UNDER THE SEA

"Whoa! Look at all that blue~!" Felis excitedly pressed her face against the glass. Her tail hit the face of Ivan who was just trying to fly.

"..... That just might have been the dumbest thing you've said yet…" The one to admonish her was Canis, who leaned on a wall with her arms crossed. She spoke disinterested but the glint in her eyes as she stared out the windshield was apparent.

The time was night and the group just about hovered above the area indicated on the map. Without warning Felis, Ivan changed the vehicle from flight mode to APC.

"Eh?"

The sudden shift from floating steadily to sinking like a rock caught Felis off guard. Everyone else who Ivan had telepathically communicated with was either already seated or strapped up. Ivan paid no concern to her cry of disbelief as he watched her ascend to the ceiling.

BANG!

Her body stuck to the roof like glue. It was even funnier to Ivan the moment they hit the water, her body that was once to the ceiling shot down to the floor. The thud was immaculate in his ears, as for the glare she sent at him afterward, he directly ignored it.

The APC floated to the surface with no trouble. Before diving to the depth of the ocean he first wanted to scout to make sure they were in the right area. Though it was the night his vision was unimpeded.

"If I were a labyrinth made to protect my keeper from gods and delusional worshipers all whilst safekeeping a magic capable of overturning the tide of a war, where would I be~?" At times like this Ivan wished he had created a sonar radar to scout beneath the ocean.

At the same time, he wished that bastard Oscar would've just straight up given them the precise locations of dungeons instead of keeping everything vague.

'Then again, locating the dungeon just might be a part of the trial…" It wasn't too out of the left field to think about it like that. Similarly would be the maze trap that was Miledi's dungeon, Ivan opened the hatch to the Vehicle before stepping out, followed by everyone else who sought to solve this little riddle.

The pendant they obtained from the Gruen Volcano was in the shape of a woman holding a lantern. With a slot where the light is supposed to be, Ivan had thought before of allowing natural light to pass through. He had zero ideas if it should be sunlight or moonlight, but thinking about it a bit, why would a woman be using a lamp out in broad daylight?

As such then perhaps arriving here in the dead of night was the perfect scenario. And so he did as he assumed. He held the pendant up to the moon, allowing moonlight to pass through the slot. In his mind he was a bit excited, if such a scene came true then it'd be just like a puzzle in a video game that leads to the summoning of a dungeon.

"...."

Both Ivan and the girls looked like idiots. Thankfully no one could see them from afar. Ivan put down the pendant with a sigh. But then– the pendant began to glow.

BZZZT!

A silvery color enveloped the lantern. To Ivan, it seemed as though the pendant absorbed the light from the moon to uncover the next secret. It wasn't until the lantern was completely shrouded in silver that something in the scenery changed.

BANG!

Light exploded from the pendant in a strong beam of silver. It shot directly into the ocean with no resistance whatsoever.

"W-Whoa! I mean… hurry, let's chase it~! It'll probably lead us to the entrance of the dungeon." Felis was the first one to respond, she charged back into the APC before taking the seat Yue usually sat in. The rest followed suit, while the pendant didn't destroy itself or anything there was always the chance that the miracle was a one-time thing.

CLINK!

The vehicle transformed into one suitable to travel the subnautica, meaning it sank to the ocean floor and altered its tires to swiftly traverse. If needed it was capable of expelling a large pump of air to jump or climb over obstacles. That combined with several defense and offensive mechanisms made it a suitable all-terrain vehicle.

Ivan's only regret was not suiting the vehicle up with a music-playing system. He still had his phone but never did he download music back in the old world, instead of allocating the space to other matters that then became useless in this world. Like documents and such, or gacha games that didn't work now because of the lack of internet.

After a few hundred meters they finally made it to the foot of what seemed like the dungeon they sought. The pressure down here was powerful enough that even within the APC the group had trouble smoothly breathing.

Though it seemed the vehicle wouldn't be a suitable way to enter the dungeon as the entrance didn't suit it. Meaning the rest of the journey would have to be on foot. Or well that's likely what they would have had to do should Ivan not have the talent with Spatial Magic.

For the most certain calculation, it'd be beneficial to have been in the place he wants to transport to sometime in the past. Though with some elementary math it was possible to get the gist of a location to teleport to. But just in case, Ivan had Yue form a barrier on standby. The pressure of the water would kill some of the weaker members but that in itself would take time.

"Gather up, class. We're going in. This time I'm sure it'll go without any trouble at all. So just have some faith in me and sit back!" Those occupying Ivan immediately held grim expressions upon hearing his words. They had no idea why he was setting up so many flags right out the gate but to sum it up it worried them gravely.

"3, 2, 1, let's go!" The inside of the APC became blinded with light. As the group vanished, silence descended.

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"Hm? This is pretty neat…" The scene was about what Ivan expected. Once they entered this Atlantis-like dungeon the area was full to the brim with pockets of water. But with the APC left behind they'd have to use the gear Ivan made just for such an occasion.

"Grab ya scuba gear and some tanks. Who knows how long we're gonna be swimming for." Though of course what Ivan had constructed were things beyond what existed in the old world. Contrary to what he said, this gear didn't require tanks.

Instead, the gear consisted of mouthpieces that deployed barriers around the wearer's head. The mouthpieces were connected to stashes back home using space magic, in a way they function as miniature Treasure Troves. In the stashes were of course an abundance of air that'd last potentially weeks.

To finish it all off was a backpack equipped with built-in flashlights, telepathy, self-repairing, and a small propeller controlled by the wearer's mind to navigate through water.

One by one they equipped the gear with Ivan's instruction and aid, the problem mostly stood with Felis and Canis who were worried their tails would get stuck in the propeller. At least that was before they remembered that they could just wrap their tails around their waists.

Then they moved, diving into the descending tunnel full of water. From there everything went smoothly. No monsters they needed to worry about, instead, it was a peaceful trip. But that served as another problem, after going through numerous tunnels they always found themselves in front of a five-pointed star crest, painted on the wall connecting the hubs between tunnels.

Even returning through the tunnel they first went through didn't take them back to the beginning of the dungeon, instead, it took them back to the hub. Thankfully, the water pressure down here was not nearly as bad as outside.

It was a confusing loop that reminded Ivan and Yue of the horror that was the Mildei dungeon. So with no other hints, they went up to the five-pointed star crest painted onto the wall. They touched it, infused mana into it, beat the crap out of it. And yet nothing happened, if need be then they could just blow it up but that left potential danger of either failing the dungeon or breaking it somehow that would be trouble for them.

Sorting through his Treasure Trove, Ivan pulled out each pendant and rings he obtained from the other dungeons. One by one, Oscar's ring, Miledi's crest, and Gruen's pendant. It wasn't until he brought up Gruen's pendant that the scene actively changed. Both the crest and pendant glowed brightly before the mark on the wall disappeared.

The disappearance was then followed by the very same wall it was imprinted on descending. Before the group could get excited about the development, they were met by the first living obstacle.

"G-Gross!"

A tentacle came hurtling toward them from behind the wall. Water that had filled the room was sucked in and drained away, making the scene a perfect place to fight.

"At least they aren't going to make us fight manually in the water…" Ivan on the other hand decided to look on the bright side.

"Spiral Flame!"

"Crimson Javelin."

Immediately the two greatest casters of the group launched their attacks. It'd be important to mention that the tentacle belonged to a pink slime-like creature. In video game fashion it's a safe decision to either deal with slimes using fire magic or ice magic.

The slime was burnt to a crisp almost instantaneously. However, the group couldn't let their guard down as a bunch of more slimes approached from the walls and ceiling like grease from a fryer.

Felis copied Yue's spell, although to a lesser degree. At least compared to Canis she was a considerable force during this encounter. Ari enchanted her chains with flames before piercing whatever got close. Claire used her wind vacuum blades to obliterate the slimes to the point that reassimilation was no longer an option.

Ivan stood in the back along with Canis, launching exploding needle after needle.

Everything was going smoothly until—!

"Welp, here's the final boss!"

Slimes that weren't completely obliterated melded together like gelatin, the usual attacks were beginning to become ineffective. But even large-scale attacks did damage only temporarily before the giant slime restored itself.

It wasn't long until the monster formed into something greater. It opened its translucent pink wings and spread its arms oozing acidic slime. If it bellowed one could only imagine the sound it made.

It was truly, an angel.

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I-I'm starving!!! It's past lunch and I ain't got anything to eat... To top it all of I didn't have dinner last night. Sustenance is required, food is eternal. Other than that I got nothing much to say. It's currently 10:00 AM when I'm writing this. N-Nice weather we're having, right?

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