The man was impressed, and she was too. It was one of her favorite things, a must-have for a mage on the go. When they had collected their treasures, it was time to descend further to the next level. Returning to the room with the pressure plates again, they passed through the archway with steps leading down, leaving the first floor's puzzles behind. As they walked, it started to smell really damp. Not like mold, but the same feeling the air had after it rained. It was cold too, which made the air down here chilly. When they reached the end of the stairs, her happy-go-lucky grin wavered. "Uh-oh…" This floor began with a short hallway that stretched forward, then abruptly ended at a heavy door. No clues, no grates to peer through. The biggest problem was the sounds of something scratching beneath the stonework. 

There was a lever on the side which would open the door, but she didn't like it when she couldn't figure out what was on the other side. "Hrmmm…well I guess we're in a pickle. Get it? 'Cause we're underwater, and there's seawater?" Her rather awful pun about brine elicited a weak grumble from the dark-haired man, so she grabbed the lever and pulled it down. There was a groan as the weight of machinery long unused began to turn and spring to life. The door pulled up into the wall, revealing the room behind. There were lots of…crusty things all over the floor in piles. They kind of looked like rocks. The place smelled salty too, but she couldn't figure out anything else by just looking. She looked up at the man, who then looked down at her. Neither of them were excited about going first, so Myouga decided to do it. They'd never get anywhere unless they tried!

"I don't see any traps, but there's not really anything else I can see other than those weird rocks." The scraping sound continued, then stopped. Narrowing her eyes, she glared at them. Pulling out her wand, she tapped her chin. "Wait, just what do you intend to do this time?" The man asked, sensing that she was planning something. "I'm thinking of doing a little test–like throw something in there and see what happens." He wasn't convinced and continued asking. "…And what exactly do you plan to throw in there?" "Shh, give me a second. You'll probably want to cover your ears." As she was facing away from him, he didn't notice that her eyes were beginning to glow green. "Why would I need to cover my ears?" He demanded, but instead of answering his question Myouga waved her wand and pointed it in the room's general direction. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" 

The next second was an earth-shattering KA-BOOM that rocked the walls of stone. The force of the spell sent dust flying everywhere, and nearly threw the man off his feet. He was now on the ground, cursing vehemently while clutching his ears. The blast of sound made her ears ring a little, so she had no idea she was being yelled at–however she did notice something skittering amidst the settling dust. Holding her wand she readied herself into a defensive position, and cast a protection spell. "Ready or not, here they come!" The 'rocks' Myouga had seen were actually shells composed of calcium deposits…which belonged to rather enormous hermit crabs. Not too happy to have their shells shattered, the angry crustaceans were coming after them in droves. Spamming explosions wasn't going to be very effective, so she sucked in air and released it in a bellowing shout. The sonic shockwaves disoriented the angry crabs, which gave them a few more seconds to take hold of the battle. 

Unfortunately that meant her voice was out for the next day or so. She didn't really like using her 'outside voice' unless she really, really had to. Drawing runic symbols in the air, a magic circle formed around her just in time for the crabs' second assault. Before they could get their grubby claws on either of the two, plants burst forth from the ground and began smacking the crabs about. The tentacle plants grabbed anything that wasn't Myouga or the man behind her, and bashed them against the floors, walls, ceiling, or each other. Feeling tired, she wiped her brow in relief when the mashed crabs weren't moving. All that fighting was making her hungry. She had eaten all the snacks in her bag before setting sail, and she couldn't cast spells on an empty stomach. Then, she got an idea…

That imp of a mage set off a spell without warning, and nearly blew their eardrums out. The echoes of the blast reverberated off the walls, amplifying it threefold. At normal volume it was bad enough, but having a detonation within a small enclosed space caused him to drop to the ground writing in agony. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR YOU BLOODY IMBECILE?!! DIDN'T I SAY TO GIVE ME A WARNING BEFORE PULLING SOME MAD STUNT LIKE THAT?! GODS, WHAT IN THE NINE CIRCLES OF THE INFERNOS POSSESSED YOU TO THINK THAT WAS REMOTELY A GOOD IDEA?" Reeling in pain, he spouted insults non-stop. "INGRATE! WITLESS SOD! IMPULSE-RIDDEN CRETIN! BLASTED SIMPLETON! NITWIT!" He was too busy nursing his aching ears to notice anything else, let alone hear whatever she was mumbling. There was more crashing, and smashing noises. Finally the noise was gone, and he had managed to scream away the initial brunt of the pain. 

Getting up off the cold, clammy floor he wondered why it was suddenly so quiet. He rose to see the the white-garbed gremlin staring intently at the piles of limp hermit crabs scattered all over the chamber floor in front. A loud growl broke the silence, coming from the girl's stomach. It was then that Gerard noticed how she was staring at the dead crabs. "Hey, what's gotten into you? What's with the staring? Hold it…wait. You're not thinking–" His vocalized assumptions were cut off by another loud complaint from the mage's digestive system and by now he had put two and two together. "Oh no–don't you dare. Don't you dare even think about doing what I know you're contemplating." She turned to look at him with a silly, goofy grin. He narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms in response. 

Holding her hands together, a fireball began to form in her hands. He hardened his glare, giving clear disapproval of what she was planning. "NO." Continuing to grin, she took a step closer to the crabs. "I said no!" The fireball was growing larger and larger. "No–get back here, missy. Step away from the corpses." She then made a face, and tried to appeal to his sympathy. Giving a grunt of disapproval, he staunchly opposed her actions. Finally she stopped and began to whine. "But whyyyyyyyy? I'm hungryyyyy–" Wailing, her words were drawn out in the same fashion as a child begging their parents for a new toy they had seen in a shop window. "Absolutely not! You don't know where they've been!" He stamped his foot, refusing to give in. "But–but they're crabs! Crabs are edible!" She argued. The nokken then retorted, "Yes, and crabs are scavengers. Do you know what crabs eat? Detritus–in other words, rubbish."

She'd eaten crabs before, so what was the difference if these ones were bigger? Sure they weren't the same type of crab they served in restaurant, but crab was crab–and crab was edible. The man told her she shouldn't eat them, but her stomach argued in protest. Denied, her head drooped sadly as the fireball in her hands fizzled. As if to mirror her expressions, her stomach gave a low gurgle. Myouga sniffed, looked at the perfectly good crab that was going to waste, and sighed. "Fiiiine…" Pulling out a box of chocolates she began eating. She'd already had her fill of sweets; she wanted something salty. She had been looking forward to an amazing seafood bake just now. Aside from the mess, the way appeared clear for the time being. The little arcanist followed the man as they moved on to the next chamber. 

The next room was filled with alternating patterns of stone floor and metal grates. The briny smell of seawater was stronger here, and she could almost taste the saltiness of kelp. The man stopped, and looked at the floor for a while. Motioning for her to stay back, he took out a sitar and began to strum a few notes. He was trying to do something, but the mage had no idea what. Slowly, the moisture in the air began to accumulate and frosted over the grates in the ground. A thin layer of ice was now covering the floor, but he hadn't given her the 'all-clear' signal yet. For some reason he wasn't very trusting of the floor. Why was that?

"Hey, can we go now?" She asked. "…Not yet. Stay over there, don't move. If something happens, I want you to start casting." He replied to her question. "Oh sure! But why would I need to start casting? Why'd you freeze the grates?" This time he didn't answer, and went back to the previous chamber. Returning with one of the dead crabs, he hefted it and threw it onto one of the floor grates. Moments after the crab corpse landed, something burst out from between the holes in the metal grates and began tearing at the body. "AHHHH!!!" Shrieking, Myouga leaped back as the film of frost was completely destroyed by the floor-tentacles. Said tentacles then proceeded to grab the dismembered pieces of crab down to who-knows-where. Then there was silence. The man was startled as well, but he was more composed than the mage had been. "Well then, it's a good thing we had those corpses to test. Avoid the grates, I'm sure I've made myself clear?" 

Tiptoeing past the danger spots, they were at the end. The air was literally soggy by now, and Myouga was starting to itch. Making a fireball, she waved it around to dry the air out. She was then told to stop, as the man complained it was a hazard. The traps that came next were the usual, easy to avoid ones. Spinning logs with spikes, spike pits covered by grates, arrow-shooters. Taking a significantly less amount of time compared to the first floor, they descended to the third. Now they finally saw the source of the saltwater smell. The third level was partially flooded. There were portions that were above water, and areas that hovered just above the murky depths. On the other side was a doorway, but how would they get across? Swimming felt too easy. After all wouldn't just anybody hop in for a dip to get to the end?

"Hrm…something's fishy, and not in a good way. Hey, I think I see something!" Leaning to get a better look, she was then yanked backward in time to avoid the snapping jaws of some aquatic creature from below. "You blithering idiot! Are you trying to lose your face?!" The bard yelled. Myouga's eyes were wide with shock and fascination. "W-whoa! That…that was so cool! Hey what was it? I want one! I bet Nick would love to see one of those! All I saw was a long face full of snapping teeth!"