember,” Otis answered, “Though, when I think about it, I think the name ended in ‘ian’. Oh, and I think he was one of those Panda Men. Not too sure, though.”

“Panda man?”

“Yeah, they’re normally quite easy-going fellows, most of ‘em aren’t Adventurers. It’s rare to see one.”

Adding ‘recruiting a Panda Man’ to his bucket-list, Karsten turned his attention back to the hatch.

Looking the wooden hatch over again, it looked utterly normal. This was perhaps what made its being there even more abnormal.

“Is it a dungeon?” Haressy pondered out loud, directing the question at her brother.

“It might be,” Malek answered. Saying so, he stepped forward while gesturing for the others to take a few steps back. Grabbing the steel-like metal hoop that looked like a tiny ring in his hand, he lifted the hatch with ease, opening it up and gently lowering the hatch down to the ground on the other side.

Enveloping his hand in a bright light that looked like a mix of fire and pure sunlight, he gazed into the now illuminated interior.

“...There’s a ladder.” He stated, still looking down into the shaft. “There is also a light at the bottom.”

Karsten and the others moved closer, and they all peered into the deep, vertical shaft at the light at the bottom.

It was a tiny light that was barely visible; It was apparent the shaft went deep into the ground.

“...Sooo, who wants to go first?”

“I volunteer!” Otis answered confidently, thumping his chest with his thumb.

“You’re level 2,” Henry responded flatly, and Otis deflated.

“I should go first. Tough skin,” Malek said.

“Alright, big guy, but is the entrance even large enough for you?”

“I’ll be fine,” The Goliath answered, entering the shaft. It was a tight fit, but he was able to move just enough to climb down the ladder.

“I’ll go second,” Henry said, entering the shaft when Malek was far enough down.

After he was out of sight, Karsten, then Haressy and lastly Otis entered the shaft, Otis closing the hatch above them.

Together, they descended the ladder in silence. If there was something hostile waiting for them, none of them wanted to be the one to alert them to the party’s presence.

~~~

As expected of a party of superhumans, it didn’t take long to reach the bottom of the ladder.

The second Karsten touched down on the wooden floor, however, he froze, his eyes widening and his jaw growing slack.

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Doubting his own eyes, his gaze darted around the room, feeling his breath catch in his throat.

It was a bar.

Not a Tavern, but the bar Karsten used to visit with his friends back on Earth.

The bar was empty as far as any of them could see, or sense, and there were no windows in the room - the only thing differentiating it from the bar from Earth.

Looking around the rather small and cramped room, the rest of the party felt a chill creep down their spines. The bar looked almost like a Tavern, but not quite. Everything was so familiar, yet every little thing looked just slightly different from what they were used to.

Every little thing looked so alien that their minds were struggling with really taking in what they were seeing.

When Malek was about to open his mouth to say something, a rustling behind the bar counter drew all of them to a halt.

Before they could enter battle formation, a man in a black suit appeared behind the counter.

He smiled at them, his eyes just a little too open to appear normal.

“Welcome, gang!” The man behind the counter, Karsten, said.

~~~

Haressy’s eyes flicked from one Karsten to the other before she grit her teeth and yelled, “MIMIC! LEVEL 6!”

“6?!” Karsten yelped.

Immediately snapping into action, Henry grabbed Otis by his collar and practically hurled him back up the shaft. The Dwarf gave an audible “OOOoohoohohohohooho!!!”, but luckily seemed to be able to grab onto the ladder some ways up, getting out of harms way.

Nothing but death awaited him if he, a level 2, were to be caught up in a fight in an enclosed space with a level 6, after all.

At the same time, Malek wreathed his hands in a golden flame, shooting towards the mimic. Karsten flung himself backwards, nearly bashing into the wall, the hurricane of confusion taking hold of his mind yet again.

“What the fuck is this?” He hurriedly shoved his hand into the bag of holding and retrieved Henry’s spear, throwing it towards the man. Henry grabbed it and spun around to face the mimic.

Haressy also moved back, but decided against summoning her familiar. There was no way the bird was going to be of much help in such a small space, so instead she created a halo of spores around herself, giving herself a damage buff. She simultaneously cast Entangle, black roots with sandpaper-like bark sprouting out from the ground.

She wasn’t quick enough, however, as before the roots could take hold of ‘Monster Karsten’s’ legs, ‘he’ vaulted over the counter with a crazy laugh, right into Malek’s fist.

The Monk’s blow didn’t end up hitting it, however, as a split second before it connected with the mimic’s chest, a large hole opened up where it’s ‘heart’ should be. The Goliath’s fist slammed through the hole, consequently hitting nothing.

Malek frowned, but then let out a sigh of relief when the sonic boom caused by his punch pushed the mimic back over the counter and into the shelves on the wall. Bottles cracked and broke, sending liquor of varying colours pouring off the shelves. The mimic seemed entirely unfazed by this, however, and pounced on them in the next moment.

“The mimic can manipulate its body!” Malek yelled to the group.

The foux Karsten tried to punch Malek, but the Monk skillfully brought his arms up in time to block. Though the hit didn’t damage him much due to the mix of both his Class and his racial bonus, he was still forced to take a step back, the wooden floor underneath him splintering.

Before the mimic could land another hit, Henry’s spear came hurling at its head.

The mimic ducked, but missed the opening to dodge to the side before Haressy cast Entangle again. This time, the Spell succeeded, rooting the monster in place for a second.

This second was thankfully enough, and the monster was met with a torrent of blows coming simultaneously from all sides. Henry used a movement skill to boost his attack and speed, thrusting his spear through its head. A translucent liquid with a bluish hue that reeked of rotten death spilled out, covering the party as it descended.

Malek finally landed a punch, the blow caving in the creature’s chest. The searing flame burned the creature, causing the liquid inside to sizzle.

Karsten, using all his somewhat lackluster strength, managed to pierce the mimic’s abdomen with his shortsword and internally squirmed at the sight of someone, or rather something that looked just like himself pop like a balloon. He squirmed even more when he became drenched in the foul fluid.

The monster still didn’t die, however.

In fact, even though only a second had passed since their joined attack, the other Karsten was already showing signs of regenerating - a twisted smile full of jagged teeth threatening to split its half torn off head.

Haressy joined the onslaught then, stomping in the mimic’s knee in with enough force to nearly snap it into two.

The creature gasped and recoiled, looking like it was trying to climb into itself. It seemed like she had hit its vital point.

Taking the opportunity, Malek brought his fist down on the creature’s knee again and again, but was stopped by Karsten before he could fully kill it.

“Otis!” Karsten yelled up the shaft. “You wanna do the honours?”

“Gladly!” Came a happy voice from the shaft.

A few seconds later, Otis joined the party that had circled around the writhing monster.

“Its core is in its left knee,” Haressy explained, pointing at the place she’d kicked. “I think you just need to jump on it a few times.”

“Well alright then, thank you very much.”

Saying so, the Dwarf jumped up and stomped down on ‘Monster Karsten’s’ knee repeatedly, more and more rancid liquid spewing out. As he was doing so, the other party members all turned to Karsten.

“So… Um, do you know why a Mimic dungeon popped up where you… ‘landed’?”

Karsten, snapped out of his reverie, answered stutteringly. “I-I don’t know. Uh, there wasn’t one, in the beginning. But, uh… Yeah, I don’t know. Why does it look like me, though?”

The party looked back to the mimic, now more a pulp than a monster, and sank into thought.

“It might be,” Otis began, stepping out of the monster-puddle, “because you landed here. We, uh, ‘we’ as in ‘everyone’, don’t know how dungeons really form. So there might be something about your Teleportation that caused this thing to pop up.” He said, waving his hands at the room. “But the only way to know whether this really is a dungeon or not is if it goes deeper. There ain’t ever been a dungeon that only had one room, after all.”

The party started searching around the room.

Haressy quickly found the door that led to the backroom of the bar, and Malek found the door that was supposed to lead outside. None of them opened the doors more than a crack, as there was almost certainly real danger behind them, but confirmed by carefully glancing out that they did, in fact go farther down into new shafts.

“I don’t think we should continue…” Haressy said, sounding somewhat disappointed. “I guessed that this mimic was level 6 because that’s the lowest level they can be. It didn’t instantly kill us all either, and we actually managed to kill it, so I figure I was right… But that means there will be higher level mimics further down. If the first monster we meet, which is always the weakest in the dungeon, is level 6, then the Boss is likely level 7, or maybe even level 8. That’s far over the unofficial level-cap…”

“I also think we should return,” Malek nodded.

“Regardless of the difficulty of the dungeon, we shouldn't stay here any longer than we already have,” Henry said, “We should leave so the Official Adventurers don’t catch up with us. I imagine no one here has ever killed anyone before?”

They all shook their heads.

Henry nodded. "And I don’t feel like killing any more than I already have. So let’s go.” Taking hold of the ladder, he started climbing up and out.

Otis started poking around in the goo, trying to find a Magica Stone, and after somehow managing to actually finding one, he shoved it into a pouch at his side and followed after the others.

Chanting a song about the ‘luck of Dwarves’, he climbed up the ladder.

Looking around the room, Karstens mind churned. Finding a dungeon full of ‘Karstens’ was very close to the last thing he’d expected to experience today.

It was unsettling. Extremely unsettling, and he didn’t know what to do with this information.

He thought back to what Otis had said, that nobody knows how dungeons are made, and it calmed him down somewhat. Not much, but a little.

‘So it was likely due to my Teleportation…’ He thought to himself, thinking it made sense. Again, not much, but it was the only clue he had. He wanted to continue exploring the dungeon, but he knew it was a terrible idea. They were all underleveled, and they didn't have the time it would take to clear it even if they were - not ny a long shot.

Internally sighing, Karsten vaulted over the bar and grabbed an unbroken bottle off the shelf. He opened it and took a swig, happy that it wasn’t just a prop. He didn’t know why it would have been a prop, as everything else seemed to be authentic, but Karsten didn’t have the mental energy to reflect on such things at the moment.

“Huuuuu… Okay.” He muttered, lowering the bottle and drying his mouth with the sleeve of his armour.

Grabbing a few more bottles, he placed them all in his inventory and joined the others, leaving the dungeon behind after a final sweep around the Earthen bar with his eyes.