Different.

That's the only way to say it. It's different.

You'd always known it was different. It was always different, between being in Post Town or paradise, and being out in a Mystery Dungeon. It's not just the danger that makes you more fast, blunt, and efficient. It's the sense of just being there.

But this is different, even by those standards.

The sun looks to be setting soon, if that is really the sun. You've never seen it this big before, not even in this world, not yet. It is a desert sun, the kind that eclipses the sky, the air, and the sand themselves. The sky around it is the same yellow, and you can't tell where the star ends and where the world begins. The bright is reflected on the earth all around you: the mountain range, seemingly purely made of hardened mud, extends forever. Its light browns mix with bronze, gold, and the occasional colour, where moss, grass, or even a flower may have sprung up. The colours don't last long out here in the mountain deserts. Wooden barriers line the edges of cliffs and hold up the entrances to caves. You don't dare look beyond them.

A large wooden sign, faded as usual, greets the two of you as you enter. Jen has her head down behind you, kicking at balls of dirt. The bag slips down her shoulder, but she makes no move to readjust it. It's ironically empty without any empty chatter. The wind blows for a moment, and you close your eyes as you see the sand sweeping along the ground.

You keep walking, painfully aware of leaden footsteps behind you, and see a tree stump. It is low to the ground, or so you would've said, but at present it is taller than you are. Climbing on, squirming, you see that it is perfectly cut, artificial. All along the wall are three more, though you can't tell whether these are stumps or very strange mud circles. They are much lower to the ground.

"Hey, Jen, what do you think about this?"

She doesn't reply, but you didn't expect her to. That doesn't stop your disappointment.

You try and catch her eye. Tentatively, "Are you mad at me?"

"No."

"Are you upset with me?"

"Not really."

"I'm sorry."

"Stop." Jen sighs heavily. "I should be sorry. And I am."

Can we save this for later? You hold your breath.

"Alright, listen," she says. "I've been pushing you to go to Mystery Dungeons with me and risking your life out here to build a house for me. I've been forcing you to do things you don't want to for selfish reasons. You don't even have to stick around with me. Anyone else could've found you that day, and not led you astray. So, I'm sorry. You don't have to do this."

"Well, I don't care. I've invested too much time and effort into this to not see to it being finished."

"That's hogwash, and you know it."

"There you go with the words again. It's not like I care if you curse or anything. But come on, let's leave this for later. The day is trickling away, and we've got to settle this. You didn't want to freeze, right?"

Defeated. "Fine. But don't think I'm going to let you let me get away with this that easily."

"I won't let you get away with letting me get away with letting you get away with it."

"You're ridiculous." A fluid jump onto the stump, and then a long stride, taking the lead. "If you're so insistent on forgiving me, I'll just have to let you."

"Please don't make this into some kind of debt game."

"I won't. Come on."

"Wait, Jen, we can't get up there, this stump isn't high enough. I think we need to figure out a puzzle here."

"Yes, but we're still in their trap, so we can't play right into their hands. Come on, my vines can reach that, easy." Done just as easily as said, Jen finds herself on top of the cliff in mere moments. She extends her vines to you. You grab on, hoping you're not burdening her too much.

"We really did get stronger," you say. "You can lift me now, no problem!"

"Well, yes, but you were falling very, very fast the first time."

"Don't dash my pride." A small shape appears at the edge of your vision, but the movement is the first thing you notice, and the last. "Jen, behind you." She turns, only to get an eyeful of water as the torrent pushes you both back. It's strong, emitted by a machine or something, no doubt. You can't manage to hold onto the edge of the cliff anymore, and the both of you fall. There's enough time to look down and see what lies below. You two are both headed straight for the stump, along with the rushing current.

With an impact hard enough to knock your teeth loose if you had any, you make it onto firm land. A second later, you hear a click above the sound of the newly-created waterfall below, and realize that the stump is sinking into the ground. "Jump off," Jen calls, but the two of you are already about to land back on the dirt. With a final click, the stump sinks in fully, like a round, ringed disc in the earth. The other three discs, revealed to also be stumps, rise up out of the ground on the side of the cliff wall, leading a straight path up.

"So that's the ideal solution, huh."

The last trickle of water sounds far below, and you step off of the frankly quicksand-like consistency the baked earth has become. Your feet are wet and dirty, but there're far worse things to worry about.

"What was the thing up there?"

"Wooper," Jen responds. "A Water-type Pokemon. They can spray water and the like."

"What? No way! No fair!"

"I can understand. All Pokemon are equal, but some Pokemon are more equal than others."

"What's that from?"

"I heard someone say that once."

"That's... sad."

"So, back to your concerns?"

"Right, how are we going to get rid of that Wooper up there?"

"We go beat it."

"Uh... yeah. Of course."

Two new oceans and thirty-three seas later, the nuisance is eliminated. You already know what happened, so no recap is needed, save for 'it was tedious and boring and salty'.

Now, as the two of you duck into a mine entrance, the description still applies. In here, the air is more damp than the pseudo-desert outside but just as warm. You can almost see some sort of foggy steam in the dim light. It makes you no small amount of uncomfortable. Small, frail shoots of grass grow in the nooks and crannies of the cave. A small puddle lies in a pit in the ground, where the two of you relieve yourselves of 'salty' in the description and add 'oh god this tastes even more disgusting'. The rocks and gravel all around you are stained red. From rust, you presume. There's no way walking on all fours in this is healthy. It feels like an abandoned mineshaft, too. You're more concerned for your health than your life.

"Get down!" You do, but something still hits you in the back of the head. It's small and light and... sticky. You frantically rub your hands on the dirt. You're going to need a few thousand tetanus shots after this.

Jen dodges around, nearly jumping off the walls. Her speed, combined with her agility, makes her dangerous, you know. And the Pokemon knows it too. The small leaf-worm twitches and turns to run. It's no match at all.

"One Sewaddle, down." Jen lands lightly on small feet. "Dropped some money, too." She paws it into the bag matter-of-factly, and turns to look at you. "That web is common of Bug-types. It'll harden and fall off eventually, so trying to get it off by force won't really do anything." She pauses. "Are you angry?"

"Why?"

"You haven't said anything."

"I've been thinking."

"About what?"

"Everything. All of this."

"I know it must be strange. It's only been two days, after all."

"Feels like nothing short of forever."

"Really? Time feels like it's going faster for me."

"Well, me too. It feels like it's going too fast, and yet, this is all I've ever known."

She points at the crest on your head. "The web is beginning to fall. I think you can get rid of it now."

You do. "Thanks. Let's keep going."

With hands and head a faded rust, the two of you continue to trudge on, the air getting less humid with each step. It's less strain on the eyes, too. Your feet sink more and more as you continue up the floors, slowing you down.

"The ground's more loose here," you say, tapping your foot on the dirt. It nearly goes through "Think we're getting close?"

"To the top? Yes."

"We'd better. I'm tired from crawling through this gravel."

Jen cocks her head for a moment. "You're an Axew, though. Axew are good at climbing walls."

"I'm not."

"Try."

"Fine." You stand next to one, and look it up and down. You put your hands against it. It's dusty, and cold. You try and climb. You fail utterly, butt landing on the dirt with a thud and a small puff of dust.

"I guess not," Jen says, and you can hear the smile in her voice. She's not frantically holding back laughter, but she's not exactly composed either.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go." Before you can take another step, you spot three Sewaddle crawling around the corner. They meet your eyes, but you can't really tell past the faded blank look in them. Their intent, however, is obvious as they slowly gain speed, attention fixed on you and Jen.

"This is fair," you mutter, and charge in headfirst. You don't see what you're hitting, but you feel satisfaction like you feel something soft getting pummeled. It's a fistfight, really, the schoolyard ones you'd never gotten to take a part of. Outnumbered and outmatched, you watched the underdogs flip the big ones right over.

Though that's not exactly a fitting recount, it's still more and less what happened. Kneeling over them, you check if the Pokemon are carrying anything of value. You hand over a small handful of money to Jen, who puts it into the bag dutifully. "Look, I found a Health Orb."

"How many orbs are there, exactly?"

"Kinds of them? A lot. I've yet to see all of them."

"Oh boy. I have to memorize all of them?"

"If you want. But I'll do my best to stay with you. A helping hand, if you want."

"I do want. So, what's this orb do?"

"The Health Orb makes us healthy. We won't suffer from status effects like when I was confused earlier. We won't be affected by stat changes, either. Best of all, it cures them if we're already inflicted."

"Well, guess we'll be good to go if we get confused again."

"If you can get into the bag without me unwittingly stabbing you, yes."

You stick out your tongue because you don't know what to think of that.

You wander around some more, though it's really Jen leading you places. It looks like she knows what she's doing, upright and regal. You don't believe that for a second. The two of you get into a few more scuffles, and where there aren't rusty stains, there are bruises. You wonder how Christmas-themed you two would be by the time you tasted real air again.

Speak of the devil. A luminous glow from down the corridor, and you know it's the exit. You watch as Jen scrambles excitedly out underneath the wooden planks.

"Still not there?" you ask when you hear her sigh from outside. You crawl out more slowly. It's bright, even this late. That cave did no wonders for your skin, lungs, nor eyes. They're still functional, though, and you look around. It looks to be about the same as when you first arrived: a treestump puzzle. The solution is more than obvious. Jen jumps onto the highest one, and beckons you to follow.

"We're not going out of our way this time?"

"Saltwater isn't a delicacy, I'll have you know."

Pounding down on the treestump (almost) simultaneously, it activates, and you proceed higher. The ground is nearly crumbling here, and you can see why this mine was almost surely evacuated. You try to take light steps like Jen does. You should've known you were more heavy, though, and a foot goes right through, hitting something hard.

"Are you alright?" Jen comes back, hearing your yelp. Then, she narrows her eyes. "What is that?"

"What is what?" You wrench your foot out of the pit, and see something glimmering. You begin to dig like a dog, throwing up loose dirt behind you. You take out the marvel you unearth, slowly.

"Is that a Gold Bar?" Jen asks, eyes nigh glittering.

"Really? Why is it in this shape out in nature?"

"I'm not sure. We should keep it for now."

You give it to her to tuck it away safely. "Doesn't that one Pokemon in town want them or something?"

"Cofagrigus? Yes, I heard from some gossipers. They say we can trade these for rare items."

"We can't sell them?"

"Well, money is made of gold, after all."

"Really?"

"Not in the human world, I presume?"

"No way! The world would go bankrupt! We make them out of paper and metals."

"You need a lot of it?"

"Yeah. I don't know much, but yeah. There are trillions in solid form, but most of it is just 'yeah, I'll pay you later's."

"How does that work?"

"I don't know. Humans are weird."

Jen puffs out her chest. "Right?"

"So about the gold?"

"Right. So, since money is made of gold, it'd be like selling money. There really is no point to that. So, what I'm guessing is, Cofagrigus only accepts gold bars because they're important to him somehow."

"The fact that they're already made into the perfect shape is pretty weird, huh. Maybe someone just stole them and buried them everywhere, or something."

"Possibly. Look, there's another entrance into the cave again."

"Do we have to?"

"Seems to be the only path forward."

You groan. "Obligations."

This new cave is much like the last, with gravel slightly less compact. You're certain there isn't a speck of green left on your body anymore. Why, even your irises are red too! Probably made just for this purpose. You trudge on, though it's less trudging and more tip-toeing around crumbling sections. You need to wrap this up before the whole mound comes crashing down, but that doesn't mean you can't stop along the way to pick up more money and an Oran Berry or two.

You perk up. "Stairs, over there."

"How much farther, can you tell?"

"No. You would've thought we'd made it by now."

"Maybe it's a longer Mystery Dungeon."

"It is. Is the number of floors randomly regenerated too?"

Jen pauses. "No, it's set IN STONE." She pats the rocky wall twice for emphasis, and bursts into laughter. You know she was never laughing at her joke, but at your reaction. You can't not smile, either.

Up the stairs, and you find yourself in something else entirely. It's a large room, wider than any of the ones you've encountered in any of the Mystery Dungeons so far. The grass is considerably greener, and the floor is surprisingly stable, the gravel, you notice, almost uniform. All around the room are walls, and directly in front, a long corridor. Right beside it is a familiar sight.

"Isn't that the Deposit Box?" you ask.

"Has someone moved it here?"

"No, I think there're a lot of them here. In Mystery Dungeons, I mean."

"I suppose. Maybe explorers set them in dungeons to store their things."

"Yeah, that makes sense. But why?"

Jen pauses. "Well, since it is like an otherworldly network, I'd imagine that it connects to all other Deposit Boxes, like you said. And, if we are to both lose consciousness, we'd still be able to access our things from Post Town."

"But wouldn't we already be goners?"

"Oh," she says. "Did I not tell you? If the whole team faints in a Mystery Dungeon, the explorer's badge will automatically teleport you back to safety, but it doesn't guarantee you will escape with all of your items, and the money you carry will be halved."

""We'd be home-free if we had that, huh."

"Well, having no fallback makes us tougher, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess. And did you just call us a team?"

"Aren't we?"

"Yeah, we are, huh. Two days."

"Necessity is the mother of invention."

"Yeah, I guess. So, should we deposit anything?"

"No, there'd be no point for us specifically."

"So, we're gonna keep going?"

"Yes, we're almost there. I can feel it. You up for it?"

You nod. "Then let's give it our all, as always!"