I glared at the windows in front of me even as I tried to calm my panting.

‘Coward’ achievement unlocked!

+1 Skill point

‘Poison specialist’ achievement unlocked!

+3 Skill points

Coward - Flee from a total of 100 dungeon monsters. [COMPLETE]

Poison specialist - Defeat a total of 100 dungeon monsters while never engaging in combat with them. [COMPLETE]

“Poison? That was fire! Get it right, stupid system! And who are you calling a coward?!” I shouted.

I huffed and then more silently grumbled, “Thanks for the points, at least…”

The stupid locker had been way too stressful. Not as traumatizing as the first one, luckily, but it still set me on edge.

JamieWasTaken3: assassin nana

GeorgeDoshington: lol buggy game

Irid123: interesting that it thinks you used poison

I shrugged, trying to relax. “Yeah, I guess the system isn’t perfect. Maybe I’ll even find some exploits in it!”

I giggled, thinking what kind of nonsense I could potentially bring to bear. I would have to look through the higher-tier achievements to see whether I could get one of them way earlier than probably intended.

My stomach then grumbled, once again reminding me of my dire situation.

“Ughhh… If I don’t starve to death in the meantime, that is,” I growled.

I had literally only eaten a single fruit since hatching from that egg. Well, that and a copious amount of life ooze, but as much as it energized me, that stuff didn’t satiate at all. Still, it was weird that even though I felt the hunger so intensely now, it didn’t really slow me down at all. I could still jump around and sprint away from hordes of burning dungeon monsters all day without a problem.

Was that like a video game as well? Would I keep my physical ability until my hunger meter hit zero, I slowly lost all hit points, and then I suddenly dropped dead?

KaiEbikoOfficial: I really hope the next chest has more food

“You and me both, Ebi…” I sighed. “Anywho… I have eight skill points again. You guys think I should buy something…?”

Jeofffff: didn’t you want to get fusion?

GeorgeDoshington: save up for selfdestruct

“I did want to get Fusion, but Craftsman is on cooldown now… And you shut up, George.” I grunted. “Maybe I can upgrade the stream some more…?”

Then I heard a swish and whipped my head up to see a towel flying straight toward me. I immediately breathed in and shot a small Flame bullet at it, hitting it straight on and burning a hole through it.

It fell to the ground and turned into mist a second later.

I scanned my surroundings for a few seconds before relaxing again.

“I hope that was the last one…” I murmured before looking back at chat. “Anyway, what was I saying? Right, upgrades… I could get Extreme temperature now, I guess… Or save up one more point for Mega lungs… or just use the coin and get it immediately.”

I pondered on it for a bit and then had a thought.

“...Or I could just save up my points and buy an upgrade in a pinch, like I did with Flameguard.”

GonguuH: that would be smart

KaiEbikoOfficial: like a trump card

KaiEbikoOfficial: I like it

GeorgeDoshington: I was gonna say thats lame

JamieWasTaken3: yea you can do a powerup mid battle again lol

GeorgeDoshington: but you know what i like it

GeorgeDoshington: reveal your ultimate form in a fight

I raised an eyebrow.

“Well, I’m flattered that I managed to finally appease you, George. Whatever would I do if you didn’t approve?”

I sighed.

“Well, anyway… time for more wandering around, I guess…”

With that, I set out to wander through the dungeon once more, poking water puddles, and shooting down any stragglers from the locker still trying to get me. Ebi, the dear, once again did her best to map out where I’d gone and everyone else kept me company. I also invited a few more people into the group chat, as per the suggestions of those who were already in.

I briefly wondered how I would be faring without the stream chat. Would I have gone insane by now? What if the system had generated me a different racial skill?

Why was it called a racial skill anyway? It implied that streaming was just what humans did. It also implied that there were definitely more humans in this world… and also that some of them were streamers and had this skill just like me. And wasn’t that just weird on so many levels? Where would they be streaming to? I would have thought that if there were more interdimensional streamers, chat would have let me know. Did this world even have an Internet to stream to?

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I needed to stop getting distracted.

After a few minutes of more wandering, I ran into another dead end in the maze. Fortunately, this one wasn’t empty.

D-rank dungeon chest

A loot chest containing random dungeon loot.

I nodded to myself with a hum and proceeded to carefully walk closer and poke the chest with my sword for a few minutes before being satisfied.

At this point, it was less because I was concerned about mimics, and more because it had kind of become a meme in my chat. I couldn’t just ruin the meme now. Gotta poke the chests.

Irid123: one of these days, it will actually be a mimic

KaiEbikoOfficial: nana……

I gave another satisfied hum as I sheathed my sword.

“Good news, chat. This chest probably isn’t a mimic,” I said in an exaggeratedly relieved tone.

GeorgeDoshington: lmao

JamieWasTaken3: oh man what a surprise

“Well, loot time!” I cheered and got to opening the damn thing. “Gimme food, please!”

The chest opened and I scanned the contents. My eyes first landed on the folded piece of fabric and then on the item beside it. My eyes widened and I immediately shot off appraisal.

Ether bar

A granola bar made out of ancient oats, dried Miakola fruit, honey, and ancient peanut butter.

“It’s foooood! Thank you cheeest!” I cheered as I grabbed the thing, unwrapped the plastic wrapped reading ‘Ether bar’ and bit into the thing.

repeaeaeat: ask and you shall receive huh

KaiEbikoOfficial: yay!

SpoOo0oOon: be careful not to choke again

Irid123: ancient oats and peanut butter?

Despite wanting to chow it down like a vacuum cleaner, I made sure to eat slowly and actually savor it this time. It was absolutely delicious. Probably in part because I was so famished.

I barely even focused on chat as I completely lost myself in the bliss of actually eating food again. I hadn’t had the chance with the fruit yesterday, since I’d devoured it in seconds.

Once I ate it all, I gave out a contented sigh.

“Eating food is great, chat. You should all try it sometime. Ten out of ten, would do it again.”

When I looked at chat again, I couldn’t help but scowl.

Irid123: one food item per floor

GonguuH: it’s like you’re being conditioned to keep going

GeorgeDoshington: next food on floor three lol

“Way to bring down my mood again, chat… Ugh, why is it just a single food item per floor?! If that’s really the case, I’m gonna starve anyway if I don’t hurry up!”

I huffed.

“Fine! I’m getting to the next floor today, chat! Even if I have to go through more space-bending lockers filled with monsters! I want more food, dammit!”

I didn’t think too much about how I would survive long-term if it really was just a single food item per floor. I just had to hope that chat was wrong about this.

Was this how people living paycheck to paycheck felt?

Anywho, I put the empty plastic wrapper into my backpack and then finally looked at the folded piece of fabric again before shooting Appraisal at it.

Ultradry towel

A towel that can hold a large amount of liquid before needing to be wrung out.

“Oh, huh… Okay…? Wait, that’s neat. Now I won’t need to dry myself using fire after showering,” I mused with an amused grin.

It almost felt like the dungeon was slowly gearing me up with magical versions of everyday items. A mop, a bucket, a shower head… Actually, they all seemed to have something to do with water. Probably because of the theme of the dungeon. Maybe I could find a restaurant dungeon and get loaded on food there?

With these idle thoughts, I grabbed the towel and walked to the nearest non-sentient puddle I’d passed on the way to the chest. I dipped the corner of the towel into it and watched in awe as the fabric absorbed the liquid like a sponge. When I lifted it and touched the corner, it was still completely dry.

I hummed in interest. Obviously, I still thought it was bizarre, but at this point, I had passed the point of being surprised by every little thing.

GonguuH: what happens if you wring it out?

Jeofffff: wait can you use it as a weapon against the puddles?

“Let me try… Oh, that’s actually a good idea, Jeoff. I gotta try that too. It would make things so much easier…”

I grabbed the towel in both hands, twisted it, and squeezed it. To my surprise, the water it had absorbed came out with little effort. In fact, I felt like the puddle it then made was the same size as the puddle it had absorbed.

“Well, that’s pretty convenient.”

It wasn’t food, weapon, or armor, but if it worked on the sentient puddles like Jeoff suggested…

“Alright! Let’s see if this works on the puddles!”

I set out once more, leaving the empty chest behind. It didn’t take long for me to run into another sentient puddle. The moment it began moving when I poked it with my sword, I lashed out with the towel and smacked it.

The puddle stopped moving as soon as it hit. When I lifted the towel, I saw a big dry spot in the middle of it. Kind of like a grievous chest wound… but for a sentient puddle.

I waited for a second to see whether it would recover, still on guard, but then the remains poofed into mist.

“...Well, what do you know! It worked!” I grinned. “Awesome! It’s the perfect counter for these little buggers!”

JamieWasTaken3: the scariest weapon of them all

GeorgeDoshington: feels like cheating

JamieWasTaken3: a towel

Irid123: is it really dead or did you just capture it?

I shrugged nonchalantly.

“This game is unfair and wants to kill me, George. I’ll cheat all day long if I have to! Heck, maybe I’ll even get achievements for cheating!” I giggled. “Uh, I don’t know Irid. It turned into mist, so it’s probably dead…?”

I eyed the towel suspiciously.

It would have only absorbed the water and not the thing’s… consciousness or whatever, right?

Regardless, I still thought it would be smart to check right now, rather than forget about it and then get attacked by a sentient puddle later when I wanted to wring this thing out again.

So I grabbed it once more, twisted it, and got ready to cover myself with fire in the worst case scenario.

Luckily, only inanimate water came out of the towel. No death puddles.

“...Nope! It’s fine.” I nodded to myself. “I think it’s because the towel can only hold liquids, like the bucket. So even if it did somehow snag the… whatever makes them sentient, it wouldn’t absorb it,” I reasoned cheerily.

This was great! It would make the rest of this floor a breeze. Unless another type of monster appeared, at least… Or until I got to the boss. If the first floor’s boss had been so different from the rest of the floor, I didn’t think the second boss would be something like a giant puddle or such.

But a girl could hope.

With my newest unconventional weapon in hand, I set off into the dungeon once more.

It didn’t take long before I found the third small screen on the side of the lockers.