Candy looked warily at the two dolls around her. The uninjured one’s attack made her extremely cautious. How was she supposed to deal with these? Since they were just dolls filled with cotton, how was she supposed to destroy them? Light them on fire? She only had a dagger! It wasn’t even sharp enough to cut cleanly!

  Before her next thoughts formed, the injured doll also turned to face her. It launched itself forward like its companion, but it was noticeably slower than the other. She felt she could have avoided it even without the system’s guidance.

  ‘It’s slower than the other one, so cutting it did do something, but what?’

  Suddenly, she heard one of the dolls about to take off. This time, she decided to counterattack.

  When the doll launched itself at her, she quickly spun towards it with her backhanded dagger. As the doll flew by, she managed to cut its side open. Cotton and bones fell from the wound as the doll crashed into the wall.

  Alright. She got the uninjured one this time.

  The cut she made in its side was bigger than the one in the other’s neck. The doll stumbled as it tried to get to its feet. Taking this opportunity, she rushed forward and sliced through its torso, leaving an even longer gash than before.

  As she watched the dolls’ stuffing fall out for a third time, her eyes filled with confusion. There was no way, right? It couldn’t be that easy.

  But thinking about how this was only an introduction and it couldn’t be too difficult, she gradually accepted it.

  When not in the air, the dolls were clumsy and slow. They attacked one at a time, but not rapidly enough to be a true threat. Although they had astonishing impact power, it was useless if they couldn’t hit their target.

  ‘For now, let’s target this one.’

  Not leaving the badly injured doll time to recover, candy dodged and attack by the other one and rolled forward. Once crouched on her feet, she turned and tore through the entire doll, splitting it open. As the stuffing dispersed into the air, she quickly retreated to the other side of the cavern.

  She watched as the doll she ripped open attempted to stand, but it fell back down and eventually stopped moving. The other doll readied itself to attack again, but this time, she had an idea. Standing with her back to the wall, she watched the doll. It again launched itself at her head. The moment she saw this, she crouched and ducked her head

  Stones and dust fell on her as she felt the impact the doll had on the wall. Nevertheless, she immediately dropped her dagger and caught the falling doll. Holding it upside down by the legs, she realized it was surprisingly light. The doll in her hands tried to struggle, but it’s arms were too short, and with its slow movements, it couldn’t break free.

  “So this is a good way to immobilize them.”

  She looked at the doll carefully, but seeing nothing different than before, she began shaking it violently up and down.

  As the doll was shook, clouds of stuffing were forced out through its neck injury. After a while, most of the doll’s stuffing was on the ground and she now held what looked like a doll-shaped sack. Suddenly, a system prompt appeared.

  [Current weapon: Strange Doll

  Skill: Weapon Mastery (intermediate) activated]

  Huh? Why was the game treating this as a weapon? It was clearly a dungeon monster. She opened the weapon description.

  [Strange Doll: A doll produced and imbued with an unknown force. It is harmless at close range, but becomes extremely dangerous at longer ranges. Essentially a homing and multiuse cannon ball, it has no other function.]

  Why were these descriptions so strange?

  So, the dolls weren’t monsters, but weapons. It really made her curious about the entity at the end of the dungeon.

  Throwing away the doll, now useless without its stuffing, Candy picked up her dagger and continued forward.

  After walking for what seemed like forever without encountering any other enemies, she was beginning to wonder if the dungeon guardian was stupid.

  How could it leave its home so unprotected? The cave system wasn’t even that hard to navigate if you had a sense of direction. No wonder this was a newbie dungeon. Even she, who didn’t even have a decent weapon, could make it through unscathed. She felt the skeleton she had met back then was really pitiful. How could such a person perish in this kind of place? They even had a weapon when they entered.

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  Sighing internally, Candy stopped walking at the sight of a large set of double doors. She had made it to the dungeon guardian’s room. The doors weren’t that big, maybe 3 meters tall and made of a black wood that contrasted starkly with the gray and green hue of the rest of the cavern.

  With her body slightly tensed, she pushed open one of the doors and peeked around the corner. Inside she saw a vast room illuminated by sickly looking green flames. At the far ends stood a large throne and a robed figure sat upon it.

  Candy braced herself for any kind of danger as she entered the room. The flames grew brighter as she entered and the door slammed forcefully behind her.

  It was the final trial. Would she be able to defeat the monster in front of her, or would she be forced to end her first playthrough in defeat, not even making it to the real game.

  Suddenly, a voice crept through the darkness. It was hoarse and deep, with a scratching sound that made it particularly grating on the ears, like gravel.

  “Well, well. What delightful child has come knocking on my front door today?”

  …

  The bright flames soon allowed her to see the face of the one speaking. On the throne sat a skeleton clothed in luxurious silk and velvet. On his head was a silver crown and in his hand was a staff adorned with rubies and emeralds.

  “Why, what a cute child you are, but don’t you know it is not polite to go barging into other people’s homes uninvited? Such children must be disciplined you know…”

  “Pfft.”

  “Huh?”

  “Hehe.”

  “What are you doing?”

  Candy, unable to stifle it any longer, burst into uncontrollable laughter. After laughing for a while, she finally calmed down a bit and looked at the system description in front of her.

  [Dungeon Guardian: Selzar, the unyielding. Once a general in the demon king’s army, he now lives a secluded life(?) on the outskirts of the dark lands.

  Threat level: Hmm. This should be easy.]

  She tried to suppress her smile as she gestured.

  “Please, continue.”

  The skeleton on the throne angrily banged his staff on the cold stone floor. It echoed loudly in the silent room.

  “Ahem. As I was saying, disobedient children must be punished lest they repeat their actions. Allow me to- What is it?”

  Looking at the girl who’s eyes were darting around awkwardly, the skeleton couldn’t help but feel annoyed. Prompted by his words, the girl spoke again.

  “That, um. Can we just skip all this stuff and go straight to the battle part? I’m kind of in a hurry and don’t want to waste too much more time here.”

  “Pardon?”

  “Can we just fight now, or do you have to go through that long winded introduction?”

  “Lo-long winded? Do you not know who I am? I am the great Selzar, first general of the undead army lead by the demon king 400 years ago! My name is painted in the annals of history and is spoken with fear all around the continent! MY-“

  “Yes, yes, I understand. You were once great now you’ve fallen and want to regain power, blah blah blah, I’m attacking now.”

  As she said these last words, her figure disappeared from her spot near the doors and reappeared right next to Selzar. After taking a swing, she quickly leapt back from the throne.

  She felt quite satisfied about being able to do this. When she played Achievements of Heroes, she initially quite liked cutscenes before a boss fight. But as she continued to play, they all became dull and useless wastes of time. Just fight each other. There’s no need to know anything if they’re going to be dead soon.

  “You insolent-how dare you attack me before I was done speaking! I will-“

  ‘Crack’

  This time, something scraping his jaw stopped his words. Had this insignificant child just attacked him again?

  Candy looked down at her dagger, which had significantly more chips in it, and then glanced at Selzar staring incredulously at her.

  ‘Hmm. Not a good match. Blades as weak as this just don’t work well against bone. I need something else…’

  She sheathed the dagger at her waist.

  Hah? This child had no respect for him at all. Selzar felt his anger burning as he shouted.

  “Fine. I won’t go easy on such a rude child. Behold! My army!”

  Small figures began creeping out of the shadows at his shout, and began heading towards the threat.

  Candy looked up just in time to see a few of the figures, the dolls from before, launch themselves at her head. She crouched to avoid them then rolled to a clear part of the floor as two more struck the place she had just been.

  ‘Ah, that’s it! Cannon dolls!’

  As her eyes lit up at the sight of the large amount of wea-dolls around her, she heard Selzar’s ominous laughter.

  “These dolls are the creations that earned me the title of Unyielding and the position of general. Now watch as they spell your doom!”

  “Alright.”

  Candy looked around and grabbed one of the dolls that had recently thrown themselves at her.

  “Let’s shut you up quick. I’m tired of your rubbish.”

  With near perfect form, Candy stood up and hurled the doll in her hands at Selzar. The cannon doll fulfilled its impromptu nickname andhurtled through the air at breakneck speed before landing squarely in Selzar’s face.

  Watching the doll come flying at him, Selzar could only think of one thing before he died.

  ‘Fu-‘

  After the creator died, the rest of the dolls naturally also collapsed. With a lack of orders, they returned to being dolls.

  Wading through the mess, Candy arrived at the throne, which now held only one thing. The elegant silver staff stood out in the dimly lit room. She picked it up.

  [Introductory Quest: Complete Dungeon Raid

  Status: Complete

  Please head to the nearest adventurers’ guild to receive your reward.]

  Candy looked at the staff in her hand. It not only served as the key to exit the dungeon, but it was also proof that she had cleared the dungeon completely. After being closed, the dungeon would never reopen. As for its use as a weapon, she didn’t even bother to look at its description. It was a magic weapon. It was useless to her.

  Looking around the room, she spotted the scattered dolls and suddenly had an idea. Since they were classified by the game as weapons and not monsters, did that mean she could put them in her inventory? She slowly reached out and picked up one of the dolls and tried to put it in her inventory. Surprisingly, it went in.

  Her eyes lit up in delight after discovering this and she immediately began stuffing as many as she could into her inventory. Although there was a weight limit, the dolls were light and she was surprisingly strong for someone who chose a magic class.

  …

  A glowing green portal emerged from a cave entrance and Candy stepped out. Her inventory currently held 15 of the cannon dolls and she was carrying 2 more under her arms, along with the staff.

  With a satisfied and cheerful smile, she walked out of the cave and onto the path before her.

  ‘It took me longer than expected, but Silva, here I come.’