Chapter 57

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Outside the Dungeon, Medea Island

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Ajaz Drogat stood with his party, currently second in line to enter the dungeon. They'd arrived on one of the merchant ships that had docked the day before, one of three parties who'd paid passage to this little island.

Unlike those other two groups, Ajaz and his party had been here before.

They'd only been Silvers then and were just getting confident on the second floor when the Guildmistress had restricted the dungeon to Golds and Platinums. They'd thought it quite unfair at the time, but they'd also witnessed the Gorge Twins return from their fight with the Third Floor Guardian down two party members.

If whatever it was could kill two Platinums and injure the rest enough for them to retreat? What chance would Ajaz and his party have had?

"Hey, I recognize you!" A voice called.

He turned to the side, blinking at the man who had approached him.

"Ajaz, was it? I believe you were one of the Silvers kicked off the island." The man stated, "Congratulations on being the first to make Gold and return!"

Ajaz reached out and shook the offered hand. He scanned the man's admittedly familiar face for a few seconds before it clicked.

"Yes, I remember you now. It's nice to see you again, Vert." He looked around at the other guilders hanging out on the beach. "There are many faces here I do not know. Are we truly the first to return?"

"You are indeed my friend." Vert's face took on a more serious cast. "This dungeon has taken many from us, though the casualties have eased off recently. Tell me, has anyone told you of the recent changes to the dungeon?"

Ajaz and his party members shook their heads. "I meant to look into it last night," Their mage, Allessa, admitted. "But we were too busy celebrating our return."

"Well then, let me get you up to speed." Vert cleared his throat. "You would remember the warning on the entrance and the rash of deaths that followed. Well, the Platinums recently reached the Sixth floor, which rumor has it is a vision of the Fourth Hell brought to the mortal plane. The Fifth is a castle surrounded by thick darkness and a forest of enormous mushrooms. The castle has shadow monsters that float around, while the forest has these strange mushroom monsters. "

Ajaz felt like his right eyebrow was reaching his hairline.

"The Fourth is another tunnel level, though full of rats. Due to two crucial factors, only the Platinums have made it past the Third's Guardian. First, it's constant resurrection. It doesn't stay dead and remembers how it died. The stories I've managed to get out of those who've fought it are harrowing at times. The second thing is that teleport crystals no longer work in the dungeon. If I were you, I'd be careful not to overextend."

The group of golds blinked in shock, and with a glance, Ajaz saw two of his party members gaping in disbelief.

"It- But- How?" Iltar stuttered. "Monsters coming back to life, over and over? And it's worked out how to disable teleport crystals too!?"

Vert nodded sagely, "I'm afraid so. I've never seen the Guardian with my own eyes, of course. The lack of teleport crystals has made those of us still alive rather... more careful and cautious." He rubbed his left wrist, seemingly unconscious of the motion.

Vert blinked and carried on. "Given the difficulty, and risk, in taking on the Third Floor Guardian, many have contented themselves with training to reach platinum, to eventually face the Guardian in large groups. It has a half-dozen attendants, and fighting the Guardian with anything less than their numbers is a terrible idea." Here, he looked pretty annoyed.

"Haythem and the other two with him were the first to reach Platinum." To Ajaz, it looked like the admission physically pained Vert. "Another five passed the tests a week later. There are a further half-a-dozen taking the tests right now." Vert looked sideways and leaned in.

"I'm planning on going in for the test myself soon." He shared in a hushed voice. "Haythem may have grown faster than I, but I will not let myself fall behind!"

Vert returned to his party, and Ajaz looked to his own. They all shared incredulous looks.

They already knew this dungeon was weird, but eight confirmed Platinums already? Another six in testing, and more to come after?!

Ajaz smirked in that 'I told you so' way, to good-natured eye-rolls and groans.

He knew returning to Medea had been a good idea.

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The Dungeon, Medea Island

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Having created the Kraken and given it a home, it was time to move on to the next of my planned defenses. The Sea Serpent.

Myths vary wildly on what precisely a sea serpent is. Most agree it's some kind of aquatic dragon; scaled, finned, and large enough to wrap around ships at least twice before snapping them in half. That, or big enough to swallow them whole.

Now, I don't have dragons. Not yet. I know I could take the drake-kin, make them larger, give them wings, and bam! I'd have a dragon. But I don't want to just populate my dungeon with dragons; they should be rare, mysterious, and lethal encounters.

So, where to begin. First, I took a reptile that had already adapted to living in the ocean, the Sea Snake. I'd already worked with them to create land snakes, so I knew what change to make first. I needed to give them gills. In this regard, Sea Snakes are like whales; heavily aquatic-adapted animals that still use lungs and need to surface every so often to breathe.

I picked out a male serpent, and after giving him gills, I led him to deeper waters. My Kraken would defend the immediate vicinity of the island, in particular the port town. The Sea Serpent would deal with ships further out, around a mile or two off the coast. I crafted a large cavern out of the sea floor, directed him inside, and gave him a core. Only then did I begin my work.

My first move was to make him look how I wanted him to, before enlarging the monster. I began from the tail and worked my way up to his head. I made the tailfin long and flexible, extending vertically from the monster's tail. The snake's small, slick scales were enlarged, thickened, and given a metallic finish. On his belly, I gave him larger plate-like scales. These were thicker and would protect him when he reared up out of the water.

Along his back, I gave him a long, continuous fin. The spines that supported the fin were thick and razor-sharp at the point. The fin was made of the same material as the tailfin, a tough, leathery skin good for pushing water around.

It had no other fins or limbs. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a serpent, after all.

The head, I modeled heavily after my Drake-kin. Unlike their delicate horns and fine scales, I made the Sea Serpent's altogether rougher, more primal. His snout and teeth were elongated, and I removed the split end of his tongue. Thankfully sea snakes already had many teeth in their jaws, so making them larger and giving him more was simple.

While sea snakes are famous for being incredibly venomous, my Sea Serpent required teeth and a jaw capable of crushing and destroying wooden masts.

I gave him two large swept-back 'horns,' which I connected to his head with a fin. His gills were hidden behind a fin extending off the back of his jaw.

I contemplated giving him whiskers, like 'eastern' dragons, but ultimately decided against it. I much preferred the design of 'western' dragons to the eastern. I modified his eyes to glowing green and his scales to a deep blue. For the fins, I made them a complementary yellowish-orange.

Finally, I gave him magic. With his core situated next to his heart, I gave him knowledge of water, air, and lightning magic. It's my hope that, eventually, he would learn to call up storms at will.

Once I was happy with my miniature sea serpent, I began enlarging and lengthening him. Only when he was large and long enough to wrap around a large ship twice with room to spare did I halt his growth.

Unlike the Kraken, this monster would patrol in a ring around the island. He would remain close to the sea floor, preying on large and small fish unfortunate enough to enter his path. He would only rise to the surface under my direction, and only I could activate His instincts to crush and destroy ships.

Pleased with my creation, I left him alone to explore his new 'territory.'

Finally, I moved on to my third and final 'sea monster,' the Leviathan.

Typically 'Leviathan' is a catchall term for massive sea creatures. Most of said creatures are described as territorial, destructive, and absolutely enormous. You could consider my Sea Serpent and Kraken to be 'Leviathans' of a sort.

My plans were to make something much more significant than them. The Leviathan would patrol the extreme edges of my territory and act as a final line of defense, or the first line, depending on which way the enemy ships were sailing.

I picked out an older cow from the local 'humpback' population to start off with. This particular cow wasn't the oldest there but was the grandmother of the current generation of calves. She was long past her breeding years, and there were four other cows around her age, so I wouldn't be depriving the pod of a crucial member.

My plan was to make this whale utterly enormous. Absolutely gigantic. At the size I wanted her, she would be able to swallow a ship-of-the-line with minimal chewing. As with the Sea Serpent, I kept her at her current size for now and would enlarge her later.

The first problem I faced was that these were baleen whales. They lacked teeth, having instead thousands of keratin spines called a baleen plate that filtered krill and other tiny fish from seawater. While this did allow them to grow to enormous sizes by minimizing energy usage with passive hunting methods, it would not do for the look I was going for.

I made the baleen plates retractable and gave her a set of large, serrated teeth. Some modification to her digestive tract was necessary, but it wouldn't be too extensive. This way, she could still filter-feed but would also have the ability to crush and destroy anything that entered her mouth.

Outwardly, I wouldn't change too much. On a whim, I made the next set of changes to all the Humpbacks in my influence, as well as the Leviathan. I made their eyes better adapted for seeing in water, upped their oxygen absorption rate even further, and gave them a camouflage pattern on their skin in various shades of blue, black, and white.

Finally, it was time to enlarge my final sea monster.

This process took a very long time. While enlarging the Sea Serpent only took a day, I was pumping mana into the Leviathan for a whole week!

And it was worth it.

The pod of fully grown Humpbacks looked like newborn calves next to the Leviathan.

I set them to circle my territory, half a mile inside the blurry circumference. Pleased with myself, I turned my attention back to my dungeon and spent the rest of the day observing various parties exploring and fighting monsters.

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The Fifth Floor, The Dungeon, Medea Island

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Slicing downwards with her left arm, Isid bisected another of the shambling fungal monsters. This was their second day of combat here on the Fifth floor, exploring the Mushroom forest for the elusive key they needed to once again challenge the Guardian.

Given the rising numbers of the irritating monsters, they had about half an hour before enough attacked at once to overwhelm them.

"Isid! Have you found anything yet?" Jerrad called, on the other side of their moving, circular formation. Isid glanced around, peering past towering stalks. They weren't totally sure what the key would look like, but given the lock on the door, it should look like a regular key.

"Nothing yet!" She shouted back. In a smooth motion, she twirled, cutting down two shamblers that leaped at her.

"We should be getting close!" The young man, Haythem, stated. "From what I remember seeing from the tower, there were particularly dense areas deep in the forest. If the keys are anywhere, they'd be there!"

He'd said that before, of course, but the reminder had her look ahead to the giant stalks of fungi growing closer together.

Ten minutes later, she caught a glimpse of a strange mana signature.

"Something ahead!" Isid called between strikes. "On me!"

Isid forged ahead, cutting down three shamblers in her path. A beam of light mana cut through the air, felling a further three. Two crossbow bolts pinned a pair to some stalks. With quick, confident slices, Isid widened the path between two stalks, emerging into a clearing.

In the center of the open space was a raised platform of the same fungal flesh that covered the ground. Rising from the platform was a key. It couldn't have been anything but. Its mana signature looked nigh identical to the lock on the Guardian's door.

"That's it!" She stated. "Someone grab it, and let's get out of this damned forest!"

Duncan moved into the space carefully, wary of traps. Not that Isid could see any nearby. He picked up the key from the pedestal with a disgusted look. "It's made of fungus. The texture is... unsettling."

In the distance, a high-pitched shriek rang, loud and true.

Suddenly, the shamblers assaulting them began attacking with renewed ferocity. On their way out of the forest, they accumulated more injuries than the shamblers had ever been able to inflict before.

Cuts and bruises were common. Bertram caught an overhead strike on his arm, which did halt the mace-like limb. Unfortunately, his arm broke with an audible snap.

As they were about to become completely overwhelmed, they stumbled free of the fungal stalks. The shamblers halted at the edge, clicking and shrieking their displeasure at the guilder's escape.

"Alright. We're going back to the surface." Jerrad declared, to general agreement. They'd been in and out of the forest for hours and would need proper rest before facing the Guardian again.

They reached the surface just as the sun set over the horizon. While the other two parties headed into the port, Isid's party made a beeline for the guild building. Layla would be able to arrange an enchanter to analyze the key and, hopefully, replicate it.

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