TheDeepDarkReef

Chapter 66: Sela's Dark Journey

Sela jolted awake, sometime early in the morning. After the events of the day before, a long, restful sleep was everything she needed and so much more, and she was able to get just that, even if it didn’t feel like nearly enough. Despite living with Aby for months at a time, she still couldn’t quite sleep through some of i...

Interlude: Court is in Session

Hello! I wanted to take a moment to everyone who has decided to support me, honestly, you are awesome and I cannot thank you enough! I have one final interlude here, this time showing the Fae, and how they react to things not going their way. I hope I did them well, and that this isn't too jarring a tone shift. Let me know, though!

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Chapter 65: Creation Therapy

Meanwhile, the grey, porous walls of Aby’s limestone halls finally returned to some semblance of the activity they had had before their unwelcome guest. Whatever spells he had cast had worn off moments after he left, leaving the myriad creatures confused for just a moment before everything burst into furious motion. With Aby...

Rok Chapter: Revelations and Obfuscations

Rok was starting to grow worried, after nearly an entire day had passed and The Mapper being nowhere to be found. It shouldn’t take this long for the man, not unless this dungeon was far bigger than even he had guessed, and that was a scary thought. Every minute meant another few meters mapped out, for he was nothing if not ...

Chapter 64: Victory?

And when the white fur of their unwelcome guest finally appeared from the darkness of the cave, the world burst into motion. It took barely a heartbeat for the mottled green and crimson form that the intruder had seen in the center of the room to suddenly not be in the center of the room. Another, and he realize...

Chapter 63: The Descent

“Honestly, little one,” started the strange thing violating Aby’s halls as he approached the entrance to the twelfth floor, “you are truly weird.” Another pang of annoyance surfaced amidst the core’s desperation, fear, and confusion; being insulted would upset even the most patient of gemstones, and the fact that t...

Chapter 62: The Dive Continues

Aby had only a few moments to prepare the denizens of the eighth floor for the systematic invasion and inspection that seemed inevitable now, and it made the most of every moment. There was a flurry of activity as the white-haired menace approached the end of the seventh, and as he navigated the winding mess of halls Aby was l...

Chapter 61: One-Sided

 Unfortunately for Aby, the element of surprise isn’t something easily granted to a group seventeen strong, slogging their way through meter deep water while their leader has to shout commands every few steps just to keep them in line. This was entirely unsurprising, but the core still felt a touch disheartened after it saw the mousy man ...

Chapter 60: First Three

It took just an instant, yet quite literally every single creature inside Aby’s myriad halls suddenly felt their creator reach out and directly touch their minds. For some, mostly the small creatures, this contact was over nearly as soon as it started, and was forgotten not long after. For many more, they felt a few instruct...

Chapter 59: Impressions

Aby had just finished taking stock of its halls once more, already long used to this part of its routine. It had just sensed the first party of many that day cast an unseen shadow into its entrance, exactly on time, and for the most part it spread around its awareness to better manage its many halls. That’s when it noticed i...

Rok Chapter: Invitation

It was with greatly mixed feelings that Rok found himself waking up well before the sun was even fully above the line of mangroves that surrounded his home. He was certainly annoyed, and in no small measure, to see that the sun wasn’t glaring in at him, giving him a much needed boost in energy to get out of bed. There was al...

Chapter 58: Homecoming

Jim held Lorraine’s hand a little tighter as they swam into the structure that could be called the submerged partner to the floating Hall above, if one was feeling generous. Most of the time the hastily grown building sat empty, even though it was closer to the entrance than the Hall, it was both unnecessary, and according t...

Rok Chapter: Growing Pains

“I’ll say it again, Rok, I don’t care if you have the Guilds’ backing, I don’t care that because of Finder’s Law saying that you own this island and that bit of reef around the dungeon, I don’t care about any of it! All I care about, and all you need to know, is that when I come back again, you just need to help ...

Chapter 57: Teamwork

A loud plink sounded out in the cavern of the third floor, or at least Jim thought it was the third floor, and he had to reach out his arm to catch his lovely wife as she rocketed backwards with another crystal cradled in her arms. He was glad he did, too, as his lovely wife crashed into his arm with quite a bit of force, and ...

Chapter 56: A Guild's Worries

The first rays of sunlight finally began to peek out from over the horizon, painting the skies over the Hynix Grand Reef a brilliant orange yet again. The waters were picturesque, unnaturally so, and there wasn’t a sign of land in sight. It would have been the image of serenity, even, if it weren’t for the sheer amount of ...

Interlude: Introductions and Farewells

Aby watched as Sela and Carmine finally headed upwards, for real this time, according to the Siren. Apparently something about that level was considerably off putting to its companion, as the duo had stopped, turned back around, and had quite a few chats before she had resolved herself to go upwards and face her fears.

I...

Interlude: Payment

 Hector scowled at the setting sun, watching as the brilliant light slowly dimmed, and the waters themselves shone orange as she dipped below the horizon. Even that warmth didn’t last long, and as orange turned red, and red dark blue, he was stuck reflecting on the events of both the night prior, and the day itself. 

He felt in...

Rok Chapter: Questions and Answers

Rok was sitting at his desk, busily reading over a small handful of the many reports Kelly had placed before him earlier that day. Across from him, the elf continued her slumber, slumped over and breathing heavily. Rok didn’t pay her much mind after she’d fallen asleep, simply ignoring the soft snoring coming from her chai...

Chapter 55: Bonding

Aby watched as the drake shambled over to his usual bedding, looking for all intents and purposes to be a walking corpse. The core was completely at a loss as to what had happened, one moment it was simply observing something in one of its halls, the next, it felt one of its stronger bonds assault it with a feeling of displeasure so strong that ...

Chapter 54: A Drake's Pain

The drake was currently sitting on his haunches, staring at those strange light things that had once overrun the site where he and that red kin of his had had their heated dispute. It was still a fond memory for him, never before had he had such an intense battle, not even from his days as a mere kobold does he remember anything even close to th...