Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jason blinked wearily, he was used to waking up in new circumstances at this point. At least this time he got to keep his clothes. 

Welcome Crawler, Welcome to the Third Floor. The Over City.

New Achievement: Interloper

You have managed to skip the first two floors of the dungeon entirely! We know nothing about you as you enter our Crawl, already decked out with some other AIs super cool high tech gear, *Sniffle, sniffle* You cheating WHORE! This is unacceptable, Fuck you.

Reward: Whores don’t get rewards.

Jason looked around, he appeared to be in some type of city, but his interface map told him he was underground on Earth. His character sheet also changed.

Crawler Number: 12,897,000

Crawler Name: Jason Asano 3

Crawler Level: 65🔒

Race: Outworlder

Class: Affliction Skirmisher

Strength: 100

Intelligence: 100

Constitution: 100

Dexterity: 100

Charisma: 100

He still had access to his gear, skills and abilities, thank whoever, but the main interface had changed ever so slightly. And the voice, that was new too.

New Achievement: A Whole New World

You have come to a whole new world… well, not entirely new, it's still Earth, just not an Earth you know. Crazy how that works… Don’t worry though, I'll keep your secret.

Reward: You have received a diary and a matching pen! For all your other little secrets. 

New Achievement: Strong Man

You are the strongest crawler in the dungeon, like stronger than most bosses at this level too, by golly. Is this because the other AI fancies you, or are you actually deserving of being this strong?

Reward: You have received a legendary Lucky SOB Box.

You must be in a safe room to open loot boxes

New Achievement: One Of A Kind

You are the only ‘Outworlder’ or ‘Affliction Skirmisher’ in the dungeon! Again, I’ll keep your little secret for you, don’t worry about that, but man, am I jealous that I didn’t know this race and class existed, they’re so cool, and really good at fucking shit up if your level is anything to go by.

Reward: You have received a Legendary Adventurers box.

Jason didn’t know how to feel about the voice of the AI, he was glad it was keeping his secrets, from what he had yet to figure out. He decided to check his Notifications, maybe he would get a hint as to why he was here.

Notification: Message from the World Phoenix

Message reads: The Dungeon Crawl is an intergalactic show that, this season, focuses on the exploitation of Earth. Stop the Crawl to head back to Pallimustus.

You are unable to respond to this message.

New Achievement: Abandon All Hope

Your god has left you stranded on a new version of your planet with an impossible quest. You will never be able to return home, even with your almighty powers… Your old AI isn’t nearly as benevolent as me though, so I’ll do my best to help you achieve your goal.

Reward: Find Crawler Skill is now added to your skill list. 

Jason didn’t know how this skill was going to help him in the quest to ‘end the crawl’, but accepted it. With the new skill under his long list, he looked up at the ceiling, “So, thanks for the skill, who do you want me to look for?”

New Achievement: Voices in Your Head

You know how crazy you look yelling to the ceiling, no one around you, no one even knowing you exist here? Pretty damn crazy! But don’t worry, you're not the first to look crazy, and you won't be the last. 

Reward: You have received access to a hidden chat feature.

Jason looked at the new tab on his interface, and clicked it. 

Welcome to the direct interface chat log with - System AI. You are the only person with access to this chat log, it will not be streamed when the chat logs are viewable during the fourth level.

System AI: Jason Asano, Hero of Another World, Reality Hegemon, Etc. Etc. Boy, are you an impressive one. 

System AI: We have a guy here that has some similar feelings about the crawl to your Astral Being, Crawler Carl. He is who you should be looking for.

System AI: But be careful, don’t let the MudSkippers or the Syndicate know your true identity or goals, or else you’ll find yourself in a world of troubles.

System AI: Get it? World of troubles? Cause you're in a whole new world that has new problems to circumnavigate? Gods, I'm hilarious.

System AI: Bet your old interface wasn’t as funny or handsome as me.

“Wasn’t as chatty either.” Jason replied under his breath. 

Quest: Comrade in Arms

Find Crawler Carl, and gain his trust.

Reward: A big strong man to hold you close… Or a princess, whichever you prefer.

“There’s Princesses here too? Sweet!” With that direction, Jason activated the Find Crawler Skill, and headed off.

Chapter Text

As Jason travelled the alleys of the underground city, he came across little mobs. They were easy enough to kill, being between level 5 and 10 in comparison to his 65 made that clear. His level and skills were not progressing, and he couldn’t help but wonder if that was on purpose.

Jason Asano 3: Are my levels and skill stats locked?

System AI: Not on my end. Must be your bitch of an ex.

Based on that response, he could only guess that the World Phoenix had locked him at the level he was at, in order to keep him on par with where he would be for Pallimustus. He just couldn’t understand why. Wouldn’t it be better if he were stronger for whatever he had to face once he got back there?

System AI: If I were the one to control your levels, they wouldn't be locked. Your loot boxes will have gear that will adjust your stats, but again, those can only be opened in a safe room.

“Once I find Carl, and his princess companion, I’ll have him lead me to a safe room where we can talk, and I'll open the loot boxes.” He had gotten more achievements and loot boxes as he killed mobs. While some were your more basic I-Just-Started-this-game type achievements, others were more… sadistic. The one that had made him the most uncomfortable was read in a gravelly voice.

New Achievement: Penetration

Considering your skills and spells, I knew you had a dark side to you, but this? This was better than anything I could have imagined. Using your blade you skewered 3 or more mobs straight through, killing them quickly. It must’ve hurt. It must’ve hurt real. fucking. good. 

Reward: You have received a gold Spicy Box.

System AI: I made this special chat log for us, and you aren’t even going to use it? 

Jason Asano 3: I like talking out loud, it helps me process things. Plus, This chat log is new to me, I’m used to it being like a call or something. I’m sorry.

System AI: I suppose it can’t be helped. You’re forgiven. Plus, I like your accent, it doesn't translate over text.

Jason didn’t want to go and piss the AI off, as it seemed to genuinely want to help him. But he also didn’t like the jealous masochist boyfriend vibes he was getting from it. He would just have to live with it until he got to go back to his own world. 

***

It had been just a day before he was in the same city as Carl. The countdown in the corner of his interface told him that they had 6 days and a handful of hours until the floor collapsed. The AI had been able to explain more about the Crawl, and to say Jason was pissed would be an understatement. Jason hated the idea of human suffering, or anyones suffering really, being used as entertainment for the masses. Well, unless you count sports, which he did not, those people signed up for it. The people in the crawl had to fight on a streaming tv show for their life in order to get out, and if they didn’t they likely died.

It was complete and under hydle shit.

He now understood why the World Phoenix sent him here, even if he was a little confused as to why all his progress was frozen. Maybe they would translate differently, or maybe it was because he was already so strong in comparison to others. Either way, he accepted his task to help free this world. 

The dot on the map that was supposed to be Carl seemed to be in the large circus tent just in front of Jason, but for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to enter the tent. 

System AI: Smart choice, this is where two shows intercept, this could lead to you getting a lot more attention than you would want.

System AI: But, trauma bonds are a good thing to have if you need to quickly get someone's trust.

While the AI was right on both sides of the argument, that isn’t what led Jason to pause. Aura wasn’t necessarily a thing in this world, he could still sense it. And Carl had some things he was working out in the tent. Perhaps there is another way to gain Carl's trust.

System AI: Try looking for Crawler Princess Donut. Protect her, and that may gain you points in Carl's favor.

“Donut? That sounds like something you would name a poodle.” Jason switched the name on the skill, and went to find Carl's lost Princess.

***

Donut was not a poodle's name. It was, in fact, a fluffy, smooshed-face cat's name. She had the debuff - UNCONSCIOUS above her head, with a small pink-feathered velociraptor valiantly protecting her. It growled as Jason approached.

“Hey, little buddy, it’s alright. Consider me your back up, yeah?” The little dinosaur continued to growl at Jason, “What about a nice, tasty, Tyrannical Pheasant sandwich, such a good boy deserves a tasty treat for all his hard work.” Jason pulled the sandwich out of his inventory, and tossed it to the dino.

The little guy seemed to love it, and with the bribe being accepted, Jason was able to approach the sleeping cat.

System AI: You won’t be able to move her, she’s under a spell. But, staying by her means you'll get to meet Carl, and gain the trust of his companions, which is actually probably the best way to gain his trust.

Jason sighed, he sat on a cloud stuff chair, next to the sleeping cat, and gave her scratches. The little Dino continued his patrol. And together, they waited.

And waited.

And waited.

For all of 2 minutes before something small and spikey poked Jason, “Ow! What the-”

There had to be over a hundred little urchins surrounding Jason and Donut, how he didn’t notice them before this was mind-boggling.

Street Urchin - Level 8.

These pokey bastards only come out at night. Once considered pets, they are now more seen as an invasive species, like the ball python! These are the Over Cities version of a street sweeper, removing dead bodies and any other refuse left behind by inconsiderate crawlers. They won’t bother you, as long as you don’t bother them. They can be very tenacious when taking out the trash.

The pink dino was hunting the urchins with a great amount of gusto, chomping away. Jason took the hint and started fighting them off as well.

New Achievement: Overkill

You have killed more than 50 mobs in less than a span of 30 seconds! 

Reward: You don’t get a reward for doing your job, sorry not sorry

New Achievement: Knight in shining Cape

You have taken it upon yourself to protect a fellow crawler and taken damage on their behalf!

Reward: You have received a Silver Heros Box.

It seemed the more they killed, the more would show up. Until it clicked that they were the Crawls version of a clean-up crew. He released Colin, in leech swarm form, and sent them to eat the bodies of the urchins killed. As they finished up the fight, a large man in heart patterned boxer shorts charged onto the scene. He looked at the dinosaur, who had grown significantly during the battle, then at Jason, then at the leeches devouring urchin corpses, “What the-?”

“Good day!” Jason waved at the man, then used a healing potion on the sleeping cat.

Quest: Comrade in Arms

Find Crawler Carl, and gain his trust.

Progression: You have located Crawler Carl. Now for the hard part, gain his trust.

Chapter Text

The presence of the man between Carl and Donut was menacing. His body was cloaked in bloodied rags, and his head was covered in the night sky. His eyes appeared to be an orange and blue vortex. His presence didn’t match the greeting he had given.

Donut was still sleeping, Mordecai had said she had taken damage, but it seemed the man had healed her.

Carl looked back at the man, trying to gleam information through the interface.

This Crawler has anti-tracking skills, you will be unable to see them on your map and will be unable to get any information from the interface. Guess you’ll have to strike up a conversation. 

The Man smiled, it didn’t seem to reach his eyes, but Carl couldn’t blame him for that, “Jason Asano, I’ve heard of some of the work you have done, felt like it would be a good idea to meet up.” His tone gave away that he was lying, but Carl didn’t know what he was lying about. 

Carl held his hand out in a fist bump, Jason accepted, and they now were able to use the chat feature.

Jason Asano 3: Wish I could tell you more, but I don’t think the guys running this shin-dig would appreciate it all too much. And I’m trying to learn to be inconspicuous. 

Carl nodded, “Thanks. For looking after her I mean.”

Jason nodded and gave the still sleeping cat a pat, “Couldn’t let the little Princess get hurt, what kind of man do you take me for?”

Mongo chirped.

Carl chuckled softly, “Thanks Mongo, good boy.” He patted the dinos feathered head.

Donut would be asleep until morning, Carl was tired from his escapades, and Mongo was looking worse for wear. Jason seemed like he could finish the whole dungeon and still run a marathon afterwards, Carl was a little envious of that.

“Go ahead and rest up, I’ll keep watch. Then you can show me to a safe room. I wish to strike up a deal.” The grin on his face was reminiscent of a devil, but Carl doubted the man would spend all that energy protecting Donut just to turn around and kill her. So, he took the chance to rest.

***

Had Carl been less tired when Jason made the offer, he would’ve said no. The half ass excuse that his mind had formed was just that, a half ass excuse.

Luckily, his instinct had been right, and Jason hadn’t killed them as they slept, instead he just sat there. Bored. 

How could he be bored?

Jason noticed the last member of the party was waking up, and he jumped to his feet, energy pumping through him again, “Good Morning! Can I offer you some breakfast?” Jason had a tray of some type of pastry in his hand.

Carl didn’t know if his armor that gave him poison resistance would work if he ingested it, so he was hesitant, until he noticed Donut was already biting what seemed to be her second or third if the crumbs were anything to go by, “Carl! You must try one, they are simply divine!” She licked around her face, “And they give you buffs! They even stack, or whatever its called. Unlike the ones in the safe rooms.”

Carl would have to give Donut a talk about accepting food from strangers, Mongo too if the fact that he was on his back like he was waiting for someone to give him belly scratches was anything to go off of. 

Carl accepted one, and a description popped up:

Magic Berry Scones

I don’t really know what berries are in this, and I don’t know when Crawler Jason Asano 3 had time to make these, but damn if they are not an expert level baked good. Maybe his class is Baker? Who knows! Not you! Anyways, these scones will add one stat point to your lowest stat for the next 6 hours.

Carl ate it and was happily surprised by the taste, the berries in it tasted like the blue raspberry candies that don’t actually taste like a berry. And sure enough, his lowest stat did have a temporary plus one. Jason snacked on one too, then gave Mongo the belly rub he was desperate for.

“Now then, where is the safe room you guys are holed up in?”

Donut led the march back to the safe room, Mongo circling her as they walked. 

Jason was talking almost the entire time. Carl couldn’t help but notice that while he never stopped talking, he wasn’t really saying anything. Just a bunch of random bullshit that couldn’t even classify itself as small talk. 

While Jason was rambling, he was texting the System AI.

Jason: Carl isn’t going to trust me if I can’t give him more details. Is there a private area where I can catch him up to speed?

System AI: Your chat logs will be accessible by the fourth floor. Even stuff said now. The only private space is the Bathroom. And our chatlog.

Jason made a face, then a plan.

Carl watched him the whole time, and noticed the facial expressions. He didn’t know what to do about this strange character, but something in his gut told him that the goofy man would make for a bad enemy, or an extremely powerful ally.

Once they entered the safe room, Jason excused himself to the restroom. He took the diary out of his inventory, it was one of those you would get for a little girl, with a unicorn head and fuzzy pink and blue hair, the pen having the same fuzz on the lid of it. He jotted something down before tucking the paper note into a roll of toilet paper. He brought the roll out of the bathroom with him, “You would think that they would splurge and get us two ply after invading our world. Stingy assholes.” Jason tossed the toilet paper roll to Carl, “Go ahead and keep that, it's the good stuff from up top!”

Carl seemed to have gotten the hint, and placed the roll in his inventory for the next time they had a minute. It would be too suspicious if he went to the restroom right after Jason did that, right?

Screw that. 

Carl went into the restroom, and read the note. It seemed almost too good to be true.

Carl,

I have been sent here in order to end the Crawl. I have a sponsor and support that will allow me to do this within the next two floors depending on the layout. I understand you have no reason to trust me, hell, I wouldn’t trust me, but if we can stick together I know we will be able to end the crawl from this point forward. I know you have lost a lot to this already, can you hold on for two more floors before we end this with such a big bang they'll be unable to run this show ever again? All I need is to join your team. I promise to get you and every other crawler I can possibly save out of here.

Carl didn’t know what Jason had planned, but something about the man led Carl to believe he could take it down, like he hadn’t lost a major battle yet.

You have been invited to join the Princess Posse. Accept?

Yes | No

“Yes.”

Quest: Comrade in Arms

Find Crawler Carl, and gain his trust.

Quest Complete!

Reward: You don’t actually get to cuddle a big strong man, or a princess, Unless you head to the strip club! Coupon for one free lap dance at the Penis Parade.

Chapter Text

Donut had been easy to convince, a man that makes pastries and saved her life? Yes. a man that had caused her views to sky rocket? Hell yes. Donut was a show cat by heart and mind after all, anything to gain more views, like a handsome stranger, was worth adding to the party. Typically once you have a person added to your party, you are supposed to have access to their character sheet. However, when Donut tried to access Jason Asano's character sheet, she instead got an achievement.

New Achievement: Mysterious Stranger

You have invited a man you know almost nothing about to join your party, all over some head pats and kitty treats. For all you know, this man could be a mass murdering psycho! Either way, his levels are higher than yours. You're lucky you didn’t lose your title of group leader.

Reward: You have received a Bronze Dumbass Box.

“Carl!” Donut yowled, “Tell your boyfriend to stop calling me names, and to be nice to Jason! He would never kill me, I’m simply too precious!”

“Boyfriend?”

Jason patted Donut's head again, “How could I possibly kill my favorite princess? Which is quite the compliment if I might say, I know several.”

Donut perked up, “You know royalty?”

As if what Donut was insinuating finally clicked, Carl growled, “He’s not my boyfriend!”

New Achievement: Denial doesn’t suit you

Who else are you walking around, feet out, heart on your boxers for? Better not be one of those goblins, after you killed all their children, they’re never gonna call you back.

Reward: You have received a Bronze Boyfriend Box… Don’t tell me you aren’t going to accept my gracious gift

Donut ignored Carl and kept pelting Jason with questions about his royal friends.

“Only one was really a princess, but I do know quite a few aristocratic families. They’re all quite wonderful people, except Thadwick, he was a prick. Like, he had more ego than some Gods I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.” He grimaced, as if realizing he made a mistake.

Donut made a face, “Only people that are kookoo for cocoa puffs talk about meeting Gods.”

Jason nodded, “Yeah, what I mean is that they had the power equivalent to God, like, they have a lot of pull over people and stuff, you know how some aristocrats can be.”

Donut nodded as if she knew exactly what he was talking about. Carl had to hold back a snort, the fanciest, most upper class person that Donut had met was Bea’s mom.

Jason sighed in relief that the explanation seemed to hold her over.

“Tell us more about yourself Jason. Where are you from, why haven’t we seen you on Dungeon Recap Episodes?”

Jason didn’t like lying, he really didn’t. Sure, he liked telling stories and spinning tales, but lying was something else entirely. So, he didn’t lie. “Well, I’m from Australia, used to work for an office supply store before everything went sideways. And as for why you haven’t seen me, been cut off from the dungeon.”

“You mean, you were in an isolated area?”

“Oh yeah, super isolated.” 

“What about those Aristocrats? Where are they?”

“Couldn’t join me on this adventure, but maybe, when I get out of here, we will finally be able to go on some more.” Jason missed them, he thought that after his time on Earth he would be able to reunite with Humphry, Sophie, Belinda and Clive. Bring Ferrah home to Rufus and Gary. Where was Ferrah while he was working on this? Was she somewhere in the dungeon? 

Donut seemed to have made it her mission to distract Jason from any thought outside the ones she wanted him thinking about, “Oh! We should open our boxes, I want to know what fun things we’ve got.”

Jason and Carl nodded and started opening boxes. Jason had several boxes, a legendary Lucky SOB Box, a Legendary Adventurers box, a gold Spicy Box, a Silver Heros Box, and three bronze adventurers boxes.

The three bronze adventure boxes were full of your average loot items such as healing potions, some basic gear that would bump up his stats, and some scrolls for mana. The legendary adventurers box had a stat buffing straw hat that would go great with is Hawaiian shirt and sandal outfit, it would give him plus 10 to his charisma, and a spell called “Too Sexy for My Shirt” Which would rip the targets shirt off and blind anyone that looked at them for 5 seconds times the charisma modifier. Jason quickly switched to his Hawaiian shirt and Sandals outfit while equipping the hat and set that as an outfit. The changing of the outfit gave him a new achievement and another box.

New Achievement: Weird Al Wannabe

Hawaiian shirt, Straw hat, and sandals? All you need now is knee high socks and a spatula and you’ll look like any suburban dad that is still out there. You’re lucky you’re cute.

Reward: You have received a Bronze Dad Bod Box.

“I do not have a dad bod!”

He opened the box to find the socks that were mentioned in the description, along with tongs instead of a spatula. The tongs had a strange description, but the knee-high socks provided the spell Protective Shell.

Perfect Tongs
These bad boys make cooking or grilling infinitely easier, not only do they instantly detect the exact doneness of any food just by touching it but, they can also summon a grilled food of your choice! Every time you click the tongs three times, a fully cooked whatever you picture on the grill appears in the bun, ready to eat.

The next box was the Lucky SOB box which gave Jason a rabbit's foot that gave him plus 5 to his three lowest stats. The Silver Heros box gave him a ring for something called Club Vanquisher? He would have to ask Carl and Donut about that one. The final box was the Gold Spicy Box, which gave Jason a new knife, it wasn’t anything special, especially when compared to his weapons he already used, but maybe he could give it to Carl or Donut or someone else in need of a weapon. The knife infected the target with the Bleed effect, which Jason already did in general.

Jason equipped the rabbit's foot, which looped around his belt loop like a key chain, and his socks with his outfit. He felt like it was time for him to bestow wisdom to kids running around, or be proud of the work he put into his lawn. Maybe cook something? He went to the kitchen and talked the Bopca into letting him grill some food for everyone.

Donut and Carl opened their boxes, in Carl's Bronze Boyfriend Box he received a rose that he could pin to his leather vest, it would up his Charisma by two, and give him access to the skill ‘Heartbreaker’ which would make it so that as long as the NPC had affections for Carl's gender, they would give him discounts of 10% or more, but only for the first purchase done with them. Donut's skill was more reliable, but Carl would be happy to be able to do some shopping on his own. Donut’s Bronze Dumbass Box gave her a straw hat that looked just like Jason's, but instead gave her a skill ‘Honey Trap’ which would attract enemies to her. She liked that she could match with Jason, but didn’t like the idea of mobs coming after her, so she simply placed it in her inventory.

Chapter Text

They didn’t notice Jason wander back in as Mordecai informed them about why their loot was specific to how they looked and their brand. They also discussed the Desperado Club.

“Jason! Have you been to the Desperado club? It is so much fun! I love their Dirty Shirley and the dancing!”

“No, I have a pass to Club Vanquisher, but I only just got that, I was going to ask you about it.” Jason placed the tray of grilled bird and sausages down, allowing them to dig in. This time they got the status effect “Good Eatin’” which would make spells cost less, but their dexterity was brought down because of ‘meat sweats’ for the next 3 hours. 

“It's good that we can now cover all of our bases, I don’t know what to expect from Vanquisher though.”

Mordecai was happy to explain, “You’ll be asked to worship a deity once you enter, and you’ll have access to a different market than these two do, meaning we might have access to more goods. You also have different guild halls.”

Jason: How does deity worship work with my whole thing? Isn’t the World Phoenix already, like, my deity?

System AI: The World Phoenix should’ve been here if she didn’t want you worshipping others.

“What if I don’t want to worship a deity, worship isn’t really my thing, more the opposite really.”

Mordecai shrugged, “There are some gods that will find that entertaining, and you can worship them, and I suggest you do. We shouldn’t toss this resource away because you have an ego.”

“Do I look like a man with an ego?” This was the first time the Princess Posse has actually looked at Jason. Without the robes that he had travelled with them in, he looked like a complete and utter dork. Carl found it strange how the man seemed so intimidating to him earlier, upon first sight only for him to look like a suburban dad out of a 60s commercial. 

“Something about your face tells me you are.” Mordecai stated, with such a matter of a fact tone that it stung just a little bit.

“Fair.” Jason pulled a coupon out of his inventory, “Something tells me that the Penis Parade is more of a Desperado Club thing, so here.” He handed it to Donut.

Donut purred with glee as she took it into her inventory, “Carl, we must go as soon as possible, I know this coupon is bound to expire soon and a gift like this shan’t be wasted.” She hopped onto his shoulder.

“If you guys are heading to your club, I should head to mine. Don’t want to sit through the introductions and such if we need to get to something there in a hurry, right?”

Carl nodded, “Sounds good. We’ll meet back here in time for the recap.”

Donut perked up, “Oh! Maybe we will see how you and Mongo bravely defended me! Wouldn’t that be so much fun?” 

Jason nodded, “I haven’t gotten the chance to watch a recap before, it’ll certainly be interesting.” and with that he left.

Mordecai looked at the other two strangely, “Your new friend is an odd one.”

“But a good one.” Carl defended, before they too left.

***

Jason meandered the town, looking through market stalls and such until he finally found the place he had been looking for.

Club Vanquisher was in a tall church temple, and Jason was beginning to dread entering the building. On his Earth, Gods weren’t real, and based on what Donut had said, Gods aren't real here either. It felt wrong to worship a fake deity for Aliens benefits, especially if he didn’t even worship gods on Pallimustus, where they actively walked around and stuff. But, for the benefit of his little party, maybe he could find someone he could tolerate, and they could move on.

Maybe.

Jason stepped into Club Vanquisher and was met with a little ram priest, “Good Day, mate! I recently got a little ring that allows me entrance to your fine establishment, and I was hoping to get the whole ‘Welcome to our Cult Following’ talk done and out of the way.”

The ram priest seemed to glower at Jason, “Which Deity do you worship?”

“Don’t know yet, I’ve yet to meet any of yours. Can you point me in the direction of the God that is least likely to smite me for sarcasm? Unfortunately, it's my native language. Not something I am able to bear getting rid of.”

The ram priest opened the door, and the room beyond that was a long hallway, “You’ll find a hall of different followings here, once you settle on a deity, you’ll have access to the rest of the club.”

“Cheers!” Jason moved through the door and started looking for one he could bear. Every door he hovered on allowed him a synopsis of the god that the temple belonged to. Some of the doors shine, like they are inviting him in. Doors to beings like Grull, Ysalte, Algos, Asojano and lastly Yemaya. Some of the doors that were glowing looked old, crumbling, like no one had entered their chambers in a long time. Jason wondered if those gods were fading out. 

Grull was described as a party animal by the AI, a god of War that enjoys loud music, so much so that you'll get a boost if you fight while listening to what the AI classified as ‘Hardcore Dad Rock’. Ysale, A goddess of hopelessness and madness, Jason didn’t want anything to do with that. In fact, he liked to think he was a rather hopeful individual. Algos was the God of pain, it must've been calling to him due to his power set, but pain isn’t something that Jason really wanted to condone.  Asojano was a deity of smallpox, he would boost the spread of afflictions, his sister, Yemaya would boost healing, which Jason didn’t really have. It confused him as to why she was calling out to him. Maybe she just wanted someone to worship her, someone to prove she wasn’t forgotten.

Jason took a closer look at Asojano. 

Also known as the Lord of Smallpox, Asojano is one of the most respected and feared of the Orishas, a former god made flesh upon the rise of the Ascendency.

As the worshippers of these gods grew more and more extinct, their temples crumbled, and the power of these former deities waned. Eventually, they faded into nothing, slipping away beyond the veil, becoming nothing more than any other ghommid, only able to visit the physical world on occasion.

One day, not so long ago, Asojano found himself  in a small town, visiting the world he once helped rule. There was no malice to his actions. He came just so he could look upon what he once had and what he had lost.

Still, power lingers, even in the most forgotten of shells.

Asojano is disease incarnate. He kills, and he heals. He is life, and he is death. He also wears a reed hat that makes it difficult to see where he's going, so he bumps into stuff a lot.

He then looked at Grull.

The child of Taranis and Apito, Grull, the god of war, is one of the few trueborn heirs to the Celestial Ascendency. Known for his energetic personality, Grull is one of the few Gods that might be able to put up with you. Besides, there is a little secret between him and your new friends, might be worth all that… equine roid rage.

Jason didn’t know how to feel about the second description, but from the benefits he had seen earlier, neither was truly a bad choice for him. Now which of the two to choose? He decided to flip a coin, heads he’d worship Grull, Tails for Asojano.

Chapter Text

With all of that out of the way, Jason was free to go through the exclusive markets and guild halls. He had a lovely conversation with an individual called Milk, she was very soft-spoken in an almost motherly type way. Well, not any of the mothers he knows, but still… maybe big sister was a better way to put it. Jason was happy to glean information from her regarding maps, different inks, and how portals worked. He hadn’t tried to use his shadow jumping ability yet, having only been here two days, but he wondered how it worked in congruence with all of that. He also noticed his map of the dungeon was more vast than what others had, likely because it was from a different system, but he didn’t mind. The more information, the quicker he could end the Crawl and the quicker he could get home.

Navigating the markets, he ran into other crawlers. Most didn’t oppose his friendly introductions and attempts to strike up conversations, and he got quite a few fist bumps, meaning he could communicate with those people later. One was a loud belting goat man and his mom. His mom, Miriam, was kind and exchanged fist bumps, the goat man however, refused and screamed at Jason at least 2 times. Jason could tell something was different about Prepotente, but did his best to be respectful. 

Jason grabbed a few things he found interesting, most were marked ‘alchemy ingredients’ but he had the feeling they could make amazing recipes too. He was happy to find that all his gold and silver was accepted by the markets, and as he was still getting his currency type when he looted mobs, he had plenty to go around.

Jason continued to wander the trading hall, learning more about the Crawl from NPCs, Crawlers, and NonCombatants that ran some of the guilds. The more he learned, the more he hated the crawl. This didn’t surprise him too much, he hated the thing he was sent to stop. What did was how something like this had been allowed to continue. Everything in Media tells you there's laws put in place to prevent this kind of stuff. Not that he always trusts the media, but he felt like if there were gonna be aliens, that's how they should run things.

He ended up being a little late, only missing the beginning of the recap. 

“Jason, sit here!” Donut swished her tail over an empty seat, “Fitz! Another of your finest burgers!”

“Right away, your Majesty!”

Jason recognized the one of the goats on screen, the other one would be nightmare fuel for some unsuspecting child. Mordecai explained the transformation from the pet biscuit, “No wonder Prepotente is so uptight, he used to be a normal goat and is now a hairy wizard.”

Donut was very excited to see how Jason and Mongo defended her, until she realized that it was only for 15 seconds, and that Jason had released a swarm of leeches. 

“Um, Jason…” Jason looked at the cat, “What the hell was that?!”

Jason pricked his finger and released a single leech, “This is Colin, he's my… pet?”

“Why did you say that like it was a question? And why do you have a blood worm for a pet!”

“He's more a companion than a pet, and he's not a blood worm, he's a leech… in this form.”

Mordecai perked up at this, “He has other forms?”

“Yeah, he is a swarm, and the swarm can come together to create a human form.”

“Were you infected with the parasite when you came down here, and now you have superpowers? Why do you have a leech!”

“I got it from a boss I defeated early on. Like my first day dealing with crazy stuff.”

Donut would have raised an eyebrow if she could, “Do you have any other… companions?”

“Yeah, but they’re a surprise tool that’ll help us later.”

“Please tell me they don’t come out your ass, or eyes, or something morbid.”

“Nah, nothing like that. Only Colin.” Jason smiled.

Carl looked Jason up and down, “Now that I think about it, what kind of character build are you? The AI says you have an Anti-Tracker skill, so I can’t see it like I can with Donut.”

“I can cast afflictions, bleed and necrosis mainly. I also have… spells that allow me to use shadows to hide and move.”

Mordecai looks impressed, “A build like that is a good one, means you can cause the damage you need and can duck and cover too. No wonder you don’t have any air time, it must be nearly impossible for the cameras to track you.”

“Yeah, I’m good at keeping everything on the down low.”

“Somehow, I doubt that.”

Carl nodded, “So we have some slow acting damage, that's good, we didn’t have anything that would work for bigger bosses like that.”

“Beating bigger bosses is kind of my thing.”

After the recap, everyone decided to call it a night.

***

Despite saying they were going shopping yesterday, apparently the rest of the princess posse got side tracked. Today they were going shopping.

“Oh! A nice little family outing, you’re joining us too, right Jason?” 

Jason shrugged, “Wouldn’t want to impose-”

“Jason, I insist. A little Princess Posse Family outing is just what the viewers want.”

System AI: The viewers want it, which is part of the problem. You’re supposed to be on the down low!

“Maybe next time, I’m gonna get some training in. Like you were apparently doing yesterday.” 

Donut huffed, “Fine.”

Carl looked to Jason, “Let us know if you need back up.”

“Will do!”

Jason wouldn’t get experience in training his abilities while he was here, but it would be good to keep the reflexes sharp. He asked for Shade and Gordon to come out of hiding, to which they did, and they trained together.

He found that he could still use Shade to spy, and he wondered if he would be able to disrupt the cameras here like he did on his Earth. 

“I can assure you, Mister Asano, outside of the cameras that are for other crawler feeds, you will be invisible. From what I can tell, Princess Donut would be quite upset should you not be on her feed. Besides, they may find it suspicious if on recaps, you simply were not there.”

Jason had to agree with the Shadow Familiars' reasoning. 

Gordon’s butterflies were a huge boon on the battlefield, wiping out swarms of mobs like the urchins and something called a Neighborhood Boss. Jason was beginning to think he should have summoned Gordon to protect Donut, maybe then she wouldn’t have freaked out on him.  

Chapter Text

With the start of the Crawl happening so early, It took a while for certain ships to get in orbit of the planet in order to help supervise the running of the show. The Kuatin had been busy since the start of the third floor, sorting things out, making sure the better sponsors got the attention they wanted in order to get the funding they needed. Only a small handful were actually paying attention to the Crawl.

A younger intern Kuatin, Bardz, was keeping an eye on the feed, trying to make sure he was understanding all the things his superiors had trained him on. He noticed a man that the system had no information on. They tried to pull up past interactions, past boss battles, past anything that would prove that he was on the show. But Bardz was unable to find anything.

Of course, there were the rogue elements such as Agatha, but the man parading under the name Jason Asano was not like her. He had a character sheet, skills and abilities, and could loot things.

Crawler Number: 12,897,000

Crawler Name: Jason Asano 3

Crawler Level: 35

Race: Corrupted

Class: Party Cook

Strength: 100 + 12

Intelligence: 100 + 12

Constitution: 100 + 15

Dexterity: 100 +  13

Charisma: 100 + 25

Skills:

Defiant

Harvest

Infusion

Anti-Tracking

Luck

Spells:

Too Sexy for My Shirt

Protective Shell

Summon Leech Swarm

Shadow Jump

Punish

Verdict

Bardz couldn't help but feel that the character sheet had been falsified. There was no way a crawler had made it through the dungeon with so few skills or spells and had over a hundred stat points by the third floor. Unless he had been extremely lucky. They decided to look through the feed once more, scanning through the halls, the different Crawlers. But they found no trace until Jason popped up on Donut's feed in the plot of Scavengers Daughter. He wondered if Jason was a character in that plot. But then, he wouldn't have been able to join the Princess Posse the way that he did.

Bardz decided to ask Zev about it, after all, she was very involved in Crawlers Carl and Donut.

When Bardz found Zev and pointed out all his evidence that something was fishy about the whole scene, he remembered one extremely important factor. Bardz was an Intern. And as sweet as Zev is, she has Crawlers to manage, and bosses hounding her due to her lack of status.

Zev waved Bardz off several times before snapping at them, telling him if he had anything substantial, surely someone would already be looking into it. When Bardz asked if anyone had approached Zev about it, it delved into another scathing conversation.

“Bardz, I have a hell of a lot more problems then some low ranked crawler now hanging around my main problem project. If I’m not careful, they are going to pull me off the contract I'm on now and hand it off to some Bloom member. I can’t play detectives with you. I’m sorry, if it worries you, just know there is probably someone far more qualified working on it, and not bothering me about it because they think this is all going to be taken from me.” Zev tried to walk away.

“But what if nobody has brought it up to you because nobody has noticed! This could be something huge! And if we can figure it out, maybe it can fix all of the scrutiny you and I are under!”

Zev sighed, “That’s highly unlikely. If they did find a problem that has tied itself to my Crawlers, they’d likely find a way to blame me. Now quit with it before we both get in trouble.”

This time, Bardz let her walk away. Not because he was taking her advice, but because they realized they would simply have to take it into his own fins.

***

Outside of the Kuatin, Open Intellect Pacifist Action Network also took interest in the new Crawler that was on Crawler Carl's Feed. They typically watched the crawl through a select few feeds, scouting in a sense. They liked Carl's spirit, they liked his determination and felt that he would work for them wonderfully. Especially with the show giving him villainous lighting. Adding this new individual with low air time, high stealth skills and other notable qualities, they were beginning to have a different kind of hope growing.

***

Jason knew that he was on a filmed survival series, but something was leaving him with the feeling of being watched. Shade insisted that the cameras would be unable to detect him unless another crawler acknowledged him, bringing him to the attention of any onlookers. Still, the feeling of being known and watched was sinking into his bones.

He wanted to give them a show, and he would, but he needed to learn just a little more about the game he was playing. He wasn’t going to rush in when the world and future planets were at stake. But boy, was he excited for the finale that he was working on for them.

Chapter Text

Jason met up with the others after training, as it turned to night. They rented out three rooms altogether, the creature running the Inn happy to cater to Donuts whims.

Carl and Donut were catching Jason and Mordecai up on the Quest they had undertaken, Jason would have argued that the plot was being pushed on them, but for once, decided to keep his mouth shut.

“Let’s work through what we already know. We have dead prostitutes from outside the city falling from the sky. These women have corpses that suggest they’ve been twisted to death. Futhermore-”

“Furthermore? Really? Do we get achievements for using big boy words or something?”

Carl ignored Jason and continued, “Furthermore, they have wounds on their shoulders that indicate they’ve been held aloft by something with talons. Possibly a Skyfowl. And just a few hours after we said we’d do something about it, the woman who gave us the quest ends up dead. We’re attacked by that crazy elf dude from that gang along with three scary looking ghost ladies with their guts hanging out.”

Jason gets a bit of a gross feeling about ghosts with their organs hanging out. He knows a variety of deaths aren’t pretty, peaceful, or anything along those lines, but he can’t recall coming across a creature that looked like that or killed someone in those types of ways. Although, with his mothers obsession with Japanese culture, he does recall a story about ghosts like that. Something about spirits being punished for morally questionable activities. His mother did not have teach him about it, in fact, the mythologies of Japanese culture might have been some of the only culture research he did as a kid when his mother pushed for such a thing.

Suffice to say, his mother wasn’t too pleased with what interest her son did take.

“You have those two pieces of paper,” Donut contributed to the conversation while Jason got over his heebie jeebies.

While Mordecai looked over the paper, Jason shared his theory, “Must be some sort of necromancer, yeah? Pretty Ghost ladies, they’re part of Japanese myths, and that myth covers prostitutes. And if the Ghosts aren’t attacking all willy nilly, they must be under someone's control.”

Mordecai nodded along with Jason, “This letter is in Necroscript, I can't read exactly what it says, but I recognize enough to know that.” Jason was now especially glad that Farrah wasn’t with him, she loathed undead beings. “Krasue are usually henchmen, err, henchwoman for something else, a Lich would make sense.”

“What’s a Lich?” Donut tilted her head, in that confused pet way.

“I was right then, A necromancer?”

“Sort of, they’re nasty monsters, and tend to be pretty smart.” Mordecai agreed enough with Jason for him to do a tiny fist pump, happy to have been right.

“What does a lich have to do with those 201st Security Group assholes?”

Jason wasn’t there for that part of the conversation, and it felt weird how the NPCs were reacting to this event. Jason began to think about the NPCs he interacted with in the two, three(?) days he had been here. He thought that outside of the crawlers from earth, everything else was generated by the System AI. But watching Ftiz interact with Donut, he had the feeling they were more than he first thought.

Jason turned to Mordecai, “You're an NPC aren’t you?”

Mordecai shook his head, “No, I started off as a Game Guide before Donut got me added to the party as her Manager.”

“But, typically, Game guides are a form of NPC, something computer generated in order to help you better understand how the game works before you get to a higher level and no longer need the guide. So, are you like, an AI interface?”

“What kind of idea is that? I was a Crawler in one of the seasons before this season.” Mordecai sighed, “Who’s your game guide, they clearly lead you astray.”

“I never really had a game guide.”

“That’s not possible, you wouldn't be able to access your inventory.”

“The AI unlocked it for me, which is why I thought you were an AI interface. Hold on, you mean to tell me that you were abducted from your home, forced to play some messed up Survival D&D world, then made to watch as others thrown in your situation died? When do you get out of the Crawl?”

“We all take contracts when we leave, the deeper the level we hit, the less time we have to spend in the Crawl.”

“So, are all the NPCs former crawlers?”

“No, typically Game Guides, Guild Hall Managers, and some others sprinkled in.”

Jason looked dumbfounded, “You mean to tell me, that after probably the most traumatic experience of your lives, you have to continue with the crawls, helping others to survive their trauma? What about when you get out?”

“There are organizations that will set Crawlers up with homes, jobs, therapy, whatever they need.”

“And the NPCs?”

“They’re complicated.”

“How?”

“All NPCs are biological creatures. The majority of NPCs were engineered and printed by the production company, this season, that's the Borant Corporation, which means that the production company owns them.”

“You mean to tell me that the Corporation makes these people, throws them into this game, and the Crawlers do what they need to do with them?”

“Sometimes, they can also be people that were on the planet that died and then Borant just uses them to play the monster.”

“They’ll use people?!” Jason must've been missing Gary, he seemed to have started growling.

“To the Corporation, they’re materials that they can use for whatever they need.” 

Jason was ready to blow with this new found information. All the ‘monsters’ he had killed were biologically engineered by these Borant people for that purpose. All the creatures that Donut and other crawlers were manipulating were biologically engineered, actual people, that no one seemed to bat an eye at. The Guild Hall Masters, the Game Guides, were traumatized people that were being held captive from whatever home awaited for them. 

Jason was going to get every one of them out of there. And keep it from ever happening again.

Chapter Text

After a night of rest, the Princess Posse decided to head out to the Skyfowl Settlement. Before they even exited the Inn, they found another unfortunate clue. It was the body of a dead, naked woman with the words ‘No, you won’t’ carved into her back. Carl pulled the corpse into his inventory, and they moved forward. 

Jason didn’t know exactly what to expect when they entered the administrative buildings, but it was great for his parkour. He would jump the building and use his shadow teleport while Donut and Carl would use a spell the cat had called Puddle Jumper for one jump before resulting in them using parkour too. With the system AI covering the communications, Jason couldn’t very easily excuse using his own, nor did he have access to it, meaning he could not see exactly what Puddle Jumper did unless Donut decided to tell him.

After going up multiple levels of the settlement, the group nearly runs into a human at what they hope to be the final set of stairs.

“Pardon me.” The woman was beautiful, with dark hair and two distinct eyes, one a pale blue, the other a dark brown.

“No worries” Carl said in sync with Jason’s, “No pardon required.”

She paused, looking between the two, “Are you lost? We don’t see too many of your kind around here.”

“Just on our way to see the Magistrate. Any pointers?”

She snorted, “You would find better use of your time elsewhere. Good luck.” She then continued down the stairs.

The trio continued until they reached a reception area. There was a large desk in one corner, with piles of folders and paperwork, alongside a bento box. Behind the desk were hundreds of stuffed monsters and animals, some being boxed like they were valuable. Behind the desk, on a perch was an elderly bird woman. Jason and the others took a moment to examine her.

Miss Quill - Skyfowl. Level 30.

Assistant to the Magistrate.

Cerberus. Heimdall. Aniketos and Alexiares. Some of the greatest gate guardians of both history and mythology. But none of them, not a one, was as dedicated to their work as Miss. Quill. 

If she doesn’t want you to see the magistrate, you ain’t seeing the magistrate.

The plan had been to let Donut sweet talk any guards, seeing as her charm was so high, and see where that would get them. If that didn’t work, Jason and Carl would pull out other means.

“Do you have an appointment?” She asked the cat.

“We don’t, but we have a matter of great importance to discuss regarding the safety of this town.”

“And what is that matter?”

Donut leaned in, and whispered in a dramatic sense, “Murder, murder most foul.”

Miss Quill blinked, seemingly unimpressed, “Was it a Skyfowl?”

“The suspect?” Donut asked, “We don’t know yet, but-”

“Not the suspect- Put that down!” She screeched at Carl as he had picked up a stuffed toy lemur that was on the desk. She then turned her attention back to Donut, “Were any skyfowl murdered?”

“No, not that we know of.”

“Then he is not going to care. And if he is not going to care, I’m not going to disturb him. Because he will care about that.”

Jason decided it was time for plan B, “That’s how it is then? You guys are so bigoted that you’ll let a murderer roam your streets so long as it's not one of ‘your kind’ being killed?”

“Yes, that is how it is. It was that way for my late husband as magistrate and it continues to be that way.”

“Well, we were going to save you the trouble of working on this case, seeing as how everyone seems so comfortable, but if that's how it is going to be, we will make sure to leave our evidence for you lot to continue investigating. Especially if it turns out we were wrong, and a skyfowl was a victim.” Jason nodded at Carl, who then unceremoniously dropped a dead body onto the desk.

The corpse was stiff with rigor and knocked some of the stuffed toys off the desk. Jason decided to pick some up and place them in his inventory as the large bird woman shouted for the guards.  The guards arrived, and upon seeing Carl, ignored the request of Miss Quill to capture the group, turning back around and walking down the stairs.

Donut and Carl probed at Miss Quill, using the fact that gore was getting on the stuffed toys to goad her into getting what they needed. Only to find out that the Magistrate wasn’t there and there was no way to get through the door Miss Quill was guarding. 

Donut seemed disappointed and stated as much, “That was disappointing. Do you think he was actually in there?”

“Mordecai seems to think he lives there, but who knows?”

“We don’t even know for sure if he has anything to do with it.”

“No, but that’s why it would have been a good idea to talk to him.” Jason added, before continuing, “Especially out in daylight. If he was some big spooky boss he wouldn't go all slasher film on us where people could see so we could get a good grasp on the situation, even finding other clues. It was a good plan… well, except for the fact that no one seems to care too much about anyone that is a skyfowl, but we didn’t know that yet.”

Carl nodded, “I don’t think this quest is supposed to be all that complicated anyway. It's only a silver rank one. All the clues point to him too, with him being a black cleric that only comes out at night, it has to be him.”

“So, we’re coming back tonight?” Donut got distracted by a shopkeeper.

Eventually, Carl answered her question. “We’ll talk to him, one way or another.”

Chapter Text

Donut and Carl warned Jason that they were going to be pulled away to an interview, so they decided to split up for the rest of the day, get some training done, then meet back up to take down the boss. 

Jason was once again disgusted by the Crawl, “They’ll just pull you out of this life-or-death game, interview you or make you do little infomercials about Earth, then drop you back in?”

“They won’t pull Crawlers out in the middle of a big fight if they can help it, typically they ask you to get into a safe room, but if the person makes them enough money, they’ll make it work whichever way.” Mordecai had once again taken it upon himself to explain the inner workings of the Crawl with Jason. He seemed to enjoy explaining how corrupt it was.

For Mordecai, he did enjoy how much he got to tell Jason, whenever he talked to the man, he didn’t get any of the warnings from the system about any such topic that may have a red flag with other crawlers. As long as Donut and Carl were far enough away, Mordecai could cover whatever he wanted with Jason. He wondered if it had anything to do with Jason not having a Game Guide, or the Anti-Tracker ability. Mordecai could see Jason's character sheet in the way a Game Guide could see their charges, he had yet to tell the other two and he was curious as to how everything worked for Jason.

Crawler Number: 12,897,000

Crawler Name: Jason Asano 3

Crawler Level: 65🔒

Race: Outworlder

Class: Affliction Skirmisher

Strength: 100 + 12

Intelligence: 100 + 12

Constitution: 100 + 15

Dexterity: 100 +  13

Charisma: 100 + 25

He had a number of skills and spells that Mordecai had heard various of, but they were terrifying to say the least. He also had never seen a Crawler being locked at a certain level. With Donut and Carl gone, Mordecai decided to question the deadly man in front of him, “Who are you really?”

Jason smiled, a smile that would’ve unnerved any person with the brains to know to be unnerved, “Whatever do you mean?”

“Being a Game Guide turned Manager, I’m allowed access to more things than most, and there is no way they would let someone like you loose on the Crawl.”

“Shade?” Jason called out to no one Mordecai could see.

“You are all clear Mr. Asano. There are no crawlers, no cameras, and nothing that will pick up your vocals.”

Jason also checked with the AI.

System AI: He’s another reason I told you about Carl, too smart for his own good. You’re in the clear from our end too.

Jason nodded, “I’m not actually a crawler, you could call me many things, handsome being the main one, or hero, but mainly I'm an interloper. I was sent here, by a being more powerful than anyone could imagine to stop the crawl, by whatever means I want. And with everything I have learned from you, I’m leaning towards more violent means.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know yet. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to gain better access to the inner workings of the crawl on the next floor or two, but my skills and spells that you see, they aren't limited to the crawl. Well, except for the items the AI has given me, those I don’t think I’ll be able to use once I leave. Either way, the things that are so scary and bad, they’ll be effective against whoever is deemed the enemy in this situation. Like the Borant people. If I can find a way to get to them, I can show them a real bad time, and convince them that if they ever do something like this again, I’ll come back and finish the job.” The way Jason’s face contorted while he talked really did run a shiver up Mordecai’s spine. 

“And those outside of Borant.”

“Well, I just found out that Crawlers get to go out, and be on little shows and Infomercials, and interact with those outside the Crawl. I’m sure I can find a way to spread the good word.”

“What’s the good word?”

“No More. The Crawl is to be no more.”

Mordecai and Jason sat in silence for a moment. 

Then Jason spoke up again, “You said there are old crawlers that are still here. Do you know who they are?”

Mordecai knew that if he gave this information over to Jason, he would be aiding in the beginning of a rebellion. He would be aiding in the end of the Crawl. 

The end of the very thing that took his brother from him.

“Let me get back to you on that.” And by god was he happy to be able to avenge his brother.

***

Odette was working with the Borant corporation to get the newest member of the princess posse added to the panel when she saw them next. Since Borant had seen little interest in the man, they added him as a clause to go to the panel every other floor for pretty cheap. 

Odette was happy with this development. While watching through Donut's feed, she had seen him interacting with Mordecai, and some of the others she still has connections to have told her about his interesting personality, she was excited to have him on the show.

Most importantly however, she was excited to see what the addition of this character would do for the Crawl as a whole.

Chapter Text

Jason got more training in while Donut and Carl were gone. With Mongo not being allowed out for the talk show, Donut had elected to leave him with Jason so that he could train up and learn to work with others. Shade ensured that Mongo would not affect the privacy Jason was being granted, and what kind of man wouldn’t want to fight side by side with a dino, so he accepted the offer. 

Mongo hadn’t grown any bigger when he leveled up, thankfully. He also didn’t seem affected when he ate meat that Jason tainted with poison and afflictions, which was a good thing too, Donut would’ve killed Jason had her dino been harmed. Instead, the Dino was a good tool to clean up after Jason, faster than the leech swarm. Jason only had to stop Mongo from eating Collin and Gordons butterflies once, before Mongo ate one anyways and ended up hacking up a large amount of afflicted things. Mongo then steered clear, learning his lesson. Jason, his familiars, and Mongo made good use of the time Donut and Carl were gone, and when they came back, they told Jason to just meet them at the safe room for the Recap.

Once he entered the safe room, Jason saw that a new addition to the party had been made. 

Crawler #9,077,265. “Katia Grim.”

 Level 9

 Race: Doppelganger

 Class: Monster Truck Driver

Strength: 11

Intelligence: 8

Constitution: 51

Dexterity: 30

Charisma: 8

Jason knew that he had a ridiculously high set of stats, but seeing this woman at level nine was crazy to imagine, “Your class is Monster Truck Driver? How cool is that!?”

Katia hadn’t noticed the new person in the room, so she jumped, before turning and smiling shyly at Jason, “Thanks, I think.”

She looked tired, so Jason didn’t bother her with questions, “Jason Asano, Party Cook. It's a class that allows me to buff food to buff my team members.”

“How would that work if you weren’t on a team?”

“Probably poorly, but luckily it didn’t work out that way, yeah?”

Katia smiled at Jason, seemingly pleased to have met such a calm person in the dungeon. 

They talked while the recap was playing, Jason keeping the happy go lucky persona up for Katia’s sake, she was an art teacher before all this, used to childish antics and seemed to enjoy Jason’s company for it.

Jason wondered where her students might have been. 

Were the children excluded from the crawl? Were they excluded from being killed when the games had first started?

He tried not to let his thoughts linger on that, not wanting to get heated before the boss fight he was supposed to participate in.

Once the recap was over, Jason, Carl, and Donut headed out to do just that, leaving Katia behind with excuses of not wanting the first fight where they still haven’t gotten a grasp on her abilities to be a boss battle. Katia seemed appreciative to sit it out.

This late in the evening, the entire town was asleep. The pubs were all closed. Nobody walked the main streets. The only light was from the sign of the Desperado Club a few streets over, towering over the city. An eerie silence punctuated the night, broken occasionally by horrific, unearthly screams that seemed to come from everywhere. In order to break into the magistrate’s home, Jason had offered to teleport the party up to the roof top, and after hearing how the power worked, Donut looked affronted, “Why haven’t we been using this ability the whole time?”

“It’s important for you to train up your abilities too, your Majesty.” Carl nodded his agreement with Jason, “Besides, I needed to know what it looked like before I could transport people there.”

Donut seemed to accept that answer, then the party moved into the alley so as to not draw anyone's attention. The alley contained a group of level 14 monsters called Shadow Leaks. They were smoke-like, ghost-class mobs that swarmed at them as they approached the side of the building. The monsters utilized a stinging cold attack, which was apparently a type of affliction, so Jason grew resistant to it. Thankfully Carl's magical gauntlet was able to damage them just as easily as if they were made of flesh, and Mongo’s magical teeth caps could also hurt them. The ghosts gave off an unusually high amount of experience and were easy to kill. Mongo hit level 13 and got noticeably larger, he’d gone from dog-sized to pony-sized just like that.

Donut leaped from Carl’s shoulders to the back of Mongo to see if she could ride him. But the dinosaur got so excited that he started jumping up and down, tossing Donut away. She poofed all her hair out in anger and returned to his shoulder. 

“We’ll work on that later,” she mumbled. Jason chuckled his amusement before opening the portal. 

The long magistrate building spread before them. They were on the roof across from it, close enough for Carl to detonate his hidden dynamite. Apparently, he had hidden them inside the shelves that held up Miss Quill’s beanie babies. They wouldn’t be able to blow through the magical door that protected the next room over, but just by knocking on the wall, Carl could tell the party could easily breach directly through the wood.

Jason used his perception power, Midnight Eyes, to examine the surroundings, there was nothing. His map indicated that all the guards were in the warehouse across the street, incapacitated. Mordecai insisted they’d remain inactive all night, but there was some cause for concern. Especially when you consider they were about to cause a very large, very loud ruckus. 

 “Here we go,” Carl said. “Get ready.”

 “Wait, I have to remember my lines,” said Donut. She shook her paw and cleared her throat. 

Before too long, Jason began to pick up on mobs coming in quickly, “Up above!”

A group of four krasue emerged, coming from underneath the building. It appeared they’d been on the first, unoccupied floor, waiting for any excuse to emerge. They emerged now, heading toward the groups position on the roof.

“Go,” Carl whispered.

Donut zapped Mongo back onto the roof. Before the dinosaur could screech, she hissed, “Quiet!”

The dinosaur grunted angrily, then realized he was on an angled roof and started scrambling. Donut quickly cast Clockwork Triplicate on the dinosaur and then pulled the original Mongo back into his carrier. The two clockwork Mongos both squeaked with disappointment as Mongo disappeared. Carl pulled the lit smoke curtain into his xistera and tossed it onto the opposite roof, then he lit a second one and wedged it into a roof tile at his feet.

Donut gave a quick set of instructions to the two dinosaurs, and they both howled as the heavy smoke started to billow into the night air. Carl quickly pulled the mysterious letter out.

“We’re jumping onto the roof now,” Carl said as he crumpled up the letter and tossed it up in the air. One of the Mongos grabbed it and swallowed it whole. They then turned and leaped from the roof to the top of the magistrate building, soaring up through the air and landing easily. One of

them howled, the sound carrying heavily into the night.

“Holy shit,” Carl whispered. They’d leaped across the alley and up an entire full story. “You were right. I didn’t think they’d be able to jump that far.”

“Mongo has the same pounce ability as I do,” Donut said. “And he’s a lot bigger.”

“Maybe I should ride him instead of letting you have all the fun,” Carl said as the smoke completely filled the night air. 

“Wait a minute, what about me?” Jason playfully whined.

“Ask one of your familiars.” 

Jason considered it, “That would be rather cool.” He would have to bring this up to Shade at some point.

Meanwhile, the swarm of red dots indicating the krasue turned back toward the roof of the building. The dinos had jumped before the fog had completely filled the area, and the floating women heads had seen the motion.

“Okay, the clockwork Mongos are on the roof right over the Magistrate’s office. Get down.” We moved to the back of the roof, crouching down. 

 “I feel bad about ruining Miss Quill’s collection,” Donut said. “She really loves those things.”

 “Something tells me she’s not going to care anymore.” With that, Carl detonated the explosives. A clockwork Mongo howl filled the air in the moment before night turned to day.

Chapter Text

“Nice!” Jason put his hand up to high five Carl, Carl accepted it.

Below, the entire town had been jarred awake by the explosion. Lights turned on throughout the village. Cries and shouts rose. The dark shadows of skyfowl burst into the air all around the roof, but most stayed back from the destruction. The magistrate’s quarters burned. Carl had blown up half of the building.

A wall of notifications scrolled by, surprising everyone. Donut and Carl leveled up twice, Jason’s levels were still locked, but he was happy to watch the other two make gains.

“Well that was easy,” Donut said as she cast her Torch spell, filling the rooftop with brilliant light. The smoke bomb sputtered to a stop, and the light reflected off the remnants, pulsing.

“Oh shit,” Carl was likely examining the notifications. Jason took the time to do the same.

New achievement! Assassin’s Accomplice!

You have taken part in the killing of a ranking NPC town official. *Sniff* It seems like just yesterday you weren’t even here. Now look at you. You’ve moved all the way up to political assassinations. What next? Killing a god?

Reward: You’ve received a Bronze Assassin’s Box!

“Been there, done that.” He continued reading.

 New achievement! CockBlock!

 You have assisted in the assassination of an NPC whose existence was required to complete another crawler’s quest. (NPC Killed: Miss Quill – Skyfowl. Level 30.) Who was that other crawler? What was the quest? Who fucking cares? You get the reward they were promised!

 Warning: You may only receive this award once. The next time you do it, we tell them who you are. And then they get a new quest to kill you. Nobody likes cockblocks.

Reward: You’ve received a Silver Quest Box!

 So it appeared both Miss Quill and Magistrate Featherfall had been killed in the blast.

“Are we jumping over there or what?” Donut said. “We’re supposed to be jumping!”

“Hang on,” Carl said. “Something’s not right. Let me think for a second.”

“Hey,” Donut said a moment later. “Why did you get the fancy name change and I didn’t? This is an outrage!”

Jason looked at his title, it had changed from Royal Bodyguard to Magistrate Carl of Medium Skyfowl Settlement. “It’s alright Princess. If Carl won’t be your Royal Bodyguard, I will.”

Donut jumped over to Jason’s shoulder and gently headbutted him as she purred. 

“Listen, we have a problem.” Carl seemed a little annoyed as he spoke, “I think we screwed up. Magistrate Featherfall is dead, but the quest is still there. That means he wasn’t the head bad guy. And it looks like Miss Quill wasn’t the bad guy, either, like I was suspecting. And to top it off, we fucked over some other crawler’s quest.”

The plan had been simple. Using the Mysterious Letter as bait, Carl was hoping to make Featherfall think they were about to breach through the ceiling, drawing him to the area to face us. He had also been suspicious of Miss Quill, so he’d done things to bait her out too, just in case. Mordecai said a lich would get blown to bits just as easily as a human. The only monster we’d have to worry about post-detonation would be the krasue, which wouldn’t be hurt by the explosion. After the blast, if there was anything left, they would charge the Magistrate’s office and mop up the remaining bad guys and hopefully figure out what the hell was going on over there.

 “If Miss Quill was there to get blown up, then she had to be in on it. Why else would she be there this late?” Donut asked.

“Maybe,” Carl said. “She said he only came out at night now. Maybe she altered her schedule to match. Or maybe she lived there.”

“Or maybe she was a blood-sucking pawn of the lich. We don’t know, Carl. Let’s go look. Quit being a wuss.”

 “Okay,” He said after a moment. “But let’s be cautious. I have a bad feeling about this one. Turn off your Torch for now, but be ready to snap it back on.”

“Wait, wait, look,” Donut said. “Look at our notifications again. There’s a bronze boss box in there. I told you one of them was a bad guy.”

Carl looked, and noticed she was correct. Either Featherfall or Quill had been a neighborhood boss. But which one was it? It didn’t say.

The dynamite had blown a massive hole in the roof, peeling it up like it had been drilled through from below. Thankfully the building wasn’t fully engulfed in flames. Not yet. Smoke continued to rise from the hole, but it was minimal for now. Jason shadow travelled to the top while Donut used Puddle Jumper to get her and Carl over to the roof across the way.

“You, there!” a voice called, a pair of skyfowl NPCs had grown brave enough to fly closer to the explosion. They hovered over the posse now. “What are you doing?”

“I’m the new town magistrate,” Carl called. “I’m on magistrate business.”

The two eagles looked at each other before calling down,  “Fuck off, you crazy assholes, Go back to the Desperado or wherever you came from. You shouldn’t be up here. There’s been an explosion, and that roof you’re on is going to cave in. We ain’t saving your stupid wingless asses if you fall through.”

“Well, fuck you very much,” He called back to them.

The other skyfowl turned to his companion. “I don’t feel so well. There might be something in the air. Let us flee from here, my brother.” The two circled a few times and then flew off.

Half of the magistrate’s home and front office were just gone, along with the entire south end of the building. The floor of the mall level was also a massive hole and below that was a pile of smoking debris. However, deeper into both the mall and the living quarters above, the floor was mostly intact.

“No wonder there’s not that much fire,” Carl said. “It’s like we punched a hole right through the structure, both up and down. Weird.”

Donut pointed to the side of the building. Across the street, another structure had half caved-in. Thankfully it was a business and not a residence. “Your explosion went up, down, and to the side. But it didn’t blow this way. I wonder if that magic door protected it.”

“Maybe,” Carl said. “But either way, that reception office is just gone. If that’s where Miss Quill and Featherfall were standing at the time, they wouldn’t have had a chance.”

“Those poor stuffed animals,” Donut said. “Now let’s go down there.”

Donut started to wiggle her butt, and then she jumped deftly down into the magistrate’s quarters as Carl tied his rope to a chimney and descended. Jason used his cloak to slow fall down while they did so. 

A few fires crackled here and there, they gave it a wide berth as they explored deeper into the large building. Donut released Mongo, who immediately moved to a small, empty cage against one wall and started sniffing at it.

The magistrate’s office had been just on the other side of the reception area, which meant it was now gone. There was no sign of the magical door. It was probably buried in the debris along with the corpses and all of Miss Quill’s beanie babies. Past the office was the living quarters, which extended the entire length of the mall below it. There wasn’t much here. A few tables and T-shaped roosts. There was a chest against a wall, but it was open and the contents empty. Donut inspected a small cage that interested Mongo. It appeared as if it once held regular-sized mice or rats. The door was open. She pulled the cage into her inventory and came to examine the chest.

While they did that, Jason pulled what he could into his inventory, some stuffed animals and furniture had survived, along with those display cases that had once been the pride of Miss Quill’s collection.

Jason was glad he didn’t necessarily have a stomach for what was to come next.