I Hate Dungeon School

The following day, I woke early, trying my best not to wake my roommates. I noticed Cori was still asleep. Since we had begun our co-conspiracy, she was sleeping in later and getting back home sooner. I liked to think that she felt safer with my being in the loop, and didn't have to be so sneaky about it. That was good. Don't need our trap expert having sleep deprivation after all.

I chuckled to myself. Still hadn't completely shaken my old mindsets about everyone's usefulness. I hoped that would come with time as well.

I dressed in my warmest outfit, not willing to entirely face the freezing horrors of the early morning, and slipped out of the room.

I contemplated breakfast. I know Calderon said a light one would be fine, but I wondered if his light and my light were on totally different wavelengths.

A quick coffee and bowl of porridge would have to suffice today. I obtained these quickly and made my way to the research building. I was still too tired to fully dread what was coming. I had been so nervous I barely slept, and what sleep I did get was the realm of nightmares, as per usual.

At this point, a night without them felt like a treat. A rare unobtainable treat.

Tromping down the dimly lit steps inside the blessedly warm interior of the building, I just was not feeling up to any kind of grace. I didn't even dress in one of my usual outfits. I usually try to dress somewhat befitting a person of noble station, though I hardly qualify for that anymore. Today, though, I wore warmer workout clothes, grey and drab, made out of a material that my fellows called 'sweat clothes', though I didn't really understand why. They did their job, and if I look frumpy, I just didn't care enough today.

I eventually found the door to Calderon's office. It took me a little bit because I swore it had moved from yesterday. Was I more tired than I had previously thought? Probably. I had to assume that it hadn't actually moved, or the line of questioning this would bring me was not something I was up to this morning.

I knocked hard. I didn't want the usual dance of knocking and waiting. I just was in an increasingly foul mood, I realized, and it was going to take a lot of willpower not to take it out on Calderon and whoever he roped into helping with all these tests.

The door popped open a crack, the familiar eyeball appearing.

"Ah! Alta! You're here! Wait just a moment, I'll lead you to the lab." The door shut, and after a few minutes of rustling, he emerged with a sack, stuffed with something bulky. Based just on the shape of the bag, I couldn't even fathom what was in there.

He motioned for me to follow him, which led us to the stairs. One flight. Two flights. More and more flights deeper and deeper down into the bowels of the research facility. I was not looking forward to the return climb. I sighed and just accepted I was getting a workout today, whether I liked it or not.

Eventually, we came down to what seemed to be the lowest level. I had lost count of the stairs at this point, the downward climb feeling like it lasted forever. I checked my timepiece and scowled as I realized it had stopped. I knew I had made sure it was properly wound. I really hoped it wasn't broken.

Calderon must have noticed, as he had a decidedly stupid grin on his face.

"Apologies, Alta. I had forgotten to warn you about that. This is a kind of special floor. The magical wards involved down here have strange effects on magical and mechanical items."

"Yes, you certainly did forget to mention that," I growled at him. "This better not be permanent or I will be deeply upset."

"Understandable, but do not worry! Once you leave the area of effect, it will start back up. You may just need to reset the time on it, is all." He explained quickly, holding his hands in front of him, as if he was trying to defend himself from my irritation.

I simply huffed in response, crossing my arms and looking around, which was an admittedly silly pose considering all my thick layers. I really wish I could have changed out of my cloak and the like before descending the stairs. I was starting to feel a bit sweaty, and I did not care for that feeling at all.

As I scanned the hallway we were in, it suddenly occurred to me why everything felt off. There were no doors down here. It was just a hallway and walls. My sense of danger was beginning to prick up.

"Calderon, please tell me you didn't just drag me to the deepest part of the building for untoward purposes? I may be tired, but I'm fairly certain I could break every bone in your body." I threatened. I doubted he was up to anything harmful, but paranoia gained from training and life didn't go away easily, if at all.

He laughed in response and simply put his hand on a blank wall, a magical circle appearing beneath it. The array of runes spun this way and that a few times before a soft, almost musical chime sounded, and the wall shimmered and vanished, revealing a door with a complicated locking mechanism. It reminded me of the Corridor Dungeon's doors. Almost exactly even.

"Calderon. Is the research facility actually a dungeon?" I asked.

"Perceptive! It is, in a way. I'll explain more once we get inside." The door clanked a few times, gears and pistons shifting positions, and with a reverberating thud, it swung open.

Inside was a pair of familiar faces. Andritch, my professor for dungeoneering basics, and Danica, the sharp-toothed assessor I had met before my duel.

"Welcome, welcome!" Danica grinned at me, her smile almost predatory, though I sensed nothing dangerous about how she carried herself.

"Sorry for the early morning, Marchesi, but we had to get all this done before classes today, and I wanted to see all this in person." She glared at the other two for a moment. "And someone needs to remind these two that their test subject is a living and breathing person."

"Ah, yes, she does kind of serve as the more person-oriented of us." Calderon scratched the back of his head, actually managing to look somewhat ashamed of himself.

"Whatever, get in here. We got stuff to do, and not all day to do it." Danica snapped, grabbing my wrist and dragging me in.

It was dark inside the room, and with a slam of the door, followed by the sound of its mechanism locking, the lights inside began to softly brighten.

I had half expected a room full of contraptions, beakers, sparks of lightning, and a disgusting array of smells. What I was greeted with instead was a quiet and clean room that looked like an office space that had barely been used. The only unusual feature was the presence of three desks, all facing a central chair. A frankly comfortable-looking one at that. The temptation to just sit in it and doze off was great, but I had to resist.

The curiosity of the whole situation was waking me up anyway. Hard to be sleepy when everything kept getting continually weirder with every passing moment.

The other thing that caught my notice was another door on the same wall I had entered from. It could have opened back onto the same hallway I had entered from, but it wasn't nearly as secured. It just looked like a regular door. Curious.

"Please make yourself comfortable, Ms. Marchesi. We don't need you getting heatstroke while we're down here." Andritch indicated the coat rack in one corner of the room. I obliged and did so, feeling relieved to feel a bit cooler.

"Do you need anything before we begin? Coffee, tea, anything like that. We don't have any food to offer you. I hope you had the light breakfast like I suggested." Calderon rattled off, with uncharacteristic kindness. It wasn't that he was a cruel man; he was just apathetic to physical needs sometimes.

Danica just flopped behind one of the desks, a notebook in hand, and tipping her seat back, she just stared at me and twirled a pen in her hands, in an increasingly complicated display of dexterity. It was almost hypnotic, but other things drew my attention away.

"No thank you. I had some porridge and coffee before I came here. I should be ok for a while." I said.

"Good, good to know," Calderon said, pulling out his notebook and scribbling something. Was my every word something of note? I wasn't liking the implications of all of this.

I sat down in the chair, and I was right. It was incredibly comfortable. I resisted with all my might, the urge to just sink into it. Why was it so comfy? I wanted a chair like this. It wasn't an attractive chair, definitely old fashioned, but so damn comfortable!

I sighed with delight and then opened my eyes. The three of them were all seated at the desks, writing away. Danica was to my left, Andritch to the right, and Calderon front and center.

Calderon then set his pen down with a click that still resounded in the room.

"Now then, let's begin, shall we?"

-

I had quickly lost track of time, but they had asked me all sorts of questions. Not only about the incident in the basement, which I had gotten a great number of reproachful glares about from Andritch, but also about the incident in which I had originally found the infant dungeon core, and the intervening time till today.

All kinds of details, both about it and myself. Questions involving sleep patterns, appetite, my magic tolerances and mastery, even questions involving libido, which I was very not comfortable with, but they assured me it was for research purposes. I was intentionally vague about all that, but they seemed satisfied enough.

I wanted to check the time, as I could feel a sense of hunger creeping into my stomach. I could feel the thoughts of the core tickling at the edges of my mind too. It was beginning to feel nervous, for a lack of better term. It was hungry, nervous, and some how curious. Or was that myself, and I was just projecting my feelings on the presence that existed on the edge of my mind?

The three of them ceased their questioning and then met together at the central desk where Calderon sat. They whispered things I couldn't quite catch despite how well sound seemed to carry in this room. They seemed concerned about something, but I didn't really care all that much. Despite hunger, concern, and other emotions, I didn't feel like processing at that moment, I allowed the warmth of the room and the soft comfort of the seat to lull me to sleep.

"Well then, that concludes this portion! Time to move on to the fun part!" Calderon exclaimed, startling me back to the world of wakefulness.

"Mwuh? Ok, ok, ok. What's next?" I rubbed my eyes as I pulled myself upright in the chair.

"Now? Now we get to do the part I excel at! Up with you, sleepy head, we got experiments to do!" Danica grabbed my arms and pulled me out of the seat so suddenly that it took a moment to regain my balance.

Oh, I did not like the sound of this.