Now that it was decided, there was no time to waste. We decided then and there that, the next time we had a break, we’d head to the dungeon.
When the day came, we headed in together. Emma paused while I recited the password.
“Is that how you get in?” she asked. “It’s almost like it was written for you!”
“Yeah, I guess it is.”
I wanted to introduce her to Olivia, but I decided to leave that until later. Instead, I scooped Emma up in my arms and used the Dungeon Elevator to take us to the fourteenth floor.
“I took the first path before,” I explained. “Let’s take the second one this time.”
“Sure! I’m looking forward to it!”
“Me too.”
We smiled at each other.
The second path was another long, unbranching corridor. I was a little worried it would have a sudden turn like the last one, but this time it dead-ended at a door. The trial would be on the other side. Emma and I glanced at each other, nodded, and went in.
As soon as we were in, the door closed behind us. The room was small with amber-colored walls and a square hole about a foot across set into the back wall. Was there…something moving in there?
Before we could react, a surge of tiny creatures poured out of the hole until they completely surrounded us. They were armed with swords, bows, and spears, and there were so many that it was hard for us to move. The little people might have been tiny, but they had a strange intensity. As they lined up, a stone slotted into the hole they’d emerged from, closing it off. We were stuck here. Not that we could have squeezed through the hole anyway.
The tiny people all around us looked almost half-goblin with their long noses and pointed ears. They were no more than eight inches tall.
“Do not underestimate us, giants!” one of them shouted, brandishing a spear.
For such a tiny little guy, he sure had a big voice.
“Hang on!” Emma said, raising her hands. “We don’t mean you guys any harm.”
Avoiding a fight was probably the best course of action, so I followed her lead. The tiny people started muttering and whispering amongst themselves. It made me nervous. I tried to use Discerning Eye on them, but it didn’t work on a single one of them. They were a true mystery.
“If you don’t mean us harm,” one of them shouted. “Give us your weapons!”
Emma and I glanced at each other. We were surrounded, so we didn’t have much choice but to obey. I had ways of accessing other weapons anyway, so we set everything down on the floor. The little people swarmed around our weapons, carrying them off into a corner.
“If you think we’re going to let you go for nothing,” one of them shouted, “you’ve got another thing coming!”
“If there’s anything we can do for you, we’ll do it,” Emma said. “Anything at all.”
The little person shifted. “Are you sure?”
“Of course,” I said. “I mean, if we don’t do as you say, you’ll just attack us, right?”
“Wait right there, both of you!”
The little people gathered together and started whispering among themselves. There were at least several hundred of them. I tried studying them, but they all looked the same to me. There was no way to tell them apart.
However, while they were chatting, I did get the chance to notice the door on the far side of the room. It was probably locked right now, but I bet that would be how we got out of here. The obvious way to unlock the door would be to annihilate these little people. I leaned in to whisper in Emma’s ear.
“Let’s play along for a while, then attack when they drop their guard.”
She nodded. “Got it.”
The little people seemed to have finished consulting with each other.
“We’re hungry!” one of them shouted. “Give us food!”
I had stashed away some rations in my Pocket Dimension, although this wasn’t how I’d expected to use them. “I have bread or fruit. Which would you prefer?”
“One moment!”
They needed to consult again?! They seemed almost as smart as humans, and that made things difficult. Even if each individual wasn’t very strong, who knew what kind of damage a swarm of them could do?
“Give us something sweet that we can share!”
Some cookies or a piece of fruit seemed like the best bet. I pulled a banana out of my Pocket Dimension, and suddenly they were all on high alert.
“What was that?!”
“Don’t worry,” I explained. “It’s just one of my abilities. I use it to store things. This is food, see?”
I peeled the banana and put it down on the floor. The little people swarmed around it like ants.
“It’s yellow,” one of them muttered. “What is it?”
Seemed there weren’t any bananas on the fourteen floor. I wondered what they normally ate.
“It’s called a banana,” I said. “They’re popular where I’m from, but a little expensive.”
“Someone, taste it for poison!” one of them shouted.
Another stepped forward and took a bite.
Was the one who’d issued that order their leader? There were so many that there had to be someone in charge, right? Even monsters had pack leaders. If we could take out the one in charge, perhaps it would throw the others into disarray.
Still, it was best not to jump to any conclusions. For now, I waited while the poison taster chewed on a bite of banana. He let out a low groan and covered his face with his hands. What was going on? All of the others were raising their weapons and shouting.
“You damned giants! You thought you could poison us?!”
“I did no such thing!” I protested. “It’s not poisoned!”
They didn’t look like they believed me, but before they could attack, the poison taster straightened up again.
“It isn’t poison,” he said. “It’s delicious!”
That’s what the groaning was about?!
Now they were sure it wasn’t poison, the others swarmed in to take a bite. When they did, each of them reacted the same way, screaming so loudly with delight that I thought my ears would burst.
“Yuuuuum!”
“It really is yummy!”
“I’ve never tasted something so sweeeeet!”
Ugh, watching them all eat like that was revolting. They were ugly to begin with, but watching them grimace and spit everywhere was too much to bear. I glanced over at Emma and noticed her face twitching.
“Hey!” one of the little people shouted. “That banana is mine! Step off!”
“Shut up, I got to it first!”
“How dare you! Do you want to die?!”
As soon as the banana was gone, a fight broke out over the skin.
Oh, was that what we were meant to do? If we can keep this up, they might just turn on each other!