With the path in the reef open, Adriel guided the drones inside. It didn't seem like it would be a straight shot to the doorway, but the system itself said this was the path. Or, at least, the entrance to one, and everyone agreed that this should lead them to the doorway. Using the snakes, Hera opened her map to see if she could find the route they would have to take. A few moments after they entered the reef, it became clear that the tunnel wouldn't be a straight shot to their destination. Unfortunately, the snakes weren't able to find a path to Hera's location yet. She had recalled all the snakes that were outside to follow them.

"Since Hera saw a Bugfish, someone should keep an eye out behind us," Alex said. She was willing to be the one on the lookout, but she was currently in the front of the submarine. If she was in charge of looking for the monsters, they would have a big chance of sneaking by.

The group pressed forward through the reef tunnel until it came to a dead end. Only when they looked behind them that they noticed two more tunnels leading deeper into the reef. Helena looked to Adriel, "Could we go deeper?"

"We are still at a depth of 15 meters. We should be able to move around some more without much trouble," Adriel nodded and turned back to the tunnels, "The question is. Right or left?"

Both routes seemed as though they were going to lead somewhere interesting. Since the reef had been created from the sea floor, both tunnels led downwards. But, the right tunnel wasn't very large, while the left one felt wider and less jagged than the right. Hera's snakes were still moving about, but they couldn't tell which tunnel to take. Even Shane tried using her sonar but to no avail. Inside the reef, the soundwaves had to move too much through the tunnels to reach the entrance. To make things even worse, the small passages that allowed Hera's snakes to reach the doorway were now closed.

"I'm not sure," Hera said, "But I think I can see a light down there."

Hera pointed into the left tunnel. The other three followed her finger and saw what appeared to be a glowing light coming from somewhere below. It wasn't a direct light but one that was bouncing from the walls, which could indicate the location of the doorway.

"Well, that's better than staying here. Let's go," Adriel shifted the direction of the submarine, making it spin around, and then head to the tunnel to the left of the exit. For now, there were no monsters around, which gave them a sense of security. Everyone was thinking that the tremors were enough to scare the Bugfish away.

About ten minutes went by as they moved through this passage and chased the light that seemed to be coming from very deep into the reef. Finally, the light disappeared completely, and the submarine stopped. They all looked at each other confused. What happened? Did something block our way further down the tunnel? Why did it stop? The last thing anyone expected was the walls suddenly lighting up to reveal an entire room filled with Bugfish.

"Shit!" Alex gasped as all the monsters dashed at them, swinging their tentacles and sending out small jets of water to attack the group.

In response to that, Shane froze some of the water around them and moved it to function as shields. Bonnie understood that idea and also helped, creating her own version of ice shields. However, her spell would not only make slower barriers, but they would break much more easily. Seeing that there were some people taking care of their defense, Hera shook her bracelet, triggering the Battle Rattle skill to increase everyone's attributes. Hera herself got the biggest boost since all of her attributes were the same. With the Rattle active, all her stats would be almost at 100. At the same time, she sent out her court, not caring if Adriel would see it or not, and all the snakes around her to attack the monsters. This wasn't a situation where she had the luxury of keeping a secret. Her blades appeared in the water, including Nimbus on his tonfa form, and started attacking the incoming Bugfish.

Helena was using her sense control spells to force the monsters to hit the shield. She wasn't making them hit the ice with their tentacles but slamming their entire bodies against the frozen water. Bonnie was only able to turn her shield into jagged pieces of ice, but Shane could freeze the monsters, turning them into frozen meat shields. In total, five Bugfish were caught by that combo, unable to do anything but watch as another eight attacked the group. Blue saw as two Hunter Bugfish came from below and created a pair of cloud hands to stop them, sending lightning through them. However, the monsters were covered in sand, which was able to stop the electricity from damaging them.

"Let's run away!" Mylo cried as several flowers bloomed out of nowhere, illuminating the area even more and attracting some of the Bugfish towards them.

Adriel turned around, looking for the tunnel they used to get here, but the monsters were smart enough to be covering that exit. There were more creatures there than the ones that were attacking them, "We are stuck here!"

While telling her court to keep some of the creatures at bay and flinging several poison needles at the monsters, Hera felt a tug. One of the snakes was trying to call her. It was one of those who found the doorway, "Daskka, can you follow that one? Turn into your mist form, and I'll cast a light spell on you."

"Got it, mum!" Daskka jumped from Hera's neck. She had been feeling useless ever since they got here, but now it was her time to shine. Becoming the silver mist while a dancing light was in front of her allowed Daskka to become a beacon in the middle of the low lit tunnel.

"Follow Daskka! We found the doorway," Hera turned to Adriel.

"Got it," Adriel turned the submarine around, but it was still extremely slow, "Shit. Hera, can your mount swim? We can't move faster unless there is something pulling us."

Without having to ask for an answer, Nimbus replied in her mind, 'Not in my mount form, but I can pull it if I'm in my humanoid form.'

'Do it! The snakes will help you,' Hera replied as she turned to Adriel, "Do you have a rope or something?"

"Yeah. Where is your mount?" Adriel created a rope made out of mana connected to the drones.

"I'm here!" Nimbus spoke out loud as his head went inside the air bubble. He grabbed the rope, "Make more of those. The snakes can help. Let's turn this into a sleigh."

"What the..." Adriel turned to Hera.

"Later. Just make more rope," Hera replied as Core and Frost blocked one of the Bugfish that was heading towards Helena. Hera followed it up by putting her hand outside the bubble and sending a few blood claws toward it. After the fifth strike, the monster died, and the submarine picked up in speed. Nimbus and her Snakes started to pull it, following Daskka.

"Shit. Hang on, everyone!" Adriel gasped as the drones moved much faster than anyone was expecting.

"Hang on where?! There is nothing to hang on to here!" Bonnie cried.

"Right, sorry!" Adriel created a rope on top of the submarine and tied it to Bonnie's waist.

That caused Bonnie to gasp in surprise. Everyone else also jumped to grab the rope as Nimbus, and the snakes started speeding. For a humanoid griffon, the sentinel was surprisingly nimble underwater. It didn't take long for Hera to realize the reason for that. He was using fire mana to push him forward and ice mana around his fingers to create makeshift webbed hands and feet. Not to mention his wings were glued to his body to reduce the water resistance.

While they moved, Hera and the others were still sending spells toward the Bugfish who were chasing after them. In reality, the monsters were faster than the submarine, even when Nimbus was pulling it. However, the constant barrage of attacks was stopping them from advancing. As they got deeper and deeper into the tunnel, Hera realized that the monsters were becoming more reckless and frenzied. They would dive into spells, shielding the ones in the back with their own bodies, almost as if they were willing to do anything to reach their prey.

Suddenly, the tunnel ended in a giant cavern filled with thousands of Bugfish, most of which were unmoving. The submarine slowed down to a halt, giving Nimbus a chance to rest before he continued to pull the sleigh ahead.

'Daskka? What happened?' Hera called inside the herald's mind.

'There is a really big one blocking our path,' Daskka replied. She was floating in the middle of this large cavern. Hera couldn't see exactly what she was talking about. Even with the light around, it was hard to tell what was part of the reef and what was a monster. Trying something different, she triggered her [Observe Red Sight]. It was odd using it underwater since almost everything was very cold here, the changes were minimal, but Hera was able to see two different things. First was that the Bugfish around the walls had small pockets of heat that didn't match what the other ones had. They were hundreds of small balls of heat that could indicate eggs. The other was the massive creature that was in front of Daskka. Unlike the other Bugfish, who were around the same size of a human, this creature was the size of a killer whale.

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Bugfish Queen - Level 30 - Drowsy (Water affinity)

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"A queen? That's not good!" Hera gasped as she realized the situation. If they accidentally woke up this monster, they would be in serious danger. They needed to help it go to sleep somehow.

"A queen?" Bonnie asked.

"That's what it looks like," Hera replied while Shane created a large ice barrier blocking the entrance.

"Ok, whatever we want to do, we need to do it fast. I don't know how long my barrier will last," Shane still had one arm out towards the entrance, reinforcing the ice as she could.

Hera looked around and noticed the Bugfish around the walls stirring. Some of the smaller Bugfish were starting to wake up, which meant that the queen wouldn't be far behind. She also saw that the queen had its tentacles wrapped around the walls, which showed that she was not just floating aimlessly.

"How far is the doorway?" Helena asked.

"According to the map is just beyond here. We will be going through a small tunnel, then we reach it," Hera explained.

"So, we can either try to move it quietly or just wake it up and run through it?" Blue asked.

"Mylo, don't you have a spell that makes people sleepy?" Shane turned to the fighter, who nodded in response.

"I can make an illusion that helps you sleep."

"But that doesn't change the fact that the queen is on our way," Bonnie sighed.

"Lena, can you remove its sense of touch? Then we can push it to the side while Mylo uses his spell to make it sleep," Hera suggested.

"I think so. But before we start, does anyone has a better idea?" Helena looked around, but no one said a word, "Right then. Mylo, when you are ready."

The spells were triggered, and after their signal, Hera told Nimbus to push the queen to the side so they could pass through the tunnel behind it. Hera's idea was to dismiss the Sentinel after they were on the other side. That seemed to work at first. When the makeshift submarine had crossed that passage, entering the tunnel, Daskka, who was swimming in front of them, could already see the doorway. Unfortunately, when Shane lost line of sight with her ice shield, the spell unraveled, and the swarm of Bugfish came rushing in. The noise and movement were enough to wake the queen completely.

Just as everything started to shake, Hera told the snakes to rush deeper into the tunnel. In just a couple of minutes, they arrived at the doorway beyond a barrier that stopped all water. No one waited around to check things before crossing. They knew that even if this place was technically out of the water, the monsters could still come here. One by one, everyone crossed to the next room, Hera being the last one. She dismissed all the snakes, Daskka, and her court. Then she quickly sent a message to the Royal Explorers saying that the doorway is in the Bugfish nest. When she left, she promised to come back soon, but now, maybe that wouldn't be the easiest task.

Turning back to the doorway, she looked at the symbol on top of it. It looked like a treasure map with seven different islands but no X marking the spot. She heard some noise from behind her and saw a couple of Bugfish approaching and quickly touched the doorway to cross over.

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Would you like to be transported to:

Seven Islands - 18th layer:

[Yes] [No]

Or press the button below for your private room:

[Enter your Private Room]

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Hoping that misread the layer as 8th, Hera pressed [yes].