I belatedly realized that the tentacle was probably the boss of this floor.

Sure, it wasn’t all big and imposing like the other bosses, but it was damn persistent and really hard to damage in any meaningful way. Not to mention, I’d found it inside a large open room, just like the other two bosses.

So yes, probably the boss.

I should have gone with the kiddy slide first, ugh.

The damn pink plush tentacle emerged right next to me once more, interrupting my inner monologue, and I immediately slashed at it with my key sword, lopping a huge chunk of it off.

Of course, it didn’t really do anything. The tentacle quickly regenerated and the cut off bit began wiggling in my direction like an eel, making me swear under my breath before incinerating it with Fire Breath.

At this rate, I would run out of Ether before I managed to get out of here. Should I just risk it and try to kill the thing instead? How would I even kill it, though? Nothing I tried did any lasting damage. Did I need to find the thing’s main body?

Too many unknowns. Too much risk trying to go all in.

Instead of trying to fight an enemy I knew next to nothing about, I opted to retreat for now.

I activated Bullet Time and, while the tentacle slowed down to a crawl, swam as far away as possible. Once I saw the currents further away from me – the water close to me was also sped up, that was why it had caught me off guard back there – return to normal speed, I reached into my backpack, fished out the fused Ether and Tempor drink, took a swig, and immediately reactivated Bullet Time to get even more distance.

Rinse and repeat until I completely ran out of my drink.

By then, the water currents had gone still and I was no longer being constantly dragged back into the boss room. It was also shallow enough for my feet to reach the bottom while leaving me submerged up to my waist now.

I only got about a minute of reprieve before the stupid tentacle came back. It suddenly burst into the tunnel from the direction I was walking in and went straight for a jab in my face.

I managed to swerve to the side to narrowly avoid it and then went to grab it with both arms to wrestle it down.

The tentacle reacted by jerking upwards, lifting me with it and making me yelp. I lit my arms and it on fire in response.

The thing jerked more violently at that, yanking itself out of my grip before slamming itself into the water and putting the fire out with a sizzle.

I growled in frustration as I recovered from the fall and awkwardly pulled out the naginata from the backpack on my back.

By the time I had my grip on it, the tentacle was ready for another round.

Slash, dodge, breathe fire.

We kept exchanging blows and I had no time to even think about continuing to run. For whatever reason, the tentacle was even more relentless than before I’d ditched it with Bullet Time.

Then I managed to cut off a bit of the tentacle once more and grit my teeth in preparation for having to deal with those detached tentacles again.

In the heat of the moment, I also had a really stupid idea and acted on it without hesitation.

I jabbed my naginata into the exposed fluff inside the plush tentacle revealed by the cut and poured as much Ether as I could into it to create lightning.

Everything around me lit up and I felt even my own muscles seize as the electricity ran through me.

Oh, shit! I fucked up!

I dropped into the water face first, my muscles twitching, and nearly drowned before I regained some semblance of control over my muscles and I could stand again. I coughed out the water that had gotten into my lungs and wiped my eyes with my twitching hand.

I really hadn’t thought that one through, had I? Who used electric attacks when submerged in water?

The only saving grace was that my dumb attack had accomplished what I’d set out to do. The charred tentacle was floating on the water’s surface, still twitching.

Before it could recover, I pushed through the pain and continued running along the tentacle’s length where I’d been running before.

It didn’t take long for me to reach the spot from where the tentacle was ultimately sticking out of.

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion.

The water here was still very shallow and it was easy to see the bottom. It should be easy to see the rest of the tentacle and where it came from.

Except it wasn’t there. It seemed to just… start existing at the point where it emerged from the water’s surface.

Was it warping space? Using the water’s surface as some kind of portal to get around? Was the water itself the boss and the tentacle just an extension of it?

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I didn’t let my bewilderment freeze me in my tracks though. I quickly pulled my naginata, spun it around, stood next to where the tentacle’s base appeared out of the water, lit my weapon on fire, and jammed it down at it, sharp end first, hoping to stab through whatever portal this thing was abusing.

The thing twitched for the final time before the blade of my weapon ripped through it. To my surprise though, as soon as the blade reached the spot where the tentacle was sticking out of the surface, it kept going and I nearly fell over before the blade hit the bottom of the tunnel.

“Wah?!”

In the meantime, the tentacle flopped over, as if severed by whatever portal it was sticking out of, splashed into the water, and stopped moving.

“What the…”

I stepped back and carefully watched the thing for a few seconds, expecting it to come to life at any second. It continued to uselessly lay there underwater without moving, though.

I kept my eye on it, but proceeded to carefully walk around it and continued down the tunnel again.

“Okay… Okay… That obviously wasn’t it yet. No chest. There’s more. It’s probably coming back,” I rambled under my breath as I waded through the water that luckily kept getting increasingly shallower, making me believe that I was going in the right direction.

But I was still on edge because of the stupid tentacle. After all, the previous two bosses had relentlessly come after me without stopping. There was no way the tentacle wouldn’t come back the moment it regenerated enough to do so.

Or maybe it hadn’t been the boss at all and I’d completely misunderstood?

But then why was it significantly more dangerous than any other monster from this floor, just like the other bosses? Was it some kind of… elite monster? A mini-boss or something? What would its purpose be, then?

With these thoughts, I rounded the corner and finally saw light hitting the side of the tunnel. I couldn’t help but gasp and reflexively relax before rushing forward to my salvation.

I rounded another corner and saw exactly what I’d expected – the end of the tunnel, leading to the same exact spot the last tunnel had deposited me at.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I left the tunnel and the fake sun’s rays began to warm up my drenched body again.

“Alright, now -- Oh, fuck no!” I breathed as I spotted the damn pink tentacle emerge from one of the pools on the surface, wiggle in the air, and then head straight for me once again.

Luckily, since I wasn’t submerged anymore, I easily dodged its jab while slashing at it.

I missed. The tentacle was too thin and was moving too erratically.

But it didn’t matter. With no water to hinder my movements, I wouldn’t let it get an upper hand – upper tentacle? – anymore. Even if it moved quickly and constantly tried to flank me, I could easily keep up with a single enemy at this point.

Speaking of which… why was there just a single tentacle? Whatever octopus or squid-type of monster this was, shouldn’t it have more than just one?

Well, it didn’t really matter, so I put that thought out of my head and refocused on the fight as I made my way back to the golden gate.

I cut off a big chunk of the tentacle and immediately incinerated it with Fire Breath before it could snake its way to me again. As I did, my eyes swiped over the pool where the tentacle emerged from and I had a thought.

I barely hesitated before breathing in and firing off a Flame Bullet at the spot where the tentacle was sticking from.

But I was too far away and I missed my shot.

I tried again, but to my surprise, the rest of the tentacle – still not done regenerating yet – bent and purposefully got itself hit by my projectile in order to protect its base.

My surprise only lasted a split second before my expression turned into a grin.

“Oh, what’s this?! Did I find your weakness?!” I jeered.

With that in mind, I finally went on the offensive, shooting one Flame Bullet after another. The tentacle kept trying to block the shots, but was getting burned more and more and at some point could barely even move.

Then one of my shots finally hit the tentacle’s base and the change was instant. The whole thing went limp and proceeded to flop over like a felled tree.

I grinned even wider at finally knowing how to deal with the tentacle whenever it came back.

…And it would come back, wouldn’t it?

My grin turned into a pout.

“Still no idea where its main body is…”

But I could figure that out later. Right now, I was kinda low on Ether, out of ooze in my bucket, and I had completely used up my ‘mana potion’ to power the bracelet’s Bullet TIme.

“Time to go back for today,” I mumbled before finally looking at chat again after ignoring it during that whole ordeal. I’d been doing that a lot, but to be fair, it was hard to focus on chat while having a deathmatch with monsters.

Jeofffff: all I’m saying that the boss is probably somewhere in that room

KaiEbikoOfficial: good idea Nana

GonguuH: agreed

Jeofffff: maybe it’s invisible

repeaeaeat: I’ll try to rewatch and see if I spot anything

I made a face.

“Ugh, yeah. The main body probably is somewhere in that room. Dammit, I never even thought to check. I just panicked and tried to run,” I grumbled, feeling kind of stupid now.

KaiEbikoOfficial: no that’s totally understandable Nana

GonguuH: anyone would panic in that situation

Jeofffff: how much does your bracelet have left btw?

I smiled.

Now that was the kind of emotional support I wanted from chat. Not whatever George was doing.

I hummed and looked at my bracelet before grimacing.

It read 29%.

“Aw, man. That sucks. I almost completely wasted my trump card…” I whined.

Jeofffff: I wouldn’t say wasted

Jeofffff: just used some of it to gather info on the enemy

“Gather info? You mean about the tentacle’s weakness? I mean, I guess… Could have figured it out without it, though,” I argued as I walked through the golden gate and prepared myself to clean up the zombies I’d ‘kidnapped’ from floor three to here.

The first zombie tumbled into my way and I quickly decapitated it with a quick slash of my weapon. A second one tried to flank me by climbing over a window to my right, but a quick twirl and my naginata’s blade found its way into the zombie’s skull.

I was getting quite good with this thing. It was still a bit impractical in tight spaces, but I liked it.

“Can’t believe I was afraid of these guys just earlier today…” I mumbled as I made my way back to the entrance.

Granted, that had been a massive horde back then, but still.

In no time at all, I made it out of the dungeon and let the feeling of relief wash over me. I looked behind me one last time, just to check whether the tentacle had regenerated and wanted more revenge, but seeing floor one devoid of anything, I let out a sigh of relief and finally relaxed.

“Well, the coin bosses waited for me, so the tentacle boss will wait too,” I declared and began walking to the life ooze lake to refill my bucket.

The sun was shining and the grass around me was only mildly damp despite the rain yesterday. The smell of nature and the warm rays of the sun definitely improved my mood.

Don’t get me wrong, the fake sun felt real enough, but… Well, you couldn’t beat the real one, could you?

When I finally made it to the ooze lake, I stopped and narrowed my eyes.

There was a… small sapling right by the lake in the grass.

That hadn’t been there before.

What the heck?