On the second floor, I found some dead ends, but they were small in number. Thanks to that, I quickly found the entrance to the third floor… while I was climbing the stairs, the quake happened again.

‘Is it reacting to my progress?’

I never heard of that… a labyrinth that quakes when a person makes progress inside. Perhaps it was too soon to assume that, but I couldn’t help but connect the dots. Regardless, I decided to keep advancing since eventually, I would find an answer to that question. If it happens a third time, then it would be impossible to deny it.

As I kept advancing through the third floor, I slowed down when I began to feel the smell of something bad in the air. It didn’t feel familiar at all, so I raised my guard. Soon enough, I found the source of the smell.

‘I am saying this a lot lately, but… what the hell?’

There was a body ahead… one with several holes in it. The flesh had been dilacerated by something quite fearsome since the wounds were beyond nasty. The weird thing was that they were focused on some weird spots, the neck, torso, and legs.

‘It is one of the guys that worked for Cassius… did he wake up before me?’

It was hard to say if that was the case, since his body was completely dry. I wasn’t that knowledgeable about human anatomy, but I was pretty sure the wounds ended in a place where arteries could be found.

Maybe those disgusting-looking fish were more like blood parasites than real carnivores beasts, that made me really disgusted. At least it confirmed that I wasn’t awakening vampiric behaviors anytime soon.

The armor of the guy had been ignored by the teeth of the monster, so I couldn’t find any use in that. His other equipment was subpar as well, so I decided to leave it behind. Before I decided to leave, I considered that this guy was ahead of me… did the labyrinth quake while he was making progress? I didn’t notice that, but he could have walked several days ahead of me. Nothing made me absolutely sure that he was an actual guard working for Cassius or the Moredall house… he could be a victim of a battle in another port.

I didn’t notice any other wounds on that guy’s body, so it felt a bit too soon for him to have fallen for this level of monsters… they were coming more often, but he shouldn’t have died in such a place.

Speaking of which, I wondered if any Triton was in this labyrinth. For all intentions and purposes, a monster under the control of the Leviathan clan was the one who froze me and all those people and also extinguished the wildfire. Still, would a monster like that be able to do such a crazy thing without freezing the tritons as well?

While those questions were in my mind, I felt the hunger starting to bother me as well… I was amazed at how far I had come, that I could feel hungry after seeing a body in that state.

‘My stock of food is small… hopefully, the monsters in the next sections will be more appetizing looking.”

I decided to hold back on eating for a while. I could do that once I found the entrance to the next floor. That happened around one hour later… while the stairs were a bit humid, I decided to sit there and then eat my remaining meat before it had gone bad. Perhaps I should have assaulted the kitchen of the warship as well.

‘If this is an underwater dungeon, I guess I should come up with a way to fight while submerged as well. Melee fighting is out of the question since I will be a lot slower and I don’t know for how long I can hold my breath… perhaps I can make a magic item that can help me with that.’

Staying underwater for too long was dangerous. In cold water, prolonged exposure can lead to hypothermia, which can impair physical and mental functions, making it difficult to swim or respond effectively.

Being underwater for an extended period can cause disorientation and panic, leading to poor decision-making, which can worsen the risk of drowning. Holding my breath for too long increases carbon dioxide levels in the blood, which can lead to confusion, unconsciousness, or loss of motor control.

With that in mind, it was better to avoid that… perhaps I could make a diving suit to my whole body enchanted to prevent all those demerits, but I didn’t have the materials for it. What I had was the possibility of creating a gun exclusively for underwater use. I probably had to customize my hand crossbow…

‘Heavier projectiles will work better since they won’t lose to the water pressure. Even so, the speed will be limited… I can work with water, ice, or wind-enchanted projectiles. They will be less affected by the conditions, aside from that, what are my options?’

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I could use Shadow Step and avoid most trouble, but could I count on a skill that consumed enough mana that required eight minutes to be used again? The answer was no… I had a bunch of them, camouflage scrolls. That would make me hard to notice, but my movements underwater would make the monsters sense my approach.

I also had a bunch of scrolls of Magic Smoke Bomb, but while they might blind the monsters, my movements wouldn’t. That was really troublesome… I could always try to use these weird cannonballs, but should I mess with something so dangerous? I didn’t want to see my hands melting.

The final option would be… not to use any tools and make good use of my adaptability. I still could use the weapons that I had with me, but that would make things harder. Perhaps that was the best option in the long run.

‘If the worst comes to the worse, I can always change my plans…’

I got up after finishing my short meal… it was time to keep moving until I reached the end of the first section. Eventually, I reached the fourth floor, and I scratched my head since the trembling didn’t happen, but I didn’t let that bother me for long since I had other problems.

The fourth had a lot more water than before and the dry spots were also pretty far away from each other now. As expected, sooner or later, I will have to swim with those fishies. It was better to get used to it sooner or later, so I jumped into the water, ready to use my hand crossbow.

I was surprised at how deep it was… I didn’t find the bottom of it with my feet and since I was using the Identification glasses, my vision was a bit different from usual. Fortunately, thanks to that, I was able to identify two of those weird monsters approaching.

Name: Bloody Devourer

Race: Pyradontis

Health: 100/100

Regen: 1.0 per hour

Mana: 50/50

Regen: 1.0 per minute

Stamina: 250/250

Regen: 5.0 per minute

I readily exploded their heads with my bolts… even underwater, they could do that when they were ten meters away.

You received 10 experience points.

You received 10 experience points.

I was astonished… the creature was tougher than me, considering its health alone. It was true that I hadn’t improved that, mainly because I didn’t get hurt that much, but… that put me into perspective. I could easily slice apart a monster that had more health than me. I figured out that some people probably could kill me with their farts.

In any case, I stored away the bodies for later and then began to swim… my speed wasn’t half bad, and since I didn’t have to worry about being attacked from below, I moved actually a bit faster than before. The only problem was the cold water… I decided to check how far I could get without my body suffering too much and then increase my spirit to check the differences.

In the end, fighting underwater was a bit odd since my movements were limited, but it was quite fun. I could hold my breath for five minutes just fine as well, probably thanks to my increased status.

A while later, I suddenly felt the dungeon shaking again and then I raised my guard… but nothing happened. That was starting to get annoying. I just shook those thoughts out of my head and then eventually left the water to rest a bit after my body started to get cold. I increased my spirit once and soon noticed my body getting better. Still, it was rough.

I began to move above water to warm up a bit, but soon enough, I heard the sound of something coming from behind. I stopped moving and looked behind, but I found nothing and then the sound disappeared as well.

‘Hm…’

I decided to keep moving the same way as before and didn’t slow down a bit. Eventually, I reached the entrance to the next level and soon climbed the stairs. Or so I tried to look like I did it anyway… I used a camouflage scroll within the darkness of the staircase and then used others a few times until I saw someone approaching. It was an armored soldier… similar to the one that I saw before.

‘Is he a survivor of that attack? I guess I am not the only one who escaped from the ice…’

I didn’t think that I was slow in my progress… based on what I did, I was quite adaptable as well. Still, perhaps I took too long with my pause.

‘Well, what now… what should I do?’

The guy clearly was following me while trying to keep himself undetectable… someone like that wouldn’t have any good intentions while following me. At the same time, the situation was a bit different since I had a certain option. To deal with that guy without risking any real damage, I had to kill him in cold blood.

The other options were to show myself and face him directly, but I wasn’t equipped to face an actual soldier. I didn’t have time to check his parameters and confirm that I could face him. Besides, just bigger numbers sometimes aren’t enough to determine the outcome of a fight.

Eventually, the guy reached the staircase and began to climb it and then passed by me without noticing my presence. In the end, I didn’t hesitate and then hit the back of his legs with my bolts. They passed through with ease.

“Argh!”

The soldier fell to the ground while groaning in pain and confusion. Still, it didn’t take long before he turned around and then grabbed the bow on his back and nocked an arrow. Weirdly enough, it was one of the arrows that I had made recently… Still, before he could nock the arrow, I put a bolt in his dominant arm.

I couldn’t show any weakness in front of that soldier. He worked for someone who had already tried to kill me, so I had no idea what he’d do if he saw even a hint of vulnerability. And I couldn’t let anyone know I’d survived that insane battle. Keeping that secret was the only thing protecting me right now. If word got out, it would be like painting a target on my back, inviting more danger than I could handle.