Book 2: Chapter 7

Alan Pioneer News “And here we are today with another day of Aqua’s stunts!” Allan exclaims as the screen next to him shows Aqua entering and swimming around another massive cavern. One filled with large monsters. “But more importantly, the monsters in this dungeon are ones that have never been seen before in a dungeon! They’re so unusual that I’ve heard word that the Monster Research Lab is pulling people from other jobs just to focus on researching them!” Rodrick nods his head in agreement. Meanwhile the screen splits to half show Aqua’s broadcast and half show closeups of the monsters on her broadcast. The monsters in question are large humanoid fish with rotten blue and green scales, heads similar to sharks and piranhas, and scale armor covering their bodies. But what shocks Allan and Rodrick the most is the sight of the monsters carrying weapons while swimming around underwater. All with the monsters jumping in and out of the ships. Moving just as freely underwater as they are on the surface. So even when Aqua activates the skill summoning four orcas at the very entrance of the cavern, leaving the orcas there with several abyssal servants floating next to them as guards, flooding the cavern with water, none of the monsters struggle. They all just begin casually swimming around the cavern with ease regardless of the water. Allan shows their identify result beneath the monster’s closeup images. [Pestilent Sharkin Soldier – Level 102] [Pestilent Piran Soldier – Level 101] “So far the only information we have about these monsters are that they’re also undead, just like a lot of the monsters in the last cavern,” Allan explains as the closeup images of the monsters slowly rotate to show their entire bodies. Including their shark-like tails for the sharkin soldiers and the large piranha-like fins at the backs of the piran soldiers. “But they’re the first official dungeon-born aquatic undead monsters to exist.” “They’re the first dungeon-born major aquatic monsters to exist, not just undead,” Rodrick adds while sitting on the other side of the screen with his eyes narrowed at it. The two watch Aqua as she summons dozens of abyssal servants while sending them around the cavern. Only for a lot of them to be killed without much trouble due to their lower levels. With the exception of the ones that she killed and extracted the servants from in this very dungeon. “It also looks like she’ll need new abyssal servants soon,” Allan adds with a wry smile on his face. “These aren’t keeping up very well anymore.” He glances at the massive shark that led the migration as it charges through slaughtering the enemy monsters. “Except the shark,” Rodrick mentions, also watching it move around. “That shark must be a more advanced species than we thought,” Allan comments while leaning forward over the counter. “I’m pretty sure the Monster Lab is also researching her shark,” Rodrick points out, to which Allan nods his head without saying a word. But the migration shark isn’t the only one easily killing the lower level monsters in the cavern. The two-headed dreadnaught shark also proves formidable against the monsters. All while Aqua herself proceeds to tear through the monsters in the water with both her trident and the tentacles grown across her body. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. The two even watch her occasionally shapeshift her head into an Abyssal Orca’s head before tearing into the monsters with her jaws. Proving that she’s grown past her original aversion towards biting monsters. An aversion quite a few Bloodliners have to get past at first. “Have you made any bets yet?” Allan asks while turning his head towards Rodrick. But Rodrick just shakes his head and says, “I’ve learned not to bet on anything related to Aqua. She’s just too unpredictable.” Allan laughs at that and nods his head, saying, “Yeah, I get you. But this time it’s the System choosing her Hidden Stat. So why don’t you give it a try? I already placed a bet.” Rodrick grits his teeth, showing his indecision and amusing Allan in the process. And while he does that, something happens on the screen that attracts both their attention. With that something being a loud screeching roar echoing throughout the cavern from somewhere further away. One loud enough that it shakes the cavern walls. “Do you think...?” Allan mutters, only for Rodrick to nod his head. “Yeah,” Rodrick says. “That must’ve been from the boss.” Silence fills the room as even Aqua on the screen pauses in her hunt. All the way until the roaring screech goes quiet and the cavern stops shaking. Aqua That doesn’t sound very friendly. This dungeon is surprising me in quite a few ways. Whether it’s all these aquatic monsters, the undead monsters, or the size of the dungeon. It’s definitely worth being called a Special Dungeon. That’s for sure. But this roaring screech... just hearing it gave me a massive headache. One I’m pretty sure is a mental debuff. Which means the boss of this dungeon most likely has mentally offensive attacks. Which won’t be pleasant to deal with. I glance at my status to find my mana pool being a little lower than it normally would by now. Mostly because of all the abyssal servants I’ve had to summon while in this cavern. Unfortunately it looks like most of the blueprints I have are starting to become rather useless. So I’m spending mana to summon them again while fighting whenever they’re ‘killed’. And on top of that, I’m also spending more mana to extract blueprints for other monsters. Expanding my list of blueprints to include higher level monsters. Anyway, it’s not often I hear a roar underwater. Even if it’s partially a screech. So I’m guessing this boss is also undead. And probably aquatic too. Considering that all these other monsters are aquatic and undead. Plus most aquatic monsters don’t roar. They make whines, squeals, clicks, and even some screeches. But almost never roars. My thoughts pause when I notice how the other monsters in the cavern all stopped moving and are staring off in one direction. Is that where the boss is? I kill the monsters closest to me before they start paying attention to their surroundings again. Then I proceed to move off in the direction that they’re looking in. Only to find a massive hole far larger than the tunnel I went through to enter here just located at the center of this cavern. My eyes narrow a little bit at the hole. Especially since it seems to just straight up open up into some sort of massive outside area with a massive sea for beneath the cavern. It’s almost like the caverns I’ve been going through are just floating high in the sky over a sea or ocean or something. Which is bizarre. Although not as bizarre as the fact that the water is just floating here at the exit to this cavern. Not dripping down at all into the sea hundreds of meters below. Huh... I get the feeling that this boss is going to be enormous. Most of the time in dungeons the larger the room for a boss, the larger the boss. And if this boss is located in an entire sea, then it will probably be massive. On top of that, I don’t see any ships down in the sea below. So it’ll probably be entirely aquatic monsters. Still. The fact that this cavern was shaken by the boss’s roar despite floating high in the air isn’t a good sign. I look down through the hole for a few minutes before proceeding to grab a nearby monster and tossing the thing down out of the cavern. Making it fall all the way down to the sea below. Dead from the landing. Then I just watch for a minute, only for nothing to happen. Is the boss not hungry or something? Or maybe it doesn’t want to eat other undead? I go ahead and grab half a dozen other corpses and toss them down there as well. Then half a dozen more. And right as I’m about to give up, I find a rather disturbing sight. What look like large, sharp rocks begin to emerge from the surface of the water in the form of a massive ring all around the bunch of corpses. But that’s only at first glance. Because I can see what’s beneath the surface of the water with my enhanced Abyssal Kraken eyes. And they are absolutely not rocks.