“Aqua! Are you-”

Ray appeared in front of the door, he could see the remnants of the giant octopus scattered along the floor.

“You killed the boss? I like octopus but for some reason that doesn't make me very hungry.”

“...Ray?”

“Have you forgotten me already?”

“No, it's not that, I’m just surprised to finally see a friendly face again.”

“Well we have to get out of here quick. The dungeon’s collapsing.”

“Wait, the chest!”

“Quick!"

Aqua looked over at the center of the room. This time the chest had patterns of seagrass over it. She opened it, and out of it came a dagger in a decorated sheethe. She put it away as they both sprinted to the exit. Along the way Aqua could see one… two… five… ten… thirty… fifty… countless kappas on the floor. As they ran out of the main entrance, it collapsed in behind them.

“Any later and we-”

“-Now’s not the time!”

They dived into the ocean in front of them as the dome of air around them burst. The current filled in its place as they were thrown around underwater. Aqua held on to Ray as she overpowered the current, throwing both of them onto the land.

“AH! Air!”

“That was… too close.”

“I think getting out is still the most tense part about dungeon crawling for me.”

“It was my first time, but I have to agree.”

“Anyways, you cleared the entire dungeon by yourself? It may be too late to say this but I think the dungeon wasn’t on beginner level.”

“I was guessing so at the end there…”

“So, what did you get from the chest?”

“This dagger.”

“Can I see it?”

Ray reached out and Aqua handed him the dagger. It had a light blue hue and shone brilliantly. He inspected it for a brief time and stood up.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Seems quite frail. It does seem to be of the water element. Perfect for you.”

“So what can it do? Enhance water magic or something? Nothing happened when I held it…”

He flipped the dagger in his hand, put it into the sheethe and threw it back to her.

“Even if it takes a while… Figuring it out yourself is the best part.”

He put on a sly smirk.

“Oh, when exploring I also found another chest.”

“Nice. What did it look like?”

“It was a black chest covered in purple crystals… It was in a secluded part of the dungeon too… weird for a water dungeon.”

“You found a void chest?!?”

“What’s that?”

“Do you know how rare those are?”

“No? You should know I’ve never been in a dungeon before.”

“I’ve never even seen one myself. Those things contain ancient loot. What did you get??

“Uhh-”

“-We can definitely sell it for fifty gold… minimum.”

“Well…”

“So? Where’s the loot?”

“I sort of… used it…”

“What.”

Ray’s mouth was stuck open.

“It was a scroll, I just looked at it and…”

“You learned it…”

Ray fell to the floor and slammed his fist into the ground.

“Ancient scrolls… are one time use… That might have gone for platinum coins...”

There was a moment of silence for the lost gold.

“Well, it’s too late now. What spell is it anyway?”

“Let me show you…”

She did the same motion with her hand as before.

“Scourge of the storm… Kraken!”

A tiny tentacle appeared on the grass in front of her, not higher than her knee.

“...Really?”

She hid her visibly red face.

“That wasn’t what it was like in the dungeon…”

“Do you remember how your casting felt surrounded by water mana?”

“Yeah. It was really easy to cast powerful spells.”

“Remember how it felt. The flow of mana.”

She closed her eyes and felt the mana around her. The earth mana around her was strong, they were deep in the forest after all. Light mana was scattered as it always is in daytime.

“Mana’s always more concentrated in living beings.”

From inside her she could feel the rich and pure water mana. Like an ocean, she took a dip in it.

“Kraken!”

She could feel the whirlpool inside her as the tentacle appeared at multiple times her size.

“That’s it…-”

Ray could see her struggling but had his mouth open in surprise.

“-The ancient magic… Kraken.”

“Holy.”

She waved her arm and the tentacle slammed into a nearby rock formation smashing it into pieces, before collapsing back into water.

“That amount of mana… What… are you?”

Aqua had already collapsed at the same time as the tentacle.

“Hah, I guess training here was the right decision after all.”