Data.41 – Old Bowman, Underwater Temple

Dungeons were hidden all around the map.
To be precise, ‘dungeon entrances’ were hidden all over the map.
The dungeons themselves were in a different dimension from the world that we normally adventured in.

As there were mild puzzle-solving elements and treasures to be found, if it was part of the ordinary map, then it would just be solved puzzles and empty chests once someone finished them.
Even if they made the puzzles and treasure chests reset over time, popular dungeons would have hundreds of people visiting them, and they would fight their way through.
It would make exploration a lot less fun.

And so multiple identical dungeons were prepared, and you could enter them with your party.
Like this, you could enjoy dungeons that no one else had stepped foot in.

“That being said, they sure put a lot of work into the exterior.”

The temple building was just the entrance to the dungeons. But it was incredibly beautiful, and would look good in screenshots.
It wasn’t so much a building that had sunk into the sea, but a building that had been made to stand on the ocean floor.
Light shone down from the surface and sparkled.

Well, it was time to go in.
While my goal was to complete the dungeon, I also wanted to test out the Ravengar, and so I would go slow and at my own pace.
There were no time restrictions for the dungeons.

I stepped through the large, open doors, and seamlessly entered the dungeon area.
While there were a few players outside, there was no one within.
Furthermore, the inside of the temple itself was not entirely filled with water.
At least for now, the floor I was on was filled with air, and I couldn’t feel any water around me.

“Well, water dungeons have a reputation for being annoying…but I’ll do my best.”

Just as I was thinking this, I saw that there was already what looked like an ominous ‘boss door’ up ahead.
Though, there was no platform leading up to it. I could only see it, but could go to it.
I suppose I was supposed to explore the place and solve puzzles in order to make a clear path to it…

“Unless…”

I unleashed Warp Arrow.
And like that, I arrived in front of the boss room in an instant.
Ah, so it is possible…I thought. But then I found out that you needed a ‘special key’ in order to enter the room.
So they had thought about this beforehand.

Besides, the most frightful thing about exploring a dungeon is when you choose the correct route first.
Maybe there was a treasure chest in the direction of the dead end, or a special event…
People who think such things will turn back and run through the dungeon in every direction.
And they won’t stop until they explore everything…

I would do the same thing.
This was the Ravengars first time out, and so it had to be a good one.
After waiting 3 minutes for the cool down to end, I used Warp Arrow to return to the other side so that I could start exploring the proper paths.

The puzzles here seemed to be the classic type of raising and lowering water levels.
There were switches that altered the water level, which opened up new areas.
As someone who used to work for a game company, I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but it was a pretty annoying type of puzzle.

As for the monsters, they were similar to the ones that were in the sea.
However, there were also some humanoid monsters that you wouldn’t see out there.
As they were agile both on land and in water, they were incredibly dangerous.
And sometimes, they would throw their weapons at you.
Well, they didn’t reach me anyway, as I would attack from a distance.

And the Ravengar was quite useful as well.
As it had to get close to every enemy that it attacked, it would have to take some damage, but it seemed unphased as it swam around.
And when it came to battles between fishes, they both had the same demerits of sluggish movement on land.
But since the Ravengar had high stats as it was, it never lost.
It could even win against the humanoid monsters if it was 1 on 1.

Furthermore, monsters had different weaknesses and strengths when it came to dealing with certain attacks.
As Gar was a fish, it was strong against water attacks.
However, when it touched an electric jellyfish that was hiding in a group of monsters, it took a lot of damage.
Since it was a fish and also a machine, it was very weak to electricity…something like that.

Also, Gar would go pretty far away from me when fighting.
If I missed an enemy, and it moved far away, Gar would often go out and challenge it alone. And then it would return after taking damage.
While the Unisons were not supposed to be able to move too far away from the player, it was possible that this too was being affected by my range, just like during the turf war.

The golems and AI warriors in that event might have been a test for the implementation of the Unison.

If I wanted Gar to fight close by, I just had to switch the command to ‘fight near the player.’
However, that didn’t work for me, as my fighting style involved keeping the enemy as far away as possible.
That would mean that while I was shooting, Gar would have nothing to do but swim around me.

In the end, I returned the setting so that it would fight any enemy that it saw. And I soon learned the advantage of this fighting style.
The AI controlled Gar was more sensitive when it came to detecting enemies and attacking them.
In other words, it could act as a wide-area sensor for finding enemies.

What was the most scary thing for me, was an enemy getting close without me noticing.
And Gar was good at reducing that risk.
It would sometimes attack enemies that it shouldn’t fight, but that could be forgiven.
And I could just help it with long-range attacks.
While it seemed like we weren’t the best fit, things were actually working quite well.

As proof of this, I was able to acquire the key to the boss room without ever being in real danger. And like that, we entered the boss room.

“Ah, so it’s filled with sea water…”

In other words, both the Sea Bow Arts and the Ravengar could be used to the fullest.
The boss was a giant squid called a ‘Soldier Squid.’ It had 10 tentacles, each wielding a different weapon.
I decided to make most of the occasion and take it down with Form Seven.
No, maybe there wasn’t enough room…?

“Gar! Gar!”

“Ah.”

But even the chain of attacks by the squid and its numerous weapons was not enough to hit the Ravengar, who was now in the water.
And it’s body, which looked squishy and difficult to cut, could not withstand Gar’s charge attacks and high piercing ability.
It was practically powerless.
And so the Soldier Squid was quickly dispatched by the red meteor.

After the squid exploded into light, one of the fragments turned into a stone.
I put away the Dragon Palace Stone, which I had come here for, and then we used the warp circle that had appeared on the floor in order to get out of the dungeon.

For being the last adventure I’d have at sea for now, it was a little easy. But I suppose it wasn’t bad…
As I thought of such things, a strong wave crashed against me, and I was slammed into a reef.

“Ouch… These waves. Is it the Blue Sea Dragon again?”

But my guess was wrong.
The words ‘Large Scale Scramble’ appeared in front of me, and then there was the sound of an alarm, as if to alert me of danger.

‘Poseidon Kraken has appeared! All players nearby should hunt it with everything they got!’

First a squid, and now an octopus!
And ‘large scale scramble’?
It’s no wonder the waves were so violent now.
I’ll be washed away if I don’t find something to hang on to…!

As for the other players… There had been many at the port town and in the sea.
Did this mean that the Poseidon Kraken was so strong that we all had to work together in order to defeat it…?

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