Aquatic Dungeon Found!

Congratulations, you have located a dungeon.

Would you like to [Enter] or access information on [Dungeons]

Sera wasn’t so much scared as she was surprised.

Rather than corpses, skeletons or even ash there were broken rocks and the dwelling module just sitting there.

And of course the ‘dungeon’.

Sera’s hand went to grab the module but hesitated when the blue screen still followed her. “... I’m not taking any chances.”

Before doing anything, Sera pressed the information column on dungeons.

PID Interface

Dungeons:

Dungeons are vast stores of mana and as an effect of this, resources and life as well. Dungeons are found on every booming world that has an inkling of mana, however the quantity of such dungeons are directly dependent on the world’s mana supply.

These dungeons also can replenish the resources within them in days or weeks depending on the amount of mana they have, they are also most sought out for their resources and to enhance skills of the user challenging them.

From the sounds of it, Dungeons were magical, illogical and went against everything she had seen so far.

How many other pieces of information were hiding in the database? She would have to make a note to check it later.

For now the question lay, should she explore it or should she go back home.

“Iva, what do you think?” Looking for advice from her semi-intelligent companion, Iva was already swimming around looking at the dwelling module still sitting alone in the middle of the rubble.

Sera grabbed the module before asking again, but Iva just had one thing to say to her. “Piik!”

Great.

Maybe asking a fish was the wrong move.

Looking around for the entrance or some inkling on whether entering an unknown dungeon was a good or bad idea, Sera’s eyes landed on the opening above her, specifically on the rays of sunlight.

“We do have time… And resources that replenish themselves sound like a dream if we have to make the dwelling.”

Feeling a spark of greed, Sera checked the resources for the dwelling.

Something that I probably should’ve done earlier, she thought guiltily.

PID Interface

Medium Dwelling

8KG Lead. 2KG Gold. 2KG Copper. 1KG Seagrass. 500G Silver.

Before Sera saw the materials required, she knew that it would cost a lot, but this much?

Sera pushed a hand through her hair as she stared at the resources needed for the base.

“Lead would mean more than a few trips between the rocky cliffs, Gold, copper and silver though… I have the coins I found from the bag and the Seagrass could be gathered with Iva’s help…” Her hand went to her chin as she considered which would be the hardest to get.

Her eyes stuck to the heaviest item, which also happened to be the item that she needed the most of.

Lead.

“I could have a Kilogram or two at home in the random junk pile, but most of it would definitely be out here.”

Sera brought out her PID and swam back to where the Dungeon screen popped up before.

Aquatic Dungeon Found!

Congratulations, you have located a dungeon.

Would you like to [Enter] or access information on [Dungeons]

She didn't have to wait for more than a second before it popped up again, and this time she pressed enter.

Her PID instantly lit up and began vibrating before the screen morphed and the two sides of the tablet began shrinking.

The screen stopped as an arrow was shown pointing towards a seemingly small cave entrance, big enough to fit fourteen Iva’s.

After the small shock of the PID morphing in size, Sera’s gills straightened as she called Iva and got her scanner out, swimming towards the indistinct cave entrance.

Pointing downwards, Sera swam with her feet going first, making a jellyfish-like swim downwards towards the depths in case any ‘life’ the dungeon generated decided that her head seemed like a tasty target.

Halfway down into the entrance, Sera could feel her legs warm and could see a small glow below.

Shit. More of the skeleton fish or something else?

Not taking the risk, Sera hesitantly put the scanner back inside her bag and put both hand on the PID, still morphed into an arrow.

Slowly swimming down with Iva at her side, the fish seemed eager to swim downwards as well.

That’s when her world changed.

Red and yellow sparkling plants lit the interior of the Dungeon, but it didn’t stop there.

It was like a fish hub with thousands of holes stretching downwards, nests of fish could be seen almost on top of each other their eggs in sight and despite being different species there was no aggression.

Sera herself felt relaxed when the waters hit her, the cooling waters were having an effect on her and this felt like a dream come true.

Looking further down, the tunnels seemed to etch on the walls continuously until she spotted something odd.

What looked like either circular rocks or massive broken eggshells lay on the Dungeon floor, and yet there were no fish in sight that were anywhere near the size.

She tried to feel apprehensive, but the feeling quickly went away when she saw none of the other fish anxious or jumpy, Iva included.

Sera even spotted some skeleton jawed fish that ignored the lights.

“Iva, is this where the fish come from or is it where they go to avoid Winter?” Looking over at Iva, she noticed the seal was looking over at an empty tunnel area that some fish seemed to have abandoned.

“... Let’s go check one of them out.”

Swimming downwards and away from her way out, Sera could feel the waves of warmth hit her in a good way, if it got any colder swimming for long hours would kill her without a place like this.

Swimming faster, Sera still had a way to go, she checked some of the tunnels and saw all the fish flocking to the entrance of the tunnel, almost blocking them completely.

But she was able to spy past one such colony, that’s where she saw the first inner tunnels.

They were completely empty.

The fish were all making nests near the entrance of each of the entrances but not going any deeper.

Weir-

Nearly bumping into the side of the tunnel, Iva was staring as she was peeking inside and saw a familiar sight.

Seagrass was near the back of the cave and not only that but large jutting rocks were scattered across the walls and roof of the tunnel.

“Holy crap, good job, Iva!”

Two birds with one stone? Sera hoped so as she brought out her scanner and began scanning the large outcrops, she was far enough away from them, and they seemed docile in the Dungeon.

Scanner Results

Lead found!

Copper found!

Lead found!

Silver found!

Only four, but each one was a hit!

Not only that, but they were. “Massive, Iva, I don’t think I can carry more than two of these out in my pack.”

Going over to the lead outcrop, Sera brought out her stone breaker, aka her PID, which had morphed back into it's normal rounded rectangle shape when she wasn’t looking.

Bashing the rock the entire outcrop fell slowly downwards, Sera made sure the sharp edges were broken off before pushing it into her bag.

“... I know I said two, but I can hardly fit one! Oh, hey Iva while I’m doing this can you get some Seagrass?”

Pointing towards the grass and using her fingers to make a snipping gesture, Iva got the idea and woozily swam towards the back of the cave as Iva continued.

I could probably break up another outcrop and put it on top of the bag… No, it would fall off too easily, maybe I could just carry it back?

Moving over to the other lead outcrop, Sera was about to smash it in before she realised that the outcrop that she had collected was probably more than 10KG.

“These Dungeons are great!”

Moving over to the copper outcrop, Sera moved in rhythm with her bashing before the other outcrop dropped downwards.

Picking it up, Sera slowly moved it over to the entrance when she spotted a strange sight.

The other fish were gone.

Not only that the lack of noise was almost eerie, as if everything but her had frozen.

Sera felt like something was wrong, but the waters seemed so comforting.

The eggs were still there, but it seemed like the fish were going inside their respective tunnels, maybe it was time to hibernate?

Turning around, Sera went over and got her bag then slowly swam over to the entrance, dropping it next to the other outcrop.

Taking another peek, the water still seemed calm if not too silent.

“Taking these back will probably take the rest of the day, huh, Iva?”

As she looked back at her seal, Sera noticed Iva was staring at something.

Two crisp yellow orbs like the plants that lay against the walls were looked at Iva.

Almost locking her in place.

Sera’s hand instantly went to her pouch before she questioned herself. “It’s not angry, it’s like the other fish, peaceful.”

Swimming towards it, Sera then noticed the eyes were getting bigger.

Is it because it’s coming closer? No, I’m swimming closer to it that’s why they seem bigger.

The slow whooshing of her swimming towards Iva and her new friend echoed through the came, it felt like everything was waiting for it to stop, everything except for Sera.

Close enough to pat Iva, Sera looked up and stopped swimming.

That’s when she noticed that it was getting closer.

She felt a shiver allay across her back as she heard a bite echo from behind her.

That’s when the scent of blood reached her nose.

Her hand instantly went for her knife as a set of long jaws opened themselves to the stunned Iva.

Sera barely had a second to react as she pulled Iva back.

The jaws crushed empty water as the sound of the bite snapped her out of it.

Instantly she pushed off the cave floor.

Just in time for the long-jawed monster to barely miss them as it lunged past them with it's jaws wide open.

That moment the whole Dungeon echoed with sounds of biting and the scent of blood almost scorched her nostrils as adrenaline screamed through her body.

Iva was limp as Sera quickly swam, sticking to the ceiling as her opponent was below her and pushed off the ground as she did.

That’s when she fully saw it.

It looked almost exactly like a dragon except for the lack of wings.

Its eyes told of its intent, and its scales were hardened like the reapers, but it was the jaws that made Sera swim faster.

Even as she looked away, the biting kept echoing in the background.

It felt like a timer-

There was no escape for the hundreds-thousands of fish here, why would she be able to?

She heard it smash against the ceiling behind her as Sera kept swam.

Pulling herself around an outcrop, she heard it smash into it-

Sera pushed her legs against the ceiling and ricocheted downwards.

Ahead of her now were her two massive outcrops-

Almost like thick prison bars, the blocked the bottom of the entrance.

Locking her in as the wingless dragon still propelled by the force swam outside the cave.

Turning around, it’s red animal eyes looked like they were carving into her soul, but she looked away.

Her hand went to her pouch as she gripped Iva close to her.

It felt like time slowed as she realised that it wouldn’t be enough.

The knife would cut into it's skin, but the jaws would crush her.

It was a battle against time and the predator was faster and stronger.

That’s when she saw the copper outcrop.

In the corner of her eye, she saw the dragon begin to charge towards her.

Desperately swimming towards it, she could hear it open it's mighty jaws above her.

She quickly picked up the outcrop as a spear.

Her eyes locked onto it's before it opened its jaws wider and crushed her below it.

Its jaws surrounded her, but it did not crush her.

Instead, it twitched then lay still.

The outcrop had pierced the dragons upper jaw and its jagged tip went directly through the creatures brain.

It was faster, and it was stronger, but Sera was smarter.

She slowly moved away from the colossus beast, her hands shaking and her legs barely able to hold herself up, but she needed to move.

Sera looked at the dragon pierced on the outcrop, its body was leaning outside the cavern, Sera peeked outside but saw not one of the other dragon-like monsters.

She could still hear the crunching of bones and snapping of jaws, but it had mostly stopped.

Sera could feel her gills untense, opening wider to how of their normal form.

“Oh my god, Iva, you are so lucky.” Shaking her small seal, it seemed to snap out of it’s limp, docile state.

Immediately it freaked out but when it noticed its alpha staring at it with its lips upturned Iva calmed down.

Swimming over to the dragon corpse, it seemed to know exactly what to do next.

Swimming into it's jaws, Sera smelled blood and heard a small biting noise.

“Ah… Right, our dinner as well.”

Looking into the cave again, Sera saw the cut Seagrass and began to collect it after checking to make sure nothing else was hiding behind the wall of grass.

That’s when she saw small skulls and skeletons that looked eerily similar to Iva.

“Oh, that’s why you wanted to come here,” Sera said in a small voice.

There were hundreds of bones laid around, no doubt Iva’s parents and grandparents were here too.

Looking at the jaw of the dragon Iva was eating, Sera couldn’t help but feel proud at avenging and saving her friend.

“Let’s eat then head back, Iva.”

It was a shame that there was no way to cook the meat yet, but Sera found it was like sushi, especially when Seagrass was added.

Delicious.