"Geraldine? Are you here?" I called out tentatively. "Geraldine?" I cracked open the door and sent a globe of light into the hallway. The light lit up a packed hallway with a few of those iron cages you can put cats in so they can safely enjoy being outside without running off to never be seen again. I sneezed from the dust or maybe dander. I don't think I'm allergic.

I turned back in the hallway, skirting the clutter and I stopped at the piled cat cages. The metal cages had blankets in them, but no sign of the cats except for fur and filled water containers. I looted the water container. And even the cat fur-covered blanket. Then I looted the cage. It was not as strongly put together as I thought.

A dark shadow launched from the floor up into the globe of light and through it. It was a distinctly feline shape. Geraldine had some really silly names for her pets. I couldn't remember if the svelt black one was Mistress Sugarpuss in Boots or Lady Eleanor Pawsevelt. I knew the chubby orange one was Tubbs. That was easy to remember because he joined Geraldine whenever she went down to the mail room.

We'd watched them for her a few times while she went down to the casinos in Washington State. Suze was more of a cat person so she took care of them. Geraldine had brought them down to our apartment though and I could understand since her place was a little bit of something out of that Hoarders show, but at least it smelled just dusty.

A hiss and the same shape flew into another one of the balls so I combined them into one spot on top of a metal crate and the cat pounced onto it, shredding the blanket on the top of the crate while attempting to attack the lights.

I scooped her up gently and rubbed her fur behind the ears. A name tag showed on her head. Mistress Sugarpuss in Boots - Tier 0 Cat. Ahh, yeah the black one was Mistress Sugarpuss in Boots, otherwise known as Bootsie. Luckily, she recognised me enough and purred. A fierce hunter until held, then she was a complete suck for attention.

It seemed the summoning thing also brought along at least one of the cats. That did not bode well for Geraldine.

"Where's your mom Bootsie?"

The cat just purred. I tucked her into the hood of my hoodie since she had liked doing that the last time we cat sat them.

"I'll check the other room and the bathroom." Suze said and I sent a few balls of the light with her.

"Then it's me and you in the living room and kitchen Miss Bootsie." I couldn't bring myself to call her 'mistress.'

"Geraldine?" I inched along the hallway. Bootsie had gone silent and alert in behind my ear. Her paws on my shoulder dug in with those little tiny claws of hers. "Geraldine?"

So yeah, Geraldine was summoned into the dungeon too. I could tell the moment I pulled out from between two cardboard boxes to see the room lit with some kind of eery greenish glow except for a flashlight beam that followed a small, cragged looking man around the room. The beam came from a pass-through window that Geraldine must have added to the wall between her kitchen and the living room. She was in the kitchen, holding something in her hand and then some kind of utensil flew across the room at the little man. It missed.

"This is the filth forge! Stupid human with iron!" The little man jumped around and around.

"No it's not! This is my apartment you little pervert! Put that thing away! Nobody's got time to see your weenus!" Geraldine tossed another fork at him from the pass-through in her kitchen. I could see that she was still in her nighttime curlers above her head, wrapped in a silk scarf.

Indeed, the little man was naked and I felt like I wouldn't get that nasty image of his dangly bits out of my head for a good while.

Kaylee Tier 0 - ASMR Content Creator: Suze, come quick. There's some kind of little dude waving his naked ... dot dot dot at Geraldine.

Suze Tier 0 - High Rise Cleaner: Did you just type out dot dot dot?

Kaylee Tier 0 - ASMR Content Creator: This is in my mind and I can imagine how I type however I want.

Suze Tier 0 - High Rise Cleaner: OMW

I stepped into the room and tsked some more globes of light.

Level up! Cantrip Minor Globes of Light. Somatic and verbal components required. Duration of 60 seconds at this level of the spell.

"About flipping time!" I shouted, surprised at the 20 second improvement.

The little man whirled and I winced, looking away from him.

"Another human of iron. Hahahaha!" He flew at me and I then noticed the strange cudgel in his hand. It was what glowed with the eery lime green light. Glowing weapon? Maybe it was enchanted?

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Before I could think more about the properties of his weapon, he was swinging it at me. I tried to swerve, but I'm very not agile or athletic and I wasn't fast enough. The little punk hit me in the arm with a crunching sound and the pain was unimaginable. Something snapped. My vision blanked and then as I screamed out, I could feel that my shoulder-length blonde hair was growing and growing and spreading around. I could feel it at my neck and then saw it covering over my eyes. My hair twisted and it hurt as it grew. Each follicle felt the same kind of pain as if someone was brushing out knots and was not being gentle.

It hurt, but even though I couldn't see (this seemed to be a theme or something) I could see in the combat log. I somehow instantly switched to it and then combined it with the chat to make a combined COMBAT CHAT PARTY tab.

You have been hit by Bright Hair Cudgel's Strangle Golden Hair Attack.

The hair got tighter, twisting around my neck. It still pulled at my scalp and still it grew. I tried pulling at the hair with the good arm, but then it snaked around my arm and began to twist, tightening.

I could still breathe, but as each hair pull happened, the entire thing got tighter against my skin.

Kaylee Tier 0 - ASMR Content Creator: Suze. I'm going to get strangled again.

"Leave Kaylee alone you little demon!" Geraldine shouted and threw a pot through the window. It missed.

"I'm not a demon. I'm The Hangman I'll have ye know! And thar she will hang!"

The hair yanked and I flew upside down. Out of my hoodie, I felt weight leave me as Bootsie launched or fell from it as I dangled by my own massively grown hair.

"Ow! Call off your feline! Ow! Stop beast! Don't hit me with iron you old bat!"

The growl that came out of Bootsie caused my whole body to shiver. She meowed angrily and hissed.

He really said iron as if it was a swear word or curse. It gave me an idea.

Kaylee Tier 0 - ASMR Content Creator: The cages in the hallway. I looted them. Please get them from my inventory and toss them at the little man so he's stuck inside. I think iron's bad for him.

"Already ahead of you." I swung and my hair hurt like crazy as Suze touched me.

Suze Tier 0 - High Rise Cleaner has removed cat cage from your inventory.

I swung from my own painfully tightening hair. The combat log began to scroll with different attacks. Suze was not doing any damage at all. Then again, neither was he. I saw a lot of Suze dodged. Suze dodged.

I heard the clatter of the cage and a click of a lock.

Suze Tier 0 - High Rise Cleaner has defeated The Weewee Hangman.

"The Weewee Hangman?" I groaned.

In the combat log, there was a message.

Suze Tier 0 - High Rise Cleaner has looted Bright Hair Cudgel. You were part of this battle. Do you want to roll against her?

No way would I want whatever that thing was. My negative thought translated to the chat as a decline and it automatically showed that Suze receieved the item.

"Noo. Not my cudgel!" The little man whined. "Let me out of this infernal iron cage."

Suze's response made me smirk. "Nāo."

"Oh girls. Am I glad to see you. Good girl Bootsie. Now where's Tubbs and Eleanor? Oh my sweets. Mommy is happy to see you three." There was a pause and the sound of crinkling packages while I assumed the cats were being fed treats.

"Susana, are you going to get Kaylee down from the ceiling?"

"Working on it Geraldine."

"Good. And as for you. Put some pants on you little pervert." I heard a cage rattling and the little man began cursing.

Suze Tier 0 - High Rise Cleaner has canceled Bright Hair Cudgel's Strangle Golden Hair Attack.

Moments passed and my hair softened and relaxed and just shrunk on itself until it was the same length it had been before I got into the dungeon. I dropped from the ceiling and Suze caught me, then placed me down on the ground. The spot on my arm still hurt like crazy pants.

I healed myself by slapping my own ass with the good hand.

Level up! Minor Healing Touch. Somatic and verbal components required. Distance of Touch. Duration Instantaneous. Repairs 2 hit points at the level of the spell.

I wryly told Suze about the increase in healing and added, "With upgrades like these we're so going to mow through this dungeon like nobody's business."

The pain lessened from the healing, but it was not entirely fixed. I gingerly rubbed around it. "It didn't fully heal. At least that means we have more than 2 hitpoints, I guess."

I tried healing again, but got a message telling me that I could not do it again for another duration. It didn't give me the amount of time for the cooldown either. The inconsistencies were going to be very dangerous.

"Okay you little pervert. Tell us why you're In my apartment." Geraldine poked several long barbeque tongs at the WeeWee Hangman and he danced away from them as far as he could in the cramped cat cage. Suze had locked it and any time he tried to touch the little metal luggage lock, he hissed and drew his hand away. The tongs he kept his distance from those too.

"I'm not telling you nought."

"Double negative." I said. "So that means you are going to tell us something."

The man exagerratedly pressed his lips together and covered his eyes with his hands. He could have covered something else which would have been much nicer. "Don't you have pants?" I asked him. "Maybe we should give you a towel. Do you have any Geraldine?"

I turned to look at Geraldine and she was staring at the both of us. "Now are you two going to tell me what's going on here? Is this the Apocalypse and that's one of Satan's minions?"

I hemmed for a moment and then said, "To tell you the truth, I don't know if this is the Apocalypse or not, but that is definitely a dungeon mob and this is not exactly your apartment, but is probably your tutorial level. I guess what I'm saying is that we're in a video game. I think."

"You think?" She repeated, her hair in curlers. Her eyes were wide.

"It has all the markers of a video game, but it's really real to touch. Suze and I just fought off hundreds of spiders the size of Tubbs or even bigger. This guy," I jerked a thumb at the little man in the cage. "Is probably the monster you're supposed to fight to learn how to play this thing."

"Kaylee. How is it I'm in a video game with you two? I've never played anything except Candy Crush on my phone."

"I don't really know. I think we have to go further in the dungeon to find out." I noticed that Suze had left the room since the green glow faded, moving along with her. I sent her a ball of light after reupping it again. "First, I'm going to add you to our party along with maybe the cats?" I looked at the three cats who were lapping up ice cream in bowls.

My mind fritzed. "Do you have your fridge?"

"Oh yes dear. After what Bootsie did to that little man, I thought they all deserved some ice cream."

Kaylee Tier 0 - ASMR Content Creator: SUuuuuuuze! We have a fridge! I repeat. WE HAVE A FRIDGE!