Burgundy velvet tapestries with white details seemed to make for the majority of the decoration, but their overly designed look made up for any sense of redundancy that they may have given off. The furniture looked like it was made of polished obsidian, adorned with both sharp edges and complicated patterns, and dotted with rubies and amethysts along their borders. Every visible piece of wall was covered in thin panels of rich, dark, mahogany, cut so as to give the very room a sinuous design, filled with curves and waves. Sconces lined the walls and corners, giving off a weird, and almost creepy, green light, from the [Ghost Flames] that were sprouting from them. Aside from the rectangle of void in the ceiling, where Sheeno was now dropping from, there were two doors in the room, on opposite sides of what looked like a single-level foyer; one set of doors double opaque black, and the other a more simple one, made in the same wood as the walls.

“Baroque!” I screamed again at Sheeno as soon as she was through, but not without making sure that the [totem] I had summoned was firmly in place on the floor, and was providing a [Barrier] to the both of us.

Speaking of the floor, it was of a stone polished to a sheen, possibly basalt, if the color was anything to go by.

And, yeah, the place was filled with the grey mana that was usually found in [Dungeons].

“What’s ‘Baroque’, and have you inspected the place yet?” Was her astounding response.

My jaw dropped, and I was at a loss for words.

“Y-you… don’t know what Baroque is? What kind of [Princess] are you!? It’s the epitome of luxury and design, without being too tacky: It’s the perfect style for lasciviousness without stopping being classy. I would have thought that you’d seen plenty of castles decorated with a similar style!”

“First of all, I’m a [Banished Princess], one which never really cared much for her nobility, and one that keeps telling you to not talk about it, but without any success. Second of all, castles are generally much soberer in their look, going for ‘imposing’, instead of ‘rich’ as a rule of thumb. And third… why are you making such a big deal out of it? Were you some kind of [Interior Designer] back in your world?”

“No! I’m just very passionate about the subject, and find it absurd that you haven’t even heard of it before”, I half-shouted back, while gesticulating wildly.

“Let me get this clear: You’re surprised that I don’t know about a style from your original world, even though you’re among the first [Humans] to walk on the [Nexus]?” She mercilessly summarized my idiocy for all to see.

“…yes?” I weakly responded questioningly.

“Let’s just get this floor done so we can see what kind of [Monsters] inhabits the place”, she stated, changing subjects, and deemed the previous discussion not worthy of any further thought.

“…ok…” I finished, dejected.

We made our way to the double black doors, and after I had created my ‘murder zone’, and Sheeno her four axes, she attempted to open the door.

They were locked. No matter how hard she tried to pull or push, they remained steadfast. A testament to their quality, really

“Not this door then, let’s try the other”, my companion said, but as soon as she was turning around I noticed a wisp [Mana] behave strangely close to a wooden board in the shape of a half moon on the right side of the door.

“Wait! I think that there’s a button right there”, I said, pointing at the spot that seemed connected to the doors.

She gave the wall a skeptical look, then turned back to me.

“I’m gonna trust your eyes, but I want to try the intended progression first.”

I guessed it made sense. “Sure”, I said shrugging.

So I de-summoned my things and we went to try the other door. But, as soon as we got close enough, it opened on its own, while a creepy laugh started reverberating from the hallway beyond.

A hallway decorated with the same Baroque aesthetic.

“Haunted house’s vibes much!?” I asked the empty air with a raised eyebrow.

“Between the [Ghost Flames] and the disembodied laugh, this place is almost certainly haunted”, Sheeno deadpanned.

“No, that’s not what I meant. Back on Earth we had like- wait, you’re just fucking with me!” I realized halfway through that she was smirking after I started getting frustrated.

“I don’t know, am I?”

She was being insufferably cheeky

“You will rue the day-“ I stopped my inane rant to shoot a [Bolt] at a seemingly random table on the side of the corridor.

The table jerked at the attack and moaned in pain.

Before I could comment on the fact that a piece of furniture without a mouth shouldn’t be able to emit any kind of sound, Sheeno drove her axes through the thing, rendering it little more than a mass of splinters.

“Freaking [Pouter-Geist]! Didn’t notice it at all”, she commented.

“Why couldn’t I feel it with my constant [Unavoidable Detection] being repeatedly used?”

One of the peculiarities of [Ghost] types is that they can elude most scans, but if you were to provide the [Skill] with mana I doubt they would still be able to.

Following [Buddy]’s advice, I sent a trickle of [MP] to the [Skill], and the results were both promising and worrisome.

12 hostile entities detected, of the [Ghost] variety.

“Be careful, there are a lot more further in the room, and just so we’re on the same page: What can they do?”

While I had been taught to be an [Adventurer], and read my fair share of books with useful information for the [Job], I didn’t know every-little-thing, and the only thing I did know about this [Monster] was that it was a [Ghost], a sub-type of [Undead], and that it probably had capabilities similar to poltergeists, given the name.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“[Undead Ghosts] that inhabit mundane objects, which they use to make direct contact with their victims and drain them of [Health] and [Mana], while massively burdening them with [Fatigue], and they do so by flinging themselves with [Telekenisis] at their targets. Now, where are they?” Unsurprisingly, Sheeno did have a tactical and methodical mind, but, and she demonstrated it by being concise; unfortunately, she wasn’t willing to use it when a situation could be resolved by launching an [Ice Spear] at it.

“The first three chairs on the left, the drape in front of them, the two tables facing each other further back, and then the last six of the torches on the wall… although from some I get the feeling that they inhabit the flames, instead of the sconces”, I quickly replied.

“That’s not good.”

“What part of what I said were you referring to?”

“The fires, [Ghost Flames] can [Evolve] the [Pouter-Geist] into flame spewing [Spouter-Geists], which are capable of not only flames based ranged attacks, but can inflict the previously mentioned effect from where you can start feeling the heat of their flames, and so they require no direct contact to be notable threats.”

“Ok, yeah,.‘Not good’ was a euphemism, then.”

“I am afraid so.”

We carefully made our way forward, and when we got close enough that I thought we would incite a reaction I created 5 [turrets] and 5 [trappers], as both our first line of defense and our first attack.

The drape on the right wasted no time detaching itself from the wall and trying to smother the closest constructs, but Sheeno intercepted it with a wave of frost, which promptly froze the thing place, and cause it to shatter into tiny pieces once it hit the ground.

It gave a frustrated moan as the [Aether] escaped its body.

That also worked as the signal for the chairs to act… but were quickly reduced into kindling by the flame nets from my [flying Trappers], and the cutting disks from the [Forceful metallic Pizza dispensers]. The tables fared no better, and then it was time for the torches, two of which I was surprised that they hadn’t attacked yet, given that they were just above the tables.

“Mph, those must be just normal [Pouter-Geists], then”, and so saying she froze and killed them.

“Man, they’re really weak though”, I considered out loud.

“Maybe in these numbers, but consider the fact that the first room already had thirteen of them, mostly evenly spaced out; by the time one reaches the fifth floor just how many are you gonna have to fight at once? As I see it, one could easily get overwhelmed later on, but hey, your [Barriers] should be able to deal with them for this floor, even in case we were to get distracted.”

“Mh, true, and I’m glad to see that you’re keeping to the plan”, I said.

“Of course I am! If anything, with the amount of enthusiasm you showed while jumping in here, I should be the one looking after you”, she responded, switching from pointing at herself to me.

I decided to not respond to the provocation and try and [Inspect] these things.

I got two different results.

Name:

Pouter-Geist

Affinity:

Death

Danger:

Low

Behavior:

Ambush; Leech

Name:

Spouter-Geist

Affinity:

Death; Fire

Danger:

Medium

Behavior:

Ambush; Leech

The two furthest from us were the only [Spouters], making it clear that we were safe from their ranged attacks, at least from this distance, and I relayed as much to my companion.

“As I see it, we’re better off ‘nuking’ the last bit of the corridor and then safely proceed to the next room”, I then added.

“What does ‘nuking’ mean, and does it imply the use of overwhelming force?”

“That’s exactly what it is. Did the [System] give you the context?”

“Kinda, but it left out anything about where the term comes from, or what it literally meant”, she seemed to be sulking.

“Guess the [Gods] don’t want atomic fission going around the [Nexus], and I can honestly understand why”, I said in response to her revelation.

In the [Introduction] they did mention that Ray-man’s reactor was apparently involved in our integration into the [Nexus], and it did have something ‘atomic’ in its technology, although I don’t know enough to discern whether it was something like ‘quantum-atomic’, ‘sub-atomic’, or the likes of all that stuff.

“I can go for one big, lethal attack”, she seconded my plan.

Since we had decided on the overwhelming force, we positioned ourselves in the middle of the corridor and made our preparations: Sheeno conjured her [Suit of the Ice Queen], and demonstrated her mastery by directing the cold it generated away from me, while I spawned 10 [Dispensers], 4 [Trappers], and 2 [Totems], and [Kenny], almost reaching the maximum of what my [Core] could handle at the moment.

Our adversaries seemed to notice our preparations, so they also made their move: The 2 closest torches detached themselves from their sconces and flew at us, while the ones in the back started billowing fire our way.

But we were already done with our preparations, so, before anything got close enough to affect our [Barriers], we let loose.

A barrage of saw disks imbued with [Life Mana], the anathema of the [Death] one, and similarly aligned nets, flew at our enemies, quickly followed by what I could only describe as a wall of white with glittering crystals in it.

The enemies disappeared so fast that I don’t think the [Dungeon] had enough left to reabsorb the expenditure it had made in… making them. Unfortunately, this didn’t also translate into how much [Aether] they dispersed, since they released the usual pittance.

“Man, we did a number to this place,” I said, looking at the results of our attacks once the dust settled, noting that this [Dungeon] was more ‘frangible’ than normal, “I can only hope that we didn’t alarm too much whatever is waiting on the other side of the door for us”.

“What are you complaining about? You can send the [Magic Lantern] ahead for us and see”, she said nonchalantly.

I looked appalled at her and then replied.

“Firstly, its name is [Kenny]; secondly, it’s a [familiar], so it's alive, and I will not send it to probable death just because it can handle it!”

“Wait a second. Where did you get a familiar like that?” She asked confused.

“Oh, I made it”, I replied simply, startled by her change in tone.

“You… ‘made it’? Like, you created it from nothing and gave it life?”

“Yes… why are you looking at me like that?”

Sheeno was looking at me with an expression that I didn’t know how to read, and an attempt with my [Aura] only made me more confused at what I felt: fear, hope, and confusion even greater than mine.

Opting to not reply to me, she just shook her head, threw her hands in the air, and mumbled that we will be discussing this further another time.

I stared at her back for a moment, trying to understand what had just happened, but failing to do so.

You just told her that you “made” life, you idiot!

That is not a thing that just happens randomly, and only [Gods] and the most powerful of [Demons] have been able to do it so far.

“…Ah, shit. This is going to be a problem isn’t it?”