82 Aquatic Foes
There was a part of him that was adverse about the idea of heading into an unknown dungeon, after his past experiences, but something was different–the two he was with were strong–stronger than himself.
At least, only when Sol passes out…He thought wryly.
“…Man, it was my idea, but still…! You got this, Sol!” The hazel-haired adolescent pumped himself up, slapping his own cheeks red.
Though he boosted himself, Sol moved at a snail’s pace, wrapping his legs around the golden material while slowly crawling up its height.
Even just a third of the way up, he could feel the cold atmosphere enveloping his body, caressing it with its frosty fingertips as he looked down, checking on Sol.
“Brr…”
Sol was visibly shivering, but still hanging on and moving, though at his own pace.
What an annoying method of going up…You’d think God could just snap an elevator into existence, or some stairs, at least…He thought.
Looking up, he could hardly see Yeong-Un through the thickening mist, who was still rapidly climbing up like a monkey who had spent his entire life ascending trees and prickly branches.
–All of a sudden, a concept that for some reason slipped his mind brought itself into existence: a strong, cold wind brushed against the rope, swaying it side-to-side even with their weight dispersed on its length.
“Gyeeeugh–! What the hell?!” Sol screamed out without any pride, clutching the rope as he wrapped his limbs around it tightly.
“Woah–!” Yeong-Un let out, momentarily having to hold his entire body weight with just a single hand gripping the golden, thickly-intertwined rope.
“The wind…!?” He mumbled to himself, clutching the object with both of his hands.
It howled against his ears, continuing to push the rope from side to side in an unstable manner. Going back down was not a plausible option as they were already more than halfway up, and it would be just as difficult, if not more, than just going up.
There wasn’t anything directly neighboring the rope–not from the heights it reached. Below, and off to the sides, were the buildings of the market street, but it’d be too late to reach them in the aftermath of a fall.
“Hyaaaah–! Why is the wind coming out now?! Is God mad at us for killing that angel–?! I wasn’t a part of it, I swear–!” Sol yelled up towards the clouds as if his words reached the entity beyond their lay.
“Shut up, will ya’! I can hear ya’ from all the way up here–!” Yeong-Un yelled out from up above, having his voice be carried down against the howling winds.
…Thanks for saying what I was thinking! He thought.
Being the closest to Sol, he had to listen, in clear detail, to the whimpers of the hazel-haired young man, who definitely tried his best to seem cool, by his fantasy-adventurer-like outfit, but was indeed–the opposite.
“Sol! Come on!” He looked down, urging his companion.
“No! God is trying to finish us off right here–! I-If I just stay here, it’ll pass!” Sol retorted, with an obvious trail of snot leaving one of his nostrils.
Gross…He thought.
Putting aside his grievances with his friend’s composure, or lack thereof, he still held his patient, slowly going back down the rope towards Sol as the wind continued to tug at it, pushing it in each direction.
“Jeong-Hui…?” Sol called his name quietly in surprise.
He put on a reassuring smile as his curly, red hair was brushed by the passing, aggressive winds, “It’s not that bad, see?”
Against his better judgment, he displayed to his friend that the winds weren’t out to get them–releasing one hand from the rope and hanging halfway off of it.
“Jeong-Hui…! That’s…!” Sol called out worriedly, but stopped himself after noticing what he had just done by instinct.
Despite his own crippling fears, Sol had naturally reached his hand out from the complete worry of Jeong-Hui, realizing this, as he was now only holding onto the golden rope with one hand, his eyes were opened to the nature of the howling wind.
“Oh.”
“See? Are you good now?” He looked down at Sol with a smile.
Sol nodded slowly, seemingly almost crying as tears hung by the edges of his eyes.
For some reason then, he felt himself being able to understand that swirl of cowardice in Sol’s heart: there was something fundamentally fragile in him.
It seemed Sol himself understood his shortcomings, as he tried his best to “look cool” or “look strong”: his eccentric, unkempt, hazel hair and the standout, red headband he wore alongside his dark-brown coat and leather armor. He looked like a reliable person, yet it was far from himself.
I wonder if…something happened to him at the start of Argmageddon? Maybe I’ll ask–someday, he thought.
Together, they all reached the summit, though Yeong-Un arrived much before them, waiting as he sat on a quartz block on the outside entrance.
It was like a cut-off section of a road, carved into a perfect circle just beyond the open entrance of the quartz structure.
“Took ya’ long enough,” Yeong-Un said, resting his cheek against his hand.
“Well, not everybody is an ape like you,” he mumbled
He helped Sol crawl over onto the ivory flooring of the airborne dungeon, who was breathing heavily as he rested on his hands and knees for a minute.
“Woah…” He let out.
The view was breathtaking; it was something unachievable elsewhere–the Sky Dungeon was its own piece of the sky, in a way, allowing them to look over most of Gangnam-Gu.
“…We’re this high?” Sol commented, looking over the edge of the dungeon exterior–nearly causing himself to hurl as he quickly pulled away.
“Enough wastin’ time, let’s get this thing started!” Yeong-Un announced, lifting Sol to his feet by a grab of his cape. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
As impatient as ever…He thought.
After taking one more look of the awe-inspiring view from up above, he followed the two into the Sky Dungeon’s mysterious entrance.
Rather than an open room to begin off with, they were immediately placed at the start of a spiraling set of ivory, engraved stairs.
“One climb and into another, huh…?” He muttered, looking up.
“Are they trying to wear us down before ambushing us?!” Sol asked nervously.
Yeong-Un promptly slapped Sol in the back of the head, pushing past them and onto the stairs, “No use worryin’ about that! We’ll worry when the enemy is in front of us!”
I don’t know how effective that plan of action is! He thought.
Either way, it was true; the only way forward were the stairs, which they began to ascend as each step echoed off of the quartz walls of the towering structure. What he felt was a good change of pace from the ground-floor dungeons was how bright it was inside–the quartz walls were illuminated by golden-flame-bearing torches on the walls.
After a dozen minutes of ascent, he felt a certain shortness of breath–not from fatigue, but the natural atmosphere persisting within the dungeon.
“Is it just me, or is the air kind of heavy…?” He asked.
“Yeah,” Yeong-Un breathed audibly, “…It’s a bit funky in here.”
“…Should we head back?” Sol asked.
“No,” –Yeong-Un and himself replied in unison.
Not a minute later did they finally reach the summit of the stairs, leading them into the first room of the Sky Dungeon: a quartz bridge extending into a circular, grooved platform that was surrounded by a body of water.
“What the…? Water, up here?” Sol mumbled.
“I wouldn’t try to apply reason to a construct of Heaven…” He replied wryly.
Yeong-Un, of course, was the first to enter, stepping across the narrow bridge as the bottom of his boots echoed against the percussive flooring.
Statues of angelic beings protruded from the walls, holding spears of some kind as if guarding the chamber in silence.
“What’s the point of all of this?” Yeong-Un squinted his eyes once reaching the large, center platform, soon met with the other two.
“I guess this is sort of the lobby of the dungeon? I don’t know,” he gave his take, “This is already way different than Obsidian Dungeons.”
The path forward was another bridge, though suspended by golden ropes with a peculiar arc, looking to a room on the other side of the chamber that was shrouded in obscuring light.
“…Guys, do you feel that?” Sol asked.
While they were standing and looking around to figure out the purpose of the vast, water-filled chamber, Sol’s question asked in a nervous tremble brought their attention to him.
“Feel what?” He asked.
Glancing at Yeong-Un, he could see the wild-haired man was also readily cautious about something–having both of his hands ready and gripping around the handles of his sheathed blades.
Before he could part his lips again–he felt it.
Vrrrr.
A subtle hum pressing against the soles of his black, leather boots, tickling his lower legs as it persisted in an abnormal sensation at his feet.
“…What’s this…?”
The sound of water rippling brought his gaze up, alongside the other two as they saw the unclear, misty water rippling with some sort of presence tucked beneath its surface.
“Get ready!” Yeong-Un called out, unsheathing his dual blades.
Just as his warning came, multiple objects sprouted from the rippling waters around them, landing on the platform that they stood on.
There were three–each of the enigmatic foes landing by one of the three to take them on individually.
The gray-skinned entities held an appearance that was a clash between human and fish, with a humanoid body and webbed feet and hands, yet a shark-like head that displayed a large set of jaws.
“Huh…? These are…?”
[Enemy Identified: “Holy Sea Dweller” | Level 22]
“What the hell are these things?!” Sol asked in almost a squeal.
“Draw your spear, idiot!” He yelled out.
It was worrying that it seemed his reminder was the only thing that actually made Sol do as such, drawing the silver weapon from his back as he wielded it, gulping down as he was faced with the aquatic humanoid, twice his size.
…I’ve never seen an enemy like this before. It doesn’t seem to be holding any weapons–how the hell does it attack? He thought.
Of course, the System wasn’t looking to hand out free answers to all of his problems–obstacles like this were up to the players themselves to handle.
“Looks like I’m making sashimi today!” Yeong-Un roared out in a laugh.