The world was a tumbling swirl of water, bubbles, and the steep slope of the pond bottom as James fell head over heels towards the center of the pond, where it was deepest.

But although water splashed about everywhere, James wasn't submerged in the water. The water of the pond was so densely packed with undine essence that the water would strike his armor and then bounce off vigorously.

This phenomenon continued for the few seconds it took for James to reach the deepest part of the pond, about twenty yards down the slope, surrounded by bubbles and water splashing about.

But it didn't last long. Almost as soon as he reached the bottom of the pond, water started penetrating the gaps in his armor, and the precious air surrounding his body escaped upwards to the surface. James had just enough time to take a deep breath and hold it before the effect of his [Water Resistance] enchanted Green Iron armor ran out, and he was fully submerged at the bottom of the pond.

On his hands and knees, as the bubbles cleared, James saw it.

A small treasure chest, at the exact center of the bottom of the pond.

Purely on instinct his hands flashed out, opened the chest, and pulled out an amulet. Clenched tightly in his hand, he frantically scrabbled back up the steep slope of the pond, towards the surface. His lungs burned and his eyes blurred as he frantically kicked and pulled himself up the pebbly surface, undine essence swirling around and away from his armored limbs as he climbed. And yet, he felt heavy, as though the water was trying to grab him around the protection of his armor and pull him back into the depths.

He felt so heavy. So slow. His lungs burned and ached. All he could do was climb, haul himself up bit by bit, sliding a little back with every movement down the pebbly slope.

With a mighty splash, the Smith broke the surface and burst out of the pond and crawled back onto the beach, a few yards away from his shield and magic bag. Gasping for breath, he continued crawling, desperate to get back to his shield. And just as he was about to reach it-

Thud

Another divebomb tackle from one of the bird monsters. It knocked James flat on the ground, but he quickly recovered and hauled himself up using his shield.

Thud

Another tackle. This time he kept his footing, using the shield to stabilize himself, and he pulled his Green Iron War Hammer out from his bag.

Dripping water everywhere, he scanned around, looking for the birds. But with the limited vision of his visor and the dripping water, he couldn't see them. They always managed to catch him from behind, slamming into his back, knocking him forward.

Thud

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Still gasping and coughing, James grabbed the magic bag and retreated. He passed by the mangled carcass of the crab monster, now picked clean by the bird monsters and abandoned, and endured several more tackles nearly knocking him off his feet until he made it back into his wards.

Then, finally, the divebombing stopped.

James continued through his camp, panting for breath and dripping water, until he reached the back of the alcove, where his forge, smelter, smoker, and sitting rock were.

He sat down heavily, propped up his shield facing the lake, and dropped the magic bag, his hammer, and the amulet he had picked up to the ground. For a while, he just breathed, trying to catch his breath.

What the hell had just happened?

By all rights, James thought, he should be dead. He hadn't thought of it until now, but falling into the water fully armored was a death sentence. He was lucky the pond had been small, and sloped enough to climb back up out of.

Even more than that, he was lucky his armor had been enchanted. Clearly, the [Water Resistance] enchantment was working and had done something, but he didn't understand what.

As it happens, James didn't know about the various interactions between elemental irons and essence. The pond was so saturated with undine essence that unlike Pure Water, it had been repelled by the [Water Resistance] enchantment. Of course, completely submerged in the water, this effect was only temporary before being overwhelmed, but being Green Iron, it had allowed air to cling to the armor for those few seconds, giving James time to get his bearings and take a breath before drowning.

Even after James was fully submerged, his armor had resisted the clinging, dragging undine essence trying to hold him back and drown him, enough that with his boosted Smith's strength, he was able to climb back out of the pond.

What James did know, was that he had somehow survived and his enchanted armor had played a role in that.

He also knew that he did not want to get knocked into the water again.

James had his elbows on his knees and head hung, panting for breath, when his gaze fell upon the amulet he had found in the treasure chest.

This once again confirmed for James that he was, indeed, inside a Dungeon. The pond must have been a trap, designed to lure in adventurers who would dive to the bottom for the treasure, and then be drowned as the undine essence prevented them from swimming back out.

The amulet was attached to a strip of leather acting as a necklace, and was itself a polished stone of swirling stripes, amber, brown, yellow, and blue.

It was also enchanted.

James picked it up. He had never seen an enchantment on anything not metal before, but he could tell.

[Appraisal]: Amulet, Enchantment: ??? (Water)

But he couldn't tell what the enchantment did, only that it was a Water elemental enchantment. He couldn't even tell if it was Basic, Intermediate, or what level it was.

That said, with his [Enchantment Analysis] skill, he could try to figure out what it did.

It was clearly reacting to his armor. In fact, it seemed like the magical effect of his [Water Resistance] enchantment, bound to the material of the armor itself, was strengthened, as was the resonance between the different pieces of his armor that extended the magical effect across his joints.

Having now caught his breath, James went to his sleeping tunnel and removed his armor, then put the amulet on.

Now there was no effect whatsoever.

He put on one of his bracers, still wearing the amulet, and felt the enchantment strengthen.

He removed the bracer, and this time took one of his spare warding stakes out of the bag, and poured magic into it, feeling out how the enchantment's magical field expanded and sought out other warding stakes to link to.

The amulet had no effect on this.

Nor did the amulet have any effect on his Green Iron Tower Shield, Green Iron War Hammer, nor his Earth War Hammer.

James donned his armor again, keeping the amulet on, and sat down.

His boots were no longer cutting it, not on the pebbly beach.

Staring at his boots, James ignored the clacking challenge of crab monsters at the edge of his wards, and the squawking of the bird monsters beyond them.

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