Cinderfy’s POV

They carried me through the village, giving me a limited view of everything. Smaller children would make nets, while the older ones practiced their skills. Any of the hunter species of fish would be attacking stands of coral and sandbags. There were some species that would herd smaller marine life into caves before dropping nets in front to trap them there. The main boulevard was lit with light crystals, and kept clear. The oddest part were the houses. They were made of coral, though they had doors that closed to completely seal in the residents.

Whatever these creatures were, they were obsessed with defense. The houses weren’t set in regular intervals, and the doors never opened onto the main street. Seeing one in cross section, it was at least inches thick. There was no sand kept by the houses, and just in case none of the doors touched the sea floor. Once through the village, things opened up. It was almost like a sandy beach, heading straight out to a cliff that was marked with a line of poles with more of the light crystals. Beyond the cliff? Black. Utterly devoid of everything black. Midway between the light posts and the village, I was placed into a rocky slot buried in the ground.

They left me, facing that endless darkness. Tied up as a sacrifice. There were buckets of entrails left at the base of my pole to attract whatever came out of the deep. Surrounding me in the sands were leftovers from previous battles. Shards of shells that the Siyokoy hunters liked to use were scattered among shards of coral poles.

Danger! One of the guardians has been slain.

Denizens of the Depths grow bolder.

Fuck that. I wasn’t going to be a sacrifice to some Denizen of the Depths. Whatever that was. “[Flamecloak].” Surrounded by bubbles, the bindings holding me to the cross broke, gently dropping me to the seafloor. I canceled the skill, and looked behind me. Of course, there was a line of hunters and fighters, all facing the cliff. Picking up one of the larger shells, I walked over to see what was going on with this cliff.

“Whoah.” I muttered. The drop off was nearly vertical, though there were plenty of hand holds from what little I could see. Channeling mana into the clam shell, I activated my [Remote lightning mine] skill. I didn’t get to use it much with raids, but it was a nice one to have. It only took three seconds and fifty mana to fully charge, making it one of the medium sized bombs. I tossed it over the edge, letting it sink into the depths. At seventy-five feet, it automatically detonated, giving me a small flash of light.

“Well, it’s over a hundred feet deep, that’s for sure.” I muttered, before turning back and walking away. As I neared the line of hunters, they all tensed and pointed weapons at me. “Easy, I’m not making a mad dash for freedom.” I tried speaking but none of them moved. Perhaps they didn’t understand English? Wouldn’t be that surprising.

First attempt at communication failing, I started miming. I pointed at the nets the hunters wore, then mimed taking it off and making it smaller and handing it to me. After the third or fourth frustrating reiteration of what I wanted, something changed.

What are you playing at, landwalker? A strange voice echoed in my head. Telepathy?

Yes, we communicate with your telepathy. What is it you want?

“Oh. Well, is there any chance that I can get some of your older, smaller nets? I’m looking for ones that hold a handful of shells.”

What for?

“I assume the Denizens of the Depths are going to come up the cliff and you are going to sacrifice me to them? They are going to be coming in a wave?”

Yes and yes. They gather at the edge before attempting to move forward.

“Well, I’m not a willing sacrifice. If you give me what I need, I’m going to kill a metric fuckton of the bastards.”

A pathetic attempt. We won’t be giving you the tools to escape.

“You think I’m lying? Here, take a look into my mind then fuckwad. This is my plan.” I growled out, going over the plan in my head. “Now get me what I need so that I can have everything prepared!” I shouted the last part, and saw his eyes widen at my madness. Turning back to the village, something happened but I didn’t care. Hopefully it was them getting me what I needed.

You’ll have your nets. It usually takes a half hour before they arrive, though they might come earlier with the guardian’s passing.

“Thank you.” I said, pulling out the trident from my inventory. Spearing it into the ground, I channeled a spell through it. “[Lightning bolt].” I picked up a shell and used my [Remote lightning mine] spell as I waited for a cooldown to end, stepping to the side so that it was clear of the first one. I’m sure some of the people watching would realize what I was up to, but a lot would be confused. I kept this process up for six minutes, burning through my entire mana pool.

“Gah, these potions still taste like crap.” I grumbled, downing a mana potion to refill my bar. I was gonna have a terrible headache after this for sure, but by god it was gonna be fun. Once I had twenty-four of the remote mines, I changed things up.

Here you go. Echoed in my head, and I turned to see the hunter sling a net in my direction. Picking it up, I found it full of smaller nets, just like I asked.

“Thanks. Now you guys get to sit back and enjoy the show.” Going back to where I was casting lightning, I started digging until I found what I had created. Fulgurite. Branching glass formed when lightning melts sand. I grinned when I managed to dig it all up, as mine were absolutely huge. Nearing five feet long, I pulled them up and set my makeshift spears in my inventory. I then started collecting shells like mad, and charging them up with a slightly different spell. Instead of remote activation, these were simple [Delayed lightning detonation traps] and were far easier to activate. Strike them with enough force, physical or mana based, and they would give a three second count before exploding. Just enough time for most monsters to believe they were safe.

I lined the inside of the nets with these delayed traps, placing the remote trap in the middle. Boom. Instant lightning grenades with chain explosions. My first line was six fulgurite poles two feet from the edge of the chasm. I left almost five feet between the poles, and each one got its own bag of fun. Ten feet away, I did a triple line of six poles. Each line was separated by three feet, and the poles were staggered for maximum effect. Again, they all got their own bag of fun. I had three bags left over, and spent the remainder of my time filling them up. Two were the same as the rest of the fun bags, but the last one was all remote mines. Something had to be in charge of the incoming wave, and that something was going to have a very bad day if it got close enough.

Preparations complete, I sat down to meditate and recover what I could while saving mana.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Mr. Whisker’s POV

After killing the shark, everyone took a few minutes to just relax and get something quick to eat. I didn’t let anyone go through with the full meal, but premade rations and a drink were in order. “Before we get going, make sure that all your buffs have been reapplied. Anything less than an hour gets reset.” I called out, getting everything in order.

“I don’t like that Cinder’s been missing this long.” I grumped as I sat down next to King and Citadel.

“Hiding or prisoner?” King asked.

“Prisoner.” Citadel said. “Mages have no hiding skills, at least nothing that will hide them from those hunters. If he were found out, he would fight until killed. Somehow he must be incapacitated.”

“I suppose you’re right.” I said with a sigh. “I just wish we didn’t have to have eyes on raid members to get updated statuses.”

“Challenge is good for us though.” King nodded. “Keep pushing the limits.”

“Yeah, yeah. Push the limits, grow beyond.” I chuckled. I had to admit, we were pushing our limits here. I really hoped the devs decided to unleash more of these underwater dungeons. Coming up with a breathing enchantment really opened up the varieties, as most everyone had done the traditional dungeons. “I wonder if they’ll have a space dungeon.” I muttered.

“Not likely.” Citadel replied, though it wasn’t really directed at him. “Though some more exotic planes could easily be brought in if you could put this breathing enchantment on a piece of equipment.”

“There’s an idea. Mark it down in your journals. We will have to do some thought experiments with Dark Queen when we get done with this dungeon.” I said before getting to my feet. “Alright everyone, let’s get going. Cinder’s probably sitting around waiting for us to come save his ass.”

Ominous message aside, the raid was in fairly good spirits after the battle and short break. I just hoped we got to a rest area soon, otherwise our pace would slow considerably. The breaks after battle would come much more often, and have to be longer. Shrugging at trying to plan for the unknown, we started off in the same formation we had been using. “Let’s try and pick up the pace just a bit.” I called out, not wanting to stay on this endless road much longer. Since it was now easily noticed that it wasn’t flat, we had to be nearing the end.

“Hey, I think I see something up ahead!” Dave called out after we had been moving for fifteen minutes. “I think the road is ending!” We all started forward at a jog, wanting to see what the brownish grey blur would resolve itself into. The road was taking a much steeper descent, almost as if we were coming off an overly large arched bridge.

“Hey, what is that?” Shocker asked, pointing off into the distance.

“What did you see?” I asked, immediately on edge.

“Looked like a big flash of light. A line of them actually, gone too quickly for me to get anything else.” As we all stared, another series of lights went off in succession.

“Anyone wanna bet that those are natural lights just going off while we are missing a mage?” Lucy asked.

“Looks like Cinder’s calling for backup everyone. This is the speedrun portion of the dungeon folks. Tanks, I want a V formation in front, plowing through anything in our way. King, you’re on navigation. Any water mages in the middle of the V. Use riptide to force anything in our way to the sides. Everyone else follow as close as you can, guardians bring up the rear. We don’t stop until we reunite with whatever Cinder’s fighting, and then we cut loose. Ready?”

“YEAH!” The raid cheered, rapidly shifting into formation and taking off at a fast trot. At the bottom of the road, we got a notification about entering the seventh level of the dungeon, one that was ignored. We came up to a road through a coral reef, far too straight to be natural. The flashes of light were getting closer now, obviously arcs of lightning. At the end of the road was a line of the siyokoy, facing away from us.

“Mages, make us a hole!” I called out, and we dashed through the broken line to see just what they were watching.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Cinderfy’s POV

It was time. They came from the deep, tentacles and claws the first signs of their appearance. Each hideous in its own way. Strange lights lit up in entrancing patterns covered some. Others had orbs of light hanging from a fleshy tentacle in front of their mouth. Rubbery skin, chitin covered, some so thin you could see organs digesting previous meals. Oversized mouths full of needle teeth, hooking backward to entrap prey. They gathered at the edge of the line of fulgurite, waiting for an overwhelming numbers advantage.

Aboleth lesser slave

Level 180

Enslaved by an Aboleth, these creatures have no will of their own anymore. They seek to go and bring back new fodder to increase their numbers, or anything else that will please their master. Lacking the ability to plan or react to unique situations they simply use numbers to overwhelm unsuspecting targets.

Time for bonus style points. “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN PLEASE! WOULD YOU BRING YOUR ATTENTION TO ME!” I sang out, getting the attention of everything once enough of them had gathered. “FOR A FEAST FOR YOUR EYES TO SEE, AN EXPLOSION OF CATASTROPHE!” Pointing to the the line of fulgurite closest to the edge, I smiled and said, “Boom.”

Oh it was wondrous! Bursts of lightning electrocuted everything within range, priming the shell shrapnel mines that went off seconds later. Purplish blood filled the water as body parts sprayed in all directions. I set off the secondary string of explosions that I had planted at the edge of the cliff, causing the edge to sink into the depths, taking whatever survived the initial assault down with it.

Another few minutes, and they were back. They didn’t show any extra caution, and I didn’t expect any from their descriptions. Time to draw them in.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN GOOD EVENING, YOU’VE SEEN AND SEEING IS BELIEVING. YOUR EARS AND YOUR EYES MAY BE BLEEDING, PLEASE CHECK, TO SEE IF YOU’RE STILL BREATHING. HOLD TIGHT, ‘CAUSE THE SHOW IS NOT OVER. IF YOU WILL, PLEASE MOVE IN CLOSER!” I kept singing, smiling that I knew the perfect song. “YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE BOWLED OVER, BY THE WONDERS YOU’RE ABOUT TO BEHOLD, HERE!”

Following the sound of my voice, they moved forward, not recognizing the traps for what they were. I let the first few get just past the final line of fulgurite before detonating it. While that had to have sent some stumbling backward, I detonated the line furthest from me to create as large of a bunch in the middle as I could, before finishing it with the final set of explosions.

Danger!

The large concentration of undiluted blood in the water has attracted the attention of the guardians.

“Lovely. I bet the chance of them actually getting here in time to do anything is about nil.” I muttered. I wonder how far out the raid is? Bastards are taking their sweet damn time getting here.

Brace yourself. We will use currents to clear the blood away.

I felt the slight drag as two currents swept past on either side of me, blowing away the blood. There were a few still moving around, but the majority of the field was covered in body parts. Then it appeared. A massive fish, just above the bodies of the fallen. Three eyes centered along the midline of its forehead, it had a matching set of three tentacles coming from behind its neck. It surveyed the battlefield for a second, before narrowing its eyes in my direction.

SO, YOU ARE THE IMPUDENT ONE WHO SLAUGHTERED MY SERVENTS. YOU MIGHT MAKE A DECENT GREATER SERVANT. WE SHALL SEE.

Instinctively I covered my ears as the imperious voice thundered inside my skull. Bending over from the pain, I shuddered as I felt it trying to go through my memories. “[Li, li, lightning bolt].” I stammered out through the pain, but the creature was far out of range.

PITIFUL. YOU LACK DISTANCE ATTACKS DOWN HERE. I CAN GIFT YOU MAGICS TO FIX THAT. ALL YOU MUST DO IS SURRENDER YOUR WILL TO ME.

“Psh. Nothing good ever came out of becoming something’s slave. Hard pass.” I growled out, thinking of a plan. The voice lost a bit of its thunder in my skull, becoming more amused.

IT MATTERS NOT. SOON YOU WILL HAVE NO CHOICE. THEN YOUR FRIENDS WILL JOIN AS WELL.

“[Immolate].” I cast a spell that instantly appeared around the target, something I should have realized I could do before. I saw the bubbles flash around the creature, but the health bar immediately disappeared and there was no cry of agony or surprise. While I was wondering where it went, I saw a massive form haul itself up over the edge of the cliff.

Aboleth greater slave

Level 210

A much more powerful servant, the greater slave retains the abilities to think and plan. Often used as generals and relays to control the masses of troops below them, they are not to be underestimated. They also have the ability to channel the essence of their master, and can summon an illusion of them within one mile of their physical presence.

The creature was twice as tall as the rest of us. Its arms were incredibly long, and had a third joint. Armored, they ended in pincers like a crab. Its body was humanoid, though it had multiple incredibly thin legs. The head was shaped like a squid, complete with tentacles around the mouth and two extra-long grasping tentacles. Oversized eyes on each side of the head gave it an incredibly wide field of vision. I could see a jet black beak clicking in the mouth.

Surrounding this oversized monstrosity were ten of the lesser slaves. The giant one pointed, and the others charged. General indeed. With a manic grin, I charged forward to meet them. I threw the two remote mines behind them, wanting to get the guards grouped up. As expected, they fell for it and increased their speed. “Fools. [Chain lightning]!” One of my favorite spells for taking out large groups, not only would it branch out to strike multiple targets, but you could channel it as well. With one spell, I channeled half of my mana until all of them ended up falling to the spell.

The flash blindness from the spell turned into my doom. As I was blinking away the temporary blindness, I got hit in the side by one of the tentacles. It wrapped me up, and immediately started bringing me closer to the head. From there, I could see the clacking beak ready to remove a limb or two while the rest of the tentacles were writhing in anticipation of holding me hostage and dragging me back to their master.

“Idiot. You think I need to move my hands to channel a spell?” I growled out, waiting as the smaller tentacles started grabbing on to me. “[Cloak of storms][Lightning explosion] AAAAAAH!” I took some damage from the spells going wild, but the majority of it struck the tentacles, and froze the beak open. With a manic grin, I threw the final bag into the mouth of the creature. Ten remote electric mines exploded as one, shredding the inside of the mouth and severing most of the tentacles holding on to me. Alas, one last one managed to hold on to my left ankle, leaving me dangling upside down.

“Quite the light show. Mind if we join in? [Necrotic edge].” Fucking hell! I looked up to see Mr. Whiskers grinning like a madman as a sickly blue green glow enveloped his blade and severed the last tentacle holding on to me. He managed to grab my other leg and help me right myself somewhat, though I still had to roll a bit when I hit the ground.

“Took ya long enough.” I grinned as we retreated, the clangs of chitin on metal signaling that the tanks were preventing the monster from trampling us.

“Well, you know us. Gotta make a grand entrance. Besides, you were doing fairly well till you let yourself get caught.” I couldn’t help it, and started laughing maniacally. That type of laughter that happens when you know you somehow avoided death, and have no idea how you did it. Panting, I bent over to catch my breath as we fell back behind a wall of guardians.

“Cinder, you started the party without us!” Lucy chided, before turning and helping the other druids cast binding spells on those odd shaped legs. Unfortunately, the chitin covering them was too smooth, and the vines simply slid off.

“My bad guys. Whiskers, that isn’t the final boss though. It’s just a slave, and the big boss has psychic powers.”

“What?” Growling, he identified the monster and I saw his face drain of color. “Aboleth? Oh fuck me running. There’s no way we are going to be able to take down an Aboleth.”

“Then we should finish this in a hurry, huh?” Brock asked, stepping forward. “The best thing about squids, is that they don’t have a hard shell. That makes them, squishy. [Fists of the Stone Giant].” With an exaggerated clapping motion, Brock smashed the remains of the head under a clap from the two massive sized hands. The rest of the body kept moving for a few seconds, before sinking down.

“Someone hurry up and loot whatever bodies are around, we can split it up later. We gotta get moving!” Whiskers called out, trying to hurry everyone along. I understood why he was hurrying, but the rest of the raid didn’t realize the danger. They thought they had just defeated the boss.

WHAT’S THE RUSH? SURELY YOU WILL WANT TO STAY AROUND. . . FOREVER!

That voice thundered inside the heads of the raid, dropping several. It was far more potent this time around, and I saw several people nearby had pink clouds leaving their ears and noses. Rising up from behind the cliff, there it was in all its glory. Green skin with orange accents highlighted its terrible beauty, as his piercing glare catalogued us in moments. The water surrounding him was cloudy, partially obstructing our view, which was proper. Lowly servants like ourselves should never behold the terrible beauty of the master.

ABOLETH! BEGONE FROM THIS AREA! LEST YOU WISH TO CHALLENGE US?

Just before I could kneel, a challenging roar came from behind, shattering the psychic hold on us. I turned to see what had to be the guardians from the earlier notification. Metallic sharks, sleek dolphins that blurred in my vision, and several multicolored octopi with vibrant colors faced off against the terrible power of the mast, no the Aboleth. Ugh, my head fucking hurts. I didn’t realize how much that creature was holding back earlier, unless it was just that the inferior servant could only channel a fraction of its power.

FOOLISH GUARDIANS. THOUGH YOU ARE MISSING ONE, I DON’T WISH TO PRESS MY LUCK TODAY. ENJOY YOUR ‘VICTORY’.

Movement was returned to us, as the Aboleth sunk backwards into the depths, never turning his back to the combined forces arrayed against him.

YOU. WE SHALL REMEMBER YOU, FOR ALL OUR LIVES. [SOUL MARK]. VENTURE INTO OUR TERRITORY AGAIN, AND YOU SHALL NOT ESCAPE!

The voice thundered inside my head again, and I felt an insubstantial skill slam into my body and knew that I was forever marked. The only thing that could remove the mark would be to slay the entire line of the Aboleth that marked me. Shuddering in horror at the implications, I turned to see the guardians as they sank down towards our level. One of the siyokoy was walking forward, adorned with jewelry and carrying a coral staff.

Aboleth retreated! Greater slave defeated!

The Denizens of the Depths flee in abject terror!

Achievement unlocked!

Out of my league I

You have faced a being far beyond your capabilities and survived. Those with the ability will see the mark left upon all members of your group.

Luck +30

Increased gains with factions that can recognize the mark

Landwalkers. In your ignorance, you slew one of the guardians. Your folly will be forgiven once, and only once. However, one of your number shouldered the brunt of the Aboleth’s attack. With the help of your group, you even managed to slay a greater slave, a substantial feat. Your care in ensuring that none were injured by their arrival has weighed heavily in your favor. The most telling part was your willingness to stand against a greater darkness than what your group would have been able to withstand. For that, you have earned the respect of the guardians and the Siyokoy tribes. We know of your journey, and offer you sanctuary. Return to the village, and one of the coral longhouses will be transformed into a base for yourselves. A safe place to rest, as well as respawn. Nearby you will find the portal leading to the next floor of the dungeon.

Title gained:

Friend of the Siyokoy