[Upper Labyrinth. Unknown Floor. Observation Log — Luki]
Entry 0: First Attempt
Well... it's been a while since we got here. I mean, me and Lili. Time's been flying... too fast, actually. They say time flies when you're having fun, and yeah, "fun" isn't exactly the right word for being trapped in a Dungeon full of monsters... but, I don't know. It's intense. Makes your head stop thinking about other things.
Anyway, the Safe Room's time was almost running out, and I still didn't have enough Cores. I had to take the risk.
During one of my rounds, I stumbled across another one of those treasure chest rooms. Just like that one, the one full of skeletons where Lili showed up. I'd be lying if I said the memory of all those monsters in a closed space didn't make me nervous.
But I had to go.
There it was, the chest. And one detail caught my attention: a loose chain hanging backward.
There's something strange about all of this. For some reason I can't explain, the Labyrinth has been twisting itself away from the version I saw in the anime, in a way that only someone like me could understand. It's like it knows things only I should know.
I have this suspicion... a serious suspicion... that the Dungeon can read minds! When it met me, it must've found a bunch of "useless" information that, for it, turned out to be pure gold and inspiration. Hence, the evolution, the deviation from the route.
Like, seriously. Too much of a coincidence that I end up here for no reason, and suddenly everything starts going off-script even when I don't interfere.
Whatever brought me to this world... couldn't it have given me a heads-up first? What's my mission? My purpose? Ugh.
What am I even doing, letting my thoughts wander like this while I write? Since when am I this easily distracted? I know no one's going to answer me, it's not like I haven't asked myself that before, or that anyone ever answered my prayers.
Uhm... now that I think about it, isn't this kinda... heresy? I'm a "follower of Hestia," so praying to other "gods" should probably be punishable or something.
Lol. Anyway, let's hope she never finds out I tried praying to another entity. Knowing how jealous she is, that could end in a pretty heated argument. And I hate seeing her cry... she's so beautiful.
Ah crap, I'm rambling again. Back to the point.
If my mind-reading theory is right, then I can trust the rule. If the chain's turned backward, it's not a Mimic. That's something I learned after like two hundred hours playing Elden Souls-Born.
FromSoftware, I love you even in another world!
But just to be sure, because you never know, I didn't take chances. I walked up to the chest and knocked on it a few times. Just to see if it reacted. Nothing.
Opened it from behind, ready for anything.
Turned out it was a real chest. Thank god.
Anyway, the chest didn't have gold inside.
It had some old bronze and iron gear and some worn weapons.
I was excited, but not for long, after I started to analyze the condition of the items more closely.
Everything was covered in dried blood, and the armor had deep claw marks. That was a first. Even if it was all worse than what I'm using, it was still... loot.
Loot is loot, and loot isn't questioned, loot it's collected.
And the emotion returned with that thought.
I closed the chest and dragged the whole thing back to the Safe Room. It was tough, but I managed. Took about two hours, and luckily, the path hadn't shifted.
But my excitement was instantly doused when Lili told me the truth...
The Dungeon doesn't hand out treasure for free, obviously. Turns out most of what we find in chests actually belongs to dead adventurers. The Dungeon reuses their stuff as bait.
I'll admit, that hit hard. What I held in my hands were the last memories, the last possessions, of people who once lived their lives just like me. And now? Reduced to dirty loot. I felt like trash for being excited.
Lili, on the other hand, seemed fine and said my feelings were dumb. And she's not wrong. The dead aren't here to care. She said it more kindly, of course, but the idea was clear: what we should do is make the most of what we find to survive.
I didn't argue.
We used the wood from the chest as firewood to cook some of the monster meat I brought. Eating raw meat is... an experience, but roasted is definitely better. Still tastes bad without seasoning, but it's what we've got.
Not to mention the massive stomachache I had the first time, but now I eat it just fine. Probably thanks to my unique skill.
As for the rest of the gear, I figured I'd give Lili something to protect herself. Even inside the Safe Room. I don't feel right seeing her walking around in those rags.
I won't even describe how hard I laughed when she fit inside the smallest breastplate in the chest. Lol. She looked like a canned sardine.
...And here I am, off-topic again. Guess journaling isn't my thing, seriously.
Anyway.
Among that loot, there were also a few notebooks and pencils. Weird. Who brings that kind of thing into the Dungeon?
Reading them, we found out one was a finance log.
It had a well-organized list: dates, item types, quantities, money earned at the end of the day. Looks like their Familia was trying to meet a daily quota of items.
After reading that, I felt even worse. Were they poor like my Hestia Familia? Did they have kids to care for, someone sick, loved ones?
Lili tried to ease my mind, saying they probably just got into debt at a casino or pissed off the wrong prostitute and were paying the price.
But my imagination kept spinning the worst scenarios. I probably won't sleep well tonight.
That's when she had the idea: she told me to use one of the notebooks as an Adventure Journal, just to take my mind off things.
So that's exactly what I'm doing now. And, look at that, now that I've written all this, I feel miserable again.
Checking the clock, the room's got about six hours left. I guess I've got time to sleep a bit before heading out for more Cores.
Uhm... how do I end an entry? I guess that's it for today. Need to rest. And store this notebook away.
...
Entry 1: Remembering
It's been, uhm... three or four days, I think, since I last wrote. Pure laziness.
But something bad happened today, Lili got sick and is sleeping on the floor with a high fever, It must have been some kind of food poisoning. She had said that she's already somewhat used to eating strange things, I won't specify what it was or why, and that she'd be fine eating the monsters' meat even raw. Apparently not.
I'm doing well because of my Tireless Adventurer, which greatly increases my mental and psychological resistance while I'm in the Dungeon. Food poisoning also fits into this list because I heal from it very quickly.
Not that the monsters' flesh is poisonous, perhaps, but it certainly must carry bacteria, viruses, and parasites that only they are accustomed to.
Lili mentioned when she came up with the idea of eating monster meat; did I happen to say it was her idea? Anyway, that the guild recommends eating monster meat only as a last resort because it's not entirely safe; it's not like the monsters will stop so you can have diarrhea and then go back to fighting.
There's nothing I can do about it, the healing potions I had with me are gone, and even if I had more, they'd be useless because they're not suitable for this. So i needed to let it out, my frustration.
I'd rather take a walk in the park, or maybe watch some anime... but, yeah, kinda hard to do that here, in this world.
This time, I decided to write a bit about the first lost days. I think this Falna also boosts my memory, because I remember everything perfectly.
The first time I went hunting for Monster Cores after splitting from the group... I ran into a freaking dragon.
That's right, a dragon! You know, the kind with four legs, wings, a long tail, scales, and fire breath? That kind of dragon.
Okay, okay, it was a Infant Dragon. A monster I remember showing up only once in the anime, just so Bell could flex his new power for the audience. Argonaut? Don't quite remember the exact name, but I mean that little white skill he uses to take strength from the ass. Broken as hell.
I'm not jealous... maybe a little.
Anyway, I turned right the hell around and pretended nothing happened. Just like you don't attack the Tree Sentinel in Elden Ring on your first run, you DON'T draw attention from the flying fire-breathing lizard chasing me right this second!!!
AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!
Ah... wait... I'm just writing in the diary... guess I got carried away while remembering things.
...
Wow. Embarrassing. Can I erase this? Uhm... you know what, it's not like anyone's gonna read it, and I'm too lazy to delete that much text. Leaving it.
Back to the point, or something close.
I hadn't gone far from the Safe Room when I ran into that little demon spawn, so I bolted right back. Man, I've never run that fast in my life. Not even during that earlier monster wave. Guess that's what happens when your ass is literally on fire... I can still feel it...
Anyway (shit, wrote "anyway" again).
The thing was right on my tail when I reached the Safe Room's door. You should've seen Lili's face when she saw what was chasing me.
I didn't even think. Just felt that hot breath on my neck and dove into the room. Déjà vu?
The dragon was so fixated on me it probably didn't even notice the Safe Room ahead. It hit it head-on, and since monsters can't enter, it got completely disintegrated by the beam from the door.
Leaving behind a big and round blue Mana Stone, about the size of Lili's head.
I was ecstatic. Fourth near-death experience of the day, or maybe the first, since it was technically the next morning. Seeing that Core right in front of me, I forced myself to recover and grabbed it before the Dungeon could recycle it.
Damn, it was incredible. Like holding a crystal ball. You could see energy swirling inside, like a Naruto's Rasengan in slow motion, but way prettier.
That thing was probably worth millions of Valis. A Core from a Level 3, almost Level 4 monster. Yeah, you heard right... I'm doing it again.
Even though it's from the Upper Floors, with monsters suitable for level 1 adventurers, the Infant Dragon was a special case. You could say it's the first monster in the Dungeon that requires stats higher than 1000 in strength and durability to face it directly.
His magic resistance and attack power put him well above typical 12th floor monsters. Even advanced Level 1 adventurer groups (those with multiple attributes above 900) need to cooperate or resort to specific tactics to defeat one. Because of this, guilds and Dungeon field manuals generally recommend that only Level 2 adventurers face it head-on.
In short, a field boss for Raids.
After the evolution of the Dungeon, it might not even count as childish anymore. Young Dragon, maybe?
Didn't matter. Couldn't think about money then, can't think about it now. Reluctantly, I placed the Core in the Safe Room's basin. After a small light show, the stone vanished, and the room's duration increased from three to seven hours.
If someone asks if it was luck, I'll say it was all part of the plan.
With that, you'd think the day was over. After something like that, the sensible thing would be to lock yourself inside, hide under a blanket, and pray the demon doesn't grab your foot at night.
But yeah, All this stress didn't even last twenty minutes, so no.
Lili tried to stop me, saying it was too dangerous, that we should wait for things to calm down, maybe find a safer option. I didn't listen and walked right past her. Not my fault she's weak.
Kidding. I get that she was worried. I'd feel the same if I were in her place, but I couldn't just stay still. That was my chance to push further and add even more time to the Safe Room counter, enough not to worry about the next day.
Uhm... I think that's enough for today. I'll continue another time. For now, I'll sleep to pass the time. There's not much else to do here besides sleeping, anyway.
Damn, still don't know how to close these entries.
... Good night, I guess.
... Who the hell am I even talking to? Am I going crazy?