The Giant Devil Kraken Appears
But the corrosive acid? I have to be careful. The hatchling's scales are too weak.
Yet the action felt surprisingly bold.
Rune gathered his mana in his palm and used the Water Seal to pull the surrounding water toward him.
The torrent that had rushed in as he willed it crashed down like a tidal wave straight at the cuttlefish.
Kururuk! Swoosh!
In an instant the water wrapped the cuttlefish and began to spin like it was doing laundry.
'This practice was perfect.'
'Should I fight in my true form too?'
Rune's gesture turned the whirlpool into a bizarre spectacle where the cuttlefish collided and ground against one another, melting and dissolving each other.
Ziiik! Zip, zip!
The sound of flesh tearing echoed disgustingly.
Moments later the seven giant cuttlefish had been fused into a single form inside the vortex.
The torn and melted flesh quickly turned into mush.
'I can't show this to the kids.'
Rune calmly observed the remains of the slain monster.
'The only downside is that I'll get fewer by-products and monster materials.'
He let the spoils of the dungeon on the ground, storing the mana stones, useful materials, and monster corpses in his pockets.
Then he reverted to his true form, shook his tail lightly, and relaxed his body.
"Kyu-uu."
[Human-form combat practice is enough. Want to try again before my brother and the others arrive? ]
The whole time had taken roughly ten minutes.
Including the round trip to the entrance, about twenty minutes total.
They had used the dungeon structure where the monsters regenerated upon leaving the area to take down as many as possible.
After more than two hours, a small window popped up.
Killed countless water-attribute monsters. Awarded to those with the skill to take down water monsters even with eyes closed.
Increases proficiency in decomposing and disassembling water-attribute creatures.
"Kyu?"
'What is this?'
Rune furrowed his brows at the achievement window he hadn't seen in a while.
It had been created by the dagger made of pure black darkness he had summoned and used on the Megalodon.
After quickly checking the details, Rune dismissed the window.
'Time to head out. They've had enough time to clear that side too.'
The frustration that had piled up in Christina's Lair was now pleasantly gone, leaving Rune with a refreshed smile.
He lightly shook his tail, sending a cheerful telepathic message.
"Kyu kyu."
[Let's go already, Dullahan.]
Clank!
Using Clean Magic to erase all traces of battle from his body, he slipped the human-form polymorph bracelet back on.
As he stepped out the exit, Perdikion came sprinting toward him as if he had been waiting.
“Rune! Are you safe? Nothing happened, right?”
“Yeah. It wasn't that tough. How about you?”
Perdikion nodded with a relaxed smile on Rune's face.
“It's fine. The monsters weren't as strong as I thought. That's why Heungmi got to shine. They were probably middle-boss level monsters that we all fought together.”
Just as Rune had planned.
Through the fairies he had routed only the strongest monsters in the dungeon to the passages Rune entered.
He had gone in and out multiple times to take down the middle-bosses that appeared near the entrance, so the powerful monsters of the could be completely cleared by Rune and Dullahan.
'After the cursed dungeon is purified it'll become the original Wave Dungeon anyway, so there's no point checking the original difficulty.'
The faster they cleared it, the better the loot and rewards from the middle bosses.
Rune thought of his pocket stuffed with rare materials and smiled inwardly, satisfied.
“Heungmi fought hard too! I told her it would help Rune-ssi.”
“Good, you earned a lot of contribution. Well done.”
'Her charm ability must have increased quite a bit too.'
He gently patted Heungmi's head and the fox-eared girl lowered her ears and grinned bashfully.
'Now then... Amelia and Perdikion didn't say much at all, huh.'
Perdikion, of course, and even Amelia had only stood quietly in the back with a faint smile.
“Did you get along well with Amelia and your brother too?”
It sounded like a casual question about whether they had gotten along, but it was really checking if there had been any fights.
The answer came first from Heungmi.
“Uweong. There wasn't even time for that. Heungmi did the most kills, but the unnies and Perdikion-ssi were seriously scary! They were so strong! They cleared the blocking monsters in seconds and grilled them with fire and washed them away with water.”
She even acted out grabbing her own neck with both hands.
Honestly, Rune had worried they might have fought while he wasn't looking.
Heungmi was watching, but he could have held back if he had wanted to.
But their personalities were the total opposite of each other.
'Was I overthinking?'
A question mark like a hook hung in his mind as if he had simply overlooked something important.
Suddenly seeing the awkward expression on Perdikion's face and Amelia's shy one made Rune vaguely realize something.
'Maybe they were thinking about me instead.'
It wasn't the same as the sense of duty to protect a child.
There was genuine worry and affection in their gazes toward him.
It strangely tickled his insides.
Something he had never felt before and would have dismissed as pointless if he had noticed it slipped a warm feeling into his chest.
Because it was so unfamiliar, his facial muscles stiffened as he wondered how to react.
“Rune?”
Perdikion asked, and Amelia tilted her head slightly to look at him.
“...Yeah. Let's go.”
He answered casually, calmly suppressing his own unease.
A little farther on, they reached a passage filled with dense sharp thorns.
Rune scanned the surroundings, pulled a fresh apple from his pocket, and tossed it toward the thorn-filled area.
Squish!
The thorns immediately lengthened, impaling the apple so it shattered into dozens of pieces, the juice wrung out and left to dry.
“Hiiik!”
“What, what is that... There are... lots of them.”
Heungmi's ears perked up in surprise while Amelia's brows furrowed, but Perdikion and Rune both wore expressions that said they had expected it.
Perdikion had prior dungeon experience, and Rune was skilled at sensing oddities.
'It's not far, but the end is in sight.'
A deep blue with a faint sparkle.
The last room of the dungeon where the final boss awaited.
Rune took another apple from his pocket and closed his eyes to sense the magic structure in the hall.
‘Teleportation.’
Swish!
The weight in his hand vanished, and the apple on the opposite side safely appeared and rolled across the floor.
“I, is teleportation magic... possible in a dungeon?”
In a normal dungeon teleportation wouldn't work due to the special mana fluctuations.
It was like jumping and landing from the back of a flying bird.
“Only I can do it. It's a bit embarrassing to say, but I practiced teleportation a lot in Christina's Lair once to try escaping.”
“That... Is that even possible?”
Perdikion asked in disbelief.
Actually it wasn't the whole truth.
Because the dungeon was mostly composed of water, darkness, curses, and related mana, it was possible for him.
A dungeon built from mana he could control.
The sensation when the fairies created or cleared paths.
Combined with the ability to weave structures directly through Mana Cat's Cradle.
'It also helped that I can now combine multiple attributes.'
But explaining all of it would be tedious.
So he simply said one word.
“It works.”
“......”
Perdikion, at a loss for words, looked at him and then burst out laughing with a “Hah.”
“You're amazing, Rune. Honestly I'm jealous.”
It was his version of praise.
Like a mischievous child, he ruffled Rune's hair and smacked his back.
“Ouch.”
“So with that ability can we all cross together?”
“It's impossible all at once, but we can do it a few times.”
“Me! Heungmi will go first!”
Heungmi rushed over with Baekya in her arms and boldly stepped up to Rune.
Amelia quietly took a cautious step behind her, and Perdikion looked at Rune with the unspoken expectation that he would choose him first.
And Rune, simply, gave the criteria.
“Starting with the ones with the least mana and lightest mass.”
“Waa! Then Baekya and Heungmi go first!”
While Perdikion and Amelia looked dejected, Heungmi and Baekya beamed with pure delight.
They hadn't chosen based on any special intuition, just the lightest load, so Rune felt no guilt using the teleportation magic.
Everyone crossed safely and stood in the room with still water on the floor.
The surroundings were as dark as a night sky painted black.
“Uuu. Smells weird.”
Heungmi's nose wrinkled as she grumbled.
Then, plop, slurp, slurp.
A slimy sound echoed in the dimness.
Everyone at once looked up.
Two cephalopod bodies covered in sticky fur and shells clung to the ceiling right above them.
Dark eyes embedded in the octopus-like heads stared down at them like they were looking at ants, sweeping over the group with an eerie gaze.
“It's a giant devil kraken.”
Perdikion was about to prepare for true-form combat when
“Shhh.”
Rune spread darkness around them.
A powerful concealment spell, the entire party was completely hidden within the darkness.
The kraken extended its tentacles and rubbed at the spot where they had been, but they remained perfectly still and silent.
Perdikion clicked his tongue.
'Rune, what are you planning?'
'I prepared just in case.'
Rune smiled faintly with a completely unreadable face.
As they waited in silence and darkness, Rune opened his spatial pocket.
Swish!
Thud!
What emerged was a magnificent, ornately decorated giant jar.
The kraken, startled by the sudden loud noise and massive jar, quickly retracted its body.
'Eh! That's the jar I got from Uncle Jed!'
Heungmi mouthed excitedly.
To keep any sound from escaping, Rune once again placed a finger to his lips.
Then he signaled for them to follow and hid behind the jar.
Without thinking, the entire party slipped in after him.
Dullahan, who had entered silently to avoid making any noise, was the last to join the group.
'What are you going to do?'
'You'll see.'
Perdikion asked with a clicking mouth, and Rune moved his lips a few times to answer.
Inside the jar, lying horizontally, were filled with sparkling mana stones.
The beautiful light of the mana stones suddenly disappeared, drawing the kraken's tentacles toward the hidden party.
— Krrruuu.
The eerie sound escaped the kraken as it eyed the mysterious glow of the mana stones.
Rune pressed his body against the jar and the floor, observing the situation.
'It has to work.'
Inside the jar were the monster corpses Rune had gathered earlier.
They bobbed in the sea water like live squid bait, flickering with the mana stones' light.
The giant devil kraken, confused whether to eat the party or the jar first, twitched on the ceiling.
The kraken's decision didn't take long.
Chirrru.
Shluruk!
The kraken's pillar-like legs began wrapping around the jar's opening.