“I really don’t want to do this,” Zeke said, pacing back and forth only a couple of feet away from the permeable wall that protected the habitat from the crushing abyss on the other side.
“It’ll be fine,” Eveline said. “You’ve survived worse.”
“I’m not worried about it killing me.”
“Then what’s the issue?” she asked.
The reality was that, even if he wasn’t particularly afraid of the seagoing creatures killing him, he definitely didn’t look forward to it. And the leviathan Eveline had mentioned was assuredly at the peak of the realm, which meant that it was not to be underestimated, especially on its home turf. Mostly, though, Zeke could anticipate just how unpleasant it would be. The fish and other sea life were fast, vicious, and powerful enough to wound him. And even if he could survive, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t feel the pain of being ripped to shreds.
He also just didn’t like water.
“That’s your attunement talking,” Eveline said. “Try to remember your past. You grew up near a coast, right? You probably swam in the ocean plenty of times.”
He had, though as he’d grown older, he’d stayed away from the gulf. There was something about swimming in the ocean that made him uncomfortable. Maybe it was watching Jaws as a pre-teen.
“I’m obviously going to do it,” he said. “I’m just working my way up to it.”
“Every second you wait, the worse your fear will become,” she advised.
“I’m not afraid,” he insisted. “Just uncomfortable.”
“Doesn’t matter. Just dive in. You’ll be fine.”
Zeke was about to respond, but then he realized that he didn’t really have anything to say. After all, Eveline could read the shape of his thoughts, so she knew precisely what was going through his mind.
So, without further hesitation, he summoned Voromir to hand, took a deep breath, then stepped through the permeable wall. Passing through it wasn’t difficult, and he quickly found himself back on the open seafloor. The first thing he felt was the immense pressure of so much water pressing down on him. He could withstand it, but not without pain.
He’d been through worse, though, so with that dull ache accompanying him, he stepped forward. Unlike what he might’ve expected, the seafloor wasn’t populated by kelp or coral. Instead, it was almost entirely barren, looking more like the surface of the moon than the bottom of the ocean.
Then, he saw a flash of silver, and something lanced into his side. Zeke reacted as quickly as he could, but when he reached out to grab the attacker, he found nothing but an water. A second later, another creature – he knew from a previous inspection that it was a creature called a bloody barracuda – tore a chunk out of his thigh.
The barracuda were pack – or school, he supposed – hunters, meaning that they never attacked alone. Instead, he’d encountered schools containing hundreds of the long, silvery fish, and they were all capable of moving at incredible speeds. That allowed them to attack almost unmolested.
Though Zeke had a tool for just such an occasion. He used [Flames of Reprisal].
Fire, ephemeral and hot, erupted across his entire titanic body, and the water all around him boiled. When the barracuda once again attacked, one after another in a silvery blur, they felt the lash of Zeke’s skill. However, it wasn’t nearly as powerful as it normally would have been, and it wasn’t difficult to see why. While the flames were magical in nature, they still retained enough of their nature that they could remain unaffected by the water and the attuned mana in the dungeon.
Still, they were effective enough that they briefly stunned the creatures, which in turn, gave Zeke a chance to bring Voromir to bear. He swung, and even though his arms were slowed by being submerged, he was more than strong enough to power through it. The first barracuda he hit exploded into a cloud of flesh and blood, and the rest soon followed as Zeke became a whirlwind of death.
It was a strategy he’d learned early on in the dungeon, and he’d replayed the lesson hundreds of times as he’d endured the attacks from the usually speed-focused enemies that claimed the sea as their home.
If fish even thought in such terms.
Regardless, the battle didn’t take long, but it was simply a herald of what was to come. As Zeke followed Eveline’s directions, he fought through hundreds of other monsters. Some, like the barracuda, were fish. Others were giant crustaceans and other sea-dwelling creatures. He even fought a giant eel that sent hundreds of thousands of volts of electricity coursing through his body the moment he got close.
But if nothing else, Zeke was incredibly durable, and he’d experienced unimaginable pain since being reborn in the troll caves. As a result, he was perfectly suited to bull his way through the obstacles before him, and though he certainly didn’t enjoy it, he managed it all the same.
Until, at last, he reached a giant trench, at the bottom of which he sensed a powerful foe. Looking over the edge, he couldn’t actually see the bottom. But he knew the leviathan was down there. He could feel it.
“You could feel it from the very beginning,” Eveline said. “I’m using your senses, after all. If I knew it was there, then you could have figured it out, too. You just don’t pay enough attention.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“I’m not here for a lecture,” he said inwardly, thankful for the ability to speak to Eveline within his own mind. Without it, they wouldn’t have been able to communicate at all.
Of course, she hadn’t really said anything useful, save for pointing him in the right direction. And according to her, he should have been able to manage that on his own.
“You’re not trying to convince yourself that you don’t need me, are you?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Not really. I know I’m stuck with you and your back-brain driving,” he said with a grin.
“I hate that you’re pleased with yourself for saying that. It’s terrible.”
“A wordsmith, I ain’t.”
“Please just stop. Go fight that monster. It’s coming up, by the way. You’d better brace yourself, because it’s quite big,” she advised.
Just then, something the size of a skyscraper burst out of the trench.
Zeke got the impression of sleek, rubbery skin before the wave of displaced water sent him flipping backward for hundreds of yards. He slammed through rocky formations, one after another, until he finally came to a stop nearly half a mile from where he’d started.
The distance didn’t keep him from seeing the creature, though. In fact, it probably helped him understand the scope of his foe. The monster was hundreds of feet wide and maybe a mile long, with a ridged, reptilian head that put him in mind of a crocodile. Instead of legs, it only had comparatively small fins and a long, serpentine body.
It resembled an eel, but if someone would have told him it was a sea snake, he wouldn’t have argued. Either way, it had traits of both, with a few other inspirations thrown in for good measure.
Even from such a distance, he could activate [Inspect]:
Depths Leviathan – Level 100
Its level was predictable, and Eveline had already revealed that it was a leviathan. So, the notification wasn’t a surprise. Still, it seemed entirely insufficient to describe the enormous monster he faced.
Over the years, Zeke had faced a few other creatures that were comparable in size. The cyclops was the first, but the necromantic vessel came to mind as well. But this instance felt different. On the good side of that difference was that he was on equal footing – at least in terms of level – with the leviathan. In previous encounters with monsters of that size, that hadn’t been the case. But on the bad side, the thing knew he was there and seemed intent on changing that fact.
He locked its beady eyes on him, then twisted its serpentine body in his direction. After that, it shot forward so quickly that it put the barracuda to shame.
But Zeke was ready.
He swung, using [Unleash Momentum] as well as the Voromir’s projection ability. He also laced both with a bit of his Will, and as soon as the attack was unleashed, he followed it up with [Eye of Reckoning].
As he crept closer to the peak of the realm, Zeke’s abilities had taken a huge step forward. He was more powerful than ever before, but at some point, he’d crossed a threshold, beyond which, he could use his skills much more quickly than ever before. It was like his entire body – including his brain – had developed the ability to function much faster. The result was that he could activate multiple skills a second, enabling a barrage that he hoped would at least wound the leviathan.
He didn’t hold back.
He didn’t dare, against such a powerful foe. More importantly, he was fed up with being underwater, and he wanted nothing more than to find the dungeon’s end.
The trio of skills rushed out, with a huge, crimson projection of Voromir leading the way. It hit first, slamming into the leviathan with all the force Zeke’s mountainous strength could bring to bear. The monster’s rubbery flesh rippled under the impact, and it shook with pain. But it didn’t get the chance to respond before a beam of fire and corruption tore into the same spot.
[Eye of Reckoning] was a powerful skill, and it showed just how strong it was when it ripped through the leviathan’s weakened flesh, digging an enormous crater through its body. Then, [Unleash Momentum] hit, tearing into that that crater and practically ripping the monster in half with the power of a thousand swings.
And given that those swings came at the end of Zeke’s strong arms, that was quite a lot of destructive force.
Finally, a gout of corruption, fire, and earth erupted from the seabed, destroying the leviathan’s innards.
Alone, none of the skills would have done much. Even together, they would have fallen short. But Zeke’s Will pushed them over the edge and allowed them to truly wreak havoc on the monster.
It writhed in agony as clouds of blood and flesh mingled with the water around it. But Zeke hadn’t remained still. He raced forward, propelling himself through the water with his incredible strength until he rammed into the leviathan’s wound. He led the way with Voromir, but he quickly surmised that it was the wrong tool for the job at hand. So, even as he clung to the ragged clumps of flesh dangling from the leviathan’s ruined body, Zeke use [Colossal Army].
A small portal opened, and out poured ten golems. Each one was armed with a spear and a shield, though they wouldn’t need them. Instead, Zeke used mental commands to send them on their way. The automatons discarded their arms, and dove into the wound.
Then, they started to rip and tear.
Zeke followed suit, climbing into the gaping wound and lending his own hands to the task. The leviathan, for all its size and power, was entirely incapable of fending him off.
That was the problem with monsters that size. Certainly, they were incredibly powerful, but once he got inside their reach – or inside their bodies, as it usually ended up – they couldn’t do anything to stop him.
It was not a pleasant experience, though. And it took far longer than he expected, even with eleven sets of hands devoted to the task. Still, his victory was inevitable, and he continued to tear through the monster until, at last, he found his way to an organ he expected was its heart. He destroyed it, but to his disappointment, the monster still didn’t die.
So, he kept going until he found its second heart. Then, its third. On and on he went until he’d obliterated fifteen hunks of muscle – along with a host of other important-looking organs – but it still hadn’t died. Knowing he didn’t have much other choice, he dug his way upward, ripping through its stringy flesh and following its spine until, finally, he reached its skull.
He couldn’t use the same strategy he’d employed against the cyclops. There was no room to swing his hammer, so he simply cocked his fist back and rammed it into the bone. It didn’t crack on the first try. Nor the second. Indeed, it took nearly fifty punches – each with an extremely limited range of motion – before he saw a crack. It was nearly a hundred more before that crack widened, and almost a thousand before he broke through. After that, it was just a matter of dislodging the broken pieces and plunging into the brain cavity.
As was the case with the cyclops, a brain that size was capable of generating quite a lot of electricity, so Zeke didn’t bother with dismantling it by hand. Instead, he destroyed it with another use of [Unleash Momentum]. By that point, the skill hadn’t had the chance to fully regain its peak power, but it was more than strong enough to turn the leviathan’s brain to mush.
And just like that, the monster died, resulting in a wave of kill energy that finally pushed Zeke to level ninety-nine. More importantly, it signaled the end of the dungeon, and it couldn’t come soon enough.
Because as he’d said throughout his time inside, he was tired to being underwater.