We reached the second floor’s boss room, but right outside the boss room door was a portal with a sign next to it. The sign said, ‘You want me? Come and get me! - Dungeon Master Benjamin’. Looks like a trap.

“Looks like a trap.” That’s what I just thought. “I say we go in.”

Eh? But it’s a trap, couldn’t we just go arou- I’ve just remembered he can’t hear me. Wait… he can read my mind. Why don’t we just go around the portal? “We could go around and go through Dungeon Proper, but that’s a waste of time. I’m only here for the Dungeon Master, so a shortcut straight to them is convenient.”

Thanks for answering. “I’ll go in first, then you and your bee friend can go in after me.” I nodded towards the adventurer, and then he jumped through the portal. I jumped in as soon as he went in, and we found ourselves in a grand throne room. There were massive pillars that casted giant shadows onto the floor. The only lighting was from lit torches beside the pillars, which revealed the cave walls this Dungeon was within. At the very end of the room was a throne seated upon a flight of three tiny stairs. Looking around, there was no soul in sight.

“Huh. Must’ve missed them.” It was at that moment four shadows jumped in front of us. Upon closer look, I saw they were not shadows but in fact people. The first to approach us was a blonde with bee-like wings protruding from her back and a scythe in one hand. She flew straight at me. I was too slow to react, but she just flew above me, then flew back to the open space. I was about to ask Bee if she was alright, but suddenly I saw her grow to a massive size and began fighting the blonde, who was swiftly dodging her slashes.

The second to approach us was a black-haired male wielding a… a Katana. Ooh, wonder where he got that? No, seriously, where’d he get that? He approached the old man, who dodged the slash whilst wielding his own weapons, a pair of daggers. Despite being very old, his AGI stat is for nothing, huh.

The last two approached me. A petite little girl with bat wings and a redhead in armour, whose hair was flaming at the tips. They stood still, staring at me. Since they’ve oh so kindly decided to stand there, might as well Appraise them. Appraisal!

Mary, huh. The first floor boss. I thought she was a bat. I feel like her stats are significantly higher this time. A skill? Well, she does have a Unique skill. Maybe it’s that. Seriously though, wasn’t she a bat? As for the redhead… Inferno Mole. Must be a higher version of Fire Mole. Maybe she’s a floor boss like Mary. She seems… troublesome. She beats me in all stats but two. Must be the unique skill. Wait… why do these two have Unique Skills? Aren’t they supposed to be rare or something? I feel like they are supposed to be. Must be related to the Dungeon Master, maybe. He… he doesn’t feel like he’s from this world.

Before I could continue having thoughts, the petite girl flew straight at me, grabbed hold of me, and flew above. She let go of me, and the redhead fired a fireball at me. Since I was in the air, I had to take the DMG.

149 DMG! Oh no, this is bad. I can only take two more hits of that. Mary once again grabbed hold of me and started flying up. To stop her, I punched her while in her grasp.

Despite the high amount of DMG, she stubbornly held onto me. Once we were high enough, she let go of me and once again, I saw a fireball flying at me. 

Hey Bee, are you able to help me?

Sorry Master, but I am currently… struggling.

Alright then.

Think Golem, think. There’s gotta be something I can use. What skills do I have? Meditation, useless. Earth Magic… not fast enough. Assimilation, I’m not on the ground. Calculation, what am I gonna calculate? Wait… The Library, that’s it! The Library!

I was immediately pulled away, right into the reception of my Unique skill, face to face with Metis, who was eyeing the portal I just came through. I turned around and saw the fireball zoom through where I previously was. Both Mary and Ashley stopped still in their tracks, wondering where I was. Phew… that was close. I turned to face Metis, who had a distraught look on her face. She looked like she wanted to say something, but words weren’t coming out.

Gonna say anything?

“N-no! I… I don’t have anything to say.” She immediately crossed her arms and turned away.

Okay then. Any way to change where I exit here? I’d rather not pop up back in the air.

“Y-yeah. Just think where you want to drop, and as long as you can see it through the portal, then you’ll appear there.”

Thanks. I thought of the area behind Ashley and suddenly found myself there. My two foes clearly didn’t know I was behind them, so I started building the magic circle for Rock Bullet to ambush the inferno mole in front of me before the room suddenly lit up. I looked around and saw that the others had paused their fight. 

The blonde was blocking an attack from Bee, who was trying to crush her with her massive size, while the old man had snuck up behind the Dungeon Master, ready to stab him.

“Ahem. What is going on here?!” From beside the throne came a shrieking voice, and standing there was a female knight with pearly white hair and armour decorated to the brim with golden accents, standing next to the elf receptionist that we met in the Dungeon’s rest area.

“Princess?” “Princess!” said both the Dungeon Master and the old man. 

The princess started walking towards the old man and the Dungeon Master. “I’m back,” she said towards the black-haired youth.

“As for you,” she turned towards the adventurer, “Did father send you, uncle Ivest?” Oh yeah, that’s his name.

“Uh… no. He said to not bother finding you, something about you being happy.”

“Then why are you here?”

“To collect the Dungeon Master’s taxes.”

Taxes… really? Taxes?

Jarkon

Pay your taxes.