The next day, Doremi and Sola woke up early and got ready to search the insect dungeon and see what happened. Dungeons typically don’t just undertake massive change in a few days, and the two expected the dungeon to have nothing more than a donut spider. All expectations were then cooked, deep fried, and served as dessert when they actually entered the dungeon, going past the sign.

“It’s all…” Doremi trailed off in disbelief, but seemed as excited as she could get.

“...pastries.” Sola finished, a grin on her face.

The entire dungeon, from the walls to the ceiling to even the floors, looked like it was made out of pastries. Icing outlined a path for them to walk on, chocolate crunching under their shoes. While Sola was frantically writing down every little detail, Doremi was just looking at the place.

“It smells like a bakery.”

She idly said, poking one of the walls and noticing how it’s about as squishy as an actual cake. Sola started in awe.

“This rate of change; It’s ridiculous! If John reported this about an hour before we got it, then it’s only been… What, two, three days? That means that all of this is brand new. Doremi, I think we’re watching history unfold. Or, at the very least, a very interesting dungeon.”

Doremi paid attention to Sola’s words, but was more focused on the moth that landed on her nose. Doremi smiled.

“Hey Sola, look, a butterfly!”

Sola stopped frantically writing and looked at the moth for a few moments. Sola raised an eyebrow.

“Firstly, that thing’s fluff is made of strawberry icing and secondly, that’s a moth.”

Doremi raised an eyebrow as the moth haphazardly flew away in an unpredictable pattern.

“But it’s so colorful? I thought moths were a bit duller.”

“No, you can tell it’s a moth because it was resting with wings open. When moths land, they land with wings spread. Plus, moth flight patterns tend to be unpredictable compared to most butterflies.”

Sola idly explained while writing down every detail of the moth. Doremi wanted to question why Sola knew so much about moths, but decided to ignore that and instead continue searching around the dungeon.

The dungeon itself wasn’t too big; The whole place was somewhat small compared to more developed dungeons. Only 2 floors. Doremi and Sola finished writing down everything they could about the first floor; The walls, the smell, the odd muffin and cupcake spiders they had seen, and the icing moth.

As they went down a floor, they saw it.

“So that’s the donut spider that John was talking about in the letter.”

Doremi said, looking at the spider as it carefully tended to the walls, using icing like webbing. It was an odd sight, but Doremi and Sola agreed that the sweetness - if the web was still as sticky as most dungeon spiders’ webs - would do a fantastic job at catching more bugs. In an odd way, it was an advantage.

“Well, aside from the general oddness of this dungeon,” Sola said, gesturing to the spider with her dagger, “It’s actually surprisingly peaceful. I know this dungeon wasn’t that much of a hostile one, but I was expecting a little resistance.”

Doremi shrugged.

“Neutral dungeons are like that. ‘I fight you if you fight me,’ that sorta thing. Maybe the dungeon only gets ‘‘nervous’’ when we get too close to the core. Speaking of, we do need to check the core…”

Sola nodded in agreement and the two tried not to ruin any of the spider’s webs as they walked through the final little hallway. Entering the core room, Sola and Doremi were caught looking at something they didn’t expect at all.

“...Okay, hear me out, I know ya’ can’t speak, but I think that you’ll like what I’ve brought this time. So, spider muffins an’ cupcakes are a great idea, but what about cookie cockroaches? It’d be really cool, I think. I’ve made som’ dragon scale cookies with the last of my precious supplies, and I think that you’ll be able to figure it out real easi-”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Fizz stopped in his tracks when he noticed the two women at the core room entrance.

The core room of the dungeon had a table in the middle, a shelf on the side, a damn oven settled right next to the core, while the core itself was embedded into the wall. The only normal part about this was how the core was in the wall like a crystal, but other than that, this was unheard of.

Firstly, a dungeon would never just… let someone place all that stuff in the room. Dungeons typically prefer their core to either be surrounded by natural clutter - such as rocks, stones, sticks, grass, things like that - or prefer their core room to be clear of clutter so that they can defend themselves correctly.

But this? This? The dungeon made no sense anymore. You can’t befriend a dungeon; That’s the first thing written in the guidebooks at the Dungeon Association. And here this random, odd man was, a tray of freshly baked cookies in his hands, a pastel pink apron that said ‘Hug the chef!’ and a white hat.

“...Er… Hello.”

Fizz said, putting his cookies onto the table before awkwardly waving at them. Sola and Doremi sorta just stared at him for a long moment, before Sola said exactly what they were thinking.

“...What?”

*

Earlier, Lemrio was trying to think of a good way to add more to his dungeon. The strawberry cake he’d been given was certainly a massive help, but a part of Lemrio wanted to know how the adventurer made it to begin with. It was dark outside, and Lemrio was alone again.

He missed the days when adventurers of all kinds would barge in, kill some of his critters, and leave. Sure, it seemed a bit rude, but he ultimately got more magic than he lost and he liked when brand new adventurers killed a bug for the first time and celebrated over it.

That was until the man from a few nights ago came into the dungeon. Excited - noticing that the man had a backpack full of things - Lemrio got his pastry spider to try and get the man to the core room. The man hadn’t done anything before, so Lemrio trusted him.

The man was reluctant but did follow the pastry spider into the core room. Lemrio was a bit confused when the man began talking, seemingly to Lemrio. Adventurers didn’t talk to him most of the time so this was new! Lemrio listened carefully, using all his knowledge to try and understand. Lemrio luckily managed to get enough to understand the gist of what the man was saying.

The man’s name was Fizz, and he wanted to help Lemrio! Lemrio was very excited for this, especially since Fizz claimed to be a treat maker of some kind. Fizz explained an offer - Another thing that Lemrio had never been given before - and it went like this;

Lemrio would give Fizz a workspace in whatever area fit best, and Fizz would both protect the core and offer new pastries to incorporate. This was fantastic for Lemrio, and it was very easy to agree. Sure, Lemrio didn’t actually know how to read, but he got the general gist from Fizz’s words.

Lemrio did struggle a bit to make what Fizz called ‘measuring cups,’ mostly since they had to be very exact. After a few hours of frustration while making all the supplies Fizz would need, Lemrio’s core hummed in excitement at his work, knowing that more things were sure to happen. Fizz seemed excited too, based on how he was unloading the things in his backpack onto the shelves.

Fizz left and reentered the dungeon a few more times that night, but made sure to cover his tracks well. He didn’t want John to realize that he wasn’t exactly sleeping tonight. Luckily, most adventurers actually slept at night in this town, considering that everything tended to close once it got too dark to see without a lantern or a torch.

The two may not have been able to truly have a conversation, but they understood each other through actions and words anyways. When Fizz was working, he’d ramble about every little detail and why he adds one spice instead of another. He only noticed that Lemrio was actively listening when he wished for cinnamon and watched a cupcake spider stumble back with some cinnamon in a little jar.

Lemrio enjoyed hearing Fizz’s rambles. And, due to the few cookbooks Fizz was reading out loud coupled with the fact that he tended to read by dragging his finger across the page, Lemrio started to learn a bit about the written language adventurers used as well.

Fizz promised to return when he left at daybreak, and Lemrio was happy. Lemrio, although hardly knowing what the word meant, thought that Fizz was his friend.

So, when two people he noticed but didn’t pay attention to came closer, Lemrio was suspicious. Fizz didn’t seem to be worried and the new intruders seemed similar to the gift giver in their goals, so Lemrio held back from attacking or commanding his spiders to fight.

Lemrio tried to understand the conversation as the three interacted with eachother. From what Lemrio could understand, Fizz was explaining the contract that he made with Lemrio while the two adventurers thought he was lying. Lemrio got a little nervous, which was reflected in his insects; Only one of the adventurers noticed the fact that the dungeon was getting quiet. That’s a somewhat foreboding sign in a dungeon filled with scuttling and cricket chirps at most times, to put it lightly.

Regardless, Fizz seemed to wrangle his way out of the confrontation. Lemrio didn’t quite catch all of it, but he’s pretty sure that Fizz agreed to tell the two adventurers everything about Lemrio. Lemrio didn’t mind; He liked being talked about. It made him happy, in some sort of way.

When the three left together, Lemrio didn’t mind at all. Putting his attention to the cookies instead, Lemrio was excited. Fizz’s proposal for a cookie insect of some kind fascinated Lemrio… How would he pull it off?

Excited, Lemrio began working. He had the whole day, after all.