After a few long minutes of sitting in the dark, I've come to realize that simply waiting there for something to come my way isn't... effective at all. I decided to experiment with a glowing mushroom; and use it to illuminate my path as I started walking forward.
It was fairly easy to pick up... And the mushroom remained glowing even after I plucked it. A sticklight-like light from my old world that I could use.
As for the direction I walked, I just chose somewhere away from the footsteps I heard earlier. And despite taking everything from him, I decided to grab his skull; as well… For some reason.
CRANK
CRRRK
CLICK
CLASHK
'It's so loud...' I thought, listening to my own armor clashing against itself with every step I made. 'I hope the monster doesn't hear it... Maybe its hearing is bad?' I hoped. But actually, I knew wearing this armor might be a bad call.
'... But I don't want to remove it.' I simply thought.
Then, after a few more steps...
'Just what are dungeons?' I wondered. I've realized that the key to my survival in this place hinges on understanding them. That's how it is with everything... Who was it, again...
'Sun Tzu said: If you know yourself, and your enemy, you need not fear the results of a 100 battles.'
Then my thoughts began to drift.
'I knew who Kazuya was to a T.'
'I knew who I was to a T.'
My grip on the skull tightened.
'... No. I didn't know myself at all. Just like with how I behaved with Rina, thinking I was some romanticist, when really I was just cringe—'
I shook my head. Not important right now.
What matters at this point is getting to know my new skills, and gathering more intel on this dungeon.
'I want to live.' I repeated. It felt grounding.
So I walked.
Each step felt heavier than it should have. The armor clinked with every movement, the sound swallowed almost instantly by the dark. The mushroom in my hand painted a weak blue circle on the ground and the stone walls, breathing in and out like it was alive.
It felt strange, walking in armor that used to belong to someone else.
Stranger still that it fit me so well.
'Gear Maintenance really is broken in its own way...'
The thought almost made me laugh. Almost...
I kept going. And as I did, I've noticed that this wasn't a cavern like I thought it was initially.
It was a ruined corridor filled with granite rubble and dirt. I was just in a big room that was a dead end when I was teleported here.
I kept walking. Slow, careful steps. The corridor twisted gently to the right, and despite the atmosphere, despite the silence, despite everything...
I was almost bored.
In this kind of setting, you'd expect something to show up by now.
But nothing.
No slimes.
No traps.
No monsters.
Just the sound of my own labored, dust-filled breathing echoing back at me from the stone.
Then I heard it.
A sound that was not mine.
... Thud.
My foot froze mid-step.
... Thud.
Heavier than my steps. Slower.
Like something dragging too much weight across the floor.
'I heard it earlier... a bit farther away. Is it the same thing..!!?'
My heart slammed against my ribs. The mushroom's glow suddenly felt way, way too bright — like I was waving a flashlight in a haunted house with no exit doors.
'Something is here.'
And right after:
'If it sees me first, I die.'
I forced myself to breathe out slowly, fighting every urge to cough. The skull creaked faintly in my left hand as my grip tightened. Dust flaked off its temple.
'Hide. Now. Move. Move.'
I held my mushroom close to my chest and glanced around. A few meters ahead, the wall bulged inward — a small recess where stones had collapsed long ago.
Good enough.
I hurried toward it, armor clinking louder than it ever had before. The thudding grew clearer with each step I took.
Closer.
I squeezed into the recess sideways, chestplate scraping stone. I cupped my hand over the mushroom, smothering its glow. Only a faint line of blue bled through my fingers.
The skull bumped my hip again, jaw opening and closing like silent babbling.
'Please don't betray me now, V...'
The footsteps came.
Thud.
... Thud.
... Thud.
Sound of rough, loud breathing…
Then the smell hit.
Rot.
Blood.
Metal.
Sour meat days past spoil.
My stomach twisted violently, and my throat tightened.
'Calm down. Listen. Just... listen...'
Thud.
Drag.
Thud.
Drag.
The sound filled the entire corridor — like the dungeon itself was breathing with it. Dust rained down on my helmet.
Then it was right there.
The shadow slid across the faint blue line on the ground. Not human. Not anything close.
Thick legs like pillars.
A twisted hump behind massive shoulders.
Metal chains dangling and scraping.
Fur matted with dark, sticky patches.
A snout so long its silhouette broke the darkness in jagged teeth.
My lungs locked.
Even trying to inhale felt dangerous.
Its breathing was slow. Deep. Wet.
Sniffing.
Searching.
Maybe it smelled the mushroom.
Maybe it smelled me.
My fingers dug into the skull so hard I felt bone chip.
'I'm sorry Van. Sorry. Sorry—'
The creature exhaled. The cold breeze that seeped around the stone felt like winter crawling up my spine.
Then—
It stopped.
The shadow tilted.
It looked back.
And in that fraction of a second, I knew — it saw my light.
The entire world snapped.
A deafening roar shook the corridor, and before I could even step out of the recess—
Something the size of a truck slammed into me. Was that its paw?
My ribs cracked instantly. The air blasted out of my lungs as I was hurled across the corridor and smashed into the opposite wall. The mushroom flew from my hand. The skull bounced somewhere behind me.
"A—gh—!"
Pain exploded through everything at once. My vision stuttered, the world blinking between light and dark as my helmet dented inward.
'It hurts. It hurts—!'
Something huge pressed down on my torso. The paw. Its paw.
It pinned me like nothing.
Claws punched straight through the breastplate and into the lung.
I tasted blood before I felt the pain.
It was like drowning above water.
I screamed with what little air I had left in my lungs, voice wet and shredded against the metal visor.
The creature growled — low, vibrating, almost curious — then I could see the ground getting further and further away, my hands going limp.
It was lifting me with its teeth, wasn't it?
The armor held for half a second.
Then the pressure crushed the breastplate inward, the metal folding like tin.
"ST—STOP—!!" I felt like I turned into a fountain. Because there was no pause to the blood that left my mouth at that point.
The pain turned white.
'I—I'm being eaten—I'm—'
And then, the whole world around me started shaking. My neck twisting in all directions at once...
It was shaking me.
Then thud, my body clashed against something hard. Was I tossed against the wall?
Like a toy?
Suddenly I remembered something stupid; pain vanishing for a few seconds.
A memory from when I was ten.
I saw a dog once.
Eating a mouse.
Playing with it as it squeaked.
I thought it was cute. I laughed.
Mom scolded me.
Said it was cruel to laugh.
The creature's teeth slid deeper, hot and cold at the same time, ripping flesh from bone. My legs kicked reflexively. I tried pushing against its snout, but my arms bent backward at the elbow with a sickening snap.
"Mommy—" The word tore out of me soaked in blood. "Mommy... I'm sorry... I don't really wanna leave you... I DON'T CARE if I'm a burden on you..!! I wanna go home... mommy... mommy... mommy—"
"Makoto!"
I jolted awake.
Sunlight on familiar curtains. The smell of miso and laundry detergent. My small, safe bedroom.
'...It was a dream?'
Mom stood over the bed in her old pink housecoat, hands on hips. "You'll be late for school again, sleepyhead."
My hands were clean. Ten fingers. No armor. No blood.
'Too real to be a dream,' I thought, dizzy with relief. The other world had been the dream.
"M-MOM!"
I lunged, wrapped my arms around her waist, buried my face in her stomach like I was six again.
"Mom... it hurt so much... I love you, Mom... don't leave me, please don't leave me—"
She laughed, soft, surprised, and stroked my hair. "Nightmare, baby? It's okay. Hold me as long as you need..."
Warm. Alive. Mine.
'It's over.'
"...At least until Kazuya gets here," she whispered, voice suddenly sweet like honey left in the sun too long.
I pulled back.
Her housecoat was gone. gone. Only black bunny suit, stockings torn at the thighs, lipstick smeared like a wound.
She smiled the way Rina used to smile at him.
"I'm his now, Makoto," she said gently, patting my cheek. "You were never my whole world. That was obvious. You were just too weak to stop him, so I followed suit… exactly like Rina-chan did."
The bedroom door opened.
Kazuya strolled in, shirt unbuttoned, grinning the same grin he wore when he threw that rock.
"Morning, babe." He grabbed her, pulled her against his hips. She moaned into his neck, loud.
Kazuya looked straight at me.
"Watch close, cabbage head. This is how a real man dominates a woman."
I looked down.
Between my legs there was only a raw, wet, bleeding cavity.
My mother's voice floated above me, tender:
"Pay attention, baby. Maybe you'll learn something you can actually use."
I screamed until my throat bled again.
I thrashed, clawed at the sheets, punched my own face, bit my tongue in half.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—"
Everything went white.
Then black.
Then cold.
Stone against my cheek.
Helmet heavy.
Blue mushrooms pulsing like slow heartbeats.
The skeleton beside me, fingers still dust in my gauntlet.
'W... What...?'
That's when I saw Van's pulverized skeleton that I looted earlier.
'I'm... Back here...?'
'Alive again?'
[DING!]
[You have satisfied your curse's condition!]
'...?'
[Your curse's nature will now be revealed!]