::Seabed Stroll:: Hidden Scenario_The Trick Tower Tourist

The water rumbled again, deep echoing vibrations that made my ribs rattle. I stared at the text box again. The Rat King of the Tower had been the last time I’d seen such a notification pop up. I looked back down to the hole in the floor to find the eyeball was missing. Before I had a chance to call out about it the muffled sound of splintering wood cracked underneath our feet.

Several long peach colored tentacles pushed into the lopsided room sending broken bits of flotsam into the space. The suckers attached to the walls as a seemingly never ending pointed body pulled into the room. One giant eye stayed trained on us as the full length of the squid made itself known. Tentacles spread revealing a sharp beak situated in the dead center of the mass, that opened letting out a watery screech.

I didn’t bother to hide my scream of terror as I groped behind me for Iagan. A blur of mauve rushed past me as Iagan launched off the wall propelling himself towards the beast. His sword, [Fog Machine], materialized in his hand and the bright orange gem in the hilt lit up. The edge around the sword bubbled profusely sending cascades of ripples up into the ceiling.

Iagan swung as one of the two longer tentacles lashed out, his sword half a moment too late, slowed by the water. It wrapped around him, dragging him closer to the shorter groups of tendrils that angrily bashed at him. I summoned my letter opener, the green eye of the dragon that made up the hilt caught the light attached to my other palm.

“MICA!” Iagan called out as he strained to fight off the attacks. “A little help!”

The shadows of the room swayed back and forth as I swam closer. The giant squid’s eye blinked as it trained on me, watching the light in my palm. The beak opened again letting out a resounding screech.

“What in the bay is going on in here—” A head popped through the door as Maggie came to investigate. She stopped her brown eyes wide at the sight of the fight we were now engaged in.

“Giant squid!” Iagan shouted, plunging [Fog Machine] into the tentacle that wrapped around his waist. “How do we beat it?”

“On your own! GOOD LUCK!” Maggie shouted, yanking the door shut behind her effectively cutting our escape off. The beast released Iagan with a roar and I had to stop swimming to cover my ears from the deep bass vibrations it produced. My magic meter flickered and the light sputtered out as I could no longer hold the concentration needed to keep the spell up, plunging the room into darkness.

“Shit!” Iagan swore, clutching one ear with his free hand as one of the long tentacles shot out again, slapping the weapon out of his hand. It recoiled with a hiss as the heat singed it’s rubbery flesh on contact. The blade sank to the tilted floor and slid across the boards to join the rest of the wreckage. “Shit!”

Iagan kicked off after his sword as it skittered behind me. The giant squid raised its tentacles, it’s now giant plate sized black iris fixed on me as it’s beak snapped. With the speed of a missile one of the two larger feeder tentacles shot out towards me, connecting and wrapping around my waist. The thin layer of my attire did little to stop the suctioned grip of the suckers at the end as it gripped me.

Text box after text box popped up as I attempted to wriggle free of it’s grasp alerting me that I was restrained. I ignored them focusing on the important things in front of me at the moment. It pulled me closer to it and I stabbed at it with my letter opener which didn’t seem thick enough to pierce the body of the great beast.

A silver streak shot past me as Iagan’s harpoon dug into the tender pale pink fleshy underside of the beast near it’s beak. Clouds of red filled the water pouring from the wound left behind. The beast roared again, it’s limbs flailing and smashing into the wooden ceiling sending several cracks throughout it. Water and bubbles rushed around me as the beast rocketed back toward the hole it had burst through, dragging me along after it.

It sank down into the broken holds below and I was wide eyed and along for the ride. Planks, ceilings, door frames raced past as the beast navigated through different rooms. I did my best to avoid the hazards I could see in the dark but still managed to bang into things during some of the abrupt turns. I sent my letter opener away for fear of dropping and losing it permanently holding on to the tendril for dear life.

Finally, all was still and I could catch my breath. My health bar had taken several hits but luckily I was still above the halfway mark. Foolishly, for all of our preparations we’d made the day before neither of us had thought to purchase healing potions. I summoned my light source back so I could make heads and tails of where I was. The ball of light appeared in my palm to reveal the large gaping and bleeding maw of the squid looming closer towards me. The sight of the light rapidly constricted it’s pupil as it’s peachy tendrils struck attempting to pummel me. I screamed as my health bar continued to lower.

Ker-chunk

My light flickered out yet again as I could only focus on surviving what I could no longer see when a second brief light fully illuminated the room. A tentacle had pressed the shutter button on my camera that still hung around my neck, setting off the flash. Pure piercing white light encompassed everything sending the beast’s pupil down to the tiniest of pin pricks.

The giant squid let out another ear splitting shriek that I barely managed to cover my ears for as it released me. I sank as it started flailing about blindly, one of the tentacles brushing past me in the space where I’d just been. I grabbed my camera and immediately began taking more pictures hoping to activate the flash again and prolong the stunned blindness.

Ker-chunk

Another flash illuminated the room and the squid bellowed at the sudden strobe. In the brief instance of light a streak of silver caught my eye. The harpoon had dislodged from the body and had floated down to the floor. I swam still hitting the shutter button every second I could as my hand wrapped around the cold steel of the weapon.

Ker-chunk

Another flash. I ducked below the tentacle that now swiped at me dropping my grip on my camera as I two handed the harpoon jabbing into whatever I could manage to find. The copper taste of blood filled my watery breaths as I let out a yell continuing to use it as a pin cushion.

“MICA!!” Iagan’s voice shouted from somewhere out of the room.

“IN HERE!” I shouted, not stopping my stabbing. Something sharp latched onto my arm and more of my health rapidly vanished as the beak pierced my skin. I screamed again driving the harpoon as deep in as I could manage. With my remaining free hand I found my camera again and hoped to noodles that another chance at a flash would occur soon.

Ker-chunk

White blinded everything, reflecting off the pale underbelly I now found myself surrounded by. My HUD lit up around the beak focusing on the small muscle that lay inside labelling it as a weak spot. The letter opener came to my hand immediately as I called it forth and I jammed it inside the beak, piercing the tongue like thing that continued to taste the blood that leaked from my wound. The squid recoiled, releasing me from it’s maw.

I retreated back, clutching my left arm that ached with stinging pain as the salt water connected with it fully, seeping into my bones. A warm hand grabbed my shoulder pulling me out of the enclosed space. Iagan had produced his own ball of light in his free hand, his other catching [Fog Machine] as it sat in his palm.

“Shit you’re injured!” He panted looking back into the darkened room. A tentacle wrapped around the door frame, the squid ready to make another appearance to finish us off.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“I did what I could…” I tried flexing my fingers of my hurt arm, nothing seemed to be broken, thank noodles.

“You’re fine, wait here.” He said pushing off the floor to the door where he brought down his blade onto the limb, slicing it off. Blood poured from the wound as the beast roared again. He vanished into the darkened room after it as the squid withdrew. The light from Iagan’s magic peeked through the gaps in the rotted boards. Taking as best of a care as I could with my injury I swam into the door frame and set to it with taking more pictures.

Ker-chunk

I stopped briefly for a moment, a new feeling settled in my eyes as I tilted my head. This battle would make for an excellent shot with the light from Iagan’s magic illuminating just enough of the squid to be visible as it emerged from the shadows. This was a photo I knew I had to catch properly so I set up the angle of the camera to match the tilt of the floor, the fight now seemed to be floating in midair and partially sideways from the reality of up and down.

Ker-chunk

The flash ignited right as a tentacle attempted to bash into Iagan. The pupil constricted with blindness and Iagan struck, plunging [Fog Machine] deep into the screaming beak. The squid flailed, choking on the hilt as blood poured from it’s mouth staining the room with it’s gore. The tentacles went slack and its gaze went distant as a final text box pinged across my HUD.

[::Seabed Stroll:: Hidden Scenario Completed]

[Monsters of Floor 1: 1/1]

[Reward: Giant Squid Ink Sack]

[Reward: Giant Squid Beak]

[Reward: Giant Squid Eyeball]

[Reward: Giant Squid Tentacle]

[Skill Increase: Photography level 5]

[Weapon Skill Increase: Dagger level 4]

[Skill Increase: Athletics level 3]

[Spell Level Gained: Light level 4]

I sank to the ground as an urgent text box replaced the rest stating I was over-encumbered. I took a deep watery breath, grateful to be done with this sudden upheaval to our stroll. There were lots of notifications I’d have to deal with later when I was out of the water like picking a [Photography] perk. I was excited to see what would be available to me now that I’d finally gained level 5 in my main skill. Iagan looted the monster whose body vanished away in a dark cloud that shimmered as it cleared.

“Are you okay?” He asked swimming closer to come help me. I looked down to my arm where blood still flowed out of the wound the beak had left.

“I’m okay enough for now.” I said flexing my fingers to prove my mobility and health. “Just stings. Also I’m over-encumbered, will you take my squid tentacle?”

I sent him a trade window and he accepted, I felt much lighter as the transfer went through and gently lifted off the ground.

“We are going to make so much money selling all these.” Iagan grinned. “A giant squid who’da thought huh?”

Frankly, I didn’t care about the money from the sales. I didn’t want to count my coin before they arrived in my pouch: I still needed to find the potential secret that rested with this [Viewpoint]. I checked the time remaining on my underwater breathing potion: [42:38]. An almost fifteen minute struggle with the squid was more than I could handle, and had Iagan not been there I definitely would have been toast. I didn’t press those thoughts any further deciding to just be grateful for his strength and company.

“I can’t take another one of those but I still want to try and look around.” I said summoning my light once again. My magic meter flashed as it activated, lighting the room well enough when combined with Iagan’s. I swam back into the room and picked up my letter opener that had fallen to the ground during the struggle, feeling much more secure as it vanished off into my inventory again.

The room was in less of a state of disarray than the captain’s quarters had been in. Boxes and crates sat stacked against the leaning wall. I summoned my fire poker baton and set to work prying the box lids off, revealing their waterlogged contents. Shipments of books, clothes, fabrics, still sealed jars of spices. I took a few of those in the off chance that they’d be viable when inspected later out of the water. Three small pots whisked away to my inventory filing away properly.

Utilizing Iagan’s strength and the buoyancy of being underwater he helped me sort through the rest of the boxes until we came upon a box with a rounded lid that neither of us could lift. Wood and iron bands wrapped across the top, secured by a crusty padlock on the front. We stared at it for a stunned quiet moment.

“Did we just find a treasure chest?” He asked.

“Yup.”

“Holy shit.”

Ker-chunk

[Floor 1 Secret 6/10]

I snagged a picture of the locked box for posterity’s sake. We’d found the secret. This was exactly what I was hoping to confirm that [Viewpoints] would have some sort of secret attached nearby. We leveraged the baton through the rusted loop and it took both of us pushing against it to snap the lock off.

[Skill Increase: Lock Picking level 2]

[Weapon Skill Increase: Baton level 2]

“Hey, I gained a level in baton weapons!” Iagan mused as we came around to the now unlocked chest. “Do you want to or should I?”

“Keep your light up while you open it and I’ll snag some shots.” I said holding up my camera as I drifted to the side to get a good angle on the goods contained within. Iagan gave a short nod when I gave him the thumbs up. Slowly he lifted up the lid, the light from his free hand flashing gold as some air bubbles escaped out.

Ker-chunk

I took four photos and one more for good measure. I put down my camera to finally get my own real look at the contents as Iagan stared with his mouth open wide in shock. The chest sat filled to the brim with gold coins.

“Mica, holy shit!” He swore under his breath, sinking his hands into it, coins spilling out and onto the ground as he lifted them back out. As he did so a text box popped up across my HUD:

[Loot Chest]

[Y/N?]

I clicked accept and an inventory box popped up listing the contents of the box.

650 Gold Pieces

1 Diamond (Socketable)

1 Emerald (Socketable)

1 Crystal Vial of Giant Strength

1 Garnet Tiara of Minor Illusion

“Noodles!” I gaped staring at the loot table. I looked to my pathetic carrying capacity that my HUD informed me was just below it’s limits. “I can’t take any of it I’m at my limit.”

“I can carry this for now and then we’ll sort it out on land.” Iagan offered. That sounded agreeable enough as I nodded and he accepted the contents into his inventory. The empty box didn’t appear nearly as grand after we’d emptied it but I did gasp when my HUD focused in on the bottom of the box where a familiar symbol lay burned into the bottom.

Ker-chunk

We’d found another hidden eight pointed star logo from Roqor Studios. The second hidden symbol filed itself away in my compendium and I let out a watery breath of relief knowing I was on the right track.

“Do we need anything else from in here?” Iagan asked.

“I’m good on pictures. I should have most of everything by now. I’m ready to be done with the ocean.”

“Alright. We’ve still got to go gather those ingredients but that’s in the bay so it won’t be too bad.”

“We should probably get back to Maggie so she doesn’t think we died or something.”

“Oh yeah,” Iagan said, remembering she was with us. “Some help she was.”

“She’s a civilian NPC not a warrior.” I chided.

“You’re not a warrior either and you still handled that squid just fine till I caught up.” He said. I didn’t have any response to that as we swam back out of the hold of the ship. The bright blue filtered light of the deep ocean was a welcome sight as we rejoined the outside. A bright squeal echoed through the water as Peaches zoomed up to us chirping happily. Maggie followed along not far after, her slick seal half gliding through the water with ease.

“There you are!” She exclaimed. “I saw the blood and feared the worst.”

“Iagan handled it.” I said, ignoring the stinging in my arm. “But I found what I came for so I’m content to be done with this stroll and head back to the bay.”

“I’ll bet!” Maggie said, her eyes falling to my still bleeding arm. “We can’t have you bleeding in the open ocean like this hold on.”

She took my arm gently and held her hand over the wound, a white magic lit up around her palm and my skin rapidly patched itself back together stopping the bleeding.

[Spell Discovery: Mending!]

A mending spell, I’d definitely have to get my hands on a spell book of that as soon as possible. The cloud of red that followed behind me finally dispersed as the spell finished and my health bar moved up a little bit more. It wasn’t a full complete restoration but it was enough to get me over halfway.

“There,” Maggie said. “That’ll be 20 gold.”

The bees thrummed angrily in my chest but I didn’t care enough to bother trying to [Haggle] the price down and paid her. Iagan tried to protest but I shook my head, it wasn’t worth the argument.

“If that’s all you two wanted for the stroll I’m more than happy to start you back to the bay for the remainder of your time.” Maggie said, “Just hold onto Peaches and we’ll head on back.”

Peaches nudged against my side like an oversized dog desperate for love and attention. I grabbed the harness and Iagan did too. Slowly we began our ascent out of the deep shelf of ocean, the warmth from the sunlight was noticeably different. More clusters of fish became abundant as we arrived back closer to the surface among the corals.

I certainly felt better seeing the ripples of the waves above our heads as my timer ticked just over [16:00] left. Peaches pulled us along, just high enough to not bump the reef as we continued on. I watched the bright colors whiz past under my shoes when my HUD lit up around an object I hadn’t identified yet.

“Wait Peaches!” I called out letting go of the harness for a brief moment as I back tracked. Maggie called Peaches to a stop as I went to investigate. It took a moment to find what had activated it when I came across a giant clam that sat partially open. I snagged a picture and a little notification popped up signaling I’d found another of the Floor 1 Animals.

[Floor 1 Animals 20/25]

I let my camera rest against my chest again, staring at the number. I was nearly done cataloging all the animals which was my biggest labor of my class on this floor. I was really doing it. I was going to get them all in the first go. A feeling of self satisfaction swelled within me and I couldn’t wait to see all the new pictures I’d taken as post cards.

But that would have to wait as I still had one more potion of underwater breathing and some ingredients to procure.

::Seabed Stroll:: Hidden Scenario

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