Nightmare Fantasy Online

*Crash!*

Floor 3. Fish-heads, lots of water, and stone walls for breakup sale~. Like, literally! The real path was blocked by a huge rock wall. A fragile one, luckily. 

After kicking the wall in, something I've wanted to do all my life, me and Nyx have reached the third floor of the fish Dungeon. And were greeted by E-rank fishes. Humanoid fishes with realistic bodies. Too realistic for my taste. We've scored tons of scales from the G-rank and prettier F-rank fishes on the 2nd floor, so I'm good dumping these guys.

And I'm scared what Nyx would do if she gets the taste for humanoids, even if it's just the shape.

Luckily, fish breath didn't seem to be up to date regarding scouting abilities, so the two of us could sneak around the few patrols. Unlike how the Fort was before I took it over, this Dungeon makes use of those weird gates and quizzes to defend itself, not a high amount of monsters, be it in quality or quantity.

The old Fort had tons of E-ranks already on the first floor. This place gradually scales up the rank for each floor but at the cost of a lower total number of monsters.  Maybe it's designed more like an ordinary Dungeon instead of a "trial-type" like how the Fort used to be? 

"Psst, princess! Over here!" 

A hushed voice reached me as I saw one of the fish-heads turning the corner. And the source of it is..., a pink bunny. Jill. 

We followed Jill until we reached a closed-off location. The fish-heads don't seem to be able to enter here, so I guess it's a safe area. It looks like a library. If it isn't, you know, already one. Tons of books and bookshelves that are a discreet distance away from the flowing water that can be found all over the Dungeon.

"Phew, that was a close one." - Jill

"It was?" - Garami

"...sorry, I forgot who I was talking to. And why're you here, princess?" - Jill

I gave him a quick outline of my story that left out some details like Demon Caller and focused on the part where I wanted Nyx to gain class levels.

"Tch. The talk of someone who can beat monsters..." - Jill

"You switching to a Green Demon?" I asked, remembering that the green ones represent the sin of envy.

"No, just sulky. And when you even win a cheat weapon but cannot use it properly, you start getting a little tired of this game!" - Jill

Oh, the "Nightmare of Greed" weapon he won in the lottery in the event. It's impressive that you didn't quit earlier, but before that:

"The weapon doesn't work?" - Garami

"...you see, the Nightmare Staff of Greed amplifies the effect of spells, but..., my skill level is too low to use attack-type spells, so..." - Jill

Ah, now I get it~. It doesn't give physical attack power so it's no better than some random stick then~. ARE YOU AN IDIOT?!

"Increase your skill level then!" - Garami

"But then what should I do when I can evolve but have used all the AP on skill levels!?" - Jill

"How're you supposed to reach that stage when you can't even attack!? How arrogant can you be!?" - Garami

"Who're you calling arrogant!? And there was smaller fish here but they all moved to the first floors because players kept on attacking this place!" - Jill

"You don't say! My condolence! And can we stop shouting now!?" - Garami

"Fine!" - Jill

"Great!" - Garami

Damn it all. An honorary shut-in like me shouldn't be shouting like this. My troath hurts, and Nyx got scared to the point that she's taking cover behind the bookshelves. Tch...

"A-anyway, there's no need to worry about that now. With the doors open, we can escape-" - Jill

"Sorry. Except for the last door, all of them closed behind me after I entered." - Garami

I kicked down that wall of chalk after all. As for the other doors..., no comment.

"Whaaaaat!?" - Jill

"What did we just decide regarding screaming and shouting?" - Garami

"Ugh..., then how am I supposed to get out this place!? I mean, this place?" - Jill

"If you can't go backward, forward is the only way left." - Garami

"Stop trying to act all cool! If it was that easy to advance to the next floor, I'd be there by now!" - Jill

"You're still shouting..., huh? Wait, if the doors on the previous floors were connected to the engravings here," I said as I looked at a wall in the library that seemed to be the source of all the snapshots, "what's this floor's door connected to?"

"I know where it is if you want to take a look. But we need to be careful of the guards." - Jill

They're E-ranks after all. I get why he doesn't wanna be found by...

"I think I have an idea," I said out loud with an innocent smile.

"...why am I feeling that your avatar's race fits you perfectly?" - Jill

I don't know. It just feels right.

---

"Mwa-hahaha! Take this, and this, and here's repayment for the time you flushed me away!!" - Jill

*Bang* *Smack* *Bonk!*

The pink rabbit kept on clobbering the fish-heads with the strange, demonic-looking staff. Which, by the way, looked way too big for the rabbit's small paws...

"Surreal..." - Garami

"This was your idea though!?" - Jill

Yup, that's right. The creator of this weird scene was me. It's simple. I'm trapping the fish-heads that's walking around alone with sticky traps thanks to [Create Trap] and [Mystical Threads], then I weaken the walking sushi with [Weakness Evil Eye]. 

With all these preparations, even the little rabbit can defeat the fish-heads, as long as he's careful not to get hit by the trident the fish-heads are using. Though, I'm having Nyx take care of that. 

So yeah, we're power-leveling. The negative effect of the staff the rabbit is using is that it decreases the EXP he obtains with each kill, but since he's killing monsters whose racial ranks are two ranks higher than his own, that's not much to worry about. 

Guess sharing EXP with others only works when we're talking about tamers and their followers. Unless there's some special skill that lets you do that. When even HUD is done with skills, I can't write off that having parties also requires a skill to be done. 

"Hahahaha! Haha...ha...? A-HAHAHAHA!! FINALLY! Lv.10!!" - Jill

"Oh, congrats," I said while offering small applause. Nyx copied my actions, but I'm not sure if she's getting what's going on.

And this proves it. I can be of much help to allow lower-ranked players, and maybe even monsters, to gain easy levels. If I continue developing trapping-type skills and skills that inflict status ailments, I could start taming weak demons and evolve them into behemoths in no time!

I gotta continue with this character build. I won't be needing to lift a finger in the end, only watch as my demonic hordes do all the dirty work for me! Mwa-hahahaha!

"Now that's taken care of, mind showing me the door?" - Garami

"Okey-dokey," replied the rabbit with an appearance that looks happier than I could remember. Seriously, just re-create your character if it's been such a pain...

While dodging the fish-heads in our path, we reached the so-called "door" to the next floor. And it's strange. First, it's placed in a wide-open room, but it seems that the fish-heads aren't getting close to this room for some reason. Then there's the door itself. It looks like an octopus statue's tentacles are keeping the door shut. There's a keyhole in the middle of the door, with several tentacles intervening around it.

"Not a puzzle-type, this one." - Garami

"And there was no key all over this place. I've been looking for something to use all this time..." replied the rabbit with a gloomy expression. I can see the frustration that must have been piled up over this long time.

Still, there's no key? That's weird. I kept an eye open, but [Detect Treasure] didn't give any signal. And from what I can see, this Dungeon doesn't feel like a place where a Scout is that necessary to complete. The place is smaller compared to the old Fort, and there are no hidden doors or traps here at all. 

...maybe all the racial starts are connected to the player that's starting there? This place has a huge library and is easy to travel through (when you have any means to fight the fish-heads), so it feels like a better fit for a Mage who can use powerful magic than a Scout who can find secret treasures...

Then there's the fact that it's possible to help the invaders get to the 3rd floor from the inside. Seen in another view, doesn't this place encourage the racial starter to ask for help from the outside?

Following that line of thought, Pink Demons are supposed to evolve into Succubusi and Incubi, aren't they? An extremely "social" type of demon. Maybe "asking for help" is part of the starting Pink Demon's racial start? 

Then the key..., may not be in this Dungeon from the start? Maybe the only way to unlock this door is to gather info from the outside?

I summarized this idea and told the rabbit about it. Wow, that's one depressed rabbit...

"Then there's no way to get out..." - Jill

"Yes, there is. I just need to get outside and ask the locals about this thing," I said, giving the octo-lock a good knock, "and return. Then we can proceed, beat whatever boss that's bossing over this place, and get you out." 

"...! Princess...*sniff*..." - Jill

"Hold your horses. Who said it was for free?" - Garami

"-!? I-I don't have any money..., no way! Even you-!" - Jill

"I don't care what you evolve into, nor will it do me any good! Give me 70% of the materials from clearing this Dungeon, and we're square." - Garami

"70!? That's too much!" - Jill

"Then 60. And you owe me a favor." - Garami

"60 is too much as well! But if it's a simple favor, I may help..." - Jill

"Then it's a deal. 50% of the items we get, plus you owe me a favor." - Garami

"Grr..., 40%, and a favor! That's my last offer!" - Jill

"Okay, that works," I replied nonchalantly as I started to prepare the Return Feather, a consumable that lets you escape a Dungeon, that I bought before challenging the Dungeon earlier today.

It only works on the player that bought it, plus their followers, so I can't get the rabbit out with it. Nor do I want to. AP for defeating the Dungeon Boss or nothing!!

"Huh? Why am I feeling that I've been tricked...?" said the rabbit while tilting his head questionably.

"I'll be writing a new entry on the demon thread when I'm ready. You can go and evolve in the meanwhile, so we'll try again tomorrow." - Garami

"-!! That's right, I can EVOLVE NOW!!" - Jill

The rabbit jumped around so much that I'm getting afraid that he'll attract the whole Dungeon. Therefore, I hurried with activating the feather that brought me and Nyx, who'd guessed my intents and climbed onto my back, and we were sent out of the Dungeon to its entrance.

"...time to go snooping." - Garami

"*Grr*." - Nyx

---

"That's it?" I asked the Succubus dressed like a fisherman, er, fisherwoman.

"Yes~. A lock that an octopus holds is always designed to be opened that way~. It is like a local specialty ~." - Succubus fisherwoman

Not sure if that's the right way to call it, but I'm not complaining! As for why octo-locks are popular enough to be such a "specialty"..., I know better than to ask such a question.

All that's needed now is to send a message to the rabbit..., the former rabbit, and ask when we should meet up again-

"I FOUND YOU!!" 

Gyaaa! That scared me! Who the heck's incapable of using indoor voice?! 

......crap. This may spell bad for the former rabbit.