( Tower Of Ascension, Floor 18 )
Rocky, Erin and Buhara attempted to clear floor 18 of the tower of ascension as a team, as they found themselves currently engaged in a quest to clear the floor raid.
The quest given to them was for them to capture a total of 2,000 fishes from the local lake and to kill the lake urchins that had been infesting and heckling local fishermen.
To clear the quest, Rocky, Erin and Buhara went out into the lake inside a small boat, with Rocky calling the shots on how to clear the quest.
"Buhara, you need to stay inside the boat and provide us with cover in-case either me or Erin are forced to resurface because of the opponents we face.
If not, then you will be responsible to pull the fishnets that we spread out below and capture the fish.
Erin, you need to cast an underwater breathing spell on me and yourself as the two of us will dive in to spread the nets and deal with the lake urchins.
If we have to dive too deep and the visibility becomes low, you will need to cast a light spell too, but I don't expect you to fight today at all.
Protect yourself if necessary and if everything goes to shit then rush to the surface and Buhara will cover you.
If not, stay close to me and I will handle any enemy bothering you" Rocky instructed as both Erin and Buhara nodded at his clear instructions.
"Buhara, if we pull heavily on any of the fishnets thrice, start reeling that net up fast and if we pull it six times, just cut it off-" Rocky said, as he tied a fishnet to his waist before helping Erin to do the same.
[ Support spell - Underwater Breathing ]
[ Support spell - Atmospheric Pressure Balance ]
[ Support spell - Enhance Aquatic Mobility ]
Chanting three spells back to back, Erin buffed himself and Rocky up, preparing the two to jump into the lake water while facing as little handicap as possible because of the change in environment.
While most party's discounted the role of a support type mage, Rocky found Erin and the value he brought to the group, absolutely invaluable during times like these.
While the argument could be made that a normal mage could learn support type spells such as underwater breathing out of necessity and a party did not need to bring an additional speciality mage just for it, Rocky believed otherwise.
While a normal mage might learn spells like underwater breathing, they could never learn auxiliary spells such as atmospheric pressure balance and aquatic mobility, as learning such niche spells needed time and energy that most normal mages were unwilling to spare.
While Erin was not a fighter, his expertise in his niche made him invaluable for Rocky, who appreciated the expertise he brought to the team.
*Plop*
*Plop*
As Rocky and Erin dived into the lake water, Rocky immediately felt his eyes sting a bit from looking into the water before adjusting soon enough.
Since they had dived while the sun was shining high in the sky, the visibility inside the lake was pretty decent, however, while the duo could see a variety of fishes, the bottom of the lake was not visible through the naked eye and neither were the lake urchins that were rumored to be heckling local fishermen.
*Points Downwards*
Pointing towards the bottom, Rocky instructed Erin to dive deep and spread the net as deep and wide as possible.
For now, since the sea urchins were not visible, Rocky decided to focus on the fishing aspect of the mission as he and Erin spread the nets and pulled on it thrice to signal to Buhara to pull on it hard.
Catching roughly 50-100 fishes per batch, the trio quickly began filling up the boat with fish, as they captured a batch every 5 minutes.
After an hour, they managed to catch about 1000 fishes and were halfway done with their fishing task, when the first lake urchin finally made their move.
Rising from the deeper parts of the lake like a torpedo, one of them swam towards Erin with a frightening pace as Erin waved towards Rocky in panic and tried to draw his attention to the threat.
Rocky, spotting the danger immediately unsheathed his sword and after calculating the speed of the approaching urchin launched a sword strike to intercept it in its path before he could reach Erin.
*Slash*
Launching a sword slash under water was extremely hard for Rocky and required him to strain his muscles to the absolute limit, as it was several times more difficult for him to unleash a sword strike below water than it was for him to do the same in air.
Nonetheless, his sword mastery had reached a point where he could even project a sword strike underneath water for up to 25 meters, as he slashed the lake urchin clean in half with his strike before he could reach Erin.
Green blood spilled out from the lake urchin's body, dissolving quickly into the lake water, as his death alerted all the other lake urchins about the presence of a predator in their midst.
Soon, about a dozen torpedo's began rising from the lake bed, all converging towards Rocky, as Erin visibly panicked when faced with the large number of enemies.
*Pointing upwards*
Pointing upwards, Rocky asked Erin to bail out before him, while he himself clutched his sword with both hands and prepared to fight.
While Rocky usually preferred fighting with the two sword style… he felt like he could not generate enough power using two swords to slash underwater and hence shifted to the single sword style, putting both his hands behind a single university issued blade.
Bailing out, Erin began hastily swimming towards the surface as the only thing he had on his mind was to reach back to the safety of the boat and warn Buhara that Rocky was in danger and might need his help soon.
*SHUA*
*SHUA*
*SHUA*
Unleashing three sword projections to intercept three incoming lake urchins, Rocky tried to reduce the number of enemies he was going to face, however, while two of his attacks hit the enemies, the third one managed to dodge, as ten enemies still converged on his position from all sides.
[ Single Sword Style - Sword Vortex ]
Rocky used the defensive type move sword vortex, that aimed at minimizing one's blind spots and tried to cover one's body from all directions.
Unfortunately for him, the move required for him to perform a flurry of rapid movements, movements that consumed a lot of energy when underwater, as his muscles burnt in protest when he began swinging his sword that fast underwater.
Although Erin's aquatic mobility spell did help him move slightly easier, the stamina consumption to execute the move was still insane as Rocky's sword clashed against the thorny spikes of the lake urchin's bodies, slicing through their ugly bodies and unleashing green blood.
One after another, Rocky faced every single lake urchin coming his way bravely while also swimming towards the shore ever so slowly as he knew that he could not keep swinging his sword at this pace for too long.
*GASPPP*
Meanwhile, Erin having returned safely to the surface, gasped and turned towards Buhara as he sought the aid of the orc to climb back on to their boat.
"Rocky… he's being swarmed by a group of urchins… he will need your help soon" Erin said, as he pointed Buhara in the direction that Rocky was likely to emerge from, as Buhara instantly began gathering his mana to cast a spell.
Of the ten urchins left, Rocky managed to kill four more before reaching near the surface, as once he was close to the top, he stopped swinging his sword and used the spell [ Wind Wall ] underwater, to use it as a propellant to blast him outside into the air.
[ Wind Wall ]
As soon as he used the spell, the laws of physics blasted him backwards and into the air, as close to six lake urchins followed him outside the water, where Buhara was waiting for them to emerge.
[ Earthen Spikes ]
Using the spell Earthen Spikes, Buhara blasted a series of holes through the bodies of the Sea Urchins as he killed all six with ease once they were outside the water.
*Crash*
Crashing into the boat over the pile of fish they had caught, Rocky displaced a few fishes which dropped back into the lake, as he got buried amongst their catch.
"BUHAHAHAHAHARA-" Buhara laughed looking at Rocky's pitiful state, as the Champion Of Gemini got back to his feet with his wet hair sticking to his forehead.
"Good job Erin… Buhara… I think we've already got all the urchins there were and only need to catch the fishes now-" Rocky said as yet another fish fell back into the lake as he struggled to move out of the pile.
"Buhahahara… yes we will catch the fishes puny human, however, you need to stop releasing them back into the waters" Buhara said mirthfully as he found the whole situation extremely funny.
"Real funny Buhara…real funny…" Rocky said, as he smelled his t-shirt that now stank like fish, before tying yet another net to his waist and diving back into the water.
While the team work between the three wasn't perfect yet, with Rocky as the leader and the trio spending more time together exploring each other's strengths and weaknesses, they began getting a feel on how to work as a team better and better after every floor raid that they performed together.