Dungeon Sniper

"Wake up, sea snails, we've got a major war ahead! "

Sleeping on the backs of Black Whales was not as painful as being awakened by Baha's loud claps and yells just before the dawn.

"What war?" I grunted as I rolled over on the smooth, warm back of one of the Black Whales, only to have a playful water sprout splash across my face.

"You think the whales are taking us to the Bald Kraken so we can greet and have tea time together? It's either kill or be killed! And more importantly, we need weapons. Boy, tell the whales to get us some weapons. Quick! Now! Chop-chop!"

"Someone's feeling energetic."

I heard Hermana groan from nearby.

The Black Whales got us another handful of hydrating seaweed that tasted absolutely nothing and also some fresh fish with bones delicate enough to be chewed and swallowed whole.

The only problem was I had never eaten raw fish before. Sushi, I could handle. Sashimi was both too expensive and exotic for me to try before I came to the Dungeon.

"If anything, you'd be asking for more. Go on, try it," said Hermana. She seemed to really enjoy the taste, but neither Elyisa nor I dared put the momentarily stunned, but still very much alive, fish into our mouths.

"Shouldn't we at least take out the intestines and stuff like that?" I asked queasily.

"Why? Those are the best parts," blinked Hermana uncomprehendingly.

How could someone so pretty and intelligent be so barbaric at the same time? I thought in bewilderment.

"I'm fine with the sea plants, thank you very much," said Elysia, appealing the fact that she was a vegetarian.

Hermana turned to me as if asking whether I was a vegetarian too.

"The seaweed tastes particularly wonderful today," I put on an awkward smile.

"You're fooling no one. I saw you devouring three plates of steamed fish back on the ship. Don't be a wimp and just put the damn fish into your mouth!"

"Why are you forcing me to eat such a thing? This is torture! Totally inhumane!"

"You'll thank me later. Trust me."

With that, Hermana shoved the tiny fish into my mouth and closed her hand over it. I mumbled a few words in protest while feeling the slimy, cold skin of the little thing rolling in my mouth.

And I chewed. Slowly, then curiously, and finally in amazement.

"Holy shit, this—"

"One of the perks of living on the sea: you get to eat all the raw fish you want, fresh off the net. In this case, off the flippers of our friends."

That was not it. I remembered what happened just five minutes ago.

"... You mean the mouths. I saw the whales spewing back the—"

"Ba-ba-ba-ba! Don't think and just eat. Besides, they constantly gargle their mouth with saltwater. They have cleaner mouths than you, obviously."

Was she implying that I had breath odor? Either way, I kept my mouth shut and chewed on the raw fish obediently.

.

.

.

"... This is worse than I imagined," sighed Baha dejectedly.

We were staring down at the weapon cache the Black Whales had salvaged from the nearby bottom of the ocean upon my request to arm us with weapons.

Rusty muskets, rusty pistols, rusty swords, rusty harpoons... there was not a single sane, usable weapon among the pile of junk being lifted from within the water by our diligent, well-meaning whale friends.

"What do we do now? Throw all of these at the Kraken and hope that he gets metal poisoning?" I tried to joke.

"Ask them if they have anything else. Better than these," said Baha exasperatedly.

The whales listened calmly as I told them what they brought was good, but not good enough.

They started to sing again.

DEEP—

DOWN—

BANE—

OF—

KRAKEN—

SLEEPS—

"Bane of Kraken? I've never heard of such a thing," blinked Baha in consternation as I translated the broken phrases in people tongue.

"The whales don't lie. I don't think they are even capable of doing that, so it must be true. What could it be?" I asked contemplatively.

"Where I'm from, we don't have this... squid that you talk of, big or small."

Elysia spoke abruptly, and the rest of us turned to the normally reserved Elfina.

"But we do have a creature with many legs and round heads. We call them lake octopi."

"That's a strange name," frowned Hermana.

"Wait, so there's no octopus here? At the sea?"

"What's an octopus?" asked Baha.

"And there are octopi living in lakes? At Level One?"

"But we never eat them raw. We never eat any animal raw," emphasized Elysia firmly as if that was the most important point she was trying to make.

Whoever created this world, Ms. GOD or some outsourced lesser god, obviously was not into ecological details, obviously.

"Thanks for sharing and giving me a headache, Ellie, but what's your point, other than that people here are weird for eating things raw and alive."

"Hey! You liked it too!" protested Hermana.

"The octopi at the lakes are... rather cruel. They're strong and smarter than other water creatures, so they're often the top predators of the food chain. Except on some parts where the clean waterbeds meet the marshes."

Alligators, said Elysia with a grim finality.

"... What are alligators?" asked Hermana.

Of course.

"You have crocodiles around here?"

"Oh, you mean those nasty, bumpy-skinned sharks? The only problem is that we have too many," nodded Hermana.

"Alligators and crocodiles are pretty much the same."

"Take a sense of humor away from Reptils, and you get crocodiles. It's a popular saying around here, but it's got a lot of truth in it," added Baha sagaciously.

"Oh yeah, huh," I agreed completely.

"Reptils hate to hear that, of course. For some reason, they like snakes, like to be called as snakes too, crocodiles, nope. I'm guessing it's because the resemblance is too alike to be laughed off as a joke, as a sign of humility."

I nodded, learning once more, and turned to Elysia.

"You think the Bane of Kraken refers to the monster's arch-enemy? Like how the alligators are to the nasty octopi at home?"

"No creature, man or monster, is infallible. There is always an equal or a greater foe, waiting to be challenged, waiting to fell or fall."

The three Humans stood silently for a while, taking in the wise words.

"Now she sounds like an Elf. Where do they learn all that stuff?" Hermana shook her head defiantly, but I was sure the dutiful scribe was taking a mental note of the quote and cursing that she had no pen and paper with her at the moment.

"That would be such a sight. An army of Black Whales and crocodiles swimming toward the common enemy, the tyrant Kraken."

"But highly unlikely. The crocodiles and Black Whales are enemies against each other," said Hermana incredulously.

"An enemy of an enemy is a friend. You've never heard of that before?"

"I have, but I've seen far more often that an enemy of an enemy is only pretending to be a friend while waiting for the right moment to stab the other's back."

"That's dark, Hermana."

"That's life, but you're right. Perhaps in animal kingdoms, things work differently. More simply."

"There's one way to find out. Ask, boy. Ask the whales whether they have any alliance with those lizard sharks," urged Baha.

When I did ask, the whales reacted so violently that the others did not need a translation to assume what the phrases of the song meant.

"They don't like crocodiles, and they have some pretty strong words for them too."

"So Croco-Whale united front is out. Good. I don't like crocodiles either," sighed Hermana with a look of conflicted feelings.

"What are you waiting for? Keep asking, boy," urged Baha once more, growing increasingly more impatient.

"I am! But they keep telling me these cryptic words. You think I enjoy being intellectually challenged? I hate puzzles! In fact, I hate thinking!"

I really did.

So for the next hour or so, the four of us sat and pondered over the lyric of the last whale song.

DEEP—

DOWN—

BANE—

OF—

KRAKEN—

SLEEPS—

WAITING—

FOR—

STAR—

TAKER—

And repeat.

"... Can we all agree that the part that's most random is the 'star taker?'" I sighed after the prolonged silence.

"Yeah. That came out of nowhere. What does that even mean?" Hermana scratched her forehead frustratingly.

"... If there's a taker, then there must be a giver."

The three Humans again turned to the wise, one-hundred-forty-year-old Elfina. Yes, I was fully aware of dating a much older chick than me, thank you very much for noticing.

"Yeah. But who?" I asked back dumbly.

Then Hermana slapped me on the arm, not on purpose but because she remembered something and if we were in a cartoon, a bright light bulb had just flashed above her head.

"The star! The gold star! The key! The Gate! Oh, I love puzzles! The thrill! The feeling of accomplishment!" babbled Hermana excitedly.

Then it hit me too, and guess who.

"It's Alpha, the Human hero that bailed!" said Hermana finally.

Alpha again. I could not even act surprised at this point. The guy was literally everywhere. The only cruel solace I could take was that he was remembered as the hero that ran away in both Level One and here at Level Three. At Level Two, he was the hero who led the Great Exodus, but no one lived in Level Two anymore save for some mindless, radioactive Goblin Ants...

"So the runaway Human hero is the star-maker, but who's the taker?" asked Baha with his arms crossed soberly.

"Anybody!"

Hermana exclaimed with her characteristic sparkling eyes.

"Anyone who wishes to venture to the higher Level, who wants to Transcend. But wait, what does the gold star key have to do with the Bane of Kraken?"

So we fell silent again. Meanwhile, the whales swam around us playfully. Without the constant forward motion of the past couple of days, it felt as if time was moving slowly too, and if it were not for the puzzle at hand I would have gladly taken a nap along the still, calm lull of the sea.

"I have two theories."

It was Elysia who spoke again.

"Beta and I came here through another special key named 'D-Bug,' which was shaped in a glowing butterfly."

"Aww, that sounds pretty," said Hermana.

"Sure. Anyway, I had been thinking that we would be forced to find another D-Bug to open the so-called Forevershut Gate. I'm sure Beta was worried about that too."

Truth to be told, I was not. I had no idea whatsoever. I never did. I had been going with the flow. All the time, in fact. But I put on a serious scowl and nodded, only to go along with my smarter, m.a.t.u.r.er girlfriend.

"I don't know the story too well, but it seems like Alpha made this 'star key' before he disappeared through the other side of the Gate?" Elysia asked Hermana, who was the right person to be questioned. Baha and I did our part and listened intently.

"Yes. And the story points out that the gold star key shot from his 'hand' and out of nowhere, as if he had made it himself."

"Magic, I guess," I added in, trying to help. But the two ladies ignored me, which was the right call.

"Alpha, whether you like it or not, was a hero. I'm sure he had a lot of tricks under his sleeves. That's not our concern at the moment. Our concern is that the Bane of Kraken, whatever it is, and the golden key to the Gate are related. And this is my first theory."

Paused Elysia.

"One, the Bald Kraken is guarding the Forevershut Gate, for some reason."

"Why?" asked Hermana sharply.

"I wouldn't know, but that's my guess for now."

"Makes sense, but too arbitrary a theory too," said Baha slowly, but not rejecting the idea outright.

"What's your other theory?" I asked Elysia.

Elysia blinked.

"... It's rather foolish."

"It's okay. Try us," I said encouragingly.

Elysia took a breath and opened her mouth.

"When I was studying the star charts, during breaks, I borrowed a book from the library—"

"The Encyclopedia of the Sea, I remember," said Hermana promptly, her memory crisp and exact.

"Yes, that one. It had lots of pictures, and it was comforting to see anything that wasn't numbers or circles or—"

"We all know what the Encyclopedia is like. Get to the point, Elf!" barked Baha thirstily.

I did not know what it was like, but I went along just fine.

"The first thing I thought when I heard 'star' in the song's lyrics, a strange picture from that book came to my mind. And the connection with Alpha and his 'creation' of animate, live animals as keys gave me an idea. Again, foolish, but—"

A fish star, said Elysia.

"... You mean a starfish," corrected Hermana, but not reprehensively. In fact, a smile was dawning on her face.

"So the Human hero made a key that looked like a starfish? What a freak," scoffed Baha, as if the very fact that such a hero was the same race as he was.

"Not just 'look like.' The D-Bug we saw at Level Two looked and acted like a real butterfly... well, a dying one after decades of no one looking for it anyway, and I'm sure the 'gold' starfish will be just like any other starfish."

"Except it's gold," added Hermana eagerly.

"So what? Do you know how many starfish are under this sea? Millions, even billions!"

"But that's where our clue lands. We have to find it."

"Impossible! Madness!" barked Baha pessimistically.

"We find the key, we fight the Kraken, and then we can retrieve your father's lost ship. We can't lose hope, Baha, stay strong!"

"I'm going to die of old age by the time we even find that gold key thing. And we don't even know where to start! Forget it. It's hopeless. We're all going to get killed by Lord Cephalos."

Baha sat down dejectedly with drooped shoulders. This was the first instance that he showed his true age. And what a dramatic change from this morning. He had seemed so energetic, purposeful, and proactive. But all it took was a pile of rusty weapon junk to crush his morale and defeat him. No mutiny, no storm, no lost ship, but a pitiful, corroded collection of metal did him in.

"... If it helps, I have an idea where we could start looking."

Elysia to the rescue again. Baha looked up and stared at Elysia blankly. Hermana and I eyed her expectantly too.

"Don't tell me I'm the only one who's noticed that we've stopped moving for the past few hours. The whales have not moved one bit," blinked Elysia exasperatedly.

"Oh yeah, huh," I blinked back dumbly. No wonder the sea felt calm and peaceful. We had been floating idly the past couple of hours, and I did not know about the other two Humans, but I just realized it now.

"... Meaning the gold starfish could be near. Like, right below us?"

Before I could say anything back or kiss my brilliant Elf girlfriend, a sound of splash came from my back.

I turned and saw that Baha was nowhere to be seen.

He had dove into the water headfirst.

"Wait here. I'll go after him," Hermana grunted and jumped in herself.

I turned again to face Elysia with a nonplussed smile only to have her avoid my eyes deliberately.

Right. This was the first time we were left together alone. Looking back, Elysia had rarely talked to me... ever since she had witnessed that one playful wrestling between Hermana and me.

Women. They never forgot.

"... So, a starfish. It's not really a bug if you think about it."

I tried to make small talk, and Elysia turned around and sat facing the other way.

It felt like eternity atop the whales' backs that I almost feared Baha and Hermana drowned down the sea, but I knew my sense of time was messed up because of the awkwardness between Elysia and me.

After a couple of minutes of that felt like painful hours, the two reckless divers resurfaced... with the uniform expression of shock. And awe.

"What's wrong?" I asked, glad that I was no longer alone staring at the cold shoulders of a beautiful, enraged Elfina and also worried about the unsettling look on the two Humans' faces.

"No. It's better that you see it yourself," said Hermana, her voice shaking slightly.

"I can't hold my breath longer than barely a minute," I said hurriedly, fearing that they would take me down with them any second now.

"You won't have to go down far. You'll see right away," said Baha, his eyes flashing with rediscovered fire and drive.

"See what?" I asked nervously.

"Elysia, come down too," beckoned Hermana to my back. I turned absentmindedly to see how Elysia would reach, only to have my collar tugged and pulled down by Hermana.

I fell and cursed bubbles out of my mouth as Hermana redirected my line of sight downwards, slapping my face to open my eyes to take a look under me.

Without swimming goggles, it was difficult to open the eyes underwater. The seawater was clean and clear, but its depth was too severe for the sunlight above to penetrate too deeply. Besides, the salt hurt my eyes, and I was about to protest for Hermana's yet another torture—

When I spotted it and stopped flailing altogether. I heard a soft splash and felt Elysia's presence next to me.

She too stayed still and stared down without a word (naturally because you could not speak underwater—never mind).

The four of us were looking at the same thing. Big enough to be a size of a quarter to our eyes, but from an indubitably great distance. It was not round-shaped either. It was jagged, but with familiar, steady uniformity. And it glowed calmly in the dark deep sea, inviting, welcoming—

It was the gold starfish we were looking for, sitting—sleeping—right under our nose as Elysia had predicted.

What the perspicacious Elfina did not predict was its size. With an estimate of a half-mile distance between the light and us, I figured we were looking at one seriously giant starfish. As big as Doby Mick II, or even bigger.

A sudden chill went down my spine. A chill of hope, not dread.

It was Bane of Kraken, indeed.