AN: Aaaaand I'm back for another chapter! Man, summertime passes by way too much.

Guess what?! We broke 1,000 views! And on my birthday, too! I was too lazy to upload on that day, though.

No reviews to respond to (except Ralmon's) today. Oh well.

Anyway, Please Review and Comment! Favorite/Follow if you are interested and want to see more! Guest reviews are welcome! Don't be shy!

Disclaimer: Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon is owned by Spike Chunsoft and the Pokémon Company. (P.S. Should I do this disclaimer more or not?)

"Isn't this... the Drilbur Coal Mine?" Ruby asked.

The group was hiding behind a small ledge on a path that led to a cave entrance surrounded by a structure of wood. Three mole-like Pokémon were wibbling around in and out of the entrance to the mine.

"That's right," Shelmet said. "Those Drilbur over there run the mine. But, not only is it a mine, it is also a mystery dungeon. Halfway into the mine, there are two paths. The right path will go on into the regular mine. The left path is where the mystery dungeon continues."

"So, what do you want us to do?" Clyde asked.

"We want you to sneak into the mystery dungeon and bring back some rubies as proof of clearing it." Pancham answered.

"Like my name!" Ruby said.

"Really, that's it?" Clyde asked. He was expecting a much greater sounding challenge than what the fighting type implied. He felt like this was too simple a task.

"That's right," Pancham confirmed. "Do that, and we'll admit that you has real guts. I'll have you know that I cleared that dungeon in no time flat!"

"Really!? That's amazing!" Ruby said.

"Yeah, well. That's just how good I am," Pancham said with a grin.

"Yeah, sure…" the Snivy muttered, not completely believing what the panda claimed.

"So why isn't anyone supposed to go down the left path, anyway?" Ruby asked.

"Huh? Do you really want to know?" Pancham asked in return suddenly.

"Oh, wait! Don't tell me!" Ruby said in realization. "I think it's way more interesting to find out for yourself. Right, Clyde?"

"I suppose," Clyde said.

"Y-yeah, it is…" Pancham said with slight nervousness.

"Then that settles it! Let's go in there and get those rubies!" The Torchic exclaimed.

"You go and do that. Make sure you get them, all right?" Pancham said. He and Shelmet turned to the path that led back to the plaza, snickering in that was barely audible. Ruby and Clyde were left, facing the Drilbur Coal Mine.

"Come on! Let's go!" Ruby went forward to the mine, with Clyde following her, but only to stop after a few steps.

"Oh… I just remembered. I had been planning to show you my favorite place to go, but I guess it can wait, right?" she said.

"Sure, I don't mind. All we have to do is go in there, get those rubies, and get out, right?" Clyde said.

"Ooh! I got another idea! I promise you, when we're done with this, I'll take you there as soon as we're done, got it?" Ruby said. Clyde nodded in reply.

"Then let's check out that dungeon!"

The two looked at the entrance to the mine and saw the three mole-like Pokémon still wibbling around the entrance.

"Um, what are we going to get past them?" Clyde gestured to the Pokémon at the entrance. "It doesn't look like they're not let us in."

"Oh, those Drilbur?" Ruby turned towards him with a smile, a glint of mischievousness in her eyes. "I know how to sneak past them. Just follow me." She then started to walk in right in front of the entrance, confusing the Snivy.

How is this sneaking past them? He reluctantly followed her, hoping she had a plan for this.

Just as they stopped near the front of the mine, they were noticed by the Drilbur patrolling the area.

"Ah!" one of the Drilbur yelped at the intruders. The three Drilbur, faced them, wibbling in the process.

"Er, uh…" the second Drilbur tried to speak, but wibbled while doing so. "Wh-where are you two going?"

"Inside, obviously," Ruby said, which dumbfounded the Drilbur and Clyde as well.

She just told them what we're going to do right in front of them! Clyde thought. How are they going to sneak past them now?

"You're that little rascal from the village," the third Drilbur stated.

"And this is a mine, you know," The second Drilbur continued. "A mine is no place for a child."

"Ah, I see," Ruby said. "Sorry to have bothered you."

She then turned towards Clyde. "Since that's the case, Clyde… Let's look for opening so we can sneak in past these guys, alright?"

Clyde and the Drilbur were dumbfounded yet again at the Torchic's statement. This isn't going to work at all…

"Don't worry about it!" Ruby said cheerily. "We'll be real sneaky so you don't notice a thing!"

She looked to the left and looked slightly into the air. "Hey, all of you Drilbur! Look over there! There's a tree full of delicious apples that just sprouted up!"

This caught the three Drilbur off guard and become stiff, trying to resist the temptation to look.

This kid's trying to trick us, right?

It's the old distract-'em-with-food trick… I shouldn't look!

We shouldn't believe this Torchic. But… she could be right. Maybe I should check. Just for a second…

Soon enough, they couldn't resist and looked at the direction where Ruby was facing.

"Now's our chance! Ruby said. "Let's go!"

"Huh, what?" the third Drilbur said, still trying to look for the apple tree.

"Someone should stop them!" the second Drilbur exclaimed.

"Okay, I will!" the first Drilbur turned back around, only to notice that the Torchic and the Snivy are already gone.

"Oh."

Clyde and Ruby continued down the passageway, until they ended up in another room, which continued the mystery dungeon.

"I can't believe that worked," Clyde said in disbelief.

They both found themselves in a somewhat decently lit cave with orange walls and rocks surrounding them. The walls had an assortment of different kinds of rocks, varying in color. The ground was cracked with a light layer of sand covering it. There was some dust flying around them. They were in a room with two narrow hallways, confirming that they are in a mystery dungeon.

"Well, we're definitely in the mine now," the Snivy observed.

"Let's go and find those rubies!" Ruby started to run into one of the corridors that led out of the room with a slight spring in her step.

"H-hey! Wait up!" Clyde started to follow as quickly as he can to catch up with her. He barely reached to where she was.

In this room, there were a few items were scattered across the floor. There was an Oran Berry and a few more of those branches around. But that wasn't an only thing inside this room. Instead there were a few wild Pokémon, as well. One was orange shelled with a huge head and jaw, a Trapinch and the other one a small camel with a small volcano on its back, a Numel. The pair's presence were made in the room immediately.

Clyde readied his stance as both wild Pokémon proceeded towards the two, but Ruby ran towards the Numel, using her claws to knock back the camel. This opened up an opportunity for the Trapinch to open its jaws for an attack, but couldn't land the attack due to the Snivy's quick thinking and using his whips to strike. But he didn't manage to knock out the Trapinch. It stood up, focusing its attention on the attacker.

He narrowly dodged the Trapinch's jaws, getting only scratched by them. He retaliating by tackling it on the side, managing to knock it out.

"Alright, now to deal with the other- Agh!" he felt his body sear with a jolt major pain, only to disappear, but still linger. He had been focused on the Trapinch too much that he left himself open to attack. He turned towards where the attack was launched as he recovered to see that Ruby was still fighting the Numel, which had smoke coming from its mouth.

"Hey! Over here!" Ruby yelled getting the Pokémon's attention. Only to be met with a few swift kicks in the face by Ruby's talons, knocking it out. She then ran over to the Snivy, concerned at his condition.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah. Nothing that an Oran Berry can fix, right?" Clyde rummage through his bag and quickly took out said berry and ate, the pain and scratches disappeared.

"That's better."

"Wait a minute…" Ruby looked at Clyde's bag and took a peek inside.

"There's barely anything in your bag! There should be a lot more stuff we should need!" Ruby exclaimed. "We need more orbs, wands, and berries!

"Heh," Clyde chuckled. "I never saw you the type for knowing what all this stuff is."

"Huh?" Ruby questioned. "This is stuff every adventurer should know. Otherwise we wouldn't get anywhere. Haven't you been in any mystery dungeons before?"

"Well… no. At least not that much," Clyde answered, remembering that he only went to three mystery dungeons ever since he came to this world.

"Oh… Well in that case, as a fellow adventurer, I'll explain what you need to know!"

The Snivy was surprised. "Why?" he asked.

"I don't know what it is, but I just get this gut feeling from you to help you out. Just call it a hunch. Also, we won't get far if we don't have enough items." She walked over to the items scattered over the floor.

"Oh." Clyde seemed mildly surprised. She definitely seemed less childish when it comes to these kinds of adventures. After her… interesting introduction yesterday he thought she was a very strange Pokémon. But now he looked at her again. He had to admit, he had some newfound mutual respect for her.

The Torchic handed the berry over with her beak and the wands in one of her talons. Clyde put them in his bag

"Well, let's gather those items," Clyde said.

And so, they traversed through the first few floors of the dungeon, all the while Ruby giving some pointers and explanations. She explained that those same-looking branches were called wands, and they deal a variety of ailments to the opposing Pokémon it's aimed at. While exploring each floor, they made sure to get as many items as they can manage to make sure that Clyde's bag had more items in it such as Oran Berries, a few different types of wands, and elixirs. While Ruby continued to explain, Clyde found another kind of item he had never seen before. They looked like blue crystal balls, which Ruby said were Wonder Orbs, which worked the same as wands, but can affect the room.

Picking up these items were a great help, as it did help them in a couple of situations. Once they were surrounded by multiple wild Pokémon, in which Clyde used one of those orbs to petrify all of them just to get to the stairs nearby. One kind of wand confused the attacker's sense of direction, and provided enough of an opening to attack easier.

After climbing down the stairs, they didn't find themselves in another room of the dungeon. Rather, they were in a more natural cave fortune. And how they entered was strange, too. When they went down the stairs, they happened to pass through a corridor of rocks to where they are now.

"Hey, look over there," Clyde said.

In front of them were two separate openings that led deeper into the caves. The path to the right was open and nothing was in the way. On the other hand, the opening on the left was moderately barred with wooden boards and warning tape, intent on sending the message that was a restricted area.

"The path splits in two right here!" the Torchic beamed.

"All we have to do is just take the path on the left, right?" Clyde asked.

"Yep! There won't be anything for us in the right, but the rubies will be on the left."

"There's another Drilbur at the front too," Clyde pointed to the mole Pokémon in front of the entrance. "Since you got us past those Drilbur at the entrance, I'll leave it to you here."

"'Kay!" Ruby smiled, again with mischievousness in her eyes.

They both stepped forward, getting attention of the Drilbur ahead.

"H-hold it right there…" The Drilbur said. "This is no place for children to play in. And it sure looks like you're thinking of going into this tunnel over here, but no one's allowed in this tunnel. Not ever, for any reason whatsoever."

"Oh! So it really is forbidden to enter? Thanks for telling us!" Ruby said.

"No, no… There's need to thank me…" The Drilbur smiled. "So run along now and leave this mine, ok?"

But the both of them still stayed where they are.

"Wait! You still want to go in there?!"

"Yeah." Ruby cocked her head. "Is that a bad thing?"

"W-well, you're kind of famous in the village. A-and not in a good way. You'll end up making trouble in there."

"Oh please let us in!" the Torchic begged. "I promise we won't cause any problems!"

"Are you sure?" The Drilbur asked, trying to hold its ground.

Ruby stepped up to the Drilbur, staring intently. "Look at my eyes. See how serious I am?"

The Drilbur could only stare into the Torchic's eyes for a minute. "… I don't see anything…"

"Then we're good to go in!" Ruby chimed. "Let's go, Clyde!"

"Wait, what?" the Drilbur could only stare, powerless in stopping the two kids go forward on the left path.

"That was never going to my way, was it?"

The pair continued onto the cave until they ended up in another room of the mystery dungeon.

"Still, I can't believe that worked again." Clyde said. "You're pretty amazing, Ruby."

"Thanks!" Ruby responded.

"Right then." Clyde rummaged through his bag, checking through his inventory.

"Let's see… It seems we got more berries and a more elixirs. We still got those wands, still going to be useful. Now, where are we?"

He looked up only to see the same walls and shaped that they were in previously. "Still the same. Though it does feel a bit warmer. Yeah, we must be going deeper. Just a little more and we'll get those rubies."

"Then let's go then!" Ruby exclaimed, eager to continue on.

"Agreed."

They continued to trek on through the floors, passing through more rooms, finding more items, defeating more Pokémon along the way. It was certainly a lot easier getting through it, with less of a worry getting more items. But due to Clyde being a grass type, it held the pair back as he had to be careful of attack from fire types, many of them which inhabited the caves. Plenty of times Ruby had to cover for him because she can take those kinds of attacks better, being a fire type herself. It started to become the same routine soon enough.

But right after they reached down the stairs of the eight floor, they couldn't see anything in front of them. They were stuck in pitch blackness.

"Hm?" Ruby said. "It looks like we've ended up in the dark…"

"Grrrrr!" A loud and menacing growl filled both their eardrums.

"Wh-what was that?" Clyde asked, suddenly fearful of what's lurking in the darkness. Ruby, not so much.

"Silly Clyde! Is that your tummy rumbling?"

"N-no it isn't!" Clyde said.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrr!" The growling seemed to get louder.

"Huh? That's a pretty odd sound for a stomach to make, though…" Ruby said, seeming to ignore Clyde's response.

"Grrrrrr! Exactly!" The growling came from and angry sounding male voice. "What you hear is not a stomach rumble!"

"Whoa! Your stomach can even do voices?! You're full of many surprises, Clyde! A stomach with a verbal burble, who would've thought?"

"Wh-what?" The voice staggered, put off by the fire-type's response. Were you even listening?! The one making that noise is me! I'm the one growling at you!"

Suddenly, the darkness turned into a flash of brilliant light, causing both of them to close their eyes in reflex. Once the flash died down, they saw that they were in a very large opening space. They were standing on one side of a flat arena of sorts, surrounded by stalagmites and stalactites. But they weren't alone. In the other side of the arena, there was a menacing-looking lizard that stood on two legs. He had blue scales with a red underside and fins on its arms, legs, and tail. His eyes were an angry, fierce gold.

"Wauuuggghhh!" Ruby yelped at the sight of the menacing look.

"Who are you?" Clyde asked.

"My name is Gabite! And this is my territory!" he looked at the two in front of him. "And you! What are you… kids?! Hmph, it doesn't matter. I'm not going easy on you thieves!"

"Thieves?!" Ruby and Clyde said at the same time.

"We wouldn't do anything like that, Mr. Gabite sir!" Ruby said.

"Then why are you here!" Gabite demanded.

"We came here to look for some rubies," Clyde answered. "We don't mean you any harm."

"Y-yeah! What he said!" Ruby added. She looked around. "Hey, have seen any of them lying around here?"

"Hmm… rubies, you say?" He looked at them with more menacingly. "Those are my treasure! My precious jewels! I knew you'd come to steal them, you little thieves!"

Both of them were very surprised at the dragon type's statement.

So that's why Pancham wanted us to come here looking for them! Clyde thought.

"Come my Drilbur compatriots!" Gabite yelled.

Suddenly, a short fumbling was felt under their feet and three Drilbur popped out of the ground, surrounding the two.

"It's time fulfill your promise and rout out these thieves! Let the battle begin!"

In a panic, Ruby and Clyde readied themselves, one of the Snivy's hands reaching in his bag, searching quickly for an orb.

"Uh, actually…" One of the Drilbur spoke. "You see, fighting isn't really our forte… so…"

"Please forgive us!" one of the other Drilbur said.

And as soon as they arrived, they dove underground, away from the remainder who are still standing in the arena, leaving them a moment of silence.

"…" Gabite stared at where they left, only to turn towards Ruby and Clyde. "Never mind! I'll fight you myself! Even if you're a bunch of kids, that doesn't mean you're not thieves!" He crouched towards them, preparing for an attack.

"Here we go…" Clyde said as he and Ruby faced him.

I shouldn't have listened to Pancham! Not one bit!

Looks like a boss battle is upon them! Will they succeed?

Believe me, when I cam up with Ruby's name, I never once thought of those red stones. It was a happy accident.

I need to improve on how Pokémon do things in this universe. I think I got the basic grasp of it but it still needs improvement. A lot of improvement. Maybe.

I opened up a little progress blog so you don't have to hear nothing from me for about a month or so. Go to regal-progress . tumblr . com. (hope you understand the format) That way I can have conversations with you guys, anonymously or not, if you'd like to. We'll chat, interact, and have a jolly good old time. It's your choice.

Question: Did you have any unusual or weird coincidences that you have experienced? A feeling that you get when something coincides with another and you don't really know why? I remember just hearing of something small, like a word or phrase, and suddenly I'm hearing it all over the place for a little while. And to this day I still wonder if it is either coincidental or something on my brain.

Anyways, I'll see you in the next chapter!