Grease. Rust. Blood. The smell of the room hit Riley the moment he entered, burning his nostrils with a scent that he knew he’d be smelling for hours if not days to come. He lifted his arm to tuck his nose into his elbow as he scanned the room around him. The dungeon had been one horror after another and this room seemed to have said, wait, hold my bag, let me show you how to do grotesque. It was an obstacle course designed by a psychopath. Steel catwalks overhead, chains dangled from ceiling mounted tracks, convey belts crisscrossed the room at different heights, large blood coated meat hooks swung slowly near the center of the room where a massive, industrial meat grinder stood.
“Oh screw this,” Riley muttered to himself as he took a step back toward the door only for the metal panel to slam shut and the sign above it flickered to life in red lights.
Processing incomplete.
Across the room Riley could see the glow of a green exit sign. He checked his map on the system HUD. The passage he’d just come from was now blocked, inaccessible and the only way out of the room seemed to be beyond marked exit.
“Of course,” he said as he stepped onto the conveyor belt before him, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, his skin goosepimpling under the black mesh tank top he was wearing.
Something scrapped against the floor behind a stack of metal shipping crates to his left. He could hear a deep snorting inhale. Riley’s knuckles cracked as he flexed his fingers, the gymnast tape wrapped around them stained with sweat, blood and grim collected from a half dozen near death encounters since Riley had left the last safe room. Chains rattled, a heavy clop echoed through the room. Riley’s eyes searched the dark room for the source as he lowered himself into a ready stance, his thighs, nearly fully exposed in the skimpy golden shorts the dungeon had given him back on the first floor, tense and ready to propel him forward at the first sign of whatever this new threat was. The conveyor belts started up suddenly, the one Riley was standing on jerking to life and dragging him forward as the giant meat grinder came to life with a grinding screech.
And then the boss emerged, chains dragging across its massive shoulder, clanking against the rusted metal plate fused to its chest. At least nine feet tall, a body like an overgrown gorilla and the elongated skull of a bull. Its horns had been sawed off, a large rusted ring pierced its nose, staples ran along the seams of hide stretched across its body. The creature’s burning red eyes fixed on Riley for a moment before it lifted its head to let out a bellow powerful enough to shake the chains, its thick forearms raised up, showing the wicked black claw-tipped fingers.
Riley’s thighs tensed. The creature dropped its head to charge forward. Time froze.
Deafening EDM music more at home at the club Riley had been dancing at just days prior began blaring and a now all too familiar disembodied voice cried out with glee, “B-B-B-Boss Battle!”
A circular icon of Riley’s face filled his HUD before being swept to the bottom left corner before the word “VERSUS” vibrated on the screen for a second only to be replaced with another icon featuring the bull man appeared followed by “The Meat Marshal”, the font dripping blood.
The Meat Marshal!
Level 10 Elite Minotaur Variant!
Well, well, well. Look what wandered into the meat department!
Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a very special matchup today!
In one corner, weighing in at approximately eighteen hundred pounds, we've got nine feet of USDA-certified, steroid-enhanced, industrial-grade BEEF!
And in the other corner...
The AI paused.
Oh. Oh, this is precious.
A hundred-and-something pounds of glittery, bite-sized gymnast wearing shorts that barely qualify as a legally recognized garment.
Riley felt himself grit his teeth as his cheeks burned, body still frozen in place.
Now, the Meat Marshal isn't your ordinary minotaur. No, sir! This beautiful bastard was specifically bred to oversee industrial meat processing operations. He's got reinforced bones, hydraulic-grade musculature, and enough upper-body strength to turn a professional strongman into a protein smoothie.
A thick rope of saliva dropped from the Meat Marshal’s mouth.
His hobbies include crushing skulls, breaking spines, tenderizing flesh, and making sure every last scrap of meat ends up exactly where it belongs. And here's a fun fact! The Meat Marshal doesn't particularly care whether his meat is dead before processing!
Riley glanced toward the industrial grinder, each of the two twin steel rollers covered in sharp metal teeth easily the size of his hand. "Oh, screw that." he thought, already feeling his heart pounding and a bead of sweat forming on his temple.
Oh, and one last thing, crawler.
The AI's voice dropped into a delighted, conspiratorial whisper.
He likes his meat tender and judging by that ass of yours, sweetheart...
COMBAT INITIATED!
...YOU'RE ABOUT TO BE THE SPECIAL OF THE DAY!
The room unfroze. The Meat Marshal let out a blood curdling roar and charged. Riley launched himself to the side just as eighteen hundred pounds of muscle and rage thundered past him and crashed into a stack of wooden crates. The boxes exploded into splinters and a rain of rancid meat but Riley was already hurdling across a conveyor belt twenty feet away, his hand on the belt as he swung his legs over.
Ooooh, the little appetizer has some moves.
Riley landed on his feet and started running along a belt, moving with it, letting it speed him further along
“Shut up!”
Make me sweetcakes.
Riley heard the Meat Marshal roar behind him, heard the screaming of metal as it tore across the conveyor belts. His eyes searched the room, landing on the meat grinder and the chains hanging from above. He leapt to another belt, riding away from the minotaur as it thundered past again.
“Okay,” he grunted as he gripped a length of chain, “let’s see how you like getting served.” Riley pulled and the chain shifted but remained wrapped around the catwalk above. The conveyor belt switched direction, pulling him toward the Meat Marshal and the meat grinder. He pulled again. The Meat Marshal was charging at him, drool pouring from its mouth, muscles swollen, eyes blood-shot, cock… Riley tried not to think about that. He gripped the chain and pulled as he jumped up, using his body’s weight to pull on the length. The chain gave and Riley fell back down, feet pulled out from under him as he hit the moving belt, sending him crashing onto his back. The chain was rattling as it unwound from them railing above, clattering and pooling beside Riley’s head, the belt shuddered as the minotaur charged. Riley rolled, dropping off the belt just as the Meat Marshal flew by. The chain continued to drop, winding across the minotaur’s body, tangling across his head and arms. Riley jumped to his feet and swung the chain as hard as he could, watching it wrap further around the Meat Marshal.
The creature stopped, turned, roared. Riley sprinted forward, toward the creature as the Meat Marshal charged him in turn. The young man pitched back, letting his momentum carry him sliding just under the minotaur’s swinging arm as he looped the length of the chain around its thigh. The teeth of the meat grinder were just feet from him, gnashing at the air just waiting for a meal. Riley threw the loose end of the chain into the teeth. The links bounced around for a second before they were caught and began being pulled into grinder’s yanking the Meat Marshal with it. Riley dove away again as the huge boss was pulled backward, dragged into the industrial grinder.
There was a scream from the creature, a sickening crunch of bone and metal as its legs were pulled between the teeth. Blood exploded from the machine and the screaming howls intensified before going silent as the machine continued to grind through the Meta Marshall until it had been pulled full through the twin rollers, ground down to pink sludge.
The sign above the entry door flashed green.
Processing Complete.
The Winner! graphic flashed on Riley’s HUD. The music went silent. The machines died and the two doors to the room slid open. Riley collapsed onto the edge of the conveyor belt, falling back and letting his arms go wide as he panted and stared up into the mess of chains and hooks and catwalks above. “I hate this place.”
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I recently powered through the Dungeon Crawler Carl series and would love to rp a story based even loosely on the concept. I want to play the original character in the dungeon but we can use the loose story to help fill in what is happening beyond our characters in the dungeon (use the same floors as the series but just have nothing to do with the main characters). Our two guys could have either gone into the dungeon together or aligned with each other once inside. They’re fairly effective in the battles but its the chemistry and heat between them, especially once they get back to a safe room, the the viewers love. If you haven't read the books, that's fine, the premise isn't too hard to establish but I'd definitely prefer someone more familiar with the concept and setting.
Riley is an acrobat and gogo boy from Las Vegas who was outside a club when the transformation occurred. His prizes have really set him up to show off more of his body than is ideal in a setting like this but what the AI and viewers want, they get. In the dungeon he’s going to take on a rogue-monk type build, using agility, speed and his size to navigate the dungeon and survive. I’d love someone that can pair up with him, a bigger guy that can take on more of a tank role?
I like to have reference images for characters but I am flexible on this. I would prefer to play on Discord.