I got dragged to the nymph village and had to answer a lot of questions and also had to play a lot of games. I just wanted to sleep… They finally left me alone after 5 hours. I found a corner on the ceiling of the cave and created a big bubble there and curled up in my tails and fell asleep.


    I had a terrible nightmare. Luckily it was short, unfortunately, I woke up because I felt like I was suffocating. My try hard tail told me my altitude was different and I heard giggling. I uncurled and got a nymph butt in my face.


    Get out! I kicked all the nymphs out of my bubble and reformed it. Some got back in.


    “We want to play!” I checked how long I was asleep. I played with you 2 hours ago…


    “We want more!” I sighed, went water veil mode, used [Water Dragon Festival], and sent the 12 dragons out to follow some random leyline currents. Wait for 10 minutes and go catch them. But! Only come back to me after you caught all 13 of them!


    “Ooh! “ Don’t forget! Only after you caught all 13 understood?!


    “Only come back for more games after we caught 13, yes!” The nymphs went off to play their game after 10 minutes and I curled up again. I should get a good rest now.


    <hr>


    I woke up to a lot of noise. My bubble had a different altitude again. I uncurled and there were 3 nymphs in my bubble.


    “Help! One of your dragons is destroying our home!” Huh? It wouldn''t… I witnessed a large water snake rampaging and trying to escape the nymphs trying to pull it through the hole they made for me. A large part of its tail was already inside and was flailing around and throwing the nymphs off that were trying to pull it in and turn it into a paste.


    I should have known… As, much as I wanted to blame the nymphs this was also my fault. Wondering if I would ever get a good rest I went and assessed the situation. I wondered something. I shifted stance and used [High Voltage] hitting the snake''s tail and some nymphs. The nymphs grabbed their head and the snake made a weird sound and dashed off to come back later and try to get in via the hole. The nymphs that got zapped seemed to display a bit more order and organized the other nymphs to help defend. Does zapping them make them smarter? I looked at the nymph queen who was being quite useless and zapped her too. The queen got into action, she seemed to be giving orders. I reformed my bubble and went to sleep.


    <hr>


    I couldn''t sleep well so I woke up and everything seemed normal, the village was still here. The nymphs were cleaning up and had shoved the dead sea snake into a corner as a trophy. Some nymphs invaded my bubble again


    “That was a fun game!”


    “But that wasn''t a game! We made a mistake and mistook a sea snake for his game!” Some nymphs tried to convince the others that they might have made a mistake. There seems a big difference between those who got zapped and those who didn''t.


    “Oh, the queen wants to see you!” Before I could react, I got dragged to the queen''s place. The big bubble was still trapped there.


    “Ugh, my head hurts, I want to apologize for my behaviour, I get so embarrassed thinking back to it…” Uhh, it’s ok as long as you realize.


    “Anyways, thanks for playing with us and answering our questions. I will try to maintain a good relationship with the merfolk but if they destroy our home again, we’ll turn them all to paste!”


    “Yeah!!!” All the nymphs agreed. It seems that some things don''t change even after getting zapped. Right, so I can go over to the merfolk now without you guys throwing a tantrum?


    “We’ll try. Go before we change our minds! Shoo shoo!” Uh, ok, cya! I left the bubble with a water veil and headed toward the merfolk’s place. Some nymphs followed me. Ugh, don''t tell me they instantly changed their minds. I saw some mermen waving at me. The nymphs started their glare contest.


    I followed the mermen to their city. It looked similar to the nymph village but the top was blown off and most of the residences were changed for merfolk to live in. There was a big plaza in the middle. The king was chilling there enjoying a snack and surrounded by mermaids. He snapped his fingers and some mermen brought some weird device that produced a large bubble. They used some magic to keep it on the plaza. It seems they are used to inviting humans. I entered the bubble and the king got up. I looked around. Nice bubble magic.


    “We are accustomed to bringing humans here after they get shipwrecked or almost get drowned by those nymphs, we nurse them back to health and bring them to shore afterward." How nice of you, I just hope they aren''t taking advantage of you.


    “Oh, some try and we show them who’s boss!” He flexed his muscles. “I see you’re not a paste, you must be tired.” You have no idea! I told them about the game that ended up in a battle against a water snake.


    “Incredible, maybe we should give Billy more credit… Anyways, Lashi, show him his room. He spent a whole day with the nymphs he needs all the rest he can get!” The mermaid was looking at me with pity in her eyes and led me to a place where I could finally rest. Thanks. It was early in the morning but I still went to sleep.


    Finally, some good rest.


    <hr>


    I woke up on day 275 and felt quite refreshed. I got out of the small bubble that was in my room and swam to the big bubble on the plaza. There seemed to be a commotion. A merman was arguing with the merman king.


    “Brother! I told you to stop bringing humans here! They’re a bad influence!”


    “And I told you that this is what we do we can’t just stop because of your personal prejudice!” I sat down and started to snack while listening to the argument.


    The newcomer noticed me and pointed his fishfinger at me. “Hey! What the fuck is that thing doing here!” Sup! I’m not a thing, I’m Agnis.


    “How long have you been here?!”  I’ve always been here.


    “Are you messing with me?!” I certainly am! The aggressive merman and his 2 lackeys hopped toward me and grabbed me by my collar and lifted me up.


    “You humans disgust me!” Yeah, humans suck.


    “I think he''s pulling your tail, Gibo!” Oh, pulling your tail, I like that one can I use that too?


    “Gibo! Are you out of your mind?! That is our guest!” Shidar grabbed his spear.


    “And I told you that I don''t consider humans as our guests!” Gibo snapped back.


    “Are those things in your head decorations? Can’t you see that’s not a human?!” Shidar pointed at my tails.


    “So, what he has some accessories on him? That won''t fool me!”


    “Ugh, Lashi, write down that we have to have a discussion about addressing the efficiency of our education system…” Shidar said while shaking his head.


    “Yessir!”


    So, by not looking like a human, I’m not fooling you? So, what will fool you then?


    “Anything.” I looked at the king who seemed to have blurted something out but pretended to have said nothing. Right, I appreciate that you care about your race but I’m here as a guest not execute a devious plot or whatever you think I’m doing here.


    “So, you are here for a devious plot! I knew it!” Hey, king, I thought Billy was the dumbest merman here.


    “How dare you compare me to that dunce!” Gibo tried to punch me but it had a lot of force behind it. It created an air pressure wave that blew me to the side. I call this [Auto-Dodge]. The only advantage I could find in being so light. I still have to make sure I don''t get blown back though, It’s best if I get blown to the side. I kept [Auto-dodging] his blows.


    “Are you making fun of me?!” Oh no, you''re perfectly capable of doing that by yourself.


    “I’m gonna kill you!” Good luck achieving that 44 times.


    “Aaagh!” Water came into the bubble and filled it up to 5 meters. I can walk on water so that''s not an issue.


    “Gibo stop this madness!” Don’t worry King I came down here to practice my water techniques and I guess I finally can. I took my stance to start using [Water Dragon dance] Gibo jumped out of the water and aimed a spear at me. I started the movements and sent 2 dragons at him.


    “Guooh!” This guy is making some cartoon noises. I kept sending the dragons after him and he had a bad time dodging most of them. He decided to dive under and I [Surface Flipped] him.


    “Whoa?!” And hit him with more dragons. I was a bit disappointed, he wasn''t really impressive. Whenever he dove under I [Surface flipped] him back up and hit him with the dragons. Maybe I should stop abusing [Surface Flip] but it excels in moments like these. He sent a [Water blast] at me and I [Surface Flipped] myself. I covered myself in the water veil and used [Waterfall].


    Apparently, I’m almost as fast as a merman underwater while using this. Whenever I made evasive maneuvers, I condensed the water I displaced and formed them into [Water blades]. I managed to [Blindside] him underwater and used whatever I saw the bulky merman use 2 days ago. I named it [Vacuum Punch]. This punch did a lot of damage and it stunned him. Causing him to sink. My reflex was to use [Drowning Pulse] now but I can''t drown a merman. I rammed into him using [Waterfall] and brought him close to the surface and shifted to [Dragon] and launched him into the air. He flew through the bubble into the ocean.


    Woops. He got knocked out by [Dragon] though. I keep forgetting how strong this thing is. He’s not dead, right?


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    Shidar approached me and looked at the knocked out Gibo. “You defeated a merman in the water?” I don''t feel like it’s an achievement though… He wasn''t that strong. The king snapped his fingers and pointed to Gibo. 5 mermen came and escorted his lackeys and the unconscious Gibo away.


    “How about we have a spar? You probably need to fight something or someone you can learn from. Gibo might be an idiot but he is part of the elite as much as I’d hate to admit." Ooh, I get to beat up a king! That certainly is something on my bucket list!


    “Always so troublesome your race.” Oh, you know more than 9t?


    “I met one when I was young. She fell into the ocean after a fight with a goddess or something. We spent some time together but she had to leave because the goddess was as she said ‘A massive bitch’ and went back up. I have never heard of her afterward.” Did you catch her name? Wait you said she referred to the goddess as a massive bitch? I grabbed my tail.


    “My friend was called Norya.” Hmm, doesn''t ring a bell, do you remember her last name?


    “Mikazuki, Norya Mikazuki.” I dropped my tail. Family of Viridian and Hisui? Hisui’s mother? Not Viridian’s sister, her name was uhh Neia I think, maybe Hisui has a sister? How long ago was that?


    “Uhh like 900ish years ago.” I couldn''t figure out how they were related. But there is no mistake, a 9t with the last name of Mikazuki is a family member of Viridian and Hisui. So Hisui’s relative was fighting that bitch goddess too… Wait! Don''t tell me her tails are hanging in that trophy room!


    Shidar noticed that I was deep in thought. “Is something wrong?” Uh, I know 2 9t named Hisui Mikazuki and Viridian Mikazuki, they might be related but I don''t know where they are… The king rummaged and gave me something.


    “If you ever meet Norya or her family members, can you give them this? She left it behind. It’s a tail ring.” A tail ring? Never heard about anything like that.


    “I don''t know the specifics but she said something about it greatly increasing the power of her 3rd tail.” I inspected it and it said 3 in Hourai. Interesting, thanks, I will pass it on.


    “Also, if you meet Norya, can you say that Shidar is waiting for her?” Ooh, you got the hots for her! I will.


    “Thank you, now prepare for battle!” Shidar readied his spear and the big bubble filled halfway with water. “I won’t hold back!”


    He thrust his spear several times and they shot water jets at me; he dove down afterwards. I evaded them and used [Surface Flip]. He got flipped out of the water near to me and aimed his spear at me. It seemed he anticipated that. I [Surface flipped] myself and instantly used [Waterfall] and dashed out of the water. The king got knocked away but recovered and sent more waterjets at me from his spear and dove down. I continued the [Waterfall] and dove down too. I intentionally got close to him so that I could avoid his attacks and counter with [Water blades]. He tried to keep a certain distance from me. He created a current that pulled me under.


    I shifted to [Tempest step] and used a tornado kick which created a whirlpool that shot out [water blades] and [wind blades]. I kept ascending with [Tempest step] and all my evades sent out wind and water blades. King found this quite annoying so he again kept his distance. He decided to stay below me because I could only ascend with [Tempest step], I shifted to [Water Dragon Dance] and rode a dragon downward, and sent more at him. He sent some fast-moving air bullets at me which I caught by creating a large bubble around me. I made the air in the bubble swirl and pushed the air out of the bubble and sent pockets of air back at him. He responded by sending a large [water blade] at me to cut my bubble.


    [Waterfall] would be able to deal with this so I dashed straight through it and approached him. He readied his spear to impale me but I froze my [Waterfall] and turned more into an [Ice comet] and knocked him out of the water. I shifted my stance and used [Ice Dragon dance] and sent the dragons after him. I had some room for other movements so I used [Waterfall] and dashed over the ice dragons at him. He sent more water jets at me by thrusting his spear. I turned the ice dragons into water and submerged into the water dragons and kept using [Waterfall] inside it.


    Both the head of the dragon and my [Waterfall] hit him at the same time. He got launched out of the big bubble, into the ocean. He gathered a large mass and sent an enormous [Water blast] at me. I stopped using [Waterfall] and started spinning around my axis and turning the water dragons into ice [Dragon] and made the [Dragon] coil around me to block the big [Water blast]. The ice [Dragon] flew at Shidar who was now just using the ocean as his arena. I ran up the [Dragon] with [Waterfall] and left the bubble to go into the ocean. The [Dragon] locked on to the king. If I kept [Dragon] up for a bit longer it would become somewhat sentient and I could will it to do what I want and use other techniques. Shidar kept throwing strong attacks at me but my ice [Dragon] didn''t care.


    It used ice [Dragonbreath] and it almost caught the merman king. Shidar got a speed boost and came at me with his spear. I got [Dragon] to go on autopilot before I blocked the spear dash with my multi-layered barrier. He broke through it and 1 [Frozen skin] layer. I grabbed his spear with my right hand and made some movements with my right arm and used [Boil]. He backed off but he was too focused on me to notice that the [Dragon] turned around and was coming for him. I wanted to pincer him with [Water blade] but he used [Sink] on me. It wasn''t very effective but it threw off my aim.


    [Ice dragon festival] failed to catch him as he was quite agile. He deliberately took some attacks from the [Ice dragon festival] to avoid getting hit by [Dragon]. I think that is a good assessment but annoying for me. He probably knows that it''s over for him if he gets hit by that [Dragon].


    I realized that I don''t have many cc skills underwater. I kept trying to hit him while coming up with a new skill. It took some trial and error but I succeeded in creating a spiky ball of ice which I will call [Ice mine], the small dragons came and picked up all the [Ice Mines] I made and started spreading them around. He probably didn''t need to know what it would do if he got hit by that. I kept churning out dragons. This part of the ocean was now full of ice dragons and ice mines and one huge ice [Dragon].


    The merman king who was at first trying to keep his distance tried to close in. I refreshed the air in my veil and used [Waterfall]. He seemed to be surprised that I would come to him. He spun around with his spear and made a current swirl around him. Unfortunately for him, I can climb a waterfall with this skill so he would need something stronger! I crashed into him but he took a [Frozen skin] stack off me with a counter. He created [Ice shackles] on my limbs that caused me to [Sink].


    His counter must have been a setup for that. I couldn''t use my limbs that well but he forgot something. [Dragon] reacted to my will. It drove him off before he could follow up and [Dragon] picked me up. I broke out of the shackles and thought of a new plan. It was time for a [Vacuum Punch]!


    [Tempest step] made me ascend while creating air pockets that swirled around me. [Waterfall] made me descend after I ascending enough and the air turned into water swirling around me. I fired up my [Tail dynamo] and I sped up as my [Waterfall] became electrified with red lightning. The merman king held the spear in front of him and spun it and 12 layers of water barriers appeared before him. He then started up a long cast and something akin to a turtle made out of water appeared around him.


    I ripped through all the barriers but the water turtle was blocking me. [Vacuum Punch] debutted and shattered the turtle defensive skill and stunned Shidar. I used [Waterspout] which would just send a large mass of water upwards when underwater but that pushed him into [Dragon]. The impact caused the king to freeze over and the shockwave sent all the ice mines off freezing the whole area we were fighting at. I changed stance and used [Boil] to melt all the ice.


    It took 3 minutes before Shidar was free. I dragged him back to the village because our fight brought us almost 600m away from the village. We got back into the bubble which was drained of its water.


    “Oof, that was brutal, your fighting style is completely different from Norya''s.” How did she fight?


    “She boiled everything with blue fire… I didn''t know that fire worked underwater…” Hmm yeah, that’s also an option. 5 mermaids tended to him and he sent 1 to tend to me but I took no damage.


    “You don''t seem to need much practice in underwater combat though, you seem to be doing fine." I’m still not satisfied; do you mind if I stay here for longer and continue sparring with you and your strong fighters?


    “I don''t mind they might be able to learn something from you. I have never seen a two-footer fight like that.” I’m trying my best to not be shit.


    <hr>


    I stayed 3 weeks fighting against merfolk. I had a 40%-win rate against the king. As long as he could prevent me from finishing [Dragon] to the point it becomes automated he had a big chance of winning. Whenever I could get ice [Dragon] off completely he would always lose sooner or later. I had also developed another technique that he had to make sure I didn''t complete and that was [Ocean’s wrath].


    It made various currents swirl around me and they absorbed attacks to make the currents stronger. It''s the type of technique that the more you hit into it the stronger it gets and the more you will get screwed over by, if you let me complete it. It also pushed opponents away from me in pulses so the only method of hitting me, physical attacks, were quite hard to land. I also had [Frozen skin], [Ocean''s Wrath] would break if I took too much damage. Which I hardly do. When all the currents were powered up enough, they can be sent them out in a force that makes each current rival [Dragon]. I can also combine them into one big nuke but I’m not here to kill the king.


    Just one of the many currents would knock him out. He told me that I was a monster for coming up with a skill like that. He asked me how he could counter it and well the answer was, to make sure I can’t start it, to make sure I don''t finish it, or don’t attack me and ignore me when I’m using it. I can still send some currents out to attack so ignoring me might not be the best idea, especially not in a 1v1. I had a 90%-win rate against the other mermen. And well a 20%-win rate against the mermaids because they would just abuse charm magic and destroy me.


    I almost drowned multiple times in the first week because I was too busy attacking and defending to refresh my air but I quickly got used to doing that while doing a million other things. Also! I got my 9th tail! It was in my last battle against the king. My ears suddenly turned blue and I created a magic shockwave that was completely unintended.


    I was sitting in a bubble brushing my 9th tail and looking into an ice mirror at my blue ears. The nymph queen came to visit because she somehow heard that I got my 9th tail. There was some noise but she got let into the merfolk village.


    “Ohh, I like what they did to our old village!” This is the first thing you say after they let you in? Are you looking for a fight or something?


    “No, I came to congratulate you for becoming a nine-tailed spirit fox!” I always was one… you know what? Never mind, thank you!


    She leaned over. “So, I heard you kicked their asses, any tips?” Use your brain.


    “Ooh, where can I get that weapon?” I’m not sure but it seems the effects of that zap have subsided although she does still seem smarter than before. “I also heard that you were making another ‘pain in the ass’ skill. Shubo told me about the other 2, [Sea snake] and [Ocean] was it?”


    “My name is Shidar and it was [Dragon] and [Ocean’s Wrath]. So, what''s this new skill of yours going to do? Make it so the opponent has 0 chance of winning?” Uhh, kinda, I was planning to make something like this before but I couldn''t, now that I have my 9th tail I can but it''s extremely heavy on the execution so I might not be able to come even close to using it yet, I also need to run a lot of simulations for it. But it will at least have orcas in it! They saved my life!


    The nymph queen got uncomfortably close. “How about me? Am I in it?” Why would I do that? You almost killed me multiple times!


    “Not on purpose!” It would''ve actually been better for me if it was on purpose!


    Shidar placed himself between the nymph queen and me to make her back off. “Anyways, I’m happy I don’t have to test your new skill out, I do have a 60%-win rate against you but I surely had to work hard for them and those fights weren''t very pleasant to me, I always felt like I was boxed in. I would be happy to know that I will never have to fight you again.” At least you have enough experience to fight a real dragon now.


    “That [Dragon] skill of you is insane… It might indeed be similar to fighting the real deal, I hope I will ever find out." Let''s see, day 296, at this rate I will finish the main elements in no time just wind and lightning left.


    “Hmm, I don’t know anything about a place that has a lot of lightning but I do know there is a certain part of the ocean that''s constantly stormy and is called Hurricane Path. It’s a good thing you mastered water because you would get thrown into the ocean and wild currents if you get picked up by hurricanes". Are there any strong creatures there or people to help me train there?


    “No clue, I’ve never been there but we teach our fellow merfolk to stay away from it because it doesn''t matter how good you can swim if a hurricane plucks you up and sends you thousands of meters into the sky.” Fair point. And thanks!


    “Be careful! I don’t know if you have other friends but don''t disappear and make them wait over 900 years to meet you again." Thanks, I will do my best! I said goodbye to the nymph queen who didn''t understand that I probably wasn''t coming back and to the merfolk who had been very helpful. I swam off alone, into the cold dark ocean.