Chapter Two Hundred and Sixteen — Imposter Syndrome
Chapter Two Hundred and Sixteen — Imposter Syndrome I continued to walk through the town, eyes and ears peeled for any sort of trouble.The fake Bastion hadn’t really hurt me much, but it did surprise me. Worse, it had made me think of a friend as an enemy, which.... My hands shook.... This was the worst dungeon floor I'd ever been in. If I could give dungeons ratings, I’d give this one a six out of ten and leave a very polite note about how it was maybe better to find another dungeon to visit.When I saw my friends in town, I made sure to avoid them. Oh, sure, I looked to see if they were hurt or anything. It wouldn’t make sense to ignore an actual friend if they were injured, but otherwise I kept my chances of running into an evil faking faker low by just avoiding everyone.I was in something of a foul mood as I stomped from the main road, through an alley, then back onto the main road.I encountered a wide-eyed Awen in the middle of the road. She stared at me, her hammer held in both hands before her.“I’m just going to continue walking,” I told her. “That way, if you’re a monster, it won’t be a problem, and you’ll know that I’m not a monster too, okay?”Awen’s lower lip trembled, and she nodded. “Oh-okay.”I didn’t walk away. “Are you alright?”Awen nodded, but it was the sort of very quick nod someone made when they were not alright.“What happened?” I asked.“Awa, n-nothing important, it’s okay, awa.”She was awa-ing. Awen had been doing that less and less lately. I figured it had been an anxious tic that she had been losing as she grew more confident. If she was doing it again, then she might need a hug or something really badly.I placed my hands on my hips and moved a bit closer. Awen shied back. “Nope, something’s wrong,” I said. “Did something hurt you? We can find it and make it apologize.”Awen shook her head, then paused and nodded. She took a small step back when I came closer, and I felt my heart sink at the gesture.“Okay, so first, I need to prove that I’m me, is that okay?” I asked.Awen hesitated. “Okay.”“Right. So... uh.” I looked around for something to clean, then shrugged. I poured a good chunk of my mana into a big burst of Cleaning magic that swept out around me. It even reached Awen where she stood. The mist crawling on the ground was pushed back and Awen froze up, then her shoulders slumped.“You’re really Broccoli?” she asked.“I’m really really Broccoli,” I confirmed.Awen shuffled forwards, then stopped. “Oh, right. Ah.” She raised a hand, pulling it free from her hammer’s haft, and focused. Magic spun around over her palm and shaped itself into a little marble of fractured glass. “Here?” She tossed it underhand at me.I caught the glass ball out of the air and glanced at it. Yup, it was a bit of glass.I shoved that in a pocket and walked right up to Awen, both arms circling around her to pull her into the biggest, tightest hug I could.“It’s really you,” she said a moment before crumbling into the hug.“Yup,” I whispered. I brought a hand up and started brushing her hair back while she buried her face in the crook of my neck. “It’s me, it’s okay.”Awen didn’t cry-she was one tough cookie-but it sure felt as if she was tempted to. She held her hammer in one hand and used the other to return the hug. “I saw people, and there were two of them. It was you and Amaryllis.”“Oh,” I said.“They said hi, and I thought it was really you. Mister Howard never said there could be more than one fake, and Amaryllis used lightning magic.”How? I thought that the Mist-folk couldn’t do that? Then again, if they could create an illusion of a person, why not some sparks and shiny lights? “It’s okay,” I said.“You attacked me,” she said, her grip growing stronger.“No no,” I said. “I’d never do that, you know I’d never.”She nodded. “I know.”We held each other for a bit until Awen felt ready to pull back. She sniffed, and wiped her eyes quickly. “I’m sorry.”“No, there’s nothing to be sorry about,” I said. “I really, really don’t like this place. We’re staying together from now on, okay?”Awen nodded. “Okay. I have a key.”“So do I,” I said. “We’ll be fine.”I made a point of holding onto Awen’s hand as we continued to walk. Just a slow walk, with Awen’s grip on my hand nice and strong. I made sure to keep an eye on her too. If this dungeon thought it was going to split me from my friends again... well I'd give it one heck of a talking to.Maybe the dungeon sensed my mood, because we turned a corner and arrived in a small courtyard with no mist and plenty of room. In the middle was a hip-high well, with a little roof atop it, and Howard and Bastion sitting nearby.I felt Awen’s grip tighten.“No need to worry,” Howard said. “This is the well. You both have keys?”I nodded, not entirely trusting that he was real. Beyond them was a small fence with big bushes on the other side, then... not much at all. The village ended here and there was only a small road and the start of a forest beyond.Howard took out his pipe and puffed at it, the scent wafting over to us in moments.“You smell real,” I said.Howard nodded. “Aye, I would hope so.”“Do we verify if they’re real?” Bastion asked.The last time I saw him, he was a mist monster, so I was still a little guarded.“You can,” Howard said. “But the Mist-folk never come close to the well, in my experience. Won’t attack folk with a key as much either, but that’s not always the case.”Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.I sighed, then fired a ball of Cleaning magic at the well. The side had a bit of moss and dirt on it, all of which faded away once my magic wore off. “Is that enough?”Bastion nodded. “It should be,” he said.I nodded back, good. Then I threw my spade at him.The sylph batted it out of the air, then shifted into a fighting stance, all in the time it would take me to blink. “What was that for?” he asked.“To make sure you’re you,” I said. “The last Bastion I saw tried to claw me.”“I... don’t have claws?” he tried.“It was weird,” I said. I pulled Awen along with me to one side. Not as close to the others as I might have. Not because I was afraid for myself, more because Awen didn’t seem to be in a mood or state to fight in. Plus, she needed more hugs and maybe some more alone-time. “Amaryllis and Emmanuel haven’t shown up?” I asked.Howard and Bastion both shook their heads. “No, not yet,” Howard said. “Could take a bit. Depends on how cautious they are.”That made sense, until I considered how cautious Amaryllis and Emmanuel were. A rock of worry formed in my tummy, just under my ribcage. Had something happened to Amaryllis?Something moved near the entrance to the little courtyard with the well. I stood a little taller, expecting to see Amaryllis stepping out of the mist. Instead, it was Emmanuel.“Ah-hah! More foul villains for me to fight?” the cervid asked. He brought his sword up in a high guard stance. “Trying to trick me with more of you won’t work.”“It’s us,” Bastion said. “If you don’t believe it, test it.”“I’ll test you with my blade, misty monster!”Bastion sighed as he walked up to Emmanuel. He slapped the cervid’s sword aside, then slapped the man in the face. He had to hover up with his wings to get enough height for it, but that only made it funnier.Emmanuel’s expression didn’t help.“There, now you know that we’re both solid, at least,” Bastion said.I held back a giggle as Emmanuel rubbed at his cheek. “You slapped me?” he asked.“Do you need another to make sure?” Bastion asked.I felt Awen bouncing a bit by my side, and a look her way revealed her chewing on the inside of her cheek to hold in the laughs.Emmanuel blinked a few times, pouted in a way that didn’t suit a grown cervid at all, then trotted off with a huff to stand nearer to us. “Fine. I suppose it was the only way to test things. Are you young ladies real as well?”“Yup,” I said.“Are we all here then?” Emmanuel asked. He fished out a little key from one of the pouches hanging by his... actually, I wasn’t sure if it counted as a hip or not. I’d need to ask a cervid one day, but someone more... less Emmanuel.“No, not yet,” Howard said. “We’re missing the young harpy lass.”“Oh,” Emmanuel said. “Well, perhaps she’s in need of a dashing, gallant sir to rescue her?”Bastion sighed. “Lacking one of those, perhaps we should consider what to do if she doesn’t arrive soon. Howard, any ideas?”Howard leaned back and looked at the well. “Still six keyholes, which means she’s likely still fine.”"Oh." I exhaled. Weird, I hadn't noticed how hard it had become to breathe. "Good."I was just about to ask Bastion what ideas he did have for saving Amaryllis. As relieved as I was, the thought of one of my best friends being in trouble still worried me, when the bird in question stumbled out of the mist.“Amaryllis!” I said. I let go of Awen and jumped over to the harpy.Amaryllis stumbled to the side, almost falling onto me. I felt warm blood seep into my shirt.“What happened?”She managed a huff. “What do you think happened?” she asked. Then she blinked. “You’re really Broccoli, right?”“Yeah,” I said. I squeezed her a bit, both because she needed a hug, and just to make sure. It would very much be like this floor to fake an injured friend. It didn’t matter in the end, Amaryllis was nice and solid.“What are your injuries?” Bastion asked as he moved over to us. He already had a potion in hand, the stopper off.“One of those disgusting mist things got the drop on me. There was more than one,” Amaryllis said.“I’m hardly too injured, but, as it turns out, lightning just cuts through them, and wires do nothing against things made of angry fog. I think the cuts are too thin, then just recombined.”She snapped the potion out of Bastion’s hand and downed it in a swig.I backed off to see how badly she was hurt. It looked, at a glance, like she had been cut across the arm, just past the elbow and where her arm was covered in long feathers. Another spot was cut, her blouse under her leather coat, which was left open at the front.“Let me clean you off,” I said. It wouldn’t do to get an infection.Amaryllis sighed and leaned my way a little. She wasn’t looking at me, but I could read my friends well enough.“I hope you don’t mind, I’m in a hug-lots sort of mood,” I said as I hugged her close.She huffed a ‘I’ll pretend that I do mind, thank-you-very-much’ sort of huff.“We should get ready to leave,” I said. “I think we’re all very tired of being here, and could probably use a bit of a break.”Howard nodded and stood up with a crack from his knees. “I won’t disagree with you there, miss,” he said. “Come on everyone, hand me your keys.”I tossed him mine, Awen gave hers, and Amaryllis dropped hers in the fishman’s hand. Then Awen joined us and I pulled her into a side hug while we all watched Howard fumble with the locks set into the wellcap.When he pulled it off, I let out a sigh of relief. Finally, we could leave this floor. And good riddance too. I stomped over to the ladder and climbed out of there.
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Chapter Two Hundred and Seventeen — Colourless Green Ideas Slither Furiously
Chapter Two Hundred and Seventeen — Colourless Green Ideas Slither Furiously I was the first one down the ladder through the well and into the dungeon's central cave, mostly owing to the fact that I had a skirt, and it would be a bit rude to have someone go first.Emmanuel came last. He was very much not built for ladders, so it was strange seeing him climb down, all six limbs working carefully to hang onto the ladder until he twisted around and jumped off to land on solid ground.Amaryllis created a couple of lights to supplement the glowing mushrooms and moss and such, and we all kind of just... decompressed for a bit.“That was awful,” I said.“It can be a tough one,” Howard said. “But if we’re all here, that means that none of us are Mist-folk. They can’t leave their floor.”“So we all made it out alive and hale,” Bastion said. “Other than one minor injury.”“Hardly much of an injury,” Amaryllis said.I think that her pride was bruised a bit more than her flesh.“We should relax for a bit,” I said. “I need it.”“I suppose,” Emmanuel replied. “Though I am looking forward to a bit more of a challenge.”I didn’t. That last floor had been terrible. “I hope the next floor isn't so rude,” I said.Awen pat me on the back. “It’ll be okay. Do you want to make some tea?” she asked.No one seemed to think that was a bad idea, so we found a spot nearby that was nice and flat, laid down some blankets and sat around for a bit of tea. Bastion let me use the water in one of his waterskins, and I set out the little tin mugs I carried with me on the ground while the water came to a slow boil.“Do you have a lot of trouble with that last floor?” I asked Howard.“No, not really,” Howard said. “But then, most of the time we’re no more than three. Not all of us are close friends too. The occasional undeserved slap is the worst that usually happens, though it can take a while to get through the floor. Sometimes the town keeps shifting around and you can get mighty lost.”“Huh,” I said. “It was really hard for us. Well, at least for me.”“Different folk have different challenges,” Howard said. “Didn’t expect it, else I’d have tried to prepare more things for the floor. Maybe give you all some pickled fish to carry in your pockets.” I wasn’t the only one giving him a strange look. “For the smell.”“Oh,” I said.Bastion took his cup when I handed it over. “The next floor, what can you tell us about it?”“Third floor. That one’s interesting,” Howard said. “Not usually a problem. The challenge is fairly straightforward, most of the time. There’s a bit of fighting, though. That wasn’t always the case.”Emmanuel perked up at that. “Fighting?”“Yep. The next floor opens up in this cave with a sort of castle in it. Some folk call it a mansion, but I don’t rightly think anyone from Insmouth has seen a mansion before. Used to be that the monsters outside it would leave you alone, but they’ve grown aggressive since that root settled in. Big squid-like creatures. Not an easy fight, but not too tough either. Those that aren’t aggressive should just be left to mind their own.”“Is that the whole of it?” I asked. Awen sipped her tea and made a bit of a face, so I rooted around for some honey in my pack. I still had a little somewhere.“No, no. The challenge is inside the castle,” Howard said. “There’s a creature, a grand monster, incomprehensible to gaze upon. He has more eyes than there are stars in the sky, and his grasp reaches across his domain.”I swallowed.“His name is Jim, and he wants to have tea and talk,” Howard continued.I paused, my teacup by my lips. “Huh?”The fishman shrugged. “I’m being honest. The monster wants you to sit down at his table and talk. He is very polite, but you need to answer his questions.” Howard shifted. “You need to answer them honestly. He will often ask very probing questions. They can make things quite awkward. But it’s better to be honest than to fight him.”“That sounds like a lot of fun,” I said. “We just need to answer some questions?”“And do some small talk,” Howard said. “It’s not a problem if you’re bad at it. Jim’s good at teasing things out. Once we’re done, we can walk out the back of the castle and into the next part of the cavern. Then it’s on to the final floor.”“No tricks?” I asked.“None that we ever noticed,” Howard said.Amaryllis hummed. “Not the strangest floor challenge I’ve heard of. Perhaps it’s fitting, seeing as how the second floor was so difficult.”“This floor’s fairly new,” Howard said. “The newest this dungeon’s gotten.”“How often do dungeons get new floors?” I asked. “And where do they appear?”Howard shrugged. “Can’t speak for other dungeons, but Insmouth’s had two floors when we arrived. The second floor that we have now arrived when my dad was young, and this third floor appeared some five or so years back.”“What do you mean by ‘where do they appear?’” Amaryllis asked. “Obviously, the answer is ‘in the dungeon.”“No, I mean, in which order. Does a new floor always appear between the boss’s floor and the floor before that?”“Ah,” Amaryllis shook her head. “No, they’ll appear in any order. I don’t think there’s a pattern to it. Or if there is a pattern, it’s likely unique to each dungeon.”“Neat,” I said. I cleaned my cup, and rattled my kettle to confirm that it was empty. “We’ll be drinking a lot of tea today, huh?” I asked.We packed things up, and I made sure to take a second to check on Amaryllis, just to confirm she was really fine. Bastion’s bandages were holding up nicely, and a bit of Cleaning magic ensured that we didn’t need to replace them just yet. The potion seemed to have done the trick.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.Amaryllis tried to shrug me off, of course, but only for show.“Just over here,” Howard said as we continued down the tunnel. The path forked again, and this time Howard led us to the right, down a passage that spiraled a ways into the dark.“Anything you can tell us about the monsters on this floor? The ones we’re likely to have to fight?” Bastion asked.“They’re tall, many-tentacled beasts. Strange colour to them; makes your eyes hurt to look too long. Otherwise, fairly weak if you get into a fight. Good range, on account of all the tentacles, but weak and slow.”“That’s a nice change,” I said. “Are they smart?”“Smart? No more than a dog, I figure,” Howard said.The path curved and Howard slowed down. “It’s just in there. You might want to be ready.” The old fishman patted his pouches down, then tugged out a knife from his belt. It was one of those knives with a hook on the end, for cutting ropes. “Some of them will run right for us.”“Right,” I said. “Bastion, Emmanuel, can you take the flanks? Awen and Amaryllis are good at range. I’ll be in the middle with Howard. Call out if you need any help!”We rearranged ourselves quickly. I hefted my spade, and followed Howard into the third floor, expecting the worst, but hoping for the best.The third floor was a cavern. A huge one, with a ceiling so high that I could only-just make it out. A hole to one side let in a thick beam of bright light, filtered by a canopy of leaves and vines that dyed a portion of the light pale green.The floor was as rocky as I expected, though there was a big area that had been smoothed by time and water, which had collected into a stagnant basin near the back.And then there was the castle.I could see why someone would call it a mansion. The building sticking out of the wall had plenty of wide windows and it just looked more like a very prestigious and rich home than it did some sort of fortification. It was made entirely of stone, the same rock that made up the walls all around us. The front, where a garden might have been on a more normal home, was filled with stone spikes as tall as I was jutting out of the ground, and the back and sides of the building merged seamlessly into the cavern walls.Movement had me turning away from that and focusing instead on... things.Howard had described them rather poorly. The monsters here, if they were really monsters, were tall and lithe, with long robes that trailed on the ground around them and hats with wide brims that cast deep shadows over their faces.There were maybe a dozen of them, dotted out across the room.One noticed us, then started to walk closer.No, not walk. It was... sliding?I took a moment of observing to figure it out. The monster wasn’t wearing any sort of robe. Its ‘robe’ was entirely made up of thick tentacles, layered over each other and draping down to its... well, where its feet would be if it didn’t just have more tentacles.It was really dark, or maybe more of a purple? I narrowed my eyes and tried to decide what colour the monster was, but I couldn’t make it out. It was definitely a colour. Either yellow or pink. It wasn’t changing colours either, it was just-“Don’t stare too much, lass,” Howard said.“Right,” I muttered with a shake of my head.A Colourless of Insmouth, agitated, level 10.“Get ready,” Bastion said. We formed a rough line, with Howard stepping back a bit, and both Bastion and Emmanuel coming to the front.I cleared my throat and lowered my spade. “Hello Mister Colourless. My name is Broccoli. We’re just here to see the core, would you min— eep!” I hopped back as the front of the monster’s robes split and a long, rope-like tendril... kind of flopped in my general direction?If it was supposed to be a whip, then it was a whip flicked by someone who didn’t work out very much.“Huh,” I said.Bastion and Emmanuel both shot forwards and skewered the Colourless with the points of their swords.It proceeded to flop onto the ground, dead.“That was... underwhelming,” I said.“They’re not very good in a fight,” Howard said.“More of them are coming,” Amaryllis pointed out.A glance deeper in the room revealed five had broken away from the main group, all slithering and wobbling our way. Sometimes their ‘hats’ would rise enough that I could make out the big, cuttlefish-like eyes underneath.The rest of the Colourless were standing here and there, minding their own business.“Weird,” I said.“Free experience,” Amaryllis countered. Her hand flashed out and a beam of crackling light speared out ahead, twisted in the air, and crashed into one of the monsters, sending it reeling back even as sparks danced across its oily skin.I didn’t know how to feel about that. Then again, I was pretty miffed at the dungeon.“Oh hoh! A fight then!” Emmanuel said. He immediately broke formation and ran ahead, sword swinging above his head.“Wait!” Bastion called back. “That idiot.”I heard Awen sigh before she raised her crossbow. “Sorry Broc,” she said.“What for?” I asked.“I know you wanted to try talking first,” Awen said. “It’s a good thing, but I don’t think it would have worked here.”“Oh,” I said. “Yeah.”Awen smiled, then she fired a bolt with a dull thump and one of the Colourless flopped to the ground.I sighed. At least it was better than the last floor. Much better.
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