Interconnected: Spliced Souls

Six days had passed since I talked with Dineria in the bath and helped her understand my immortality. And on the seventh, which had started like any other day, we found ourselves at the guild an hour after they had posted new quests.   

Like always, Feral was there. Arnold wasn’t tagging along, but he had Fisher with him.   

That one-armed bastard was going to die. Perhaps not during the return trip, but he'd meet his end soon.    

Somewhere along the way, Feral had gotten a sheath for his weapon. It was less of a sword than a solid chunk of raw iron. I tried to lift it, but I felt my bones shatter a few dozen times before I gave up.   

The kobold looked good with it, though. Feral was kinda handsome. The big lad was a bit slow in the head and easy to confuse with big words and complicated sentences, but he had a trusting heart. He was always fun to be around. Myself, Momo, Srassa, and Dineria liked his company.   

But it seemed his mentors didn’t. They didn’t say anything verbally, but it was in their eyes and nonverbal cues. Albert caught into it first, and I couldn’t help but spot it ever since.   

“It seems we’re coming to the end of our trip,” said our mentor. She had us sit at a table in a meeting room. Fisher and Feral were here. “I’ve spoken to the guild head, and he’s assured me you’ll be promoted to Beginner Rank 1 after you’ve delved into the dungeon.”  

“It’s finally time?!” Momo was excited.   

Srassa’s nervousness was on display. “Are you sure we’re ready, Ms. Dineria?”  

“Yep!” She crossed her arms and nodded. “I won’t be coming with you, but I’ll camp the entrance and wait. And as I understand it, Lieutenant Fisher’s criteria is different. Feral, you’ll be doing something else, but that’s not all. Hehehe! Take a look at…these!” Dineria turned to a backpack she had brought and pulled out four swimsuits! “I have more than these, but your attentive and super sweet mentor has done some shopping. When I asked for your sizes, I bet you didn’t know it was for this, huh?”  

“Ohmygosh! I’ve never been in the ocean before! I’ve never worn a proper swimsuit before!” Momo stood and danced on her toes. Her eyes were like sparkling glitter bombs of overenthusiastic joy.  

Srassa was upbeat. She said she couldn’t ever remember wearing one, which I thought was weird.   

Then again, I didn’t know the world of nobles. Srassa said she knew how to swim, so I chalked it up to her mentor teaching her. Momo didn’t, though, so we were going to teach her. “The dungeon’s close to the ocean. It has over two dozen known entrances, but we’re going to the one near a rock formation to the south. The dungeon is under the sea floor. It sounds weird, but it’ll make sense if you think of it as an underground cave that happens to be below the ocean. You have interconnected channels, rooms, and passageways. The caverns are pretty sizable. It’ll be difficult to see the ‘ceiling.' That's the bottom of the sand you'd walk on if you’re in the ocean, so be prepared for vertigo. It’s also considered a maze, so prepare accordingly. Your objective is to collect ten wateronia petals from the underground spring located at the bottom. I checked it out a few days ago, and it’s really a breathtaking sight.”  

After that, Dineria asked if we had any questions, which prompted Srassa to ask things I didn’t even think about.   

There were pitfall traps that enabled you to quickly descend to the bottom. The monsters included Merfolk, shorelings, brine serpents, and water slimes. They weren’t difficult, and all were weak to lightning. The water slimes needed to be killed with magic because melee weapons would do hardly any damage.  

However, she told us we needed to have enough supplies for three days. Dineria expected it to take two, but she said the ocean’s tide covered the entrances and some pathways after night. If we were in the wrong place at the wrong time, we’d have no choice but to wait until morning. Camping out was child’s play, so we were ready for that.  

“And that about covers it. Take today to get supplies. You all should have enough dupla left over from your time selling tridents and jewels from the brine serpents. You’ll embark on your trip tomorrow. After returning and bringing me the petals, we’ll have a fun day at the beach at the kind, generous Lieutenant Fisher's behes! He so valiantly offered to finance our celebration! But the fun must end, so we’ll leave the next day.” 

“That sounds like a plan. Come on, girls! We gotta go shopping.”  

“Lead the way, captain.” I stood up when Momo skipped through the door, and I went to follow.    

“Hey, wait! Don’t go so fast. Umm… Thank you, Ms. Dineria. We’ll see you later tonight, okay?” I heard Srassa’s loud, armored footsteps follow close behind. “Hey! Wait up! Servy!! Ms. Momo!!!”   

---

“Salted meat?”  

“Check!”  

“Water-resistant cloaks?”  

“Check!”  

“Water-resistant blankets?”  

“Checky!”  

“Coal? Wood? Tinder? Kindling? Spare clothing?”  

“Checky check check!”  

At the entrance to the dungeon, located on a beach to the south, Srassa, Momo, and I were giving our supplies one last look while Dineria watched over us from the comfort of a small tent. We spent the previous day shopping from morning to dusk, using the money we had saved over our time here to purchase every little thing we could’ve needed.   

Of course, Momo had never stepped foot on sand before, so we let the hyper singi gush about it for a while before we began.    

“I see you bought healing and skill energy potions. That was a good idea.” Dineria crossed her legs and looked at the ten glass vials in the sand. Five were red, and five were blue.    

“Yep! Honestly? We should’ve gotten some when we took on the quest to obtain the Battle Mage skill path. I kinda thought against it because we needed money for the inn, but we can’t take any chances. We need to be prepared.” 

“You can thank Srassa for most of this. She’s like a walking encyclopedia. There were things we bought that I didn’t even think about," I said, raising a hook and rope.   

“I don’t think that'll be useful, but you never know when something will come in handy. Now, how are you going to divide your gear?”  

“We thought of that last night.” I told her I was carrying half of the food and perishables. Items stored in my ring were safer than those in Momo’s bag. I was keeping 1 of the health potions in case of separation. Momo knew a healing spell, and I had Albert. My friends knew he could heal me by dealing damage, so I was covered there.    

As for the miscellaneous gear? Srassa had Flamewand, and I didn’t, so I took most of the fire-starting materials. Albert said he was an expert at living off the land, and Dineria verified his encyclopedic-like knowledge.   

She was very impressed.    

But I didn’t need fire since I couldn’t die from hypothermia, so all of this was a moot point that only Dineria understood. And I knew she knew it. We had talked last night after Momo and Srassa went to the bar to get some juice.   

“Seems to me like you have it all figured out. Remember, you got three days, but I expect to see you back in two. If you’re not here on the fourth, I’m coming in to get you.”   

“Okie dokie! Alrighty, is that everything?” Momo asked after we had the gear situation handled.  

“I think it is,” Srassa replied. She was enthusiastic and primed—ready to go. And I was feeling the hype, too.   

We waved goodbye to Dineria and entered the cave. Immediately, it transitioned into a deep slope. The sand made it difficult to keep our balance because it was fine and thin. But our boots had spikes on the end. There was a layer of soft dirt under the sand, which helped us keep our grip. And the walls were narrow enough to touch if you spread your arms. Worst comes to worst, we would shimmy our way up.   

Srassa’s and Momo’s arms would be screaming at them to stop.   

“Hup…” Momo leaned back and slid the rest of the way. After reaching the bottom, she retrieved a torch and lit it. I was behind her, but Dineria wasn’t kidding when she said this place was huge. Shimmering azure crystals were used as torched to offer light, but we were in a cavern.   

I noticed we were on a thin bridge. It presumably led deeper into the dungeon, but there were other bridges way above us, stretching from passage to passage. I looked over the edge and saw more.   

“We can continue. Or we can try to climb down to a lower level. Our goal is the bottom, right?” Momo asked.  

“Oh, we could jump if we had wings. I don’t see any on your back,” I replied.    

“Hey, I could have some. You never know.”  

“Do you?”   

“…No, I don’t. Unfortunately, I can’t fly with my tail.”   

“Ms. Momo, what about the hook and rope?”  

“There’s nothing for it to secure into. And I don’t think it’s long enough.” Momo leered over the edge and shuttered. She said she didn’t do well with heights and walked forward after instructing us to remove our boot spikes. 

We followed, and we met a handful of shorelings ahead of us. They were even taller than the adults. Momo extinguished the torch. I gave Srassa her bow and arrow from my ring, and she focused, letting two projectiles loose. Her accuracy was impeccable! She pierced two through the eyes. 

Momo followed it up with Shockwand, which paralyzed them in a current of shocking electricity. I finished it with Duskwand, which knocked them over the bridge.   

Momo winced when she heard a splattering noise and said she really, really hated heights.   

We continued through four more similar rooms. When you broke it down, this place was beautiful. The crystals were sparkling. I said it reminded me of Momo’s eyes, and our captain blushed. I didn’t have any way to get to them, though. I probably could’ve shot them, but they weren’t within my range.   

Suddenly, Momo told us to wait when her ears twitched. She put the torch to the ground and killed the light, then readied her wand in one hand and her sword in the other.   

There was a circular platform ahead of us devoid of enemies, but Momo said she didn’t like the faint noises she heard.   

“Hold on,” I said, pulling a blood crystal. I had thousands of these things, so I tossed them into the platform.   

Suddenly, it was engulfed in a blueish light and vanished.   

“That’s a teleportation trap!” Srassa exclaimed. “Ms. Dineria didn’t say anything about them.”  

“What do we do?” Momo asked. “We can risk using the rope to climb down. Or we can…”  

“Albert, think you can help?” 

Of course. 

I cut my wrist with my scythe and summoned my revenant, who walked towards the platform. He used [Undead Storage] to retrieve a mere skeleton archer. He crouched and ordered the undead to approach.   

It soon vanished, and Albert focused. “It’s a trap,” he said. “Four brine serpents and a dozen Merfolk are waiting on the other side. Ah, the skeleton died.”  

“That seems a bit too dangerous.”  

“Yeah, I agree. You think someone tampered with it?”  

“You mean dungeon poachers? Father told me about them. They place traps in dungeons to distract, separate, or injure unsuspecting parties.”  

“The skeleton didn’t see any poachers. Although they could still be within the dungeon. Unfortunately, it looks like the gate is one-way only. The trapped room has multiple paths, however.”  

I threw a few dozen more blood crystals to precisely outline the trap’s activation range. It seemed constant, but Momo didn’t want to risk it.   

But what could we do? Albert brought out another saved skeleton and had it walk the path a dozen times without incident. Momo was okay with it, but she made us hold hands while we tiptoed around it. She breathed in relief when we were past it.   

“How did you hear it?”  

“It was like a faint buzzing sound. Kinda like a bee.”  

“I’ve heard singi could hear the crackling of magic fields. Wow, you’re amazing, Ms. Momo!”  

“You know it, girlie. Now, let’s continue.” 

---

It took forty minutes before we left this section of the dungeon. And during that, we came by another two teleportation traps. We bypassed them the same as before, but it was starting to piss us off. It took time, but we left the tall, cylinder rooms with skinny bridges connecting a few hundred corridors above and below us for what felt like a standard cave.  

The shiny crystals were closer to the ground, so I cracked a few and stashed the fragments in my ring. The brine serpents went down with just two casts of Shockwand. The jewel on their heads supercharged the magic and doubled its range.  You merely had to strike it. 

Progress was easy. The Merfolk we saw were taken out by Srassa’s and Momo’s archery. The singi had bought [Precise Shot] and [Multi-Shot], using both to send two arrows through two heads simultaneously. The group consisted of ten, so while they were distracted, I sleuthed from behind—using the darkness to hide my form— and sliced them with my scythe.   

Albert was summoned immediately, and he expertly danced around them, weaving around their rapid thrusts with ease. He admitted he felt a portion of his strength return with every fight.    

I wanted to do more. [Necromancy] had a category called [Bones], which sounded worthwhile. But while I was gathering Soul Points, NP was nowhere to be found.   

That was the limiting factor.    

I needed to kill a bunch of necromancers…  

I was weak when you thought about it. Momo and Srassa had the power and agility, Albert had pure skill, and I was just the blood crystal enchanter. Soul Points differed from Skill Points, and since I never knew what kind of [Warden Skill System] ability I would need at any given moment, I was saving all of my Skill Points for a rainy day.    

“[Summon Skeleton Squire].” Albert thrust his glowing trident into the ground, where a skeleton wielding a buckler and curved sword clawed itself to undead life. This was our strongest skeleton, and it needed twenty humanoid corpses to create. That wasn't always feasible, so we kept summoning, which was weaker.  

Albert wore multiple crimson rings under his gloves, enchanted with more undead summoning spells. He needed a single [Create Low-Tier Undead] enchanted blood crystal accessory to access the low-tier catalog.  

It took point while leading us through the cave-like mazes, but he faded away before the next fight.   

The squire did its job against the Merfolk riding the brine serpents. They surrounded it while we fought off an encroaching advance of shorelings, who used their sharp gusts of water to relentlessly harass Srassa’s shield. She retaliated with flames, which boiled the water coating their bodies. Momo drew her sword and rushed forward, stabbing one between the cracks in its carapace. Their defenses were substantially weakened after the liquid evaporated, so even my scythe could cut through.   

“Help the squire!” I shouted, turning my body to gain speed to cleave a shoreling in half. Srassa nodded and rushed to join the skeleton, who held its own. She instantly connected to its fighting style and fought back-to-back, using her shield to cover what the undead couldn’t avoid. Her armor paid for itself and deflected the thrusts. She feared the worst when one jumped back and raised a glowing yellow trident.   

I understood the Merfolk language. I knew it was about to use [Paralyzing Shroud]. The squire pushed Srassa out of its range and faced the full brunt. Unable to move, it was cut down without remorse. The merfolk laughed gleefully and taunted the walking dead. Albert emerged by that point and finished the disgusting bastards with Srassa’s renewed anger.   

She knew the skeletons weren’t alive. They were minions, basically, and they couldn’t talk or hold a conversation. Anything you told them would be forgotten almost immediately.    

I wonder if the mid-tier undead will have personalities? 

But she still wanted to say something and apologized to Albert for failing it.   

He was a gentleman, through and through, and navigated Srassa through this odd time until she was better. The man could really do it all. 

---

“Oh, come on! Another dead end?!?! MEERROWWWA!!!”  

“Easy, captain. You sound like a feral cat.”  

“Well, I am! Ugh!!!” Momo growled and stomped. “That’s the sixth one!” She turned around and sighed, looking at her reflection in the walls of azure crystals that surrounded us.   

Yep.   

We were in a stubborn maze after braving through the manageable caverns. 

Its beauty was…misleading because Momo went from loving to wishing it would die in three hours flat.    

The walls of the maze provided a ton of light. It was almost like looking at the sun. Srassa made the mistake of using Flamewand when we first entered because she heard a monster around the corner. The fire’s illumination nearly blinded us because the crystals strengthened any light it reflected.  

I tried to break it, but punching it fractured my hand, which Momo then fixed with her healing spell. I needed to take half of a health potion, though. Itarr said the walls were all considered one being, and when you did the math, our entrapment was way larger than that boat. By her estimates, the goddess indicated she would need a few days to properly absorb it all, so that was out of the question.   

After we had entered, Srassa said Jony once told her that the best way to solve a maze was to put a hand on the wall and follow it. That would work, but what if the exit was hidden? Or you couldn't see where you were going? That could prevent you from seeing a lever or switch or something, but that wasn't the case here.

Is there something else we can do? Hmm...

“Ms. Momo, maybe it’s time to take a break?”  

“Yeah, you’re right.” Momo plopped down and searched her bag for some sandwiches we prepared the night before. They were wrapped in blue cloth, which we soaked in ice to make it extra cold.  

We chomped into them and drank our water-filled canteens as we discussed what to do. Technically, the walls didn’t reach the ceiling. And we had a rope with a hook on it...  

That was out of the question, but not because we couldn’t throw it that far.   

The rope wasn’t long enough...and Srassa launched it clear over the wall, losing it.  

The noble cried, whimpered, and apologized for losing our gear, but she recovered well enough when Momo revealed she had a spare.   

“What about a teleportation gate? Can you hear anything?”  

“Nah. I’ve been focusing, but the monsters are making too much racket. Sound echoes like crazy in here.”  

“Is the only choice to keep going?” I asked. Srassa suggested returning and trying to find another path through the caves. There were other passageways we avoided, but perhaps they were the key to descending further. Albert noted we were gradually going at a decline when we conquered the caves. By his estimate, we were about 150 to 200 feet lower than after we first entered the dungeon—back when we passed through those cylinder rooms with narrow bridges.  

“Let’s finish our snack. Then we can--”  

“I GOT IT! Captain, look at this!” I exclaimed, pulling a blood crystal from my ring.  

“BWYA!! Geez! My heart almost beat out of my chest...” Momo took a breath, then watched as I used the knife that appeared whenever I invoked the blood crystal skill to carve the crystal into a spike. “Okay... But what are you--”  

“If the walls don’t reach the top...and our rope and hook can’t reach it... Why not make a ladder? Or our own path?” I stood and walked to the wall and jabbed it in.  

“The walls may be too tough, Servy,” Srassa said. “Perhaps if we can make a little hole. Or if we can weaken it. But using flame magic or lightning is out of the question. [Acid Arrow] may help, but it’s bright enough to reflect.”  

“That’s why I have this... Just...give me a second...” I took four more crystals and began to make something like an old-fashioned hand drill with a U-shaped handle. Albert knew what it was and offered a few improvements, which I used in the second iteration I made minutes later.   

I demonstrated the tool in front of them. Slowly but surely...  

There was a hole.  

The spike fell out when I jabbed it in, so I made the drill bit smaller and used the tool at an angle. 

Itarr worked on creating two more copies, and after Momo and Srassa finished eating, they worked to become familiar with it.   

“See? If we use it like this, we can get out,” I said, stepping on a blood crystal spike. I bounced up and down with my full weight, but it only slightly moved. Srassa’s armor was heavy, but it also stood up to her when she jumped on it.   

“Your blood crystals are utterly amazing, Servy.” I held Srassa’s hand when she jumped down. “There’s practically infinite uses for them.”  

“You can thank Albert for that.”  

“Albert, you’re amazing.”  

“He said you’re welcome. He almost sounds embarrassed to receive your praise... But wait...” I took my phone out and sent Itarr and Albert a message.  

If I was right in this...  

Why the hell did I not think of this before? It’s so obvious…  

Suddenly, the icon of a scythe etched onto my ring was glowing, and Albert materialized a few moments later. He held a blood crystal in his gloved hands, which melted and was absorbed by his body. 

“I suppose this is a workaround,” said Albert. He reached into his pocket and retrieved three more blood crystals.  

“Yay! So, this means you can come out whenever you want?”  

“That appears to be the case, Momo. Now, allow me to offer my assistance...”