Tig frowned, walking through the entrance to Floor 93. Ox and Larissa ignored him. They didn't like talking about what had happened here, and he was still upset about it.
He doubted he’d ever get over it.
It was mid-afternoon, so they went to the diner to ask how many Players had been through already.
The green catgirl said only two groups, the first of which had spent the night and left in the morning. On the one hand, bad. On the other hand, there were only three people in that group, so if Tig’s group passed the group that had gotten in at noon they still had a chance.
They decided to stay the night. Floor 97 was more or less the great equalizer, and since they all had spider pets, they could just walk over most of the enemies.
They went to the inn. The catgirl there was now a catguy. Tig studied his face as Ox paid for the rooms, convinced he’d seen it before.
Or, maybe not the face. But the way he held himself, the slightly timid glances, the height…
Shaking the feeling off, he followed Larissa to the mage’s building to level up their fire protection rings. To survive a blast from the Floor 97 dragon, the rings had to be at least Level 8 (out of 10), and his was currently a 5.
They handed the rings over and waited while the purple-haired mage did her magic.
Larissa mentioned that two cycles ago, the mage had been an elf for some reason.
When that was done, they met back up with Ox at the diner. Tig frowned at the green-haired catgirl, thinking things over.
“Hey,” he called to her. “If I wanted to feed a raptor, what should I give it?”
“Dracoraptor or velociraptor?” she immediately asked.
“Either.”
“Dracoraptors like anything cheese or blackberry based,” she said happily. “I’m still trying to figure out the velociraptor’s favorite food, but anything fish-based they like.”
“Do you feed them often?” Ox asked.
“Yeah, when we-“ She cut herself off, ears going flat.
Tig stood, pointing. “You’re Players! Aren’t you? You’ve been changing your race and gender lately! And you stole raptors off Floor 17, didn’t you?”
Her tail poofed up, eyes going wide. “Welllllll… Maybe?”
“How?” Larissa asked.
“I… don’t know?”
“If you are a Player,” Ox said slowly, “want to join us next cycle?”
*****
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