As we expose ourselves to the next floor, hot, humid air hits us and water droplets fall onto us. Additionally, we're surrounded by an overgrown forest, with trees, moss, and mushrooms everywhere. Staring up, I find a tarp the trees had made covering us, causing very little light to reach where we stood, causing it to feel dismal.
"Edwin, there's a problem…" I hear Marvin's voice quiver and turn to him quickly, "The food… it's all gone."
Realizing that it wasn't anything serious, I deadpan at Marvin, "Dax did tell you…"
"I know…" Marvin lowers his head in sorrow, "But it's just so sad."
"Get a grip." I scan the surroundings, wondering what kinds of monsters would appear this time around.
Taking his spear from me, Marvin also searches.
"Mabey they're waiting for us to move." Marvin whispers to me quietly.
Agreeing with his sentiment and, after having my confidence restored by killing the giant monster, I take a step forward.
*Squish*
Staring down, I find I had stepped on a waterlogged patch of moss.
"Seems that did it…" Marvin displays his spear, staring coldly into the forest. Following his gaze, I find two figures enshrouded in shadow. Moving forward silently, the figure of these new monsters became more apparent.
The head was like that of a rat with a slender pointed head, large black eyes, and two furred ears. Their bodies were willowy and malnourished with their ribs being very prominent. The arms were disproportionately sized to the body, as they almost touched the forest ground. The arms were also coated with fur from the knuckle to the elbow. The monster's height came up to roughly the middle of my chest and these monsters wore simple garb, much like the first monsters.
Staring closely at their feet, wondering how they were able to move so silently, it looked like they were bouncing up off the moss instead of sinking into it as I did. As if to intimidate us, the monsters let out a high-pitched squeak.
"Aww, the things are kinda cute." Marvin lowers his guard slightly, "Though, their human-looking body is a bit off-putting."
Turning to Marvin, I gave him a look, "That's the only things off-putting about them?"
Opening his mouth, Marvin took another quick glance at the monsters and realize, "I guess not."
As the monsters inched closer to us, I also held my weapon out. Once again, as if the light bouncing from my blade caused them to become enraged, the monsters dash forward. Not expecting the surprisingly quick speed they show, I fall backward.
With my butt smacking the damp forest ground, the two monsters, with obsidian-like pokers in their hands, tried to poke my organs out. But luckily for me, Marvin had rushed to my side and smacked the two monsters away.
"Quick little buggers aren't you?" I see Marvin smirk.
Rising to my feet with Marvin still guarding me, I pick my sword back up.
"Can you ensure that you won't die?" Marvin asks me.
Nodding my head, Marvin turns himself back forward and then dashes out towards the monsters. With both splitting off in opposite directions, Marvin chases fervently after one of them, leaving me to deal with the other one.
Closely surveying the moments of the monster, it circles me again and again before leaping in. Holding its poker outstretched, I barely knock it away in time and then try to swing my sword into it, but it leaps away.
Standing a fair distance away from me, the monster begins to run around in circles again. Still closely watching it, a new game begins between the two of us. The monster dashes in, I defend, the monster dashes out, the monster runs in a circle, repeat.
I wasn't getting weighed down in the slightest by the ploy this monster was using. In fact, the only problem was that I was starting to get DIZZY!
"Get back here you little sh*t!" I see a random Marvin off in the distance, still chasing the other monster.
It was in this moment of brief distraction that the monster stuck again, and it struck true. As if a bystander watching in slow motion, the poker plunged right through my abdomen. Taking a few squishy steps back while still staring at the poker in me, I turn my gaze up to the monster.
Knowing my eyes were on it, the monster squinted and gave a terrifying smile that displayed its sharp row of teeth.
"Edwin! You all right!?" Marvin seems to see me get stabbed, and nearly gets stabbed himself, "Agh! F*ck off!" Marvin fends off the blow, "I'll be right there Edwin! Just give… give me a second!"
Chasing after his prey once more, I was at a standstill with my monster. Standing there peacefully, the monster waited for me to drop dead. One second passed. Then five. Then ten. Until an entire minute had passed.
By then, the monster realized that it hadn't landed a killing blow and was now starting to freak out, letting out more high-pitched squeaks. Stepping up towards me to see if it could retrieve its poker, I wildly swung at it.
With no logic put behind my sword swings, I overexert myself, causing blood to spill out from the poker wound. Groaning in pain, I plunged my sword into the ground and leaned on it, gifting me a little bit of support.
Knowing I still had the will to fight, but not the ability to move, the monster continued its waiting game.
But unfortunately, that game would never finish.
From behind the monster, I see a tranquil Marvin with red blood covering his face preparing to strike the monster. Noting I wasn't looking at it any longer, the monster turns around just in time to find Marvin plunging his spear into its chest.
Lifting it from the ground with ease, Marvin threw it off to the side. Marvin's unusually dull eyes regain their light as he rushes up to me.
No longer having to worry about a monster trying to kill me, I rip the poker from my abdomen and grunt. Much like I'd done before, I rip my shirt apart and wrap it tightly around the wound. The entire time I did so, Marvin watch me with worried eyes.
"I'm not gonna die…" I wince while finishing my wound dressing.
"I know, I know, but I can't help but… worry."
"It's good to worry." I pat him on the shoulder, "But make sure not to worry so much that it kills you."
Nodding his head in understanding, Marvin decides to support me so we can make it to the next floor.
As we walk, I remember seeing that Marvin being slower than his monster, so I ask, "How'd you manage to catch your monster?"
"I'm not really sure." Marvin's head tilts, "One moment it was outrunning me. The next, it wasn't."
Thinking about what the reason could be, we pass over the area where Marvin and the monster had been running around in circles. From what I could see, the moss had been kicked up and out of the way, causing the dirt of the earth to be revealed. Wondering if that had anything to do with it, we reached the monotonous brown door that led to the next floor.
"Give me a second."
Releasing me from his grasp, Marvin stands off to the side. Silently praying for the monsters, I open my eyes and nod at a thinking Marvin.
"You know what…" I let him continue, "Calling them monster feels a little too repetitive, so let's call these monsters: rat monsters. So now, we have monster, giant monster, and rat monster. How's that sound?"
"Sound grand, now let's go."
Hoisting me up once more, we wander through the door. With no change in scenery to greet us, I decided to test something.
Using my sword, I started to dig at the ground, clearing the moss away around us. I managed to get a reasonably sized area before the rat monsters appeared.
Attacking me first since I held the most reflective weapon, the moment the feet of the monsters touched the barren ground is the moment their speed plummeted to be around the same level as the monsters from the first floors.
Finding myself able to kill them with relative ease, I wonder if the magic pool also had strength-enhancing properties.
Seeing what I was doing, Marvin employed the same tactic to kill the remaining couple.
Huffing and puffing after having exerted myself that much, I rest on the ground. Only after probably thirty minutes was I comfortable enough to go to the next floor. Such progress continued into the floor ongoing. I'd made a reasonably sized mossless pit, kill the monsters, then rest for thirty minutes to an hour.
And so now, here Marvin and I sat in front of the door that led to the twentieth floor.
Wheezing a bit more after having dealt with so many, I cough out, "What do you… think is behind… this door…"
"Well if it's anything like floor ten," Marvin strokes his chin, "I'd say it's just going to be a larger rat monster that wears like a single piece of protective armor."
Touching the wound in my stomach, I held up my bloodied hand.
"We'll get it fixed," Marvin pointedly looks at my injury, "We just gotta clear this next floor."
"Yeah... no problem…"
Resting a proper amount more, we enter through the faded royal red door.
As soon as we entered floor twenty, I heard a splash of water. Looking down, I find the soles of my feet engulfed in water. This area was also cave-like, but unlike the tenth floor, there were only stalactites dripping water. Additionally, rather than having to enter an arena, we already stood inside it.
Hurriedly looking around for the presumably bigger monster, I blink once, and a figure suddenly appears on the other side of the arena. However, because the lighting was so much dimmer than anything we'd experienced thus far, I couldn't determine what I was looking at.
Meandering its way over to us, I got a better glimpse at what we were dealing with. And much like Marvin had predicted, it was a larger rat monster. But unlike the rat monsters, it was double my height, and rather than looking malnourished, it had bulging muscles and luxurious fur along both its legs and arms.
Letting out a low, garbled squeak, I witness the giant rat monster standing atop the thin layer of water.
Regarding its movements, it crouched down slightly, seeming to fall into a runner's start. Then, at a speed my eyes could barely keep track of, the giant rat monster zoomed right past me, water spraying everywhere.
Slamming into the cave walls, the room shakes violently, causing stalactites to come crashing down across the room. Very, very slowly, I turn my head, fearing what I may find.
And sure enough, Marvin no longer stood beside me.
The rat monster, which stood but a hands length away backed away from the wall, shaking its head as if injured from its own charge. Peering past the monster, my stomach started to churn, and tears started to form.
There, plastered into the cave wall sat a bloodied mess that was once Marvin. Unable to handle to the paste that was now Marvin, I threw up into the water.
With tears stinging my eyed, a bubble of anger floats up. I was angry at myself, I was angry at Marvin, but most importantly, I was angry at the giant rat monster.
With an aggrieved cry, I fling myself at the monster, my sword ready to behead it. But I'd spent too much time mourning the loss of Marvin.
Seeing my desperate attempt to kill, the rat monster presents its arm for me to slash instead. Trying my dam*dest, I start to cut through the giant rat monster's arm, but it stops about halfway through.
Gripping the end of my sword to dear life, I dangle there, relentlessly trying to pry my sword away to continue my feeble attempt at killing this bast*rd. But then it dawned on me. And it was in that moment of revelation that the monster struck.
I, who was dangling freely from the giant rat monster, watched as the monster lift me up, and wind a punch back. Staring into the black abyss of the monster's eyes, it punches me.
Feeling my ribcage cave in to puncture my internal organs, I find myself able to scream for but a second. But then I feel my back smack against something, and I plop face-first into the water.
I wanted to get up and finish the job, but no matter what I did, I couldn't seem to stand up. I couldn't even feel the pain I'd just felt a moment ago.
In fact, I'm feeling a little sleepy soaking in this water.
Why don't I just rest my eyes for a little bit?
There's no harm... there's no...