I teleported to the second floor right next to the stairwell. The dungeon appearance had changed, trading corrugated steel corridors for rough rock tunnels. Though the floors had been worked to make them flat enough to walk comfortably, the tunnels had an organic feel to them. It looked like how I imagined an asteroid tunnel formed by the passage of a great space worm would.

  Cascadia was a short ways off, practicing a maneuver where she slid on the ground, vaulted into the air using her staff, minimized and stowed the staff, and drew her axe for an aerial slash. It was a complicated maneuver that she had been working on with mixed success. She cursed as the tiny staff clattered to the floor.

  “I think I’m going to have to put the staff in my mouth for this one if I don’t want to drop it. The magnetic sheaths that come with our gear are nice but they really don’t work for high speed maneuvers.”

  She addressed me without turning to face me, presumably noticing me on the minimap. I immediately opened up our protected chat channel.

  Gellen: Bartholomew was right, I was teleported to a syndicate liaison office. I negotiated a deal about my dungeon foreknowledge, I’ll explain soon. This is a private chat channel, no one can see it except the system AI. Don’t talk about this stuff out loud, that’s part of the deal I made.

  Cascadia: ok

  Cascadia turned to face me.

  “Parson isn’t here, and he’s not responding to messages. Do you think he went on a show as well?” She asked.

  “Yeah, there’s probably some show about dungeon drugs or something.” I had actually watched a few episodes of just such a show and was sure that Parson was on one.

  “Should we wait for him?” I continued. “It can’t be that much longer.”

  “No, we need to sleep, we are already behind schedule. Anyway Parson isn’t going to sleep and he will probably start up his experiments. We can leave him a message and catch up with him after the recap.”

  I could see that there was a saferoom a very short walk ahead of us and then the map just stopped. The second floor was not open yet and it appeared that meant that stairwells led almost directly to an isolated saferoom. Even if we wanted to, there was nothing to do but sleep and maybe craft or train. We walked into the saferoom which was a limited service room with nothing but a row of personal rooms for sleeping and a vending machine full of carbonated water and mixed nut packs.

  Cascadia pulled a ration bar from her inventory and looked at me expectantly.

  “I’m not eating another one of those.”

  Cascadia looked like she might come over and jam one down my throat. I held up a hand.

  “Wait. I’m not going to break the streak. I’m just going to go to sleep hungry. It's been a while but it’s not like I don’t know how to handle a little hunger. You should too. We have ten bars left between us, if we both skip “dinner” now we will start the second floor with ten. Jasper said the second floor always lasts ten days. We don’t know if we will be able to get any more of the bars, but we will have just enough for you to make it even if we don’t. We can switch our schedule to eat after we wake up. And I can eat a breakfast tomorrow that doesn’t make trade in my digestive system for a solar panel.”

  Cascadia had a scowl on her face but she didn’t disagree.

  “I don’t like being hungry, but your point is valid. I also don’t like the thought of adjusting our schedule to accommodate a conventional meal plan for you, but we can discuss it tomorrow. I suppose we have to let Parson eat anyway.”

  The countdown timer had almost reached seven hours. I started to head into one of the sleeping rooms but froze as Cascadia picked up one of the tables that were spread throughout the room and smashed it against the wall. I stared at her.

  “What? I get angry when I’m hungry. You know this. Go to bed. We are behind on our sleep schedule. We need to get some of Parson’s sleep-aid.”

  As soon as my back hit the sleeping cot I got a secure message notification.

  Cascadia: ok Gel, time to talk

  So I talked. And it felt amazing. I blessed my lawyer’s foresight in demanding a private message channel; I hadn’t realized how much not being able to talk freely with someone had been weighing me down. I told Cascadia everything. Well, almost everything.

  We messaged well into our sleep time, but it was worth it. Even Cascadia decided she wasn’t so worried about sleep hygiene after I explained the bed upgrades we could get on the fourth floor. I explained the crawl recordings and instructions I had found, my plans and preparations, and the deal I had struck with the liaison. Cascadia asked questions but mostly just read as I sent message after message. We were still messaging when Parson sent us a message at four hours till floor collapse, telling us that he had been on a show and was going to get started on some small experiments. We heard him enter the saferoom and start to drag tables around. Then Cascadia sent me a message I hadn’t realized how desperately I had been waiting for.

  Cascadia: If I had believed you I would have come in too. If I’m going to die in an alien apocalypse I’d rather go down fighting for glory than starving in a survivors camp. Now let’s sleep.

  Gellen: We’re not dying in here. We are getting out. Good night.

  I awoke to Cascadia roughly shaking me.

  “Get up Gel. You need to eat breakfast during the recap.”

  Despite only getting a few hours of sleep, that got me moving. I had never been so excited to eat salted nuts before. I pulled on my clothes and stumbled into the main area. I was greeted with an incredible site. Parson had a large pan full of simmering noodles cooking over an array of lab burners. He was seated at the table along with three other people. Cascadia was on the other side of the room, practicing with the item she had received from her style box at the end of the last floor. It was a nanobot hair accessory. It had taken the form of a skull tattoo but she could use mental commands to form the bots into all sorts of items. It was fun to watch but not nearly as interesting as the food.

  The noodles were flat and wide, soaking in a dark purple sauce. I sat down at the table and glanced hesitantly over at Cascadia, who nodded to me.

  “I got Tabby to make me a dehydrated to go pack,” Parson explained. They smelled incredible, salty and a little sweet. I took effort to peel my attention away from them to inspect my table mates, who were introducing themselves. It was a trio who had come into the dungeon with the large group that was being led by the enforcement officers, before Cascadia killed them. The entire group had eventually gotten to the tutorial guild, led by the last surviving officer, but these three had been left behind shortly after.

  “It just didn’t seem right to be killing these creatures. I’ve been studying cephalopod behavior for decades, and these new species were incredible. That’s what it seemed like at first, at least,” the oldest of the group explained to me. She had been a professor at the city university, and her companions were teachers assistants. They were extremely underleveled. The professor was level two and the assistants were level four. They were doomed.

  “After the bigger group finished the tutorial guild and started making their way through the dungeon, they began assigning roles. I said I wouldn’t fight and they kicked me out. Shelly and Marco stayed with me, thank God. They got us through the first floor.” Cascadia had already met and talked with these people before I woke up, but the professor seemed to want to tell me her story too. The distraction was welcome enough, as Parson wouldn’t let me eat until he deemed the food ready.

  “You must have fought something getting here though,” I said. “You aren’t level one anymore.”

  “I didn’t, Marco and Shelly did. Someone gave us a pair of disc shooters when they kicked us out. I’ve come around, and I’m willing to fight now, but I still don’t have any weapons. I leveled up just by being partied with someone who fought I think.”

  At that point the first floor recap started and Parson declared the food ready. I tried to pay attention to the recap and the professor, who continued to drone on, while I enjoyed the best meal of my entire life. , I swore to myself, as I checked to make sure I’d removed all of the ration bars from my inventory. The noodles were incredible and I shoveled plate after plate into my mouth. The professor was eating, though she continued to blabber on about cephalopod biology and intelligence and how it made sense that cephalopod hybrids would exist. She seemed to be actively trying to ignore the recap, which was understandable as it was currently showing crawler after crawler getting gruesomely killed.

  My eyes were directed at her and my noodles but my focus was on my drone camera feed, which was pointed at the screen. The city boss incentive had worked and dozens of groups of crawlers had died trying to defeat one. I noted what I assumed was the city boss we would have had to fight if Cascadia hadn’t changed her mind. It was a human-cephalopod hybrid; a humanoid in a fancy suit with what appeared to be an entire squid for a head. Two dozen crawlers had entered his office only to be paralyzed by a poison cloud trap and devoured by a swarm of flying baby squids. I wondered if we could have taken it.

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  The death porn segment ended with a truly depressing scene; a group of young crawlers who looked like healthcare workers had been leading a few dozen seniors to a stairwell when a pack of roaming cyborg bats found them. There had been no survivors, not even the pet dog that one of the workers had with them.

  I pushed back my chair and reclined as the screen began showing crawler victories. My stomach was distended from eating so much and I felt like I might vomit. I had no regrets. My tablemates stopped talking and watched as the elderly mech warrior rescued crawler after crawler, making it to the stairs at the last second with a wounded crawler in his arms. After several more sequences, none of which featured us, the show ended. Moments later the daily announcement came on. The voice was different from the first floor, this one sounding more feminine.

  Hello Crawlers.

  Congratulations on making it to the second floor. Five million and one crawlers made it down, which is exactly one above target. Congratulations on outperforming expectations. I am here to explain the sponsor system. Feeds are now public and are being broadcast live. Your personal feed will follow you at all times except for when you use the bathrooms. Viewers in the center system will be able to view you in realtime while those relying on wormhole relays will see transmissions with delays of up to a year. Due to this delay, your follower and view counts, which will be accessible to you as soon as this message ends, do not necessarily reflect your overall marketability. You will be assigned a crawler rating to assist sponsors in determining your value as well as to provide you feedback on your performance. This rating will take into account multiple factors including power level, style, originality, flee rate, view count, followers and more. This rating will generated five day before the end of the floor and will be updated daily. Speak to your game guide for additional details.

  Sponsors will be able to purchase crawler spots starting on the third floor for a premium rate, standard rates will apply beginning on the fourth floor. There is no limit to the number of sponsors you can have but crawlers with existing sponsors will command higher fees. You will need to make yourselves exceptionally attention catching to attract multiple sponsors.

  Sponsors will be able to purchase benefactor boxes and special patron gifts which may contain unique loot otherwise impossible to obtain. Additional information will be made available on the third floor.

  The second floor will be open for ten days and will serve as the last tutorial floor. Despite the introductory nature of the floor, your performance here will strongly influence your sponsor appeal. So even though we are removing the temporary boss battle incentives, you should continue to push yourselves.

  The Valtay Corporation thanks you for your participation and looks forward to connecting you with sponsors in the near future.

  As soon as the announcement ended Cascadia plopped herself down in a chair next to us.

  “Ok professor Carrie, here's the deal. We keep a tight schedule but I’m going to take a few minutes to talk to you. Why do you want to keep going?”

  “What other option is there? I don’t want to die in here.”

  “But you probably will die in. Just by the numbers I mean. Half of the crawlers died on the first floor, I bet they keep halving our numbers until there is barely anyone left. This is a survival program after all. So, if you are going to do what is necessary to survive, and you are really going to have to step up your game if that is your intention, why are you willing? Why don’t you just find a saferoom with good food and let the floor collapse on you?”

  “I….”

  “What about you two?” Cascadia asked Marco and Shelly.

  “Do we need a reason?” Shelly replied.

  “I think you will. Not everyone is getting out of here, you will need to out perform others to survive. You will have to be motivated than they are.”

  Carrie spoke up.

  “I want to do the same thing I always have. Understand things that are poorly understood and use that knowledge to make the world a better place. I want to get out of here and help rebuild the world.”

  “And if there is no world to go back to?”

  “Then I want to go out into the galaxy and do the same thing.”

  Cascadia appeared to ponder for a moment while the rest of us looked at her expectantly.

  “Good enough,” she finally said. “Gel, get that trident out of the speeder. I’m going to spend my hour of training helping these three level. You will spend it scouting the area and finding as many key objectives as possible. Parson, I assume you will do some science thing. At the end of the hour the three of us will head out in the speeder. We will regroup with you three at the end of the day in a to be determined location. Any questions?”

  “What is even the correct response to that? Yes sir? As you command, master? According to your wishes, m’lady?”

  “Shut up, Gel”

  No one had any objections and I complied without further complaint, pulling out the speeder and the trident we had been keeping in there.

  “Here,” Cascadia said, handing the trident to Carrie. “It suits a professor of marine biology. Now let's go, we have fifty-eight and a half minutes to get you three strong enough to last the rest of the day on your own.”

  The three of them followed Cascadia out of the saferoom. I looked at Parson who just shrugged and started cleaning up.

  Gellen: So, Cascadia told you everything?

  Parson: More or less

  Gellen: I’m sorry. I didn’t want to make an agreement for you but I didn’t really have a lot of options. It was either that or totally sever contact. And we need you.

  Parson: It’s ok man, I get it. It’s like when I stabbed you with that syringe. Sometimes you have to make decisions for other people. It sucks, but that’s just how things are.

  Gellen: Thanks man. I’m glad we met you. I thought it was just going to be me and Cascadia. This is much better.

  Parson: You just don’t want to be the only person getting bossed around.

  Gellen: Fuck you, Parson.

  Parson: Maybe after I get to know you better

  Gellen: You’re weird. It really is a shame about the desperado club though. You would have loved it.

  Parson: Nah, it’s all good. I’ve never gotten along with other dealers very well anyway, it’s for the best we go somewhere I will have less competition.

  “So what show were you on?” I asked out loud.

  “It was called Dungeon Crafters and it was awesome. It was me and that old guy with the mech suite. He’s cool. He’s totally chill even though he is super intense about saving people. He’s also smart. Like really, really smart. I’m used to being the smartest person in the room but this guy is on a whole nother level. We talked about crafting for three hours; I learned so much. We also got gifts; I got an ingredients pack that is really opening my eyes to the possibilities down here.”

  “So Cascadia was right then? You are going to start crafting?”

  “Eh, I don’t think so. I did some small things before you woke up, but if I’ve understood the plan correctly, we are going to be moving out soon. I don’t want to start any long term projects until we have a stable base of operations near a stairwell. I think I’m just going to take a nap. Wake me up when you are done scouting.”

  With that, Parson went into one of the rooms and laid down. I did have a lot of scouting to do so I found a room of my own, covered my face with my jacket, and became the drone. As my robotics and drone operating skills increased I could do more and more with my direct interface. I now had sophisticated control over the four repulsors on my all-purpose drone and could fly with extreme speed and maneuverability. I zipped through the tunnels, which had all opened when the first floor collapsed, taking notes on my minimap. I flew past Cascadia and the others, who had found a group of giant spiders, and quickly mapped out the surrounding area, sending the locations of nearby monsters to Cascadia.

  I soared, finding monster dens, boss lairs, safe rooms, groups of crawlers, and more. In an adjacent neighborhood I identified what I believed was another major objective for us. I did a quick loop of the neighborhood then circled back to make a more detailed inspection of an area I had flagged as a likely neighborhood boss lair. There was a large cavern with something between a barn and a warehouse in it. I found a roof vent and was able to use my claw attachment to pry it open. I dropped the repulsors to minimum power, trying to be as quiet as possible. I noted that an auditory sense module would be a fantastic addition to my drones. My stealth turned out to not be required as my drone dropped into a scene I could have gone the rest of my life happy to never see.

  The room was split into three main areas; a small shed that looked to contain an office, a large mud pit, and a line of low set basins with large drains. The main action was currently going on in the mud pit where a hugely oversized orc wearing something between a bdsm mask and a respirator was jackhammering what appeared to be a gargantuan pig. I was momentarily grateful for the lack of an audio feed as I watched the pigs mouth open in what I can only imagine was an earthshaking squeal as the orc threw his head back in ecstasy. A half dozen smaller orcs seemed oblivious to the action and they were suckling furiously at the enormous sow's teats as she was rocked by the giant. Descriptions popped up as I hovered the drone closer.

  Ultra-Lactating Orc Breeder - Level 15

  Though she may look like an oversized pig, this girl is far closer genetically to your run-of-the-mill orc. There are some key differences though, and although they are genetically compatible enough to breed this gal has some unique abilities. She has a gestational period of about 2 hours and produces an enormous amount of milk for an additional 2 hours to support her rapidly growing babies. Or at least that’s what would happen if the brute currently filling her with orc juice didn’t eat most of them.

  Her primary purpose is the production of milk, which is then further processed to create a hearty beverage that forms the backbone of the orcish economy. Economic demands require continuous production, which means old Bertha here is getting railed no less than 7 times a day! Fortunately for her, she is a mammal, and as we all know, mammals are completely obsessed with the transfer of semen.

  Alpha Orc Regional Director of Operations - Level 11 Neighborhood Boss

  This is the pinnacle of orcish culture. Masculine, powerful, large, business savvy enough to run a medium-scale operation, and brimming with libido. The alpha orc spends about a fifth of his day keeping his breeder lactating and the rest of his time running the production and distribution operations. He is responsible for quality checks, volume tracking, personnel management, and metrics reports.

  You might be able to catch him alone in his office, or you might prefer to approach him while he is distracted with his other duties.

  New Achievement! Remote Boss Finder.

  You have discovered and inspected a neighborhood boss monster through a remote camera interface. Make sure you use this ability for good, and not to be a little bitch.

  : You’ve received a silver surveyor box!

  I watched as one of the smaller orcs detached and stumbled over to one of the basins. Its stomach was completely distended and its throat bulged. It seemed to be filled to the brim with milk. It grabbed the basin and began to projectile vomit into it. After a minute of continuous fluid release the creature staggered back to its mother to continue feeding. I floated over to the basin and used my scanner to analyze the liquid. I received a chemical formula that meant nothing to me, but a description also popped up.

  Immature Mammary Mead

  Colloquially referred to as MM or m’juice, this hearty and potent beverage can only be created with a unique, proprietary method. The precursor to this season's featured drink, further aging and/or processing can unlock its full potential.

  I wanted to check out the office but the alpha seemed to be nearing completion and I didn’t want to push my luck. Anyway, my scouting time was almost up. I flew up and back out the ceiling vent, my servos shuddering with disgust. I flew straight back to the saferoom to debrief and get ready for the day.