Third times the charm. Sera thought to herself with an underwater ramp, part of the long copper outcrop nearby, and while holding onto the Dwelling.

When Sera had first tried to move it, it took a while before she found that the legs could be detached, and when they did a circular handrail had popped from the top of the Dwelling.

Then came the pulling.

The first try, she couldn’t move it an inch.

The second try, Sera emptied the Dwelling and tried again, which led to it rocking but ultimately only floating for a moment before reaching the seafloor.

Finally, however, she was ready.

The ramp was mismatched and uneven, but with her the materials being ores and the odd seagrass and even her pack, it was good enough.

The ‘lever’ to push the Dwelling up into the water, so Sera could stand under it and carry it on the seafloor like Hercules, was more or less a long shot in it not breaking immediately.

But sometimes risks needed to be taken.

Locking her feet under a large rock, Sera pulled down on the lever. In the corner of her eyes, Sera could see the Dwelling begin to tug before leaving the surface of the ocean.

Feeling the tension decrease drastically, Sera kept pushing until she almost flung it up in the water, the lever was now facing up from the large rock as Sera quickly escaped the rock binding her feet.

Swimming underneath the formidable falling alien structure with faster speeds than ever before, Sera knew the fins were doing their job, feeling the clunk of metal as it landed on her back Sera felt like she was being crushed-

But then it stopped, the pressure almost evaporated as Sera could feel the Dwelling hanging precariously on her back feel like it were as heavy as the copper outcrop lever she had fashioned.

“Whoa-T-this is almost too light! Hahaha, Iva, can you see this?” Looking at the shadow cast as she looked up at the seal, she could see the concerned look in its eye disappear at her tone.

Alright, let’s try moving. Moving one leg up, she expected the structure to collapse on top of her and was surprised when it didn’t… She was holding up the equivalent of a mini mobile home on her back.

It didn’t even take a toll on her, taking slow footsteps forward, Sera made her way to the ‘goal’ she set when trying to move the Dwelling-something that had once seemed impossible, at least by herself.

I wonder why it's so light, maybe it's because the size of it compared to the mass is abnormal? Pondering the thought for a moment longer, Sera could feel the Dwelling begin to slide off her back.

Right where she wanted it. Pivoting her body a bit to the right, she could feel the metal dome slowly fall to the ocean floor. “Wow. I can’t believe I thought this thing would crush me.”

Sera gave off a small chuckle as she went to grab the legs that were left behind a few meters away. Again, the new fins were helping her a ton, who would’ve thought they were so easy to make?

PID Interface

Fins:

Materials:

* Threaded Anemone 1KG

* Quartz 100G

* Ink 300G

The anemone was a bit interesting to find, but after finding out they all looked roughly the same, all it came down to was finding look-a-like’s to Nemo’s home.

Brushing off the thought as Sera brought the last leg, she noticed that after the legs were ejected all that was left was the simple holes where they were ejected from the Dwelling.

Sticking them back in, she could feel a subtle click before the Dwelling was back to normal. Except this time on a higher elevation and away from a few nearby cliffs.

“That felt too convenient, like a lot of the Anicent’s technology,” Sera remarked, her voice relaxed and in a lower pitch.

Bringing out the PID, Sera focused on the last two pieces, she needed to build before the base had power-and she could finally cook food… and assimilate.

PID Interface

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Solar energy or ‘Solar panels’ *:

Materials:

* Copper 2KG

* Lead 1KG

* Quartz 500G

PID Mount or ‘Mount’ *:

Materials:

* Lead 500G

* Copper 500G

* Gold 500G

* Fossilised Coral 100G

The solar panels were a walk in the park, the fossilised coral on the other hand meant one thing.

She would have to go deeper.

Letting go of a sigh she didn’t know she was holding in, Sera closed her eyes as she scrambled her memories of any dead looking coral on the seafloor.

Near the temple? No. Near the wreck? No. Near the seagrass? N-

Wait.

Her top teeth bit anxiously into her lip as Sera tried to think of any other location she had been in that had dead coral.

“The dungeon felt like a new and thriving cave system, the cave near here don’t have dead coral lying around, and the caves with the skeletal jaws only have the glowing algae in them.”

As she tried to rack her brain, she saw Sera come and visit her nest sitting on one of the rocks nearby. “Right. First things first.”

Carrying her makeshift bed and Iva’s nest in one hand, Sera left all her remaining materials outside the Dwelling.

In the future, if she needed to have it move, and fast, then she couldn’t afford to bring everything out again. Two small bed's seagrass beds, however, probably wouldn’t make a difference.

Pulling open the hatch, Sera popped inside before being pulled downwards.

Almost having a mini heart attack, Sera dropped the beds as her feet clunk to the floor of the Dwelling.

Looking down, Sera saw her feet-or more specifically, her fins morph into what looked like compact shoes. Pulling one of her feet away from the hull, it began to stretch back into a fin before she let it fall back onto the floor of the Dwelling.

“Huh… So that was why there was a recipe adjustment for the fins, it almost feels like I’m on the surface again.”

Walking around, her feet clunked awkwardly as she moved around and began moving her bed and Iva's into their respective corners before leaving the Dwelling to grab her backpack.

“Alright Iva. Let’s go back to the seagrass area with the caves… Okay?” Sera spoke to her friend like a person did, only realising too late that the sentence may have been a bit much.

But the seal was already gliding off towards the seagrass. Iva was getting smarter, smarter, or she was beginning to learn terms and phrases.

Regardless, they reached the seagrass zone in record time, even Iva was struggling to keep up with Sera now that she had her fins and her movements were becoming more natural by the day.

“Lead on girl!” Holding onto Iva, Sera quickly lost her vision in the forest of grass.

Only the agile turns and kicks kept her barely holding on.

But where last time, Sera was anxious, unprepared and frankly untrusting of the random red fish she had decided to save. This time she was confident, prepared and trusting of her friend that had saved her countless times.

Pushing through another blanket of seagrass, Sera saw the familiar clearing again.

Examining the area it looked desolate compared to before, despite the flora and activate swaying of the seagrass, all the fish were gone.

I guess I was expecting this, but still. Sera looked towards an array of outcrops where she had been attacked by the camouflaging starfish-monster.

But she didn’t spot it.

Whether that meant it had stayed in the cave after she fought it off, or was nearby and simply waiting for her to put her guard down, was another thing altogether.

Looking around at the pale blue, empty waters, she found the cave that had brought her here. If dead coral was going to be anywhere, it was going to be in this organic wonderland.

“Let’s go, Iva, if there’s none here could always cut some coral off and see how long it takes to die in the Dwelling.”

Determined to see things through, Sera lead the way to the cave, dodging loose strands of seagrass not growing in the forests surrounding the small clearing.

At the entrance, Sera saw the familiar moss decorating the walls and knew at the least there was going to be more signs of life as she went further downwards.

But not before Iva swam under her stomach and began leading the way forwards, Sera brought out her scanner unconsciously as she began lighting up the quickly darkening walls of the depths.

Dancing shadows and outcrops could be seen scattered about, but she wasn’t going to try her luck for anything that could be found directly outside the cave.

No, her prize lay deeper within.

Minutes passed with little to no signs of anything, other than the wide tunnel, that only seemed to be getting bigger rather than smaller, as if something had carved it out from the inside.

Each time an outcrop or a large shadow came by, Sera’s hand instinctively came to her belt for her knife, before the illusion came to light. That’s when she noticed that she was feeling more and more anxious in the cave the deeper she went.

As if there was something off about the cave, as if something had di-

Her eyes stared at the startling white ring of spirals. “Wait, is that-”

Not wasting a second, Sera scanned the white looking fissure sticking to the wall.

Scanner Results

Fossilised Coral:

A long dead piece of coral, broken off from a rough impact.

“Broken off…” Sera looked down into the depths before coming closer to the dead coral and smashing the back of it off the wall, Sera nimbly grabbed it and pocketed it into her pack before looking back down.

“The rest of it should be nearby then, this shouldn’t take much longer, Iva.”

Sera pushed off the cave wall and nearly slammed into the one perpendicular to her before she continued the descent.

But thankfully for not much longer before she spotted another piece of coral stuck to the wall, with the scanner saying more or less the same results.

Scanner Results

Fossilised Coral:

A long dead piece of coral, the majority of it was struck off the wall from a rough impact and likely lies below.

Pocketing this piece as well, Sera finally reached the bottom of the cave.

Scanning her flashlight at the bottom, she could see dozens of white, familiar objects scattered around.

Eagerly collecting them, Sera grabbed three of the fossils before grabbing a much heavier piece of coral.

Turning it around, Sera saw two holes, with the middle piece broken off sharply. It almost looked like a-

“Oh.”

It was a skull.

Not any skull, the horn’s placement was unforgettable.

Sera slowly lowered the skull and brought out her scanner as she carefully shone the light on the other pieces of ‘coral’.

Only to find more than what looked like a hundred bones, rib cages and skulls. Sera kept looking on in morbid fascination before finding a harpoon and spiky ball nearby.

“What… What the heck happened here?”