A relatively large number of spectators in Auditorium Number Three was watching the intense fight between the Deep Ones and the Pandawans. Usually, when there were Pandawans participating in the dungeons, the System would focus the movie screens on their dungeon instance, which lead to them being quite famous in Jin’s shop.
As long as they put up a good fight, it really did not matter if they lost the instance because people were using them as a metric to gauge how hard a dungeon could be. And this particular Deep One Dungeon was showing them no mercy at all. Unlike the Shaolin Football Dungeon instance where many of the cultivators fought against the (even now) unbeatable Savants, this latest addition, while not as brutal, kept sending waves of increasingly more and more dangerous Deep Ones against Bin Yong and Shi Zuo especially with them armed with a trident.
On that side note, the Deep Ones were all trained with basic spear proficiency as compared to them previously brandishing their weapons crudely when Jin caught them in the Fishing World. It was all thanks to Wyrstriker, the Wyvern Goblin Knight who tirelessly trained them while Jin prepared the Deep One training instance. Wyrstriker could not believe the regimental training he used to hate would be implemented by him to ensure the teaching of Deep Ones was orderly. It was no doubt the fastest way to teach them the ways of the spear in a short span of time.
The fight against four Deep Ones had been still beatable with some nonstandard attacks, but that was never the end of it. The Deep Mage creepily laughed as it snapped its fingers and sent double that number against the two cultivators. Thankfully, Shi Zuo had managed to find his storage ring during the battle against the four Deep Ones which he found it by chance when the ring glittered under the water in response to the chi his was emitting. The fight then escalated rather quickly from that point on and it was apparent how the difficulty level went up a notch with each Pandawan having to beat at least four on their own.
Bin Yong and Shi Zuo had been forced to use a number of intermediate battle techniques that were usually kept in reserve to use in Middle Boss fights because of the amount of chi it expends. Before they knew it, the duo had unconsciously used up the gathered chi that was needed to let them walk on water in their fights. That forced them to fight unknowingly in knee deep waters, pushing their dexterity limit to the next level. But in Jin’s eyes, pushing their self imposed limit was the few viable ways to further their cultivation.
Unlike Xiong Da, who could endure hits because of his unique cultivation, Shi Zuo was more of an all out offensive cultivator. To him, offence was indeed his best defence. Even the spectators and viewers who had subscribed to Pandaflix, Jins very own dungeon instance streaming, were baffled to learn that Shi Zuo had not fully utilised his Mad Monkey Cultivation until this particular dungeon instance.
It was a brand new sight to watch him jumping around out of the waters on to the lower platforms and pillars to maintain his agility and attack them from tricky angles to counter the Deep Ones’ home field advantage. It was exhausting for Shi Zuo which was why he did not use it as often as he should. (Though the System was pleased with the new data input.)
While the Deep Ones managed to block his wild attacks with their spears and armoured spike tails, all eight were subsequently defeated with Bin Yong making use of their distraction thanks to his Bombardier Beetle Style. Needless to say, the Deep Mage simply snapped his fingers yet again and now Sixteen Deep Ones stepped forward.
It was definitely going nowhere for both of them. At first, they thought the Deep Ones would be willing to let them go after demonstrating their strength against them. But as the duels went by and with their numbers increasing with each fight, it was evident that the Deep Ones were merely toying with the two Pandawans.
Instead of continuing to fight them, they tried to resume their plan to run away and climb up to the roof. Unfortunately, it became futile after the Deep Mage managed to slip a few spells of his own to thwart their initial plans. Redirecting the continuous waterfall like a water hydro pump, he splashed them off the walls. Not willing to give up, they tried again.
Bin Yong eventually managed to evade the initial few water spells and climbed to the reach the windows grills by the walls of the Grand Central Terminal. The Deep Mage then used a charged water orb spell as a sort of deviation when the real spell was an elusive binding rope made out of water. The rope pulled Bin Yong towards the 2nd floor by slamming him right to the ground.
To his surprise, the Deep Ones did not finish him off despite the injury he incurred, which allowed them to do so rather effortlessly. Instead, they dragged him to the railings and pushed him back down into the main concourse area again. They seemed keen on continuing their match and thus not granting him an easy death.
Eventually, Shi Zuo was confident that the only way out was for one of the two parties to perish. At this point, they honestly considered giving up to return later with a new strategy since they believed that the pattern of this particular deathtrap would not change and only be harder the more they killed. As if the Deep Mage could feel their lacking resolve, it sniggered and threw a tied up rucksack he conjured at them. Both Bin Yong and Shi Zuo were cautious when they saw the rucksack, but the Deep Mage demanded them to open it.
At that point, they guessed that they were fully at the mercy of the Deep Mage and Bin Yong did not hesitate to open it. Initially, they were shocked with a face of disbelief when they saw the contents of the bag. Only at a closer inspection, did they realise they had been scammed. “What the?! All these panda medals are broken!” Bin Yong took two pieces out and showed it to the Deep Mage.
Now, the still spectating Deep Ones laughed eerily with their lowly muffled vocal cords that sounded more like a tortured goat struggling to scream than a burst of proper laughter. “Fooolisssshhh Meatssssss. Gather threeeee piecesssss.” The Deep Mage clasped his hands together to signal that they could be combined and Bin Yong did what was told. To their surprise, three broken pieces of Panda Medals did become a whole. And judging from the bag of mixed fragments, there would be at least 20 to 30 Bronze Panda Medals in there.
“Fightttt with my breathennnssss. More Medaaalllssss” Deep Mage explained and it was to keep them even longer in the dungeon instance.
“So…I presume we are not going anywhere until we defeat that Magical Deep One.” Shi Zuo was taking a breather, since the sixteen Deep Ones remained on standby ever since their escape attempts, as he peeked into the rucksack once more.
“Seems that way, but if we dare to attack that Magical Deep One, we might incur the wrath of every Deep One in this Grand Central Terminal. The only proper way appears to be to survive the waves until it’s his turn.” Bin Yong remarked as he could see that it would not end soon.
“I don’t think I have enough chi potions for them all. I also doubt they are going to be nice enough to give us breaks to consume them except during those intervals when he snapped his fingers.” Shi Zuo checked his storage ring and confirmed that his inventory of chi potions was still untouched
“And so, I assume this is where hopelessness and dread come into play?” Shi Zuo chugged one chi potion before the Deep Mage signalled to the waiting sixteen Deep Ones to attack them.
“It does not have to be that way. You can be spared, if you believe in the greatness of Lord Dagen, clueless one.” Bin Yong heard that whisper when it abruptly entered his head as he prepared to defend himself from the Deep Ones.
“You and only you have been deemed worthy.” The whisper continued, but Bin Yong gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the deafening chatter that spoke to him continuously in his head. It was as if he was trying to pass a sanity check while fighting against the Deep Ones.
However, the spectators did not know that Bin Yong was tormented by the unnatural mutters. They assumed the wounds from the previous battles hindered him. Contrary to Shi Zuo’s cultivation, Bin Yong was an all rounder that did not excel in any attributes. His strength, defence and agility were above average. Though his Bombardier Beetle Style made him fight more defensively, his techniques could be used as an offensive tactic against his opponents.
Even though Bin Yong had experienced fighting a large group of monsters during the Goblin Raid Event, taking on tens of Orcs by himself, this was a different type of monsters. The Deep Ones had stronger scaled armour, and their arsenal of natural weapons such as teeth, tails and claws along with the proficiency to hold spear arms. Not to mention, they were even more ruthless and bloodthirsty than the Orcs who would whatever it takes to kill their opponent.
Maybe because they had this particular feral instinct which made them behave differently from a comparatively disciplined mind like the Orcs. Therefore, having sixteen Deep Ones attacking at the same time was a completely different scenario against the ones he encountered. Even the spectators were having a hard time imagining themselves trying to fight against one, much alone sixteen.
Sadly, their defeat was ensured when an exhausted Bin Yong accidentally missed a block, and a Deep One clawed his neck open, causing him to die from the massive instant loss of blood. No longer dividing their forces, they focused their attention on Shi Zuo, who had managed to take down three.
As the last survivor, Shi Zuo could only go all out to kill as many as possible before the Deep Ones completely overwhelmed him. Though he fought valiantly, his luck came to an end when a Deep One who quietly hid under the shallow waters, sneak attacked him from the back and pierced straight through his heart.
When the Pandawans awoke back in the recovery instance, they could not help but feel a little dejected but a few of the other cultivators who had been watching the Deep One dungeon via their phones, consoled them that they were probably the first who had managed to reach sixteen Deep Ones. In the meantime, Bin Yong took a bottle of water and splashed his face a little.
He still had some shivers after the entire dungeon run and was torn between being sad for losing, and happy for it being over. A Panda Nurse beckoned him to follow her into a room. Milk was there waiting for him with a spell ready. “Those whispers are nasty, aren’t they?” Milk asked after Bin Yong took a seat at the side of her desk. She turned on her torchlight to check his eye pupil movements and systematically measured his blood pressure.
“It was somewhat irritating but…I must say, it was indeed alluring. I could complain that I had trouble resisting it and fighting at the same time, but I think this is pretty much par for the course in a dungeon with this theme. In my opinion, I feel that we haven’t even seen half of the dungeon yet.” Bin Yong sighed as Milk had already begun casting her magic on him to remove the effects of the dungeons.
“Indeed, you guys were just too focused on reaching your objective. It seems you know a bit about Lovecraft?” She asked as she implemented the spell ‘Calming Clarity’ on Bin Yong.
“Actually quite a lot, and I’m sure Jin really took a lot of inspiration from there. When I saw the Empire State Building, I noticed a gigantic fish…snake like shadow wrapping itself around it. I think I managed to have eye contact with it before I saw the first Black Suit guy and after that Shi Zuo pushed me away from the window. Oh, and I did not say this to Shi Zuo in case he got all worked up.” Bin Yong told her.
“I shouldn’t be saying this, but consider this a Pandawan special privilege. You are right. You have yet to see half of the dungeon. From what I saw, you guys were not even 10% close to the completion of the dungeon. Come on, don’t look so gloom, others fared far worse than you.” Milk tried to cheer him up as she took his blood pressure once more and asked if she could take a blood sample for research purposes after the dungeon instance. It goes without saying, Bin Yong was welcome to reject such a test if he found it too invasive.
Bin Yong eventually agreed and in exchange Milk revealed a hint about the dungeon instance. “Remember what Boss Jin told you guys before the start of this instance? It’s not all about fighting. You should take the time to appreciate the little things which flesh out the instance. You can share this piece of information with other people if you want. But I am sure you still want your first clear.”
Bin Yong nodded and asked if two people were enough for this Deep One dungeon instance. “That, I really cannot say. The dungeon will scale its difficulty with the number of people. Knowing Jin, it should probably be possible to beat it solo if you know how. But just think back at every dungeon instance you successfully completed so far. How many members did your ideal group include?” Milk winked at him as she wore her lab coat with a vial of Bin Yong’s blood in her hands. The Panda nurse subsequently took charge and showed Bin Yong his bed to rest.
“So… it seems this is less a James Bond kind of spy movie dungeon instance even though it seems like one at first glance, but more of a detective thriller, making us search for clues.” Bin Yong thought to himself as he felt his head being all cleared up.
“This is not the end, Boss Jin. I …no we will complete it.” Bin Yong felt the need to rise to the challenge. First, he would make some preparations to be ready this time as he sent an SMS to Jia Le and Luo Bo inviting them to join them in the evening.
