JamieWasTaken3: told you

GeorgeDoshington: juicy loot ahead then

Irid123: maybe we can get more hints to the civilization here

I hummed as I stared into the city from the outside.

I had really been hoping to find actual civilization rather than more dungeons, but oh well.

My main problem right now was that I had no idea how difficult this dungeon was. I definitely didn’t want a repeat of the spaceship. Granted, I could maybe measure the difficulty from the feeling I got when entering it, since it had been much milder than the spaceship, just like the water park. But there was also that other feeling I’d gotten, and I had no idea what it meant.

“So… I guess the most obvious thing to do would be to try and clear this dungeon, huh…?” I mused. “Or I can ignore it, keep walking alongside the river, eventually cross it, and then go back to the other structure back there.” I pointed in the direction the river was flowing.

GeorgeDoshington: but that’s lame

Jeofffff: you gotta at least try going in

I groaned.

“Fine. Let’s see what this dungeon has to offer. This better be worth it.”

I braced myself for the upcoming shivers and entered the city once more. It was hard to tell, but I thought that the feeling of dread was just a tiny bit worse than the water park. I couldn’t be too sure though, since the other feeling overwhelmed it so much.

“I wonder what that means…” I murmured before straightening up and holding my weapon in front of me. “Alright, let’s get going. Not gonna get ambushed by anything this time!”

For the time being, I stuck with the main road while keeping an eye on the various doors and back alleys, expecting things to emerge.

Jeofffff: tense

JamieWasTaken3: not gonna loot the houses?

“No… not right away, at least,” I whispered into the dead silence. “First, I wanna just explore around and see what the deal is with this dungeon…”

After all, I only had real experience with just one other dungeon. I had no idea whether every dungeon would be similar. Or rather, they probably weren’t if they were of a different type. I wondered whether this was a Tempor-based dungeon as well. Probably not, considering the space wasn’t all messed up yet.

I continued forward in the eerie silence and couldn’t help but get more and more tense. It felt like something was bound to jump at me at any moment. I didn’t like it.

Eventually I reached what looked to be the town square. It was a wide open area with a fancy fountain in the middle – although it had no water in it – and smaller structures that looked like vendor stalls in a circle around the big space. Other than the way I’d come from, there were three more big paths leading out from here in all four directions.

“...Still nothing, chat. This is starting to get way too creepy.”

JamieWasTaken3: yea it’s like a horror movie lol

GeorgeDoshington: BOO!

Irid123: I wonder what the black stone is

“Very funny, George…” I grumbled, but didn’t drop my guard.

I walked all the way to the fountain in the middle and observed it while keeping an eye on my surroundings. Once I got closer, I noticed some etchings on the central part of the fountain, although I wasn’t entirely sure whether it was supposed to be text from an unknown language or just decoration. From the fact that the etchings were different, probably text.

Chat would probably figure it out.

“Here’s some food for you mystery-solvers in chat,” I muttered as I slowly walked around the fountain in a circle to capture it all on camera.

It was about time for chat to start pulling their weight on this isekai adventure. What was the point of having a fairy companion if it couldn’t help you decipher ancient language?

“Still, this really doesn’t feel like a dungeon… It’s just ruins of a dead town…” I pursed my lips. “Actually, what’s up with this city anyway? Wasn’t this world supposed to be all sci-fi? Why does this look like a medieval town?”

GonguuH: it’s probably a dungeon from this world’s middle ages

GonguuH: the civilization didn’t start with spaceships

“...Uh, right. Good point, Gong,” I admitted as my cheeks heated up. “Wait, so this place is way older than that spaceship or even the water park, right? Do dungeons last forever then?”

Jeofffff: maybe they die after X clears

GonguuH: it could vary

GeorgeDoshington: wdym this place looks dead

“Hmm… Well, for once, I agree with you George…”

I left the fountain behind and set off in the castle’s direction through the wide street. It still felt unnerving to be walking through a huge town with nobody else inside it, but I was also starting to feel that this dungeon was either ‘spent’ as Jeoff had suggested, or I needed to do something specific to trigger enemies and traps to spawn.

I made it all the way to the river that flowed through the city and separated the castle from the rest of it. There was a bridge attached to the castle, but it was raised all the way up, preventing me from crossing.

“Well, I don’t think I can get in. The river here is still a bit too much.” I glanced around at the buildings surrounding me. “I guess it’s time to explore the houses? I don’t really know what else I could do. But ugh, there are so many of them. This is gonna take forever…”

GeorgeDoshington: better get started then

GeorgeDoshington: chop chop

uptonMIKE: use the map?

I scoffed in disgust before my face lit up.

“Oh yeah! Good call, Mike. I totally forgot about the map. Let’s see…”

I pulled out the map out of my backpack and immediately blinked in confusion. The map featured a giant circle with many many little rectangles inside it. Each rectangle had a tiny green arrow pointing into it. There was also a much bigger shape in the northern part of the map that was separated from the rest of the rectangles by–

“Oh, that’s the map of the entire city,” I realized. “Wait, hold on. Then why does every house have a green arrow going to it?”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

JamieWasTaken3: wow shitty map

Irid123: maybe they all lead to the same place?

“Could be… I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s more nonsensical space warping going on. That would probably mean this is another Tempor-based dungeon, I guess?”

I shrugged, put the map back since it wasn’t all that useful, and walked to the nearest house to try the very medieval-looking ring-shaped door knocker.

I grabbed it, knocked on the door three times, put it back, and then waited.

I expected to look like an idiot, but to my surprise, the door actually creaked open toward me a second later.

“Wha– Hello?!” I called out and automatically gripped my weapon tighter.

No voice called back.

“Can I… come in? Are you gonna attack me? Whoever you are?” I yelled, still eyeing the door.

No answer. Not even the shuffling of feet or rustling of clothes. I couldn’t see anyone past the door either.

It was as if the door had opened on its own.

“Alright then… I’ll just… come right in, if you don’t mind,” I announced and hesitantly grabbed the door knocker to pull the door open all the way.

My naginata caught on the upper door frame.

“Gah! Oh, sorry sorry…”

Still no answer. But that didn’t prevent me from feeling like a dumbass.

I contemplated putting the naginata back just so I wouldn’t look intimidating to whoever was inside, but then I remembered that despite what this might look like, I was still inside a dungeon and there could be dungeon monsters around any corner.

So instead, I lowered my weapon, pointed the blade forward, and entered.

I found myself inside what looked to be a dining room. One table surrounded by four chairs, all made out of the same black stone, as well as a wardrobe in the corner and a door to another room to the side.

“Hellooo…?” I called out again, not really expecting anyone at this point.

And that was when the door behind me slammed closed and clicked.

“Wha–?!” I jumped and my head whirled back at the door. “Hold on! I didn’t agree to this!”

GeorgeDoshington: oh shit the house is a mimic

I immediately tried to kick the door open, but it didn’t budge anymore.

“Don’t even joke about that! Dammit, the one time I don’t check for mimics!” I screeched, feeling the dread at potentially having made a fatal mistake.

Then I heard another door slamming behind me and quickly turned around again.

The other door to the room was now wide open and… something was walking through it. A humanoid with dark skin, horns on their head, dark gray hair reading its shoulders, and no face, barged inside the dining room wielding a large knife in one hand and a frying pan in the other. Both seemed to be made out of the same black stone as all the buildings and furniture.

“He-Hello?!” I screamed as I whipped my naginata in their direction and tensed up.

The person – no, it was like the zombies in the water park – charged at me with their knife raised in response.

I grit my teeth, fed my weapon Ether, and stabbed forward at the demonic cooking zombie – name pending. To my surprise, the zombie raised its frying pan and blocked my lightning bolt with it before continuing to charge.

“Oh, come on!” I shouted before I pulled my weapon back and quickly attempted to slash horizontally.

Unfortunately, the blade got caught on the wall I was standing next to, causing it to jerk out of my hands and drop to the ground.

“Shi–”

The monster closed in on me, its big knife raised to cut my face, and I had to scramble to summon my key sword and somehow manage to block the strike, catching the sword between its teeth.

The monster then slapped my fingers with the pan in its other hand. Black sparks crackled and my fingers spasmed, causing me to drop my key sword as well.

“Ow! What the hell–!” I exclaimed moments before the knife stabbed into my forearm I’d automatically raised.

To my surprise, it didn’t manage to cut through the cloth and merely knocked me to the ground.

I splayed on the ground, looking at the monster looming above me with a knife and made a quick decision.

Replace [Armsmaster] with [Flameguard]?

Note: [Armsmaster] will not be re-equipable for 48 hours.

Y/N

I quickly re-summoned my key sword, lit it on fire, and slashed at the monster before it could stab me again. The monster dodged back out of my range, giving me enough time to scramble back to my feet.

It lunged again, but this time, I managed to side-step its knife swipe and while it was off-balance, I slashed at it with my burning key sword, bisecting it in half.

The monster crumpled into a heap and then poofed into a familiar mist, leaving behind a small chest made out of the same black stone that was everywhere in this place. A moment later, I heard the door leading outside click, as if unlocking again.

I stepped back and eyed the chest warily as I took a moment to catch my breath. No other monsters popped up, and after a few minutes, I finally relaxed.

“Stupid ambushes…” I murmured under my breath and rubbed the spot where I’d gotten stabbed. I didn’t have a single scratch, even though it had been a direct hit from that knife. Well, so far, this new build was working pretty well.

“Okay, chat! Looks like this place isn’t completely dead. Either that, or I found the last inhabitant of this place.”

GeorgeDoshington: you killed granny noooo

Irid123: yeah but the water park zombies didn’t have faces either

I quickly scanned chat for what I’d missed and saw that people were already theorizing that this dungeon monster – or at least the person it was based on – was the same race as the guy from the second ad promoting the tournament.

And… yeah, I could see that.

“Granny? You think that thing was a woman? What, just because it had gray hair and a frying pan? That’s sexist, George.”

GeorgeDoshington: that was totally a granny

GeorgeDoshington: defending her home from invaders

I raised an eyebrow, but then shrugged.

It wasn’t that crazy of an idea, to be honest. If the dungeons were based on real places from this world’s history as we had theorized, I could see something like this happening. A city gets invaded and a poor lone woman has to defend herself with just a knife and a pan.

Did that make me the invader?

…Now I felt kind of awful.

“Well, anyway. It dropped a chest. A tiny baby chest. That’s a first. Usually only bosses drop chests…”

Of course, I didn’t approach it just yet. Instead, I picked up my naginata from where I’d dropped it and then used it to poke the small chest to check for mimics first.

A few minutes of stabbing later, I was satisfied enough and came closer to kneel down and check what was inside. The lid easily slid open, revealing a frying pan made out of the black stone, similar to what the zombie had wielded.

I shot Appraisal at it.

Demonium Frying pan

A frying pan made out of Demonium.

“Demonium,” I said, deadpan. “Wow, what a name… Wait, was that translated from whatever language these people used? How does that work?”

It was the same with the Slimeship Enterprise. Words that sounded English, but weren’t actual words. Was English one of the languages of this world, after all?

Jeofffff: the system is probably translating stuff

GonguuH: it might just be something that’s close enough to the original

“Right… Well, my system is in English, that’s true. But is that because it’s always in English or because it adjusts the languages based on the person?” I mused as I picked the pan up and looked at it from all angles. The chest vanished into mist in the meantime. “Or rather, do we know for sure that the system isn’t a new thing? That the civilizations before had the system as well?”

Irid123: they probably did

Irid123: what with the third tier individual thing

“Hmm… I guess so.” I stood up and looked around the room. “Well, I guess I have a pan now…? Feels a bit underwhelming, but maybe there’s more to it? Like the black sparkle thing it did? Appraisal doesn’t say anything else about it, though.”

Maybe I’d gotten spoiled by all the crazy stuff I’d gotten from the water park dungeon. A simple frying pan was actually quite useful for me, to be honest, even if it didn’t have any magical dark lightning powers.

Still, I tried pushing Ether into the thing, which was harder now since I’d swapped out Armsmaster, but it didn’t seem to do much of anything.

I shrugged and put the pan away into my backpack for the time being. Then I tried to push on the entrance door and it creaked open like expected.

“I guess I successfully dealt with the trap room?”

Jeofffff: keep going

Irid123: map?

“Hmm…” I pulled out the map again to see that it had changed. Now there was just one big square with a big red dot in the corner and two empty spots where the doors would be. The door where I’d come from had a blue arrow pointing at it and the other one, where the monster had barged through, had a green arrow.

“...Well, I guess this is the way to keep going. And I think it’s safe to assume that blue arrow means the way back, huh?”

I put the map back, carefully approached the door, naginata in hand, and then grabbed the handle and creaked it open.

Instead of a room similar to this one that I’d seen behind the monster when it had entered, I was instead greeted by the sight of a brightly lit classroom with a chalkboard right across from the door and rows of seats facing it.

Ah, non-euclidian nonsense. We were finally back in familiar territory.