Forgotten Girl Quest

It was Natsuko’s first time being turned into a polygon. Her brain was still convinced she ought to be human-shaped, but her sense of touch was spiraling out into… she had no idea. It was a black void with flickering white and gray lights above and below. She had to scream, but her mouth was a jagged triangle. After a terrifying interval, things finally took shape, and specifically in the shape of a dungeon hallway of bricks containing three human shapes inside it.

Sofiane sputtered. “W-W-What the f—”

“Hehehe, that was awesome!” Natsuko said, laughing and jumping around. “We did it! We’re actually in an undiscovered dungeon!”

Shuixing still seemed bent out of shape. “Natsu, I-I don’t know if I can get us out.”

That comment doused Natsuko’s excitement and set Sofiane to anxiously tapping on the dungeon walls looking for a secret exit to the dungeon he'd explicitly sought out for its inaccessibility.

“We’re screwed. It’s so over…” Natsuko said, clutching her hair and pacing around Shuixing in a circle.

“We’re gonna die down here…” Sofiane said, starting to tear up.

Shuixing took a deep breath. “I think we should all calm down, first of all—”

“Alas, I shall depart this world in shame, bitter be my name, sorrow my companion,” Sofiane said.

“I just wanted money!” Natsuko wailed.

Lacking the energy to talk them down from self-induced despair, Shuixing decided the most efficacious strategy was to explore a little and get her bearings. From the sleeve of Shuixing’s heavy scholar’s robes floated a blue rod with white “shou” and “wufu” symbols decorating the length. Entwined around the baton was a decorative crane. A small chime dangled in a hole at the end. Shaking the chime, a water orb shot from her rod and splashed against a light fixture on the wall which lit up in response to the magic.

Lighting more along the way, she could see the passage continuing down a set of stairs. At the bottom was some kind of indoor courtyard consisting of a column-lined arcade surrounding a garden of dead trees. Along the four walls were a handful of closed doors. The entire place gave Shuixing a bad feeling. Normally by now there would be mobs, traps, puzzles, or treasure, anything other than nondescript hallways like an abandoned monastery. No dungeon she had ever explored looked like this. She wanted to check out the rooms, but doing so by herself seemed like a very bad idea.

Upon her return, she found Sofiane rocking back and forth with his arms around his legs. “I shall die without ever having known the kiss of a beautiful lady…”

Natsuko turned around from punching the brick wall. “Don’t you dare ask!”

“I said beautiful lady, not uncouth shrew,” he replied.

“Guys…” Shuixing said.

“Shrew!? I oughta knock you silly until you explain what that means!” Natsuko said.

Shuixing raised her voice to the level of normal conversation. "Guys!”

“Shut the hell up Sofi, Shui’s trying to say something!” Natsuko said, much louder.

Once both pairs of eyes were on her, Shuixing explained what she'd seen down the pathway along with her concerns about the peculiar nature of the dungeon.

“Aha! An astute observation, madame. The treasure and mobs must be in those doors you saw,” Sofiane said.

“Yeah, and money!” Natsuko added.

Before Shuixing could reiterate her concerns, the two charged valiantly down the dark hallway. She jogged to catch up.

The bizarre atmosphere, however, stopped the other two in their tracks at the bottom of the stairs.

Sofiane cleared his throat. “Now might be a good time decide our battle tactics. Miss Shuixing, as a Medico-Mage it would be safest to have you in the back. I will go in the middle, as I am a Control Duelist, and Natsuko can go in front, because she…”

“I’m a Jack,” Natsuko said.

“Oh… I forgot that was a class. I suppose that would explain why your Use-Number is terrible.”

The class of “Jack” was short for Jack-Of-All-Trades, as in, she could do a little bit of what every other class could do. Poorly. Jack Heroes had been popular during the first couple generations of Heroes as a stop-gap for any surprises that dungeons or quests might throw at a team Nowadays, dungeons were mapped so quickly, and patterns of possible puzzles, traps, and monsters so thoroughly dissected, that specialization was the name of the game. A few classes—Jack included—were functionally obsolete.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to be in the middle? You don’t have any range options, do you?” Natsuko said.

“True. And I suppose it is a gentleman’s duty to protect women,” Sofiane said, looking at Shuixing, “and children,” looking at Natsuko. A middle finger greeted him.

Sofiane waltzed up to the first door in the courtyard and readied his rapier. The other two gathered behind him as he pushed the door open with his sword to find a room swarming and teeming with nothing. It was literally an empty cube.

“Man, this dungeon sucks ass,” Natsuko said. "If I was reading a light novel about this I'd quit right here."

“We’ve only looked in one room!” Sofiane said.

“Two if you count the courtyard full of nothing out here.”

Sofiane stepped inside the room and investigated to confirm whether or not this truly was a room full of nothing but bare brick. Upon closer inspection, he found that it was.

Shuixing stroked her chin. “Hmm… very peculiar. If one employed the metaphor of a human body, this dungeon appears to be somewhat like a skeleton without flesh or muscle. Lacking content, if you will.”

“W-Well, I am sure there must be some treasure or mobs somewhere!" Sofiane said. "This is probably just the theme of the dungeon. Every dungeon has a theme, after all. Perhaps this one is empty and desolate?”

“Kinda like your promise of loot, huh?” Nasuko said, already kicking down the next door by herself.

This one was not empty. Leaping into motion, as though lying in wait to be activated, was a furry creature about the size of a dog. Natsuko didn’t have time to swing her bottle before it was licking her leg ferociously.

“Ick! You’re slimy, get off!” she said, trying to shake him off.

Sofiane grinned. “Aww, he likes you. See, I told you there’s loot.”

“You like him so much? You take him!” Natsuko said, nudging it away.

“Haha. No.”

Getting a closer look, Shuixing had never seen an animal like it, but she had seen many that bore resemblance. From Tianzhou, the first region the Yishang had drained the Mist from after Vermögenburgh, originated a race of sentient animals called Pengwu. They were shapeshifting fairies that could speak human language and took the forms of animals that floated on clouds. Natsuko’s adventuring party had had one that acted as a sort of mascot: A peach-colored fox with interlocking halos named Zhidao.

The animal licking Natsuko’s leg vaguely resembled a wolf-shaped Pengwu, but with larger, perkier ears like a serval, and a swirling pink coat like marble. Moreover, something about it seemed… dumb. It lacked the sentient playfulness of the Pengwu. Altogether, the furry animal resembled a distant cousin of the Pengwu, or some kind of prototype.

“Do you have a name?” Shuixing asked it, giving it a scritch behind the ears.

It panted excitedly in response and slapped its hind legs against the ground, but didn’t speak.

“I suppose you’ve noticed the resemblance to the Pengwu?” Sofiane asked.

Natsuko looked up at it after wiping drool off her leg. “Oh yeah, he kinda does. But like… not quite.”

Shuixing nodded. “This dungeon is becoming stranger and stranger. Would that I had thought to bring my instruments and equipment along, we could—”

“I’m starting to like him. I’m gonna call him some exotic name, like Charles,” Natsuko said.

Sofiane, who distanced himself from the creature the moment it started slobbering, asked, “how do you know it’s a boy?”

“Gee, I dunno, Sofi, it can be so hard to tell sometimes.”

Sofiane scoffed. “It’s not like I have a choice. Blurring or changing archetypes, or even just being an unpopular one, is death to your Use-Numbers. We both know that. Celestials love soft, androgynous boys with a hint of quirky but inoffensive playfulness, and I have to go where the popularity is. C’est la vie.”

Obnoxious as he was, Natsuko felt a tinge of empathy. She had long ago ditched any attempt to fit her original archetype of an upbeat, energetic, optimistic tomboy instead of a cynical, greedy alcoholic. The Celestials weren’t as fond of the latter, but the former felt like a sham. Maybe Sofiane would become more like her over time. Or maybe there really would be something in this dungeon to give them all another shot. Then she’d have to start caring about all that again. Well, she supposed, it was easier to be upbeat and energetic when you’re rich.

Sensing her conflicted mood, Charles rubbed his flank against her leg again and Natsuko bent down to roll him over and give him a belly rub. After giving him a nice rub, Natsuko stood up and forged on to the next door, her new furry friend following at her heels.