DTK 41

this book might finish me

***

“We’re diving it.” Sandy said, before I could even ask.

I was quiet. I didn’t say anything.

The waves lapped up the beach with a crash of seafoam before receding. Sandy was walking forward. I wasn’t sure if she was conscious of it. The expression on her face was a mix of manic aggression and fear, like she was staring down a monster.

But there were no monsters. Just us and the beach. Just us and the breeze. Just us and the dungeon.

“Alright.” I said.

We stepped down the beach and up to the portal, stopping again outside of it. I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it, but it felt like the tide was getting higher, each wave rising up the beach. The water splashed around my ankles as waves came in. My boots were already soaked.

“Ready?” I asked.

Sandy didn’t saying anything. She nodded, fixed her face in a determined forward stare, and stepped through.

I followed after.

The warping effect of the dungeon was the most intense it had felt since that first time, the world warping violently. It was bright inside, and it took my eyes a moment to catch up to what they were seeing.

We were in a cave system. It was the most stereotypical dungeon-like floor we had entered so far. My eyes scanned for threats, paying attention to every odd and irregular shape of the rocks that might give away monsters blending in along the walls. I quickly stopped looking for monsters as I filled with a sense of wondrous awe.

I knew that we were performing magic. Killing monsters, using spells. It was all very real. But so many pieces of it became mundane over a lifetime. Stepping into this place was different. Yellow and orange plants glowed along the wall, tiny stems retracting and extending over and over, creating a rippling pattern of light.

It was reflected on the surface of the water below. Wind whistled through the cavern, making the surface of the water ripple. When the reflection broke, glowing red coral could be seen in the shallow pools.

It was a grotto. A cave system filled with ocean water. It was at low-tide, for now, and there wasn’t a sign of a monster. The plants filled the cave with artificial, luminescent light.

“Holy fuck.” Sandy said, audibly sucking in a breath next to me.

This was the most dangerous environment we had ever been in. And the most beautiful. I took a look over at her.

“Yeah.” I said.

Her eyes were following a path up the walls, along the lines of glowing flora. I didn’t know if she was looking for monsters or still taking it all in. She bit her lip.

“So… which way?” I asked, spinning around. The exit to this floor sat against the wall. To my surprise, water splashed out of the gate, running over my shoes and into the shallow pool behind me.

The caves still smelled like the beach.

Sandy stepped forward, splashing through the ankle high water pouring in from the other floors ocean. She looked left, then right, staring into the two largest openings that led away from this room.

Then there was a huge splash from our left.

“That way, then?” I asked, meeting Sandy’s eyes. She was giving me a calculating look. Then she nodded, knife out in her hand as she stepped through the water and beyond. The water dropped from ankle high to only a centimeter, but I looked at the pond in the center of the cave with worry.

It was still low-tide.

Did the dungeon have tides? Did it have moons? Was it even round? Was I procrastinating?

I shook off the thoughts and followed behind Sandy, needle at the ready. The plants sent waves of movement up and down the walls, causing my eyes to jump to the side. But no monsters appeared.

My eyes tracked the water. The non luminescent seaweed that grew in the shallow tide-pools looked like the silhouettes of dark tendrils criss-crossing the glowing red coral. I was still searching the moving shadows of the depths when Sandy gasped.

My head flicked up.

Sandy charged into the water.

“Sandy?” I half asked, half shouted lifting the needle in my hand and looking between her and the water. That red coral didn’t look safe to touch.

I followed her through the water. It was only thigh deep, splashing around us. Sandy charged through it. I stepped carefully around the coral, not willing to risk touching it. At least nothing ambushed us as we crossed the water.

“Sandy?” I asked again. She stopped on the other side of the water. Then she shuddered and leaned down.

I felt my heart drop.

“Are you alright?” I asked, walking beside her. She was blocking whatever she was leaning over, up against the wall. When I placed a hand on her shoulder, she flinched. Then I saw what she was looking at.

Depressed against the rocky ground of the cave, soaked in saltwater and half tattered to shreds was a pile of clothing. Or an imprint of the pile of clothing.

Time pressed it flat against the wall and floor. There was no body; not anymore. This was two stages deep in the dungeon; six days passed here for every day on the surface. Six years for every year above.

Sandy wracked with a silent sob as she turned over a rusted piece of metal in her hands. A comparatively tiny butcher knife. An outfit that didn’t impart any skills.

This was as far as her mother had made it. But she had been alone. I leaned down and put a hand on Sandy’s back.

She sobbed.

I opened my mouth to say something, but I didn’t know what. There was a lump in my throat. I just sat there and supported her, letting her lean on me.

There was a splash in the water behind us. I turned, looking over my shoulder.

A monster loomed behind our backs, sea water dripping from its side. The top of it glowed with red coral, its body a looming silhouette of a crab. We might have walked over its body to get here.

“Sandy.” I said, quietly. The crab wasn’t moving yet. Instead it was clicking, its luminescent yellow eyes seemingly scanning the room. I shook Sandy’s shoulder. She was clutching the little rusted remains of the knife in her hand so hard it was shaking.

The monster took a step forward.

Without waiting any longer, I charged at it.

[Running Stitch I] [Mana: 5/10] [Cancel]

My needle sheared against the chitin, sparking as if it was made of metal, the light illuminating in the dark.

And it didn’t pierce it. The sudden force pulling me forward along the outer edge of the monster’s chitin shell left me falling forward, splashing face first into the water. I pressed my hands down on red coral, and exactly as I expected, it burned. My Health ticked away single points as I shoved myself out of the water, momentarily disoriented, throwing my head back and forth to try to find the monster.

It had to have been behind me.

“Sandy!” I shouted, spinning around, but the monster was still bearing down on me. I threw my needle up between us as if I was going to block its massive claw. The pincer bit down on the needle and ripped it out of my hands, sending me tumbling back into the water.

I scrambled back out, reaching for the second needle behind me. The crab flung the first needle away; it clattered against the wall, the sound of metal on stone ringing through the cave.

This thing was dangerous. Beyond dangerous.

[Running Stitch I] [Mana: 4/10] [Cancel]

I stabbed it in the mouth this time, blood and gore gushing out and splashing into the water I was standing in. The monster staggered back, taking my needle with it. I reached for the throwing needles on my hip.

The monsters mandibles opened, more of its insides spilling out as it aggravated the wound. Then it leaned down towards me. I fumbled to pull one of the needles free.

The crab fell sideways as Sandy cut off two of its legs in one strike. It made a low, terrible noise, like a hiss of pain as it stumbled backwards. The insides of its legs poured out of the clean cut wound like liquid slop.

My hands burned.

Sandy swung again, the monster collapsing into the water.

Then she stepped on top of it. I wasn’t sure if the gloves of her armor stopped the coral on it from burning her or if she just didn’t care.

She stabbed into the water over and over, the [Windblade] enchantment sending splashes of water and blood up around us as she cut into the monster. It died on the third stab.

[+4 XP]

She kept going even as the dungeon started to rumble with the indication that we cleared it.

When she ran out of mana and the water stopped splashing around her, she kept stabbing down, easily piercing the chitin of the crab with her knife, staining the water as blue blood poured out of the wound.

Sandy was screaming with every stab until her voice guttered out. Then she stopped stabbing, sitting in the water on top of the crab as the mana in the dungeon roiled over us.

Normally, by now, it would’ve dissipated or slammed into place to open the gate to the next floor. Instead, though, it boiled around us. I looked uneasily towards the cavern’s walls where the water level was rising.

“We should go.” I said to Sandy. My voice was quieter than I expected. She just nodded, lifting herself off slowly. The water parted around her as she walked back to the wall.

“Take these.” She said, looking back at me. 

I nodded, walking up and activating my inventory skill, pulling the tattered scraps into my inventory. Then we trudged back to the entrance. Sandy held the rusted remains of her knife in her hands like it was the most precious artifact she owned.

The mana in the dungeon didn’t dissipate. We reached all the way to the exit. I stopped and looked back, taking everything in?

“Was that it?” I asked.

Sandy just looked at me, confused.

“Just the one monster? The mana is… tingling.”

“I’m not sure.” Sandy said, her voice quiet and restrained.

With a shrug, I stepped through.

And found myself somewhere else entirely. It was just a fleeting second, but I felt something look down on me. More than one something. It was the same experience as when I Awakened my system for the first time. But it was also slightly different.

The last time, I felt a single gaze weighing down on me. Just the weight of that perception felt like it would tear me apart. This time, I could count the things looking at me. I could feel the weight of their perception as a physical thing. One. Three. Six. Nine. Ten of them, all shuffling about, looking at me like they hadn’t expected to see me.

There was a high pitched ringing in my ears as an eleventh perception weighed down on me, somehow closer to me than the others. This one was… deformed. It was upside down and sideways, barely awake, and the weight of its gaze was familiar. This is the one that had looked at me when my system was Awakened. My skin was burning hot.

I collapsed to the ground, trying not to vomit as I was shoved through the portal. I was half afraid I was going to float off the beach. I tasted seawater.

“Gwen?” Sandy said. She was shouting. I was in the ocean.

Pushing myself to my feet, I spat out ocean water, wretching.

There was an alert in my interface.

I ignored it, nausea rolling through me as I crawled away from the seawater. I couldn’t stand. My limbs felt weak. When I felt hot sand between my fingers instead of the cold, soul draining wetness of the ocean sand, I blinked the stinging water from my eyes.

And I read the pending alert.

[Tier 0 Dungeon Alert]

[Title Contest Quest Generated]

[Deepest Clear Updated: Gwen Tailor, Sandy Butcher]

[Notice: To qualify for Deepest Clear, you must have cleared the dungeon within the last 12 months.]

[Previous Deepest Clear: HIDDEN]

[Would you like to make your recent clear public? Y\N]

“N… no!” I shouted. Sandy flinched.

“Gwen? Are you alright?” She asked, leaning down next to me.

“Y— I’m fine.” I said, making sure I wasn’t going to say anything dumb the system would take as an answer to its prompt.

[Confirmed! Title Contest Quest generated. Conditions:]

►Clear all open tertiary dungeons to floor two

►Clear central dungeon fourth floor

[Rewards: Ownership of title: Stitch transferred to Gwen Taylor]

[Stitch: Tier 0, Village]

[Current title holder notified.]