The Mad Rat’s Lab

This chapter has a different POV.

 

After a flash of light, two figures appear in front of the dungeon portal. The two are about the same height, the main difference between them is that one has pointed ears and is more handsome, objectively speaking.

Soon after, preceded by more light flashes, several extra figures appear near the first two ones. Similar to one of the two, half of them have pointed ears and handsome faces.

They look around, assessing the situation.

“You must be Black Plague Pony, right? Nice to meet you.”

“Uh, oh! Sorry, I was distracted looking around. It’s the first time I see this dungeon entrance. Yes, I’m Black Plague Pony. And you must be DaddyJonny. Nice to meet you in person!”

The one with the pointed ears extends his hand for a handshake. In response, the first one extends his hand too.

“Yeah. Let’s hope we can clear this dungeon with the two of us. I’ve tried quite a lot of times but couldn’t clear it until now… But you said you already cleared it once, right? Then it’s going to be easy! Hahaha!”

“Yes, I cleared it once.” The one with pointed ears, Black Plague Pony, explains. “But I didn’t find it that difficult. It surprised me when you asked me to come together… But I was interested in knowing why people were so desperate to clear it, so I agreed to come. Oh, by the way, please call me Pony. The whole nickname is too long… hahaha…”

“Pony? Ok, you can call me Jonny then. The daddy part is a joke with some of my friends, think of it like part of a lost bet. I prefer when others forget about it…”

“Hahaha! I can understand!” With his pointed ears swaying as he laughs, Pony continues to talk. “Then, Jonny. Why is it that so many people are obsessed with this dungeon? Also, the last time I came, the entrance was different. What’s up with those changes?”

“Aaaahh… Believe me or not, this dungeon is extremely dangerous. And it changes as time goes on. You said you had an easy time, but it must be because you were lucky. The obsession comes from not wanting to feel inferior to those who managed to reach the end of the dungeon. Also… Aren’t you a Druid? If you are one, I can understand why you managed to clear this dungeon without too much trouble...”

“Oh! You guessed it right! I’m a level 5 druid! But I’m not that strong of a champion. Sure, I have high stats for casting spells, but the innate skill Nature Attuned isn’t very useful. I don’t understand how it helps with clearing this dungeon…”

“Yeah… that’s exactly what happens with this dungeon. The forums are full of oblivious people like you that don’t fully understand the troubles the rest of us have…”

*Haaah* With his hand on his face, Jonny heavily exhales, exasperated because his teammate doesn’t understand how this dungeon works. After a pause, he opens his mouth again.

“Well, anyway. I’ll rely on your help for this dungeon. So please take care of me and carry me to the end! Hahaha!”

“I’ll do what I can. I won’t promise anything, but leave it to me!”

“Ah! I almost forgot to introduce my champion… I’m a level 5 Knight. I’ll be the frontline and you the spellcaster at the back. Are you fine with it? Not that we can do it the other way around, but still…”

“Sure! Let’s do it!”

Having finished their introductions, both players proceed to start the dungeon invasion.

 

“Hey, Jonny. When did the entrance change? When I came, it was a straight tunnel that led to a big cave.”

“I’m not so sure about it, but it’s been some time already since it changed. Don’t worry, until we reach the big cave, the area is safe.”

“No, I’m not worried about traps. But are you sure it’s the same dungeon? Because… I don’t know how to say it, but it feels completely different. I don’t know why, but I have this uneasiness as if something was telling me that I shouldn’t come inside this big cave…”

“Are you chickening out before the start? Hahaha!”

“Don’t call me chicken! I’m just saying the entrance feels a lot different than before!”

“It does feel different, but that’s all there is to it. Also, the only part that changed so much, as far as I know, is the entrance. Once we go inside, you’ll start to see parts you recognize.”

“Is that so? Then I’ll believe you.”

They cross the cave entrance and soon find the first glowing mushrooms. Disgusted with their appearances, Pony tries to avoid looking at them. But because he’s not looking where he steps, he trips and falls into a crevice.

“Ugh… Why is there a hole here?”

“Oh? Hahaha! That’s not a hole, come out and you’ll see what it actually is.”

With a smile on his face, Jonny is waiting to see what reaction Pony is going to have when he sees what is the crevice he just fell into.

After getting out, what Pony sees is a giant claw mark. Three carved strikes, about two meters long and fifty centimeters deep.

“W-wha…? What the hell is this!? Isn’t it a huge claw mark? Does this mean we will have to fight a monster that can leave these marks on the cave walls!? There was no monster like this when I cleared the dungeon!”

“Nah! Hahaha! There’s no monster as big as this one. At least not yet. This is only a decoration. So don’t worry about it… But your reaction was funny, hahaha!”

“Ok… Please don’t make fun of me…”

Still not so sure about the claw marks, Pony follows after Jonny. As they advance, more and more glowing mushrooms fill the cave walls and floor. Up to the point that Pony doesn’t know where to look so that he doesn’t see their disgusting screaming faces. He also doesn’t want to fall into another claw mark, so simply walking turns out to be a difficult endeavor for him.

 

Not very long after, they reach the big cavern.

“Ooooh! It looks kind of amazing with so many glowing and giant mushrooms!”

“It does, right? But from here on, only the dungeon looks have changed. The mobs, layout, and zones remain mostly the same. So it’s your turn to show your dungeon-delving skills, or luck, whichever allowed you to beat the dungeon last time!”

“Uhh… don’t put so much pressure on me, please… What if I make us fail? Are you going to blame me then?”

“Hahaha! You know… after so many dungeon dives, and the same amount of deaths, I know perfectly how this dungeon works. Unless you make a stupid mistake and it’s clearly your fault, I’m not going to complain. Just guide me with your luck so that I can brag about clearing this damned dungeon to my friends!”

“Yeah, so no pressure at all…” Complains Pony, sarcastically.

“Since I’m the tank, I go in front. Just tell me where we should go. Also, be careful because this big cave is perfect for ambushes.”

“Then, I think I went that way last time.”

“Nice, let’s go!”

 

---

 

Close to the tunnel's zone, Jonny and Pony take a short break and talk about the dungeon exploration so far.

“Haaaaah… I don’t remember it being this difficult…” Says Pony.

“Is that so? I didn’t find it particularly worse than most other times. In fact, it went a little better, with fewer ambushes and troubles. I knew I had to rely on your luck! Hahaha!”

“...hahaha…”

“So, what are we doing now? Do you want to take the tunnel route or try our luck through the rabbit area?”

“The rabbit area? What are you talking about?”

“O my god. Don’t tell me you don’t know about it…”

“I didn’t find a single rabbit when I beat the dungeon, so I don’t.”

“Haaaa… You really…” *Ahem!* Jonny makes false coughing noises to catch Pony’s attention. “There’s this kind of a shortcut that allows you to skip the tunnel area. We call it ‘skip’ because it allows you to avoid most of the most dangerous tunnels, but the shortcut is also mostly made of tunnels… now that I think about it, it sounds kind of stupid… Anyway! The shortcut is mostly safe, but the problem is the rabbit area.”

“How come you talk as if the rabbits are dangerous? Aren’t they critters? Maybe they can have a random skill that deals damage or something, but how can critters be dangerous?”

“W-what are you saying!? How can it be that you reached the dungeon’s end with this kind of attitude!? How lucky are you? The hell, give me a little bit of your luck! Only a tiny little bit, come on! A little! Hahaha!!”

“H-hey! What are you doing?”

Jonny tries to grab something imaginary around Pony. Jonny ‘grabs’ the luck surrounding Pony and then ‘sticks’ it onto his persona. His desperate moves give the impression as if something’s wrong with his head. A bit scared because of Jonny’s reaction, Pony moves a few steps away, a mix of confusion and surprise on his face.

When he sees Pony’s reaction, Jonny returns to his senses. *Ahem! Ahem* “Sorry for that. But you must understand… you were so extremely lucky! I just wanted a little bit of your luck for myself… hahaha… I’m sorry.”

“Uh… ok. I can understand.” This is what he says, but Pony’s face doesn’t return to normal yet.

“So… what is it? The rabbit area or the tunnels? If we take into consideration your luck, I would choose the tunnels, but you are the lucky one, so choose yourself.”

“Last time there wasn’t any rabbit area, so I think I prefer the tunnels.”

“Nice! Then let’s go! Hahaha!”

 

“Hey, Jonny. It’s kind of weird, but my HP is steadily decreasing. And I’m not poisoned or anything like it. Do you know why?”

“Wait, what!? It must be… Check your status and battle log and tell me what it says!”

“Wait a moment… The status screen doesn’t display anything. Oh, the battle log does have something! It’s the same message repeated all the time. It says: ‘Your HP has been reduced by 2’.”

“Ah! Then it’s one of the fucking butterflies. Hmm… let’s see… Do you have any AoE?”

“I do.”

“Hit yourself with it.”

“W-why!? Why should I hit myself with an AoE? Are you stupid or what!? Also what about my HP decreasing? Don’t say weird things and focus on the problem!”

“Haaah… how could it be… why is it always the stupid ones that get lucky… how can you not know about the oldest mob other than the basic ones!” Jonny complains to himself in a low voice, so that Pony doesn’t hear. Then, it opens his mouth again so that Pony hears it. He uses a similar tone to what a lot of people use to talk to kids. “You see… This and that are related. If you don’t hit yourself with an AoE, you are going to die. So please, can you do it? Even if it’s only to make your party member happy?”

“...Ok. But I don’t see how the two things are related.”

Finally, under Jonny’s urging, Pony uses the Wind Wall spell on top of himself. Immediately after, the corpse of a previously invisible butterfly drops to the floor.

“...! What’s that!? Why was it attached to me!?”

“...Haaaaah. I told you, right? Look at the battle log again. You’ll see there are no more messages saying you took damage after you hit yourself with the wind wall.”

Still confused, Pony opens the battle log again and finds no more messages saying his HP was reduced.

“I-it’s true! Thank you! You saved me! Hahaha!” Then, Pony’s expression changes from relief to paranoia. “Wait a moment… W-w-what does this mean!? How could you know? And why didn’t I notice the butterfly? Are there more of those butterflies? Is that a common thing in this dungeon, or was I unlucky? Wait a moment… Was I really that lucky last time? I didn’t find anything like this, so maybe I was?”

“Ooooh! I think somebody’s starting to understand what this dungeon makes normal people feel. With normal people, I mean those who aren’t extremely lucky, hahaha!”

Chuckling to himself, Jonny continues to move forward. Followed by Pony, who, contrary to the relaxed atmosphere that surrounded him before, is now anxiously looking everywhere.

“Please, don’t leave me behind!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t. Just choose the path, you ‘lucky one’! Hahaha!”

 

---

 

“I think we already passed through this tunnel.” Says Pony.

“You think so too? I was only following you, so I’m not sure. But it could be. Almost everyone gets lost in these tunnels.”

“But… aren’t you worried? Aren’t you going to complain to me?”

“Worried? Complain? Hahaha! You still don’t understand at all! Usually, by this time, I’d have already died! It’s thanks to your luck that we are still doing fine. So why should I complain?”

“But… it doesn’t make sense!”

“What doesn’t make sense?”

“It doesn’t make sense that you’re so relaxed! We are lost! You were worried before, but now it feels extremely weird for me to be the only one who cares!”

“Sure, we are lost. But we are still doing fine, so sooner or later we’re going to find the exit. In this damned dungeon, as long as we don’t die, we are doing fine. And we didn’t die, not yet at least, so this means we are doing fine… Also, I’m relaxed because it’s true you’re really lucky! We didn’t find any real danger so far. So I’m having the easiest exploration yet. Hahaha!”

“What do you mean by ‘we didn’t find any danger’!? I got that butterfly attached two times! Plus we were ambushed four times, surrounded by enemies one time and one of our support mobs got eaten by a giant worm! What about it is ‘doing fine’!?

Pony starts shouting. He must have had a lot of pent-up stress and he’s releasing it now.

“But we are still alive, right!?”

“Sure, we are. But everything else is bad!”

“Naaah, it’s fine! Calm down. Also, these are only minor setbacks. The real problem would be if we got separated, and it didn’t happen.”

“...if you say so…” Pony finally calms down. “But what’s up with this dungeon? Why does it have so many unexpected things?”

“Nobody knows. Also, there is a chance that somebody, without knowing anything about the dungeon, clears it. Does it ring a bell?”

Jonny looks at Pony with his eyes half closed. A tint of anger mixed with madness in his stare.

“...hahaha, it does…” Ashamed, Pony scratches his head. “Then… What are the real dangers?”

“The real dangers? Hmm….” Jonny starts thinking, trying to remember all of them. “First, if one of us falls into the river. Getting separated from all your support units is very bad. The same happens if the giant worm eats you.”

“It makes sense. We were lucky that only a support unit was caught inside it.”

“Then there’s the exploding flies that can kill all your support units if unlucky. The butterfly, if you don’t notice it on time, and the sleeping and poison mushroom combinations. And also getting ambushed by several mob parties at the same time.”

“That last one sounds extremely nasty.”

“Hahaha! It does. But these are the milder ones. Remember that empty room I told you to avoid earlier?”

“Yes.”

“That one is really dangerous. If you enter it and fall asleep, you won’t wake up anymore.”

“Whaaaaat!?”

“The backstabbing rabbits are also extremely dangerous. You can get one-shotted if unlucky. And I’m sure I forgot a few other dangers. But the worst of all, that only the extremely unlucky ones have ever suffered is when the dungeon’s owner comes to ‘test’ one of his ‘newest creations’.”

“Do you mean the dungeon owner comes and fights against the invaders?”

“No, he doesn’t fight. He only makes his newest monster fight against the invaders. Not a single one of those unlucky souls has ever managed to survive the encounter.”

“H-how scary…! D-do you think i-it’s going to happen to us?” Pony shudders just imagining the situation.

“Hahaha! Don’t worry! With your luck, I’m sure we’ll be fine! I’ve come here more than ten times and not a single time did it happen to me.”

With confidence in his steps, Jonny strides forward. And Pony follows closely behind, afraid of what’s to come.

 

The contrast between the experienced and lucky players got wider as The Mad Rat’s Lab continued to evolve. Generally, those who reached the end through sheer luck didn’t know anything about the true dangers inside the dungeon. So the more traps, tricky mobs, and difficult situations the dungeon had, the more clueless they were when compared to those experienced players.

Funnily enough, because luck was so important when clearing the dungeon, players who cleared the dungeon through sheer luck were in high demand as party members, even when they were completely clueless about the dungeon.