Gun Girl from Another World

Down

I adjust my speed holster for the umpteenth time, the grin still on my face. According to Identify, it's technically called the Ogre's Quick Draw, and is described as a universal sheath thingy that will change shape to fit whatever weapon is stored in it. Like the other Ogre's items, it's absolutely an upgrade over my own holster.

Mine is a work of art provided directly from the System with its own, apparently patented, leather, but it provides no bonuses aside from making sure gunk stays out of the gun and that the gun, itself, doesn't slip out. This new holster does that, too, as well as increasing my draw speed and the damage of my Quick Draw technique by half.

It's a powerful bonus for opening an engagement, especially considering the already outrageous power of a firearm, though I'd probably need some sort of special feat if I wanted to quickly sheathe it again to spam the bonus. I don't think the System has anything like that, unfortunately. Even if I trained myself to sheathe and draw it as quickly as possible, in the time to do so, I could fire several times, the cumulative power of which would be greater than the bonus from the holster.

Still, as I trace my finger along the intricate designs of my new holster, I can't help but think of how jealous Xuhitana would be to see the thing, and that's a big part of the grin. It's not a realistic thought, of course; the Empress is a Platinum-ranked adventurer and has been to dungeons far more dangerous than this one. As impressive as these bonuses are, what she's using for casual wear, let alone full battle gear, probably makes this look like I'm getting excited over a +1 short sword.

But it's my first +1 short sword, so I'm going to indulge in the baby's first magic item euphoria. Even when I eventually replace it with something even better, I'll probably keep this at the bottom of my inventory till the heat death of the universes.

Korrigan, however, is frowning, no doubt feeling left out with everyone else getting magic items and her yet to receive anything. When our gazes meet, she tries to look away like she isn't absolutely green with envy.

"Don't worry, we'll get something for you, even if we have to search every possible wall for a secret cubby full of gems and the Ancestor Ogre King's something something staff something!" I beam my best smile at the girl to reassure her.

Ayre rolls his eyes at my phrasing. "Two hundred intellect …" He shakes his head. "But Remmi's right, we're not done with this dungeon yet. There's still plenty of time to find something for you. That being said, I should remind you again that these drop rates we're experiencing are unrealistic for a normal dungeon run. You shouldn't expect to find anything perfectly fitting for you in even a dozen runs."

"We're just S.P.E.C.I.A.L.!" I pipe up.

"Those letters don't mean anything to us, Remmi!" Ayre nearly shouts back. "We don't know your alphabet!" The elf regathers his wits with a sigh, crossing his arms as we walk back across the main hall. "Honestly, I think you make these references just for your own amusement …"

The bright smile I crafted for Korrigan becomes a wide grin, and I don't bother contradicting my friend.

Leuke glances to the door to the Hall of Strength as we leave it behind. "Shouldn't we be checking the other rooms, too?"

"I mean, we can," I concede, "but I don't remember seeing anything in the Hall of Strength that could possibly have turned into a way to go any further, and the Hall of Guile is completely inaccessible unless you can roll a boulder the size of a building."

"I know I've spent most of this dungeon criticizing Remmi for trying to apply human reasoning to a dungeon's layout," Ayre admits, his arms still crossed, "but I agree with her this time. The only thing that changed in the challenge room–"

"Midboss room," I correct immediately.

The elf sighs. "Remmi, you're the only one that calls them bosses … Fine, the only thing that changed in the midboss room was the mural. We've only seen that three-eyed ogre in two other places, and one of them was in the Hall of Guile, where it barfed out the boulder."

Leuke reaches up and scratches at his chin as he peers thoughtfully toward the ceiling. "Oh, yeah, I guess there wasn't anything like that in the Hall of Strength, was there?"

Korrigan gasps suddenly. "That's right, there was another mural at the entrance!"

"Exactly," Ayre confirms with a nod. "Besides, if we turn out to be wrong, we can just walk back and check the Hall of Strength then."

I look proudly upon my best friend. "You're really getting the hang of navigating a dungeon, Ayre!"

The elf huffs and looks away, reflexively crossing arms again. "It's not the same thing! I'm just relating it to something we've already seen, you're making assumptions about things without any basis at all!"

I just chuckle into my hand at his reaction, though I don't dare voice the words, Tsundere Elf, out loud.

We follow the split path that led into the main hall and soon find ourselves back at the temple entrance. Sure enough, there's the three-eyed mural, but …

"... It hasn't changed?" Korrigan is the first to voice what we're all thinking.

Ayre frowns like the wall personally insulted his mother. "I could have sworn … it's the only place that makes sense …"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Leuke, though, squints at the mural for a moment, then moves over to look at it sideways, bending down to be eye level with the mouth. "Were those tusks sticking out before? I thought the whole thing was flat …"

"It certainly looks flat from the front," I agree as I hold my chin thoughtfully. "I don't think any of us thought to look at it from the side coming in. I can't say if they stuck out then or not."

Korrigan takes a step toward the mural and grasps one tusk in her hand. She's able to wiggle it a bit. "It moves!" She reaches for the other one, but it's outside of her range.

"I gotcha," I say as I step up to the other one. "Now, shall we pull on three?"

Korrigan nods with determination.

"Alright, one, two, PULL THE LEVER, KRUNK!"

We both pull, and there's a rumbling sound that fills the air … coming from below our feet. I have just a moment to consider that maybe I chose the wrong reference before the entire arrangement of tiles in front of the mural folds down underneath our feet.

Everyone's eyes widen in surprise in the same instant we start falling. And, idiot me, there's only one thing I can think of as gravity yanks our entire party downward.

"WRONG LEVEEEEEEeerr…"

The fall is long. The light from the hole in the floor shrinks to nothing, or it might have just closed up again. Either way, it leaves us freefalling through pitch black darkness for a long moment. I activate Lifesense to tell where everyone is around me, and sure enough, three other life signs return to my senses, spread out around me. We're falling at roughly the same speed, Leuke a little faster, Korrigan a little slower.

At these speeds, though, we're going to splatter all the same.

The sides of the hole we're falling through gradually become visible as red cracks crawl their way into our field of view. They aren't actually moving, of course, but it appears that way with no other frame of reference for our own movement, and soon, fiery light from below blooms up to meet us.

There's ground below us, but it's rock, and it's surrounded by what looks like magma.

"Remmi, do something!" The strangled shout comes from Ayre, to my left, but I'm already racking my brain to come up with something, anything.

My eyes widen. "I'm gonna stop us!"

"You're going to what?!"

I pull my gun and switch the magazine to those golden EzStop bullets, and take note once more of where everyone is. I'm going to have to be fast, or we're still liable to break bones by gaining too much speed again.

"Dive ahead of me! Go, go!"

It takes them half a heartbeat to figure out what I mean, but it's a long fall, and soon, as I spread out my limbs to catch as much air as possible, they narrow their profiles to speed up. Once they're reasonably ahead of me, they spread out again, and by that time, I've got seconds to act.

I activate Empower to make the most of those seconds possible, and shoot my friends. As quick as I can adjust my aim and pull the trigger, they flash golden yellow mere feet above the ground. I turn the gun around and shoot myself, eyes clenched shut against the ground that must have been inches from my nose.

…

My next sensation of anything happening is thumping against the ground, bruising my nose on the granite and landing awkwardly on my gun hand. I'm lucky the gun doesn't go off again in my stomach from the impact.

There are groans from the hot air around me, and I let mine join them as I push myself over onto my butt.

"That was … quick thinking, Rem," Leuke speaks up, still on one knee, but nothing looks broken, though he's making a face that tells me something's still hurt.

"Yeah, thanks for saving us," Ayre mutters, holding his head in both hands. There's a few abrasions on his face and knuckles, but he's intact, too. "But let's not do that again. Those bullets clearly aren't for people … My whole brain still feels like a brick in my skull, and everything from my knees down is pins and needles."

"My chest hurts," Korrigan adds. She looks like her face took a good bang, but she's holding her right hand over the left side of her chest.

It doesn't take a lot to figure out what they all mean. I feel it, too. My head is heavy, my extremities tingle, and my heart is pumping to burst, like a drowning man suddenly coming up for air.

"It should fade … Temporal dissociation definitely shouldn't be a long debuff … probably." At least, I really hope it's not. I don't actually know what's wrong with us, but I have a pretty good idea, and I'd rather talk a big game than scare them with talk of our bodies nearly suffocating, stroking and heart attacking all at once.

"Remmi," Ayre groans, "are you making stuff up?"

"Yeah," I admit, but stumble my way to my feet, anyway. "C'mon … everybody gather 'round, we'll get some healing going. Maybe that'll help with the everything. Get over here, Korrigan, let's start with you and get a look at that gash on your head."

Healing magic does help, or at least the strain of the EzStop bullets' timey wimey damage eases around the same time. It could have been just due to being up and moving, or focusing on something other than the pain that lets our systems relax and begin to run normally again. But I'm happy to give the credit to my Heal spell, too.

"It's hot down here," Ayre complains as I finish tending to Leuke and then pull out a vial of sweetened apple juice to pour down my throat.

I swallow it down and wipe the back of my hand across my mouth before stowing the vial again. "Sorry, don't have anything for that. We should just be glad it's mostly for show. If convection was working how it's supposed to, we'd literally be baking. If anyone needs water, though, don't hesitate to speak up. Dehydration can get you killed."

Korrigan, not seeming nearly as bothered by the heat, has moved over to a wall of stone raising up from the granite floor. "It's the mural."

That pulls our attention to it, as well, and just like she said, there's the three-eyed ogre again.

"Right in the same place as the one up above," I observe after I take a moment to get my bearings. "I thought maybe we'd taken the wrong route, but maybe not."

I'm rubbing my chin again. "That's clever. First, the switch is easily missable, then anyone that didn't get caught in it would have thought it a trap."

"But wasn't it a trap?" Ayre asks. "I mean, we only didn't die because you stopped us."

"Maybe there's some other way to break the fall?" I guess, then point to the familiar mural. "The dungeon obviously expects us to make it down here, if it's got this mug waiting for us. We really are only halfway through the dungeon, then."

I point next to the split paths of stone to either side of the mural. "Even the entrance paths are duplicated. The Main Hall's gotta be on the opposite side. Be ready, everyone. I doubt we're going to have goblins and wolves waiting for us this time."

Everyone gives a nod, tightening their grips on their respective weapons.

It's time for the second floor.