Gamer Guild’s Dungeon (End)

--- Jon ---

He gasped, his eyes shooting open as his brain burned and a dampness formed beneath his nose as he yet again suffered the Man in the mask’s mechaniations.

“Damn it, I thought we fully healed him!” A voice cursed as someone touched him, and his hands twisted around them until one wrapped around the person’s throat and the other cupped around Pix laying on his chest to keep her safe from whatever stranger was in the room.

A second someone grabbed his wrist, before shocking him and forcibly removing his hand from the first. “Calm down Jon. Everything is okay. No one is trying to hurt you.”

He blinked, his vision clearing a bit as he realized the second person was Ying.

“Fuck, that’s the thanks I get for getting him healed?” The first- Roxanne- spat, rubbing at her throat.

“S-sorry.” He apologized, before taking in the odd space around him, lined with shirts and trinkets like some kind of gift shop manned by the merchant construct glaring at him from behind a counter. “W-where are we?”

“The Dungeon’s exit shop.” Roxanne told him before shaking her head and running a hand down her face as she sighed. “You were in really bad shape after everything that happened, and we rushed you here because the dungeon has a healing function if you pour enough points into it. Though given how fucked up you were we had to spend pretty much everything to piece you back together since your fairy friend wasn’t strong enough to do it herself.”

“S-sorry.” He grimaced, not sure who he was saying it to as Pix rubbed her face into his chest at that last comment.

“You don’t need to apologize for getting hurt, Jon.” Ying assured him.

“You just need to never step foot in any of our dungeons again.” Roxanne tacked on, earning a look from the draconic teen before rolling her eyes. “Look I’m not ungrateful that he cleaned up his mess, but it was still his mess in the first place.”

“That’s fair.” He agreed before Ying could say anything to make the gamer girl’s opinion of them any worse. “And for what it’s worth I didn’t know that… it would show up when we went in there.”

“I know, and honestly that’s probably the only thing keeping the guild from trying to lynch you for putting the Dungeon and the GM in danger.” Roxanne explained before seeming to smirk at something. “Well, actually that probably won’t stop my brother if he gets his hands on you.”

“Again, fair.” He grimaced, before noticing someone missing. “Where’s Wolf? Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine.” Roxanne told him. “Like with the plan she was protecting me and Pix from those… corrupted… things… and…” The gamer teen sighed, doing nothing for his nerves. “Anyway she was doing fine, if a little exhausted, but when your spell or whatever drained all of that magic it probably forced you to dismiss her since you couldn’t maintain her upkeep.”

“That’s… will she be okay?” He asked, while subtly checking how much magic was left in his amulet. “I mean she was summoned outside of the Dungeon so will dismissing her inside of it throw mess things up?”

“Nah, Arcane are always summoning and dismissing their allies in the dungeon with no problem, so I guess the Arcane Nexus accounts for all of that.” Roxanne shrugged.

“That’s good.” He nodded, before figuring out how much magic was left in his amulet. (Hmm, I’m still at about half capacity, so why would I dismiss her?)

(“Oh, well that’s a thing.”) The man in the mask commented.

“What is?” He hissed, glaring at the mad entity.

“The fact that you’re kind of dead at the moment.” A beautiful pale lady informed him as she took a cup off of the table.

He swallowed. “I’m what?”)

(Oh, right.) He swallowed, figuring it made sense that his contract would auto-dismiss should he die.

“Are you sure he’s alright? He’s looking fairly pale.” Ying commented, eyeing him with a fair amount of concern.

“Like I said, he’s as right as the GM’s Madness can make him.” Roxanne growled, before shaking her head with another sigh. “But well, he was in really bad shape, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she couldn’t fix all of the damage he took.”

“I’m fine.” He lied. “It’s just my head is a bit scrambled from… everything.” He admitted a little more honestly.

“Yeah, that’s fair.” Roxanne snorted. “Honestly, with what that thing, and your own spell did to you, I’m just glad we didn’t have to take you to the hospital. That would’ve raised a lot of questions that I doubt any of us want raised.”

He gave her a wry grin at that. “You’re not wrong.”

Closing his eyes and leaning back against the wall he idly noted the way that the other two teenagers seemed to lapse into silence, likely giving each other meaningful looks of one kind or another as they tried to talk about him without actually talking about him. (Nothing I can really do about that.)

Eventually, after a few moments of relative quiet he decided that while he wasn’t quite good enough to stand on his own just yet, he was good enough to assure Wolf of his well being. And so pulling the cool-warmth of his magic through his body, he pushed some into the contractor’s mark on his back before throwing it in front of him, generating a small wave of light that quickly coalesced into a familiar brown Wolf.

Not even wasting a second his canine companion quickly lunged for him, alternating between rubbing against him and going over him with a finer eye than one would think a wolf capable of.

“I’m alright.” He promised her as he ran a hand through Wolf’s fur. “A little worn down, but nothing a good night’s sleep can’t fix.” (If we’re not counting all of the psionic scarring anyway.)

Wolf made a whining sound that informed him that she didn’t quite believe him, and as he felt a small bit of magic push through their bond, he was reminded that it was technically a two way street and she could likely read as much about him as he could her.

He couldn’t help but grimace at that revelation. (Well, at least she can’t tell anyone else what she’s picking up.)

Pix buried her face into his chest as he was reminded that Wolf wasn’t the only one he was contracted to. (Right, and I guess it’s a little worse for her since it’s always been her job to patch me back together, and I was just too beaten up for her this time… because of a spell I had her use.)

“Look, none of you need to worry about me.” He assured them, running his thumb between Pix’s antenna. “I’m still alive and kicking, so there’s nothing really worth worrying about. It’s just… been a long day, and I could really use some sleep.”

“Roxy!” A voice called, as a dark skinned man in their early twenties rushed into the room from the exit.

(Which I’m not getting anytime soon.) He sighed, forcing himself onto his feet.

“Hey, Dex.” Roxanne greeted, letting just a touch of her exhaustion slip through.

“Are you alright?” The man -(Dex?)- asked looking the younger teen over in a half-panic clearly visible despite the shades on his face. “I got your PM that something was going wrong in the dungeon? Which, how?!”

Roxanne seemed to wince at that question before glancing towards him and Ying a few paces away from her and what he assumed was her previously mentioned brother despite their lack of physical similarities.

Said brother followed her gaze to him, before growling out, “What did you do?!” as the faint thrum of both magic and madness began to fill the air, alongside a faint musical beat.

(Huh, that’s… interesting…)

“We did nothing wrong.” Ying snapped at the man, adding ozone to the mixing scents and flavors of the air.

“Really, because when my little sister sends a ping that the Dungeon built by my family is trying to kill her, then something has clearly gone wrong!” The man snapped back.

“Look, Dex, it’s not… entirely their fault.” Roxanne admitted reluctantly. “I could pick up a weird Madness thing coming off of the guy, and so I invited them to party up with me for the dungeon so I could see what his deal is.”

“And I’m guessing his deal was something bad?” Dex glared at him.

“Y-yeah, that’s one way to put it.” Roxanne nodded with a grimace.

“So what exactly did you do?” The older brother asked him instead of his sister. “Because anything that can screw up the entire dungeon is clearly made up of some bad vibes.”

“That’s um, complicated.” He grimaced, more because of how his answer sounded in his head than the man’s glare.

“Uncomplicate it.” Dex told him, taking a step closer.

He looked the angry elder brother in the eye, and saw his exhausted reflection in the young man’s sunglasses, before eventually letting out a tired sigh. “Sorry but… I’m just not in the mood to explain the hows and why of this… mess at the moment.”

With that said, he moved to step around the man and give Roxanne one last apology and farewell for this whole mess, because even if he was exhausted she still deserved that much at least for having to go through all of this because of him. At least that was the game plan until someone grabbed his shoulder forcefully.

“Yeah, well I’m not in the mood to let this go without an explanation.” The (lemming) told him.

The beast glanced over his shoulder and looked the boy in his eyes, before as kindly as he could requesting that the boy, “Let go of me.”

The boy jumped away from him and he immediately relaxed, not really feeling like being touched after everything that had happened in the last hour or so.

Taking a deep breath he ran his hand down his face before letting it out. “Look I really am sorry for all of… this, but I’m just… I’m too tired to deal with this right now.”

Staring at him with a large amount of wariness, Roxanne’s brother swallowed before nodding. “Yeah, I… I get that.” Dex shook his head. “But that, that doesn’t change the fact that after… whatever the hell happened in that Dungeon, you and all of your friends are banned from ever stepping foot in them again.”

“That’s fair.” He agreed once more to that ban before turning to the other sibling to ban him from the Dungeon. “Look, Roxanne, I’m sorry about this whole mess. If I’d known what was going to happen in there I would never have stepped foot in the Dungeon. Especially if I’d known it meant dealing with… it again. Which is why…” He sighed before shrugging. “I’m sorry you got caught up in all of this.”

With that said, and not knowing what else to say, he figured that it’d be best if he didn’t subject the siblings to his presence any longer and made his way to the Dungeon shop’s exit.

As he stepped through the exit and out into the light of the setting sun, he faintly heard Roxanne say, “Damn it Decker.” from behind him, whatever else she was going to say getting muffled by the divide between dream and reality that made up the Dungeon Exit.

A sudden chill through the air reminded him that he was going to have to figure something out to replace the jacket he’d lost to the light and the flames.

“You sure you’re alright?” Ying asked him once she’d caught up to him a few paces away from the Gamer’s Guild’s Dungeon.

Wolf rubbed against his leg as he held Pix just a little closer to his chest. “Yeah, I just want to head home and sleep this whole mess off.” He admitted, walking away from the Dungeon and the monster it could draw out of him once more.