After clearing “Gallery: Elle Morrison,” Annan had the option to start directly from the third level.
This was indeed good news for Annan.
At least when Annan tackles this dungeon instance in the future, it would save him a lot of time. He wouldn’t have to go by one level after another.
Annan noticed this save feature when he first entered “Nightmare: Gallery.” But he didn’t reveal it to the players. By just looking at the prompts when the players entered the dungeon instance, it was evident that Annan limited the system’s functions.
With this development, Annan could unlock the functions to the players as if they were rewards.
As long as the players didn’t know about this feature at first, they wouldn’t be dissatisfied. On the contrary, they thought that the game planner cared, listened to the players’ feedback, and sent out patches quickly.
It was like a particular game company that liked to split half of the game content into DLC.
After noticing the save feature, Annan realized there was a save point even in his very first nightmare, “Nightmare: The Betrayer.”
But before that, Annan had never found “the save point.”
What is the save point for?
Is it possible to respawn in that position after death?
Then, why not just call it a respawn point?
Soon, Annan had an idea.
Save points could only be revealed after clearing the nightmare dungeon and entering the nightmare for the second time.
This was undoubtedly good news since there was a special requirement to enter “Nightmare: Betrayer” – “Being unable to cast spells.”
Annan was now a Bronze Rank Falteration Wizard.
Annan’s previous idea was to find something that could temporarily seal his spell casting ability or to have a curse and temporarily restrict his spell casting ability.
But now, it seemed that he could perhaps load into the save and head to where he cleared the dungeon.
Or perhaps an earlier location?
“What is this?” Annan was dumbfounded.
After waking up from the nightmare, I get a toilet break before continuing? Is that it?
In the end, Annan decided to enter the first level.
This time, he intended to clear the nightmare on the second level first and reserved the nightmare at the fourth level for the next time.
Annan wanted to try if he could unlock the secret ending by clearing all the sub-nightmares.
After all, this nightmare update gave Annan confidence to do so.
(Author note: Let’s skip the repeated parts.)
But, when Annan walked into the last corridor of the first level, he saw a diary on the display cabinet that should have been empty.
It was the diary that should have appeared on the third level!
“…I understand it now,” Annan murmured.
The dungeon instance which he had cleared before would leave consequences.
The “trophy item” on that level where he cleared would exist thereafter.
“…Tsk.”
Annan thought of a cheat to clear the dungeon.
If he cleared the nightmare on the fourth level first, wouldn’t Annan be equipped with a weapon on the first level?
Though, this wasn’t really a cheat.
??Delicious Wind Goose’s thinking direction suddenly appeared in Annan’s mind.
The initial strategy was to acquire the coat on the first level, acquire the knife on the second level, and then successfully kill the Brother Sledgehammer, Joseph, on the third level.
After reaching the end of the fourth level, Brother Sledgehammer wouldn’t retaliate by the door.
Whether the door led to the fifth level or not, the dungeon challenger must kill Joseph before the third level.
Otherwise, the dungeon challenger would be murdered at the fourth level due to the plot.
At that time, Delicious Wind Goose couldn’t control his body at all.
In other words…
Starting from the fifth level, the enemy that “Amos” faced wasn’t “Brother Sledgehammer” anymore.
Hence, if the player acquired the gun at the fourth level, they could easily kill Joseph, who broke through the wall on the second level.
Joseph was incapable of performing the kill immediately with the sledgehammer. He only had robust strength. Of course, him smashing the wall was just a special effect. He was still a physically weak wizard. He had to speak to invoke his edict spells.
In the end, the players could shoot Joseph with a gun after he broke through the wall.
In this way, there was no need to run for the second and third levels.
There was no need to run on the fourth level either.
In this way, players would have the maximum plausible health when they reach the fifth level.
“So on the fifth or sixth level, there shall be a mechanism that detects health points,” Annan murmured.
For example, it would be impossible to clear the level if the health points were below a certain threshold.
That was why Priest Louis could clear the level so easily.
Amos had silver coins with him. There was silverware on the chandelier. The following few levels had great accessibility to replenish silver.
After entering the door, Louis might find that he didn’t have enough health points, so he just filled it up with silver. (Translator’s reminder: Priest Louis is from Silver Sire Church)
Then, he could run at full speed without worrying about internal damage.
On the second level, he could escape the chase at full speed.
In the third level, he ran to the end at full speed. Before Amos appeared, he would go directly to the next floor.
On the fourth level, he could utilize divine art “Sharp Object” to get weapons. With that, he killed the demons, hounds, and Amos directly.
He had skipped all the challenges imposed at the four levels.
But ordinary players were unable to do this.
If they ran like this, they would have died many times.
“So he doesn’t understand the mechanism behind the dungeon levels at all. He just brute-forced his way through.” Annan was annoyed.
If it weren’t that Annan lacked information on how priests tackled the nightmare, he wouldn’t have believed the strategy written by such a guy.
Upright deity priests were all designed to tackle the nightmare.
It was like those strategy authors who wrote, “This boss is simple. Remember to dodge away from the upcoming abilities and not be greedy to deal more damage. Just don’t die, lol.”
The real problem was how!
However, if Priest Louis didn’t understand the dungeon’s mechanism, it meant that the Silver Sire Church certainly didn’t know the true ending of this dungeon instance.
In other words, they did not know the Venerated Skeleton’s conspiracy.
Then, Annan could only rely on himself.
All the sub-nightmares here must be cleared.
Then when Annan re-entered the first level, the trophy items from the first level to the sixth level would be in the display cabinet here.
Though, that would include things like tomatoes and diary.
The good news was that pistols and rifles on the fourth floor would be available!
There could be “collectibles” on the fifth or sixth level that Annan hadn’t seen yet!
These collectibles might be the essential items to overcome Level -1!