*BOOOM!!*
"*Cough, cough*, YOU! STOP TOUCHING THINGS!" - Garami
"*Cough, cough, cough van Gogh*!! I-it's not-, this cannot be my fault!" - Bloom
"I'm willing to bet! But more importantly, what was that weird cough!?" - Garami
Unfortunately, the fairy of soot, smoke, and technology's bane didn't have the answer. And worse, her involvement has caused the security camera gear to do another small explosion.
"Tch. I figured this stuff would be unusable after the first ka-boom, but now there's no hope." - Garami
It happened when Bloom wanted to play back the tape to see what happened to Alf. That guy disappeared while we were taking our eyes off him. What is he? A child that got lost at the amusement park? Geez.
Worst of all, while the explosion wasn't bad enough to harm us for real, the first blast completely wrecked my Dungeon Terminal. Worst of all, the guarantee doesn't cover "explosions from old surveillance systems"!! Okay, seriously, the bad thing is that I lost my only contact with Mira and Alf. If I had known these things were so easy to crash, I'd brought along some spares, DP be damned.
...now that I think about it, couldn't we have tried to contact Alf using the Terminals? Dammit, living in this fantasy world for so long has made my common sense from Earth do a Houdini. And if I couldn't think of this idea until now, the odds for Mira doing it...is low. Alf, be a responsible lost adult and try to contact us!
In the meantime, I'm out of here. The equipment didn't exactly create a massive fire dome when it blew up, but the smoke's easy enough for anyone to take notice of and interest in. And since walking on the ground is gonna leave footmarks, let's take to the roof!
A web line and a well-trained jump are enough to get me out of trouble, or at least the first step toward that goal. Next is getting back to the ship and waiting for... Already? Sheesh, people around here have too much time on their hands. There's already a group gunning for this place.
The risk of being spotted if I tried to run away on the rooftops is too high for my taste. Instead, let's try to hide and wait it out. This building is fairly high, so let's make use of the hiding techniques that I've cultivated during my many months in the Water-Knot. Please don't let trouble find me...
---
Alf's side:
"WHOOOOOAAAAAA-!?" - Alf
The vampire angler could only howl in surprise as his trip to the underground kept on dragging on and on in the dark shaft that he had fallen into. Or rather, had been dropped into. Even in his confusion, Alf could still rationalize that he had splendidly fallen for a trap. Whether it was on purpose or an accident, or whoever the culprit might be, were questions he could not think about right now.
"Dammit-!" - Alf
*SCREEEEEEECH-!*
In a desperate attempt, Alf stabbed his halberd into the walls he was falling into in the hope that it would cause his fall to stop, or at least slow him down. His durable partner made a nasty noise as it tore through the walls at a breakneck pace, only for it to be repelled the second the shaft's material changed into that of a harder metal. Some might have thought it was added to withstand the extra weight from all the earth over them at the moment.
"A shift in materials?! Then, this place is-!" - Alf
Alf, however, is not like others. He had enough experience with strange objects to recognize the true reason for this sudden change in underground material. He had heard about a similar space before. One that was located underneath Old Bervaudan, the previous location of his hometown before it had to be moved. As for the reason for that decision...
"Just great! I'm not going to become monster food here!" - Alf
It was because the underground sewers had been hastily fashioned into a prison to keep a great beast, only known as "The Most Deadly of Treasures", and a member of the "Seven Myths" that had plagued his town until Revi's firm extended their business range to New Bervaudan.
Just as Alf had predicted, the shaft ended in a vast space that could easily hold even the gigantic boss monsters that used to live in the Water-Knot. All of them simultaneously, with enough elbow room for them all included.
The vast space's true identity was an underground lake, repurposed into a sewer system for the amusement park. In a certain sense, the situation was not so different from the Myth of Alf's homeland, which for him, was an advantage. Knowing that landing in the water would spell his death, Alf took drastic measures to try and get closer to the shore.
"[Ice Spikes]! And [Ice Wall]!!" - Alf
Hastily, Alf created pillars and a wall, or rather, a "floor" of ice, creating an instant treehouse-, *cough*, an instant ice-house attached to the ceiling. The only problem now was how to get into the house.
"To finish things, [Shadow Line]!" - Alf
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Using his battered halberd as a makeshift fishing rod, Alf swung it toward his only savior from a watery death. A black thread-like object emerged from the tip of the pole and was flung toward one of the pillars made using [Ice Spike]. A thread of shadows, a skill Alf chose to obtain after seeing Garami's weaving techniques being used for combat purposes + Alf's own experiences with the fishing rod.
The thread, almost as if it was alive, wrapped itself around the pillar before tying itself to it. After seeing his literal lifeline finishing being tied, Alf had the rope drag him up into the ice house and safety
"*Wheeze, wheeze*... Too damn close..." - Alf
After he crawled up onto the icy floor, Alf finally got a chance to catch his breath and tried to calm down after the consecutive sudden drop and the even more sudden threat to his life. Just as the blood in his veins felt like it went from overheating to normal temperatures, it suddenly dived into arctic temperatures.
Underneath the transparent ice floor, Alf had a bird's eye view of the gloomy lake. And in those dirty waters, he could see the shadow of...something large enough to rival the giant "King Cobra" that had tormented Garami in her first days after she had reincarnated to Terra Sol.
Alf, a born-and-grown port town child, recognized the shadow's identity in an instant. And because of this knowledge, his face started to lose more color than his vampirism could ever do to the poor man.
While trying to keep himself from screaming in fear, Alf searched the underground room for a way out. And for once, it seems Lady Luck is on his side. The trap hole that he had fallen for was not placed in the middle of the area, but pretty close to the wall. Furthermore, the room seems to have been used as a reservoir or something similar in the past before being repurposed into its current state. There is a set of walkways around the whole artificial lake, probably meant for the maintenance crew in the past.
I just have to reach that...!
And of course, to get to the lake, the crew needed a door to the chamber. That was Alf's goal. However, this gate to salvation was still at least 4 floors' worth down. Not to mention a few meters too far away vertically as well.
However, you could not call Alf a man without imagination. While making more "floors" of ice would be too costly for his MP gauge, the solution to his predicament fortunately had a more...economic second option.
Swallowing his fears, Alf took a running start (possible despite the ice floor thanks to the passive skill [Ice Walk]) and jumped off the icy platform. Then, while in mid-air, Alf triggered a skill belonging to his newly obtained 3rd attribute line, [Moon Jump].
While the skill's effect would be at its strongest during nighttime or on one of Terra Sol's different moons, it was just enough for Alf's purpose here. The ability of [Moon Jump] is to bend gravity and give the user a chance to jump up using a moon-shaped platform. It's essentially a double jump, something that most attributes would require to have its skill in its 2nd tier before it was unlocked.
However, despite its useful effects, [Moon Jump] only works properly during the right time and/or locations. An underground sewer was far from its optimal activity time zone in the middle of the day. Each platform lasted only half a second without letting Alf ascend as much as one would have thought from a skill with a "double jump" effect.
But today, this was enough for Alf. By repeatedly creating a new moon platform, he had managed to facilitate a set of "stairs" that allowed him to reach the walkway. When Alf's feet reached solid ground, he turned around to look at the dark waters. His heart was beating hard enough that it could burst out of his chest. Luckily, the weak lights from [Moon Jump] didn't seem to have awakened the beast.
Not that it seemed to help Alf's dwindling sanity. Carefully to not make any loud noises with any missteps, Alf tip-toed to the door, which looked pretty busted after years of imprisonment duty. Even with the door looking like it had been Isekai-ed several times by a truck, it was still standing firm. The creature in the water couldn't have used it in the first place due to the size difference.
Before making his descent, Alf had been worried that opening the door could alarm the underwater creature, but Lady Luck seemed to favor handsome vampires today. Even with the massive door (compared to Alf, not the Cthulhu reject in the artificial lake) still standing, large cracks had appeared in the determined metal plate. For once, Alf thanked the hideous desert environment. All the heat and sunlight had punished him so much that he had become underweight, hence making it easier to get through the cracks. Someone, give this guy a decent dinner or three...
There was nothing past the door except for an empty corridor, but Alf didn't release his breath just yet. It took him half an hour passing through several magical and physical blockades before he finally breathed fresh air (if you can call underground air "fresh"). Good thing he technically is an undead.
"That...that's not something you can beat." - Alf
True. Even Garami could not deal with the King Cobra, so something of a similar size-
"If just one tentacle is that big, how massive would the whole thing be!?" - Alf
......Eh? Did he say "Just one tentacle"?
No, this cannot be right. Let me see, where was that manual for the Invidia continent's monster population? There we go. Now, Sekarot Desert, Desert...Dessert? Whoops, wrong book.
"What are ya doing now?" - ???
Tch, some rude fellow is interrupting my fun time by intruding on my sanctuary. What god and/or goddess has the honor of being my...
"Ah, it's just Chaos. Lame." - ???
"Wh-what's so lame about me!? I'm better than you, a dark gloomy goddess constantly spying on people!!" - Chaos
"I'm not spying on people. I am just playing a narrator in a Bad End route of my making." - Alvatria
"Okay, so you're not lame. Just sick in the head." - Chaos
"Much better, thank you very much. But what I hate is when something unexpected happens during one of my scenarios. Monsters are your thing, so what is this?" - Alvatria
"Move over so I can see. Ehm, this tunnel is...ah. Right, now I get it. You're wondering about that gigantic supersized mega monster that's sleeping in those sewer pipes." - Chaos
"What else? Spill it." - Alvatria
"It's nothing... Okay, it's big big, but it's nothing special. It's just the prototype for my Disaster." - Chaos
"Ah, you also had to build your Disaster to match the natural-occurring ones. Is it strong?" - Alvatria
"Hmm, more like it can't operate. It might have the 'presence' of a Disaster, but it's honestly just a lump of dead-yet-living flesh at the moment." - Chaos
"Oh, my. What a waste." - Alvatria
"I know, right? Therefore, I gave my followers a divine decree to try and reactivate the beast, but there have been several...difficulties standing in their way. It's been a pain in the ass, honestly." - Chaos
This loser's followers? That must be the group led by that werewolf character that my toy spied on. My, how amusing.
"Ah, what a blunder." - Alvatria
"Blunder? How so?" - Chaos
"If I had known there was such amusing already happening here, I should not have bothered sticking my pretty finger and stir things around." - Alvatria
"......Y-yeah, what a blunder. Poor guy..." - Chaos
Now, let's replenish my popcorn basket and switch to the widescreen. My Evil Goddess hunch is now telling me things will escalate favorably.