“-ake up! Mina, quick wake up! It’s a disaster!”

“Wh-huh-wh… what’s going on, on…”

“Your HP is almost at 0!”

I glanced at the UI, and indeed, my HP was only 3 out of 14.

“Do I have healing items?”

“No, but you heal 1d3 after a full night’s sleep.”

Biologist fluttered around me, in her minty green fairy dress. Her wings were flapping fast like a hummingbird’s. I expected her voice to be all high-pitched since she’s only a few inches tall, but it sounded pretty normal to me.

“You’ve got to get out of here, the Necrophidius could come back at any moment! It paralyzed you with its bite, but got distracted when a pack of Blink Dogs attacked it.”

I picked my body up off the ground, heavy with platemail. The potions in my backpack bubbled with the sudden jolt, and jingling reminded me of the coins in my purse.

“Bio, which way do I go?”

I was in a dungeon room overgrown with leaves and softly carpeted with moss. It honestly wasn’t a bad place to sleep, but it made my allergies act up a bit.

“You came from the South, and it looks like there are doors to the West and East.”

I hobbled over to the Western door, still shaking off the paralysis. I put my ear directly onto the cold metal door, trying to glean any information I could about what was going on in the room beside me. Running in blindly will get you killed in these kinds of old games.

I heard flapping wings on the other side. Well, maybe that was Biologist. But it also sounded like the wind was blowing, so perhaps the room had windows to the outside. It would make sense if the flapping were hawks, so I needed to prepare for that. Or rather, she did.

“Ready to be bait again?”

Biologist’s teeny face turned pale.

“No, not in a thousand years! I’m never doing that again!”

“Come on, you promised you would help me get up there, no matter what. This whole thing is your fault, anyways!”

“Alright, alright, I know. I didn’t think this was going to be as hard as it was.”

After a silent count of three, I used all my might to swing the door open. Indeed, there were four massive hawks inside, feeding on an unrecognizable carcass. Their heads perked up and looked directly at me, with murderous intent.

And then, with the speed and force of a bullet, Biologist whizzed past me and right through the open stone window at the end of the room, heading outside. The hawks, with their predatory instincts, immediately gave pursuit to the delicious little morsel that flew by, and went right out the window.

Now that I was alone in the room, I could quickly scan around for treasure or anything else helpful. She’ll be back any minute with the hawks in tow, so I needed to be quick. There’s an empty bag, an empty chest, an empty box… That’s strange, enemies typically protect something of value, even if just a trinket. This room seemed completely empty, and didn’t lead anywhere, which was certainly atypical—just like the window outside. I didn’t think about it until now, but I rarely saw them around. I put my hands on the jagged, square opening to the outside. It was a pleasant day. Not sunny, but just cloudy enough that the heat wasn’t bearing down. It must be summer, but it was hard to tell. I wanted to check the color of the foliage around, but I couldn’t see down far enough. This was floor 274, I think. I twisted my head around and looked upwards. There, the tower rose straight into the heavens. The top didn’t look any closer than it did when I was at the ground floor. The tips of my toes tingled and curled in my leather boots, so that was probably enough sightseeing.

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Right on cue, Biologist zipped back into the room and through the open door.

“Hurry, hurry! They’re really hungry!”

I didn’t take my time to look at the enraged hawks barreling back into the room, I just ran to the door and closed it as tightly as I could. Luckily they weren’t humanoid, so there was no way they were getting past it. I handed Biologist a small piece of scrap paper I ripped off a treasure map.

“You can’t… keep doing this to me…”

She panted and wheezed, using the paper like a towel for her sweat.

After a quick break, it was time to try the East door, since that one was a dead end. Behind it, I heard running water. Maybe I’d be facing some kind of aquatic type enemies, or there would be a trap that would try to drown me. The latter would be especially effective, since I’m wearing platemail. It would probably be wise to get out of this before I enter a room that I believe has water in it.

After ten minutes, I got all that heavy junk off me. It raised my AC by a bunch, but sometimes it just wasn’t worth it. Underneath, I was wearing simple brown clothes that you would expect from any other Isekai main character.

I opened the door, and took in the layout of the room. This one was also a dead end, not even with a window this time. Instead, there was a big pool of water. It was coming out of the opposite wall and filling the basin. It looked like it was made of marble, and it was pristine—a significant difference from the dirty dungeon floors I’m usually on. It was almost inviting, like it was beckoning me inside. But there was no telling how deep the water was, or what sinister contraption would pull me under if I got inside. But still… I was tempted. It’s been so long since I got a chance to relax. Not since that comfy chair in the cursed library on floor 89. I caught myself dipping a finger in the water. It was pleasantly warm, but I pulled my hand back as if it was boiling. What if it was poisoned, or flesh-melting?

“Bio, do you still have any Detect Magic prepped?”

“Yup, one more Detect Magic, and two more Detect Trap. Cast it on the fountain?”

“Yeah, I don’t trust this thing at all.”

An hour later, me and Biologist finished up our lovely bath in the fountain. Not everything in a dungeon is dangerous—turns out it was healing water, so I’m back to full HP. I also bottled some of it up to save for later, though Biologist said the healing effects probably came from the pool itself. Still, worth a shot. We continued our idle chit-chat as I re-dressed myself into my armor.

“What’s the princess like?”

“I dunno, I never met her. I haven’t been to the top before.”

“Does she really need saving? I mean, where’s she gonna go?”

“I guess we take her all the way back down.”

“Ugh. Remind me to find a potion of feather falling, so we can just jump off.”

After I was all suited back up, I continued my trek through the tower. Except I couldn’t, because I forgot, those were the only two doors. Guess I’m stuck.

“Did we miss an exit somewhere else on this floor?”

“No, we cleared it pretty methodically.”

“There has to be a way out.

I began turning over stones, tearing down boxes, flipping sacks inside out. Maybe there was a hidden door? I even started pushing random bricks in the wall, but couldn’t find anything.

A few hours later, we had exhausted everything we could find. (We even ran out those hawks from the west room.) There was no hint, not even an illusion of a way to get up to the next floor. What were we going to do?