*There's something in those trees,* Auto said over their two-person sub-channel.
*I see it too,* Garath replied as he detached from the Chimerist and fell to the ocean floor. *Too many legs, dude. If those are spiders, I’m fucking out. Someone else is going to have to do this.*
Seeing that Garath had detached, Auto turned away from the white pillar and swam slowly toward the underwater tree line. *Not spiders,* Auto reported over the sub-channel he shared with Garath. *They’re… really ugly crabs.*
*Crabs?* Garath asked with relief.
The Necrologist laughed to himself, of course they were crabs. They were about three-hundred-feet below the water’s surface, how could there possibly be spiders so deep?
*They look really…* Auto paused. *Tasty.*
Garath laughed as he reached through the gate with one tentacle and started feeling around for the locking mechanism. *Can you Inspect them?*
*I did,* Auto replied. *No threat. They’re only Level three.*
*Eat up then, Orctapussy.*
Garath activated the third chamber and then had an idea. If he activated Plague, he may be able to give the whole Raid Group a decent grip of Experience, depending on how many crabs there were. The cautious side of him slapped a #nope on that idea though. If he could be sure that crabs were the only creatures in the underwater forest, it may have been a good idea, but there was no way to be sure it wouldn’t also bring the attention of the kraken or some shit.
You have activated 3/6 of the White Isles of Thisrak.
The fourth and fifth White Isles came and went just like the first three, though the constant travel and Stamina expenditure was wearing on the group. When Garath and Auto neared the ocean floor at the base of the sixth white column though, things got a little out of hand. For one thing, the ominous underwater forest did not thin out closer to the sixth pillar as it had with the previous five. In fact, the leafless trees ran all the way up to the column itself and were joined by thorny vines of the same inky black. The entire base of the column was obscured by trees and vines so far up that Garath couldn't even get eyes on the final chamber.
He wasn't excited about what he had to do next, but the Raid Group had already traveled several nautical miles, and everyone was exhausted. If he could get down there and activate the last chamber, they could get to the next area within the Dungeon.
Alice had told him through their messages back and forth while Garath and the Dungeon team were Leveling up that other groups she accompanied were inside The Dungeon for multiple days. She'd mentioned that the majority of what she had seen of the place was non-hostile, allowing the Parties to set up camp for the night in relatively safe areas. With hopes of a campfire and a good night sleep in his own natural form, Garath detached from Auto and slowly sank into the underwater forest.
It had already been dark near the ocean floor due to the water filtering out most of the light from above during the day, but now in the early evening it was much darker. He doubted that this world inside of The Tower was rotating in orbit of a star like the Earth did. Garath tried not to dizzy himself wondering why the day had progressed like a day outside the dungeon, even though there wasn't a sun in the sky. He slowed his descent by grabbing hold of one of the tallest branches and nervously looked around.
Garath saw a dark shape twenty or thirty feet down on the ocean floor skitter around a trunk of a tree and then disappear out of sight. Another to his left. And then more. Everywhere he looked, Garath saw little black forms moving this way and that. He knew they were crabs, but they still had too many legs for comfort. Cephalopods aside, four legs were the hard limit for Garath’s comfort. Garath hated spiders and was frightened even of crabs due to their resemblance of the wretched things. Garath hated that about the world of online gaming, too. Every single game had at least one area with gigantic, man-eating spiders. Trying to put his fears aside, Garath climbed down the branches of the black, leafless trees like an eight-legged chimpanzee.
Finally, he reached the ocean floor. The crabs, it seemed, wanted even less to do with him than he did with them. Head on a swivel to make sure the crabs didn’t sneak up on him, Garath slid the key through a hole in the metal grate and unlocked the last island.
You have activated all six of the White Isles of Thisrak.
Return to the chest to collect your reward.
Chapter Thirty – Si’am Whimstick
With the salmon now being directed through the fish weir and into the river leading up the mountain, Garath and the Party approached the cursed chest that had started them on their marine voyage. The native pod of orcas remained close behind but stopped just short of going ashore. Most of the Party shifted back into their natural forms as they reached the shore and approached the chest.
“I think I’m going to miss them,” Daisy said with a pout, looking out at the orcas still circling offshore.
“Yeah,” Garath agreed with a smile. He put on his down-to-business pants. “But we didn’t come here to make friends.”
Garath directed the Party into a defensive formation with Auto, Obawon, and Atlas standing between the casters and the chest, then Auto shifted into his Unibear form and reached out. When he touched it, just like the chest inside the massive bear corpse, a prompt appeared.
You are in the realm of Natsilane.
Natsilane thanks you for showing the salmon their way back home and would like to present you with the opportunity to move forward.
As a group, you must choose between
