#075 – This feels a lot easier than the first dungeon

#075 – This feels a lot easier than the first dungeon

I kept circling the dungeon’s perimeter and eventually arrived at the half of the crater with the spires that looked like black fire stopped in time. Interestingly enough, Appraisal identified it as Sapphire spires, just like the blue structures on the other side.

I tapped one with my pan just to see if it was safe to touch. When it clanked like it would against something made out of glass, I gingerly tried touching it with my own hand. It felt... warm.

“Chat... is this actual frozen fire...?” I asked, baffled. “Or like... sapphired fire? Damn... That’s gonna be the boss here, isn’t it? The gorgon. Ugh... I still don’t have anything against it...”

That was actually the main reason why I was so reluctant to rush straight into the hole despite easily being able to deal with the crabs so far. I was hoping I would find something around these parts that could help against a Gorgon’s gaze. It was a bit of a stretch, but the water park had given me several items useful for dealing with its own challenges, like the goggles and the swimsuit, so I thought that this dungeon might do the same.

To my delight, I did find another chest tucked away just out of sight between the frozen flames. Once I spotted it, it stood out like a sore thumb with its bright cyan coloring among the black flames.

There was a lava lake relatively close and I didn’t want to lose another chest though, so instead of sniping it with my gun, I simply smacked it over the lid with my pan.

The clank echoed around me as chat flooded with the same onomatopoeia and other jokes. Of course, Jeoff was still whining how there were no mimics.

“Mimic. Neutralized,” I said in a low serious tone and then scoffed at the chest derisively.

Before I could go and open it though, something moved in the corner of my eye and I immediately whirled around and fell back, ready to face the threat.

To my surprise, it wasn’t another crystal crab. Although it appeared similarly to them, this time, it was the black frozen flames that spat out the monster. And unlike them, it was pitch black and wriggling around like a living mass of darkness.

“What the fu–!” I shouted moments before I aimed my gun at the abomination and shot it dead.

The black mass of... stuff burst into pieces as the water bullet exploded and splattered all over its surroundings. A moment later, the pieces turned into smoke and vanished.

I stood there for a moment, gaping at where the thing used to be before I finally relaxed.

“O-kaaay, chat. I guess the black flames were the mimic! Dammit, I should have known!”

Or rather, I shouldn’t have assumed that only the ground would be able to magically spit out monsters. I still barely knew anything about this type of dungeon, after all.

Shaking my head, I approached the chest again, this time wary of more sudden ambushes.

None appeared and I was free to plop the thing open and use Appraisal on the item inside.

Sapphire buckler

A buckler made out of infused Sapphire.

It was a small blue shield. About the size of a pot lid.

“...Huh.”

I grabbed it, immediately had a dumb idea, and put it on top of my pan. It was a bit too big for it but could still work.

“Neat! I have a lid for my pan now!”

Chat immediately began yelling at me and I couldn’t help but snicker.

“Just kidding. Let’s see...”

I grabbed the thing in my left hand and looked it over. It could come in handy for parrying smaller attacks, but would probably be useless for anything bigger, like the shark’s lasers.

Although... it was pretty reflective. Not very useful as a hand mirror for personal use since it wasn’t flat, but...

“Well, look at that, chat. Maybe I can use this against the Gorgons. Hmm, but it’s already made out of Sapphire, would that even stop their gaze?” I frowned as I considered this.

Obviously, I had no actual proof there would be Gorgons afoot and neither did I have proof that they would function the way I expected them to. So whether this shield actually did anything... would be hard to tell until I actually met one and tested the shield on it.

I huffed to myself.

It was a D-rank dungeon, so there shouldn’t be any unfair insta-kill mechanics, right? Right?!

“Well, whatever. Having a shield is better than not having one, right, chat? Even though my clothes are probably already pretty durable... Wait, actually, you’re right Mafu! I could totally Fuse the shield into the clothes, huh? What would that even do? Make me all shiny? Hmm, how durable is this shield anyway?”

Appraisal didn’t get much out of it, unfortunately. Just the material it was made out of. I had no idea what it could or couldn’t do.

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud before I raised my pan again and pummeled the lizard to death.

“I like this, chat! Making super armor was the best decision I’ve ever made. Now I just need a super weapon and I’m set!”

After all, everyone knew that for a hardcore run, the best offense was a good defense. It was nice to see my decisions paying off.

The lizard vanished and I confidently continued toward the hole, smashing any lizards that emerged and weaving through the sapphire structures with ease.

I still hadn’t completely dropped my guard though. No matter how easy things seemed, it could quickly turn around in an instant, like it often did in the water park dungeon.

My caution was justified when I walked past another one of the smaller blue sapphire spires and its surface rippled and something began growing out of it.

I tensed up and swiftly fell into my battle stance as the thing spat out yet another type of monster. A gleaming sapphire-blue snake whose eyes were glowing just like all the crabs and the lizards. And just like those, I avoided looking directly into them and instead lit my pan on fire and swung the pan in its direction.

To my surprise, the snake slithered out of the impromptu fireball’s way and then opened its mouth to hiss loudly as I prepared to launch more fire at it.

Then there was a gust of wind, the snake jerked its head forward, and suddenly small blue shards of sapphire began appearing on the ground, aiming in my direction, as if there was an invisible projectile creating them in its wake.

I tensed up but parsed it as a ranged attack too late and suddenly felt something hit me. It felt like it rippled through my entire body and I couldn’t help but flinch and gasp at the horrible sensation.

It was over in a moment and I found myself covered in pieces of sapphire pointing behind me like I was a long-haired cat in the wind. I felt some minor pain all over where the shards were and my muscles felt rigid.

Then the snake was leaping at me and I automatically let loose the fireball I had been charging with my pan. It hit the snake this time and shattered it to pieces. The pieces then vanished into smoke.

I tried moving again but my movements felt awkward and a bit pained, like my muscles and joints had crappy glue in them now.

“...Ugh... Well, it’s not instant kill at least, but...”

It felt so damn uncomfortable. Had my clothes even done anything? Had that attack bypassed my resistances? Or would I be dead if it weren’t for the armor?

Just to take a better look, I summoned John and had him looked at me.

I looked like a freaking shiny blue hedgehog with all these sapphire spikes growing out of me. Chat was already joking and laughing about it.

“Chat, this is not funny!”

...It was kind of funny, but still super uncomfortable.

I tried to wrench my arm this and that way just to get it moving, and at some point, I heard a soft glassy screech. At the same time, some of the sapphire shards on my arm broke off and fell to the ground and I felt some range of movement return to the arm.

“Gah... Okay. I see. I got it. It’s a slowing debuff. But I can break through it with force!” I concluded, feeling relieved.

From then on, it took me a few minutes as I systematically broke through the sapphire shards with all of my limbs, my torso, and my neck, and then I was finally back to normal, no worse for wear.

And just because I was a little gremlin and because chat suggested it, I picked up some of the sapphire shards that were on me and appraised them.

Sapphire shard

A residue from a Sapphire Gorgon.

“...Uh huh. And is it useful for anything? Well, whatever. I have plenty of space in my pack.” I smirked and began tossing the shards into my backpack as a form of revenge.

Once done, I stretched once more just to get the awful phantom feeling of being sapphire’d out of my muscles and looked toward the hole again.

“Well... The good news is that it’s just an annoying debuff and not instantly deadly. The bad news is that I feel like that was a low level version and the boss might have the real deal.”

Could I break through something stronger than that? I still had a child’s body, so I wasn’t exactly the strongest even if I was much stronger than I would be on Earth... But worst case scenario, if things got dire, I could probably switch to Flameguard and burn the sapphire off.

JamieWasTaken3: just dodge next time duh

I rolled my eyes.

“Well, you’re not wrong, Jamie. Now that I know what the attack looks like, I can probably dodge it.” I mentally checked my Ether reserves and found them to still be fine.

I nodded to myself.

“Alright, let’s keep going then!”