Phoenix was the one to go open the chest, and the loot window opened for everyone. Inside the chest were many things.
Leaper’s Halberd
gold pieces x 1200
Lieutenant’s Insignia
Amulet of Jumping
Potion of Water Breathing x 6
Orb of the Grippli
Berserker’s Dagger
After looking at the list, two things were an easy split. Every party member received two hundred gold and one potion of water breathing.
Phoenix then held on to the Insignia, since the description said it was the key to the next stage. The halberd went to Astaroth, since he was the only one who could use it.
No one wanted the dagger, so they agreed to sell it and split the money. Athena asked to have the amulet of jumping, and no one objected, so it went to her.
The last item was the one that had the entire party perplexed. It wasn’t equipment and under the description part, only three question marks were noted.
Since they had no way of knowing what it did, for now, Phoenix held on to it. After splitting the loot, Phoenix walked over to the door and inspected it.
After a few seconds, she found an indentation in the rock that had the same shape as the insignia from the boss. She pulled out the item and pushed it into the slot.
It was a perfect fit. Once the insignia was placed, the door started shaking slowly.
With a loud grinding of stone on stone, it cracked open outward, revealing the next part of the dungeon. Phoenix smiled.
“Are we ready to proceed?” she asked, looking at the others.
Astaroth and the others nodded, one after the other, before she turned back and they walked into the second part.
They rearranged into their previous formation, making sure Gulnur was in front and Astaroth close behind. Not long after stepping into this part, Astaroth motioned the party to stop.
“We have a problem.”
“What is it?” Phoenix asked.
“Remember how I left Genie behind to guard the entrance? Well, it seems we are no longer alone.”
“Someone else found the dungeon?” Athena asked, her eyebrows knitting together.
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Everyone turned to Gulnur, expecting answers. Their dwarven friend was frowning, too.
“I’m not the one who talked about it. The only ones aside from me who know are… Oh, he wouldn’t have dared!” Gulnur said, his face turning into a mask of anger.
“One of the members of the group I scouted here insisted we try the dungeon. I told him off, saying we should prepare thoroughly before coming here, and set the date to next week.” Gulnur started explaining.
“Everyone agreed, but he seemed mad about it. I didn’t think he would form another group, I swear!”
“Shit!” Phoenix cursed.
“I don’t think they’ll take the same way we did, since they will mostly be using metal armor and gadgets. If we are lucky, the other paths to the last boss are harder.” Gulnur said, feeling guilty.
“Whatever the case may be, we will have to speed up our pace. I do not want to have this dungeon’s first clear stolen from us!” Phoenix said, clenching her fists.
“Then let’s stop talking and move!” Astaroth said, smiling.
He was trying to fire them up, and it worked. The party started jogging forward, maintaining their slowest member, Gulnur, speed.
They stopped inspecting the groups of monsters they crossed, opting to find out what they could do during combat. It was a risky tactic, but it allowed for a faster progression.
Astaroth decided to go all in from the start on every combat and melded with Luna first every time. This meant putting more pressure on their tank, but it also meant having a higher damage ratio.
So Gulnur ended up tanking harder, but in shorter bursts. Twenty minutes after leaving the boss room, Astaroth received another mental image from Genie.
“The other group is entering the dungeon. The clock is now ticking,” he warned his friends.
The party nodded in response and pushed forward even faster. This was putting more pressure on their healer, but I’die helped with healing, and Astaroth used his Moonlit Sanctuary every fight to relieve pressure too.
They quickly pushed through a decent distance before coming to a stop in front of their next obstacle. The group was standing before the end of their path.
In front of them, a small clearing opened up, and nothing beyond it. In the middle of the clearing, a clear pond.
Astaroth quickly understood what came next.
“Well, now we know why there were water-breathing potions in the loot,” he said, with a half chuckle.
But before anyone could take out their potion and drink it, Violette offered an alternative.
“If you want to keep the potions for now, I can use my magic and keep the water off of us, forming a bubble. We could walk at the bottom of the path and fight on solid ground.”
Phoenix pondered shortly before agreeing.
“We can do it that way, but if our damage decreases too much without you at full power, we will drink the potions,” Phoenix said.
Everyone agreed to that backup plan, and Violette pushed the water from the pond inward. A staircase appeared, and they walked down it.
The staircase descended for about one hundred meters before it stopped at the bottom of an underground lake. It was incredibly dark in here, so Silent Light helped with that problem.
He silently chanted a short incantation, and a fist-sized globe of light appeared. The light it emanated was soft, but it illuminated quite far.
They could see far outside their little bubble and were awed by the sight. All around them, a myriad of different fish were swimming calmly, ignoring their presence entirely.
The water was clear enough for them to see even the scales on the fish. The surrounding coral shone in the light, like it was absorbing it.
The scene was magical, and the party momentarily forgot they were in a dungeon. They snapped out of it soon after, though, when a shadow swam just outside of the light’s reach.
Fish were not the only thing in this underground lake, after all.