[Player-Candidate: Carissa

-Several unknown Ocean Gods have sent you messages.

Disgusting. Disgusting creature. Ugly creature. Freak. Unnatural. Drown in the tainted blood of machines. Drown in the tainted blood of technology. Disgusting…. thing. Become a thing. A mindless worthless thing. Become as prey for us. Die for us. Entertain us.]

Carissa ignored several things, the first was a voice which had called out to her. She vaguely recognised it but ignored it. Kill. She had to kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. Pain. Physical pain inside her body.

Threatening me.

Part of her wanted to respond to the voice, to call back and become human once again. Not a machine, not what was flooding into her. Threatening to reshape her according to a set of rules.

The second was the lack of exhaustion. She had chosen to fight the mutated form of the scientist with her teeth, her mind giving her the viable option to defeat and kill a creature that was larger and stronger than herself. Her teeth remained sharp enough to easily tear through flesh, one of the few physical augmentations which she had been left with upon arrival in this flooded world.

Carissa had only had the chance to test them on smaller animals, mostly fish with a mixture of crustaceans to see how well she could crack the shells. She hadn’t designed her body or been genetically altered by her parents as an embryo to become an apex predator of the oceans.

No, they had simply wanted to use their research and that of their colleagues to conceive a child better able to survive underwater, to hold breath for longer, to have enhanced skin and eyes to reflect light underwater.

Despite killing the monster form of the scientist and completing the quest given to her by the Ocean Gateway System Carissa had simply carried on hitting it with the bone toothed club after it had cut open the palm of her hand and blood had spread and been absorbed by the bone edge of the club. Part of her rational mind, deep within her told her that it was a good choice, a normal choice to make under the circumstances.

And so, Carissa had continued to smash the blade into the flesh of the dead mutated form of the scientist. She hadn’t considered to take the time to use the Ocean Gateway System to examine either the sealed syringe with grey liquid inside or the black binder which had been given to her as quest rewards but carried on using the club to slowly reduce the flesh into a softer form.

Where the bone tooth club met with resistance of bone or the altered flesh was too difficult to break through, she had adjusted her position and found a softer area to work on.

The third thing which Carissa was trying to ignore was the sensation within her body of the grey blood which she had swallowed regardless of her efforts which was refusing to be digested and began to mix with the contents of the protein blood and fish meal and water.

She knew her own body, her own mind and after sufficient amounts of testing, additional genetic alterations. There was something inside her trying to create change, to alter her based on her own will and sense of need. A foreign substance she recognised. Not part of her own personal design but a thing that would respond to will and strength of mind.

The last thing which Carissa was ignoring was the series of messages from the Drowned Gods from the Ocean Gateway System. Not of them were able to get through and cause her direct physical or mental discomfort of pain but she still processed and stored them away for future recall or reference.

[Player-Candidate unknown Ocean Gods are sending you mess-messages.

Leave her. She eats. I like her. Ugly thing. So ugly. Find Peace in the Depths. Carissa. Others are stronger. Bored. I’m bored. Playtime. When is playtime? Carissa. Listen. Focus. Please. Stop it. You need to stop. Mine. She will become my champion.]

‘Shut up. All of you shut up. I’m not your entertainment. All of you are mine. This is my time.’ murmured Carissa.

The messages slowed and then stopped in her mind’s eye as she spoke again.

‘Shut it down. Leave me alone and let me think.’

The sound of her own voice aloud shocked her for a moment and she tried to drop the bone tooth club before a sudden sensation on her palm which had been holding the weapon caused her to stop. A single part of the blade had elongated and enveloped itself around her hand and rose upwards pulling her towards the bloodied large pile of grey flesh and remains of tattered clothing.

When the club connected with her cut flesh a connection was formed, a hunger, far smaller than her own but it was there. Carissa forced herself not to respond to the club, to try and rip it off her hand as she instinctively knew that it wasn’t interested in her blood, her flesh.

Reinforcing her will on the club it lowered and ceased to pull her towards the remains and dropped down. It failed to unwrap the bone wrapped around her hand but neither was it causing her any signs or sensations of discomfort so she left it.

Glancing down at her grey suit covered body Carissa was surprised that there was no traces of flesh and blood on either her body or on the surrounding floor. She had killed the transforming scientist but she knew that he had never fought back. In front of her the smooth pristine corridor wall had been smashed open, the space large enough for her to crouch and squeeze through.

From what she could make out it was a room filled with scientific equipment, the light from inside the room was the same as her present location. Well-lit but with no visible sources of light aside from a glow coming from the ceiling.

She would venture inside soon enough but something had gone wrong with her. The scientist was being slapped around by Matthias who had been calling him a monster, a dungeon creature before it had punched him and sent him flying.

Carissa was aware that she had killed it although part of her felt disgusted at her own actions. The large pile of flesh which she had spent an indeterminate amount of time hitting with her bone club until it no longer resembled a humanoid shape but rather a broken pile of meat and bone was once a man, a scientist.

She wanted to curse the Ocean Gods for making her kill but this had been her own choice, her own actions. Her stomach cramped and the sensation of an unknown substance inside her trying to adapt, to change her stomach to better digest the flesh and blood she had inadvertently swallowed when she had let herself fall to mindless rage and anger.

No. Settle down. This is my body, my mind. You will not change me into that form. I will not become like the scientist. You will settle down.

It was then the realisation kicked in that she had killed a sentient living being, he had been in the process of changing into a monstrous form and attacked her group member and she had acted the only way she knew but she had killed him.

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The scientist had begged to see his family once more. Carissa knew that the description from the Ocean Gateway System was correct, this was a place of horrors.

‘System, replay previous message about Deep Water Facility. I need to read it again.’ said Carissa.

Guilt and horror would have to wait and Carissa wanted to keep her mind occupied before shock set in at her situation. At the least she needed to know more, then she would find Matthias and they would carry on.

Her bone club as though responding to her emotions drew back the piece of blade that had enveloped her hand and settled back into its previous position. The colour of the blade had shifted from a light ivory colour to light grey.

A message came into her mind’s eye as she moved around the dead mutated form of the scientist and towards the hole in the corridor wall behind it. Just in case another scientist or worse came running and transformed again she wanted a clear escape path. She had never seen any signs of doorways aside from the one that they had left behind them and entered this corridor.

After sitting next to the damaged wall and purposefully keeping her weapon in her hand she let herself lean back and reviewed the first message she had received giving her information on the dungeon.

[Player-Candidate Designates:

Group: Carissa Acqua and Matthias Fischer

You’ve entered one of the worst excesses of technology and madness this planet has to offer.

Commonly known as Defence Lab 56 to the general public, the Deep-Water Purification Facility hides both hidden secrets and scientific horrors.

Funded through a combination of private investors, siphoned public and military funding experiments on the nature of the human form were done here deep under the ocean, far from oversight and transparency.

Survive through trial of combat by using your skills, experience and knowledge from your own worlds.

Your immediate mission is to survive until the destruction of the facility either through the hands of the player candidates or the actions of base personnel.

Additional rewards are offered for recovery or collection of any data relating to the facility and current news.

Main Quest Objective: Survive. Escape is not a valid option. Kill or be killed.

Secondary Quest Objective: Enable self-destruction of facility or deploy fail-safe option.

Tertiary Objective: Assist Ocean God Believers in their own trials.

Quest Rewards: Removal of Candidate Status and establishment of full Player Status.

Additional Rewards depend on performance on completion of level.

Individual Ocean Gods may grant bonus rewards for selected Player-Candidates only.

The Ocean Gods blessings be upon you all. Remember, the Drowned Gods reward the faithful and punish the heretics.]

Carissa experienced a sudden desire to laugh, scream or cry. She knew that her emotions and mind had been stretched, far beyond her normal tolerances and if she let herself break down even once then she would carry on until she was empty of feeling.

A sickness that wasn’t physical set into her heart, she had killed a sentient being. A man who was a scientist who wanted to see his family and if Matthias hadn’t warned her and provoked the transformation then she would likely be hurt or killed.

She had barely even been able to use her own bone club as a weapon to hurt the thing. The next time she relied on pure deep imprinted instinct and relied on her teeth she’d likely die. This time she had been lucky that it hadn’t fought back. Against a hostile creature or armed security or guards she’d be dead.

Get up Carissa.

Stop thinking and get up and move or you’re dead.

Get up.

GET UP!

Action was necessary.

She pushed herself up and examined the damaged hole in the wall behind her. First, she needed to find Matthias and then discuss the rewards she had been given for successfully killing her first so-called monster. A rational part of her wanted to stay and examine the remains of the body but due to the fact that she had damaged it severely enough she would have to rely on memory and a cursory examination.

Holding up the bone club in both hands by the handle and careful not to cut her palm again on the tooth edges she failed to see any damage done to the weapon. Despite repeated use it wasn’t showing any initial signs of wear and tear beyond the colour transitioning into a light grey.

Carissa willed part of the grey suit to envelop part of the club so it would hang loosely from her hip before she cupped her hands together.

‘MATTHIAS! I KILLED IT! MATTHIAS IF YOU HEAR ME VOICE APPROACH HERE! WE HAVE AN ENTRY POINT TO ANOTHER PART OF THIS FACILITY! MATTHIAS, THIS IS CARISSA! RESPOND IF YOU HEAR MY VOICE’

The pristine white corridor looped around a bend and Carissa wasn’t willing to go exploring when no signs of doors existed. This space was entirely limited.

A voice responded as a young man with platinum hair approached from out of her line of sight and held both hands up raised and with a gentle smile on his face.

‘I’m here Carissa. You killed your first monster. How does it feel to become a killer? The first time...is an experience. Especially when they talk like a human and walk like a human.’ queried Matthias as he tiled his head to the side.

When Carissa failed to respond he took a few more steps forward and kept both of his hands raised.

‘I’m sorry that you need to face it but you need to kill to survive. You shared your gift of food with me, those fish were killed and stored. The difference is that you need to ask yourself a question every time you need to kill or hurt someone. Would you like to know what it is Carissa? I’m happy to tell you once you put down your bone club and stop advancing towards me.’ said Matthias.

The smile on his face wasn’t mocking but Carissa thought that such a young man had a look of sadness and loss on his face. She didn’t pity him but when she had been rejected by Liam when she had called him to her home, her Last Refuge the expression on her face had been the same. A mixture of loss, pain and sadness.

‘Carissa, you need to stop. I’m not a threat. I don’t want to fight you but you need to stop advancing towards me with your club. This place, the Ocean Gods placed us together as a team. I don’t want to find the consequences of breaking apart and trying to survive by ourselves inside this...facility or madness and danger. I have a message for you. Not from the gods, not from the spirits but a message for you. Also, there are rewards for killing monsters inside dungeons. I received a notification for the kill but nothing else.’ said Matthias.

Holding his position and keeping his arms up he decided to take a chance and sat on the floor cross-legged holding both hands up in the air. When he had killed his first shapeshifter by ramming his sword through its mouth and brain, he had to struggle with holding his guts inside while keeping a grip on his sword.

‘His name…. his name was...Hua...his name...was...he was a scientist. He...wanted his family. To see his family. I killed him. I... his throat. I killed him.’ said Carissa as she took one firm step forwards towards Matthias with both hands on the handle on her raised bone club.

Emotions always ran high after a first kill he knew, and killing a living creature that was able to talk and respond was even harder.

‘Carissa. I’m going to take something out of my bag of holding, you’ll recognise it and then I’m going to leave it on the floor and back away a little. Remember, you’re alive. You survived and the monster died.’ said Matthias as he reached into the bag hanging from his belt and pulled out the strange communication device he had found previously on top of the food and drink boxes.

Then pushing it forward with his foot and keeping his eyes firmly fixed on Carissa’s bone club he stood up and backed away keeping both hands up in the air.