“If you want to, you can go look for the two. I can handle this room on my own. See it as a thank you for your help” the Black Growlyap said.
“But where can I find them?” you asked.
“It hasn't been too long, so they're probably still in the Monster Jar. Your soul is connected to it, so you’ll always instinctively know where to find it, no matter how much the dungeon rearranges.” She seemed to think for a moment. “Huh, it's not that far, right now. If you hurry, you might be able to watch them respawn.”
She was right. If you focus, you could feel something inside of you tugging you somewhere. Following your gut feeling, you immediately took off. A few rooms and some twisting hallways later you found your destination, the room of the Monster Jar.
The room didn't look much different from what you’ve seen of this dungeon so far (which admittedly was less than a pawful of rooms). It was large and empty, the only outstanding feature being a big, round pool in its middle. The pool itself was filled up to its edge with a mysterious, black fluid, so thick and opaque you couldn't make out anything.
As you were trying to make out anything inside of it, a clawed hand shot out of the goo, giving you quite a scare. Soon the rest of the body emerged and pulled itself out of the pool, revealing itself to be another Female Blue Growlyap. “Haa, air~” Then she noticed you. “Oh, hi, Female Blue Growlyap, do we know each other or– Wait, you're the newbie, didn't recognize you at first without the dress.”
You immediately noticed something odd about her comment. “How? We’re all looking the same.”
She shrugged it off. “Yes, yes, I know, the whole non-individuality-thing. But the whole transformation process isn't perfect. There’re miniscule differences between each of us and I always had a keen eye for such things. For example, compared to the norm here, your ears are about half an inch longer and your eyes are a bit sharper at the edges, while my breasts are slightly fuller and my tongue is two inches longer. But enough about that, what happened after we died? Though considering you're here, you probably didn't see much. Even if it's weird that you respawned before us.”
“I didn't respawn,” you responded. “I actually managed to kill the knight, even if it was a lucky shot.”
“You managed to kill a knight in your first fight, incredible,” she gasped. Then she turned around to address the other Growlyap that crawled out of the pool while you were talking. “Did you hear that? The newbie got her first kill.”
“That explains why she started right out as a Blue one,” the other said as she wiped the last goo remains out of her fur.
The first one then turned back to you. “And after that you came all the way here to tell us. That's so considerate of you.” She went forward and enveloped you in a bone-crushing hug.
“You’ll get used to it,” the other said.
She released you from the hug and suddenly gasped again. “Where are my manners? I haven't introduced us. Hi, I’m Female Blue Growlyap A and she's Female Blue Growlyap C.”
“I’m pleased to make your acquaintance,” Female Blue Growlyap C greeted you.
“She's the smart one of us two,” Female Blue Growlyap A added.
“Why A and C?” you wondered.
“To better distinguish between each other. Imagine calling out to your friend in a room full of Female Blue Growlyaps. It was her idea,” C answered.
“But then where's B?” you asked.
The two shared a look before A addressed you again. “My sixth canine sense tells me we can trust you, so please don't tell any of the higher-ups. They aren’t just markers to tell us apart, A and C are actually the first letters of our former names. We two had been friends long before this and I wanted something so we could always find each other. Though admittedly many ask about B. We usually just lie about her getting promoted. Nobody can tell anyways.”
You couldn't really blame them for this. If you had a friend working here you’d also prefer something to make them out in a crowd of Female Blue Growlyap. That and your species’ name is kind of a mouthful. “Hey, how about I become your B? I wouldn't mind it.”
A stared at you with literal puppy dog eyes. “You would do that?” She grabbed you in another hug and jumped with you in place. “Thank you! Thank you! When I first saw you I knew we would become great friends. I always told C we needed a third friend.” After releasing you, A continued. “From now on we three will do everything together, walking around, sleeping, fighting, swimming through the Monster Jar… there really isn't much else to do.”
You tilted your head in confusion. “Swimming through the Monster Jar?”
“Oh yeah, you haven't died yet, so you don't know how it is.”
“When you die, your soul will automatically be sent back to the Monster Jar, where it’ll swim around until you're ready to respawn,” C explained. This was followed by her pointing at the giant pool you assumed to be the Monster Jar. “This here is just a proxy to allow monsters to respawn directly on their respective floor. It's connected through an elaborate pipe-system to the real Monster Jar, which sits at the heart of the dungeon… because it literally is the heart of the dungeon.”
“It even keeps track of everything you do here,” A added. “If you accomplish enough you’ll get promoted by being reborn as a stronger monster. But of course there are other ways for that too, for those that try to get undying streaks. Though sometimes creatures will be reborn as stronger mutations of their normal forms, unique monsters. But that seems to be random. I really hope this’ll happen to me one day. Unique monsters and floor bosses are the only ones allowed to carry a name. It would be so cool to choose a new name for myself, it wouldn't even have to start with A.”
“Huh,” was the only thing you could say at all the information that had just been presented to you. You didn't expect the dungeon to run on such an elaborate system, including promotions as reward for good work. It also made you think. You already managed to kill an adventurer here and Growlyaps are supposed to be at the bottom of the ladder, so maybe you could already be promoted upon your next rebirth. Though that would require dying first and right now you weren’t in the mood to chuck yourself into the next hole. You’d rather spend some time with your new friends, Female Blue Growlyap A and Female Blue Growlyap C.
“So, Female Blue Growlyap B, where do we wanna go?”