I triple checked to make sure no zombie snuck up on me and pushed me over the edge before squatting down near one of the death water pools.

“So, how is this going to work…?” I murmured as I fished out the towel from my backpack and carefully lowered it into the pool.

The moment it touched the surface, it absorbed the moisture around it, creating some ripples in the water. The spot where the water disappeared also released some dark blue smoke.

“Huh. What is – Ack!” I flinched, nearly dropping the towel altogether the moment the smoke touched my arm and burned my skin.

“What the heck?!” I skittered back away from the pool, gripping the towel in my hand as I watched the smoke dissipate into the air. “What was that? It stung!”

I rubbed my forearm where it had burnt me still feeling the sting. Then I looked at it and saw that it had left eerie dark blue marks on me.

“Uh…”

I nervously stared at it, hoping to god that I wasn’t poisoned or something.

KaiEbikoOfficial: nana stop playing with something literally called DEATH WATER!

Jeofffff: appraise it?

JamieWasTaken3: oh fuck no dont die because of my idea again

I shot Appraisal at one of the splotches, hoping to figure out what had just happened.

Name: Nana Aoto

Title: Fire Blessed

Race: Human

Skill Points: 10

Racial skill:

Streamer

Innate skills:

Bullet time (Waterproof Key bracelet + Time-freezing popsicle (fused)) [LIMITED]

Other skills(3/3):

Phoenix Blessing [CURSED] [FREE] [TEMPORARY]

Fire Breath

Flameguard

Appraisal

I blinked.

“Wait, what? It just opened my status screen…? Is it because the system thinks I’m trying to appraise myself? Come on!”

My rant was interrupted by a splash in front of me. My head whipped up just in time to see the zombie emerging from the spot where I’d dipped my towel into.

There was barely any hesitation as I summoned the key sword into my hand, lunged forward, and split the zombie’s skull, then watched it slide back into the pool with a splash.

“...Ow.”

The sudden movement had irritated the blue burn wound.

Jeofffff: drink ether to heal

“Oh yeah. It did say that the death water drains Ether, didn’t it? It’s probably some kind of Anti-Ether mixed with water. Like some kind of reverse life ooze.”

I stopped and frowned.

“Wait. I think it literally is! It’s called death water, and this–” I pulled the bucket out of my backpack and grabbed some green sludge out of it. “–is called life ooze. They are opposites!”

Instead of eating it, I decided to smear a bit of ooze directly on the wound. I felt the moment it heated me up, but this time, in a much more pleasant way. The stinging pain gradually went away as I applied more of it and lo and behold, the splotches all disappeared after a few minutes.

KaiEbikoOfficial: that’s unsanitary Nana

I rolled my eyes. “And eating the goo isn’t? I’m sure it’s fine. Remember when the potion burnt my blood? It was fine then.”

Just to make sure none of the nastiness seeped into my bloodstream or something, I also ate a mouthful of the life ooze as well. Video game logic dictated that that should cure me of any poison-esque ailment.

Jeofffff: what happens if you throw the goo into the death water?

“Hmm… They probably cancel each other out? I dunno, I guess I can try it… Maybe I can even fully delete the pools?”

I grabbed a bit of the life ooze out of the bucket, drew my hand back and threw it into the pool.

GonguuH: wait what if it explodes or something?

The moment the blob of goo touched the water, there was a bright burst of light and a bang, followed by both the death water and the ooze spraying all over the place.

I squeaked and jumped back as droplets landed on me and burnt me again.

“Why?! And how did you know, Gong?!” I yelled while eying the puddles of death water now littering the ground around me like caltrops. I carefully backed away and then began grabbing more life ooze to smear on all the burns.

GonguuH: well, that’s what matter and anti-matter does

Jeofffff: oh shit

GonguuH: this wasn’t nearly as violent though

Jeofffff: you can make bombs out of that

KaiEbikoOfficial: Nana please stop playing with fire…

JamieWasTaken3: more like playing with water lol

I grunted as I read the chat.

“It’s fine, Ebi! Just a few burns. Nothing I can't heal. If I could make bombs out of this like Jeoff says, though… Hmm…”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

KaiEbikoOfficial: don’t you already have your bubble glove?

“I mean, yes. But this stuff can also burn my enemies!”

Jeofffff: wait hold on

Jeofffff: if the water burns you and goo heals, is the opposite true for dungeon monsters?

I blinked.

“Huh. Never thought about that. Maybe I should–” Another splash from the spot where I’d thrown the goo. “Oh, perfect! A test subject!”

I grabbed another handful of goo and tossed it at the zombie emerging from the water.

“Eat this!”

The goo hit the zombie square on its empty face and it stumbled for a moment before the goo seemed to get absorbed inside it. When it did, the zombie stopped slowly stumbling and got out of the pool with a burst of speed before lunging at me.

“Wha–”

I dropped the bucket, summoned my key sword and slashed in front of me while backing up.

But the damn zombie was fast now. It side-stepped my slash and clawed at me, and I only barely backed away enough to avoid having my face rearranged. A moment later, I quickly breathed in and then engulfed the jerk in fire.

The zombie stumbled back, but didn’t seem to be done just yet as it lunged at me again, still covered in fire. I coated my key sword with fire and slashed horizontally at it, and actually hit this time. The blade cut into its torso and it crumbled to the ground before vanishing into the mist a few moments later.

I let out a sigh.

“Well, apparently, Ether just powers them up,” I grumbled. “That’s just cheating! Isn’t healing magic supposed to damage the undead? Ugh…”

It would have been so nice if it actually burnt them like death water burned me. That way, I could load some life ooze into my gun and then have the ultimate trump card against dungeon monsters.

But alas.

Jeofffff: awww

Jeofffff: that sucks

KaiEbikoOfficial: this testing is getting out of hand Nana

“Oh well… Maybe it will work on some other monsters.” I shrugged. “It’s fine, Ebi! You worry too much! And anyway, it’s important to test stuff like this! What if I discover some totally broken interaction?”

KaiEbikoOfficial: dammit nana

Jeofffff: hell yeah this is why we watch nana

JamieWasTaken3: I watch for the mimic paranoia lol

I snorted.

“Anywho. I think I’m still gonna try to fill my gun with both the death water and the life ooze. Just in case, you know? I have no idea what the final boss is gonna be, but it can’t hurt to have more ammo options.”

I hummed as I approached a different pool – not one surrounded by puddles of death water – and squatted down with my bucket. I slowly lowered it into the pool and let it absorb some of the liquid before pulling it out again. Since I knew that the liquids inside its little storage didn’t mix, I didn’t need to worry about the bucket suddenly exploding on me, thankfully.

Then I sat down, brought out my gun, detached the barrel and sat it upright, before positioning the bucket above it and carefully let a bit of the death water trickle inside the barrel. I had to do it very slowly to make sure I didn’t spill any on me.

“So, any ideas on what else I could put into the gun?”

JamieWasTaken3: lava

JamieWasTaken3: your blood

I glared at chat.

“I mean things that I can reasonably get without killing myself via blood loss.”

JamieWasTaken3: your spit

GonguuH: depends on what counts as a liquid

JamieWasTaken3: your pee

GonguuH: if you could melt something down or grind something into a mush, would it work?

“Jamie, I’m gonna kick you from the chat,” I said, deadpan. “And, I dunno, Gong. I like the idea, though… Maybe I could shoot molten metal or something at my enemies? Although it’s not like I have any metal for that…”

GeorgeDoshington: yoooo im back

GeorgeDoshington: i hear jamie is getting banned?

JamieWasTaken3: im just trying to help!

I groaned.

“Hey, George. Jamie is just being gross.” I shook my head. “You know the water gun I got? I was asking if anyone has any ideas for alternative ammo. Anything liquid.”

GeorgeDoshington: what like your pee and stuff?

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and then slowly breathed out.

“Are you and Jamie married yet? You’re perfect for each other.”

JamieWasTaken3: hell no

JamieWasTaken3: who would marry GE ogre

GeorgeDoshington: what the fuck how dare you

GonguuH: you could melt rocks outside with your fire breath and use that as ammo

GeorgeDoshington: fight me 1v1 james

GonguuH: if it doesn’t cool inside the pocket space

I rolled my eyes.

“Look, chat. They are having their first lover’s quarrel,” I drawled. “Hmm… That would be neat, Gong. But I’m not sure if my Fire Breath is hot enough for that…”

There was that Extreme Temperature upgrade though, wasn’t there…? Ugh, but I didn’t want to use any more points on the phoenix skills…

Not like I actually needed stronger ammo for the water gun, did I? The gun was already strong enough with just basic water as its ammo.

I shrugged.

“Eh, maybe later. If I feel like I really need my gun to be even stronger, I can get the Extreme Temperature upgrade and get some molten rocks.”

The last bits of the death water dripped into the barrel, and after making sure I hadn’t spilled any of it, I brought out the life ooze out of the bucket and loaded some of it into the gun as well.

Once done, I got up, briefly looked around just to make sure I wasn’t being snuck up on again, and then finally brought out the map.

“Okay. Map time. Where the heck do I even start, chat?”

I frowned.

“Hold on… Did the map change? Chat, am I crazy? Is the map different now?”

GonguuH: it is

JamieWasTaken3: looks the same to me

GeorgeDoshington: the map is a mimiiicccc

KaiEbikoOfficial: hah I’m still the best mapmaker

I grunted and fully unfolded the map to take a better look.

If the map changed and warped just like the dungeon, then what was it based on? What caused it to change? If I were to guess, either time or position. So much in this dungeon was about spacetime, after all.

GonguuH: try moving around and see if it changes?

I hummed and did as Gong said. I walked around a pool while staring at the map, still wary of my surroundings when I noticed it.

GonguuH: it moved!

GonguuH: the red dot

“Yeah, I see it! I guess that’s me then, huh?” I glanced up at my surroundings and at the map back and forth a few times, trying to figure out what corresponded to what on the map.

GonguuH: I think the arrows are spawn points actually

GonguuH: and the shapes are the buildings

I nodded as I came to the same conclusion.

“Mmm, you’re right. That’s really dumb, though. You would think the map would depict the pools as a whole rather than just the points where zombies can spawn…” I narrowed my eyes. “What is my goal, though? Shouldn’t it lead me somewhere?”

GonguuH: I think I see it

GonguuH: one of those arrows seems to be pointing into the lake

GonguuH: the green one

“Huh…? Oh yeah, it is. That’s… I don’t like that,” I grumbled. “Is it telling me to walk into a pool of death water…?”

Now that I looked at it, it seemed very obvious since every other arrow was red. But still… this didn’t bode well.

I pursed my lips but made my way to that spot on the map anyway. Interestingly enough, the map also accounted for all the space warping, which was incredibly useful. If the map worked on every floor, I wouldn’t get lost ever again!

“Okay… Here’s the spot on the map,” I said as I looked up at the pool in front of me. “It looks exactly the same as any other spot… Ugh, I don’t wanna just dunk myself in! That sounds like a horrible idea, chat!”

Jeofffff: send out a scout

Jeofffff: john or gargles

My eyes widened.

“Oh, that’s an idea! You’re right Jeoff. I don’t need to go by myself. Let’s see then…”