Chapter 49.2

After being handed a rolled sheet of magical parchment which Aurion informed Lumi would reflect the state of the region map, Lumi led Jason and the others to the stone pier where the punts awaited.

“Alright, so how do we do this?” Aldin asked upon arrival. “There’s what…? Seven of us?”

“Eight if you include Shard,” Lumi replied. “Though I’m not sure if Ceri counts. He’s tiny. Unless we’re changing that.”

“Uh, Shard?” Aldin asked. “Who’s that?”

Jason smacked himself in the forehead lightly in exasperation with himself. “Right, right… there’s so much I still haven’t shown you guys. Just hasn’t been time.”

“Shard, out you come. Sentry Mode!” Jason commanded.

Aldin and Ravs jerked backwards in surprise as the spider bot emerged in a flurry of clicking and whirring, and clambered down from Jason’s back.

“I see your ‘crossbow’ got some upgrades, too,” Sylvia commented. She stepped cautiously towards Shard and leaned in to inspect the construct closely, though she kept her hands clasped behind her back.

“That is super creepy, dude,” Aldin said. “Those legs… and that sound…!” He gave a slight shudder.

Lumi made a thoughtful humming noise. “Is it even OK to put Shard in a boat? He’d need to grab onto the hull, and what happens when he needs to fire?”

“Shard’s recoil is almost nonexistent,” Jason explained. “He’s also a shoulder-mount weapon, right? I took that into account when designing him. He’s got both mundane and magical functions to reduce recoil and help muffle the sound of his shots, so I don't injure myself whenever he fires.”

“I was thinking he could sit in the front, if we’ve got room,” Jason finished.

“Speaking of room…” Ravs said, “that’s a bit of an issue.” She nodded towards Echo, who was still enchanted with Kera’s [Mount] evolution. “No way is she fitting on a boat that size. She’d sink it.”

“Actually, I think I have a solution to that,” Kera said. “And it would mean the rest of you only need two boats, Shard included.”

“What do you mean?” Lumi asked.

“Well…Evolution Surge can do all sorts of stuff,” Kera explained, gesturing. “I was thinking it could be to our advantage to have me, Ceri, and Echo all in the water as aquatic escorts, right?”

Lumi nodded. “When facing potential underwater threats? Definitely. What did you have in mind?”

“Two things,” Kera said. “First, I can just do a new evolution ritual. Something for both changing size and altering them into an aquatic form. I’m thinking… one of those rings as a focus, plus maybe a few breath pebbles and water-sight candies would do the trick. Maybe a water shard, too.”

“As for me,” she continued, “I’ve got the alligator form, but Jason keeps reminding me I haven’t taken the time to learn new snake shapes, so… why not see what I can nab? I might be able to pass that on too, like how Echo is lightning-element right now.”

Jason looked to Lumi and shrugged. “Sounds good to me,” he said. “I’ve got a few things that could maybe work for a ritual.”

“Will it take long?” Lumi asked Kera. “We are in a sort of a race, and while I’m sure it’ll take the muscleheads ages to fight their way through monster central, I doubt Aurion will hold back the other teams while we prep.”

“I don’t think so,” Kera replied. “Fifteen minutes, tops? Probably a lot sooner?

Lumi hummed to herself for a moment, then nodded. “Alright. Go ahead.”

Kera brought up her interface and began parsing through her belt options.

While she did so, Lumi continued on. “OK, let’s see… Sylvia’s supposed to stay as hands-off as possible, so she can pilot one boat. Aldin, you’re primarily noncombat as well, and frankly Ravs, unless you’ve been hiding some offensive ranged spells from us, you’re relegated to support and defense whenever we’re on the water. Why don’t all three of you take the rear, while Jason pilots for me and Shard in the front? Aldin can heal from range, Ravs keeps him safe, and then Kera can be on point with Ceri and Echo guarding our flanks.”

She looked in turn to each of them, and Jason nodded in agreement along with the others.

“Alright, I’ve got my pick,” Kera said once Lumi was finished. “Nothing special, just a basic water-template snake. Should get me water-touched though. I can work that into the ritual easy enough with Jason’s help.”

Closing her status screen, Kera activated her belt, collapsing downwards like wax and molding into the form of a ten-foot python with partially translucent, blue-green scales. A long, wavy dorsal fin ran down along her back, with scattered smaller fins along her body, giving her a distinctly eel-like appearance.

She slithered quickly into the water, where she spent a few moments swimming around to familiarize herself with her new shape. Then she coiled her way up one of the stone posts and heaved herself back up onto the dock, where she reverted to her kitsune form, this time clearly sporting a water-touched variation. Dark green streaks ran through her now primarily deep blue hair and fur, and she had what appeared to be tiny gill slits at the sides of her throat. Her tail was now lightly furred, thick and fish-like with small fins, which reminded Jason vaguely of a cryptid hoax he’d once read about online.

Kera open her mouth to speak, and attempted to take a deep breath as she did. Instead, her gills flared, and she gave a horrid, mucous-filled sound and bent over, clutching her throat in a way that alarmed Jason. Then she straightened, scrunching up her face as she worked her mouth, gurgling for moment. She coughed once, hard, and spat a disgusting glob of something into the water. She grimaced.

“Ack, new muscles,” Kera groused, lowering her hands and shifting her shoulders as she took a proper, deep breath. “Always takes a second to notice them. At least my body always seems to know how to use them. Doesn’t stop me from being surprised by them in the first few moments though.”

She shook herself briefly, shedding leftover water, which seemed to simply slough right off of her hair, fur, and clothing.

“Alright. I think I’m good now. And this template ought to help adapt Ceri’s wings into something he can use in the water. Let’s get started.”

The next squad in line did end up leaving before they finished up, but ten minutes and two short rituals later, Kera was downing a least potion, having changed Ceri and Echo into their new aquatic forms. Both now sported stubby fingers with webbing between them, much like an otter’s ‘hand’, except with wicked-looking claws at the tips of each finger. The membrane and bones of Ceri’s wings had shifted around, providing a set of folding, sweeping fins capable of propelling him rapidly forwards. Their long, powerful tails provided similar function as well, and both beasts were about eight feet in length, now roughly the size of a dolphin.

Everyone piled on into the punts as Kera shifted into her alligator form and dived into the water alongside her pets. Jason set Shard up to grip onto the front end of his and Lumi’s boat, while Jason himself took the rear position in order to steer. As for the other boat, Aldin settled down in the middle with one of Jason’s healing wands, while Ravs guarded the front end and Sylvia piloted.

They pushed off into ever-deepening gloom. At first, Lumi conjured a small orb to help light their way, despite Jason pointing out that this would make them highly visible. However, shortly afterwards Aldin informed them with the expenditure of a small amount of mana, he could embrace his beast-touched heritage to the point that he could see well enough in the dark, and thus would be able to guide Sylvia. So Lumi doused her light, only reconjuring a greatly weakened version to occasionally check the map. Meanwhile, Jason switched to relying on a combination of the lifesense and thermographic settings on his helmet to pilot his and Lumi’s craft. Kera and her pets needed no such magical aid, course: her [Primal Huntress] and [Shared Senses] skills were more than up to the task of navigating in complete darkness.

Beyond that, the first ten minutes of travel or so was pretty boring as far as Jason was concerned. They pushed out into the deeper swamp, slowly poling their way along and getting the hang of the steering. They headed quickly northwards at first, and then hooked west, crossing over the point where the road should have been. A few minutes further found them venturing out into even deeper water, while drooping, moss-covered trees arched high overhead, blotting out what little sky there was and creating a kind of dark, flooded tunnel system.

Jason found the near-silence to be unnerving. There were no birdcalls, no distant animal sounds; only the sound of sloshing water at their passage disturbed the stillness around them. As a result, Jason startled and nearly fell out of the punt the second they crossed the threshold into the Dungeon’s claim and he received the quest notification. He wasn't the only one, either; Lumi had jumped as well, and he heard Ravs mutter a quiet oath moments later.

You have entered a surface region Claimed by a Dungeon Core! Beware its minions! You have received a new Dungeon Quest: Fight or sneak your way to the entrance!

Bonus Objective: Clear at least five Rooms on the way.

Reward: One Common-Tier Materials Chest.

Bonus Reward: One random Chest of any type.

Jason couldn’t really see Lumi’s facial expression in the darkness; his visor only provided enough detail for vague impressions rather than proper nightvision, but it seemed to him like Lumi was grinning as she turned in place to call a halt.

“Good thing we already planned to hit a few spots,” Lumi said. “More loot is always welcome, yeah?”

She re-conjured her spark of light and unrolled the map.

“Looks like from here we have maybe five minutes of winding tunnel, and then we’ll want to hook a left,” she announced one everyone had gathered as close as they could. “After that, it’s pass two branch-offs, then take the next right, and we’ll be at the first of what I’m just gonna call the ‘island rooms’. That’ll be our first target.”

“I want to take this first one a little carefully,” Lumi declared. “It’s only a small cluster of what looks to me like basic dwellings. Several very small buildings, all quite close together. I’d hazard it’s essentially a lair room, probably doubling as a guard post, what with being so close to the edge.”

“I doubt there’ll be any problems, but I’d like to get us some eyes-on before we rush in, just to make sure. Jason, you said you had ideas for sneaking? We might do a test run here.”

“Good idea.” Jason replied. He pulled out the aquatic movement rings he’d made the previous night. “Those dark green candies we used in Kera’s ritual? Among other things, these rings provide a similar benefit, allowing us to see clearly when surrounded by water, regardless of depth or dirt or anything else. That’s why I asked Ravs if she had any fog spells: there’s no reason the enchantment shouldn’t let us see right through it.”

He turned to Ravs. “Think you could manage a fog spell and a shroud at the same time?”

Ravs inclined her head slightly. “Yes. Obscuring Mist is a… what did you call it during training? A ‘fire and forget’ spell? It doesn’t require me to concentrate on it. Shroud does.”

“Great,” Jason said. “ Then between the fog, the darkness, and the shroud, we should be able to get right up into their faces. With a bit of luck, they might not even realize the fog shouldn’t be there. Even if it doesn’t work like that, they’ll have a hell of a time actually spotting us.”

“Let’s test it here first, then,” Lumi said. “If the rings work the way you hope, we’ll take a quick look from a distance while Ravs keeps us shrouded. If it’s just basic murklings and whatnot, we’ll go in hard and fast. Otherwise, we’ll pull back and rethink things. Sound good to everyone?”

Even before they broke free of the fog bank, it was obvious to Jason that the murklings suspected something was amiss. Thanks to his ring, Jason could clearly see five of the creatures standing guard along the shore, near a cluster of small, circular huts that were propped up on stilts. Three of the five held spears, and the fish-creatures were making a series of alarmed fluting sounds to one another as they peered intently into the mist that had formed a wall across the waterway. Two others had emerged from one of the huts as well, no doubt to see what the commotion was.

Lumi quietly drew her sword with one hand, steadying herself in a crouch with other while Jason gave the punt an extra-hard shove, propelling them swiftly onwards. They burst free of the fog just as Ravs canceled the shroud, provoking an immediate, panicked response from the creatures. Three of the armed shore-guards rushed into the shallows to intercept, preparing to dive into the water, while the remaining two ran for the huts.

With a roar, Kera surged upwards from just beneath the surface of water. She seized the closest murkling in her jaws, rapidly snapping her head from side to side, which shattered the fish-creature’s spine before she flung it sideways into its brethren. Cries of pain burst forth from the two as they were bowled over. , but Kera ignored them in favor of pushing her way forwards, leaving them instead to be set upon by Echo and Ceri. The moment she was free of the water, she turned toward the two murklings by the hut, who were in the process of snatching up their spears. She opened her maw wide, and a jet of flame erupted from her throat, engulfing them.

Meanwhile, Jason’s propelled his craft rapidly to the shoreline, with Ravs, Aldin, and Sylvia close behind. The moment the bottom of the vessel ground against the shore, Lumi stood, flexed her legs, and vaulted over the side.

“Meteoric Strike!”, she yelled as she touched down, and a halo of fire burst in existence around her. She rocketed across the intervening space, slamming her bracer’s flame-shield into of the back of one of the murklings who’d been attempting to flee towards the supposed safety of the buildings. It staggered heavily, shrieking as it caught fire, only to fall to the ground dead as she ran it through.

Several more warriors came boiling out from the huts as the murklings began calling the alarm loudly. Jason jumped down onto the wet, marshy soil, and mercilessly ordered Shard to begin torching the buildings with flame rounds while he drew his lightning wand, electing to hold position and support Kera and Lumi from range.

Sylvia meanwhile grounded her punt next to his. Aldin moved up to Jason’s side, while Ravs disappeared in a short blast of mist only to reappear a short distance away, at the entrance to one of the huts. She lashed out with both daggers, striking down an emerging fish-man before he could defend himself.

The fight was over in moments. With Shard firing upon the buildings, Kera and her pets tearing into any fleeing murklings who tried to make for the water, and Lumi and Ravs rapidly blinking across the battlefield to strike down any resistance, Jason never even needed to lift his wand. Their sudden attack had caught the murklings almost completely off guard, and it wasn’t like they were particularly challenging opponents in he first place. Aldin even just crossed his arms and leaned against the boat to watch, once it became clear his healing wouldn’t be needed.

Jason felt a bit bad for the young [Shaman]. At least Shard was part of Jason’s [Machinist] class, so he was technically participating. Aldin probably wouldn’t get any XP at all. Internally, he grumbled a bit over the fact that even here, reward systems discriminated against healer roles.

Not five minutes after the initial contact, the bodies of a dozen and a half slain murklings were breaking down into motes of light as everyone regrouped. Jason harvested what he could from the bodies before they despawned completely, managing to acquire a small number of units’ worth of both Breath and Swim. He was also surprised to see the smoldering remains of the huts breaking down as well; he wondered if it was because they had been made of mana themselves, and if the Dungeon could respawn them at reduced cost like it could the murklings.

“Well… that went faster than I honestly expected,” Lumi commented after a brief moment to catch her breath. “Everyone ready to keep pushing forward?”

“Hopefully with something for me to do this time,” Aldin groused.

Ravs just patted him lightly on the shoulder.