It was a bit painful to do, but I’d rewatched stream history to see which building I’d exited last time I’d been here. Conveniently, it was the house closest to the city gates that looked like the guard station.

Odd, considering what was inside, but I was used to doorways leading to odd places.

I stood in front of the door, gripping my mace in my right hand and my gun of mass destruction in my left hand, ready to roll.

Naturally, that was why I put the gun back into my backpack and politely knocked on the door instead, before pulling the gun again.

trelipideliberitation: bruh

Just like the other house, the door unlocked and creaked open on its own after a few seconds.

I tensed but kept vigilant as I nudged the door further open with my foot.

I prepared my most intense glare to direct inside the building when I saw something familiar. Although, rather than the front porch and the lawn with hedges, I saw… the dining room again. One table, four chairs. All made out of the black stone.

“Um…”

KaiEbikoOfficial: dungeon reset?

bloopbooper: bloop…? ( ô ‸ ō )

“That’s… very much possible, actually,” I admitted. “I guess, we’ll see if I get jumped by a cooking demon.”

I gingerly walked inside, tense like a coiled spring, and took in the rest of the room. The same furniture, the same homey smell, the same door to my right from where the cooking demon had come last time. The only difference was that everything seemed smaller than before… which was because of my rapid growth from the blessing.

And then, just like last time, the door behind me suddenly shut itself with a click and the other door opened, revealing the same faceless humanoid with horns and dark skin, holding a knife and a pan.

It immediately charged at me without any preamble. I backed up, raised my gun, took aim, and fired.

The demon attempted to block with the pan, but wasn’t fast enough, and the water bullet completely ripped through its torso, leaving its shredded body crashing into the wall.

A moment later, it disappeared into mist, leaving a small chest behind.

“...Well, that was much easier than last time.”

sunnysideways: looks like she got cooked

KaiEbikoOfficial: wait appraise the chest this time

“Hmm, right. I never tried appraising the chests here last time…”

C-rank dungeon minor chest

A loot chest containing random dungeon loot.

“C-rank. Huh… So this dungeon is supposed to be harder than the water park. No wonder.”

I walked a bit closer to the chest and stopped a few paces away from it before narrowing my eyes.

I used my Minor Hydrokinesis to pick up the water that now flooded the room, swirled it in the air, and then shot it at the chest.

The water splashed on the chest. The chest didn’t move at all.

I nodded in satisfaction.

“Nobody can stay that still when you splash cold water on them. There’s no way this is a mimic,” I concluded.

trelipideliberitation: 200IQ logic

Jeofffff: yeah just ignore the fact that appraisal said it’s a chest

bloopbooper: boop ╮ (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) ╭

I ignored Jeoff and walked up to the chest. When I popped it open, I was greeted by a sharp knife made out of the black stone, identical to the one the zombie had been wielding.

I appraised it.

Demonium Kitchen knife

A kitchen knife made out of Demonium.

I grunted.

“Oh, I could have used you before I made that weird dagger…” I grumbled. “Well, whatever. This ought to be pretty useful.”

I grabbed it and put it into my backpack as the chest vanished. Then I strode over to the door to continue. I grabbed the handle, opened it and… yup, it was the classroom on the other side now.

“It’s surprisingly linear,” I mused. “I guess this dungeon is a boss rush you have to do in a specific order?”

KaiEbikoOfficial: I wonder what exactly makes the dungeon reset

“Hmm, who knows?” I shrugged. “I mean, I’ve been away for days. That would probably do it. Although, I am curious too…”

Jeofffff: test it

Jeofffff: leave and return

I didn’t really mind having to repeat the first fight since it was pretty easy, so I decided to do some testing on how exactly this dungeon worked.

I closed the door to the classroom, waited for a moment, wished to return back to the city streets, and opened the door.

Lo and behold, the door now led back outside of the guardhouse near the city entrance. Even though that was where the other door had led just a minute ago.

“Okay, chat. It looks like the doors are all kinda connected? And they change based on where I want to go?” I theorized as I walked through the door.

I closed it behind me, waited a second, focused on wanting to be somewhere at the plaza, and opened the door again.

Suddenly, the door that should lead inside a building led outside and I could clearly see the familiar fountain out there.

I walked through and closed the door behind me.

Jeofffff: nice

Jeofffff: you can teleport around the city

bloopbooper: bloop! ( ๑‾̀◡‾́)

Then I focused on wanting to be in the archer’s front porch space and opened the door again. Unfortunately, rather than the front porch, the door now led to the classroom.

“Okay… Interesting… So I wanted to go to the archer’s room, but it leads to the second fight instead, hmm…”

Jeofffff: I guess progress saves

Jeofffff: but you can’t skip rooms

“Yeah, seems like it.” I nodded in agreement. “But what exactly makes the dungeon reset? Time?”

SunOfABeach: leaving the dungeon, maybe

Jeofffff: probably time yeah

“Hmm, good point… Or maybe it’s both? Well, let’s test it.”

I closed the door, wished to be near the entrance again, and opened it. The door now led outside the guardhouse once more.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

I proceeded to walk through it and then all the way outside of the main gates until I felt the feeling of relief. Then I turned around and marched right back into the city, ignoring the slew of forced feelings.

I opened the guardhouse door, wishing to continue from the classroom, but instead, the door now led to the dining room again.

“Okay, so leaving the dungeon resets it. Alright, I see…” I hummed. “In other words, this dungeon is a huge boss rush that you have to do in one go without leaving the dungeon… But you can take breaks in between the boss fights, as long as you don’t leave the city.”

Jeofffff: there could still be a time limit

Jeofffff: like it resets if your break is too long

KaiEbikoOfficial: it’s a huge gauntlet

uptonMIKE: that’s so insidious

uptonMIKE: this is way more dangerous than the first dungeon

“That’s also possible, yeah… Ehh, debatable if this is more dangerous. I mean, I guess it kind of forces you to clear it in one go, so you could get reckless…?”

It was very different from the water park dungeon, where I could take as long as I wanted. If it worked the way we thought it did, then this dungeon was an extreme test of endurance.

In theory, you could probably beat it in a few hours from start to finish, depending on how long it was. But in practice, you would have to spend many attempts trying to beat it. And since apparently every cleared room seemed to award an item…

“Oh, I’m gonna get so much random junk trying to clear this dungeon.”

Jeofffff: looooooooot

bloopbooper: bloop~ ( • ̀ω•́ )✧

uptonMIKE: if you get far in it you’ll be less likely to quit

uptonMIKE: sunk cost fallacy

uptonMIKE: dangerous

“Okay, you do have a point, Mike.” I frowned. “I’m just a tiny bit prone to gambling, I guess, but… This is my life, alright? I’m not going to keep going if I don’t think I can win the next fight.” I shook my head. “And anyway, I’m only here to get my stuff back! Not trying to clear it today!”

Jeofffff: oh well

With that, I pulled out my mace and the key sword this time before entering the dining room. I didn’t want to waste too much more Ether on using my gun even if I had more to spare nowadays.

The door behind me locked itself and I soon found myself fighting the same zombie demon again. I smashed my mace on their pan as if it was a shield and parried their knife with my key sword in a short scuffle, but I quickly overpowered them and ended up smashing their skull out, which granted me another small chest.

One mimic check later and I got to looting it. This time, it contained… an apron.

Moonsilk apron

An apron made out of Moonsilk.

“Uh, cool, I guess? What’s moonsilk, anyway?” I mumbled.

It sounded like yet another fancy fantasy-sounding word like Demonium, but I had no idea if it had any special properties or not. It felt like silk to the touch so…

I shrugged.

KaiEbikoOfficial: oh that’s cute

KaiEbikoOfficial: cooking with nana?

I snorted. “Maybe later. When I actually have more ingredients and whatnot.”

Hopefully this dungeon would drop me some. If all the monsters here were supposed inhabitants of the city and they dropped something related to them, I was bound to run into a baker… or a castle maid, or something, right?

“Well, next room now,” I announced as I stuffed the apron into my backpack and approached the door. This time, I decided to open the entry door, just to see if it would work.

I focused on advancing in the dungeon, opened the door, and as expected, the classroom greeted me on the other side.

I nodded to myself.

“Okay, so it doesn’t matter which door I open. What matters is where I want to go. Cool.”

Then I stopped and pondered how to most effectively take care of the mage kid in the second room for a moment. If he was the same as last time, then he would have a wand and a shield. Hmm…

Actually, hadn’t one of his fireballs clipped me without hurting me all that much last time?

Couldn’t I just… charge right in and take him out with my mace or something?

It was kind of risky though. I had no guarantee that he didn’t have any stronger moves. Yeah, I better be more careful than that.

Jeofffff: you can just shoot him

trelipideliberitation: use the mega gun

“I could, but that would drain my Ether. I kinda wanna save as much Ether as I can for the archer…”

But then again, with the game plan I had for the archer, I shouldn’t need that much Ether to beat her. And since I wasn’t planning on continuing the dungeon afterwards, I could spend a bit of Ether on this fight.

“Eh, you know what? Sure. Let’s just shoot him.”

I grabbed my gun in one hand and my mace in the other and already began charging the plasma ball as I entered the classroom.

On cue, the door closed and locked itself behind me and I was already looking at the desk from where the mage kid had come out of last time.

To my surprise, he jumped from behind a different desk and immediately began to conjure up these black fireballs. I didn’t hesitate, pointed the gun in his direction, and fired off my charged up plasma in liquid mode even as I side stepped his fireball barrage.

The boy tried to block my shot with his shield, but the moment it hit, it exploded all over the place with scorching plasma and completely covered him.

His entire form slumped and a moment later, I could see the familiar mist seeping through the lake of plasma in the corner of the room as the door behind me unlocked again.

…There also seemed to be a chest-shaped object submerged in the plasma.

“Uh… I didn’t think this through, chat… How am I supposed to get my loot…?”

Jeofffff: dammit you killed the loot

KaiEbikoOfficial: this feels much easier than last time

“It’s fine, I can just… wait? Err… Maybe I can fish the chest out somehow.”

uptonMIKE: don’t get yourself killed trying to get the loot

“Ugh, yeah… That would be the dumbest way to go… Maybe I should just leave this. Don’t even bother trying to fish it out.”

The loot from this place wasn’t even anything spectacular so far. Moreover, I could literally do this as many times as I liked for more loot. There was no need to agonize over it…

Even if it hurt my hoarding-inclined brain.

Jeofffff: what no

Jeofffff: get the loot

“Nah, Mike is right. This isn’t worth it. I can always come back here and grind more loot since it always resets. This is just the second room, anyway. It’s easy to get back here.”

Jeofffff: but the loooooooooooooooooot

bloopbooper: boop… (ᵕ—ᴗ—)

KaiEbikoOfficial: yeah it’s not worth it

“Eh, maybe it’s still gonna be here when I return, who knows?” I smirked. “Also, good news, chat! I think that chest probably isn’t a mimic since it’s not screaming under all that plasma.”

Jeofffff: goddammmiiiiiittttt

“Almost feels like someone else is screaming though. Weird…”

trelipideliberitation: lmao

With a smirk, I ignored the plasma-flooded chest and returned back to the door.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out.

I was not going to get poisoned again. I had a plan. There was no way the archer would get me again.

After internally hyping myself up, I grabbed the door handle and opened it into the front porch and lawn.

I frowned at the sight. The naginata, the bucket, and the map… weren’t anywhere in the room. Or at least, I couldn’t see any of them.

“...Did my stuff really despawn? Dammit…”

Well, that sucked. This was all for nothing then…

SunOfABeach: maybe it got moved somewhere

SunOfABeach: you could still summon the key sword after all

I stopped and thought about it.

“Huh. You’re right… If I could still summon it, then it had to exist somewhere… Okay, maybe my stuff will be somewhere in a chest? Like if I beat the archer again, maybe the loot chest will have my stuff?”

trelipideliberitation: o yeah that’s true

uptonMIKE: you would have to beat her again though

I hummed.

“Yeah, but it’s fine, Mike. I have a plan. A foolproof strategy. And even then, I’m much stronger than I was before. I can do it.”

With my determination renewed, I tightened my grip on my mace and gun again and gingerly stepped inside. I stayed on the porch and kept an eye on all the bushes, waiting for the archer to appear.

Then the door closed and clicked and I tensed up, my eyes scanning the bushes even faster.

At the same time though, I got distracted by a sudden system window.

‘Meh, don’t need it’ achievement unlocked!

+1 Skill point

“Wha–”

And then I saw movement in one of the bushes from the corner of my eye and waved the distraction away before immediately activating the Bullet Time innate skill of my bracelet. Then I rushed ahead as the archer woman creeped out of the bush in slow-motion and began drawing back her bow.

She seemed to have registered that I was already moving toward her fairly quickly and aborted the motion to draw her bow, turning it into a blocking motion instead.

With how quick I was, though, it didn’t matter. Before I could run out of juice, I ran right next to her, my mace raised up high, and then brought it down on her head as hard as I could.

The time quickly resumed as her body hit the ground with a nasty crunch.

That had probably done the job, but I was taking no chances. I was not getting poisoned again!

Never again!

I raised my mace again and then smashed it at her prone body. Then again and again, until the body turned into a mangled pile of limbs – still no blood – and then until it all turned into mist and left a treasure chest behind.

Only then did I realize that my breaths were ragged and my hands were shaking.

KaiEbikoOfficial: NANA!

KaiEbikoOfficial: please stop!

trelipideliberitation: um

Jeofffff: holy shit

I dropped my mace and gun as I backed up, suddenly feeling horrified.

What the hell? What the hell?!

Since when was I a violent maniac? Okay, sure, maybe I’d gotten pretty used to killing these zombie monsters in the dungeons, but this…

This was a bit overboard, wasn’t it?

I fell down on my butt and stared up at the, probably fake, sky.

Maybe I needed a break.

And not one where I was sick and dying… or one where I was making a shelter and experimenting with Fusion.

A real break.

Or maybe I should stop pretending I was fine and actually speak to one of those therapists…