Ocean Dungeon

Third Floor

The stone stairs led into a small room with a well in the center of the room. The wooden floorboards were slightly warped. A cetanthro reclined on a box near the door. It gave them a quick glance as they materialized at the top of the stairs.

Ernie stood near the well, looking inside. “Why do they have a well underwater? Sometimes I think Sloswen had never been in the ocean before creating the dungeon.” He wandered to the stairs as they descended.

“Just a thought, Ern,” Katalin said, gently grabbing his shoulder as she stepped off the stairs. “Don’t say any shit about the dungeon’s god while we’re in the dungeon.”

Owin stopped on the small landing where the stairs turned. “I never thought about the Ocean Dungeon god. What was their name?”

“Sloswen,” Ernie said. “Do you know anything about him?”

Katalin shook her head. “You can ask Althowin someday if you meet her.”

“He hasn’t talked to me,” Owin said.

“The gods don’t normally talk to heroes,” Ernie said.

“Ruvaine did.”

The cetanthro lounging nearby sat upright and watched them with one eye.

“What did she say?” Katalin asked.

“She mostly told me to climb, threatened me, and said I’d die if I left the dungeon.”

Katalin snorted. “Proved her wrong.”

The cetanthro stood. “Don’t mention that blasphemy again.”

Owin grabbed the trident from Katalin. “What blasphemy?”

“Elysium is the only salvation.”

“Did Sloswen make mobs that don’t even worship him?” Ernie laughed.

The cetanthro tensed, so Owin chucked the trident. It didn’t fly in a straight line. The prongs didn’t even stay forward, but the shaft of the trident smacked into the cetanthro with enough force to toss him backward. Owin dashed and jumped, swinging the Thunderstrike Maul. It moved sluggishly through the water, but still weighed enough and had enough power with Owin’s strength to easily crush the fish upon landing.

“I don’t think he was going to fight us,” Ernie said.

“He was getting ready to attack,” Owin said. He kicked the body and found a little gem that he dropped into his bag.

“I don’t know about that.”

“I’ll trust the one who has been fighting everything,” Katalin said, nudging Ernie with her elbow.

“Sure.”

Owin shrugged. “I’m going to take his pants.”

“Oh. That’s a better reason for killing the mob.” Ernie turned around. Katalin stared blankly at the well until Ernie elbowed her.

“Oops.” She quickly turned around.

Owin took off his trousers and dropped them down the well. The cetanthro’s had no special armor or stats, and they didn’t fit at all. He tore them apart until the ragged legs hung a bit above his ankles. He walked over and handed the trident back to Katalin. “What’s this floor?”

“It’s a shipwreck. Biggest ship that’s ever existed. The cetanthro have a city built into the wreckage. It probably houses a hundred fish. Right?”

Katalin nodded.

“Do they want to kill us?” Owin asked.

“That’s where it’s complicated. No.” Ernie opened the door and gestured out. Right outside the building was a stretch of sand and stone. The surface of the water looked significantly farther away. Everything was a bit darker than it had been on the last two floors.

Beyond the little plain of sand and stone was an absolute monstrosity that had once been a ship. The wreck could have fit an entire city district on the deck. From their position, Owin could see the first stone buildings of the cetanthro city, densely packed together in the shadow of the shipwreck.

Ernie put his hand on Owin’s shoulder, leaned close, and pointed. “Out there is a chokepoint where the cetanthro can swarm. That’s where they stopped Tibur last time we were here.”

“How did you get out?”

Ernie lifted his arm. “Climbed the shipwreck. There are some mobs up there, but the intelligent cetanthro stay in or near the city.”

“The secret and all the loot is in the city?” Owin asked.

“Probably,” Katalin said.

“Certainly. But what are we here for?” Ernie asked.

Owin sighed. “Mushrooms.”

“Mushrooms,” Ernie repeated.

Owin shrugged Ernie’s hand from his shoulder. “If the cetanthro aren’t hostile, why can’t we walk through the city? Isn’t it faster?”

“There’s a trigger that sets them off on the border of the city. We’ve passed through once, a while ago when someone from Magna Regum escorted us. Everyone else seems to set it off and makes the cetanthro hostile. Artivan even escorted us once and ended up blocking the cetanthro with his big barrier. So, no offense to you, Owin, but I think we’d be better off avoiding fighting a whole city. You don’t really have an answer to a swarm, especially when you’re so low on health.”

“You’ve been through this dungeon how many times and you never found Ligala Lepis?” Owin couldn’t imagine Artivan missing such a major part of the second floor. He couldn’t imagine Artivan missing any of the secrets or potential loot.

“Most heroes who are escorting just want to get through as fast as possible. They get paid when they finish, not when they complete a quest. If Kat wasn’t encouraging your curiosity, we would’ve gotten through that second floor a lot faster.”

Katalin laughed. “I don’t regret it.”

“You blew yourself up,” Ernie said.

She shrugged. “Worked out.”

“No, it didn’t ‘work out.’ You would be dead without the Golden Bull’s help!”

Katalin’s humor vanished. “And you two lived.” She walked out the door, setting a quick pace for the wreckage.

Ernie sighed. “This has been the worst escort we’ve ever had.”

Owin felt his stomach crawling with the slug arum potion. His health was still slowly ticking up. Sharp pains were morphing into distant aches, though most of his body still hurt. “Sorry.”

Ernie vigorously rubbed his face. His eyes were tired. Owin hadn’t been able to watch as the potions were being made, but he assumed there was enough work and abilities involved that it had worn Ernie out. Or he was simply tired from traveling through the dungeon. Or perhaps both. Owin didn’t really know what it felt like to be tired. Exhaustion had worn at Artivan until he was barely standing at the end of the fourth floor. If Owin had let him slow down, maybe it would have turned out differently.

“It’s nothing to apologize for, actually.” Ernie scratched his mustache and wandered out the door. Katalin was already farther ahead, having continued at her intense pace. “It’s her.”

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“What is?” Owin asked. Katalin glanced back, brow furrowed, harrumphed, and kept going.

“I haven’t seen her care about a thing in years. I’ve been the one pushing her. Pushing for a better life. For the possibilities Althowin offered. Pushing for myself. I’m the one who wanted to be the next famous alchemist. The next Althowin.” He sighed. “I—I don’t know what I’m doing, Owin.”

“What do you mean? You’re getting the mushrooms.”

Ernie laughed softly. “Like Kat says, we need to get your wisdom up.”

Owin smiled.

“You brought something out of Katalin that I haven’t seen since we were young. The excitement. The curiosity. Thank you.” Ernie stared into the distance, watching Katalin, who had stopped and dug the trident into the ground. She tilted her head, too far away to see her expression, though Owin assumed she was still scowling.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“It’s just who you are then. When you get all seven shards, what are you going to wish for?”

“I wanted to stop people from being scared, but now I want Artivan.”

Ernie put his arm over Owin’s shoulder again. “If I can help you, I will.” He took a deep breath. “Not in the dungeons, obviously. But maybe I can make you some buffs, if Althowin lets me.”

Owin wouldn’t complain about buffs. He needed to find some source other than quests if he was going to get strong enough to actually conquer anything. He was struggling with bosses on the second floor. What was he going to do about the top floors? “Okay.”

“Catch up with Katalin before she murders us,” Ernie said, gently shoving Owin forward.

The ocean felt bigger than ever before after leaving the building. Sand and stone extended as far as he could see in every direction, even past the boundary walls. It looked like he could walk for days without finding anything.

Katalin lifted the trident and put it over her shoulder once Owin was closer. “Took you two long enough. What if something swam down and snatched me and swallowed me whole? I’d be dead and you two would still be sitting in there having a little talk.”

“We’ll never talk again,” Ernie said.

Katalin rolled her eyes. “Climbing with these weapons will be difficult. We could try the city first like Owin said.”

“I can hold both and climb,” Owin said.

“No you can’t. How are you going to grab anything?” Katalin asked.

“Oh.” Owin looked at his hands. One was already occupied with the Thunderstrike Maul. It was too big and cumbersome to carry any other way. “Okay.”

“Dangerous. If we don’t know what triggers the aggression, we can’t purposefully avoid it.” Ernie took off his backpack. “I’ve got nothing, and we still have the olm and the worms in the caves to fight. If I really have to be desperate, I think I could make something with this . . .” He pulled two small bottles from the bag.

Katalin snatched one and held it in front of her face. “Is this a frenetic stem?” She squinted at the little brown stick inside.

“Yes. Be careful.”

“You didn’t tell me you brought any frenetic stem. I could’ve made a pipe bomb even bigger.”

Ernie carefully pulled the bottle out of her hand. “Obviously you didn’t need to do that.”

“But I could have.”

“Sure.” Ernie put both bottles back in his bag. “Really, I have nothing. Climbing above is easily the best option. Strap the trident onto your back, Kat, and Owin can carry the hammer and climb with one hand. He’s strong enough.”

Owin shifted the Thunderstrike Maul in his grip and tried to use his bag strap to hold it up. The hammer fell to the ground, kicking sand into the water. “Ernie’s right. We should avoid more fights.”

“Never thought I’d hear that from you,” Katalin said. “Are you sure you can climb?”

Owin tried to fit the hammer into his bag strap again and heard fabric tear before he took the weight of the hammer. “No.”

Katalin raised her eyebrows.

Ernie groaned. “What happens if we go through the city and get surrounded again? We don’t want what happened to Tibur to happen to Owin, right?”

“Who gives a shit about Tibur? He was a rich snob that had been cocky the entire time. Does Owin look cocky to you?” Katalin put her hand on top of his head, flattening his hair.

“Yeah, sometimes.” Ernie adjusted his backpack and ran his fingers through his hair. “Fine. But we need to be ready to retreat quickly. That could mean abandoning your hammer if it’s slowing you down.”

It wasn’t a unique weapon, so there was always a chance he could find one again in the future. The Thunderstrike Maul had come from the labyrinth, the first secret Owin had explored with Artivan. He couldn’t imagine leaving it, even if there was a chance of finding another. A different Thunderstrike Maul wouldn’t have the same meaning. If they needed to flee, he would find a way to do it while carrying the hammer.

“Okay,” Owin said. Lying didn’t come naturally, and the pain in his stomach grew, though he also wasn’t used to having potion-coated slug flowers crawling around.

“When you regret your decision later, remember that I still think going above is the best option.”

Before long, the shipwreck surrounded them like the ribcage of a massive creature. The ship was upside down, though in its current state with warped beams and molding boards, there’d be little holding it up even if it wasn’t upside down.

All three of them stared at the skeletal structure surrounding them. The sunlight that managed to pass through the water vanished, leaving most of the wreckage in deep shadows. Some beams made it through the hull, leaving bits of the cetanthro city illuminated like beacons in the dark.

“The first floors were girhuma, who are also called water elves,” Owin said. “And now we’re at the cetanthro, who are fish people, like in Ligala Lepis.”

“Right,” Ernie said.

“And they don’t like each other?”

“Right.” Ernie had pulled a bottle from his bag during the walk and started to Mix whatever was inside. The material spun without being touched and slowly broke apart into a powder, which also continued to mix and spin.

Katalin watched the bottle with such intensity that she hardly noticed anything else.

“But unless we trigger something, the cetanthro will let us walk right through their city?” Owin tried to think back to the Great Forest and if there had been something comparable. The hobgoblins wanted to fight right away, but that was just normal hobgoblin behavior. They liked to fight. There was something that changed the Malignant Spirit cult or the satyrs into enemies, but that was based on a questline.

“Is there a quest in this city?” Owin asked.

“Not that I’m aware of.” Ernie pulled the bottle away as Katalin tried to snatch it from his hand. “I haven’t been inside any buildings, so we could’ve missed a quest giving mob.”

“We absolutely missed half the shit on this floor.” Katalin stepped in front of them and stopped. “See this?” She gestured to two huge beams that were partially buried in the sand. “This is what we call the chokepoint.”

“This is where the last hero died,” Ernie said. “He could’ve escaped, but he kept fighting. If things go poorly, this is where we retreat so you can hold the swarm off until we’ve climbed on top over there.” Ernie pointed to part of the frame that was like a warped, curved ladder leading to the top of the wreckage. “Then you drop the hammer and run as fast as you can to join us.”

“Okay.”

Ernie got right in front of Owin. “Let me say that again. You drop the hammer and run as fast as you can.”

“I got it.”

Ernie narrowed his eyes. “I don’t believe you right now, but I’m hoping it goes through to that tiny brain of yours.”

“No need to insult, Ern.” Katalin shoved him to the side. “We don’t want to abandon you. You wanted to prove you can escort and protect, this is your chance. Get us through this fish city.”

Owin nodded. “I can do it.”

“See?” Katalin gently shoved Ernie again. “Nothing to worry about.”

“It’s like the damn flooding in the Great Forest or the collapse in the Fortress. If we don’t know what causes it, we can’t avoid it,” Ernie said.

“A trap in the secret labyrinth causes the flooding in the Great Forest’s third floor,” Owin said.

Ernie stopped mixing the contents of the bottle. “What?”

“A trap in the secret labyrinth—”

“No, you moron. I heard you. How do you know that?”

Owin tried remembering exactly what had happened before the labyrinth flooded and before he found the Thunderstrike Maul, but the details were hazy. Most of his memory of that point was focused on his fear of drowning, of being alone in the dark, narrow passages, and of Artivan arriving to save him.

“I—no, Artivan triggered a trap. Maybe it was me? And the labyrinth flooded. When we left the whole floor was flooded. Artivan also said he had never known what caused the flooding to happen.”

“What was the trap?” Ernie asked.

Owin shrugged. “I forgot.”

“How can you avoid it in the future if you don’t even know what it was?”

“I guess I’ll just do it again. What’s in the bottle?”

Katalin snatched it from Ernie’s hand. “Finally!”

“Dammit, Kat. Don’t do anything stupid.”

Katalin raised her eyebrows. “Me? No.” She continued using Mix on the powder and held it low enough for Owin to get a good look. It was a dark gray powder, not much different from ash or old dust. “This is a little something called oxidized charcoal vulgaris. One of Ernie’s favorites.”

“And the last of it that I have. You don’t even have a use for it.”

“I could find one.” Katalin handed the bottle back to Ernie. “It’s a health potion base.”

“It’s more than that.”

Owin tried to use Examine, but as long as Ernie was holding it, he couldn’t see any details. “Are you going to make a health potion?”

“If I can find something, yes. If not, the only thing I could make is a frenzy potion, and that wouldn’t do us any good. Especially with you. I don’t know if it would ever wear off or if you would be frenzied forever.” Ernie waved them on. “Let’s not find out.”

“What’s frenzy?” Owin asked, walking alongside Ernie. Katalin stayed nearby but veered off a little as she stared at the different distant sections of the shipwreck.

“It’s like a berserker rage ability but for anyone. Not as strong, obviously. It helps you ignore pain in exchange for making you pissed off. Good and bad. I knew a Three Headed hero that used them all the time in fights. Impressive thing to see. Not good for your brain.”

“Which I don’t have,” Owin said.

Ernie chuckled. “Still up for debate. If you can get us through this fish city without a fight, you’ll be the smartest hero I know.”