Finally. They were out of that damn jungle. Between having a vanguard immune to toxins and access to a method of healing that specialized against toxins, Jaclyn’s group had been an effective counter against this place and yet it had utterly kicked their ass.
In fact, other than the fact that they’d all come out the other side alive, the only good thing about the whole situation was that, in all likelihood, that section wasn’t going to be upgraded anytime soon. Bringing bog-standard beasts into the realm where they could gain powers should be far easier than upgrading creatures that already had powers. In other words, this thing should stay largely the same. Unlike whatever horrors the previous areas were likely to turn into.
“So, should we try it?” Granger asked as he carefully approached the edge of the next section. And it was, in fact, an edge, a sheer three-meter drop into deep and crystal-clear water that showed that there was nothing dangerous down there. Judging by the smell, it was regular water, which might sting a bit in her various scratches, but not particularly dangerous.
The jump itself wasn’t going to be too dangerous. But as for everything after that … they had no bloody clue save for the giant sign painted on the opposite wall.
“ONE WAY TRIP, LADDER IN TREASURE CHAMBER”
The point of no return. A point, at any rate.
“Does anyone have any rope?” Granger asked. As it turned out, both Gula and Harper had brought some.
“We need somewhere to tie it down,” Jaclyn reminded him. And unfortunately, there was nothing around here like that. There were a couple of holes in the opposite wall that she assumed the promised ladder was meant to hook into, but that wouldn’t work with a rope. And the jungle behind them didn’t have any big sticks or tree trunks to tie the rope around, just vines that didn’t look like they’d hold.
“Two people can stay up here,” Granger suggested. That wasn’t a bad suggestion, actually, not if the next section was a water level in its entirety. Harper didn’t have any offensive abilities, he just had that assault rifle. And Gula’s projections wouldn’t work either. Lighting would hit everyone in the water, and while Jaclyn could survive the Tatzelwyrm, the orc couldn’t.
“What if everyone stays up here, and I look?” Jaclyn suggested. Two people pulling a third up with a rope would normally be perfectly doable. But here, with absolutely nowhere to anchor oneself, and smooth marble floors, it’d be tricky. Thankfully, the floor wasn’t wet, but that was only the dimmest of silver linings.
“And if anything goes wrong, throw down the Tatzelwyrm.”
She’d look, and if something went wrong, the proposed emergency measure would clear the area around her, even if it would prevent everyone else from following and wasn’t viable unless she was the only one down there.
Once they knew what the situation was like down there, they could make a more educated guess.
So they tied a rope around her waist in preparation for the jump, which they could just pull on if she called for it. Normally, being yanked around by a slim rope could cause damage, but she was well beyond the point where that was a concern. And Gula summoned the Tatzelwyrm projection and set it around her neck, where it stayed put like some kind of extremely ugly feather boa.
Jaclyn also kicked off her shoes and socks, as well as rolled down her sleeves again. Her clothes would provide some degree of protection, and she had the strength to overcome the weight of the sodden cloth, but swimming with shoes on would be a little problematic and the salt water probably ruin her leather footwear. And her sleeves would probably loosen in the water, float about the place, and become an issue.
When the hell did I become this gung ho? Jaclyn wondered as she got ready to take the plunge, so to speak.
When the world went insane, I got superpowers for taking risks, and the mundane police and army aren’t enough to keep me and Eve safe anymore. Not from what’s out there now.
She answered her own question moments later. She felt she’d analyzed the threats of the current situation to her personal satisfaction, made an educated situation, and yet … every single facet of her training told her to wait for backup.
Police officers did not engage in one-on-one honorable duels with suspects, they brought in sufficient force to ensure that, if everything went well, the situation never reached the point of combat. And if the affair did go pear-shaped, the present force should be enough to finish things with a minimal amount of violence. Jumping in alone outside of an absolute emergency was just plain wrong. And even so, that was what she was about to do.
Jaclyn took a deep breath, and jumped, spine straight, legs together, arms by her side, punching clean through the surface of the water with a minimal impact and plunging deep.
The impact was a lot less jarring than she’d been building it up as in her mind, and while she blinked rapidly against the sudden intrusion of liquid pressing against her eyeballs, it was almost a simple transition. Her vision was almost as good as it was above the water, granting her a crystal-clear view of the critter charging at her.
A shark barely longer than her arm had exploded from the coral reef before Jaclyn, a flattened creature with blue skin and darker stripes that she recognized as some kind of reef-dwelling subspecies from one of the nature shows Eve liked to watch.
Shimmering claws manifested around her hands as she met the creature’s charge with her fist. The water slowed her punch to a crawl relative to her usual speed, but she should still be able to … as her fist slammed into the critter, it was pushed away, the motion accompanied by the shockingly loud sound of something squishing, but strangely enough, she didn’t hear any bones crack. Or saw skin breaking. It was more like punching a pillow with her bare hand than ripping into a living being with deadly claws.
A small puff of blood came from behind the creature’s head, where the gills lay, as it wiggled in the water in an attempt to get right side up again. Yeah, nope, not gonna happen.
Jaclyn grabbed it with her left hand, making sure to turn it further so that its head stayed pointed downwards, while tugging on the rope three times with her right. And the others immediately started pulling.
Being yanked through a medium as thick as water left her feeling as though she were about to be torn apart, and she had to relocate her right hand to hold onto the Tatzelwyrm, but at least the shark wasn’t struggling anymore. She wasn’t entirely sure what evolutionary pressure had caused sharks to evolve in a way that led them to be knocked out the moment they went upside down, but she was glad she’d remembered that little tidbit.
Barely five seconds after going into the water, she was pulled back down again, briefly jerking uncomfortably when the rope slipped off her waist and painfully caught under her arms. Ow.
Then she had to make sure to avoid being pulled straight into the lip of the ceiling, which she had to push herself off of, but then she was back up there, shark clutched in one hand, dragon projection in the other.
“Scan it before it dies,” she ordered the moment she had eyes on the others, silently wishing that she’d been able to boost her own Inspect to a useable level.
But she knew that was years and years off in the future. Even ascertaining that something was definitely unranked required the Skill to be Level 10, and beyond that, things only grew more difficult. From there, one needed to get to the point where full ranks could be sensed, then one would be able to view an enemy’s F-Rank powers and so on, up to the point where an enemy could be read like an open book, powers, Stats, and everything else.
“Unranked Pajama Shark,” Gula reported.
So, a whole bunch of unranked critters without powers in an environment she was wholly unsuited to fight in. Did she want to try? As she took a moment to think about that, the creature in her hands dissolved, leaving her with just the hide.
Jaclyn glanced down and saw that the roll of sharkskin was made up of particularly thick material. Almost three millimeters. No wonder her claws hadn’t gotten through.
“Ok, new plan,” she announced. “I’m going back down again, with the Tatzelwyrm, and if I run into trouble, I’ll pop it. And if I have to leave the water, I’m coming straight back.
The toxic blood would spread everywhere in the water, killing everything around her, clearing the area if she was ever in danger. But that trick wouldn’t work out of the water, so if she transitioned to a new area, she’d stop. She wouldn’t try to tackle something that far from her team.
She didn’t want to try this ocean section alone either, but Gula was a spellcaster without applicable projections and physical Stats barely above the human baseline, and the other two were barely stronger than normal people either. They’d get torn apart by the sharks in seconds.
But she also wanted to take the shot at the panacea before its guardians were upgraded.
And the others seemed to agree, because other than Gula using her halcyon to blast the water below with all the lightning it could muster to clear the way, they didn’t do much, clearly willing to let her take the risk if she was okay with it.
This time, though, she wasn’t directly bound with rope, they didn’t have one long enough for the whole section.
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Once more, she plunged into the water and began swimming after making sure the Tatzelwyrm was still clinging to her back.
Initially, she was just greeted by floating bits of sharkskin, but around twenty meters in, she started seeing disoriented critters, which she promptly killed, experimenting a little.
The water that slowed her down also made it harder for her to directly strike the sharks, the “shockwave” of the punch would start pushing the critters away before she ever made contact. In addition, that ludicrously tough skin meant that her claws were almost entirely useless.
So she switched out her usual leopard fist for a spear hand instead, which basically amounted to keeping her hand as one would normally have it, fingers straight and together.
It had less water resistance, making it perfect for the current situation, though she didn’t use it much normally. After all, it shared the same purpose of being used to target weak points like pressure points or someone’s throat, but she was less practiced with it and the spear hand was more likely to result in injury than the leopard fist.
Annoying as they might be, these things were still unranked little knobs that even a glancing blow would leave dead or dying. Once they were upgraded with a deadlier bite, an electric eel’s shock ability or, God forbid, hydrokinesis, they’d be a nightmare to fight. But until then, it was she who held the advanta- …
Jaclyn felt a tugging on her trousers and spun around to see one of the little shits shoot away with a decently sized chunk of fabric in its maw. Clearly, all it had managed to get before she’d noticed.
A kick that could have shattered an oak desk and likely shifted a car plowed through the water, but all it did was unleash a massive blast of turbulence, the liquid pushed away by her leg sending the shark spinning like an insect caught in a wind canal, but the little shit was largely fine afterwards, disappearing between the coral.
Jaclyn made a mad grab for it, but only managed to shatter several of the structures around the hole. Oh, those things were sharp! Not sharp enough to harm her, but a serious threat to the others. She internally growled with frustration but decided not to chase that particular creature.
Instead, she advanced and things went well, all in all. Except for one particular shark whom she accidentally punched in the mouth, literally, with her fingers sliding into its open maw and when she yanked her hand back, the backward-facing fangs catching on her skin and causing her to inadvertently pull the creature along.
But even that wasn’t a real issue. She could feel those teeth were sharp and pointy, yet not to the point where they could harm her. After all, Jaclyn was borrowing her power from a creature who was regularly used as a chew toy by lions, so what was a dinky little shark going to do?
As Jaclyn advanced, she noticed the environment change. The more classical coral reefs, all razor-sharp edges, and small hidey holes rapidly faded away into open ocean. Nowhere to put her feet when she wanted to stop actively swimming, but also nowhere for the sharks to hide. Instead, long and spindly things waved up from the bottom of the room, reminding her strangely of garden hoses.
And when she brushed against it, she could feel her body react to it. A brief flash of heat at the point of contact, a strange “warning” sensation, and that was it. Jaclyn wasn’t hurt, but she could clearly tell that thing was toxic to some degree. Touch it and ... something happened. She didn’t know what, and she really didn’t want to.
Either way, this place was a hellhole of legendary proportions. You couldn’t touch anything without being hurt, there were creatures that could come from every direction, most spells she knew the Worldstrider Tribe to have access to wouldn’t work down here, and honestly, she really wished her little Dungeon diving group had a second melee fighter.
The only silver lining was that in its unfinished form, she was in a position to clear this section herself. And she was going to do her damndest to make sure she did that.
As she continued to swim forward, she was already making plans for how to properly clear it later. Swimming goggleds for everyone involved were a must, obviously, some of those underwater propulsion unit things could be useful too, and what else? Maybe grenades to clear the area just underneath the drop? The police department didn’t have any grenades other than flash bangs normally, but Frye could probably source them and even would, if she asked with a reasonable explanation for why she needed them.
Maybe she could even get her hands on some harpoon guns? Like what she’d seen in one of the old James Bond movies, but perhaps there was a more modern version that could fire more rapidly?
Really, some proper gear, a few better-suited spells, and perhaps an Anima Monk bonded to a Killer Whale to boot? Hell, those sharks might be a good option too.
Absurdly tough for their size, an infinitely regenerating maw full of teeth, skin like sandpaper, and proper aquatic mobility … it might work. The full package for operating in the water, and ridiculous toughness for general operations.
The further Jaclyn got, the more adept she became at hitting the sharks and not letting herself get startled when one futility nipped at her trousers or, on one memorable occasion, her big toe. That last one, though, had been something of an idiot because with its chosen target, she could kick it without having to worry about just pushing it away. Her foot ripped through the top of its head with a mere twitch of her leg and that was the end of that particular paragon of stupidity.
Soon afterwards, she turned the final corner and was faced with an area that was actually looking scary. The ceiling was low as hell, to the point where it dipped into the water and it would not allow her to surface to breathe.
Jaclyn sighed. That section would be dangerous, but as long as she was careful and baited as many creatures as possible out from under the dangerous area, it should be doable.
But when she dove down, making sure to keep her grasp on that poor projection she’d dragged all over the place, there was nothing there. Just her, a path forward, and a little phantom dragon that wasn’t doing much of anything now that it was too far from Gula for her to control it.
And then she surfaced on the other side, coming face to face with a titanic muzzle … which promptly opened to give her a fantastic view at the gullet behind it, from where flames suddenly started pouring forth from.
Oh, for the love of …
Jaclyn sucked in a huge gulp of breath before diving back under the waves, cursing.
So close. So bloody close. She’d seen the damn vial. But would she be able to handle that monster alone?
The answer was a definite no.
Yet she also doubted that the others would be of much use after swimming all the way here. And she’d promised not to go into a new section alone.
She wanted that bloody vial, damnit, and she’d come so far. However, it wasn’t worth her life, she knew that. But if she didn’t try, what had all this been for?
One try, she decided. One Hail Mary with very little risk to herself, and then she’d retreat.
So she dove down once more, making sure to emerge in a different spot than before, and hurled the Tatzelwymr with all the strength she could muster.
Job done, she dove right back down and retreated, waiting on the other end of the low ceiling until she felt the dragon tyrannosaurus rex should be dead.
As she returned, she could feel the burn of the drops of toxin that had made it into the water on her skin. It was an irritating prickling, but one she could ignore.
She stuck her head out of the water, saw the corpse of the dino lying there, and flopped onto dry land like a piece of driftwood. Finally.
Jaclyn tried to take this as a chance to rest up for a few seconds, but a loud screech told her she wasn’t alone either. She shot to her feet and fell into a combat stance, fists raised, only to see a stupid little critter with flames flickering in its teeth.
A dragon velociraptor?
Either way, it all but exploded into gore and bone fragments when she kicked it. Low ranked, thankfully.
Looking around, she could see half a dozen other similar creatures lying there, dead, killed by the blood of the Tatzelwyrm.
Jaclyn sagged in relief and staggered over towards the plinth that held the fist-sized vial of potion, grabbed it, and slowly swam back outside … only to turn around briefly to look for the ladder. She’d take the rope back up, of course, she really didn’t feel like lugging something other than her prize back out, but she wanted to know if it was there.
As it turned out, there was.
But with that knowledge, she dragged herself back out, swam back through the ocean while fending off the handful of sharks she’d missed on her first path through, and let herself get pulled up on the rope at the exit. Oh, finally. Fucking finally.
Feeling dead on her feet, she ambled out with the others, barely willing to engage in conversation.
***
Thomas watched the humans leave, following them with Jan.
That last part had been really painful. The delvers’ approach had been smart, of course, but just having their party’s bruiser bull her way through everything had been way too simple.
He sighed. Once again, there was a reason he’d prioritized his spider monkeys, but that had been an absolute bloodbath in more than one way.
And yet, he’d been happy that Inspector Abrams and Granger had survived. He liked them, they were interesting and had cool ideas.
The others, though, the ones who’d almost died to the snakes several times … he felt nothing about them.
Thomas knew it should bother him. But it simply … didn’t. That was more than a little scary.
When he thought of humans he disliked, like that cultivator, he wanted to hurt or even kill them. Human emotions, maybe a little on the bloody side, but still normal human feelings.
And people he liked, he wanted to survive, build up a friendly relationship, etc. He didn’t want to kill them, but he wouldn’t be overly generous to them either, in the interest of appearing fair and impartial.
Everyone else, though, he didn’t really care. Live, die, waste away in a boring, soul-crushing profession, the only thing that really mattered was how they impacted him. Namely, if they could and would enter the Dungeon and explore, maybe even die for his empowerment, do something that benefited him, he’d like that. But not them. Never them. They might as well be paper caricatures to him, or video game NPCs come to life.
He could engage with them, he could deal with them, he could even be strategic within his dealings and empathize with them to understand their motives and act on that information, but anything beyond that … no.
And while neutral indifference to strangers was a fairly normal thing, he’d almost killed these strangers, and was feeling precisely nothing. And that was the most terrifying thing of all.
Each of these realizations came like a wave, crashing down on him on the heels of the next as his mind just kept chugging on, revealing more and more dark truths even if he wished he could just shut it down.
Just what had his transformation done to him?
That … that was something that he’d have to figure out, and soon.
***
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Granger said, turning around just before he opened the jeep’s door and returned to the monkey. “The actual uniforms you asked for aren’t ready yet, but I figured you might like this.”
With that, he reached into one of his coat pockets and produced a badly squished but still intact tiny fedora, which he then held out to the monkey Daedalus was communicating through.
It accepted it and struck a few poses before fixing its gaze on Granger.
“I think I’ll have something very special for you next time,” the monkey said, sounding oddly distracted. Was everything alright with Daedalus?
Then, it turned in Jaclyn’s direction.
“And maybe, we’ll be able to negotiate properly. Your people come to me, I come to your people, you stick me in whatever room you need to feel safe and give me a laptop that can run a video conference … if it works, I’m down for it. Just make sure to hurry, I don’t know how much time we have left until the dragon becomes a real problem.”
And with that, the little critter scampered back into the Dungeon.
Jaclyn watched it leave with mixed feelings. That thing was helpful, but it was also extremely dangerous, and even when it didn’t require death to grow, it still needed to put people in danger of dying. A Dungeon would make for a wonderful ally, but it was plenty terrifying even if it wasn’t an enemy.