Chapter 89

Seriously, there was an actual dribbly candle in amongst all of it!

Finally looking at the magic circle properly, Issei spotted a very obvious 'come pick me up and get teleported who knows where' sheet of paper in the centre of the circle. Seriously, this was practically a cliché!

"OK, why not just walk into it?" Issei mused. "A trap that you know is a trap isn't really a trap anymore, right?"

Besides, it wasn't as if he had any other way of entering the dungeon. With a few swipes on his window, Issei changed into his armour and cloak, as well as equipping his Sword Breaker. As this was against mages (presumably), he wouldn't try to train his fist fighting skills against them; magic beats fists in terms of range. Instead, he was going to focus on levelling up his new [Sapphire Blade] ability. Given that Issei was about to enter a Level 15 dungeon and the sword-gauntlet was only LV0, scoring the killing blow against a single enemy should level it up to LV5 or more right away.

This was also a smart plan due to the fact that the Durability of [Sapphire Blade] was low...as in 'I can't believe that a blade made out of magical crystal is so brittle' low. Issei honestly hoped that the damned blade would be worth it, otherwise the points he'd invested into it would be wasted on a weapon that was only useful as a last resort.

"[Sapphire Blade]!" he called out, bringing the [Gamer's Gear] to life on his arm.

[Azure Edge!]

From the back of the blue gauntlet, a long spike of crystalline material seemed to sprout, growing into a narrow, blade before his very eyes and gleaming even in the dim light. Issei had to admit, even if its stats kinda sucked at the moment, it still looked fairly neat.

Now fully armed, Issei stepped onto the magic circle, which promptly started glowing to blinding levels, forcing him to cover his eyes. When he uncovered them, he was in a circular room built from tan stones, with a moderately large double-door in front of him. Carved into both doors...

"...is that a bell?" the Sekiryūtei blinked. It certainly looked like a bell. Not only that, it was mounted on a snowflake that looked really familiar for some reason...

Issei was jolted out of his reverie by the appearance of another window in front of him.

[Welcome!]

You have entered your first true dungeon!

Well, sort of. This is a pseudo-natural dungeon, created by the half-assed, incomplete and stupidly executed ritual of Kinoshita Rentarō. Rather than simply killing him and imploding (and possibly taking half the block with it) the ritual, which he designed by slapping multiple traditions and spells together and hoping (without much evidence to support it) that it would work, used elements of the pirate games he was copying on the side to create this dungeon, based on one particular set of enemies that it chose at random.

And people say that ironic karma doesn't exist.

You can only enter this dungeon four times, and you cannot leave the dungeon without defeating a floor boss. After you defeat one, you are given the chance to leave. If you choose to stay, you cannot leave until you defeat another floor boss.

A fair warning: if you leave the dungeon, all of the enemies inside of it will respawn and go up by one level. This will happen every time you leave. Fortunately for you, there are only four floors in the dungeon, so it shouldn't be too hard to clear it...right?

"Suspicious! This couldn't be any more suspicious if it tried!" Issei declared flatly. "Also, is it just me or was that a bit more conversational than all the other notifications that I've seen?"

Deciding that if things got really tough, he'd switch back to his gladius, the Sekiry ū tei advanced to the door and nudged it with one foot, letting it swing open, revealing a corridor that led up to a corner. The entire complex seemed to be lit by glowing stones embedded into the walls at set intervals. "Well, this is suitable eerie." Issei muttered before slowly advancing down the corridor. He could tell that there were no traps in the corridor, at least none that his necklace could detect, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to be cautious. An ounce of paranoia can save a boatload of effort or something like that.

As soon as he approached the corner, a magic circle flashed into existence and made an enemy appear, one that Issei knew all too well from his forays into RPG's. Standing about the same height as Issei, wearing a purple coat with white gloves and trousers, with a pointed straw hat on its head and only a pair of glowing eyes visible. It was...

Black Mage Type A #567 LV15

[Soulless Doll] "Damn you Rentarō for trying to pirate Final Fantasy IX!" the Gamer cursed angrily. "Know some shame, you bastard! I take back my pity!"

How dare the stupid bastard try and pirate his favourite Final Fantasy title! Now he was going to be forced to massacre his way through some of his favourite characters, he just knew it!

"KILL!" the cloth automaton rumbled as it raised its hands to cast a spell.

Fortunately, Issei had done quite a bit of grinding in Gizamaluke's Grotto and the Suburbs of Burmecia, so he knew very well the four attacks of Type-A Black Mages; Strike, Fire, Blizzard and Thunder. And he was in no hurry to find out what being on the receiving end of any of those spells would feel like.

Learn them? Yes. Hopefully that would be a reward from the Boss Fight or even a random loot drop.

"[Lesser Barrier Shield]!" Issei shouted, the barrier appearing just as a pair of grapefruit-sized fireballs shot out from the hands of the Black Mage and lanced down the corridor to strike it. Fortunately, his shield was at a level that, while cracked badly from the impacts, it was strong enough to withstand the spell.

Even as the Fire spell slammed into his shield, Issei was already running forward. The worst thing to do when fighting a wizard-type opponent was to let them keep their space. Close in, where they had trouble using their magic without hurting themselves (unless they were a lunatic like Teeksqueak the warped Warlock Engineer) and you'd have every advantage you could need to take them down

Granted, that hadn't been possible in FFIX, but hopefully the logic would prove itself applicable in a real-world situation.

"[Magic Weapon Reinforcement]!" he chanted under his breath, making both his Sword Breaker and [Sapphire Blade] glow red with his magic.

◤K◢◤o◢◤-◢◤f◢◤i◢

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