<~> Chapter 121

The sun had just risen, and all of us were standing at the foot of the lake behind Celeste. Groups of soldiers milled around while we waited for the delving teams to get ready. Everyone in my group made sure to go to bed early, but the nerves of exploring a new dungeon and sleeping on bedrolls for the first time in a few weeks made it a bit difficult. I felt well rested though, despite the difficulties. Rather than being anxious, I was excited to put my recent training to the test and get a bite to eat.

I had decided not to share my transformation with anyone who didn't know yet, but I wouldn't hesitate to transform in front of any of them if it was necessary. Celeste knew, and she would be able to vouch for me if people became nervous over it later. The only worry would be some of the people in the draco and drakken team attacking me because they didn't know any better, but I felt confident that I would be able to diffuse the situation when it came up. Having strong regeneration and new armor that made my werewolf form look more sapient helped with that.

Celeste turned around and addressed the group. "The entrance to the dungeon is in the water under this lake. That is why it has seemingly existed for a long time without being found or noticed. While you enter, we will be building a small dam around the area to make it easier to enter and exit later, but you may need to swim through if we haven't finished it by the time you exit. Delving teams, is everyone done with their final preparations?"

All three groups called out their acknowledgement and Celeste turned toward the water. She raised her arms. Through the blindfold, I could see the mana in her body glow in intensity as she used water magic to split part of the lake open to reveal a stone archway. Celeste made the impressive show of strength seem effortless as she held a staggering amount of water parted for us. None of us delayed and walked through the path Celeste held open. I hoped they would be quick to finish the dam because I wasn't interested in attempting to swim wearing my full suit of armor.

Maxwell had insisted our group go in first, and the other groups didn't argue with us. I think he reasoned that we would be the best able to handle a bad situation if something went wrong, and it would give us an advantage if we needed to rely on my transformation from the beginning. We had the largest group of delvers if you counted Iris, and I was the hidden trump card of our group. At the end of the day, I could take a beating and punch above my weight class if we needed it. The base of the lake was a mixture of gravel and sand that made it difficult to walk through, but we soon made it to the stone arch and walked up the steps on the other side. The dungeon once again showed its space-bending properties because the stairs led up farther than should be possible.

The place we arrived in was dark and wet. Piper was quick to light one of the torches she carried with her, and I opened my lantern to its fullest to illuminate the first floor of the dungeon. All around us were thick trees, shallow lagoons, and sand. Off in one direction was a beach against an ocean, but with my blindfold, I couldn't see much more than that. Without the natural sunlight, my blindfold restricted my vision to the magic-filled landscape again. I wasn't even sure what the sky looked like here. The air was cold and misty as if it would rain soon. From the dense foliage, I wouldn't be surprised if it did rain before we were finished with this floor.

Maxwell, Piper, and I spread out in three directions to secure the area immediately next to the dungeon entrance for the others behind us. The stone steps luckily stood out from the landscape, but we would need to light up the area to make it easier to find again. Becoming lost here may be a problem, much of the nearby foliage all looked the same to me. I shifted my shield to one hand and drew my sword since my axe would be too unwieldy to use one-handed.

"I've never seen a dungeon floor like this before," Aria commented.

("I haven't either. It looks like we're near the ocean, but the foliage is so thick here,") Luna said to the group.

"It reminds me of a... I don't have the words for it." I continued with Aria using the rings. ("It reminds me of a tropical island or something along those lines.")

"Tropical Island," Aria said in draconic for my benefit. "I've never seen the tropics or the ocean, only heard stories."

"What does the sky look like?" I asked.

Luna looked behind her. ("No one else is through yet. Shift your face like you've been practicing,") she told me.

I shifted just my head, which felt a bit odd, but I was able to see the sky like this. Ominous dark clouds were rolling over the ocean, and the sky was black above us where the clouds weren't visible. I could see a full moon on the horizon, but there were no stars, which struck me as an odd sight after having gotten used to the starry nights of this world. The lack of stars in the sky made the place a bit unnerving since there wasn't even the light pollution that hid them in my old world. I shifted my head back and made sure my ears were still there before the next team came up the stairs.

Soon, all three groups had come up the stairs and we spent some time clearing the immediate area of foliage to give us better sight lines. As is typical in dungeons, there weren't any monsters in the immediate area surrounding the stairs, but my sensitive nose could already smell a few. I wasn't able to recognize what any of them were by smell alone yet, though. Unlike the last two dungeons, the stairs of the entrance weren't butted up against a wall. They were in an open area, which meant four different directions to explore rather than the usual three.

One of the drakken that had been going wild with a machete was collecting piles of the grass and plants that were nearby. He had black-toned scales with a few stripes of white that reminded me of a snake.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

The drakken looked up at me before looking back down at the neat piles he was making. "I'm collecting the different varieties of plants. Even things like grasses and ferns can soak up mana and have interesting properties. It's best to be thorough and collect everything we can to see what's valuable, as Lady Celeste asked. I'm hoping something here will be useful for the poisons I make."

"Ah, alright. That makes sense," I said awkwardly.

The drakken looked up at me again and laughed. "What's your name? You're from the human Maxwell's group, right?"

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"I'm Helena, and yeah."

He nodded. "I'm Rell'kor, the archer and scout for Jol'ket's team."

"Nice to meet you, Rell'kor," I replied.

He gave me a toothy grin. "Likewise. Now, let me get back to this. I still need to bundle everything up."

"Sure," I said. I backed away and continued to patrol the edge of the clearing we made. I took a look at one of the lagoons. It was a small basin full of clear water that glowed to the sight of my blindfold. The water had some magic in it, more than other sources of water I remember, so it might be good to mention it. If this area has lagoons though, did that mean there was a risk of the tide coming in here?

"Luna, come here a second," I called out.

I saw Luna's ears perk and she turned and came over. ("Is there something wrong?")

I pointed at the lagoon ahead of us. ("Nothing's wrong, but I have a few things I wanted to tell you. The first is that water has magic in it. We should take a sample.")

Luna nodded. ("Yes, I haven't seen anyone consider that yet. If you see magic in the water, we should definitely bring a sample back.")

("Right, but something's bothering me... These lagoons are all filled with water, and we're not that far above the water level. I think this entire area might flood when the tide comes in,") I told her.

Luna tilted her head. ("I'm not very familiar with coastal areas. Why would the water level change?")

("The moon's gravity pulls the water as it passes over and changes the tide of the water it's near. Or something like that. Right now, the moon is over there on the horizon, but I think this area will flood when the moon gets closer,") I tried to explain.

Luna pursed her lips. ("I'm not sure I follow what the moon has to do with all of this, but if you think this area will flood, we should warn the others. How high do you think the water level will change?")

I shrugged. ("I have no idea. I never lived in a coastal city, either. I just know that the water level changes. That's what creates these lagoons,") I said, pointing.

Luna nodded. ("Well, after the lightning thing, I'm inclined to believe that you know what you're talking about. I'm not sure how much we need to worry about the flooding, but we should be aware of it.")

The two of us went to Maxwell since it seemed like the party leads were kind of in charge of coordination. We haven't seen any monsters yet, so I wasn't too worried about leaving the area, but I warned Rell'kor that we were going to talk with Maxwell. He didn't seem phased, but he said he would keep an eye out for monsters since we would be gone.

"Maxwell, we need to talk," I said as I walked up.

He frowned. "That sounds like bad news."

I laughed. "Maybe, maybe not. Here, listen." I explained the thing I told Luna about the flooding. He scratched his chin in thought as he listened.

"I'm not sure if this will be an issue, but I'll talk with the other team leaders. I don't know if anyone here has experience with tides or sailing, but I'll ask about that too," Maxwell told us. I was happy to hear the words for those subjects in draconic so I could learn them. They weren't something that had come up before, but seemed helpful to know.

After that, I went back to my patrol while Luna started working on gathering samples of water from the different lagoons and carefully labeling each of them. When I got back to where Rell'kor was, he waved me over.

"Helena, right? I think I saw a monster off in that direction. I tried to shoot it, but I missed, and it ran back into the tree line," the drakken said, pointing.

"Alright, I'll go take a look. Keep an eye out for more and call out if you see anything." I pulled my shield to my shoulder and walked into the grass. After a little poking around, I saw what he was talking about. The monster he saw was a giant crab. It came up to about chest height to me, which looked horrifically scary in that size. It was taller than some drakken I had met.

The moment I spotted it, it must have spotted me as well because it immediately began to quickly scuttle toward me. I lifted my shield just in time to deflect one of its pincers and tried to slice at it with my longsword, but the attack was just deflected off of its hard shell. This wasn't the first time I dealt with a monster like this, so I felt my axe would be more effective. I continued to block the crab's attacks while I sheathed my sword and waited for my axe to materialize from my ring. Typically, it would be risky to do it during combat, but the crab was too stupid to get past my defenses.

After a long and tense moment, I had my oversized axe in my other hand, so I threw my shield over my shoulder using the guige and swung at it overhanded with my axe. My crushing swing was devastating, and I rent its shell in half, killing it instantly. The body of the crab flopped over, and I curiously poked at it with the end of my axe. It was perfectly still. It had died quickly.

I tilted my head. My instincts... weren't reacting. Did the weird instincts I got from the umber hound not know what crabs were? I shrugged and looked around. I didn't see any other monsters nearby, so I picked up the remains of the giant crab and walked it back over toward the camp. Something told me that fresh giant crab on its own might make this dungeon worth monopolizing...

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