Matta has been examining the door barring our way for a while now. Tired of waiting, I ask him. “Did you find why the door isn’t opening?”

“I’m not sure…” He points at four light bulbs next to the door. “There must be a connection between those and the door, but who knows.” He shrugs.

“We’re stuck?”

After leaving the rabbit area, we continued our dungeon invasion and entered the second laboratory room.

Then, we fought another one of those guys in a lab coat. It was a lot easier this time because we already knew its attack patterns. The additional lighting rods blasting us with electricity made things more difficult, but nothing compared to not knowing about the ice novas.

We defeated it, but for some reason, the door won’t open.

Matta furrows his brows. “There were slime humanoids inside the first time I looked… But they weren’t here when we came back. Maybe we have to find and kill them?”

“Monsters that ran away?” He did tell us about more than one monster, didn’t he? “If they ran away, and we didn’t see them in the rabbit area, this must mean… they are…” I can’t finish the sentence as a shiver runs down my spine.

If they ran away, they could only be in the tunnels. I’d rather surrender and leave the Dungeon Invasion than go back there.

I gulp. “Didn’t you say there was another path?”

“Yes, and I’d like to see it too. It’s just…” He sends a glance in Berta’s direction. “I don’t think she’ll be fine in there. Taking a peek is one thing, but having to go through an area like that is on another whole level.”

“What do you mean? You know something about that area, don’t you?” I glare at him. “Didn’t we agree we wouldn’t use any guide? Why are you breaking our rules?”

He shakes his head. “Don’t accuse me of such a thing! Of course I didn’t!” He brings out the map and puts it right in front of my face. “Look here. It clearly says ‘Warning: Gore’. And we both know how much she hates that kind of stuff.”

As he says so, we both turn to look at Berta. She disappeared somewhere after the fight and didn’t say anything while we were inspecting the door to try and find a way forward.

Noticing our gazes, she smiles and chuckles. “Everything’s going to be ok, don’t worry. Ain’t I right, Gap?” She rubs her cheek on one of those cat-octopus critters.

“You named it!?” I retort. “And where the heck did you find it!?”

“I found it resting on top of that table after our fight.” She points at a distant operating table. It has so much dried blood and rust on it that it’s more red than brown. “Ain’t I right, cutie?” She hugs the cat-octopus.

I stay silent while looking at the monster in her arms. There’s so much to retort I don’t know where to start.

But she takes my silence in a completely different way. When she notices I’m staring at the cat, she reluctantly brings it closer. “Umm… Fine... You can pet it too.”

“I shouldn’t have asked…” When I step back to take some distance from the crazy girl, I notice Matta is looking at me. “Why are you making that stupid face?”

“Hihihi! It’s funny watching you flirt like that.”

““We’re not flirting!!””

“Fine, fine… whatever you say.” He shakes his head, shrugs, and returns to the current topic. “If she doesn’t matter, we can take that area. But I tell you, if we have to take into account the mushroom warning as a reference, it won’t be easy for you, Berta.”

“It’s fine! What could go wrong? I just need to look at Gap once in a while and I’m sure everything will be fine! He’s so cute!”

“Yeah, sure… whatever.” I shrug. “Matta, let’s go. To adventure!”

“To adventure!”

“To find more cute critters!”

About that… I don’t think you’ll find anything cute in a place that has a warning about gore.

“It’s a good thing there’s an optional route,” I say on our way to the optional path. “I still remember that time we wasted two hours searching for a key we missed near that dungeon’s entrance…”

“Ah, yes.” Matta nods. “It wasn’t as dangerous as this dungeon, so we didn’t have any trouble, but it turned out to be so boring. If only we had a map! Behind that door there was nothing but the dungeon core, we could have left and wouldn’t have missed anything!”

“Yes… what a waste of time.”

“I remember too!” Adds Berta. “There were no cute animals at all. I like this one a lot better. Ain’t I right, Gap?”

Is that your criteria for evaluating dungeons? They’re good if they have cute animals. If they don’t, they’re bad. Really!?

“Alright! Get ready for some action!” Says Matta while rubbing his hands together. “I’m opening the door!”

He pulls the lever. Shortly after, the metallic door starts to rise and release fog. No, it isn’t normal fog. This is the same that happens when you open a refrigerated container in the summer. It’s condensed water because of the thermal difference.

“Wow! Did you bring your coats?” Jokes Matta.

I play along with him. “Ah, shit, I forgot mine. But you don’t have to worry, Matta. You’ve got your natural coat here that will protect you from the coldest of climates.” I grab his tummy and make it shake like a tsunami.

“Hihihi! You’re right! I’m cold-proof!”

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We all know the cold won’t affect us at all, since we’re inside the game. At most, there might be a permanent debuff applied to the whole area. Those debuffs usually affect everyone, ally and enemy alike, so we don’t have to worry too much about it.

“Gap, stick close to me. I’ll heat you.”

Berta continues with her childish behavior. When will she get tired? Uh, yeah, she won’t.

The door continues to rise and finally reveals what’s inside. It’s a dark passage, covered by frost. And by dark I don’t mean poorly illuminated. There’s a dark, partially frozen substance covering most of the ground, walls, and also part of the ceiling; mixed with bits of solid substance of various sizes. What those bits are I have no idea, and I don’t think I want to know.

A disgusting smell fills my nostrils. The smells in the game aren’t as pronounced as in real life for player comfort, so it isn’t very strong. But if this were in real life, I’m sure I’d be puking right now.

“Ugh… what is this place?” I complain. “Do we actually have to go through this place? Isn’t there, I don’t know, a third path or something?”

Matta shakes his head. “According to the map, there isn’t. Are you scared of this place and want to go back? Hihihi!”

“It’ll take a lot more to scare me. Bring it on! I can take anything!”

“Hihihi! Alright. Let’s go then!”

Matta takes the first step into the disgusting passage. When I try to follow, something tugs on my sleeve, preventing me from moving forward.

I turn my head, and it turns out it’s Berta. She’s staring at the ground without saying anything but doesn’t let go of my sleeve even when I pull it away.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Umm… I…” She raises her head and looks at my face. “I…”

“What? Are you scared?” I taunt her. “Is our dear child scared of the monsters? Hahaha!”

“I’m not scared! It’s just that I… I… you know I don’t like disgusting stuff like that. Can I ride you while we’re inside so I can keep my eyes closed?”

“Do you think I’m your pet!?”

“N-no!” She pleads with her eyes. “Please?”

I spin my eyes around. “...fine. But you’ll help when we’re in combat, ok? Otherwise, I’ll stop carrying you.”

She smiles and starts talking very fast. “Sure, when you tell me, I’ll use my spells and shoot them in the direction you tell me! You just have to grab my hand and point it in the direction of the enemies and I’ll use my most powerful spell! Ahahaha!”

“No, you have to open your eyes.”

“There’s no need! You just need to point my hand in the–”

“Open. Your. Eyes.” I repeat.

She bites her lip and looks at my face, trying to find a way out. It takes a while for her to surrender and reluctantly agree.

“Ugh… fine…” Then, she sits on my shoulders and buries her face into the cat-octopus she’s still holding. “Since this is a game, you don’t have to worry, Carles. I won’t puke.” She says.

An extremely disgusting image crosses my mind at this moment. She’s right. Since this is a game, there’s no need to worry about it. If it were reality, I wouldn’t allow her to do this. Not again.

The cat’s fluffy fur distracts me from the awful image.

It’s really fluffy… So fluffy…

No, stop! Don’t allow yourself to be corrupted! Ignore the fluffy feeling on the back of your head and focus on the dungeon!

I enter the passage, following Matta. The ground is soft, and it makes a disgusting squelch with every step I take. And then, when I raise my foot, it sticks to the ground, making it harder than it should be.

“This passage is too small for me to fly…” I complain. “I envy your small size so much right now…”

“I don’t know what you mean because I can’t see or hear anything!” Says Berta.

“Then, how do you know I was talking?”

“...”

So you stay quiet now, huh? Well, I don’t care. I’ll ignore her for now and continue advancing.

The passage leads to a wider room. There, I find Matta inspecting the mountain of corpses that occupies most of the room.

He raises his sight from the corpses. “How’s she doing?”

“She’s doing better than I expected,” I answer. “She’s fooling around and playing deaf, so she’s doing ok.”

“I’m not playing deaf!”

“I see…” Matta trails off as he turns around. “Other than what you can see, I didn’t find anything of interest.”

“This ‘what I can see’ is quite enough, I’d say.”

“You’re right, hihihihi!”

Any doubts I had vanished as soon as I entered this room. The sticky substance and tiny bits? I’m sure they’re the blood and other body fluids of the mountain of corpses. The low temperatures? This room is completely covered in ice. The ice is so thick in some parts that a few of the corpses are completely encased in it.

But, as far as I can see, there are no monsters.

“What kind of monsters–”

I start a question, but Matta signals for me to shut up.

“We’ll discover it soon.” He says while pointing at another passage connecting to this room. From there, we can hear footsteps.

We hide behind the corpse mountain and wait until a group of four monsters comes into our sight.

They remind me of those monsters I found in the tunnels but didn’t fight, those that looked like they were created by using the body parts of several humanoids. But they don’t look as dangerous. They’re extremely slow, and they’re way less numerous.

“They look weak.” Matta points out.

“They do. But I wouldn’t rely on first impressions in this dungeon.”

“Yes, I agree. Hihihi!”

I leave Matta laughing alone and poke the freeloader sitting on my shoulders. We might not need her help if they’re as weak as they look, but it’s time for her to get ready.

“Berta, it’s time for combat.”

“I can’t hear anything, I have my ears closed.” She sticks to my head as if her life depended on it.

“Open your eyes, Berta!”

“No!”

This damn girl… If she resists, she doesn’t leave me any choice but to force her.

“I said open your eyes!”

I start pulling her away from my head. She grabs my horns and resists the best she can, but I’m stronger. After some struggle, her hand slips and loosens her grip. The change is so sudden that the flies a few meters away from me as a result.

“Kyaaaaah!”

She stabilizes in mid-air. But we made so much noise there was no way the monsters wouldn’t notice us. Since she’s closer, they approach her.

“D-don’t come! Leave me alone!”

The stupid girl doesn’t open her eyes even now, so she has no idea what’s around her. She tries to fly away from the monsters, but she instead runs head-first into the mountain of corpses. What’s worse, as soon as she comes close enough, one of them bursts into an explosion, covering the area in a grotesque substance, a mix of body fluids and flesh bits.

“Kyaaaaah!” She shouts one more time.

Disoriented, she falls to the ground. Then, the corpses of the monsters, who all got affected by the explosion too because they were chasing after her, fall on top of her, burying her.

Will she be ok, buried under those monsters after suffering that explosion, and being covered by those disgusting fluids and meat bits?

“Noooo! Gap! Not you too! Why did you have to leave me alone?”

““...””

Matta and I exchange a nod.

She’s doing fine.

image [https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]

“There are experiences you can only experience inside DMA. Not all of them are good, though.”

- Common say between DMA players, from an anonymous origin.