by Dakota Krout
Adam, meanwhile, was looking at Dale and making sure that he didn’t have any severe injuries or issues from using his new trick. “That was beyond foolish. You, more than anyone living, should understand that using Cores like that is wasteful and dangerous.”
“I know that, but I only had an issue when I used a Core filled with Mana. I can handle this,” Dale brushed off Adam’s concerns.
“Spoken like a true power addict,” Adam replied softly. “Let me guess, ‘you can stop whenever you want’. You don’t need the Cores.”
“Well, obviously.” Dale looked over at the small island, instantly seeing a path to get underground. “There’s our target, everyone. Let’s get in there and finish this place off quickly.”
After paddling through the waves, they arrived on an island that appeared to be perfectly circular. Only sand and two palm trees were present, and the trees were on either side of what seemed to be a ramp sloping down into the unknown. The Northern Barbarian, Tom, stared at the perfectly smooth ramp and spat to the side. “Hey. You think a human has ever gone in there before? I think this could be difficult for all sorts of reasons we aren’t considering. Perhaps we should allow another team, trained professionals, to scout the dungeon below?”
“Unfortunately… we don’t have that kind of time.” Dale adjusted his gauntlets and strode into the ground. “If there is something we can’t handle, we will just have to deal with turning around.”
They walked on the downward slope, interested to see that there was decent lighting in the area. It was shimmering and reflecting off the water, but they could see where they were walking. As they entered the first floor, it was clear that the walkways were mainly natural formations from the tide moving through the area. Tide pools filled a vast cavern, various life forms in the shallows.
“See any traps?” Rose nudged Hans, who was looking around with a smile on his face.
“None! This is the only dungeon I’ve ever seen that has traps and creatures only designed to prey on the environment. Look at this!” Hans pointed at a pool where a huge moray eel was zipping around. “If we fall in the water, we might be in trouble, but we are apparently totally safe on the sandbar!”
With this being said, they moved through the cavern and avoided fighting in all but one instance. They had to ford a small stream to get to the next downward sloping ramp, and an oversized piranha tried to go for their legs. Dale punched it several times, each strike breaking through scales and allowing him to tear Essence away from it and into himself. When the fish died, a small item drop appeared seven feet away. Hans rushed over and looked at it, rolling his eyes before tossing the item into the water behind them.
“Fish food.” Hans sighed and trudged toward the ramp. “Unsurprisingly, the rewards are things that are useless to us. Most attackers here are fish. So the rewards are tasty fish food. I hate it here already.”
Down the ramp they went, and after a few turns, the air began to get moist and musty. Walking onto the next floor, the walls opened up to reveal an expansive space filled with water. There was a path around the room that sloped slightly toward the water, apparently designed to direct any liquid to flow down into the pool. For them, it was a convenient path to avoid the vast shapes moving under the surface below them.
“This entire place is stuffed with water Essence,” Rose commented carelessly. “Dale, seriously, even though we are on a mission, you might as well take in some of this. It’s obvious that no one has ever cultivated here.”
“I will at the exit of this floor. Let’s make sure not to get caught off guard because we haven’t really needed to fight yet.” Dale was uneasy. “This is a dungeon, and it should certainly have something to defend itself with soon, something that could fight us on at least equal terms. The Essence in here is just too dense not to have some powerfully evolved creatures, so we can’t forget to stay vigilant.”
“True, very true.” Hans looked around the cavern, yawning and fiddling with his daggers. “How’s your aura going, by the way?”
“Ugh, it’s a gigantic frustration.” Dale pulled a face and continued walking. “I know to break into the C-ranks we need to force the excess Essence we collect into our bodies and aura, but for some reason, mine is expanding so slowly compared to anyone else I’ve ever heard of. It’s actually hard to maintain expanding it when I see such poor results.”
“Hmm.” Hans tapped the tip of his dagger against his teeth, producing a sound that made Rose wince. “Well… I’m no Craig, but I am in the C-ranks. Hey, Dale, you know what makes your aura expand really fast? Impure Essence. Yup. Instead of weaving a tapestry inside your body, you just add corruption and slap stones together to make a wall.”
There was confused silence for a moment, and right as Dale was about to ask what Hans meant, the man continued, “Guess what makes people bad at cultivation and actually attaining higher ranks? You may have guessed it: corruption. You see, your Essence is so pure that there is no wasted space, no ‘extra’ that isn’t being filled with Essence. That’s likely why it is going so slowly. On the positive side, when you do increase in rank, you can expect to be more powerful than others at that same level. Again, you should really talk to Craig about this. He’s the expert. I just… dabble.”
Dale contemplated this advice. “Thanks, Hans. Motivation is exactly what I needed. I think.”
“That’s nice, but you should really look out for that tentacle.” Hans stated this in such a bland tone that Dale didn’t register the threat right away. He was whipped across the back and tossed into the wall, needing to work hard not to slip off the slope and into the pool below.
“What was that?” Dale roared as he got to his feet, spinning around to see tentacles lifting out of the water.
“Some kind of octopus. I’ve got it.” Rose drew an arrow, collected a ball of chaotic Essence on the tip, and smoothly fired it into the cephalopod’s head as it breached the water. The tentacles spasmed and the water blackened from ink, but it then toppled over and began floating listlessly in the muddied pool. “Shall we?”
Chapter Six
The group reached the lowest level of the dungeon without much incident. This place, while likely an amazing predator in the ocean, was simply not built to defend against intelligent fighters. There was one last challenge ahead of them, and it was a doozy. A massive king crab was waiting for them, snapping its pincers in their general direction. Beyond having eight legs, it was mutated to have four pincers and have a glistening, diamond-hard shell.
“Would anyone be opposed to me attempting to handle this challenge on my own?” Tom loudly drawled to the others. He didn’t wait for an answer, and instead, pulled his oversized Warhammer out of a bag that was far too small to contain it. The Barbarian started jogging toward the crustacean, picking up speed as he moved. Just as he got in range of the pincers, Essence that he had been gathering at his feet exploded into flames and sent him soaring at the monster with a speed he couldn’t naturally attain. The pincers missed closing around him, clacking together hard enough to create small shockwaves.
Tom spun and used his momentum to swing his hammer. Like the moons circling the earth, the Warhammer turned with utter inevitability, landing against the shell with enough kinetic force to cause a localized earthquake. Unbelievably, the shell held firm. No cracks could be seen, and no blood came pouring out. The crab had stopped moving though and, after a few moments, toppled over as the others watched in awe.
“Good, you remembered my lessons.” Hans stepped forward and clapped Tom on the back. “If the exterior is overly armored, it is likely that they are compensating with weak internal defenses. You landed that blow right over its eyes, so you rattled its brain hard enough to kill it. Now, where did you go wrong?”
“Using that ability while surrounded by water and water Essence reduced the effectiveness by a great amount.” Tom furrowed his brow and thought harder. “Beyond that, I… did I do anything wrong?”
“You didn’t make
sure it was dead.” Hans moved slightly, and a massive pincer was suddenly bearing down on Tom.
“Ahh!” Tom yelped, falling backward into a puddle in surprise.
“Ha! Gotcha!” Hans was holding the pincer in front of Tom, wiggling it around and pretending to clamp the Northman. “Rawr! I’m just joking. Really though, a lot of beasts like to play dead to lure in prey, so use caution. Gimme one second; I’m gonna see if this thing has a Core.”
“I think I’ve found the dungeon Core!” Adam called from behind the crab as Rose and Tom both fumed over Hans’ antics.
“Grab it and let’s get out of here,” Dale called over. Adam nodded and created a ring of glowing celestial Essence on the end of his staff. Poking the wood underwater, he fished around for a few moments and pulled up a brightly shining blue Core. After handing the large Core to Dale, Adam turned and led the way back up to the surface.
“What’s that sound?” Rose’s slightly pointed ears were twitching, and her warning was taken to heart instantly.
“I think the tide is coming in,” Hans calmly explained, continuing forward. A moment later, his steps faltered, and he looked back. “Oh. We are pretty far below sea level, and there is now a hostile dungeon Core in your pocket. Let’s run.”
“The Core shouldn’t be able to influence anything in the dungeon right now. My aura should prevent it from interacting with anything!” Dale bitterly complained as they ran up the ramp. Water was trickling down it, the speed and volume increasing by the second.
“It doesn’t need to! The tide coming in probably fills the entire dungeon twice a day!” Hans shouted over the sounds of rushing water. “It probably absorbs all of it and converts it to Essence! With nothing absorbing the liquid, this place will fill up and stay full.”
They re-entered the floor that held a miniature ocean, noting that water was pouring in from all sides. The walkways were waterfalls now, and the water was rising rapidly. Huge shapes were in the water, and the octopus they had slain earlier was bobbing up and down as huge chunks were torn off it to be eaten by the other monsters.
Hans saw what was eating their kill, and his eyebrows rose in surprise. “Whale, whale, whale, what do we have here?”
Gigantic fish that Dale had never heard of were breaching the water, blowing geysers from holes on their heads. Their walkway was cut off, but Dale had another, possibly foolish, idea. “Follow me!” He jumped off the ledge, landing lightly on the huge fish and running across it like a bridge.
“Dale, you are an abyssal crazy person!” Tom roared with laughter as he followed his leader in a headfirst dive off the ledge. “I love it! I get to use a fish as a bridge!!”
The fish didn’t even seem to realize that there were creatures walking on them, causing Dale to shiver. The sheer scale of these things was terrifying; their size on par with the largest Abominations he had ever seen. The thought of necromancers getting ahold of these and using their flesh and bones in an amalgamation was horrifying. Hopefully their foes remained on land.
“This is surprisingly e-fish-ent!” Hans called as they raced against time. If they didn’t get up the next ramp soon, either the water would rise too high or the whales would submerge themselves. In both cases, drowning would soon follow. Hans looked at the creatures they were on with a glint in his eyes, then pulled out his daggers and murmured, “You think these things have Cores?”
“Hans, now may not be the time to satisfy your curiosity,” Adam stated as they jumped to a new whale. This one reacted to their presence, almost immediately beginning to thrash around. It seemed to realize that it could just go underwater, and as it nose-dived the people ran up its tail and jumped… landing on the ledge next to the ramp. Water was pouring down from the upper level, but they were able to power through the current with their enhanced bodies.
As they returned to the first floor, Tom stopped them from moving forward and plunging into the waist-high water. “This level may not be as simple this time.”
There were no more walkways. The water had also reached a point where all the creatures were able to move about freely, and dangerous creatures were already striking out toward them to rescue the dungeon Core. Gigantic eels were the fastest, flashing toward them with needle-sharp teeth leading the way. Hans moved forward, his speed so high that he skipped across the water. His daggers plunged downward into the water, opening gaping wounds in their bodies.
Hans was singing as he slew the dungeon monsters. “When a big slimy eel a-bites you on the heel, that’s a moray!”
“Don’t bastardize love songs!” Rose shouted at him in the cavern, the word ‘songs’ reverberating and echoing a few times.
“We need to move faster, everyone.” Adam pointed at a wall that was beginning to spray water. “I think that the walls are mainly held in place by the dungeon’s will, so right now, they are in serious danger of failing.”
“This entire place is an abyssal deathtrap.” Dale glared at the Core in his satchel before quickly pulling the drawstring tight and diving into the now-chest-high water. He wasn’t a particularly good swimmer, having lived on the slopes of various mountains his entire life, but the threat of drowning turned his doggie-paddle into a breaststroke. Luckily, his clothes didn’t seem to hold water; therefore, he wasn’t dragged down very much. Adam was having significantly more trouble, his large robe soaking up water and dragging him toward the bottom. He had recently broken through to D-rank six, so luckily, his strength was more than enough to allow him to power through the rising water.
While Adam and Rose focused on moving through the currents, Dale and Tom needed to work to defend them from sharp teeth and various poisonous creatures like jellyfish. After a few instances of vicious bites only being stopped by the armor concealed in his clothing, Dale tried to move the water around him in a manner similar to the stone that he had been encased in during his last training session. As he had hoped, the water around him reacted similarly by creating a current that moved away from him. This made the creatures coming at him move much slower while also removing the strain of going against the flowing water. It did not help his team, though, so he tried to restructure the water into flowing in a single direction.
It worked to a small degree, but creating functions that work exactly as you want them to was an exhaustingly tricky, time-consuming, and potentially dangerous process. By the time the team worked their way to the ramp, the water level was only a few feet from the roof of the cavern. A wall had given out, creating a cross current that was draining their stamina quickly. If they weren’t able to escape as intended, there was the possibility of using the new breech to swim upward if they could avoid the pull of the ocean. They had to dive down to get into the tunnel and then swim upward while enduring constant assaults from normal-sized piranha with oversized fins. These variant fish moved faster through the water than a projectile from a harpoon launcher and were able to shrug off water-slowed punches from Dale.
Rose had a dagger out and was killing off fish every few seconds, but her speed through the water had significantly slowed. Adam was thrashing upward, evidently near the limit of holding his breath. Dale pushed them forward and upward, following the others after attracting the attention of most of the predatory fish. Their bites couldn’t get through his armor, but he was confident their mutated jaws were enough to leave behind severe bruises and blood blisters. After a few more strokes, Dale burst through a curtain of water, gasping for air even as he fought to stay above the water line.
A steady hand grabbed Dale and pulled him upward onto the raft. Hans slapped his back hard. “Breathe, breathe. You doing alright? Swallow any water?”
“I’m fine.” Dale coughed hard into his arm. “Is everyone out?”
“We’re all here,” Rose confirmed for him. “We’re caught in a whirlpool right now, so I’m uncertain how long we will be alright, but…”
Hans waved off her concerns. “We won’t be stuck for much longer. The last room was almost full as is. My concern
is: how the heck are we getting back up there?” He gestured at the island that was floating a few hundred feet above them. Mountaindale and the surrounding land it had taken was hovering in the sky, blotting out the sun and giving off a truly dangerous feeling. Dale supposed that anyone would be nervous when a gigantic chunk of rock could fall out of the sky and crush them at any moment.
Dale simply shrugged. “Cal said he’d take care of it.”
“I think I know. I see our ride.” Tom pointed at something falling toward them. “Vines? Someone must have told Madame Chandra that we needed a lift.”
Chapter Seven
I extended a small thread of Acme mana, which the Core instantly tried to absorb. Instead, it cracked in half and exploded into a massive storm of Essence. I sighed sadly; so far, nothing I did had reached these Cores. At least I had learned to contain the blast of power after I had lost a dozen Goblins by trying to be nice out in the open. Now Essence only raged through a room designed to contain it, and the power was swiftly pulled through the dungeon, purified, and used to empower the various mechanisms of my traps and spawners. Any remainder came to me as a tasty treat, not even enough to be called a snack.
This Core had been C-ranked, but the mind had been from something like a shark. If it had ever had a Wisp, it had eaten it long ago. This Core had been decades away from achieving capabilities needed to actually think and would have required nurturing that no one - especially me - was willing to commit to. Ah well. I was glad that Dale had handed the Core over to me right away; I had been seriously concerned that he would do something foolish like attempt to absorb it himself. Maybe coming back and forming a complete soul had imparted some wisdom or extra intelligence to him? I didn’t know for sure, but I was interested in what was going to happen next.