"What? What do you mean there are dungeons in the water, Achilles?" He questions, both shocked and horrified.
However, he took the time to think about it. It made sense that so many cities near the coast were overwhelmed so quickly. It was because there were dungeons unnoticed by everyone there, but it didn't explain why no one had ever made mention of them before, if they existed.
Perhaps they did, or it was kept secret by many factions to maintain an advantage. Kimsung had never known about this in any of his previous resets, and neither had the Song siblings. Despite reading most of the story until the recent chapter, they believed dungeons could only spawn on land or in the sky.
Even if they did exist, why was there no mention, not even a hint of it?
Keido couldn't focus on that right now, as they had to assess the situation. The river was colored a darker blue, making the usually murky green river water of the Hudson look indigo. The grass was covered in corpses of crustacean monsters, many of them mangled and with holes in their bodies, like bullet holes in a dead animal from a hunter's rifle.
There had to be over fifty of them, and that was counting only those on land. There were even some as large as cars, or monster trucks, not even making it past the highway above before probably being killed by Achilles.
"Achilles… You did all of this?" He asked in disbelief. Achilles nodded, scratching his head a bit.
"Took me a couple of hours. Thankfully, they only came in waves, or else they'd be in the city by now. I even shot a fucking eel in the water! It's right over there, the big one floating." He pointed at what was a dead eel floating on the water. It must've been an E-rank, because it was the size and length of a train.
"So… y'all wanna clear these dungeons here? Gotta be enough for Maria too. All we need is some diving gear." He proposed, as if it were an easier method than the planned dungeons Heidi wanted them to go to. In Kimsung's opinion, at least they wouldn't have to travel all around the city, and these dungeons were considerably closer.
However, he had no idea what dungeons in the water were like, since he'd never found one before, so it was a great risk to go in there unprepared.
"Maybe not… Not at least without some preparation. We don't even know what one is like." He spoke, turning around and walking back to the city. The rest followed him back, and Achilles followed, a bit annoyed. If anything, he's the one who should want to go back.
Four hours ago
It was late morning, and Achilles was bored. He knew there was a nice view of the river nearby, since he'd been there before. Just when he got there, a large crab the size of a trash can rose out of the water, clawing its way up the metal railings.
Achilles acted quickly, firing a spear made of his barrier at it, killing it in one blow.
[You've slain an F-ranked Low Tier Mutated Crab, You've Gained 1+ EXP!]
However, it was not the last, as ten more came from the water, followed by a large, car-sized lobster that crushed the railings with its larger claw. Achilles formed a Spiral Shot, barriers spinning in a circle like a windmill before forming it around the size of a three-liter bottle and shooting the lobster.
[You've slain an F-ranked Mid Tier Mutated Lobster, you've gained 1+ EXP!]
He dealt with the crabs after the lobster fell back into the water, backing up to the bike trail as even more monsters emerged from the water. First, it was just crabs and lobsters, then an eel shot out of the water, ready to attack him. Achilles shot the beast as it ascended in the air, aiming for the head and hitting without fail.
[You've slain an E-ranked Mid Tier Mutated Eel, You've gained 3+ EXP]
The real problems began after the first two hours. In the third, larger monsters emerged, forcing him to form a defensive line in the nearby area. While his reserves were sure to last him the fight, he wasn't confident that he could successfully contain all of them. As time passed, he had to use spears more and more often to kill the smaller of the enemies, the tens of crabs that successfully made it over his barrier wall and onto the grass of the boardwalk.
Thankfully, it was fewer and fewer as he raised the barrier higher than they could stack. After he was sure no more had made it over the wall, which was repeatedly being attacked by the many F-ranks and E-ranks attempting to scale the seven-meter tall barrier, Achilles did the simplest thing he could; Just adding spikes to the wall and killed the monsters piling up.
[You've slain an F-ranked Low Tier Mutated Crab, You've Gained 1+ EXP!]
[You've slain an F-ranked Low Tier Mutated Crab, You've Gained 1+ EXP!]
[You've slain an F-ranked Low Tier Mutated Crab, You've Gained 1+ EXP!]
[You've slain an F-ranked Low Tier Mutated Crab, You've Gained 1+ EXP!]
[You've slain an F-ranked…]
[You've slain an E-ranked…]
[You've slain an F-ranked…]
After another hour, the monsters were fewer, thankfully. He soon went down into the water, covered in his barriers. He remained in the shallow area of the water and was immediately attacked by those still lurking in the water. Achilles had thought perhaps the stragglers had simply stayed in the water to wait him out, and he was completely right.
There had to be nearly double what he'd killed above water, simply waiting underwater for him to tire. Unsurprisingly, he did kill them all, but not without a large amount of barriers protecting him, especially against the E-rank that hadn't gone up. When Achilles looked around, he saw two white colored dungeon gates down at the riverbed, surrounded by coral.
When he finally killed the rest of the crab horde and the E-rank protecting the dungeon, he left quickly, getting out of the water and sitting down on the bench, which was where Kimsung would soon find him.