Jake and Five were hiding in a bush overlooking one of the monsters on this dungeon floor. Five would use his superior sneaking ability to scout out a target while Jake just did his best to not get seen. Their target was a rabbit; not a grand monster, but a small one, only slightly bigger than a pre-system heir. This was the third monster the two had scouted out. The first one almost killed the two; if it hadn't been for Jake's quick response time, Five and he would have been meat for that lioness. Then the second monster at least didn’t try to kill them, but it was definitely out of Jake's current ability to kill it. Being a dinosaur just might have been a giveaway as to its strength. Then there was the fact that Jake saw it split a tree in two with its clubbed tail before it just sauntered off. Now they were overlooking the rabbit.
“So what do you think, do I bum rush it and hope for the best?”
Five just turned and looked at him before going back to his observation of the dungeon and all its strangeness. Then, unfazed by Jake, he scratched some symbols into a piece of slate and turned to Jake.
“It's a rabbit, not a fucken dragon. Do whatever you want, just make sure you kill the stinking thing.”
Jake looked over after that response. “Is something bothering you? Because it seems like something's bothering you.”
Five changed back into his little fox form and walked over to Jake. “It's nothing.”
The fox climbed up onto Jake's shoulder before continuing. “It's just these fuckenstinking animals bring back memories I would rather just forget. Like the time my stupid brother killed one and put it in my bed; I fucken stunk for a week. It was only by jumping into a river that the smell finally left, but by then it was too late; my chance was over. There was no way she would want me after that. No, she picked that asshole of a brother. All hail fucken one of nine, the only one to be born in the moon's enchanting likeness. Fuck him and his wife; I hope they both die. Let's get this over with so we can leave this place already.”
Jake was about to launch an attack when Five spoke again. “How does a man stay so clean when his soul is as filthy as a back alley brothel on pay day?”
Jake snickered as he dashed out of their hiding spot and kicked the unsuspecting rabbit right in the head. The little rabbit's top head turned to mist, covering both Jake and the many other rabbits that had just now exited the burrow in full force. Jake was now surrounded by what some people would call cute furry animals, but these ones were much different. Each rabbit, while not tough, let out a killing intent so deep it was actually suffocating to be in. It was then that the slight exhilaration Jake got from his most recent kill vanished and a feeling of dread replaced it.
“Little fox, you have made a mistake by coming here. We will take our revenge out on you for the countless murders you have committed, and as for you, creature, we will be taking your head and that bounty of yours,” the group of rabbits said in unison.
“A group of stinken rabbits want to take my life? Ha, just try it; I welcome it,” Five shouted before he jumped off Jake's shoulder and lunged at the closest rabbit, his teeth bearing down on the rabbit's neck. Blood filled the air as Five ripped apart the rabbit before he moved on to the next and then the next. The killing didn't stop, not even for a second. It was then Jake noticed no matter how many Five killed, another would just take its place. With his limited skills available to him, there was nothing he could do to destroy them all; he could only join the hand-to-hand fighting alongside Five, but this would only hasten their demise. Jake needed to find a way for the two of them to retreat from this fight. So he jumped into the fray to at the very least give his friend some support as he came up with a plan.
“Five, we need to retreat from this fight,” Jake shouted over the cacophony of screeching rabbits.
“Retreat? Against a bunch of stinken fluff balls? Why can't you just blow them to pieces like you usually would?”
“If you had forgotten, I don't have my fucken skills in this place. Now let's leave these rabbits for later and fuck right off before it gets any worse,” Jake said before he began to retreat, followed closely behind by an irritated Five. The two ran as fast as they could, but the rabbits seemed to have some kind of tracking skill, as every time Jake and Five would stop, a new batch of rabbits would attack. This went on for what could have been a day, but neither Jake nor Five could tell the time within this dungeon, as some parts were in perpetual darkness while others were daylight, just like the area they were in right now. It was only when they reached one of the dark areas that the rabbits finally stopped their pursuit, leaving Jake to wonder what could have made them stop. From Jake's limited experience, those rabbits were the most determined monsters he had faced since entering the system—or at least it felt that way to him.
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The two collapsed on the ground the moment they felt a sense of safety. Five was panting heavily while Jake had his back leaned up against the base of a tree, his body lacking the stamina to even stand.
“We're lucky they finally gave up when they did.”
“You really think they gave up? No, they will be back for us. It’s not like we can get out of here without going back out there; after all, there must be a reason for the day and night zones,” Five said through laboured breathing. The two kept as quiet as they could until Jake had enough stamina to at least flee a fight, carrying Five with him if they needed to.
“It’s a bit odd, don't you think? Before the system, rabbits would actually be more active at night, so why is it now that they won't even step foot in the shadows?” Five said, his mind racing to figure out what could possibly keep those rabbits away. It was no surprise to Jake, with what the rabbits said earlier, that he would find at least one. When out of the bushes came a young-looking female fox in human form, her eyes snapped towards Jake and then to the fox on Jake's shoulders.
“Little Five, is that you? I thought you died. Your brother will be so happy to see you after how long it’s been. Did you know you're an uncle now? She’s such a little sweetheart; you should come with me, but he should stay. One doesn’t like outsiders, and the family put him in charge here, after all.”
The idea of going to see his brother turned his stomach. That couldn't be a worse idea; to willingly put himself and Jake in a position like that in their weakened state is just asking for trouble. That is why, when his brother’s wife asked, Five had no choice but to refuse. He tried to first use the fact he was technically not a part of their family anymore, but this didn’t go over so well.
Jake stood back as the two foxes were talking, but when Five said he wasn't a part of her rabbit-stench of a family, she, for some reason that Jake couldn't quite comprehend, began crying and yapping insults at Five to the point Jake actually began to feel a bit sorry for her. But all that washed away the moment she looked at him.
“At least I'm not a slave. You're an embarrassment to every fox out there, submitting to such a creature. Ha, well, at least we know where your loyalties lie. If only you had taken me up on the offer, you wouldn’t have needed to die with that. Oh well, you always were an idiot, even back then, weren't you, little rabbit?” the female fox said before disappearing into the darkness.
“Five, we need to go. We're not ready to face those rabbits, let alone a group of actual predators.” Five just grunted before jumping back up on Jake's shoulder. Before Jake dashed back towards the daylight, stopping just before he reached it, he began following it north. His hope was that the foxes would think they left their territory altogether. This is what he hoped, but from what Five had told him before, he was not very good at not leaving tracks behind. As such, when Jake thought the daylight area had no one around, he would enter it until it all became a bit too dangerous to continue. The two entered the foothills of the biggest mountain range Jake had seen. The smallest mountain reached higher than Everest, and the largest was at least as high as Mount Olympus from before the system. Each mountain had its own distinct flora and fauna. One thing was for certain: Jake didn't want to go that way, especially after seeing one of the trees uproot itself and walk using only its root system to a wounded lion-snake creature, crushing it under its roots before the tree replanted itself, blending back in to look like any other tree.
Jake stood there staring at the sight before him; not a word or a murmur escaped his mouth the whole time.
“Well, fuck that for a game of cricket. There is no way we're going in there, right?”
The only thing Jake's mind could register was the words "game of cricket." Everything else was just buzzing in the background.
“Sorry, did you say something about cricket? You're not asking me to turn that thing into a bat, are you? Because if you are, I'm pretty sure we will just straight up die.”
“What? No. No, were you even listening at all? Never mind, let's just get out of here. We should really get to work on figuring out how to get out of this level,” Five said before jumping off Jake's shoulder and heading deeper into the rabbits' territory. Jake followed behind the little fox.
“Did you have any ideas of what we even need to do on this floor?”
“Not a fucking clue. We have two groups of sentient creatures dead set on killing each other, a mountain range with huge killer trees or whatever that bloody thing was, and then there's more monsters than I could count, and of course, all of them can kill us in a second.”
“So what do you think? Is it something to do with the rabbits and foxes or those trees?”
“Don't really know. Maybe we should head towards the mountains to see if there's a way through it.”
“Fine, lead the way.”
Jake followed along behind Five, staying as quiet as he could to not alert anything they didn't want to fight. The two crept through the forest for three hours before they reached the base of the mountain range. They got into seven fights with some small creatures that looked a lot like Quokkas; the fights were very odd as they just kept smiling even when their heads exploded.
Jake looked up at the mountains in front of them, his heart pounding in fear and his mind freezing up the closer they got to the mountains.
“I can't; this place is doing something to me. Do you feel anything from this place?”
“No, I don't feel anything from this place. If anything, it feels strangely safe, even though there are clearly monsters in there.”