“Okay, chat!” I clapped my hands as I let John look back at me. “Loot time! This better be worth it!”

I sauntered over to the massive chest, picking up my dropped gun and naginata on the way, and stopped a couple of meters away from it as I eyed it in suspicion.

JamieWasTaken3: here it comes chat

GeorgeDoshington: wait for it

Jeofffff: nana pls

Jeofffff: your killing me here

I, very slowly, very deliberately, raised my naginata, held it in front of me, and then slowly poked the chest with the tip.

The soft thud echoed in the empty pool room.

JamieWasTaken3: mimic = checked

“Hmm…” I hummed with an expression of exaggerated seriousness that I hoped John captured. “It would appear that this isn’t a mimic, chat.”

Jeofffff: YOU DONT SAY

I smirked, put the naginata into the backpack, and then finally walked closer to the chest. I picked up the key sword still on the ground where it had fallen, put it back into my backpack and then opened the massive beast of a chest.

It was a bit of a struggle, but as soon as I lifted the lid just a little, the whole thing popped open. I leaped over the rim and peered inside.

There were five different items in total. A giant slab of raw fish meat; a pile of strange-looking gray feathers; a white coupon thing that resembled the bonus tickets; a handheld cannon gun thing with metallic rods sticking out of it in a similar way that the shark’s last phase had; and a shark hoodie.

“A shark hoodie, chat! Heck yeah! Everything was worth it!”

I grabbed it and lifted it in front of myself. It was dark blue and had fin-like decorations on the sleeves and the back, as well as cloth teeth lining the hood itself. Also, there seemed to be some grayish patterns around the back that reminded me of the shark’s sci-fi weaponry.

As always, it looked like it would fit me perfectly.

Well, I’d missed not having Craftsman during the fight, but now I couldn’t complain since I got to appraise everything.

I started with the hoodie in my hands.

War shark hoodie

A hoodie resembling a war shark. Moderately increases the wearer’s general defense, resistance to water attacks, and ability to swim. Also greatly enhances any water-based attacks used by the wearer as well as attacks using metallic weaponry.

[INNATE] skill: Aquaport - Use a moderate amount of Tempor to teleport a short distance. Both the starting point and the destination have to be submerged in liquid.

I stared at the thing.

“...Holy cow, chat. I was half-joking before, but this really was worth it, wasn’t it? Look at all the effects! It even has an innate skill! I can teleport now!”

Well, not now, but once I either wore it or fused it with my clothes. Still.

Jeofffff: daaaammmn what an upgrade

KaiEbikoOfficial: oh wow that’s a lot of buffs

“What even counts as metallic weaponry? Does the key sword count? Does the water gun? Probably not, cuz it’s plastic, right…? Oh wait, but what about this thing?”

I finally put the hoodie down and looked at the second most interesting thing in the chest, the gun thing that resembled the shark’s final phase’s cannon.

Plasma orb handcannon

A handheld cannon capable of shooting slow-moving plasma balls that bounce off of surfaces while scorching them when supplied with a large amount of Ether. The plasma balls can be reabsorbed by the handcannon to refund most of the Ether cost.

“So it is like the shark’s cannon! And I can reabsorb them to refund Ether? That’s interesting…” I mumbled. “Hmm, but I feel like it would be a bit too slow to be useful if it’s anything like the shark’s weapon. Eh, we’ll see I guess.”

Jeofffff: it probably does a ton of damage if I were to guess

KaiEbikoOfficial: sounds like a wonky weapon

KaiEbikoOfficial: where would you even use it?

I shrugged.

“No idea. I’m sure I’ll find a good use for it. And anyway, it’s always nice to have more options. Don’t wanna get stuck without any weapons again…”

I stuffed both the plasma cannon and the hoodie into my backpack and looked at the rest of the items, starting with the slab of meat.

War shark meat

A piece of war shark’s belly meat.

I frowned.

“...Hold on. Are you telling me that that thing was an actual species and not just another one of this dungeon’s fever dreams?”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The pile of strange feathers then caught my attention and I narrowed my eyes at it before firing Appraisal at them as well.

War shark feathers

Feathers from a war shark.

I continued to stare.

“You have to be kidding me,” I said, deadpan. “I know it had wings, but I didn’t see any feathers! Is this a joke? Am I being pranked?”

Irid123: maybe it’s a red herring

JamieWasTaken3: shark feathers wtf

Irid123: the boss wasn’t this war shark but an imitation of it

Irid123: like other dungeon monsters

I hummed.

“Yeah, I can actually see that… Still weird, though.” I shook my head and shrugged. “Well, whatever. Loot is loot. Even if I have no idea what these can be used for.”

I shrugged my backpack off and proceeded to stuff the slab of meat inside before turning to the feathers, opening my arms and trying to grab them.

GonguuH: maybe you can make bedding with them

“Ow!”

I recoiled the moment my bare skin touched them though.

They were sharp. Not soft and fluffy like feathers ought to be.

I stared at the small trickle of blood flowing out of the cut on my fingers and then at the feathers.

GonguuH: never mind

Still staring at the ‘feathers’, I pulled out a bit of life ooze and smeared it on my cut fingers to help them slowly heal. Then I carefully reached toward one of the feathers sticking out of the pile, gently grabbed it, and pulled it out of the pile.

I brought it closer to my face and finally noticed that it looked kind of… metallic. I raised my other hand to tap the blunt side and likewise, it made a soft metallic clinking sound.

Even though the feather was as light as… well, a feather.

“Chat, what the heck am I even looking at?”

Jeofffff: feather-shaped ninja stars?

I looked up and back into the room, adjusted my hold on the feather, drew my hand back, and then whipped it forward while releasing the feather.

It swished through the air like an honest-to-god ninja star as it cut through the room, hit the wall, and then fell on the ground.

Even from a distance, I could see that the feather had barely gotten deformed by the impact.

“...Feather-shaped ninja stars. Alright then. I dig it.” I shrugged, ignoring my subconscious mind telling me that the physics of the feather made no sense.

I proceeded to carefully put the feathers into my backpack one by one.

It took a while, but I wasn’t one to waste loot. Who knew when I would need dozens of shurikens?

Finally, I looked at the last item in the giant treasure chest.

A white ticket with eight black… eyes drawn on it. Two big eyes like a normal human’s and then three more eyes around each eye, framing them.

I froze at the imagery.

Was this… also a coincidence?

The coins were one thing, but…

I shook my head, shoved these thoughts deep into my subconscious and appraised the thing.

Anti-curse ticket

A system consumable that allows you to unequip a cursed skill once.

“...Huh. Alright then. That could come in handy, I guess…? Not like removing the blessing is going to be particularly useful, since it’s free anyway…” I mumbled as I shoved it into my backpack.

KaiEbikoOfficial: it looks more like the thing that would curse you

Jeofffff: oooo nice

Jeofffff: you can get conqueror now, beat some dungeons, and then unequip it

“Conqueror…? Oh, you mean that one cursed skill…”

I idly opened the description for it.

Conqueror:

This skill will automatically become [CURSED] when equipped. On your first ever visit to any given dungeon, you receive the following buffs: Triple stamina, health, and Ether regeneration, and 50% more quantity and quality of all loot. Leaving the dungeon disables the buffs for that dungeon forever.

“Hmm… You know, that might actually be quite good. Getting more and better loot from dungeons? Sounds great. But then again, I would have to stay there until I cleared the dungeon… And also, this thing would take up a skill slot, which would make everything harder.”

I shook my head.

“I dunno. Maybe if I run into more dungeons, I guess…?”

I scowled a little at thinking about trying to clear more dungeons before I was even done looting this one.

Not that I wanted to keep risking my life in weird and crazy dungeons. I just wanted to go home, dammit!

“Well, whatever! Loot looted, dungeon cleared, let’s get out of here now!” I said with a cheery tone as I wore the backpack again and stood up inside the chest.

GonguuH: don’t forget the other ticket you got

“Oh, yeah! Nearly forgot.”

I reached over my shoulder inside the backpack and pulled out the ticket from the quest out of it to examine it.

This ticket was purple and had yellow text on it that said ‘10%!’. I appraised it.

Large Tempor expansion ticket

A system consumable that increases your total Tempor reserves and regeneration by 10% when consumed.

“Oh ten percent is quite nice, actually… And I’m guessing it’s tempor because this was a tempor-based dungeon, huh?”

I hummed and shrugged before willing to consume it.

Consume 1x Large Tempor expansion ticket?

Y/N

Unlike increasing my Ether, I felt absolutely nothing when I confirmed it. Just like I’d felt nothing when I’d run out of Tempor.

I just couldn’t feel Tempor, I guess?

“Oh, speaking of Tempor…”

I looked at my bracelet to try and see how much of its juice I’d used during the fight and scowled when I saw it showing 18% left.

“Damn. Well, at least I still have a little bit left. But I can’t keep relying on it anymore or I’m gonna run out at the worst moments.”

I huffed.

Well, it was fine. Not like I was in a rush into more fights difficult enough to force me to use it again.

With all the loot stored in my backpack, I climbed out of the chest, stretched a little, and then began looking for the exit.

But before I could spot it, my surroundings suddenly warped and then lurched and I found myself standing out in a forest.

“What the fff–frog family?!”

I whipped around, trying to figure out where I was, and immediately spotted the dungeon entrance right behind me.

Except… the entirety of the dungeon was blurred. Everything past what I remembered was the imaginary line where I would feel uneasy when entering.

I blinked in confusion before glancing around a bit more and spotting familiar landmarks, such as the fallen inked tree.

“Oh. It teleported me outside because I was done, I guess…?”

Then I looked back at the blurry dungeon and slowly approached it.

“...Is this what happens when you beat a dungeon? Do they just… turn off or something?”

I reached the spot where the blurriness began and stared at it.

KaiEbikoOfficial: don’t touch it!

KaiEbikoOfficial: you’re gonna get deleted!

“Calm down, I’m not touching it…” I mumbled before trying to appraise it.

I definitely didn’t expect the system window that came up in response.

D-rank Tempor dungeon: Water park Octoslide

Resetting…

(Time left: 1d, 23h 58m, 51s)