We spent a few minutes just floating around on the surface and talking just to recuperate as much energy as possible and consider a few things.
Once that was done we took deep breaths and dove down towards the Dungeon.
Grandpa would only be able to hold his breath long enough to make it to the Dungeon, so it would really suck if it didnât let him in, or if we just ended up in more water on the other side.
Which is one of the things we talked about. There is definitely a solid chance of just reappearing deep in another ocean inside the Dungeon. Or maybe Itâs definition of F Grade didnât mean two level 1s and weâd be diving head first into a place that could kill us.
But even after all of that, it was still decided to enter the Dungeon.
Grandpa was right in the fact that there could be something that would aid us in reaching land, but what he really meant wasâ¦there was no guarantee that we would make it to land in our current state.
We werenât swimming that fast, and I highly doubt that weâd reached even a quarter of the way back.
And that wasnât even considering the fact that we might get attacked by more sharks or maybe the giant birds come back, or something else altogether.
The situation didnât look good.
But this Dungeon could change things.
Of course, all of our knowledge about Dungeon came from books we either read, or my Grandpa wrote his damn self. And he had literally come up with a plethora of different types of Dungeons throughout all of his books.
But we quite literally had systems and levels and XP right nowâ¦so why wouldnât it be reasonably safe to assume that some Dungeon functionality from our reading/writing life exists as well.
Like a reward from clearing the Dungeon.
No matter which path we took we were risking dying. Might as well take the risk with the chance of a reward at the end of the rainbow.
Enter Dungeon: Little Maw?
Grade: F
Yes/No?
We held hands then both selected yes, and I immediately felt my vision blur.
Once my vision cleared it took me a second to realize we werenât in water anymore.
âHey, you can let go my hand now Freddy, I donât think monsters are coming out of your closet at this age.â
âI was three Grandpa.â
âDonât worry, no judgement at all here.â
Ignoring him, I took in the scene around us. It was a simple cave. Honestly it feels like itâs just what was behind the darkness we saw at the entrance.
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The walls here matched whatever the entrance was made out of. There were no signs of monsters or anything like that in the cave, only what looked to be a small pool of sorts on one end.
A small pool that Grandpa was already standing by.
âFreddy come here.â
The humor in his tone was gone and he sounded serious.
I quickly ran over to stand beside him, and he didnât have to say anything to me to understand why he was serious.
A notification flashed before me.
Clear Conditions:
1. Kill Three Little Maws. (0/6)
Kill three little maws and Iâm guess the number said 0/6 because it was two of us.
I looked past the screen and into the pool. Which was of course no pool, but the entrance to a wide expanse of water.
And within this water, I could see our targets swimming by every now and then.
More sharks. Or maybe itâs best to say shark-like? I donât know. Iâve never in my life seen a shark with jet black scales before.
And they were big.
Maybe around 10 or so feet in length.
It looked nothing like the ones we fought earlier.
They called this a little maw? I really didnât want to meet a big one.
And the kill count. We had to kill six of these things.
Now how the hell were we going to do that.
My Grandpaâs brows were deeply furrowed at this point and I knew he was thinking hard.
Not wanting to leave all thinking up to him, I looked around the cave frantically for a moment until my eyes settled in on the ceiling.
Ah.
The framework of an idea began forming in my mind.
On the ceiling there were stalactites. Some were small and some were big. That really didnât matter though, we just need to get some downâ¦lure the shark into opening of the water and then smash it with one of the stalactites.
Simple enough.
I quickly relayed my plan to Grandpa and after thinking about it for a moment, he nodded his head and then he proceeded to hold me up on his shoulders and I did my best to break off a few of the stalactites.
Once they were gathered, it was time for the most important part of the plan.
Luring the Little Maws.
If they behaved anything like sharks did, then they should come to the entrance once they smelled blood in the water.
Grandpaâs shirt was still stained with blood so he ripped off a piece of it and tossed it into the water.
Both of us grabbed some stalactites and waited.
â¦And waited.
â¦
The Little Maws didnât come.
âMaybe it wasnât enough blood?â
âMaybe.â
Grandpa still had the little blade with him and used it to cut his thumb and let more than just a few drops fall into the pool.
Once again we waited⦠and thenâ¦nothing.
They werenât going to come for the blood.
And a sudden realization dawned on me. I was going to have to go into the water and lure it here.
âGand-â
âNo. If anyoneâs going in that water then itâs me.â
âBut I-â
âNo Fred. Youâve risked your life enough today, if these old bones can take on the risk in your place then thatâs what weâll do.â
Usually I would just accept his words because I trusted him, and ever since I was a kid heâs always had mine and all my cousinsâ best interest at heart. Always.
But⦠in this situation I knew I would be the better choice. Grandpa was definitely stronger than me, but this situation needed speed not strength.
Plus maybe I wouldnât even have to go in all the way, what if just a little half dip was enough to bring it here.
He literally just taught me about taking risks, so he canât be mad about what I was going to do.
Not giving my Grandpa the chance to stop me, I jumped into the pool without hesitation.
âFREDDY!!!!!â
I could hear him screaming my name after I got into the water but I didnât have time to worr..
OH SHIT!!!
Swim swim swim swim siwm siwm siwm!!!!!!!!!!
âFUCKING SWIM FREDDY!!! SWIMMMM!!!!â
The first thing I saw after opening my eyes was a monster of a black shark that looked way bigger now that I was in the water making a beeline straight towards me.
I immediately put every single thing I had in me into swimming as hard as I could back to the entrance.
There was no time to worry if it was close to getting me or not. I just swam!
I eventually got to surface and practically jumped out of it like a damn dolphin.
BOOOOM!!
Grandpa had brought down the stalactite in his hands on top of the Little Maw that followed up after me.
Stone, water, andâ¦flesh flew everywhere.