Master Of None

”Stopped? Why do we have to stop?” This was the question that every single person on the ship asked. However, the moment that they made it to the top deck, everyone understood.

Thanks to the golems, archers on look out, and the merfolk, the ships had stopped right before they had become wrecks. In front of them was a seemingly endless field of waves and coral. There were clearly places where the ships could fit through, unfortunately, there were more ways to get trapped and wrecked.

Many ships and even some other vessels that didn’t look anything like something made on their continent were there. Beached on top of large rocks covered in coral or trapped and shattered between large portions of coral growing just under the surface of the water.

”This is a massive coral maze.” Walker could see that the coral had not been grown intentionally like this, it was just the natural growth of the coral over more years than any of them had been alive.

”I would say it’s a massive pain in the butt. I want to see this new continent and the archers say that the block way off in the distance is the start of the land. It should be where all my new herbs are growing. But noooooooo, we are stuck here.” Remey wanted to personally start carving a path through the coral. She didn’t care what would happen to her if she ran in to any monsters living in it.

”You kids can all calm down. I have my golems working on it. I won’t be sending a man to battle in a mess like that. But this is why golems exist. The dangerous tunnels that no one would risk exploring. That is where they go.” The king of the surface had brought a large team of dwarves to the top deck when he had come to speak about this problem with their course.

”The dolphin golems and the narwhal golems can handle this?” Su was still slow and groggy after training with Walker. She had slept for a day at least. Yet, she still felt that her body was sore and her mind weak. She had stressed herself greatly awakening a lot of new skills and a great new defensive method. She had even fought using her shields on the offensive instead of defensive which shocked her muscles that had been used to the same motions.

”Exactly right. Our golems will be mapping a way through that. It will be a simple matter…” The simple matter was proven to be less so than expected. As soon as the king of the surface had gone to boast that his golems would be easily traversing things, one was thrown from the water.

The pieces of metal and a shattered golem core fell in to the water like a strange metal rain. Everyone focused on it and noticed the spiked fish that had used its tail to shatter and throw the dolphin golem out of the coral maze ahead of them. While Walker could only see part of it, he still used the all around appraisal.

’Explosive puffer fish

Using the water it stored under pressure in its body, the explosive puffer fish will expand rapidly and release the water. This causes a powerful attack that can cut through some of the toughest metals. It is ideal for breaking the tough corals and finding the snake eels it enjoys eating.

Beware of the female explosive pufferfish. They possess a sharp set of spikes that can poison just about any bird or fish that attempts to eat them. There are some things that naturally eat them, such as the berzerk shark. They often hunt the reefs for any and all food possible.’

”It is time for a crusade against this coral hell! They have harmed my soldier!” the rage that presented itself on the face of the king of the surface was immediate. He could barely hear what Walker had just said about the explosive puffer fish.

”Brother, should sister and I go back to training? We can try to break some coral from here.” Walker shook his head. He had already started to ignore the king of the surface. He had to avoid the desire to rush in to this coral maze and explore.

”If you send attacks at it, you might wake up something else we don’t know of. I am going to ask Leon what we should do.” Walker looked around and spotted Alma, Leon, and Scylla walking toward them. It was clear that everyone that could come had come to the same ship.

”We all see why there have been absolutely zero returning ships. Anyone that can make it through this has struggled to make it back. And those that had been trapped…” Leon was taking the lead on the conversation. It appeared that Scylla had also just seen the golem destroyed so she was more apt to fight than anything. Which was why she let Leon speak first.

”I can sense that a lot of that coral is alive. It’s like a plant type of monster. I can’t control it but they are stopped where they are and won’t be moving much. But when I try to search for more…it’s hard to say. There are a lot of other things around under the water. Normal seaweeds. But they are all oppressed by something. They aren’t growing to the surface of the water at all. There’s a defined limit.” Alma broke in with her worries. She knew that Walker or the other might be able to figure things out here.

”I really don’t like that. I said it before, and I am saying it now. That does not put me at ease. Especially when I need to send my merfolk out to search that place.” Leon raised his worries yet again. But he didn’t have much time to say anything since Ventus descended from the sky while changing back to her dragonkin from.

”Ninety two ship wrecks. That is how many are visible to my eyes. Some leaving that place and others entering. What I cannot see may be impossible to handle. But even the air currents are strange here. I believe we should stay here for the night. Everyone prepared for battle.” Ventus motioned to the many dragonkin that were deathly serious. Even the other royal dragons were around having conversations with their most powerful dragonkin warriors.

”That does not bode well. I will see what I can sense.” Walker had felt something scratching at the back of his mind. However, he had chalked it up to the situation they were in. It was not ideal. Many unknown things were in this massive maze of coral. It wasn’t easy to guess what monsters, pathway should take, or magics were at play here.

The moment that Walker reached out with his senses, he found a huge amount of mana around. It was much higher than normal. The manas were not balanced though. The mana that was being focused here under the water was-

”Darkness mana. It is mana that I know. But I have no say over how it’s used. Because that kind of darkness mana, is mixed with death.” Mordant spoke as he revealed himself from the shadows. He was grim and determined to set this place right. ”It’s just as bad as that city of undead. If not slightly better here. So many things have died here. The coral has trapped them. The monsters eaten them. The storms shattered them on the rocks.” Mordant could guess all the ways someone had died here.

”It is!” Walker felt the same things that Mordant did. The pair of them could feel the darkness elemental mana mixed with death itself. It was a dense energy that might not even be mana. Midnight had touched on this before to awaken her innate skeletal armor skill. It came with darkness dragons but it was not necessarily death.

Even worse, the trap that immortal king had played left Midnight potential stuck in a little world of death being chased by skeletons and spirits. Now they were in a larger place with the same feeling. ”We are going to need to prepare for the night. I mean heavily prepare. Every ship needs to be ready for a battle against the undead. Fire will not work here.” Knowing about the undead was a requirement for many. Too many graveyards had sat too long leading to undead surfacing. That was why there were burial rites.

”Scylla, the skills that I have are not enough to burn them up with all the saltwater here. I will speak with Rise about skills I might be able to use after the sun sets. Alice will also be a major player in this.” Walker took on the responsibility. He knew that healers would be their main force during this. The water mages would even be behind whalers when it came to beating undead.

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