"All right boss, it looks like two of those are squirrels." Janet passed along the message. The two buildings in question were one above and one below his street.

  His acquisitions consultant, a teenager Brazilian girl formerly living in Brooklyn, crossed her arms. Her gold bangles flashed. "Bagel, where's Meatball?"

  "I don't know. She keeps her own schedule now."

  Khaleesi didn't give up. "Bagel it's been five days. I'm getting worried."

  "Has it?" Bagel hadn't counted the days. The water situation has given him no free time to be contemplative. The only silver lining was that the squirrels were in it the same way.

  "It has been five days. We need to go check on her. She's supposed to be back."

  Bagel didn't like that at all. He could have sworn ... "She hasn't been clearing dungeons?"

  "Of course you would think that."

  Should go. One of the most hard dungeon delivers that he's known of. Her dedication was almost as much as his dedication to buying and selling cards and keeping up the facade that they might actually make it through this.

  "I don't even know where she's going to be. You think she's back at the piers?" Bagel said. "I'm very tired down unless I get Raul here..."

  Khaleesi picked up her phone. "Dial shithead."

  The phone started ringing and within five seconds, Raul was on speakerphone. "What's going on sister?"

  "I am having some issues right now with your location. Care to come to the Bodega? Bagel has important business to take care of."

  Bagel wasn't surprised by her actions. She was a brash teenager. "What do you expect us to do here. Do you want us to go drive over there?"

  "Not quite."

  ---

  "This is not what I had in mind in any way shape or form and I'm kind of regretting that I allowed you to take me on this journey just to be clear."

  From atopic cat carrier held by a glowing golden eagle, Bagel had a few complaints for the brand new airline that he was being ferried around by.

  "And also isn't Khaleesi air like copyrighted or something like that? I swear. But you have an opossum dragon. It's got to be some sort of thing but this? If you want to be the mother of dragons, you should have actually gotten a dragon possum."

  He suddenly had enough dragon possums to give her one. She just hadn't asked her one because the Golden eagle mob lasted extra long. It stuck around for 10 minutes if we had to be recalled and then if they got one of those cards they let it stick around longer... They could get through most Manhattan without having to wait around too long. And it wasn't a straight shot. But Bagel wasn't willing to go all the way up into the air because they spent most of their time climbing up. Even if lowering was faster, it was far more of a a rough drop into the middle of nowhere than anything else.

  And within half an hour they were staring out the familiar area where they'd have had so many meetings with the pigeons Bagel looked around but he didn't see any pigeons.

  "Do you see any of the pigeons?" Bagel said, waiting as Khaleesi dismounted.

  "I thought I would have seen some. I don't know why we didn't see any on the way here either. Maybe they're they're only flying during certain times. That would make sense, in a way?"

  It was late afternoon. There was a chill in the air but no more than normal.

  "There aren't a lot of adventurers around either."

  Something smelled like later and it was hopefully that this wasn't a setup. Bagel summoned his own mob so they could ride on top of it. Khaleesi thankfully placed the cat carrier on the other shoulder in case they were going to need it later.

  It was more than possible that something else was going on and that the pigeons had been offered a deal.

  "The door is open so we just?" Khaleesi said.

  But Bagel knew where he was going. "Follow me."

  Here I made a few of the twists and turns as they walked inside. An entire indoor golf course sat there next to a gym that looked so out of use that it was comical. People were there of course, but it seemed like they were more here to take a break for from mobs bonds from outside than anything else. On any of the day free system, this place would be packed the gills. Or at least that's what it should be based on the amount of murals of people excitedly working out.

  Bagel passed by several people that looked like they had worked for the pigeons. There still wasn't even a feather of a pigeon around, even on the inside. It was as if they'd cleaned up and cleaned out but left all the people there. He allowed himself a bit of worry.

  It took them 5 minutes to find the place where they last met with the pigeons. Once again, it was another room that was just empty and Bagel's heart was pounding. By this point. He didn't know where she was but he knew that he needed to find her.

  Khaleesi frowned. "This is like your princess isn't in this castle. We'll find her Bagel, wherever she went."

  Babe I wanted to say something but he finally got a sent. It smelled like her. She'd spent so much time cuddling them next to him that he'd almost forgotten it. But that was unspeakable. It smelled like clown meat. Had Jay been running dungeons here by herself? She probably was. There was times when dungeons would open up and used. Didn't even know they were there when you stumbled upon them. And that was probably something that could have happened. Then she could be anywhere.

  Bagel had the Miss fortune of running egg dungeon made of clowns that had been very smelly. It took him days until like stopped smelling of clown meat but it was distinct and he knew that Meatball had also experienced a similar like dungeon.

  His tractor sent into a little room where it had been set up for some human game and he could see in the inside there was an aperture of a dungeon. He looked Khaleesi and she nodded and they dove in. It had been awhile since he attempted a dungeon and this one?

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  It was in a curious place. Either Meatball had enabled it to spawn there or something had gone truly awry.

  On the inside of the dungeon, Bagel understood. He could hear her. It was soft but the dunge didn't opened up into a large Sandy beach dungeon. It looks like there was a large river or an ocean and that was clearly waves and waves of crabs attacking someone fought on the beach. Bagel got the attention of some of them and they started coming towards him and Khaleesi.

  Khaleesi instinctively his drew her hand. She summoned one of her flying mobs. Bagel caught on immediately, summoning a possum dragon to start mowing down the heavily clawed crabs.

  It was like someone had stuck a bodybuilder torso onto a crab and then asked it to rage. Meatball was holding her own or at least she was going to have to until they got to her. The first crab smashed into Khaleesi's first flying mob and tried to pass through but was unable to. It. Snips into the air, it's a bread and purple claws trying to get purchased on anything possible.

  Khaleesi decided to mix up her deck with flying mascots and flying birds. It was the fastest way to travel around that wasn't a drone. She summoned another flying mascot to join her first bird and they tore into it, or at least they attempted to.

  Bagel urges possum dragon forward. He knew that she didn't want to be saved. He also knew that he wanted savor. Or at least he wanted her to be safe. That image of her getting hurt played across his mind. For no matter how drunk he was she was far stronger but me out of course cutting yourself into a situation where she was thrown by crabs, so her summons could do the maximum damage possible.

  But now I was worried about Khaleesi because he hadn't run attention with her before. She clearly been to dungeons. Everyone had it was a right of passage for people in the adventurers guild to do it. But she would have gone with support and despite his strength, he couldn't support her the way that she needed. But what he could do was get her to move with him.

  "Let's go," he said, moving on the hot sand. It felt unnatural to the highest degree to be on a hot surface. He just been in an almost winter situation outside. Stepping into a tropic region with her meant that he was going to be a little bit slower. She looked like she was ready to strip down to her under clothes.

  Humans did that a lot. Bagel was already naked so that wouldn't work for him. It would have been great if you could stripped down. He found himself jealous of her. For even as they walked towards the swarm of crabs, she took off her shirt and turned into some sort of work of art before returning it to the right position. It was was like she folded it several times before putting it just so.

  It looked fabulous but Khaleesi clearly knew what she was about.

  The crabs in front of him though hadn't a clue.

  Meep I was constantly shuffling through mascots and other cards. She's been giving a deck full of pizza, rats and Omega rats and then made it work. And then once you finally had the chance, she started some shooting on better cards over time. The flying mask got cards that were neutral typed but did lock damage or one of her stables. They were also humanoid so they could carry her if if the battle lasted for too long. Inside of a dungeon? Sometimes the worst special roles about mobs were that they swarmed intelligently.

  In this particular grouping of crabs were not a hive mind. They were not intelligent. They were not even particularly good at what they were doing. Sure they were crabs and share they could stiff snap and move around. But all they were doing was circling her and effectively as she turned to see them approach.

  "Bagel!" Meatball yelled loudly. "What the hell are you doing here? You're not here trying to save me are you?"

  "Why do you guys keep saying things like that. I'm not here to go and save you. We just need to make sure you were alive."

  Khaleesi came to his side. "He came here to save you. He does not express it because he's emotionally constipated. But we're here for you because we hadn't seen you in five days."

  "So you're not here to save me? I can't be a princess for 5 minutes?" Meatball dodged a claw.

  Bagel almost laughed. "A princess? In this economy? It'll be far easier to just find a a lackey who doesn't try to overthrow all of your plans. Where are the freaking pigeons?"

  Meatball jute left then right around two crabs then jumped on top of one of her mascots. The mascot flew up and over the hive of crabs. As they moved, every single crab refocused now intent on on seeing if they could fly to attack their prey.

  "What do you mean by the freaking pigeons? I left them. Oh wait a second and they said something about exploring new opportunities. You can't be here telling me that that no pigeons are out there. I've only been in this dungeon for like... What a day? Maybe two?"

  Khaleesi adjusted her shirt. "You have been in this dungeon for 2 days?"

  In front of them, Khaleesi summoned the entirety of all that she could summon. This included the foreman. That was an excellent construction mob. And then two more worker mobs because the two two add as synergistic effect. Her eagle still flew overhead attempting to make attacks of opportunities with its lightning strikes.

  He even had to pause his snarking box for a few moments as they got adjusted to the situation. And many ways, compact was difficult. But it was predictable. When one mob done with some time, it returned to his deck and then you summoned another one from his hand. When he had a potion, he used it to heal any of his mobs that were available. And he kept resuming the possum jacking because it was an excellent defense. And he kept one pizza right out because the crabs chased him. And when you get a chance, he would involve the pizza rat to an Omega rat and have a superior defense keep him from being assaulted even further.

  There was only so much he could do about his situation.

  If you really spent time in the dungeons, he might have respect his deck, but he needed the Omega rats and he needs to keep his mantle card in there.

  And it was proving to be a smart choice on his part to to have enough cards to draw from that. He could resummon. His pizza rat fried another crab as he moved backwards.

  Normally, moms in the dungeon didn't actually produce any meat. They would disappear but this particular dungeon had decided that it wanted to actually smell like crab. And now bagel didn't mind the smell of seafood. The salt was a little bit much from the ocean, but that was fine.

  But it was the heat that really got to him. He didn't want to do have to deal with the heat. He had a real cooking kitchen in his Bodega and he didn't even want to be there. He was so glad the air conditioning still worked even if the water didn't.

  Attach a hose to all the water in this dungeon and bring it back to Earth. Even though it wasn't going to be suitable. He already had enough to deal with trying to make the water work on the East River. Perhaps that was why the Patriots flew the coop. They knew what was happening with the water and were done with it.

  Bagel could see myself leaving like that. If he could wait fly? He might find a much more single place to live. But he was stuck dealing with what he was dealing with. There was only so many ways that he could skin a crab. Which is crazy and have skins? Guess possum dragons smashed one into another, she's clearly showing that it was an exoskeleton. The system, hopefully reminded him the next of skeletons we're not selling the cat's had.

  It didn't mean that he didn't want one.

  "Why do crabs get to have these cool exoskeletons? And I've got just a layer of fur. Maybe I evolved wrong."

  "Bagel, we can't embrace the carcinization of the worlds. We're going to be adventurers, not crabs." Khaleesi dodged another claw. She finally placed enough distance between herself and the crabs that fore ghost was able to use one as a club against the rest.

  It was truly awe inspiring thing to see one mob being hit into another as the summons begin a slow circular dance getting steam until it starts spinning and with each spin the armored crabs care base would knock into another crab, sending it flying.

  ---

  Every time the crabs advance, they step back but eventually resuming more cards. Megan was perplexed at what meatballs play and had to have been. She was trying to wear them down but she was on her last life if she was doing so. The wives tale of cats having nine lives had never felt more wrong than at that moment.

  He knew that it wasn't true. But also there was no other explanation for how she'd lasted so long out there. And she was being caged about when it happened.

  "So how long have you actually been on here? Because it definitely wasn't two days. If you're in such good spirits."

  "Do I look like I have a watch?"

  " Is very true. I'll answer the point because I don't even wear watch. I have humans are genocide for me when I ask you to tell time. Not that that's ever a problem. They shared a knowing look. Bagel had the infants hurts to just jump up and cuddle next to her. Despite the fact that the word secure."

  Technically she could have done it herself. But also technically he was trying to save her. As much as he appreciated her smoke in the abstract, right now, he was questioning if you wanted to eat, bring her back if he could.