Aya narrowed her eyes at the spy catgirl. “Tell me where the button is or I’ll have Lily force the answer out of you.”

Lily smiled, purple magic forming around her hands.

“You can’t,” the catgirl said smugly. “We’re immune.”

“No you aren’t,” Aya said.

The catgirl leaned on the counter. “How do you know?”

Aya narrowed her eyes. This spy was testing her. “We’ve done it before.”

“When? Why?”

“Does it matter?” 

“Yes.”

Lily adjusted her stance, ready to cast charm magic.

“You don’t want to do that,” the spy said, winking at Lily. “Pro tip. One catgirl to another.”

Aya froze. For a moment no one moved

“What are you talking about?” Staab finally asked. “I’m not a catgirl. We’re not catgirls.”

“You might not be, but these two were,” the spy said. She smiled at Aya and Lily. “Here’s the price for the button: Tell me how you got here.”

“On foot,” Aya snapped.

“Nope.”

“In a car,” Samuel said.

Samurai chimed in. “On a train.”

The spy’s smile turned cold. “No. Tell me how you became players.”

Aya glared.

“Oh for the love of-” Lily shot her hand out, grabbing the catgirl’s wrist. “Give Me The Button Now.”

The catgirl stared blankly at her, opening her inventory without knowing what she was doing. Half a second later, the reset button dropped to the counter.

“Thank you,” Lily said, letting go to swipe the button. She handed it to Staab, smiling at the spy. “Sweetie, here’s a pro tip: you’re outclassed here in every way. Don’t mess with us. You will regret it.”

The spy watched her turn and walk out the door. Aya watched the spy.

Suddenly the spy locked eyes with Aya. “War it is.”

*****

Dear Diary,

Here we go!

Floor 51: Slushie river. Candy fish that jump out of the river, and candy bears that wait on the shores. Not gummy bears, hard candy bears.

Floor 52: Spiderweb maze. Very pretty.

Floor 53: Maze with slimes. Boooo.

Floor 54: KOBOLDS AND LEWIS! Woo!

Floor 55: Flying ants, spiders, and giant worm thing. Meh.

Floor 56: Painted desert with rainbow buzzards and non-rainbow goblins. The goblins are cool people, they have a farm where they grow some of their own food. They don’t trust magic.

Floor 57: Who knows! It’s pitch black and scary sounding. We skip it.

Floor 58: A desert made out of baking cocoa. Rope candy shoots out of the “sand” and drags you under. It’s actually kinda fun.

Floor 59: Maze made out of mirrors. The reflections come to life if you stay in sight of one mirror long enough.And they attack, because politely giving directions to the exit is too much to ask.

And Floor 60: Catgirl floor and final boss floor.

There! All recorded.

Tonight we’re between Floor 57 and Floor 58. It got too late to continue, even though we were so close. Samuel said their group is going to sleep after they push the button, so they might already be… wherever they were sent. I don’t know where that is.

Anyways, tomorrow for sure the cycle is gonna reset, so I just wanted to get all that down before I forget.

Goodnight, Dungeon!