Waterfall Cave
7F
"Is it me, or do we spend more time in this dungeon?" Sabo asks curiously.
"Given how slow our paces are due to lack of chores, we take our time in this dungeon to properly explore." Tesla comments.
"True, every time we enter any Mystery Dungeon, we have been exploring dungeons as quickly as possible, like when we enter the Beach Cave, where we beat those two goons." Victor points out, remembering the Zubat and Koffing he beat using his Deus-Ex Machina. "Then, there's our first job," Victor notices how everyone immediately flinches.
"We don't talk about that," Thorn says nervously.
"Yeah, my bad," Victor grimaces. "Then, there's that Drowzee incident, who was it again?" Victor rubs his chin, forgetting the outlaw's name.
"I forgot that guy as well," Tesla mutters.
"Speaking of Drowzee, I think Azure and Mark had done a bit much to his reputation," Sabo says before sweatdropping.
"What do you mean?" Victor asks in puzzlement.
"Well, ever since you told him about the pedophile, Azure and Mark made sure to tell everyone how the Drowzee did something terrible to Azure," Thorn explains as Victor looks puzzled, wondering where this is going. "Every time they tell the story, they make sure to call the Drowzee pedophile, and since that, whenever someone brings up that particular Drowzee, they call him a pedophile."
"…" Victor covers his face, letting out a miserable groan. "What have I done?"
"To be fair, he was a criminal known for several charges," Sabo says.
"Yeah, but I drag his name through the mud," Victor mutters. "That's not something anyone deserves, especially such a terrible title as pedophile."
"Actually, the accusation leads Officer Magnus to do some investigation, and they discover some terrible things," Thorn says as Victor looks at his friend with an expression that screams 'Explain'. "Azure isn't the first child victim that falls under Drowzee's paws. He has done this to multiple children before coming to Grass Continent; all are psychologically hurt as Drowzee uses his Psychic moves to take control of them to do their deeds."
"Huh, what, but, huh!?!" Victor splutters, not expecting such a revelation. Why is there no newspaper telling about this!? Every day, the team gains newspapers regarding new incidents, and Sabo will help translate the page for him and learn the language. It's still a work in progress, but he can now understand and write basic words using Pokémon language (Still has no idea what it's called). He made sure to hear every news Sabo mentioned, and yet no news has mentioned Drowzee's terrible deed.
"Yeah, your accusation has helped the officer discover more crimes for what he's done, and it's safe to say he will be in jail for a very long time," Sabo explained. Victor looks like he was just told that this universe's Earth is flat and the sun rotates around this world's Earth.
"…how!?" Victor asks in disbelief, wondering how things end up like this.
"Why do you ask us? You're the one who caused all of this," Tesla comments.
"I didn't mean it to spiral out of control!" Victor comically shouted, looking panicked.
"Why are you complaining? You did a huge favor for all of us." Thorn asks curiously.
"I want to know how it spirals into whatever nonsense you just describe! It's not normal at all!" Victor exclaims. The game didn't explore the side character's backstory in detail, so this entire thing truly shocks him. It didn't help that, in the future, Drowzee was released from prison for good behavior and helped the player with Azure's nightmare caused by Darkrai.
"I think you're overreacting, Vic," Thorn says with a sweatdrop.
"I'm not! Can't you see this kind of coincidence doesn't make sense!?!" Victor asks, comically flailing his arm. The rest of Team Dawn looks at Victor like he says the sun is crashing down to Earth, before looking at each other and shaking their head.
"I don't get why you think too much about it," Sabo says with a sweatdrop.
"Because it's Tauros-shit! I tell you, Tauros-shit!" Victor exclaims as the rest of the team ignores him. "Oh, sure. Just ignore the obvious red flag, will ya?"
"No, we ignore it because we're dealing with more Pokémon." The words make Victor blink before he notices that a Whiscash is blocking the path.
"…oh," Victor mutters before coating his fist with a golden aura. "Alright, let's beat this idiot out of the way,"
"…50 Poke says Victor one-shot it." Victor stumbles when Sabo says that.
"100 Poke says he two-shot it," Tesla adds in, causing Victor to stare at them in disbelief.
"Really, guys? You just gonna let Vic do all the job?" Thorn asks disapprovingly.
"After what happened earlier, I think it's safe to say Victor would finish him in a few hits before we could assist him," Sabo points out.
"…." Thorn furrows his brow, looking at his teammate questioningly. "You guys never act like this. What happened?"
"…no offense, but my expectations plummeted so badly I lost my motivation to continue exploring," Sabo mutters.
"The fight was too easy and nothing exciting happened," Tesla mutters.
"…" Thorn touches Sabo's forehead using his vines, causing Sabo to deadpan at him.
"Hello, guys? We got a giant punching bag to get rid of?!" Victor asks, looking at his teammates in utter disbelief. The Whiscash looks offended and lets out an angry growl. Before anyone could say anything, Thorn summons his vines as they coat with glowing green energy and smacks the Whiscash, creating a huge dent on its head before it slowly disintegrates.
"…" Sabo and Tesla nervously look at Thorn, who looks tired before walking past them. As he approaches Victor, who is surprised by the attack, Thorn simply pats his shoulder with his vine, feeling a small sense of satisfaction. Thorn starts leading the way as Victor looks at him before scratching his head.
"Well, that was something," Victor comments before they follow Thorn to find the stairs, which they immediately find in the dungeon room right at the end of the path.
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Waterfall Cave
8F
"…okay, this is just plain ridiculous," Victor mutters quietly as he looks around to see Dungeon Pokemons surrounding them, but this time, they are all asleep.
"I am not going to fight all of them again. We already had to face them once, twice for Victor. We don't need to fight another Monster House," Thorn whispers in annoyance.
"I-I don't get it, how does our luck be this bad!?" Sabo asks quietly, looking around incredulously.
"Who cares!? Let's just get out of here!" Tesla whispers. He is also taken aback by how terrible their luck is, but he hides his shock and focuses on the current situation. The four of them quietly walk out of the dungeon room, taking a quiet step one by one. They all sweated nervously, not wanting to risk waking them up.
It's not that they are incapable of fighting them; they have the strength and skill to thrash them. But, the problem is that the quartet would rather avoid them and save their strength later, especially since neither of them knew how much floor does the dungeon has.
Judging by the luck, the possibility of them being in a 15-floor dungeon is not zero, and despite none of them wishing it to be true, they can't deny the possibility. Especially Victor, since he is quite paranoid after all of the unexpected changes, he believes that the number of floors on each dungeon might change as well.
Unfortunately, the universe seems to hate them so much that Tesla accidentally kicks a Gravelerock, causing it to bounce around the room. Team Dawn looks at Tesla with multiple emotions: disbelief, exasperation, frustration, annoyance, anger, you name it. The sound was enough to wake every Dungeon Pokémon from their slumbers, and they stared at them dead in the eyes, causing Team Dawn to freeze.
"…that's it, we're beating them." Victor deadpans before the Dungeon Pokemon did their version of snarls and charged at Team Dawn.
It didn't take them much time to beat every Dungeon Pokemons as they're already grown much stronger from all the battles they went through. All of them were exhausted as they all lay on the ground, disintegrating corpses surrounding them.
"I swear to Arceus, I think the universe thinks this is some sick joke and decided to troll us hard," Victor comments.
"With how bad our luck is, I didn't doubt it," Thorn mutters.
"But, seriously, how is this possible!?" Sabo asks in utter disbelief. "A single trip to the dungeon and we encounter what, 3 Monster House!?! That's supposed to be impossible!"
"How so?" Victor asks curiously.
"It's just is! No explorers ever encounter Monster House multiple times in a single dungeon trip!" Sabo exclaims in frustration.
"Just because it never happens to anyone yet, doesn't mean it won't happen," Victor comments. "I mean, we're the living proof of it."
"….I suppose," Sabo grumbles.
"I think we're focusing on the wrong thing," Tesla grumbles. "Let's focus more on getting the hell out of this dumb place and report every shits happen in the dungeon to Guildmaster William. This shit is getting boring."
"Given how bad our luck is in this dungeon, I don't blame you for wanting to finish this quickly," Victor let out a sigh. "Alright, let's get out of here and be done with this exploration."
"Yeah…" Sabo mutters, sounds very disappointed. When they were given the task to investigate the dungeon and report anything regarding the dungeon, Sabo was hoping for a fun adventure with so many things to discover. But, upon entering the dungeon, he was greeted with Dungeon Pokemons continue to ambush him and his teammate, and it quickly got tiring.
"…" Victor ruffles the fur on Sabo's head while giving him a sad smile. He knows how it feels to be disappointed at an experience that you expected to be fun but was slapped by reality on the face. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"Okay…" Sabo looks crestfallen before they all get up and find the stairs. It didn't take them long since the stairs were nearby.
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Waterfall Cave
Depth
"Huh?" Victor notices something is wrong when he reaches the supposed final floor of the dungeon. The surrounding area is too foggy, and what concerns him the most is that there's no sign of his teammate.
"Thorn?" Victor calls, looking around. "Sabo? Tesla?" Victor looks around, his eyes narrowing and his fist clenching. "Guys, where are you?"
Victor hears a footstep, and he tenses up, raising his guard while glaring in the direction of the sound. Then, he notices a shadow walking out of the fog, and to Victor's surprise, a Buizel of all Pokémon comes out of the fog. His mind ran at a hundred miles per hour, questioning what in the world was going on.
'A Buizel in the Waterfall Cave!? How did it get here!? Is it another change that differentiates this world from the PMD game? Who is this Buizel? What does he want? Did it have something to do with my missing teammates?' Victor thought as the Buizel looked at Victor before smiling.
"Wow, Poliwag wasn't kidding when he said your appearance is weird," Victor feels like he almost tripped upon hearing that, looking at the Buizel with a questioning glance while at the same time, feeling relieved that the Buizel is capable of speech, meaning he's able to ask him questions.
"Where are my friends? Where did you take them?" Victor asks while narrowing his eyes further.
"No need for the hostility, your friends were somewhere on this floor. I simply ask some of my pals to warp them away and leave you alone." The Buizel admits, making Victor tense.
"…what do you want from me?" Victor asks, possible answers running through his mind. The main possible answer appearing in his head is because of his existence as a human and his transformation into a Digimon, an unknown creature existing in a world full of unique monsters in different shapes and forms. The Buizel in front of him might try to search for him for something.
"I want to fight you," Victor feels a record scratch playing at the back of his head before it blanks. He looks at the Buizel in confusion and disbelief. All of the possible answers are instantly blown out of the window.
"What do you mean by wanting to fight me?" Victor demanded, his voice filled with confusion.
"I have heard a report from my friend here that he had encountered intruders. He specifically mentioned you, a weird-looking creature who managed to beat a group of Pokemons like it was nothing." Victor tenses as he hears the Buizel talk. Does that mean a Pokémon has been observing them silently, and they didn't notice a thing? That's added to another list of skills he needs to learn or improve.
"Why me?" Victor asks as he looks at the Buizel. "My friends were also stronger, especially the Pikachu. He's the strongest out of the 4 of us."
"You're not fooling anyone, stranger," Buizel says. "My friend has a keen sense, especially when it comes to one's inner strength; they would've said something if that's true. Every intruder I have faced, no one has made my friend question if I might win a fight."
"Wait, you're saying other Pokemons are entering this dungeon?" Victor asks in surprise while also thinking about what the Buizel said. What does he mean by inner strength, and how does his friend conclude that he's the stronger one? Is it because of his magic sword? He doesn't even know how to access that yet!
"Not exactly, I faced them before they could find our home. It was a surprise to find that intruders successfully entered our home," The Buizel comments, making Victor raise his eyebrow.
"So, you usually guard the entrance cave behind the waterfall?" Victor asks as the Buizel looks at him in surprise.
"You all go through there!?" The Buizel asks in disbelief. "That explains so much…."
"Uh…" Victor looks a little lost. Is he implying there's another entrance to this dungeon? Where? Victor looks around before noticing that the fog slowly becomes clearer, and a giant gemstone appears behind the Buizel. Is he implying the pathway that leads to the Hot Spring? Victor shakes his head before looking at the Buizel.
"Never mind about that, are you seriously telling me that you separate my friends just so you can fight me? Are you trying to get them killed, warping them to an unknown area of Mystery Dungeon!?" Victor asks accusingly.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn't separate them without thinking. We know your friends are capable, given how they all could beat other Pokemons in this cave with ease," The Buizel explains, but it did little to calm Victor down. "Besides, we're only fighting for a short moment."
"…what makes you think I'll accept your challenge?" Victor asks, making the Buizel tense. "I could just walk away and ignore you to go search for my friend. In fact, why do I even bother to stay and talk? I should go and-!"
"Wait, wait, wait! Please!" The Buizel begs as he starts to kneel, catching Victor off guard. "Just one fight, please."
"Why?" Victor asks in bafflement. What does this guy need to fight him so badly?
"I have fought so many Pokemons in this cave, and none of them have ever given me a good fight! They're either too easy or too boring!" The Buizel comically cried, causing Victor to sweatdrop. "It's so boring being at the top in such a small place! All I met were weak Pokemons who didn't have minds of their own and were too busy protecting this place!"
'Oh, right, Dungeon Pokemons were merely constructs created by the Mystery Dungeon itself. Wait, then how does this Buizel have its consciousness along with whoever its friend is? How does that work?' Victor thought. 'Could it possibly be that they're not born in the dungeon like the rest of the Dungeon Pokemon? Does that mean they were from the outside world and somehow got stuck in a Dungeon? I mean, some Pokemons in Mystery Dungeon are recruitable and capable of speech, so it does make a bit of sense…Oh, what am I doing? I should be focusing on getting my friends back.'
Victor hears something from one of the giant cave pillars and turns with a deadpan expression. Victor let out a sigh before rubbing his forehead and looking at Buizel, but he was taken aback by how desperate the Buizel was to fight him. He cries to the point that snot is coming out of his nose.
'Okay, just how desperate is he?' Victor thought with a sweatdrop before glancing at his eyes. Does this Buizel want to fight so badly because he is alone in this place? Given that there's no one besides the Dungeon Pokémon who is incapable of speech, it does make sense that someone will get lonely over time. Not to mention, the majority of Pokémon desire battle, either to grow stronger and push beyond their limit, seeking enjoyment, or even bonding. Does that mean the Buizel wants to fight because he wants a friend? Sure, he may be stretching things a bit, but with all of the evidence, it does seem that way.
'I really didn't want to do this. This is such a waste of time,' Victor thought before glancing at the giant pillar on the other side of the cave. Victor covers his face to muff his groan before glancing at Buizel, grimacing at his pitiful look, his expression morphs into exasperation. 'I can't believe I'm agreeing to this.'
"Alright, fine," Victor sighs, getting Buizel's attention. "I'll fight you, so you can stop crying."
"R-really!?!" The Buizel exclaims as he looks at Victor with starry eyes, wiping the tears and snot on his face.
"Yeah," Victor says before smiling a bit at what he sees. The Buizel sounds like an excited child getting what he wants after not having it for a very long time. The poor Pokémon's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, which proves Victor's words. In some way, that desperation reminds him of his past, desperate to seek friends who he's willing to be someone's doormat.
"Alright!" The Buizel exclaims excitedly, jumping in joy. Victor lets out a quiet chuckle before getting ready and putting on his goggles. Without any warning, the Buizel immediately charges at Victor. Victor instinctively blocks the incoming flying kick from the sea otter/weasel hybrid, looking at the Buizel incredulously.
"Seriously, you have no patience whatsoever?" Victor asks in disbelief.
"I'm sorry! I am just so excited!" The Buizel exclaims before he flips and lands on the ground. He then follows with a double punch that Victor successfully blocks before he notices his scales are frozen. He looks at the Buizel and notices its paws are glowing blue.
'Ice Punch!' Victor thought before the Buizel went with a tail swipe, which Victor backed away to dodge the attack. Victor coats his fists with MP before he delivers a flurry of punches, but to his shock, the Buizel dodges them before he parries the last two punches and delivers a Water Gun, knocking Victor back.
'Okay, this guy is far more impressive than I expected,' Victor thought before he charged at the Buizel and delivered his own kick, and the sea otter retaliated with his own. The clash creates a huge shockwave that ripples even the water from a distance.
"Wow, you're good!" The Buizel says in excitement.
"I still think my Pikachu friend is better than me," Victor comments before both of them pull their legs back and clash with their own punch, creating another shockwave. Victor takes a step back before noticing his fist is frozen, and looks at the Buizel, who seems fine, but his fist is trembling from the clash.
Then, the Buizel starts getting serious as the otter coats his body with veils of water before rushing towards him. Victor dodges the incoming attack and turns before noticing the Buizel lands perfectly on the wall of the cave, before rushing towards him again at greater speed. Victor widened his eyes before dodging the incoming attack, but he saw the Buizel perform similar tricks again and start bouncing around the room with great speed.
Out of nowhere, something hits him on the back that sends him flying forward. Victor grits his teeth in pain as he feels his back is bruised from the attack before looking around frantically, trying to track down the Buizel's movement. Unknown to him, his eyes start to glow gold before it spreads around his body.
The Buizel notices this change and grins, able to feel the shift of the inner strength that his friend has mentioned. He can sense that his friend wasn't kidding when he said that he might have difficulty facing him. So, he starts speeding up his attack, giving his all. Victor moves his eyes around, trying to see the trace of his movement before suddenly, he notices a subtle crack on the cave wall, and immediately, he moves his body away. He feels a wind pass by and a slight graze on his cheek.
The Buizel didn't lose his momentum, but he was surprised by how Victor adapted quickly to his speed. He had made sure he moved as fast as possible, making sure his opponent wouldn't be able to track him down. He was very confident in his speed, so seeing Victor able to dodge the attack, albeit barely, surprises him. At the same time, it made him even more excited.
"This is getting nowhere," Victor mutters as he continues to track down the Buizel, relying on his sight and hearing. Daichi had always drilled into his head, but he keeps forgetting about it, telling him to rely on all of his senses instead of just one or two. He had tried to do it multiple times, but he kept relying on sight. Multitasking is much harder than it seems, and Victor is not skilled enough to pull it off.
But, currently, he had no choice but to rely on the knowledge given by Daichi. He had tried to use his eyes, but it wasn't enough for him. To him, it is now or never.
'Calm yourself down, relax. Use all of my senses, eyes to track down movement, ears to hear it, skin to feel the water and air movement…' Victor tells himself. He decided to push away all of his thoughts and focus on tracking down the Buizel, sensing the shift in the air, hearing and seeing the cracks caused by the Buizel whenever he changes direction, and the droplets from all the water formed by the Buizel's Aqua Jet. Victor takes his time before he hears a crack from his back, but he is a bit slow as the Buizel crashes into him, knocking him away.
Victor grunts at the setback before getting up and trying again. It was a trial and error, so he couldn't give up after just one failure. He tries again, sensing his opponent coming towards him. He pushes his thoughts aside and focuses, making sure to keep track of the Buizel.
Meanwhile, the Buizel frowns as he sees Victor simply standing there doing nothing. He can't help but feel slightly disappointed by his lack of action. He had thought he might get the fight he could've gotten, but in the end, it was the same for him. He pushes aside his disappointment before trying to finish the fight. As he charges forward, he notices Victor faces towards him, shocking him as he didn't expect him to actually track him down. But, once again, he was a bit slow and ended up getting knocked away.
The Buizel looks perplexed, wondering what Victor has been up to all this time. He believes Victor has been nothing but standing there doing nothing, but that moment when he makes an eye contact with him all of a sudden says otherwise. He couldn't understand what he was doing, but he knew he couldn't keep doing this and must finish the fight.
As the Buizel charges at him, Victor immediately turns towards it and retracts his fist. More specifically, the one frozen in ice. He lifts his fist upward before pulling a quick swing downward. The Buizel panicked and tried to dodge, but all the momentum he built didn't allow that, and he met the attack head-on.
Upon making contact, the impact shatters the ice, and the waters exploded everywhere alongside the ice shards. The Buizel feels his head getting crushed by one of the stone pillars in the cave while Victor applies as much strength to redirect the Buizel's charge downward, causing him to crash into the ground.
To be Continued