It was an easy decision for Merrick to proceed into the Dungeon. After all, he had spent so much time wandering aimlessly in what equated to his starting village inside the game before even finding the dungeon's entrance. Merrick was not sure what he had envisioned the dungeon itself to look like, but it seemed much simpler than anything he could have imagined.
The hatch led to a spiral staircase. It was a grand staircase, not like the simple one that Merrick had used to descend from his starting floor to get closer to prisoner floor fifteen. The spiral stair before him wound around the outside of a massive hole. Merrick's best guess was that it was a hundred feet across.
It was also clear that the hatch was not the original entrance to the staircase, though the memo about the hole in the wall opening up had given Merrick that idea already. The staircase stretched in both directions as far as the eye could see. Above there was nothing but darkness and the stairs themselves were impassable.
There were at least two portions where a quarter of the stair's spiral had been shattered, broken off of the wall. Merrick's only path forward, at least for now, was to descend. The stairs seemed whole in that direction and rather than darkness above, Merrick could see a faint glowing blue light below.
It took two full turns of the stair's spiral before the source of the blue glow was visible. Merrick was getting closer to a platform that spanned the whole circumference of the spiral staircase. Shadows near the far end of the platform told him that this was not the bottom, just a barrier that would keep him from going on.
With each step downward, closer to the platform, the source of the light also grew more defined. It reminded Merrick of the core that he pulled from the Sentry Golem but on a scale that was infinitely more grand. The light was coming from a column of crystal. It was the color of clear water and clear skies. Merrick could feel energy radiating from the crystal, even before he reached the platform.
The presence of the crystal's energy felt like a body of water all to itself. When Merrick first noticed it, it felt like a puddle that he was walking through. Then as he grew closer, it felt more like a pond rising up to his waist. When Merrick finally reached the platform, however, it felt like he was stepping into the depths of the ocean.
Despite the presence of the powerful water energy, Merrick's attention had been focused on the shadows he had noticed at the far edge of the platform. He had assumed it was a way down further, and he was right, but the specifics were not as perfect as he had hoped. The stairs down, just like the ones leading up from the hatch, had been shattered.
With no other option, Merrick turned toward the crystal column. As his eyes glossed over the column, he felt like something was watching him as well. A powerful force, living within the energy, was trying to tell him something. Merrick approached the crystal, curious if there was some type of elemental bound within.
Before he could get close enough to touch the crystal, the energy swirled around him like a raging torrent or a crashing wave. Merrick swore he could feel a voice within the energy straining, yelling, for him to get away.
Puddles formed on the ground around him. They rose from the ground and hovered, Merrick could feel them focusing on him. They were separate but similar entities to the energy flooding the platform. He guessed they were some form of lesser elemental, similar to Crudle, and it was clear they were not going to chat.
There were three of the water elementals and they were hovering around him in a triangle. Merrick knew better than to leave himself surrounded so he let off a bolt of lightning to break their formation and slip past. The bolt came close enough to one of the elementals that it popped, falling to the ground and becoming a mere puddle.
The other two swirled with anger. Merrick moved quickly to keep them from flanking him again. Unfortunately his steps took him further away from the crystal column and closer to the broken stairs down.
Out of the corner of his eye, Merrick saw water trickling downward from the crystal column. It was forming into a pool at its base. At first, Merrick thought it was going to be another elemental that he would need to fight, but then he felt a snap of energy. The raging torrent that he had been feeling shifted. For a moment it disappeared, but then the pool at the base of the column started to shift and swirl. The pool became a wave of water pushing outward from the column in all directions.
Merrick was certain that if he had not noticed the change, the wave of water would have pushed him from the edge of the platform. As it was, he did his best to brace himself and hold his ground against the wave. It pushed him dangerously close to the edge, but it was not enough to knock him off.
As Merrick moved away from the edge, closer to the column again, his feet kicked up water that was left behind by the wave. The two remaining elementals were trying to pull that water to them, Merrick was not certain the effect it would have, but he knew that they would probably become stronger with the more water they accumulated.
Rather than waiting for them to power up, Merrick continued toward the crystal column and released another bolt of lightning. This time, he aimed it at the ground between the two remaining elementals. The lightning arced across the water and struck both elementals, popping them like overfilled balloons.
Alone on the platform again, Merrick finally reached the column at the center. The raging torrent of energy was weaker now, he could only feel it within a few feet of the column. The column started to drip water to form a pool at its base again. Merrick could almost feel pity or sympathy coming from the crystal. It caught him off guard with another violent wave of water, nearly pushing him to the platform's edge.
"That…" Merrick was about to say the waves were getting annoying but before he could get past the first word, he stopped. There was another presence near the platform now. It was not something he could see, but he could feel a powerful force drawing closer. Merrick looked around, felt at the energy as best he could, but it eluded him. Then the presence vanished like a ghost.
Merrick turned back to the column and said, "No more waves. They're not working, they're just annoying."
He had no way to know that the being inside the crystal heard him or even that it respected his resilience. Instead, he approached with the intent on figuring out what the crystal was.
Since there was no direct risk, Merrick opened up his Knowledge Archive to verify that the beings he had just defeated were in fact water elementals. They were and based on that, Merrick assumed that he was right about the crystal housing a powerful elemental. What he did not expect was for his Knowledge Archive to have an entry about the column itself.
Crystal Coffin: A tower of pure arcane crystal, utilized in containing Elementals in their purest form. The Coffins can only be used by a Grand Wizard or a Master Summoner as it requires the compulsion of the Elemental held within. A Crystal Coffin must be deactivated through a ritual or else the Elemental held within would be released in a blast similar to pouring a desert out of a dusty flask.
Compulsion. Merrick held on that word and closed his Knowledge Archive. It was a prisoner here, just like the others outside of the dungeon. The entry had also mentioned a ritual, which meant there was something that Merrick could do here, but he did not know what it was.
The name of the dungeon came to his mind but his thoughts were quickly interrupted. Lightning crackled in the air. Merrick jumped up as best he could out of instinct. The floor had still been wet from the crystal's last wave. Something had struck it with lightning, in the same way that Merrick had earlier. It tingled as he landed, but it looked like the worst of it had passed.
However, now he was no longer alone.
Near the edge of the platform hovered a strange being. It looked vaguely humanoid but its limbs were thin and its body was barely a wisp. The being crackled with electricity. Merrick sidestepped so that he was no longer between the being and the Crystal Coffin. He knew he needed to keep an eye on the column, in case another wave came, but the new being was the obvious threat.
Merrick doubted his own lightning spell would have much effect. So as the being rushed at him, Merrick summoned Crudle. The dust mephit came formed out of the air and clashed with the lightning-aspected attacker. While Crudle held the attacker at bay, Merrick looked for a way out. The stairs up were still his only option and they only led back to the prison. He needed to take down this being and proceed in the dungeon.
Fortunately, Merrick was more than just a lightning-bolt slinging mage. He ordered Crudle to duck to the side and cast an Arcane Blast at the enemy. The first one missed, the hovering enemy swirled like a soft breeze around the forceful energy. Crudle swooped back in and blocked the enemy's counterattack.
Unlike Merrick's lightning bolt spell, the wispy-lightning being released a conical blast of lightning. Crudle's earthen nature served as an excellent shield. Whereas Merrick would have been flattened by the blast, the minor earth elemental was not even phased. They tried again, and again, and again.
On the fourth try, after Merrick's Arcane Blast failed to land. He changed tactics. Rather than Crudle swooping back to block for him. He released another Arcane Blast just before his enemy fired off their own attack. The blast caught the wispy-lightning being by their legs as they tried to float out of the way at the last second.
As Merrick's focus shifted from the column to the attacker during the exchange of blows, he missed the warning for the next crashing wave. It hit him on the side and sent him barreling toward the edge of the platform, where the broken stairs led downward.
Crudle avoided the wave by flying upward. Merrick's mephit was able to swoop in and grab him by the shoulder, barely catching him before he fell off the edge. As he struggled back to his feet on the wet platform, Merrick looked for the enemy. They were floating next to the crystal column with a wisp-like hand placed against it. Water burst forth twice as forceful as before and the wave that rushed at Merrick was more like a tsunami.
Neither Merrick nor Crudle were able to avoid the wave. His minion was unsummoned, again, this time by the overpowering water reducing Crudle to wet dust. Unable to fight back against the wave, Merrick felt his body float over the edge of the platform and then darkness enveloped him as he plunged amidst the elemental-induced waterfall.