"Bye, Shark Bros." Varian waved his hand enthusiastically.
The shark bros looked at him with tired eyes. Their large, bulky bodies now seemed to behave lost half of their weight.
Continuously using their mana was exhausting.
If one overdid it, they'd be facing a mana overdraw. And they overdrew the mana overdraw.
'He's a devil'.
Looking at Varian, they shuddered.
"Bye, Boss." The first shark said with the last bit of energy.
"I was trying to lose weight and you helped me a lot, boss. Thanks!" A creative shark replied. It used to be bulky like a bear, now it was skinny like a leopard. Once it returned to its tribe, it was going to be thin-shamed.
"Yes, me too. No diet anymore." Another shark exclaimed.
Listening to the sharks' sincere praise filled with admiration, Varian scratched his cheek in embarrassment.
'Am I really such a good person?'
They could've lied. That thought did cross his mind, but sensing how joyous they sounded, Varian thought it was less likely.
'But they really helped, heh.'
Staring at the floating blue panel that only he could see, he felt the weight of gratitude towards the sharks.
[Water Path Level 2: 150/200]
He looked at the shark bros seriously and he said. "Don't worry. I'll visit you guys regularly and help you in weight loss."
The sharks almost coughed out blood. Was this man stupid or pretending to be stupid?
You can try setting up that program for your fellow humans. Even the most overweight person would shrivel to a zombie.
We survived because we are sharks, but that doesn't mean we can take it again!
"No, boss. We can't bother you anymore." The first shark said in a regretful, yet firm tone.
"Yes, we can do it ourselves now." The second one replied in a responsible tone.
"Yes, yes. We urge you, don't waste your precious time by visiting us again." The third one was almost crying.
Since they insisted, Varian nodded reluctantly.
Then he teleported to Sarah who was looking at him and the sharks quizically since the beginning.
Lightly tapping on her forehead, he said. "Let's go."
"Huh? Yeah." Sarah snapped out of her daze and followed him into the ghostship.
Their next destination was a Mid Water Dungeon named 'Drowner'.
"…whoever is naming this stuff must either be a prankster or a 6-year old," Varian muttered in dissatisfaction, eliciting a giggle from Sarah.
"Virgin, Wet, Simp, now Drowner...this is stupid. Don't you agree?" Varian raised a brow.
"Well, no." Sarah shrugged. "They're all made by the federation's experts."
"Experts, you say?" Varian facepalmed and leaned back on the couch."Are we run by nutjobs?"
Sarah rolled her eyes and explained. "In the golden age, these dungeons were conquered and became instrumental in the growth of the human race.
Everyone was happy, a bit too happy. The council of federation back then was probably the most harmonious of all time. Those guys decided to pick silly names for dungeons, mainly to show that they aren't a big deal anymore.
If the abyssals never appeared, then humanity was ready to expand outside the solar system. By now, we would already be colonizing another planet.
With abyssals' unexpected appearance, the exploration was sidelined while the dungeon names remained."
"…" It was Varian who rolled his eyes this time. "You know how made-up that sounds?"
"It's confidential, but it really happened," Sarah said with a helpless smile.
"Urgh," Varian groaned in frustration and crossed his arms. "Anyway, I hope I reach level 4 soon."
The ghost ship exited the dungeon and traveled deep into the ocean. Its speed was affected, but only by a small percentage.
After a few minutes, the ghost ship reached what seemed like a large underwater town. Like at the previous dungeon, this town seemed to have a certain treasure that repelled water.
So, while they were deep in the ocean, a few miles around the town, there was no water. It was as if an invisible barrier was isolating it.
The town had only a couple of defensive facilities and about a hundred dungeon guards.
To his surprise, Varian saw people other than dungeon guards.
"Adventurers?" He muttered and his brows knit together in confusion. "Why here?"
There were Water Dungeons above the surface as well. The reason he picked the ones here was that they were deserted.
But now, there were some humans who seemed to have just exited the dungeon.
"Likely to prevent a Dungeon Break." Sarah shrugged.
Varian paused for a moment and nodded. If so, then it made perfect sense.
A Dungeon Break was what it sounded like. Once they exceed a threshold of 'total power' held, the magic beasts of a dungeon would break open and ravage the host planet.
Then, upon consuming their prey, the magic beasts would grow strong and give birth.
Magic beasts had an incredibly short gestation period and the maturity for an infant magic beast to reach maturity was only a couple of weeks.
Thus, if a Dungeon Break was allowed, then it'd spell an absolute disaster.
While humanity didn't know, this was exactly the method that Abyssals used in the past to wipe out many of their weak enemies.
Just send a few dungeons and an entire civilization would be wiped off. Not only that, but the dungeons themselves would have more magic beasts overall.
Humanity was also supposed to be wiped off in that manner.
But humans did the impossible. They went from the level of low dungeons to high dungeons in a very short period of time.
They grew so strong and efficient that they turned dungeons from a threat to resource.
Of course, even humanity faced the threat of Dungeon breaks in the first decade of the 300s.
The threat mainly came from hidden dungeons, like the current one, deep under the ocean.
So, to prevent such mishaps, clean-up teams were sent regularly. They hunted monsters in these remote dungeons and erased any possibility of dungeon break.
"Regular Clean Up, huh." Varian squinted his eyes at the five figures.
They were completely drenched and had multiple gashes on their bodies.
Drip! Drip! Drip!
Like water escaping a broken pipe, blood escaped their bodies and splashed on the ground.
As if that wasn't enough, one man had a large chunk of his arm missing…as if it was bitten off.
"What happened?" A dungeon guard rushed to the man with the least injuries and asked.
"A-Ascension…" The man uttered with the last of his strength and fainted.
"Ascension? Are you sure?" The guard yelled with a horrified face but no one answered him.
The rest of the adventurers fainted right after exiting the dungeon.
"Mark, I'll take them to the emergency cabin first." Another guard elevated the adventurers into the air through his telekinetic power and urged.
"Yes." Mark nodded with a pale face.
He turned to the dungeon gate. As always, the entrance was covered by a thin layer of shiny light.
Shhh.
The curtain of light quivered and Mark almost ran.
"…Haah." Mark clutched his chest and sighed.
He hurriedly took out his comm and informed. "Headquarters, mid dungeon 'Drowner' has a situation. Ascension. Over."
What he didn't notice was that an invisible spaceship suddenly dashed into the gate.