#098 – I’m glad I couldn’t get here the first time around

#098 – I’m glad I couldn’t get here the first time around GeorgeDoshington: bruh its hard to se Eclipsoon: sunglasses bloopbooper: boop... (⁠๑_๑) I stopped myself from blindly wandering inside the web-covered space and instead rummaged in my backpack to find my cool new Eclipse Sunglasses. “Oh yeah! It’s like the dungeon knew what I would need, huh?” I put them on and narrowed my eyes, trying to poke and prod them with my magical senses. “Alright, how do these work...? Damn, maybe I should have tested them earlier...” Luckily, it wasn’t too complicated. Just a bit of a prod with my Intra and the place went from a dark and creepy place to... well, a bright and creepy place. It actually might have been creepier this way, since it felt so off that a place filled with cobwebs was so completely devoid of shadows. I raised my hand, and briefly lifted the sunglasses off my eyes to see the darkness again, then I let the sunglasses drop back on my nose. Then I raised my eyes up to the ceiling... which was just a few centimeters above my head. Anyone who wasn’t child-sized like me would have trouble traversing this place. It almost felt like this area was specifically tailored for me. “I have a bad feeling about this place...” I mumbled before shaking my head. “Well, I guess I can always just throw myself off the edge to escape. Let’s go, chat.” KaiEbikoOfficial: nana please listen to your instincts... uptonMIKE: I dont like this “Look, don’t worry. I can leave at any point,” I said and finally began walking into the bright, narrow, and cobweb-filled space. I wasn’t sure whether the cobwebs would have any special properties, so to test it, I first brought out my Key Sword and poked one with it. It stuck to my weapon. “C’mon... Really...?” I fed it Ether and activated the black flames. The webs stuck to it easily burned off and my weapon was free again. But the fire didn’t spread at all. “I guess it’s time to show my best ‘jungle explorer with a machete’ impression...” I said as I whacked another patch of webs and walked through. A couple of minutes of whacking webs later, I began to notice some odd shapes in the maze of cobwebs, although it was kinda hard to see. Eclipsoon: check heat vision? I hummed and briefly turned on heat vision before doing a sweep of the area. I froze when my eyes caught on a shape not too far away from me. It was... not humanoid. It almost looked like some kind of ball with pointy tentacles coming out of– “...It’s a giant spider. Dammit, I knew it. Why did I have to be right?” I mumbled and automatically began taking steps back. Naturally, me taking a step without looking led to my foot getting caught in a web. I startled, looked behind, swore to myself, and quickly tried to free myself with the key sword before the giant spider could zero in on me. I managed to cut the web off while keeping an eye on the spider. It didn’t move at all. “Okay, chat. Guess we’re not in a horror movie yet...” I mumbled. “Damn, I wish I still had my fire skills...” I couldn’t access any phoenix skills and my gun self was still broken, so no fire from there either... I could use the instant cooldown ticket and swap titles, but that would also require me to swap one of my skills for Flameguard or Fire Breath, and I didn’t want to lose any of the ones I had right now. GeorgeDoshington: dont u hav like a magical pan or somthn I blinked and nearly facepalmed. “Oh yeah! I do!” Once again, I rummaged inside my backpack – thank god it was spacious enough for all the random crap I kept putting in there – and pulled out my phoenix fire pan amalgamation. A brief moment to familiarize myself with how it worked and then I was ready to burn this webbed place down. uptonMIKE: wait dont uptonMIKE: what if you provoke hidden enemies again I stopped and then stared into the webs. I could only see the one shape with my heat vision, so surely... “Well... I mean... I don’t want a repeat of that locker, but... It’s just that one thing, right? And the web isn’t even burning that much...” RetconRanger: I think you are literally playing with fire here. KaiEbikoOfficial: cmon nana stop being so reckless uptonMIKE: no wonder you keep almost dying when you are like this Reading the comment from Mike, I finally stopped myself from unleashing inferno. I took a deep breath and sighed. “...Okay, yeah. Fair enough.” It kinda stung, but he was right, wasn’t he? I kept getting beaten and nearly killed and always internally complained about it, but in the end, it was because I was so damn reckless. Why was I so reckless? Because being reckless in games was entertaining for chat and fun for me as well. Streamers who went full yolo in the games they played were generally more enjoyable to watch. But again, this wasn’t a game. I really needed to hammer that into my head. “...I’ll still keep it on hand, though. Just in case I need the nuclear option.” I peeked at the spider again in trepidation, then finally turned off Heat Vision and tried to locate it with normal sight. No matter how I looked though, all I saw were more cobwebs. It took a couple more swaps to Heat Vision and back until I realized that there was a mass of cobweb in the general shape of a spider... and that was what I was seeing in Heat Vision. “That’s not how spiders work,” I said, deadpan. Somehow that felt more and less creepy at the same time. GeorgeDoshington: its gona wrap u up like the towels lol “Yeah, probably... Okay, chat. What’s our battle strategy?” Because I had no doubts about this thing being a threat. I wanted to be ready before I charged in this time. Eclipsoon: throw keysword with crystals Eclipsoon: summon back for melee when needed Eclipsoon: keep pan for emergency Eclipsoon: immolate if wrapped Eclipsoon: switch to rend if cornered I bobbed my head in agreement as I read Eclipse’s suggestions. “Okay, yeah. Sounds–” Eclipsoon: put cooldown ticket into mouth Eclipsoon: use and swap to flameguard as last ditch effort “...Uhhh, right... That is pretty smart, Eclipse. Still feels kinda weird to do that. Don’t wanna accidentally swallow it...” Eclipsoon: put under tongue Eclipsoon: keep your teeth clenched GeorgeDoshington: lmao GeorgeDoshington: thas some spy movie suicide pill level bs I sighed... but reached into my backpack for the instant cooldown ticket anyway, because as weird as it sounded, it was actually the safe way to play this. It gave me another option and more options were always good against unknown enemies. “Guess I don’t need to talk in the middle of a fight anyway...” I mumbled as I folded the ticket and with a grimace, I put it into my mouth. Gross. AotoNana: Okay, let’s do this then! With the pan in my left hand and the key sword in my right hand, I stepped forward in the direction of the spider-shaped web thing, while keeping my Heat Vision on, just so I would be able to tell it apart from everything else. A couple of slashes through the webs later and the thing finally began to move. But not in the way I’d thought it would. Instead of getting up and running at me like normal, the whole thing changed shape in my heat vision. The legs on one of its side shortened and disappeared, its torso flattened, and the legs on its other side thickened into a new torso, and then sprouted a new set of legs further away. What the hell? I briefly turned off Heat Vision to see what was happening and... Nothing was happening. The webs still looked the same and I couldn’t tell at all where this creature was. When I turned on Heat Vision again, I finally realized what was going on. The creature wasn’t made out of webs, it somehow embodied the webs. It freaking traveled through them to move. If I didn’t have Heat Vision, I would have been completely oblivious that there even was anything before I suddenly got attacked. I was so damn lucky to have Heat Vision. It was finally paying dividends. As soon as the thing got close enough, I gripped my Key Sword, channeled Ether into it, and then tossed it straight at where the web thing was. I definitely didn’t expect the thing to suddenly make a hole inside itself and stretch itself to the sides to dodge my attack. My key sword flew through the webs, cutting through them, before it finally got caught on webs behind the creature and exploded into crystals. In the meantime, the thing expanded itself into the webs around me, and then finally, the webs moved. I immediately resummoned my Key Sword and used the black fire while igniting the pan before waving both around myself to prevent the webs from snaring me. I immediately got flashbanged – because of course I would forget to turn off Heat Vision before using fire again – but I still felt that I’d cut through at least one of the web tentacles even as I clamped my eyes shut in reflex. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and I felt something wrap around my wrists and squeeze. I grit my teeth from the pain, but didn’t stop myself from using Immolate on the webs. I felt the grip on my wrists loosen and I immediately used that chance to pour Ether into my pan and spin around with it, spewing as much fire around me as possible. As I finished my spin, I turned off Heat Vision and opened my eyes to see the utter inferno all around me. ...I also had no clue where the creature was, if it even was still alive. Was it? Or had the fire defeated it? As if to answer my question, the flames right in front of me suddenly twisted into a tentacle and then whipped in my direction, smacking me across the face before I could do anything. “Nhhngh?!” I grit my teeth to keep that damn ticket in my mouth. Thank god for my fire resistance, because even with it, that bitchslap had hurt. I quickly recovered, only to be met with several more whips of fire speeding toward me. I dropped the pan – since it was probably only making things worse – and automatically brought out my gun self to fire it on reflex. The broken gun did nothing but ache. I quickly put it back and instead fired off a bubble from my left glove. The fire whip hit it, making it burst into water, which splashed all over me, lessening the impact of all the other fire tentacles that hit me a moment later. But the fight was far from over. The flaming tentacles retreated from the water further into the burning webs – oh great, everything was on fire now – and began coalescing into... the shape of a spider. Ok, seriously, what the hell was this thing? I shot Appraisal at it, because I finally noticed chat reminding me that I’d bought the upgrade to use it on monsters as well a long time ago. Arachnid Apparition An imitation of an Intra-based lifeform capable of embodying objects, masses of energy, and concepts to attack its prey. It can only embody one at a time and is invulnerable to all conventional forms of damage. This is a secret dungeon boss. Secret dungeon boss. Well, that confirmed that, at least. But, what in the world?! An invulnerable Intra-based lifeform?! Embodying concepts?! What the hell?! What was I even supposed to– Replace [Soulbound Item] with [Rend]? Note: [Soulbound Item] will not be re-equipable for 24 hours. Y/N As soon as I swapped them, I mashed the Rend button as hard as I could, aiming at the spider made out of fire that was about to launch itself at me. The thing staggered and I used the chance to fire another bubble right at it. The bubble burst, dousing the spider flame with a loud sizzling noise. Just when I thought I might have dealt it some damage, the freaking steam suddenly came alive and lashed out at me. I fired off another Rend. It flinched when it hit, but once again, even though I was clearly doing some damage, it was far from enough. But Rend was the only damn thing doing anything! Literally anything else just made it embody something else! Eclipsoon: upgrade rend I backed off – right into a patch of fire, ow – and took a precious second to look at what upgrades Rend still had. Rend: Use a moderate amount of Intra to momentarily shock the target's mind. Upgrade: Brain Fog (4SP) Upgrade: Mind Shield (5SP) Upgrade: Mindbreaker (8SP) Brain Fog - Cause sustained disorientation for a longer period of time instead of a momentary shock. Mind Breaker - Use even more Intra to permanently damage someone's mind. I saw it right away. Mind Breaker. Purchase the [Rend] skill upgrade [Mind Breaker] for 8 skill points? Y/N ‘Mind Breaker’ skill upgrade unlocked! I immediately grabbed the metaphorical lever to empower Rend and fired off another one just as the steam apparition reached me. This time, in addition to recoiling from the impact, a base of one of its ‘legs’ exploded with steam, while the rest fell off, hit the ground, and broke into shapeless steam again. I hoped that this meant I’d done some real damage, because the headache I had from firing just one empowered Rend was killing me. Regardless, it was still moving, therefore very clearly not dead yet, so I aimed at what I assumed was its center of mass, and fired off another one. It went boom. And staggered. But it was still alive. God, my head hurt. I needed to finish this. One more. Bam. ... Hot. Floor. Hot. Fire. ... Head. Hurts. Fight? Boss? Steam? Nothing. Big chest. Fire. Bubble for water. Bubble. Bubble. ... Darkness. No light. No hot. Chest? Darkness. No see. Head hurts. Sleep? ... Ugh... Head hurts... Why? What did I do? Dungeon? Boss... fight. Secret boss fight. Yes. Did I win? It’s dark. I can’t see. Wasn’t there fire? There’s no fire anymore. Can’t see. Heat Vision? Nothing. Sunglasses? Whoa. So bright now. Let’s get up. ... Oh, there were system windows. Two of them. ‘Secret no more’ achievement unlocked! +8 Skill points ‘Just between the two of us’ achievement unlocked! +18 Skill points Achievements? What were they? ... Tier 3... Secret no more - Defeat a secret dungeon boss. [COMPLETE] Oh. Where was the other one? Tier 4...? Just between the two of us - Defeat a secret dungeon boss solo. [COMPLETE] Oh.