The only sound left was the alien jazz coming from the portal and the clicking of Zippy nervously shuffling his three [Ancient Paring Knives]. The last two left in Mary’s bedroom, Snu glanced at the little robot while feeling Giat waiting on the other side of the Portal. The rest of the gang had already entered with Giat leading the way. Apparently, she had experience in the Unspace and would lead the front while Snu brought up the rear.
Not that she told her Dungeon Sister and oldest friend about it.
It was like a cord pulling at her pineal gland. She could feel her Dungeon Sister on the other side, which was unexpected. A connection no one else, as far as she knew, would ever understand. They were connected on a primordial level, linked through their shared reality space of their Dungeon. That granted them access to certain perks.
Zippy beeped and kept shuffling.
“Hey. Look at me.” She said to him. He did, after fidgeting with the knives and stepping away from the Portal.
“You’re scared,” Snu said softly. “I am too. For Alex and for changing. Like me, you’re growing into something you didn’t expect, but maybe you wanted.” She pressed a hand into her chest. “But we can’t stop. People need us. Right now, Alex needs us. Alex needs you.”
Zippy’s red camera light blinked at her. She figured that was learnt behaviour from hanging out with humans so much.
“Everyone thinks being a Boss means we’re trapped in our Dungeons,” She shook her head. “But, like my sister, I’m done being trapped. I’m more than a Boss. And you’re more than just a helper drone. When you really think on it, Zippy, you’re the key here. We need you to cut through the other side so we can help Alex.”
Zippy stared at her for a second, then slowly lowered the knives and stopped his trembling. He turned toward the Portal and faced it. Finally, he reached out a small metal hand for her.
Snu took it. “Ready?”
Reality wiggled its nose as a strange Dungeon Boss and an ascending little robot stepped into the Unspace together. Snu felt her entire being unmade and sorted into tiny, labeled jars, all neatly arranged on a spice rack. Meanwhile, Zippy felt every circuit and motor flip polarity as new processes bloomed within his internal compute. Their grips nearly slipped but somehow, they remained together.
Quick as it came, the Unspace spat them into itself.
“Took you long enough,” Giat scolded. “I swear if we don’t get moving something bad is going to come tearing through, and then we’re in big trouble.”
“Zippy, look!” Aria floated in the unspace and pointed at a bunch of cotton ball looking things crashing into each other in the distance while leaking unsettling intuitions.
“Oh, trust me,” Petal Gravewhistle laughed to the other Gnomes. “This is strange, yes. But wait until you see what a spot of Gnomish Tea will make you experience. Maybe our next ritual, Beepy and Zippy? Sorry Aria, you’re too young still.”
“NO! I WANT TO DO GNOME TEA TOO.” Aria squealed, making the Gnomes laugh harder and Mary glaring actual murder at them. All of them coughed their laughs away.
“Please stop tugging my hand so hard, Aria,” Jemin requested, panicky.
He grasped Aria’s in one hand, and Mary’s in the other. Mary was connected to him and Beepy, who was connected to a Gnome, all ending in Giat ending grasping Petal’s hand as the end of the chain of strange acquaintances. The humans, Jemin, and the bots looked around at the wonder of the Unspace, while the Gnomes and Giat looked eager to get moving.
What Snu noticed first was Giat. She was in her Giantess Dungeon Boss form. Blinking, she looked down at her own body.
“What the…,” She muttered.
Somehow, though she hadn’t activated her transformation to her true form, she was seven feet tall, perfectly muscled, bustier, and wearing a small black dress and red stilettos. Her usually messy curly hair were proper locks, and she knew that her makeup was expertly done. Giat was in her fanciful goth raver attire, with tall high soled boots, leather and fishnets, an absurd amount of glitter and makeup, and floating colourful dreads laced with jewellery.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, if Snu didn’t press and work the transformation Skill, her natural form, which unlocked greater Skill strength amongst a whole host of other buffs, she was subject to appearing exactly how she felt sexiest.
Giat grinned at her, privy to the shared secret of their natural talents. “Think about it, Snu. We’re Bosses. While we’re not dead, or undead exactly, we do have respawn abilities. In our Dungeons, sure. But we’re definitely not exactly mortal, right? And this is a place where things not exactly living exist.”
“IT IS QUITE INTERESTING, REALLY,” Beepy toned. “IT BRINGS UP PHILISOPHICAL DEBATES ON WHAT IT MEANS TO BE LIVING, AND WHAT EXACTLY IS REAL.”
“You guys are getting way too smart for your own good.” Mary added.
“Real?” Giat laughed while gesturing around to the craziness of the unspace. “Oh no, sweetie, it’s all real. All you need for real is something to perceive something.”
Beepy went to respond but got stumped. Snu opened her mouth several times as she took it all in. Before she got ahead of herself, she shook her head. Her sister knew more about the mysteries of the System and their state. Sure, she mostly kept it to herself, but if Snu asked, Giat would openly tell her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Not this time, she thought, while flexing her will against the Unspace. She did not want to be outdone by Giat yet again.
Snu planted her heels against nothing and flexed, willing herself forward. She slid across it like it was the most natural thing in the world. Pride bloomed in her chest. Zippy latched onto Aria’s hand, knives clutched between their hands. She was doing it on her own. The internet stranger Bosses on Biscord had been right!
“Alright, how do we get to Alex? How do we find him?” Snu asked, serious business face on, trying to not make a big deal out of navigating this strange place.
Giat raised an eyebrow. “Please, like you didn’t Mark him. But don’t worry, I got this one. Hold on tight, everyone.”
Damnit, I hate when she’s right. Snu could feel him, when she thought about it. It was like a map had been placed in her brain. That way.
The chain of friends whipped through the Unspace. They streaked past a frozen over computer mainframe the size of a city, with its lights still blinking under permafrost. Next it was the cloud of pale petals whispering answers to questions never asked.
Abruptly, Giat yanked the chain to halt, seemingly in the middle of the unspace.
“Here,” she said, turning to Zippy. Snu felt Alex close too. “You’re up, big man.”
Snu floated Zippy over to the spot while he looked at Beepy. Clutching his knives, he focused, venting steam. After a moment, he turned back and started animatedly beeping and gesturing to Beepy.
“ZIPPY DOES NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO EXCHANGE FOR HIS SLICE,” Beepy translated.
Giat smiled sadly and gestured around them. “Have your pick. Anything in the unspace will do. Focus on something and use that. From what I’ve gathered, it can be anything.”
Everyone froze at her casual explanation. Would Beepy need to kill something in the unspace to save Alex?
Aria barked and pointed at Zippy. “Don’t listen to her, Zippy! This one is super dramatic. Attention on her is what she likes I think. Bleh. BLEH! Just use one of the [Ancient Paring Knives]. I can make more. INFINITE PORTALS GALORE!”
Snu laughed at Aria’s answer as realization came over Zippy. Giat made a sour face but didn’t bite back. Zippy focused again, and something tremored in the unspace as he sliced through reality. One of the knives disappeared from existence, forever gone, as a slit into the Toronto opened up before them.
Snu didn’t hear the responses or banter. Alex was on the other side. So, she latched onto Aria’s hand, tugging everyone along, and pulled them out of the unspace back into reality.
“IS THIS WHAT BEING IN LOVE DOES TO YOU?” Beepy asked as he was squashed through to the other side.
Yes, Snu answered to herself.
The aisles of burning hot and violent discount canned goods collapsed toward him. Alex barely cleared the first avalanche, panting so hard it felt like he would collapse. One more step and he would’ve been swallowed by dangerous beans.
CRACK
Another death shot detonated exactly where he’d been half a second ago. The murderous goods disappeared to nothing as he banked left and darted toward the snack aisle. Chips. Chips wouldn’t turn out to be a horrifyingly hidden Monster, right? All he knew was that he needed to find a door soon. The damn room he was in was too much like a maze. And he did not want to be trapped in a maze with ghost out to kill him.
“Hit him, damnit! Can’t you aim for anything? She’ll be here soon!” Mr. Mystical screeched as he flew on his Persian rug.
“You could help, you know?” Harold snapped back, his voice somehow cold and wrong in a way Alex couldn’t place.
“You know VERY WELL, Harold, all my attack Skills require me to touch them! Remember?” Mr. Mystical shot back. “And he’s gotten way faster!”
Alex felt the shot coming in hot by his gut instinct. He dove behind a towering pyramid of long expired kettle chips. The pyramid detonated and got sucked to nothingsville.
He scrambled to his feet and realized there was no where left to go. Looking left and right, then behind him, he’d managed to get himself trapped in corner with little Essence to flash away.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Alex backed up and faced Mr. Mystical and Harold. “Stop it! Stop it, Mr. Mystical! Why? Why are you doing this?”
The ghost possessing a three-eyed mouse in a fez and robe froze at Alex’s voice. His rug stopped and he jittered in a way that revealed his shame. Harold didn’t blast him right away, which Alex thanked the System for. The off-green book just floated there.
“That’s right, Barty,” Harold sneered. “Why exactly are you doing this? He’s right there, why don’t you finish him off? You said you needed to touch him for your kill Skills to work, right?”
Mr. Mystical didn’t move. “I...I…Alex, I’ve sorry. I have to.” He drifted his closer on his rug with a trembling voice. “If I don’t…I don’t know how I’ll survive.”
“No!” Alex pressed himself against the wall. He had just enough Essence left for one more [Phantom Step]. After that? He was toast. Maybe he could time it just right. “You helped me! You helped teach me [Burrow Sense]! You helped with that Krusher! Nina says you’re not evil!” He kept talking, trying to buy even a second.
He knew what happened when Mr. Mystical used his Skills. Had seen it for himself. A whole body swallowed by a ghost after killing the man easily.
“Oh, he’s evil alright,” Harold sneered again. “He’d do anything for a chance at that ring. Isn’t that right?”
Mr. Mystical froze mid-air, only three feet from Alex. Slowly, he spun his rug toward the book. “How do you know about the ring? The Collector swore he didn’t say anything!”
Harold’s laugh came out again, cold and wrong. It was the most he’d ever seen the book express.
But under the laugh, Alex heard something. It was a sound. No, it was two sounds. Perfect, hammering footsteps hammering a clean concrete floor.
Before he could them, a voice cut through the air.
“Thieves? No,” Freeda announced as she stepped out of the wall of her Dungeon Room. Her slippers slid against the flood and crumpled the cans underneath. “But you…” Her eyes locked on Harold. “You are far worse than a thief.”
Both ghosts snapped toward her, Mr. Mystical spinning on his run, and Harold swiveling mid flap. Freeda smiled viciously, revealing her uranium glass teeth.
“I felt you the moment you entered, Lich,” she said. “The undead leave their mark. And I feel everything in my Dungeon.”
LICH?!
What? No. Harold was a ghost. A cold book that helped out the evil Mr. Mystical…Besides, Liches couldn’t leave their Domains, right?
Harold fired instantly, two Skills to wipe reality from the current plane. One toward Alex, the other toward Freeda.
The Boss lifted a bangle covered hand and absorbed the blast without a flinch. Alex used the distraction to trigger a painful [Phantom Step], shooting past his assaulters.
“They can’t be allowed to expand!” Harold snapped, with a hint of an accent coming out. “They’ll be too powerful! The first Gold Grade Lich on the continent! It should belong to ME!”
“Oh, Collector…” Freeda sighed as she circled him like an aged panther. “You were always a greedy dick.”
“Collector?!” Mr. Mystical whirled onto the book. “You! You! What is she saying!?”
A sound shook the room.
“BAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Everyone turned toward the shout, and Alex stopped him. Brody sprinted with perfect form, screaming his lungs out. A more handsome copy of Alex headed straight for Mr. Mystical and the book. The clone leapt when he was too far to reach anything.
And then Brody vanished, reappearing a moment later, right over the book, bloody fist headed straight for the spine.
“RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Brody roared as he swung.
For those of you who didn't notice, got the offical cover uploaded from Podium. Preeeetty nifty. Fancy shmancy
tough. This is my last chapter of backlog and I'll be writing over the weekend to hammer out at least 2 more. Maybe a couple chapters left for the end of Book 2. Then I'm taking a two week break before Book 3.
Who's worried? Not me! I feel like, sadly, I write best whe I'm under pressure.
I have a much better rhythm these days (When I'm not traveling). So I'll be working on another story while writing book 3 (no delays to posting there). I'd love some of your inputs though...
What story sounds coolest? You have all been nothing but amazing with your comments and support, and I truly value your inputs.
Answer the poll PLEASE
What story next? I am still going to decide but I'd love your thoughts. 2 Choices on the poll available.
