PMD - Cost of time

The Shining Lagoon

"How much deeper do we have to go?" complained Cole as the whole team trotted through another dungeon.

"We're not even close," Blastoise replied, "you'll know we're close once the currents get stronger."

Blastoise has been a part of the team for weeks now, and while the dread gnawing at his mind was still there, he has been able to ignore it for the most part.

Cole groaned. "Couldn't we just have bought a water stone instead of looking for one down here?"

"Marill said they looked for one at every shop around and couldn't find one, so I'm pretty sure that wasn't an option." Tyke said.

"Well, we could have at least double checked."

"That would've most likely been a waste of time. Besides, we would've missed out on this amazing view." Tyke broadly gestured at the scenery. The dungeon of the shining Lagoon was a big, open cave, with barely any walls outside of the ones separating the dungeon from the outside world. Many rivers flowed from outside of the dungeon to its core, the water getting disturbed by occasional rocks, spikes and crystals scattered throughout, reaching from the bottom of the rivers all the way to the surface. The surface of the water reflected the blue light that's emitting from the many glowing blue crystals that were scattered around the otherwise obsidian black stone that the dungeon is made of.

"It would be a lot nicer if my fur wasn't all wet and uncomfortable." Cole shaked his fur, trying to get at least a bit more dry, but it had absolutely no effect.

"How is it that when you go swimming you don't mind being wet, but in here it's oh so awful?"

"Consent matters. And more importantly, I won't be able to ignite my back like this, which is gonna suck if we get into a battle."

"I doubt there will be any battles yet. There aren't many wild pokemon here in the outermost layer of the dungeon," said Blastoise.

Cole stared in disbelief. "This is still the outermost layer? We've been walking for hours!"

"We've been in here for less than thirty minutes, now stop complaining and get going, or we might actually be stuck in here for hours." Wave took the lead and picked up the pace, forcing the others to do the same.

After some more walking, always in the direction that the rivers flowed, the team came to a dead end. A cliff. And one with a beautiful view.

Below them was an area similar to the one they were on before, but with more of these blue crystals, and some patches of white on the mostly black floor, as well as some wild pokemon. There were several of these layers, all connected with cliffs, and getting more crystals and white floor the deeper it goes, same thing with the wild pokemon, getting more frequent the further it goes.

It all led to a beautifully blue sea, the water reflecting the only sunlight in the dungeon, as there was a gaping hole right above, that let the warm light of the sun shine through. In the middle of the sea stood a sort of small island, completely white, with oddly shaped, dark blue rocks, far different from the crystals found throughout the rest of the dungeon.

"So… How the fuck are we gonna get down there?" Cole asked.

"Well, there's gotta be a way somewhere. We'll just need to keep looking." Tyke glanced around, though he didn't see anything at first glance.

Tierra turned to blastoise. "Do you have any idea? You seem to know a lot about this place. Is there any kind of trick we should know about?"

"No trick. We just have to climb down." 

"Climb down?" Cole spoke in an exaggerated shocked tone.

"Shouldn't be that hard. I've seen most of you climb up and down a wall before in the flaming mountain. This shouldn't be that hard."