18: A disappointingly short adventure

Edward’s view

Once again, David surprised me.

“I wasn’t expecting a grand opening sign.”

“Didn’t you work on the redesign?”

“Um… I did change what was in the dungeon.”

“Is it not spiders then?”

“Well… sorta.”

It didn’t take long to find out what he meant, as a pair of silvery metal spider-like beings came out and waved at us. I say spider like, because the obviously hinged joints and metallic appearance, made it look like a metal puppet animated presumably by magic. 

“The big eyes make it look kinda cute.”

“That was the idea. People wanted to stick with a spider theme because that’s what they were known for, but liked the cuteness of the former goblin dungeon. I actually wasn’t as involved in the brainstorming as previously. People had lots of ideas, and I tried to make something with a bit of all of them.”

“Is that why you wanted to wait outside for a few days? To listen and work with everyone?”

“Yeah.”

“So what was the most ridiculous idea you heard?”

“Oh, uh. I think someone wanted an eldritch abomination. Something like a ball of all the worst and scariest parts. Hairy legs, eyes that look like empty voids, in the wrong places of course, shooting webbing out from places that can’t even be seen.”

“I… do not like that mental image.”

“Yeah, thankfully no one else seemed to like that idea. That wasn’t really the craziest demand though. People asked for the cuteness of the former goblin dungeon, which really needs a new name, and the sexiness of the former orc dungeon-”

“Dungeon of honesty.”

“Uh… I kinda hope that name doesn’t stick. I think it might be bad for people to associate that dungeon with honesty, given what’s in there, and what people might do and say. Sometimes it’s better to just let people keep their secrets hidden.”

“You’re the one who made it.”

“Guilty. Anyway, trying to grant all of that at the same time seemed impossible so I looked for clever alternatives. Ended up with a plan for a sexy leader that creates cute minions.”

“So the plan was for us to be fighting these cute metal spiders?”

“They are modelled after the jumping spiders of my past life’s world, but yeah.”

“And instead there’s a sign at the entrance asking people not to attack them.”

“Looks like some kind of store?”

“How do you not know what’s in here?”

“Well, after creating two ladies to run things, I just left it to them.”

“Well, might as well enter, right? Doesn’t look too dangerous. Gotta see what this place has become after all.”

It did not take long to discover that the dungeon was now:

“A… silk store.” A keen observation by David.

“Really good silk too. This is the finest I’ve seen.” 

“Have you seen a lot?”

“Well… no. Some of the head priests have silk robes, and nobles often wear silk, but I don’t see either very often.”

I’m really not the right person to be asking about the quality and price of silk. I’m no noble. Just a priest, loved by god. I’m glad our doctrine doesn’t demand celibacy from priests.

*sigh*

“What are you sighing about, David?”

“I was hoping for an interesting fight. This just kills all interest in fighting though. I’m not going to attack a bunch of friendly mechanical spiders that are just trying to convince me to buy some silk. Let’s just go to the next dungeon.”

***Author Note***

I’ve not been getting as much writing done lately as I’d like. Buffer’s dead, and it’s getting close to when I want to update so… I guess I’ll just let this chapter be short.