Chapter 11: [11] : The Sunken Armory, Cursed Chains

They crossed the bridge and entered Sector 5. The system identified it as the ’Ashlands’.

The Ashlands were a miserable place to hike. The ground was uneven, covered in sharp rocks and hidden vents that occasionally shot out bursts of hot and smelly steam. There were no trees, just dead shrubs that crumbled into gray dust when stepped on.

Declan was perfectly fine. His mutated trench coat kept the heat and ash off him, and his new boots made him feel light on his feet. Sloane and Kendra were having a much harder time. They were sweating, coughing on the ash, and looking incredibly tired.

"Hold up," Kendra said, dropping to one knee. She held up her hand to signal a stop.

Declan walked up beside her. "What do you see?"

They were standing on the edge of a large crater. The bottom of the crater was filled with dark murky water. It looked like an underground lake that had caved in on itself.

"I scouted this about ten minutes ago," Kendra whispered, pointing down at the water. "See those stone pillars sticking out of the lake? And the big archway half submerged in the back?"

Declan narrowed his eyes. Through the thin haze of smoke, he could see a massive stone archway leading into the side of the crater wall. The water level was high, covering the bottom half of the entrance.

Above the archway, carved into the stone, were faded letters.

"The Sunken Armory," Declan read. "Looks like a dungeon."

"It is," Kendra said. "And it is a death trap. Look at the water."

Declan looked as they got closer. At first, he thought the dark shapes floating near the surface were just logs or debris. But then one of the shapes rolled over.

It was a player. He was wearing heavy iron armor, but he was completely motionless, floating face down. Next to him were three more bodies, all wearing different types of gear.

Also down in a massive crater, a large crowd of players was gathered. There were at least fifty people standing around the edge of a massive sinkhole.

But it was not the dead players that caught Declan’s attention. It was the water itself.

The surface of the murky lake was writhing.

Thousands of thick black slug like creatures were swimming through the water. They were the size of a man’s forearm, covered in jagged armored plates, with circular mouths full of spinning teeth. They were swarming over the dead bodies, chewing right through the iron armor like it was wet cardboard.

[Toxic Iron-Piercing Leech]

↳ Level: 8

↳ HP: 150 / 150

[Area Discovered: The Sunken Armory]

[Dungeon Level: 8-10]

"The Sunken Armory," Sloane read again the system prompt floating over the water.

"Sounds like prime loot. Why is everyone just standing around looking at it?" 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"Watch," Kendra pointed at the water.

A player in heavy iron armor pushed his way to the front of the crowd. He looked frustrated. "Cowards!" the guy yelled. "It’s just water! I have a breathing potion. I’ll get the loot myself!"

The guy chugged a blue potion and dove into the green water.

He swam downward, heading for the glowing stone doors. He made it about halfway down.

Suddenly, the murky water began to churn.

Thousands of long, black shapes darted out from the crevices of the sinkhole walls. They looked like eels, but their mouths were perfectly round, lined with rows of spinning, drill-like teeth.

[Toxic Iron-Piercer Leech]

[Level: 8]

The leeches swarmed the swimming player.

They didn’t bite him. They literally drilled straight through his iron armor like it was wet cardboard.

The water instantly turned a violent shade of red. The player didn’t even have time to swim back up. He thrashed for exactly three seconds before his health bar vanished. His body dissolved into pixels, leaving his ruined armor to sink to the bottom.

The leeches lazily swam back into the rocks, waiting for the next idiot.

The crowd of players on the surface groaned and backed away from the edge.

"Ohh, so that’s why," Kendra said, looking slightly sick. "Those leeches ignore defense stats. They are armor-piercing. And they apply a toxic poison effect. I heard a guy say they’ve killed three dozen people already."

Sloane sighed. "Well, that’s a dead end. We can’t do this. You’d need specialized water-evasion gear, or a high-level ice mage to freeze the whole pool. We don’t have either."

She turned to leave. "Come on Declan. Let’s go find more ghouls."

Declan didn’t move. He stood at the edge of the crater, staring down at the glowing stone doors at the bottom of the lake.

"I’m not leaving," Declan said. "There’s an armory down there. I want what’s in it."

He just sounded like the next idiot the leeches were expecting.

"Did you not just watch that guy turn into fish food?" Sloane demanded. "Your magic coat isn’t going to save you. Those things pierce armor. They’ll drill right through you!"

"I know," Declan said. "I’m not thinking of swimming."

"Then how are you going to get to the door?" Kendra asked, confused.

Declan smiled.

He walked right up to the edge of the water.

The players around him gave him strange looks. A guy in a torn tunic scoffed. "Don’t do it buddy. You’ll just feed the bugs."

Declan ignored him. He looked at his stamina bar. It was full. One hundred points.

But Void Blink allowed him to teleport 15 meters instantly. That was about forty-five feet. The stone doors were at least ninety feet down.

He couldn’t reach it in one jump. He would have to double-jump. In the water.

"This is going to be fun," Declan muttered.

He didn’t dive. He just stepped off the ledge.

The second his boots touched the surface of the green water, he mentally targeted a spot forty-five feet straight down, right in the middle of the murky lake.

He triggered Void Blink.

Vwoop.

Declan vanished from the surface. He instantly appeared halfway down the sinkhole, completely submerged in the cold, green water.

The moment he appeared, the water around him exploded with movement. The toxic leeches sensed fresh meat. Thousands of black, drill-mouthed worms shot out of the walls, rocketing toward him from every direction. They were inches away from tearing into his coat.

Declan didn’t even hold his breath. He just looked at the glowing stone doors directly below him.

He triggered Void Blink a second time.

Vwoop.

The leeches crashed into each other, biting empty water. Declan was already gone.

The leeches were thrashing in confusion, looking for the meal that just vanished.

Up on the crater ridge, Sloane and Kendra were staring at him in complete silence.

Turns out he was not an idiot.

He materialized directly in front of the massive stone doors. He didn’t hesitate. He placed his hands flat against the cold stone and pushed.

The doors were incredibly heavy, but they weren’t locked. They groaned and cracked open just enough for him to slip inside.

He pushed through the gap and stumbled forward.

The heavy stone doors slammed shut behind him, cutting off the water.

Declan stood up and brushed himself off. His coat was completely dry. He hadn’t been in the water long enough to even get wet.

"Easy," he said to the empty room.

He looked around. He was in a large, dry antechamber. The walls were made of smooth black stone, lit by glowing blue crystals embedded in the ceiling. It looked like an ancient vault.

Weapon racks lined the walls, but they were all empty, covered in thick dust.

It wasn’t totally empty, though.

In the center of the antechamber, illuminated by a single glowing crystal, was a man.

He didn’t look like a player. He looked haggard, starving, and ancient. He wore a ragged, old-world diving suit, the kind with heavy brass fittings and thick canvas.

But the most noticeable thing about him were the chains. Thick, glowing red chains were wrapped around his wrists, his ankles, and his neck. The chains were bolted directly into the stone floor.

Declan walked closer, his hand resting on his inventory ready to summon his cleaver.

The man slowly lifted his head. His eyes were milky white, completely blind.

"Another rat in the maze," the man rasped.

His voice sounded like dry leaves scraping together. "Did you swim through my pets outside, or did you find another way in?"

Declan stopped a few feet away. The system generated a name tag over the man’s head.

[Thatcher, The Bound Diver]

↳ Type: Interactive NPC

Declan casually walked forward, his boots making no sound on the stone. "I took a shortcut. Who are you?"

"I am Thatcher," the old man wheezed. "The last warden of this armory. Or what’s left of it. The Grid trapped me here. Punished me for hoarding the old relics."

Thatcher coughed, a wet and ugly sound.

"Long before the Grid started pulling you new players in. I tried to take the treasures for myself. The dungeon did not like that. It locked me in these chains. Left me here to rot."

"I am a prisoner of the code," Thatcher whispered. "Just like you. You want the treasure of the armory, outsider?"

Declan looked at the glowing red chains.

They pulsed with a strange dark magic.

Thatcher let out a dry, rattling laugh. "There is only one relic left. I hid it from the system. If you want it, you must free me. Break these chains, and the weapon is yours."

"I just want out of here. If you break these chains and free me, I will give you the key to the main vault. There is a Relic tier weapon inside."

A Relic tier weapon. That was three tiers above his Scavenged cleaver. If he got his hands on a Relic weapon and hit it with his SSS talent, he would be unstoppable.

"Sure," Declan said. He opened his inventory. The heavy mutated Carnage Cleaver materialized in his hand. The jagged red edge glowed in the dark room. He stepped forward and raised the blade, ready to smash the chains to pieces.

"Wait!" Thatcher screamed in panic. "Do not hit them with a weapon!"

Declan paused, the cleaver hovering in the air. "Why not?"

"They are Cursed Chains of Reflection," Thatcher breathed heavily. "They have an absolute physical counter. Any damage you deal to the chains is reflected back at you at one hundred percent power. If you hit that chain with your sword, the chain will not break. But the force of your swing will hit your own body."

Declan lowered the cleaver. He frowned.

He had upgraded the Carnage Cleaver to +20. It did massive damage, and the Hemorrhage bleed effect was lethal. If he swung at the chains and the system reflected his own damage back at him, he would instantly apply a 500 HP bleed effect to himself. He only had 100 maximum health.

He would literally kill himself in two seconds.

That was a close call.

"It is a puzzle," Thatcher explained weakly.

"You have to find the specific runestone hidden in the dungeon to deactivate the magic. If you try to force it, you die."

"I do not have time for puzzles," Declan muttered.

Declan slowly lowered the Carnage Cleaver. He tapped the flat of the heavy blade against his leg, thinking.

The game wanted him to play by the mechanics. Go explore, fight monsters, find the key, come back.

And Declan hated playing by the rules.