The dungeon churned with the slight movements of its master, shifting around and trying to regain its motion as everything began to start again from where it left off. Red stretching his arms as he tried to understand why he felt so stiff.
“Jeeze, you would think that a month long break wouldn’t make me that stiff.” Red muttered as he looked down and summoned up a small calendar.
“What the hell?! It’s been four months?! We missed a whole quarter of the year! The holiday specials, the story progression, all of it! Why the hell are we so backed up? Did the writer even get the backlog done like he had promised?” Red grumbled as he manifested into the main chamber of his first floor, looking around and seeing his fairies beginning to do their jobs once again.
“Look at this place. Everyone is exhausted from over sleeping, and the writer has to get us back to where we were before the story had suddenly taken a break. At least h managed to get back to it before the new year.” He sighed as he looked downed around and restarted some of the natural processes of the dungeon. He made sure that the water from the tree was flowing through the stream, the spawners he still had active were not sucking in too much mana, and that oxygen was properly circulating through his structure.
“To be fair, at least he isn’t abandoning the story entirely. So many tales never get finished just because the writer moved on from the project.” Lotus chimed in as she approached Red while the avatar of the core was inspecting the roots of the Alchemical Oak to make sure they weren’t rotting in the damp soil.
“Yeah, but just because he is back doesn’t mean he can get away with it. Four months people have been waiting for us to update. We’ve lost viewership, didn’t warn anyone about the extended hiatus, and just generally were rude.” Red crossed his arms with a frustrated look as he tried to show he wasn’t going to justify the writer’s laziness.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“This is true, but he is already trying to make up for that.” The Queen of Toxic replied as she helped some poisonous plants bloom around the base of the tree.
“Oh yeah? And how is that?” The cantankerous core replied as it tried to understand why the Queen was giving the writer any kind of credit.
“Well, he has just spent the majority of this story badmouthing himself because he is unhappy about leaving his readers hanging for so long. The sheer fact that he is at least writing us is a good thing. Not to mention the fact that this is supposed to be our New Year’s celebration story.” She pointed out as she turned towards the fussy Red, figuring the core would calm down and understand what she was trying to say.
“Fuck! That’s right. We still need to actually get the new year’s story underway. We don’t have enough time! It’s two days away! One if you live in Europe. We don’t have enough time for a good side story. What should we do?” Red asked with a frown as he looked at lotus, hoping his oldest minion would have some type of advice for him.
“Well, thankfully while you were running about grumbling like a petty old man, I gathered everyone together.” Lotus smiled as she waved a hand over to show the vast assortment of fairies, slimes, crustaceans, birds, and other assorted creatures.
“Well… at least this is something.” Red said with a smile and a sigh as he approached the crowd that were all gathering in the field behind the tree so that they could speak.
“Alright, everyone! We don’t have enough time for a big party or any wacky misadventures, so we gotta do this Christmas special style.” Red called out to everyone, various noises of agreement ringing out before he found his place at the front of the crowd.
“Alright, on three. One, two…three!” Red counted down before all of the creatures rang out in Dungeon Speak.
“Happy New Year!” They all cheered out loudly, the cacophony being grating on the ears.
“Hopefully, we will have a lot more progress this year.” Red muttered under his breath as everyone resumed their stations.