Author's Note
Hello reader! Hope you're liking the story so far. The next few chapters will follow the original story a little more closely, for example we are finally going to enter a mystery dungeon! I'll be keeping the dungeon sections fairly short since writing them tends to get repetitive and is generally less interesting than most other character interactions. This chapter is from the player's perspective, mostly so I have an excuse to explain how dungeons work.
"Up and at 'em, it's MORNING!" a ridiculously loud voice bellowed. "Hey, come ON! Wake UP already! Guildmaster Wigglytuff has a BIG temper, and you ROOKIES are not going to make me LATE for the morning briefing. So get it in GEAR!"
Uhg, that was not a pleasant way to wake up, now my head hurt more than my leg. "Ow… Why is he so loud? My head is pounding…" Evidently Crest didn't fare any better. "What was that about a morning briefing?"
"I think he meant we're late for our first day at the guild," I answered.
"Guild?" he responded sleepily. "Oh yeah, that's right. We joined Wigglytuff's Guild, which means…" suddenly Crest realized what I had already said. "Gah! We totally overslept! Let's hurry to assembly, Brandon!" He grabbed our bag and bolted out of the room, and I struggled to keep up with him on my bad leg. By the time we reached the meeting place outside Wigglytuff's chamber, the rest of the guild was already there, standing in two lines of five. Crest and I took our spots at the end of each line.
"You're LATE, rookies!" There was that loud voice again. Looking around for its source I found a Loudred. Come to think of it, Chatot did mention Loudred would make sure we made it to the morning assembly. I didn't realize that meant I'd being going deaf every morning.
Speaking of Chatot, he seemed to agree that Loudred needed to quiet down. "Hush now, Loudred! Your voice is ridiculously loud. Now then, it seems everyone is here. Guildmaster! The guild is in full attendance!"
That must have been Wigglytuff's que, because he immediately came out of his chamber to address the guild. "All right everyone, before we get to our usual cheers, I have an announcement to make. As you may have noticed, we have two new recruits joining us," he said, obviously referring to me and Crest, "The Piplup is Crest and the Chikorita is named Brandon. They will be training with us as Exploration Team Strength, so everybody be sure to be friendly to our new friendly-friends!"
That was a bit of a relief. I expected to be scolded for being late, but the Guildmaster didn't seem to notice, either that or he didn't care. Crest was also pretty surprised, but I could tell by everyone else's reactions that this was normal behavior for Wigglytuff.
"Now, with that out of the way, on with the daily cheers. One!" Wigglytuff shouted excitedly.
The guild responded, "Don't shirk work!"
"Two!" the Guildmaster continued.
"Run away and pay!" was the response.
"Three!"
"Smiles go for miles!" the cheers finished. I made a mental note to memorize the cheers in Pokesh by tomorrow's meeting.
"Okay, pokemon. Time to get to work!" Chatot said, ending the meeting.
The guild replied with an enthusiastic "Hooray!" before disbanding to attend to their work. Meanwhile Crest and I were left wondering what we should do.
"Ah, you two," Chatot said as he approached us, "it wouldn't do to have your team wandering around the guild. Follow me and I'll give you your assignment for today." As Chatot began to lead us I realized I would have to climb the ladders to get around the guild. At first glance I thought it to be an impossible task, but the rungs spiraled to accommodate quadrupeds like me. The only problem I had was the pain in my leg, but between Chimecho's Heal Pulse yesterday and some time to sleep it off my injury was little more than a slight inconvenience. Still a bit sore, but nothing too bad. I just couldn't run very well on it.
When we reached the guild's upper floor, Chatot led us to one of the bulletin boards. The board was covered in important-looking papers, but I couldn't read what was written on them. If I had to guess that was the written form of Pokesh. It dawned on me that I would have to learn the language quickly if I didn't want to look like a total idiot.
"This is the Job Request Board. As you may know, there have recently been mass outbreaks of mystery dungeons, and these dungeons have been causing problems for many pokemon. Those problems get reported to this job board." Chatot's explanation had already gone over my head. I had no idea what a mystery dungeon was, but I figured I would find out soon enough. "Your first mission is to complete a job from this board. Specifically," he searched the board before handing a paper to Crest, "this is a good mission for a new team."
Crest read over the paper. "You want us to retrieve an item someone dropped? I was hoping for something more adventurous, like exploring or looking for treasure or something."
"Hush now! It's important that you rookies pay your dues and work your way up to more difficult missions. More importantly, have you considered your partner's abilities? He's been walking with a limp since you got here yet you still want to attempt a more difficult job?" Chatot scolded. It seemed like an overreaction to me, my leg shouldn't cause any problems. Then again, I don't know what to expect from these missions. Can minor injuries really be that dangerous while on missions?
Chatot's words seemed to hit Crest hard though. "You're right, sorry, I wasn't thinking. So, why did you choose this job in particular?"
"Look at the location. This job takes place in Drenched Bluff, which is a small dungeon filled with Water and Rock types. You two have good type coverage for this job, and item retrieval missions are great practice for new explorers. Now, I'll leave you two to prepare for your mission. Once it is complete, you will meet the client here, in front of the job board, and I will review your performance. Understood?" Chatot didn't wait for us to answer. "Good, now if you'll excuse me…"
"That was… harsh," I said after Chatot left. "Don't worry too much about what Chatot said, let's just focus on the job. What is it?"
Crest seemed to realize my injured leg was not nearly as bad as Chatot made it out to be. "We have to retrieve a Spoink's pearl from Drenched Bluff. It should be a fairly straightforward mission. Let's get going."
I followed Crest out of the guild and to the crossroads, where we stopped to check our wonder map. Upon pulling it out of our bag, we saw that Drenched Bluff had been highlighted on the map. I'm not sure how that happened, but it certainly made finding the place easier. I followed Crest's lead until we reached the dungeon.
"Ok, this is Drenched Bluff," Crest said, opening our treasure bag. "We better put on our equipment before we enter the dungeon. Here." He handed me the power band and my team badge.
"Um… how do I put this on?" I asked. The power band resembled some hybrid of a bracelet and a scarf. Even if I had arms I wouldn't know what to do with it.
"I think you wear it around your neck, like a scarf. Can't you use vines or something to put it on?" Crest had a point. I knew most grass types could use vines as though they were hands, but I had no idea how to do that.
"I don't know how to use vines," I answered. "Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I even know any moves."
By now Crest had put on the silver bow and was helping me with the power band. "Of course you can use moves. I checked your badge, it detected that you know Tackle and Growl. You'll figure it out when we start battling. As for your vines, you should probably talk to Sunflora, I'm sure she could teach you how to use them." He pinned my badge to the power band and picked up the bag. "Anyway, you ready for the dungeon?"
Actually, I was not ready. "I don't really know. What is a mystery dungeon, exactly?"
Crest seemed to be expecting my question, or at least was not surprised by it. "It's a place that changes every time you enter it. The pokemon that live in the dungeons are usually hostile, though a few are explorers like us. No one really knows how the dungeons work, hence the 'mystery' part, but there are some patterns explorers are working to map out. Most of the jobs I saw on the job board took place inside dungeons, so we better get used to exploring them."
"I guess so," was my response. "Well, I think I'm ready now. Let's go."
When we entered the dungeon there was a brief moment of darkness. When it passed, we were in a small room, and the exit was nowhere to be seen. Looking behind me, I was surprised to find a wall. In fact, the only way out of the room was a narrow corridor in front of us.
Crest picked up on my confusion. "Once you enter a mystery dungeon, the entrance disappears. The only ways out are to reach the end of the dungeon, use an item to get out, or use your badge's escape feature. Escaping is pretty bad though; it warps you back to the guild and you often lose items in the process. We should focus on moving forward." He began toward the corridor I spotted earlier, and I followed close behind. It wasn't very long before we reached another empty room. Or at least I thought it was empty. Crest stopped for a moment and picked something up.
"What is that?" I asked. I hadn't expected to find anything of value here.
"It's an oran berry. Eating it can heal the damage you take in battles. Keep an eye out for any items on the floor, they can be invaluable when exploring mystery dungeons." I decided not to question where the berry, or any items we might find later for that matter, came from. Maybe some else dropped it, though I suspected it had more to do with the mysterious nature of the dungeon. After wandering around for a bit we came across a structure resembling a staircase. "Structures like this are how you progress through dungeons. Most pokemon just call them stairs, but they aren't that simple. Once you go up or down dungeon stairs, you can't go back. The size of a mystery dungeon is measured by how many stairs you have to use to reach the end."
"How long is Drenched Bluff?" I asked, choosing not to question the "logic" of the mystery dungeon.
Crest thought about it for a moment. "I'm not sure. Chatot said this was a small dungeon, so it's probably less than ten floors deep."
Just like the dungeon's entrance, the stairs disappeared behind us when we reached the bottom. This time, however, there was a pokemon in the room with us, a Shellos. It attacked me with Mud Slap, and I narrowly avoided getting hit in the face. The indirect hit from the attack didn't hurt much, reminding me that I had a type advantage in this dungeon. Crest retaliated with Pound and, following his example, I finished the battle with Tackle.
"Looks like you were right, I figured out how to fight as soon as we were caught in a battle." It was a bit strange how easily we defeated a pokemon who attacked us first, but I wasn't about to complain.
"I told you battling was easy. We're just lucky you avoided Mud Slap's accuracy drop effect. Believe me, battles become much harder to win when you can't hit your enemies." Crest replied.
We continued to explore the dungeon, picking up a blast seed, heal seed, and another oran berry along the way. Whenever we encountered an enemy, we just used Tackle and Pound to defeat it. I know Crest said I could use Growl, but I never bothered to try it. Crest also knew Growl and never used it, so I figured it just wasn't a very useful move. After the seventh floor we were let out into a more open area.
"Hey, Crest, where are we?" I asked.
"This must be the end of the dungeon," he replied, looking around. "Hey, up ahead! I think that's the pearl we were looking for." Sure enough, there was a large, pink pearl wedged between two rocks. Crest pulled it loose and placed it in our bag.
"So, now what? Do we have to go back through the dungeon to get home?" I'd rather be done with that place for now, so the answer Crest gave did not disappoint.
"No, now that we're out of the dungeon we can safely use our badges to return to the guild. I'll send you back first, since you can't actually reach your badge." As he spoke Crest pulled out his badge and shined some kind of light on me. A pillar of yellow light surrounded me, and when it faded I was standing outside the guild. A moment later Crest appeared beside me in a similar column of light. I was hoping all the one-way teleporting would be confined to the chaos of mystery dungeons, but it would seem that our badges were just as nonsensical.
After having our footprints read by the sentry, we met with Spoink and Chatot in front of the job board. Spoink was very grateful to have her pearl back and even gave Crest some gold coins as a reward.
"Wait, you're giving us 2000 Poke just for returning your pearl?" I could tell from Crest's reaction that was a lot of… whatever Poke was. It looked like some kind of currency.
"Yes, of course! That's nothing compared to my pearl's value, I don't know what I'd do without it! Thank you again!" Spoink said before somehow bouncing up the ladder. I silently wondered how often she had to come here for help to be that proficient at using a ladder.
Chatot seemed pleased with our performance, so what he said next really caught me off guard. "Good work, Team Strength. Your first mission was a success. Now, had over that Poke, if you please."
"Huh?" Crest seemed just as confused as I was but handed over the Poke anyway.
"The majority of monetary rewards go to the guild to fund explorations and your training. Your share of the reward comes out to… 200 Poke." Chatot explained, handing back our share.
I might have protested that, but I didn't want to draw attention to myself. Chatot didn't know that I don't speak Pokesh, and to be honest I'd rather he not find out if I can avoid it.
Crest had no such reservations, however. "We only get ten percent?"
"Ten percent of monetary rewards, you get to keep any items or other rewards you get from doing missions. I wasn't kidding when I said you'd have to pay your dues." Chatot corrected. I got the feeling Chatot and Crest were not going to get along. Luckily, Crest realized there was no arguing with the guild's rules and gave up the rest of the Poke.
Chatot took the money to the lower floor, and before I could ask Crest what we should do next I heard a bell chime below us. "Everyone! Dinner's ready! I've finished making dinner, come on, let's eat!" Chimecho called from the lower floor. Guess that answers that question. We hurried down the ladder to join the rest of the guild for dinner. Luckily for me, everyone was too busy eating to bother with conversation. I was able to get through dinner without Chatot finding out about my language problem.
After dinner, everyone went to their rooms for the night. When Crest and I reached our room, I decided to ask him for some help. "Hey Crest?"
"Yeah?" He waited for me to continue.
"Think you could teach me how to read and speak Pokesh? I really don't want Chatot to find out I don't know the language." I was pretty sure Crest would be willing to help me.
He thought about it for a second, "Pokesh is only the spoken language, the written language is called Footprint Runes. Kind of like how the written form of Knownun is called Unown Runes." Good thing I asked now then. It would have been pretty embarrassing to ask anyone who didn't know about my origin how to read a strictly verbal language. "And like I said before, Pokesh is almost instinctual. Just listen to the rest of us talk and you should figure it out pretty quickly. For now, just try speaking to me in Pokesh whenever no one else is around. As for footprint runes, I can teach you a bit more directly. Let's just go over how to read the display on your badge for now, and later I'll help you read the posters we get our missions from. That sound good?"
I nodded but hesitated before speaking my answer, albeit slowly, in Pokesh. "Yes."