On the bright side, they weren't injured.
Sure, they were covered in Grimm ash, mentally scarred from the exposure to possibly the worst kind of Grimm, and technically they'd lost what they had assumed to be a child, but at least they'd cleared the first floor of the dungeon.
Clouds, silver linings, that whole thing.
Of course, optimism didn't mean all that much when the thought that he would have to go back inside, and even delve further, was the thought at the forefront of his mind.
Though the small silver key that he was twirling between his fingers was definitely some kind of incentive, a glittering yellow gem that looked to be some kind of quartz embedded at the end of the handle.
That was just the quest reward, too. There was the as-of-yet-unknown reward from the achievement that he had to investigate.
Naruto slumped onto his back, staring at the sky, or more accurately, the floating notification that hovered ever-so slightly in front of the sky. He reached out, tapping the hovering 'claim reward' button that almost seemed both tantalizing and menacing at the same time, and he was provided with his reward.
[You have claimed the reward for Additional Slaughter!]
[Skill Acquired!]
[Ensoul Skull (Active): Thanks to the System, you can imbue a Grimm Skull with Mana, summoning a powerful version to fight against. Costs 600 MP, 1 Nigredo and a Soul Orb, where the type of skull dictates what kind of Grimm, and the Soul Orb determines the tier of Grimm. Level MAX.]
Oh. Well then. That was definitely a thing.
Not something for today, at least, but definitely something to keep in mind. It was a use for some of his Grimm Skulls at the very least.
Another thing to keep in mind for the future, he supposed.
His train of thought led him along from that point and back to his original thought.
"Blake, we have to go back in there."
Blake sighed in response, which he'd been expecting. If he wasn't supposed to be the responsible team leader he'd have done the same thing.
Doing her best to rub Grimm ash from one of her feline ears, Blake turned to face him. "I know we have to, but I really don't want to."
Naruto nodded sagely. "Same."
Unfortunately, neither realistically had any other choice. At least, not a choice that would keep them on the moral high ground.
Which, of course, meant that Naruto led the way back into the cavern, the now almost-empty first floor of the Hallowed Bay.
Which was, coincidentally, devoid of anything that had been in it previously, aside from the two Hunters.
What was there was a chest made of a dark wood, yellow gems studded along the surface, a gleaming silver lock on the latch, just sitting out in the middle of the cavern, atop the runes carved into the floor.
"Huh."
Well, it certainly drew the eye, that was for sure. The idea of a chest, sitting inside a cleared-out dungeon, and the key in his hand?
It was so insanely video-game-like that Naruto felt like he had all that time ago, waking up that one morning. Which was to say a little confused, but overall rather enthusiastic.
Naruto took a cautious step closer to the chest, quickly activating Observe, just in case. He wasn't about to trust this thing, especially if his semblance decided to create some kind of Mimic Grimm like from Grimm & Grottos. That wasn't something he needed or wanted to deal with.
[Citrine Chest (Tier 2 Chest)]
[Locked]
[4 Item Rolls Remaining]
Naruto hid his relieved sigh, kneeling down onto one leg and tenderly inserting the key into the lock, a gentle twist decoupling the shackle and releasing the lock, and Naruto watched in mild shock as the key, once used, simply snapped, pieces melting away into nothingness like suddenly evaporating mercury.
Despite the fact that the key's sudden evacuation of reality caught his attention, he found it difficult for anything to divert his mind from the contents of the chest, and so he placed one hand on each side of the curved lid, heaving it up until it sat at a perpendicular angle from the base of the chest, and he stared into the murky blackness that lingered within the chest, like a cloud of entirely-localized dark fog.
Naruto looked to Blake, as if to ask her opinion, and Blake merely quirked an eyebrow in response, so he took that as some kind of consent and stuck his hand into the chest, a hearty gulp accompanying his actions as he was worried that he might lose his hand.
Not that losing his hand was all that big a deal to him, at least, he'd regenerate it, but that didn't mean he wanted to experience a pain he'd nearly managed to forget, at least, for the time being. His current line of work had a close relationship with severe injuries.
Naruto's hand, splayed and currently deeper into the chest than he'd expected it to go, suddenly touched something, and he grasped it, reaching out and withdrawing it.
[Sand]
[A commonly found material made of broken down rock and other crushed materials, such as silica.]
[Acquired 28!]
Naruto was not off to a good start. "Sand? We risked our lives for sand?!"
Despite the fact that Blake was equally frustrated, she wasn't planning on showing it, instead acting as, once again, the voice of reason. "To be fair we were coming in regardless of the reward."
Stowing the container of sand in his inventory, Naruto sighed. "I know. It just feels a little… pointless, you know? A quest reward, big enemy, dropped a chest, the whole shebang… and then just sand. Well, there's still three more things, but seriously. Sand."
Blake let out a non-committal 'mmhmm', to which Naruto translated to say 'I've stopped listening to your inane ramblings about sand', so he reached back in, fishing around the murky shadow inside the deceptively-sized internal of the chest, fingers brushing against the second of four rewards.
This time the reward was far smaller, in that it wasn't a container of any sort, but instead a small handful of raw gemstones, glittering green.
[Uncut Emerald]
[A gem of lush green, still embedded in rock.]
[Acquired 5!]
"Okay, that's a lot better than sand."
They weren't cut, as evidenced by the name, but the name also gave a clue that Naruto could, in fact, cut the gems, if he had access to the right tools. Which, back in Vale, he did, but out here, in the Menagerian wilds? Not a chance, unless Hallowed Quay had a workshop with jewellery tools. He doubted it.
Inventorying the Uncut Emeralds, Naruto reached back inside, this time wasting no time in grabbing the third item.
[Mithril Ore]
[A chunk of silver-blue ore used in the creation of Mithril.]
[Acquired 5!]
Now that was an interesting find. Naruto had never heard of Mithril before outside of a game-like context. "Blake, I think I've just discovered a new element."
Naruto had once thought that Blake couldn't disbelieve anything more the first time she heard it than the time he'd told her his life was a video-game. Now, of course, he knew that to be false.
"What?! Naruto, what are you talking about?"
Naruto held up one of the chunks of silver-blue rock. "It's called Mithril."
"As in the ancient, mythical metal Mithril?" Blake asked, catching Naruto off-guard.
"Yeah? How'd you know?"
"Contrary to popular belief, I don't just read-" She stalled for a moment. "I read a wide variety of topics."
"Nice save."
She glared at him.
"Back to the topic at hand, uh, I've discovered a new element, now what?"
Blake ceased her glare, instead swapping her expression to one of practiced disinterest. "What do you mean now what?"
"What am I supposed to do about having a new element in my hand?"
Naruto could practically see Blake's facade slipping. "Is this really the time to be considering that?"
Naruto put the ore in his inventory, muttering an apology. "It's just not everyday someone discovers a new element."
Blake's eyebrow gave a single twitch that she steeled herself against. Turned out if you spent enough time around Weiss, you pick up certain mannerisms. Who'd have guessed.
Naruto was already fishing around for the final item, and despite her earlier attitude, Blake couldn't help but be interested in what was remaining.
[Hearthstone]
[A rectangular stone with a crystalline inlay, it feels warm to the touch. Pushing Aura into it will return you to the entrance of the current dungeon. Only usable in dungeons. Single use.]
"What's that?" Blake asked, and Naruto read the description aloud, twirling the object in his hand as he did so.
"This is actually pretty useful," Naruto uttered, once he'd finished. "At least, in emergencies."
And it was, at least, in the situations he was imagining. Sure, he only had one use of the thing, but that was more than nothing, at the very least.
It could, theoretically, save a life, and that was worth its weight in gold. Or, well, it had the potential to be. It was all a kind of very complicated potentiality.
Naruto could've sworn he had a point, but he couldn't quite pin it down, so he abandoned the entire train of thought, instead pocketing the Hearthstone and stepping back from the chest, only to watch as it simply melted away much like the key had, the puddle of chest evaporating in a near-instant.
It was a strange thing to watch, that was for sure. Especially considering the bulk of the chest had been made of wood.
"How did that…" Blake nearly delved into the logic behind whatever it was that powered Naruto's semblance, but the blond-haired teen shook his head. It just wasn't worth questioning.
That way, as he'd said time and time again, lay only madness.
"Okay," Naruto began, finally taking the time to properly look around the first floor. "What's next?"
"We push on? We agreed that if it was too much we'd pull back, but we seem to have handled the first floor just fine, if a bit messily," Blake answered, surprisingly more verbose than usual, but Naruto chalked that up to the black-haired faunus having to take on the responsibility of being the reliable team member.
That was usually Pyrrha's job, but in her absence someone had to step up, and there was no way anyone would ever let it be Naruto. Nothing ever seemed to go the way it should when he was the reliable one. Surprisingly, that wasn't the System's fault, Naruto had always had a knack for getting into trouble.
"Okay, but… where's the next floor?" Naruto asked, peering at the ceiling. "If we have to squeeze through one of those holes I might be a little screwed. I'm not as lanky as I used to be."
Which wasn't entirely true, but he stuck by the statement all the same.
He stepped away from Blake, scanning the ceiling, and Blake watched through her periphery as Naruto took one too many steps away and disappeared from view.
"Naruto!?" She called out, already heading in his presumed direction, when she heard the sounds of splashing, coughing, and choked-back cursing.
"Naruto, are you alright?" She asked, dropping to one knee next to the hole Naruto had fallen in as he waded in dark, murky salt water.
He spat out another mouthful of water. "Bad news, I gasped when I fell in and swallowed like a bathtub-full of this crap. Good news, I found another floor."
Blake stared at the water. It stared back. She swore.
Contrary to popular belief, Naruto could not breath underwater as of yet.
Sure, he could hold his breath for a little longer than the average person on account of his Aura-reinforced physique, and he could probably hold it even longer due to the System, but he had no feasible way of breathing underwater.
Also, he had no summons that could fight underwater. Or breathe, either, but for them that wasn't as big a problem. It wasn't like they died, only became unavailable for a little while.
That wasn't to say he didn't have a potential summon who could potentially help with the situation, though he suspected it would be more of a scouting solution than a solution to his aquatic airflow issue.
Not that there was anything wrong with that, he thought as he took Blake's offered hand and found himself half-scrabbling half-yanked out of the watery hole and back onto somewhat-webbed stone.
Despite the fact that Blake looked like she was having a mental breakdown about her potential future, Naruto figured she'd sort that out on her own, gently urging her to follow as he stepped outside the cavern once more, already reaching into his inventory for the item he'd been considering only moments before.
He found it with ease, withdrawing the Epic Sea Feilong Gill and taking his other hand to the stone, already using Terrakinesis to carve the imagery he was now intimately familiar with.
He laid the gill on the stone, applying possibly the most expensive Soul Orbs he had to what was now a pile, the two Grand Soul Orbs gently clinking against one another as he took a step back.
Blake had plenty enough wherewithal to step back even further than Naruto, closing her eyes as the brightness overcame the typical daylight like a thousand-lumen lightbulb in a dark room, until suddenly neither of the Hunters were blinded.
Instead, there stood, or rather, lay, a long draconic serpent covered in white scales and golden membranes, a small pair of clawed arms near the midsection of what was the serpent-like body.
Naruto spoke the summon's name aloud, announcing it to the world like what had just happened was the most natural thing. "Hello, Jormungandr."
No matter how many times Blake saw it, it was still an astounding sight.
The two watched as Jormungandr quickly slithered into the water, settling down with a relaxed expression, gently resting his head atop the stone, where Naruto reached out and gently stroked his snout. "Glad to have you with us."
With the sea serpent summon settled in the sea water, Naruto checked the notification that had triggered.
[You've unlocked a new Perk!]
[Gilled: Your connection with the soul of a Sea Feilong gives you complete, permanent water-breathing.]
"You've gotta be kidding me. When I said I needed an aquatic scout I didn't mean me!"
Blake turned a curious expression towards Naruto. "What happened?"
There was a number of ways Naruto could explain, but he stuck with his more typical method. "I can breath underwater now."
Blake actually laughed, and Naruto couldn't help but send a glare her way. "At least you'll fit in with the aquatic Faunus in Kuo Kuana now?"
Naruto sighed. "I'm not complaining, you know? I just keep getting suckerpunched out of nowhere by unexpected things."
Blake regained her composure somewhat. "Well, better you than me. The waterbreathing, not the suckerpunching."
Now that made Naruto laugh. "It would be a bit of a cruel irony."
"I realise that I've asked this a lot recently, but what's our next step?" Blake asked. "It's been changing quite a bit, and the closer we get to achieving it the further it seems to get."
"You ride Shirdal back to Kuo Kuana and tell your father about everything that's happening here. Tell him to do whatever he needs to do, tell him about what I can do, if you have to. I'm going to stay here and keep delving deeper. I don't know how far down this dungeon might go, but I know that the entire second floor is full of water. If I can find out what happened to the people from Hallowed Quay, all the better."
He said it with authority he didn't feel, but he was better at being convincing than he'd expected. That or Blake really, really didn't want to go for a swim, which he could understand.
At the very least his teammate showed some concern for his well-being. "What happens if you get in trouble down there?"
"That's what that Hearthstone is for. If something goes horribly wrong I can just warp back up. Just make sure that no one shoots me if you're up there and I suddenly appear."
"That would certainly be an unfortunate way to die. Are you sure that Shirdal can maintain his form that far from you?"
Naruto hadn't thought about that, but instead of saying that, he shrugged. "What's the worst that could happen? We fell further in our initiation."
Well, Blake couldn't disagree with that. "It's probably better if I leave sooner rather than later, then. You're going to want some reinforcements at some point, I imagine."
"It wouldn't go amiss, that's for sure. The more firepower the better, I don't think that any of the Grimm in here are going to go down without a fight, so I don't think spears and pistols are going to cut it. If Kuo Kuana has a tank you might want to bring it."
Naruto summoned Shirdal and Blake slung herself aboard the Griffon, keeping a firm grip on one of the saddle's handles. "I'll keep that in mind. Good luck, Naruto."
Naruto gave Shirdal a quick pat as the summon began to take off, carrying Blake into the sky as he turned back to Jormungandr, the sea serpent lifting his head out from where it had semi-submerged.
"Alright, buddy. Let's get you upgraded a little, huh?" Naruto said, splaying one hand and activating Soul Harvest. Jormungandr watched as Naruto began the creation of a Greater Soul Orb, taking a few moments before it formed in his palm, and he tossed it towards the Sea Feilong summon, jaw snapping down and crushing it underneath powerful jaws.
And he grew, larger, sharper, stronger. Naruto could see it happening, muscles and tendons becoming more defined, claws sharpening, wings growing further in size.
Jormungandr had grown in size and strength, from Minor to Greater in a few moments.
"I suppose I'd better test out this water-breathing perk now. This is going to be weird."
There was a moment of uninterrupted silence before the splash of displaced water sounded as Jormungandr dismissed himself, leaving Naruto to make the walk back into the cavern alone, which he did without complaint.
Making sure that everything aside from Crocea Mors was stowed in his inventory, his coat included, Naruto slipped into the watery hole on the inside of the cavern, quickly casting Candlelight and hoping that the floating light was waterproof, Naruto submerged himself.
Candlelight was waterproof, it seemed, as the light followed him down, and illuminated what was a not-so-insignificant tunnel filled completely with somewhat-murky dark water, just barely illuminated by his magic.
Naruto realised he was holding his breath. An old habit, he supposed. One he was going to have to break sooner rather than later, preferably.
So, he swallowed his fear, swallowed his worry, and took a deep breath.
He swallowed water, too, but for some inexplicable reason, it didn't seem to reach his lungs, instead a balanced amount of breathable air did instead. He exhaled, bubbles departing from his nose and floating quickly surface-wards, popping once they breached the surface tension of the water.
He didn't know how far this aquatic passage went, but he was about to find out, and he began his presumably-long swim, headed for whatever his next destination was with powerful strokes that carried him deeper and deeper.
He'd be amiss if he said he wasn't at least slightly worried.