I groaned.

“Not this again…” I grumbled as I stared at the little screen sourly. “Do I have to, chat? Is it even a good idea to activate these? What if I’ve already blocked myself from the boss room because I activated the others?” I tried to bargain with myself.

GonguuH: you probably need to activate all of them to find the boss room

Irid123: the bracelet is supposed to be the key to navigating the place though

Ugh… Stupid reasonable comments…

“It could be a ruse! You know how much this stupid dungeon has been screwing with me!”

GonguuH: but it never lied to you

I sighed.

“Okay, fine… I’m gonna activate it… Just… Let me sit down for a minute.”

I plopped down on a nearby bench and eyed the stupid little screen, getting my thoughts in order, and trying to figure out what to do to prevent aggroing the entire dark room full of monsters again. The first time had been a nightmare and the second time I’d managed to escape, but ideally, I wouldn’t set the whole damn place on fire in the first place.

But then again. Both times, I got a lot of skill points from all the achievements. Although… I could only get the same achievement once, so doing the same thing over and over wouldn’t help very much.

…Wait. Was that on purpose? To prevent people from grinding skill points? To force them to do all sorts of things if they wanted to get stronger? Was that why the monsters didn’t respawn? Could you only clear each dungeon once?

I frowned.

No, but… There were the divine coins. You could literally just buy skill points, in theory. Rich people could ignore the achievements and dungeons altogether and just buy coins off others and hoard them.

Was this entire freaking system pay-to-win? Seriously?

But I couldn’t even access my bank account here! Stupid pay-to-win game wouldn’t even let me give it money!

I shook my head.

Maybe I was jumping to conclusions. There were also the quests, after all. Although, they gave a lot less than the achievements… Whatever. Something to think about later, maybe.

“...Anyway. The first locker made me go around the entrance and the second locker made me go sideways to reach the exit. What do you think the third one is gonna be about?”

GeorgeDoshington: maybe it will just be nrmal lol

I scowled.

“Yeah, the best way to screw with me would be to make me assume there was another trick to it, but have it actually just be linear. Ugh… Stupid dungeon… ”

GonguuH: it might not even open another locker at all

“Also a good point… I guess there’s only one way to find out, huh…?”

A brief moment of silent scowling later, I got up again and gingerly approached the little screen. I raised my wrist, let it scan the bracelet, and got ready to endure the infernal noise again.

The dungeon didn’t disappoint. The countdown started anew and the maze began rearranging itself and I did my best to grit my teeth and endure it while shuffling around to avoid getting crushed.

Once the countdown was done, I huffed out a short sigh of relief and then drew my sword and got ready to fight off whatever might fly at me this time.

I heard a pop of a locker opening to the side and whirled around to face the monster wave.

What flew out of the lockers was something that I felt like I should have already encountered a long time ago considering the theme of this dungeon.

“Swimsuits?!”

Bikinis, one-piece swimsuits, men’s swimsuits, and so on.

This felt even weirder than fighting flying towels or hats.

Nonetheless, I breathed in and began sniping them from afar with Flame bullets. Surprisingly, these freaking swimsuits were more agile and flexible than expected and a lot of them managed to dodge my shots. It definitely had nothing to do with me still getting used to using the sub skill and my aim being off.

I backed up as the survivors closed in on me, spat out regular Fire Breath in front of me to intercept them and ignited my sword to swipe at those who would get through. Luckily, most got stopped by the wall of fire and only a few made it into slashing range.

Those that did, fell fairly easily to my flaming sword, and when everything was over and they all turned into mist, I just stood there for a moment with a suspicious frown on my face.

“...Chat, I’m either getting better at this, or this was much easier than before.”

KaiEbikoOfficial: good job Nana!

GeorgeDoshington: noice

SunOfABeach: you are definitely getting better

SunOfABeach: you move more confidently and naturally

A small smile tugged on my lips.

“Aww, thanks, Sun. That means a lot, coming from a real sword master.”

Now, I had no way of checking whether they really were one, but I liked to believe it. It made me feel cooler to be praised by them.

“Well, time to check out the third locker, then…”

I gingerly approached the open locker, already thinking of the ways it could mess with my perception of space like the other two had, while looking around and making sure nothing was trying to sneak up on me.

That was when I noticed the passageway opposite of the locker and stopped, staring at it.

At the end of the short hallway, there was a door. A familiar one. It looked exactly like the door I’d used to enter floor two yesterday.

Irid123: secret exit?

JamieWasTaken3: oh hey you can leave now lol

I glanced between the locker and the exit a few times, before deciding to investigate this first. The locker could wait a bit. I wasn’t in a rush to dive back into one of those creepy places anyway.

Stolen story; please report.

I approached the suspicious door, poked it with my sword for good measure – to the exasperation of many in the chat – and then reached up and opened it.

A familiar sight greeted me. A wide room with tiled floor and an oversized desk. It was the boss room of floor one. I’d finally found my way back.

“...Huh. I guess I can go back now, chat,” I mused. “But no, I wanted to get to the end of floor two first! If the dungeon is giving me a free way out, I’ve got to be close, right?”

Jeofffff: a shortcut to the boss yeah

Irid123: don’t leave!

Irid123: it’s a trick

Irid123: if you leave everything will reset

I grimaced.

“I hope not… Well, like I said, I’m not leaving now. Time for the third locker. Let’s see what nonsense it has to offer!”

I turned back and strode toward the open locker, trying to hype myself up and vehemently ignoring the apprehension and residual fear I had of these things.

I couldn't see the exit in the darkness like I could in the second one, but now I had a better idea of what to expect, so I felt a bit more confident. I could still hear my heartbeat getting faster as I approached it, though.

Regardless, I entered the damn locker and found myself in dead silent darkness once more.

I breathed in and out to try and calm myself. It didn’t help a whole lot.

“Here we go, chat. Round three.”

I lit my sword on fire to act as my flashlight once more. This time, I kept repeating to myself that I needed to put the fire out before smacking it into anything flammable. I did not want a great locker pyre number three.

I could learn from my mistakes, okay?

I walked further inside whilst looking around the darkness, failing to spot anything of interest. I did my best to keep my breathing even despite the inherent creepiness of hearing my own breaths, heartbeat, steps, and literally nothing else.

A few minutes in, as I kept checking all around me and behind me to make sure the entrance wouldn’t suddenly disappear, and I finally had the thought to look up.

I blinked and couldn’t help but stop and stare.

The column of light from the entrance apparently stretched all the way over my head and into the distance behind me, rather than just linearly upwards.

I stared for a moment and then hummed to myself.

“The fabric of space is screwed up here. As expected,” I muttered, pretending to be super calm. Then I continued walking.

I kept my eyes up as I walked and saw as the column of light kept stretching over the horizon like something made out of rubber. It looked absolutely fascinating, but also weird as all heck.

I chanced a look behind me and saw that the entrance was not only very far away now – too far away to clearly see the other lockers outside – but its bottom had also lifted off the ground as it stretched, as if dragged upwards by the stretching.

I stopped for a moment and stared again… before shrugging and continuing once more while keeping an eye on the whole thing. As I already half-expected, the entire column of light kept rising higher and higher, while the top kept curling above and over me toward where I was walking.

The whole entrance eventually ‘landed’ in front of me while the rest of it gradually straightened out and finished its transition from being behind me to being in front of me. From then on, walking forward made me come closer to it as per normal physics.

The whole thing was so fascinatingly bizarre that I’d forgotten to be all nervous and afraid for a moment. The fact that I’d walked all the way to the thing without being disturbed by any skittering clothes noises whatsoever probably helped.

I stopped at the mirror entrance; I peeked outside and I saw exactly what I was expecting. The door to floor one at the end of the little hallway opposite of the locker’s entrance, and the rest of the locker maze in exactly the same layout as I’d left it.

I hummed.

“So I walked in a straight line, but still somehow went in a circle. Of course, of course. How silly of me to expect otherwise,” I said in a very casual way to mask my nervousness that was beginning to creep back.

Jeofffff: this makes no sense

“Well, yes. Nothing here makes sense. I thought we already established that,” I agreed blithely.

Jeofffff: no I mean

Jeofffff: aren’t you technically at the top of the locker now?

I blinked and took a step back into the darkness before looking at the column of light from the entrance up and down.

Logically speaking, with the way it had moved, I would have arrived at the top of it and upside down, but instead, I was at the base again.

“...You’re right. I guess it must have somehow flipped as well when I wasn’t paying attention, huh…?”

Now I was curious. Could I go back and try to spot the moment it flipped? Was that the key to finding the exit?

It was worth a shot.

But first…

I stepped to the side and tried going behind the entrance like the first locker. Just in case. It wouldn’t do for me to go on another wild goose chase and look like a total fool again.

Unfortunately, I ran into a wall.

“Ow!”

I backed up a step and reached out with my hand to feel the metal walls of this thing that I couldn’t even see in the darkness.

“Well, I guess a good dungeon wouldn’t reuse the same tricks… Props to the designers…? Anyway! Let’s try this again and maybe I can spot the moment it shifts.”

And so I began walking once more, keeping a keen eye on the entrance and squashing my nervousness as much as I could. The further away I got, the harder it became to see stuff outside of the locker besides the light streaming in, but I still did my best.

Jeofffff: heat vision with zoom would be great here

“Yeah… Too bad I don’t have that…” I said into the silent darkness and my voice echoed around me. It made me shut up once more.

About halfway into my trip, when the column of light from the entrance stretched right above me, I noticed the tiniest change in the way it looked. I slowed down and narrowed my eyes to try and see it better.

From one stop to the next, I saw it. It was incredibly hard to see, but the view flickered for a moment and then the entire thing flipped over.

I let out a tiny gasp of surprise and stopped. Then I took a step back and saw it flicker once more and flip right side up again.

I tried taking smaller steps, adjusting my exact position, in hopes of seeing what that flicker was about. I tried craning my head and torso back and forth, but nothing changed. It seemed to be dependent on my feet, for some reason.

It was quite annoying and I had to fiddle with my feet, shuffling them by a few centimeters at some point, but eventually, I managed to stop exactly between where the two mirror entrances changed and in the middle of the ‘flicker’.

I narrowed my eyes, trying to see what it was about, but couldn’t see much more than a hazy fog coming from the entrance.

No. Not the entrance. The exit, probably.

“I think I found the exit,” I murmured. “How do I get all the way up, though…?”

Then I heard shuffling of clothes behind me and stiffened.

I had really hoped there wouldn’t be any more of that…

GeorgeDoshington: jump!

Irid123: try going to the side again?

Without a word, I turned to the left and began walking.

Contrary to what I expected, the column of light changed back to the entrance view and then it began rotating.

“Uh… No. That just made me lose sight of it,” I whispered as something dragged itself over the metallic floor to my right.

My heart began beating faster again but I vehemently ignored it and went back a few steps to find the foggy view again. A minute of shuffling my legs later and I found it once more.

I heard cloth hit the ground right in front of me and flinched, but kept on ignoring it.

“W-What to do, what to do…?” I asked with a trembling voice, failing to sound calm and unperturbed.

Something brushed by my arm and I fought not to scream and burn the offender to ashes.

GeorgeDoshington: juuuump!

Not having any better ideas, I bent my knees – fuck something curled around my ankle! – and jumped in place.

I had no idea what I expected, but being launched toward the exit at terminal velocity was not it.

“Whoaaaaaaaaaaaa?!” I screamed from the top of my lungs as I hurled through the air, barely managing to keep grip on my sword.

Wind whipped by me as I brushed past hundreds of articles of clothing, making me shudder every time. The column of light kept getting closer and closer, bigger and bigger in my field of view, until I finally flew out of the thing straight into a foggy, damp, and hot room.

I had about three seconds to be shocked by this sudden change in scenery before gravity decided to come back from vacation and I began falling right back into the locker again.

I gasped in horror and looked below myself, seeing a locker toppled on the ground with various articles of clothing skittering in the darkness inside it.

And now I was falling right back inside.

It took me a full second of falling to think of my next move.

I breathed in and spat fire to the side at the ground while spewing more fire from my limbs using Flameguard and hoped the knockback from it all would be enough to steer me away from falling back inside.

It was.

Unfortunately, it also meant that I landed on the ground elbow first.

I gasped while stifling a scream of pain as it made a horrible crack sound and my eyes began to tear up. My sword dropped from my shaky hand and clattered on the floor.

I let out a few gasped breaths before I jerkily reached into my backpack and began to grab the potion to alleviate the painpainpain.

That was when the door to this room opened – I hadn’t even registered there was a door behind all the fog – revealing a giant figure about three storeys tall clad in several layers of clothing.

Then the figure spotted me and started toward me.