Myrin and Kaldalis shared a look. “So what now?” Myrin shuffled from foot to foot. “Do we just go back and stare at each other until food is ready?”

“I mean, if you want,” Kaldalis said. He pondered the water ahead of him. “I was thinking I might throw in a line to kill time here instead.”

“Well why didn’t you fuckin’ say so,” Myrin said, stepping up to the water next to him. “I’ve been meaning to get some work in on that, myself.”

A few moments later they both had fishing rods out and bait on the hook. There wasn’t anywhere handy to sit or lean comfortably, so they just stood where they were at the water’s edge.

From the behavior of the line, the pool of water was deceptively deep, and Kaldalis was slightly unsure of how challenging it would be to actually swim out. What if this pool went down deeper than they could hold their breath before it rejoined the ocean proper? Would they drown? Would there be another pocket of air to carry them out to safety? Would they drown and have to wait out the 30 minute respawn timer to leapfrog their corpses through the water, eventually exiting with a hefty Aplomb penalty? With the portcullis and the room of infinite beetles behind them, there wasn’t another way out besides pushing forward.

He resolved to get them through the boss fight no matter what, so that they wouldn’t need to find out.

“So, uh, how are you holding up?” Kaldalis asked, breaking the silence.

“Just fine. Still trying to figure some stuff out,” Myrin said, “but we’re getting there.”

“What kind of stuff?” Kaldalis asked. “I was talking to Balrim earlier about his abilities and how we could use them. What do you have to bring?”

“Not much, just a little bit of support,” Myrin sighed, glaring at the tip of her fishing rod. “I like the greatsword ability. It’s called Aggressive, which suits me just fine. When I activate it, I get a move speed bonus when moving towards enemies. It’s pretty generous at determining what’s an enemy and what’s “towards” it, so while it’s active I can basically sprint for the full duration as long as I can see a monster vaguely in that direction. I’ve been using it to hang back a little and let you pick stuff up before I engage.”

“That is useful,” Kaldalis observed, taking a moment to think. “It might be more useful during the boss fight. If there are movement mechanics, you can use it to get back in the fight that much faster.”

“Right,” she said with a nod, “I’ll try and hold it for that in the boss fight, then. More uptime means more damage, after all.”

“So what’s your other new toy?” Kaldalis asked. “Balrim got a self-heal. I got a defensive cooldown. What did you get?”

“DPS get a defensive here, too. Just a flexible one,” Myrin said. She started gesturing with her fishing rod as she spoke. It’s called Breaker. Activating it makes the next hit do bonus damage, and heals for a percentage of the damage done on that hit.”

“Sounds useful,” Kaldalis said, “as long as you’re not using it when it’s just overhealing.”

“I’ve been using it on cooldown for maximum output, but that’s a good point. For the boss fight, at least, I’ll hold it until I’ve taken a little damage. Although… If I’m taking damage, generally the fight is pretty fucked.”

Kaldalis wanted to admonish her for her cavalier attitude towards using her abilities, but it was enough for him that she was thinking about it critically now. Progress was progress, and he hoped that it might help them make better use of their resources for the boss fight.

It took a few minutes for the first bite on the fishing line, and Kaldalis was both chagrined and excited to find a new species of fish on his line when he finished reeling it in. Excited to see something new, but chagrined because it meant that despite the salty water, he wasn’t pulling from the normal ocean fish pool. That meant he might not find any of the pale perch he needed for his quest, especially upon seeing this new strange fish. If pale perch could endure the conditions that led to this creature’s appearance, they were hardier than he could have ever reasonably expected.

His examination told him it was called an opal gudgeon, but it looked like the larval form of some horrible ghost monster. It was about a foot long, and most of its scales were milky-white, just translucent enough that splotches of red showed through around the gills. It had long fins, and every one was clear as glass and thin as tissue paper. Just handling the fish, he was afraid that he was going to shred them. Creepiest of all, it had no eyes. Not even sockets. The top of its skull was smooth and featureless.

“Ugh,” Kaldalis said as he carefully turned the fish away from himself to avoid looking at the eyeless face. “What a horrible little critter.”

“Oooh,” Myrin said, turning away from her own line to look at the fish. “Is that what I think it is?”

“A horrible blind cavefish thing?” Kaldalis asked. “Yeah. It’s certainly that.”

“It’s one of those, uh…” She trailed off for a moment, snapping her fingers. “Gundam? No, that’s not right.”

“Opal gudgeon?” Kaldalis asked, supplying the name.

“Yeah! Gudgeon.” Myrin nodded and grinned. “They gave us one of those for the crafting tutorial. They’re used to make ire potions. You need some, uh…” She snapped her fingers, searching for another word. “Bowley fruit? Some kind of fruit. It was green. I don’t know.”

“Interesting. What’s an ire potion? Is it important?”

“It’s a straight attack increase for its duration.” Myrin looked at the pool of water as if it was now a gold mine. “The more of these we can get, the better.”

“Well then,” Kaldalis said, baiting his hook before tossing it back in the water, “let’s stop dicking around and catch some goddamn fish.”

They only had a few minutes to spend fishing before they expected Balrim to be done with whatever he was cooking, and while they focused on making the most of it, the nature of fishing meant that there was plenty of time between fish without much to do but wait. It was a fine time for conversation, since that was what Myrin had wanted from him to keep fishing from becoming dull.

“So how are you holding up outside of the dungeon?” Kaldalis said. “I was talking to Balrim a bit earlier about the streaming thing, and he was concerned about it.”

“He’s not alone,” Myrin said with a grimace. “I don’t know what’s going on with it.”

“Before you say anything else,” Kaldalis warned, “the first thing I told Balrim was that I have word from the outside world about that. We’ll get our payouts at the end of the week. My friend told me at least one person was supporting me, so I’ll be sure to let you both know when I get whatever I get.”

“Well, that’s a bit of a relief,” she said, but her grimace didn’t leave. “I’m still afraid of what I’ll do if I don’t get anything. It’s not like I can build a social media presence or do any marketing. Being trapped on this side of the veil is killing my ability to influence my results.”

“There is something you can do from in here, though. I can tell you when payout day is, right? Once it happens, we just look for anybody living the high life. We rub elbows with whoever that is and we get exposure to their audience, and anybody who likes the cut of our jib might come support us as well.”

“I mean, I already know someone who has supporters,” Myrin said, sidestepping a little closer to Kaldalis. She held one arm up above her head, literally rubbing her elbow against his, despite having to stretch up to reach. “So come check me out on whatever the fuck the URL is for my stream. It’s Myrin with a Y!”

They shared a laugh about that as they went back to fishing. About ten minutes later - and a dozen opal gudgeons between the two of them - there was a disturbance from the entrance to the chamber, and Haldir poked his head in.

“Huh, so this is what you’ve been up to. I’ve been sent to make sure you didn’t die. And to tell you that food is ready.”

“We found gudgeons!” Myrin said with a smile, though she was already reeling in her line, visibly jumping at the chance to stop fishing.

“We have the fish!” Kaldalis said in a deep voice with an unmistakable commercial-jingle cadence.

“For ire potions!” Myrin added brightly.

“Great,” Haldir said, “but we have a giant beetle to fight.”

Kaldalis tried not to let his anxiety show as he pulled his line up as well. He didn’t want to, but he found himself looking back at the deep dark pool of saltwater. He hoped they wouldn’t have to return to use it as an exit.