The vague memory of ignoring the Alert and timer crept into Rick’s thoughts. After the timer ran out, the System must have assigned Penny since she was the only one in the dungeon besides his minions.
He immediately looked at Penny and noticed that she was curled up at the base of a giant egg twice her size. The Kaiju Egg looked more like a stone. It was a smooth obsidian, void of color. Penny seemed to notice that his gaze was on them as her tail started to wag, smacking against the ground.
“Is that your pretty egg, Penny?”
Penny’s tail thwapped harder against the floor, tongue rolled out of the side of her mouth. She could definitely hear Rick, but he didn’t understand how or why.
“Ok, let’s identify this beauty,” he said and used the skill.
Obsidian Chiroptera Kaiju Egg - (273:22:05:34)
Note: An Obsidian Chiroptera Kaiju will need a minimum of 10 cubic miles of living space.
“I have so many questions,” Rick breathed. “The word ‘Kaiju’ rings a bell. I know I’ve heard that word in a movie or something before. But I have no fucking clue what a Chiroptera is. And ten cubic miles? Definitely not a goldfish then.”
Rick wasn’t entirely worried about the egg, but he was worried about Penny. As the “guardian”, she was its protector. If Challengers made it in here and tried to take it, would they kill Penny? He couldn’t let that happen.
“How do you level up, girl?” Rick asked. At the very least, he could help her get stronger. She had skyrocketed to Level 3 after only one fight which seemed odd. Did she also level up when she used her skills to heal Jimmy? It seemed entirely possible to Rick, so he decided to test it out.
“How do we get you downstairs with Billy and the wolves?” He pondered.
Using his will on the door, he learned that he couldn’t open it to the outside world. However, he could open it to the other floor.
“Pff. Billy could have told me that,” Rick said, ignoring the fact that he should have figured that out some time ago. For now, he left Penny alone with the egg and spoke to Billy.
“So, Billy. Have any injuries?”
The Floor Boss was nonplussed, “I thought you’d be asking me about the levels I gained and my new skills. But, to answer your question, I do have some minor chemical burns that are taking a long time to heal. One of the recent Challengers could spit the substance a great distance.”
“I am very interested in your new skills, Billy but we’ll get to that later,” Rick said guiltily. “Right now, I just want to see Penny’s healing capabilities. Penny’s my do-”
“I know who Penny is. You regularly project your words which are impossible for me to miss,” Billy said, interrupting the dungeon.
Rick wasn’t sure if he liked this new Billy. He had wanted him to develop a personality, but he was getting pretty sassy. “Ok, well I want you to help her level up. And to do that, she needs to heal you. Can you go through to the next floor?”
“No, I’m certain that would kill me permanently if I were to try. She is not a minion, correct?”
“She’s not. Let me see if she’ll go through the door.”
Penny had never been great at listening to instructions. She was a whimsical dog and he had never trained her to do anything other than simple commands like “sit” and “stay”.
“Penny, can you go through that door?” Rick asked. Penny stood up wagging her tail but didn’t leave the egg. “She’s not going through. Billy, can you stand by the door? Maybe she’ll come over if she sees you.”
The door was a long way from Billy’s little hobbit hole, but he obliged and began jogging toward it. Despite his sassy attitude, Rick believed that Billy would still follow his orders. He was technically a part of him after all.
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Once Billy got close, Rick cooed at Penny again, “Go see who it is! Who’s at the door?”
Penny whined a little bit as she looked back at the egg and walked toward the door. She clearly felt uncomfortable about leaving it.
“Don’t worry, Penny. I’ll make sure the egg is safe while you go with the nice Mr. Billy,” Rick assured.
Her tail wagged once more and she trotted through the door. Billy smiled as he greeted her with a pat on the head. He clearly had a similar love for canines as Rick did.
“Hi girl, do you think you can help me with these?” Billy said and rolled up his sleeves, revealing disturbing splotches of burned skin, oozing puss.
“Jesus man, I didn’t realize they were that bad,” Rick said.
“This is nothing. Only a few health points down. They will completely heal eventually, even without Penny’s help.”
Penny didn’t seem disturbed by the sight or the smell as she got close with her nose. A soft golden glow emanated from it and the wounds visibly cleared. Her tail wagged faster as she saw her success. Billy smiled again and scratched her ear.
“Thank you, Penny. That is much better.”
It wasn’t obvious whether or not it helped Penny level up, but she sure liked it. Rick used Identify on her to see if she gained a level or not.
Penny - Level 3 Good Girl - Kaiju Egg Guardian
Nothing had changed, so he found the wolves with his senses. They were huddled together in their den. Rick probed deeper with his senses to try to detect any injuries they may have had.
There weren’t any injuries that he could sense, but he did pick up a much larger surprise. Stella was pregnant.
“Uh, Billy?”
“Yes, dungeon?”
“I didn’t realize that dungeon mobs could procreate.”
Raising his eyebrows, Billy said, “Yes, of course we can. However, the process is greatly accelerated by the System.”
“I see. Do you know how long it would take from inception to birth?”
“I can’t speak for other species. But, for humans, it takes approximately nine weeks.”
Rick whistled at that. There was no timer on the wolf, but if the time decrease was similar between wolves and humans, it should only take a couple of weeks until Stella gave birth to a little furball-sized wolf.
“What happens if a pregnant minion is killed during battle?” Rick asked, suddenly worried.
“I’m not entirely sure, I imagine it would be wise to avoid having them fight any Challengers until afterward,” Billy said with a straight face. Rick was certain he was insulting his intelligence again, but he didn’t know what the hell these rules were.
“Ya know, Billy. You’re kind of a dick.”
The gunslinger smiled, “I learned from the best.”
“Finally, a compliment!” Rick shouted into the air. “Anyway, you’ve had enough time to laze about. I’m going to work on expanding this place while you fight Challengers. I’ll watch your next fight so you can show off whatever you got at Level 5.”
“Very well,” he said with a nod. “Goodbye Penny.”
Penny bounded happily through the door to take her spot by the egg and Rick closed the door.
A few moments later, Jimmy came back in, rolling a utility cart that looked like it was from a big box store. It was piled with various objects. On the bottom was a layer of construction wood. On top of that was more trash, then laying across the top was a potted lemon tree.
“Nice haul, Jimmy.”
“Thanks. I wonder if this thing will bear fruit in here,” he said, shaking the lemon tree. “Anyway, I have some of the guys outside from the Cartel. They say they’ll help us if we can help initiate their young recruits.”
That surprised Rick quite a bit, “And how are we supposed to do that?”
“Well, the idea is that we agree to let them come in once in a while and not use lethal force, but give their guys combat experience. I told them I’d ask you, but you wouldn’t get any experience toward leveling that way.”
“Jimmy, if they help get my parents back, they can send in whoever the fuck they want. That’s a deal. I’ll tell Bi-”
“I heard you — try not to kill them. Got it,” the gunslinger said from across the now four-mile-long floor.
“Ok, yeah, send them in,” Rick said, ignoring Billy.
“These first two are high-ranking officers in the Cartel and want to see it for themselves first. So please, don’t kill them,” Jimmy’s forehead glistened with sweat at the thought.
“Sure, sure. We’re ready. Oh, and Stella — Stay in your den, dear,” It was actually quite nice to just be able to talk and have everyone on the same page, Rick thought.
Two Hispanic men, faces covered in tattoos, entered the moment Jimmy had left. Neither held a gun of any kind. One of them had brass knuckles on each hand. The other didn’t seem to have a weapon of any kind, but Rick could sense one of the tattoos on his arm began to pulsate.