Dungeon Life-Chapter Four-Hundred Twenty-Seven

It’s odd to watch through Teemo’s eyes when he’s underwater. He’s usually in Hullbreak’s territory when he’s submerged, and I can look around his territory almost as freely as I can my own. I still try to keep my view in Teemo’s general vicinity, but there’s nothing stopping me from poking around wherever I want, aside from my simple desire to not barge in and stomp all over his privacy.

But right now, Teemo’s not in his territory. Instead, he’s just outside, along with Yvonne and several merfolk: the first marine Rangers. Well, Rangers-in-training. Yendo and Yenlarn are in attendance, as are several other merfolk that I don’t remember the names of. Yendo and his son stand out, since Yendo was the one who sent the letter to Tarl, asking for help for Hullbreak. I haven’t interacted with his son, Yenlarn, too much, but it’s clear the two are both doing a lot better now that Hullbreak’s doing a lot better, too.

Yvonne floats before the merfolk, her sharp hawk eyes taking in every detail. The aqua affinity potions are amazing. Water breathing, better swimming, better vision, all rolled up into a single potion that will let land folk easily go visit and hang out with undersea folk. And it makes delving in Hullbreak a lot easier, too. Hard to do much fighting when you have to hold your breath the entire time.

Teemo floats just over her shoulder, mostly observing and letting me observe, too. Yvonne has talked about what the Rangers do before, but this’ll be my chance to actually see it! Their mission is to cull the monsters that spawn from stagnation, keeping them from getting too numerous, and trying to stop knots from forming. Those knots seem to either act like spawners for the stagnant monsters, or will form into super-strong ones. Even the Rangers don’t know the exact mechanics, but from legends and from how the Maw was able to use a knot to make the spawner for the Harbinger actually work, it’s bad news and should definitely be stopped.

Which is what the Rangers do. I’d call them pretty similar to druids, but there’s a difference between a class and an organization, no matter how many druids tend to join up. The dwarves have their own versions they call Cragwalkers who specialize in mountains and caves, and the marine Rangers will be pretty similar, just for water.

And so Yvonne watches her recruits float in a loose line before her, the merfolk looking nervous yet determined. They basically all have tridents or sometimes war forks. Part of me wants to call them bidents, since they have two prongs, but that sounds kinda silly. Even if war fork sounds like what a marine would use to eat an MRE.

“The duty of the Rangers is a vital one. We do more than simply explore. We patrol, we guard, and when it’s needed, we cull. The stagnation monsters do not, cannot live within nature. They destroy. We stop them. If you don’t think you’re up for that, there’s no shame in swimming back. If you want to become the strongest you can be, adventurers are stronger. But if you are willing to take on this duty, to be the unseen force that keeps the stagnation at bay, then you are in the right place.”

None of the merfolk move. None of them even look tempted. I imagine they’ve basically all talked about what being Rangers would mean, so they’re probably not surprised by anything Yvonne said. And they also care for Hullbreak. They’re his enclave, after all, and fighting off invaders will help him, and if they can track down and give us early warning about the Betrayer, all the better.

Yvonne nods and starts idly swimming up and down the row of merfolk. “Good! Usually I have greener recruits and I get a few that are self aware enough to back out. But you all already know what this is about. You wouldn’t want to form a branch of Rangers otherwise. Now, if you’re expecting me to teach you how to fight, I’ll be disappointing you. I specialize in the bow, not tridents and forks. If you’re expecting me to teach you how to track, I’ll also be disappointing you. If you were on land, I would, but this is your environment. You know better than I do how to track down what you need to, and how to avoid the attention of things best left alone.”

She stops and smiles at the group. “Then what will I be teaching you, you may wonder? I will be teaching you how to identify the flow and stagnation of mana, and how to deal with any knots you may find.”

The merfolk look intrigued, especially Yendo. I get the feeling he’s going to become a vital scout once they get trained up. He has his seagull companion, and though it’ll be limited to the surface, I bet he’ll be able to teach it pretty quickly to identify the signs of stagnation deeper below.

“Now, since you’re all dwellers, you’ve probably already felt like something was off out here, but it’s difficult to put into words. You’re all used to the smooth laminar flow of mana within Hullbreak. Even… before Thedeim intervened and the mana was thinner, it still flowed smoothly, because that’s what dungeons do.”

She pauses and motions out at the deeper sea. “But out here, it’s a lot messier. There’s a steady current of laminar mana coming from Hullbreak, there’s the roiling of agitated mana from Fourdock itself, the smooth mana from Thedeim can be felt out here, and though it’s faint, I can feel Violet’s, too. Living in that steady flow makes it easier to identify the other states of mana, and the roiling mana from people is the simplest to feel. It’s the gust, the crashing wave, the sudden instability that stands out. I know you can all feel it, you just need to realize it.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The merfolk nod and close their eyes, and I even feel Teemo reaching out to gently poke at the mana around here. “Heh, you really can still feel Boss’ influence all the way out here.”

Yvonne smiles and nods, speaking quietly so she doesn’t disturb the others. “That tree of his casts a long shadow. It’s good he’s mindful of how he expands, or he might accidentally starve Hullbreak or Violet.”

Oh look, a worry I didn’t need.

Teemo snorts at me. “Hey, she said you’re doing a good job of not muscling everyone out.” 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Yvonne smiles. “I’ve heard Southwood call you a symbiont, you know? I think he’s more right than he even knows. You work together with the delvers and other dungeons. It’s a small wonder Fourdock is flourishing like it is now.”

“And gods,” points out Teemo, backstabbing me and twisting the knife in a subject I still try not to think too hard about. I’m doing better with it, no longer wanting to hide at the mere mention, but I’m still a ways from comfortable with it. It’s his way of getting me acclimated, but I still blow him a mental raspberry as he laughs.

Yvonne titters and shakes her head. “I don’t know why he lets you tease him like that, Teemo.”

My Voice shrugs. “He needs someone to make sure to push him out of where he’s the most comfortable every so often. Otherwise, he’ll just stay there. Lighting a fire under his butt keeps him going.”

“And it’s definitely not revenge for the headaches, nosebleeds, and at least one death from literally having your mind blown by his ideas, hmm?”

“Of course not,” he says, waving it off, even as we both try not to laugh.

The merfolk start opening their eyes and looking around, vaguely tracing the mana flows in the area, and Yvonne smiles. “It looks like you’re starting to get it. The flows are easy to spot and to follow. Out deeper into the wilds, you can find dungeons that way. They’re usually small and vulnerable, and we try to interact with them as little as possible. You never know if one might have a nasty affinity, or might take some harmless action the wrong way and become murderous. We usually report to the Dungeoneers any we find. You guys might need to make a branch of them, too,” she adds thoughtfully, then continues.

“The harder part is identifying stagnation, at least so close to civilization.” She closes her eyes for a moment, feeling out the mana around them, and points without even opening her eyes. “That way. There’s no stagnation here, not so close to so many dungeons and people, but once you can feel the flows, you can feel what might disrupt the flows, like a boulder in a river. Let’s go.”

She swims, and the merfolk follow, schooling around her like a hunting shoal of fish. It takes them a good hour of swimming, enough that Teemo can’t see Hullbreak’s territory anymore, before they finally find what they’re looking for. In their own small school is a group of what looks like barracuda. They might technically be something else, but the long bodies and toothy mouths are pretty distinct. Yvonne doesn’t even need to give the word for the merfolk to dart forward.

Watching them fight is a lot different than watching delvers, and I think it’s partially because the stagnant monsters don’t fight smart. Even my simplest spawns will take a simple formation, try not to get flanked, don’t rush in, things like that. Not these. These torpedo forward like the only thing they care about is tasting blood. Unfortunately for the fish monsters, the only blood they get to taste is their own.

The merfolk easily juke the attackers and counter with their barbed weapons, skewering them in the side and revealing why their weapons are barbed like they are. While I imagine it makes it easier to keep ahold of more normal fish, against the monster barracuda, it gives them the leverage to keep the dangerous end away while their friends quickly finish it off. The whole fight is over in less than a minute, and the monsters start melting away into raw mana as Yvonne nods her approval.

“Like I said: I won’t teach you how to fight. You already know how to do that on your own. These were a pretty small group, and our presence is already destabilizing the little pocket of stagnation here.”

“Could it have made a knot?” asks Yendo, eying the fish as it slowly dissolves on his trident.

Yvonne shakes her head. “It was too small, and there was too much influence from the dungeons and Fourdock, even at this distance. Once you get a good day out, then you might start seeing knots, but they’re rare. Most often, you’ll find larger pockets of dense stagnation with more monsters. If they notice you, they’ll mindlessly attack like you saw. If you can, it’s best to send small parties to pick them off. Drawing them from a group is helpful, and companions are very good for that underwater. On land, that’s usually my job. I can get their attention with a few arrows without bringing a whole pocket down on my party.”

Yenlarn looks thoughtful. “Do you think we could tame something from the Captain?”

“I don’t see why not. You also might be able to convince him to send a few denizens along with you to use as bait, too. The tactics are up to you to figure out, I’m afraid. I’m not very versed in aquatic combat,” admits Yvonne. “I’d definitely recommend talking to any strong delvers that visit Hullbreak, if you can. They’ll have much better advice for you.”

They turn and head back for Hullbreak, chatting the entire way about the best ways to identify stagnation, and how to deal with knots. She’ll need to take them out to try to find one to show how to handle it, but the other questions get answers that spark discussions. All around, morale seems pretty high, and the merfolk seem confident they’ll be able to get a lot more dwellers to join them, too.

They’re the ones who were the most interested, but there were a lot more that were simply curious. With Yvonne showing them how it’s done, I don’t doubt that a lot more will soon be signing up. The first group is always the hardest, the ones that have to prove it works. Once they do, people will pile in.

It makes me quietly nudge Poe and Leo to send more of my wyrms and basilisks on expedition though the lava floes in the volcanic area. If anyone has to find the Betrayer’s forces, I’d rather it be my denizens than Hullbreak’s dwellers.