Hidden and her mercenaries finally arrived outside the camp Gill had set up with the tenting gear he got from Billy and his possy. Jumping off their carriage, they inspected the surroundings and noticed clear signs of violence. The center of the camp looked like something heavy had landed straight in the middle, cracking the surrounding ground like a drought. In fact, it was just the aftermath from Gill suppressing the old man with a simple tap on the shoulder.
After ascertaining that nothing dangerous was lurking in the surroundings, Hidden joined her men in inspecting the area. Finding that all of Billy's belongings were strewn around the ground mostly untouched, they didn't know what to think. Opening up a few of the bags, even the rations and coin pouches were there without a single thing missing. Except for the party members themselves.
Since Billy and his friends are confirmed dead by the adventurers association, they might aswell take their things for themselves. Glancing at the cave opening that clearly was the entrance to the dungeon, they couldn't help but feel that the camps position was extremely ominous. Nobody would place their camp straight infront of a dungeon like this. Who knows if some monster were to jump out, or a trap would fire all the way outside?
After travelling in a hurry for two days straight, they might aswell take a rest and have a meal before they continue with their mission. As the men were preparing the food, Hidden walked up to the dungeon entrance so check for any immediate dangers. When she was about to peek inside around the corner, a squirrely head popped out and stared straight back at her. In a moment of awkward silence, neither knew what to do about this encounter.
"Um, hello there human miss. Nice weather today, this Chipper thinks!" Chipper started out with a greeting. "What could this Chipper help you with this fine morning?" Feigning ignorance about what these humans were here to do, according to Gill's instructions, Chippers heart was beating madly in his tiny squirrel chest. If things were to go wrong, he would bolt at supersonic speeds straight down to the core room and bite Gill a few hundred times for good measure.
Wide eyed and surprised Hidden couldn't quite fathom what she had just heard. A chipmunk just popped out of the murder dungeon and proclaimed that the weather seems to be nice. Well, in fact, it is indeed a sunny morning. With the smell of food being prepared by the campsite in this idyllic forest.. "Wait a damned second," Hiddens wide open eyes started to turn bloodshot. "You murderous, fluffy little thing… We're not the first to arrive at this dungeon. Tell me what happened here or I'll turn you into a pair of slippers!"
Acting badly frightened by Hiddens sudden outburst, Chipper pulled his tail over his head to 'act cute and hide' as Gill would put it, he started shaking like a leaf in the wind. "M-miss, this Chipper isn't murderous! Chipper promise!" As he was doing his best to act afraid, he continued with clattering teeth, "This Chipper spawned from the dungeon and opened a store. Soon after, an old man, a woman and a kid came to visit."
Describing the party of three in vivid detail, he started painting the lie Gill had prepared for him. "Those three threatened this Chipper and said they weren't here for me. Not long after, a party of five young humans also came to visit my shop." He then described Billy's party, their gear and how they set up the camp Hidden's men currently reside in. "The five youngsters were first very disappointed in my dungeon, but soon got over it and promised to help me trade with humans. As they prepared to have a meal before returning with news of my store to somewhere called 'Fairweather City', the old man jumped on them with super strength!"
Chipper lowered his tail and pointed towards the camp with a shaking hand. "The old man was fast like lightning, jumping from over here all the way to the center of the camp. He struck down with the sound of a falling mountain and crashing thunder!" Chipper shivered in fear as he 'recalled' what happened. "After that, this Chipper does not know what happened. I ran inside my dungeon and hid inside for many days. I just came outside and found the human miss looking inside." He then pointed at Hidden while still acting fairly afraid.
Frozen stiff by the revelations this tiny creature was spouting, her memory replayed the moment her group passed the party of three. She knew that the old man seemed very familiar for some reason, when all of it suddenly clicked!
"Traitorous Old Man is back, and he's here for revenge!" As Hidden screeched loudly, the entire campsite jumped to their feet, swords drawn and ready for action. When the men looked over and saw Captain Hidden staring at a chipmunk from the dungeon, they didn't quite know how to react. "The old man's branch family should've been eradicated… Don't tell me he's back to lay claim to.." Mumbling something unintelligible, Hidden turned around in a split second and ran towards the wagon.
Grabbing a magic scroll of some kind from the back, she unfurled it and wrote a long message inside before lighting it on fire. As the motes of flame flew into the air and away into the distance, she finally sighed in relief. The old man had returned and was plotting to uproot the entire clan! What good fortune that she found out the truth from this stellar chipmunk. It is common sense that spirit beasts are horrible liars. They can't even comprehend that it is possible to say anything but the truth.
Chipper just stood there flabbergasted. This human female trusted his words just like that? Thinking back to how Gill asked him to act, he couldn't help but feel cold in his heart. How can that demon be so smart? It's like he's a worm inside someone's gut, it knows everything about everyone! Still shivering, albeit for a different reason this time, Chipper watched on as Hidden walked back to him. She crouched down and patted his head while calmly reassuring that she wouldn't hurt him.
"Cute little thing, I didn't understand the situation at first." Hidden showed a genuine smile at the chipmunk. "You said that you have opened a store in your dungeon? How come you didn't fill it with traps and other things to keep yourself safe? Little Chipper can't be this irresponsible in the future." Cupping her hands to raise the chipmunk for a closer look, she noticed that it had a collar around its neck.
"Human miss, this Chipper's dungeon is very special. It came in two layers, one filled with very strong poison and the other was very empty." Chipper continued on with the story Gill had prepared for him. "This Chipper doesn't know why, but it does not have trap options. All it does is ask for many different things and then gives this Chipper gold coins in return." He then jumped down from Hiddens hands and rushed back to his desk, jumped up to one of the cabinets and pulled it open. The whole thing was stacked with gold coins.
"If this Chipper can give the dungeon core many things, it promised me that I will become very strong." Pretending that even a single coin was extremely heavy, Chipper pulled one up above his head to show it to Hidden. "Look, the coin even has Chippers stellar appearance printed on it! I'm very handsome!" Gill had already changed the minting from his own demonic visage to that of a flexing chipmunk to make the story more believable.
"No wonder the old man didn't try to do anything to you. Killing you would just make you respawn downstairs, and should he try to get the core he'd just get poisoned." Sighing in realization, she must say that this was one very peculiar dungeon. It's not the first time she had heard about a dungeon store, but one at the lowest of levels starting out with one? That's probably the first in the entire world.
"At first, this Chipper was visited by a large Bear. It wanted my dungeon for itself. It said that this Chipper is a rodent, and should act as such." Chipper hurled the coin down on the desk and stomped on it. "I ran back to the dungeons second layer with the big baddie following behind. The Bear choked and croaked after just five seconds from my master plan!" Chipper tried his best to throw out a demonic grin like Gill usually does to try and look menacing. In the end, he only looked incredibly cute which got Hidden to giggle.
By this point, the mercenaries that were on standby behind Hidden had gotten the gist of the situation. This was a gold making dungeon with a single trap function in its poisoned layer, without any monsters to speak of. If they could somehow get their hands on the core, they could buy things cheap and have it spit out endless gold coins ad infinitum! As if gold coins sprouted from their eyes, they couldn't wait to grab some antidotes and rush down there to grab the core in a jiffy.
Gill that was watching the spectacle from his monitor couldn't help but grin. That woman was swallowing his lies hook, line and sinker! Even the mercenaries were acting according to script.
Hidden glanced back at her men and knew what they were thinking. Promptly ignoring their ideas, she was instead curious about what type of shop a squirrel would run. Taking a few cautious steps inside and not finding any traps, she walked up to the desk and noticed a whole bunch of signs written in wonderful caligraphy. One couldn't deny, the dungeon system had access to the most sophisticated penmanship in the entire world.
The first and topmost sign only had a simple message saying [ Chipper's Dungeon Shop ]. Looking down towards the next ones, Hidden couldn't help but narrow her eyes. The second sign was straight up a warning placard with short descriptions about punishments.
[ Attempt at stealing from the chipmunk: You will be poisoned. ]
[ Attempt at killing the chipmunk: You will be cursed. ]
[ Attempt at haggling with the chipmunk: You will be amputated. ]
[ Attempt at entering the second layer: You will die. ]
[ Attempt at… ]