Chapter 11: The Water Palace
(General POV)
"Is there any point in us being here, or should we just move along?" Gareth questioned over the roar of battle.
All the Loki Familia watched as Steve ran across the great basin of the 27th floor, everywhere his foot landed turning to ice as he made it difficult for Amphisbaena to move around properly. The two headed water dragon swiped at the gamer but he lifted his left arm and just batted the giant limb aside as he leaped towards the head.
The one that breathed fire came forwards first hoping to incinerate him point blank but he delivered a swift uppercut that sent that head flying back, smashing the top of its skull against the rocks of the great waterfall.
The head that breathed the magic dispelling mist then tried to breathe in his face, hoping to dispel any magical power inside his body and cause him to implode on himself. But with his other hand, he slapped its snout downwards which made its head sink beneath the water.
All over its body were missing scales which revealed patches of pink bleeding skin underneath and its tail was pretty much mangled in unidentifiable mush after Steve had grabbed it by the tail and slammed it around on the rocks and in the water like something out a cartoon episode. The thing was though, he'd been doing it so violently that the body of the dragon twisted on itself and where he'd been holding the tail had shredded apart under the pressure of his hands.
And all the time, he had been running around on top of the water, never sinking underneath, but somehow his feet formed ice under it which impeded Amphisbaena's smooth swimming. Amphisbaena moved in the water like an alligator, using it's tail to swing but in the condition it was now, there was no way it could manoeuvre in the water now.
"No. Let's at least stay and watch until he's done." Tiona said excitedly as she watched with amazement how Steve manhandled the two headed serpent like an ant. "That way we can congratulate him on his win when he's done."
"Is there really any point though?" Tione asked. "Can this even be called a fight? It's not even been a minute and it's already pretty much down for the count."
In those few moments alone it had been made obvious to the Loki Familia what the tactic was. Limit the movement of the dragon, then take away its rudder rendering it incapable of movement to begin with. Then corner it and finish off the job.
Which was comical that a human was cornering a two headed dragon almost a hundred times his size like a rat.
The left head which was the one that breathed the blue fire swung back around at Steve while he was mid-air, hoping to bat him away. It tilted the crystal like formations on its head, so that the sharp points would connect with his body. But Steve was ready as he pulled his left fist back into a guard position, before punching forwards with more of his strength.
The crystals on the left head shattered under the impact and there formed a crater in the dragons head as it skull caved in and the underside of its mouth exploded outwards with a shower of blood flesh and teeth. The pressure from the punch had passed through the scales and the bone towards the soft matter inside and pushed it out the only way it could find. The head's eyes popped out at the same time, hanging by their optic nerves as it the entire left neck went limp and sank beneath the water just as the right head resurfaced.
Screaming with both agony and fury, the right head which had a big sail-like crest on its head came up with its mouth wide open hoping to devour the one who had just killed its counterpart. Steve was ready as he pulled out his sword and hacked downwards. The strength of that attack was enough to pull his whole body down, not counting the sheer weight of his weapon and his gear. He stuck the sword into the side of its mouth and dragged the blade down the entire length of its neck, turning it inside out with screams of his own fury, although his anger was for another reason.
"DIE YOU F***ING GHIDORAH KNOCKOFF!!!" He yelled as he reached the end of the neck and began cutting the body into right where the necks were interconnected. He disappeared below water level as he bisected the giant dragon. A moment passed before the entire floor shook as he landed on the floor of the lake and a giant splash formed over where he had entered it. It caused giant waves to start flowing in all directions, and nearly soaked the Loki Familia as the water splashed over the edges. Thankfully they were far away enough that the worst that happened to any of them was soaking feet.
The body of the monster rex stayed, suspended for a moment before exploding into a shower of smoke and the adventurers saw a glint of the core before it sank into the water. They didn't have to wait though as Steve shot right out of the water, bringing up the large stone with him. He landed on the shore and held his arm up in the air as he deftly caught the giant, glowing stone in his hand.
"At least I made it back with an intact core this time!" He cheered.
The Loki Familia clapped for him and hollered at his success. Quick as it was, it was always a sight to see a boss monster get taken down with such ease.
"It's yours to keep since you killed it." Finn said.
"You bet it is." Steve smiled. "I'm going to hang around here for a bit. There is something I want to check out. I'll meet you down at the safety point for camp."
The Loki Familia nodded and they wagons began moving with the guide of the vanguard as they moved down to the 28th floor. Steve stuck around, pretending to look out over the lake, waiting until he heard the last footsteps disappear down the stairs before he activated his Creative Mode and began flying up.
Unlike most other places in the dungeon, the Water Temple of the Water Palace as some called it did not have any clear distinctions between each floor. The floors above were clearly set apart from one another but the 25th to the 27th floor was just one large waterfall which ended in the basin at the bottom on the 27th, which was where the battle ground for monster rex Amphisbaena was. From Steve's perspective, the monster did not offer much more than the Irregular Goliath did. It took little effort from him to break its bones.
Technically, the Water Palace was just one giant floor altogether, which made sense as to how freely the Juggernaut had been able to rampage in the fourth season. Steve flew right up to the top of the waterfall and stood upon the giant rock formations that jutted out. Across from him was a great chasm that contained the large drop between he 25th and the 27th floor. On the other side of the chasm, he could see the pathways which came from the floors above and made their way down.
It was a bit of a maze trying to navigate this place. The Loki Familia were well used to it so they did it with ease but there had been so many twists and turns, he wondered if any adventurers just ever said 'Screw It' and jumped off the edge so they could reach the boss floor faster and not have to deal with that frustrating journey.
Slowly making his way up the water fall, he found the point from which it emerged, a large river coming from a great hole in the wall, the source of it all unknown but he could only guess that it was somewhere from the sea. It was hard to tell, as the Dungeon itself was a mystery even to the gods. It was the very thing that enticed them to come down in the first place.
"I've wanted to try this out for a bit." He said to himself as held a hand out to an item in his menu. "I've only ever read about stuff like this in novels and fictions. But let's see if it actually holds true."
From his menu, he withdrew a spawn egg...an Elder Guardian's spawn egg to be precise. One of the other things that was different in this world was that he could place these down normally and they wouldn't spawn the entity inside. To spawn an entity, he had to throw it or at the very least, the outer shell had to be cracked.
He placed the egg down on the ground and stepped back for a bit, waiting to see what would happen. A few minutes went by, but nothing.
"Maybe I should spawn it in after all." He said and walked back over to the egg.
Picking it up, he gave it a once over. He'd not actually spawned in this entity yet. He'd spawned in other mobs before and suffice to say, the realistic versions of themselves instead of the pixelated blocks were way better than improved graphics or fan art. Zombies were actually disgusting...that should give you an idea of how good the mobs looked in real life. Taking a deep breath, he threw the egg down a little further away from him and within a blink, a slimy mass was flipping and flapping around.
It was about as big as a small elephant and as long as perhaps an alligator. It had a body resemblant of a slug except that it had scales and a fin at the end of its tail that hard sharp points to it. It's body shape was rather resemblant of a puffer-fish when it wasn't blown up. And of course, there was the signature eye in the middle of its face, around which were several large purple horns curving in.
As he was in Creative, the thing paid him no mind as it flapped around on its belly. It caught sight of the river and tried to wriggle its way over but on land, it had a vastly reduced mobility. Steve sighed though as he looked around and saw no visible reaction of anything anywhere to this thing's presence.
"Oh well, it was worth a try." He took out his sword and wordlessly plunged it into the creatures head, instantly killing it. The good thing about the realistics kicking in was that it didn't take multiple hits to kill a mob as it did in game. You could hit a vital spot and the creature would instantly die. He then took out his notebook and began jotting a few things down.
"No visible reaction from the dungeon on a foreign monster inside. The mob is attracted however to familiar elements from its natural environment." He glanced up at the carcass, and yanked his sword out. The body disappeared in a white puff of smoke, dropping behind sponge and some prismarine shards. "The drop items are the same though."
He looked up again to see that a few extra items had also dropped. Some bits of skin and the scales had dropped too.
"They don't necessarily have to be drop items though. Could have been dislodged before it was killed." He looked at the rut it had made when trying to get to the water and indeed, there were some scales lodged in the dirt. "Yep, not drop items." He flipped the notebook closed and put it away. "So what nothing happened? That is the point of experiments after all." He left the drop items on the floor, knowing they would despawn soon as he hadn't placed them. It was only if he handled an item that they would not despawn in a weird twist of physics. But if his hand hadn't touched them and they'd just been dropped from a mob, then they would disappear. It was weird.
"All this time experimenting with my powers, and I still haven't figured out all the kinks." He sighed. "At least it will keep me occupied."
He looked up as a distant sound of barking was heard. He recognised it as Bathsheba's calling up to him all the way from the the 27th floor. He dusted himself off and jumped over the edge, letting himself free fall to basin below so he could join up with his Warg and his new friends.
...
Moments later, the drop items he'd discarded as well as the scales and skin left behind by the Elder Guardian suddenly sank into the dirt, like some sort of force was sucking them in underneath. The dirt closed over the items and the rut fixed itself soon after as well.
The place where the Elder Guardian had perished rumbled for a bit and made some nearby puddles shake with ripples before all went silent again.
---
"What was it that you wanted to check out?" Finn asked as Steve approached the camp with Bathsheba.
"Nothing much. Just wanted to take some notes of the terrain, that's all." Steve said. "Are we settling here just for a rest or we spending the night?"
"We're spending the night." Finn answered. "It's much more difficult to tell the time in this part of the dungeon since we don't have an of the moss from the floors above to give us light levels. But I estimate it's night outside the dungeon. Let's get some rest, because the next floor onwards is much harsher."
"In what way?" Steve asked as he sat down on a large log that had been placed in front of the fire as a makeshift bench.
"Well next is the Dense Forest Ravine you see and it's not so much the terrain that makes it difficult to fight in but the kind of monsters there."
"What type?"
"Lizard type monsters." Finn answered as he took a sip from his bottle. "Like the Bloodsaurus for example."
"Saurus? You mean dinosaurs are down here?"
Finn gave him a puzzled look. "What, you know these monsters?"
"...I'd only ever seen creatures resemblant of that name in books." Steve put a hand on his chin and gave a small smile. "Dinosaurs huh? This should be interesting."
Finn's frown deepened before he shrugged it off.
"By the way, I've been meaning to ask you. Did you get the liver?"
"The what?"
"When you killed Amphisbaena, did you get the liver?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"When Amphisbaena dies, its drop item is a dragon liver. It can be sold for quite a lot of money." Finn said flatly. "You didn't check did you?"
"Fuuuuuuuuuuu*k" Steve groaned as he got up and made way to the stairs. How long was he going to spend fishing around in that giant lake for a drop item, even though it should be relatively large?
---
(Later that night)
Bathsheba pawed at her Papa's face in desperate attempt to rouse him. Only after covering him in slobber did he register that he was being woken. He got up with a slight jolt and flicked off the slimy drool in disgust.
"Urgh, what was that for?!" He said angrily. "Disgusting!"
Bathsheba gave him a few alarmed yaps and his eyes widened.
"You found what?"
Another couple of yaps followed by a low growl.
"Show me NOW!" He said as he got up and quickly equipped his armour over his bare skin.
Quickly, they both rushed out of the tent taking care not wake anyone. The patrol guards were on the other side of camp but if the two did make any noise, they didn't bother to really check as they knew Bathsheba prowled the area that Steve slept in. Steve took to flight and was about to go up the stairs when he paused, slapped his head and ran another command.
Instantly it seemed like his body became invisible or intangible, whatever you would like to call it. But even if one were to focus properly, they would still have a hard time seeing a transparent head of a human boy phase into the ceiling. Using Spectator Mode, Steve instantly passed through an entire floor to go back to the boss floor. Up and up he went even further until the sound of clashing metal could be heard.
Following the noise into one of the many complex pathways by which ran one of the many smaller rivers generated by the waterfall. There he came upon a perplexing and unbelievable scene, so much so that if he was able to do so, he would have rubbed his eyes.
There were a few adventurers, he would assume that they were a bunch of level 2 and a couple of level 3s screaming their heads off as they either tried to run or to fight a bizarre monster in the water. Bizarre to them but...somewhat familiar to Steve.
A giant slug/fish creature with one gleaming eye in the middle of its face looked like it had come out of the water and dragged itself onto dry ground to attack the adventurers. There was a few differences between the Elder Guardian that Steve knew and this one though.
This one was MUCH bigger, about twice the size of the original one. The curved horns that grew around its eye were still purple but there was a difference; the horns at the bottom of its face, instead of being curved inwards were curved outwards so that they stuck into the floor. Steve could see how they were a bit longer and he could see flexing of muscles at the base where they rooted into the body. While the tail wiggled about to produce momentum, those spikes pulled the creature forwards in short but powerful bursts, almost similar to how a snail moves but obviously a lot stronger. It resembled a slug even more because he noticed that the underside of its body had left a wet and slimy trail behind.
More than that was it's outer body. Instead of the vulnerable, scaly skin that Steve was used to seeing in Elder Guardians, this one had a large exoskeleton grafted on its body, like the carapace of a crab. It was green and durable, and whenever the adventurers came near it and tried to hack at its body, their weapons just bounced off in showers of sparks. For good reason as well.
Because it was made out of Prismarine.
Steve whistled in amazement as he took this all in. His fast processing speed allowed him to deduce what had happened in moments as he remembered his activities earlier. What gave it away was the Prismarine. Guardians only dropped Prismarine shards, but they weren't made out of them.
He remembered the drop items that he didn't pick up at the top of the waterfall earlier on. There were plenty of scales and skin left behind, enough genetic material to perhaps learn how to create this new version of a Guardian. But the Prismarine shards he had left behind as well, assuming that they would despawn. The dungeon must have used those items somehow to create this newer, stronger and improved version.
The guardian opened the spikes around its eyes and glared at the adventurers suddenly, the large eye bulging out and Steve heard a familiar sound, like somebody striking a metal sheet with a small heavy object, and in front of their faces he could see transparent little guardians float in their faces like miniature little ghosts before the adventurers were covered in bronze particle effect. All of a sudden, the adventurers looked lethargic, unable to swing their weapons properly as they seemed to lose speed in their attack.
'It can cast 'Mining Fatigue' on them too!' He thought excitedly. Mining fatigue was a status affect in the game that decreased both mining and attack speed.
The excitement turned to serious alarm however as the improved Guardian bought its tail around and slapped the offenders away into their fleeing comrades. Then an orb of magic glowing purple began to gather in front the pupil of its eyes, slowly growing brighter and bigger in size as the darkness of the purple slowly began lightening into something else.
It was quite obvious what was about to happen as even the adventurers realized what was happening. Steve chose this moment to come out of Spectator Mode and kicked the creature in the face just as the orb turned a bright yellow, then instantly changing to green as a bright green laser shot out of its eyes. The laser was redirected into the dungeon wall where it smashed the rock, cracking up the wall.
The adventurers heaved a sigh in relief as judging by the damage done to that wall, they wouldn't have survived it.
"Go!" Steve commanded. "Stop gawking like idiots and run if you don't want to die!"
Seeing him in his armour and seeing the fact that he was able to kick the thing away when they couldn't even move it indicated how much stronger he was than them. Having to be a class higher than them, they swiftly observed him and booked it out of there as fast as they could to who-knows-where, Steve couldn't care less as he was too focused on the creature again.
It seemed the dungeon made no waste of the drop items he'd discarded. Underneath the belly of the Guardian was a layer of sponge, sea sponge it looked to be specific. And it was the thing responsible for the slimy trail that the monster was leaving behind as it oozed with gooey moisture. The sponge was the exact same colour as the one he'd left on top of the waterfall.
"Maybe the belly is not covered by the Prismarine carapace?" Steve deduced as it wriggled it way upright again. "However, it has to drag itself in order to move on land, so the sponge probably provides adhesion as well as a layer of protection to perhaps a soft underbelly that could be its weakspot?" Steve reason as he advanced, brandishing his sword. "Only one way to find out!"
The Guardian seemed to have kept its original moaning noise though, although it gave him an aggressive one. It tried to slap him aside with its massive tail as well but he backhanded it with much more force to make the creature flip on its side again and expose the sponge covered belly. Steve plunged his sword through and sure enough, there was no resistance as there was no prismarine shell covering the belly. Green blood spurted out as a shriek escaped the creature this time and it wriggled away grotesquely, rolling over back on to its belly.
It glared at him with an eye that had red lines growing around it as it charged up another laser attack. One thing he noticed was that it had kept its usual behaviour. Guardians usually kept a distance while charging up a laser. Only when those adventurers had been at a long range did it fire this attack. And even now, it had made sure to put some distance between it and him as it charged up another on. He was still close enough for it to have perfect aim and the laser hit him dead on. But it didn't even move him, nor damage him in any way. His hearts stayed the same even after being hit.
"You are strong." He said. "Far stronger than a regular Elder Guardian, and much smarter too it seems." He held up his sword and approached. "But you're still too weak to hurt me. You'd be at most a level 3 where as I am an overpowered Level 9!"
The Guardian somehow was able to look perplexed. It needed time to charge up again, so it bulged it's eye and Steve heard the familiar sound effect as the ghostly image of an Elder Guardian appeared in front of his face before a spoon icon flashed on his GUI.
"How cute." He said. "But this isn't the game. It's all math in the game but this is reality now." He approached its face as it something new this time. It tried to impale him with one of the spikes but was stopped dead by the armour. "I still have my stats, and my strength, even if you have decreased them, ONLY BY A LITTLE!"
Instead of slashing at it, he gave it an uppercut right in its eye with a colossal amount of strength. The sheer pressure generated by the punch not only caved its face in but shredded the body apart as well as guts and flesh blew out everywhere. The remains burst into white smoke and the flashing icon on his screen faded.
...
"Marvellous!" He whispered, his eyes wide with excitement. "My experiment actually worked!"
He followed the river against its direction of flow and sure enough, it ended where there was a tiny waterfall on the side of the main one that led right up to the ledge he'd left the drop items on. Flying up there, he surveyed the area and not only did he find no drop items, but the rut that the first guardian had made had disappeared like the dungeon had regenerated itself. Digging his hand around in the dirt, he found no sign of them which confirmed his theory. He took out his notebook and instantly jotted down his discovery.
"As opposed to a lot of what happens in fics and novels, the dungeon actually absorbs the 'drop items' to reproduce the same monster. Except it goes a step further and uses all the items to design a newer and improved version of the mob."
It was fascinating to Steve how it had taken his monsters and empowered them even further, with such meticulous detail that it was a completely different creature than the initial one. Which opened him to more possibilities. If he was being honest with himself, he had wondered quite a few times how the Minecraft mobs would compare to monsters in the Dungeon. Vanilla mobs would definitely be so much weaker than some of the Dungeon monsters. If he were to make an estimate, only the Minecraft boss monsters would pose any threat to the high level adventurers in this world.
But if the dungeon took those monsters and made them stronger...
...what would happen if he stuck a War-
NO! NO! NO! JUST NO!
There was no way he could think about that right now without taking precaution. Giving the dungeon a simple Elder Guardian that while strong in its own right was nothing compared to the other boss mobs, not to mention the custom mod mobs he had. But just that Guardian alone was enough to almost kill level threes. And possibly level fours as well if they weren't being careful. After all, he hadn't seen what that new variant could do in the water as he had killed it on land.
One thing at a time though. He would start off slow and work his way up the list.
"What should I call that new Guardian though?" He tapped his pen against his chin and thought back to the Prismarine carapace that it had. "Meh, 'Prisma Guardian' should do the trick. Those adventurers will probably report it to the guild since it is a new monster and all. They might name it something else though but we'll stick with that for now." He snapped the book closed and paused for a moment before dragging his palm over his eyes. "I forgot to check for drop items again. This is a bad habit."
He begrudgingly made his way back to the fight scene and looked around to see if he could find anything. His eyes caught onto something glinting in the available light in the muddy riverbank. Walking over to it, he pulled it out and surveyed it. It was a piece of the carapace, impossible to not recognize. Pure prismarine but not like a shard. There was something different about it. It was like instead of being brittle like it usually looked, it was very hard. 'Hard-to-break' kind of hard.
<New Recipes Unlocked!>
Came the notification in his interface. He frowned in puzzlement as he opened his menu and searched it. Finding the same piece of carapace in the materials section, he checked the other tabs until he opened the armoury tab and there he found something new. A whole new array of different weapons appeared before him as well as some accessories he'd found like jewellery and the like. All revealed by him simply picking up this weird Prismarine carapace.
"So if I give a mob's drop items to the Dungeon, it will reproduce an improved version of the mob with those drop items, and the drop items I get from 'those' mobs will unlock new recipes me for me to give me more drop items." Steve realized as a smile grew on his face.
Perhaps he could still play the game after all. And fill the hole in his gamer's heart.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment and Review!
Discord: discord.gg/ZF38TxgH
Read ahead on my Patreon:
Patreon/ Vulkizaro_Zoromi
For commissions:
Ko-Fi/ vulkizarozoromi
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone