Pepe walked through the door, behind his cousin, Josh had already gone ahead, Bobby, Erin and finally Michelle came in last. The locker room looked the same as the one they had been in, but the extra uniforms and the dress were gone, their clothes which they had left in a locker were still there. There was yet another door where the changing rooms were before. A sign above it said dining room, Pepe’s stomach rumbled reminding him that he needed food.

Aside from the lockers there were also sinks and towels, they all went to the sinks and took turns cleaning up. Pepe felt cleaner after washing his hands and arms, wiping away the grime, the sweat from his face, and the back of his neck. He wanted a bath or a shower, but this would have to do. Michelle was still in a bad mood about the armor she had gotten, Pepe and the rest of the boys left her alone. There was little to no conversation as they cleaned themselves up.

They went through the door with the dining room sign, as before the Floor 1 door had simply disappeared shortly after they had all returned to the locker room. Pepe saw round grey tables in the room surrounded by round seats, a la cafeteria style, there were what looked like plastic trays and a rollup metal cover, they got in line picking up a tray.

The rollup cover came up as the last one picked up his tray and got in line. Pepe saw metal serving trays full of food, he was not sure what the food was, but it was food. Behind where the kitchen and serving area was, were two floating nodes. They had chef hats on, one with the 1337 label and the other with the 1 label to differentiate the two nodes. Oh, those two were going to get it shortly, he would not want to be them when Michelle got done with them.

“Welcome! We hope you enjoy the food; we would give you a hand,” 1337 cracking jokes, bad ones but he was trying, from 1 you heard the sound of a cymbal, “but we don’t have any, please serve yourselves as much as you want.” They started to move through the line, Pepe was hungry, so he did not care what they were serving. How they had made the food he was unsure as they joked, they had no hands. But it was food, and he was hungry.

He heard Michelle talk to the nodes, she was nice and everything, “Hey you two, how is it going? Could we have a word after we get done eating, I have some questions and concerns.”

“Yes, of course Miss Michelle, we will come out after we close down, and you all have had your fill of food.” They sounded happy, they would not be so happy after she was done with them.

He got through the line with his food, it smelled great, the main dish had the consistency of meatloaf, a little salad, and mash potatoes on the side. And for dessert they had two options what looked like cheesecake, and carrot cake, he took one of each. There were cups and what looked like some form of dispensers, four of them to be exact. He picked one at random, and out came an orange bubbly drink, the smell of carbonation and orange wafted his way.

He sat down, his cousin already there digging into his full plate, he had piled a ton of food on the plastic tray, twice as much as what Pepe’s tray held. He had earned it after all they had been through, they all had. Just like in the locker room no one said anything they just all ate their food, Pepe felt ravenous, he was eating fast, he recalled his breakfast with Michelle and slowed down.

After they finally started to slow down and just pick at the food, they started to talk among themselves. Since Bobby was next to him he wanted to check in on his friend, “How are you feeling Bobby?” That hit he had been hard, taking a lot of his HP down.

“I’m a little sore but I should be fine, we got a long way to go, I will just need to be more careful.” Pepe did not think it was about being careful or not. They all needed to pay attention to what was going on otherwise any of them could get hurt. It was not just on one person of the group it was on all of them. They had to think quicker, react quicker, he would do that, he did not want to see his friends hurt.

“Cool, we all have to look out for each other, we are a team.” Eh he had nuggets of wisdom, like superheroes said, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ and while they may not have great power, they had great responsibility for themselves and the team.

Pepe saw the two nodes come out from the kitchen, they had replaced their chef hats with the red and green ones that they had at the beginning. Michelle saw them come out, got up and made her way to them. It was time, he and the rest of the guys just glanced over but did not want to make it seem like they were staring at what was going to play out.

Michelle started out really nice, her voice normal, “Node 1337 I have some concerns about what we experienced on Floor 1. My concern is not so much the difficulty or what we faced, it is the end reward, specifically the end reward for the girls.” Her voice had gone up in volume at that last part, not much but it was noticeable.

“Miss Michelle, I am not sure what you mean, our choices were based on our extensive research, we created the rewards with the appropriate stats for the various job roles.”

“The Stats are not what concern me, Josh if you can bring out the guy version of the armor we got please.” He quickly obeyed the request; she had turned slightly towards him when she asked, and her face was as red as it had been when she originally saw the bikini armor.

She took out the bikini version as well, “This thing you gave the girls, it is called a bikini, it is used at the beach, the river, places with water. It is not armor!”

The two nodes backed up a few feet, “But our research—”

“IT IS NOT ARMOR!” Pepe felt for the poor nodes, he really liked Michelle, but she had a bit of a temper on her. Though she was cute when she was mad too, again not something he was going to tell her. To think about it, she kind of reminded him of his mom that one time with his dad, he shivered at that memory.

They did not say anything, probably the smartest thing they could have done, the nodes turned to each other, lights started to flash between the two, then back to Michelle, “Our apologies Miss Michelle, our research seems to have been limited. Before you move on to the next floor if you could help us with the research and how we can fix this mistake, we would appreciate it.”

They led her to one of the far tables away from the group and they started to talk about the research and fixing the issue that was identified. After twenty minutes, she came back over to the group, “Are we ready?” No one met her eyes, while she calmed down from earlier there was still something in her voice, no point in poking the bear thought Pepe. They nodded to her, “Alright then let’s get the show on the road.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were back in the locker room, and as before a loudspeaker came on, “Congratulations on your successful completion of first floor. We will now move on to the second floor where the challenge will be even greater. We appreciate your participation as we improve the facilities for future use. Enjoy the next floor.”

Initializing Floor 2…. Initialization Complete

Floor 2 The Less than Living is now ready to be entered.

Please proceed with caution.

A new door came into being, Pepe saw an old door rounded at the top with a metal knocker, no actual doorknob was present just a ring that you pull to open it. The wood on the door was old and worn as if it had been exposed to the sun for many years, it was grey instead of a brownish color you would expect a nice new wood door to be.

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Josh opened the door and they looked in, what they saw was a road and trees on either side of said road, old wooden post, and beams along the road. There was a light drizzle of rain, and Pepe had not brought an umbrella, guess they were going to get wet. He was not looking forward to this dungeon as much as he liked dungeons, he did not like the rain he saw.

They filed through to the rainy road, at least it was not a cold rain, Pepe felt the water running down his back, in minutes he felt soaked through. It may not have been cold, but it still sucked, he looked around saw his friends were also miserably wet, they started down the road.

The road was wide enough to be a two-lane road, no wagons of any kind were present, they heard no birds or animals, it was a desolate place. Pepe only felt the rain come down and his wet clothes, still in the Plumber outfit, he felt the water even in his overly large boots, in between his toes, not very comfortable. From time to time in the distance he saw lightning flashes in the sky and a large buildings shadow. He pointed this out to his friends, they looked up and saw it.

“Looks like we know where we have to go.”

They walked getting soaked the whole time, they had caps on, but they did little to cover them from the rain. The road came to a bend and a small house was standing there to the left of the road. Pepe looked up and saw that the roof was in poor repair, likely letting lots of water in, while it may have more holes than Swiss cheese, they probably be able to find an area that was covered from the rain.

They walked in, they had knocked in case it belonged to someone, but it was highly unlikely as it seemed abandoned. He looked around, what may have been a table and chairs was now falling apart on the ground, only one of the legs of the table was attached, the other laying on the ground. One chair still looked like it was whole, but he doubted it would hold his weight.

There was dust everywhere, spiderwebs on the corners, but he saw no spiders. A fireplace that had not been used for a very long time, but it was not cold enough to need an actual fire. Various holes on the roof allowed rain in, puddles forming in various locations on the floor. None of it was very inviting, Pepe looked around and felt like it was all staged, like what you see in a movie.

Five minutes passed and some noise was heard outside, Pepe heard a horse outside stop and the sound of metal as a rider dismounted. He was not sure why that came to mind as he had seen neither, it just felt like that. Again, it felt staged, but what was he going to do? A knock came at the door, he knew it was coming. They all looked at the door, then at each other and shrugged, if it was something bad why would it knock at the door?

They took out their weapons, better prepared than sorry. Josh opened the door, standing there was a tall figure, it had on a leather raincoat of sorts with the hood up. “Thank you, kind stranger, would you be amenable to allow a traveler out of the rain, I would be happy to pay you for the stay?” The voice had a weird sound to it as if the person was talking through a tin can.

What was this, they were not expecting to meet a person in the dungeon. Josh turned to allow the person in. “My thanks, it has been a miserable day of rain. But it is the rainy season, so it is to be expected.” The tall figure removed the raincoat, Pepe was amazed to see that the person was wearing a full set of armor. It was the whole getup; helmet with a slit so he could see, breastplate, gauntlets, and greaves. Not that he actually knew what any of the pieces were called, but now he understood why the voice sounded like it did.

He carried a shield behind his back, and a sword in its scabbard at the hip, the sword a lot longer than what Manuel carried. “I have traveled many days in this dreary weather, the countryside is empty of people, I was surprised to find someone here. Are you also fellow travelers by chance? And by your look adventurers, maybe? If so, I have need of your aid, for I am on a quest.” And there it was thought Pepe, the knight was a ‘non-playable-character?’ Or what did you call it here since it was like a game but not a game.

Josh looked at his companions before answering, probably thinking the same thing as Pepe, “Yes to both, we are travelers and adventurers.” He went on to introduce them to the knight. Pepe nodded as he was introduced, the rest doing the same.

“Ah excellent, glad am I to meet you. My name is Sir Urthor of the Court of Daford.” He bowed which looked awkward in the suit of armor he was wearing. Though he pulled off all the movement perfectly, it was as if he had been born in the armor or just many years of practice, “Aid was requested by concerned citizens, the Court sent others before me, but none have returned. I and my retinue were sent, unfortunately an accident with our wagons has left my fellows days behind.”

Good setup thought Pepe, he would need to tell the Nodes they had done well. He continued his story of how he had been riding nonstop until tonight, and how lucky he was to find them there. Right lucky, it was like the nodes had seen some movies or maybe read it in some kind of book and just made their own version.

Through all this the knight had not removed his helm, they could not see any eyes through the eye slit on the helm. It was dark due to the clouds outside so little light was actually present, enough to see but not a lot.

Pepe found it interesting that the night had not commented at all about the weird uniform they had on, the overly large boots and gloves, the green and red shirts, and overalls. The weapons they had wielded may of gave away the Adventurers vibe, but then again it felt scripted so maybe it was just that.

“If you could give us a little time, I would confer with my friends about this.” Josh moved over to the other side of the room, picking a spot that did not have a hole above them.

“Thoughts?”

“Feels like a movie or something.” Pepe knew he was not the only one that had thought that. Erin had come to the same conclusion, the rest just nodded to his response.

“Since it is part of the Dungeon let’s just agree so we can move to the next part.” This came from Manuel, so he too wanted to continue with this. They had all had their rest, so it was time to get this Dungeon run on the road.

They moved back over to the night, he had just been standing where they had left him, it was weird because it felt like a statue. “Sir Urthor, we have all agreed to help in your quest. Can you tell us more about it?”

“Most excellent, there will be a reward for your time of course….” Pepe listened as the knight went into his spiel, about the other two groups that had not returned. There were some unknown monsters attacking citizens and that he was there to stop them. With their help they would get to the bottom of this and end the treat to the remote area they were in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Frank or as Pepe would call him Francisco, found himself in front of a round floating metal ball, it has introduced itself as a Registration Node or as it said to call it Regi. It had gone over something to do with roles and all this and that, none of it made sense to him. What was he doing here in a forest? He had been sleeping in his bed and then he had been here.

After he had been told about these roles, it was like one of the stupid games his brother and his friends played, he had chosen Wizard. He was not sure why he had chosen that one, but it was the only one that called him. It seemed interesting to be able to use magic and stuff.

He was wearing a black shirt, black pants, and his lace up black boots when he had fallen asleep, and they had come with him. Good thing he had been wearing his boots, while not the most comfortable shoes to wear for a long hike they were good sturdy boots.

He like his brother and friends had been giving a map, for him a black backpack had appeared to carry his things. He had brought up this GUI thing and had been greeted by the HelpNode, it had given him lots of more information than that Regi fellow. None of it made sense to him though, he started his walk to the Starter Town, what kind of name was that? More silly game things.

He had arrived at Starter Town, and just gaped at the guards, they were not human. The giant one did not say anything but the little one next to it started to talk, “Oh look at that, another one, we have not seen others arrive for a few days. So, kind of late I would say. Welcome to Starter Town” It was female by the sound of the voice, he looked up at the big one and it smiled, the canine teeth quite long. What were these two?

They had said some things, but he was still in shock about everything that was happening, so he did not pay much attention. He had been told to read some rules, go to the inn, and get a room. He had done that, meeting another little person that had checked him in, they had fed him then taken him to a small room. The room with a small bed, he sat down to gather his thoughts, all so confusing. He left his things and went out to this Adventurers Guild place he had been pointed to.

He went in, saw some people around his age, some younger that had been talking to the person that worked there. When they were done, he went up to the lady, she was all smiles and told him what they did and that she was happy to have so many new guild members. So, he had joined to make money while he was not ready to accept this as reality, it must be a dream, and he was actually back in his bed sleeping right now.

The days continued and he had not woken up from the weird dream, he had seen his brother and his friends, but he had hidden in an alley as they passed by. He had heard something about a dungeon that they were going to. A girl was with them, a red head with curly hair, he was not sure who she was, but she was walking and talking with them.