Fire in the lake!

Deja vu. That feeling when you see something and you feel like you have already seen it before.

Through my whole life I never entered a Dungeon before. Sure, I saw many footages and experienced virtual dungeons as well, but real Dungeons... never before.

Then, why did I have this feeling? The feeling of familiarity. As if something was welcoming me for coming back after a long long time? Did this made any sense at all!?

"Hey newbie, wake up! We got to find our target before dawn!"

Waking up from the dazed state that I had entered unconsciously, I nod my head and answer through the voice chat.

"Coming! I was just appreciating the view!"

"Quite the nice place, right? It's specially beautiful at night, but during the day is not bed as well!"

The dungeon I found myself now was also a forest, but completely different from anything I ever saw before. There were glowing flowers on the tree branches illuminating the place like little lanterns in a festival. There were also glowing stones on the ground, making it easy to see the ground shape and detect holes as well. The vegetation was sparse, and each tree was over twenty meters in height. I couldn't help but feel this would be a great dating spot....that is, if it was not filled with gigantic monsters ready to devour you anything...

"While I knew a bit of what to expect, I'm still quite surprised. How come nobody tries to conquer this place?"

"You mean, like, make a base or fortress? Well, there are plenty of motives..."

"Like what?"

"Hmm... newbie, answer for me!"

"Eh!? Why are you passing the question to me!? Hmm, let's see... First of all, there is no energy here, so they would have to build a power plant..."

"Can't they just pass some energy cables through the entrance?"

"You think they didn't try it? Hahahah! Of course they did, but the cables always get cut by the portal in the end!"

"Eh!?"

"I don't know how it works. It's just that anything inside the portal start degrading after some time. In case of energy cables, its something around a few hours, depending on the thickness of the cable."

"Really!?"

"Yeah. Theoretically even Titans will feel this effect, that's why people always tell you to enter and exit the portals as fast as we can. Personally I never saw the damages myself, but gramps told me it was like rust taking over and dispersing at the same time..."

"What????"

"Yeah, I also got confused, but, you know how things rust right? The oxygen in the air-"

"Skip it to the conclusion! So what?"

"The portal corrodes the cable again and again in the exact same place, until it break."

"So that thing is dangerous, hmm? I always considered it just an odd door..."

"Yeah...just a common door that leads us to an entire different space...."

As I was distracted conversing with the crew, I barely noticed as we exited the forest and reached a huge lake.

"Wow! Look at this! The water looks like a mirror!"

I slowly approached the lake, standing right beside B.B.'s Titan.

"This is the place. Today's target is under the lake!"

"Under the lake!? These Titans were not made to fight under the water! If you try, water will flood in!"

"Worry not, newbie. We don't need to go in! We just need it to come out!"

(Ugh, I have a bad feeling about this...)

"Fire in the lake!!!!"

(Don't you mean fire in the hole??)

I saw it as if it was happening in slow motion, from behind me a grenade suddenly come flying just to land inside the lake. There was no point now in finding out who was the culprit as we would have bigger problems to deal with soon enough.

BOOOOOOM!

The loud explosion threw water everywhere. Those grenades were not the same as the ones used by infantry on Earth, but special ones made exclusively for Titans. It's power was akin high grade explosives used on mines and if treated carelessly... I'm too afraid to even imagine the consequences...

Soon small fish started to float up to the lake's surface. It seems like the explosion killed them all at once. Wait, now that I see it closer, those fishes are as big as dolphins! I had made a mistake due to the odd perspective coming from the Titan's camera that made it appear smaller than what it really was.

"It's coming out! Everybody, stay alert!"

Splash!!!

From inside the lake a huge dinosaur appeared! It had crocodile head, crocodile body and ....all right, let's call it crocodile instead!

"Mommy! That thing is huge!!"

"Hey B.B.! Which one is bigger!? That thing's or yours??"

"Ha! How can you compare! It's obviously mine, right!"

Hearing their talk gave me a headache, but I tried to focus on the monster before me. The crocodile was over 20 meters long and it didn't appear quite happy from being awaken by an explosive over it's head. The monster advanced in B.B.'s direction quite quickly despite being an aquatic monster, and B.B. greeted him with one hell of a blade attack right on top of it's head, finishing the battle before it could even start.

"Wow!"

"Nice job!"

"You rock, B.B!"

"Handsome!!!"

(Sigh... I didn't even get to shot...Actually, if it's this easy, why did they even call me here???)

"Newbie, pay attention! It's not over yet!"

"Eh!?"

As the lake got more and more agitated, one after another crocodile exited from inside.

"Start shooting! Aim at their eyes!"

And that's how my first real Dungeon Hunt began...