Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Recovering Memories

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 emolga 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 scorbunny 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 as Terry struggled to hold on to his arm.

"He's right. We'd better go after him," Lena said, and the duo 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.

This dungeon had far more wild pokemon in it than Coral Cove did, 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.