Aqua

  I quietly swim through the dungeon. Finding one monster after another down in it. With all of them dead.

  But that’s not all. Their corpses are completely drained dry.

  They’re emaciated. Practically just skin and bones.

  Well that doesn’t bode well for whatever’s in here.

  [These underwater livestreams sure do have a good amount of horror in them…]

  [I know, right? I love it!]

  [Some of the darker places are great down there. I’ve heard some streamers are doing don’t look away streams just watching Aqua’s broadcast.]

  Excuse me, what?

  I mean, I know the broadcast can’t match my eyes, making them use their own eyes. So the place to them looks far darker than it looks for me.

  But still.

  Horror?

  I glance around at the area around me with the only actual light in here being that from my armor, trident, and eyes. Mixed with the emaciated corpses the chat can probably barely see thanks to that very light, and the pitch black darkness around me inside of a dungeon…

  Okay, yeah, I guess I can see the horror vibe.

  Then again, the deep ocean is rather terrifying.

  I feel a shiver run down my spine as I remember that monster that almost lured me out towards it from the caves a while back. The one over level two hundred.

  What’s worse is that I’ve learned from the tour guide – who is still doing a good job at that role – that the monster in question is only from the seven thousand five hundred meter depth under the ocean. Which isn’t even the deepest.

  Even the tour guide doesn’t know the deepest layers of the ocean, but he does know that the deepest anyone has gone is the ten thousand meter mark.

  On the other hand, we up here are only at about six thousand and fifty meters. The very top of the deep layer, which starts at six thousand meters deep.

  As for where I was when I was fighting the snake? That was around the six thousand five hundred meter mark.

  I frown at that as I continue moving through the dungeon. Seeing one monster after another as the chat continues to freak out.

  But when I reach the bottom floor of the dungeon, things get even stranger. Because starting at that point, I begin to find what look like large eggs scattered around. With some green goop splattered across them, sticking them to the walls and ceilings.

  Well that’s not gross or weird at all.

  The chat seems to disagree as they blow up more.

  Out of curiosity, I go ahead and identify the eggs.

  And find a rather odd result in the process.

  [Brinewretch Egg – Level 10]

  Do I even want to know what a Brinewretch is?

  I stare at the egg for a few seconds before deciding that it may not be a good idea to shatter them without at least looking at what the momma brinewretch is like. Considering what happened with that snake.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  So I ignore the eggs for now and continue swimming through the dungeon, finding more and more of the goop covered eggs along the way.

  Until I finally find a large chamber with that same goop splattered literally everywhere and floating in the water. All with a single massive ball of goop at the center of the chamber.

  Uh…

  I identify the ball of goop just in case, only to find my fears confirmed.

  [Brinewretch – Level 45]

  Ah. Right. So this thing is five levels above the boss monster in the core room.

  Uh huh.

  Yeah.

  I turn around and quietly begin leaving the chamber.

  And, of course, the moment I make it out of the chamber itself, I sense a flare of the mana inside of that creature. Following which I hear movement behind me.

  When I glance backwards, I see something I was not expecting.

  The ball of goop moved, proving itself to be some sort of stingray that was just curled up into a large ball with that goop covering it.

  My eyes quickly move towards its stinger, which I notice is what’s just oozing out that goop. Yet the moment the monster’s eyes lock onto me – black and yellow in color – the oozing goop stops coming out of the stinger. Following which electricity begins to spark around its stinger.

  Fuck.

  [Get the abyss away from that thing!]

  [Run away! or swim I guess]

  [Get away now! Stingray stings hurt like a bitch, and I’m sure a monster stingray of that level will hurt worse than anything you can imagine! Especially one with electricity added in!]

  I begin swimming away as fast as I can, leaving behind tentacles once in a while to stop the thing that quickly begins to chase after me.

  But the stingray literally just stings each tentacle in an instant right when they get anywhere within a meter of its body. Making electricity run through the tentacles that get sting as they convulse, seemingly in pain. Only to collapse within a second as the portals vanish.

  Dead.

  It just killed the tentacles with a single sting each.

  What’s worse? Even after the tentacles are already dead, I can see the flesh around where the tentacles were stung turning black and withering away.

  Just what the abyss is in this thing’s venom?!

  I continue to swim away as fast as I can, fortunately building distance between myself and the stingray. Which seems to be relatively slow, with the exception of its lightning-fast stinger.

  When I’m halfway through the bottom floor of the dungeon though, something happens.

  All the eggs suddenly crack before baby stingrays pop out and begin rushing straight at me while using the goop to somehow speed up and go faster. And that’s not all as the goop itself begins to form a massive wall right at the entrance to this level of the dungeon.

  “Are you kidding me?” I mutter with a grimace. “I should’ve destroyed those eggs.”

  The chat is also suspiciously silent. Probably because it’s so dark for them here.

  Wait… dark?

  Why can a stingray with electricity use dark magic?

  My thoughts are answered when something bursts out of the goop. A large crocodile of all things.

  Oh.

  The stingray isn’t the one with the dark magic.

  That is.

  I identify it while hurriedly ducking down out of the way of its chomping mouth that chomps down on several baby stingrays.

  [Deep Dark Croc – Level 44]

  Right. So, almost the same level as stingy over there.

  Great.

  The bright side is that the stingray seems to switch its attention towards the croc. Probably because said croc just ate a bunch of stingy’s kids.

  I hurriedly move through the hole in the goop made by the croc before swimming upwards. Towards the entrance to this floor.

  Then I just kind of watch the two of them go at it while hiding most of my body behind the wall and just kind of peeking my head out. Because it could lead to something good.

  Maybe I can kill the victor. Or I could just swoop in and kill them both.

  Free EXP is always nice after all. Plus there’s the REGEN stat points.

  Although it’ll only be two points. But that’s still points. And points are nice.

  So I watch from the sidelines as the two boss level monsters fight each other. With the chat watching right alongside me.

  [Boss fight!]

  [A battle of monsters!]

  [Why is there a crocodile over six thousand meters beneath the ocean’s surface?]

  [Don’t question it.]

  [But why?]

  [Because I said so.]

  [MONSTER FIGHT! LET’S GOOOOOOOO!]

  They seem to be happy about it too.

  Anyway, the battle begins with the baby stingrays repeatedly trying to sting the crocodile. And failing miserably as they can’t get through its scales to even sting it.

  So the crocodile proceeds to gobble up the stingrays one by one while the mother stingray is arriving.

  Wait a second, I just remembered that these monsters aren’t actually called stingrays…

  I stare at the battle ongoing for a few seconds as the thing approaches the croc.

  Meh. Whatever.

  I’m dubbing it a stingray now.

  A goopy stingray at that.

  With that decision made, I continue watching as the stingray finally reaches the crocodile. With the light around the croc growing darker and darker as the croc’s eyes begin to glow with a pitch black light.

  Eerie.

  Meanwhile the stingray’s eyes glow yellow.

  Time for the first monster fight I’ve ever seen!

  I think.

  Probably?

  Whatever. Time to watch.

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