Eon's trip through the marshy environment was nothing spectacular. His near-death state made it so he had to rest often. Resting also meant disabling his protective separate space.
Whenever this happened he would be attacked by all sorts of magical beasts. Some were common and others were entirely new to him. The maw of the magical lizard that seemed capable of stretching far beyond what the hinges of most would allow was such a bizarre creature.
Not to mention how this was coupled with its amazing grip strength and tough scales. Chances were that if you were caught, the only release you'd be getting was death.
So even as he coughed up blood and slit it in half from the neck down he was left mesmerized by its uniqueness. That being said, it wasn't all that unique. He had found some common points it had with creatures in its own environment, which was expected, or those from other dungeons.
These mix matches created a unique old. But using such words to describe it was perhaps nothing more than a way to console himself.
Aside from these casual observations, Eon's thoughts didn't wander much. That was because he himself was doing much wandering. It left no room for any other types of wandering.
'This device isn't working, tsk' Eon was currently lost inside thick fog and his compass magic device was not working. It was supposed to function by pointing at instabilities in space towards where it presumed the entrance or exit to the next floors were located. This one only spun randomly when instructed to find the next floor.
This wasn't the first time this happened, the previous floor was also a bit finicky. Eon could only pin this on the fact that there wasn't a portal between areas, but that didn't really explain why the device worked even partially.
'Hm…' But as a learned man he quickly came up with a couple of hypotheses. One, there was no spatial change. Two, there were no unstable spatial points. Three, something was interfering. Four, the device was broken.
"Urgh…" Time continued to pass and his useless thoughts were not helping his situation or condition. The fog thickened to the point where seeing even his own hand in front of him was troublesome. Not only that, at some point it seemed he had entered deeper waters.
It took him a second, but Eon stopped and frowned. It wasn't just deeper waters, it had to be a lake.
"This must be the origin of this marsh1" Eon said talking to himself to relieve some anxiety. He felt unbelievably nervous. This was a feeling that he had long since grown unaccustomed to.
The water surface was calm, the water itself cold to the touch. Everything should have been normal, but any experienced person would say otherwise. It was too calm.
Any body of water was bound to have some sort of organism living in it. For natural reserves, this was usually fishes. Yes, something other than fish had to be living here.
Not only that, but it had been a while since Eon last felt the aquatic plants graze his robe. That only meant that there were none in the immediate vicinity of the lake.
"This must be the boss room" Though it was hard to call it that. There was no room. There was only what Eon presumed a deep and large lake.
"Hahaha… Of course, it didn't work" The previous floor had its boss room surrounded by mana crystals. Large quantities of mana were very common near spatial anomalies. The compass finding no definite source still lead to the crystal cavern. There was nothing that would point to this large lake however.
But even after finding the boss room as well as the reason the compass was malfunctioning Eon was not happy. He was not glad to have found the boss room under these special circumstances.
A soft wave then hit Eon's figure, it was similar to one formed after a pebble hit the water surface. But as a second stronger wave followed it, the aged man no longer cared about the boss. He immediately turned tail to run.
'I can't-' "Coug- Kargh" He coughed up blood.
'Not right now' The marsh had to be behind him, he had to trek back! But walking in water was no easy feat for an old man. The likes of him never even considered swimming.
The waves which were initially soft were slowly picking up intensity. Every time a wave hit Eon he felt as if he would tumble down and fall. Most importantly, he felt exposed.
The worst type of danger was the one that you couldn't see coming. Eon was a man that believed in planning. If the battlefield was normal by all means rushing through every floor seemed reasonable. Underwater… not so much…
Suddenly, Eon was forced to brace himself and activate his shield. His eyes colored with surprise after feeling extreme heat buffet his body even through the protective shield.
He was being assaulted by turbid flames. Eon turned to look at the source while resisting the urge to bend over and cough out his lungs.
What he barely saw through white steam were four legs. They were sturdy and covered in impenetrable scales. Moving further up allowed one to have a clear view of a tail swinging wildly and the body it was attached to.
But even further was a serpentine head… It had beautiful shimmering scales, all thanks to the splendor of the candent flames it shot out of its large maw. Its eyes gleamed past the steamy fog with savagery ever so evident.
It was a dragon, no, a hydra. Two more serpentine heads were scantily illuminated by the brilliant flames. One was looking away with indifference while the other seemed to be eyeing Eon's figure.
As for Eon himself, he was no longer there by the time the flames stopped spewing out of the creature's deadly jaws.
He teleported directly back towards the swamp. The dungeon still interfered in the distance he could travel, but a short hop was in this case enough for Eon to feel somewhat relieved. Bosses were usually confined to their resting place.
"But this is troublesome..." He could probably kill the hydra but the process was troublesome. To have a head keep growing every time one was severed implied that with his current equipment he would have to nip the problem at the bud.
But he wasn't sure how many black holes he could live through. At the same time… life was a gamble…
***
Life was a gamble, but there were always some things one could ascertain. Like the fact that Balin's company would inevitably come across the orc barracks.
The scout team separated themselves as they traversed every individual room and hallway. Ray was the only one taking the only one that kept on going deeper and deeper into the barracks with Balin close behind.
"The traces end here" Ray said pointing at a closed door. Balin shot it a glance. It was made of the same metal he saw lying around as dust.
"Let me open it" Balin said before approaching the door and trying to open it. Expectedly, it was locked. So Balin kicked it open.
The door figuratively shrieked in pain as it was wrought out of its hinges. Balin's kick was powered by the earth and flowed as smoothly as water. Kicking down a door was second nature to him, he had gotten much experience.
Balin was then buffeted by a cold wind. Chilly was perhaps a better way to describe it. The area was actually just wet and humid. Balin could infer it had once been frozen though. The climate on this floor of the dungeon could not be described as cold.
"Ray, figure things out" Balin said stepping aside after a couple of seconds of standing at the entrance. Ray nodded and entered the wet room. He shot everything a curious glance while also being making sure to discern every single detail.
His efforts were not without fruit, if anything they might have even been excessive.
"That there is the most suspicious desk I've seen in my life" Ray said singling out the desk.
To be fair, it didn't really fit in with all the archaic lab equipment. The wooden desk was eye-catching at a glance.
Balin didn't say anything, he only approached and pushed the thing aside. This revealed a hatch and within that, there was a ladder.
"This must be a trap…" He muttered not convinced about going down such a narrow hole.
If they used the ladder they would have to go down in a single file. The advantage of having many people would then be lost. Plus, it was also possible for the ladder itself to be the trap and that they'd end up falling to their doom after a while.
Overall, it was the shadiest hole under the most suspicious desk he had ever seen!
"I agree" Ray said while trying to imagine what exactly happened in that room. But he found nothing reasonable. Was the enemy's plan just to confuse him? In that case, was it smart of him to notice this so soon?
But going down that same rabbit hole what if the ladder was not a trap but rather…
"Commander, how should we proceed?" Ray decided to stop thinking about decisions that wouldn't fall down on his shoulders.
"Hmmm… We'll have to widen the hole" Balin said bringing out a couple of seeds from his pouch. Once the hole was wide enough he could investigate with everyone as well as secure an escape if anything.
Source: Wikipedia hehehe take that teachers