Chapter 134: Day Trip Dungeon (2)
Chapter 134: Day Trip Dungeon (2)
There are many spells for breathing underwater, but the most versatile among them is likely the one called Air Pocket.
As the name suggests, it’s a spell that creates a large, bag-like space filled with air.
It has its pros and cons, but when used underwater, it essentially looks like you're swimming through the depths inside a giant bubble.
It’s a spell that allows you to recreate a scene from a fairy tale that anyone, whether on Earth or the Eurelia Continent, would have imagined at least once.
…Or so it should have been.
"The water really is filthy."
I wasn't even hoping for scenes of blue waves shimmering beyond a transparent veil or fish swimming by.
But I didn't expect it to be this bad.
My visibility was limited to barely an inch in front of me, likely due to the green algae. Occasionally, I caught glimpses of half-rotted trash and unidentified bugs.
There probably weren't any fish. How could anything live in a place like this?
The only saving grace was that it only looked bad; just as Iris said, no smell or water leaked into the Air Pocket.
After descending for quite a while under Carla’s control, a blue glow began to emanate from the bottom.
"Should we head toward that, Master?"
"Yeah. That's the spot. It's brighter than I thought. I was worried we might get lost because the water is so murky."
"On the flip side, maybe the light from the dungeon entrance didn't show at all from the outside because it's this murky?"
"Could be."
I shrugged and spoke to the others.
"We're entering the dungeon soon, so everyone get ready."
A moment later, our giant air bubble reached the bottom of the pond.
Whoosh—!
The moment our bodies touched the cluster of blue light, the surrounding green water vanished, and my senses flipped.
I was certain we had been diving downward, but when I came to, we were suddenly soaring upward.
Thump—
It felt as if someone had pushed the air bubble we were in from behind.
After floating in the air for a moment, we were soon tossed toward the floor one by one, but—
"Hup!"
Iris, reflexively casting Telekinesis, caught everyone in mid-air.
…Exactly 30 centimeters above the ground.
"Wow. You actually caught us?"
"As expected of a High Magician. You're on another level."
"Oh? Are you just realizing now? How amazing my Master is!"
"Hieee… hueee…."
Carla and I marveled at the swift and precise magic. For some reason, Elisha was the one acting boastful.
Fay was just making startled noises, clearly shaken.
Seeing the four of us like that, Iris looked a bit embarrassed as she lowered us to the ground one by one.
"I suppose I was overly tense since it's been a while since I've been in a dungeon. I even forgot that the starting point is safe."
"No, you did well. The starting point being safe only means it's safe from monsters. This place was fine, but sometimes cultists sneak in beforehand or set traps, so your quick response earlier was the right call."
"Hmm, hmm. If my Master sees it that way, I shall continue to do so."
"Yeah. But unless it looks truly dangerous, please don't step forward first. If you take the lead, Iris, there'll be nothing left for the rest of us to do."
"I understand. I shall keep a close watch from the back, so feel free to run wild to your heart's content."
Iris patted her small chest.
Seeing her unwavering composure made my mind feel calm as well.
Perhaps I wasn't the only one, as everyone else pulled out their staffs and wands with serious expressions, as if they had never been joking around.
"Senior Fay, please come to the center."
"Uh… I can make simple golems too, you know? Though they'll be pretty weak since I'd be making them on the fly."
"What's your combat power like? Based on a Fisherman."
"I could probably take down one ordinary Fisherman!"
"What about two?"
"…I could buy some time!"
"So that means you'd be instant-killed if we run into three or more."
"Urgh…."
Fay clutched her chest as if she’d been stabbed by the truth.
Seeing her sway so wildly sent ripples through my own heart.
It was making me nervous…
Fishermen were monsters that traveled in groups of at least three.
Well… strictly speaking, it wasn't that Fay's golems were weak.
Since her fundamental skills were so outstanding, she could likely produce specs above average even without deep knowledge of golems.
Even if she made them on the fly like she said, she wouldn't struggle against just a few Fishermen.
The problem was that Fay herself was weak, not her golems.
While Dwarves are said to be born with innate combat ability, Fay, being a half-blood, wasn't exactly a great fighter.
Whether it was because she was a Natural Born crafter, or because of the massive weights hindering her movements.
Fay’s performance in every element related to combat was disastrous.
If she threw poison or bombs, they all missed, and even when she controlled a golem, it would somehow just flail at empty air.
On top of that, her timid personality meant she lacked the drive to fight aggressively or the ability to handle sudden situations.
It was like that in H&A, and it didn't seem much different now.
I might bring Fay along to dungeons in the future, but it would be best to keep her out of combat as much as possible.
"Senior Fay, there's a specific place where we'll need your help, so for now, just follow us safely from the center."
"Okay…."
Fay nodded dejectedly. We took our positions around her.
First, I took the lead, acting as a guide and needing to test the transparency performance of my robe.
Iris, as she said, took the very back where she could watch over all of us.
Carla and Elisha filled out the formation by standing on either side of Fay.
"Then let's head out. If we follow the route I mentioned earlier, we'll be able to clear this in no time."
"Yes!"
Only after confirming everyone’s nods did I look toward the entrance.
It was a large circular passage made of stone with a blue tint. Water reached up to our ankles on the floor, but it wasn't filthy like the water outside the dungeon.
It was just ordinary seawater, slightly salty and smelling of fish.
Splash, splash.
The sound of the water on the floor being kicked up echoed every time we walked through the passage.
Everyone was silent, perhaps tense from the realization that they were inside a dungeon.
At first, it was clearly one giant passage, but after advancing just a little, it split into two, then three, and the paths began to grow rapidly complex.
This is why Labyrinth-type dungeons are scary.
If a Regen-type dungeon forces an infinite war of attrition because the timeline is twisted and monsters keep respawning at regular intervals.
You can think of a Labyrinth-type dungeon as one where space is twisted, leaving the paths tangled and complicated.
Of course, for me, who has the map of this dungeon memorized, it wasn't much of a problem.
I've been feeling this ever since I started seriously utilizing my knowledge of H&A… but honestly, isn't my most powerful trait the Excellent Memory trait?
Back when I was playing on Earth, I had to constantly switch between someone's rough map on my phone and my game screen.
To think I can now navigate perfectly because those memories come back so vividly.
However, after walking for a long time and seeing nothing but forks in the road and empty rooms, perhaps her tension eased a bit. Elisha tilted her head and asked.
"Come to think of it, the environment here is completely different from the outside. During the dungeon practice, the structure was different, but it was still the same forest."
"Ah, dungeon interiors are sometimes related to the external environment, but more often than not, they aren't."
"Is that so? I learned that dungeons are essentially spaces carved out along with the monsters, so in a way, they're places that preserve the past from 300 years ago, Yandel."
"That's true. Most dungeons do preserve their appearance from 300 years ago exactly as it was."
You can find flora and fauna that are now extinct, or rare metals whose mining yields have plummeted.
That's why some dungeons are managed continuously for resource extraction rather than being cleared.
"But the problem is that dungeons don't necessarily form in the exact location where the space was carved out."
It's very common for the inside and outside of a dungeon to not match.
In the first place, dungeons occur when an attempt to warp and discard a section of space fails.
It's easy to understand if you think of it like crumpling a piece of tissue and throwing it at a trash can, only for it to hit the rim and bounce off.
Doesn't it just fly off anywhere? It's exactly like that.
"The dungeon in Gepp City that I went to with Carla was in the sewers, but the inside was a swamp."
"Ah. You mean the place where the Big Mouths appeared?"
"Yeah. But Gepp City was a land with good transportation even 300 years ago, so there were no swamps."
"Heh… then do you know where it originally was?"
"It was likely the entrance to the Witch's Forbidden Forest on the outskirts of the Levantine Empire. The witches living there were scattered by the Big Mouths who became subordinates of the Evil God, and once the area was left with nothing but monsters, it was turned into a dungeon."
You can deduce which past region a dungeon originated from through document items found by thoroughly exploring the interior.
In the corners of the Gepp City dungeon, you could find a few crumbling shacks and notes left behind by witches.
"For the record, this dungeon we're in right now is a facility of Atlantis, the Mermaid Kingdom that has since perished."
"Atlantis… that is a name I haven't heard in a long time."
Iris nodded with a nostalgic voice.
Fay cautiously asked Iris.
"Um… Lady Iris? Have you perhaps been to Atlantis before? You seem so wistful…."
"Indeed. Back when I was even younger than Elisha is now, I visited with my Master."
"Your Master's Master… what kind of person were they?"
"A magnificent Spirit Mage. Though they fought bravely during the Great War and fell in battle."
"A Spirit… Mage?"
"Spirits were legal back then."
Iris shrugged.
Man. Having a long-lived species in the party really leads to things like this.
I was momentarily startled by Iris's unexpected reminiscence, but only for a second.
Iris, slowly scanning the surroundings, shook her head regretfully.
"However, I do not recognize this place."
"Well, that's expected. This is a drainage system."
If Iris had visited as a guest following her Master, they would have shown her the grand sights, not the sewers, so it made sense she wouldn't know it.
At my nonchalant answer, Carla tilted her head.
"Um… aren't mermaids a race that lives underwater? Do they still need a drainage system, Master?"
"Of course. In fact, drainage is even more important because it's underwater."
Otherwise, all sorts of trash and waste would just float around everywhere.
As a side note, mermaids don't actually appear in H&A; they're a race that only exists in the lore.
During the War of the Gods, because they were underwater, they couldn't receive timely support from other races, and their kingdom fell to underwater monsters.
A few mermaids managed to escape, but….
Those who fled to the sea were hunted down by the underwater monsters that had become the new rulers of the ocean.
Those who fled to land were tossed about by the ravages of war and eventually all died.
In the first place, mermaids were a minority race with a small population, so it was a natural outcome.
Atlantis was called a kingdom, but in terms of scale, it was just the size of a very large city.
Of course, the power the mermaids possessed was great enough for them to be recognized as a nation.
At the very least, they were second to none underwater, so it wasn't a place that should have perished so vainly, but….
The War of the Gods was a conflict where the Evil Gods and Good Gods intervened directly.
When the Evil God known as Narrow-minded Usurpation lifted the entire kingdom above the water's surface.
The mermaids, who couldn't use their strength properly out of the water, were slaughtered by the Fisherman army, who fought well even on land.
"That's why the water here only comes up to our ankles… Oh, everyone, wait."
I stopped the group mid-sentence.
Then, I jerked my chin toward a room some distance away.
"There are monsters in that room. Iris, cast stealth magic on everyone except me and follow."
I intended to test the robe.
I funneled mana into the pitch-black robe I was wearing.
Wuuu—
My body melted into the scenery, turning transparent as if I were becoming one with the environment.