Here's chapter 2! Took a little while, but I'm happy with it. We continue Frisk's first journey through the RUINS, accompanied by a mysterious voice in their head.
Guest: Sorry about all the game mechanics. I tried to balance it with the actual story, but I couldn't not add them since they're an integral part of Undertale.
Drivingmaster19: Thanks for the nice review! I will keep it up, and hope you enjoy this next part as much as the first.
Walk...
Fight...
Puzzle...
Walk...
Fight...
Puzzle...
The pattern would become tedious rather quickly. I would walk into a purple room, guided by the voice in my head, who seemed to be really good at figuring puzzles out. Then, whenever any monsters would pop up, I was quick to turn them to dust before they could hurt me too much.
The first room after the run-in with the Froggit was a pitfall room, with the hole covered by cracked flooring. I was thankful when I fell into a large pile of leaves below, which cushioned my fall, instead of onto the hard floor. Then there were two doors with steps leading back up, one before the fake floor and one after.
I barely took a step into the next room before Toriel called. "Hello, this is Toriel. For no reason in particular, which do you prefer: cinnamon or butterscotch?"
I couldn't really answer for a very good reason. "I don't know," I said. "I never had either one."
Toriel made a hum, then replied with "Oh, I see. That's fine, my child. It was just a silly little question." She then hung up, only to call again a second later. "Hello, this is Toriel. You wouldn't mind trying both of them, would you? Would you turn your nose up if you found them on your plate?"
"Um, no. I would try them," I said back, wondering just how they could taste. I didn't get sweets very often, and when I did it was usually just something made with simple sugar.
"Right, right. I understand. Thank you for being patient, by the way." With that, Toriel hung up again, letting me get back to the puzzle rooms. This next one was so easy I figured it out without the voice's help, merely pushing a surprisingly light rock on top of a pressure plate, causing the spikes blocking the exit to retract. It was here that a strange snot monster first appeared.
Act: Check. "Moldsmal – Atk 6 Def 0. Stereotypical: curvaceously attractive, but no brains."
I didn't really have time to ask what that all meant, having to dodge large magic circles that exploded into smaller ones, making it hard to get away. I took a hit, but quickly dispatched the monster after, turning it to dust. I didn't like doing it, but I didn't have much of a choice.
"Your LOVE increased." That was odd, because doing that didn't make me feel loved at all.
In the next room, I saw a large section of the ground covered in the fake floor and groaned. I tried one spot and thought things were fine for a second, only for the ground to crumble beneath me. Fortunately there were more red leaves to catch me, and I went back up to try again. I fell two more times before being told to go look at the sign under the floor.
"Please don't step on the leaves. Oh, makes sense." The voice seemed to figure it out, and guided me through the puzzle once again, this time without falling into the chamber below. Just after exiting, I was attacked by two frogs at the same time. I think I was learning how to stay away from their attacks, because I was only hit once before they both turned to dust.
Next room had the same easy rock and button puzzle, so I figured I could do it on my own. The first rock slid into place, but the spikes stayed up. Same after moving the second rock onto a button. As I went to push the third rock, a new voice called out.
"Whoa there, pardner! Who said you could push me around?" The voice came from the rock itself, which startled me enough to make me lose my footing and fall on my backside. This set off a fit of laughter from the voice in my head as I got back up.
"Sorry. Would you move please?" I asked softly, not really knowing if that's what you did with a talking rock.
"Hmm? So you're asking me to move over? Okay, just for you, pumpkin," the rock said, making me hopeful it was that easy. Sadly, it only moved over a little bit, no where near close to the button.
"Could you move a little further?" I asked it, wondering if it could even see where it was going.
"Hmm? You want me to move some more?" I nodded at the rock's question. "Alrighty, how's this?" It then moved again, but this time in the wrong direction off the little track behind it.
"Oh, um, not that way," I said when it stopped.
"Hmm? That was the wrong direction? Okay, think I got it." With that, the rock finally moved onto the button and the spikes went down, opening the way out. However when I got close, the spikes shot back up. Turning around, the reason became apparent as the rock had moved off the button. Now getting annoyed, I marched back over to it.
"You were supposed to stay on the button," I said, my annoyance coming through the tone of my voice.
"Hmm? You wanted me to stay there? You're giving me a real workout," it said before sliding back onto the button. I approached the lowered spikes slowly, just in case, then ran across them. Thankfully the rock did stay in place, so nothing bad happened.
As I turned back around from looking at the rock, I was surprised to find three Moldsmals in the way. Before they had a chance to do anything, I swiped at one with my stick. It did hurt it, but not enough to turn it to dust. Then all three attacked at once. I was hit several times in the soul and knew I couldn't take them all on.
"Hp is low. Maybe if you FLEE, they'll show MERCY and not follow."
I wasn't going to die to these things, so I took the voice's suggestion and ran past the Moldsmals. Once I was out of the strange field around us I looked back and saw none of the monsters were chasing, instead just doing...blob stuff.
I then found a room with another of those stars in it next to a table with some cheese. Going to check the table first, I happened to glance over a see a small hole in the wall. Leaning down and peering in, I could just make out a tiny squeak coming from within. Next I moved to the table and tried to take the cheese, but no matter how hard I tried, it wouldn't budge.
"This cheese has been here quite a long time. It's stuck to the table."
So I gave up on acquiring the cheese, leaving it there for the mouse to someday get it off. Instead, I touched the star and, at the urging of the voice, SAVEd again. I still had no idea what that actually did, but it seemed important. I also felt better, like I hadn't been hurt at all.
The next room surprised me. Well, not the room itself, but what was in the room. In the middle, laying down on a bunch more leaves, was what looked like one of those not scary ghost decorations you see around Halloween. As I got close to it though, it was saying the letter Z a bunch, and now and then opening one eye to peek at me.
"Are they gone yet?" It asked, quietly, though I'm not sure to whom. I couldn't get around it since it was big enough to cover most of the gap in the hallway.
"Move it with force?" The voice suggested. I looked around a bit, but saw no other option, so I nodded and stepped up to the ghost. It rose up as my soul came out again, looking like it had been crying while lying on the ground.
"Napstablook – Atk 10 Def 10. This monster doesn't seem to have a sense of humor..."
"oh, i'm REAL funny," Napstablook replied. Wait, he wasn't replying to me since I hadn't said anything. Could he hear the voice in my head too? Before I could ask him, he started a crying fit. I went to go pat him, since that helped me whenever I cried, but then the tears looped around and hit my soul, hurting me. I yelled out and backed off, which seemed to startle Napstablook enough to stop crying for a bit.
"Even when crying they're trying to kill you..." the voice said morosely.
I couldn't let myself get hurt more by the magic tears, so I tried to make the ghost go away by swinging my stick at it. I expected it to just go right through him, but instead it looked like he actually got a little hurt. That could've just been the normal crying though.
"i'm fine, thanks," he said, then started crying again. This time the tears came down like normal instead of going all around, and it was easier to keep away from them. I swung again, sensing that he got hurt once again.
"just plugging along." This time, he didn't attack back, but words floated in front of me that I couldn't understand. I was glad to have a break though. Another hit from me and he seemed to double over a little more.
"nnnnnnggghhh," was all he grunted, then more of the looping tears fell from his eyes. Try as I might, there were too many and I still got hit once. I retaliated and slashed again, thinking this would be the last one before he turned to dust. It connected, he grimaced in pain, and...
"um...you do know you can't kill ghosts, right? we're sorta incorporeal and all. i was just lowering my hp because i didn't want to be rude," he said. I was dumbfounded, realizing he was pretending to get hurt because that's what I was trying to do. I felt like the idiot I was.
"sorry, i just made this more awkward...pretend you beat me. ooooooooo..." With that, Napstablook faded away.
"You won! You...lost one exp?" The voice sounded confused, but that's how I felt a lot when it talked. Instead, I just shrugged and kept on moving now that the way was clear. I went down the path straight ahead, but all that I saw were two spider webs, a ton of spiders, and a sign.
"Um, what does this say?" I asked the voice in my head after moving in front of the signpost.
"Spider bake sale. All proceeds go to real spiders."
"Oh. I don't have any money though..." I said sadly. I wondered what kind of foods spiders could make.
"Because you haven't been picking it up, dummy. Every time you beat a monster, they drop some."
Now that I heard that, I thought back to the monsters I'd fought and remembered seeing something in the piles of dust, but I didn't try to see what it was. Why would I want to touch that?
"Just get it out next time. The dust isn't going to hurt you, and you need it more than the monsters at that point."
With nothing else to do, I went back the way I came and took the doorway on the right instead. A Froggit stood next to a sign, making me wary of approaching. Thankfully it seemed I didn't need to get too close for the voice to read it.
"Did you miss it? Spider Bakesale down and to the right. Come eat food made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders!...Yuck!"
I had to agree, eating spiders didn't sound very appetizing. So I stayed away from the Froggit while moving towards the exit on the other side of the room, only to have the cell phone ring just before the doorway. My hands couldn't move fast enough to answer it.
"Hello?" I asked, hoping it'd be Toriel, even though literally no one else knew this number.
"Hello?" Came Toriel's voice, and I let out a sigh of relief on hearing her. "I just realized that it has been a while since I have cleaned up. I was not expecting to have company so soon." She sounding like she was inside someplace and moving around a lot, probably cleaning.
"There are probably a lot of things lying about here and there. You can pick them up, but do not carry more than you need. Someday you might see something you really like. You will want to leave room in your pockets for that." Before I could get a word in myself, she'd hung up.
Sighing, I moved into the next room, which again had fake floors, but only in a few spots. Thankfully there was a sign on the wall nearby.
"It says 'There is just one switch.' You should really learn how to do this yourself sometime."
Ignoring the comment, because how could I possibly learn something like that without going to school back on the surface, I proceeded to look everywhere for a switch of some kind on the walls and floor, but found nothing. I knew what I had to do, but wasn't looking forward to it. Picking a random cracked floor, I jumped onto it, feeling it crumble around me.
After picking myself up off the leaves, I looked around and saw what looked like a large carrot in the ground. Thinking no one would be mad if I ate it, I reached to pull it out of the ground, only for it to spring up on its own. It had a wicked looking face on it, and it was staring right at me!
"A Vegetoid came out of the earth!"
Well, I knew what to do by now, so I took my stick and bashed it on the...head...hair...grass? The carrot just cackled softly after.
"Part of a complete breakfast," it said, then shot several magic carrots above me, which then began to rain down. It was tough to dodge them, but thankfully I got away without a scratch. Once they were all gone I retaliated and struck at it, this time smacking it across its, um...face? Or was that it's body? Either way I hit it again.
"Contains vitamin A," was its next quote. The way it was talking made it sound like it wanted me to eat it. This time its attacks looked like all kinds of different vegetables, and they bounced all over the place. I was hit twice and knocked down, but quickly got back up. This time I didn't attack, at least not the normal way. Instead I ran up to it and bit it, taking a chunk off of it.
What? It wanted me to.
The taste was...okay. Tasted like a non-moldy carrot, which I can tell you tastes a lot better than a moldy one. The vegetoid just laughed again.
"Ate your greens!" And with that, it burrowed back under the ground so far I couldn't see it. However, it did leave behind four yellow coins, which I scooped up like the voice told me to. Realizing I still had the carrot monster in my mouth, I quickly chewed it and swallowed.
"You recovered 5 hp."
I knew I'd have to ask about that sometime, but for now I was getting tired and sore and just wanted to find Toriel. There was a doorway and stairs nearby which took me back up top. Reciting a rhyme to choose the next hole, I picked the middle one on the left. After falling in, it turned out to have the switch inside! Now all I had to do was walk back up, go through the door and...
...get ambushed by a Moldsmal and something new.
"Huh, a Migosp crawled up close." That must've been what the bug-looking thing was called. I made sure to hit it first, and it looked like it really hurt.
"Obey the overmind!" It said after I hit it. I had, and have, no idea what the overmind was, but before I could try to guess I needed to dodge magic exploding balls and magic bees. Thankfully it wasn't too tough, and my next hit on Migosp turned it to dust. After that, it was easy to beat the Moldsmal, and I walked away with more coins.
"That's ten more gold." Ten and four? I couldn't count that high, I didn't have enough fingers. Now though, I was free to move into the next room. Of course, it had another puzzle and another sign.
"The far door is not an exit. It simply marks a rotation in perspective."
"It does what with what?" I asked the voice, completely confused as to what it just said. Looking around, I did see some brightly colored statues, and it looked like the whole room was slanted downward a little.
"It just means the next few rooms are the same, just turned around a little."
"Oh," I replied, still not really sure what it meant. There was only one way to find out, so I moved forward and found the first door open already. I was heading towards it when a monster popped out from behind a pillar to stop me. It had one large eye taking up most of its body, with small arms and legs, and little horns.
"Loox drew near. Family name: Eyewalker." The voice chuckled at that, but I wasn't sure why.
"Don't pick on me!" The Loox cried out angrily, and threw several wavy circles towards me. It wasn't too hard to get away from them, and I was able to get a hit in with my stick on its side.
"Don't point that at me," was its next line, followed by more circles, only this time they bounced around inside the strange magic bubble we were in. Each bounce they went faster, making it tough to avoid, but I managed it. My next hit was right on its giant eye.
"Loox is watering," the voice said, and indeed it looked like Loox was about to cry, but it didn't try to run away, instead just attacking again.
"Quit staring at me!" It launched another volley of wavy circles, and again I managed to get away without a scratch. With one more hit, it turned to dust, leaving some shiny coins on the ground.
"That's another five gold for you."
I just shrugged, doing my best to not think about what was going on. I didn't want to kill all these things, but they wouldn't stop. Instead, I went to the next room and it did indeed look just like the last one. This time, the sign was around the corner.
"If you can read this, press the blue switch." I looked around a bit and found the green and red switches, but the blue one was harder to find. Turned out it was hiding on the other side of the first pillar, which I would've seen if I had paid attention like a good boy should. I pressed the switch, the spikes lowered, then it was off to the next room, and the next sign which was right beside the entrance.
"If you can read this, press the red switch." That one was easy enough as the switch was around the corner next to the pillar. Before I could go to press it, another Loox jumped out at me. I managed to dust it as easily as the last one, and gained five more gold. The voice told me my LOVE increased again too. The next room was much the same, except I had to hit the green switch. Thankfully, it was just off to the side and easy to get to.
Just as the spikes went down, I heard something else behind me, and a Moldsmal and Migosp were crawling towards me. I took a hit from the exploding magic ball, but managed to dust both of them right after, and got five and one more coins.
The next room was just a hallway with two exits, so I decided to go straight and see where that took me. After another small hallway, and avoiding a Froggit standing nearby, I came to a small balcony overlooking a city. Even though it was kind of dark, very few lights were on. On the ground nearby was a toy knife. That seemed like something that I could use, at the very least to help me practice fighting.
Going back the way I came, I took the exit to the side of the first hallway. A large black tree with red leaves all around took up some of the space, and as I went to look at it, I heard a familiar voice.
"Oh dear, that took longer than I thought it would." It was Toriel! I finally made it. She walked to the side of the tree, looking down at the cell phone to dial. She put it up to her large ear and looked up in surprise as my cell phone rang. She then rushed over to me.
"How did you get here, my child? Are you hurt?" She looked me over and saw all the cuts, scrapes, and bruises I'd gotten. I was embarrassed that she had to see me like that, even though it wasn't too rare for me to be like that on the surface.
"Who did this to you? You will get an apology," she said with a firm tone and stern look after she healed me again. No one had ever had to say sorry after they hurt me, though I doubted any of the dust piles could apologize. Though what if monsters could come back to life, or just became ghosts? I wouldn't feel so bad if that was the case.
"I should not have left you alone for so long. It was irresponsible to try to surprise you like this. Err..." Now it was her turn to look flustered. I was just trying to figure out what she just said though.
"I suppose I cannot hide it any longer. Come, small one!" She then turned on her heals and walked back the way she came. Going around the tree revealed a small purple-brick house with one of those stars in front of it. Red leaves were used to decorate in front of the windows, though the windows didn't have glass, and there was no door in the doorway. Overall, I thought it looked nice. I went and touched the star, since I knew that's what the voice would want. As I did, I felt something inside me again, like after all that, I could do anything because I had a safe place to go.
"Seeing such a cute, tidy house in the ruins gives you determination." Once again, I pressed SAVE before going into the house. Toriel was waiting just inside the doorway.
"Do you smell that?" She asked with a smile on her snout.
"Surprise! It is a butterscotch cinnamon pie. I thought we might celebrate your arrival." That was exciting, having a snack made just for me. I couldn't wait to try it!
"I want you to have a nice time living here. So I will hold off on the snail pie for tonight." Wait, snail pie? I never knew those slimy things could be made into a pie.
"Here, I have another surprise for you." She then took my hand and led me into the hallway to the right, the wall color changing from a light yellow to a bright tan. Stopping at the first door, she let my hand go and turned towards it.
"A room of your own. I hope you like it!" I can just imagine the surprised look I must've had when she said that. I never had a house to sleep in, let alone my own full room. I felt her hand on my head and leaned into it, wanting to turn and hug her, feeling tears of joy welling up in my eyes. Before I could, she took a big sniff and turned quickly towards the entrance.
"Is something burning? Um, make yourself at home!" With that, she rushed off past the main doorway and rounded a corner, disappearing. I reached out slowly for the door in front of me, turning the handle and entering.
The light inside a lamp was already on, and it shone in a bright red room. It was decorated with small furniture, stuffed monsters, toys, and a bit carpet in the middle. I was so excited, I had to go around and look at everything. There was a toy box by the bed, but the toys inside looked really old and I wasn't too interested, but just having the room was enjoyment enough. There were lots of striped shirts and other clothes in the cabinet, an empty picture frame, lots of shoes in several sizes in a small chest, and the lamp.
The last thing in the room to check was the bed. I climbed on top of it and rolled around a little, amazed that I had an actual bed to sleep in. When I stopped moving and lay there for a second to think, I realized how tired I actually was. I could barely hold my eyes open after a minute, and fell asleep right after. The last thing I remember was the voice in my head talking softly.
"It's okay. You're safe now."
