Underearth/Book 1/Chapter 9

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Further down the path, the plateau once again widened. Continuing down, Frisk found a row of spikes blocking further progression. As Frisk approached the spikes, his foot hit something hard buried in the snow. Kneeling down to the hard object and brushing it off, he found the object to be a black thing with white lines marked onto it. Brushing more snow off of the object, he found it to be a map of the plateau he was on, with a part of it marked with a red 'X'. Frisk looked over at the area that had been marked but didn't see anything. Deciding to investigate a bit more, he walked over to the area. As he approached the location, there was an eruption of snow as an armored dog emerged from the snow.

When Frisk had regained his composition, he drew his knife. The armored dog was about as tall as Frisk and had a full suit of plate armor with a sword and shield. Frisk raised the knife to eye level as the dog charged. The dog took a swing but missed. The Monster's head was wide open from the back, and Frisk took this opportunity to put the canine down. He clenched the knife and took a swing, putting all his force behind it, straight down onto the dog's head. Moments after the collision, the Monster turned to dust. Victory, though it struck Frisk as a bit odd. This Monster seemed to have some degree of training in fighting. Besides Toriel and that dog from earlier, this was the first Monster who seemed to know how to fight. Though the creature didn't seem to be expecting Frisk to dodge their attack so easily, which must have caused the drop in guard. Frisk decided to leave the ash pile, though keep the knife drawn just in case he encountered another Monster that knew what it was doing.

Frisk then approached the section that was marked on the map earlier. After a slight investigation, Frisk came across a button in the ground. Upon pressing it, he heard the spikes next to the map retract. Frisk returned to the map and sure enough, the spikes were gone, leaving the path unhindered. Frisk crossed the bridge that the spikes were blocking off, onto a new plateau. When he'd reached the next plateau, Frisk was approached by two hooded figures who, through their hoods, appeared to be more dogs. Frisk tightened his grip on the knife. The two dogs sniffed around.

"What's that smell?" One of the dogs asked in a relatively deep voice.

"Where's that smell?" The other asked in a relatively higher voice.

They both then took to searching the area, continuing to talk about the strange smell they were smelling. They eventually ended on where Frisk was standing.

"Hmm... here's that weird smell..." The deeper-voiced one said. "It makes me want to eliminate."

"Eliminate YOU!" The other finished for him.

As soon as the higher-voiced one finished her sentence, they both took off their hoods and drew their axes. They both seemed to use their axe as a shield for the other, though Frisk took no notice. The dogs advanced towards Frisk, no doubt getting ready to attack. As they got close, they both took a swing at Frisk, though he managed to evade the attacks. After the two dogs attacked, their defenses were down, so Frisk took the opportunity to dash towards the deeper-voiced one, stabbing him straight in the abdomen, turning him to dust. The higher-voiced dog looked on in shock and horror as to what just happened. When Frisk turned to face her, her eyes had turned a blood-shot red with rage. She then took her axe and gave no mercy in her swings. During her berserking rampage, Frisk was hit in his chest. Where he was hit burned greatly, though his skin and clothes were undamaged, holding the consistency to what Frisk had seen thus far in the Underground. When she'd stopped her rampage for a moment to catch her breath, Frisk took the opportunity to attack, going straight for her neck. The momentum of the knife as it struck her neck was enough to cut her head clean off. Moments after this happened, her body and head turned to dust. With the two cloaked dogs out of the way, he moved further down the path on the new plateau.

Some ways down the path, Frisk found quite a few boulders of ice and snow, a button, some blue 'X's on the ground, a row of spikes, and a sign. Frisk approached the sign, which was written in English. It seemed to be instructions for a puzzle. *Turn every 'X' into an 'O', then press the button.* Seemed easy enough. Frisk then approached one of the two 'X's in the area and stepped on it. The symbol and color changed to display a red 'O'. He then hurried over to the other 'X' and turned it into an 'O' as well. Frisk then went over to the button and pressed it in as well, causing the row of spikes to retract. As Frisk approached the spikes, he heard an annoying voice begin talking to him. It was Papyrus.

"WHAT!? HOW DID YOU AVOID MY TRAP? AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY... IS THERE ANY LEFT FOR ME???"

Frisk assumed he was talking about the spaghetti. "Oh that? I left it."

"REALLY!?" Papyrus shrieked. "WOWIE... YOU RESISTED THE FLAVOR OF MY HOMECOOKED PASTA... JUST SO YOU COULD SHARE IT WITH ME???"

That wasn't it at all. The reason Frisk had left it was because the entire dish was frozen solid, but Papyrus wouldn't shut up long enough for Frisk to explain that to him.

"FRET NOT HUMAN! I, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS... WILL MAKE YOU ALL THE PASTA YOU COULD EVER WANT! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"

Papyrus then ran off further down the path. While that was a kind gesture that Frisk most certainly would have accepted, if he was in the mind to accept the gesture, then he wouldn't have even left Toriel. After a few more seconds had passed, Frisk too began walking down the path, after Papyrus.

Some ways down the path, Frisk finally caught up with Papyrus. Papyrus was standing off to the side of the path, seemingly waiting for Frisk to arrive, though he didn't say anything when he did finally arrive. Frisk decided to walk past Papyrus and continue down the path. A bit further down, Frisk found a ton of large snowballs, around the size of the base of a snowman, scattered all over.

"HUMAN!" Frisk heard from over his shoulder. "HMMM... HOW DO I SAY THIS... YOU WERE TAKING SO LONG TO ARRIVE, SO... I DECIDED TO IMPROVE THIS PUZZLE BY ARRANGING THE SNOW TO LOOK MORE LIKE MY FACE. UNFORTUNATELY, THE SNOW FROZE TO THE GROUND. NOW THE SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT! AND, AS USUAL, MY LAZY BROTHER IS NOWHERE AROUND. I SUPPOSE WHAT I'M SAYING IS... WORRY NOT, HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SOLVE THIS CONUNDRUM! THEN WE CAN BOTH PROCEED! MEANWHILE, FEEL FREE TO TRY AND SOLVE THE PUZZLE YOURSELF! I'LL TRY NOT TO GIVE AWAY THE ANSWER!!!"

Frisk looked over at the jumble of 'X's and snowballs.

*Looks nothing like him.* Frisk thought.

He stared at the puzzle for a few minutes, studying it, trying to solve it in his mind. After some time, he figured it out, and solved the puzzle.

"WOW!!! YOU SOLVED IT!!!" Papyrus shouted. "AND YOU DID IT ALL WITHOUT MY HELP... INCREDIBLE! I'M IMPRESSED!!! YOU MUST CARE ABOUT PUZZLES LIKE I DO! WELL, I'M SURE YOU'LL LOVE THE NEXT PUZZLE THEN! IT MIGHT EVEN BE TOO EASY FOR YOU!!!"

*What, you mean like this one was?*

Papyrus then did his typical laugh before running off. Frisk then followed after him, further down the path. He made it past the snowballs to find the retracted row of spikes and Sans waiting just past them.

"Good job on solving it so quickly." Sans said. "You didn't even need my help. Which is great, 'cause I love doing absolutely nothing."

"Yeah, like you would have done anything anyway." Frisk responded before moving further down the path.

Some ways down the path, Frisk came upon a bridge. On the other side on the next plateau over stood Sans and Papyrus, who was standing next what looked like a large machine. Between Frisk and the skeletons was a massive array of grey squares of differing shades.

"HEY! IT'S THE HUMAN!" Papyrus announced. "YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS PUZZLE! IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT DOCTER ALPHYS! YOU SEE THESE TILES!?" He pointed at the grey squares of differing shades."ONCE I PUSH THIS SWITCH, THEY WILL BEGIN TO CHANGE COLOR!" He gestured to machine next to him. "EACH COLOR HAS A DIFFERENT FUNCTION! RED TILES ARE IMPASSABLE! YOU CANNOT WALK ON THEM! YELLOW TILES ARE ELECTRIC! THEY WILL ZAP YOU! GREEN TILES ARE ALARM TILES! IF YOU STEP ON THEM, YOU WILL HAVE TO FIGHT A MONSTER!!! ORANGE TILES ARE ORANGE-SCENTED! THEY WILL MAKE YOU SMELL DELICIOUS! BLUE TILES ARE WATER TILES! SWIM THROUGH IF YOU LIKE, BUT IF YOU SMELL LIKE ORANGES, THE PIRANHAS WILL BITE YOU! ALSO, IF A BLUE TILE IS NEXT TO A YELLOW TILE, THE WATER WILL ALSO ZAP YOU! PURPLE TILES ARE SLIPPERY! YOU WILL SLIDE TO THE NEXT TILE! HOWEVER, THE SLIPPERY SOAP SMELLS LIKE LEMONS, WHICH PIRANHAS DO NOT LIKE! PURPLE AND BLUE ARE OKAY! FINALLY, PINK TILES. THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING. STEP ON THE ALL YOU LIKE. HOW WAS THAT!? UNDERSTAND???"

"Yeah, I got it." Frisk yelled to Papyrus.

"GREAT!!! THEN THERE'S ONE LAST THING. THIS PUZZLE IS ENTIRELY RANDOM!!!!!! WHEN I PUSH THIS SWITCH, IT WILL MAKE A PUZZLE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE! NOT EVEN I WILL KNOW THE SOLUTION! NYEH HEH HEH! GET READY!"

Papyrus then pushed the switch, causing the massive array of grey squares to flash to life and switch colors rapidly. Eventually, the whole thing stopped on two red rows and a pink row straight down the middle. Papyrus then left down the path without saying anything. Frisk crossed the puzzle that had formed over to where the skeletons had previously been standing.

"Hey kid, that spaghetti from earlier... It wasn't too bad for my brother." Sans explained. "Since he started cooking lessons, he's been improving a lot. I bet if he keeps it up, next year he'll even make something edible."

Frisk couldn't tell if that was supposed to be a joke, and was too afraid to ask, so he just continued down the path.

Some ways down the path, Frisk saw another one of those sentry stations like the one he found the first dog-Monster in. Frisk approached it with caution, afraid that something might spring out and attack him. Eventually, he made it up to the station, but nothing came out. He took a quick gander about and saw nothing. Frisk then relaxed quite a bit before continuing on down the path.