“Before we allocate the rest of your stat points, pick your skills, and choose your Pillars of Power, we need to see what kind of loot you get from that Lionape,” Regu said. “That means you need to go for a swim.”
Jeremiah looked at his Trainer skeptically. “That lake is really deep. I’m a good swimmer, but I can’t breathe underwater.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” the blue man said. “Your Health and Stamina are ten times what they were before. I think you will be surprised at how long you can stay underwater before you need to come up for air.”
“If you say so,” Jeremiah replied, far from confident.
“Just touch the beast, and you will be able to automatically loot it,” Regu said. “Auto Looting is a another part of the your Personal Enhancement System.”
Jeremiah nodded then started unbuttoning his red flannel shirt. His hiking boots and socks came off after that, but he didn’t feel comfortable stripping all the way down to his underwear, so he left his jeans on. When he was half naked, he resolutely walked toward the partially collapsed dock and out to the point where the Lionape had fallen into the water. He looked back at Regu, who had followed him to the shoreline and was standing at the end of the dock, then turned and dove into the cold water.
The first thing Jeremiah noticed as his body knifed through the water was the temperature, specifically how comfortable it felt. It was a mountain lake fed by melting snow and cooled by nighttime temperatures that approached freezing, but he felt invigorated as opposed to cold.
Must be this new Personal Enhancement System!
As he floated ten feet below the surface, he also noticed how clear the water was and how far he could see. The fact that the sun hadn’t peaked over the mountains yet should have reduced visibility to almost nothing, but he could see all the way to the bottom, some thirty feet below.
Jeremiah floated for several minutes, his arms and legs moving just enough to keep him suspended where he was. He could see large fish—really large fish—swimming around but none approached him. He might have superstrength now, but he didn’t think that would serve him well enough in an underwater battle with a ten-foot-long pike. And some of the fish certainly looked to be that large.
As he enjoyed the feeling of being suspended in the water, Jeremiah suddenly realized he hadn’t taken a breath since diving in—obviously—and didn’t feel a need to take one either. Uncertain how long that would last, he turned his attention to the bottom of the lake and easily found the gorilla-ape. He dove down further and propelled himself toward the monster with powerful kicks, making him feel like a merman knifing through the water faster than should have been possible.
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He quickly reached the corpse of the creature and treaded water just above it. It was the closest he had been to the monster, thankfully, and he was mesmerized by what he saw. The creature’s body was very much like a gorilla with short hair on the arms and legs and a bare, well-muscled chest. The Lionape was at least three times the size of a normal person, and its arms and legs were as big around as Jeremiah’s whole body.
The lion-like head stared at him accusingly, the eyes wide open and unblinking in death. Jeremiah could see dozens of sharp teeth in its mouth, in addition to the long fangs that protruded down like a saber-toothed tiger’s. The creature was now more or less bald as the fiery mane had been extinguished when the creature fell into the lake.
Jeremiah shivered at the thought of what the powerful arms and sharp teeth of the monster would have done to him if they had met on land.
With a couple small kicks, he propelled himself toward the monster, one of his arms outstretched. The moment he touched the creature, a message appeared in the water in front of him.
>
>
> Loot Level 26 Lionape Dungeon Lord? Yes / No
>
>
Jeremiah mentally answered “Yes” and was rewarded with a series of messages.
>
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> You have looted Bracers of Primitive Power.
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> You have looted Ring of Primal Fear.
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> You have looted Dimensional Weapons Storage Belt.
>
>
He smiled in satisfaction but then realized he had no idea where these impressive-sounding items were. They certainly weren’t in his hands, and he didn’t see anything fitting those descriptions on the Lionape.
As he pondered that mystery, Jeremiah noticed a flashing icon in his peripheral vision that looked like a box. When he focused his attention on it, another list appeared in the water in front of him.
>
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> Dimensional Storage
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> * Bracers of Primitive Power
> * Ring of Primal Fear
> * Dimensional Weapons Storage Belt
>
>
Well, that’s handy, he thought. This must be part of the Auto Looting power.
Jeremiah was so enthralled by his new toys that he almost didn’t notice the massive fish that was now swimming in a large circle around him. If he had been in the ocean, he would have thought it to be a shark. A hammerhead maybe.
Adrenaline shot through his body, and Jeremiah prepared to launch himself toward the surface, but then he got a clearer view of the gigantic fish as it circled closer. He could make out huge whiskers on the twenty-foot-long fish and realized it was a gigantic catfish. His heart slowed a bit, but he kept wary eyes on the fish as it circled closer and closer—not to him but the corpse of the Lionape.
Jeremiah watched in horror as the giant fish tore into the body of the Lionape, bits of flesh floating off into the water around it. The beast that had not so long ago dismembered at least three men was now being reduced to detritus at the bottom of the mountain lake.
He was startled from his fascination with the macabre display by another large fish swimming toward him, this one on a much more direct route. Adrenaline surged through his body, and he propelled himself through the water with all the speed his new Strength and Stamina could produce.
His only thought as he raced toward the surface was that he desperately didn’t want to join the Lionape as fish food on the bottom of the lake.