#095 – Remember me, calamari?!

#095 – Remember me, calamari?! I breathed out and smiled in relief as I looked upon the water park’s entrance archway that seemed a lot smaller than I remembered it. “Hello there, old buddy. Long time no see.” After a short bout of tree-walking training and sleeping through the night, I’d walked all the way back here. It had taken me almost the entire day, but it was actually faster than my first trip to the city dungeon. Probably because I was taller now. And because I actually had a destination in mind, rather than wandering randomly, hoping to find something. Regardless, even after a quick break to rest my feet from all that walking, the sun was still up and I still probably had enough time to poke inside before I got too tired to continue. JamieWasTaken3: round two babeeeey GonguuH: this should go much better than last time Irid123: finallyyyy HellEnna: so thats the first dungeon? “Yeah, I cleared this place ages ago... in like a week or so. I bet it’s gonna go much faster this time! Let’s see how much better I’ve gotten!” I stepped over the boundary and barely even felt the uncomfortable feeling of entering a dungeon. Was it weaker than before? Or had I just gotten used to it after entering a harder dungeon over and over? Whatever the case, I had no time to lose. Time to rock this place. I boldly walked in with my key sword in hand while looking into the windows to the sides for any incoming zombies. It didn’t take long for one to appear and proceed to very clumsily haul itself over the wall. I watched it in amusement, remembering the first time I’d encountered one and freaked the heck out. Like sure, it was creepy, what with it not having a face and moving like a zombie, but it was basically harmless. The zombie finished clambering over the wall and proceeded to charge me. I stepped aside and let it run past me. It took a whole second for it to reorient and charge me again. I let it continue a few more times before I swung my key sword and killed it in one hit. I stared at the orange smoke as it dissipated into the air. “...Man. I feel like a max level player coming to an early game area,” I murmured. “This was what I was so afraid of back then? Sheesh.” I shook my head and continued walking through the hallway. JamieWasTaken3: fukin smurf Irid123: wait you can go straight for the octopus right? HellEnna: I think you just got used to the violence I scowled. “I did get used to violence. I can’t really deny that. Doesn’t exactly make me happy though...” I mumbled as I decapitated another zombie. ...Yeah. “...I still hate that it feels necessary. I mean... if I didn’t go into the dungeon back then, I would have probably starved to death.” I frowned. “And by the time I found food, I already got used to fighting monsters... Oh, that was the point, wasn’t it? I was manipulated into this!” Whether by the fate weaver or the phoenix didn’t really matter. This was all one giant setup. ...Not like I could do much about it though. Unless I wanted to spend the rest of my days just living in this dead world without even trying to get back to Earth. Which I didn’t. So violence it was. “Anyway, yeah. I’m hoping I can just open the gate this time and skip the first two floors. But we’ll see. Maybe it won’t fit the lock.” In just a couple of minutes, I made it all the way to the locked door at the end of the hallway without any issues. I hadn’t really bothered going into the windows to loot chests yet, since I wasn’t entirely sure whether the chests would respawn or if they did, if they would be in the same spots. “So, do you work then?” I asked my key blade with narrowed eyes before glancing at the lock on the gate. Then I shrugged, lifted the key up to the lock – oh hey, didn’t need to stand on my tiptoes to reach it like last time – slid it into the gate, and turned it. The chains fell off, the lock shimmered and vanished, and the gate opened, revealing the dungeon’s third floor. “It actually worked, chat! Hehe, no need to go through that stupid maze with those stupid lockers!” JamieWasTaken3: fuck yeah speedrun skip Irid123: nice And if I recalled correctly, there were some achievements about completing higher floors before lower floors in a dungeon. That had been kinda impossible for the other dungeons, but this one basically invited it! GonguuH: I’ll guide you GonguuH: I got my map from the last time I grinned and bobbed my head. “Thanks, Gong! You’re a lifesaver! We’ll be done with this place in no time!” I exclaimed and boldly entered the dungeon’s third floor. I wasted no time in following Gong’s directions to get back to the correct water slide to take me to the boss, encountering a few of the swimmer zombies on my way. Unfortunately... “Gong...? Are you sure it was through here...?” GonguuH: try going back a step GonguuH: and now go a bit more left “Okay...” I kept following his instructions even as I gradually reached places I didn’t even remember from last time. More and more of the swimmer zombies swarmed me, but at this point, they were all very easy to take out. But that didn’t change the fact that I was clearly not on the right path. GonguuH: I think it changed from last time I let out a sigh. “Of course... I mean, it changed whenever I took a new slide, so of course, it would change when I cleared the dungeon too... I should have expected that...” Dammit. If only I still had my map! It would have made this so much easier! Argh! “Well, I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way...” I grumbled. Which really sucked, because I was pretty tight on time here if I wanted to get back and clear the city dungeon in time. This better be worth it... I took a deep breath and began randomly exploring, hoping to map out the stupid non-euclidean maze again. Unfortunately, Ebiko wasn’t here to help with the mapping like the good old times, but Gong was proving to be a very good assistant as well. It took about an hour before I finally found a way to the slides again. The zombies that popped out of the pools weren’t even worth mentioning with how easy they were to dispatch. Especially with the invisibility skill that I’d stolen. [INNATE] skill: Chameleon Presence (imitation) – Use Tempor to bend light and muffle sounds to render yourself invisible. Upgrade: Shadow Shroud (LOCKED) Upgrade: Zero Presence (LOCKED) Upgrade: False Trail (LOCKED) Granted, the upgrades for it weren’t available and I couldn’t get them either – couldn’t even see what they did, in fact – but it was still useful if I didn’t feel like taking the zombies head on. The only disadvantage to doing that was that it used up Tempor, which wasn’t ideal, but at least, as far as I could tell, it used surprisingly little. It only took a little over an hour before I made it back to the slides. “Finally... Well, what do you think, chat? Are the slides shuffled too? I bet they are,” I said, eyeing the spiral slide that had led to the octopus boss the last time. “Or maybe it’s even gonna be a completely different boss this time?” All the randomly generated levels reminded me of roguelike games and those always randomly picked from three different bosses for each floor, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the boss was something else this time. JamieWasTaken3: poll? Irid123: at least you can levitate now HellEnna: which one was it last time? HellEnna: that led to the boss? I hummed. “Levitate and control water, yeah. It was the spiral one. The other two led to chests.” I smiled. “One of them had Mr. Gargles!” Now that I thought about it, it wasn’t that big of a deal if I picked the wrong slide and got a chest instead. Sure, it would take a while to find my way back in the re-randomized third floor, but I was only meant to poke in here today anyway. Tomorrow was for full exploration. “Well, whatever. Let’s just go with the spiral chute again and see where it takes me,” I said with a shrug and walked to the slide to sit down. My fear of heights wasn’t quite gone, but having the ability to slow fall definitely helped with my confidence, not to mention my crazy durability. I breathed in, out, and then without any further ado, pushed myself forward. Unlike the first time, I properly prepared myself for the crazy twists and turns of the slide and even utilized my Featherfall skill in short bursts when I lost balance to reorient myself. I ended up safely making it to the drop off point and proceeded to float down onto the surface of the water inside the tunnel. My feet touched the water’s surface and stayed there, thanks to my ninja sandals. Although... it felt a little wobbly. Standing on water seemed a bit different from walking up trees. I took one careful step forward... And then sunk right in. “Gah! Ugh, this is hard...” I complained as I took control of the water around me and made myself float half-way submerged in the water to prevent myself from sinking all the way. “Well, whatever. It’s probably better if I go underwater anyway...” Since I had several skills that improved my underwater mobility. JamieWasTaken3: u giving up? “I’m not giving up! I’m just... leaving it for later. We’re on a schedule, you know?” I argued as I swam forward through the tunnel. JamieWasTaken3: uhuh I ignored them. I would learn how to properly waterwalk later. Right now, I just wanted to beat this dungeon again and hopefully get my gun back. A splash of water interrupted my train of thought and I reflexively slashed with my sword. I missed and the plush fish that had emerged from the water began charging me, but now that I got a better look at where it was, my followup swing easily took it out. “...Right, forgot about these.” They had been weak even back then, so they shouldn’t be an issue. And as it turned out, they weren’t. I breezed through the rest of the tunnel until the point where gravity suddenly tilted and sent me plummeting down. I quickly caught myself with Featherfall and took a deep breath. “Okay! Okay, chat. Looks like this still leads to the boss!” Unless the chest tunnels had changed as well. JamieWasTaken3: go invis JamieWasTaken3: fight invis with invis Irid123: are you gonna steal one of his skills? I bobbed my head and activated Chameleon Presence, since there wasn’t really any downside to doing that. “Not sure about that, Irid... I would have to drop the one I have... Hmm...” I kinda liked Chameleon Presence, but if it was the octopus boss again, I imagine he would have a lot of cool skills for me to steal... Super regeneration? Portal making? Whatever the heck the other tentacles were about? It was very tempting. ...And also, I probably wasn’t going to keep going after this anyway, so using up most of my Intra and Tempor wouldn’t matter. Ah, dammit. With my mind more or less decided, I slowly floated down the tunnel, and just as expected, it led to the large open circular area filled with water. I immediately summoned John and had him scan the place while looking with my own eyes. I didn’t even land on the water before some of the chatters noticed something in John’s vision. I turned my head and sure enough, I could see the barely visible tentacle-shaped white shimmer near a wall. I landed on the water, making no noise or disturbing the surface in any way and then proceeded to very carefully take a step toward the invisible octopus. The first step was fine, the second step was a bit more wobbly and I had to stop for a moment, but I messed up on the third step and my foot fell through the water and the rest of me followed. I cursed inwardly, but immediately took control of the surrounding water and tried to swim as fast as I could toward the octopus. It must have noticed the unnatural water movement though, because before I could reach it, it lashed out with its pink tentacle that came out of invisibility, forcing me to react. I slashed at it while activating the black fire and managed to slice it right off. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to stop its momentum and the severed tentacle smacked right into me, momentarily plunging me underwater. Fortunately, unlike last time, water hardly bothered me. I aquaported right below where I’d seen the invisible octopus, took a second to reorient myself, and then, with a bit of hydrokinesis, I burst up toward the spot where the octopus was hiding. Apparently, the octopus had seen me coming though and lashed out with one of its other tentacles – the purple one with afterimages – and threw me to the side. But I wasn’t done yet. As soon as I splashed back into the water, I aquaported to the other side and jumped out again, readying my key sword for a swing. The purple tentacle lashed out again as the octopus broke its invisibility to back away from me. But I already expected it and turned my swing to the side instead, cutting the tentacle off, somehow dodging it as it flew past me, and tackling the octopus. Then I did something I had completely forgotten I could do and chat had very kindly reminded me while I’d been on the way back here. Immolate. The effect was immediate. The octopus began thrashing like crazy with all of its tentacles, but its slaps barely did anything to me with all my durability. Not to mention, I had managed to grab it by its white tentacle full of eyes – gross – which I remembered was its weak point. Got you by the balls, bitch. It continued thrashing as I kept on pouring more Ether into Immolate and we both fell into the pool of water. I held my breath and used hydrokinesis to move water away from my face, just in case, but didn’t dare let go of the tentacle. It only took a few seconds until the boss’s struggles turned into limp flailing. I knew I had it in the bag. And that was the only reason why I decided to risk this. I released Chameleon Presence and immediately activated Skill Snatch. I was greeted with a whopping five different sensations. All wildly different, yet having one thing in common – They were all about empowering a single limb, changing its physical form and the way it interacted with the world. The first was something about stitching together space, the second refracted light, the third would change the limb into something that could rapidly restore itself when damaged and stretch indefinitely, the fourth made it very brittle but allowed its user to view the world in a way that I couldn’t describe, and the last one messed with spacetime to speed the limb up. For a brief moment, I was overwhelmed, and hesitated on which one I should pick. I had wanted the portals, but now that I saw the spacetime speeding one, I couldn’t resist but snatch that instead. I was immediately overwhelmed by heavy mental fatigue the moment the snatch went through. My head was pounding and it was hard to focus on keeping the water away from my face with hydrokinesis and holding my breath, but I managed to hold on. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the octopus stopped moving, and then poofed into orange smoke, leaving a chest behind... which immediately sunk to the bottom of the pool. I ignored it for the time being and swam up to get some air into my lungs again. “Guah!” I breathed in the sweet sweet air and leaned on the wall to keep myself from sinking. My head was killing me though. God, why was I doing this to myself, knowing what using Skill Snatch did to me? Because I was greedy. Now I had a fun new toy I could play around with. I brought up my status and quickly zeroed in the new innate skill I had. [INNATE] skill: Voidspeed Tentacle – Select a limb to permanently modify over the course of several hours. Said limb will then drain your Tempor at a constant rate in exchange for constantly dilating its own time to be faster.