After his conversation with Ichibad, Jay spent two days searching the island. In those two days, he accomplished way more than he could have asked for. He checked in with his family members, verified that the alligator village had resurrected, including seeing Lyle alive and well, and even searched the whole island for the second Angerine trial dungeon.

And it was nowhere to be found.

Taylor Lynn and the rest of the party were impatiently waiting for him to finish up on the island. Apparently, if her word could be trusted, and it generally could be where games were concerned, there would be exciting events afoot on the mainland. She was holding onto some surprise. He tried texting Ken and Jenny, but the other players simply told him to exercise patience. The deep irony of them asking him for patience while spamming him about finishing with the island was something else.

Jay lost direct contact with Sarah, but Taylor Lynn assured him she was doing well. She was anticipating release from the game soon. At that point, her initial diagnostic reports would be ready. He was deeply hopeful that there would be some news regarding her health.

But he still couldn’t find the second trial.

Jay had all three Mercuran Hearts, which he had convinced himself over two days would be the key to the dungeon. The items were too important to be anything else, even if Ichibad hadn’t said so directly. Besides, as far as he knew, there wasn’t much else to do on the island. The search was aggravating since a giant dungeon entrance should be obvious.

During the two days of hunting, Jay had manually grinded his way to level 48 without quests. Those extra points went into Speed, bringing his total to 140 points. The process was painfully slow without any quests, but the island didn’t have much to do—aside from his second trial.

Jay had found the place in the swamp where Ichibad had assassinated the other elite. That was where the Cat Sith had obtained the other heart. Jay tried to add the monster to his Bestiary but received no such luck. He did discover the usefulness of his level 45 ability.

The ability was called Enchanted Ammunition and was related to his Magic Ammunition ability. The new ability allowed him to feed enchanted ammunition into it. Those enchanted pieces would be memorized by the skill, allowing him to summon the bolts with his mp. There were currently five slots available, which he was already using three of.

Jay added the necrotic bolts for their utility dealing damage in extended fights. The second bolt was the slime bolt, solving an issue he had with limited supply and therefore making them more available. Lester’s Enchanters were unlikely to work on discovering the formula with him dead. Finally, he added the muck trap bolts into his arsenal. Overall, those bolts were more effective than the ice traps.

Collapsing into the ground, Jay became intensely uncomfortable. His chosen place of rest was the rocky beach since the view of the water was quite beautiful. Scyllo had not respawned, likely since it held a Mercuran Heart, so the area was quite safe. The biggest threat was the baby lizards, which were violent. They were ultimately too weak to be a threat, making them adorable.

The ground was composed of rocks, making sitting on the beach uncomfortable. Jay reached up to pet Cuddles, but the Strogian Death squirrel hopped off his shoulders. Jay felt strange that the animal had been created as a cover-up scheme. He watched Cuddles with interest since the squirrel rarely left his shoulder outside combat.

The squirrel sniffed the area with interest, seeking something only the animal could smell. He stopped at various sea shells and tested them. Batting the shells aside made it clear that they weren’t what he sought.

After watching this process for five minutes, Jay lost track of his attention span. Cuddles was unlikely to run off since the game bound him to the system. He figured—let the little bit of computer code play if it wanted to.

Instead, Jay’s attention drifted to a text message he had received that morning. The message from Claire had read: Hey, can we talk soon? I wanna see you. He had mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, it had only been a few days since they last saw each other. Otherwise, though, Jay did enjoy spending time with her a lot. There was also the fact that “Can we talk soon?” was only one or two steps removed from “We need to talk.” He was only overthinking that part a little.

Jay had responded that he was in the middle of some game stuff, which was true. He needed to get off the island, even though the resurrection blockage was destroyed. There was a chance the crocodiles found a way to bring it back. His party was missing him. Even Taylor Lynn, despite their problems, seemed weirdly excited about the surprise.

Claire had been fine with him being busy, alleviating many of Jay’s concerns. She had said to let her know whenever he caught up on his work. Her availability was wide open whenever he finished. That also struck Jay as odd since she tended to work quite a bit. Still, he couldn’t argue that she deserved a flexible lunch hour.

Cuddles sprinted up to him, breaking his thoughts of Claire. The Strogian Death squirrel swiped at Jay’s legs, an inch from slicing through the outfit’s material with his claws. The little beady eyes met Jay’s and darted off toward the water. The squirrel didn’t stop until the water’s edge nearly lapped against him.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The squirrel waited impatiently by the water for a moment but then scurried back over to Jay. This time the squirrel climbed up his body, digging into the shirt to climb up to his shoulder. The squirrel cocked his hand back and slapped Jay across the face.

Instinctively, Jay hauled off to slap the squirrel back but smashed into an empty shoulder. Cuddles was already scurrying back to the water.

Under the impression something might be in the water, Jay pushed himself up, dusted himself off, and followed the squirrel. If it was another elite, he wasn’t sure if he could take it. His skill had increased over the past two days; elites wouldn’t all be as easy as the pathfinders. When he got over to the water, he leaned over, peering into the depths.

Jay couldn’t see very far into the water, but he saw the sea bed. Some minuscule-looking fish and aquatic life were floating in the general area. He tried inspecting them, but they didn’t have levels, so the game didn’t summon any data on them. Lacking any way to communicate with squirrels, he looked at Cuddles and shrugged.

Jay had never seen a real squirrel roll their eyes, but apparently, Cuddles could do it since anything could be programmed inside the game world. After making his opinions clear through emoting, the squirrel dived into the water, slipping below the surface.

If Cuddles hadn’t already slapped him across the face, Jay would have done it to himself. Everything started to line up. He’d even been interested in seeing what was below the surface before the party got caught up in the whirlwind of the Dissimu’s internal strife.

Ichibad said he needed to look somewhere he hadn’t looked. Pami said he had everything he needed—the Potion of the Seas ingredients. Cuddles was trying to tell him to go into the water.

The squirrel looked nearly panicked when he resurfaced. He was wildly swinging his arms to stay above the water.

Jay gingerly picked him up from the water and sat him on his shoulder. “Yeah, I hear you, little buddy. Loud and clear.”

He downed one of his potions and was pleased to see the buff also affected Cuddles due to the Familiar link. Jay could practically hear the squirrel letting out a sigh of relief. Patting the creature on the head, Jay dove beneath the surface.

Life under the water truly was a whole other world. The potion gave him even better vision underwater than he had in the overworld. He could see hundreds or thousands more of the tiny critters all along the edges of the beach. He could see the deep slope nearby where the sea bed quickly dropped into the ocean.

Jay could see some sharks milling about outside the shallows, looking for prey with a dropped guard. That wasn’t going to be Jay. There was a coral reef, although it didn’t wrap all the way around the island. He was in one of the dead zones, but the area looked amazing. His potion allowed him to swim hundreds of feet swiftly, getting a closer look.

The beautiful reef featured mostly orange, dark blue, and yellow plant life. It was an odd mix of colors, but it was also a fantasy world. The orange, in particular, didn’t seem to fit, but it certainly was a way to draw the attention of wildlife.

Inside the corals, Jay could see small turtles hiding underneath the plants. They could be hiding from the sun, the sharks, or even some unknown horrible predator of turtles lurking elsewhere in the corals. The turtles could actually be inspected.

Mercuran Turtle, Level: 5. Health: 55/55.

Jay hadn’t expected the turtles to be a threat, though he did consider whether or not it would be worth adding them to the Bestiary. The turtles were so cute; destroying them would be a shame.

Jay blasted the turtle’s head, peeking out of the shell. Destroying a virtual turtle was worth a thousand dollars—obviously. Activating his Catalog ability, he added the turtle to his Bestiary.

Reading about the turtle gave some unique information about local ocean life. Apparently, they did use the coral to hide from predators. They were almost at the bottom of the food chain regarding the Mercuran oceans. Only the small fish Jay had previously seen were lower on the chain. The turtles actually ate those fish.

He was reading about the turtle’s long list of predators when he felt a stinging pain in his leg. His immediate reaction was to whirl around, looking for the assailant. Unfortunately, whatever grabbed hold of him was strong. The attacker started flailing, digging its biting teeth deeper into Jay’s leg.

Cuddles blasted the attacker with laser eye beams, barely moving the health bar. It did surprise the attacker enough for Jay to get a good look at it.

Mercuran Pit Shark, Level: 53. Health: 3,700/3,700.

He was unclear about what constituted a pit shark, exactly, but his reaction was the same. Jay pulled up his crossbow, thanking his stars that the weapon would remain effective between the power of magical ammo and his recently imbibed potion. He summoned a Wild Strike as the shark swam in a circle, preparing for another charge.

Jay blasted the Wild Strike into the shark’s nose on the advice of random internet memes he’d previously seen. A moment later, he activated his Vital Points ability. The nose was highlighted as one of the critical points of the creature. He was impressed with himself.

In case he found the dungeon, he couldn’t afford to waste his Rapid Fire buff, so he focused on a game of cat and mouse with the shark. The monster looked for a chance to charge at Jay while he returned fire at all the shark’s critical weaknesses.

The Mercuran Pit Shark tired of their game quickly.

The animal was programmed to be smarter than most creatures Jay had encountered so far. When the beast was under half its health, it started running away instead of fighting to the death.

Jay chased after it, surprised to discover that he could keep up with the shark’s pacing. Together, Jay and his Familiar blasted shots at the retreating form of the shark as it swam off the cliff, leaving the edge of the slope and diving into the deeps. The creature finally fell as it floated gently forward, slowly losing momentum. Jay almost forgot to add the shark to his Bestiary.

Completely floored by the sight, Jay knew he would have recognized the dungeon if it had been above the surface. Far into the deep ocean, miles away and visible only due to his potion, was a beautiful dungeon.

The dungeon was a full-sized underwater castle.