*Stasis Protocol Ending*

DarkFoxKit: Come on… it's time to wake up and get back to it. *Looks over the cryopod in front of her*

?: *Groans* Huh… what… how long has it been?

DarkFoxKit: Years.

?: I see… I've let them down then…

*The mysterious figure sits up, revealing themselves to be Darkzdragon*

Darkzdragon: To think it's been years since our last uploaded project. *Stretches out slightly, ice falling off his scales* But… I think I'm ready to come back, at least a little. Even if… we've currently retired two of the biggest series we worked on together.

DarkFoxKit: Well, I'm sure people are more than ready to have you back. I've grown rather cynical over the years, working with other co-writers, well, just two others anyway. One of them isn't very active while the other… has trouble with words to put it lightly.

Darkzdragon: Ah, well… Hope I can meet the expectations. Though this time around, I might try to have a bit more fun. Like with this little story of ours.

DarkFoxKit: With Deltarune's chapters 3 and 4 on the horizon, I think this is as good a time as any to finally put out the Undertale fanfic we've been working on for a while.

Darkzdragon: Specifically the second iteration, considering the first was considerably shorter and had a number of plotholes.

DarkFoxKit: I see that as any story that goes on for a while. Eventually plotholes and retcons will happen. The author or authors will start to forget the details of what they wrote.

Darkzdragon: At least with this one, we've done a bit better with that. Anyways *Looks at the camera* I am back to post this story, but this isn't a promise to reboot My Brother's a Ghost or Child of Mew. This story is an Undertale story. Any questions about other stories in the comments will be ignored.

DarkFoxKit: Or you can just see our answers as 'maybe' or 'don't count on it'. We will make an announcement or just post the stories as we go along.

Darkzdragon: One thing I ended up struggling with, the thing that kinda pushed me away from posting in the first place, was the weight of expectations of everything. From the readers, from Kit, from the stories themselves, and from myself. I've finally recovered enough to where I'm willing to post again.

DarkFoxKit: Let's see where this road takes us then. Sorry for the long intro, we hope you'll enjoy the story that has been many years in the making.

Sistertale

Chapter 1: Fallen Down

This is my last chance. After this… they're going to close off the area. By this time next year or the year after… the area is going to be completely flat and have new homes and shops being made. The magic of this place, the ability to grant a person a new life, will vanish. If I must be the last one to use it, then so be it. Anything's better than staying where I have been…

I had been hiking up this mountain for hours. The sun was starting to go down, and I was worried about being able to see where I was going once night arrived. I didn't bring any light with me… Coming here had been a last minute decision, so I was very ill prepared.

I tripped over a rock and stumbled into a tree. I hissed in pain as I rubbed my nose for a moment. I looked down to check if I had scraped my legs or got any cuts when I noticed there was a small pond of water nearby. A part of me wanted to drink from it because I was thirsty and hadn't brought anything to drink with me. Again, last minute decision… very ill prepared. I didn't think hiking up a mountain would take this long, but I severely underestimated the height of the mountain, and the time and effort it would take to climb it.

To think that the king was planning on having a single mage flatten an entire mountain… It was a bit terrifying to think of what magic users, especially royal wizards, were capable of. But as the king proclaimed, our lands needed to grow with our population and this mountain would become so much more.

I went over to the small pond to get a sip of water, glad to see that it wasn't stagnant or polluted. I had seen a few other ponds on the way up here… but a lot of them had trash floating around or just looked dirty. This one was quite clear, so much so I could actually see my reflection. And because it was clear, I was willing to take a sip. After taking a few sips of the surprisingly refreshing water, I started at the pond as it settled. Once the water settled I stared at my reflection.

I had shoulder length dark brown hair, my eyes were a hazel color, though I often squinted because of my somewhat poor eyesight. I currently was wearing a dark purple long sleeved shirt with two lavender colored horizontal stripes on it. I was wearing a pair of baggy blue pants, and worn out dirty sneakers. The sneakers used to be white, but now they're kind of brown from all the dirt.

If I'm to change… maybe I could have like… green eyes. Oh, maybe I could look Japanese? I thought to myself as I began imagining what I could look like in my new life. Maybe I could be one of those beast people that I saw in some of the light novels I read. Heh, I'm sure Mom and Dad would hate that~

I thought more about what could happen if the legends were true, and making it to the top of Mt. Ebott would grant me a new life. I could end up in a whole new world as a whole new being for all I knew.

Getting isekaied would be fun. I could become a hero, or be granted an overpowered cheat skill. Maybe I'll be reborn as an elf child. Or summoned? Oooh, maybe I could even become a kind demon lord like that little blue slime!

These thoughts were what kept me going up this mountain, I was determined to reach the top no matter what. I wanted a better life.

I cupped my hands in the water to scoop up some more water, still feeling thirsty after my previous sips. I continued to sip water until I felt satisfied. I stood up and kept moving up.

But I wonder… could I handle such a life? Would I be able to be strong enough to handle the hardships and get stronger? Would I be lucky enough to start out strong? Or… what if… what if the legends turn out to be false? That the mountain can't grant me a new life? I frowned before shaking my head. No, I can't let myself think like that. I already came this far. And even if they somehow manage to be false… I'll give myself a new life! I won't go home! I'll do what sis suggested and go chart my own path! But… seriously… I do hope that the legends are true.

I was only 12 years old, I wasn't sure if I would be able to live my own life on my own. Orphans didn't tend to do well in the world on their own after all. To be honest, I didn't have any life skills either. I didn't know how to cook, I could barely talk to people, and…

I shook my head. Let's cross that bridge when I come to it. I'm going to bet it all on this supposed magical mountain.

The sun was barely visible now, the sky was pink and dark blue at this point. I wouldn't be able to see much if I was still climbing. However, thankfully, I managed to reach the top of the mountain… Mt. Ebott. When I reached the top, however, I was surprised to see a large hole in front of me. I thought the only mountains that would have a large hole at the top were volcanoes.

I gulped. Mt. Ebott isn't a volcano, is it?

Curious, I walked over to the edge of the hole to look down for any signs of lava. There wasn't any smoke in the area, nor did it feel hot. It also didn't smell bad, like volcanoes apparently did. So maybe it was just a mountain with a big hole. Or it was once a volcano long ago and had not gone dormant but fully died.

I took a deep breath and let it out. My heart was pounding against my chest. This was it, this was the moment of truth. The legends say that those who managed to hike all the way to the top of Mt. Ebott, and bear their soul, would be granted a new life.

"Please grant me a new life!" I called out. "Please! Grant me happiness!"

I waited for a minute… maybe it took a while for it to do something. But the longer I waited, the more worried I became. I did bear my soul, but maybe it meant my actual Soul, with a capital 'S'. Unfortunately that wasn't something I was capable of…

I gave a sigh. "Now what do I-"

There was a sudden blast of air from the hole in the ground that pushed me backwards, to where I'd fall down the mountain. I tried to compensate and managed to regain my balance before the wind whipped up again and began to push me forward. It was almost like the mountain was breathing, an exhale at first, and now an inhale. I tried to move away from the edge of the hole, but I lost my balance from the strange wind. My eyes went wide in horror as I found myself falling down the hole.

It was a long way down. I screamed, but of course, nobody would be able to hear me. As I fell, my life began to flash before my eyes. I couldn't believe it… I was going to die, all because I tripped. I may have wanted a new life, but I didn't want to die.

Though at some point in the fall, I began to wonder… was this going to bring me to a new life? There was no truck-kun to isekai me. There was no crazy person running at me with a knife. Perhaps this is how the magic worked. Perhaps being pulled into the hole by the wind was my prayer being answered. I shut my eyes and prepared for the end. Either I was going to die, or I will wake up in my new life. Either way… my old life was going to end.

I felt the impact and blacked out immediately. The impact wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but it still caused me to pass out.

… I began to stir. It was quiet… All I could hear was the slight wind howling that sounded far away. I could smell… what smelled like flowers of some kind. I groaned a little, feeling sore. I began to open my eyes, wondering if I was dead, or if I was… in a new life.

Huh…? My vision was a bit blurry at first, well more blurry than usual, but my sight began to clear up enough to allow me to see what was in front of me, or beside me.

I could see petals of some kind of golden flower.

"You dead over there?"

The unexpected voice made me sit up quickly, making me dizzy. I let out a yelp, shaking my head. "W-who's there?"

"Ahh so you aren't dead. And here I thought I'd be seeing a first."

I looked around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. I noticed I was sitting on a flower bed of golden flowers. Maybe that was what saved me.

"You know… I still haven't figured out if it's the flowers or the barrier that stops you fools from dying… Maybe it's a combination of both."

I got up to my feet, trying to figure out where that voice was coming from. It sounded like they were coming from down rather than up. I tried to look at the flowers, trying to see if the speaker was coming from there.

"I can't help but notice that it's always kids who end up here… And it's not regular enough to be any sort of tradition. So tell me, Squinty, what's your deal? What caused you to end up here?"

Maybe it was a disembodied voice that was speaking to me. I was either in the spirit world talking to an entity that I wasn't allowed to see, or this was some kind of guide towards the new life.

"Uh… excuse me, the one who speaks to me," I greeted as politely as possible. "I hope I didn't intrude, but I came up to Mt. Ebott wishing to have a new life."

"Ahh, so same reason as the 6 others then." The voice remarked. "So what drove you to it? You running away from something? Just seeking more? Hoping for a world where you can show off your kindness or justice or whichever one you got."

"Uh… Well," I hesitated for a moment, it was pretty personal to why I ran away, but the voice sounded like they had dealt with other people who had such reasons before. So maybe whatever I had to say wasn't anything that special. Maybe the voice was trying to figure out the best place to send me. "I left my home because I didn't like being there. I was hoping to find a new place to live and maybe, hopefully, thrive in."

"Didn't like being there, eh?" The voice repeated questioningly. "Were you in a poor household barely able to get by? Or were you in a household where you had tons of siblings and felt like you weren't ever seen? Or maybe you're one of the simple ones whose parents were just awful."

Simple…? "That last one," I admitted. I guess I really wasn't anything that special… but still, I don't care, as long as I can get away from them.

"Abusive?" The voice asked. "Controlling? Manipulative? Toxic? Criminal? Or something else? What was it that you were dealing with?"

"They were… controlling, toxic, a bit manipulative, and as for abusive… they didn't hurt me physically…" I answered.

"Huh, I can see where this is going," The voice muttered.

"Does emotional abuse count?" I asked as I remembered hearing my sister calling it that.

"Just emotional or also mental?" The voice inquired.

"I don't know… I guess both? I was called stupid multiple times in a variety of ways," I answered. I mean it's true, but still, I don't like being called that…

"You said controlling and manipulative, yeah?" The voice asked. "You can just nod or shake your head, cause I can see you."

I raised an eyebrow, but then again an entity that was going to take me to a new world would be able to see me even if I couldn't see them. "Okay."

I gave a nod to the voice.

"In what way then?" The voice inquired.

"Well uh…" I blinked as I tried to figure out how to answer. "I guess… they were incredibly restrictive… And they also tried telling me that when I grew up that I'd have to get a job and take care of them to pay them back for all the time they took care of me."

"Yeesh, that's a pretty bad couple of parents," The voice acknowledged. "So… let's say I did offer you the chance of a new life… what would you do with it?"

I was surprised by the voice's reaction when they said my parents were bad. I was normally told that my parents were the ones in the right, and how children needed to get a job when they grew up to take care of their aging parents. I was worried the voice was going to say the same thing and think I was being too dramatic or selfish. I didn't think they would actually… say my parents were the ones in the wrong. It gave me some hope that I really would get a better life.

"Depending on what it is, I would do the best I could to live a good life to the best of my abilities," I answered. "Like if I had to fight, then I'll try to get stronger. Or if I needed to do research for something, I would see if I could learn and study under the right kind of people."

"What if this new life is in a world of monsters and you would be the only human? And by monsters, I mean non-human, not anything else you might think of."

"Monsters? Wouldn't they just tear me apart or something?" I asked with a frown. "Don't they eat humans?"

"No, they do-" The voice started to respond before pausing. "Actually I can think of a couple who probably would… Just cause… they're them… But think of these monsters with the personalities of humans, they're just… well, not human."

"Couldn't I be one of them instead?" I asked. "That way I can just be a part of the monster community?"

"I mean you could always try, but I myself don't have the power to change your species," The voice answered. "There are a few ways I can think that you could alter your form. Some temporary, some… permanent."

"What ways would those be?" I questioned.

"There's about two that aren't morally grey or dark to permanently change yourself," The voice answered. "Option one is to have one of the species share some of their essence with you. Option two would be to find something akin to an artifact that would change you into one of the monster species. The one temporary one I can immediately think of is just dressing up."

Then the voice let out a sigh. "Unfortunately, option one can put a monster in danger of losing their physical form entirely. And option two is extremely unlikely as those kinds of artifacts are either long gone, broken by now, guarded as priceless tools, or buried so deep beneath the ground that you'd need to spend a few months digging to reach one if you find the location of one. The easiest, but darkest way of gaining a monster form, however, is to absorb a monster's Soul into your own. You will gain their form as well as keeping your human form. Or so I've heard anyway. But it's the darkest because you'd be snuffing out their life to give yourself a new form. Even then it's probably not that easy as most monster Souls will break before you can get to them."

I blanched at the idea of killing, let alone trying to absorb someone else's Soul. Not that I knew how to do that even if I wanted to consider such a cruel idea. The first option seemed to be the most likely thing if I wanted to turn into a monster, but…

"The first option, about a monster sharing their essence, would that fully transform me or only transform parts of me?" I asked.

"It depends on how much essence is shared," The voice answered. "The quickest and safest option of having them only share a bit of their essence over a few sessions will give you features of their species. But if you took the time and had them share essence with you over dozens of sessions, you would become more like them. Your Soul might even eventually change to match that of the monster."

So I could realistically still change what I was if I could find a monster I trusted to share their essence with me over time.

"So… is this the kind of world I'll be sent to?" I asked.

"I can let you go to that world, but it might be filled with hardships," The voice warned. "So your options are to take the risk and the hardships that come with them… or you can take the long route and wait to be reincarnated."

From what I knew, from what I read from light novels… all worlds, no matter what, would have hardships and risks of some kind. I wanted a new start, but I couldn't expect to have an easy life with everything handed to me.

"The second option would come at your current death, but you would have way more options upon reincarnation," The voice informed. "The immediate option is the only new life I can currently offer. But you'd be entering a world where at times it's… kill or be killed."

That sounded scary. I wasn't sure if that was the kind of life I wanted. But… I didn't want to just stay here and die. I also didn't want to go back. Nothing really waited for me back there… If the characters from the light novels could survive everything and everyone being against them, then surely I could survive living in a world of non-human monsters.

"I'll take it. I'll take the world you're offering me," I stated.

"Dawww, guess I don't get to show you my Friendliness Pellets then~" The voice snickered. "Alright then… I guess I should introduce myself properly."

There was a sudden burrowing noise from in front of me before a flower popped out of the ground.

"Hi there! I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower!"

I stared at the flower before me. The flower had golden petals like the flowers in the flower bed, but this flower had a face. It was talking to me. I… was surprised more than I probably should've been. After all, I heard some royal wizards were able to make inanimate objects come to life.

"Uh… hello, Flowey," I greeted a little hesitantly. Is he my guide to this new world?

"What, your awful parents not teach you basic manners?" Flowey questioned. "When someone introduces themselves, you're supposed to introduce yourself back."

"I was told not to give my name to strangers," I answered.

"Were you not also told not to climb mountains and believe in fairy tales?" Flowey questioned. "Besides, you're the one asking me to grant you a new life."

The talking flower had a point. It would be rude of me to not at least tell him my name.

"My name is Frizk," I answered.

"I take it you're dropping the last name out of spite?" Flowey asked with a grin. "A bit of revenge towards your parents, maybe?~"

"My last name doesn't matter anymore," I replied, trying not to blush at the implication of being petty. "They're not my family as far as I'm concerned."

"Alright, Frizk it is then," Flowey acknowledged. "If you look up and behind me, you'll faintly see the outline of a door. Head on over there and walk through. I'll meet you on the other side."

"Okay," I answered, getting pretty excited at the idea of going into a new world. What will I find there?

I walked down a corridor that led to the door, or at least some kind of arch that led deeper into the cavern. I saw a patch of grass up ahead, but it was pretty dark. I saw Flowey pop up from the patch of grass.

"Good, you can at least follow basic instructions," Flowey acknowledged. "So first things first, I'm not taking you to another world or anything like that. Your new life lies ahead of you, in what is known as the Underground. I'll be your friendly flower guide, making sure you don't make mistakes like trusting the wrong monsters."

"Oh, that's kind of you," I replied.

"Your first task is to get through Ruins," Flowey explained. "If you can make it through, you'll be able to find a place you can live in if you choose to."

"Really?" I asked, surprised.

"Yep, it's an old house that's no longer used," Flowey answered. "If you manage to reach that place, I can tell you more."

"Okay," I replied.

"Go on ahead, I'll meet up with you," Flowey stated before going back underground.

I walked forward, going through another archway. This time I came across what looked like a staircase leading up into another doorway. Instead of it being dark, it looked like I was inside of some kind of building… or maybe a dungeon. The walls and floors were all purple. I could see leaves on the ground. The place looked pretty old, but surprisingly, it wasn't falling apart.

I walked up the stairs and headed into the doorway. I stopped when I saw six pressure plates on the ground. There was a path with two of the pressure plates on it.

Flowey then popped up. "Oh I forgot one thing. Ruins is filled with traps and puzzles, so keep an eye out for the solutions and try not to get hurt. And if you manage to die… well… uh… Hopefully you'll be reincarnated into a better life."

"What? That sounds like something you should never forget!" I shouted.

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Flowey said. "Just think of this as… a tutorial to a video game. It's not that hard."

I looked at the pressure plates hesitantly.

"You… have played a video game, right? Or were your parents so restrictive that you weren't allowed video games?" Flowey asked.

"I played video games!" I huffed. "It's one of the few things that kept me sane at my house… Also, while they did block a lot of TV channels, I did occasionally manage to find sites on my computer where I could watch some anime. So I'm not completely uncultured. I just don't want to step on something and have an ax swing down and cut my head off."

"This first puzzle isn't one of the dangerous ones," Flowey informed. "If I had to rate it, I would give this puzzle the 'baby's first puzzle' rating."

Flowey had brought out two vines to use air quotes.

"If you need to reset the puzzle, just go back to the previous room and come back in," Flowey instructed.

This… really did sound like a video game. I looked around for any hints, and I noticed a sign plastered on the wall. I walked over to the sign. I was worried at first that I wouldn't be able to read the language, but as I read the words… I was right, I couldn't read it. It wasn't written in English, or any language that I knew of. I didn't understand these squiggly lines and strange characters at all.

"If you make it to Home, I'll start teaching you how to read the language," Flowey offered as he popped out beside me. "But for now… this plaque reads 'Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both walk not the middle road.'."

What does that mean? 'Brave ones, foolish ones, both not walk in the middle road?' What does that have to do with the puzzle? I wondered as I looked at the pattern the pressure plates were in.

I saw that four of them were scattered around while two of them were on a white path. Then it began to click in my head. There were two on the straight line, while the others were everywhere else. 'Both walk not the middle road'... I wonder… could the middle road be the white path?

I stepped on the other four pressure plates, careful to avoid the ones on the white path. As soon as I did, I walked over to the lever on the wall, and pulled it down. As soon as I did, the door opened up.

"Congrats. This was the first puzzle ever designed by the monsters," Flowey informed. "Back when it was first made, it served two purposes. First, a door lock, as is obvious here. But the other purpose was that of a game. The monsters, back when they made this, loved to make and solve puzzles. They even held competitions to see how quickly one could solve a puzzle."

"That sounds… pretty cool," I said.

"Alright, let's see if you can solve the next puzzle," Flowey said before going back underground.

I walked ahead. The next room had a few bridges over some running water. There were some vines on the walls too. There was another sign, but since I couldn't read the language of this world, I decided to ignore it. I walked along the path, and saw a few levers. I wondered if I had to pull them in order. Well, Flowey did say that these puzzles weren't dangerous, so I might as well try them.

I pulled two of the levers down, but the third one was stuck. I couldn't pull that one down. It looked like it didn't matter, however, because the spike trap that was blocking my way forward went down. A little worried about the spikes popping back up, I ran across the deactivated spike trap.

I was in another area of Ruins, and was surprised to see… a dummy in front of me. Flowey popped up from the ground again.

"Ah, I can't believe that dummy is still here," Flowey muttered. "Well, I suppose now is as good a time as any to explain how a Fight works in the Underground."

"A fight?" I blinked.

"That's right. You are a human, so you can expect some monsters may want to put you into a Fight with them to test your strength, and see the power of your Soul," Flowey answered.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "The power of… my Soul? Why?"

"I'll answer that some other time," Flowey replied. "I don't want to overwhelm you with too much information. For now, you need to learn how a Fight works if you want to survive here. You'll have a choice between attacking, acting, using an item, or running away. When you get into a fight, you might see four boxes with the capitalized words 'fight', 'act', 'item', and 'mercy' in front of you."

The more I hear about this world, the more and more it sounds like a video game. I noted with interest. "So what should I do then? Do I fight the dummy? Do I gain experience points or something?"

"You could fight it," Flowey answered before looking between me and the dummy. "But would you really wanna bully someone defenseless? If you do, go for it. If you don't, well that's what the 'act' option is for. Either way, first you need to poke it. Let's see if he even wants to enter a battle with you or not."

"You're acting like it has a mind of its own or something, but it's a dummy," I pointed out.

"Yeah, and I'm a flower. Your point?" Flowey replied.

"You know what? I'll just do it," I grumbled.

I walked over to the dummy and poked it like Flowey said. I wasn't sure if something was supposed to happen.

"Uh…" I began.

"Oh, I should warn you that it might get a bit disorienting," Flowey warned. "Hopefully you don't easily get sick."

"What do-" I began to ask when I suddenly felt a little funny.

There was a sudden tingling sensation in my chest. I looked down at my chest to see a white glow coming from it. Suddenly, a small, cartoonish looking white heart came out of my chest. I let out a surprised yelp.

"Why is my heart out of my body!?" I shouted.

I thought I was going to die. I always heard that the heart was a vital organ, and without it, I would die.

"Calm down! That's not your organic heart, kid, that's your Soul!" Flowey spoke up. "I guess you've never seen what a Soul looks like before."

"That's… a Soul?" I blinked. "It's… so small…"

"Nah, it's about the size of a normal human kid," Flowey informed. "Though it looks like you've just got a regular ol' boring human Soul."

I pouted at hearing that. "You don't need to tell me my Soul is boring!"

"I just meant you don't have any color," Flowey explained. "That there's no hidden tricks going on with you. You're a standard human child. A white Soul is the standard color one would expect among humanity. I don't really get the process, but sometimes you humans will get some color onto the white which lets you do certain things. It's surprisingly not all that different from monster Souls."

"I… I see…" I noted. "I remember hearing that pure colored Souls were the strongest and rarest among mankind, but I didn't really understand what that meant."

"Ahh yeah, each color apparently relates to a very strong principle for the human," Flowey replied. "But enough of that for now. Do you see the four options I mentioned before? They should be close to you, around where a keyboard would be if you were standing at a desk. You might have to look down a little."

I had been so distracted with my Soul suddenly being outside of my body that I hadn't noticed that a menu of some kind had popped up in front of me. Flowey was right, there were 4 options, highlighted in orange. Fight, Act, Item, and Mercy. I hovered my hand over each option, and they lit up in yellow when my hand was over them.

I tapped the Fight option, and it showed me the dummy's name, and its HP bar. I raised an eyebrow at that. I tapped the 'Act' option, and the menu changed to just the dummy's name. I tapped on the name, and saw I had two options, I could Check it or Talk to it. I checked my Items, and I didn't have anything, so it was blank. No surprise there. I finally checked the Mercy option, I could either Spare or Flee.

"Okay, I checked all my options," I stated. "It looks like I can do something with each of them."

"So then, whatcha gonna choose?" Flowey asked. "Cause I'm not gonna choose for you."

I noticed something else, a yellow bar that was just over the 4 options I had. I saw the words 'LV 1' in front of the yellow bar, and the numbers 20/20 under the yellow bar. If I had to guess in terms of a video game, I'd say that it was showing my own HP bar and my level. If that was the case, the level made sense. I had no fighting experience. Though I was surprised that I had 20 HP instead of like… 10. 20 at level 1 seemed quite generous.

"Well? Aren't you gonna do something?" Flowey questioned.

"Ah, right," I said, realizing that I had been staring at my menu screen for a while.

I wasn't sure how I'd attack a dummy, and if it had a mind of its own, it would feel weird striking at it. I may as well see what talking to it would do. I… didn't really need to select an option to actually talk to it, but I figured I would do this properly. It felt like a rule of this world. I tapped the Act option, then selected the Talk command.

Something then compelled me to speak to the dummy. "Hello there, good day isn't it?"

"Ahh, choosing to act over outright fighting," Flowey acknowledged. "Good to know you aren't the type to bully the weak or defenseless."

My Soul suddenly went back into my chest, and the menu in front of me disappeared. I blinked, seeing that the Fight was apparently over.

"The Fight is over when your Soul goes back into your body," Flowey explained. "You can also try fleeing to force your Soul back in and run away. Though it's not guaranteed to work. Also, try not to run away without getting your Soul back in your body… as it could mean instant death."

"G-got it," I said nervously. "Uh, I noticed I had a level next to my HP bar. Is there any way to increase my level?"

"Level?" Flowey asked before thinking for a moment. "... Ah, you must mean LOVE."

"LOVE?" I blinked.

"I guess… LOVE would be the equivalent to a level in video games," Flowey answered. "The more LOVE you gain, the more your HP increases. And the more LOVE you have, the more powerful your attacks will be too. You gain LOVE by killing monsters and receiving EXP."

"So by doing that, I could get stronger," I noted.

"Additionally, besides LOVE and HP and EXP, there are items in the world that can boost your defense and heal you," Flowey added. "As well as items that can be used as weapons to defend yourself or go on the offensive."

"So they're like equipment and healing items," I remarked.

"Yep," Flowey confirmed. "Though unlike a game, you don't have unlimited inventory and can only carry as much as you can physically carry. That means whatever pocket space you got, whatever you can wear, and whatever you can hold in your hands."

Well that's… not much then. Maybe I can get a bag or something to store more items in… I noted to myself. "Wait… you said I had to kill a monster to increase my leve- I mean, LOVE?"

"That's right, that's how it works," Flowey answered. "There's no other way to increase your LOVE naturally."

My face scrunched up at that. There was no way to get stronger without killing monsters. I mean… in most RPG type video games, the player had to kill monsters in order to gain experience points to level up. So I guess that made sense… If I wanted to get stronger, that meant I would need to kill some monsters. Some of my most favorite characters had to do that in order to survive and get stronger. But…

"It looks like you're thinking a lot about this new system, huh?" Flowey spoke up, chuckling. "Trust me, it's not new. It's been there since you were born. You just never saw it until now. It might be best to keep to your morality, but it's up to you on if you really want to increase your LOVE or not. I'll be waiting up ahead."

I didn't get a chance to say anything before Flowey went back underground. I guess I could think about this later. I wanted to reach this place that Flowey mentioned first.

I walked to the next room. There was another long hallway to the next room. This one had a bit of a zigzagging pathway. I walked along the path to see what was up ahead when I nearly tripped over something white. Almost immediately, my Soul was back out of my body.

I blinked a few times before noticing something in front of me.

"Ribbit."

It looked like a frog of some kind. Its head bobbled a little, and I saw some eyes blinking under the frog. The four options, and my HP bar showed up again. I guess I got into a Fight with… a frog monster?

I hovered my hand over the Fight option. It didn't look like an intelligent creature, maybe it wouldn't be missed if I killed it… But it was giving me a cute, curious look. I hesitated over the Fight option. I then moved my hand over the Act option. I didn't see its name, it just had 'frog monster' on it. I tried to Check it.

'Life is difficult for this enemy.'

That was all it had said. It didn't tell me what this monster was, or what its attack or defense was. That was absolutely useless.

Before I could try something else, however, there was a white square outline that was around my Soul. I blinked in confusion. Then I saw what looked like little white… flies appearing in the box.

"Oh, crud. That's an attack field! Try not to get touched by the white flies!" Flowey's voice shouted from beneath me.

I yelped at the sudden warning. I tried to run, but my body wouldn't move. Instead, my Soul was the one that was moving. I was disorientated, and taken by surprise, so I didn't do a good job at avoiding the flies. I let out a hiss as I lost one hit point. It didn't hurt that much, but it still took me by surprise. My Soul blinked when it got hit, and the other flies weren't able to hit me for a brief moment. Then the box finally disappeared, and so did the flies.

I didn't have time to yell at Flowey for not telling me about this… attack field. I needed to end this Fight quickly. I didn't really know how to attack a frog, so I just used the Act command again. I had the option to Compliment or Threaten the frog monster. I pressed the 'Compliment' option to see what that would do.

I was suddenly compelled to speak. "You're an amazing hopper."

The frog monster seemed a little confused at my words, I wasn't sure if it understood me. But it began to blush and smile a little. I guess… it liked what I said even if it didn't seem to understand it. Maybe it sensed the intention behind my words.

The white box appeared again around my Soul. This time, however, instead of a bunch of flies, I saw a white frog there. I was a little more prepared this time. I was able to move my Soul away from the frog as it tried to jump at me. I was still at 19 HP.

I noticed the frog monster's… 'name' was now yellow. I wondered what that meant. Maybe… I could… end the Fight. I went over to the Mercy option, and saw 'Spare' was yellow as well. I pushed the Spare option. My Soul went back into my body, and the frog monster hopped away from me.

With the frog monster gone, I crossed my arms and glared at the floor. "Flowey! Why didn't you warn me about the attacks!? I could've died!"

"My baaaaad!" Flowey apologized with a cute stuck out tongue after he popped out of the ground. "Got so caught up in how well you're doing that I forgot to mention attack fields. Hey, but you did well with that Froggit."

Froggit? I guess that's what that monster was called. I noted. "That's quite an important piece of information to forget about! Is there anything else you need to tell me?"

"Uh… For Ruins, no," Flowey answered.

"You sure? You sure there isn't some big spiky boss monster I have to worry about at the end of the Ruins or something?" I grumbled.

"Nahhhh, there's no 'floor boss' for Ruins," Flowey answered. "It's also just 'Ruins', not 'the Ruins'."

"Uh-huh…" I gave the flower a suspicious look, that was twice now he omitted important information from me until it became immediately relevant when I had little time to prepare.

"Seriously, I promise I'm not omitting anything else important," Flowey swore before holding up a vine. "Flower's honor."

I sighed. "Fine. Is there anything more dangerous up ahead then?"

"You might find more monsters wanting to Fight you," Flowey answered. "But they're not strong, at worst, you might run into a Loox that tries to be a bully, but isn't very good at it."

I gave another sigh. "Okay… I guess I can handle that. Is there any way for me to heal?"

"If you find healing items," Flowey answered before looking around. "Though I could also heal you up at checkpoints. I know for a fact there is a bowl of candy up ahead."

"Wait, wait, wait, back up… checkpoints?" I asked. "What do you mean 'checkpoints'?"

"They're… places in the Underground where there's a lot of natural magic," Flowey explained. "At those points, I can use the energy to heal you. I figured since you're used to video games, I'd call them checkpoints. Though I guess you could also call them 'savepoints' since they can definitely save your life. I just didn't mention it before because you can't see them."

I guess I understood that, but… "This isn't a game though. If I die, wouldn't it be permanent?"

"Heh… well, if you do end up dying…" Flowey began before he gave a smile. "I guess you'll find out then. It might be better if you experienced it for yourself instead of trying to tell you. Though by saving your life, I more meant that you'd be able to heal even on the verge of bleeding out."

I raised an eyebrow. I wasn't sure if I should be worried or not. But it may be in my best interest to avoid dying.

"Oh yeah, since you couldn't read it. The hint for this puzzle has to do with the path you walked on earlier," Flowey informed. "Good luck~"

Flowey went back underground. I wondered if he enjoyed watching me squirm. I was getting that feeling from him.

I walked forward, and saw spikes over the water. I frowned. How am I supposed to get past this?

It was supposed to be a puzzle… so there had to be a solution. Flowey said that the hint was the path I walked on earlier. I quickly looked back at the path. I looked back at the spikes. I carefully moved closer to the spikes, and saw a small path of them going down. I carefully moved onto the parts where the spikes went down. I noticed only certain parts of the spikes would go down while others stayed up. I began to realize that the spikes that went down were following the same path from the pathway I was earlier on.

I got to the otherside without any problems. I let out a sigh of relief, glad that none of the spikes came back up suddenly while I had been walking on them. I walked to the next room.

This room had a really long corridor. I walked forward. I was feeling a bit antsy, I didn't see any traps, puzzles, or monsters as I was walking. It was kind of creeping me out. I finally stopped when I reached the end of the long corridor and sat down. Come to think of it, I was still tired from climbing the mountain in the first place. I hadn't eaten in a while, and I only drank from that pond earlier.

"Oh, hey, question…" Flowey popped up beside me. "How do you feel about ghosts?"

"What?" It was a rather odd question to ask out of the blue.

"Are you scared of ghosts?" Flowey questioned.

"My dad always told me ghosts were actually demons…" I frowned.

"So… is that a 'yes'?" Flowey asked. "Or were you just answering my question with a non-answer?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I've never met a ghost," I replied. "They always looked scary in movies and ghost stories. So I guess, maybe I am? Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," Flowey answered. "Monsters in the Underground come in all shapes and sizes."

"... Are you saying there are ghost monsters?" I asked.

"One," Flowey replied. "And he's not too far ahead. His name is Napstablook."

"Okay… uh… is this… Nap…sta…blook…" I slowly said the name as I wasn't familiar with it, and it was kinda long. "... dangerous?"

Flowey snorted before shaking his head. "Sorry, Frizk, not gonna reveal all the secrets of Ruins to ya. You'll just have to find out for yourself. For now though… maybe I should go get you some energy from one of the savepoints."

"You can do that?" I asked.

"Well, I can, but it might be easier if you just walk a little further and get onto a pile of leaves," Flowey explained. "There's a savepoint right there."

"Alright, I'll walk to the pile of leaves," I said before I stood up and walked into the next room.

Sure enough, like Flowey said, there was a pile of bright orange leaves. I… didn't see a tree, so I wasn't sure where these leaves came from. But this world had its own set of rules it would seem. I walked onto the pile of leaves.

"So… right around here, right?" I asked the flower.

"Yep," Flowey confirmed as he reached up with a vine. "You're about to feel filled with energy and you'll be healed up. But that won't do anything for your hunger and possible thirst. But not to worry, I'm sure you'll find something to help with that soon."

Flowey then tapped my chest with his vine. I suddenly felt full of energy, and was no longer tired. "Whoa… that's… quite the buzz!"

I felt like I could keep walking for hours. Though I was still hungry.

"Good, looks like you're feeling better now," Flowey noted. "Go north from here, there should still be a bowl of candy."

"Candy?" I blinked.

It was dangerous to take candy from strangers, but… I was willing to take that risk. I walked north, like Flowey instructed. Sure enough, I saw a podium that had a large bowl of colorful looking candy.

"You can take two despite the sign saying 'take one', just put your free hand on the bowl to stabilize it," Flowey informed. "Though if you take any more, the bowl will fall over the moment you walk away, spilling candy all over. That just wouldn't be fair to anyone who wants more candy."

It was a bit odd that the bowl would just fall over like that for taking some candy. But then again I wasn't a professional at physics.

"It's a trick bowl designed to fall over if too much weight is removed from it in one go," Flowey explained, likely seeing my confused expression. "It's to prevent others from taking too much candy. It also works as a way to teach young monsters the importance of not being too greedy."

"Has it ever been knocked over before?" I asked as I took two pieces of candy.

"Oh plenty of times!" Flowey laughed. "An adult usually comes by and picks up the candy and the bowl, refilling the candy that was taken."

"Wow, they must be really generous," I chuckled as I looked at the two pieces of candy.

They looked kind of like jolly ranchers. I had a blue one, and a pink one. Though the wrapper didn't mention what flavors they were. I put them into my pocket.

"These candies heal me if I eat them, right?" I asked as that was how food items usually worked in RPGs.

"Yeah," Flowey confirmed. "If you concentrate really hard, you should be able to 'check' the candy."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Well… in other terms … you should be able to open another set of menus outside of battle to be able to check your items and your stats," Flowey said.

"Ah, okay, let's see…" I remembered in a light novel I liked to read, the hero character was able to focus to bring up a status menu. I tried to imagine something like that as I focused.

I saw a simple menu in the corner of my eye. It was black and white, and showed me 'Item' and 'Stat'. I had the menu move to the forefront of my sight so I could select 'Item'. I saw 'Monster Candy' in my inventory. I noticed that I could 'Use', 'Check', or 'Drop' the item. Obviously, I didn't want to use or drop it, so I selected 'Check'.

A text box appeared in front of me. 'Monster Candy- heals 10 HP.'

"Oh, that's pretty helpful," I noted. Helpful though basic.

I then selected 'Stat' to see what my stats were.

I saw my name 'Frizk', then under my name I saw my LOVE, and my HP. I saw my attack and defense stats, they were both at 0, though there was a parentheses next to them that read (0). I saw my EXP as well, which was also at 0. There was the word 'NEXT' under my EXP, which was at 10, which I guessed meant how many EXP I needed to get my LOVE up to the next level.

Under my not-so-impressive stats had the words 'ARMOR' and 'WEAPON'. For armor, I had 'Plain Striped Shirt', and for a weapon, I only had 'bare hands'. And finally, at the bottom of it all was GOLD. I had 0 of that as well.

I moved my stats back to the corner of my eye and gave a sigh. I really was a weakling. I had 0 in just about everything. I really needed to get stronger at some point.

"Well, at least I know how to pull up the menu when I need to," I said, trying to stay positive.

"Now, you've still got a way to go to get to Home," Flowey informed. "I'm gonna go ahead and get some things ready there. Try not to take all night."

"Well, thanks then, I'll try my best to make it to you," I replied. Home, huh? I guess that's where I'm going.

Flowey disappeared underground again. I walked out of the candy room. I saw a frog… a Froggit standing nearby. It looked at me. It didn't seem interested in pulling out my Soul and entering a Fight this time, however. Instead, it spoke to me.

"Ribbit, ribbit…"

I blinked. "Are you… trying to speak to me?"

"Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit," The Froggit kept going.

"Uh…" I sweatdropped. "I'm sorry, I don't speak frog…git. Anyways, I have to go, a friend of mine is waiting for me."

"Ribbit."

I made my way through Ruins. I ran into a few more monsters. There was this meek fuzzy little monster called 'Whimsun' who cried and ran away when I tried to talk to it. There was a gelatin monster that didn't really do anything other than wiggle around. Though their attacks were tricky to dodge. I decided to imitate the wiggling before sparing them.

There was a puzzle that involved me falling onto some leaves before climbing back up on the other side. I had to push a rock onto a switch to deactivate more spike traps. Then there was a large floor with a bunch of cracks. I fell pretty much right away when I tried to move onward. I fell onto some leaves though. I couldn't figure out this puzzle for a while, I kept falling, and I didn't know how to read the sign for a hint. It was quite frustrating. But I began to notice a pattern. The leaves seemed to be stacked in such a way that there was a path between them. Every time I fell, I would always fall onto the leaves, but never on the bare path.

I tried to memorize the path and started moving on the cracked floor that was like the path under it. Finally, I made it to the other side without falling. I gave a sigh of relief.

The next room had three rocks I had to push. The first two were easy, but when I tried to push the last one…

"Excuse me! Who do you think you are?!"

I jumped back in shock when the rock suddenly shouted at me. Unlike with Flowey, the rock didn't have a face, so I didn't know how it was even talking.

"W-wah!?" I shouted. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know… uh… that rocks can talk!"

"Of course we can talk!" The rock huffed. "Is there something you wanted of me?"

"Uh…" I tried not to think too much of the implication of sentient rocks. "Could you… please move forward?"

"Forward? Very well." The rock answered before it moved towards the entrance I came through, away from the switch.

"Where are you going?" I frowned. "That's the wrong way!"

"You said forward, so I went forward," The rock answered. "Did you want me to go backwards?"

"... Uh… wherever, I just want you to move towards that switch," I pointed out.

"Oh, you want me to move towards the switch. Okay," The rock acknowledged before it moved a few feet towards the switch, ending up closer to it than it started but not on the switch.

"Why did you stop?" I asked.

"Because you wanted me to move towards the switch," The rock replied. "So I did just that, I moved towards it."

Is… this rock doing this on purpose? I frowned. "Can you move onto the switch please?"

"Ohh! That's what you wanted? Of course I can," The rock answered before it moved onto the switch.

"Thank you," I said before I began walking towards the spike trap that no longer had spikes.

However, when I got close, the spikes suddenly popped back up. I yelped as I stumbled back, not wanting to accidentally step on or fall onto the spikes.

What the heck happened!? I quickly turned around to see that rock had moved off the switch.

"W-what are you doing!?" I shouted. "Why did you move off the switch?! You could've gotten me seriously injured!"

"Did you want me to stay on the switch?" The rock questioned.

I took a deep breath and let it out. The rock was either very cheeky or very… oh… very dense.

"I want you to get on the switch, and stay on the switch. No moving off of it. Got it?" I said as simply as I could.

"But what if I want to go elsewhere?" The rock questioned.

I gave that some thought. "You can get off the switch after I've left the room."

"Oh, okay. You sure are giving me a workout," The rock remarked.

The rock moved onto the switch again. "Aren't things easier when you just ask clearly?"

"... Yes," I said, trying not to say anything else that the rock could take the wrong way.

I quickly walked over the spike trap before the rock could move off of the switch. Hopefully I wouldn't have to go back that way any time soon.

The next room had a mouse hole, and a wooden table with a piece of cheese that appeared to be… melted on it. It was an odd sight. I decided to just keep going.

I stopped when I saw a… um… bedsheet looking white ghost lying on some leaves. It was kind of blocking my path to the next area. I heard it making noise.

"Zzzzzzzzzzzzz…"

It's saying 'Z' out loud a bunch of times… it does know that's not how sleeping works, right? I frowned. Wait, is this the ghost Flowey mentioned? Something about Nap… uh… Nap… Nappy?

I walked closer to the ghost that I dubbed as 'Nappy', because no way in heck do I remember their actual name.

"Uh…" I began to say to them.

Suddenly my Soul was out of my body, and I had the four choices again. The ghost floated up in front of me, and I saw its eyes were watering. I didn't know how to react. I should be scared of ghosts, but… this one just didn't seem scary. It just looked sad.

I decided to try to Check this ghost. I saw the actual name of Nappy, it was Napstablook, but I wasn't sure if I would remember that.

According to 'Check', Napstablook at 10 Attack and 10 Defense. I was surprised, when I tried to check the Froggit earlier, it didn't give me its attack or defense. Maybe it was because I didn't know the name of the monster. And according to Check, this monster doesn't seem to have a sense of humor.

As if in response to that, Napstablook spoke. "oh, i'm REAL funny."

Now I had to survive whatever attacks Napstablook had. I was in the attack field, and Napstablook had tears running down his eyes. The tears then crawled up the square and began to rain down on my Soul. I yelped as I quickly tried to move away from the tears, but more and more of them kept falling on me. Some of the tears fell on my Soul. I hissed in pain, it felt like acid went through me.

I was down to 17 HP after that attack. Despite having 0 Defense, he only did 3 damage to me.

Thankfully the attack was over, so now I could try something. I had no way of being able to attack a ghost, so I tried to Act. I saw my options were Threat, Flirt, and Cheer. I rather not threaten him, he looked… depressed enough already. His tears were also really painful.

I tried the Flirt option just to see what that would do, I was morbidly curious about how I would flirt with a ghost.

"Hey there, cutie pie, wanna go out some time?" I flirted. What kind of stupid pick up line was that?

"i'd just weigh you down." Napstablook responded.

Napstablook attacked just like before. This time I was a little more prepared for the tears, though I came close to being hit again. I got grazed by one of the tears, unfortunately. I hissed, now I was down to 14 HP.

Well, flirting didn't help. I decided to try to Cheer. The option didn't force me to say anything, but I ended up giving Napstablook a smile.

"heh…" Napstablook softly said.

I was back in the attack field, and there was just a line of text there. "Really not feeling up to it right now, sorry."

So nothing really happened, apparently Napstablook didn't feel like attacking me there. Well, that was fine by me. It looked like cheering was helping, so I decided to do that again. This time, instead of a smile, I was compelled to say a joke.

"How does a ghost say good-bye?" I asked.

"How?" Napstablook asked.

"I want to seance you again," I delivered the punchline.

I wasn't sure if that would be insulting to a ghost or not.

"heh heh…" Napstablook chuckled softly.

It seemed like Napstablook liked it though.

Back in the attack field, Napstablook only cried a little bit, his tears were slow, and didn't climb over the square walls this time, so it was much easier to dodge.

I chose Cheer again. Though I didn't say or do anything this time, instead, Napstablook was the one who spoke up.

"can i show you something?" Napstablook asked.

"Oh, uh, sure," I answered, interested to see what he was going to do.

"let me try…" Napstablook said before he had his tears go up towards his head, which was… very weird to see, but the tears created a nice little top hat on his head, which was pretty cute.

"i call it "dapper blook"," Napstablook informed before slowly spinning around to let me see the hat on his head. "do you like it…?"

I couldn't answer, I was back in the menu. I guess I had to select an option before I could do anything. I selected Act and Cheer again.

"That's adorable! You're incredibly talented." I smiled, and I actually meant that.

"oh gee," Napstablook said before my Soul was put back into my body, signifying the end of the Fight. "i usually come down to Ruins because there's nobody around… but today, i met with somebody nice."

I saw the ghost was smiling a little. He must not have a lot of friends.

"I'm glad I got to meet with a nice ghost like you." I smiled.

"oh geeeeeeeeeeeeee…" Napstablook muttered before he started to become transparent.

"Wait, where are you going?" I asked, surprised that he was becoming transparent.

"i just realized i was in your way… so i'm going to get going," Napstablook answered. "byyyyyyyye."

Napstablook disappeared.

"Uh… okay, bye," I said. What a strange ghost monster, but he's pretty nice.

I continued walking forward. I saw a doorway leading into another room, but there seemed to be another room up ahead. I decided to check out the room first. There were a couple of spider webs. There was a small spider web, and a big spider web. There was a sign in front of each of the webs, but…

I sighed as I attempted to read each sign. While I couldn't read the words, I could see two pictures on each sign. On one, there looked to be a spider and a jug. On the other there was a spider and a donut. Underneath each sign, there were little holes in the webs that… perfectly matched the shape and size of the gold coins I had gotten so far. There were 7 slots on the one and 18 slots on the other.

That's right… every time I managed to successfully spare a monster, they left me some gold. Maybe as an apology for attacking me. Maybe I can use this for something. I noted to myself.

Judging from the amount of slots these webs had, I assumed that was the amount I needed to pay for the particular… item in question. I only had about 10 gold on me, so I couldn't afford the jug. I was pretty hungry, and the monster candies didn't really fill me up. I decided to put 7 gold on the spider web. Normally I didn't like to be around spiders, but since this was a different world, maybe these spiders were also monsters, so I needed to treat them with respect.

After I slotted in the last coin, a spider suddenly came down from above and took the 7 coins before retreating up to the ceiling. After a moment, it came back out holding a donut that it gently placed on the web.

"Ah… is that donut for me?" I asked, wanting to be sure before I took it.

The spider held up one of its front legs like it was holding up a thumb before it began to go back up into the ceiling.

I smiled, it was nice to see such friendly spiders. I carefully took the donut so I didn't mess up the web. It looked good enough to eat. I decided to take a bite, I needed something for my stomach. It tasted pretty good, it was sweet, but not too sweet. It had a satisfying crunchy exterior, like a hardened, yet the dough inside was still nice and soft. I blinked when I noticed some black specks inside the donut. I wondered if the spiders put sprinkles inside the dough. The donut did have a slightly chocolaty taste to it, so it was possibly chocolate sprinkles. Regardless I continued eating it as it was quite delicious.

Maybe I should save up for the jug. I could use something to drink too. I decided.

I went to the next room, where I saw more Froggit, though they didn't seem interested in Fighting me. They seemed to like to talk, but I still couldn't understand them. I decided to just keep moving, until I ran into another gelatin monster, and a cockroach-like monster.

The cockroach-like monster didn't seem interested in talking unless I spared the first monster. After that, the cockroach-like monster just started dancing and seemed to be at peace. When I spared him, I was surprised that they left me 13 gold, that was more gold than I had before spending it on the donut. I smiled, maybe I could spend some time grinding some more gold…

I went back to the spider webs. I now had 27 gold, enough for both the jug and another donut. I paid the 18 gold for the jug. I watched with interest as multiple spiders came out this time to take the gold coins. The same multiple spiders then brought out a good sized jug that had a lid clipped on top. The spiders showed me the juice wouldn't spill by tipping it over before turning it right-side up. I then paid 7 gold to the other web to get another donut.

With juice and a donut, I went on my way. I decided to drink some of the juice by taking off the lid a little. It tasted a lot like apple cider, it was a bit thicker than juice. It was sweet, and it reminded me of the donut. My thirst was nice and quenched. I then put the lid back on the pitcher.

Who knew spiders could have such a good service? I chuckled as I carried the jug, planning to drink the rest later.

I began eating the donut again. Because unlike Monster Candy, I couldn't fit it into my pocket. Well I could but I would probably have to squish the donut and get a ton of crumbs in my pockets. It was better eaten like this, and at least I wouldn't go hungry trying to reach this place called 'Home'.

I continued onward and saw some cracks on the floor. There was another spike trap ahead, so I had to find a switch or something to get rid of the spikes. They were likely under these cracked floors. I guess I better start checking them. Thankfully, when I fell through the cracked floors, I ended up landing on a soft pile of leaves. I wondered who put all these leaves here. Maybe whoever decided to make the puzzle like this. Maybe someone had the ability to fix the floors after they break.

There were stairs that led me back up, so I wouldn't be stuck down here. One of the rooms I fell into had a red ribbon lying on the floor. Curious, I picked it up. There was some dust on it, so it must've been pretty old, and the color looked faded too. I noticed there was a 'check' option for every item I picked up, so I decided to check this ribbon.

"Faded Ribbon. 3 DEF. If you're cuter, monsters won't attack you as hard."

That was… pretty funny. But this ribbon apparently gave me some defense, so it was like armor, I guess. It might be a bit dirty, but I may as well wear it. It was better than dying. I dusted off the ribbon before carefully tying it into my hair before moving back up. I went back up before trying to take the path again.

I fell down another floor I have yet to check the room of.

"You looks like you can use a friend!"

I blinked as my Soul suddenly came out of my body again. I saw a monster in front of me with a giant eyeball. I looked at my four options, and noticed my level… or LOVE, had yet to rise. I was still at 1. I hovered over the Fight option for a moment. If I didn't start fighting, I would never gain any experience points, and I could never get stronger… but…

I looked at the eyeball monster. I found myself hesitating. Maybe not yet, at least not until I could get a proper weapon.

I went over to Act, I saw the options Check, Pick On, and Don't Pick On. I picked 'check' first.

Eyeball Monster. ATK 6 DEF 6.

There wasn't much information on this eyeball monster.

"Quit staring at me…" The eyeball monster remarked.

In the attack field, I saw what looked like bugs going up one each side of the walls of the field. The attack was easy to dodge at least.

"Um…" I figured I should go with the most obvious action.

I chose 'Don't Pick On'. I didn't know what that would really do since I wasn't picking on him in the first place.

"Finally! Someone gets it!" The eyeball monster exclaimed.

I didn't do anything. I sweatdropped.

I noticed my current name for the monster was in yellow, so I did what I usually do in this situation, I went over to 'Mercy' and spared him. The monster left me some gold before dancing away, seeming to be in a good mood.

Okay, that was weird. But I guess that made him happy. I noted.

I continued the puzzle I was doing, still searching for that switch. I fell into another small room. I noticed some kind of… carrot buried in the ground. Hmm, it could be a healing item, and it's always nice to have food on me.

I walked over to the carrot, and grabbed onto the green vegetable part and pulled it out of the ground. I suddenly saw a face. That made me stop breathing for a second, because I thought I just pulled out a mandrake that I heard in stories.

"Eat your greens!" The vegetable monster shouted at me before my Soul was pulled out again.

I dropped the weird carrot monster before I saw the attack field again. There were white vegetables bouncing around, but they definitely hurt when they touched me. "Ow!"

I quickly selected 'Act'. I decided to ignore 'check' as that didn't tell me anything useful. I saw some… uh… interesting options. I could choose 'Dinner' 'Devour' and 'Talk'. The 'Dinner' and 'Devour' options were weird because… they seemed to be the same thing. I had no interest in eating a talking vegetable. I chose the 'Talk' option.

"Hey, so uh-" I began to speak when I was interrupted.

"Vegetables don't talk, dummy!" The carrot monster snapped.

I yelped as I was back in the attack field. I quickly moved around to dodge the attacking vegetables. When that was over, I was trying to consider my options. Talking didn't seem to work… Devour seemed to be a bit too… on the nose. Maybe 'Dinner' meant something else, like… I was inviting him to dinner.

Hoping for the best, I chose the 'Dinner' option. I started patting my stomach like I was hungry. I kind of was since I only had two donuts and some cider all day.

"Eat your greens!" The carrot monster shouted before being pulled right into the attack field.

However, this time, something was different. Carrots were dropping from the top of the field, but I noticed one of the carrots was green. Normally green was a good thing in video games. I decided to take a chance and catch the green carrot. I noticed some of my health came back.

When the attack was over, I saw the name on the carrot monster was yellow.

"You still look famished!" The carrot monster called out.

"Uh…" I wasn't sure if I could respond to it, since it didn't like it when I tried talking to it earlier. "What else do you want me to…"

I looked at my options again. "Hmm… I guess I could try the Devour option. I mean if it's in the 'Act' part of the menu, it shouldn't be anything too dangerous. Maybe it just meant he'd throw me more than one green vegetable."

That seemed logical, after all, the Dinner option just resulted in something harmless like that. It would be good to eat more vegetables after all. I chose the 'Devour' option.

Suddenly, my body leaped toward the carrot monster. I grabbed onto the carrot monster's body, I had no idea what was happening. But my mouth opened on its own and I suddenly took a bite out of the carrot monster's head. It all happened so fast that my mind was in shock by the time I realized my body was chewing on the carrot monster's piece before swallowing it. When I had control of myself again, I dropped the monster carrot in horror and shock.

"Good job eating your greens!" The carrot monster smirked.

"Wha-" I began to say when the carrot monster's head suddenly grew back like nothing happened, then it happily bounced away. "... What…"

Suddenly I lost my appetite. I decided that if I ran into another carrot monster, I was avoiding the 'Devour' option at all cost.

The next room I fell into, I saw a familiar ghost lying on the floor. "Napstablook? Is that you?"

"oh… hey…" Napstablook softly greeted. "how's it going…?"

"Uh… well…" I decided to skip the question since I was still a little traumatized from eating a piece of a living vegetable earlier. "Wait, why are you here? Did you fall down?"

"yeah… i uh… forgot the route," Napstablook answered.

"Couldn't you just… float?" I asked. "I saw you floating earlier."

Napstablook slowly blinked before sighing. "i'm such a failure… forgetting that i can just float… oh geez…"

I blinked, but before I could say anything, Napstablook let out a sigh. "oh well… see you…"

And the timid ghost disappeared again. I hoped he was going to be alright.

I fell into another room, and finally, I found the switch on the wall. I grabbed onto the lever and turned it down. I heard something like a click. I went back up and saw the spikes were gone. I moved forward. How big is this place?

I went into the next room. I saw some pillars, and 3 different colored switches. One was green, another was blue, and the last was red. There was a sign on the wall… but again, I couldn't read it.

I began activating the switches by random, hoping something would happen. But when nothing did, I began to grow frustrated.

"How do I move on!?" I shouted at the ceiling.

"Ribbit…"

I turned around, seeing some Froggits. I wondered if they were the same ones from the hallway I passed by earlier. I raised an eyebrow at them. They looked at me, then looked at each other. They gave a smile before I saw two of them hopped over to the blue switch, and the green switch. The one at the blue switch pressed it, then the one at the green switch pressed then. I blinked before I looked over at the red switch. The Froggits seemed to be waiting for something. I decided to chance it and pressed the red switch. There was a 'click', and the spike trap that blocked my way forward finally disappeared.

Did these Froggits come to help me? I blinked in surprise before I looked at the Froggits. "Thanks, you guys, I appreciated the help."

"Ribbit."

I may not understand them, but I could understand their intentions with how they gave me a thumbs up with their… webbed hand. I guess that was how they understood my compliments despite not understanding me.

I smiled a little, seeing how I seemed to be making friends here. It was an unusual but pleasant feeling for me. The Froggits hopped away. I decided to move on.

I saw another corridor that split into two different paths. I decided to go right first. When I did, I saw I was looking over some kind of balcony. I could see a small city over the edge of the balcony. It looked pretty cool, honestly, though also isolated in a way. I decided to head back, but not before tripping over something that caused me to stumble a bit.

I looked back at what I tripped over, and saw what looked like a knife at first glance. Surprised and confused at the presence of a random knife on the floor, I picked it up and studied it. I soon realized the blade was made of hard plastic.

"Ah… it's just a toy knife," I noted. "Hmm, but it sure looked real from far away… I guess I could keep it, just to scare a hostile monster away."

Having a 'weapon' in hand, I headed back to see what was on the other route. As I walked, I saw a tree with a lot of dead leaves under it. The tree itself looked to be bare. But what caught my attention was the building behind the tree.

"Howdy!" Flowey suddenly popped out in front of me. "Congrats, kid! You made it to Home without dying!"

"Do you like popping out of nowhere just to scare me?!" I shouted, having jumped back from Flowey's sudden appearance. "Wait… I made it?"

"Yep." Flowey answered before gesturing back at the building. "This is Home, it's also ironically my home."

I walked closer to the building. It looked pretty big, and I saw the door had a strange symbol on it. It looked like a sphere with wings, and three triangles, the right and the left pointing upwards, while the middle pointed down, were under the winged sphere. It looked kinda cool, though I wonder if the symbol meant anything.

"You live here?" I asked, surprised. "I thought you lived in that bed of flowers, because you're… well… a flower."

"Ahh yes, because all flowers are the same," Flowey sarcastically replied. "I can leave the soil, you know."

"No, I actually don't know that…" I sweatdropped.

"Right, I guess I haven't shown you that yet," Flowey acknowledged. "You played games, right? Ever play that one with the one monster that's like a tangle of vines?"

"Sounds like one of the monsters from that pocket monster game I like," I noted.

Flowey nodded. "I can pull my vines together like that and move around."

I blinked as I imagined Flowey walking around with two vines like feet.

"Well, I can do that, but I prefer not to. It's kind of painful to uproot myself and then have to root myself again," Flowey admitted. "That's why I prefer travelling underground."

"I see," I remarked. "This house… it's really just called 'Home'?"

"Yep. That's one thing you really should get used to down here… on the nose, obvious names," Flowey informed.

"Right… well, uh… are you the only one living in that Home?" I asked. "It seems like a pretty big place to be living by yourself in. Are there other flower monsters living with you?"

"No, there aren't any flower monsters, I'm just a bit of a special case," Flowey admitted. "Well, why don't you come in? You look pretty tired anyways."

"Yeah," I answered. Not only did I climb Mt. Ebott, I also made my way through Ruins to get here.

"Also, yeah," Flowey answered. "Until now, it's just been me living here for a while. Oh, by the way, I did notice your toy knife. Nice find."

"Oh, I was just using it to deter monsters from attacking me," I replied. "I don't think a toy knife is going to do much otherwise."

"Heh… if swung by a human on a monster, you'd be surprised," Flowey chuckled slightly. "Especially if you have the intent to hurt or kill…"

I frowned at that. "What?"

"Ah, nevermind, we'll talk more later," Flowey said. "Just come on into Home first before you pass out on the grass."

"Right," I replied before Flowey went underground, probably to go into the house.

I walked up to the door and opened it. The door squeaked, and was a little tough to open. It seemed like this door didn't get a lot of use. I supposed that made sense since Flowey didn't need to use the door to get in and out.

"Do me a favor, once you find a place to sleep, take off the ribbon. I'll take care of it for you," Flowey instructed. "Bedrooms and bathroom are to your right while the sitting room and kitchen are to the left. Downstairs is storage."

"Huh? Oh…" I blinked. I suppose it would be uncomfortable to sleep with the ribbon on. "Thanks. I hope I'm not intruding."

"You aren't," Flowey assured.

I walked around the Home. It had a nice living with a big arm chair, a couch, a coffee table, and an unused fireplace. There were some shelves of books. Though all of this stuff looked like they had been unused in a long time. I saw a kitchen near the living room. It had everything a kitchen would need, a trash can, a fridge, a sink, a stove, some counters and cabinets.

"There should be some food still in the fridge," Flowey informed. "If you're feeling hungry."

"Thanks. I had some snacks and…" I paled a little when I remembered what else I ate earlier. "Uh… yeah, I'll eat later." I wonder what flowers eat? I hope it's not just bags of soil.

Flowey popped up and looked at me. "Stand still. Gotta do something."

I blinked and stood still as Flowey suddenly extended a bunch of vines around me. After a few seconds, Flowey withdrew the vines. "Alrighty, looks like the PJs left by the previous residents should fit you."

"Were you… measuring me with vines?" I questioned.

"Huh, surprised you recognized what I was doing," Flowey acknowledged. "Yeah, that's exactly what I was doing. I used vines with thorns specifically at every inch so I could measure you."

"Well… thanks, I guess it would be nice to change out of these clothes," I remarked. "They're pretty dirty by now… Is there a place I could wash them?"

"I'll take care of them with the ribbon," Flowey answered. "Might even give your regular clothes some defense."

"Really?" I questioned. "Is that how this works?"

"You're in a place where magic is pretty strong and concentrated," Flowey chuckled. "You'd be surprised at what could be done here. Now how about you head to the bedrooms? They're to your right."

"Right, thanks," I said.

I walked to the hallway that had some doors. Out of curiosity, I looked at each of the doors. One of the doors was locked.

"Oh, sorry, that one's under renovations," Flowey apologized.

I wondered what Flowey was doing with that one. I checked the other rooms. They all looked pretty empty though, they just had the basic stuff like a bed, a desk, and empty shelves.

"The family that was living here moved out most of the custom furniture and items they had," Flowey explained. "Though being the borderline sickeningly kind and generous people they were, they left behind the basics for anyone who happened to pass through this place."

"That sounds pretty nice of them," I remarked, though Flowey looked annoyed by it. "At least it lets us stay in something quite comfortable."

I saw there was indeed a bathroom here, which was a relief. I could take a bath or a shower, and use an actual toilet.

"Do you mind if I take a shower before I sleep?" I asked.

"Why would I mind?" Flowey chuckled. "You do you, kid."

"I mean this is your house, and I'm a guest. I didn't want to be rude," I sheepishly replied.

"You have free reign over this place," Flowey informed. "So you don't need to ask my permission anymore, got it?"

I blinked, before nodding. "Okay, I understand. Thank you, Flowey."

"Good, now when you go shower, throw your items in the laundry basket in the bathroom so I can wash everything," Flowey instructed. "I'll bring you some new clothes you can wear once you're done in the shower."

"Thanks." I smiled.

I took a nice, warm shower. The water quality was nice, and the shampoo and soap were good. I was relieved to see there was shampoo for hair in the shower. My hair had been quite dirty. When I was done in the shower, I took the towel that was hanging over the curtains to dry myself, and then used it as a cover before I pulled back the curtains and got out of the shower. I saw what looked like soft, green PJs hanging on the door's hanger.

I went over to it. There was a pair of clean underwear as well, much to my relief. I put the underwear and PJs on. I wondered who the previous residents were, seeing how I was able to wear these PJs. At least they only had two arms and two legs to work with.

I dropped the towel into the laundry basket, then exited out of the bathroom. My body definitely felt tired now that I had relaxed. I went into the nearest door, I needed a bed to collapse onto. I yawned as I walked into a bedroom that had a twin sized bed. There was a lamp that was on right now. I went over to the lamp to turn it off, then I went over to the bed. I barely touched the pillow with my head before I was out like a light.

"Poor kid… Such an awful family… such a horrid looking future. Wow… is this really the only route to not suffering through life…? Man, your sister got off easy compared to you."

It felt like there was someone talking, but I was too relaxed to listen.

"Being compared to an elder sibling is never fun. For some reason some parents think that just because their first child was a success, their second one has to be just as successful or even more successful…"

The voice continued but I kept relaxing, thinking that the voice was just some kind of background noise.

"At least you remembered the stories she told you, huh? … … … Oh? Can you actually hear me? Interesting…"

Whoever was talking needed to get out of my room, because I could still hear them… it was rude to talk when someone was trying to sleep.

"Maybe there's a sliver of hope that they'll see the true sky after all… Though… Hmm. Looks like she still has to wake up. Good luck on that."

But I didn't wanna wake up… I just fell asleep.

"Though it seems you're having a hard time reading the monster language… I wonder if maybe… perhaps I might be able to give a little bit of an assistance, as long as I keep it subtle enough that you wouldn't notice it. Maybe, since you can hear me, I'll leave a little gift here. But you're gonna have to be the one to open it."

Suddenly there was a box floating in front of me and I realized that I didn't have my eyes closed, I was just in a blank expanse devoid of color.

"It might not last long though. After all, you only started hearing me once you reached this deep sleep state. Your mind will probably forget it before long, but it will hopefully help for at least a day or two."

I began to feel like this wasn't normal, but I found it difficult to question anything. I took the completely normal floating box, because there should be no reason why a box couldn't float. It would probably look better with color though. I opened up the box and I suddenly felt my head hurting.

"Yeah, sorry about that, but it'll pass. Imagine that… I'm just putting one of those temporary tattoos on you."

I shook my head. "What was the present?"

Normally I would ask who was even talking to me, but everything felt normal, everything was as it should be.

"You'll find out after you're done sleeping. Just tell ole flowerhead to take you to City and show you around."

"To City?" I asked.

"Yeah… Dad never was good at coming up with names… You'll find that's a running element of the Underground. I seriously don't know why Mom still lets him name things."

"Ah, so it was your Dad who named it. Alright, cool." I smiled, there was nothing strange about that. Dads always gave funny and uncreative names.

"Oh, and if you remember this next part, which I'm not sure you will, tell Flowey that I'm glad he didn't become evil after all these timelines."

"Okay, I'll tell him, Flowey's invisible friend," I replied.

"Uhh… Thanks. And… I guess… peace out, cause it's time to rise and shine. Rise and shine, kid."

Darkzdragon: That was the first chapter of our Undertale story, Sistertale. While parts might drag out a bit, because of a bad habit of mine, I do hope you enjoy what's to come.

DarkFoxKit: This is a slice of life story with a plot that comes into play every once in a while. If you've ever played a Persona game, it's sort of like that. Life goes on, and things happen. So expect things like a lot of fluff to happen.

Darkzdragon: Though there are parts with action, and we do have plans for future 'seasons' or 'books' of this story which will definitely include more.

DarkFoxKit: For now, please leave a comment of what you thought of the chapter and if you're interested in continuing reading this story.

Darkzdragon: Even if it's just an 'it was nice' or something to know that people are reading it and enjoying it.

DarkFoxKit: If the story ends up with nobody commenting for chapters on chapters, we'll likely take that as a lack of interest. Anyways, have a good day or night everyone.