“Ummm …… the water temperature is about 26 degrees Celsius?”
<How can you tell?>
<How cold is it exactly?>
<Thermometer girl.>
<I can’t believe you are cosplaying as a thermometer now.>
< It’s funny that only her neck and up are sticking out.>
Swimming in it feels good to me. But because you don’t feel the heat and cold as much in this world as you do in real life, it’s just a little cooler.
As I swam at a depth of about five meters, I tried to get a feel for the water. The first thing I noticed was a slight discomfort.
(Hmmm… I’m being watched by something…)
From nowhere, I felt eyes on me. It wasn’t from the water dragons who were happily swimming around me but from something much larger.
It is, of course, not from a person. It’s most likely the gaze of something much bigger than the cute water dragon.
They don’t appear to be looking at me with their eyes. It was as if sonar was constantly monitoring me.
The fact that I can only vaguely perceive it with my five senses means that it is most likely a magical fantasy enemy search ability.
“I feel like something is watching me from the bottom of the water. But it’s more like it’s probing me with sonar than looking at me.”
<Is it a pervert?>
<You need a very high level [Diving] to go all the way down to the bottom.>
<There are other girls in swimsuits here and there.>
“It’s not a person. It’s probably a water dragon or something like that, something lurking at the bottom of the lake. I’m going to dive a little further.”
I don’t think this means much, but I took a deep breath and dived into the water again.
I began swimming toward deeper water, listening more intently, after confirming that the streaming crystals were following me.
(At this pace, I can only dive for exactly 30 seconds at zero skill level.)
[Diving] skill is not a skill that makes you a better swimmer or enables you to swim, but a skill that allows you to “hold your breath” underwater.
When you dive, this so-called oxygen gauge will appear, and it’s completely different from the SP bar.
The oxygen gauge and SP will recover over time as soon as I emerge from the water. As long as I don’t dive too deep, there is basically no problem.
“Fuahh, to think of it… and there’s no point in diving as deep as I can go.”
<I guess so.>
<Your proficiency level will increase slightly.>
<It’s not so easy with all that hair sticking to you.>
<I hate myself for being a little nervous.>
<↑It doesn’t matter. Be honest with yourself.>
<Here comes a wet Oni girl…>
“By the way, this game gets your clothes and hair wet, right? I’m curious if people wearing metal armor can swim?”
<Unfortunately…. >
<I heard that they could.>
<But I think the best way to do this is to switch to leather equipment.>
<Cause the metal will rust. >
“I see… I’d better put away my Ouma for now.”
The trivia that the viewers told me was kinda surprising; I then put Ouma away in my inventory since it’s made from metal.
“Kyuaa?”
“Oh, sorry, sorry. I’m sorry I left you alone.”
Perhaps she didn’t like the fact that I was talking to everyone else, but she poked me with her head to break my balance while I was standing up floating.
To keep up with both the water dragon and the viewer, I had to proceed to deeper water while keeping a floating posture and pedaling backward.
“I wanted to say [The sky is blue] ……but it’s already evening. It’s a beautiful sunset.”
<It’s so peaceful; it’s hard to believe this is a lake with monsters.>
<Agree>
<I can’t believe you were fighting Melty just a few minutes ago.>
<I guess it’s a reward for all your hard work.>
<Oh right, Sukuna hasn’t encountered any monsters at all.>
“Hmm, true. I was told that I couldn’t play in the swimsuit because of the monsters, but I haven’t seen any.”
“Kuy-ru-ruu!”
“What’s wrong~, you suddenly look proud. Could it be that Suiryuu-chan is the one who chasing away monsters~?”
“Kyu kyu kyu!”
“Oh, really. Good girl, good girl.”
<She’s so relaxed, isn’t she?>
<As if she was soaking in a hot spring.>
<Probably got tired.>
<Well, she was fighting the strongest.>
<For us, it was like exhaustion after fighting the strongest primates?>
<The strongest primate in the world right now is the girl who’s relaxing in that lake.>
<A single slap to the head will send you to the other side.>
<By the way, I heard that water dragon cubs couldn’t be attacked by monsters because their parents will come out when they’re hurt.>
“I see? I’m wondering if it’s her parents who are staring at me right now. She’s adorable, isn’t she?”
The battle with the Melty was tough. It was the biggest and fastest battle so far.
Anyway, the water is getting deeper. Let’s try to dive in a little bit more.
After about 20 minutes of leisurely swimming, I noticed an underwater cliff where the water suddenly seemed to get deeper. I shifted my position and arrived with a dog paddle, then dove into the water to find the owner of the gaze that had been directed at me.
“…Mogo!?”
It was deep and wide at the cliff’s end. Where the water was deeper, it extended at least a kilometer… if not further.
The depth was incredible. If we were to translate the light range into real-world terms, it would be around 400 meters, and that was the extent of the light; I couldn’t see the bottom at all.
There were far more diverse creatures roaming around here than I had expected. There are monsters and non-monster aquatic creatures.
(Oh, I’ve seen that monster, the 30-meter class monster, in the river between Trillia and Fias.)
The sight of the familiar monster swimming leisurely through the vast lake makes me shudder.
It was [Abyss trout] level 80; at first glance, it appeared to be a large monster, but it was one of those salmon.
Even though it noticed us, it was swimming leisurely and passively. I’m not sure if it’s a passive monster or simply doesn’t want to harm the water dragon.
Wait, is the river and this lake even connected?
Thinking this, I listened carefully, and at the same time, as I heard a small sound echoing through the water that seemed to be the cry of something, the structure surrounding Trillia came into my mind. And it is much larger than I had anticipated.
(Wow…. on the surface, it appeared to be land, but underneath, it shows up to be a lake cave… don’t tell me that the entire field around Trillia happens to be floating land on top of a lake?) {tln1}
The shallow section, which appeared to be quite wide, is only for show.
The cave part is so large that I believe the majority of the land between the Oni Forest and the large river that separates it from Fias is probably the ceiling of the lakebed caverns.
My ears can’t capture the entire picture because it is leaned towards ‘wide’ than ‘deep’. That was the extent of the lake that surrounded Trillia.
“Huff…. this is worse than I thought, isn’t it?”
<Is it a jar of poison?>
<This is the Abyss……!>
<Is it really a lake?>
<I saw the name [Abyss].>
< I’m so scared I’m going to cry.>
<Abyss Trout, that’s too scary.>
“At first glance, it looks dangerous, but around 200 meters deep, the cliff wall ends and it seems there’s a open space with a lot of noise. In a way, it feels like the field around this territory is floating, covering a large lake like a lid?”
<That’s terrifying.>
<Too scary.>
<Can we go home now?>
<The shocking truth is now being revealed.
<What kind of structure is that?>
“I’ll explain it to you later. But it’s too big for even my ears to catch, so I won’t know everything.”
“Kyu! Kyurururu! Kyua!”
“Eh, what’s wrong?”
Suiryuu-chan pulled on the sleeve of my equipment as my viewers, and I was still stunned by the truth about the lake. Something was going on underwater, and she was telling me to look in the water.
I saw it right then and there.
Something was rising from the depths of the lake’s bottom, from beyond what my eyes could see. I dove underwater right away and saw the shadow of something so gigantic that the [Abyss Trout] seemed like a joke.
The massive body that was slowly but steadily rising is probably a water dragon. Sure enough, it seems my prediction was probably correct because all of the creatures and monsters vanished as if fleeing.
An enormous aquatic creature that appeared to be 300 meters long.
Seven pairs of huge eyes shone, beneath them lined huge fangs each much bigger than my body, which were neatly arranged in its gigantic mouth capable of swallowing an Abyss trout whole.
It was a lone water dragon boasting a size beyond imagination.
Did it move slowly so it would not cause a tsunami or whirlpool?
I stop Diving and bring my face to the surface as the water dragon slowly brings its head to the surface to avoid making as many waves as possible.
“Kyu…. kyuu!”
The little water dragon happily swam around and rubbed its head to the side of that huge water dragon.
Well, at least now I could say without a doubt that the child’s parent must be this gigantic water dragon.
“Huge…”
<Wow.>
<Oiii…>
<Are you kidding?>
<That’s too big…>
<Too friggin much, lol>
<What’s the difference in size between a parent and a child?>
<Is that little water dragon still a baby?>
<That’s why you can’t attack children.>
<It’s huge!>
<It’s got lots of eyes….>
“….grrr…”
The roar is small and gentle, yet it chills my spine.
The giant water dragon, which appeared to be the parent, looked at me for a moment with its seven pairs of eyes, then giggled and brought its face close to mine.
I wondered what it wanted to do, but I waited with resignation, convinced that if I resisted, I would die instantly… then, a snake-like tongue slithered out of its mouth opening and licked me all over. It was a tongue so big that it could easily entangle my entire body.
“Nyoou….. hey …… what are you… wait… it’s ticklish….”
After about a minute of just being licked around, the water dragon was satisfied and quietly dove back into the water and went straight back to the bottom of the lake.
“What was that ……?”
“Kyuru.”
<LOL>
<What was that, indeed? LOL>
<Like something amazing was about to happen, but nothing did.>
<Only getting licked all over>
<There was a small tsunami all around Sukuna.>
<No shit, it was enormous.>
<It was huge.>
< nothing starts in the grand scheme of things!>
<Water Dragon parent is going home!>
“I wonder if I got any items or something. …… Oh, I got more titles!”
When I opened my status, I saw a flashing message indicating a new title.
“What is it? ….<Friend of the Water Dragon>, inside the [Suiryuu Entei]{Water Dragon Bottom} all monsters will no longer attacks you unless you attacked it first. What is this? This lake has a name like that?”
<Must we find out like this?>
<I thought it was called Lake Trillia.>
<In short, it’s a passive buff of Suiryuu-chan?>
<It doesn’t make much difference, does it?>
<I can’t tell the difference between having it and not having it.>
“It doesn’t seem like it have any downside… well, it seems like the fight will still occur if I attacking first, but maybe it’s a strong buff if you use it as a mean to set up surprise attack advantage.”
<It’s quite shady effect when you put it like that.>
<Evil title lol>
<The first thing she thought is to use it for killing>
“Eh? Aren’t this normal? Anyway, let’s try to hit Abyss Trout later.”
As long as we are not hostile from our side, the other party will not be hostile either, which means that they will not attack us unless we attack them.
However, with my current level of [Diving] skill, I cannot dive to the depth where the Abyss trout are. It looks like it’s much deeper than 50 meters.
The monster has two HP gauges and does not appear to be vulnerable to a single surprise attack. It appears that we will only be able to fight it once we reach the abandoned city at the lake’s bottom.
For the time being, I will continue to dive for a while to improve my diving skill. It’s beautiful underwater, and I’d be happy if I could take a look at it as if it were an aquarium.
“Kyuru!”
<Aquarium at the end of the world, maybe?>
<My fear instinct screamed>
<There are other big ass fish besides that Abyss trout…>
<Just because she doesn’t get attacked!>
“ahahaha.”
Then for about two hours until sunset, I repeatedly dived and broadcasted the view of the lake bottom and also met a few of those giant water dragon children while working on raising my skill proficiency.
===*
The abandoned city at the bottom of the lake is a bit far from where Sukuna dived. It is a special dungeon, so it is quite far enough that you can only see it if you dive deep enough.
Incidentally, there are several water dragons in the entire area of the Water Dragon Abyss.
The deeper you dive, the stronger the monsters are. It is scary to be at the bottom of the pool where no light can reach, isn’t it?
Tl note:
Tln1: I hope you get me lol. It means that the underwater cave actually covers the whole area of Trillia.
Water Dragon Bottom, just think of it as Bikini Bottom. I can’t think of a more proper name.
