I should probably be more disturbed by the fact that the system can axe my brainpower and turn me into a drooling idiot. I mean, what if the system one day just decided to do that without me even doing anything? If the system could give me access to skills, who was to say that it couldn’t also take away my skills? Heck, it had done that already, what with it temporarily removing my ability to read or have coherent thoughts.

Well… Just another thing on top of the pile of anxiety fuel.

I really shouldn’t dwell on it too much. I was just going to end up crying in a corner again. There was no point in stressing myself even more.

Just ignore the existential horror for now.

I breathed out, finished the last few push ups I could do, and then stood up.

Despite everything, I had managed to get a somewhat relaxed rest of yesterday. Sure, I hadn’t miraculously run into people or even animals, but I hadn’t really expected it. I’d already accepted that I was probably the only living being in this world, or at least the local area.

The only things that could vaguely be classified as alive besides me were the dungeon monsters. And even those were kind of like robots powered by the system. They hardly counted as living creatures, much less individuals I could reason with.

…Not that I had tried that.

Maybe I should?

This would be so silly if I could just talk them down…

…And I would feel even worse if they had all been sentient creatures all along enslaved by the system or something…

I slapped my face and shook my head to get off this train of thought.

I breathed in, stuck out my hands in John’s view again as he stared at the same part of the dungeon wall as yesterday, and counted down from seven.

“Goooood mooorning, my precious little Aquamarines!” I cheered as I finished my countdown and had John turn to face me again. “It’s me! Aoto Nana, your favorite dungeon explorer!” I grinned, pushing away all the dark thoughts and anxieties. “How are you all doing? I had a bit of a mishap yesterday. Some of you might have seen it… But I’m fine now! I lazed around all afternoon and now I’m in tip top shape!”

I slowly walked toward the dungeon’s entrance as I talked.

“Which is perfect, because today, we’ll be taking on the boss of the third floor of this dungeon! And unless it throws us another curveball, we’ll be finally finishing the whole dungeon!”

trelipideliberitation: wooooo!

GeorgeDoshington: let’s gooooooo

“And I say we, not I, because you guys will be helping me! In fact, I already made a special group chat dedicated to coming up with battle strategies and other dungeon-clearing tricks!”

Jeofffff: at your service general! o7

SunOfABeach: go get em!

“Thanks, guys!” I flashed them a grin as I arrived at the entrance. “Now then, let’s get going!”

I eyed the corridor for a moment, hoping that the tentacle hadn’t somehow infiltrated the first floor, but there only seemed to be a single zombie from the third floor still around.

Well, even if the tentacle had come here, I knew well enough how to deal with it.

I dismissed John, pulled out my favorite naginata out of my backpack, and strolled past the dungeon’s entrance. By now, I’d experienced the uneasy feeling of entering a dungeon enough times that it didn’t faze me anymore.

When I entered, I narrowed my eyes at the familiar corridor. I had this odd feeling that something was wrong about it. Something was different. But I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“Something feels off, chat…” I murmured as I crept forward and looked around.

Nothing happened. I made it all the way to the straggling zombie and swiftly took it down in one smooth move.

But the odd feeling of unease didn’t go away.

What was going on? Why did everything feel so… uncanny? As if the dungeon was shifting things again. But subtly enough that I couldn’t tell what exactly had changed.

FouxMoux: you are taller now

I blinked.

“Say what?”

FouxMoux: rewatched your first time here

FouxMoux: everything used to look bigger

I opened my mouth, closed it, then let out a sigh.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

“Right… The blessing. Rapid aging.” I shook my head. “But why didn’t I notice before? Because I was in this dungeon all day everyday until yesterday?”

FouxMoux: probably yeah

GeorgeDoshington: ur a big girl now lol

I groaned.

This was my eighth day in this world. If the blessing aged me sixty times faster, that was already over a year worth of growth. And with me starting out with the body of about a five-year-old, that would definitely be noticeable.

“Well, alright. Mystery solved, I guess. So it wasn’t the dungeon screwing with me again. Good to know.”

With that out of the way, I swiftly made it to the golden gate and carefully peered past it. I was stunned at the sight.

There were pink tentacles everywhere.

Going from one pool to another, poking out of one of the buildings and curling back inside through the window, snaking out of the tunnel and disappearing underwater elsewhere again…

“...Well, that’s not good.”

GeorgeDoshington: u let it grow too much lol

uptonMIKE: you should cut them off one by one

“Hmm, yeah… I better get to it then, chat.”

Weirdly enough, I didn’t see any tentacle tips. Only their middle parts. Was this all just a single tentacle portaled all over the place? Well, there was only one way to find out…

I entered the third floor through the gate and as soon as I did, the tentacles all over the place began wiggling in agitation.

I braced myself and ran for the closest one in the pool and immediately shot a Flame Bullet at the base of the tentacle in the water from where it emerged. At the same time, I shot lightning from my naginata at the upper part of the tentacle to stun it and prevent it from blocking the fireball.

It worked beautifully. The tentacle spazzed for a moment before the water around its base exploded with steam and then the whole thing went limp and flopped over.

“Nice!” I grinned.

Yesterday, I’d been thinking about using the lightning directly to attack the tentacle’s portals, but Jeoff had smartly pointed out that that would probably just shock the pool and summon another zombie horde. So we came up with this strategy instead. The only downside was the Ether cost.

“Next!”

I did the same to another tentacle at a different pool while making my way back to the slides again.

Everyone in chat had more or less agreed that the boss’ main body was somewhere in that big whirlpool room and I must have missed it somehow. Although not even chat was able to pick out where it had been from watching the stream back, so it must have been really well hidden or just straight up invisible.

Suddenly, I got ambushed.

A pink plushy form suddenly swiped at me from the side before I could react. My weapon clattered to the ground as I hit the ground with a pained grunt. Just as I spotted it, the tentacle quickly curled around my ankle and began dragging me into the death water pool, but I lit my leg on fire, causing it to flinch away and sink back into the water.

I scrambled to recover my weapon and get back to my feet before it could come back.

It came back from a different pool. One behind me.

This time though, I was expecting it and reacted immediately to the splashing sound by turning around and releasing a lightning slash at it before it could get me.

The thing jolted as electricity ran through it and I used its momentary distraction to shoot a fireball at its base to neuter it.

It hit, the tentacle went limp, and I continued running through the pool maze along the path I thought led to the slides.

Except unfortunately, it had changed again since last time.

“C’mooooon! Whyyy?!” I whined as the path I’d taken sent me in circles instead of where I wanted to be.

This dungeon was seriously starting to get on my nerves with its stupid mazes. It certainly didn’t help that zombies and the damn tentacle kept harassing me as I tried to figure out the new layout.

Thankfully, it didn’t take that long to find my way to the slides again. I quickly put my weapon back into my backpack and threw myself down the spiral chute again, completely ignoring the one slide I hadn’t even tried yet.

I was more prepared this time, so the twists and turns of the damn thing were more manageable and I hadn’t even nearly drowned when I hit the water inside the tunnel. Knowing that the sleeves had a floating function helped too.

Unfortunately, the tentacle was already there waiting for me and gave me no time to get my bearings before curling around my midsection and pulling me into the water.

I immediately burned it with Flameguard to get myself free, found where it emerged from, and spewed fire all over that spot.

Once the tentacle was no longer a problem, I began swimming through the tunnel.

Chat and I had agreed that while climbing along the walls might have felt safer, it also exhausted me quicker and made it more difficult to fight enemies. With the floaties, it was better to stay in the water even if I had to deal with plush fish and tentacles.

Speaking of which, no plush fish tried to attack me on my way for some reason. Likely because I had defeated all the ones here and they hadn’t respawned. Likewise, the tentacle hadn’t reappeared at all and it made me a tad nervous. Like a calm before the storm.

The gravity in the tunnel then suddenly shifted just like before. Unlike last time though, I was ready for it. Instead of panicking and screaming, I tried to flap my hands in an attempt to use the sleeve’s float function in the air and… it actually worked.

I probably looked incredibly silly – like a chicken trying to slow down its fall by flapping its wings – but hey, it worked, so who was really silly here?

“Chat! Tell me if you see the boss anywhere!” I yelled as I floated down through the rest of the winding tunnel while keeping an eye out.

I saw it the moment I fell into the large open circular room.

Not the pink tentacle below me waiting to drag me under again. A subtle tentacle-shaped white shimmer along the wall and a yellow circle suspended in the air.

I shot a Flame bullet at the phenomenon without a second thought, and just as I’d expected, the shape moved out of the way, and revealed itself.

It was… an octopus. A very strange plush octopus.

It had five different tentacles.The pink one vanishing inside the yellow circle, a white tentacle with moving plushy eyes all over it, yellow tentacle that pulsed with some kind of energy, a black shadowy one that seemed almost transparent, and a bright purple one that left behind afterimages. Its head was a weird mishmash of the same colors and didn’t seem to have any eyes itself.

As the octopus dodged out of the way of my attack, the pink tentacle below me abruptly pulled away and disappeared under the surface just as the pink tentacle attached to the octopus pulled out of the yellow circle – a portal! – and positioned itself to block the rest of the monster from the splash damage.

I splashed down into the water and quickly recovered. Then I looked up at the thing still perched on the wall and grinned. The thing looked back at me with the eyes on its white tentacle.

But before I could think of my next move, the yellow tentacle mimed a circle in the air and another one of those portals appeared, except this one was bigger. The entire octopus jumped through it and disappeared before the portal itself winked out as well.

My grin turned into an indignant frown.

“Wha— Get back here!” I howled as I spun around, looking for the thing, hoping it was still somewhere in the room.