Reaching the long rays of seagrass, Iva promptly disappeared into the maze.

Never to be seen again-

“IVA-wait I don’t think I should follow you in there,” Sera’s tone was higher and slower than usual.

There was something about seeing a horde of fish chasing another in the seagrass that was strangely frightening, getting lost in a place where you couldn’t see more than an inch in front of yourself.

You could of course leave the seagrass at anytime by just going up, but how far the seagrass went and how close any monsters or the Reaper was, made it more than a bit risky.

Sera stared at the moving tails of the grass before inching forward towards the organic mass.

Last time I dived into a place I couldn’t see I was attacked and barely saved, I’m not falling for that again.

That was when Iva swam out of the seagrass directly at Sera making her body twitch to escape before recognising the red blur.

“Iva, I was just…” Moving her hands in a circular motion Iva just stared at Sera before her arms flopped like a jellyfish back to her sides.

“Please lead the way.”

Green.

Brown.

And a complete loss of spatial awareness.

To say it was worse than being in the dark was an understatement, at least in the dark you knew you had a way to see.

But in this mass? Sera’s eyes kept seeing traces of the tail that sometimes disappeared then came back in a few moments when Sera had kept swimming in the wrong direction to lead her back.

One thing was constant however, instead of going higher, where Sera had found most of the ores and materials, they were going down.

“Ow,” Her head banged against the seafloor, again.

Ironically despite using her hands to pull herself forward with breaststroke, anytime the ground was anywhere near her face her hands which were meant to alert her to the seafloor were pushing the water back.

The third time it happened and Sera’s body got pushed off the ground off the momentum, she could see a small set of eyes looking at her oddly before suddenly swimming away.

“Wait Iva!”

The tail reappeared and seemed to wait for Sera to start swimming towards it before it bolted off again.

Crap, how dark is it getting?

Shelter was going to be a problem if she couldn’t find her way out, grinding her way through the grass maze felt like hours off her life, and also of headaches, but that was a different problem.

Swimming for a few more minutes and making sure her arms were in front of her for the majority of the swim made her head pains fade at the cost of speed.

Until finally she saw something other than seagrass.

Iva was hovering nearby on top of a glowing mushroom shaped lamp, “Wait, are they just…” Looking closer, she saw it was a clump of glowing mushrooms.

But that wasn’t all that was glowing.

Above her translucent jelly fish were hanging high in the small spot absent of any seagrass, looking at the ground Sera found out why.

“Holy crap, that’s a lot of…”

Rocks.

Fauna.

And…

“Bones. Jesus, why are there so many? Do the jellyfish leave them or is there something else here?”

Looking around the small space, the barriers were obvious, seagrass marked the end of the ore graveyard, but overall it went on for what looked like half a football field, with a small cave being the only indicator it went on.

“Iva,” Sera waved at the fish trying to get its attention from the jellyfish.

“Thank you for helping me, I won’t forget it,” Pointing at herself Sera awkwardly bowed at the fish, she was Caucasian but just saying thank you didn’t feel like it got the meaning across.

Swimming towards a pile of rocks Sera got scanning as Iva followed close by, still looking up.

Scanner Results

Bone pile found!

Bone pile found!

Dirt found!

Sand clump found!

Lead found!

Copper found!

Sandstone found!

Cracking open the rock Sera quickly gathered the materials, scanning the bone pile again she tried to get more information but found a different message.

PID Interface

Bone pile unable to be scanned in-depth. Details locked until scanner is upgraded.

“Upgraded? I can upgrade my scanner? I haven’t seen anything that lets me upgrade my tools yet though.”

Closing the blue screen Sera moved to another few rock clumps, avoiding a low hanging jellyfish on the way she checked to make sure Iva was alright only to find her missing-

-And on her other side.

“Jeez Iva-” shaking her head more at the seal than herself Sera scanned another clump.

Scanner Results

Copper found!

Dirt found!

Copper found!

Copper found!

Lead found!

Camouflaged rock found!

Looking over her results she found a… wait what can camouflage as a rock?

Staring at the rock in question the PID screen for the camouflaged rock began to change.

[Camouflaged Rock]

Inf0rmat1on [unLOCKED]

Weirdly it felt like Sera’s vision began to change in some way.

As her vision changed so did the rock.

First it was a small change, the blackened rock vibrated slightly before the PID screen changed again.

[Rar3 Rock]

Inf0rmat1on [unLOCKED]

A un1qu3 and valu3able 0re oft3n mislabl3d as a r0ck.

But the words were changing.

The letters were jumping between numbers each time Sera looked some new line was added.

What was even odder was she couldn’t look away.

That was when the rock began to move upwards, and unfolded.

[Rar3 M0dul3]

Inf0rmat1on [unLOCKED]

A un1qu3 and valu3able m0dul3 oft3n mislabl3d as a r0ck / 0re. T0uching the m0dul3 w1ll help imm3ns3ly.

Like in The Temple with the princess the module shone with a light she couldn’t stop staring at, it was a beautiful blue rather than red, and oddly enough it looked somewhat like an…

Eye.

[Rar3 R3c1pE M0dul3]

Inf0rmat1on [unLOCKED]

T0uching the m0dul3 w1ll help imm3ns3ly. G0 cL0s3r to 1t. sW1m Cl0sEr

Sera felt her arms begin to move towards the module.

Her surroundings were blurred.

The eye in the middle stretched out with six long legs coming from its centre.

It looked like a star Sera absently thought as her arms began paving into the water upwards slowly at first.

But then faster as new words began appearing.

[Rar3 R3c1pE M0dul3]

Inf0rmat1on [unLOCKED]

G0 cL0s3r to 1t. 5W1m Cl0sEr MaT3r1al5 & t00l5 aR3 gRaNT3d

The tentacles began to surround her.

Now everywhere her eyes looked was the sweet blue and crushing sensation of the limbs.

The screen began bending around her vision as the eye began to open up and approach her head.

[Rar3 R3c1pE M0dul3]

Inf0rmat1on [unLOCKED]

G0 cL0s3r to 1t. 5W1m Cl0sEr MaT3r1al5 & t00l5 aR3 gRaNT3d N3W Fr13nd5 & Fam1ly C0m3 as w3LL.

As the tentacles began to hug Sera tiger she couldn’t help but hug back until she stared at the new line again.

Friends…

That’s when she felt a biting sensation and saw a red tint come from he-

“-WH,” Sera’s found tried to scream as pain flooded her senses and she saw red begin to fill her vision.

Her head was dizzy, but she kept trying to move.

She began trying to escape but felt her legs were trapped.

Looking dazed her head tilted up at the eye, and she saw the familiar white belly attacking.

“Ivvaa?” Sera’s vision swam as she weakly pushed against the tentacles grabbing her.

Why am I feeling so-

That’s when she felt the tentacle around her neck constrict-

She was being strangled.

Her mind barely put to and two together before her hands weakly tried ripping the tentacles off her neck.

Looking for a weapon Sera only saw Iva swoop in to try and bite the eye monster before barely missing.

With one of its large tentacles trying to encircle the fleeting Iva.

Choking, Sera felt the tentacle restrict around her neck again before her hands went to her pouch.

Grabbing the first object she could find she instantly began beating it into the eye monster tentacle.

Sera felt her body begin to numb as she reached her peak.

Her eyes began watering as the eye came closer to finish her off.

Then the tentacle around her neck loosened, and the entire monster felt like it was shoved back, pulling Sera with it.

She could only see a red blur pass by her as Sera began trying to bludgeon the creature to death again.

Not letting go of her grip Sera came up for another hit before she saw grid lines begin to fade on the monster.

Then a screen came up.

Scanner Results

Creature discovered!

Automatically named Illusive Starfish.

Perks: Able to capture prey precisely and easily. Eye able to open and rip into creatures. Weaknesses: Eye sensitive to light, likely cause of other fish and plants to glow through natural-

Sera stopped reading as her hand aimed the scanner directly at the eye this time not hesitating to attack.

Just as it began to open Sera held down the scanner-

The starfish screeched an echoing cry which couldn’t compare to the reapers, but at this range still scared the shit out of her.

Then Sera saw Iva again tackle into the illusive monster, this time ripping it off her completely.

Sera shoved and punched any tentacles trying to grasp onto her again before the starfish fled away.

She last saw it scrambling into the nearby cave as her body began to float downwards towards the seafloor.

Her eyes went dark.

Sera could hear voices for a second until her arm aching made her eyes lazily open.

It was dark, the water was barely illuminated and in front of her she could see a fish grabbing onto her, it’s teeth were the only indicator there was something there.

Then she could see her arm was getting eaten-

Sera nearly jumped out of her skin until she saw Iva pulling her along.

“OH-my god. Iva, thank you.” Iva jumped back when noticing Sera’s movement but quickly squeaked and tried to be pet.

Looking around she could see the seagrass was just behind her, but instead of fossils, rocks and glowing fauna around her, she just saw…

“A coral tube? But how, Iva you couldn’t have dragged me all the way here right?” Beginning to use her arms to swim upwards she avoided putting too much pressure on her right hand.

As it may have had bite marks and tentacles marking it.

Still swimming around her Iva didn’t recognise her master’s words other than her praise, Iva had saved her all by itself! It was time to celebrate.

Sera on the other hand felt a growing sense of dread, it felt quiet.

It sounded empty.

They needed to find shelter fast.

Looking at the tube Sera began drifting towards it before remembering her earlier fight.

Who said the Reapers stayed near the top of the water all day? Or worse what else came out during the night?

Sera shrugged off the dumb thought, what could be worse than a Reaper?

“Iva! Follow me quickly.”

Sera’s eyes opened as her gills that were stretched to their limits began shrinking again.

That was one hell of a flashback.

Staring at Iva across the small cave Sera still couldn’t believe how much she had done in one day!

It was nothing short of a miracle, it was a good start to her new world.

Staring at her pack in the corner her mind came back to the rations she had fed Iva and herself, she knew there was enough for a few weeks if it was only herself but with Iva…

The small seal creature kept surprising her, this time in the amount it ate.

It had scared her when the cute squishiable creature inhaled a full portion of food in less than a second.

“We’re going to need to make some food…” Sera imagined growing crops from the vegetable garden she used to look after “Maybe the builder tool has a farming set.”

Giggling her eyes rested on her friend, “I need to explore more of The Temple area, this place is massive, but I feel like there’s a piece missing… Maybe then I’ll find out why this body was in The Temple in the first place.”

Her mind wandered back and forth, the materials for the builder had already been put together hours ago, but it seemed like it would take the night to finish.

PID Interface

Builder Tool Materials Required:

Quartz(400g) Gold (20g) Copper(30g) Lead/Black Iron (1000g)

[Crafting… Time left unknown.]

Giving up on it being done during the night Sera flowed gently back to her makeshift bed.

Letting her eyelids fall gently Sera began to doze off.

The last thing she felt was a small fish rest by her feet before dreaming of the light blue surface…

And of a past she hadn’t experienced.