Becoming the Dark Lord

The shark dove faster, and when Luke zoomed in with the Eye of Sariel, he realized those were not Beacons.

Fish.

Gigantic monstrous fish. Above each of their heads dangled a lure-like antenna with a glowing tip. He watched them attacking people.

“Luke, stop this thing!” Eleanor shouted.

Luke checked the time. He was not stopping. This was part of the challenge, and slowing down here would only cost them. He drove the shark deeper, weaving past the chaos. The fish looked like oversized piranhas, their teeth long and sharp as blades. One of them was chewing on a person. Jack panicked, but luckily he was still tied to the rope.

Charlie punched one of the fish that lunged at them. The shark kept descending. Luke made it snap at another one, activated its burst skill, and dragged the creature down while the shark tore into it. Floating rocks drifted all around them. People swam between them, dodging through the water like they were weaving through meteors in space. The rocks shifted and shot past at dangerous speed.

“Where? Where’s the challenge?” Eleanor asked, scanning the area.

They were near the bottom now. A vast forest of seaweed spread below, while the giant fish kept attacking. Luke spotted a man with a spear fighting nearby with his group. He pointed.

There.

His friends looked where he was indicating. There were holes in the seafloor like a giant honeycomb. Cave entrances. Far off, Luke saw people entering them and being pulled inside.

That has to be it.

The shark surged forward, accelerating hard. Then a sound rolled through the water. A song. Wrong. Warped. Everyone in the group clutched at their ears as pain hit them. Eleanor screamed.

What happened?

She screamed again with each pulse of the song.

Psychic attack.

Luke was immune. Then suddenly all of them were dragged forward at once. Pulled. Luke saw what it was. A huge creature waited ahead with its mouth open, sucking everything inward. A whale. He conjured a knife, poured mana into it, and threw.

[Shadow Mana Explosion activated]

The explosion was weak, swallowed quickly by the water, but it was enough to disrupt the vortex for a moment. The shark swam hard away from it.

“A whale! A giant whale!” Eleanor shouted. Even she sounded shaken by the size of it.

The glowing lure-fish dove toward them. Charlie started punching them away. The whale cried out. Even the fish seemed to feel the pain of its psychic attack. Luke slashed one apart. Charlie smashed several more.

Charlotte Vespertilio’s 2nd Class [Black Ash Fighter] reached Level 84! (+18 STR, +8 INT, +7 END, +6 VIT, +6 PER, +5 AGI, +5 Free Points)

Then she launched herself at the whale just as the monster opened its mouth again. The shark dropped lower. The whale came at them fast, trying to swallow them whole. But Luke and the others escaped. The moment the shark reached the hole, it was seized by a brutal current and dragged inside. The whale screamed and lowered its enormous eye to the opening, staring straight at Luke.

That look. No way it’s the same damn whale I fought before... right?

Jack opened his mouth to scream and swallowed water instead. All of them were being dragged downward now, deeper into the hole and into the cavern system below. They slammed against rocks as they were swept along. The shark became a shield for them. Anne raised a dome and threw herself in front of the group, letting the debris crash against the barrier around her as she protected them.

“A cave network with a current!” Eleanor shouted.

The shark managed to right itself and swim properly, though it was still being dragged along by the flow. Through openings in the tunnels, they could see other people being pulled through too.

“We’re not getting back out. Not easily,” Eleanor said, looking behind them.

Then they saw a school of fish ahead. The creatures inflated all at once, turning into a massive wall of spikes. Anne grabbed onto the shark and launched herself toward its mouth. Luke understood immediately. The shark bit down on the dome she had created and used it like a shield.

They shot past the fish, barely clearing them. One of the spines was about to hit Jack. Luke threw himself in front of it. Pain exploded through him. The spine struck. But they made it through.

Poison.

He felt the burning spread across his back. He ripped the spine free and threw it away. Poison did not matter much to him, but if it had hit one of the others, it could have been bad.

Acid too.

His hand had started to corrode the moment he touched the spine, and his back was burning the same way. More fish came at them, and they fought back as they moved. The spiked puffer-like creatures swam after them again once their bodies returned to normal. They pushed through the caves, attacking whatever got in their way.

Then two women saw them. They looked desperate, hands clapped over their mouths as they pointed at the equipment Luke’s group was carrying.

“What do we do, Luke? They’re going to drown,” Eleanor said.

Luke made the shark ignore them and keep moving. One of the women drew a scimitar and swam after them fast. Charlie lunged first, driving a punch into one of them. Evangeline struck the other. The shark twisted around and bit into one of the women, thrashing once before surging forward again.

They kept moving. By the time the two women died, they were already gone. For a while, Luke thought he was lost. Then he found another opening. The shark dove through it and dragged them along. When they emerged, they were near the ceiling of a massive cavern.

“Holy shit...” Eleanor breathed.

There was a city hidden inside. A real city, buried beneath the sea inside the cavern, almost like a true Atlantis. Lights gleamed all through it.

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Beacons.

But at the center of the city yawned a dark hole, one that clearly descended even deeper into the abyss. And the city was anything but peaceful. Other people were fighting there. Creatures. Beasts. And Stalkers. The humanoid things were grabbing people and trying to drag them down into the darkness below.

Jack pulled the mask onto his face and took a breath. “I just wanted to breathe normally. By the Goddess of Kindness, we are at the bottom of the ocean.”

Eleanor immediately snatched the mask off his face and put it back on herself. Luke zoomed in with his eye while the shark kept pulling them forward.

[Time Remaining: 0 hours : 14 minutes : 09 seconds]

The damn timer’s almost done.

The shark surged onward. A powerful current hit them as they descended farther.

Why are there so many people around the Beacons?

He kept watching. Hundreds of people were stationed around the Beacons with weapons in hand. But there was no time to think about it. The shark cut down through the city, dodging people as it dragged them. Then the Stalkers came. Fast. Swimming with a vicious speed.

Jack raised his wand and fired a sphere of light, trying to blind them. The shark plunged into a building. Every second mattered now. They shot through one hole and out another, weaving through the flooded structure.

“Luke!” Eleanor shouted.

Behind them, the Stalkers were still coming. They were much faster than selmarines. And they were smiling. Or maybe that was just how their faces looked. A permanent, monstrous grin. Evangeline spat out a sphere of shadow that disrupted them. The shark dropped lower, heading toward the streets, then activated its torpedo charge.

Luke threw knives behind him, landing hits on the creatures chasing them. The current was getting stronger. In the narrow passages, they saw octopuses. A lot of them.

Grasping Octopuses.

Two of them already had people wrapped in their tentacles. A group of archers was attacking one of the monsters. Stalkers grabbed one of the archers by the leg and yanked him down. The octopus blasted out a cloud of ink.

The shark tore straight through the chaos and kept going for the Beacon. Two octopuses turned toward Luke’s group. Charlie punched part of a structure and brought it crashing down. The octopuses slipped through the opening anyway and followed them inside. The shark darted into another building. The octopuses came after them.

Charlie started smashing walls apart, collapsing everything around them. The octopuses folded their bodies and squeezed through corners with disturbing ease. When one got close enough, Charlie drove a punch into it, caught one of its tentacles, and swung the entire creature aside.

Then they burst out of the building. And now they were closing in on a Beacon.

Why the hell are there so many people around the Beacon?

If it only allowed ten people, then why were there dozens just standing there?

“Are they after our artifacts or what?”

As they got closer, the people started waving frantically, almost desperately.

“Get over here! Hurry!” someone shouted, probably using a skill or item that let them speak underwater.

“Touch the Beacon!” another yelled.

A few of them even started striking Luke’s shark.

“Quick! Touch the Beacon! We killed the beasts for you!” they shouted.

Luke dismissed the shark before it got destroyed. The moment he approached the Beacon, a notification appeared.

Beacon Area 2

Beacon 2 contains a large dungeon whose challenge will only begin once it reaches one thousand people.

One thousand people?

Phase 2 Beacon discovered!

Beacons scattered throughout the ocean function as dimensional portals created by the System. Each Beacon contains a sealed marine dungeon holding lethal dangers and unknown rewards. To activate this Beacon, Marine Artifacts must be offered as its energy source.

Marine Artifacts: 0/10

Objective: ???

Reward: ???

Recommended Level: ???

Deposit artifacts into the Beacon? [YES / NO]

There was no group-entry option.

Don’t tell me it’s ten artifacts per person.

It was. Eleanor pulled out her artifacts and brought them toward the cube. When Luke finished depositing ten, another notification appeared.

[Beacon slot secured!]

The difficulty really did go up. Now it’s ten artifacts per person. We gathered so many over the past few days, we thought it would be enough to carry us through the rest of the event.

[Area Objective: Hold your position in the Beacon area until it reaches one thousand people.]

[People Count: 933/1000]

The rest of the group finished depositing their artifacts.

[People Count: 938/1000]

Hold your position?

[Time Remaining: 0 hours : 7 minutes : 53 seconds]

If time runs out before it hits one thousand, we’re screwed.

No one could leave. A roar echoed through the water. Luke knew that sound.

A Sea Guardian.

The creature was somewhere in the city. They stayed where they were as the current began to intensify.

[5 minutes remain until the end of Phase 2.]

[Local Penalty Applied: The force of the current will increase every second until time expires.]

The current kept getting stronger. Stalkers were coming up from below. Everyone fought to stop them from dragging someone unsuspecting into the depths and lowering the participant count. Charlie punched the creatures away while staying close to Luke.

Come on. Come on.

Luke saw more people reaching the cube and depositing artifacts.

“I don’t have ten!” one of them shouted as he arrived.

“How many do you have?”

“Eight!”

“Here! Take it and put them in already!” another participant yelled, tossing him an artifact.

[People Count: 978/1000]

[Time Remaining: 0 hours : 3 minutes : 23 seconds]

We’ll make it. We’ll make it.

More Stalkers came. Someone got pulled under and vanished into the dark.

Damn it.

More people kept arriving.

We’ll make it.

[People Count: 986/1000]

At the same time, more Stalkers kept coming. Jack and Layla stayed close together while the others fought. The current was becoming brutal now. People started grabbing onto the Beacon, onto each other’s arms and legs, anything they could hold. One by one, some were being dragged away.

Charlie grabbed a rock and hurled it.

[Telekinetic Stasis activated]

Luke froze rocks in the water. People clung to them.

We’re going to make it.

[Time Remaining: 0 hours : 1 minute : 37 seconds]

More Stalkers poured in. Eleanor fired arrows that spun the water and created a vortex, knocking them back. Spells flashed through the dark and struck the Stalkers.

[People Count: 991/1000]

“Over here!” someone shouted to a group swimming toward them. “Touch the Beacon! Touch the Beacon!”

[People Count: 996/1000]

[Time Remaining: 0 hours : 0 minutes : 57 seconds]

Then Luke spotted something above, near the top of the cavern. A whole mass of Stalkers was descending. And behind them... fish. Entire schools of them. The Stalkers looked down and gave everyone a mocking little wave.

Oh no...

Luke understood at once. The moment the schools of fish fully surged out of the opening and got caught in the current, most of the others understood too.

“Spread out! Spread out!”

The fish inflated into huge balls of spines and were swept straight toward them by the current.

[Time Remaining: 0 hours : 0 minutes : 18 seconds]

Come on. Hit the damn number.

[People Count: 997/1000]

[People Count: 998/1000]

[People Count: 999/1000]

[Time Remaining: 0 hours : 0 minutes : 7 seconds]

And the inflated fish were almost on top of them. People were getting hit all at once. Eleanor was struck. She screamed as the force dragged her body away. Luke caught her hand before the current could take her. She cried out again, hurt and pinned by the spines.

[Time Remaining: 0 hours : 0 minutes : 3 seconds]

[Time Remaining: 0 hours : 0 minutes : 2 seconds]

[Time Remaining: 0 hours : 0 minutes : 1 second]

[People Count: 1000/1000]

[Objective completed successfully! Teleporting the 1000 participants!]