Chapter 2, in which I find human relics

Most missions took place in Dungeons close to civilisation. After all, few Pokémon ventured out into the wilds due to how many Dungeons were around. Taking a couple of steps off the beaten path could easily end up as an accidental Dungeon dive. All the better for us, though, as many missions had very short commutes before we were ready to start a dive. We’d reached the entrance of Dark Depths — seemingly an ordinary cavern, were it not for the sign next to it. It stated simply:

Dark Depths

!! WARNING !!

This is a Mystery Dungeon

Entrance prohibited
except for Guild members.

As the few final preparations took place, Nivas and I switched bags, such that I had the supplies bag, and Elm began explaining the full details of the mission.

“We’re looking for a necklace with a silver chain, with the Shining Crown, and a blue gem in the middle,“ she said, pulling out the request itself, a sketch of the necklace on it.

The Shining Crown was a symbol alternatively known as Arceus’ symbol. It was made of two concentric circles, joined by four perpendicular protrusions, following the intercardinal directions. The outer circle was split in two, not joining at the top nor the bottom. It was typically represented in gold, though the necklace we were looking for was silver.

“What do we know about the Dungeon?“ asked Nivas.

“Not TOO bad, but still, eleven floors. The stairs go down, so keep an eye on the floors to make sure we don’t miss them.“ Elm scowled. “With my luck, we’ll find the necklace on the very last floor.“

“And what are we fighting?“ I asked.

“You — almost nothing.“ She glared at me. After a brief pause, she continued. “For the rest of us, though, there’s going to be mostly Poochyena, Murkrow, and Nickit.“

“Cheer up, Elm!“ said Arc, ever energetic.

“No.“

And with this terse reply, she’d turned to enter Dark Depths.

Dark Depths
B1F

As the rest of us stepped into the entrance of the cave, the atmosphere of the Mystery Dungeon took over. The air was thick and foreboding. It felt as if I was constantly on the verge of a headache. I could almost feel the pain, but it wasn’t ever enough to impair me in the slightest.

One would expect a subterranean Mystery Dungeon to look like a cave, and they wouldn’t be wrong — though it was the single most unnatural cave one could imagine. The shape of the cavern was completely too straight, and included too many right angles; every room would be perfectly rectangular, every corridor square, with perfectly orthogonal bends and intersections. The angles themselves were never visible, rounded off by seemingly natural formations of rock, yet the overall shape of everything was far too rectilinear.

Dungeons played on the senses quite often too. Everything felt too ephemeral — too immaterial — at a glance. Walls would wave and shimmer, ever so slightly; sounds and echoes would be lightly too distant, too hazy. And yet, focusing on anything in particular would completely dispel those feelings, as if the Dungeon itself couldn’t hold up the illusions under intense scrutiny. As dreamlike as it felt, this last part was the one grounding feature of Mystery Dungeons — no matter how confused, how illusioned you were, your senses would never truly betray you. They’d only make you think they did.

Looking around, we were in a room with one exit hallway. The entrance behind us — if, indeed, it ever existed — was completely gone, having left no trace.

“It’s always so nice when we don’t have to make a choice,“ chuckled Amber.

“We’re coming for you, Dungeon ’mon!“ shouted Arc. He was on his toes, clearly ready to run ahead, but waited for the rest of the party to follow. After all, this was a Mystery Dungeon, and if anything was certain, it was that danger lurked around every corner.

Since the Dungeon was quite dark, Amber pulled out a Luminous Orb. He’d lit it by rubbing its surface. All other Orbs activated upon shattering, of course, and the only reason the Luminous Orb was an exception was the necessity of a container for the created light.

We’d entered the hallway, and I’d entered last. We’d spilled out into a room with two hallways, and a set of stairs in the corner, heading deeper underground. Stairs were another of the strange constants between Mystery Dungeons. They were plain, but identical in every Dungeon — a light hue of grey, strangely smooth. In above ground Dungeons, they’d led up, seemingly nowhere; it seems that below ground, they’d led down, into a perfectly dark abyss.

There was also an Escape Orb on the floor. It was well known that Dungeons rearranged their layouts quite often, and that items lost by previous explorers could be found scattered about.

“Dang, first item. Looks like a bad sign to me, guys,“ noted Elm, dripping with sarcasm.

“What’s with you today?“ I asked. “You’re not usually this pessimistic.“

It was true. These last two days, although easily annoyed, she clearly enjoyed Dungeon diving with her team. Her sour disposition today had me concerned for her.

The Snivy’s only reply was to walk up to the Escape Orb, and pick it up. Then, looking back at me and the bag, clearly not having thought this through, she strode for the stairs, Escape Orb in hand, clearly not intending to give me a chance to ask the question again. Fortunately for me, Nivas was here to pick up the slack.

“You’ve been to the University, right? I thought ’mon like you were smart! You should know that Grass types’ moods are affected by sunlight.“

“Ah, thanks. And no, I did not study biology, but rather history,“ I replied.

Amber and Nivas chuckled at my remark, since, as I’d later learn, this was common knowledge. I’d merely been too much of a shut-in to have Grass type friends.

“Why did she pick this mission then?“ I asked, remembering she was the one to have chosen this mission.

“She told me she wanted to try getting more comfortable with cave missions,“ answered Amber.

“She’s doing much better than before,“ added Nivas. “If you saw her during our first cave mission, you’d swear she was a Dungeon Pokémon,“ Nivas said, still chuckling. Elm began walking faster, clearly resenting the remark.

“Hey Elm! Wait up! We haven’t picked as a team if we’re going through the stairs yet!“ yelled Arc, now running after her.

“The necklace is probably not on the first floor, though, right? Even then, if it is, we just reenter the Dungeon and check this floor specifically,“ suggested Amber.

“Sounds good to me!“ said Nivas.

That might seem like a poor idea, after hearing that Dungeons could change their layouts and move items around, but oddly enough, items always stayed at the same floor. As such, if we took the stairs now, we were only delaying searching this floor until later. As the rest of us agreed, we went down the stairs, to find ourselves on the second floor, with no trace of the staircase behind us.

The next few floors were fairly eventless, so I shall skip them for your convenience.

---

Dark Depths
B6F

We had scoured the previous floors, though we’d found little. No sign of the necklace itself, but we did find a Sleep seed, and a handful of Stun seeds. More disappointingly for me, there had been no sign of any human related artefacts either. Although we’d been unable to eke out a quick victory, we’d found solace in the fact that the Dungeon had posed no real threat thus far. The few Dungeon Pokémon we’d found were easily dispatched, and we’d needed no items — everything was going well.

We had come out on the sixth floor, into a plain room, same as all the others, completely rectangular. There were four corridors around us.

“Did we bring the four-sided die with us this ti—“ asked Nivas.

“OOO!!! Let me roll the dice!!!“ interrupted Arc, now running straight at me.

I’d swiftly opened the bag, and searched one of the smaller pouches, to find a simple blue triangular base pyramid, edges laced in yellow, in an intricate design. The calligraphy on the numbers around each point was quite nice, and showed the effort put into the creation of such a simple object.

Supposedly, Elm enjoyed role-playing games before she’d actually found herself on this team. She’d given this die to the team, who now used it to choose a path when there were exactly four to choose from — not the most common scenario, but I imagine the team enjoys having their traditions.

“One, north; two, south; three, east; four, west,“ claimed Amber, setting the stage.

Arc rolled the die, which came up on two. I repacked the die, and we headed south, entering yet another corridor. We’d almost reached the next room when —

“Look alive!“ warned Elm, holding the lead.

She began running out the corridor, clearing the path for the rest of us, taking position in the room. Inside were two Nickit, a Murkrow, and a Geodude, all startled by our sudden appearance. Elm was already running towards one of the Nickit.

I lined myself up to fight the Geodude. After all, it was the only one I could use my strongest abilities on. The others had all teamed up to fight the Dark types — it was better to split up and take on as many as possible at once. Dungeon Pokémon were too weak to pose threats in one-on-one fights, so it’s better to avoid swarming by dealing with all of them simultaneously.

I waited for the Geodude to approach me, as I prepared to breach its psyche. As Dungeon Pokémon were quite weak, I’d quickly found my way in, and saw its attempt at a Rock Throw before it’d even tried it.

Easily dodged, I’d focused a quick Psybeam directly at it. In an attempt to evade, it spun sideways, though it hadn’t dodged fast enough. My attack only amplified its spin, dizzying it. I ran in, for the finishing blow, just a simple Scratch. Quite anticlimactically, the Geodude fainted.

I’d turned around to see what the others were doing. Elm’s Nickit had also already fainted, and she’d also turned around, ready to help. Arc and Nivas were finishing off the Murkrow, while Amber had been hit by the second Nickit, lightly bleeding.

Quick on my feet, I used some psychic energy to break off a nearby stalagmite, and shot it at Amber’s opponent. Direct hit, though the Nickit, quite resilient, was still standing, if lightly dazed. Amber, spotting an opportunity, swiftly used Absorb, closing his wound, and fainting the enemy.

“Thanks!“ he’d yelled my way.

Looking around once more, the last of our enemies was fighting off paralysis. Elm delivered a finishing blow, with a Tackle.

“WOOO THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!!“ yelled Arc, still jumping with excitement. I never figured out where he got his energy — though Electric types were often energetic, Arc was on a whole other level.

“Nice going, team,“ complimented Amber.

Elm was still as silent as could be, as she’d been for most of the rest of the dive — though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t notice a smile flit across her face. She began looking around the room, probably for exits.

“Hey, Amber, I noticed you got hurt. Need an Oran berry or anything?“ I offered.

“Nah, Absorb completely patched it up for me, I’ll be fine. Besides, it’s always good to save our resources.“

It has now occurred to me that this book might be one to cross dimensions. If that is the case, I would like to offer an explanation regarding Dungeon Pokémon and our violent actions just now.

See, if it wasn’t already clear by now, Mystery Dungeons are incredibly strange places. One such oddity is what seems to be a natural defence from explorers, that being Dungeon Pokémon. They were less like real Pokémon, and more akin to living automata — minds nearly devoid of thoughts, with the sole purpose of hunting down adventurers to the best of their ability. No ethical reasons really existed to consider sparing them.

I say “nearly devoid of thoughts“ because a few particularly adamant Psychic-type researchers had managed to uncover some memories — though they were as mysterious as could be. They often depicted controlled combat in many strange environments. Occasionally, they’d be surrounded by incredibly tall buildings built of glass. Other times, they’d fought in arenas, though much bigger than any arena Pokémon had ever built. They fought, following orders by tall bipedal creatures, not any type of Pokémon, to the best of our knowledge. These creatures resembled most closely a Sawk, but with smoother skin, of a different colour.

The creatures held spherical objects around their waists akin to the one I’d found, so these were most likely humans. As tempting as it was to mark down Dungeon Pokémon’s memories as evidence in human research, most simply disregarded it; there was no reason whatsoever to believe that Dungeon Pokémon held accurate memories.

Dungeon Pokémon could not be dragged out of their Dungeon — they’d only dissolve upon exiting. The first researchers to happen upon this had had a fair bit of shock, to say the least.

As mentioned several times already, Dungeon Pokémon were feeble, and could easily be beaten by most Pokémon — no, the real dangers were swarming and endurance. They were relentless. They would hunt you down through a floor as far as they could go. Were they not fought, it was easy to get caught up in a swarm. But fighting anything and everything would quickly tire out adventurers, leading to exhaustion, and an eventual fall to Dungeon Pokémon.

A big saying within the Guild was “Dungeon Pokémon are easy, until they’re not.“ And all too many adventurers had fallen prey to the latter half of that saying. There was a balance required to Dungeon exploration.

“Hey, look, the Murkrow dropped something!“ said Nivas, strolling over, uncovering a Luminous Orb.

Now noticing our pairs of Luminous Orbs and Escape Orbs, I had an idea. I grew weary of searching every last corner of every floor, and had an idea to speed up the search.

“How about we split up?“ I suggested.

“WHAT‽“ shouted Arc. “No, that’s dangerous!“

“We have two Escape Orbs, two Luminous Orbs, and two bags. Might work,“ grumbled Elm.

“The Dungeon isn’t even as bad as we expected, we haven’t used any items yet,“ I added. “It will let us cover more ground much faster.“

“I don’t like that,“ said Amber.

“We’re five. We’ll be able to split into two teams, one of two, one of three. I’ll be on the team of three, of course,“ I commented. “Also, I’m also a Psychic type. I can keep the connection between teams.“

“…Fine,“ he acquiesced, relenting before my arguments. “Arc and Nivas, do you think you can take the path on the left? The rest of us will take the right.“

“Cool,“ said Nivas.

With that done, I’d taken my own bag back, and gave Nivas the team’s bag. We’d traded some items, such that we each had a fair shake of Oran berries, a handful of seeds, and some Orbs each too. We split the Luminous Orbs and Escape Orbs, and separated.

“GOOD LUCK!“ yelled Arc, off in the distance.

“You too,“ I returned.

We set off through our passage, to find little more than an empty room once more. Another two rooms deeper, though, we’d found the first interesting thing so far.

“Hey, what’s that?“ asked Amber, looking at a corner of the room.

At the end, we’d found a strange cube. The cube was formed of 27 smaller cubes, all attached together. Each of the faces of the smaller cubes had its own colour, but overall did not form any discernable pattern.

I’d picked it up, and turned it around, to find one of the faces had Unown on it, and a smaller depiction of the cube on it, though each face had only one colour on it. I grabbed a face, and tried moving it. It did not come apart, but the face did spin, rearranging the colours. The spin was almost smooth, though it got caught up lightly during the turn. I’d been right. The relics in the Dungeon were much better than the ones I’d found outside.

“Oh, wow. We’ve finally found a human artefact,“ I said, a wide smile now forming upon my face.

“That’s what that looks like?“ asked Elm, curiosity getting the better of her mood.

“No, actually, I’ve never seen anything quite like this.“

“How do you know, then?“ asked Amber.

“See this face? It has Unown written on it.“

Amber walked closer, looking intensely. “Any guesses what it does?“

“I’d guess …it’s a toy? Notice the cube on the surface, all the faces are uniform. I think that’s the goal when rotating the faces, and nothing else seems to move to indicate any greater purpose. I could probably prove it by counting the colours later.“ I dropped the cube in the bag, and prepared to pull out my notebook, to jot down the situation surrounding its discovery.

I’d stopped when I heard Elm grumble once more, and turned to see a Poochyena and two more Murkrow coming about. Caught off guard, I’d been grazed by a Gust, though it caused me no significant harm. I quickly shut my bag, taking up a battle stance, ready to dodge.

Amber and Elm, both Grass types, were weak to Murkrow’s Flying — we’d have a tough time.

I started with the same trick as before — finding a nearby stalagmite, firing it directly at the first of the two Murkrow, who evaded it quite well. Amber, with his two typings, would struggle much more against the Flying abilities of the Murkrow, and as such, took on the Poochyena. The Snivy, on the other paw, had managed to Wrap the Murkrow I’d missed.

The Murkrow, distracted, had lost their focus. That gave me the chance to enter their mind, where I’d seen the beginnings of another Gust.

“Elm! Dodge left!“ I’d yelled.

As the move came to fruition, Elm was already out of its way, though the second Murkrow had caught her in her dodge with Foul Play. Looking left, I saw Amber dodging a Bite. He countered with a Stun Spore, though his dodge left him in a poor position, and the move missed. He was doing well, so I brought my attention back to the pair of Murkrow.

Elm then went for a Tackle on the wrapped Murkrow — a solid blow. The second Murkrow, still unharmed, began flying towards me. Concentrating back on the first Murkrow, I notice its mind prepare a Peck, now that Elm was right next to it.

“Elm! Step back!“ I warned once more.

She’d managed to dodge the Peck from my instructions. However, the other Murkrow had got much closer, and used a Peck of its own on me. It was a solid blow, and I’d been left bleeding, though I countered with a Scratch. The Murkrow, caught off guard by my counter, stepped back to regain a proper fighting posture, reeling — giving me an opportunity to throw another stalactite. I’d used this one as a stake, pinning the Murkrow’s wing to the ground, granting me time to think. Ruthless, yet effective.

Now caught in my own fight, I hadn’t had the time to give Elm any more warnings, and looking at her now, I’d noticed her injured, now countering a move with another Tackle. Amber’s opponent, however, was now paralysed and visibly hurt — as expected, he hadn’t had much trouble.

Situation dire, I quickly began shuffling through my bag, looking through the seeds. I felt the mind of the Murkrow I’d linked with prepare another Gust, and heard Elm’s yell behind me; I had to go faster. Finding what I was looking for, I’d pulled out a Blast seed. I also pulled out an Oran berry, and began by psychically tossing it to Elm, who caught it with a vine, now looking for a pause in the Murkrow’s attacks to eat it. I then threw the seed at the second of the Murkrow, the one I’d pinned.

The Blast seed exploded violently, killing the Murkrow. Amber, having finished with the Poochyena, ran over and attacked the remaining Murkrow with a Headbutt. Our opponent, now surrounded, began panicking. Sensing the panic in its mind, I ran in to finish it off with a few Scratches before it had any chance to let off any more moves.

Elm finished her Oran berry, while Amber dusted himself off.

“Nice team composition,“ commented the Snivy, still as sarcastic as ever.

“Alright, I was hasty and made a small mistake. If we meet them again, we’ll swap teams,“ sighed Amber. “By the way, nice callouts, Ida. I didn’t know you were that good at them without Psychic powers.“

“Oh, actually, that’s a misconception,“ I replied, giving a helpful smile. I always enjoyed sharing things I’d learnt. “Us Psychic types can’t psychically harm Dark types nor look at their memories, but we can see their surface thoughts anyways if we get into their minds while they’re distracted. We’re not completely useless against them.“

“Oh. Good to know,“ said the Breloom.

Of course, Elm did not thank me regarding my callouts, and chose instead to begin searching the bodies of our opponents. I would have commented on it, but after six floors, I’d grown accustomed to it.

With that done, I took some time to write some notes regarding the cube, took a moment to check in with the other team — who was doing well, but had found nothing — and we were now down the next corridor, looking for the stairs. With a bit of downtime ahead of us, I chose to strike up a conversation.

“Say, Amber, how was Team Bravado formed?“

“Ah, funny enough, none of us knew each other before we formed the team. We got caught up in a few coincidences that led up to all of us meeting in a Dungeon — Tempered Taiga. I, personally, saw Arc running in, and decided to join in to help him,“ Amber reminisced.

“I ran in because one of my friends dared me to do it. He’s not my friend anymore,“ added Elm bitterly.

“In the end, we got beat up by the Dungeon Pokémon, but we enjoyed the dive anyways. We ended up forming Team Bravado.“

“And the name?“ I prodded.

“Oh, we didn’t think that hard about it. We all decided we were brave for running in completely unprepared,“ answered Amber dismissively.

As we exited the corridor, we noticed the rest of the team coming out on the opposite side of the room, Arc bounding ahead, Nivas begging him to slow down. The room also held the staircase, quite conveniently for us.

We split the teams once more — I was now paired up with Arc and Elm. We entered the staircase, ready to resume our dive.

---

Dark Depths
B9F

We’d been quite unlucky, as we now entered the ninth floor, still not having found the necklace itself. We’d split into our teams once more, to begin our sweep of the floor. At this point, we began to start worrying, despite the very real possibility it was in one of these last three floors, or the first.

A few rooms in, and Elm tripped into a rock.

“Damn Dungeons — I can NEVER have a moment of peace, can I‽“

She got up, turned to face the pebble she’d tripped on, and kicked it aside. Then, in a fit of anger, she then faced the rock she fell on, and threw it with her vines. Underneath, oddly enough, was a small groove in the ground, holding a trove of items.

“WOW!!! Elm, you found TREASURE!!!“ exclaimed Arc, hopping with trepidation.

“I don’t think so. I think an adventurer recently fainted nearby — notice the items match a usual adventuring kit,“ I added, pulling out some Oran berries, and a single Escape Orb — packed, but not used in time.

“Oh… Still, that’s COOL, we can use it ourselves!“ he shouted, now beginning to sort the items that I might put them in my bag.

I’d looked back at the items once more, and one caught my eye. I pulled out a simple book. It had a black, hard cover, and it was held shut by a book band over the front. A ribbon bookmark came out from around the center of the book. The spine of the book held something of its own — though from its shape, I presumed it to be a writing implement.

Opening the book, I was surprised to find perfectly legible handwritten Unown, though I hadn’t had my translation notes with me to figure it out. What truly made it impressive was that this book looked as though it could’ve been brand new a month ago. The cube, that I had found in the same Dungeon, was showing signs of wear and tear — it was remarkable for this book to be as pristine as it was.

“Another one, huh?“ said Elm. “Today’s your lucky break. Sure wish we’d find that necklace instead.“

“What do you mean, ANOTHER ONE‽“ asked the Shinx.

I pulled out the cube from earlier.

“Today’s dive was a good one for me. I have much to mull over tonight.“

I returned both the cube and the book to my bag, and picked up the many items we had found.

A few rooms later, I contacted the other team psychically once more, to figure out if they’d finished. They let me know they had found the necklace, and without further ado, we used the Escape Orb.

Using an Escape Orb was always an odd sensation. The Dungeon felt as if it did not change — the walls were as blurry as ever, sounds still as distant as they came. And yet, unlike before, focusing on anything would not reveal the Dungeon, but rather dispel everything — as if it had all been a dream all along.

We met up with the other half of the team. Nivas pulled out the necklace, which had looked exactly like the drawing on the request — whoever put in that mission had a knack for art.

“Congratulations, everyone!“ cheered Amber. “Another job well done.“

“WE DID IT WE DID IT!!!!!“ yelled Arc, now running off into the distance.

“Finally out of that blasted cave,“ commented Elm, rebellious smile now on her face. “Let’s get back to Verdant Town and turn this in.“

I returned the items I had borrowed from their bag, and kept the newfound relics.

We began the return back to town, which was mostly uneventful. The short walk was overtaken by casual conversation, and a bit of me showing off my new finds — though I had little context to share regarding them, and could only speculate. Everyone also shared what had happened on their teams; I learnt that Nivas had had a few close calls, both with Arc and Amber, but they’d pulled through nonetheless.