The Cute Dungeon

Violet was excited as she drove home from work. She had finally been given the promotion she had been hoping for and was excited to share the news with her husband, Lee. They had been happily married for a few years now and had recently been having talks about starting a family together. Violet had been pushing for the promotion for a while now as she had been wanting to have more leeway and, now that she had it, she would be able to work from home. That would make it that much easier during her pregnancy and give her a lot more flexibility after giving birth, not that they had even gotten to the pregnancy part yet. Violet was just too excited about the possibility that she couldn't help but let her mind wander.

Violet had always had a love for graphic design and had gotten a degree that would help her land a job in the field after graduating. It was actually in college that she had met Lee who was an avid gamer and loved seeing all of the designs Violet came up with. After all, video games required a good bit of graphic designing and Violet had specialized in animation for that purpose. While her boss had been hesitant to allow Violet to have remote work possibilities, she had finally agreed to it on the condition that Violet ensured she had a dedicated office and high enough quality computer equipment to handle the software they used.

This was fine with Violet as she already had a fairly high-quality computer set up and her own private office. Lee loved spending their days off playing games together and they had both splurged on a house large enough to have their own offices on top of a few extra bedrooms for future kids and a guest room for family to visit. Violet was sure it would be easy enough to keep her husband out of her office while she was working, so long as she gave him prior notice.

Violet finally pulled up to her house, but something seemed off. The lights were on and the front door was wide open. Violet's forehead creased as she looked at the front door in concern. It was possible Lee had grabbed some groceries after work and would simply get the door once he had a chance, but it wasn't exactly like they needed groceries right now. They had just gone shopping a few days ago and still had a fridge full of food to go through before they needed to go shopping again. Still, Violet figured she'd know what was up soon enough as she turned her car off and headed inside.

Violet's heart began to race as she saw the scene inside her home, but her mind felt numb as she began to freeze, unsure of how to process what she was seeing. There were things knocked over onto the floor and there were small drops of red that seemed to turn to footprints that were a dark blood red. When Violet saw Lee slumped over onto the ground, she began to panic more as she rushed to his side, doing her best to flip him over as she desperately checked him for signs of life. However, it was far too late for that and Violet could only begin to shake as the tears poured down and her beloved husband's lifeless stare gazed up at her.

"No, no! Why? There's got to be something I can do! Maybe it's not too late... I should call 911!"

Only, Violet never got the chance to do so as a gunshot rang out across the house, causing Violet to slump forward as she slowly bled out and her vision grew dim. The killer had still been in the house and he couldn't exactly leave a witness to his crime. That left only one choice and so he quickly took care of Violet, complaining that he would now have to dispose of two bodies instead of one. However, Violet never even got to see her killer's face and could only muse that, at least, she would be with her husband, even in death.

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When Violet next came to, she was wearing a lavender dress that reminded her of one that a fairy might wear. Violet smoothed her hands over the material, marveling at how smooth and soft it was. She couldn't remember ever having owned such a beautiful dress, but she felt it would match her cascading brown hair and steel-blue eyes quite well. Violet could only imagine how Lee would compliment her when he saw her, he always did love it when she dressed up in a pretty dress and Violet always felt like the belle of the ball as she hung off his arm.

At the thought of her husband, Violet's head began to ache and she had to put her hand out, searching for something to lean against to steady herself. Only, Violet began to feel even more confused when a strange lavender, holographic-like screen appeared before her with some rather confusing text on it.

[Bonding "Violet" to dungeon core #136]

Violet gasped as she felt warmth spread throughout her, beginning from her hand that was resting on a large translucent orb. As Violet watched, the orb began to darken before turning a deep, dark, royal purple. The dungeon core was resting on a rather plain-looking stone pedestal while Violet rested on stone steps that surrounded the dungeon core.

[Congratulations on officially becoming a dungeon master, Master Violet!]

Violet looked at the message that once more appeared in front of her, feeling even more confused by what was happening. She couldn't help but muse to herself

"Love, what have I gotten myself into?"

Violet's memories still felt fuzzy, but it felt right to address the question as if talking to her beloved husband. When a message once more appeared before her, Violet took a deep breath before trying to figure things out.

[Please select a starting theme:

-Rocky Gorge (Goblins)

-Sewers (Giant Rats)

-Withered Forest (Zombies)]

Violet scrunched her nose up as she complained

"Gross, why can't there be any cute options? Also, what am I selecting a theme for?"

[Reconfiguring...]

Violet tried to think and soon recalled the mention of a dungeon core and being a dungeon master. She wasn't entirely clueless about dungeons as she had played plenty of video games with Lee, but she was a bit unsure about the details still. After some more thinking, Violet started to have it dawn on her that there was one instance she could remember mention of a dungeon master.

Violet had never been into it, but she knew some of Lee's friends liked to play something called D&D or "Dungeons and Dragons". The person in charge of making the dungeon maps and making up stories for the players to experience as an adventure were sometimes called dungeon masters. Was that what this was?

["Cute" dungeon theme selected. Auto-assigning dungeon theme flower meadow and starting monster slime to dungeon #136]

Violet balked as she hit her head and exclaimed

"I just messed up didn't I, dear?"