#093 – I knew this skill would be useful one day

#093 – I knew this skill would be useful one day Into my backpack the huge sack of tomatoes went. Just like the pots from the giant merchant’s – ogre’s? – floor, there was no reason for me to ignore all of this juicy stuff. More food variety could only be a good thing. Once I pillaged as much as I could without risking passing the one hour time limit, I steeled myself, walked to the door, and opened it. It led outside. A large empty area with dirt ground surrounded by walls on all sides. There were also several racks of weapons scattered along the walls and what seemed to be target dummies stood in a row at the far wall. I eyed the area curiously without entering just yet. “A training ground, I guess?” I mused. “Am I gonna fight a combat instructor now...?” That thought honestly made me a bit wary about going into this fight. If a maid was that strong, how strong would be someone actually specializing in combat? ...But then again, the maid came after a guy with a sword, who literally looked like someone used to combat. And other than that one glaive hit – which had barely scratched me – I’d beaten the maid without any issues. GeorgeDoshington: fuck the police GeorgeDoshington: intstruct the instructor GeorgeDoshington: ur better then him I snorted. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, George.” KaiEbikoOfficial: nana you should really go back now KaiEbikoOfficial: i have a bad feeling about this GeorgeDoshington: and i have good feeling about it I pursed my lips. Should I turn back, after all? It would be safer... but if I kept turning back, I would never beat this dungeon like I wanted to. “Last floor,” I finally said. “No matter what happens, I’ll end for today after I’m done with this floor.” KaiEbikoOfficial: I hope you know what youre doing... I walked through the door. Even as I made it further into the open field, I kept my head on a swivel, trying to figure out where my opponent would come from. There really weren’t many spots one could hide behind. The dummies were too thin, the weapon racks were right up against the walls, and there weren’t any other doors besides the one I’d used to enter here. Oh, that was it, wasn’t it? My opponent would come through there, just to screw with me. With that in mind, I turned around to keep the door in sight and slowly backed away from it. As expected, a few more steps later, the door slammed shut on its own and I tensed up, expecting it to open again. It didn’t. Instead, I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder as something hit me. I gasped in pain and whirled around to face the threat. Only to see empty space. What the– Another stab of pain, this time in my back. I cried out again and turned around. There was nothing. repeaeaeat: heatvison I turned on Heat Vision. It took me a brief moment to adjust to seeing on an entirely different spectrum, but as soon as I did, I spotted the humanoid outline – with a tail – circling around to lunge at me again. This time, I summoned my key sword and quickly swung it in my opponent’s direction. Despite my haphazard attempt, it seemed to surprise them enough that they canceled their attempt to stab me and backed off. I didn’t hesitate, pulled out my gun self, and fired a huge wave of fire at them. I immediately realized just how dumb of a decision that had been as I was briefly flashbanged by all the heat in my vision. I yelped and stumbled back, unsuccessfully trying to blink it away. I turned off Heat Vision, hoping it would help. Fortunately, it did. I was no longer blinded. Unfortunately, it also meant that I was back to not seeing my invisible enemy. Another stab, this time in my left calf. I gasped in pain and went down on my knee, but quickly turned Heat Vision on again and tried looking around for my opponent. Before I could find them, I felt another stab in my left wrist, causing me to drop my gun self before I could put it back into my Soul Pocket. I grit my teeth and stifled a scream of pain as I finally found the blob of heat... perched up on a wall. What the fuck? I didn’t let my surprise distract me from my next move. I fired off Rend at my opponent to stun them. But they fucking dodged it. Somehow. At least it bought me enough time to regrab my dropped gun self, aim it at the blob of heat now on the ground, and shoot a bullet of water at it. I was so damn lucky that the stab wounds hadn’t done any permanent damage and I could still use my gun self. But somehow, even as I lay there for a good few moments, I hadn’t gotten attacked. When, with great effort, I finally tilted my head up to see what was going on, I saw the lizard demon guy... looking all over the place, stabbing and slashing at empty space seemingly at random. ...Oh, Right. I was currently using his invisibility that I’d snatched. He had no idea where I was... even though it should be obvious by the way he had kicked me. Well, that worked in my favor. I could take my time to get close and then stealth strike him. But not too much. I couldn’t feel my Ether or Intra draining, so I had to assume the invisibility skill used Tempor, and I couldn’t tell how much I had left. Not to mention, he might eventually hit me with one of his random stabs. So despite my battered body protesting and feeling like my head was about to split in two, I got up, and shakily began walking in his direction. Right now, he was standing still in a battle-ready pose, scanning his surroundings. I approached slowly and carefully, trying not to make any sounds, even though the invisibility skill covered sounds as well. I got within an arm’s reach, Quick Fetched my key sword, pulled my hand back, poured Ether into it, and then sliced in front of me as quickly as I could. My opponent noticed me too late to do anything about it. I split him in half with a clean cut at his torso thanks to the black flames apparently enhancing the cutting power of my swing, and his top half flew back and then landed with a nasty squelch. A moment later, both halves of his body disappeared into orange smoke, leaving a big chest behind. Unlike the other chests in this dungeon, this one had a skull on it. Like a boss skull. I stared at it for a moment, before remembering that I was still using up Tempor and promptly turning off the invisibility. Then, with the tension finally bleeding out of me, I collapsed on the spot with a pained groan. “...Are... Are we done? Was this the final boss...?” I whined. I didn’t feel like a final boss, but it sure as hell was fucking difficult like one. KaiEbikoOfficial: nana you need to treat your wounds! KaiEbikoOfficial: i told you shouldnt have gone one more repeaeaeat: did you steal his invisibility? GeorgeDoshington: well fuck GeorgeDoshington: didnt expect a ninja “...Yeah. I’m stupid. Sorry. Shouldn’t have... gone here...” I turned my head and let my eyes dart around until they found... my gun self, laying broken on the ground. The lizard guy had jammed a dagger straight into the nozzle, splitting it in two and causing cracks along its entire structure. ...Fuck. Once again, I was reminded of the fact that this wasn’t just a video game. My enemies could and would aim to destroy my weapons if they couldn’t easily kill me instead. This hurt especially bad since I’d invested so much into that gun. Not to mention, that gun was... well, me. Oh, but wouldn’t it repair itself like my dress...? It could, right...? I really really hoped it could. I flopped over, pushed myself to my knees and then to my feet, and proceeded to stumble my way over to my gun self. I dropped down, gathered up the pieces in my arms, gently pushed some Ether into it, and then watched it intently. It was absorbing the Ether... but that was because it had already been charged with Ether because of Ultimate Fusion. I didn’t think it was repairing itself at all, however. “Chat... my gun...” I whined pathetically. GeorgeDoshington: rip gun o7 GeorgeDoshington: you will be missed repeaeaeat: that really sucks RetconRanger: Maybe you can get a new one? “New one? Like... going back to the water park...?” Technically, I would also need to go back to the crater dungeon to get the flamethrower if I wanted to recreate the whole thing. Although... “I don’t even know if I’ll get the same drops again...” KaiEbikoOfficial: youre bleeding nana I glanced over at my legs that were covered in stab and slash wounds. Somehow, they hurt less than looking at my destroyed gun self though. “It’s fine... It’s gonna magically heal on its own...” I murmured. KaiEbikoOfficial: nana “Not like I have any bandages or anything.” I sighed. Honestly, if I was still a normal human – which I was pretty sure I wasn’t at this point – this would have been a very concerning state to be in, but as things were... Well, as much as this wasn’t a video game, getting injured and healing from those injuries was very video gamey. Physically hurt? Just drink Ether. Mentally exhausted? Just recover Intra. ...I still had no idea what running out of Tempor did. Now that I thought about it, it felt kind of concerning though. What could running out of space-time juice possibly do? Erase me from spacetime? Jeofffff: fuuuuuck i missed the fun I snorted as the comment knocked me out of existential thoughts again. “Don’t worry, Jeoff. You didn’t miss the most important part,” I announced with a growing grin as I slowly panned my head over to the boss chest still sitting on the ground where I’d defeated the ninja lizard demon guy. Jeofffff: oh for fucks sake