Dozens of them.
Rusty manacles bolted to stone walls, each meant to hold a prisoner’s wrists in place.
The room was empty—
Except for her.
A woman sat slumped in the far corner, wrists shackled high above her head, blindfolded. She wasn’t wearing anything resembling a royal gown. Instead, she wore a loose white shirt that could’ve easily been mistaken for a pillowcase. Blood stained the fabric. Fresh cuts marked her face and arms.
“Who goes there?!” she cried, voice raw. “I have told you—I will yield no secrets, no matter your cruelty!”
Okay.
She was definitely the princess.
And I definitely found her.
“Hey, calm down,” I said, keeping my voice steady as I approached. “I’m here to help.”
I reached up and removed her blindfold.
And my heart stopped.
I knew that face.
Knew those eyes.
Knew that tiny, stupid freckle under her left eye that she always tried to cover with makeup—
“…Emma?”
The princess flinched. “W-Who… who are you?” she whispered. “You are not one of them. Your clothes… they are strange.”
I froze.
My brain short-circuited for a full two seconds.
I could swear I was looking at Emma. My ex.
She wasn’t the love of my life or anything—we dated for a few months sophomore year until she suddenly decided she “needed space,” which was code for “I’m over it.” It stung, but I moved on. Haven’t talked to her since.
So what the hell was she doing here?
“Who are you?” she repeated, voice shaky.
I swallowed hard. My mouth was dry.
This wasn’t Emma.
Couldn’t be.
Just… something wearing her face.
The Dream Dungeon was messing with me. Pulling from my memories. Throwing old emotional junk at me on purpose. A mind game.
Great. As if crab-people and octopus swordsmen weren’t enough variety already.
I forced myself to breathe and shook the shock off.
“Umm—name’s Mike,” I said quickly. “Here—take this.”
I pulled a health potion from my inventory and handed it to her.
She didn’t hesitate. The moment she drank it, most of the cuts and bruises across her body faded, skin knitting itself back together. Color returned to her face.
All except one mark.
A dark burn ringed her wrist.
Acid.
“I’m getting you out of here,” I said, forcing my voice steady. “Or… I think. Hold on.”
A soft ding chimed, and a window appeared.
Secret Objective Updated
Step 1: Complete — Identify the victim
Step 2: Complete — Locate the Princess
Step 3: Defeat the monster that tortured the Princess and escape the castle with her.
“Yes,” I said, nodding. “I am getting you out of here. But first I have to kill whoever did this to you.”
“Captain Rusk?” she whispered. “Impossible. He will crush you.”
“Well, thanks for the confidence,” I said dryly.
“No—you don’t understand.” She shook her head urgently. “You must flee, Captain Rusk shows no mercy. Many stronger than you have perished beneath him.”
Her fear wasn’t fake.
Whoever Captain Rusk was, he wasn’t a basic crab or squid.
I swallowed hard.
Should I even try fighting him?
Technically, I didn’t have to.
The main objective was to escape the floor.
If I escaped, I progressed.
And progressing meant better odds for Earth’s future in the multiverse.
The gamer part of me wanted to complete the Secret Objective.
The 17-year-old part of me wanted to run and count my blessings that I was still alive at all.
“Do you know the way out?” I asked as I raised my club and smashed the shackles off the wall.
She winced but nodded. “Yes.”
“Good. Do you know where Captain Rusk is?”
“He will be in his quarters on the floor above,” she said weakly. “It is on the way to the exit.”
“Of course it is,” I muttered. “Why wouldn’t the captain be in the captain’s quarters?”
We headed toward the door. I figured I’d think it over as we walked—fight or flee.
Turns out I didn’t get the luxury of deciding.
Because the moment the princess got to her feet—
the door exploded inward.
The door didn’t just open—it burst inward, splintering off its hinges and skidding across the stone floor.
I raised my club, expecting some hulking monster, a giant crustacean, a demon… something worthy of the princess’s terror.
Instead, a… blob floated in.
A jellyfish.
A literal jellyfish.
It hovered a few feet off the ground, glowing faintly blue, no bigger than a basketball.
A tiny, wobbly, gelatinous sphere.
It also wore a cape.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Like—an actual cape.
Just draped over its back somehow, even though it didn’t have shoulders. Or arms. Or a spine.
I blinked twice.
“…You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
The jellyfish bobbed slightly, like it was adjusting posture.
This?
This was Captain Rusk?
I lowered my club a fraction and squinted at it.
“Seriously? This is the guy?” I asked. “I mean… no offense, but I’ve eaten seafood appetizers more intimidating than you.”
Then I glanced at the princess.
She wasn’t laughing.
She wasn’t smiling.
She was trembling—full-body shaking, eyes wide with absolute terror.
That’s when my stomach dropped.
Because whatever this floating gelatin cup was…
The princess believed it could kill us both.
The jellyfish’s glow deepened, shifting from soft blue to an ominous, pulsing violet. Its cape fluttered as if caught in an unseen current.
A cold, warbling voice echoed through the room—coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.
“You freed my prisoner. You killed my men.”
The temperature seemed to drop ten degrees instantly.
“You will suffer for that.”
I immediately raised my club again.
“…Okay,” I muttered under my breath. Then a thought occurred “How did the jellyfish even bust open the door? It has no legs. No arms. No—”
I didn’t even finish the sentence.
Rusk blurred.
His soft, gelatinous body hardened instantly, shifting from translucent jelly to gleaming metal.
Then he launched at me.
Faster than I could react.
He hit me like a cannonball fired point-blank.
The air left my lungs in a single violent shock as I flew backward and slammed into the stone wall. My whole body rattled from the impact. Pain exploded across my ribs and down my spine.
I collapsed onto one knee, coughing—wet and coppery.
“Got it,” I wheezed. “I get how you busted the door now.”
Blood dripped onto the floor. My HP bar dropped almost halfway.
The princess cried out behind me, voice shaking.
“Mike, he can change his density! Be careful!”
“Too little too late princess” I replied.
Rusk hovered in place again, metal plating rippling over his body like shifting armor.
Its glowing eyes fixed on me.
Rusk shimmered, pulsing violet again—
and then launched himself at me a second time.
But this time, I was ready.
I tightened my grip on the club, planted my feet, and took a full batter’s stance.
“Come on,” I growled.
The instant Rusk came into range, I swung with everything I had.
The club connected—
but instead of metal—
SPLAT.
Rusk turned back into a gelatinous blob mid-air, absorbing the hit like a water balloon.
The impact sent a shockwave of pain through my hands.
“AGH—!” I hissed, dropping to one knee.
My palms were sizzling. His jelly form was acidic.
My hands burned instantly, like I’d plunged them into boiling vinegar.
I looked at the jelly. The stone floor hissed when his acidic jelly splattered across it, faint smoke curling upward.
Great.
A shape-shifting, density-hopping, acid-jelly murder balloon.
Before I could recover, Rusk hardened again—
metal plates rippling across his surface like closing shutters—
and launched.
I wasn’t fast enough. I tried to dodge, but the jellyfish clipped my left shoulder, wrenching it out of place with a sickening pop. Agony shot down my arm. My HP dropped by almost a quarter.
I downed a health potion immediately. The pain dulled, but my shoulder hung useless at my side, dead weight.
I was in trouble. One more hit like that, and I wasn’t walking away.
Think. Move. Do something.
A spark of an idea formed—desperate, reckless, but it was all I had.
He floated back toward me.
I swung again—
and again he shifted to jelly, absorbing the blow.
But this time—
I was ready.
The moment he went soft, I dropped the club, summoned a knife, and stabbed straight into his squishy body.
“AAHH—!”
My hand burned instantly—acid eating into my skin—but the stab actually made him recoil.
Damage.
Finally.
Through the pain, one thought clicked in my head:
There’s a delay.
He couldn’t swap forms instantly. There was a window—tiny, but there.
Rusk hardened again, metal gleaming.
He shot toward me.
I raised my club, then at the last second, pulled back the swing and rolled to the side.
Rusk took the bait.
Seeing the telegraphed attack, he switched into gelatinous mode mid-launch to absorb it—
but found no attack to absorb and instead smacked onto the ground in a wobbling purple puddle.
Perfect.
I waited—just a heartbeat—enough for his timer to reset.
He shimmered, starting to harden—
Now.
I threw a knife.
He reflexively switched to metal to block it—
exactly what I wanted.
Because the moment he turned solid—
I was already sprinting toward him, club raised high.
With my new Strength stat, with every buff and bonus I’d earned—
I swung.
SWEET SPOT ACTIVATED
My club smashed into the jellyfish’s metallic form with a bone-shattering CRACK.
And this time, Rusk didn’t turn to jelly.
He couldn’t.
He didn’t have the cooldown.
The vibration from hitting his metal form rattled up my arms, numbing my elbows.
The impact sent him rocketing into the wall—
embedded deep—
then sliding down in a crumpled heap of metal and jelly.
His glow flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then went dark.
Rusk hit the floor like a dropped Jell-O cup.
Boss defeated.
Turns out jellyfish are squishy after all.
The trick was just getting the damn hit in.
Congratulations! You have defeated the boss of this floor.
Experience Awarded.
Loot Awarded.
Congratulations! You have leveled up!
You are now Level 4
+15 Free Stat Points
I dismissed the messages for the moment and looked over at the princess.
“Impossible, huh?” I said, immediately coughing up a bit more blood.
She frowned. “You know, you may have internal bleeding.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I replied, waving it off.
I pulled another health potion from my inventory and downed it in one go. It tasted exactly like cherry cough syrup—the bad kind—but the effect was immediate. The sharp, gnawing pain in my stomach faded away completely.
It wasn’t the same as the healing platform—that full reset feeling like I’d just slept twelve perfect hours—but it was still amazing.
I exhaled slowly.
“Much better.”
With that handled, I brought the notifications back up and checked the loot.
Loot Acquired:
Jellyfish Jacket (Uncommon)
+10 Endurance
Ability: Adaptive Density
- Automatically shifts density based on incoming attacks, reducing all weapon damage by 10%.
My eyes widened.
“Oh. Hell yes.”
I equipped it immediately.
The jacket materialized over my shoulders—black leather, surprisingly lightweight, with an embroidered jellyfish wearing a bandana stitched proudly across the back.
I glanced down at myself.
“Not gonna lie,” I said. “This looks sick.”
I grinned.
“I’d totally wear this to school.”