In Trebble's opinion, things had gone quite wrong.
Wrong in the most horrible of ways.
The notion had snuck upon him while he was gently consoling a downtrodden Billy. Floating around the depressed rat, Trebble watched as it meekly chewed on a freshly thrown piece of a leftover breakfast bar.
He was supposed to be a dungeon for goodness sakes, a living breathing graveyard filled with hundreds of deadly creatures. Dungeons were meant to be located in the countryside where everything was fresh and everyone was polite. A place filled with mystery and magic, a place filled with liquid adventure. A place where the local addicts * COUGH * "adventurers " could get their daily fix of danger.
A dungeon was most definitely not supposed to be a vile, trashy, underdeveloped 500-foot street located in a futuristic urban metropolis, a place where actual addicts got their fix.
And a dungeon was most definitely not meant to have its first-ever creature lose all of its confidence because it couldn't survive the morning rush hour.
Of course, half of the blame rested on Trebble's shoulders, he was the one after all who had summoned Billy the Rat on a whim.
If Trebble had known that the damn city-dwelling humans were so viciously violent he would have sent out a Vorm instead.
In the end, a vindictive vomiting Vorm would have probably better dealt with venomously volatile pedestrians.
Turning his attention back to Billy, Trebble sighed in a way only a floating blob of light could and resolved himself to working with what he had.
Time was ticking.
There were things to be done !!
Excitement to be had !!
Bobbling up and down in an attempt to enliven his precious little rat, Trebble quickly got to business.
Although most of the humans had avoided walking down Thirteenth Avenue since the morning rush hour ended, there was still the occasional straggler that rushed down the street.
Interestingly enough there were even a few dirty-looking people who spent some time rummaging through the trash that was left behind during the morning rush hour, quickly shoving anything edible up their clothes and running away in joy.
And of course, It was quite hard to miss the strange hooded figure standing ominously in the corner. Every once in the while a nervous-looking human would run-up to the hooded figure and exchange some strange metal chips for a diverse range of products. After watching the figure for an hour, Trebble had counted at least ten different products that the thing sold, including but not limited to, a bag of glowing blue dust, illicit magazines starring a green-skinned woman, a cupful of screaming black powder, and a can of bagged milk. Trebble couldn't even tell where the alien figure was storing all of its merchandise but he was quite certain he didn't want to know the answer. In all honesty, Trebble wasn't even sure if the thing was human, Its fifth arm raised a few red flags in his book.
Quite a few of the creature's customers and occasional scavengers had even gotten a little too close to Billy, almost triggering his event while the poor rat was still working through his confidence problem.
It was only a matter of time before someone eventually ran into Billy again, and Trebble was planning to do anything he could to prevent the rat from getting squished again.
-- Dungeon Core Trebble --
Dp - .5
Mana - 0 ( +1 a day )
Rooms - 2
Areas - Thirteenth Avenue Street, Thirteenth Avenue Stormdrains
Creatures - Billy The Rat, Little Shrooms
Titles - Dungeon On Thirteenth Avenue,
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OooOOoOoo
What was that ???
Noticing a few new words blinking on his menu Trebble couldn't help but give them a good thwack, leading him to an upgrade menu for Billy the Rat.
This was it !!!
The solution to his problem !!
Not only could he help Billy do his job better, but upgrading him would surely boost his confidence.
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-Billy the Rat - -- A cute little rat that will help clean up Thirteenth Avenue. Upon death, Billy respawns within 15 minutes.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Upgrade 1 - .5 Dp - Make Billy faster and slightly harder to kill. Billy will now engage in a bitter battle with anything that attempts to kill it.
Upgrade 2 - .5 Dp - Make Billy fearsome allowing Billy to occasionally scare passerbyers, +.2 Dp per scare. People are less likely to say hello to Billy.
Upgrade 3 - .5 Dp - Available due to the dungeons penchant to the dramatic - Born from a dungeon Billy is a country rat through and through. To help him adjust better to city life allow him to take a beginner's lesson in theater and acting. Throw away all those old techniques lets show them how a real city rat captures an audience.
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Trebble spent a few minutes floating around and looking back and forth between Billy the Rat and its dungeon menu.
Option one looked tempting, Option two looked quite entertaining and option three was mouthwateringly attractive.
Considering Billy's potential fighting prowess Trebble quickly pushed option one to the side.
Even if Billy could fight back was he really going to be able to do anything to those city slickers?
Unless the rat grew an eight pack and gained about 200 pounds the rat wouldn't even leave a scratch on the crazy humans that lived in the city. Based on the reactions Billy received when he went out to say hello, it was clear that these humans were quite well versed in dealing with rats.
And although option two could have worked out quite well ( and in Trebble's opinion been quite entertaining if the rat did manage to scare someone to death ).
But in the end, Trebble resigned himself to choosing upgrade three.
Looking at the way Billy was currently posing in a broken shard of glass, Trebble just knew the rat was just cut out for the entertainment industry.
Shaking his head while watching Billy the rat practice a runway walk Trebble slammed option three and just hoped that it would give the rat some more confidence to approach humans again.
A small door immediately materialized behind Billy, swinging open two dressed-up rats in suits walked out.
Shocked Billy turned around to give the strange new arrivals a friendly sniff to which the two dressed-up rats reciprocated.
Exchanging some squeaks with the two suited rats Billy who just got informed he was being sent off to a theater program turned to Trebble and gave him a heartfelt teary squeak of appreciation.
-- Billy the rat -- is about to go through three months of professional beginners rat theater courses. Due to time dilation, this will only take 10 hours,
- Accept - - Decline -
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You go get them, Billy !!! I Believe in you !!! You're the cutest rat on this side of the universe, If you cant make it in showbiz no one can !!!
Smacking accept Trebble cheered Billy on as the teary-eyed rat was escorted through the small door.
Sigh... How emotional, how heartwarming...
It was just electrifying !!!
Although Billy hadn't done much for Trebble so far it was starting to worm its way into the dungeon cores heart. If the damn rat kept helping Trebble feel the rush of emotions that he craved he might just cave in and spend half of his future income on the creature.
Wiping a non-existent tear from his non-existent cheek, Trebble turned around to see a human staring slack-jawed at the place where the small door had once been.
Oh, #^@^&$&*@* !!!!!
Having no other dungeon creatures to defend his core Trebble was expecting the worst. The man probably saw what had happened and was about to go on a mad search for the nearby hapless dungeon core.
Trebble had no clue how much a dungeon core sold for in the local economy, but based on the information given to him at birth humans tended to get quite greedy whenever a dungeon core appeared.
Instead of scouring the local area for Trebble's main body, the ragged man pulled out a bag filled with glowing blue dust and threw it to the ground.
" CONCENTRATED CAFFEINE MY ASS !!!! "
Grasping his head in between his hands the man began rolling around on the ground. Letting out an ear-piercing scream the man jumped up and ran over to the hooded figure that stood at the corner of Thirteenth Avenue.
Getting uncomfortably close to the hooded figure, the man began pounding his fists against the creature's chest while screaming in its face.
" What did you sell me you Knock off !!!! You *@&#$*#*, ##$#@&@, #$@&$*@ !!!! AHEhhaahHHAHahhha "
Upon seeing what was happening, the few pedestrians making their way down the cramped Thirteenth Avenue quickly put their heads down and ran off as fast as they could. Such outlandish scenes were quite common in the dark back streets of the city and most ended badly for everyone involved.
Trebble on the other hand just let out a huge sigh of relief while getting ready to watch the show.
Standing in place, the hooded vendor stared in silence as the ragged man continued to beat on him. Hit after hit landed on its black robes, and yet the hooded figure stood still. A mocking chuckle escaped its robes.
Seeing that his attacks hadn't done anything, the man decided to amp it up a notch and pulled out a sharp knife interlaced with strange circuitry.
Thrusting the knife forward the inebriated man was surprised when the knife couldn't even penetrate the dealer's whispy black robes.
The neon lights that faithfully lit the street for many years without break suddenly went dark, plunging Thirteenth Avenue into complete and utter darkness.
A trace of fear finally filling the man's eyes he attempted to turn and run only to fall on his back after tripping on a conveniently placed half-eaten breakfast burrito.
Crawling his way through the rubbish that blanked the street the man screamed incoherently while sending heaps of fresh garbage in all directions. Tumbling and tripping all over himself the man ran in circles throughout the dark slamming into one of the walls of the streets at one point.
Unwilling to give his life up in a drug fuel rage the man continued onward releasing chilling sounds that Trebble had thought impossible for a human to make.
Suddenly his screaming stopped.
The neon lights flickering back on the man found himself face to face with the hooded figure once more.
This time, however with a giant black tentacle pierced through his chest.
Horrified the man attempted to kick, to scream, to struggle, to do anything but found himself locked in place, forced to stare into the eternal void that seemed to make up the hooded figure's face.
The neon lights flickered out once more and a silent scream filled Thirteenth Avenue.
It was only ten minutes later that Trebble was greeted with a new notification while the neon lights flickered back on.
-- Congratulations on being the first dungeon out of 101 to have a human die within its boundaries. + 5 mana, +5 Dp, Gained title - First Blood - , Gained new options in the shop --
Nervously flickering Trebble slowly floated his way back down into his precious storm drain...
Human cities were way too scary..... At least storm drains didn't come with strange eldritch drug dealers and addicts....
Although he was constantly craving entertainment, Trebble decided at that moment to avoid the horror genre as best he could.