‘...and in my land, the waters are sacred. All rivers and lakes belong to the Lady and she guards them with a fierce jealously. Those in need of protection and safety ask the Knights of Avalon and in return we take those with talent to train and protect from the dungeons and outside threats. I was taken as a young boy to train with my mentor to survive this place, to fulfil my quest from the Lady. We have technology, lights that glow, power batteries of a type but not to this extent and they are not widely used. The Lady does not hate technology as these Drowned Gods do and she allows alchemists to work and develop in select buildings with restricted access from the outside. I was chosen in a way to come to this world as the Lady has a relationship with one of the Drowned Gods. They are friends as I come to understand it. Are your questions answered Carissa? Do the answers help you? I have a better idea of your life on Terrus and you have a clearer understanding of my own world Avalon.’ said Matthias.

Both of them were sitting inside the room which was located behind the corridor wall. The contents of the room were familiar enough to Carissa if not slightly different to her eyes. The room itself was a standard set-up, stools, a mixture of glass and metal cabinets, work stations for testing, several sinks and a mixture of taps connected to the wall.

Clearly from her perspective this was a research room, possibly the same one in which the scientist she had decided to kill had left from to enter the corridor. She had yet to examine the pile of scrap clothing and personal belongings which had had placed through the hole in the wall shortly before his death at her teeth.

Her memory had become hazy when she’d initially attacked him but taking time to collect her own thoughts, she was making herself remember what had happened during the one-sided fight.

To her mind, to ransack the possessions of the freshly dead wasn’t a level she wanted to stoop down to. She’d mention the fact to Matthias and he could do it for her. As a Knight of Avalon, it would fall under his duty to do protect her and searching through possibly contaminated materials would have been a reasonable request for abandoning her during the attack.

Judging from the way that he was holding up a glass beaker she had taken from one of the storage cupboards his wrist had either healed or not been as badly damaged as she had heard. Neither was he showing any clear signs of pain or discomfort after he had been punched.

Carissa hadn’t noticed any obvious genetic advancements on him and her own had been mostly disabled and her installed technological mount inside her body had been deactivated by the Ocean Gods of this world and the Ocean Gateway System.

Her own body had settled down from its earlier discomfort and whatever substance had entered her through the blood of the scientist had no reaction at this time.

Likely, Carissa assumed it was a part of what they had been studying at this site.

The Deep-Water Purification Facility.

The young heal fast.

‘I appreciate the opportunity to get to know you a little better Matthias. Your life was hard for one so young. I can understand that, but I’m in fact only a few years older than you. To life experience!’ Carissa raised her own water filled glass beaker towards the young man as she downed the contents.

‘To your good health and our survival in this dungeon! May we live to kill the boss and escape!’ replied Matthias as he raised his own glass in an imitation of her own actions.

Water had been the best that they had stocked in their spatial bags. Apparently, Matthias had other items which would be useful, various medical elements and natural medicines designed to heal the body and sooth the nerves.

He had offered the use of it but she had declined to the her near complete lack of physical injury. Wounds of the mind and soul were far harder to fix she knew. She had put her own bone club shortly after Matthias had returned and given her an item which she hadn’t been expecting to see again. The look on his face told her that he had used it. Likely viewing past messages from herself to her ex-husband Liam which rang on an automated loop.

After opening her own storage pack and removing after a disposable plastic container of water she refilled both of their glass beakers once more. This time they chose to drink in silence and self-reflection.

It had only been after Carissa had picked up the communication device which Matthias had left on the floor that her body had caught up with her mind and she had stopped advancing on him. The device was active and it was either the same or an exact replica of the one that she had left back on the viewing platform in her home reality.

There were messages stored on it and it was only meant to be unlocked by her genetic code which meant that either it had been hacked or Matthias had been lying when he said he had seen a message. Either way, it was none of his business and she had no interest in checking through it at this time. After turning off the sound and notification function, she had turned her attention towards her immediate next step,

‘This place is full of junk. None of it is useful. You said that it’s familiar to you Matthias?’ asked Carissa as she opened several of the wall-mounted units and peered inside.

Basic laboratory equipment along with shelves filled with blank binders and books filled with rows of nonsense words repeated. The furniture was a welcome relief as both Matthias and Carissa used it to block off the gaping hole which had been smashed into the room and give them an illusion of safety at least.

Matthias shook his head. He had taken a crossed-legged position directly next to the open hole where they had piled up several stools and items of furniture in a rough attempt at security.

His coral sword was placed by his side and he sat with his back half to the wall and half facing Carissa. She didn’t blame him for his caution though given her earlier action and the truth that they were nearly complete strangers inside a hostile environment.

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Talking with him about his past and her own had helped a little. He hadn’t been too interested in her work though or her passions and was more interested in the ecology of her world and the natural environment. Apparently on Avalon, preserving nature was part of a duty of a Knight of Avalon.

When she had asked him about the Lady which he referred to he simply called her a goddess of beauty and life who cared about the lives of humans. Beyond that he had said that she was a kind deity who rarely acted in anger.

‘While you guard the hole that creature made, I may as well have a look around and see if there’s anything useful. I have rewards from the creature but I doubt either of them would interest you so anything that could help me examine one of them would help both of us.’ said Carissa.

‘Dungeon rewards are useful sometimes, but only sometimes. One time I was rewarded with a giant sack full of cheeses. I amused myself by giving it to small mice and other creatures of the dungeon. I had to; the taste was terrible. I need to collect my own thoughts for a moment and calm my nerves. Take your rest where you can find it my mentor always told me. Turns out she was right!’ said Matthias with a chuckle.

The fact that the room itself had lighting on the ceiling with the same unseen light fixtures which provided illumination, light blue painted walls and absolutely no signs of doors or windows wasn’t a comfort. This room was clearly designed for short-term occupation. None of the taps or electrical outlets were functioning as far as she could tell.

Despite searching through various cupboards, draws and open cabinets there was little to be found to Carissa’s frustration. The walls were light blue but there were no electrical plugs or outlets to be found. No traces of doors or windows. Another puzzle, the same as the arrival corridor and the initial metal plated room they had both arrived in.

Either there was danger or reward or there wasn’t.

‘None of this is useful. This place is a model of what a functioning laboratory needs to be equipped with. Shells, almost everything here is a shell.’ said Carissa as she held up a glass beaker which crumbled apart when she squeezed it.

The shards crumbled into dust when she rubbed the pieces between her grey suit e covered fingers.

‘Carissa, I have explained this to you that this place is a dungeon. A…place where the gods want to test mortals and see their abilities. An experiment in your words as a scientist. I believe that this room serves the purpose as place to rest for a short spell. I would be wary to stay in one place for too long though. As a thought, when we passed through that gate made of water, where did the rest of the other Player-Candidates go? The first rule of dungeons is doesn’t trust who you find inside. All beings are potential threats.’ said Matthias as he stretched out his legs from his sat position on the floor.

Standing up he swung his coral sword around his immediate vicinity several times before storing it back into his spatial bag on his belt in one smooth motion before his hand brushed across the opening and sealed it closed.

‘If we need to fight, we go armed. I think the both of us need a well-deserved rest from conflict lest we go mad and attack each other out of fear and high emotion.’ said Matthias.

He stretched his arms behind his bag and crossed his arms over his chest before bowing in her direction and walking over to one of the bare walls.

After wiping her hands across one of the lab surfaces to clean her hands of any traces of the crushed glass beaker Carissa rubbed her fingers and examined them.

‘Age. Dust. None of these facts matter. This place is either extremely old or it was abandoned a long time ago. Granted how the corridors outside showed no signs of life except for a site-wide warning about a code zeta being active and a scientist running as through pursued I’m at a loss. None of this is a direct challenge. Our best option is to move out of this place.’ said Carissa.

‘For what it’s worth I’m sorry for forcing you into a killing situation. The first time you kill a sentient being is the hardest. At least you didn’t throw up. The truth is these matters if you don’t learn hard and fast then you’ll be the one lying on the floor dead. ‘Said Matthias as he stood up.

Carissa nodded her head showing that she heard his words before she turned to face him inside the room.

‘We need to get out of this room. Would you be interested in seeing the rewards from me killing the genetic abomination outside? Also, if you leave me alone one more time during combat then our group is going to be divided permanently, first kill or not. Danger and personal risk I can accept. Leaving a group member alone isn’t on the cards. After all, the only reason you decided to partner up with me and none of the others is down to your deal with Mike.’ said Carissa.

Matthias had turned his attention towards the walls of the room, seemingly uninterested in the contents. It appeared that he simply accepted words her at the room contained little of value. He began to run his hands along the bottom edges of each wall tracing his fingers along.

‘You’re wasting your time. The scientist was called Hua Pengfei and he forcefully left his personal items in that pile over there. Are you listening to me?’ asked Carissa as the young man carried on his search in silence and concentration.

Although both of them had their own spatial storage bags Carissa had no interested in throwing in random items lying around. Especially when they were as fragile as the beaker. Likely it would be reduced into piles of dust when she tried removing anything again.

‘I’m talking to you Matthias. I’d prefer not to turn this into an argument. You keep alternating between responding and ignoring me. This is getting tiring quickly. We need an exit and this is a secure military grade scientific facility. Are you able to recall previous messages from the Ocean Gateway System?’ said Carissa as she folded her arms.

Turning back to face her Matthias looked at her face closely.

‘Carissa. We need to get out of this room and then finish the quest for this Deep-Water Purification Facility as fast as possible. If we can avoid further conflict between us then so much the better. You read the quest given, yes? There is a choice either our destruction of the dungeon through our hands or through those of the inhabitants of this dungeon. All we have to do is survive long enough and we can leave this place. Trust me, you enter and one monster like that abomination appeared? No. The Ocean Gateway System promised us horrors and worse. Conflict and pain can be avoided, death can’t. I saw you Carissa, only for a moment before I left. No real attempt at fighting, not to dodge, not to attack but a raw move based on emotion and rage. And you were lucky this time. You don’t belong in this world, this place. Carissa. I saw you beating a dead man’s corpse for an hour without stopping. This isn’t about ignoring you.’ said Matthias.

Just when Carissa was going to talk, she was directly interrupted as he raised a hand.

‘No. I’m not blaming you for this situation, I chose to come to this world as part of my quest but I was given a message from an Ocean God. He or she or it didn’t identify themselves but it makes sense. They told me that that an error was made. We’re not meant to be here. Think about it, do you think this level of difficulty is meant for beginners? Skill or no skill if that flesh golem fought back against you would you still be alive? No. This place is designed for Intermediate Level Players.’ asked Matthias.