<EMERGENCY: UNAUTHORIZED PERSON AT DUNGEON ENTRANCE>

The loud noise coming from her panel awakens Alice, who knocks over Dibs and Brownie since they were sleeping right on top of her. An entrance? At this time of night? She'll kill whoever interrupted her happy and comfortable rest she's waited an entire lifetime for.

"About six meters ahead." a voice speaks from the stairwell.

"Do ya think he's EVER gonna stop doing that?" Another voice replies.

A scoff comes from what seems to be yet another intruder. "Believe me, you get used to it after a few weeks of dungeon delving with him. Back at the guild we've made a game outta seeing how high of a number he'll say. The record's forty so far. Almost got forty-two outta him one time, but a monster cut him off before he finished so it didn't really count."

Down from the stairwell comes three men. A man wearing a set of leather armor fastened with worn down belts comes first, holding two daggers at his side. He looks pretty agile, though doesn't have much muscle on him.

The second that comes through is a strong fighter, who's wearing a leather tunic with the sleeves cut off as well as a set of pants that seemed to be leather armor at some point, although they've worn off into something that looks more like a fashion statement. Maybe he's cocky. Or maybe he's just not that good at adventuring. His head is as bald as a crystal ball, reflecting the sunlight coming in from outside which makes him the center of attention.

"Enemy hidden one meter away from the entrance." The last one speaks as he enters.

His hair is black and glossy, and seems a bit scruffy from the long trip. He wears a blue suit with silver undertones with long coattails, just shy of reaching the floor. His stride is calculated, trying his best to eliminate excess movement whilst seemingly always staying on guard. Though he speaks endlessly about measurements and distance, his eyes are closed and he seems rather silent when not giving out information. He carries a rapier attached to his black leather belt, giving off the energy of an honorable duelist with years of experience. Despite that, he looks quite young and a tad bit frail compared to most adventurers.

"Dibs. Hand me the axe." Alice says, not taking her eyes off the intruders. "Brownie. Prepare some rudimentary weaponry to toss at them while I kick their ass."

"Alice." Henry speaks up.

She looks a bit annoyed, though not enough to draw her eyes away from the current assailants.

"Let the monsters take care of the first two, and take care of the rich one yourself."

"Are you serious?! They'll totally die if they mess with them!"

"If we don't let them fight now, they'll end up dying when it really matters. Do you want to die in vain because you're afraid of giving them a few scratches?"

It's wise words from his mentor. If you don't let them spread their wings, they'll die if they can't leave the nest when it matters most. It doesn't matter how many times you fall out, as long as you don't end up dead at the bottom. And if you do, it just means you weren't good enough, and you would have died anyways.

"Fine. But if any of them get hurt too badly, you owe me at LEAST ten more pulls, no questions asked!"

"If we get the points for it, you can roll as much as you'd like."

Alice smirks. "You're gonna regret your words, Big guy!"

Dibs tosses Alice an orb with the axe contained, as she tosses it up at the ceiling, catching the axe as it falls back down.

The fighter-looking one steps up first, cracking his knuckles. "I'll teach you a lesson or tw-"

CRUNCH

An earth elemental hops out from a pile of dirt, dashing into the fighter's leg and breaking it with a sickening crack. He stumbles to the side, using a nearby tall pile of dirt to stand himself up properly.

"Dammit, why didn't anyone warn me about that!"

The rich boy replies calmly after the man's remark.

"There is an enemy no longer hidden about a meter away. Please be cautious, senior."

"I CAN SEE THAT, DUMBASS!"

The man's metaphorical battle against the densest adventurer on earth continues as the presumed rogue picks up the earth elemental and holds it above his head.

"Eat this!" he yells, tossing it at the group near the end of the hall.

The earth elemental flies through the air, and Dibs approaches, obviously curious on what an Earth Elemental actually tastes like. Alice quickly steps on Dibs' tail and blocks the incoming earth elemental with the wide and flat side of the axe, staggering her back a bit from the impact.

"Sorry, I'm a bit too refined for fast food." she says, spinning her axe and resting it on her shoulder.

Dibs looks up at her and tilts his head. "Does that mean I can have him?"

The two of them look at eachother for about three seconds straight, and then sprint towards the earth elemental. Alice jumps forward and grabs it while fending off Dibs with the other arm.

"I knew you were gonna do that! Step off from the boy!" Alice yells, pushing hard against the squirrel.

"I promise I'll give him back. Just a few minutes, please?" Dibs says, continuing to approach with an odd amount of might for such a small creature.

"Don't you treat your coworker like a damn chew toy!"

The rogue quickly shakes his head and places a palm to his face. They really were just a group of incompetent idiots in a hallway masquerading as a dungeon, weren't they? He slowly walks forward, preparing to strike the three of them while they're down.

But suddenly, he feels a sharp pain in his leg. An attack? But from where? He looks down and sees a small fluffy brown creature jabbing a sharp and heavily compacted piece of dirt directly into his thigh. He wasn't expecting it at all. Reacting quickly, the man stabs down at the creature with the dagger in his right hand, but it dodges backwards while pulling out the sharp piece of dirt and then winds up to throw it at the man's heart.

He quickly blocks it with his arm, injuring him a significant amount. Much better than dying, though.

"We need to retreat, now! We're too heavily injured!" The man yells, trying to sprint as hard as his injured leg can take him. Before he gets far, an axe cleaves his neck in two, separating his head from his body. Alice is standing up straight and had gained the necessary time to throw the axe, thanks to Brownie distracting the man.

The axe flies past the cleaved man and straight at the rich boy, heading straight for his chest.

Almost as if he was a man moving through stopped time, the rich boy parries the axe midair after quickly unsheathing his blade and deflects it back at Alice's direction, breaking several of the dirt walls they took hours to make. The axe lands right next to Alice, seeming a bit chipped from the impact.

Alice frowns. "Fine. It's not like those walls were doing anything, anyways." she says, picking up the axe and dusting it off. "You know, if I end up kicking your ass and turn around to find out that one of our Earth Elementals is being used as a chew toy, I might actually chop you up into pieces and feed you to the squirrel."

"Forgive me for my impertinence, but I believe five and a half meters is a rather sub-optimal speaking distance. Would you allow me to approach closer?" The boy replies, ignoring his teammate who is still loudly yelling at him.

"I hate to curl the monkey's paw, but sure. Come closer, I can't kick your ass without being at most eight feet apart." Alice says, motioning him to come closer using her axe.

The boy closes the distance at an insane speed, seeming almost like teleportation. It almost feels like the wind blowing on a stormy day. Though, he doesn't appear in front of Alice at all. She turns around suddenly to see him prying Dibs from the Rock Elemental he was harassing previously.

"Forgive me for interrupting, but your mother doesn't seem to like when you chew on your friends."

The rich boy quickly deploys some jerky from inside his coat pocket.

"My dog at home quite enjoys this. It has the finest seasonings imported directly from Shoutan's capital."

Knowing full well the boy could obviously turn him into swiss cheese if he so desired, Dibs decides to "eat" the food, swallowing the handful of jerky while shivering.

The boy straightens his jacket as he readjusts his posture into a more combative stance, and turns around to face Alice.

"Shall we get to dueling, then?"

SLAM

A loud noise erupts from near the entrance. Most of the rock elementals are cracked and crumbling from battle damage, stacked on top of eachother. All except for one, which seems to have leaped off the top of the stack and crushed the fighter's head.

Alice quickly turns back to the boy upon remembering the fact she's currently in a fight, but he seems to be simply standing there looking at his timepiece, incredibly worried.

He quickly accelerates to the entrance and yells back to Alice as he runs out of the dungeon. "I'm quite sorry, I cannot be out at night without an escort. I hope to meet you again sometime soon, missus."

And the boy leaves, not caring enough to bring either body back and most assuredly not to avenge his comrades, despite his strength.

"Big guy." Alice says, taking a few deep breaths.

"Yes?" Henry speaks up.

"Did that guy just imply that I'm married?"

"I think he might have."

"And that my child is a squirrel with poor eating habits?"

"Yes, I think he implied that too."

"Am I really old and ugly enough to warrant being called the mother of a squirrel?"

Suddenly, an alert pops up on the panel, cutting off the awkward small talk between Henry and Alice.

<INTRUDERS SUCCESSFULLY DETERRED. GRANTING REWARDS.>

DETERRING A STRONG OPPONENT: +3000 Points

EXECUTION OF TWO LOW-STRENGTH ADVENTURERS: +600 Points

"Oh my goodness... WE'RE ROLLING IN IT NOW!" Alice yells out, celebrating the large influx of points that the team obtained.

All of the current dungeon residents crowd around Alice, who opens the system panel and begins looking at the possible purchases she can make.

"I'm gonna get something BIG, that's for sure." she says, shaking a bit from the excitement of getting SO MUCH all at once.

"Oh yeah, and before I forget."

Alice puts her hand on Brownie's head.

"I want to thank you for doing such a great job with the ambush. But I also kinda want to reprimand you for straight up not listening to me at all. So I'd like to celebrate your success by doing this."

With a few taps on her panel, Alice purchases a big upgrade, which suddenly moves the hallway abruptly backwards. The entranceway which once lead to the stairs out of the dungeon now leads directly into a large room with light grey stone walls and flooring.

"You'll probably be able to fend off people who enter into the building WAY easier with a big room. And for your punishment..."

She points towards the dirt scattered all around across the floor.

"...I'm gonna make you clean ALL of this up and move it to the big room. I want it to look spotless, got it?"

Reluctantly, Brownie starts sweeping up the dirt on the floor with their magic into big piles with a rather upset expression.

"And make sure to fix up the Earth Elementals if you can. They look totally busted up."

Alice yawns loudly and starts walking towards the room with the big pink orb in it.

"If you'll excuse me, I've got some sleeping to do."

She enters the room and closes the door behind her, settling right into a corner and falling asleep.

Henry stares at the happy group of monsters all playing together with much joy (Besides Brownie, who is currently sweeping up dirt and looks rather sad about it). Is this his punishment for wishing to take human lives? Is this his hell? Forced to watch other people have fun and live through heart-pounding experiences while he sits alone and watches, stuck as a simple accessory to help fulfill their enjoyment?

He knows not why he cannot do anything of much importance, nor why he's even here in the first place. All he really wishes for is to be right there with his new group of friends, laughing and sharing memories.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day. He hopes, at least.