#111 – THAT’S JUST DISAPPOINTING, MAN

“It’s… It’s different, chat. The others just attacked me… but I actually talked to her… and now she’s…” I mumbled as I idly rolled the key in my fingers.

SunOfABeach: not to belittle your trauma but could her trick at the start have affected your mind more than you thought?

Jeofffff: i dunno man im kinda depressed too

Jeofffff: i liked her

I grit my teeth and mentally looked away from chat.

They didn’t really get it, did they? They weren’t the ones to land the killing blow.

The worst part of all of this? There wasn’t even a body left to bury. She was just gone.

Why the hell did this dungeon have to stab me through my feelings as well? I was prepared to be punted around or, hell, even having my brain assaulted, but this…

…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 suggesting…?

I shook my head with a sigh.

Wow, what a dick move, saying that the person I’d just murdered hadn’t even existed. Way to go, justifying what I’d done, huh?

…Okay, I needed a break.

I was tired, both physically and mentally – and not just because of low Intra – 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 that was about. I’d only ever gotten one 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 I’d just completed.

Higher and higher - Beat floor ten of any Intra-based dungeon. [COMPLETE]

True adventurer - Conquer a C-rank dungeon or higher. [COMPLETE]

Deja vu - Reenact a historical event through a dungeon. [COMPLETE]

Strong-willed adventurer - Conquer an Intra-based dungeon. [COMPLETE]

Iron-willed adventurer - Conquer an Intra-based dungeon solo. [COMPLETE]

Universal adventurer - Conquer one of each type of a dungeon. [COMPLETE]

Supreme adventurer - Conquer one of each type of a dungeon solo. [COMPLETE]

A lot of ‘Conquer X dungeon’ achievements, but what really caught my eye was the Deja vu one.

Historical event? What historical event? Did that mean the murder of the demon queen? Would anyone get this achievement when completing this dungeon then?

Or was it the way I’d killed her?

I grimaced and shook these thoughts away. Thinking about that just made me remember what I’d just done and that probably wasn’t 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 hadn’t 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.

“Soul Strike!”

Thud.

Nothing happened obviously. The chest had no soul. It was just a chest. No soul to shatter like–

I slumped, feeling even more miserable. Good job me, reminding myself of what I’d just done.

I didn’t even read whatever annoyed reply Jeoff gave.

“...Probably not a mimic, I guess,” I mumbled and proceeded to open the chest.

Inside the chest was…

My axe.

Or rather, the demon queen’s waraxe again. It looked nearly identical to the one I’d gotten from the crater dungeon.

I stared at it for a moment, ignoring the other two items for the moment.

“...Chat, I got a dupe.”

I couldn’t even muster the energy to be indignant about it.

Jeofffff: maybe if you fuse it it gets stronger

JamieWasTaken3: more axey axe

I hummed and shrugged. I could try doing that, just to see what happened. Sure, I didn’t want to fuse unnecessary items into my Soulbound Items, but at least some experimentation was needed.

After carefully placing the axe into my backpack, I checked on the other two items.

One of them was a ticket – I decided to leave that one for last – 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, but…

“...But Echo wasn’t wearing a crown,” I mumbled, pushing through the spike of grief at remembering her again.

Jeofffff: well put it on

JamieWasTaken3: ur the demon queen now

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 I’d gotten in the past, the crown didn’t easily let me prod it with Ether. In fact, it repelled 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 – now my axe self – had.

“...It’s… Hmm… It almost feels like it repels Intra? But also not really…? It’s more like… if I pour Intra into it… it then repels other Intra?”

Jeofffff: anti mind control crown?

JamieWasTaken3: or just mindcontrol crown

I pursed my lips, then shrugged, and put it on my head – because why not? – before turning to the last object in the chest, the ticket.

It was green, same shade as the Intra cobwebs, with pink text saying ‘5%!’.

I hummed.

“Intra ticket, right? Would make sense… this being an Intra dungeon and whatnot.”

I barely hesitated before activating it.

Consume 1x Moderate Intra expansion ticket?

Y/N

Yup, just as I’d 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.

“Well, that was… actually kinda underwhelming…? Did anyone else expect something much grander from the final boss…?”

JamieWasTaken3: yea this is lame

Jeofffff: ur spoiled lol

Jeofffff: but yeah this kinda sucks

SunOfABeach: I’m guessing you got lucky in the dragon dungeon

SunOfABeach: and the water park just has better loot

“Eh… I guess? I did feel like I got really lucky with the crater dungeon’s loot, honestly… And I guess this dungeon never had very good rewards…”

Jeofffff: it had a LOT of rewards tho

“True… I guess Intra dungeons are about the quantity of loot then…?”

SunOfABeach: you aren’t done yet though

SunOfABeach: the other chest

I hummed.

“Right, yeah. Let’s check it out too…” I declared before stepping away from the big chest and glancing at the smaller one. “So, what are you hiding…?”

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 didn’t need to wonder for too long. I walked up to the chest and opened it to reveal–

I gasped.

“My stuff!” 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 . “So that’s where all the lost stuff goes!”

‘Finders keepers’ achievement unlocked!

+1 Skill point

‘Lost and found’ Side quest complete!

Main objective:

   Get your items back from the dungeon. [ACHIEVED]

Side objectives:

   Complete the dungeon in one attempt. [FAILED]

Reward:

   +2 SP

‘You’re supposed to be spending those…’ achievement unlocked!

+3 Skill points

I blinked and finally quirked a small smile.

“There we go, chat… I made it in time… Hah, I actually forgot about that quest.”

I shook my head before opening up the descriptions for the achievements I’d just gotten.

Finders keepers - Retrieve other adventurer’s items from an Intra dungeon by beating it. [COMPLETE]

You’re supposed to be spending those… - Amass 50 or more skill points. [COMPLETE]

“Oh, huh… I have… fifty-three skill points. That one achievement and one quest put me exactly at fifty… Nice.”

Still, I now had two Keyfrinder’s 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 didn’t matter. As the saying went: one man’s trash was another Vcuber’s 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.

“Yeah… I guess rather than one big thing, I just got a lot of smaller things from this dungeon…? Not bad, I guess…”

I probably didn’t sound all that enthusiastic, but it was hard to get excited about literal garbage even if it could be useful. Not to mention, I was still trying to get over the guild of… what had happened.

Jeofffff: wait there are other adventurers?!

SunOfABeach: probably from before the apocalypse?

I frowned.

“You 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, hmm…”

If there still really were other people around, I had 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, wouldn’t he?

Yeah, maybe I was overthinking it.

Regardless, I stuffed everything 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 waited…

And waited… and… nothing happened.

Jeofffff: why u just standing there

Heat rose to my cheeks.

“Uh, I expected the dungeon to boot me out…? Like the water park? But I guess only Tempor dungeons do that…?”

SunOfABeach: probably

SunOfABeach: the crater dungeon didn’t do it either

“Right, yeah. Well, I guess then…”

I turned around and slowly walked back to the big door. On a whim – and chat’s suggestion – instead of wishing to leave the dungeon however, I instead wished to continue, despite knowing that this was supposed to be the final floor.

I opened the big door and was greeted by…

I blinked.

A dark sprawling room filled with boxes and barrels. It had several support pillars running through and small cobwebs – nothing like the top of the locker – here and there.

“Uhhh… It… continues? Chat, what do I do…?”

My low Ether and Intra shouldn’t matter with a quick nap on the pillow, but I was still emotionally exhausted, so I wasn’t sure if it was smart to keep going.

Jeofffff: bonus level?

Jeofffff: maybe that’s the real final level with actual good loot

SunOfABeach: could be a bonus level

SunOfABeach: but I don't think you should go in

JamieWasTaken3: yea this feels kinda sus

I hesitated, looking into the dark, dreary – and possibly bug-filled – 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 – this time without a soul – 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 I’d 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 could freely walk between floors, if the achievements I’d gotten from the accidental zombie horde summoning in the water park were any indication. But hey, couldn’t 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.