We came out of the Portal into a familiar room leading into a water-filled corridor. Out of curiosity, I tossed out a chicken wing leftover from a previous meal. The water bubbled as small fish came to the surface and consumed the meat within seconds. Even the bone was consumed within moments.

Next, I pulled out a piece of mithril on a wood stick taken from the shipwright’s shop. This was the moment of truth. If the fish were able to eat through the wood or mithril, then there was no point in even trying. We’d never be able to make it past this weird and convoluted level.

I stuck the stick into the water, and it began bubbling once again. At first, I worried, but the bubbling calmed down, and the mithril portion of the stick appeared to be still attached. I pulled the rod back out and found that the mithril and wood were still in good form. I let out a sigh of relief. Nearly a week of pain and an obscene amount of money had been spent to get past this blasted level. I felt relieved that we could do it.

I brought out the boat next, carefully leaving it half in and half out of the water. I’d definitely cry if I somehow pushed the boat in the water and then it floated away. Well, I could just get Celeste to fetch it, but it would be embarrassing. I had somehow not managed to make much of a fool of myself lately if being tied to a bed and being used as a puppet by a gender-confused general didn’t count.

The girls all sat down in the boat and then I got in last, pushing off with the mithril plated oars. We then began to make our way across. As we floated across the water, it did bubble up. I was worried the fish would leap out of the water and attack us, but so far they kept themselves underwater. We were able to move forward rather smoothly.

“This isn’t so bad.” Miki smiled.

“Can’t get any of the treasure,” I muttered. “It’s all at the bottom.”

“Didn’t you get some mithril thread?” She offered. “You could try to fish for treasure!”

“I guess it’s worth a try.”

Using the stick I had previously used to test the waters, I affixed a long thread to it as well as a hook. In the games, you’d just toss it in the water, wait for the bob to get pulled and then pull it out of the water. However, there is no way it would be that easy.”

“Ah! We caught something!”

“Re-really?” I began to pull back, and a moment later, something burst from the water.

“Ah… it’s just a pair of boots.” Celeste whined.

“Aren’t those magic boots though?”

Celeste had forgotten that we were fishing for treasure, and so boots in this circumstance was actually a good thing. They were wet, but a quick Identify revealed that they had a good defense, so I put them to the side to dry.

We didn’t encounter any obstacles as we navigated the 27th dungeon. After the amount of effort we spent to get to this point, it felt kind of anticlimactic. The level turned out to be easy with the right supplies. On top of that, had we frozen the water as the Prince suggested, we would never have been able to fish for treasures.

As the girls navigated the dungeon, I spent my whole morning fishing for treasures. It was surprisingly lucrative. I could tell where the temptation was though. A weaker boat would have threatened to capsize with some of the treasures we brought up, that’s if you weren’t tempted to try to dive right in some way. At least for us, it was a rather relaxing morning of fishing, dungeon exploring, and treasure hunting all in one. Who could ask for more?