Morning came early; I awoke to Sebastian gently shaking my shoulder. “Good morning, “I said as I sat up. I could smell some breakfast sitting on a blanket as Komhether began to serve it out. Getting up I made my way down to the creek and washed up. As I rinsed out my mouth with the clear cold water I was glad that I had a towel to dry off with. It was cool and fog had rolled into the city as I slept.

Sebastian also was looking around at the fog and said, “Winter is coming when the fog starts to roll in at night. We don’t get a lot of snow here but it will be wet and cool. You are going to need a place to stay soon Torn. It just will not be comfortable for you sleeping in the park.

I nodded, he was right but that would be a concern for later, perhaps after the dungeon run. We ate the warm food and packed up. Making our way through the mist-shrouded streets we finally arrived at the terminal. Sebastian and Komhether split the gear between them and then Sebastian turned into his demonic form.

I gave them a nod and said, “I will meet you at the other terminal, don’t drop anything.” I then took my shirt off and metamorphed my wings out. It was becoming easier and faster each time I changed, and the hunger was not as bad. With a running leap and a flap of my wings, I landed on the wire. The stat bonus I had received was evident on my balance and strength.

I began to jog down the wire using my wings to help keep balance. Glancing down I could only see mist, the ocean was covered by it. The time passed quickly and I soon arrived at the terminal. The guys were waiting for me, and I jumped the last twenty meters and flew glided down to meet them. Komhether spoke up, “Soon you will be able to fly as your strength and power increases. You look like an avenging angel gliding through the mist.”

I laughed and said, “I am pretty far from being an angel, my alliance is with the other side.” We all chuckled at my humor and then I led the guys through the bush towards the building. Once we arrived Sebastian said, “It sure does not look like much up top here, I am curious what it looks like once we enter it properly.”

I went to work with the lock picks and had the door open in less than a minute. Entering the building I led the guys down the spiral stairs. Eventually, we arrived at the door and stood there for a minute to catch our breath. “Are you guys ready?” I asked. Seeing them both nod I said, “There is a chance that the magic of this dungeon will not allow you to join me if that happens you can wait for me up top.”

Komhether spoke up, “I think it will be all right as the angelic messenger I have access to all realms, and Sebastian is not from this realm so I don’t think that the rules of dungeon magic will apply to him. Let’s enter together and see what occurs. At the worst we will be waiting for you on the surface.”

I nodded and then went to add them to my party. I was glad to see that they both appeared in the party and I hoped it would make this dungeon run work. Walking up to the door I pushed it open and entered followed by both of my friends.

The light was dim and the smell of the sea was everywhere, not unpleasant but strong. As we walked into the cavern it became apparent that this was a wet place. Pools of sea water lay scattered around and rocky outcroppings were visible scattered across the diameter.

The light was dim with several flickering torches space here and there among the rocks. The ceiling was about twenty meters above our heads. On the far wall, a waterfall of sorts was descending down the wall behind the largest outcropping of rock.

I whispered to the guys, “Let's go slow and freeze when we see anyone, we will see if whoever is here is following a path.” As we made our way through the cavern along a trail of sorts it became apparent that some of the pools of water were deep. We had just passed one when suddenly two mermen swam up to the surface and immediately began to attack.

I was far enough past them that the trident that the merman tossed at me was avoidable. Komhether was not so lucky; the second merman's trident caught him in the shoulder. He fell with a muffled cry. I glance at Sebastian in time to see a horrified look on his face. “I will heal him,” I called out, “take care of those assholes.”

With a demonic glare on his face, he moved so fast that it was a blur. I could hear bones cracking and a hissing voice pleading when suddenly the sound stopped. Two bodies dropped beside me with a heavy thud. I ignored them as I slowly pulled the trident from Komhether’s shoulder. It was barbed and the pain must have been terrible as his flesh was being ripped apart.

The weapon was finally free from his flesh and I could see the blood rapidly pooling under his shoulder. I began to cast my one healing spell that all new players had. Slowly the wound closed as I cast heal over and over. Eventually, my mana pool ran dry and I could do no more. Once I stopped healing Sebastian grabbed Komhether's hand and began to comfort him.

I asked how he was doing and Komhether replied that “It hurts but is well on the way to being healed.” My thoughts were racing, son of a bitch; one of my friends could have died here. I was not pleased; turning to the guys I apologized and suggested that we rethink this. Clearly this was not going to be a wash rinse and repeat sort of level.

With all the tidal bores the merman could jump out of any hole that we would pass and I counted at least twenty-five more holes to get by before we arrived at the waterfall. We did not have a tank to be a meat shield and my healing was limited. I think that we needed to concentrate on DPS and see if we could ping pong aggro from one to another as we burned the enemy down.

Explaining what I was thinking I asked what the guys thought and what they had offensively to offer. Sebastian spoke first, “I have speed and strength with a demonic fury buff I can activate for myself.” I turned to look at Komhether who looked sheepish and said, “I don’t have any overt DPS however I can summon angelic light which is a super bright light, in this dim cavern it will blind the mermen for a few minutes.”

Nodding I spoke up, “I have an electrical attack I want to try out, Komhether why don’t you and Sebastian each take one of the tridents and use it to the best of your abilities. It is better than nothing, and Komhether feel free to use the light spell but let us know first so we can cover our eyes. I will do the same when I attack that is when I want you both to take to the air. I do not want to fry you guys.”

Turning to the dead mermen I held my hand over the bodies and looted them. They had two silver each and one had a ring, a green item that added ten plus points to health. I put it on and watched my health bar increase by ten points. It was better than a kick in the crotch but nothing to write home about.

As we approached the next pool I beckoned for the guys to stay back and grabbed a rock from the floor and tossed it in. Within moments, the surface was broken as three mermen lifted themselves above the water. They glanced around trying to get a look at what had disturbed them. As they focused on us I targeted them and cast lightning from both my hands.

As the lightning hit them they froze with all the muscles of their body locked up. I held the power on for about two seconds and then stopped it. As soon as I stopped Sebastian began moving, he grabbed all three and with a triple crack they were dead. Putting the bodies at my feet he said, “Holy smoke, Torn, I broke the necks because I believe in the double tap but these three were fried before I got to them.”

I nodded when I had cast the lightning a power grid had appeared on my interface and I could see the power usage. I had used about five percent of available power to cast two seconds worth of lightening. I could live with those numbers, it was an OP attack for my level, but I was not playing by the games rules.

I looted the bodies for 6 silver and one green item. It was all vendor trash, not worth keeping. We began to advance to the next pool. After about three hours we were in front of the waterfall. I had made about 76 silver and a handful of green items. Nothing great but I was hoping to get something from the boss of this level.

He was swimming in the pool at the base of the falls, a huge hammerhead shark. I knew he had seen us but he was content to swim in his pool. The water was clear and at the bottom of the pool was a chest. The only way to get to the chest was to get past the shark. No wonder the bastard was grinning at me, swimming in there, to defeat him I would have to go into the pool with him.

Sebastian asked what the plan is, I had no clue so I said to the guys, “Let's eat.” I always feel better after a meal and hopefully, I could think of something as we ate. As Komhether began to lay out the food we had brought I could see the shark circling upwards trying to get a better look at what we were doing.

As I stared at him he stared at the food that had begun to appear. Suddenly his head broke the water and he looked at us. Opening his mouth he spoke, “By the squid, is that human food you have there? I declare Pax Oceania.” Suddenly this large hammerhead shark changed into a man and climbed out of the water.

He was huge, and had perhaps too many teeth but he looked humanoid. As he walked over he began to sniff the air and then said, “The smell of the food is driving me crazy, may I join you for lunch?” I was startled and not sure what to say when Sebastian answered him and said, “The peace of the ocean upon you, please join us for lunch.”

As we sat down I kept an eye on our unexpected guest. It was amazing watching him eat, he devoured all that was put before him with one or two bites before swallowing it half chewed. Once we were finished eating I lit up a smoke and relaxed, then asked the shark man how long he had been here.

“I have been here for a long long time. Once I roamed the oceans free to hunt and swim, but now I wait for someone to come and do battle. I listened as he spoke of the deep ocean where even he would not swim and of the villages of the merfolk. Of the underwater trade routes that followed the currents and all the other denizens of the deep.

He finally came to a stop and then looking at us he spoke once again. “You have no hope of defeating me in the water, but still you have been honorable and courteous. I will allow you to do battle with me on the land. If you defeat me then what is down there is yours. Do you accept my challenge to you?”

I nodded, this was the only way I could see that we would have a chance at winning. “Let's clean up and then we can begin,” I said. looking around I could see that we were all in agreement. It only took a few moments to clean up the food and put everything away. Once we were done the hammerhead turned and bowed.

Suddenly he attacked, moving faster than I had thought he could he leaped over to Sebastian and grabbed him. I could see that they were equally strong, but with a twist, the hammerhead threw the demon over his shoulder towards the waterfall. Komhether had not been standing still while this struggle was happening , he had grabbed both tridents and as the hammerhead turned towards him he thrust both of them into the front of the shark man.

With a grunt, the shark man backhanded Komhether several feet into the air and then glancing down at the tridents he grinned. Looking at me he said, “It hurts but they barely penetrated and have done no real damage. As he began to move towards me I ran at him waving my arms around in an attempt at distraction.

It did not work and I felt his arms grab me and begin to squeeze, my hands were trapped at my sides banging against the tridents. As I began to feel my ribs bend I suddenly grabbed each trident and released the lightning. Each trident acted as a lightning rod and I pushed out all the current I could.

I could feel his arms loosen up and then become rigid. I glanced up at him and watched as a small smile slowly appeared. Damn it my electrical attack had stunned him but had not done enough damage to finish the fight. Suddenly Sebastian and Komhether both appeared and each grabbed one of his arms. I am not sure how they did it but they managed to lift him up to the ceiling and then maneuver over to a rock outcropping.

Then they suddenly dropped him just as his arms began to twitch. I watched as he landed back first onto the jagged stones which punctured his back. I heard the crack as his spine broke from the impact and as I looked at him I saw a smile appear. I walked over to the outcropping and heard him say, “Thanks, young adventurer, a good meal, and a good battle. That is how we live and die in the ocean.” He reached up and pulled out a tooth and handed it to me.

“Keep this it is a gift,” and with a cough he died. I looked at the shark tooth he had given me and watched in amazement as it grew into a blade about nine centimeters long. Both Komhether and Sebastian looked at in and nodded, Sebastian then said, “That is a sign of great honor to receive that, treasure it.”

I looted the body for five gold coins and then we made our way back to the pool. I asked the guys if they were alright and once they told me they were I said, “I am going to dive down and loot the chest, why don’t you guys look for the exit to go to the next area.” I began to strip down to the tighty whitey underwear and then took several deep breaths.

Jumping in I realized that the water was not that cold which was a relief. I flailed my way down to the chest, it was about ten meters deep I would guess. Once I touched it a buff appeared in my interface, it said, Underwater breathing for ten minutes is enabled. All of a sudden I could breathe, it felt normal like breathing on the land. I love magic I thought as I opened the chest.

Inside I could see that the chest had three items in it, a weapon, some kind of leather gear and a scroll. None of the items were wet, more magic I would guess. I grabbed them all and then swam to the surface. Once on dry land I grabbed my cloak and began to dry myself off and get dressed. Sitting down I examined the weapon first. It was a dagger a blue item that had plus ten to all stats when equipped. I belted the sheath on and felt the difference that having the extra plus ten made.

The next item was a cloak, it had no stats but did have a concealment charm built into it. If it totally covered the wearer he would merge into the background. That was well worth keeping and I equipped it. The final item was a scroll that read,

The power of magic is knowledge and this is the first step towards that power.

The spell of water and ice.

Do you wish to learn this spell?

Yes or No

As I accepted the spell my mind was suddenly filled with the knowledge of how to cast ice bolts. It worked for me as it was a distance attack and one that would grow as I leveled. I called the guys back to me and showed them what I had found. Looking around I asked, “Did you find an exit here, or do we need to search more?”

Sebastian spoke up and pointing towards the top of the waterfall said, “It is on top of the waterfall a hidden ledge with a cave that turns into a downward tunnel. Unfortunately, the only way up there is to climb through the waterfall.”

I sighed, this was not going to be easy, but we had managed the first level in half a day. I was pleased and standing up I said, “I will go first so if I fall you guys can catch me, hearing them groan I smiled and then stepped under the waterfall and felt for a handhold.