Demon Dungeon 1

"Ouch~!"

A young girl fell out of a hole in the sky into a dingy alley. She had deep blue eyes, tanned brown skin, blonde hair, and was wearing a cute, if slightly dusty, witch's outfit with a large floppy hat. As she moved to stand up, another, nearly identical girl fell out of the hole right on top of the first.

"Oof. Lac? Where are you?"

"Underneath you Sus~"

The second girl, whose eyes happened to be a light gray, hurried to get off the first. But before she could make any progress, a third girl fell on top of her, sending her crashing back into the first.

"Woo! Thanks for the landing Sus!"

"Please get off~"

As the second and third girls got off the first and helped her stand up, the hole in the sky closed. The third girl, whose eyes were black, looked up at where it had been.

"Can't say we've ever been summoned like *that* before, huh."

"I'm not a big fan~"

The third girl grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry Lac, it was just so sudden!"

"And what about me, Ten? Don't I get an apology?"

"Nah."

"Hey!"

"Calm down, you two~ Lets figure out where we are before we start fighting~"

The three girls looked back and forth across the alley, trying to find whatever was responsible for their unusual summoning. Eventually, the second girl found a head-sized gray orb next to a pile of trash.

"This looks like the only interesting thing around. Any idea what it is?"

The third girl took the orb from the second girl's hands and lightly tossed it up and down.

"Dunno. Maybe a crystal ball? What'd you think, Lac?"

The first girl took the ball from the third and rubbed it with her skirt.

"Do you think a genie will come out~?"

As the first girl cleaned off the orb, it started to glow. Before the three shocked girls, a screen appeared in the air.

> Registering Dungeon Master...
> Dungeon Master registered: Lachrymarum.

"Wait what? Dungeon master? I want in on this!"

The third girl grabbed the orb from the first girl, Lachrymarum, and shook it back and forth.

> Dungeon Master already registered.
> Error: Registering additional Dungeon Master.
> Dungeon Master registered: Tenebrarum.

"Hell yeah! Dungeon mastery ho!"

In her excitement, the third girl, Tenebrarum, threw the orb up into the air. The second girl quickly caught it and frowned at Tenebrarum.

"Do you even know what a dungeon master is?"

> Error: Registering additional Dungeon Master.
> Dungeon Master registered: Suspiriorum.

"Not a clue! But now you're one too, Sus!"

The second girl, Suspiriorum, sighed.

"I feel like I've said this before, but maybe you know, Lac?"

"Hmm~ Dungeons are those big magical mazes, right~? So I guess dungeon masters control those mazes or something~?"

"Oh! Don't dungeons have cores or something? What'd you wanna bet this orb is one of those!"

"That makes sense~ But if we're dungeon masters, and this is a dungeon core, where's the dungeon~?"

> Establishing dungeon...
> Dungeon <nameless> established.
> Nameless alley taken as first room.
> Nameless alley designated as core room.

“Whoops~? I wasn’t expecting that to happen~”

Suspiriorum sighed.

"You two are going to give me gray hairs..."

"Hahaha~ Sorry Sus~ Why don't you hold onto the core for now~"

“What about me!”

“You can have it after Sus, Ten~”

Tenebrarum crossed her arms and pouted.

“Fine...”

"Lets see... This core can clearly hear us somehow, since it responded to you, Lac. And it can communicate sort of with those weird screens. Maybe we can just... ask it what's going on?"

"Sounds like a plan~"

“Okay, so, uh, core-“

“Corey~!”

“No.”

“Aww~”

“As I was saying, core, how did we even get here? Are you responsible?”

> Dungeon Master candidates summoned as part of standard dungeon initialization.
> Candidate species chosen at random from set of sapient species.
> Chosen species: Demon.

“Oh, well, that explains that.”

“Sure does~”

"So... What now? The dungeon core summoned us somehow, made us dungeon masters, and then made this alley into a dungeon. A tiny, utterly un-maze-like dungeon. I guess we're supposed to expand it somehow? Get monsters from somewhere?"

"Oo! I have an idea!"

"Do I want to know, Ten?"

“Watch this!”

With a shout, Tenebrarum ran toward the dingy alley’s exit. Just as she was about to leave the alley and enter whatever road the alley was attached to, she slammed to a halt, as if crashing into an invisible wall.

“Ouch, haha! Looks like we’re trapped in the dungeon!”

Suspiriorum brought her hands to her face and sighed.

“There has to have been several better ways of finding that out, but okay, now we know. We can’t leave the dungeon. How are we supposed to expand the dungeon if we can't leave? I don’t exactly want to live in an alley forever.”

Tenebrarum dusted herself off and stood up proudly.

“Hand the core over and I’ll show you!”

“Hey, first of all, I'm not done with it yet. And second of all, you don't know any more than I do, what's with that 'I'll show you.'”

"You just have to believe! So come on! I even ran into a wall for you!"

“That... Fine, whatever, just give it back when you’re done.”

Suspiriorum handed the core to Tenebrarum, who started pacing up and down the alley. She stopped before a rotting door set into the end of the alley.

“Corey-“

“No.”

“*Ah hem* Corey. Can you take this building right here?”

> Abandoned hovel taken as second room.
> Designate abandoned hovel as core room?

“Sus?”

“What, now you're asking me? Uh, sure, we probably shouldn't just leave the core out in the open.”

“Do it, Corey!”

> Abandoned hovel designated as core room.
> Core room designation can’t be changed for 24 hours.

“And now since Sus just took her turn, it’s my turn again!”

“Hey!”

“Just kidding, it’s actually Lac’s turn. Here ya go!”

Tenebrarum passed the core to Lachrymarum while Suspiriorum huffed.

“Hehe~ You fell for it fair and square, Sus~ Let’s go see our new room~”

Lachrymarum walked into the abandoned hovel, carrying the core in her arms. Suspiriorum and Tenebrarum followed her, Tenebrarum shutting the rotting door behind them. Before the three girls, illuminated only faintly by the core, were piles of trash and the remnants of rotting furniture. A staircase, missing several of its steps, lead to an unseen upper floor.

“Wow~ This is pretty bad~ You weren’t joking when you called it abandoned, were you Corey~ Can you clean up the trash and fix up the furniture~?”

> Removing waste material from abandoned hovel.
> Restoring furniture.
> Error: Furniture too damaged. Summon replacements?

“Go for it~”

> Replacement furniture summoned.
> Restorable furniture restored.
> Core pedestal summoned.

The three girls watched as the piles of trash were absorbed into the floor of the hovel and several simple pieces of furniture sparkled into existence. A small table with three chairs, a bookcase, a desk, a kitchen stool, and a wooden pedestal with an indentation just the right size for the core appeared.

“Not bad, Corey~! Though you snuck that pedestal of yours in on us, didn’t you~”

The core didn’t respond.

“Hehe~ Well~ That’s fine~ But there really isn’t much here, is there~ Oh well~! Your turn, Sus~”

Lachrymarum handed the core over to Suspiriorum, who held it to her chest like the other two were going to take it from her.

“Now That it’s *finally* my turn, let’s go check the upstairs. I doubt it’s any better than this floor was.”

And she was right. After quickly having the core repair the stairs, the three girls went up to find more trash and rotting furniture.

“You know what to do, core.”

> Removing waste material from abandoned hovel 2nd story.
> Restoring restorable furniture.
> Summoning replacement furniture.

A dresser, a nightstand, and a small bed that would just barely fit all three of them stood before the girls once the core was done. Suspiriorum looked at the bed, then cautiously pushed down on it's shabby mattress. It crinkled slightly, and a bit of straw poked out.

“Nope. That's no good. I won't sleep on that. Core, do something about this bed. Make it better.”

> Upgrading cheap bed.
> Luck Bonus: Rare evolution discovered.
> Bed Mimic discovered.
> Evolve bed into bed mimic?

“What the nether is a bed mimic.”

> Bed Mimic:
> Rare evolution of mimic resembling a bed.
> Consumes adventurers while they sleep.

“Will it try to consume *us*?”

> Dungeon monsters cannot and will not harm the dungeon master.

“Is it *comfy*”

> Very

“Right. Make it so.”

> Evolving cheap bed into bed mimic...
> Achievement: My First Monster
> Achievement: What Do You Mean “Rare” is Common?

Before the girl’s eyes, the bed began to twitch. Then it started to shake. Then it started to *undulate*. The bed grew, both in size and plushness, until a large, very comfortable looking bed stood in its place. Suspiriorum turned to Tenebrarum and nodded.

“Ten. It’s your time to shine.”

Ten grinned.

“You bet it is! Let’s goooooo!”

Tenebrarum took a step back before charging at the bed, jumping high into the air and plopping down heavily. The bed let out a grunt and sprung back into shape, bouncing Tenebrarum back into the air a short distance. As soon as she hit the bed again, she started rolling back and forth in the covers.

“This is great! Come on in!”

Lachrymarum grinned and jumped into the bed, bouncing Tenebrarum back up into the air. The bed let out a soft whine as Suspiriorum walked up to it.

“Sorry about this.”

She patted the bed gently, then wound up and jumped in as well. After a short period of frolicking, the three girls rolled onto their backs and looked up at the ceiling.

"An unfamiliar ceiling~ Just kidding~ Your turn Ten~!"