Mika took a deep breath and pushed the button. There was a gold flash as magic covered her. She closed her eyes, feeling herself being teleported.

When she opened them, she was in a crowded room. No, not a room, a two-story fantasy-style tavern with backlit fish tanks in place of doors and windows.

As Mika looked around everyone jumped up, smiling and shouting. They surrounded her, pressing pints of beer into her hands as they asked what cycle she was on and how many times she’d pushed the button.

Mika… grinned.

She flopped into a provided chair, downing half a pint in one go. Wiping her mouth, she pointed at people and gave one-word answers to their shouted questions. She was a Player, and everyone here knew it. They knew what that meant. It didn’t take her long to figure out these people had been Players too, but for whatever reason were now out of the game. As she was still in the game, that made her a celebrity.

Eventually the questions died down, and people wandered back to their games and hobbies. Mika went to the bar and chatted with the bartender/cook, who used to be a Player himself. He explained why the tavern existed, why these people were out of the game, and where the fish came from.

Mika took a room key, knowing she was going to be here for a few days.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

She planned on having fun.

*****

Dear Diary,

The Players got here this morning! Tim ate one! That was… Ok, mostly it was funny. Bad, but funny. Avi locked the velociraptors in his room so it doesn’t happen again.

Mika went down and pushed the button. Y went down later to check if she was still on Floor 100, and she isn’t. Then I tried messaging her, but got an error message in reply. So either I have her number wrong, or… I don’t know. Maybe she isn’t in the dungeon? I probably just got her number wrong.

Anyways, Emmy is in charge of the blacksmith shop again. Her magic color is brown, meaning she has brown hair.

It’s kinda weird to me that she can have brown hair. I mean, the most “natural” color any catgirl had here was silver, and even then it isn’t common for a twenty-two year old to have grey hair. Seeing a catgirl with a “normal” hair color is weird.

But other than that I like Emmy. She’s the type of person who makes plans and has solid goals. I wouldn’t be surprised if her diary is a bullet journal. If she has a diary. She seems like a list person more than a write down whatever pops into your head person, like me.

…I guess you could argue that Aya’s hair is blonde, but it really isn’t. It’s yellow. Super saturated yellow.

Oh, Lily got here yesterday! It took her a lot longer than I thought it would. She hasn’t been too talkative, I think being solo wore her out. I should take her something made out of coffee and ice cream, to make her feel better.

Yeah, I need to make her something with lots of sugar, cream and caffeine. It’s not a permanent fix, but it’ll help for a little while.

Goodnight, Dungeon!

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