Jade, Amy, and Yondol were able to tide over the rest of the day in the inn, the next day the team quickly getting up and heading out to the shoreline. Jade had to ask the two if he could store some of his supplies in their item storage, as his inventory was way too full from various fishes and all of the camping supplies he was not going to get rid of. Though, he did decide to keep some items to sell in his room, keeping it in the provided chest.
“So have either of you delved before?” he asked the siblings, Amy shaking her head while Yondol nodded.
“A couple of times actually,” the elf stated, getting lost in thought for a moment. “The ice caves were fairly difficult due to all of the ice bats, though, so these may be easier if all they have are aquatic beasts.” Jade nodded at that, thinking over the very sparse ocean biome from Errant. It had just been a sandy beach with the ocean stretching out to the end of the map, so anything they’d experience in the dungeon would be new for him, he thought.
Once they reached the nearest dungeon entrance, they had to wait a little bit for the line to progress, as they’d missed the window after the slime rain when the dungeons were less populated. There he got a brief explanation at how the dungeon rooms worked, soaking up the information like a sponge.
Each dungeon had a variable amount of rooms until you reached the last one with a boss monster, each one filled up with various weaker monsters or one stronger one. Once all monsters were defeated, a chest would appear, the rarity of such chests changing depending on luck and how well they did in the fight. Apparently the dungeon could guess at how damaged the party was, how quickly or efficiently the party took out the monsters, etc. and dole out rewards appropriately. Once the party left the room, it would reset, allowing another group to move forward and try their hands at it.
Yondol also explained that each hallway in between rooms had a monolith that could teleport the group to the entrance of the dungeon if they needed to leave. The magic of the dungeon couldn’t stop people from dying in its depths, but it was obviously safer to delve than hunt random monsters in the wilderness, as healers were always kept on hand for groups teleporting out. The three had no worries of that, though, as in preparation for his foray into the woods, they’d stocked up on a lot of the local healing potions. They wouldn’t heal major wounds, apparently, but scratches and bruising could be easily healed with a swig. You couldn’t take another one for an hour after drinking, but it would do to help people stay alive at the ends of fights.
They’d reached the end of the line by the time Yondol was done explaining, the guild official at the entrance giving the three sour looks. “You sure you’re ready for delving if you need to explain the basics?” the man asked snarkily, stopping the three in their tracks as they were about to enter.
“We’ll be fine,” Jade snarked back, pulling out his meteor wand while the siblings pulled their weapons out as well. Amy had decided to re-summon her starling once inside the dungeon, not wanting to make it too obvious she was the same person from the day before.
“Well, good luck then.” The guild official gave them another look as they entered, Jade bristling at the attitude while also feeling a bit worried inside. Would it be that difficult…? he thought to himself as they walked down the hall to the first room, having to take a good amount of stairs down to it.
“We’ll be fine,” Yondol whispered, giving Jade’s shoulder a friendly push. “We’re better prepared than we look.” At that Amy pulled out the star staff, summoning the bright pink starling that immediately squealed and landed on her shoulder.
“Right.” Jade put his game face on as they entered the first room, feeling a small amount of excitement at what they might face inside.
#
Once inside, Jade blinked in surprise at what he saw, even letting his raised arm lower in his shock. This…. Can’t be…
Inside the room were a group of familiar looking pink, blue, and green jellyfish, the same jellyfish that filled the oceans of Errant. He wouldn’t normally be surprised at the appearance of something from the game, but what took him off guard was the amount of creatures.
“There’s only… five?” he asked, looking to the siblings who still looked very combat ready, though they both gave him a raised eyebrow at the comment.
“I hear the jellyfish can be pretty nasty. Stay on guard.” Jade nodded at Yondol’s words, thinking that maybe the jellyfish had some type of buff to them to make them stronger than their Errant variants.
He then rushed forwards, his gale boots allowing him to swiftly dodge around the slow enemies and fire missile after missile at them. The siblings got to work as well, Yondol dodging around as he took swings at the creatures with his sword, while Amy threw her chakram at them over and over. Her starling, meanwhile, bounced all over the room, scoring hits on the enemies with every bounce into their squishy bodies. Jade did get hit by the enemies once or twice as he tried to get used to their attack patterns, feeling a slight shock whenever they bounced into his invisibly armored chest. He felt bruises form at that, though he quickly got used to the sensation and kept up his rate of fire.
Not even a minute in and the jellyfishes soon all started dropping, the monsters disappearing in flashes of light that distracted Jade enough that he got hit again before he got back to dodging. Amy also paused in her throwing, though Yondol’s lack of reaction told Jade that it was a normal function of dungeons. With less and less of the creatures to attack Jade and the elf, though, the fight was soon over, not even leaving Jade winded at the exertion.
“I guess… that was easier than I thought,” Yondol hesitantly stated, looking over at Jade in confusion.
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“Maybe the armor is too strong for this high up in the dungeon?” he asked, the siblings giving shrugs at his question. A chest suddenly appeared in the center of the room, the three moving over to it as Yondol and Amy looked right at Jade.
“So do you touch it or open it or...?” Amy asked, Jade shaking his head with a smile as he opened up his inventory while focusing on the chest. It was a standard wooden chest, so Jade wasn’t expecting much. Looking over the general loot, he took out the potions, bars of copper, silver coins, and even one ironskin potion out of it before even looking at the rare item it had spawned with. He excitedly squealed as he noted the rare item in the chest, both siblings jumping at the sudden sound.
[Swift Shoes]
It was an item that he hadn’t been expecting to find, once more rearranging the plans he had in his head. On it’s own it didn’t do much, only increasing movement speed by around six percent and not giving the obvious effects the gale boots gave him with the running effect. But combined with an anklet that could be found in the jungle, the rocket boots bought from an NPC, he could make the spectral boots, which would give stronger movement effects than each item could individually.
He then sagged as he realized buying the rocket boots would be impossible, as there was not just a random dude who sold an unlimited amount of them out in the world. Amy and Yondol gave him confused looks, but he just shrugged and added the shoes to one of his accessory slots. “Good item, just not by itself. One of you want the ironskin potion though?” Yondol perked up as Jade pulled the glass bottle out of his inventory, taking it as it was offered and looking at the color inside. They all started walking down the stairs towards the next room, Amy having looked inside the chest to find Jade’s power having used up the rewards normally inside.
“Would we be able to use the item?” Amy asked, getting a shake of his head from Jade in response.
“Unless you want to swap out your shoes for it. My magic has extra spaces for equipping what it calls ‘accessory items’ that give me the effects, but don’t show up on my person.” Amy pouted at that, holding out her hand to accept the shoes. “Okay, but you’re only keeping them if we don’t find another pair in the dungeon.” As soon as Amy got ahold of the shoes, she looked at them in confusion, Jade only then realizing that they looked like a pair of modern day converse.
“Weird design…”
“Yeah I don’t get to pick it,” Jade replied, once again holding his guilt inside its box. “So the next room is… more jellyfish?”
#
The first five rooms were all increasing numbers of floating jellyfish, Jade’s team taking everything down even easier once they got used to the critters. The chests were all the wooden kind, Yondol asking for them to keep the materials from one, but leaving the rest to Jade’s looting ability. He did get his second pair of sneakers from one of the chests, the rest of the items things that he literately had no use for. He mostly gave them to the siblings, only keeping things like metal bars and fishing supplies. He had almost no use for the over abundance of potions and, at one point, a wand that allowed you to sculpt coral. He was planning on crafting weapons and armor after all.
The sixth room was only slightly different, having less jellyfish, but also including the sea crab enemies Jade knew well from the ocean biomes. They were just as easy to defeat, however, leading to him looking very confused at the siblings.
“We need to test the armor outside later,” Yondol stated in response, giving a small grin as the chest appeared in the center of the room. “For now, what kind of loot can you get from a water chest?” Jade jerked his head around at that, almost squealing at the familiar blue colored chest. That is what he was there for, after all, the water walking boots his ultimate goal for the trip. They didn’t do much on their own, but if he wanted to explore this world’s version of hell, he needed to combine it with the obsidian token and lava necklace, and that would allow him to be a lot safer in lava environments.
Of course, he wasn’t lucky enough to get the water walking boots on the first attempt, sighing as he saw the trident as the rare loot drop. “You have any use for a trident Yondol?” he asked the elf, tossing the weapon over and eliciting a wide eyed look from both siblings. “Ooh. Though this is a good find.” Jade pulled the two potions of water breathing from the chest’s inventory, looking the blue liquid over. “We may be able to explore the sea bottom for a few hours, though we’d need one more obviously.” He sighed at Amy’s annoyed look at that, collecting the rest of the loot without looking at it.
“Your power just makes everything easy, doesn’t it?” Amy asked sarcastically, earning her a look from Yondol.
“Not too easy. I started out with nothing just like everyone else.” That didn’t soften Amy’s glare however, leading Jade to sigh. “Look, is it my fault how my magic decided to express itself?” He immediately knew he messed up when both siblings gave him confused looks, Amy’s swiftly turning to one of suspicion. “…you can choose your magic, can’t you.”
“We can, though it is within the scope of what our life was like beforehand.” Yondol tapped the trident on the ground, looking between it and Jade. “Are we the first you’ve told about your power and not getting any other options?” Jade nodded at that, looking off to the side as guilt threatened to once again break out of the box he put it in.
“Good,” Amy sighed, earning her a surprised look from Jade. “Only transworlders can’t choose their power.” One simple statement caused Jade to lock up, giving both of the siblings a panicked look.
“There are… others?” Jade asked quietly, turning back to make sure no one was nearby to speak. Luckily the people who came in after them were rather slow on clearing the monsters, Jade unable to hear anything else besides them three.
“There were. People who’d found themselves woken up on our world for no reason whatsoever. One of the famous heroes from the founding of the cities was a transworlder actually.” The elf made the trident disappear into his storage power, walking over to put a hand on Jade’s shoulder. “Ripped from their families. Knowing no one from this world. We help them out as much as we are able to.” Jade gave a nod at that, fiddling with his scarf in embarrassment.
“Well it explains much about your magic,” Amy tossed in giving his other shoulder a smack. “How unfair it is. How it’s so overpowered..” She giggled at the expressions on Yondol and Jade’s faces, Jade feeling his annoyance quickly drain.
“You won’t tell anyone… right?” Both siblings rolled their eyes at that. “Okay… well… should we move on?” Jade asked, not ready for all of the emotions the situation had conjured.
#
Ocean Trident
16 Thrown Damage
5% Critical Strike Chance
Average Knockback
Average Speed