“Grimmy, are you sure we are going the right way?” asked Rami.

“Yes… I’m sure,” said Grimmy, looking a little disoriented.

“Are you really sure?” insisted Rami.

“Yes!”

“Those are the same bandit corpses we saw a few hours ago. The ones we killed.” Rami pointed at the corpses on the floor.

“Those are not the same ones. They are clearly different.”

“You can see the necrotic wound on that one, and this one is soaking wet from spells.”

“Grimmy, are you lost?” said Alice.

“I am not lost! I am simply mapping out the area.”

“It’s okay if you’re lost…” continued Alice.

“I AM NOT LOST!”

“Fine, you’re not lost. Let’s keep walking then. Which way should we go?”

Grimmy thought for a moment and said, “That way.” He pointed.

“That’s the exit...” said Rami.

“Fine! I might be a little lost.”

“I thought the almighty Grimmy with Lvl Max Identify couldn’t get lost.”

“Look, you little walking sushi, I got you into this team and I can easily take you…”

“Alright, that’s enough,” said Alice, “No one is taking anyone out of the team. Rami, stop being mean to Grimmy, and Grimmy, don’t call Rami a sushi.”

“Fine…” both replied.

“Now, let’s figure this out. Rami, can you make carvings on the wall with your water spell?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Every time we make a turn, carve an ‘X’ on the wall so that we know we have been there already.

“Grimmy, I know you have perfect memory, but we don’t. Can you draw a mental map and share it with us in the party interface? That way we can help you make decisions on where to go.”

“Fine… I don’t see what you all can see that I haven’t saw already, but I will.”

“Perfect. Bonetta…” Alice turned around looking for Bonetta but could not find her.

A loud explosion-like sound was heard a few feet from where the party was standing. Everyone turned their gaze to where the sound came from, only to find Bonetta standing next to a collapsed wall, now showing a staircase leading down.

“Did you just punch that wall?” said Rami in shock.

“No. I kicked it… Anyway, the bandit said their boss was downstairs right? These stairs are going down, so this might be the way.”

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“Right… let’s go…” said Alice, wondering why Bonetta didn’t do that hours ago.

The party went downstairs to find that this floor was not a maze like the one above.

It was just a big hallway made of regular brown brick with a double door at the other end.

“At least Grimmy won’t get lost on this floor,” said Rami.

“That’s it, I want him out of the team this instant,” replied Grimmy,

“We are not kicking him out of the team, Grimmy. You said it yourself, we need him,” said Alice.

“I said that based on his powers, not on his personality,” Grimmy responded with crossed arms.

The party made their way to the end of the hall and stood before the double door.

“Alright, are we ready?” said Alice.

“Let’s do this,” said Bonetta, punching her hand.

Alice opened the doors, only to find an empty room. The room was completely empty with extremely high ceilings and a wide-open area. The party stepped in.

“Well, this is not what I expected,” said Alice.

“Oh no,” said Rami.

“This is about to get fun,” said Bonetta.

“Umm, Grimmy, what’s going on?” asked Alice.

“Well, this is a boss room, just not the boss room we were looking for.”

The doors closed behind them.

“I need a little more context, Grimmy.”

“This is the dungeon boss room. Which is usually a big terrifying monster,” said Rami.

The wall at the other end of the room started to magically slide open.

“Here it comes,” said Grimmy, “get ready.”

The party got into their battle formation and patiently waited for the wall to slide open. Once the wall was completely open, a huge wooden club the size of an elephant swung into the floor. A few moments later a gigantic cyclops with a full beard and a single horn on top of his bald head stepped out.

Grimmy identified the creature.

Giant Cyclops. Lvl 25.

“It’s Lvl 25,” said Grimmy.

“Lvl 25!” yelled Rami.

“Finally, something worthy,” said Bonetta.

“Mmm what’s the plan here, Grimmy?” asked Alice.

“The plan is to hit it a bunch of times until it dies,” responded Grimmy.

“What would we do without you, oh mighty Grimmy,” said Rami.

“Rami, this is not the time,” said Alice, “Grimmy, we need a real plan.”

As soon as Alice finished her sentence, Bonetta sprang into action. She buffed herself with all her spells and started dashing towards the cyclops. Rami noticed that the fight had officially started and started casting Water Sniper. Alice, remembering that Transfusion wouldn’t work on enemies with substantially higher levels than her, started making her way to join the fight close quarters.

As Bonetta reached the cyclops, the cyclops swung his giant club at her. Bonetta jumped to the side and then used her high jump skill. She jumped a good 40 feet to reach the cyclops’ chin when she hit it with a backflip kick.

“Wow, that looks cool. Did I look that cool when I did that to the squirrel? I bet I did,” she thought.

The cyclops staggered a step back, enough time for Rami to hit him in the eye with his Water Sniper. It wasn’t enough to blind him, but blood started dripping down the cyclops’ eye. The cyclops grabbed a nearby boulder and threw it to Rami.

Rami jumped to one side, but wasn’t fast enough, trapping one of his legs below the boulder.

Rami screamed in pain, which made Alice turn her head. That was a mistake. The next thing Alice felt was the back of the cyclops’ hand against her whole body, throwing her to one of the walls of the rooms. If it wasn’t for the Reaper Armor, she would have probably broken a few bones.

Bonetta jumped again, but when she reached the cyclops’ head, he was ready this time. The cyclops moved back and got Bonetta with his club. Bonetta was able to block the attack but was still thrown to where Rami was taking a considerable amount of damage.

Alice came to her senses and looked for her team members. Rami was still struggling to free his leg from below the boulder. Bonetta was semi-conscious next to Rami, having taken a direct hit from the cyclops’ club.

“Grimmy! This is not working!” yelled Alice.

The cyclops was approaching Rami and Bonetta at a slow and steady pace.

“Alice, look for a weakness with your Surgical Strike!” yelled Grimmy.

Alice focused on her skill and turned to see the cyclops. She could see the cyclops as if she was looking at an x-ray. She could see all the bones and joints. She could also switch the view to show the muscles and organs if she concentrated. Two big red lights marked the cyclops’ ankles, and another big light marked his eyes.

“It’s the ankles and the eye!” shouted Alice.

Alice’s shout brought Bonetta back into focus.

“Bonetta, distract him for a few seconds!” said Alice.

Bonetta started running to the side opposite to where Alice was and started throwing rocks at the cyclops. Alice was a long distance away from the cyclops so it would take her a little bit of time before reaching him. She would also need to approach the cyclops without him noticing her.

The cyclops started walking towards Bonetta. Bonetta had her back against the wall and the cyclops was rapidly approaching. Alice was running as fast as she could. The cyclops reached Bonetta and took a swing at her with his club. Bonetta did another high jump to successfully dodge the club. The moment she dodged the club, the cyclops’ other arm reached out and grabbed her entire body.

“Bonetta!” Alice yelled.

Bonetta was unsuccessfully wiggling herself trying to loosen the cyclops’ grip. The cyclops opened his mouth and started moving Bonetta towards it to eat her. Alice sped up, but she was too far. She wasn’t going to make it. If it was Tim and not her, they wouldn’t be in this situation. Tim would have known what to do. Tim would have some sort of plan.

When Bonetta was a few meters away from the cyclops’ mouth, a water stream came rushing as fast as a bullet, hitting the cyclops’ wrist. The water stream did not penetrate the wrist, but it was strong enough to force the hand open, freeing Bonetta.

Alice looked at where the stream of water came from and saw that Rami had successfully freed himself from the boulder by carving out the piece of rock that was trapping his leg.

Alice finally made her way to where the cyclops was and, as the cyclops was distracted by the pain in his wrist, slashed both his ankles, inflicting both ankles with necrotic wound and bleeding.

The cyclops fell to his knees. Bonetta stood up and performed another high jump. She jumped as high as she could. The cyclops looked up, but it was too late. He was inflicted with both necrotic wound and bleeding. He was in pain. On her way down, Bonetta dropkicked the cyclops right in the eye. Bonetta went right into the cyclops’ eye all the way to his brain. She was in so deep you could only see her ears sticking out of the cyclops’ eye.

“Well, that’s going to haunt me in my dreams,” said Rami.

“Yep, that is not pleasant to see,” concurred Grimmy, floating next to Rami.

Alice sighed and let herself fall on the floor.

“That was close.”

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