After resetting my spawn point, just in case of traps, I popped open the treasure chest.

Lava Shrimp Lure

Rare Item

Fishing Tackle

Level to Use: 25

Special: Lava Fishing

Thermal Combustion Cannister

Rare Item

Bomb - Unlimited Charges

Level to Use: 25

Special: Lava Fishing

There was also an assortment of coins along with some paperwork at the bottom of the chest. I pulled out one of the documents.

Blueprint: MultiBoom

Abigail snagged the other.

BluePrint: OmniRod

“Wow,” she said, emitting an appreciative whistle. “I’m totally making one of these.”

“Didn’t you just get a new fishing rod?” I asked.

She shrugged. “So! Different rods serve different purposes, and I won’t know which is better until I make it. What about you? What is that thing?”

“I think it’s another bomb,” I replied, looking over the ingredients.

MultiBoom

Ingredients:

1 glob of Purified Lava

1 melt-resistant container of any type

1 catalyst

The recipe also contained a series of runes which I assumed made the whole concoction work. Otherwise, the ingredients just didn’t seem to go together. I glanced over to find Abigail frowning at her blueprint.

“This makes no sense at all,” she said, pointing at one of the ingredients. “How am I supposed to make a fishing rod out of liquid magma?”

I shrugged. “I guess we can bottle some up and you can figure it out later.”

“Is there any left out there?” she asked, going back to the viewport to look.

“We can always go back the way we came,” I replied, pointing a thumb back toward the pool we swam in through.

“But how will we collect it?” she asked. “The snot bubble only protects me. I can’t use it as a storage device.”

“Is that what it’s called?” I gasped theatrically. “Snot Bubble?”

She nodded, looking away. “It’s not as gross as it sounds. Once it’s out of my nose it’s more like a soap bubble than anything else.”

I grinned. Snot Bubble. Another skill for my collection.

Together, we backtracked to the magma pool. I took out several canisters of blast oil and fumbled with them before figuring out how to open them. I then carefully poured the contents out far from the magma pool before returning and offering Abigail one of the empty containers.

“This shouldn’t melt,” I explained.

“Where did you get this?” she asked.

“The alchemist sold them to me,” I replied. “He told me the containers are more valuable than the blast oil and I’m starting to see why.”

She took the canister and knelt a few feet away from the magma. “This isn’t the same as scooping up water. If I get too close it will burn me.”

“Try using your fishing rod,” I suggested.

After working with it for a while, Abigail finally managed to get the line tied around the lip of the container before carefully lowering it into the magma. When she pulled it up, it was filled to the brim with the glowing orange substance. Since she had no real way of screwing the lid on, I equipped the lava proof armor and did it for her. Then I proceeded to submerge myself while holding my canister, emerging a few seconds later with a filled vessel of my own. While I could have asked Abigail to fill it for me, it felt more appropriate to do it myself.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Now I just have to figure out how to purify mine,” I said, stowing the cumbersome armor and the canister in my inventory simultaneously.

Back in the control room, we realized we hadn’t taken the gold. In all, there was around fifteen gold. I offered it to Abigail since I took the first cash drop. She didn’t argue and we proceeded to the stairwell. The piston room was still the way we left it, devoid of magma. The only thing in the room was the hatch that stood in the middle of two grated drains. I spun the wheel and it opened right up, revealing a ladder that led deeper underground.

Abigail went first and I followed. The ladder went down quite a ways before coming out into a tunnel with about a foot of flowing water.

“Interesting,” Abigail said as she splashed down. “What is water doing down here? I might have to ditch you if it leads to a fishing hole.”

After a brief pause, she added. “Just kidding.”

“This is strange?” I said as we walked down what looked like a runoff tunnel. “Do you think this is a cooling chamber for whatever that machine is up there?”

Abigail looked back the way we came. “I don’t know. It’s probably just part of the dungeon, and isn’t supposed to make any sense.”

“I’m sure whoever designed it thinks it makes sense,” I shot back.

You’re correct!

The system agreeing with me brought a smile to my face. The sight around the next bend had both of us frozen in shock. The tunnel let out into a stream that ran through what looked like an underground rainforest.”

“I know what this is!” Abigail exclaimed. “This is a thermal oasis.”

“A what?” I asked, gaping at her.

“Haven’t you ever seen Journey to the Center of the World?” she asked. “It’s supposed to be a hidden oasis somewhere deep underground where the conditions are just right to make life sustainable. It’s totally unrealistic in the real world but this isn’t the real world now, is it?”

My mind cycled through what I remembered of the book and the several movies made about it. “Were there any monsters or animals that could hint at what the boss down here will be?”

Abigail beamed. “There were some really neat fish. I hope it’s them,” then her expression fell. “Or maybe just a stupid dinosaur.”

“Dinosaur?” I asked.

As if to answer my call, a roar echoed from deep in the forest and several birds took flight.

“Dinosaurs it is then,” Abigail sighed, looking dejected.

Together, we marched through the forest, careful to keep our eyes peeled for any signs of dinosaurs. As we passed, I collected some large yellow fruit that looked like bananas on steroids. Abigail kept her eyes on the stream in search of fish. The closer we got, the louder the roaring got. Neither of us were prepared for what we ran into.

Lavasauraus Rex

Boss Monster

Level 33

Let’s see a meteor take this baby out!

“Any ideas?” I asked.

Abigail smirked. “Well, it’s not a fish but I do have a few tricks up my sleeve. You?”

“A couple,” I replied. “He looks to be made at least partially of stone, so I should have an advantage.”

“Is that what you call it?” she asked.

The lavasauraus, while definitely in the shape of its namesake, was comprised mostly of blackened rock with the orange glow of molten lave leaking through at every joint. Abigail fished around in her tackle bag and pulled out a strange-looking fish scale. She held it to the hook and missed, pricking her finger instead.

I watched in fascination for a moment before realizing something was off. “Wait, how are you bleeding? There isn’t supposed to be blood in this game.”

She chuckled, coating the fish scale in her blood. It began glowing before expanding in a flash of light. When my eyes refocused, a large fish with an even larger mouth floated in front of her.

“This is my skill,” she explained. “Reanimate. So long as I have a bit of a fish I caught, I can resummon it for battle.”

“How is it flying?” I asked, still dumbfounded.

“It’s swimming,” Abigail reassured me. “Think of these like fantom fish that can swim through the air. They can’t fly the way a bird or a plane does, and their actions have to obey the laws of the sea. That means they can only move so fast and can’t stop quickly. I don’t know if this one can eat lava but it’s the best I got.”

Hyneria

Phantom Fish

Level 25

I took out my deck and summoned another lesser earth dragon. It snapped at me, still angry about getting fed to the shark, but when it saw the lavasauraus it roared a challenge.

“Impressive,” Abigail said after inspecting the dragon. “Is your skill similar to mine?”

“Something like that,” I replied. “I haven’t tried it on anything except this dragon.”

“You should definitely get more monsters. Something water-based would probably work well here.”

I climbed on the back of my dragon. “Can you ride yours, or do you need a lift?”

Abigail took one look at the scaled back of her fish before pulling herself up behind me. “I think I’m better off over here. The hyneria fights better unencumbered.”

The lavasaurus noticed us when we were halfway there. It stomped through the forest, ignoring trees and bushes as if they were obstacles to plow through like The Kool-Aid Man. The Hyneria, which looked like an extra large barracuda, shot ahead of us like a dart aimed straight at the molten dinosaur. It came in low, well beneath the muscular jaw of the lavasaurus, and bit into one of its tiny arms, ripping it from the body.

Lava poured out of the wound but the hyneria escaped. Once we were in range, Abigail cast her new fishing rod and sent the hook sailing over the lavasaurus’s head. She yanked it back and the hook raked across its spine before finding purchase in one of the lava-filled crevices.

She dismounted and held the line taut. “I’ve got its attention. Now it’s up to you to deal some damage before it eats me.”

It was time to figure something out, and I had a feeling my mini dragon and a fisher out of water weren’t going to do the trick. So, I took out my collection of cards to see if anything might be of use. Something Abigail said stuck in my mind. If only I had a water-based dragon. Could I make monsters I hadn’t encountered yet? I decided to give it a try.

Lesser Water Dragon

Card Battle Card

The image of the water dragon that appeared on the card was different from the Earth dragon. It was slender and serpent-like, having four tiny legs barely long enough to walk on. Even more peculiar, it was made entirely out of water. The next question was, could I summon more than one of them? It was simple enough to try. I held out the card and it disintegrated into a live version of the water dragon, just as it did with the earth dragon. The water dragon shot off toward the lavasaurus. It knew the assignment.

I wanted to test how many summons I could have at a time, so I made another card. That one came to life and took off as well, so I did it again. It wasn’t until I attempted a fifth water dragon that I was cut off.

Error: The system has imposed a restriction on monster summoning, You are currently capped at five lesser summons.

With the summoning out of the way, I debated the best card for my heart deck. Nothing jumped at me as dino-slaying material so I went with the tried and true Infuse Mana card. The last thing I wanted to do was make the lavasaurus a molten lavasaurus, so I took my blast oil canisters down to the stream and dumped them out, replacing the contents with water.

“What are you doing?” Abigail’s strained voice called out. She was barely holding on. “Good job on all the dragons but is this really the time to be getting a drink?”

“That’s not what I’m doing!” I balked, as I filled canister after canister. “I’m making bombs, water bombs.”