"That must be the chest."

We had followed the nameless imp, 'Mr. Imp' for short, through various corridors connected by T or X junctions. Considering how many times we seemingly randomly went left or right, I was starting to feel we were hopelessly lost. Not so; Mr. Imp knew exactly where to go, and we reached a winding staircase set into an alcove. What was weird was how we didn't see any other monsters on the way.

We followed the staircase downward, putting our hands on the wall to the right, and found ourselves in a different type of biome. The area had changed from spooky castle basement to a lovely open field seemingly going as far as the eye could see. There was a glowing, warm sun in the sky, wind rustling through the leaves of trees and the long grass, and even the fresh smell of flowers.

The chest, apparently #17, was a little away, down a flattened dirt path. I turned around to look at the staircase one more time and was surprised how it blended into the background, only becoming visible again if I stood within 5 metres of it. My shadow showed on the disguised wall to the side as well.

Also, you might be wondering how Mimissa got to the second floor. The answer's simple: Mr. Imp literally grabbed and carried her on his back all the way down the stairs. Just how strong was that guy really?

The chest in question was buried halfway in the sandbed of a slow-flowing river. Mr. Imp pointed in confirmation that this was the right one. It looked pretty much like any other chest, including Mimissa's, if a little lighter in colour than hers and slightly rusted around the edges.

"Do I need a key?"

Mr. Imp shook his head, then mimicked throwing open the chest with both arms like the mute protagonist from the The Legend of Princess Z games. Seeing that, I was totally going to hold whatever's inside up in the air.

"Should I help drag it out of the water, Czara?"

"...Might be a good idea."

Mimissa drained all the chocolate inside her chest, then we stepped into the river together. She actually floated like a boat, so her pulling on the chest ended up not doing anything until Mr. Imp shook his head and pulled on her chest in turn. We eventually got the thing on land. Thankfully the warm sunlight dried us up quickly.

"Alright, here goes!"

I threw the chest open like Page the hero would and held the thing up without looking first to see what it even was.

"Tatatadaaa~!"

The stares I got were slightly embarrassing... In any case, it was cloth, so that was promising. Dark blue cloth, to be specific, and not a whole lot of it.

(Please don't be panties, that'd be even more embarrassing!)

It turned out to be a pleated skirt several sizes too large for current me, though it did not seem to be particularly long either. Confused, I checked the chest again and found several more articles of clothing; the first was a matching dark blue blouse with a light, sandy-brown flap collar with a thick white stripe around the rim, and a large white bow on the front... and thankfully quite a bit longer than it was wide. There was also a silver-blue anchor symbol on the part just below my clavicles. I then grabbed a pair of long gloves the colour of the blouse and skirt, matching long socks that also had a white stripe slightly below the thigh end, shiny black shoes, and - you guessed it - black panties with a white bow at the front. They were side-tied too... and low-leg. Yeah. But considering what I was wearing - 'wearing' being used very loosely here - this would still be like a hundred times as much coverage. No bra could be found, not that I would've exactly needed one.

"What a lovely dress!" Mimissa approved of the set, though it wasn't exactly a dress set. Mr. Imp crossed his arms while looking away as if gentlemanly waiting for me to put it on.

(Dude, it's not like I can get much more naked than this, NOW you're turning around?)

In any case, I did put the top on of course. It might have been a little oversized for me, but it covered enough that I could probably walk around normally in warm weather, and-

"Aren't you going to equip it?"

Mimissa's comment made me hold my breath. 'Equip it'? Then I remembered, right, fantasy world with game elements, one of which was staring me in the face right that moment. How silly of me to think that putting something on is enough to-

(Oh... should I have 'equipped' that spear too? Well fuck, too late for that now.)

"[Equip the... uh... sailor girl dress]?"

*Ding* ['Suit of the Lady Seafarer' has been equipped.]

I felt the change in my body for a moment, and then on my body; the formerly-oversized top the size of an actual dress - on my body at least - began to shrink. My butt was completely visible again, followed by a small part of my belly.

(Oh... is this actually a crop-top? Figures...)

Thankfully it didn't turn out to be so small as to leave me belly-free. But bizarrely enough, my body then started moving on its own!

"H-Huh!?"

I put on the gloves, the socks, the skirt, the panties whose strings were so long they dangled from under the mini-skirt, and the shoes. Kind of the opposite order of how I'd have done it myself, but oh well.

Everything fit so perfectly, it was as if this outfit had been made for me. Then I reached into the chest one more time to fish out a flat, round hat that I had completely overlooked beforehand, and tied it with its attached transparent strings to my head. It was not too large and the same sandy colour as the sailor collar; a silvery-white, thick stripe went around the lower edge and it had a golden anchor symbol facing forward. Judging by the length of the strings, it was intended to be worn slightly askew on the left side and back of the head, so that's where I ended up putting it.

Mimissa was very happy with me wearing the outfit, calling it 'extremely cute' and other flattering things. The fact that it wasn't nearly as belly-free as I feared it could be meant the skirt being a little low on my hips didn't bother me that much. I'd get used to it. I had to wear this thing, after all.

"Czara, come here."

Mimissa suddenly hugged me, then showed me the strings of the panties: they actually had small silver anchors at the ends! I had to explain what anchors are for, afterward.

"I really want to visit the sea one day then."

One day, Mimissa. One day for sure.

~~~~~

I checked my status because I wanted to know if this thing had stats, but before that I wanted to check how unequipping worked.

"[Unequip 'Suit of the Lady Seafarer']!"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

My body moved unconsciously again and didn't stop until I had taken off the entire set, thus standing in my 'bikini' (read: three white band-aids). The entire set was clearly one piece of armour - for lack of a better word - and absolutely refused to be equipped in pieces. I knew this because it also expanded back to its original size.

I experimented a little with only putting on the oversized top and the panties manually, but I felt nothing from it. Putting them on that way was possible, yes, but it didn't do anything special. I had to consciously equip something and say as much.

*Ding* [Equipment 'Pasties Bikini of the Succubus' is cursed. Cursed equipment cannot be removed.]

On the plus side, wanting to unequip something actually didn't require me saying so, just willing it was enough. Why the discrepancy? Who knows...

"[Status: Czara]!"

The sheet revealed that this armour - yes I'd stick with that term - gave some minor protection against water damage, which I guess was sensible. I also felt a little quicker while wearing it.

I stretched a little, then considered what to do next. Mr. Imp seemed bored, so Mimissa started throwing a stick for him to catch and bring back.

(Oi, he isn't a dog you know?)

At least he got some chocolate for playing along.

"Mr. Imp? Any idea what to do next?"

He looked at me, but otherwise didn't say or do anything.

"Mr. Imp, it's not nice to answer. Talk to Czara properly!"

He bowed to Mimissa, but then pointed at his face and shook his head. Guess he was mute after all.

"Seems like he can't speak." I looked at him. "Do you mind looking for the next staircase? Based on what Anastelle said, I have a suspicion that we'll get some answers if we get to the dungeon core."

Both Mimissa and Mr. Imp perked up at that.

"It felt weird that she forgot the name of what I think is the core. Then there's how my stat sheet doesn't have a proper dungeon name entry, just 'NULL', so that kinda matches. Also, we've seen a total of like 3 monsters. Her, you Mimissa, and the succubus who cursed me. Aside from you and them, this place's empty because apparently nothing's been spawned in ages."

They thought about that, nodding in agreement.

"And finally, I've never heard of a dracubus before. I can see a mimic mutating to have a different fluid, but a fusion of dragon and succubus is just... weird. So there, I think something happened to the core."

"You're right. The dungeon isn't dead or else I would be too, but it's been really quiet recently. Do you think we can fix whatever the problem is?"

"...Probably not. But we can at least try take a look."

~~~~~

We decided to go further down. Mr. Imp scouted from above, and between two hills we found the staircase. I felt a little sad to leave the warm, beautiful nature behind so quickly, but if I was right we probably had to hurry. Unfortunately, I was...

*Crumble!*

"Uhhhhh- ahhhhh!!!"

"Czaraaaa!!!"

The next floor did not exist. Only a black void yawned in front of us except that far, far below there was a strange swirl of glowing colours. I tried to carefully go down the stairs, but the staircase abruptly ended and the stone I stepped on was loose. So I fell while screaming-

"Help meeee!!!"

Mimissa grabbed for me, but to no avail, I was already plunging into the abyss. Mr. Imp was carrying her chest as before, but then...

"Drop me and catch her!"

Her chest closed shut, so Mr. Imp threw her back up, then jumped after me.

(Catch me, oh please catch me!!!)

His descent was fast, much faster than my own, and he managed to get to me within a few seconds. His surprisingly strong arms held onto me and he spared no effort in making sure his flapping wings kept us up. Very slowly did we go further down, touching on the floor at the very bottom. It was covered in smooth white sand. Mr. Imp then flew back up and got Mimissa safely down as well.

I meanwhile took a couple deep breaths to calm down. Had Mr. Imp not reacted so quickly, I'd probably have ended up as a red stain on the floor. Mimissa, her chest now open, moved over and hugged me like a bear. I am fairly sure she didn't accidentally crack any ribs.

"Oh, oh Czara, I'm so glad you're alright...!"

I patted her back.

"So am I... Good job, Mr. Imp. I actually owe you my life, so thank you very much."

He nodded with his eyes closed; I figured it wasn't a big deal to him.

In any case we could finally look around. A weird jumble of all kinds of things was strewn about the place. Broken statues, earth, plants, a bubbling puddle of lava, and a lot of corpses. This confirmed my suspicions, something terrible had happened in this dungeon. I looked up, but only more black void could be seen. Then I looked around, as did the others. We had to find the core.

~~~~~

After searching the surprisingly expansive area, we finally found what we were looking for. The dungeon core was a grey sphere with silver bands in the shape of leafy vines holding it in place atop a small pillar. On one side it had a very wide crack, with several pieces of it on the ground. It was not fully destroyed, but terribly damaged.

"Looking at this makes me really sad for some reason..."

"Me too, probably because I'm a dungeon monster now. Guess it also proves beyond doubt that this thing's the dungeon core. Damn, what the heck happened here...?"

I touched the smooth sphere. It was slightly warm, but felt as damaged as it looked.

"Can this thing even be repaired?"

We thought about it, but since Mimissa was a low-tier mimic and I was completely new to this world, it was obvious we couldn't do anything to properly repair the core. Maybe Mr. Imp could help?

He shook his head. So that's a 'nope' too.

"Well, if all else fails, hotwire the car."

"Uhm... what does that mean?"

"Oh, that's an expression where I'm from. It's not really important. I'll try to connect to the core."

Mimissa's eyes went wide.

"Connect? How would that work?"

I touched the core again. I felt a slight connection to it, though I wasn't sure if it was due to being a dungeon monster or something else. My theory was that since the core could create monsters, it might also be able to take them back. So if I offered at least a part of me to it, it might be able to initiate self-repairs. Why? Well because if I didn't do anything we'd all eventually die from the destruction going on regardless.

"I'm an aesir, right? I ought to have a lot of power, even if it's not yet awakened. I'll offer a part of me and see if the core can't kickstart some regeneration to-"

"What!? NO, NO!!! You don't know if that will kill you!"

Mimissa slid over and tried to pull me away. But I refused to let go. Though I patted her head.

"Listen, Mimissa. I'm only trying to give a small part. Something I can hopefully get back later. But if we do nothing we'll just die anyway. I'd rather die doing something than stand idle. I've already done that too much back on... back in my old life."

I could see the conflict going on in her head based on her shifting facial expressions. But she did eventually back off.

"I trust you not to overdo it..."

"Thank you."

I gave her a light kiss, which made her blush, then focused on the core again. If this was a game, this would mark the end of the prologue - the heroine loses her mighty powers and has to start properly. Not like I got to use mine so far...

I tried connecting to the core. It started lightly pulsing and I could feel a very faint pull of energy. It heated up ever so slightly as I kept touching it, and then-

"Woah!?"

Suddenly both my hands went into the sphere! The object had become strangely liquid-like and was now actively pulling me inside!

"Czara!"

"Mimissa, please stay back! This- it feels like I can help the core, just-!"

I didn't know where my own confidence came from, but a flood of information went into my head. I couldn't make head or tails of it all; much of it consisted of emotions, sounds, feelings of touch. The rest was more visual in nature; strange symbols, endless amounts of text, diagrams of magic circles, and so, so much more.

And then... I was gone.

~~~~~

I woke up in a white room. The floor was solid, and after my eyes got used to the light I realised I was standing on tiles. They resembled the ones from floor 1, but were spotlessly clean.

"Wh-Where am I- argh!"

A massive headache suddenly assaulted me, so all I could do for a good minute was clutch my head in pain and wait until it subsided. And then I knew.

"Oh wait, this is the control room of- wait, how do I know that!?"

The flood of information had settled inside of my mind and I could use it as if it had always been there. Always been mine.

"Oh... I've not just saved the dungeon core. I've become the dungeon core."

~~~ I became a Smol Dungeon Core in Another World - Prologue over ~~~