Defeat. Sheer and utter, complete defeat.

No more cookies. No gift attached to the letter. Nothing. Not ever a crumb or a tiny cut of chocolate…

Nothing but a goal. A purpose other than mindlessly wandering the Dungeon searching for treasures and picking up rocks.

I will get more COOKIES!

Gripping her hands into fists, Bug makes her resolve know. She has a goal now.

The only question is how to go about it…

Leaving the Dungeon would be suicide. I would have to head towards the humans, and I have no idea what is waiting for me outside. The item description for my mana crystal says that humans like to build cities and kingdoms on top of Dungeons… I have no idea what those are, but my best guess is that it is where lots of humans live… Too dangerous… Which leaves earning gifts.

Finding a corner to hide in, Bug looks over her system and sees if she can find any clues. Eventually, she settles on her Status Tab.

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Stats

Name – Bug

Age – 0

Race – Dungeon Spawned Sapient Entity: Gremlin

Class – None

Level – 1

EXP – 0/10

Free Stat Points - 0

Heath – 30/30

Stamina – 15/15

Mana – 30/30

Vitality – 5

Endurance – 5

Strength - 4

Dexterity - 7

Magic - 3

Intelligence - 10

*Luck – N/A

*Note: Luck is a work in progress stat. Points cannot be put into this stat at this time.

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“Dungeon Spawned Sapient Entity: Gremlin…? Is that what I am? Umm, I guess I’ll just call myself a Gremlin then? At least that solves one of my problems… Hm?”

Bug hears some noise coming from down the corridor. What sounds like some of the other Dungeon mobs wandering about and making unintelligible calls at each other. Bug goes quiet, pulling herself deeper into her corner as she listens to them walk away.

Instinct says that the other Dungeon mobs can’t be trusted. While most of them shouldn’t attack her on sight, there is still the possibility of it happening. There are no rules that prevent the mobs from preying on each other after all.

She checks her clock. One hour left until the Dungeon’s entrance opens for the day. Then she’ll have humans to worry about and she still hasn’t found any more treasures yet. She makes up her mind to hurry.

For now, I don’t really have any good ideas for how to get more gifts. Maybe if I manage to level up some, perhaps that will be enough to earn a gift? From what that book made me learn, anyone that has access to the System can gain levels by killing things and doing other tasks. And when you gain levels, the system gives you points that you can use to make yourself better in different ways and even gain powers, skills, and knowledge… I feel like the System wants me to level up a bunch, so if I do that, I should be rewarded with gifts. Hopefully….

So, that will be my objective for now. Kill stuff for levels and find treasures. I should try and do as much as I can before the entrance opens. I don’t know how strong the humans are, but it is safe to assume that they are dangerous and will probably try to kill me on sight.

Nodding to herself, her mind made up, Bug pulls herself out of the corner and sets off.

Moving through the halls, she listens for the sounds of the others moving around. They are clearly not trying to conceal the sounds of their moving around. It is almost as if they have no survival instincts in their heads. Just noisily wandering around or yelling at each other with sounds that hold little meaning.

Taking a corner, Bug comes to a stop as she finds her first mob. She had heard the gooping noises of something wet and sloshy moving around, so she had headed that way. What she finds waiting for her is some weird gelatinous blob that is about the size of her head. It is busy seemingly trying to absorb a shoe.

Watching it from some distance, she tries to figure out what the heck this thing is, the knowledge that she was born with doesn’t go as far as knowing the other inhabitants of the Dungeon. She wasn’t even born with knowledge of what SHE is in the first place. Why it is that the Dungeon didn’t see the need to birth her with this knowledge is beyond her at the moment though, so she sets that question aside for another time.

Instead, she simply observes the thing as it slowly surrounds the shoe and brings it into its body.

It doesn’t seem all that dangerous… Should make for a good first try.

Slowly creeping up to the slimy thing, she continues to get closer and closer, watching it as it absorbs the shoe. It doesn’t have eyes or a face, so there is no way to know if it can sense her approaching or if it even cares. Eventually, she gets within a few paces of the thing.

Drawing her knife from the inventory, she takes a step forward and the thing freezes. She stops as well, mid step and knife raised. Watching the seconds tick by, neither of them move an inch, the slimy thing’s body releasing a few bubbles as the shoe slowly dissolves within its body.

Pushing forward, she moves to draw closer, and the little blob starts to bubble and vibrate, making waves on its surface. Is it trying to intimidate her? Communicate? She draws closer until she is standing before it, knife at the ready.

The thing just continues moving weirdly until it suddenly draws in on itself. Drawing back like a wave, it comes forward again, launching itself off from the ground with a blooping sloshing noise towards Bug’s face.

She quickly retreats a step, and the thing drops to the floor with a splat. It had hardly covered any distance with its jump.

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Deciding that it probably isn’t that much of a threat, she moves forward and quickly buries the end of her dagger into the thing’s jello.

It pops. Liquid exploding out of it as its form loses the ability to hold itself together.

From a window in the corner of her vision, some text pops up.

//Killed Lvl 1 Jelly – 1 exp gained!

Huh… Well, that was easy. I basically just poked it and it popped. Why is it so fragile?

Looking at where the Jelly had died all she finds is a transparent skin and a bunch of liquid that is being quickly absorbed into the dirt covered ground of the Dungeon. She picks up the skin and looks it over as it drips with liquid.

Bug decides to store it so she can read its description.

‘Jelly skin. The remains of one of the many different scavenger species of monster that calls the Dungeon home. Jellies solely live for the purpose of eating trash and other matter left behind on the Dungeon’s floor. The skin is edible as is, but it is typically used in cooking as a thickening agent. Also used in making candies, typically by mixing with honey and then letting sit to harden for a day.’

“Oh? You can eat it or even make candies? Those are sweets, right?”

Taking the skin out of her inventory, Bug bites off a corner and gives it a taste.

Hmm… not really much of a flavor to it. Definitely chewy though. I wonder if I could find some honey somewhere. I could try making candies then…

Taking another bite of the skin to chew on, she stores the rest and starts walking. She can hear what sounds like some other mobs fighting up ahead, so she decides to go check it out.

Walking through the halls, she gets closer to the sound of the fighting until she is certain that it is just around the corner. Grabbing the wall, Bug peaks around and takes a look. A bit of a distance further ahead, three of her fellow Gremlins are fighting each other. Two of them are busily beating up on one that has curled up on the ground, holding something to its chest.

Trying to see what it is, Bug watches until she catches a flash of blue light from within the Gremlins hands.

Hn! He has a mana crystal! Those other two, they probably want it, don’t they?

Watching them kick the downed figure, she takes but a few seconds to decide what to do. Bug wants the mana crystal for herself, and those two have their backs turned to her.

Silently moving from around the corner, she approaches them, dagger at the ready. Watching them continue to kick the stuffing out of the one, she catches as it notices her approaching. It lets out a squeak of defeat and curls up even tighter.

But Bug doesn’t care about the one on the ground right now, the other two still haven’t noticed her, apparently having far too much fun kicking the poor thing on the ground.

Wanting to do this quickly, Bug double checks which side her heart is on in her chest. Left. She aims for there as she draws up behind her target.

She doesn’t hesitate as she plunges the entirety of her blade into the back of her fellow Gremlin. She doesn’t feel anything from killing one of her own kind. Her only priority is getting that treasure for herself.

The second target doesn’t even notice as the first coughs up blood, far to enthralled in its fun to care about anything else.

Pulling back on the dagger, Bug dislodges it from his back, feeling as the blade scrapes against bone on the way out, tearing flesh and drawing a spray of blood from torn arteries and a punctured heart.

She kicks the corpse forward, ignoring the notice that pops up in her feed and moves for the second. The second one, a female, has barely a moment to react, being far too startled by the sudden death of her companion that just collapsed before her. Bug slams into her, tackling her to the ground and plunging the blade into her stomach.

The female lets out a scream of pain and coughs up a mouthful of blood as they hit the ground.

Twisting the dagger and pulling it up, Bug forces the blade to tear through her stomach and rip through her abdomen until it hits her ribs. The female kicks and screams in pain, managing to grab a rock laying on the ground beside her.

In a rage of desperation, she tries to hit Bug with the rock, but Bug simply pulls back, forcing the dagger out as she moves. The one under her lets out a pained gasp as the blade leaves her body.

Still not dead yet.

Bug continues to sit on top of the other as her flailing grows weaker and weaker. Slowly, she loses the ability to make noise and can only cough up mouthfuls of blood that threatens to drown her. Once Bug is certain that she isn’t going to get a rock to the face, she raised her dagger, holding it with two hands, and plunges it into the naked chest of her unfortunate opponent. The thing gets buried to the hilt; blade planted in her heart.

It takes only a couple of seconds, but soon enough the notifications arrive. She ignores them for now. Only caring that it means the two are dead.

Yanking her bloodied dagger free from the corpse, Bug stands up and turns to the last one. He is playing dead under the corpse of the first. Does he believe that she will leave if she thinks him dead?

Walking over, she kicks the corpse off of him and calls out, “Hey! I know that you’re not dead. Get up before I stab you.”

He peaks open an eye and looks at her. Looking to the corpses and then back to her, some thought must have gone through his brain as he immediately starts to smile.

Weakly and on shaky limbs, he manages to bring himself to his feet. Letting out a happy sounding call, he starts kicking the bloodied corpses, smiling a bloodied and bruised smile as he does so.

After getting in some revenge against the dead, he turns to Bug, giving her a broken toothy smile as he calls out happily and tries to touch her. She backs away from his hand and points the weapon at him.

What? Does he think that I killed them to save his life?

She points to his hand that is holding the crystal, “I didn’t do that to save your life. Hand over the crystal or I will kill you too!” She exclaims threateningly.

His smile instantly falls off his face, realization setting in as to what Bug wants. He pulls the crystal up and hugs it his chest, a threatening call escaping his broken lips and making his choice clear.

“I will kill you if you don’t give it to me. Do you want to die? Hand it over!” She threatens.

He looks at the bloodied blade aimed at him and then at the corpses on the ground. The single thought going through his brain is clear to see in his bruised and fearful eyes. He makes a decision and turns to flee.

Bug lunges forward, swiping her dagger at the turning target, her blade drawing a line through his back as he lets out a scream and runs for his life with an obvious limp.

Bug scowls as she follows behind him, having no trouble following the slow target, not even having to run as she follows his limping gait.

“Just give me the crystal and I will let you live. You don’t have to die over this!”

He just continues to run away, tripping over a crack in the ground. Looking other his shoulder he sees Bug drawing closer, her dagger still dripping with blood. Scrambling to get back to his feet, he tries to run again just as Bug reaches him.

She slashes him across the back a second time as he gets up, but instead of falling, he continues to try and flee.

“Haaaahh…. Seriously, if you just give it to me, I will let you live. Don’t throw your life away over this… You can’t get away. “

The fleeing male manages to reach the end of a hall, slamming into the corner with a pained grunt as he continues to move using the wall as a support to hold his weight. Bug takes the corner at a casual pace; she doesn’t even need to speed walk anymore to keep up. Looking past the fleeing male, Bug finds a dead end. He has nowhere to go.

“Haaa…” Letting out an exacerbated breath, she continues to follow him as the guy corners himself. As she walks, she watches her stamina meter slowly climb back up to full. She had expended some when she had tackled that last one to the floor. The extra effort of that kill costing her some stamina, versus the one she had stabbed in the back which had cost her virtually nothing.

She does notice that her food meter - a little orange bar tacked onto her stamina bar - has gotten a bit lower, having been used for fueling her stamina regen, but the bar is still mostly full and there is plenty of moss growing everywhere that she can snack on.

Oh, I should make sure to get lots of Jelly skins. They don’t taste like much, but they are at least something to chew on…

Thinking absent minded thoughts, she corners the male as he backs into the dead end. A fitting name considering what is about to happen if he doesn’t do as she says.

She points the dagger at him as he clutches the treasure to his chest. “Hand it over or die. I’m not giving you any more chances. Now!”

He looks around fearfully, his eyes darting from wall to wall as if he might find some secret to his escape. He finds nothing but a single way out. A path blocked by the female that had just killed two of their own and will kill him next if he fails.

Desperate rage fills his eyes, and he screams. Lunging forward with everything he has; he swings for her head with the precious shiny blue crystal that he had fought so hard to protect.

She takes a step back, surprised by his sudden outburst of violence, and dodges the blow with room to spare. He takes his opening, putting everything he has left into moving his legs forward. Running, he tries to shove his way past her, pushing forward with his shoulder as he fights to get past her.

She moves aside as he shoves her, his way forward clear and several paths ahead that he can try to use to lose her. He won’t be losing the shiny today! It is his!

Pain.

Pain lances it way through his body as something plunges itself into the back of his neck. He had hardly taken a few steps before she had caught up to him.

Crumpling to the floor as his body gives out from beneath him, he watches as his shiny drops from his hand, tumbling away from him. He tries to crawl forward, to retrieve what is his, but his hand never reaches it. His body simply won’t move.

A pair of feet walk past him, and he is forced to watch as the female scoops up his prize and looks it over with a happy look in her green eyes that shine like gems.

She turns her vision the male, a look of bewilderment and pity among other things that he cannot understand.

“You could have lived. All you had to do was give this to me.”

He doesn’t understand her noises, but he can understand that she is disappointed in him. He watches as the shiny crystal disappear in a flash of light.

Gone.

Never to be seen again…

His vision fades as his heart slowly gives out on him. The last few beats slowly ringing in his ears until everything fades away into darkness.