On the next [Floor] down, Room M contained a large pool of water with a thin, uneven shore of sand around the edge. The L-shaped room had two doors. One just to the left of where the party entered and another further along the right-side wall. The nearby door gleamed with a line of three slots with different outlines. The geometric indentations suggested gem-stones were needed. The slots were a red zigzag, a green square, and a blue circle, from left to right.

  “I guess it's time to hit the beach,” Witmie said.

  As Thesa turned to look, Witmie and Durn had somehow already stripped down to their swimwear. Both wore a bikini top with form-fitting shorts for their bottoms. Although, Durn’s top piece left more to the imagination than Witmies.

  “Why did you even pack those?” Thesa asked. She got down from Merijest’s back and removed her greaves and breastplate.

  “It’s always important to have your swimmies in case of a beach episode,” Witmie shrugged.

  Thesa looked at Merijest in confusion but the demoness only laughed. “You might need more comfortable swimgear, kitten. We’ll be on the ocean soon.”

  “You should get something too, Merijest,” Witmie suggested.

  “Why would she need that if she’s always– always naked?” Thesa asked in reply. She was starting to regret the whole conversation.

  “Sometimes a little bit of coverage is more seductive than total bare nakedness,” Witmie said. Durn and Merijest nodded along.

  Thesa merely turned away and slid herself into the water. It was warmer than she’d been expecting. Surely swimming with one leg would be easier than getting around on land right?

  Unfortunately, Thesa’s balance had been completely thrown off. As the world above became muted by the cushion of water around her ears, Thesa had to repeatedly adjust herself with additional kicks from her remaining foot. The remaining portion of her severed leg gave some propulsion, but over and over again she found herself wobbling in the water. This was going to take some getting used to.

  Thesa came up to get a breath and saw that Witmie and Durn kept their seeking to the water right near where they had all entered the room. Thesa decided to look around the corner.

  “Yabba, Frostbite, and I will keep watch up here in case anything happens,” Merijest had said. She was floating in the air with her wings flapping as she surveyed the surroundings. Yabba floated atop the water, its chicken legs kicking wildly in a failed attempt to control its movement. The Peppermint Wyrm was waddling across the surface, freezing a thin layer of the surface with each step. Merijest continued, “The Foxtapus might be able to help you.”

  The Foxtapus lifted its head up, having been curled up on a comfy spot of sand. It quickly trotted and then paddled over to Thesa with an adorable yip.

  “Thanks,” Thesa said, patting the creature’s head. Together they paddled around the corner of the room and searched for the other gems. Anytime Thesa started to lose her bearings, the Foxtapus summoned a psychic shield for her to grab onto and right herself.

  The sand beneath the water was busy with rocks. No kelp or seaweed, so Thesa didn’t need to worry about another Kelpie, but you never knew what might be disguised under a big rock. She summoned her halberd and, although it moved slowly through the water, she poked at the rocks from a safe distance. There were small glimmers and hints of color but each time something drew her attention it turned out to be just another cool rock.

  Thesa surfaced again for more air. “Any luck over there,” she called out.

  “We’ve got the green one,” Merijest replied.

  “Ok, I’ll keep looking,” Thesa called back and then returned to diving.

  Moving beneath the water, although difficult and blurry, had a relaxing element for Thesa. Everything was a little quieter. Everything moved a little slower. The light was dimmer. Still, the search for gemstones was beginning to drag on.

  When she next surfaced, Thesa called out, “What if the other gemstones are in other rooms.”

  “That’s possible,” Merijest replied. “Let’s keep looking here a little more though.”

  Thesa decided to take a different approach. She pulled herself onto the sand then took on her [Corvoid] form, leaving her shorts and tank top on the sand. With new perspective, she flew just above the water. To her surprise, her avian eyes easily parsed the complex layers of reflection and shine at the bottom of the pool. She wanted it all, but it only took a moment to spot the thing she wanted the most.

  Thesa found that positioning herself to revert into her wet clothes was a bit different than when they were dry. She was glad to have been around a corner as she reverted and readjusted her top.

  Then she dove beneath the water, grabbed the red gemstone, and used the Foxtapus’s psychic shield to help turn around and propel herself back to the surface. It was shaped like a bolt of lightning, a perfect fit for the door.

  “Got one!” she called out.

  Merijest collected it from her and then kissed Thesa on the forehead. “Nice work, kitten,” she said with a wink.

  Thesa made a weird little laugh and then caught herself embarrassed. When Witmie and Durn surfaced moments later, Thesa was glad they hadn’t heard.

  “The last one is going to be the most difficult considering that it’s blue,” Durn said.

  “Maybe we need another tactic,” Witmie replied.

  “Like what?” Durn asked.

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  “I found the red one using my [Corvoid] form,” Thesa added.

  “I wonder if these gemstones would look different to half-elf [Infravision],” Merijest mused.

  Thesa thought it made sense, so she cast [Blindfold] and sure enough the two gemstones they’d found had a distinctive dark blue heat-tone compared to every rock at the bottom of the pool except for two.

  “Do you see them?” Thesa asked Witmie.

  “Yep, I’ll grab ‘em.”

  In a flash, Witmie dove down and returned with two halves of a circular blue gemstone.

  “Good work, team,” Merijest said, admiringly. With a flick of blood and magic, the demoness froze the blue halves together. She slotted each of the gemstones into place and the party went out into the winding corridor.

  On their way to the next chamber, Merijest noted a discolored wooden board.

  “That might be how we enter the secret stairwell on the map,” she observed.

  ***

  The next chamber was empty of traps or monsters. As the party followed the wall to the other exit, Thesa examined a defaced mural on the other side of the room.

  The mural was divided across three large indentations in the wall. The first showed a serpentine creature covered in a chitin exoskeleton. The creature was emerging from sandy earth before a nondescript humanoid figure. However, someone had used red paint to add two arms holding up a large, crudely drawn fish.

  In the second frame, the same creature fed on the corpse of the nondescript humanoid figure. But again, red paint altered the details. The corpse was crossed out and another rendition of the crudely drawn fish had been added just above it. Additionally, a standing stick figure was added with a smile on its face.

  In the final frame, the creature had curled itself into a relaxed position and the paint added a similarly smiling stick figure making what looked like a thumbs up.

  “What a strange design,” Thesa cawed out in her [Corvoid] form.

  “It looks like a Carcilisk,” Merijest explained. “We might run into one at the bottom of this [Dungeon]. One of the ways a [Core] can earn enough [Mana] to summon such a large boss monster is by placing hints about it throughout the earlier [Floors].”

  “I didn’t realize [Mana] cost was a problem for [Cores],” Thesa said.

  “It depends. Especially low Level [Cores] with less resources outside of their [Dungeon] have to rely on these things. In my opinion, it makes for a more reasonable experience anyways,” Merijest replied.

  “So should we be looking for fish to feed that thing?” Thesa asked.

  “Not a bad idea,” Merijest nodded.

  ***

  ***

  The next chamber, Room O, hosted a painfully tedious mirror maze. Large reflective rectangles stretched from the ceiling to the ground. Witmie followed the mirrors with her right hand while Durn did the same with her left. Unfortunately, it turned out the maze was using separate, concentric segments to throw off that strategy.

  “Hey, why doesn’t Yabba have a reflection,” Thesa wondered aloud. She’d been sitting near the entrance but got antsy and used the Nest Walker to help pull herself up onto her foot. The way was narrow so she pressed against both walls to keep herself upright. That was when she noticed the empty space where Yabba should be in one of the mirrors.

  Unfortunately, this was less helpful than Thesa initially hoped. The recursive reflections remained disorienting.

  Worse still, when Thesa cast [Blindfold] the mirrors even reflected heat tones.

  “This is devilish,” Merijest mused.

  “I’m getting dizzy,” Witmie said. She was sitting on the ground with her hands over her eyes. Durn kneeled and rubbing circles on her back.

  “Wait, look up,” Thesa said. On the ceiling, the same red paint which had defaced the mural in the previous chamber revealed a path through the maze.

  “Hold on,” Merijest said, offering one hand to Thesa. Witmie and Durn joined the chain of joined hands, the demoness grew taller. This led all of her sapient [Familiars] to blush at the same time. She placed a claw on the ceiling and traced the way through.

  At the end of the maze was a small opening. A hole in the ground provided access to a large underground pond with sizable fish swimming around inside.

  On the wall a fish was drawn crudely in red paint with an arrow pointing downward. Additionally, a message was written, “Sorry about maze! Working on it!”

  “Weird,” Thesa said. “But I guess this is where we get food for the Carcilisk.”

  ***

  Fish in Durn’s hands, the party returned to the winding corridor and Merijest pushed on the discolored wooden board. The board slid and clicked without much effort. Several other boards around it receded and sank into the ground, revealing the hidden stairwell.

  This was something Thesa had taken for granted before.

  Is there a good way to descend stairs with one leg? She wondered. Hopping down the stairs sounded unstable. On the other hand, sitting and sliding herself carefully down one step at a time seemed like it would be too slow.

  “May I?” Merijest asked. She held her arms out as if to lift Thesa and carry her down.

  Thesa nodded. She was frustrated at this new obstacle. Learning to move through the world with one leg was not going to be automatic and with how recent the change was she hadn’t gotten the chance to really learn how to deal with the various obstacles she could expect going forward. At the same time, she thought, I might as well enjoy the feeling of Merijest body and…NO STOP IT BRAIN!

  “Everything ok, kitten?” Merijest asked.

  “What?” Thesa replied.

  “Your body suddenly tensed up like you were worried about something.”

  “I’m fine,” Thesa hid her face in Merijest’s soft feathers. Am I that easy to read? She attempted to pull herself together.

  Before picking her up, Merijest tilted her head to one side. “What is that expression?”

  Witmie and Durn both turned to get a glimpse.

  Thesa gulped. “What? Nothing?”

  Witmie said, “I’ve never seen a face trying and failing to suppress so many conflicting feelings at once,” Frustration, adoration, shame, and embarrassment, to name just a few.

  Thesa knew she’d never been good at reading the facial expressions of others so she felt it was a little unfair that her own body language was always so apparent to Merijest, Witmie, and Durn.

  At the bottom of the stairs, Merijest set Thesa upright so she could hold onto Yabba and use her halberd as a cane for additional support.

  A wooden sign was painted with the message “Carcie is friendly! She loves fish! Earn her favor to complete the [Dungeon]!” However, the sound of battle echoed from the next room.

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