I was surprised when I saw that I finally damaged the Ancient Ruins boss. So I finally beat it.
Then I got to the desert, got the bell, got it polished, and returned it to the captain. Now that I'm at the graveyard, I'm finally at the seventh dungeon.
Right now, I'm starting new files, then taking turns after each world on both games to extend the gameplay. Mario is doing the NSMB2 levels, and luigi does NSMB. Iv'e been enjoying these long gameplay sessions because of this!