#092 – I’m not interested in room service!

#092 – I’m not interested in room service! Floor six was a sprawling kitchen. Sinks, counters, ovens, and bags – presumably filled with ingredients – filled the place. It kinda reminded me of the fast food buildings in the water park dungeon. Except for the whole non-euclidean maze thing, at least. “Kitchen? Didn’t we already fight a cooking demon...?” I asked as I cautiously walked inside, eyeing the passageway on the other side. Sure enough, once I got far enough into the room and the door slammed behind me, the door across from me opened, revealing my next opponent. It was a maid. Huh. Alright then. It was a short woman – or a girl? – with rainbow-colored hair tied into a braid, rainbow-colored feathers decorating her forearms, wings sprouting from her back – also rainbow-colored – and most interestingly, very human-looking skin, unlike everyone else in this dungeon so far. Just like always, though, she had no face. Her weapons of choice were two giant shurikens – glaives? – held in her hands and she was already raising one of them to throw it. I didn’t let her. I materialized my gun self and shot a simple water bullet to start things off. There was an explosion of water at her position as expected. What definitely wasn’t expected was all the water suddenly flash freezing, moments before a glaive came flying from behind the ice structure straight at me. I startled and quickly crouched behind one of the counters in the middle of the room, hoping to hide from the weapon. Only to then hear a loud screeching noise as the counter I was leaning on shuddered and I scrambled away from it on instinct. Said instinct had probably saved me because the next thing I knew, there was a glaive buried in the floor where I’d crouched down and the counter was split in half. What the hell? Then the glaive suddenly vanished. When I looked up, I saw the maid running around the ice, holding a glaive in each hand again. What the hell?! Did she have Quick Fetch on those things? Dammit, that was like the perfect weapon to have that skill on! Pushing aside my jealousy, I pointed my gun at her again and fired a shower of crystals this time, hoping to either distract her or make her waste Ether by using that ice attack again. Instead of doing that though, she put one of the glaives in front of her and spun it, before a sudden burst of air that surged out of it. The surge made me stumble back, clattered the utensils scattered around, and blew away the crystals. Some debris hit me, but it mostly slid off my clothes and didn’t do any damage. Still, this was really troublesome. She had a deadly ranged attack, several ways to defend herself from my own, and the reflexes to make my fastest attack useless, apparently. I needed to get close... but that didn’t exactly look easy. Another glaive flew at me before I could figure out my course of action. This one was on fire. Part of me thought to just tank it since I still had my blessing skill, but then I remembered that the fire was attached to a sharp bladed weapon and probably shouldn’t try testing the durability of my clothes. I dodged to the side, just barely because of my brief hesitation. Then another glaive was flying at me, this one surrounded in icy mist. I shot it out of the air with my gun. As expected though, as soon as my shot hit the glaive, it exploded into water and then flash-froze into another icy piece of modern art. I kept moving, hoping to get closer while both her weapons were out of her hands. Naturally, the moment I ran around the ice and spotted her again, she had both glaives in her hands again, preparing to throw another one. This one was letting out sparks of electricity. Dammit. How many elements was she going to use? Was that why she had rainbow-colored hair and feathers? Why wasn’t she limited to three skills like everyone else? Not important. I ducked under the electrified glaive, but the sparks still somehow jumped to me despite that making zero sense, scientifically speaking. That actually did the job this time and her head was sent flying before quickly turning into orange smoke, just like the rest of her body, leaving only a chest behind. I breathed out and relaxed again. “Phew... You know, chat... These fights feel like they should be harder than the archer, but somehow, they are not?” I mused before shaking my head and crouching down to open the chest. repeaeaeat: probably becaus you got stronger since then RetconRanger: The archer just counters you, that’s why it was harder. KaiEbikoOfficial: this is so nerveracking watching you bloopbooper: bwooooop! (•̀ᴗ•́ )و KaiEbikoOfficial: I thought you died when you blacked out for a sec GeorgeDoshington: noooooo dont kill the cute maid GeorgeDoshington: whos gonna make me lunch now I hummed. “Yeah, I guess I did get stronger... and yeah, armor-piercing kinda counters super armor build, doesn’t it?” I sniffed. “Hey, don’t worry, Ebi! I’m fine! I think that black fog was some mental attack, but it went away quickly.” Probably thanks to Mind Shield, actually. If I didn’t have that, would the sharp glaive she’d thrown after that kill me...? Well... good thing, I had it then. Probably should keep it on at all times from now on, just in case. Ugh, but that meant less free skill slots... I shook these thoughts away and then read George’s messages. “Make it yourself, George! You lazy git!” GeorgeDoshington: nooooooooooo GeorgeDoshington: those glaives were fuckin cool tho GeorgeDoshington: i hope u get them as loot I rolled my eyes at the immediate topic change but secretly hoped for the same as I popped the chest open. Instead of the glaives, I got... a pile of rainbow-colored feathers. Great. That was just like the archer’s arm. Only a little less morbid. GeorgeDoshington: damit GeorgeDoshington: at least you can make a hat KaiEbikoOfficial: ... I gave George’s messages a look. “...Right. Well, I guess I’m just gonna...” I pulled off my backpack and then gradually stuffed all the feathers inside. Once done, I sat on the floor for a moment and sighed. My head kinda hurt from that encounter. Either from bumping it when I’d gotten hit by that glaive or by using too much Intra... I couldn’t quite tell. Still, better to play it safe and not immediately rush into the next floor. If I was going to take it on right now anyway. I wasn’t entirely sure if I should, honestly. Yes, this fight had been... easier than I would have expected, but there was no telling when the dungeon would throw another curveball at me like the archer. After a few minutes of resting and recovering while talking to chat, I decided that while it was risky, my Ether levels were good enough, and my Intra – and also probably Tempor – levels had recovered enough to try and take on the next floor. Still, I couldn’t help but be anxious about it, now that I’d been reminded about the possibility of enemies with the perfect counter for me. It especially sucked since there didn’t seem to be any way to retreat once the battle started. Well, I could try breaking down a door, but I had no idea whether that would work. Hmm. Maybe I should try that on a lower leveled floor first before I actually needed to do it. But for now... GeorgeDoshington: gogogogogogo GeorgeDoshington: full steam ahead! ...Just one more floor. I mean, what if it turned out to be the final one? Since I always had to start all over again, I didn’t want to quit right before the end, right?