From the 21st to the 25th floors in this dungeon, I had to board one of the ships and progress down a river that was surrounded by more of the milky white stone.
The ships were moored at the bottom of a set of stairs, a small ship for one, a medium ship for a small group, and a large ship that could fit a significant amount of people on it.
They were rather basic vessels that move using the magical energy of those on board, I found that I could just use my will to move it around freely. Since I was the only one on board the vessel, I was the registered captain of the tool.
I had decided on taking them with me, but I was unable to put them into my item box despite my persistence. Despite their looks, it appears that they were simply part of the dungeon itself. I was rather annoyed at the time because of their use, but I gave up in the end.
Each of them had a specific trait if it can be called that. The smallest ship was of course the fastest, but it was rather flimsy as a trade off. For some reason I could change its initial shape to resemble a surfboard, though that could have its benefits if used right.
The middle-ground ship was the standard 'slower but stronger' type of vessel. It had a few ballistae equipped that the crew could use if they wished, definitely suited for hit-and-run more so than a pitched battle. For most elite yet small parties, this one is the definite choice.
Obviously, the largest ship was by far the most durable, but was somehow able to move slower than a snail in comparison to the first ship. It was covered with ballistae and supplying it with additional magical energy allowed the captain to throw up a temporary force-field. With enough crew I highly doubt sinking it would be in any way easy, especially if I was on it.
Of course I didn't wish to spend my entire lifetime here, so I opted for the smallest ship and got on my way after finding out I couldn't just take all three ships with me.
There wasn't any reason to make myself feel more tired by using up more magical power just for the sake of using a larger ship.
It would of course turn out that my choice was the most beneficial one. There were dungeon monsters that lay in wait throughout the entire river and small forts built out of milky stone were planted in the surroundings that fired mercilessly at the ship.
With me surfing at breakneck speeds, riding the waves caused by incidental cannonballs I would knock out of the air was highly enjoyable. At one point I almost forgot to continue progressing.
All in all, if I hadn't been on the smallest ship it would have been slightly more troublesome. Even if I was almost certainly able to protect the medium ship, or maintain a hearty shield around the large vessel, there was definitely a chance small holes would form that could have sunk the other two ships.
The idea of having to bail out the larger ship, even with my abilities, made me wince as I glided down another wave.
The river was absurdly long, luckily the more time I spent on it the more I secretly was having fun. Still, I somehow felt the attraction to this feeling, as I was secretly having a little fun.
The space seemed to distort and expand to the extent that it seemed to take hours to descend a floorIncidently, along the way there was a relatively large waterfall that went down roughly a hundred meters, though with my ability to manipulate gravity, I was able to continue forward without any problems.
After almost half the day, I finally got to the 25th floor. The entire floor was a battlefield for the floor boss.
I had descended with ease and the river began to spread out until it was almost 5 times larger than before. I took caution in my surroundings as I went forward and all of a sudden some creature rose up out of the water riding a fish. The fish was huge! The guy riding it was a 4 meter tall gillman that was encased by silvery-blue scales.
He was a rather sharp and well-featured individual that drew heavily from his fish-like characteristics. His cheeks, head, and elbows had sharp fins that carried an indigo membrane. The limbs were long and fatty, yet somehow still slender whilst being well-proportioned. Don't ask me how it looked aesthetically pleasing, it just somehow did. Webbing ran in between both the fingers and toes with the same indigo membrane. Both eyes were just large, dark blue pupils that seemed to be looking everywhere.
The weapon he wielded was a 4-pronged trident that also was a deep purple color whilst his body was clad in an additional "Scale Armor" that looked like naturally formed scale-shells.
Figures that the descendants of the former Gillman hero existed here, his name was – "Lord Dominaria the Gillman Rider".
He was the 25th floor's boss. Riding back on the seriously massive fish, it was this really cool looking armored fish called a [Ragon]. It was a fish that looked both like a whale yet still being a fish!
This fight was one of the more drawn-out ones to date. At first he didn't actually approach me, he just kept throwing out tidal waves with his fish, shooting out lightning-fast water balls from his mouth, or throwing his trident that would instantly return to his hand after a moment.
The Ragon also had a dash attack where it came out of the water at high speed and allowed the Gillman to strike at me with his trident while the fish's sharp hide aimed to crash into me. It was one of their only short-range attacks, but the frequency of it was extremely low. The boss was built for a long-range fight that was highly drawn out, which was bothersome.
Either way, the second time he came in for a strike, I was able to cut him severely and his physical ability plummeted. When that happened, though, he began to summon an endless horde of [Gillman Knights] that followed after him.
The Knights were very tuna-like and carried normal tridents. They often cautiously circled around my ship and aimed to sink it. Well, the Gillman Knights were annoying, so to spite them I used [Hydro Hand]to dodge all of their attacks and resumed my surfing exploits from earlier. Occasionally I felt a bit hungry so I would skewer one of the Knights with my halberd to enjoy their flavor.
If it wasn't for the water gushing everywhere I would have pulled out some sauce or make some sashimi, that would have been even more enjoyable.
I got a taste for them after a little while of cat-and-mouse, so I threw a bunch into my item box and went back to the main enemy. The more damage he received, the more ferocious he got and the longer he remained in close combat. It became far more easy to hit him, though that spear of his was bothersome.
The Gillman had the skill[Spear Master]which made him an obscenely skilled spear user, that compounded with his lineage and the dungeon's benefits, his blows were a blur of cold calculation and hit like a falling boulder.
Moreover, that spear of his had a special ability for each spearhead,[Automatic Return],[Deadly Fish Poison],[Mental Contamination],[Physical Contamination] - It really did some serious damage even if I was grazed by it. Especially the last two, they were especially troublesome.
The more times you got hit, the more your mind and body ebbed away until you ultimately died regardless of fatal damage. I opted to avoid taking hits by using my halberd, though even then I took several grazing blows during the fight. After the 8th one I had to endure the gnawing pressure that taxed both my mind and body.
Nearing the end I had to go all out because he was actually holding his own and pressuring me. When he finally went down, I took at least an hour to recover. The strong pressure building across my body and draining my mind finally subsided, which was a relief.
[Floor boss [Dominaria ・ Gillman Lord Rider] successfully eliminated.]
[Yatendouji is permitted to proceed to the next floor, floor boss [Dominaria ・ Gillman Lord Rider] can hereafter be passed without battle.]
[Yatendouji has been Awarded the[Ancient Flower Petals of the Silvery Blue Fish]as a first time subjugation bonus.]
[Yatendouji has been Assigned the Rare Skill[Water Ride Johnny]as a bonus for a[Solo Kill].]
I collected his body and the chest that appeared. I savored the victory against the worthy opponent and had dinner before I went onto the 26th floor. I am somewhat glad I did because the entire floor was just one massive whirlpool, turning the river into an obscene series of rapids.