The original managed to snatch Daisy away from the other, hugging her against his chest. "Mine! You can have the other one."

Selena froze for a moment. Daisy tried to wave her off. Selena ducked down and shrank as small as she could, weaving a spell hurriedly. The illusion of herself took shape and she sent it out the door, quickly moving down the path, as if terrified of being captured.

The brutes chased after, all wanting this 'other' pet too. This left the original, laughing at their misfortune. "Dumb. That's why I still have one." He planted an oversized kiss on Daisy's head and slapped the door shut with a hand. "What's your name? Do you know what mine is? What's my favorite color? Mine's red. I like red. You don't think that makes me look evil?"

Daisy's ears went flat at the barrage. "I'm Daisy. You didn't say yours."

He sat her back on the table. "You can call me Olm."

She hopped to her feet, trying to be as tall as she could be before the towering cyclops. She puffed her chest out, tail lashing. "Hello, Olm." Her words were slow and unsure. "Nice to meet you. I don't mind, uh, new friends, but I was in the middle of a trip with my best friend Selena. I really should be getting back to her." She rubbed her elbow, not quite looking at his eye. "I'm sure you have other stuff to be doing too, right?"

"No." He gave her a poke right in that chest she was putting out, making her wobble backwards with the force of it. "You're soft, and fuzzy, and nice. A perfect doll." He hugged her again, pressing his nose against hers. "You'll be good company, yes? Make sure I'm not lonely. You can keep me safe from those dumb bullies too, right?"

Daisy laughed nervously, fighting against an urge to shut down and not say anything. It was all too much, too fast, and to just dissociate and wait for it to get better felt like such a better option. "Olm, please, you are a big, strong, cyclops that has two others to hang out with." She gave him a weak smile. "You don't need me, right?" She gestured to his home. It was full of little toys. He seemed to have made most of them himself.

Olm sniffed, rubbing the back of his arm along his nose. "You can be my new favorite."

Daisy sighed at that. "Even if you did keep me as some pet or toy or whatever, I wouldn't be your favorite for long." She curled her tail around one of her own legs. "You'll break me."

"I would not! Olm learned from mistakes. I won't break you." He sat down hard and looked up towards her. "Please?"

Daisy rubbed her cheek, thinking. "No. Not like that." She glanced towards the door. "We're—"

"Olm knows! You are sad. Lost own doll. Little one, with you. She was your doll. You lost her. Sad. Olm understands."

She shook her head. "You do understand. That's good." She held up a finger. "So, if I get my 'doll' back, then I'm not sad anymore, right?"

Olm pouted and rubbed his cheek. "But they're gone now." He looked around, and there was no sight of Selena. "Chase by 'friends'. Sorry."

Daisy rubbed at the base of her ear, taking slow breaths. "I need to go find her. Can't stay here forever." She leaned over to gently touch his knee. "I appreciate your hospitality. You're very nice. If you let me go, I promise to come visit later."

Olm grabbed Daisy, pulling her in against him and hugging her tight. "No! You will run away and never come back. I will be left alone, forever." He nuzzled her like a toy all the harder at that.

Daisy wriggled, though she looked more uncomfortable than in any pain. "Olm, I take my promises seriously. I am not a liar. If I say I'll visit, I will. I need to take Selena somewhere, then back home. After that, I can visit on my own." She tried to push free. "Now, please let go."

Olm puffed his chest up at that. "I will take you there. Then you will come back with me, and I can keep you safe."

Daisy's ears perked at that. "That's very nice of you, but I have to find Selena first. No Selena, and I already failed. Daisy has a quest. Let her finish that, then she'll visit. Promise."

Olm looked between the door and Daisy, chewing over that. "I can help. We find little one, we go, I come back here, we are happy!"

Daisy mulled over the idea. "I like the way you're thinking, but she's already scared. You'll scare her more. Let me get her, then I'll come back. I won't be scared, because we're friends already." She gave him a warm smile. "I don't want to scare her more by you showing up, right?"

Olm sniffed and rubbed his cheeks. "I'm scary? That's why no one likes me?"

Daisy hopped down to his knee, rubbing it gently. "You're a big muffin! But people don't realize that when they first meet you. It's easy to startle smaller people. It happens to me all the time." She waved over herself. "Compared to other little people, I'm bigger than a lot of them, and they get scared if they don't know me at first." She rubbed his arm lightly. "It just happens."

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Olm let out a sigh. "Olm will let you go. But if you break promise, he will find you and drag you back!"

Daisy wagged a finger up at him. "If I don't come back within a full change of seasons, I'll deserve worse than that, and I won't even fight it. So, do we have a deal?"

Olm pondered that, rubbing his chin, then clapped his hands together. "Deal! You can go and do things. But I want you back soon."

She hopped from his knee to the ground. "We have a deal. I'll be back, promise." She headed for the door, pushing it open and slipping outside.

The air was crisp, but not uncomfortably cold. The area was silent, excepting some distant sounds of trickling water. Daisy looked this way and that, but there were no signs of Selena, nor where she might have gone. She barely took a step before she felt a small hand encircling her tail.

"Psst." Selena pressed in close, though still invisible. "Are you really going to come back? We could just leave."

Daisy shook her head. "I didn't lie to him. He wasn't a monster, he was lonely, and sad, and trying to keep me from being hurt. I'm not going to break my promise." Daisy rubbed behind her head. "And I did promise, so I'll pay him a visit when I don't have family around to get hurt."

Selena nipped Daisy's shoulder. "That's silly."

Daisy let out a huff of air and folded her arms. "I know! But I also made a promise to you, to get your mutagen, so we should get going."

"That's more like it." Selena faded into sight as she climbed up onto Daisy's shoulders. "You weren't wrong. I was scared of you, at first. You are big, compared to me."

Daisy shook her head slowly. "You were cute. You still are. But you're not scared anymore, right?" She set off into the tunnels.

"I love you." She held firmly. "And yes, you still scare me, but I chalked that up as another reason to adore you. You scare me in all the right ways."

They walked for a while, but the tunnel eventually opened up to a huge underground chamber, with a massive tree looming above them. Under the tree were the other two cyclops. Daisy brandished her heavy hammer. "I promised the other one a visit. These two? I say we smash them before they get a chance for grabs."

Selena pointed to the roots of the great tree. "The dungeon is under those roots. We should try to sneak around them. We're here for the dungeon, not the bullies. They don't have any mutagens."

Daisy holstered her hammer. "Point. Man, when did I get so violent?" Thinking back, she had been a bit of a pacifist before coming to that world. "Can you make us both invisible?"

"I mean, I can try, but I don't think I'm strong enough for both of us."

Daisy nodded slowly. "I have an idea. Hide yourself and follow behind me." She waited for Selena to vanish and began at a direct path towards the tree.

The two spotted her quickly. "There's one!" They charged after Daisy, but were surprised when she held up a hand at them. "I already belong to Olm. I owe him a visit. If the reason I don't fulfill that promise is one of you two, he, and I, will kick you around, together."

They slowed, looking at her in surprise. The larger of the two snorted. "We can take him together. He's nothing!"

She shook her head, lifting her heavy hammer into view. "He may not, alone. But he has me." She twirled the hammer as if it were little. "I am Daisy, dragon slayer and dungeon conqueror. Do you think your odds still look good?"

The smaller cyclops looked nervous now, glancing at his brother, then back to Daisy. "I think we should leave her be. Come on!" He tried to tug his brother away.

The other snorted again and grabbed for Daisy. She swung her hammer, bashing his finger aside with surprising force. All of them heard that sudden loud snap of a bone splintering. She kept a flat look. "You should have listened to him." She swung her weapon again and the brute recoiled. She hadn't hit, or really even been trying, but the threat was enough.

She left them be, heading for the tree trunk and finding her way in without being bothered. She lurched forward as something climbed her back. Selena grabbed her in a big hug. "You were amazing!"

Daisy smiled, reaching up to rub the other girl's arm. "I didn't want to actually fight them. It was just a bluff." She took a moment to catch her breath and rub her cheek. "Glad they took the hint to avoid a real fight. Not sure who would have been left standing, but there'd be no winners."

Selena nuzzled against Daisy. "That was pretty badass." She gave Daisy another quick squeeze before turning her eyes upwards to scan down the tunnel. "And here we are."

As if prompted, the name of the dungeon appeared in Daisy's eyes.

─Root Cellar

─Mutagen Richness: Low

─Difficulty: Medium

─Size: Small

She rubbed her cheek and looked around the dark space. "Kinda wish they had a level. A good number to compare against." She pulled up her own sheet and took note of its lack of level. "Dang devs trying to do things differently."

Selena tapped at Daisy's head. "What are you talking about?"

Daisy looked aside. "Ah, in my world, we had games that were a bit like this, so I have a lot of words for what's going on, just not good ways to apply them all." She shook herself out, from head down to her tail. "Just assume I'm mumbling a bit to myself."

Selena nodded slowly. "I can't make sense of it, but sure, I'll just watch your back and hope we get something good."

Daisy's tail lashed as she looked over her shoulder, up towards Selena. "Now we're in known territory. Dungeons I know how to run." She doublechecked her pheromones, off. "Let's get to clobbering things and find that mutagen."

They were barely twenty minutes into the dungeon when Daisy heard a crack from ahead. A small group of skeletons approached. Daisy unstrapped her shield, then pulled out her hammer and readied for combat. The skeletons charged in with surprising speed, just to come up short as if some wall was in their way.

Daisy blinked at the sharp stop, but that didn't slow her great sweeping strike, dashing them to small bits. "Selena, why did they stop?"

Selena giggled from atop Daisy. "I put a wall in front of them only they could see. From their view, your hammer just came out of nowhere an instant before they were dust."

Daisy started to laugh too. "That's brilliant." She rubbed Selena's leg slowly and set out to keep exploring the cave, taking down groups of monsters with ease.

─Unknown mutagen detected.