"The cavern to the right holds the boss monster — the Ant Queen. I've already marked it on the map, so let's turn left before she notices us," Nadine reported after her scouting trip down the right tunnel.

Arianna had felt a strong presence from that direction and sent Nadine to confirm. Their teamwork was getting better and better.

It had been three days now, or at least they thought so. Three days of constant darkness, broken only by the torches they carried. But they were rationing those. Only the front and back had a torch now, and while they were sleeping, there was no light at all.

Sure, with her improved senses, Arianna could somewhat make out outlines, but it didn't replace real light. She knew those under level ten suffered even more from the endless dark.

"Thanks, Nadine. Good job," Arianna acknowledged. "Let's go left. Mrs Tchekova is already level three. Not much more to go."

Nadine nodded, but Arianna caught the grimace she tried to hide. Luke, standing nearby, didn't even bother. He sighed.

"Let's just get this over with. It'll get easier once everyone's in the party and can share the exp."

The fox huffed beside them, nodding in agreement. They all understood her sentiments.

Meanwhile, Marcus and Helen exchanged teasing looks.

Helen shook her head. "Young people… they have no patience."

Marcus agreed with mock seriousness. "I tell you, it's because of those phones. They always get what they want, when they want it. That's not healthy."

Turning to the younger group, he added, "When we were your age, we had to—"

"Yes, we get it," Arianna interrupted. "When you were our age, you had to walk five kilometres to school in the snow. You had to wait a week for the next episode of your favourite show. When you missed a bus, you had to wait three hours for the next one. Yes, we've heard it. Did I forget anything?"

Luke helpfully muttered, "And when they wanted a game or a book, they had to pay for it themselves, even though they were only five and it meant working part-time. Apparently, every kid had a job back then."

Nadine snickered. Marcus and Helen both grinned.

Mrs Tchekova loudly declared, "Now, young man, don't get snippy with me."

Luke almost looked chastised like a little boy, until Mrs Tchekova, or rather Viktoria as she preferred, started laughing.

Nadine grinned. "You're good."

Her husband shot her an exaggerated look of betrayal, and the group dissolved into laughter. It wasn't particularly funny, but they'd needed it.

Rohan and Michael were doing well enough, but Thomas wasn't cut out for fighting. He'd chosen the mage class after they finally pushed him to level five, which had been an exhausting process of hesitation and encouragement. The boy hadn't only been fighting against monsters, but also against himself. Viktoria was surprisingly fine with all the stabbing of monsters, but her body struggled to keep up.

At her age, her mobility was limited and her strength lacking. Predictably, they moved more slowly because she couldn't reach monsters quickly, and she often had to stab them multiple times before they died. Still, with every level, she regained a bit of her vitality. The reverse ageing was far more apparent in her than in anyone else. She was eighty-nine, after all.

After a short rest, they continued down the left path, fighting again and again. They were used to the giant centipedes and worker ants by now. In the last few tunnels, they had also encountered warrior ants, flying ants, giant moths, giant earthworms, horned beetles, and spiders. Many, many spiders.

While walking, Viktoria kept to Arianna's side.

"Arianna, dear, are you alright? You look a bit pale."

Arianna smiled. "Yeah, I just have some trouble sleeping. Nothing too bad."

Helen, who overheard, gave her a look.

Alright, maybe that was a small lie. In truth, the nightmare loop had happened every night. She hated drowning. It wasn't that she feared water; she still loved it, but drowning really sucked.

Viktoria nodded but still looked worried. Arianna felt a little warmth in her chest.

"Thanks. But I'll be alright. Maybe it's just this dungeon. All this darkness is… creepy."

Viktoria accepted the change of topic gracefully. "Yes, it's difficult to even walk in all this darkness. And all the crawlies and creepies don't help either."

Arianna could only agree.

Then her expression shifted. "Get ready," she murmured.

She and the other higher-level group members had sensed the next opponent. They advanced steadily, Marcus and Arianna staying at the back as mage and cleric, but also guarding the rear in case of an ambush. Between her water barriers and shields and his earth walls, they could stop almost anything that came for them.

Arianna sat down on the ground, her water barrier shimmering faintly around their makeshift campsite.

Finally, Viktoria had reached level five.

They'd decided to rest for the night and then fight relentlessly for the next three days. It would be exhausting in a different sense, but at least this mental fatigue would be over soon.

The fox came up beside her and snuggled close. They'd fallen into a routine: the fox received pets as soon as they rested, as long as she wasn't eating. Arianna was the designated petter, while Marcus had somehow become responsible for the fox's food supply.

The monster companion rumbled happily, her golden eyes half-closed. Arianna grinned.

Despite acting like a spoiled pet, the fox was a fierce fighter. She had helped them countless times and constantly guarded the camp, refusing to sleep inside anyone's tent. Instead, she always lay outside, alert and watchful.

With her sharp senses, she could warn the group long before danger reached them. Only Arianna's awareness came close, which was why Arianna felt oddly comforted knowing the fox considered them "hers" to protect.

Arianna had taken the first watch together with Helen. If the others had let her, she would've taken all the watches.

She really didn't want to sleep.

The nightmare would come again.

It didn't scare her the way it once had, but the fact that it kept happening did. She'd never heard of recurring nightmares before, and this one felt… significant. Like something important was buried inside it. Something she was failing to see.

"You're still having nightmares," Helen said softly beside her, breaking the silence. "And it's concerning."

Arianna sighed. Helen already knew, of course. She had woken up often enough to find Arianna breathing hard, sitting upright in panic after dying yet again in her dream.

"I have no idea why," Arianna admitted quietly.

Helen gave her a sidelong glance. "Do you want to tell me about them in more detail?"

Arianna hesitated. She hadn't wanted to bother anyone with this, but she was at the end of her rope. So she told her everything.

"I just don't know how to beat the water," she said. "The hobgoblin isn't a problem anymore. It dies as soon as it appears. But how do you fight water? And I don't even want to survive alone. I want to save my parents."

She exhaled heavily. "It's so frustrating. It feels like I'm stuck on a level of a game. And every time I die, I have to pass all the previous levels again before I can even try the next idea."

Helen looked thoughtful. "And you can use your abilities in these dreams?"

Arianna nodded. "Yeah. That's how I usually kill the hobgoblin now. Took me a while to figure it out, but it works."

"You have water manipulation, don't you?" Helen asked. "Why not just keep the water away?"

"I've tried," Arianna said, shaking her head. "But the pressure builds up too much. Eventually, it just breaks through. I'm not good enough yet."

Helen hummed. "Understood. Then maybe a different approach. Let's brainstorm."

Together, they began tossing around ideas Arianna could try next time. The most useful ones were: make her water dome completely impenetrable; try to summon her mace and break through the window or door; and, Helen's favourite, learn to breathe underwater.

The last one sounded impossible. But then again, most things that were happening had been impossible before mana had surged.

"Water's made of oxygen and hydrogen," Helen explained. "If you can somehow separate or filter out the oxygen and use it to breathe, you might be able to survive underwater for a while."

Arianna nodded slowly. "I'll try it. I'll probably have the nightmare again tonight anyway."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

They continued talking, refining their ideas, but those remained the most promising.

A little later, Luke and Nadine arrived for their watch. Arianna and Helen said their goodnights and went to lie down in their tent.

Just as Arianna had predicted the nightmare came again.

Arianna stood over the corpse of the hobgoblin, her mace still in her hand. She'd managed to get it out of her inventory. Stupid that she hadn't tried that before. Without wasting a moment, she strode to the door and used Bludgeon on it.

She ignored her parents' questions and their calls of her name. She didn't have time for that. The room was already starting to fill with water. But the door didn't shatter. Nothing happened.

Frustrated, Arianna let out a small scream and turned toward the window, swinging her mace again. No success there either. Still, she poured more mana into Bludgeon, charging it through her mana manipulation to make the strike stronger. But even that didn't work.

In the end, she drowned again, watching her parents' lifeless bodies float beside her.

Then she woke up in her room once more.

She sighed. Six more times. For the last two nights, the loop had played out exactly seven times. She assumed this one would be the same.

Arianna quickly went to the kitchen and killed the hobgoblin. It was strange. That creature had caused her so much pain, so much fear before. Now it was just the prelude to the real problem. She didn't even think of it as an enemy anymore, just a necessary step to continue.

Her parents tried to talk to her again, but she cut them off sharply. "Silence! Wait a moment."

Thankfully, they were so surprised by her tone that they actually kept quiet.

Then Arianna summoned a water barrier and focused on making it so dense you couldn't see outside anymore. Her hope was to keep the rising water out for however long it took. Though she had no idea what to do next.

When the water inside the barrier finally stopped rising, Arianna assumed she'd succeeded. She could feel the pressure of the water outside pressing hard against it, and she prayed the barrier would hold.

"...Ari? Can we talk now?" her father asked timidly.

Arianna felt a pang of guilt. She was trying to save them, but that didn't excuse how she'd spoken to them. "Yeah. Sorry, Dad. Mom."

Her father exhaled heavily. "What's going on? First the monster, now this... water dome?"

Arianna tried to explain. "The world has changed. I can beat the monster now, but outside the dome, there's water filling the room. We'll drown if the barrier breaks, and I still don't know what to do next."

Tears of frustration stung her eyes. Why am I so helpless?

"Oh, Ari." Her father pulled her into a tight embrace. "Everything's going to be alright."

He knew it was an empty promise, but he said it anyway, trying to comfort her. Arianna hugged him tighter in response.

Then the pressure outside suddenly increased tenfold.

This wasn't good. If any more—

The barrier shattered. Water crashed in and tore them apart.

This time Arianna didn't even manage to see her parents as she slowly choked to death.

When she woke, she slammed her fist into the bed. "Next idea," she spat like a curse.

After killing the hobgoblin again, she ignored her parents completely and focused on the water. Could she filter out the oxygen? Could she somehow learn to breathe it?

She shut out everything else, the cold rising water, her parents' cries, and looked inward instead, focusing on her lungs.

Using Mana Sight, she watched how air flowed in and out, studying the particles moving through her lungs. It took a while, but she began to understand. Then she turned her gaze to the water that was already up to her throat.

The water's blue mana particles had to contain some of the same particles as air. They were just hidden.

Arianna dissected the water with her mana sight, and when it had already swallowed her and her parents, she saw it. Deep within the blue, faint traces of greenish particles, the same hue she'd seen in air. Those had to be oxygen.

She was terrified but had to try.

Instead of holding her breath, she pulled water into her lungs, but filtered it first, trying to let only the oxygen particles through. For that, she formed a thin barrier of non-elemental mana in front of her mouth.

It half worked. Water still got in, but she managed to draw in some air too. Encouraged, Arianna kept refining the process again and again.

When she finally had it down, she opened her eyes, only to find her parents floating lifeless once more.

She'd taken too long.

Disappointed, she dissolved the barrier in front of her mouth and let herself drown again.

When she woke, Arianna sat up and took a steadying breath. This time it's going to work.

She could breathe underwater now. Well, kind of. It wouldn't last long, but it would buy them time.

The hobgoblin was quickly dispatched again, and Arianna turned to her parents. "I know this is difficult to understand, but the world has changed. We're still in danger."

She pointed to the water already pooling across the floor.

Her parents looked alarmed, trying the door and window, but neither would budge.

"Don't worry," she said firmly. "I've got an ability that lets us breathe underwater. Just stay close to me."

With that, she wove a small barrier in front of her parents' mouths and noses. They looked sceptical, but her father gave a faint smile. "Alright, Ari. We don't understand what's going on, but we trust you."

Arianna smiled back. Her father always made her feel better, even now.

When the room fully flooded, Arianna breathed just fine. Her parents took longer to adjust, and her father nearly passed out before his instincts gave in and he drew in his first shaky breath.

It wouldn't hold forever, but for now, it worked. Arianna looked around. What now?

Then the room vanished.

They were suddenly suspended in open water. A lake or an ocean, teeming with fish. Huge, monstrous fish.

Before Arianna could react, a shadow rushed her.

A massive fish lunged forward and bit down on her.

She died, eaten by a damn fish.

"Argh!" Arianna let out a scream of frustration as she woke again. What the hell?

But now she had a plan.

Quickly, she killed the hobgoblin, explained the situation to her parents, formed the mana filter around their mouths and noses, and then summoned a water barrier around all three of them.

It worked.

The fish couldn't get through. And now that she actually had time to look, Arianna realised they were quite weak. She'd just been caught off guard before. The fast enemies and a new environment had thrown her off.

Not this time.

She burned mana quickly but kept her pattern running as she used her attack spell Water Lance.

Thankfully, she had an offensive spell already. If she had to come up with one right now, she didn't know if she could. This nightmare was exhausting.

One fish after another died. The water turned a reddish-violet colour with their blood, clouds of it swirling around her like smoke. And when she finally killed the last one, when she thought it would finally end, a sudden pull yanked at her body.

A whirlpool.

She hadn't been prepared. Again.

She lost her grip on the water barrier and her parents were swept off. She also lost the water filter, and the current swallowed her whole. The drowning came faster this time, as if the water itself was fed up with her failures and wanted to be done with her.

Just how many levels does this nightmare have? she thought bitterly as she woke up in her bed once more.

This was already the sixth loop. Only two more chances to beat it.

She wanted, no needed, it to end. This was torture.

Once again, Arianna went through the motions. She killed the hobgoblin, made the filters for her and her parents, enclosed them in a water barrier, and fought the fish when they appeared. This time, she kept a firm hold on the water barrier and her parents.

When the last fish died, she strengthened the barrier immediately.

Sure enough, the whirlpool returned. It was a violent, sucking force that twisted the world around them. But this time, she was ready.

Through the pressure and chaos, Arianna clung to her parents with both arms, held the water barrier by constantly feeding it mana, and maintained the air filters through sheer focus. Her mana dwindled and even her pattern couldn't keep up.

But she wasn't so desperate as to overload herself right now. Who knew what consequences that would have for her in the real world.

When everything finally stopped spinning, she opened her eyes again.

The water around them was clear, crystal clear. They were surrounded by a colourful reef and the fish swimming around them seemed normal, even cute. The whole place looked serene.

Her necklace suddenly burned against her skin.

Danger?

Arianna scanned her surroundings… and froze.

Two enormous eyes stared back at her from just a few metres. How had she not noticed that right away?

They belonged to a massive, reptilian head, long and elegant, with scales that shimmered blue like polished sapphire. A dragon, the eastern kind, serpent-bodied and majestic.

Arianna trembled. How am I supposed to fight a dragon?

She was barely the size of one of its eyes, and the pressure it exuded almost crushed the air out of her lungs. She could barely keep the filter running.

The dragon didn't move, but its mere presence overwhelmed her. She couldn't even sense its level, her awareness just… blanked out.

This was no mere D-rank. Not even close.

Still, she gripped her mace tighter, jaw set. This is impossible, echoed inside her head. But if she was going to die, she'd go down fighting.

Yet… something felt off. The dragon wasn't attacking. It was just watching her, and strangely enough, its gaze didn't feel threatening. If anything, it felt… calm. Comforting, even.

Arianna didn't understand it.

Then, before she could think further, a sharp pain flared at her neck. Everything went dark.

She woke up again in her bed.

"What… was that?" she whispered, rubbing her neck. No wound. No mark. Of course not. She'd been reset.

Had she been so distracted by the dragon that something else had killed her? Maybe another monster had snuck up behind her.

Possible, though strange.

She shook her head sharply and slapped her cheeks with both hands. "This is the last loop," she told herself aloud. "It ends tonight. You can do it."

Full of determination, Arianna marched straight into the kitchen.

While killing the fish, Arianna kept thinking back to what had killed her the last time. It was still a mystery. She was almost certain nothing had been near her. The dragon had been in front of her, her parents behind her, nothing else.

Was it a stealth creature? Or something else entirely?

Arianna had a bad feeling, but this time she'd be ready for anything.

The whirlpool came again. She really didn't like being dragged around, shaken up, turned upside down, only to be spat out again, but that's exactly what happened.

She saw the dragon once more, still just watching her. Its massive eyes glowed faintly through the shifting water.

This time, Arianna didn't let herself get distracted. She flared out her awareness, searching for even the tiniest movement nearby, ready to respond with a water shield and water lance at the first sign of danger. She pretended to be captivated by the dragon again, keeping her mind steady, her senses sharp.

Then a movement. Right behind her. Coming straight for her back, for her heart.

Arianna reacted instantly. She threw up a shield and fired a water lance without looking.

When she turned around, her stomach dropped.

Her mother was impaled on her own spell.

Blood drifted through the water in a crimson cloud.

"...Ari…" her mother choked weakly, eyes wide with shock.

"Mom!" Arianna screamed. What… what had she done? Why was her mother even in that spot? Her attacker should have been there!

Arianna stumbled back in the water, numb with disbelief. Her father was flailing toward her mother, trying to hold her as the blood spread faster.

"Why?" Arianna whispered, her voice breaking, numb and disbelieving.

Then she saw it.

A knife. Clutched in her mother's hand.

Arianna's breath caught. She'd been trying to stab me.

"Why?" Arianna trembled all over. Why? Why? WHY!?

Her mother's eyes glazed over as life left her body, her lips still forming the word, "Ari… why?"

Her father turned on her, fury twisting his face. He started swimming toward her, ready to attack. Arianna braced herself—

But the strike never came.

A crushing presence filled the water behind her.

"Enough," a voice thundered, not aloud, but inside her skull.

Arianna froze. That voice—

"Trickster!" the dragon's voice boomed. "She passed your test. Stop your play."

Her mother's body suddenly twitched. The dead eyes focused on her again, now cold and calm. "Tch."

Arianna could only stare as her mother's face began to melt. The flesh dissolved into inky black smoke, her father fading away beside her.

In their place stood a man, dark as shadow, tall and lean, his outline flickering like mist. His face was impossible to make out, and when he spoke, his voice sounded distorted, as if filtered through an old voice changer.

"Alright. Finally. It took her way too long."

He gave her a mocking bow. "Greetings. I'm Trickster. And this—" he gestured around them "—is the Maze of Delusions. You've finally passed."

He smirked. "You'll get your gift when you wake up. You'll need it."

Then he turned his head toward the dragon and spat. "You take the fun out of everything."

The dragon only rumbled in answer, ancient and unreadable.

Trickster looked back at Arianna. "See you soon."

With that, he vanished, and the dream dissolved like smoke in the wind.

When Arianna opened her eyes again, she was back in her sleeping bag, next to Helen.

Glowing system messages hovered before her eyes. She'd raised her Water Manipulation and Water Lance spells up to Intermediate. She'd also made a new spell called Water Filter. It already started at Intermediate because of her Water Manipulation.

And then came the most welcome system message:

[Congratulations! You have cleared the Maze of Delusions.] [Reward: Unique Feature Mental Resistance (Basic) acquired.]

It was finally over.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.