03 - 02
"According to your record," the Keldeo says as he frowns at the Eevee sitting opposite of him. "You have no successful missions yet, and you failed your very first attempt, dropping your rank to the negative."
The rank can go down to the negatives? The Eevee blinks. "...huh."
"And that you have no other team members," the Keldeo says. "I don't suppose I can persuade you in joining other rescue teams?"
"No," the Eevee quickly answers with a frown.
The Keldeo sighs. "It was worth a shot." He shrugs and walks toward the large and dark hole on one of the walls of the room. Standing by it, he turns and gestures at the Eevee to come closer. "This here's the entrance to the training dungeon," the Keldeo explains. "It's dormant at the moment," he adds as he taps the solid darkness, as if the whole entrance is merely just a mural.
Out of curiosity, the Eevee tries it out as well, and blinks as he wipes his paw on it. "Huh..."
The Keldeo smiles. "See? Dormant. But it should activate once you tap your badge on it."
"...another bullshit mechanic this world has," the Eevee mumbles to himself. "I'm starting to feel like I'm in one of those isekai anime or something..."
The Keldeo blinks a curious blink at him. He shakes his head. "Anyway, the guild controls this dungeon, so don't worry if things turn bad in there." He smiles at the Eevee. "The difficulty is based on your rank, but I took extra measure to make it easier for you."
"I'm not sure if I should be offended or if I should be appreciative." He then recalls what the Pangoro has told him, and shakes his head. "Probably the latter, I guess..." he says and sighs.
The Keldeo chuckles as the Eevee taps his badge on the dormant entrance of the mystery dungeon. The darkness ripples from the touch, as though it is a still lake creating soft ripples from a leaf that landed gently on its watery surface.
"The training dungeon's total number of floors depends on the number of members in your team," the Keldeo explains. "In your case, it'll only have one floor."
"Right," the Eevee says with a nod as he tries tapping the entrance, and sees his paw going through the darkness. He takes a breath. "Here goes nothing," he says as he steps through the veil.
"Good luck," the Keldeo says, watching the smaller Pokemon disappear through the entrance of the dungeon. He frowns, and shakes his head. "I wonder if all Eevees are lonesome in nature, or if it's just him."
A certain blue-ringed Umbreon flashes in his mind, and he chuckles.
"Yeah, definitely all Eevees."
The bright sun's morning rays fall down on the green plain, with tall bushes bordering the room the Eevee's in.
He arches a non-existent eyebrow. "Okay, now this place looks unnatural," he says as he looks up. "And is that even the sun?"
He shakes his head as he walks toward the narrow path leading towards another room-like clearing, where an Sunkern is hopping around. Noticing the Eevee, it quickly hops toward him, ready to attack.
He easily slaps a paw at it, knocking it out immediately. He frowns and continues on.
A few minutes later, he emerges from the dungeon and frowns at the startled Keldeo sitting behind his desk.
"Wow," the larger Pokemon says, blinking at him. "That was fast."
"I feel like you toned down the difficulty a bit too much," the Eevee says, glaring at him. "I breathe in front of the wilds and they drop dead." He blinks. "That reminds me... I haven't brushed my teeth since I got here," he mumbles to himself as the Keldeo writes on a form.
"Well," the water-type starts, smiling at him. "The good news is that the dungeon's difficulty goes up since you've completed your first run."
"I see," the Eevee says. "So do I just enter or do I need to tap my badge on it again?"
"It's currently active, so just head back inside."
The Eevee nods his head, goes back inside the dungeon, and finds his surroundings the same as the previous one, and sees a Seedot by the bushes, blinking at him.
He rolls his eyes. "Ah, my arch nemesis," he says with a frown as he sees three floating leaves start to revolve around the grass-type. He steps aside to dodge the kinda-fast-but-also-kinda-slow attack with relative ease, blinking. "Is it just me, or was that slower?"
Pushing the question aside for the time being, he dashes toward the defenseless Seedot and tackles it, sending it flying towards the bushes.
"Difficulty's still a bit easy it seems," the Eevee says as the Seedot collapses on the ground.
Frowning, he continues on and sees a Hoothoot in the next room. The wild quickly jumps into the air and glides toward him, its razor talons ready to strike him. He steps aside and swipes his paw at the bird as it glides by, knocking it out immediately. Unsatisfied with the difficulty, he rushes through the dungeon and steps on the stairs with a frown.
"Still find it easy, huh?" the Keldeo asks with an amused smile.
"If only that forest was as easy as this one," the Eevee sighs as he turns around. "I'm going back."
"Good luck," the Keldeo calls after him.
The Eevee finds himself in the same identical dungeon once again, with no wilds in the room he's in. He walks through the hallway-like path and reaches the next room-like clearing, where a Vulpix turns around and blinks at him.
He blinks back at it. "Huh."
The wild quickly breathes out fumes of fire towards him.
Startled, the Eevee quickly jumps out of the way. "Shit, okay," he mumbles as he glares at the Vulpix. "Now this is more like it, but fuck," he says as another stream of flames fly towards him. He grits his teeth as he jumps out of the way. "How the heck am I going to handle this?"
He jumps out of the way from another fire attack, and blinks when the Vulpix suddenly disappears. His ears twitch to rapid footsteps, and he turns just in time to see the Vulpix reappearing beside him, and tackling him.
"Oof!"
Landing on all four, he glares at the inhaling fire-type.
"Shit."
He jumps out of the way from the fiery attack and continues his sprint, circling around the Vulpix, slowly getting himself closer to it.
'Once I'm close enough,' he thinks as he continues circling around the wild. 'I'll give it a taste of its own medi—!'
The Vulpix burns its entire body and releases a wave of fire from all directions.
Startled, he uses his speed and momentum to run as far away from the approaching wall of flames. The Vulpix suddenly appears right in front of him, unintentionally tackling the fire-type.
"Gah!" he winces as he takes a few steps back and rubs his aching head with a paw.
The Vulpix stands back up on all four and stares at him.
Taking this chance, he quickly tackles the fire-type once again and repeatedly swipes his paws at it, but stops a few moments later.
Frowning, he wipes his bloody paws on the grassy ground, his gaze on the bloody Vulpix.
"..."
Closing his eyes, he shakes his head and turns around—
A Machop punches him square in the face, sending him flying.
The Keldeo looks up from his book just as the dungeon's entrance start to ripple. Seconds later, a bruised and bloody Eevee emerges from it. He holds his breath as the Eevee slowly approaches him.
Now standing in front of the frozen water-type, the Eevee looks up at him with a frown. "I don't suppose you have a towel?"
He starts to sweat, his gaze locked on the thick red blood slowly rolling down the Eevee's face. It clings to one strand of brown fur, falls and makes a splat on the floor.
The Keldeo blacks out.