“It’s so easy.” Sam said, and Kevin immediately slapped his shoulder.

“I hope it stays that way.” The Tower all-access card was surprisingly magical. It meant they could open all the doors and all the locks in the Northwest Towers Complex T

“Did we jinx it? System or blue screen, will the dungeons get harder?”

[Difficulty usually scales with level. Dungeons with higher levels will appear in subsequent stages.]

“Darn.”

“Cock.”

They were both dressed in the maintenance overalls, and with the map’s guidance, began to check where the shovels were. There were at least six places throughout the three Towers of the Northwest Towers.

“Huh. I’m surprised you guys turn up for work.” One of the middle-aged female janitors greeted them on the 6th floor. There were actually maintenance alleys and paths that most office workers would never see. “Thought everyone’s being crazy about the blue-screens.”

Sam smiled. “Ah. We’ll get to that after work.”

“Oh. I’ve done mine, actually. Mine was pure stupid. It asked me to bake a cookie.”

“Shit that’s easy.”

“Y’know what’s the sucky thing?”

“What?”

“The cookie disappeared after I finished baking. It didn’t even let me taste my own cookie.”

“Oh that’s low.” Sam sympathised. Not being able to eat your own food after working so hard had to suck.

“I’m pretty sure whatever alien that’s behind this blue screen thing is probably a hungry dude eating my cookies.”

“You think there’s someone behind it?”

“I bet there is.”

Kevin opened the last closet on that floor. Nothing. “Say, have you seen a shovel anywhere?”

“A shovel?” The lady paused and closed her eyes. She thought very, very hard. “I think I saw one on the 20th Floor, but it’s in the office area though.”

Kevin checked the map. It didn’t say anything about the 20th floor, but maybe the map wasn’t the location of the shovel, but the location of where they could find ‘hints’ to the shovel. “Okay. We’ll check it out.”

***

Level 20 was another office area. The whole floor was a multinational mining and resources company’s corporate office, and was decorated with marble and carpeted floors. There actually was someone working.

A young lady in jeans and a T-shirt was working when they walked in. She was incredibly focused on her laptop, and seemed to be thinking and working really hard. So she screamed when she lifted her head and saw the two of them.

“AHHHH!” She was startled when the two of them walked in. “Oh. I’m sorry. I’m just not expecting anyone to be here today.”

Kevin just answered naturally. “Maintenance often works on non-working days, madam.”

The young lady frowned, and took a moment to catch her breath. “Don’t call me madam. I’m nowhere near that age bracket or tax bracket.”

“Apologies, Miss.” Kevin said. “Have you seen a shovel around?”

“A shovel?” She stood and thought, and Kevin took a moment to peek at her computer screen. There was a notification. Wait. There was something explicit on her screen, but she managed to alt-tab it so Kevin only saw the notification bar. Was she watching porn with her office computer?

“Yeah.”

“I have no idea.”

“It’s alright then.” Kevin said, and turned to Sam. “Let’s go. I think she mentioned it was somewhere in the office area.”

Sam had begun walking, and eventually they went to a pantry. Then they saw it.

It was together with a pickax and a shovel, placed on the wall like a decoration. To Sam, the shovel glowed. To Kevin, it was just an ordinary shovel.

As they approached it, they immediately got a notification.

[Congratulations! You’ve discovered a Level 2 Shovel Dungeon! Do you wish to attempt the dungeon? This Dungeon Awards a Shovel to Sam Terchett, and Completes his Weekly Quest. You will also receive a summonable magical Shovel as a Weapon for future stages!]

It wasn’t really a choice, was it?

The dungeon itself was a mineshaft, and they both got a shovel and a pickax in their hands.

[Harvest as many crystals from the walls as you can. You may use the shovels or pickax to destroy the rock-bugs that appear. Collect 30 Crystals to Pass. Collect 100 Crystals to Receive an upgraded Shovel! You have 3 hours]

“This whole thing is a minigame.” Sam said.

“I hope it stays that way. I’m not signing up for Squid Game.”

The crystals were really, really easy to spot. They glowed with a purple light and all uniformly hexagon in shape. It also didn’t take much effort to hack away the rocks that held them in place.

[1 Crystal collected]

The rock-bugs appeared from the darkness. They were the size of a small house cat and were more like crabs made of rock, then a bug. They also moved slowly.

“Well?” They weren’t as nervous this time around. Sam shrugged, and Kevin walked to it, and attacked it with his shovel. The shovel was honestly quite heavy, and the rockbug splattered on impact.

Within the rock-bug was also a crystal.

[A total of 2 crystal collected]

“We need 30. Let’s keep going.”

It wasn’t hard at all, but they were exhausted. They just kept moving and collecting the crystals, and smashing rock-bugs as they appeared. Kevin did the smashing, Sam did the collecting, and after three hours.

They got a total of 122 crystals.

[Dungeon completed!]

[Sam Terchett’s Weekly Mission completed! Please wait for your next week’s mission!]

[Awarding Dungeon Skill to both party members : Magic Shovel Level 5. Dungeon skills can only be used in Dungeons and Otherworld Areas]

When they popped back out, three hours had passed.