บท 571: Crystal Fisher
Blue continued running around, jumping back and forth like a kid going to a playground for the first time.
"Why are you so hyped? It's not like this is the first time we've gone on a boat," Hera walked inside the dungeon.
The entire ship looked to be made out of wood, but on closer inspection, it was actually crystal made to look like wood. The entire thing was made with this material. Another thing was that this boat didn't have a mast in the middle of the deck where the sail was supposed to be. Instead, it had four smaller pillars coming from the sides of the ship that met in the middle, where a large crow's nest was located. It was hard to call those crystal beams masts since they were not going straight up. Instead, they were curved and bent to the middle of the ship, where a large crow's nest was located. From it, there was a ladder coming all the way back to the deck. It wasn't as dangly as a rope ladder, but it was far from being something sturdy. Between the front pillars was a large blue sail, and a large green sail between the two back posts. Neither of the sails had any markings. Looking at the front, Hera could see the jibboom that seemed to end at a very sharp point.
"I like ships! Especially the ones with sails. It makes me feel like a pirate," Blue said with a big smile, but she stopped and looked to Hera's side, "What's this?"
Hera turned to the side and saw, just by the entrance to the dungeon, a notice board with the dungeon quest written on it.
'Dungeon quest - A hungry crew
Part of the deal to chart the Crystal Fisher is to gather supplies for the ship's next voyage. Gather enough fish for the crew. You can keep any surplus.
First-time rewards:160 000 gold
Bundle of Spices.'
"That's a weird place for a notification," Hera said.
"Why does that matter? We got the notification anyway," Adriel started walking toward the side of the boat, looking for a good place to start fishing.
Right by the notice board was a hallway leading to what looked to be a captain's quarters. The walls were well decorated, and there was even a curtain in the back. However, instead of a table, as one would expect, there was a massive scale in the middle of that room. The left tray was empty, but it was touching the ground, showing that it was the heaviest side. On the right tray, there was a large barrel, but it was being held up with ease. Hera and Helena walked inside that cabin and noticed that the barrel was filled with water. As Hera touched it to test whether the scale was working or not, a notification appeared.
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The scale can only be tipped by depositing fish inside the barrel. When enough fish for the next voyage is deposited, the scale will balance.
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"Well... At least it was easy to figure this out," Helena chuckled and turned to the corner of the room where more barrels filled with water were on the ground. After a moment, she turned to Hera, "Those are salt water. We could use it to keep the fish before bringing them here."
"Yeah... but that doesn't mean it's a good thing. Usually, if a dungeon is too easy to figure out, it means that it's not exactly easy," Hera looked around and called her entire court out. This time Dao came along as well. Just like she always did, when entering a dungeon, she recalled all of her blades, including Daskka. It was something instinctive, despite knowing that that wouldn't be a problem. It was Hera's way of ensuring her court wouldn't be caught off-guard when she wasn't around.
She asked Nimbus to help them move the barrel Helena found since he was considerably stronger than both the women here. After that, they went back outside and told everyone of their discovery. Adriel was sitting on a crystal wooden chair that apparently could appear after pressing one of the buttons on the railing of the boat. Unable to see any danger, or something that could be a potential danger, everyone took a position on the right side of the ship and started fishing.
"This is kind of relaxing," Blue said.
"You literally just sat down in your chair," Hera chuckled.
"So? It's peaceful here, pretty, and fishing just gives a feeling of calm, you know," Blue smiled as she started to put the lure in her fishing rod. They didn't find any bait, be it live or otherwise. Then again, even if they did find that, it would probably be rotten to all hell.
Helena waited a moment for Blue to get really distracted and leaned toward Hera, speaking in a whisper, "Five gold. She gets bored in less than ten minutes."
With a smile, Hera replied, "I'm not taking a losing bet."
"Wow! That is a live one! Come here, my full-course meal!" Adriel gasped and started to reel in his fishing rod. That was a significant advantage he had over everyone else here. The elf used his own fishing rod, with a modern build, while the others used essentially big sticks with a line on top, "This is a big one! We might be able to feed the entire crew with it!"
He continued to fight with the fish going back and forth as one would see in a movie. The rest of the party watched him fight off this sea beast with all his might, enthralled by the performance, only to start laughing when the fish came out of the ocean. The full-course meal that was caught was smaller than Hera's index finger.
"I hope it's a crew of ants," Blue snickered.
"It's the MAZE. This thing obviously had some sort of magic that made it even harder to catch," Adriel huffed and put the fish in the barrel before tossing his hook back in the water.
'Empress. What is our goal here?' Dao asked.
'To catch fish and put them in the barrel back there. Actually, we probably need to catch more first and then slowly put them in the barrel. Since it mentions surplus when we put enough fish there, the dungeon might stop us from continuing fishing,' Hera replied.
'I see, and do they need to be... alive?' Dao was now closer to the edge of the boat. It was a tall ship, but if Hera was close to the edge, the blade could reach the water without a problem.
'I don't think so... why?'
'I possess electricity within me. Instead of wasting time fishing like that, I could zap the waters while Nimbus grabs the fish.'
Hera stopped and looked at the weapon, "That... is actually a good idea. Wouldn't it be even better if you get struck by lightning?" the Empress asked out loud while looking at the blade.
'Correct. That is part of the edict you gave me.'
"Lightning? That is a good idea." Blue smiled and started making a cloud.
"Wait, what are you guys doing? We are supposed to fish here!" Adriel gasped.
"We are just testing something. Besides, fishing with dynamite is still fishing," Hera smiled and turned to Blue, "Can you aim at Dao? It's my new blade. She has a skill that empowers her attacks when she is struck by lighting. It also makes lighting more prone to hit her, so aim like close so we can test this."
"Got it," Blue replied, and after about ten seconds, she tossed a small dark cloud, a bit bigger than the barrel, toward the ocean.
Dao moved around and got close to the water. Hera even had Frost moving out to give the new blade some extra distance to move around. The cloud flashed a couple of times, and a bolt of lightning came crashing down into the water. However, as it got closer to Dao, it was pulled toward her as if it was magnetized. The moment the attack hit Hera's court member, she felt energized. Almost as if she had just downed two cans of an energy drink. But it quickly became clear that this wasn't coming from her. Instead, it was coming from her blade. Dao was the one who felt like she had the energy to break the world. With a spin and a flurry, the flat-edge sword impaled the ocean and used her [Chain Lightning] skill. Hera even helped and pumped some extra mana to make it more powerful. She didn't go all out and just doubled the cost, going from 20 to 40 thousand mana.
The electric current spread out in a flash. Yellow tendrils moved fast beneath the still waters. They went far, far enough so that not even Hera, Nimbus, or Daskka managed to see where the attack stopped. With that over, Dao came out of the water and waited.
"Did it work?" Blue asked.
"I don't... Look there!" Hera pointed at the water, where a few fish started to float up. About a dozen or so sea creatures were emerging from the ocean. All of them were unmoving, which meant they were dead or just stunned. Either way, Hera wasn't about to wait around for them to recover, "Nimbus, Daskka. Try to grab them!"
The Herald jumped into action, turning herself into her red mist form, which was the most solid of them all, and started grabbing the fish with her mouth. At the same time, Nimbus flew down and used both his arms and legs to grab the food. It took them three trips, but they managed to get all 15 fish affected by the lightning and place them all in the barrel.
"I think we could toss a few of those in the scale and see how much it moves. Maybe with that, we can figure out how many we need for the quest," as Hera spoke, something came flying toward her at an incredibly high speed. However, Lurize, Ooze, and Frost flew toward it to parry it. That proved to be unnecessary as Nimbus slammed his bladed tonfa on the incoming attacker, sending a large flying swordfish to the ground.
"Is everyone ok?" the Sentinel asked with an angry expression.
The entire group nodded, but they heard water splashing as more and more fish jumped from the ocean. Hera managed to start at one and quickly used her [Observe].
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Crystalline Hunter - Level 25
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"Crap!" Blue yelled and sent another bolt of lightning to the sea. That attack caught a few monsters in the water, and the intense shock killed them.
For a moment, Hera considered that this should be a blessing in disguise. After all, instead of fishing, they could just kill the fish and use them as food, but her hopes were shattered when the one Nimbus stopped dissolved on the ship's deck, leaving some scales behind. With a sigh, she turned to Adriel, "Do you still want to fish, or can we keep going?"
"That is not fishing anymore!" the elf gasped as another Crystalline Hunter tried to hit him in the back. Adriel just spun around with his scimitar in hand and parried the monster before cutting it into several pieces before it could even leave his range.
Hera, Blue, and Dao continued attacking the water with lighting and killing large amounts of fish all at once. Then Nimbus, Daskka, went down to grab them while Helena used a version of her shadow grabbers that tossed the fish back to the ship.
After about five minutes, they managed to grab about 30 or so fish when a larger creature came out of the water and landed on the deck. It had eight limbs covered in some silver metallic armor with small golden trims dividing the numerous sections that went across each of the tentacles. Protecting its head was a dark bronze helmet with two golden eyesockets and some glass protecting whatever was inside. Hera could even see some gears shifting on the back of the helmet, but she couldn't tell what they were doing.
"A steampunk octopus? That's a first," the Empress said just before the monster started an attack with one of its tentacles aiming at her.
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