Health 59/110

Stamina 115/115

Mana 37/105

I was worried. For a few long minutes my health had slowly but surely ticked down every few seconds, going from a not very healthy seventy something to the low sixties. Now it had stopped and held at fifty-nine for a few minutes, or as close as I could reckon.

“Okay, okay,” I said as I shifted to the side and opened my backpack. I found the blanket I had nabbed from the first floor and set it down before using it as a spot to sit on. “I’m ready, Mister Menu.”

Bing Bong! Congratulations, your Cinnamon Bun class has reached level 4!

Health + 5

Resilience +5

You have gained: One Class Point

You have unlocked: One Class Skill Slot

That was nice. I glanced at my status as soon as the giddiness washing through me passed.

Health 64/115

Stamina 115/115

Mana 38/105

That was really nice, even if I didn’t feel all that much better. Still, I would take it. Another level, another skill point and another class skill. That last could be very useful if I got something that wasn’t Cleaning or Jumping.

“Next one, mister Menu,” I said.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Makeshift Weapon Proficiency skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!

Rank E is a free rank!

Makeshift Weapon Proficiency

Rank E - 00%

The ability to use non-weapons as weapons. Your ability to find and use makeshift weapons has improved.

“That’ll be handy,” I said as I patted my spade. It hadn’t served all that well in the last fight, but I was sure that would change eventually. Plus a spade just seemed useful to have. “What’s after that, mister Menu?”

I found a jar of honey and a spoon while I waited for the next pop up.

Dungeon Cleared!

All adversaries with The Wonderland Dungeon Defeated.

All Bosses Defeated

Broccoli Bunch, Cinnamon bun, level 4 is awarded the Wonderlander class.

All class slots filled.

Replace current class with Wonderlander?

Replacing your current class will reset your level 0.

“Heck no!” I said as fast as I could. No way was I going to get reset to level zero just like that.

Class: Wonderlander set in abeyance until Class Slot becomes available.

I hummed as I considered that. It seemed as if my earlier hunch about multiple classes was right. That begged the question though, how did you get a second class? Maybe it would happen when I hit level one hundred. That seemed almost reasonable. At my current rate I would be... long dead because I ran into something scary that gobbled me up.

Oh well, I thought, maybe I’d figure it out later.

Health 65/115

Stamina 115/115

Mana 39/105

My health was rising, that was excellent news. I wasn’t going to die!

My mood somewhat improved, I got to my feet, wincing at the pull of mending flesh over my thigh. Packing everything back up into my backpack, and crossing half the room to retrieve my magic wand was a huge pain in the butt. Literally. But I got everything sorted and took another look at the room.

There were now two glowing portals between two sets of the stone monoliths. I should probably have noticed those earlier.

One had a blurry image or what I recognized as Threewells, just outside of the dungeon. The other was a hazy image of a small room with a stone pillar at its middle. Atop the pillar, and covered in glowing roots, was an egg of sorts.

Quest Update!

You have found the Evil Root. Destroy it to Cleanse the Land!

“Oh,” I said as I took in the pulsing form. My hand reached out and brushed against the portal, slipping through it without so much as a whisper, though I felt something tingling under my skin, as if I was using my cleaning spell without actually using it. Funky.

I closed my eyes and stepped through, then opened them again.

I was now in a much smaller room, tight, even, with dirt walls and large, cruel-looking roots crawling across the ground and up the plinth.

“Whoa,” I said as I moved closer to the egg-thing in the middle. It was too round to be an actual egg, and too glowy and see-through as well. I felt... funny, just standing next to it.

Health 97/115

Stamina 135/115

Mana 275/105

“Oh, yikes,” I said as I took in my stats. That was probably not supposed to happen. No complaining about the faster healing though, and I did feel oodles better. I fired an ‘insight’ at the orb, then the freaky roots.

The Dungeon Core for the Wonderland Dungeon

An Evil Root.

“Well, that’s simple enough, isn’t it,” I said.

I poked the evil root and fired a blast of cleaning magic into it, then, when that did nothing, a stronger blast that lowered my mana down to the low two-hundreds.

When that didn’t work I gave it a smack with the edge of my spade.

It didn’t even leave a mark.

Quest Update!

You have found the Evil Root. You are too weak to Destroy the Evil Root. Break the Core and let the Root Starve.

“That sounds wildly dangerous,” I said to the quest menu.

The menu merely shifted to the side as if to say ‘there’s the core, get smacking.’

Something about the smooth motions of the quest menu, the way it seemed to be more reactive, told me that it wasn’t mister Menu. I was going to call it miss Menu not to confuse the two.

“Well, here goes,” I said as I poked the core and fired a cleaning spell into it. If that didn’t work, then it was back to using the spade.

The magic washed across the core, starting from where my finger touched it, then racing all the way to the other side as a glowing ring before returning. Then, with a glass-like crunch, the core cracked. At first just a small little hairline, then it expanded and raced across the surface, like the videos I’d seen of antarctic ice breaking apart.

Dungeon Warning

Dungeon Stability Failing.

Evacuate.

“Oh, shoot,” I said as I turned tail and ran. I dove through the first portal, then almost tripped when the ground of the boss room heaved underfoot. The sharp rocks above, stalactites? Mites? Loosened and began to crash to the ground around me like thrown spears and the monoliths trembled.

I hung onto the straps of my backpack and jumped through the portal to the exit.

It snapped away just as I was about to pass through.

“Ohhh, shoot, that’s very not good,” I said as I spun around and started running for the tunnel.

Part of the floor jutted up and I jumped over it, clearing a good ten feet before landing in a sprint. If jumping was faster than running, then that’s what I would do. My sack bounced atop my back with every hop but I didn’t have time to ditch it.

I exploded out into the main dungeon shaft to find that the sky above was hazy and warped, like a television with a bunch of magnets stuck to it. The walls were trembling here too, loose stones clattering to the ground with crunches that would have been loud if they weren’t competing with the entire world going full apocalypse..

I bounced from mushroom to mushroom, moving as fast as I could with no concern for safety because safety was for when the world wasn’t literally falling apart. The tunnel into the time bunny room was broken, part of the floor and ceiling cracked so bad I had to take off my backpack and fling in through before I leaped down the remaining hole feet-first.

Something caught at my neck and my hat fell off just as the ceiling rumbled and the opening started to close.

I reached in and yanked my hat back a moment before the whole thing shuddered to a close.

“Close,” I gasped before jumping to my feet, grabbing my backpack, and running.

I took the ladder two rungs at a time and set foot in Threewells once more just as the shaft behind me collapsed, the world shifted sideways and a wave of what I could only assume was pure magic burst through the air like a bomb going off.

My knees gave out and I collapsed in a heap, gasping for air like a fish out of water.

“Hah,” I said. Then another laugh escaped. “Haha... hahaha!” Soon I was rolling on the ground, not because I was tired, but because the adrenaline coursing through me made me feel lightheaded and funny and everything was hilarious.

Quest Complete!

The world thanks you for your sacrifice!

That only made me laugh harder, even if it wasn’t funny.

Wonderland Dungeon Core Destroyed!

You have gained: Two General Points

I was laughing so hard by then that I was seriously worried, at the very back of my mind, that I might pee myself. My legs were kicking the ground and I was clutching at my sides and rolling.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Jumping skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!

Rank C costs one (1) Class Point

But like all good things the fit of maniacal laughter came to an end.

I sat up, then dusted my skirt before checking it for damage. There were a few holes punched into the leather of my armoured skirt, and the cotton of my normal skirt fared little better. My stockings were... pretty much ruined. Fortunately it wasn’t cold out wherever I was. Not compared to back home.

Stretching as I stood up, I took in the town. There were more plants and such than I remembered, and the air felt vibrant somehow, thick with magic. It was nice. The sky was a burnt orange above, fading slowly into darkness.

I looked down and took in the large crater where the dungeon had been. There wasn’t much left there. Then my eyes picked up something laying at my feet. “Insight?”

An enchanted Cheshire Cat’s Collar, new

Loot from the final boss, perhaps. I picked it up and examined it. The collar was offensively orange, with thin black lines across it and a little pendant at the front that looked like a smiling kitty mouth.

“Okay then,” I said as I shoved it in my backpack. A thing for later. Right now I had to... do...

I looked around, then down to my hands.

“Now what?”

A New Quest!

Pruning the Evil

Evil Roots Remain! Dungeons across Dirt are Infected! Destroy them!

“Okay, so that’s a ‘what,’” I said. I took a few steps, then paused. I wasn’t sure where to go, what to do. The last hour had been... a lot. Too much even. All I wanted now was my bed, and, and maybe my mom and my dad. We could have a family hug and mom would burn the supper and dad would complain about the environment and then the price of gas and--

“Focus Broccoli,” I said. “Focus. You did it. You took out a whole dungeon. You’re awesome. Now you just need to... to make friends.”

Right. That was a goal, one even better than some silly no-reward quest. I would find some really cool people and we’d form an awesome party and have the greatest adventures together!

In the meantime, I could check out a few last things in the town. Check up on that nice ghost in the inn, look into that one building with the big locked door, then, then maybe I’d spend the night in Threewells one last time before hitting the road.

Resolve all firmed up, I allowed a smile to cross my face and strolled across the town, checking in at all the houses I had missed along the way.

Not much remained of them, the houses nearest the side I had decided to call the North were all in much worse repair, with caved in roofs and walls with holes torn into them. There wasn’t even a ghost snooping around to scare poor level one adventurers.

The Inn was as I remembered it. I stepped in and looked around, then made my way all the way up to the top floor. “Mister Ghost?” I called out.

But there was nothing. My wispy friend was gone.

On the bed where a corpse had lain was now a small ring that looked to be made of bronze.

Bronze ring of cleared soul.

I picked it up with a cloth and stuffed it away. I kind of wanted to try it out, it was certainly laid out the way someone would leave a gift, but I didn’t dare put on any sort of soul-related rings. I had read Lord of the Rings, I knew better. Broccoli would not be a pretty Gollum.

The sun was nearly completely down. Rather than venture out to my tiny hidey hole I found one of the less disgusting beds, fired off a few dozen mana’s worth of cleaning magic into it, then flopped down.

I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the mattress.