Big changes that seem a little too familiar

Moros followed his fat copycat towards the dungeon door. His steps were heavy and slow, the broken foot and obesity did not mix well. The people were still confused about the whole act, but they simply chose to ignore it, going back in line to wait for their time to enter the dungeon.

The walk to the dungeon door was swift as Moros passed by his house and made his way straight to the entrance of the dungeon.

Whoever was pulling stunts here had at least done their homework. 2 guards, wearing that shirtless diaper look, typical for the Terra family stopped the two of them before stepping into it.

The only issue with these 2 people was that they neither looked fit nor was their clothing of high quality. It looked cheap and crudely made─as if they were done in a hurry, with the least amount of costs.

It was pretty easy to see, these were not members of the Terra family.

If one knew the Terra family, it was also really hard to believe. They were not the type to actually hire guards for the family dungeon. There was no worth in guarding a place that had more Ballas than brain cells.

"Halt!" yelled one lad, trying to flex his pitiful abs to intimidate the two of them.

"This is the family dungeon of the Terra family, entry is only allowed after the fee has been paid…even if you are accompanied by the young lord."

Young lord, now Moros had heard everything. In what world did Moros ever come across as a young lord of something? His succession rights had been removed, his social standing was bad as hell…where was he a young lord?

With a sigh the real 'young lord' considered his options on how to get past these 2 lovely fellas that just did their best attempt at cheating people. None of the ideas that came to mind were peaceful…

The fake Moros sensed the anger rising up in the man that broke his foot and gulped heavily. The guards needed to be convinced else there would be dead people here.

Sooner or later, that lunatic would snap and this would not end well for all of them.

"This young gentleman needs to talk to 'Poppy'."

Poppy? Moros' face twisted, did that son of a gun really try to take over his business, just because he was absent for a few days. That thieving dwarf really had no shame, but he would soon have a lot of trouble if he steps in front of Moros.

The two guards nodded and let them pass without any problems. Moros saw their goodwill and decided to beat them up slightly less later on.

Moros stepped through the familiar door and was greeted by the same moss covered walls and the same floor that had always been there.

So far, nothing new.

Moros followed the fat friend of his into the dungeon, hearing not a single voice or sound, other than the heavy breathing of the man in front of him.

The narrow path would soon took a turn left and then they would walk straight to the final room of this dungeon.

Nothing much had changed in here, which caused Moros to be more than confused. There were still these useless Balla creatures, looking at every moving thing with those stupid expressions of theirs.

As they walked around a corner, Moros found himself speechless…why was there a door now? Since when has the unconquerable, infamous dungeon of the Terra family a new layout?

Even the crude letters atop it, spelling the word goblin or the weird drawings of them etched into the stone walls above it caused Moros to be more confused than ever.

"Just what the hell had happened here in his absence?"

The thought did not even fully enter his mind before he was shocked again for the next time. A quick glance inside the door revealed Ballas coming together to take on the form of a normal goblin armed with a dagger.

Moros rubbed his eyes, refusing to believe what was happening in front of his eyes. This could never be the Ballas Moros had murdered millions of.

From the distance, he saw magicians battle them with a smile on their face, clearly enjoying the chance to battle a goblin in the dungeon.

Shocked beyond words, Moros continued to follow and arrived at the end of the old dungeon, the third round, open room, he usually was using for creating Super Ballas to sell to rich kids to.

The fake Moros moved ever so slowly forwards with purpose and arrived at the end of the room.

Looking at the wall, he knocked 5 times 2 times short and 3 times long, before an all too familiar voice came up from the other side?

"What's the issue? I told you not to contact me, unless there was a big issue and we would have to drop the whole operation…" the angry dwarf with his angry voice snapped at his poor employee.

"It is me you son of a cheap bastard."

Moros casually announced his arrival to his friend. The friendly, conversational tone was a sign of utmost respect on the streets and in the illegal business.

A small gap opened between the stones, barely big enough for Moros to crawl through. This kind of invitation, was more than enough to talk this out like men usually do.

After Moros entered the small secret base of his favourite dwarf, Poppycock looked at his friend in sheer disbelief.

"I…I…I thought you were dead. Give me a hug, you son of a bitch."

The son of a bitch threw a hard punch into the face of the dwarf causing him to shoot into the depths of his secret bass like a rocket.

"I never remember allowing you to take over my territory, nor did you have to replace me with Fatty outside there?"

"That hurt," lamented Poppycock, rubbing his injured cheek. However, this was just another pitiful attempt at using Moros' compassion to take advantage of him. It had worked earlier in their history of working together─though these times had passed too.

"Ya think, my family would not notice you taking all the earnings for yourself?"

Moros argued loudly to Poppycock that had to admit that he had bitten of more than he can chew. Running a dungeon was a lot harder than he had initially expected it to be.

"I admit, I admit. The whole dungeon business is a tough task." Poppycock lit up a new cigarette as it was looking at Moros with newfound respect.

"Them fellas be just complaining about every lil shit. One would expect, them to just murder monsters─be done with it afterwards. Nah, fam…these peeps have issues, lotta issues."

Moros knew that kind of struggle just too well, though he was not here to relate to someone about how stupid and exhausting humans can be. He just wanted to learn what had been going.

A few cloud of smokes entered the air, as Moros waited for Poppycock to collect his thoughts.

"Judging by that look at yer face, you are not hear for that kind of tea. Ye hear to learn bout my story and why exactly I'm here."

Moros nodded and indicated the dwarf to hurry up, by tapping his foot in a hurry…

"I did some research into the lady that arrested you, dug a bit too deep. These people are everywhere, their organisation is not moving in the legal affairs, but they are also not illegal, like we here…They seem to follow their own ideas."

He closed the door, so that the fake Moros could not listen anymore.

"These people, they are dangerous. And I am not playing. I had no intention to take over your stuff. But we presumed you to be dead, after they got your ass."

"They were hunting me too, my family, my friends. I have hidden them all in several spots, this was the only place I had left. Nobody would expect me to hide in plain sight."

Moros sighed yet again. Things just seemed so needlessly complicated to him. It was like everyone was watching and desiring something from him, while there was no real benefit to helping others in that way.

Yet, he had flying dollars with him now and a wolf that could not keep quiet when he needed to focus.

"Ask him of his relationship to the gods, the mortal is suspicious."

Moros walked around the small gap between the stones, looking around. Few candle lights flickered around, showing the bare necessities that this place offered.

There was a bed, a lot of canned foods, a lot of weapons and other illegal materials. Everything had been forced into this small corner of the dungeon where nobody would ever find it.

"How do you even get in here, did they not seal the dungeon off?"

Poppycock chuckled, puffing on his cigarette again.

"You just gotta know the right people, you should know that. So don't ask questions if you have no intention of paying up for the info."

To Moros he was as stingy as always, though the next info he would certainly get for free, since he would very much insist on it.

"Okay, then tell me…what has happened to this dungeon????"

He had seen too many things that gave him a flashback to his time on Avarosia…