“Hello”, he greeted in an abnormally melodious voice that made one want to get closer to listen to it.
“Hello”, Little Droplet greeted back. It was a bit odd to see the innocent faces smiling at each other, both androgynous and both lovely like a flower.
“What are you doing here?”, the merman asked, the tip of his tail scratching the surface.
None of them knew the exact bodylanguage of mermaids. Many players had gotten acquainted with wolves or wildcats due to the beastmen, whose ears and tails moved more or less independently, but mermaids were a different story. You couldn’t google that.
Still, there was no denying that it looked like a movement of wary agitation.
Little Droplet gave a pacifying grin. “We wanted to talk to one of you! You see, we need some help!”
“Help?” The tail paused. Interested, the merman used his arms to stretch his whole torso out of the water. “What for? How do you pay?”
“We want to reach the dungeon area that’s accessible through one of the underground-”
“No.” Instantly, the merman sunk down again. His pupils shrunk, while a thin line was appearing at the edge of his lips. As he spoke, sharper teeth became visible. “This is our pool. You can’t go in.”
“Is that negotiable?”, Bloody tried asking.
“No.” The merman’s tail splashed once, sending drops of water flying everywhere.
“Not even with a good payment? Maybe you can suggest something that we can do in exchange? We will make sure that we need to cross only once.” Thankfully they had a healer, so their chances were raised quite a bit. Hopefully the dungeon wouldn’t be so bad that they needed several runs.
“Hmmm.” The merman blinked, relaxing. His pupils widened again. “You are Foreigners, right? You only ever see Foreigners grouping up in weird constellations like you do. Also, no one from here would ask us to bring them to some underwater cave.”
“We… are, yes?”
“You revive, don’t you?”
“...I’ll just set the pain level down”, Ice said into the uncomfortable silence that followed the merman’s unspoken words.
“But-” Bloody unhappily bared his teeth. His ears flopped down.
“Do you want to continue wasting time searching for something else he wants?” Blackstone raised her hand to call for attention. “Uhm, Mister Merman, as you said - we revive. So that means you won’t have eaten anything in the end. You know that?”
“That’s okay”, the merman said, leisurely moving his tail. “It’s about the taste and chewiness.”
Details they truly didn’t want to know.
Bloody was the one who looked the most conflicted. In the end, he went over to Ice, a soft whine accompanying his words. “Give me your equipment before you jump in.”
Ice nodded and handed over his general stuff.
What followed afterwards was something that shouldn’t be described. The group held their hands over their ears, absolutely not wanting to hear the cracking sounds. It took a bit for Ice’s body to vanish, only leaving behind slowly disintegrating bloody water.
He returned from another spot in the city, unfazed. The merman was kind, in a way, and had broken his neck right at the start so that he wouldn’t have to be there for the eating process.
“Okay. I’ll lead you in”, the merman announced. “Once, anyway. Any additional time will need a new payment. Are we going right away?”
“I’m staying”, Blackstone quickly squeaked. “I’m not joining the dungeon. You guys go, I can watch over your things.”
Everyone had to agree that this made sense. Blackstone found a bench at the side next to a mother and child who were happy to converse with her, while the rest jumped into the water. The merman circled around them, a predatory feeling coming from him despite his missing signs of aggression.
“You people are slow”, he sang. “I’ll pull you.”
Could a single merman pull four grown people along?
He sure could.
“Underwater rollercoaster”, Bloody summed the experience up, sitting in the entrance of the cave and hopelessly trying to wring his clothes. He gave up quickly.
“If this is what a rollercoaster is like”, Ice whispered almost inaudibly, “then I don’t want to get on one.”
“Seconded”, Spiderlily mumbled in equal exhaustion. Both elves sat against the wall, eyes closed and faces scrunched as they fought against the nausea.
Little Droplet was about as happy as Bloody. The healer was examining their surroundings without a shred of dizziness.
The cave entrance was anything other than friendly. The air was stale and weirdly fruity, the stones covered in wet moss. There was no sign of the named ivy yet, but they had no doubt it would appear.
Bloodless Sunset offered Ice a hand to stand up. The mage let himself be pulled onto his feet, glancing around and down the single tunnel they could go.
“Can you two stand? Is it better?”
“I will not vomit”, Spiderlily hissed. It sounded more like she was making a declaration than stating her actual condition.
“Good enough. On we go.”
There was a short part of somewhat even ground before the area began to dip into a slope. The wolfman was the most nimble and the warrior, so he led everyone while testing the ground. It was slippery, so they ended up going at a snail’s pace.
To their shock and chagrin, the path opened up into a huge, globe-like area. The roots of the single tree stuck at some places, forming something like a cage. Most parts were covered in ugly black ivy, climbing up all the way until the roots vanished within the stone and dirt again.
Within the cage, down below, lay some kind of beast.
“Excuse me, I didn’t sign up for a boss fight!” Bloody wailed, not at all worrying he might alert the thing.
“A dungeon is technically just a closed-off area with enemies.” Little Droplet threw a pebble down. “So, a boss dungeon isn’t out of the line.”
“This looks like the kind of boss you grind continuously because he has some super rare material you need! This needs actual planning, not brute-force!”
“We can’t check a guide right now, can we?”
“No.” Bloody pouted. “But my brother is online. I’ll tell him to check.”
Thank you for the chapter.
the morbid part of my brain imagined ice being eaten from his legs up, crunching and snapping sounds accompanying, and then asking the merman very calmly how he tasted.......................
If this wasn't a fluff story, he'd have been conscious indeed.
...But this is a fluff story.
@Owl fluff is life!
I'm a bit... worried ? By Ice's behaviour. How could he decide to let himself be killed like that ? The psychologist will have some long work to do it seems.
And damn, these mermaids are as bloody and deadly as they are beautiful ! *shudder* I'm sure they would eat you just because you look interestingly tasty.
Thanks for the chapter !