âItâs⦠Itâs different, chat. The others just attacked me⦠but I actually
to her⦠and now sheâsâ¦â I mumbled as I idly rolled the key in my fingers.
I grit my teeth and mentally looked away from chat.
They didnât really get it, did they? They werenât the ones to land the killing blow.
The worst part of all of this? There wasnât even a body left to bury. She was just
.
Why the hell did this dungeon have to stab me through my
as well? I was prepared to be punted around or, hell, even having my brain assaulted, but thisâ¦
â¦Was it because it was an Intra-based dungeon? Was that the joke here? Had Echo even been real or just psychological warfare like some people in chat had been suggestingâ¦?
I shook my head with a sigh.
Wow, what a dick move, saying that the person Iâd just
hadnât even existed. Way to go, justifying what Iâd done, huh?
â¦Okay, I needed a break.
I was tired, both physically and mentally â and not just because of low Intra â and my clothes self was still quite tattered.
I could pull out my pillow and nap for a bit again, but honestly? I just wanted to get out of here.
So instead, I put the key in my backpack, turned around and marched to the big final boss chest at the base of the staircase leading to the throne while eyeing the much smaller chest sitting next to it.
I wondered what the heck
was about. Iâd only ever gotten
chest when beating a boss. Why would there be multiple?
Regardless, I slowly made my way to the chests while I looked at all the achievements Iâd just completed.
- Beat floor ten of any Intra-based dungeon. [COMPLETE]
- Conquer a C-rank dungeon or higher. [COMPLETE]
- Reenact a historical event through a dungeon. [COMPLETE]
- Conquer an Intra-based dungeon. [COMPLETE]
- Conquer an Intra-based dungeon solo. [COMPLETE]
- Conquer one of each type of a dungeon. [COMPLETE]
- Conquer one of each type of a dungeon solo. [COMPLETE]
A lot of âConquer X dungeonâ achievements, but what
caught my eye was the Deja vu one.
Historical event?
historical event? Did that mean the murder of the demon queen? Would
get this achievement when completing this dungeon then?
Or was it the
Iâd killed her?
I grimaced and shook these thoughts away. Thinking about that just made me remember what Iâd just done and that probably wasnât the best for my mental health.
I had to talk to Jane again soon.
Finally making it to the big chest, I eyed it for a moment, thinking of creative ways to check for mimics I hadnât used yet and going with the first idea that came into my mind.
I wound my arm back, formed a fist, and then threw it.
âSoul Strike!â
Thud.
Nothing happened obviously. The chest had no soul. It was just a chest. No soul to shatter likeâ
I slumped, feeling even more miserable. Good job me, reminding myself of what Iâd just done.
I didnât even read whatever annoyed reply Jeoff gave.
â...Probably not a mimic, I guess,â I mumbled and proceeded to open the chest.
Inside the chest wasâ¦
My axe.
Or rather, the demon queenâs waraxe again. It looked nearly identical to the one Iâd gotten from the crater dungeon.
I stared at it for a moment, ignoring the other two items for the moment.
â...Chat, I got a dupe.â
I couldnât even muster the energy to be indignant about it.
I hummed and shrugged. I could try doing that, just to see what happened. Sure, I didnât want to fuse unnecessary items into my Soulbound Items, but at least
experimentation was needed.
After carefully placing the axe into my backpack, I checked on the other two items.
One of them was a ticket â I decided to leave that one for last â and the other one was a crown⦠or maybe a tiara?
It was golden and had a big cyan gem in the middle, with three more smaller cyan gems on each side.
Getting a crown from a demon queen fit, butâ¦
â...But Echo wasnât wearing a crown,â I mumbled, pushing through the spike of grief at remembering her again.
I frowned but put the crown / tiara on my head and proceeded to feel around the thing with my Ether.
But unlike all the other magical items Iâd gotten in the past, the crown didnât easily let me prod it with Ether. In fact, it
my Ether instead, more than a regular non-magical item as well.
I frowned deeper and tried Intra.
My skill with using Intra was still patchy, but nonetheless, I could feel something in the crown when I looked. Although it was very different from what the trident â now my axe self â had.
â...Itâs⦠Hmm⦠It almost feels like it
Intra? But also not reallyâ¦? Itâs more like⦠if I pour Intra into it⦠it then
other Intra?â
I pursed my lips, then shrugged, and put it on my head â because why not? â before turning to the last object in the chest, the ticket.
It was green, same shade as the Intra cobwebs, with pink text saying â5%!â.
I hummed.
âIntra ticket, right? Would make sense⦠this being an Intra dungeon and whatnot.â
I barely hesitated before activating it.
Yup, just as Iâd thought.
I mentally pressed confirm and let the ticket vanish⦠before having the thought that I should have watched it in Intra vision to see how it looked like.
Oh, well. Next time.
âWell, that was⦠actually kinda underwhelmingâ¦? Did anyone else expect something much grander from the final bossâ¦?â
âEh⦠I guess? I
feel like I got really lucky with the crater dungeonâs loot, honestly⦠And I guess this dungeon never had very good rewardsâ¦â
âTrue⦠I guess Intra dungeons are about the quantity of loot thenâ¦?â
I hummed.
âRight, yeah. Letâs check it out tooâ¦â I declared before stepping away from the big chest and glancing at the smaller one. âSo, what are you hidingâ¦?â
So far, dungeons only ever had one chest at a time, be it from a boss or just a randomly placed one. But then again, this was supposedly a C-rank dungeon, so maybe it was different? But why would another chest be needed at all? Why not just put it all into the main chest?
I didnât need to wonder for too long. I walked up to the chest and opened it to revealâ
I gasped.
âMy stuff!â I exclaimed and immediately grabbed my lost cutlass and bucket that lay in the chest, alongside the map, a bunch of arrows, empty phials, and torn clothes . âSo
where all the lost stuff goes!â
+1 Skill point
:
âââGet your items back from the dungeon. [ACHIEVED]
:
âââComplete the dungeon in one attempt. [FAILED]
âââ+2 SP
+3 Skill points
I blinked and finally quirked a small smile.
âThere we go, chat⦠I made it in time⦠Hah, I actually forgot about that quest.â
I shook my head before opening up the descriptions for the achievements Iâd just gotten.
- Retrieve other adventurerâs items from an Intra dungeon by beating it. [COMPLETE]
- Amass 50 or more skill points. [COMPLETE]
âOh, huh⦠I have⦠fifty-three skill points. That one achievement and one quest put me exactly at fifty⦠Nice.â
Still, I now had
Keyfrinderâs maps. Could I do something with that? Maybe fuse them together? Key items usually had some good fusions. I would have to try that later.
Besides that, there was a lot of just⦠junk. Did the people before me use this dungeon as garbage disposal? Well, it didnât matter. As the saying went: one manâs trash was another Vcuberâs treasure. I just had to wash these rags to make them into something usable, the empty containers were definitely useful for if I wanted to experiment with alchemy or for just holding liquids, and the non-broken arrows were bound to be useful as well.
âYeah⦠I guess rather than one big thing, I just got a lot of smaller things from this dungeonâ¦? Not bad, I guessâ¦â
I probably didnât sound all that enthusiastic, but it was hard to get excited about literal garbage even if it
be useful. Not to mention, I was still trying to get over the guild of⦠what had happened.
I frowned.
âYou think there are other people around right now? I also just assumed that this is all the stuff the people from before the ragnarok left⦠But, hmmâ¦â
If there still really
other people around, I
to try and find them. Maybe⦠maybe there were even in the same position as me? Maybe we were meant to unite to defeat the evil god known as Fate Weaver or something⦠But then, the Fate Weaver would know, wouldnât he?
Yeah, maybe I was overthinking it.
Regardless, I stuffed
from the lost and found chest into my backpack while chat theorized about the other people and suggested all sorts of ways to make use of all the junk from the chest.
Then I stepped back and waitedâ¦
And waited⦠and⦠nothing happened.
Heat rose to my cheeks.
âUh, I expected the dungeon to boot me outâ¦? Like the water park? But I guess only Tempor dungeons do thatâ¦?â
âRight, yeah. Well, I guess thenâ¦â
I turned around and slowly walked back to the big door. On a whim â and chatâs suggestion â instead of wishing to leave the dungeon however, I instead wished to
, despite knowing that this was supposed to be the final floor.
I opened the big door and was greeted byâ¦
I blinked.
A dark sprawling room filled with boxes and barrels. It had several support pillars running through and small cobwebs â nothing like the top of the locker â here and there.
âUhhh⦠It⦠continues? Chat, what do I doâ¦?â
My low Ether and Intra shouldnât matter with a quick nap on the pillow, but I was still emotionally exhausted, so I wasnât sure if it was smart to keep going.
I hesitated, looking into the dark, dreary â and possibly bug-filled â place.
On one hand, this was going to be very dangerous. On the other hand, if I left now, I would have to beat up Echo again â this time without a soul â to get to this place again.
I took a deep breath and then let out a sigh.
I let the door wide open and then took out my pillow and some of the tattered rags Iâd gotten from the chest and got comfortable on the floor, making sure to face the open door, just in case something came through. Not that I thought dungeon monsters
freely walk between floors, if the achievements Iâd gotten from the accidental zombie horde summoning in the water park were any indication. But hey, couldnât be too careful.
A few minutes before the time limit of one hour would be up, I got up, dusted myself off, stretched, took a deep breath, and then stepped into what chat and I assumed to be some kind of cellar.