The Mad Rat’s Lab

For the past few minutes, we’ve been traveling a series of tunnels excavated into the seafloor. From the holes, we can see parts of the surroundings, which gives us a decent idea of how it looks from the outside.

The seafloor, divided into several ridges that touch each other, is filled with holes that go deep into the rock. Those holes are the same as the ones we’re using as tunnels, which means this place is huge.

In short, it’s a massive and extremely complicated labyrinth excavated into the seafloor.

The passages are filled with sea snails. Their trails slow us, something that’s incredibly annoying when you want to travel as fast as possible. Furthermore, when we find one, it always spits a sticky substance that further reduces our speed. If we’re unlucky to be affected by the two, added to the lower speed underwater, it makes us move at a snail’s pace. I mean it literally.

But this all would be a joke and a waste of time if not for one tiny, insignificant thing…

Well, maybe not so tiny, and certainly not so insignificant. Yes, you guessed it right. I’m talking about the white whale.

It seems like The Great White Whale has decided to take this seriously. Since I almost died to the water jet, it has been using those water jets to harass us every time we get close to one of the holes on the seafloor. I’m sure it has some way of detecting where we are, it’s just that we don’t know how.

Thank god the seafloor is indestructible unlike all the terrain before!

“How long will it take? I’m tired of the snails, the water jets, and the labyrinthic layout.”

“Hmmm…” Ricard thinks for a while before answering. “Assuming we didn’t take a wrong turn… It shouldn’t take too long, I believe.”

“Let’s continue then. I want to leave this place as soon as possible.”

We hear a high-pitched sound. After this sound, the whale will attack us, so we look around to spot it before it’s too late.

We’ve tried our best to stay in the central area of the ridges because it’s where you can find fewer tunnels connecting to the outside, making them safer from the whale’s attacks.

But this doesn’t mean there aren’t any. When I turn my head to the right, there it is: a perfectly circular tunnel that connects to the exterior. Although the rock is indestructible here, it isn’t difficult to imagine who created those holes.

Soon, everything outside turns dark. A huge shadow is obscuring all we can see.

We jump into a side tunnel right before the place where we were is blasted by a torrent of water. An unlucky snail, caught in the whale’s attack, passes before us at a ridiculous speed.

I’m sure it’s the first time it reached such a speed. The first, and the last.

“Haha, one annoying bug less,” I say.

“You’re right. And it’s one soul more for me! I didn’t need to move a single finger, hahaha!”

Do you know what’s the most dangerous thing in this place? Unlike you might think, it isn’t the whale’s attacks. The most dangerous thing is the snails. Well, the snail’s slowing effects to be more precise.

It’s hard to avoid the water jets on time if your speed is severely reduced.

We continue advancing through the tunnels. From time to time, we look outside to check we’re going in the correct direction. The purple glow we saw at the start has been visible all along, showing where the dungeon core is.

Another snail appears, delaying our advance. But this time, before we can defeat it, we hear the whale’s cry.

“Shit! Not now!” Ricard, who’s usually at the front, panics. Before looking around, he pushes one of his specters forward, forcing it to take the snail’s spit head-on. “Where is it coming from this time?”

“Uh… from there.”

I discover the whale’s shadow from one of the two tunnels connecting to the outside. We immediately run away, leaving the slowed specter and snail behind.

“Hey, Baldy. I saw what you did. You sacrificed your own unit.” I taunt him. “Aren’t you always talking about your ‘undead legions’ and whatnot? You won’t have any remaining at this rate…”

“What?” He looks surprised. “Ah, you mean when I used it as a shield right now… Hahaha, they’re my undead legions, so of course they wouldn’t mind dying if it meant I’d survive. Furthermore, they’re already dead. They wouldn’t mind dying a second or a third time, don’t you think?”

“Uh, well…” It makes kind of sense, but I’m against the idea, so I stay silent.

I would never treat my dear babies as disposable units! Absolutely never! …except when needed. But this and that are two different matters.

 

---

 

It took us ten more minutes to leave that seafloor labyrinth. After that, we went through a few more areas.

The first was an underwater cave. Nothing much to say about it other than it was dark and hard to see. I now understand why it’s important that the whale is white. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to spot it before it was too late.

Let me tell you a secret. There are worse things than giant whales in the darkest places of the sea.

The second one was very special. Plants floating on the water with leaves so large they looked like islands. They had equally large flowers and roots that reached the seafloor, of course.

I was happy to know we would go outside the water to climb on the leaves, as we wouldn’t have survived if we had to swim between the roots with the whale chasing after us. I wasn’t that happy, though, when I discovered that the plants were so far apart that we had no choice but to cross the distance between them by swimming.

Have you ever seen one of those movies where a shark lurks below the water, and the protagonist has to swim to climb on a boat and survive?

Well… this was the same. Except our predator was slightly bigger, big enough to eat us whole. Including the boat.

Yeah. Better don’t come here if you don’t like being eaten.

Furthermore, this was the first place where you could freely fly… assuming you had a means to, in the first place. How do I know it? Because we were harassed by flying seagull-like monsters all the time.

The last one was a ship graveyard. I’m sure you can guess who’s the one who caused all those ships to sink. And there were so many monsters everywhere! It was the first time since the algae forest that I didn’t think the white whale was the greatest of our troubles.

And now, finally, our last trial awaits in front of us.

At least, that’s what Ricard said. If he’s lying to me, I’m going to kill him later. I swear it.

A massive inverted pyramid, growing out of the seafloor. Even when compared to the white whale, this one is a truly massive crystal structure.

There are several flat crystals near the surface, scattered in a shape that resembles a flower’s petals. Each one diffuses the sunlight, creating a spectacular sight below. There are several smaller crystals, like those at the top, growing from the central crystal structure. When the light passes through them, it changes colors, giving everything a fantastical feeling.

When looking from afar, you can see that the further down you go, the more chaotic it turns. But at the same time, the more beautiful it looks.

“Why is it that all the beautiful areas in this dungeon are also the hardest?”

“I don’t know.” Ricard shrugs.

“How are we supposed to climb this thing without getting eaten? There’s no place to hide!” I complain, looking at the whale swimming around the crystal structure. Why can’t it leave us alone!? “Or is the core of that pyramid empty?”

“No, there’s no such a thing.”

“Shit.”

I guess we can only do it the good old way: praying to god we don’t die and hoping for the best.

From Ricard’s specters, only a single one remains. The rest have been lost – or sacrificed – so that we could reach this far. Maybe the last one will make the difference between surviving and dying.

“Alright, let’s do this.” 

We start climbing the inverted crystal pyramid. When I say climb, I mean swim as fast as we can between the crystal platforms, trying to stay as hidden from the whale’s sight as possible. How long will this work before it spots us? I have no idea. But I hope it’ll take a while.

The further we go, the easier it’ll be to spot us. At the bottom, the shifting light, caused by the waves near the top crystals, makes it hard to spot us. But the higher up we go, the effects will diminish.

“Ah, man… it’s the same as before with the giant lotus flowers… We never know when we’ll make a mistake and die…”

“Hahaha! Follow me, and we’ll reach the end! I know the shortest path!” I’m not sure why, but I’m incapable of trusting Ricard’s words. I wonder why.

“Fine, I’ll follow you.”

I agree, but only because I don’t have any other option.

The Great White Whale spots us when we’ve climbed about a fourth of the crystal pyramid. We realize we’ve been spotted when, suddenly, the remaining specter is whisked away by a water stream.

“That was close! It passed right next to my face!” Shouts Ricard.

“Hey, didn’t you say this was the ‘shortest path’!? We didn’t reach the halfway mark and we’re already in trouble!”

“There’s nothing I could do about it. Everyone says this is the hardest part!”

“What!?” I’m shocked. “The hardest part? No, but I don’t see how it is any different than the previous areas… I, huh… Alright. I should shut up.”

In the middle of talking, starting from the white whale – who is looking straight in our direction, by the way –, several water streams extend from it in our direction. Like tendrils, they twist and turn, moving at a speed we can’t hope to match.

The crystals growing from the central structure make it impossible for the giant whale to come close to us, so it has decided to use ranged attacks instead.

Until now, it was hard to see the water attacks. But in this place, where light comes from above in several colors, the water changes the trajectory of the light and makes the water jets easy to see. Furthermore, we now have more space to move than when we were in those narrow tunnels.

That’s the good part, but not everything is good.

The crystals, which protect us from the whale’s physical attacks, make it harder for us to avoid the ranged attacks. Furthermore, there are so freaking many ‘water tendrils’ coming our way! And a single one is enough to kill us!

…well, maybe not straight-up kill us. But a single one is enough to send us flying directly into the whale’s mouth.

The result is similar, and that’s what matters.

“This is bad… But we can do it…” Thanks to Marta’s training, I can now perfectly avoid all ranged attacks. Sometimes, if I’m lucky. But when I do avoid them, I do so without taking any damage! Hahaha! “You won’t defeat me like that, you pathetic whale!”

“Hey, Mad Rat! Don’t call for more trouble.” Ricard struggles to avoid the attacks. “Huff, huff… it’s hard to do this while our speed is reduced and we have to climb the irregular crystals…”

His lack of exercise and coordination shows off even inside the game. I didn’t expect it to be so severe.

I should give him some extra motivation. “Baldy, imagine those water jets are angry angels coming for all those souls you’ve collected. They want to bring them to heaven–” I can’t finish my sentence before he starts shouting.

“Noooooooo! Nobody will steal my precious souls! They’re mine! Mine, and only mine! My precious, tasty human souls!”

Hehe, it’s a critical hit.

Thanks to me, Ricard’s evasive skills suddenly improve and we continue climbing.

“Hah, hah… this is annoying and dangerous, but it isn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. Baldy, didn’t you say this was the worst part– uh, oh… Nevermind.”

Realizing we’ve been avoiding all the attacks, the whale starts crying. Soon after, from the bottom of the sea, a horde of monsters starts swimming in our direction.

Ricard and I look at each other. He looks angry.

“…”

Will I ever learn to keep my mouth shut? Nah, I don’t think that’s possible.

“I-it isn’t my fault, okay? It was bound to happen sooner or later. I’m sure of it.” I give the best excuse I can. “L-let’s speed up. We can’t allow them to reach us!”

I don’t know what those monsters are, but I won’t stay here for them to come closer.

We climb the fastest we can, avoiding the water jets. We can no longer wait for the best chance to swim between crystal platforms, so we leave it partially to luck. This is, by far, the most difficult dungeon part I’ve ever seen. Not even Marta’s training can compare to this.

Please, don’t tell Marta or she’ll make sure to ‘broaden my horizon’. And I’ll suffer. So please, don’t tell her.

After what looks like an eternity, we finally reach the top crystals. They look impressive up close. Each one must be the size of a football pitch.

“Hah, hah… we did it. We did it! Fufufu! Hahahaha!” I start laughing as soon as I feel the solid surface of the crystal beneath my feet. “Hahaha! We’re unkillable! Eat this, white whale!”

“Hah, hah… t-this, isn’t, all… we, must, first…” Ricard can barely talk. “...reach, the, dungeon, c-core…”

“Come on, buddy. What’s wrong? The whale can’t reach us now that we’re on solid ground.”

“N-no, we, must…”

*Splash!*

With a large splash, the whale emerges and looks in our direction. It looks furious.

“Hah! What are you going to do now, huh? We’ve won!”

“N-no, Mad, Rat… you must, break the core… before…”

Ricard continues to talk, but I’m too busy taunting The Great White Whale to care about what he says.

“Hahaha! You’ll never reach us. We won, and now we’ll show everyone how we’ve defeated you! A-ah, ah…! N-no! S-stop it! I said stop it!”

Angry, the whale starts splashing around, creating large waves. I run away to avoid them, but Ricard is caught and dragged into the sea again.

“W-whaaa… I-I’m too, tired for this… Uaaah…!” Those are Ricard’s last words before he disappears from my sight.

“Fiuuu! That was close. I almost got dragged into– what the fuck is that!?”

Once the waves recede, the only thing I can see is a growing pillar of water coming from the direction where the whale was a moment ago. It grows and grows until it reaches the sky. It looks like the water streams the whale has been using all the time, but it’s a lot bigger.

At least a hundred times bigger.

The problem is that everything that rises must come down. And I’d rather not be near when this happens.

“W-what the fuck!? This isn’t fair! We’ve already won, you should accept defeat and let us safely reach the dungeon core!”

I start running towards the dungeon core at the same time the water starts falling. But it’s too late by then. Right when the dungeon core is about a meter away, I feel a huge weight on me, squashing me into the ground.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO! I shout, dropping to the ground, in my phantasmal form. “All that effort… wasted! I can’t accept this!”

“Hey, buddy.” Ricard, in his phantasmal form too, pats my shoulders. “If you’re so angry about having died, how about coming back another day? Also, there are multiple paths we can take, there’s no need to repeat the same.”

“Yeah, um… how about no?”

Wait a moment. When did I capture a Mermaid?

Hmm… was it during the first chaotic fight? Did Cyam capture a random Mermaid during the chaos? I can’t think of any other possibility.

Is this the consolation prize? I’m not complaining, it’s just that… isn’t it too little?

 

“All cp and xp obtained after a dungeon invasion are reduced if you died, surrendered, or came back to the entrance to leave. Special resources aren’t affected, though. It isn’t required to reach the dungeon core if you’re trying to farm for your special resources, but it’s recommended to do so anyway. This way, you’ll save time later.”

- Basic knowledge every player should know.