I spent 2 days familiarizing myself with the city. It was day 271 and I was ready to master my water skills. I couldn''t just jump in the ocean as I wanted to though. There was nothing interesting directly near the shore. I would need someone to take me on a boat and bring me to a place that''s quite interesting underwater, preferably with strong monsters. In those 2 days, I also mixed the stoneroot powder and now have a mixture that can petrify opponents. The hardest part is to remember that I have stoneroot.


    Simulations were run on how to create better and stronger bubbles while being underwater. I would also need a bit of wind Dragonvein to fill the bubbles with air. This would never work with magic but since I can change the energy into whatever element. I can theoretically stay underwater indefinitely. I can also pull air out of my dimensional pocket, which is the only thing I unintentionally store. I was wondering if I should take a very long break as I was a bit tired. I would be spending a lot of time underwater and it will be rough.


    Safety goes first so I relaxed and tried out multiple specialties of seafood cuisine in Gavin.


    Day 281, I wanted to start my training yesterday but I got lazy and I ended up just practicing some wind Dragonvein. I started to develop the habit of practicing at least one or two elements early in the morning.


    I had gathered some tips for underwater combat. Firstly, don''t underestimate the water pressure, besides that, it gets very cold and dark down there. Things I can deal with. Another tip was to make sure I don’t ascend too fast else I will get decompression sickness or the bends. A small test revealed that I’m immune to that, so that fine. The rest was just paying attention to the air supply and dangerous creatures, I think.


    I found a fishing boat that would be going quite far out. They warned me about the dangers of the ocean. I know it’s dangerous but I’m sure I''m still underestimating it. If I get knocked out underwater, the pressure will keep killing me until I run out of lives… I need to avoid passing out at all costs. I could have my tails coil around me if that happens but that will only protect me temporarily. I thought of the people that keep telling me to be careful, I’m so sorry but this is important! I paid the fishermen and got on their boat. The weather was clear and there was a nice breeze, perfect for diving! Even though the weather doesn''t matter when I’m underwater.


    “It''s not too late to reconsider, the ocean is brutal even with calm weather like this.” Thank you for the warning but I have to do this.


    “Here, take it for good luck.” The old man gave me a small bell made out of a shell. “May Ardella keep you safe.” The shell bell had a small symbol on it. Ardella?


    “Sarian goddess of the ocean and water.” Ah right, thanks. I jumped in the water and got accustomed to moving in the water with Dragonvein. It seemed like these movements were made for moving through the water. I helped the fishermen a bit with catching fish and almost drowned 4 times at the start but slowly and surely, I got the hang of it.


    “We caught enough fish, are you sure you want to stay behind?” The old man asked, making sure that I wanted to stay behind. Yes, thank you!


    “Are you 100% sure?” Yes!


    “May Ardella guide you!” The fishermen returned to shore. They kept looking back with uncomfortable looks on their faces.


    I put what I learned during the fishing into practice and dove down. I popped out all my tails and made a thin veil of air around me that would protect me from the pressure. I stayed below the surface for 10 minutes to make my tails absorb enough seawater. Using tails is ''easy mode'' but ''hard mode'' will cause ''dead mode'' so I will keep using my tails until I’m completely confident. I started to sink and used 3 of my tails as propellers, and 2 more as fins the other 3 were in charge of keeping the air veil in check, scanning the area for threats, and possibly automating some Dragonvein techniques when I''m too occupied with something like fleeing from sea monsters or fighting monsters. If I make a mistake I will die. I wasn''t descending as fast as I hoped. It seems my body isn''t made for diving. I created a water veil around the air veil and it weighed me down enough to descend faster. My free 3 tails were recording and processing everything I do and will remember the things that work and reject what doesn''t.


    One of the biggest reasons the tailed beasts are so strong is because our tails can do all this stuff. It doesn''t seem to help keep us alive most of the time though.


    I encountered a pod of orcas. They seemed to be curious about what I was doing down here. I inhaled some air which had been pulled from my dimensional pocket and went to play with the orcas. They were way faster than me. I studied how they moved through the water and mimicked them. After 15 minutes they all started to surface to breathe. I struggled to get myself to ascend. The orcas were kind and waited for me. I took a deep breath and dove down again with the orcas. 3 hours were spent swimming and learning from them. I didn''t realize how often they needed to go up and breathe. I always thought they could stay under for half an hour or an hour but they resurfaced 4 to 5 times per hour.


    The orcas headed toward the shore and I had to say goodbye to them. I took some fish I had stored in my dimensional pocket, gave them some, and dove to about 3 km down. Everything was going good so far but I was beginning to tire. I shifted my stance and used wind Dragonvein to create a bubble of air in which I could rest. It needed a thick heavy water veil around to make sure I wouldn''t float up.


    I never knew that staying underwater was such a pain in the ass. I did a slightly risky test to see how thin I could make it before it was about to fail. I figured out what this was and made sure to always have at least twice the thickness of that. I was chilling in my bubble when I noticed that I was moving. It took a while but my tails picked up that I got caught in an ocean current. It slowly sped up and brought me deeper and deeper. I monitored the bubble but it was keeping up with the increasing pressure, my tails were doing a great job. The leyline energy was looping perfectly and keeping its shape. It became darker and darker and I started seeing strange creatures.


    Are these monsters or animals? I can''t tell. I wonder how they taste. I surely hope they taste better than they are handsome because these things are ugly! How would I catch these things from my bubble though? My go-to method is to zap them. Wouldn’t I zap myself too? What if I turn the water veil into pure water? That doesn''t conduct lightning, as long as I can send it outside the bubble, I’ll be fine.


    My hard-working tails started to work out how to do this. If this was magic it would be simple, leyline energy works a bit differently. I tried a couple of things and created small sparks to test out. I need movements that I can’t make in this bubble. I went back to the veil around me so I could move freely around. I created a [Pure Water Veil] and zapped the ugly fish, collected them, reformed my bubble and started snacking on them.


    Yuck this one tastes as bad as it''s ugly! I burnt my first catch to ash. The next 2 didn''t taste bad but not great either. The last ugly fish though… It had soft flesh and tasted very good. I decided to farm these ugly fish.


    I went a bit overboard and had a great catch. My tails notified me that the currents had pulled me to a depth of 4732m. I saw a lot of funny and ugly creatures but even so, it was quite empty. It was full of life closer to the surface. It felt a bit lonely down here and most of the ugly fish were bad company. There was an ugly shark with a pointy nose that wanted to pop my bubble. I have never eaten a shark but if this guy keeps this up, he will be the first one!


    He gave up and left. I had to get back in my veil and zap him to scare him off. Although I have the feeling that was not the reason he left. I looked around because I feel like this was one of those moments where something big and scary scared him off and not me. Compared to what lives down here, I''m not that scary. An enormous eel-like fish approached. It looked normal, maybe even a bit cute. Until it electrified the area with red lightning and attacked me.


    I was safe because of my [Pure water veil] but it turned a good chunk into steam. I don''t think I can fight this so I put everything into getting away from this monster. It created downward currents to make my life hard and kept assaulting me with red lightning. It killed and snacked on the ugly fish that got hit. Did I attract its attention by throwing lightning attacks around? Something tells me that lightning does nothing against this thing. I turned around and used [Lightning dragon dance]. This lightning eel didn''t care. He got hit by everything and discharged orange lightning. I think I made him stronger… His attacks were starting to punch through my [pure water veil]. I tried to control my body through all the zaps and numbness. A [Tempest Step] should be able to send me up.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    The eel tried to eat me but I turned a [Wind Dragon Dance] dragon into ice for him to chomp on. Its mouth froze and it started to rampage and shot orange [lightning orbs] at me that kept following me while spamming [Discharges]. I realized a problem. As long as I was in this bubble, I was relatively safe from the lightning attacks but I would be slow.


    The veil was used to attack and allowed me to move freely so its defensive capabilities were poor. I had to switch back to the bubble to make sure I stayed alive. But I could only get away from him if I ditched the bubble. All this lightning was heating up the ocean water… I''m toast if I take a direct hit of that, quite literally… I gambled and ditched the bubble and swam away at full speed. I left it far behind but it still managed to zap me. I felt my consciousness slipping and everything went black.


    I woke up coughing on an empty beach and had to move seawater out of my lungs which was an unpleasant, salty and painful experience. I had no energy left.


    I laid on my back in the surf. There was sand in my pants again… I did a self-diagnosis. Still, 44 lives left. How the fuck did I not die there? I still had the 3 tails out that I had tasked to make sure I didn''t die. The beach seemed empty. It was also 2:23 in the morning. Time to find out what my tails were up to.


    After I lost consciousness all my tails disappeared besides these 3. The veil around me dropped briefly but my tails reactivated it shortly after. After that, they propelled me to a current that would bring me to shore. But since I didn''t pay attention to the currents this didn''t go well. My orca friends appeared and carried me to shore. I got so lucky this time. I dragged myself away from the water and rested near a dune. I hid my tails and fell asleep.


    <hr>


    Someone is noisy... I woke up to the sound of noisy kids. My mood was terrible. My head and chest hurt, it was noisy and there was sand everywhere! I tried getting the sand out of my ears. I need a bath and more sleep. I tried to get up but I was still feeling weak. Maybe I need to rest more, but this is not a great spot.


    "Hey, Mom! I found a homeless person!" Hey come on kid I’m not homeless, well technically I am but that''s all I have in common with homeless people! I didn''t have the energy to voice my opinion to this kid though.


    "That''s not a homeless person, he got stranded." At least this woman understands.


    "Do you think he''s a sea monster? Or the god of the sea?" Hey come on kid you''re giving me too much credit.


    "Maybe he is, he looks tired, go get Dad and tell him we''re bringing him home."


    "Yay, we''re having a sea monster over as a guest! Daaaad!"


    "Hey, are you alright, we will help you out in a bit, hang on, ok?" And at that moment I lost consciousness again.


    <hr>


    More noise. My chest didn''t hurt anymore and I had fresh clothes on. These weren''t mine. Well, this is awkward. Also, no sand, except for… I got more sand out of my ears. I got up and sat back down. I didn''t have as much energy as I expected and my hands were shaking a bit. Did getting zapped so badly affect my nervous system? I circulated nature energy and felt better after 15 minutes. I got up and opened the door a bit and took a look through the opening.


    2 kids were playing and throwing wind magic around. The mother was nowhere to be seen. My Elgards eyes revealed that she was cooking in the kitchen. The father was reading and cancelling some magic skills, the kids were throwing around here and there, to make sure they didn''t bring the house down. What he did was quite impressive.


    “Oh, seems you’re awake, no need to be shy, you can come on in.” This father was something else, he never looked up from his book, he was still cancelling the magic of these kids and he noticed that I was spying on them. Granted I didn''t put any effort into spying. Uh, thank you for helping me and providing me with a new set of clothes.


    “Oh, don’t worry about it, we have to look out for each other.”


    One of the kids approached me. He seemed to be about 9 years old. “Hey, mister! Are you a sea monster?!” Uhm, no? Why would I be a sea monster?


    “Then, then are you a sea god?!” His sister seemed to be younger. I’m sorry, I’m not that interesting.


    “But you must be! The Gcehaio Ocean is super-duper dangerous, especially these parts! So, if you stranded alive it must mean you’re a god or a sea monster!” I looked at their father.


    "He could also be very lucky; a sea monster would die if he stayed out of the water for this long." The father never looked up from his book. Is this Greg''s future?


    "So, he''s a sea god then!" A sea god wouldn''t drown and almost die… I would make for a shitty sea god…


    "That''s exactly what a sea god would say! He needs to stay undercover so he can study the humans!" The boy seemed proud of his conclusion.


    "All right Jeremy, I think you''ve watched too much tv!" The father closed his book and got up.


    "The name is Richard, this is my son Jeremy and my daughter Lisa, my wife''s name is Yra." Nice to meet you, I''m Agnis.


    "Nice to meet you Agnis, may I ask what happened?" Uhm well, I went to practice underwater combat and it went well until a giant lightning eel zapped me.


    "Hmm, that’s a strange and interesting story, why would you do such a thing though, there is a school here that teaches underwater combat." Uhh, I''m not from here and not a fan of schools


    "Yeah! Schools suck!" Jeremy gave a thumbs down.


    "Boo to school!" The kids started making noise again.


    "Dinner is ready! Richard, can you get the kids to the table?"


    "Hey kids, the first one to be seated on the table can sit next to the sea monster!" I''ve never seen kids move this fast in an orderly fashion.


    "I was first!"


    "No, I was first!" Looked like both of you were tied.


    "Hmm, you think so too, eh? Well, then both can sit next to the sea monster!" Richard said with a warm smile.


    "Yaay!"


    "Dad, you''re the best!" I got surrounded by giggling kids.


    "Here is some soup to warm you up." Yra put plates on the table. Everyone got a huge bowl of soup.


    "But mom, I hate soup!" Lisa said while sticking out her tongue in disgust.


    "Come on Lisa, look at the sea monster, he''s not complaining about soup." I was trying my best to stay mannered, I agree with Lisa, soup sucks… I don''t feel comfortable also extracting food from you, you already saved me, cleaned me up, and let me rest.


    Yra sat down. "Don''t be like that! We’re not losing a lot by making an extra bowl. Eat up!"


    Lisa noticed that I was trying to avoid eating the soup. "Hey mom, maybe sea monsters don''t eat soup!"


    "But Lisa, isn''t the ocean kind of like a big soup? If he eats something he''s eating soup."


    The father lost his composure, laughed and spat out some soup. "Dear son of mine, the ocean is not a soup."


    Lisa lifted her spoon and dropped the soup in her bowl. "But it''s a liquid and has ingredients, like this here, isn''t that a soup?"


    Richard shook his head. "But mom''s soup is hot, the ocean is cold."


    But once it cools off it''s still soup, right? Lisa looked at me happily and the father facepalmed. We continued the soup debate till my soup got cold and I faked being tired. I never got to eat the soup. Mission successful!


    <hr>


    I woke up the next morning. Everyone was still sleeping. I got my clothes, which were clean but more importantly, sand-less, and put them on. I took the ugly tasty fish out of my dimensional pocket and cooked a delicious ugly fish menu. I covered it up and left a note saying: ''This is real sea monster food and thanks for the hospitality''. And left 10 silver behind.


    The port was my next destination and I tried to find another boat after arriving.


    “Oh, it’s you again, you made it back safely.” Uhm well about that. I briefly told the old man what had happened without going into much detail about how I survived.


    “Hm, I’m surprised you survived that, it seems the good luck charm worked.” He looked at the shell bell around my wrist.


    “So, what you’re going back to get your ass kicked again?” Well, I know better now to attract the attention of that lightning eel.


    “Just so you know there are a lot of sea creatures that are as strong or stronger than that eel, do you still want to go there? It feels very uncomfortable leaving someone behind in the ocean knowing that might be the last time someone sees them alive.” I’m sorry, I will be more careful, can you bring me to the ocean again?


    “Only if you come back alive, it feels refreshing to see youngsters being interested in the ocean but that’s useless if you don''t make it out alive.” I will fight to stay alive, even if I have to boil the ocean to get out alive.


    “That’s more like it! We’re heading to a different part today, it has a beautiful coral reef and beautiful fish, it only gets as deep as 2500 meters so there shouldn''t be many strange creatures there, that is strange by the ocean''s standards.” Yeah, there are some wacky creatures down there, have you ever tried these? I tossed a delicious ugly fish at the old man.


    “This thing looks hideous, what is it?” I have no clue but it tastes great, you should try it. The old man put the tasty ugly fish in his magically cooled box.


    “I will try it for dinner. The rest of the crew should arrive in 10 minutes, get ready.” The rest of the fishermen crew arrived and they were happy to see me alive and got a conflicted feeling when I told them I would be going back to the ocean. I told them about the wacky and ugly fish I found down there. The old man showed the ugly fish I gave him to the others. They took off a chunk, fried it with fire magic, and tasted it.


    “Holy shit this thing tastes amazing!” They asked me where I found it but they got disappointed when I told them. These fish were far out of reach for them. I told them I will get more for them if I could get to it. More complicated expressions. We arrived at the coral reef 2 hours after departure and I helped them again with fishing. They stayed on their boat while I dove down. I got some fish for them that was normally hard for them to catch as well as some strange-looking squids and crustaceans. They got more than they set out to get and they had to stop because their boat was getting too heavy. They offered to throw some fish overboard to bring me back with them but I declined.


    The old man waved. “Make sure you make it back alive so we can share the profits!” Eh, that’s not needed but thank you!


    “Too bad, we’ll make sure you get your share!” The fishermen waved and went back to shore.