Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 226 (Patreon)

Chapter 226 – Jaws

“I think we’re coming up on a boss!”

All eyes turned to Lowe as the little gnome looked over a console full of instruments. Clark grunted, and said, “What makes you say that? Looks like just more ocean out there.”

The gnome was unperturbed by the doubt. Rather, she was all too happy to explain, since it meant gushing about one of her inventions. “Oh! The ManaChecker Mk. 5 is reading rapidly increasing mana density. I’ve tested it in the Lord’s dungeon, and all his bosses have higher mana density than the rest of the creatures on the floor. Don’t know why that is, probably something to do with the System, and why those creatures are the strongest on the floor.”

Jacob nodded. “And you’re detecting an increase here, now. All right, everyone prepare for combat. Lowe, can you get us a target? I’d rather not try waiting for it to make the first move.”

“Oh, yes, distance is… twenty-five hundred feet, and closing. Depth is fifteen hundred and rising. Definitely coming to intercept us.”

Nodding, Jacob turned to look at the rest of the team. Clark and Gill were out. They were absolute death to their foes, but they had to see someone to hit them. And Gill was primarily a melee combatant, as well. Still, if anything, Clark was even further disadvantaged, because shooting high-powered rifles into water was just an exercise in frustration and a waste of ammo.

Lowe was a technical genius, but her skills ran more towards vehicles. And, while he was sure that the gnome had armed the VHC-01, that didn’t mean the weapons were scaled to fight an individual monster. The main gun on an Abrams might make a godawful mess out of any poor son of a bitch that finds himself on the receiving end, but it was a tad bit wasteful to use the big guns on a single insurgent. Same idea here.

Which meant he was looking at Rogers and Kass. “All right, you two are the best bets for underwater combat. Either of you have something that can take on that thing before it gets up close and personal with us?”

Rogers shook his head. “I have weapons that will fire that far, sure, but I am still working on man-portable scanners that can be integrated into the armor, instead of doing something like strapping on a pack like those Vietnam-era radio operators. The Suit is all-environment, so I can operate in water, but my range is going to be reduced, especially at depth.”

Kass nodded. “It is much the same with me. I could try and do something, over an area, but without a target I can see, it would be guesswork. Even with magically-enhanced senses, it would still be difficult to try and target foes in deep water. We’ll need it to get closer.”

“Hmm.” Jacob looked back to Rogers, who was getting contemplative. The artificer just grinned. “Well, I was just thinking that we could try depth charges. Fire and shrapnel aren’t really a thing underwater, but depth charges could use pressure waves to try and force anything down below up to the surface, but my stock of explosives is fairly limited, especially if we’re just hunting a single creature, who can probably maneuver well better than we can in the water.”

Jacob just nodded, and turned to look at Lowe. “What defenses do you have on this boat, Lowe?”

“Well, Lane, I have some basic mana shields and structural reinforcement magics going to protect the boat itself. We have torpedo launchers, but we only have room for two torpedoes, so I really want to save them for something big, not waste them. Other than that? Just an electric cannon that zaps an area directly ahead, in a line from the bow going about one thousand feet. But it is a straight shot, and requires recharging.”

“Understood. In that case, let us know when the target is about to make contact. And make a note to increase R&D on undersea combat, looking for better weapons and tactics. Chat with that Salty person on the forums, since their group has a lot of underwater experience.”

“No problem. I’ve been focusing enough on the VHC-01, making sure everything worked right, before I started looking for potential upgrades. No sense upgrading something that hasn’t been proven to work yet, right? Especially since some of our vulnerabilities didn’t come to light until now.”

They didn’t have to wait long. The contact continued on its path, rising more than it closed. In fact, it was still just over five hundred feet away when the first sign of it broke the surface.

They were all watching, of course. The Magitech Engineer’s instruments clearly read the creature’s advance, so they all knew where to look when the creature pierced the surface. Or, rather, when its fin broke the surface.

The fin was grey, and angled. No one who had seen a movie since 1975 could see that shape, and not recognize it for what it was. The sea dungeon’s first boss was a shark!

Hungerer

Level   30 Dire Great White Shark

Titles:   Maneater

Jacob cursed as he read the [Appraisal] result. “The thing is named Hungerer, Dire Great White Shark. Only level 30, but we’re in its environment, not ours. And it has a title, Maneater.”

Gill nodded. “Probably some poor fools trying to get off the keys by boat, before they realized that the dungeon would send something like that after them.”

Lowe gaped at the size of the creature as they got a glimpse of more than just the fin. It had the body of a great white, all right, but protrusions of cartilage pierced the creature’s skin, giving it the equivalent of spikes. And those spikes crackled with lightning.

“Oh wow!” the gnome exclaimed. “That beauty has to be, what, thirty, thirty-five feet long? That’s easily half again larger than the biggest great white on record, pre-Apocalypse! And those spikes! I bet the thing is actually immune to lightning, using it to help it hunt instead!”

Jacob looked over to Clark. “Think you can test how immune it is to lead, once you get another glimpse?”

“I’d be happy to.”

Kass hissed, “Now that it is up at the surface, I can try and affect it, too. Probably not much, but I can, at least, harden some water in front of it, so that it slides up and into the open. The construct probably won’t be able to support the shark’s weight for long, so you’ll need to be quick with your shot.”

Clark nodded once, and loaded a magazine of specially made bullets into his rifle. Instead of the sniper rifle, he now had his trusty M4, enchanted to be deadlier than it had ever been before, and fire in all environments, even underwater. At this range, he didn’t need the overwhelming power of the Barrett M95. Sure, the .50 caliber rifle was also enchanted for all environment play, but it was too heavy, and bulky, to wield effectively without setting up a perch, and he couldn’t do that on the Chimera. But that was an argument for another time. Breathing slow and steady, the marksman readied his rifle, aiming at an area near the bow, ahead of the shark’s current position.

“Raise it up when you’re ready, Kass.”

“In three, two, one. [Water Wall]!” As the reptilian member of the team spoke, she invoked one of her water spells, and, as expected, the shark couldn’t stop in time to keep from getting ramped briefly above the level of the waves. But even as the shark tried to thrash its way off the wall of water, Clark’s rifle barked in his hands, three times in quick succession.

The first shot shattered the curtain of electricity that appeared around the shark, burning up as the specially made spell-breaker round lived up to its name. It was the magical equivalent of armor piercing rounds, designed to shatter defensive spells and enchantments, allowing following shots to land easier. Jacob was pleased to see that they worked as hoped. He might hate the idea of rounds like that coming his way, but it was good to know that they had ways to deal with any enemies with magical defenses, like floor bosses in dungeons.

With the [Lightning Curtain] down, the next two shots hit true, as expected of a Marksman. Those second and third shots were not spellbreakers, but Baneshot. Baneshot was an experimental round that the goblins in the Lord’s dungeon had come up with. They targeted one type of creature, and fucked them up extra special if it hit.

Baneshot were excellent rounds, but they only had so many of them, and their chosen foe had to be decided when the rounds were made. This made them very good for assassinations, or dungeon diving, at least in dungeons that weren’t the Lord’s, because you knew what you would be facing, and could prepare ahead of time. But the expense, and trouble of producing them, meant that, even if they were put on the market, there would not be a terrible demand for them, outside of specialized groups.

The Aquatic Baneshot rounds tore into the shark’s head with just that little bit of extra force, caused by magic. The rounds were two-part. First, they did a bit of extra damage on the way in when they were attacking their designated foes. Then, they catalyzed with the target’s blood, or other internal matter. The resulting reaction was… explosive. As in, each of the two bullets was effectively the same as a grenade, and even a small grenade exploding next to a shark’s brain is going to result in a very dead shark. With two, just to be sure, the ‘Hungerer’ went down, easily enough.

Still, it was a little insane to see the boss get turned to chum so quickly. Sure, it was still over ten levels lower than they were, but to be done in one round of attacks was not something they had been expecting. If this was a horror movie, the audience would be screaming and throwing popcorn at the screen since the big, bad monster got wrecked in the first ten minutes of the show!

Jacob Lane, Priest of Kuronoth and follower of the path of Domination, chuckled. “Well, I guess we know why the Lord restricted the use of guns in his dungeon. What was the saying, ‘God created all men. Sam Colt made them equal,’ or something like that? Firearms created and enhanced by the System are just too powerful for dungeons that aren’t expecting them.”

Clark chuckled, and unloaded his rifle, switching back to normal ammo. “Yeah. Being able to fire literal grenades at your enemy with rifle ballistics is just unfair, on so many levels. So long as you hit, you’re going to be fucking things up. And when you combine it with the Spellbreakers, loaded one round out of three? Yeah, shark never had a chance.”

The pressure in the air grew immensely as they picked up the loot from the Hungerer. Jacob recognized the sensation. It had happened to him, once before, when the Lord had focused all of his attention on him during the trial to become one of his servants. This pressure was similar, though it lacked the sensation of divinity. No doubt, the dungeon was watching them closely, now.

Alchemic Shark Repellent

Type

Tool

Rank

Common

This   container is filled with an alchemical mixture that is extremely offensive to   the nose of all sharks. Using it will keep sharks away from an area for up to   3 hours. Does not work on sharks over Level 30.

Fang  of the Deep Hunter

Type

Dagger

Rank

Rare

Damage

100-150

Damage   Type

Piercing

This   fang, made from the tooth of a dire shark, is an unexpected boon to all who   would make their life at sea, hunting the creatures that live beneath the   waves. It is less of a boon to those wishing to live a simple life, though   most of those types would never be in a position to acquire the blade in the   first place.

+2% to   accuracy of all attacks when you or your target is in at least 10 ft of   water.

+2%   damage to all creatures of the Fire type.

Cursed: Wereshark’s Revenge – Using this   blade to draw the blood of any aquatic creature inflicts the curse of the   Wereshark upon the wielder.

Gill looked over the loot, and just shook her head. “Is it just me, or do you think the dungeon is a little upset with us?”

Jacob, feeling the pressure lessen all of a sudden, shook his head. “No, it is not just you. The dungeon was just ‘looking’ at us, and I don’t think it was happy. It is looking elsewhere, now, probably finding a stronger foe to throw against us.”