Chương 67: Bagelmonster Theory

The dungeon pulled Meno through the vertical entrance and spat him into an air bubble just inside the threshold. He surfaced hard enough to slap one hand against barnacled stone and sucked in air like the tower had charged him for it. Glowing green moss covered the walls, floor, ceiling, and broken arches in thick sheets. Outside the bubble, the water shone blue-green, clear enough to see too much and distorted enough to trust none of it. Meno wiped water from his face and looked down.

The first chamber narrowed beneath him like an ice-cream cone.

"Oh, no." Air pockets shimmered at different depths around the chamber, each one barely large enough for two or three players to float in without kicking each other in the mouth. Everything outside them was flooded. Patrols circled in a slow downward spiral, and at the very bottom, where the cone narrowed into a dark sink, a crab the size of a large shed waited with faint runes glowing across its shell. Meno checked the stream. Viewers: 71, 375 rip find another dungeon underwater?

no thanks party killer VR nightmare leave now"At least I can talk in the bubble," Meno said.

"This is the kind of place nobody ever wants to run, especially in VR." He pointed at the nearest pocket.

"Those bubbles are too small for five people. You'd have to rotate people in and out mid-fight, which means the healer drowns first and then everyone argues about positioning." The nearest patrol drifted by outside the bubble.

[Hostile: Scorpola Guard | Type: Brine Scorpionkin | Threat: Moderate | Trait: Trident Formation] [Hostile: Scorpola Hunter | Type: Brine Scorpionkin | Threat: Moderate | Trait: Harpoon Pin] [Hostile: Scorpola Mystic | Type: Brine Scorpionkin | Threat: Moderate | Trait: Tide Mend] They looked like scorpions that had lost a fight with eels, then somehow gained hands out of spite.

Long segmented bodies flexed in the water, eel-like tails steering them through the chamber, and their front limbs ended in hands instead of pincers. Three guards carried tridents, one hunter carried a harpoon, and the mystic gripped a crooked staff wrapped in shell and green moss. Meno watched a second pack drift below the first. Then a third. Ten packs, five mobs each, all spaced along the spiral like the dungeon had arranged its trash to mock anyone who believed in clean pulls.

The boss at the bottom shifted one claw, and the runes on its carapace pulsed. [Hostile: Etched Leviathan Crab | Type: Modified Sea Beast | Threat: High | Trait: Runic Shockwake]"High-threat boss," Meno said.

"Clearly captured by the Scorpolas and modified with magic. Great. Buffed seafood." crab boss fifty trash skip route? middle dive do it surely no catch Meno looked at the patrol spacing. Technically, there was open water through the center. If he swam between the upper patrols, reached the middle, and dropped straight down, he could reach the air pocket above the boss without pulling anything. Technically, Wheat Imps threw pebbles, and Meno had learned to respect technicalities. Still, it was worth one test.

First, he needed to know how weapons felt underwater. Meno took a breath, pushed out of the bubble, and drifted into the flooded chamber. Water closed around his arms and dragged at every motion. He drew one dagger and swung. The blade dragged. No system debuff appeared. The water simply resisted the cut, a hidden action-speed penalty that made every attack arrive late and every recovery feel thick. Meno swam back into the bubble.

"Confirmed," he said, breathing out.

"Underwater has hidden action speed misery. The UI refuses to confess, but my arm knows." water tax worst dungeon ever drowning simulator Chain Madness? madness immune?

"Chain Madness should work," Meno said.

"If it doesn't, I want a refund." He sheathed the dagger, took the biggest breath the capsule would let him feel, and pushed out again. Swimming without weapons was easier, though not pleasant. He waited for a gap between two upper packs, kicked through the middle of the spiral, and angled down toward the center. Scorpola patrols drifted around him at different heights, tails waving, tridents turning in slow, disciplined arcs. He reached the air pocket above the boss.

The moment his head entered, the Etched Leviathan Crab turned. The runes on its shell flared. Every Scorpola in the chamber snapped toward him. All fifty trash mobs began swimming down the spiral at once. wipe HAHAHA no skip cheese they all know floor aggro run"Okay," Meno said.

"That answers that." He drew both daggers anyway. Data mattered. The crab surged forward and swung one claw. Meno kicked sideways, barely clearing the smash, then learned the attack had a second part when the missed impact detonated into a circular underwater blast. The shockwave slammed him into the cone wall hard enough that his chest tried to inhale water. His mouth opened, but he forced it shut as his health dropped to 82%. The trash packs closed from above like a living net.

Meno kicked off the wall and activated Panic Pump. [Current HP set to 1] [Compound Swing | Chain: 100 | Damage: +1000%] Then Chain Madness. The Great Axe appeared in his hands, and for one glorious second, the underwater drag vanished from the weapon. The axe moved at impossible speed. Meno hit the crab twice, maybe three times, before the harpoons arrived. Ten barbed shots punched through the water in tight lines.

Sleepless Grip resisted the first pin, but nine more struck his body, legs, and shoulder, locking him in place. [Harpoon Pin] Immobilized. The crab turned and started glowing. Meno saw the claw coming and could do nothing useful with his body. He survived the slam, then got blown up by the aftershock. [Death | Etched Leviathan Crab — Runic Shockwake] [Currency Lost: 100g] [Respawn: Sunken Spire Entrance Bubble] He reappeared outside the dungeon in an air bubble, dripping and furious.

NOPE If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. never running this underwater prison 50 trash aggro horror dungeon leave needs party"Okay," Meno said, wiping water from his eyes.

"No skip cheese. Everything aggros. The smash is not a smash, it's an underwater explosion." He counted on his fingers while the death memory stayed sharp enough to be useful.

"Harpoons stop movement. Mystics are either healers or water mages, both bad. Guards with tridents definitely have formation nonsense. My class gets wrecked by underwater drag, I can't spam Hundredfold with Panic Pump because dodging while swimming at one HP is not happening, and I can't kite packs because they swim faster than I can." reroll time go magma mount quest Jaxxon wins"No," Meno said.

"I think there is a way." He pointed toward the spiral outside.

"I have to ramp. Never leave combat, never let Chain fall. Pull each pack into the next while moving down the spiral. Every kill makes the next pack worse for them, and by the time I reach the boss, I should have enough stacks to delete it." He let the plan sit there for a moment.

"The key is doing all this before I run out of HP with no rest, while grabbing air pockets so I don't drown." Meno nodded once.

"Simple." not simple not simple NOT SIMPLE you died to imp air? hp?

"First problem," he said.

"Movement. I can't breaststroke through combat like someone's uncle at a hotel pool. How the hell do I move backward while stabbing? Chat, please tell me one of you is a lifeguard." The overlay instantly filled with liars. me ME certified lifeguard swim coach here watched a pool once just spin Meno caught one name in the flood. Bagelmonster: just spin He stared at it.

"Just spin," he repeated. terrible advice VIP HIM propeller arc Bagelmonster solved VR capsule cleaning stream inc Alone, spinning would break his Chain. With Chain Madness, maybe not. If he triggered Madness, held back enough not to earn the full hundred Chain too fast, and baited a Stop prompt, he could freeze Chain decay during the red warning. Then he could kick hard, turn the axe into a propeller, and maybe blast himself toward the next pack. It was ridiculous. That did not disqualify it.

"If this works, Bagelmonster gets VIP of the day," Meno said. Chat became confused enough to slow down, which was rare and therefore valuable. Before propeller stupidity, he needed basic combat movement. He exited the entrance bubble into the water. The respawn bubble flickered behind him and vanished, which meant dying inside was not going to keep giving him a convenient practice pocket. He drew daggers and started attacking the water in short alternating stabs. Right, left, right, left.

Then he kicked forward hard, trying to push himself backward while keeping the attack motion. One leg gave him a weak drift. Two legs moved him better, but his arms got messy and the dagger rhythm broke apart. He stopped, reset his body, and tried again. He practiced side movement next. To move left while still attacking forward, he angled his body right, tightened his core, lifted both legs, and kicked against the water. It pushed him left, but the half-twist made his right dagger stab slightly off line.

The other side felt even clunkier. Moving forward was stranger. He had to go nearly horizontal, head first, stabbing ahead while his legs kicked behind him. It worked, but only in a desperate straight line, not with five enemies surrounding him. Moving up was easier, both legs kicking below him while his arms kept working, but moving down fast while attacking felt nearly impossible. His chest began tightening.

The pressure rose behind his ribs, subtle at first, then insistent enough that every movement wanted to turn into panic. Meno swam into the dungeon entrance and took a deep breath.

"Okay," he said.

"Single pack test. Need to see what these guys actually do." He launched toward the closest upper patrol with a backward kick. The five Scorpolas turned as he entered range. Meno picked one guard as the anchor and stabbed into its shoulder. The hunter's harpoon came first, a straight shot through the water aimed at his chest. Meno kicked left. The harpoon passed close enough to tug a stream of bubbles across his face.

He kicked right to stay glued to the guard and used its body to block the other tridents, but the formation adjusted faster than expected. Two guards reached around their ally, stabbed him twice, and dropped his health to 95%.

"Angle wrong." He shifted lower, but the water made every correction slow. The mystic lifted its crooked staff, and green-blue light wrapped the guard Meno was attacking. The damage he had done began closing. heal check kill mystic outscale moderate btw this dungeon sucks Meno kept stabbing the guard anyway. [Compound Swing | Chain: 40 | Damage: +400%] [Compound Swing | Chain: 72 | Damage: +720%] The hunter swam out wide to get a clear line.

Meno could not kick backward without losing Chain, so he angled his upper body down, kicked upward to rise, and tried to keep stabbing the guard from above. The motion overrotated. His lower body drifted too high, and suddenly he was almost upside down, stabbing downward while the other guards swam up, drove their tridents into his ribs, and dropped his health to 89%.

"Bad. Bad angle." He kicked the opposite way to drop back down, pulling his torso up into a flatter line before the hunter shot again. The movement worked, but only barely. He was spending too much effort to maintain contact with one target. At Chain 131, he had enough data and not enough patience. [Chain Madness Activated] The Great Axe appeared, and Meno tried to hold back. That was harder than going fast.

With a ten-attack-per-second cap and no weapon weight, his arms wanted to turn into a blur the moment the axe arrived. He forced slower cuts while straightening his body. A harpoon hit him. [Sleepless Script] Immobilize resisted. Damage still landed before the yellow Stop prompt flashed. Meno lifted both legs immediately. The warning turned red as he kicked, angled the axe toward his legs, and spun it sideways as fast as he could.

The water exploded into froth, and Meno shot away like a Zubra catapult had fired him underwater. PROPELLER BAGELMONSTER HE'S GONE where is he going oh no He could not see anything. The spin whipped bubbles across his vision, and the world turned blue-green, black, blue-green, black, until his stomach threatened to return steak-burger to the real world. When the Stop prompt faded, he stopped the axe and tried to orient, only to find himself near the center of the cone, completely off course.

The pack reached him fast, and the tridents struck first. [Break Surplus Activated] [Chain Break Prevented] [Compound Swing | Chain: +10] He refocused on the pack, hit the guard with the axe, and let Madness expire into daggers. The healer had erased too much of the guard's damage. The target was almost full HP again. Meno tried switching to the mystic. The other two guards flashed with skill light and launched into a synchronized trident charge, snapping into position in front of it and blocking the path.

He stayed on the first guard. The Chain had climbed high enough that the healer finally started losing the race. Chunks came off the guard's HP with each dagger burst, but constant mistakes, trident pokes, and stray water pressure kept dragging Meno's health down until it hit 45%. [Compound Swing | Chain: 341 | Damage: +3410%] He triggered Chain Madness again. A Stop prompt appeared almost immediately.

"Come on." He froze through the red, kicked left to create distance from the tridents, still took one hit because their reach was too long, then kicked behind him to reengage as the prompt cleared. The axe came down in a clean line and finally deleted the first guard in five seconds. [Kill Confirmed: Scorpola Guard] [Compound Swing | Chain: 441 | Damage: +4410%] The daggers returned. Meno went straight into the second guard.

He forgot the hunter for half a second, and the harpoon punished him, dropping his health to 37%. [Sleepless Script] Immobilize resisted. The second guard died in a nine-second dagger burst window. Too slow. He triggered Chain Madness again and shredded the third guard in two seconds before Madness expired. [Kill Confirmed: Scorpola Guard] [Kill Confirmed: Scorpola Guard] [Compound Swing | Chain: 581 | Damage: +5110%] The next Stop prompt hit while he tried to engage the mystic.

Meno kicked right, then right again, circling awkwardly around the protected line. The prompt cleared, and the healer switched from green-blue mend light to water projectiles, firing dense bubbles that struck like stones. One hit his shoulder and dropped his health to 25%. Above five hundred stacks, the healer's defense was too low to matter. Once the axe reached the mystic, it died in a second. Meno kicked off the mystic's dissolving body toward the hunter.

The hunter shot point-blank, punching a harpoon through Meno's side and dropping his health to 22%. Meno melted it with the remaining Madness. [Kill Confirmed: Scorpola Hunter] The pack was dead, but there was no time to celebrate. His chest had started tightening, and the air hunger built fast now, turning every movement into a demand to surface. There was no nearby stable pocket except the entrance bubble.

Meno sheathed both weapons and swam towards it, ignoring loot, ignoring chat, ignoring the second patrol that drifted too close to comfort. The first drowning tick hit before he reached the bubble, dropping his health to 21%. Then another took him to 20%. The pain in his chest sharpened. His throat tried to inhale water, and Meno's real body flinched inside the capsule with simulated panic. He kicked harder, hit the edge of the bubble, and broke through.

He gasped and spent several seconds just floating there, dragging air into his lungs. Chat filled the air pocket. not happening this is painful to watch one pack almost killed him 0 loot Bagelmonster fired too realistic Meno opened the XP bar. [Level 42: 0. 6%] That included the monsters he had killed along the coast before entering. Moderate Scorpolas gave more than Normal threats, maybe around 0. 1% each if his rough math held.

Honeygrave had claimed twenty Normal kills for one percent solo, which meant roughly 0. 05% per Normal. Moderate was better, but not enough to justify drowning in a cone full of armed shrimp-scorpion-eels.

"If I kill all fifty trash, maybe five percent," Meno said.

"The High boss gives more. Maybe ten. Fifteen percent full clear if Veyrath is generous." not worth seven clears per level slog bracket welcome to 40+"Seven clears for one level," Meno said.

"And that assumes I can full clear." He looked back through the bubble at the spiral of Scorpolas drifting through green light. The route was possible in the way climbing a waterfall with knives was possible. Pulling packs one by one would be safer, but too slow to be worth farming. He needed cleaner first pulls, faster healer control, better use of guard bodies, and enough underwater movement practice that swimming stopped feeling like a punishment.

The propeller trick had worked, sort of, which meant it could maybe become useful once it stopped trying to make him puke. Meno wiped water from his face and took another breath.

"Okay," he said.

"This is a bit hard."