#083 – The way back was so much easier
Unfortunately, even after wandering around in the darkness – ugh, after that boss, it really unnerved , even with Heat Vision and the light from Flaguard – for a little while, all I managed to find was the end of the hole.
It just… ended. There was nothing interesting at the end.
Well, okay. Maybe being able to walk inside the half-sphere the hole had ended with had been pretty cool with how the gravity smoothly changed, but that didn’t change the fact that I couldn’t find any secret entrances or anything. I even tried firing off the two flathrower modes around to see if it would unlock anything.
Unfortunately, no dice.
“Well. I guess we can return once we get back the map. Assuming the map will even help…”
With that, I turned around and began climbing out of the giant hole again.
This dungeon… was very different from the water park. A lot shorter, for one. Just two floors.
Granted, those two floors were arguably more difficult than the water park, but still. At the very least, I was a lot stronger than I was in the water park, so I didn’t have too many issues conquering this one.
And wow, nearly dying to petrification and getting my mind scrambled apparently classified as ‘not too many issues’ for nowadays.
This stupid world had seriously corrupted my sense of what was normal, hadn’t it?
Another topic to talk about with Jane…
On my way out, just because soone in chat had reminded , I checked out my quest and unfortunately, the ‘Complete the Ether-based dungeon without any monsters respawning’ objective had been marked as failed.
I grumbled about that a little, since the dragon hadn’t respawned but I guess the crabs and lizards on the surface counted.
Ugh, the system was such a cheapskate.
Either way, I eventually managed to safely get out of the hole after quite so ti walking. A short running start gave enough speed to get out of the hole itself and grab onto the edge of it just as the gravity changed, and I easily pulled myself out.
I idly thought about how the old who barely exercised would never be able to pull herself from here. Hah.
Either way, only a handful of lizards and crabs bothered as I left the crystal plains – who I took out with ease – and then I was finally out of the dungeon.
“Well. That’s that, I guess. Got so nice loot. Mainly the axe and the flathrower… oh, and the flask. That one’s great.”
Everything else was pretty minor, but still appreciated. The glove and the scales could be used for Fusion and the ring might have so neat properties. I would have to see.
“Okay! That’s it for the stream today, I think. I’m just gonna chill out and recover for the rest of today. And tomorrow, we’re going back to the city dungeon and getting our stuff back!”
I still felt a pang of anxiety whenever I thought about the archer enemy in there, but I told myself that I couldn’t be a coward forever. I was stronger, and had more tools to deal with her than before. And even if I got poisoned again, I had a shelter to retreat to, as well as Rend’s mindshield and the refined life ooze to help counteract the poison’s Ether and Intra-draining effects.
It was going to be fine.
Yeah, I could tell myself that all day long, but it still didn’t ease my worries.
Anywho, now that I was out of the dungeon and in the safety of my shelter, I could safely experint.
The Immolator title.
Yes, both Flaguard and Heat Vision were very useful and it would suck if I locked myself out of them for an entire month, but I wanted to see what the innate ability of the title did. And worst case scenario, I could use the ticket to reset the cooldown and get Fire Blessed back.
That was what consumables were for. To be used.
Even if my hoarding instincts scread at to save it at all costs, because what if I was gonna need it later.
Change title from [Fire Blessed] to [Immolator]?
Note: [Fire Blessed] will not be re-equipable for 30 days.
Y/N
I didn’t click yes just yet, and instead consulted with chat for a little longer.
The passive effects it granted were great, but probably weren’t better than the utility of Flaguard and Heat Vision. Whether this was worth it or not solely depended on how useful Immolate would be.
Immolating things from the inside sounded kinda extre and not sothing I would ever use on people… But if all I needed was to touch a dungeon monster with my hand or even just a stick to kill them, that would be incredibly helpful.
But again, it all depended on how strong it actually was.
After a few more minutes of consulting with chat, I shrugged and finally accepted, switching my title for the very first ti.
Nothing happened.
Or at least, nothing apparent.
I opened my status to check if I could see anything there.
Na: Nana Aoto
Title: Immolator
Race: Human
Skill Points: 5
Racial skill:
Strear
Innate skills:
Quick Fetch (Golden gate key)
Minor Hydrokinesis (Gift of the Weeping Phoenix)
Featherfall (Gift of the Weeping Phoenix)
Aquaport (Gift of the Weeping Phoenix)
Combination Breath (Dragon Blaster)
Immolate (Immolator)
Other skills(3/3):
Phoenix Blessing [CURSED] [FREE] [TEMPORARY]
Heat Vision
Soulbound Item
Flaguard
And sure enough, the title had changed, but both of the phoenix skills were still equipped.
I tried lighting my hand on fire and it worked without a problem. Or, in fact, the flas seed even stronger than before, probably thanks to the title.
I grinned.
“Nice, chat! It still works!”
Finally, I opened the skill list window to check, and as expected, the phoenix section was completely gone, leaving only the human skills.
“Okay, so it’s exactly as advertised. Cool.” I nodded to myself in satisfaction. “So, about this new skill…”
I left my little shelter, looked around, and spotted a nearby rock. I grinned and approached it while imagining the rock sweating in fear.
I stopped just before the rock, narrowed my eyes, fell into an exaggerated stance, and sent out John to record this legendary mont.
“Ultimate move: Touch of death!” I yelled and dashed, right palm raised.
I slapped the rock and pulled at the invisible switch in my mind, activating Immolate.
At first, nothing seed to be outwardly happening, but I could feel my Ether transforming into heat and rushing into the rock through my hand. After a mont, the rock began to faintly glow red.
No matter how much I tried though, it wouldn’t dramatically burst or lt into a puddle.
I huffed.
“Well, I guess the skill isn’t as extre, but still, pretty good.”
At least, according to chat, making a rock glow was hot enough to kill pretty much any living creature I would use this on, barring any fire resistance and magic shenanigans.
Then, of course, people began debating about who I planned on executing this way when I returned to Earth, ruining my mood.
Sure, I had said ‘touch of death’, but I hadn’t actually ant it, dammit! Couldn’t even joke and roleplay without people taking it seriously, ugh…
“Whatever. It’s useful if I can get close enough, I guess. But that’s kinda the hard part, isn’t it?”
Overall, it wasn’t as good as Flaguard, sadly. But if I ever encountered so kind of tanky stationary boss, they were gonna be toast.
Not much happened for the rest of the day, although I was still a bit worried about Ebiko and the little argunt we’d had about Soulbound Item.
…Speaking of which, I’d kinda added more stuff to both the gun and the clothes since then, hadn’t I? And I was also planning on soulbinding the axe once I could.
Ugh, I wanted to apologize for being thoughtless, but then there I went continuing to be thoughtless…
I hoped she would co back to the stream. Having chat around was nice, but none of them were really friends. More like fans or acquaintances at best. Parasocial relationships. Ebiko was the only real friend I had. Not even other Vcubers felt the sa.
With a sigh, I stopped brooding and finally went to sleep, ignoring chat comnting on my dramatic and wistful sigh.
The next morning, I got so shark at pizza for breakfast – god, I really wanted different food already – washed up in the river, and after a bit of deliberation, attempted to cross it right there instead of going upstream first.
Risky? Maybe a little bit. But it wasn’t going to be the end of the world even if I got washed downstream. I wouldn’t drown and I could always just walk or Aquaport back, but I still had to be careful not to bang my head on the rocks and whatnot.
I considered it training.
The currents were pretty strong, but I stood my ground down at the bottom of the riverbank with my goggles over my eyes. The following aquaport – I was getting the hang of this skill – was carefully calculated so that I would end up in a half-crouching position from which it was easy to catch myself again before the stream could sweep away. And from then on, I just had to carefully get out of the water on the other side.
“Pwah! Gah!” I coughed out the water out of my lungs. “Alright! That was easier than I thought it would be.”
What followed was a very long and boring walk back to the city dungeon. I entertained myself mostly by talking to chat and playing songs on stream. I also gave chat another ad to chew on at so point. This one was about so kind of body cream that made you glow? It was kinda weird. Not as weird as the blue-skinned lady with giant amphibian eyes, squishy skin, and a mane of feathers growing out of her scalp though.
Why did everyone have feathers in this world? Was that so kind of fad? Or was everyone mixed race with a bird?
Chat theorized that there was a way to do sothing within the system that combined your race with another. Since we’d seen so many people who were seemingly from two or more races, I couldn’t really dispute that theory.
What unnerved , though, were the theories as to what exactly caused it. The prevailing theory was… the limit break.
Of course. It was always the damn limit break.
Would I get feathers after beating it too? I was the daughter of a phoenix, so it wasn’t that big of a stretch, honestly. And as strange as that felt, it also sounded kinda cool. I’d always wanted wings and the ability to fly. That was why my Vcuber avatar had them, after all.
The new one. Not the one I currently… was.
Speaking of which, my new avatar was also part phoenix, wasn’t it? It would feel pretty appropriate if I were to actually beco half phoenix, honestly. The ‘race’ in my status still stubbornly said ‘human’, but I hardly felt human lately with all the soulbound stuff, Stream Overseer, or even just the ability to set myself on fire and teleport through water. I wouldn’t mind getting so cool phoenix wings and flying around.
…
Maybe that was what Jane had talked about though. About losing one’s sense of self. All of this was still crazy, but I’d just gotten used to everything bit by bit, and now I didn’t even question things that would have made mildly disturbed back on Earth.
And this was only going to get worse…
With these thoughts, I finally made it to the city dungeon by midday and was about to settle into my original shelter with the crappy door, when I noticed sothing concerning.
Smoke on the horizon.
I was bewildered for a mont, thinking that there might be people starting a campfire, but the closer I got, the more my heart sank when I realized what was really happening.
A forest fire.
“No…Nonono. Oh, fuck this is bad!”
I rushed to put it out before the whole damn world could burn down.
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