- Kill a dungeon boss from full health with a single attack. [COMPLETE]
Cool. I guess the coin toss hadnât done any damage at all.
I took another slow breath before replying.
âOh, Iâm fine⦠Just another brush with death. How many times was this now? Four? Five? Iâm losing count,â I said nonchalantly, while doing my best to keep the trembling out of my voice. âI threw the bottle, Jeoff⦠Oh, you mean before that? Just a copper coinâ¦â
âHahaaa⦠That would be great⦠Unfortunately, Iâm still
,â I replied, my tone turning just a wee bit manic at the end. The echoes in the empty dark room made it sound extra creepy.
Had I already snapped? Had all this violence and near-death experience broken me? How did all those action story protagonists keep their sanity while constantly battling with dangerous monsters?
I was just a Vcuber! Not a brave warrior of legends or whatever! What was I even doing here? Battling my way through a confusing mess of a dungeon filled with weird monsters just for a chance of getting some food drops? I could have kept searching for something edible outside instead.
Heck. I could still do that. The exit was right around the corner. I could leave this place and go search for food the normal way instead of risking my life in this place. Sure, Iâd already progressed through it a decent amount, but it wasnât as if the dungeon would reset. It hasnât so far.
â¦But maybe it would. Was there an invisible time limit? Would the dungeon reset if I left for too long? Would it reset if I
leave and just took too long to clear it?
I stopped, took a deep breath, and then slowly exhaled.
Maybe I should stop spiraling into a panic attack and do something more productive. Like finding out whether the boss had left some loot behind. If it was anything like the two giant coins, there would be a chest somewhere around hereâ¦
I dragged myself to my feet, lit my palm on fire, and looked around the place. The first thing I spotted was my trusty sword laying on the ground. I must have dropped it during the explosion.
With my sword back in the sheath â how had neither gotten damaged in the explosion? â I began wandering around the darkness, trying to find anything of interest. It didnât take me long to find a big chest with a golden skull on it.
âLook, chatâ¦! Lootâ¦!â I said with obviously forced excitement in my tone.
As per usual, I made sure to poke the chest from all sides with my sword. Once I felt like it was enough, I stepped closer, and began fiddling with the stupid lid. It didnât take me as long to open as the other boss chest.
Once the lid slid open, revealing a soft glow and three items, I peered inside and began Appraising each object, starting with the sword-sized golden key-looking thing taking up most of the chestâs space.
A key used to unlock the gate leading to Floor 3 of this dungeon.
[INNATE] skill: Quick Fetch - Use a small amount of Tempor to teleport this item back into your hand from anywhere.
Oh. It was a key for that gate back in floor one, wasnât it? I
expected to get this at some point. But I hadnât expected it to be an actual useful item as well. It looked more like a sword mixed with a saw than a key. The hilt resembled one from a rapier, and the sharp teeth along its blade were like that of a saw.
Moreover, it had an innate skill!
I reached inside the chest and grabbed the âkeyâ. Just like all other equipment Iâd gotten in a dungeon, it fit my hand perfectly and as soon as I had a grip on it, I felt a new mental switch worm itself into my mind. That was⦠kind of uncomfortable. It wasnât the same as a normal skill. It felt⦠tacked on, rather than something that was a part of me.
On a whim, I checked my status.
Nana Aoto
Fire blessed
Human
16
Streamer
Quick Fetch (Golden gate key)
Phoenix Blessing [CURSED] [FREE] [TEMPORARY]
Flameguard
Fire Breath
Appraisal
Huh. It was even listed in my status, strangely enough. What would happen if I dropped the thing?
As a test, I pulled my hand back and tossed the key like a javelin into the distance. It clattered to the floor uselessly, as expected.
I checked my status again and the skill was still there. Actually, it made sense that it was. The skill itself would be useless if you couldnât use it without touching the key, after all.
I prodded the mental switch and suddenly, the space around the key and my hand warped and I was holding it again.
I blinked in surprise.
That had felt⦠weirdly anti-climactic. With other skills like Fire Breath and even Heat Vision, I could
feel them doing⦠something. But with this, it just kind of happened. Like pressing a button in a video game and my character casting a spell. I hadnât even realized how visceral using normal skills had felt. But now that I could compare them to thisâ¦
âWell, thatâs cool⦠I guess I can use this as a second weapon?â I mused. âYeah, I can dual wield now, chat!â
Just to try it out, I pulled out my sword with my left hand and made a pose.
âHmmâ¦â
Then I tried swapping the two, holding the key in my left hand and the Ether Volt in my right hand.
âYeah I think this is better.â I nodded to myself. âI wonder if I can do thisâ¦â
I reached back, flipped the key over, and slid it into the open backpack on my back, storing it away inside. Then I held out my hand and prodded the mental switch again and the key appeared in my grip once more.
âAwesome! This is gonna be
useful!â I cheered, finally getting back into a good mood.
I put the key into my backpack again, looked back into the chest, and appraised the second item, which looked like a sports drink.
A bottle of nutritious Miakola juice infused with Tempor.
âOh⦠Oh, wait! Itâs⦠well, not food. But a drink! I didnât even notice!â
I grinned, my cheer back in full force, opened the bottle, and took a sip. The sweet drink tugged my lips into a smile as I let out a satisfied noise.
âThis is
, chat! Totally worth blowing myself up!â I declared, inwardly shuddering at the memory despite my words.
I continued sipping my new favorite â and only â drink and appraised the final item. A blue glove with white lines running from each finger to the palm, where they all joined into a white circle.
A glove made from Ether-reactive material, allowing the user to channel Ether through it and create Ether-reinforced bubbles.
â...Bubbles?â I idly murmured and grabbed the thing to inspect it.
âI wonder why the key has an innate skill but this doesnât if it can do stuffâ¦â
âThatâs true.â
Finally, I decided to put the glove on and test it out. It fit me perfectly like⦠well, like a glove. I stretched my fingers, waved it around, pointed it at the chest, all while trying to channel Ether into it to make bubbles.
Just like with my sword, I failed.
âUghhh⦠Come onâ¦â
I really needed to swap Craftsman back in⦠or learn how to channel my Ether without it. Actually, I could do both. Swap it back in, and then try to use it to learn how to channel Ether without it by observing how it worked. Like copying off of someone elseâs test sheet.
âWell, whatever. Iâm happy with my loot. The glove will probably be useful once I learn how to actually use it.â
I stepped back and the chest shimmered and disappeared, briefly leaving me in darkness before I lit a finger on fire again.
âTime to get out of hereâ¦
. God, I feel like Iâve been in this stupid locker maze for agesâ¦â I muttered with a tired sigh and proceeded to walk in a random direction.
âUmm, no? I donât think soâ¦?â I double-checked and looked around once more before giving up. The last secret golden chest had given off light and I couldnât see anything glowing anyway. âI guess I didnât do anything overly stupid this time⦠Hahâ¦â
Or maybe I needed to do something
stupid to get another secret chest, rather than repeating the same stupidity over and over.
âSpeaking of⦠I didnât even check the second locker⦠Why didnât you tell me, chatâ¦? Eh. Canât go back there anywayâ¦â
With that, I finally left. A few minutes of walking later, the lockerâs entrance eventually aligned with where I was going and âlandedâ in front of me and I was free from the darkness again..
I walked straight ahead to the door leading out of floor 2, opened it, and made my way back through the short winding hallways of floor 1 before finding myself back in the main corridor that had the golden gate at the end.
I glanced at it with a frown, then I glanced in the opposite direction and saw darkness at the end of the corridor. Then I remembered that I had a literal magical wristwatch and checked the bracelet. It read 20:16.
âItâs actually getting kind of late, isnât itâ¦?â I murmured. âWell, not
late by my standards, but I donât think I should go to the next floor yet. Last time I did that, I got stuck inside and had to sleep thereâ¦â
âOh, yeah⦠I have
skill points again⦠Hmm⦠Why do I always get a truckton of skill points after nearly dying? Are these pity points? Sure feels like it,â I rambled even as I opened the various skill windows and browsed through what upgrades I could possibly get. As I did that, I calmly walked out of the dungeon.
âHmm⦠I could get both Extreme Temperature and Mega Lungs if I wanted to⦠That would cost me fourteen points and leave me with two⦠But I think putting more points into fire is a mistake,â I mused with a grimace as I remembered the sauna again.
âTier twoâ¦? Oh, yeah! Thatâs right! I totally forgot about thatâ¦â I murmured as I stepped over the boundary and found myself in the forest outside of the dungeon again. âIf I get all the upgrades for Streamer, it will unlock the next tier of skills⦠Huh⦠But is that really a good idea to do right away? It would cost me⦠nine points to get the rest of the Streamer upgrades⦠Then I would have seven left over⦠That could be enough to buy some tier two skills, rightâ¦? Maybeâ¦? I donât really know how much they cost, thoughâ¦â
I idly dropped my backpack and sat down on the grass as I mumbled to myself and consulted with chat.
âOr I could get Inspiration for Appraisal, swap Craftsman back in tomorrow, get Fusion, and then try to make stuff⦠Ugh, but what would I swap out? I need both Fire Breath and Flameguardâ¦â
I was really starting to feel the limits of having only three skill slots and having to wait a full day before swapping a skill in again⦠And it would probably only get worse. Were there any ways of getting more skill slots?
Ah, wait⦠Didnât the limit break thing say it unlocked two skill slots after completionâ¦?
I frowned and grumbled to myself. Stupid system was baiting me into traumatizing myself.
â¦Actually, Iâd already had several near-death experiences, hadnât I? Was this the norm? Was whatever the limit break would do to me just par for the course?
Then my stomach grumbled, interrupting my thoughts.
âArgh, but I still need to find more food! I canât even afford to experiment with fusion!â I groaned. âChat, why is this isekai adventure so stressful? I feel like Iâve barely started! Itâs only the first dungeon! Why couldnât I get a nice and simple tutorial area first?!â
I pouted.
âDonât call me cranky, Ebi⦠Fine, fine. Iâll just flop over here and sleep thenâ¦â Then I smirked and fake yawned. âDang, Iâm sleepier than I thought. I guess the skill point spending spree will have to wait till tomorrow! Good night, Ebi! Good night, chat!â
I lay down on the grass and then yawned for real. Honestly, even though it was still pretty early for bed, at least compared to what Iâd been used to back on Earth, I was totally spent.
Maybe healing from a point-blank explosion strong enough to oneshot a boss tired me out?
Well, it didnât matter. Time to sleep.