“Co on, Ave… don’t be a wimp and follow .”
Tired of waiting for him to make the first step, I grab his hand and pull. He resists, grabbing what remains of the smashed door with everything he has.
“B-but… can’t we go back? There’s no need to go inside, you know?” His eyes swim around, looking for an excuse, any excuse, to avoid this place. “We’ve already seen everything! I swear!”
I ignore him and continue pulling.
“Stop acting like this. It’s your job to guide , so do it properly.”
“B-but, I…” He stutters. “I-I know, we can just take a peek and go back! Yes, let’s do this! Ahaha… you don’t need , I’ll wait for you here.”
“Stop struggling already.”
Shit, I can’t pull him away from the door’s remains…
How can he resist ? I have the higher stats, it should be easy to do it! What’s going on? Does he have a skill that allows him to stick to walls or sothing!?
Seeing that I don’t want to change my mind, and sooner or later, I’ll manage to pry him away from the door, he decides to switch to another tactic.
In a final attempt to convince , he grabs my hands and stares at my eyes, pleadingly.
“Please…?”
He makes the sweetest of the smiles. Oww, that’s playing dirty!
But work is work. Contrary to his expectations, I take this chance to drag him away. He made it a lot easier by releasing the door on its own.
“Let’s go,” I say, grabbing his hands too, so he can’t escape.
“Aaaah! No, not this again!” He struggles the best he can, but there’s nothing to grab anymore. This green-brown sticky substance makes it hard to grab the walls, and it isn’t possible to grab the stairs. “T-this is it! Once we finish this, we’re done! I’ll break up with you!”
I know he doesn’t an it, so I ignore him and continue dragging him, descending the stairs. The light grows dimr as we go, to the point that it’s hard to see anything at all.
It seems like, finally, I’m going to discover what he’s so afraid of. The curiosity was killing ! I was hoping to see it sooner…
Not that I was disappointed about the rest of the dungeon, though.
It was fun dealing with the turtle’s crossfire and the constant ambushes in the tunnels, I always appreciate a challenge.
The mushrooms which everyone hates weren’t dangerous to us because we ca prepared with resistance skills. Corp, or Ave as he wants to be called now, is an elf with the Nature Attuned skill, and I created a new champion just for this. It was a little bit boring, so I might want to try it without the resistance skills at a later date, but we couldn’t risk dying and wasting ti.
That giant worm that tried to eat was a big surprise. Corp’s face when it happened was hilarious. He couldn’t believe it when I used Blink to escape. He’s still too green…
The rest was fine too. It was clear to why the players both fear and enjoy this dungeon and why they keep coming back.
This is exactly what we’re looking for, a. The Mad Rat’s Lab will be a great option for our Mystical & Dangerous Monsters & Dungeons. It’s sothing different. Sothing unique but well-executed. But…
…it’s too early.
The low level of the player shows up everywhere. There are no real threats and the dungeon is too short. It’ll take ti for it to reach its true potential, we’ll have to co at a later date again and see if it’s good enough by then.
“Oh, yes… thinking about it… weren’t people talking about Anthemia and this dungeon, before we ca here…?” I heard it from our coworkers. “About eting her in person if we’re the first to beat this dungeon, right?”
I ask Corp, who’s still trying to get free.
“Aaah, no. Please, anything but this!”
No use asking him, he’s not listening.
“If we’re lucky, we might have a chance to et her. It’ll be a nice business opportunity… but our job cos first.” I shrug.
As soon as we reach the end of the stairs, Corp calms down and stops shouting. He moves behind and grabs my shoulders, turning his head around in fear, his eyes wide open.
*Blip!*
“Aah!” Corp jumps when he hears a noise coming from the passage in front of us. He hides behind , shaking. “I-it might b-b-be sothing else… y-yes. Sothing, e-else…”
Is this so kind of trap? Is this what he was so scared of?
“Finally!” I rub my hands together. “The mystery will be solved!”
Then, from the sa direction as the noise, voices co to us.
“Bahahaha! I ate all your family, and you’ll be next!”
“Let’s beeeeeeee friends! Friends foreveeeeeer!”
What the hell’s going on? I didn’t have ti to inspect the area, is trouble already on our way?
“No, no, no, no… Anything but this…”
My whole body starts shaking. It’s Corp, who’s trembling so much that it affects too.
“Calm down,” I say, “I’m sure there’s nothing to be afraid.”
“...no, no, no… not this… not this…!”
Ok, I was curious before, but now I’m about to explode. What’s going on!? I want to know!
Soon after, I see movent. Monsters, they’re coming in our direction. It’s hard to see because of the lack of light, but they don’t seem to be taller than a ter.
“Don’t worry, Ave. I’ll protect you!” I stand ready for combat. A bunch of human-headed sheep are coming our way, spouting random phrases. “What the heck…!?”
I freeze. It’s the first ti I've seen sothing like this, what’s going on?
Luckily for us, they don’t attack us. They limit themselves to surrounding us and continue their random bullshit.
“Baaaaaa! Baaaaaa! Baaaaaastard!”
“There’s a new nu today, and the main dish is you!”
The only thing I can do is turn around and ask Corp about what to do. But when I do so, I see him curled up on the ground.
“Please… leave alone… not this again…”
Sigh… Sotis, I wonder why I fell in love with him.
“Fufufu! Hahaha! Everything went according to the plan!”
I laugh, sprawled on a comfy chair, alone.
Right now I’m in the room I use to monitor the dungeon when another player invades, except I’m not in any dungeon instance right now, so the screens are black and the light is on.
I stroke the Octocat that’s resting on my armrest as I talk to myself.
“Look at all the visitors! It’s like… like… hundreds of tis more than usual!? This is amazing! I’m going to swim in cp! My dungeon will reach the top ranks in no ti! Fufufu! Hahaha!”
Well, maybe not the top ranks… but if I’m lucky, the top 10.000 wouldn’t be a stretch, would it? Yep, I think it’s perfectly doable.
For sobody of my level – which, by the way, doesn’t reach 10, the halfway point to the maximum level – this is sothing extrely rare. It wouldn’t be the first ti it happened, but it isn’t common to see.
I rember that when the ‘Whac-A-Zombie’ went viral, that player’s dungeon got into the top 10… But that was an extre case, and it fell off the ranks as quickly as it rose.
“Ain’t I amazing!? Fufufu! Hahaha! From now on, everyone will know about The Mad Rat’s Lab!”
It’s a sha the light is on and the screens are turned off because, otherwise, it’d be possible to see my amazing and epic laughing pose as a shadow on the wall right now.
‘Hey, Andreu. You know that everything is thanks to your sister’s fa, right? You didn’t earn this.’
“Shut up you fucking conscience! You have nothing to do here! Can’t you see I’m enjoying my success?”
For so reason or another, it always shows up at the worst ti. Damn conscience, if only I could banish it away…
‘You’re a moron. You’ll never get rid of . Fufufu! Hahaha!’
“Shut up I said!” I wait for a while, but only silence follows. “Where was I… Ah, yes. The epic laughing pose. Fufufu! Hahaha!”
I unconsciously rub my neck as I laugh.
It was hard asking for Marta’s agreent on the matter. I finally got her to agree, only because the damage was already done and it would sully her reputation if she refused, but I almost died there…
It shouldn’t be possible because I’m inside the ga now but, sohow, I can still feel her grasp on my neck.
And Clara, my little sister, didn’t do anything to stop it! She stood there, behind Marta, laughing all the ti!
‘Next ti, you should ask for permission before you do sothing like that, you know?’
“Shut uuuuuup! Are you ever going to leave alone!?”
‘Nope.’
“Urgh, this, this…”
No, no. Let’s calm down, Andreu. Let’s think about sothing else. Like… like those fools who’re currently invading your dungeon, hoping to win the prize!
“Let’s see, let’s see…”
I take a quick look at a few of the current dungeon instances. As I switch between them, the ga displays the players in each one, on a screen in front of . There are so many that it takes a lot of ti to do.
How many instances is ‘a lot’, you ask? It’s hard to say because it depends on your point of view, but I can give you a general guide.
The bulk of the dungeons have about ten invasions each day. Most of those co from players who let the ga choose the dungeon for them, or from the dungeon owner’s friends.
Then there are the good farming dungeons or the sowhat famous dungeons, which can get up to a hundred each day. Sure, a hundred seems like a lot, until you compare it with sothing like my sister’s dungeon, or those that appear in TV programs like M&Dx2, which get thousands each day.
And you’re right. There are barely any dungeons in between the two. You’re either extrely popular, or you’re irrelevant.
The Mad Rat’s Lab usually gets between twenty to forty invasions each day. It depends on the day of the week, and… I don’t want to think about them, but when the Mad Cultists do sothing is when I get the most invasions.
Do you think twenty is a low amount?
Then, I’m sorry to tell you this, my friend, but you’re wrong. For a player of my level, this amount of visits is abnormal.
“Let’s continue looking…” I keep taking a quick peek at the different dungeon instances, searching for sothing that catches my eye. “Hmm… how weird. I can’t see that orc player anywhere… I thought he would be the first one to co. What a sha. I guess he does have a life outside of the ga after all.”
Sotis, when I have nothing better to do and he’s inside my dungeon, I enter the dungeon instance to ss with him. His reactions and cries when he dies are so unique… he never fails to entertain .
Yep. It’s extrely funny to ‘watch’ his invasions. Hahaha!
“Ah, look here. It’s Ricard and… who is that? It looks familiar.” I scratch my cheek in thought. “Hmm… where have I seen that girl before…? The elf that goes with them looks familiar too.”
Maybe it’s just my imagination? After peeking at so many players, everyone ends up looking the sa.
“Ah, he’s acting all crazy… he’s in his ‘undead’ mode… And that girl is acting in a similar mode too…” I was thinking of going and saying hello. I changed my mind. “Let’s see what else we got here.”
I continue skimming through the list. I see a few faces I recognize, like Laura and Clara playing together, competing for who gets the most kills. It's the sa as the elf and dwarf from a certain movie… if they talked about dates and who’ll play with the next day.
“Ooooh, she even said the ‘This only counts as one’ phrase!”
There’s no way I’m getting involved in that, either.
“I don’t think there’s anything else to see–”
My brain stops working when I co upon a certain group of players. Players who I’ve only t once before, but the impact of that ti was so enormous, I’ll never forget them. They’re also the players who’ve given the largest amount of headaches.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, nooooooooooo….! Why are THEY here!? SHIIIIIIIIIIT! I forgot about them when I wrote the ssage in the forum…!”
Aaaargh, my head! It hurts as if it were to explode.
”Anyone. Literally, ANYONE! Don’t let them be the first to clear my dungeon, or it’ll be my undoing!” I shout, pulling the fur on my head. “Ricard, I’ll be your servant for life and listen to all your ramblings. Laura, I’ll go on a date with you. Clara, I’ll go into your dungeon as many tis as you want.”
My voice fades off as all the previous enthusiasm turns into fear for what’s to co.
“Just, please… don’t let them be the first ones…”
“Maybe I should think things through before I take action. Just maybe.”
- Self-reflection made after it was too late.
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