For almost a full minute, nobody moved. The shock of what we had just witnessed settled in as the smell of blood and burned Tommy surrounded us. Aaron sat against the wall clutching his injured arm while Mary cried quietly beside him. Lynn stood frozen near me, one hand pressed over her mouth.
The bathroom door remained closed.
Then another window exploded into existence across my vision.
SYSTEM NOTICE
The World Dungeon entry phase has officially concluded. All surface entrances are now sealed. Remaining surface survivors have been categorized as non-participants. Have a wonderful crawl.
“Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me,” Matt whispered.
My eyes drifted upward instinctively to the top right corner of my vision and what I saw there made my blood go cold.
“Clay?” Lynn asked softly.
I barely heard her because there, ticking downward one second at a time, was a countdown timer I somehow hadn’t noticed before.
4 DAYS : 22 HOURS : 58 MINUTES
“What…” I whispered.
“What?” Matt said looking toward me.
“There’s a timer,” I said, as I pointed upward at what probably appeared to the rest of them as nothing
Silence.
Aaron slowly lifted his head, then his face went pale.
“Oh,” he whispered, “the floor collapse.”
Nobody said anything after that because suddenly the dungeon didn’t feel like a place anymore, it felt like a ticking time bomb. After a moment Mary let out a shaky breath beside her brother and wiped uselessly at her eyes.
“We can’t stay here,” she whispered.
Nobody argued. None of us wanted to stay near the pit anyway.
My eyes drifted toward the bathroom door again. Blood and wet chunks of flesh surrounded the frame and floor.
Aaron immediately looked away.
Lynn noticed where I was staring.
“Clay…” she said quietly.
“Kylie might still be alive,” I said.
Matt looked toward the door and visibly swallowed. Marv shifted nervously beside me, ears flicking backward. He let out a low uneasy snort and pressed slightly closer against my shoulder.
Honestly? I felt the same.
I reached up an absentmindedly rubbed the bridge of his nose as I tend to do when he is nervous.
New Achievement: Team Building Exercise
Your party has suffered multiple casualties within the first hour of entering the World Dungeon. Statistics indicate this is considered “suboptimal.” On the bright side, surviving members often report accelerated emotional bonding after shared traumatic events. Assuming they survive long enough to process them.
Reward: Bronze Adventurer Box!
“I fucking hate this place,” Aaron whispered.
“Yeah,” Matt replied hollowly. “I’m getting there.”
I stepped toward the bathroom door.
“Clay,” Lynn said carefully.
“We can’t just leave her,” I insisted.
The stone around the doorway was slick with blood and I tried very hard not to look too closely at the chunks. My hand shook slightly as I reached for the handle and then I pulled it open. Bright white light spilled into the corridor.
The bathroom beyond was spotless. Bright white tile covered the walls and floor. A single toilet sat against the far wall beneath an unblemished mirror. That was it. No stalls. No sink. No blood. No Kylie.
There were no signs anyone had ever entered the room at all.
“What the fuck,” Matt said from behind me.
Lynn stepped closer beside me and stared into the room.
“That’s impossible,” she said.
“And a giant death dungeon under the surface of the earth is possible?” Matt said.
Aaron slowly stood despite Mary trying to stop him. He stared into the tiny bathroom with hollow eyes.
“Kylie?” he called weakly.
Only silence answered him.
It looked less like a bathroom and more like somebody had tried to recreate one from memory after hearing a vague description.
“Maybe…” Mary started shakily. “Maybe she got out somehow?”
“There’s nowhere to go,” Matt said immediately. He was right, the room was slightly large enough for one person to stand comfortably inside.
Aaron stared into the impossible little room for several more seconds before finally stepping back.
“We keep moving,” he said flatly, his voice sounding dead. That scared me more than the bathroom did.
Another hallway stretched beyond the bathroom corridor intersection, torchlit and uneven. Farther ahead, faintly illuminated letters were posted above a stone archway with a set of wooden double doors.
Tutorial Guildhall
“Oh, thank God,” Matt breathed.
Matt stopped walking immediately. Seeing something I couldn’t, then a moment later, another window popped into existence across my vision.
“No,” he said flatly. “Absolutely not. I refuse.”
New Achievement: Literacy Is Power.
Congratulations! Against all odds, you have successfully read and comprehended an officially posted dungeon sign. Studies show literacy rates among crawlers drop dramatically after exposure to repeated blunt force trauma, psychological collapse, and carnivorous wildlife. You’re ahead of the curve already!
Reward: All official signs will now glow and be easier to spot. All nearby guilds will be highlighted on your minimap for your viewing pleasure.
“The dungeon just gave me an achievement for reading,” Matt said weakly.
“Well,” Aaron muttered hollowly, “at least one of us is academically gifted.”
“Fuck all of you.”
Nobody laughed.
We just kept walking toward the door with the now brightly glowing words with the large set of double doors beneath them. Warm yellow light spilled faintly from the cracks around the frame. Which honestly felt bizarre after everything we had just seen. It almost felt safe.
Aaron slowed slightly as we approached the doors. His face looked pale beneath the torchlight, though whether from blood loss or shock I honestly couldn’t tell anymore. Mary stayed close beside him, one hand gripping his sleeve like she was afraid he might disappear too if she let go.
Marv suddenly bumped his head lightly against my shoulder.
I looked up at him automatically.
The stallion’s ears were flicking toward the doors nervously.
“Yeah,” I murmured quietly and reached up to stroke his neck. “I know.”
New Acheivement: Surprisingly Domestic
You have successfully reassured a stressed mount during a mass casualty event. Studies indicate emotional bonding between crawlers and companion animals may improve long-term psychological stability. Assuming either of you survive long enough for that to matter.
Reward: Nothing! Isn’t companionship enough?
I told my friends about the new achievement with a sigh.
“Okay seriously,” Matt said tiredly, “why does the dungeon care about your horse so much?”
“I don’t know,” I snapped slightly louder than intended.
Silence followed immediately afterward.
“Hey, I’m not attacking you.” Matt said as he raised both hands.
Guilt hit me almost instantly.
“Sorry,” I muttered. Honestly, I felt like I was barely holding myself together at this point.
Aaron stepped forward before anyone else could say anything and pushed the doors open. Warm air rolled out to meet us, an almost comforting warmth. I nearly stumbled from how jarring the difference felt.
The room beyond looked less like a dungeon and more like a strange underground lodge with stone walls, exposed wooden beams, and ample lantern light. Tables and chairs arranged neatly across a large common room and absolutely nobody inside.
“Oh,” Matt whispered.
The entire guild looked prepared for people who never arrived. Empty mugs sat on tables and papers rested neatly behind a long counter near the back wall. Chairs sat half-pulled out like someone had expected crowds, but the room remained completely silent except for the faint crackling of a fireplace somewhere deeper inside.
“That’s…” Lynn started quietly.
“Creepy?” Matt supplied.
“Yeah, a bit,” she said
The moment we crossed the threshold, another notification appeared:
You have entered a designated Safe Zone. Violence, sabotage, and hostile actions are prohibited within this area. Violators will be punished accordingly, up to teleportation to a nearby hostile area. Please enjoy your stay.
Warning: Level timers are still active.
“Heh, nearby?” Matt repeated nervously. “Why does it say nearby?”
“Because the dungeon hates us,” Aaron replied immediately.
Nobody argued with him.
The doors shut behind us with a heavy thud and we stopped, not venturing further in. For the first time since entering the dungeon, the silence didn’t feel immediately dangerous, despite the slightly creepy atmosphere of a place apparently abandoned.
Marv let out a long breath through his nose and slowly relaxed beside me. Honestly, I think all of us did a little. My legs suddenly felt unsteady now that we had stopped moving.
“I don’t like this,” Matt muttered quietly.
“The safe zone?” Lynn asked.
“No,” he replied immediately. “The part where my brain is already trying to pretend the last twenty minutes didn’t happen.”
Nobody responded to that because yeah, same.
Aaron slowly lowered himself into one of the nearby chairs with a grimace, clutching his injured arm. Mary immediately crouched beside him.
“Let me see it,” she whispered.
“It’s fine,” he said, trying fruitlessly to wave her off.
It very clearly wasn’t fine. Blood still soaked the sleeve of his jacket where shrapnel from Tommy’s exploding ammo had torn through his arm. Every now and then his hand trembled slightly.
“You need help,” Lynn said softly.
“No shit,” Aaron muttered, then he started laughing, not a ‘haha, that’s funny’ laugh, more of a ‘I’m done with this shit’ laugh.
“What?” I asked.
“I got an achievement,” he said, then read it out to us. “’Friendly Fire. A fellow crawler has accidentally wounded you through catastrophic incompetence. Thankfully, dungeon medicine has advanced far beyond concepts such as “tetanus” and “basic workplace safety.” Reward, Bronze Adventurer Box.’”
“I swear to God,” Aaron whispered, staring at the popup with dead eyes, “if this thing gives me one more achievement about Tommy blowing himself up, I’m going to punch God.”
“Please don’t test the safe zone rules,” Matt replied immediately.
A sudden voice echoed from somewhere deeper in the guild.
“Oh! New crawlers!”
Everyone’s heads turned violently to look at a figure that had suddenly appeared from behind the rear counter so quickly, I honestly had no idea where she came from.
She was small… like… really small. Maybe three feet tall at most. Bright pastel-colored hair spilled down around pointed ears while translucent wings buzzed faintly behind her back in a blur of shimmering light. She wore something halfway between a business vest and a magical girl cosplay outfit, which made her look both aggressively professional and completely ridiculous at the same time. Then a window popped up in my vision.
Simbul – Moonlight Fairy. Level 50
Guildmaster of this guildhall.
This is a non-combatant NPC.
Moonlight Fairies are generally full of bubbly personality. While their magic tends to be weaker than that of other fairy races, they often make up for it in their outgoing and optimistic views, however, they are prone to fits of pessimism when under high amounts of stress.
“Welcome to the Tutorial Guildhall!” she chirped brightly while hurrying around the counter toward us. “Congratulations on surviving initial dungeon entry!”
She stopped when she got near and her eyes taking in Aaron’s blood-covered arm, the gore still splattered across our clothes, Mary’s tear-streaked face, and Marv.
She blinked.
“…Is that a horse?” she asked.
Marv immediately lifted his head proudly.
“Yes,” I answered cautiously.
The fairy stared at him for several long seconds, looking at something only she could see.
“Why,” she asked carefully, “does the horse have a legendary achievement?”
Matt made a strangled choking noise behind me.
“He got one too?” he asked, his voice incredulous.
The fairy’s wings buzzed once in visible confusion, then she shook herself violently like someone rebooting mid-conversation and snapped back into a painfully cheerful smile.
“Okay! Wonderful! Fantastic! We are just going to emotionally process whatever that means later.” She clapped her hands together rapidly. “Right now, we are focusing on keeping everyone alive long enough to become functional crawlers!”
“Functional?” Matt repeated weakly.
“Preferably!” she chirped. “You’re leaking.”
She pointed suddenly at Aaron.
“I noticed,” Aaron replied flatly, clearly trying not to show his pain.
“Excellent awareness! That already puts you ahead of approximately eighteen percent of first-floor casualties.” She replied full of cheer.
None of us knew how to respond to that.
The fairy zipped forward in a blur of motion and landed lightly on the table in front of Aaron. Up close, she looked even stranger, her face was too expressive and energetic, like she was trying very hard to overpower exhaustion through sheer force of personality.
“Okay!” she said brightly. “Let us begin orientation so that we can get on to inventory management and do something about that leaky arm! After all, we don’t want this fine gentleman to bleed out before we even get started, now do we? Is everyone here present and accounted for… Oh…”
Her voice trailed off and her face went slack for a moment, then the cheery disposition kicked back in and she looked at us expectantly.
“Do you mean physically?” Matt asked.
“Emotionally does not count,” she chimed.
“Then yes,” he said dryly. “Those of us who made it here.”
“Wonderful!” she said, a joy dancing in her eyes as if she had waited her whole life for this moment. She waved a hand which glows softly.
A window suddenly appeared in front of me.
Crawler menu activated.
The world blinked and on the upper right of my vision a red bar labeled Health appeared, pushing the timer down slightly. On the upper left, a blinking folder appeared and to bottom right a small minimap appeared.
“Okay!” Simbul said enthusiasticly, “lets walk you through how to use your hud!”
“Whoa,” Lynn said as Mary yelped in surprise.
The fairy looked around for a moment as if trying to locate something in the room.
“Where is…” she muttered. “Oh! Right! I haven’t pulled it out of my inventory yet. I’m such a silly billy.”
A blackboard popped into existence beside her, the board had illustrations on it resembling what I currently have floating in my vision. A stick with a white glove pointing appeared in her hand.
“Ehm,” she said, her face suddenly serious. “I will now walk you through the use of your hud and inventory systems.”
She looked at Aaron.
“I know you are leaking fluids vital to your existence, and we will get to taking care of that in a minute, but I am legally obligated to do this in the proper order.” She said as some index cards appeared in her other hand. “Umm… where was I? Oh! Right!”
She pointed to the illustration of the minimap.
“This is your minimap! Isn’t it wonderful? It will provide you lots and lots of useful information about your immediate surroundings!” She beamed cheerfully as if she had just told us we won the grand prize in some contest. “Now, I need each of you to focus on it, like really, really, focus on it!”
I do as instructed and suddenly a full-sized map of the area popped up, filling my vision.
“Good job, Clay and Matt!” she complimented us. “Let’s let the others catch up and then we’ll proceed!”
“Wait… How do you know our names?” I ask.
“I examined you!” she replied. “If you focus on an object, creature, or individual, you can get their basic information! But, I’m also the master of this guildhall so I can see each of your huds as well as your individual crawler stats, but we are getting ahead of ourselves… Okay! You all have your maps open now, these are a detailed map of the area around you. If you focus, you can zoom in and out, just like in one of your video games here on Earth, but if you zoom out now, you will only see a lot of darkness due to the fog of war.”
I do like she mentioned and found that the map responded to my thoughts easily as I zoomed in and out and scrolled around. The room we were in glowed yellow and there are several blue dots in the room as well as a white dot. Outside in a detached hallway, there were a couple of red dots moving around on the edge of the fog of war.
“Good! You guys are naturals! You might even make it past the tenth floor!” Simbul said enthusiastically. “The blue dots are fellow crawlers, white are NPCs such as myself, and red are mobs who will attempt to get friendly with your insides! If you focus on any dot, you can see the name of the thing associated with that dot!”
I focused on one of the nearby blue dots.
Crawler Lynn #1422
Then I focused on one of the red dots.
Crocodilian Yokel - Level 2
“Good job, guys!” Simbul exclaimed
Suddenly Aaron gasped loudly.
“Kylie’s alive,” he said.
I dismiss the map and stared at him
“What?” the rest of us said in unison.