CHAPTER 9: THE ENTRANCE EXAM

Bamboo Backwoods

Like Coral Cove, the entrance to the second dungeon visited by Team Seekers, as well as the first visited by Terry, was situated along the coast, not too far from Luneria Village. Unlike Coral Cove, however, one would have to head north from where the westward path from the village meets the beach instead of south. There was a signpost pointing the quartet in the right direction, though, so they didn’t get lost trying to find it. Now, they stood on the sand outside the path that led to the entrance. Ryan had also already explained what a mystery dungeon was on the way to it.

“So Terry,” the eevee continued on from his previous statement, “before we go in there, I would like you to answer me this: are you entirely sure you’re ready to go into that dungeon?”

The pachirisu looked entirely unconcerned about the danger posed by this strange dungeon.

“You know, you can wait for us out here if-“

Terry shook his head. “No, no, I can do this. I’ve gotta!” he said, determined. He lifted a paw into the air. “Let’s get this bread!” he shouted.

“Okay, if you insist…” Ryan said before he began walking towards the foggy pathway, and the others followed. Much like Ryan, Terry was shocked to find that the way they entered had disappeared behind them, but he got over it quickly.

As the sun’s rays poked through the leaves above, one thing that Ryan noticed upon entering the dungeon was that the room and pathways seemed to just be lined with trees and bamboo stalks, certainly not solid walls like Coral Cove had. He wasn’t the only one to notice either.

“Hm, the walls don’t seem solid in this one,” Lena said. “You think we can just… go through them?”

“That probably isn’t a great idea,” Ryan replied.

“Too late!” she called back as she shoved some bamboo stalks aside to enter the thicket. A few seconds later, an unseen force shoved her back out from there, faceplanting on the dead leaves that littered the ground. “How am I back out here already?” she said as pushed herself back up.

“I don’t know,” Ben said, shrugging. “They’re called mystery dungeons for a reason.”

“I thought it was because they changed their layouts every day,” Ryan said, raising a brow.

“Yeah, I guess there’s that too.” The litten shook his head dismissively. “But enough about that because we’ve got an entrance exam to pass!” He dashed down the path in front of them, hoping to find the stairs in record time.

“He’s right. We’d better go after him,” Lena said, and the trio followed behind.

Even though Terry was more than willing to pitch in with his one attack that he knew, Ryan refused to let him. Instead, the eevee along with Lena, but primarily the sneasel, took on some of them, primarily any fletchlings or pikipeks that dared cross them, but Ben could handle most of primarily grass and bug type pokemon that lived in this dungeon on his own. As they made their way through, the quartet made sure to pick up any treasures they found along the way, although there wasn’t very much.

Additionally, Ryan noted that the stairs on each floor led up instead of down, and that the signpost at the top read in floors instead of basement floors, even though their actual elevation didn’t seem to be changing.

The more I travel these mystery dungeons, the less they make sense, he thought to himself as he climbed off of the stairs onto the third floor.

Wild pokemon seemed to be far more common in this dungeon than in Coral Cove, and while they weren’t particularly threatening, it did wear on the three that were actually doing any fighting. This time around, when they got to the sixth floor, which was the last before the end of this dungeon, they lucked out by emerging directly to the room with the last flight of stairs, much to their relief.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Lena huffed, exasperated. “We’re home free now!” Her, Ben, and Terry rushed across the room for the stairs.

“Wait…” Ryan said, panting. “There’s no way that this is actually the end of the dungeon.”

The other three pokemon looked at him funny. “And just what do you mean by that?” the sneasel inquired. “We are at the end. Erin literally told us that this dungeon has seven floors including the ending… room… thing.”

Ryan shook his head. “No, what I mean is that there’s probably some kind of final test we have to do before we can claim the stones that we have to get. There always is with these sorts of things.”

“Nonsense!” Ben shouted, already halfway up the stairs despite his exhaustion. “We’re almost there! Let’s finish this!”

The litten then proceeded to dash up the stairs, leaving the others to have to follow behind less energetically.

Bamboo Backwoods Clearing

At the top, Ben waited for his teammates so he could get a look around. The stairs emerged at one corner of the room, and a large boulder covered in moss was situated at the far corner diagonal from where Ben stood. In the very middle of the room, though, was what the quartet had come for.

“It’s the stones!” Ben shouted as his teammates finally came up from the stairs, and he pointed at what appeared to be a crate filled to the brim with white, pearl-like stones. “Let’s grab four and-“

“Wait,” Ryan said, looking around the crate, “oh, no… don’t tell me that’s what I think that is…”

Ben turned back around and tilted his head quizzically. “What do you mean?”

The eevee shook his head with disappointment and exasperation. “Of course. Of course one would be here.”

“I… still don’t think I understand.”

Ryan turned back to Ben, a look of worry on his face. “Didn’t you know? That’s a mossy rock, one of the ways eevee can evolve?” His ears flattened. “I really hope we can just get those stones uninterrupted, because if we have to battle, there’s the risk I get hurled right into that boulder!”

“But didn’t I already tell you that you have nothing to fear from evolving?”

“No, that’s not the reason anymore,” Ryan explained. “Evolving would cause the exact thing I want to avoid: drawing attention to myself. I don’t like constantly being the center of attention! It’s bad enough that I’m an eevee and that they’re rare around here, but as a leafeon? I’d never be left alone again!” He sighed. “Let’s just grab four of those stones and get out.”

“Agreed,” Lena remarked, with Ben and Terry also nodding in agreement. The litten walked forward towards the crate to grab the pearly rocks they needed. Just as he was about to reach in, however…

“Not so fast!” a smug-sounding voice called, seemingly from the mossy rock, which confused the quartet.

“You can get those stones…” a second, more feminine, voice added.

Then, there was a moment of silence before Ben responded.

“Yeah, uh… we were about to?” Ben said, confusedly adjusting his messenger bag before starting to reach back into the crate to grab the stones.

“Felipe!” the second voice hissed, hoping Team Seekers wouldn’t hear.

“Oh, right,” a third, somewhat high yet guttural voice whispered before finishing, “…over our unconscious bodies!”

The trio of quaxly, sprigatito, and fuecoco then leapt out from behind the moss-covered rock.

“Oh no!” Ben said in dismay. “Team Waterburn’s betraying us!”

“Oh no! Who could possibly have seen this coming?” Lena said in a sarcastic tone, knowing full well that they weren’t being betrayed.

“Team Waterburn?” the quaxly said before shaking his head confidently. “No, no, no, we are simply petty outlaws, out to beat up some travelers and take their things!”

“Yeah!” the fuecoco agreed.

“And these stones… oh, boy, these stones… they fetch a pretty penny on the black market, you know,” the sprigatito added. “If we take these, we’ll be rich!”

Ben started doing stretches to prepare for battle. “Well, if you’re not going down without a fight, than neither are we!” He turned to the others. “Right guys?”

The litten’s teammates groaned, and he stomped a forepaw in frustration.

“Come on, you guys!” he said. “We’re so close to finishing the entrance exam! We just gotta take out these petty thieves and the stones we need are ours!”

“But I’m so tired!” Lena moaned, raising her claws into the air in exasperation.

“Yeah, I’m with Lena on this one,” Ryan agreed.

“Wait, you’re all tired out?” the quaxly said, then placed a wing to his beak. “Well, a good thief would take advantage of his victim’s weakened state… but where’s the fun in that?” He tossed some oran berries in the direction of the three exhausted pokemon. “Recuperate some strength, then we fight.”

After Team Seekers downed the berries, they felt much better and ready to fight.

“Alright,” a newly reinvigorated Lena said as she, her teammates, and their opponents all adopted battle stances. “Let’s do this!”

“But away from the moss rock please,” Ryan added cautiously.

“No promises!” Sofia responded as she lunged forward at the eevee with a scratch attack. Ryan leapt out of the way before preparing to counter with a quick attack. The grassy cat tried to dodge him but she wasn’t fast enough, and he tackled her right into the crate, causing stones to spill everywhere. She tried to get up but kept slipping on the scattered stones.

Meanwhile, Lena quickly encased her claws with metal and tried to scrape at the quaxly’s feathered skin. Quincy backed away as the sneasel advanced, attempting to hit him several times, with the duckling successfully dodging each one by moving his head to the opposite side to where Lena attempted to strike. He now tried to retaliate with a water gun, but Quincy isn’t the only one who’s good at dodging attacks. The burst of water instead hit Felipe, who was currently engaged in a two-on-one against Ben and Terry. The miffed fire croc turned toward the duckling.

“Oh, shoot, sorry about that!” Quincy shouted to his teammate, but before the latter could respond back, Lena was finally able to get in a metal claw on him. Ryan also came by with another quick attack, sending him careening towards the wall.

“Ryan, I thought you were fighting So- er, the sprigatito right now!” Lena said, thankful for the assist.

“I was, but she’s a bit occupied at the moment,” the eevee replied. Then, much to his surprise, he was tackled hard by the angry fuecoco, right in the direction of the mossy rock! Fortunately for Ryan, though, he ended up landing face-first about the length of his tail away from actually touching the rock. After exhaling a sigh of relief from that incredibly close call, he got right back up, charging another quick attack to hit Sofia again. Before he did, though, an ember from Ben hit her right in the face, causing her to yowl with pain and fall to the floor again, unmoving this time. Unfortunately, by this point, Ryan was unable to stop his forward momentum and slammed right into the wall.

After downing an oran berry to ease the pain in his snout, the eevee started a quick attack once again to hit a nearby Quincy when he least expected it. Once again, though, someone else beat him to it, this time being Terry with spark. This time, he was actually able to adjust his trajectory to hit the remaining Waterburner, Felipe. He didn’t get hurled as far from the impact as the sprigatito had, but it gave enough of a gap for Ryan to stop and catch his breath, and to look over to a triumphant pachirisu. Ryan sat back and put his paws together for applause.

“Good job, uncle Terry! That was a great spark!” Ryan congratulated before ducking beneath an oncoming ember from Felipe.

“Thanks! Wanna see me do it again?” Terry replied confidently before rubbing his cheeks to build up additional charge, then bolting on all fours towards the fuecoco. Upon contact, the fire croc yelled out at the pain of electrocution before falling to the ground, unmoving. Near the crate, Lena looked around at the mess of stones all over the floor.

“…did we do it?” she asked no one in particular.

“…I think so,” Ryan replied.

“Woo! Yeah!” Terry cheered. “Let’s do that again!”

The eevee shook his head. “Nah, we just finished that battle. Maybe another time.” Behind him, he heard the sprigatito groan.

“Wow…” she said as she got up and headed back behind the mossy rock, “you four are great battlers.” She emerged with three bags, donning a olive green scarf with a golden guild badge on it. “So great, that you just beat a gold-rank exploration team in a battle!”

Lena pointed her direction and shouted, “Ah-ha! I knew it! This was a test, not a betrayal!”

“Yeah… sorry about that,” Quincy added, getting up and equipping himself with his bag and scarf. “This was what our ‘special mission’ was: to make your entrance exam more of a challenge.” He adjusted the yellow kerchief around his neck. “Seems to me that we accomplished that goal. Now go get your stones and let’s leave this place.” He turned to Felipe, who, although conscious, was still lying on the ground. “And Felipe, apologize to Ryan for nearly evolving him. He clearly didn’t want to.”

“No,” the fuecoco refused, crossing his arms and turning his head away petulantly. “As far as I’m concerned, evolving him would be doing him a favor. He’d thank me for it.”

“No I wouldn’t,” Ryan retorted.

“Felipe!” Quincy hissed at Felipe.

“Fine,” the fuecoco muttered, tugging at his brown scarf. “Sorry.”

“There we go! Was that so difficult?”

“Uh, sorry if I’m bothering your argument,” Lena said, holding four of the pearly stones in her paws, “but I think this dungeon’s starting to get to you and put you on edge. We should really get going and tell Erin that we finished.”

“Oh, right, right,” Quincy said, waving a wing. “The waypoint is right over here…” he added, pointing to a glowing blue spot that had appeared to the right of the mossy rock. The seven pokemon then passed through, but not before Ryan took one last look at the aforementioned boulder. What a seriously close call that was…

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“Congratulations, Team Insert Name Here!” Erin read off of an ancient looking sheet of parchment. “You have successfully completed your entrance exam and are now an official exploration team of the Moon Continent Explorers Guild, the newest guild of the Exploration Society! May your team have many years of adventure and heroism!”

Ben could hardly contain his excitement. Ryan was slightly less impressed.

“Um, hate to be a bother, but, I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to put our team’s name where ‘Insert Name Here’ goes,” he said.

“Oh, right,” the meowstic facepalmed. “This is my first time inducting a new team, so I’m kinda new to this.”

“Clearly,” the sneasel muttered under her breath.

“Anyways, all that’s left for you to do is to embed your respective stone into the center slot of your badge.”

The quartet of newly-inducted explorers did as they were told and were surprised to find that upon doing so, their badges emitted a robotic voice.

“Name: Ryan, Species: eevee, Age: 20, Birthday: July 29,” Ryan’s badge said.

“Whoa,” the eevee said, nearly dropping the badge in shock, “can’t say I was expecting that.” Upon further inspection, he found that his badge also doubled as a sort of smart device. A small pinhole above where the stone (presumably the power source) was embedded emitted a full-color holographic screen. This screen displayed the main menu, which contained important information about the status of himself and his teammates, as well as the contents of their bags and how much money they had on them. It also featured a map of the world, a voice communicator, a digital clock that displayed the current date and time, a list that would hold any accepted missions for whatever dungeon they were in at any given time, and it could even take pictures. As Ryan tested out the features of his new badge, the other badges also stated facts about their owners.

“Name: Ben, Species: litten, Age: 20, Birthday: September 21.”

“This thing knows too much,” Ben said jokingly with a hint of fake suspicion.

“Name: Lena, Species: common sneasel, Age: 21, Birthday: May 3.”

“Common?! Well, that’s a bit rude!” Lena harrumphed.

“Name: Terry, Species: pachirisu, Age: 54, Birthday: December 12.”

“Fascinating, I wonder how the internals work…” Terry mused, holding up the device.

“Wish I could tell you,” Erin replied, “but the manufacturer, Gross Industries, really doesn’t want anyone to know… for some reason.” The she-meowstic shrugged. “I don’t particularly care about that though. I’m just a simple assistant guildmaster slash shopkeeper.” She paused for a moment as if to decide on what else to say. “Anyways, you four are done here now. You can be dismissed.”

After each Seeker fastened this interesting new device to their bags, Ryan and company left the guildmaster’s office. The eevee felt that this tool could be immensely useful in finding a way back home or to find Lena’s memories. For the first time since getting here, he allowed himself to wag his tail happily, as he actually felt a bit excited about what the coming days and weeks may bring.