Mia had been exploring for a few hours now, less light from the transparent ceiling was illuminating the dungeon as the day shifted into night. Mia had managed to avoid the doll that was chasing her, and she was getting quite familiar with the traps of this dungeon, allowing her to evade getting caught in them.

As she explored, she found the lack of monsters peculiar, besides the Doll, the Mimic, whatever the hell that giant mouth was, and the Twiggy Nut she had not found any other monsters in her time exploring this dungeon, much to her disappointment. Afterall, her goal was to get stronger and for that she needed monsters she could beat.

The Doll was out of the question, along with the mimic, but with the only other monster she could beat being the Twiggy, which she couldn’t find more of, she was at a loss. At first, she guessed it had something to do with all the traps, the residence of this dungeon dying to their own traps leading to the lack of monsters, but the existence of the Doll contradicted this idea.

Even with her amateur knowledge of dungeons, she personally saw the Doll walk through a trap and not trigger it, leading her to believe that all monsters had this ability in their own home. This was also supported by her experience in the only other dungeon she had explored, the goblins being able to wander freely without care.

There was also the possibility this was just how the dungeon was, it mainly being traps with only a few monsters, but that also didn’t seem correct.

Peering into another bare room much like the one she found the Mimic and Twiggy Nut In, Mia confirmed her thought, the dungeon was uniform. It followed a design of trap filled hallways with several side rooms that was either trap infested, or monster infested, the problem she was currently facing was all the monster infested rooms were empty.

“Or already cleared…” She mumbled to herself. While she couldn’t find any hard evidence, like leftovers from a fight like a corpse, the fact some rooms were empty in such a dangerous place didn’t give much room for any other explanation, unless they were just like this.

She sighed, with night fast approaching and the dimming hallways she had to find someplace safe for the night, somewhere she could hide from the Doll she was pretty sure was still pursuing her, as every time she stayed to long in one place it was guaranteed to show up. Her stomach growled, realizing she had also neglected to eat anything since the morning… it was beginning to show just how underprepared she was when she left.

Readjusting her lumber axe that rested on her back she continued forward, with her new goal of finding a safe place to rest and hide. She continued for a while, finding nothing but empty rooms. The light seeping into the dungeon from above was running out, leaving her situation dire as she found it harder and harder to see the traps that littered the hallways, she was running out of time.

Considering her options, she feared she’d have to load, try another path or cut her losses and go back to the start. Both of those options she wanted to avoid if she could, as convenient as it was being aware of the time loops, or more specifically the pain of death, has led her to believe that loading had an unseen cost. Of course, this was just a feeling she had with no actual proof, but she wanted to avoid it if she could.

Rounding a corner and peering into a nearby room Mia’s face lit up. Inside the room was another Twiggy Nut and a chest against the wall. The chest aside, she saw the monster as nothing more than exp and a chance to test out her improved stats. She welded her axe in both hands and gave her status a quick glance, nodding to her full hp she readied her axe and charged through the archway, hearing a *thunk* as it slammed shut behind her.

“Kwei?!” The Nut noticing her immediately let out a shrill shriek, before it quickly started ramming itself up against its wooden cage, shaking free the shrapnel in preparation to launch.

Not giving it time to do so, Mia rushed forward, bringing her axe high above her head and slamming it down. A dull thunk resounded as the axe’s blade sunk into the wooden cage, not managing to cut through its wooden protection.

It shrieked again, launching its shrapnel point blank towards its attacker.

Flinching at the sharp wood scratching her Mia leaped back after pulling the axe free. Looking at the cut skin on her arms she frowned “25 not enough to break through…” She grumbled, dodging the incoming spray of shrapnel, noticing she was still getting pelted despite her increasing her dex, she was slower. Agitated at her dwindling health she rushed forward with her axe raised above her head, aiming towards her previous cut.

The Nut in the cage’s center shrieked, surprised by its attacker’s sudden rush, it slammed it’s body down, commanding the twigs to spread out.

Recognizing this, Mia stopped, allowing the twigs to spread out and leave the top exposed as she dashed forward, swinging the axe down over the extended spikes and landing a hit on top of the monster’s head.

“KWEAIAAGH?!” The monster yelled out in pain, but it wasn’t dead yet. with the axe firmly stuck in it’s head it slammed down, causing its spikes to just out further.

Mia found herself impaled by a few of the extended spikes, cutting into her exposed flesh and piercing her ragged clothing. She let go of her axe and jumped back, a few of the twigs snapping off inside her. She squinted, eyeing the Nut and questioning how it was still alive before inspecting her own injuries. She had a total of 7 twigs stuck inside her, 5 on her arm and the rest sticking out of her chest.

She gripped one on her arm with the opposite hand, and with a grunt she yanked it free “Gah-!” she yelped, looking at the tiny hole left in her arm. She then looked at her HP, 62/100, and gulped, reconsidering her earlier stance on increasing health before refocusing on her opponent who had re-caged itself, the axe’s handle sticking out in between the cage while the blade was still stuck in the nut itself.

She frowned, yanking out another needle and causing her health to drop by 2 points, how was that thing still alive? A kitchen knife killed it in one hit and that was when she had lower stats, but an axe to the head left it alive? “Unfair.” She pouted, but then considered where she had hit it, the eye, which she had to stick her arm through a barrage of spikes to get to.

The monster let out an angry shriek, continuing to attack by launching more shrapnel.

“Break over.” Mia sighed, running around to avoid the stream of sharp branches, noting this time she had no problem avoiding them, managing to keep ahead of the stream but found herself in a predicament, she had no weapon. Her axe was firmly planted in the enemy with no obvious way to retrieve it, and she lost her knives hours ago.

While running she yanked another stick from her body and considered using it against the creature but gently prodding it once it was free from her body lead it to crumble into dust. “Hnng…” She was stuck, dodging the constant onslaught of shrapnel. She had hoped it would eventually run out of wood to shoot at her, but it didn’t seem like that was ever going to happen, there was also the issue of the light quickly dimming.

“AAaah!” in a desperate move, she rushed the creature once more. Seeing her do so, the Nut slammed the floor and spread out it spikes. “Aaa- “Mia clenched her teeth, running past he creature she felt her skin getting pierced by the extended spikes but as she passed she gripped the handle and yanked it upwards with all her strength, managing to pull it with her as she passed.

Gripping the handle, she nodded “Got it.” She said, looking at her health she shivered, 18, she was bloodied but she had managed to get her weapon back, she had a chance. She raised her axe and faced the nut “Huh?” only to be surprised, the flared cage was empty. “Where did…? They move?” she blinked.

“Kwe? Kweiii! Kweiii!”

She heard it from behind her and swung around, the room’s wall greeting her but nothing else.

“KWEEEIE?! KWEEIIIEE KE KEEIE!”

Again, from behind, she turned only to see the empty wooden cage.

“KE-“

She spun around again, this time swinging her axe and stumbled as the weight pulled her “H-hu- woah.” She caught her balance after being moved, then raised an eyebrow, she knew the axe wasn’t THAT heavy. Confused, she brought the axe Infront of her.

“Kwei!”

“…neat…” She found, stuck to her axe’s blade, the main body of the Twiggy Nut, it’s green eye darting around as it desperately called out, becoming silent once it noticed Mia had noticed it, it’s eye staring at her. Mia smirked, waving the axe around a bit “Stuck on good, huh?”

“K-kw-kwee?” Its iris shrank, trembling.

Mia slowly raised the axe into the air, ignoring the shrieks she slammed the creature into the ground, a sickening series of cracks filled the room as the nut was ungraciously split in half.

*Ding*

Mia smiled, pleasantly surprised killing another one of these granted her another level, it did nearly kill her, again. She also didn’t have someone stealing all her kills… She shook his memory out of her head and looked towards the archway, it was still closed tightly. She then looked at the chest, she had to find out if it was a mimic before doing anything else.

She saved and picked up her axe, she then sunk it halfway into the top of the wooden chest, and after a moment of silence, there was nothing. She let out a sigh of relief before excitement overtook her. Her first treasure chest! In her excitement she opened the chest, hearing a *click* her face paled.

Remembering the words of Rowan as her excitement quickly faded and was replaced with dread.

“Chests are always trapped.”

An arrow then shot out of the chest, flying above her head and in between her ears before embedding itself into the wall. It was at this time she found herself, for the first time in her life, being truly thankful for how small she was.