What Lies Below 3 (1/2)

Boxxy’s lid opened slowly as it let out a satisfied yawn. Having woken up from its afternoon nap, it willed a set of arachnid appendages to emerge from its chesty self and propped itself up. It took stock of its surroundings, noting that very little had changed since it had fallen asleep. It was still on the deck of the Pale Pearl, Jen was still circling it from above, and Snack was still lounging around the front of the ship with a thoroughly bored expression on her face. Fizzy was stretched out next to the succubus and staring up at the sky, likely conversing with her inner selves to pass the time. The only thing that suggested anything had happened at all was that the mainland had disappeared somewhere over the horizon.

The shapeshifter checked its internal clock, courtesy of Tick Counter, and determined that only three and a half hours had passed. This meant that, given the ship’s average speed, there were still about twenty hours of sailing to go before the Pale Pearl reached its destination. It was going to be a painfully slow trek compared to what Boxxy was used to, but it was a necessity. Even though the shapeshifter could theoretically travel those three hundred and fifty kilometers in but a few hours through a combination of flight and teleportation, it lacked the ability to accurately navigate at sea. It could use a compass to tell which direction it was headed in, but the total lack of landmarks made it nigh-impossible to determine how much distance it had actually covered.

The Pale Pearl, on the other hand, was perfectly capable of navigating by itself. It being a magical construct of several elements allowed it to ignore things that would normally throw a ship off-course, such as currents or winds. The way it barely even rocked and swayed as it cut through the waves made it abundantly clear this would be as smooth-sailing as it could get. Provided, of course, that its passengers could keep the fragile thing safe. If the thing was destroyed in the middle of the trip, then Boxxy wouldn’t know exactly how much distance it had travelled, potentially forcing it to start the whole thing over from scratch.

It had therefore been a good thing that the shapeshifter had ordered its minions to protect the Pale Pearl before it took that nap, because at present it had entirely forgotten about that potential annoyance. Though the encounter with Arisha had helped the monster burn off much of the incessant giddiness it had carried until then, its mood had shot right back up after that panacea had taken effect. And who could blame it, considering the two superbly tasty things it had gained as a result.

Legendary Mentality

Requirements: Reach 750 Mental Fortitude (MNT).

Effects: Spells and Skills that affect the mind can be used on Golems, Demons and Undead at 30% effectiveness.

Reduces the duration of hostile mind control effects by 80%.

Nectar-Adapted

Requirements: Survive a strong addiction to Hylt Nectar.

Effects: Prevents addiction to Hylt Nectar.

Provides a permanent boost of +5 MNT and +5 AFF.

The first had been an important and long-awaited achievement that was certainly worthy of celebration, but it was that second one that really made Boxxy’s spirit soar. It had given up all hope of ever indulging in one of the most delicious things it had ever tasted for fear of what it might do to its free will. But with this Nectar-Adapted thing, that was no longer a concern. It could now enjoy all of the benefits of Ambrosia’s overflowing bosoms without any of the drawbacks. And even if it somehow developed the habit again, it could probably have Arisha mix up another dose of panacea.

The monster then wondered if the so-called Bloody Baroness would be willing to teach it that secret formula. It then immediately decided that it shouldn’t say anything that might upset a being with nearly fifteen thousand HP. It was a ridiculous number that suggested Arisha had more than just two Level 100 Jobs at her disposal. The thought of studying a dose of the stuff without her knowledge also crossed its mind, but it seriously doubted that panacea was the sort of thing a rookie potion-brewer like itself could actually analyze. Not to mention that synthesizing it was most probably impossible without high-Level Alchemist Skills and a bunch of impossibly rare materials even if it somehow discovered the recipe for it.

In short, if Boxxy wanted another dose of the ultimate cure-all, then it would need to ask nicely. To that end, there was no telling what other interesting goodies Arisha had gathered over the years. Befriending her seemed like a solid investment, and the best way to do that appeared to be by appeasing her boredom. It imagined that the ancient noblewoman would be overjoyed if it introduced her to some of the interesting characters and curious creatures it had met over the years.

Actually, Stain seemed like a really good candidate off the top of its lid. The two of them could probably bond over their respective experiences with mental domination in a way that Boxxy genuinely couldn’t. Not to mention that the warden of bitterhold had a taste for good liquor, and the shapeshifter would earn a lot of points with her if it arranged for her to experience that Ethereal Vintage.

Now that I think about it, I haven’t checked with her in a long time, Boxxy realized. I should see how things are going on her end.

Boxxy: Stain, how are things?

Hookenstein: Oh? Finally remembered I exist, hmm?

Boxxy: Yes.

Hookenstein: Heh, not surprised you forgot about me since nothing’s been going on.

Boxxy: Nothing? What about the dungeon you’re in, weren’t you going to excavate it?

Hookenstein: I tried, but can’t find anything of value. There’s just common stuff like iron, coal, and copper.

Well, it wasn’t as if every mountain was a mithril repository, but the chest-shaped monster still felt a bit disappointed.

Boxxy: I see. And how are things at Bitterhold? Has the Republic made any moves to dislodge you?

Hookenstein: None at all. It’s been business as usual, actually. Best as I can tell, whatever’s left of the Foundation is doing their best to keep the place running.

Boxxy: Ah. So then, this ‘Hookenstein’ thing isn’t much use to you on Velos, is it?

Hookenstein: Not at the moment, no.

Not one to let important assets go to waste, Boxxy immediately gave its business partner a suggestion it had been idly mulling over for a while now.

Boxxy: How do you feel about bringing it with me to the Dragon Festival, then?

Hookenstein: I’ll pass.

Boxxy: You sure? There’s bound to be lots of tasty subordinates there for you to acquire.

Hookenstein: Don’t care. I am not setting one drop anywhere near that place.

Boxxy got the distinct impression it had hit a nerve, so it decided to let the queen slime be for the moment and focused on figuring out how to kill some time. This proved to be more difficult than initially anticipated. Idiot Toss was out of the question, and the salty air made it unsuitable for any meaningful alchemy or tinkering practice. Diving for some seafood wasn’t an option either since it had to remain aboard the Pale Pearl in order to maintain its existence. It was ultimately forced to accept there was nothing to do but wait and assumed its earlier napping position.

The voyage proceeded in a largely uneventful manner from then on. Drea and Kora were doing an excellent job of keeping sea monsters from even getting close to the ship, with the occasional hand from Xera, Fizzy, and Jen. Nothing major really approached the ship, mostly because it was still relatively near the coast. The only thing of note that happened for the rest of the evening was the appearance of some glowing jellyfish that passed under the ship shortly after sunset. They were not tasty.

It wasn’t until morning of the next day when something truly exciting happened. Drea had spotted what looked to be a galleon ship on an intercept course with the Pale Pearl, most likely a bunch of pirates chasing what looked to be an easy prize. She was the only one who noticed it, as the larger vessel was apparently using some kind of large-scale illusory mirage to hide itself from sight. A webstalker’s eyes could clearly see the magical aura surrounding it though, allowing her master to prepare a counter-ambush.

Though perhaps ‘counter-ambush’ was too fancy a term for what happened next. Once the enemy ship was within three hundred meters of the Pale Pearl, Boxxy launched Kora at it with a well-aimed Idiot Toss with some guidance from Drea. The hoarder seemed to disappear in thin air, but the loud crash that followed shortly afterwards proved it was a direct hit. She must’ve broken something important upon impact, seeing as the magic obscuring the ship dispersed within seconds. Jen, who was still circling overhead and had been warned of the enemy’s presence via Boxxy’s Whisper Wind, dive-bombed the galleon the instant it appeared. She smashed into its deck with such force that the entire ship seemed to tilt dangerously to one side.

Once aboard, the two battle junkies proceeded to tear through the flabbergasted pirates. They somehow managed to fire upon the smaller ship, but Fizzy used her magnetic abilities to intercept their cannonballs and sent them flying right back with even greater speed. The golem remained, but Xera eventually flew over and started setting fire to everything in sight, figuring it was a good chance to alleviate her boredom. Drea insisted that the battle was too loud for her liking and kept diligently doing her thing beneath the waves. Boxxy, on the other hand, wanted to join in on the festivities but couldn’t since it had to remain aboard the Pale Pearl in order to maintain its ongoing existence. It was a bit regrettable, but listening to the screams and various explosions its minions caused was fun in its own way.

By the time the group was done with the pirates, their ship had been so thoroughly wrecked that it looked like an elder dragon had stepped on it, and was slowly sinking beneath the waves. With everyone dead, Kora took this opportunity to stuff all the treasure they were carrying into her extra-dimensional Vault. Xera, on the other hand, merely giggled to herself as she reveled in the nostalgic feeling of setting things on fire. Meanwhile, Jen delivered the mangled body of the pirate captain to Boxxy as a sort of gift.

The shapeshifter was pleasantly surprised to find out that, based on the seven mithril teeth inside the dead man’s mouth, the harpy had killed none other than Eobard ‘Whitetooth’ Quincy. Boxxy had never met the guy, but it knew he was a wanted criminal with an outstanding bounty of 80,000 GP on his head, which it had every intention of collecting on. It praised the harpy for her contribution to its hoard and requested she bring over a few relatively intact human corpses for it to snack on. Jen happily did so while sporting a slight blush of embarrassment on her cheeks.

Overall, the pirate ‘attack’ had served to bolster everyone’s mood. Even Drea felt great after being allowed to gorge herself on all the leftover dead pirates. The monstrous troupe were still in high spirits several hours later when the Pale Pearl stopped, furled up its entirely decorative sails and dropped its nonexistent anchor. Everyone already had their diving gear ready and were more or less ready to descend to the bottom to start searching for this secret weapon mentioned in Tol-Saroth’s journal.

Well, almost everyone. Since being a harpy-griffin hybrid made it difficult for Jen to move freely underwater even with the standard issue diving gear, Boxxy had prepared a special Artifact just for her. It hadn’t actually shown it to her yet, though, nor had it even mentioned anything about it other than its name. The winged Monk was therefore both skeptical and excited when the shapeshifter finally handed her the promised Hide of the Great Yellow Beast.

“… This is it?” she asked warily.

“That’s it,” the Sandman nodded.

“It… doesn’t look like much.”

It would be difficult to call the item in her hands the ‘hide’ of anything, let alone a ‘great beast.’ It looked more like a circular poofy hat that was much too big for a regular person. It was most definitely yellow, though. Aggressively so, actually. It was a bright and vibrant color one would expect from a ripe lemon, not some fearsome aquatic creature. It had an equally eye-catching orange brim jutting out of one side of it, seemingly some kind of visor to shield one’s eyes from the sun.

“Just put it on,” Boxxy insisted.

Jen made the world’s tiniest shrug, figuring it was silly of her to judge an Artifact by its appearance, especially considering the nature of the fake ghost ship she was standing on. She placed the weird-looking headwear upon her noggin, making sure the orange part was over her face. Nothing seemed to happen though, so she looked questioningly at the shapeshifter.

“… Oh, right,” it suddenly remembered. “You need to speak the code word to activate or deactivate it. Just remember to stand still until it’s done doing its thing.”

“Understood,” she nodded. “What’s the code word?”

“Aflac.”

“Aflac?”

Jen felt some of her Ki being drained away, followed shortly by her being coated head-to-toe in some weird yellow goo. It felt smooth and cool to the touch while remaining strangely semi-solid, almost like some kind of liquified rubber. She remained perfectly still as instructed for several seconds as it hardened around her, sealing her body in a brightly colored yellow suit with orange feet. It was extremely roomy on the inside, and only left her face and wings exposed.

“How do you like it?” Boxxy asked jovially.

The harpy looked down at herself curiously and took a few exploratory steps, noting that it didn’t impede her movement in any way. She questioned how she was supposed to hold anything with these clumsy-looking mitten-things on her hands, but she could still make a fist and hit with it, so she figured it wasn’t an issue. Jen then realized that all of the other girls were falling over themselves, laughing at her. The harpy blinked a few times at them, then once more looked down at her outfit, then finally checked her reflection in a nearby window. Having confirmed her suspicions, she turned back towards Boxxy.

“It’s a ducky suit,” she stated bluntly. “Why is it a ducky suit?”

Indeed, though the harpy herself couldn’t see it at first, it would be obvious to any bystander that she looked like a giant stuffed duckling. It even had a pair of adorably beady eyes, a pointy little tail, thoroughly rounded features, and a pudgy pear-shaped silhouette. It looked so goofy that it was no wonder why the others were having trouble keeping a straight face.

“Don’t ask me,” Boxxy shrugged. “I don’t make the Artifacts, I just hoard them.”

“Why didn’t you tell me it looked like a ducky suit?” she pressed the issue.

“You didn’t ask. Not like it matters anyway, right?”

Jen stared blankly at the masked monster’s smiling eyes before concluding that it had a point. She’d always been a function-over-form kind of person, so she didn’t care so long as this thing did what it needed to do. Besides, this was given to her by the Hero she had sworn herself to, so in some way it was her duty to accept it gracefully. Just thinking about that made a tiny smile slip past her stone-faced mask and float onto her lips.

“AAHAHAHAHAHA!” Kora roared with laughter. “Look at her fucking face! She’s actually fucking happy about that lame-ass shit! What a fucking loser!”

There was a blur of bright yellow as Jen rushed at the infuriating demon and drop-kicked her in the chest, all within the blink of an eye. Kora’s mocking tone cut out abruptly as she was flung off the boat with a pair of weirdly-shaped dents in her breastplate. This caused Fizzy and the other two demons to laugh even harder. Seeing the giant yellow ducky move with the speed, strength, and ferocity of a ticked-off griffin-harpy hybrid was one of the most ridiculous things any of them had seen. Even Boxxy looked to be on the verge of busting a gut.

“Hek-hem!” it loudly cleared its throat. “Glad to see you like it, Jen. Why don’t you take it for a spin, see how it feels?”

“I think I will.”

The harpy then promptly jumped into the ocean. The suit seemed to react to being submerged and sealed her face-hole with a transparent layer of that rubbery stuff it was made out of. Jen then discovered that swimming around in this thing was a lot easier than she expected. Thankfully the Artifact’s magical effects also extended to the wings poking out of the back of it, including making them far less vulnerable to water drag than they would normally be. The harpy even found out she could give herself a little burst of speed if she flapped them just right. It still felt mildly uncomfortable to have them fully submerged, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle.

Once everyone had stopped snickering at Jen’s new look, the group departed the Pale Pearl and made their way straight down. They mostly did this by just hanging onto Fizzy and Kora, both of whom sank like anvils so long as they stood perfectly still. Incidentally, the golem had foregone using any of the enchanted diving equipment, stating that her frame could handle a little water pressure. She had been right in that assertion, but eventually agreed to put on the anti-pressure belt since it became harder and harder to move her limbs the more she sank.

Not much else happened during the descent. Most of the residents of the deep seemed content to ignore the group, and the ones that didn’t were cut to pieces by Boxxy’s Reality Slash or boiled alive with Xera’s Scorching Ray. Of course, Fizzy did not fail to point out the paradox of fire magic working underwater. The djinn then smugly explained that, as far as the arcane arts were concerned, the elemental opposite of water was wind, not heat. Though she couldn’t use Spells that had a wind component to them, like Fireball or Inferno, things like Scorching Ray and Magma Missile were ‘fair game.’

Distractions aside, it took a total of twenty-three minutes to reach the bottom, some two thousand meters below sea level. Fizzy’s feet sank into the ocean floor, making her curse under her non-existent breath when she realized it was covered with sand. The others swam around in a small circle, trying to get their bearings while the Sandman-shaped monster just sort of floated in place with its arms and legs crossed.

“Something the matter, Master?” Xera asked.

“No, no,” it reassured her. “I was just thinking about something.”

“I hope it’s got something to do with finding our way around,” Fizzy chimed in. “How are we supposed to find this secret weapon in a place like this?”

“Oh, that? We’re looking for a place with strong volcanic activity. Shouldn’t be too hard to find a bunch of lava,” Boxxy brushed her concerns aside. “What I’m wondering about is something else entirely.”

“Which is?” the golem asked, against her better judgement.

The shapeshifter looked down at the sandy floor, then up towards the the surface, then back down.

“What would happen if I opened a Gate down here?”

Boxxy’s entourage had only a few seconds to comprehend the full depth of that innocent-sounding question before they realized the answer to it was forthcoming.