A day has passed since the events under Castle Guarde. From the moment that the duo woke up, both were on their way to the next step of guild initiation. From there, they were asked to board the transports of the Mudsdale out to a couple of miles outside of Seva. The journey was quiet, the air of unfamiliarity spread from the carriage. Even those who were related to each other were either too focused on their situation or too excited to bring anything worth conversing about in a coherent manner.

 

The grass underneath the feet of multiple pokemon was sparse yet dense. If someone fell, it would be a matter of grass stains rather than any big injury.  The trees were trimmed to a design. Like pom balls on the end of wooden sticks. Roots stuck out to grow leaves of their own, and those that did not flower or cover themselves with green seemed to instead form a kind of fence guiding those who entered in a sort of natural art gallery formed by roots holding themselves together with a bind as strong as arms.   A garden made from chaos was cut down towards something more manageable. A sign from  out front simply read  "By Mint, A Frenzy of Nature tamed by Loving Hands." The sign was without dust or overgrowth, and the wear of steps was apparent on the grass alone.

 

Within that garden stood a cornucopia of individuals.  In a line stood a collection of Pokemon, big and small, of colors the whole wheel around and around the 25th and 26th in that line stood a Treecko and a Scorbunny.  The emerald Treecko stood ready in line with an expression on his face of a pure glaze, easy to be confused for spacing out but if you looked closely, you could see the eyes barely set to watch the Breloom in front of him pace back in forth in their examination and inherent worry. Half of their attention was focused on what they were murmuring to themselves which revolved around some inspiring speech that they had been struggling to convey their faith in and the other half was focused on what happened inside in his mind. The entire thing was a blur and trying to recall it was like trying to reach for a dream you had 3 days ago. Everything going on with the Corviknight was a threat for later and the mental issues with Alzbell were also getting under his skin. Experience. What an absolute lie. "10 days of training from a high-class Psychic-type familiar with the field of mind jumping."  His scarlet underbelly remained still as Breloom checked over each one of them, adding them to the list he carried. Costello heard 48 mumbled under the breath of the plant. Or was it a Pokemon? 

                                                                                             Pokemon. 

"Right", thought Costello. There was also the matter of the voice in his brain. He had taken to calling it his conscious, or maybe it was some visualization of his survival instinct. As it said itself, it was the emergency response his brain gave to prevent any more mental discord. Though according to Alzbell, it was less of a helpful assistant and more the effect of something that had altered his mind to a state where it was unrecognizable. For now, at least, it was the only thing he had to a solid function of whatever the past was because the more he looked into his head, the more he found nothing but confusion, dead ends, and lines of thoughts that lead nowhere. It was annoying.  The Breloom was bouncing slightly in place, clearly anxious, the red bobbles on its head didn't bounce with it. It seemed that while the body bounced, the arms were always a step behind. Costello would process this later.

 

"Liam... member of the Almas guild... Rescue Team Leader."

The Scorbunny on the other hand could barely contain itself.  The spiked tuft of hair atop his head was extra vibrant today but Liam just had to give it another adjustment. This was the dream! A dungeon run, all by himself. Well not by himself, but with Costello, with a (temporary) guild association! He had to blow the fur... blow the spores off of Morris. Liam had a chance to talk to them when Braviary needed to take Cos to that place underneath the Castle. Ended up meeting that Alzbell fella. Nice Bloke. Scary place but hopefully it was worth it for Cos. Issue was that ever since they got back from that place, Cos had been... off. More than the usual off at least. He would've asked what happened but Cos had been silent other than mumbles and Braviary had been giving him the cold shoulder on the topic since they got out of the castle. Must've been for good reason, one of those guild reasons because Alzbell and Corviknight (Though he thought Thea was a nice name but respect and the like.) went to go talk about something about whatever happened during Cos's treatment. The whole thing smelled sour but at the end of his day, it wasn't his place to be nosy about it. The scorch marks under his feet burned deeper as he stood there. For right now at least. But right now, was the time to live the dream. 

 

Finally, it seemed that after multiple headcounts, Morris had finally become comfortable with the number of people. 

"48. Wow...48" he said in awe. "I-It is an honor to see the newest class of potential recruits for the Almas guild."

Liam raised his hand.

"Guildmaster Thea said that this was basic training. Wouldn't that mean we're already members?"

The mushroomed vice-master looked at the rabbit.  "I can understand the confusion. While other guilds may accept and then drop members as it comes, we try to go for a more... example-based system."

Costello tilted his head."How so?"

In place of an answer, the Breloom instead nodded to further within the Garden.

The first to run was Liam, while somewhere in the 7th or 8th position would be Costello, his pace at a much slower rate and a face that still left appeared deep in thought. The rabbit pulled back to match speeds with the lizard, giving him a look before settling in speed.

"Holding up ok, chap?"

"Yeah.."  Costelo still held his eyes forward as he answered.

"Pretty exciting right? Halfway through the day and we're already on our way to being members!"

"I can see that."

Liam seemed to drop his smile to a more worried expression. "Ok Cos, what's bothering you? You've been acting odd ever since yesterday."

The Treecko did not face Liam, instead keeping forward as the group proceeded.

"Things happened that have led me to have more questions than answers, it is annoying to think about."

"What did you find out?"

"Nothing and that's the problem. Nothing but disconnected thoughts and mental constructions. Maybe if I go for another "psychoanalysis" by that quack, I'll figure out that I've also lost my ability to wiggle my ears."

Liam looked up to the top of Costello's head. He decided to refrain from commenting.

 

As the walk progressed, the garden changed shape from its careful moldings to a wild expanse of uncut vines and shrubbery. There was no pattern of care within this nature, instead just a spiral shape molding down. Morris gestured to the formation.

 

"What we had just walked through was a garden made from an old guild member. Unfortunately, years of work have been lost and misplaced due to the formation of a Mystery Dungeon.  A Dungeon can be formed anywhere, at any time. From a dungeon, there have been reports of wild pokemon either populating the area or simply appearing out of thin air." Knowledge on the dungeons is scarce but there are a few facts that have been assured as you enter."

 

"1. Dungeons are always random and do not have a set format unless there is another cognizant pokemon on that floor with you.

2. For any of you who are worried about the moral implications of fighting these pokemon, they are not fully cognizant yet, they are simply generated by the dungeon. 
3. After an unknown amount of time, the dungeon will kick you out. So don't go sightseeing with your party, or else you'll be kicked out! Dungeons must make a great bouncer huh?"

 

From the crowd of 48, there was a laugh from a Leafeon.  No mirth was to be found from the noise. Only courtesy.

 

"W-well anyway, these dungeons have been vetted to be simple dungeons befitting for most levels but challenging enough to test your stuff. Multiple Dungeons have spread so for some of you it will be a long walk. We'll be splitting you into groups of 4 and we hope to see you reach the end. Those who'll be accepted will be done by sunset. We have supplied you with what will be needed in order to make it towards the finish. "

 

As the groups were split up into fractions, the first group contained Costello, Liam, A Glaceon, and a Jangmo-o.

 

Costello observed the group.  Liam and the Glaceon were exchanging friendly words, something about how impressive it was to see a second-stage evolution. The ice type seemed to be impressed to see someone with an accent from "across the pond". The way she talked was with a slight daze to it. Not in a lazy way but more in the way of someone who felt that the conversation was more important than getting to a point. Jangmo-o wasn't as talkative. More into the same observation that Costello was doing but her sightline was raised, more for pride than for detail. Structure seemed to be-

 

"Hey. Stop that."

... 

Structure seemed to be somewhat fit. Not overly toned but enough to see that they had gotten some formal training over the course of their lifetime.  From there, Costello turned to mini drake fully.

"Stop what?"

"Stop looking at me like that."

"Why”, asked Costello. “ You're doing the same thing."

"I'm doing no such thing. You're the one looking over me like you're planning to fight me."

"I wouldn't describe it like that."

"Well, that's what it looks like. Are you looking for a fight?"

"Not particularly. Are you?"

"I'm ready whenever you are, buck."

Hold off on it. She doesn't want a tussle as much as she’s prepared for one. She's trying to look big. Pride factor. Also, the use of buck is....odd. It's a harsher term for an amateur but it's anachronistic. 

 

The stumpy drago looked on in disbelief, turning towards the rest of the group.

"Is...is he ignoring me?"

Liam popped up from his conversation.

"Don't worry about Cos, he spaces out sometimes."

"Whatever. Just tell your friend to stop trying to scout me out. And he'd lose if he tried anything."

 

Another tilt of the head. Would she be able to beat him? He did have the upper hand with the majority of that one fight with the Oshawatt.

 

Yes she would and barely.  Dragon types are resilient, and you don't have any moves that would be successful against her.  Not to mention the fact that she has obviously had more formal training than you. Basically, you'd be screwed.

 

"Well it's great to meet you Costello. You may call me Floe. It's been wonderful meeting your friend over here.  Do you also have a relative from the Rain continent?"

"Nope. What continent are we on?"

 

The drake seemed shocked at this development.

"Really? You don't even know where you are?"

"I have been surviving off of crumbs given to me so no."

"Cos has a brain condition."

"More like brain damage according to what the "doctor" said."

"Yes, poor mon was born without a brain."

"....what?" Costello turned towards his obviously misinformed comrade.

"Yeah...His brain is gone. Replaced by a cold slush."

"No it's not. I..

You do.

"still have a brain."

"Slush brain. Horrid condition. Constant brain freeze. Mate's an ice cube."

"I have no idea where he's getting this information from."

"Doctorly friends in high places dear Cos."

The drake scoffed. "So one of you is lost his mind and the other spouts Rummish nonsense.

The Glaceon gave a look towards the Lizard that seemed to convey a "don't say that" notion.

"My nonsense is not odd."

"... sure."

Second insult, more directed towards people of the Rain continent. Old insult. Only used for comedic effect mostly. Though there was intent in the use. Weird.

"You're just mad that his slush brain is type effective."

"Never mind, the both of you are losing your minds."

While the Glaceon was having themselves a subtle chuckle, there was no such humor to be found within the dragon type, who was currently about 5 steps away from ripping their throats out.  Liam was pantomiming the process of brain slushification and Costello had moved on to assorting the numerous items given to them for their dungeon diving.

 

Within the satchel were oran berries and gummies, as well as an escape orb as well. Enough for the trip and something in case things went wrong.

 

Oran for healing, Gummies for hunger, and the orb for escaping. 

 

"Hey Floe, why do they call them gummies?", Costello asked.  "Isn't there another name for them?"

The Glaceon closed their eyes for a second, but moved them open in seconds. "Nope. Lots of folks tried, didn't work for them too nicely. A lot of academics tried to suggest other names but none of them ever stuck. Now adventurers just call them gummies."

"So everyone?"

"It's basically a low bar ego test for adventurers."

Liam had already run himself near the entrance and was marching in place.

"C'mon, c'mon!"

The next to move beside him was Costello though he was almost shoved aside by the dragon type. To round off the party line, the last one would be Floe who seemed comfortable trailing in the back.  

 

By the time the line had formatted itself into proper order, Liam had already stamped a black circle into the ground before pivoting towards the entrance of the cave. "Forward Ho!"

 

Mossy Cavern 1F

The grass from outside seemed to thin out as they moved further and further in. Drips of water fell from above, but as Costello looked up, there was no sign of a ceiling. Only the solid walls moving ever upward.  As Costello centered his gaze, Liam looked as though he was going to melt a hole through the floor as he turned backwards towards the group.

 

"Alrighty! So,in the main sense dungeons are randomized structures but for some reason, they recognize a few key things. 1. We all came in together as a team so we will escape together as a team! So if one of us finds the stairs,  we all get out but you should never separate the group because there could be a monster house even though this should be a beginner dungeon and we weren't given any revival seeds so we better keep the party together, also there might be really strong Mon's here and while our type coverage is fine and all, we do lack any knowledge of moveset and since dungeons usually center around a kind of theme, I'll most likely be running against Grass types along with Floe. Any Rocks Types will be dealt with by Cos and ...

 

In the midst of the train of thought that was moving outside the tracks, Liam suddenly stopped himself as he turned towards the dragon.

"

"Actually, I don't think I got your name."

"Zata."

"Well nice to meet you Zata. I don't really know if you have any-

"Screech, Dragon Tail,Dragon Breath, and Counter."

"Ah well I'm Liam,nice to meet you! So I guess you'll be running Offense and Effects then. I got Double Kick,Overheat,Ember, and Assurance"

Floe followed up. "Well since we're sharing, I know Roar,Protect,Wish, and Blizzard."

The group looked towards Costello.

"Ah.. well Mega Drain, Pound, Quick Attack, and Leer."

"Nice! Well,Cos will be the one going for the stairs in case things get bad and Floe will run support. Zata and I will be on offense."

"Your name is Liam right?"

"Just said so!," responded Liam with an absolute lack of sarcasm in his voice.

"Who taught you how to run a team?"

"Well Mr.Braviary did. It was mostly tips and quizzing which but it paid off didn't it? Had a bunch of runs back in Yg-.. back home."

Costello noticed a small change in the look of Floe's eyes but nothing from the Dragon.

"Ah, well he did a good job."

The smile on the face of the rabbit was absolutely glistening.

 

The group carried forth step by step, the walls growing thicker as they navigated turn after turn, room after room. Until eventually, the stairs were in sight.

While the others seemed unfazed by the sight, the stairs themselves were... smooth.  It was oddly surreal.  Rocks and moss fitted together to create a simile of a stair. An oddity of civilization in nature.  Blocks moving upwards towards another corridor as though placed there on purpose.

 

"Are they supposed to look like that?" 

The rabbit looked back at Costello. "What, the stairs? Those are natural formations right there mate!"

"But... how?"

"Well if we knew how, this wouldn't be such a Mystery Dungeon."

Costello found his reasoning sound and annoying, like a church bell at 3 in the morning.

A huff came from the Dragon being him."Well while that's answered, shouldn't we have encountered another Pokemon yet?"

Again, the rabbit responded. "I wouldn't think so. This is more than likely a beginner Dungeon so there wouldn't be many mon's here. Sides, better a cake walk than a slog right?"

 

On that note, Liam proceeded to bounce his way up the naturally forming stairwell.  The Glaceon followed, shrugging as they passed by the gecko.  Zata simply brushed past. "Better keep up then, buck."   

As the last member going upwards, Costello stored this use of buck, he would revisit it later. 

 

Mossy Cavern Floor F2

 

A few steps through this floor and finally, Costello saw what Alzbell had referred to as a "wild pokemon."   It was a Roggenrola, a  bluish rock with an orange hexagonal outlining a black core. It had seen them and had dug its feet into the dirt. Keeping its distance yet observing the group. 

 

"Alrighty lads! Our first battle as a team. Now Cos, you got this right?"

"Best I can."

"Nice! Now Floe, get it going!"

"On it."

 

The Glaceon jumped forward and the Roggenrola stood at the ready. From the bottom of their lungs, Floe let out a sound that shook the bones of the Pokemon to their core, as though the noise was a rejection of the world itself.  The roar sent the rock pokemon flying into the wall of the dungeon, a crack forming where it hit the surface.

 

"Cos, now!"

Running from behind, the lizard dashed towards the rock as it struggled to get up and orient itself. He looked down on it as he slowed down.   

"Ok. Mega drain,how does that work?" Within Costello's mind, the image of green orbs entered his mind. Green orbs and an outstretched hand came out of a subject. As he put his hand out, those green orbs slowly removed itself from the Roggenrola. Costello felt something enter him. Something similar to a full feeling, as though whatever hunger was in him faded away, residual pain going along with it.

 

"Huh, weird."

"Woooo, you did it Cos!"

As the lizard turned around to respond to the cheers of his excited compatriot, he saw the blur of a golden crest fly in front of him. Turning back, he could see what appeared to be a purplish.. thing. The pectorals of this creature were firm, like a concrete slab had been filled into their upper body, rippling triceps and leg muscles that looked as though they could crush diamonds. The full force of said triceps seemed to be engaged in a full force punch that was blocked by the body of Zata. However, the drake seemed to hold its ground against the muscular foe.

 

"Maaa Chokeee!"

3 bladed crests like things adorned the top of its head. It seemed to have come out of nowhere and was focused on satiating the bloodlust that pumped through its veins. Its eyes were--

 

It was happening again. It keeps happening and Costello could only direct his anger at 2 things. The first was his brain's attempt at crisis mode and secondly was how something as massive as that thing could sneak up on him!

 

"Zata, are you ok?"

"Of course. Just remember to move your ass so I don't have to save you next time."

Uttering those words, the dragon's body seemed to be enveloped in a red glow as it threw the fist of the Machoke off of itself and rammed her crest right into its solar plexus. The figure was pushed back but still stood standing, steam coming off of its body and through its nostril. The red markings on its body seemed to turn even more crimson.

 

From behind,  Floe and Liam came running and as they moved past the surprised Costello,  Liam jumped towards the Machoke and with momentum on his side, he threw his full body weight into it. However, as the impact hit the chest of the purple fighter, it grabbed Liam as though he was a plush plaything.

"Chokeee..."

"And a big welcome to you too, ya nonce!"

To punctuate his statement, his left hand seemed to become consumed with a purple energy as he threw that paw straight into the arm of the creature. The machoke fell back grabbing at its injured right arm and releasing the rabbit from its grip.  Costello watched as the tail of Zata seemed to sharpen at the scales and jutt out as she jumped and rotated the bulk of her tail into the leg of her foe. The machoke buckled down to one knee and gazed at its original intended target, and it locked eyes with him, Costello leered back,shocking the purple enemy as another dark paw pushed itself into its jaw. As two continued their onslaught against the mass of meat before them, the creature hunkered itself down, arms up against the smaller opponents. In one moment, the two were firing themselves against the creature as Floe moved behind it. Several Budews and other Roggenrola seemed to have been attracted to the action as they rushed over to take down their prey. Flow was able to sound off a Roar loud enough to blow back the closer combatants and intimidate the others into a retreat.  

 

The Machoke seemed to  tired of the consistent hits as it covered itself in an orange energy. As Zata and Liam moved in once more, the muscular figure was able to power through the impact and guillotine the both of them with a Superpower lariat and charge through to Costello as their necks were hooked onto the elbow of its body. 

 

This thing has no intent of stopping. You could dodge but it seems like it knows enough to keep those two on the hip. It's not letting them go any time soon and could probably use them as meat shields. What to do?

 

Costello had no idea but he wasn't going to stand paralyzed by the choices.  It had to have been worn down by Assurances and Dragon Tails so a Quick Attack. A Quick Attack to its sternum since its arms had to be slowed down  both by the weight of Liam and Zata but also because a mega drain wouldn't come off fast enough.  Costello could only dig in his feet and rush towards the figure.  There was another shared look. A leer towards the Machoke. A gaze of power and assured dominance towards the Treecko.  As the shoulder of Costello buried itself into the sternum and the arms of the Machoke began to close for a bear hug, the wind turned cold. The grass and moss on the walls of the dungeon turned white. The sound of cold air blew as Costello, Liam and Zata went flying as the Machoke seemed to grow ice on its feet and arms, leaving it frozen in place.  Whatever battle high that fueled the machoke seemed to run out as the ice consumed more and more of their body, soon what was not covered in frost was left to go slack. The Machoke had at last fainted.

 

The first to stir was Zata, though she seemed to be the most damaged from the lariat and the Blizzard. "H-hey fire starter, you said that t-there was a theme to this. W-well where was the theme to that thing?!"

 

"Usually, Za. I said usually.  Arc that hurt."  Liam moved to a sitting position against the wall. "Oi Cos, you good?"

 

"Not. My. Name."

 

"Oh g-great, the g-grass one survived."

 

"Every bone feels like an ice cube."

 

"G-good. Eat ice and die, 'Cos', choke artist."

"No. No you don't get that privilege."

 

"Is everyone alright?  Is the Machoke finished?"

"Yeah. Thanks Floe. Really appreciate ya."

"Next time corral the thing away from us when you fire off a Blizzard."

"My boness."

 

With a mouthful of Oran and some more floors, the journey went more smoothly than their second floor encounter, though that may be a result from acting way too cautious about strong foes. A consistent string of Screeches,Leers,and Roars until finally, after 6 floors of paranoia of sudden enemy brickhouses, they had reached the end and out of the other side of the Cave, was a delicately made garden. Grass Sculptures of figures far in the past, made with such detail that you could see each amount of love in every bushel that made up the facial structure of their past subject. The 4 then made their way to the middle of the scenery and all except Liam promptly collapsed in a heap. 

 

"Woo! See Cos, this is why I love this! The thrills, the adrenaline, for a beginner dungeon, that was a run!" 

Costello could only turn to Liam in a mood of annoyance. "That was a beginner?"

"Well usually they don't have pokemon that strong but Arc that was great! You did awesome for a first time!"

 

Zata moved back to her 4 legged position and smirked. "Eh... your friend is still an amatuer. But he was not overly useless, unlike with that Machoke."

 

"To be fair, no one saw that thing coming. Besides, much better that we handled it and got it done with. " added Floe.

 

The group reorganized themselves and moved forwards until they reached another group of Pokemon.  A Leafeon, a Gligar, a Litleo and a Totodile.  The groups acknowledged each other and grouped together.  The Leafeon stood in a triumphant pose as she detailed a semi exaggerated story of beating a Wild Ampharos with their bare mits while the Gligar explained that he stood as the literal shock absorber while the Litleo and Totodile bit down on the tail of the Ampharos. Other groups came through as the 8 turned into 32 and before long Morris was among the group.

 

"W-wow. To the 32 of you who passed, I congratulate you! I understand that some of you may have faced some unfittingly strong foes while you were in the dungeon and we want to assure you that it was a part of the test.  Had to put pressure on the coal to make them diamonds and all of you were 24 karat!"

 

The brief sound of courtesy and 1 part of pity filled the air.

 

"W-well anyway, on behalf of Guildmaster Thea, I would like to congratulate you on passing the test and becoming new junior members of the Almas guild!"

 

The Leafeon in the back seemed to take offense to this assignment. "Wait a minute pal, I thought we were going to become full fledged members, not just juniors."

 

"Ah, well of course we can't just let those who pass a simple battle test to just become members, we still need to look at evidence of your character and how you act in real situations."

 

Again, the Leafeon took offense. "Then what was that act about not being like other guilds then?"

 

Morris seemed to ponder this for a minute, collecting his words. "Pokemon tend to ask questions and the explanation given according to Thea and these are her words not mine 'shuts them up'."

Grumbling still came from some of the group but from Costello's section, there was only the absolute smile of accomplishment on the face of Liam.  He.. he had done it. He had become a member. A real member. He was going to be a member.

"A.. a real member."

"Well a happy celebration to all of us huh? Zata,Costello, Liam, I have to say that we did great work today!"

"A real member."

"Eh, I'd say we could've done better, but it's whatever. We got it done didn't we. Congrats."

"Yeah. Good job to all of us. Hopefully as members we-"

At this point, the rabbit beside Costello had finally reached his limit and passed out.

I'd love to hear any thoughts if you have any to share.