side, pushing the whole vehicle down a good inch. "This is my side. Go round to the other one."

I did as he bid me and realized the car's steering wheel was on the right side.

"I don't understand why you changed your old car," I said as Louie jumped into the car and then onto my lap, his tongue lolling out. "This car is worse than your previous one. And what's with you and Datsuns?"

"Japanese make great tools, lad," he said as he turned the key in the ignition. "And I changed cars because the old one had the wheel on the wrong side."

I turned to face him with a "dude, really?'" look on my face and almost burst into laughter when I noticed the pile of pillows under his ass.

"Shut yer face, ye fucker," he said, sticking one finger out in front of my nose and trying the ignition again. The car's engine roared and Rory smiled. "Attagirl! Let's go."

The city was as lively as ever despite it being almost midnight. My old apartment was around seven miles away from Central Park, which Louie and I now lived right next to. The journey would take thirty minutes on the subway, but I was sure Rory would not have liked using it.

The weird one or two people would start pointing at him, and he'd become pissed and start swearing until it all eventually spiraled down into a fight. I could almost see the title of the video on YouTube: "Dwarven tavern brawl on New York City subway". That was the reason we had to drive in Saturday night traffic and spend close to an hour on the road.

"It's that one, no?" Rory asked, pointing his finger as he parked the car a couple of buildings away.

I hadn't visited our old apartment since the day we were attacked by Abrathion's lackeys. It was the apartment we had loved and rented when we first moved to New York--the one in which I almost died before Rory spread the brains of my three aggressors across my bedroom carpet.

"That's it," I said, and opened the door. Louie half-jumped, half-levitated off my lap and out of the car.

"Let's get closer to the entrance," Louie said. "I'll buff you right before we enter."

Rory locked the door and then moved to my side. "Lemme lock the door. The central locking is on the blink, so I have to go both--"

"Are you fucking serious, man?" I said, throwing my hands in the air.

"What?" He looked at me confused as he locked the other door as well. "I don't want me car stolen. And yer friend will need a ride home, won't he?"

Sometimes I was surprised at how forward-thinking and strategic this beast of a man was. And other times, I just couldn't fathom the extent of his weirdness.

We moved in front of the building and Rory pushed at the entrance door, revealing it was unlocked. Before going inside, Louie cast both of his buffs on Rory and myself, and only Fortitude on himself. We moved up the first set of stairs as swiftly and silently as possible, trying not to care about the fact that we probably looked like a couple of thieves, especially since I was carrying swords and Rory was holding his long sledge-slash-war-hammer. That is, two thieves accompanied by a cute dog.

Everything looked perfectly normal on the first level of the building, so we headed to the second set of stairs and began climbing. As soon as we reached the top step, Rory threw his left hand up to stop us. He briefly poked his head around the corner and glanced down the corridor. Without a word, he stepped forward and motioned for us to follow him.

He nodded toward my old apartment, its door slightly ajar. We moved slowly over to it and Rory carefully pushed the door open, weapon at the ready. The room inside was dark though the outlines of the furniture that was too old to take with us to the new place were still visible.

The moment we stepped into the apartment, we were all greeted with the same notification.

You have entered the Home Sweet Home Dungeon.

This is a level 24 dungeon.

2

Heeding the call

"When did they--" was all I managed to say before I felt something bite into my forearm.

I slashed at whatever had attacked me with my sword, and the blade found little resistance before the pressure on my hand retreated and two light thuds were heard. Right on time, Rory placed a flashlight on his shoulder, illuminating me and the two halves of the small creature now lying at my feet.

Name: Winged Soundgnawer

Type: Beast

Level: 19

Disposition : Aggressive

HP : 0/82

Physical Attack: 9

Magic Attack: 3

Speed: 140

Attack Range: Melee

XP : 51

Description : The body structure of this animal resembles the rat, but it is in fact closer to the common bat. Both bats and soundgnawers are blind and employ leathery wings to fly. Unlike bats, however, this beast doesn't navigate using echolocation but is rather attracted to anything that creates a sound.

I put my finger to my lips, trying to make sure that the others stayed quiet. The little bugger had attacked me right after I'd talked. I didn't feel affected by any poison from its bite, and its attack had barely made a dent in my HP bar, which made me wonder why it was level 19 with such low--

Fuck!

Rory had silently turned his body, the flashlight now illuminating the living room and the corridor leading to the kitchen. The walls and ceiling were crammed full of these little monsters, their large blind black eyes glittering as they reflected the light. There must have been over a hundred of them, which probably explained why their level was so high. They only lived and hunted in great numbers.

I wanted to test how they'd reacted to sound but looking at all of them hanging there, waiting, I

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