Chapter 198: 134. The Crown of the Destruction God
“This waterway probably leads to the underground sewer of Nali Lake. We’ll enter together after Jasmine returns from exploring.”
Fisher, who had finished reading the clues on the stone wall, walked over to the water pool in the cave and said this to Anna beside him.
Jasmine had already gone down to scout the situation first to avoid any unexpected dangers below.
Anna’s expression was fine, but Xiatu looked a bit pale as she stared into the bottomless water pool. The wet horses were trembling, clearly terrified of the water.
“Uh, how about you all go down, and I won’t follow?”
Fisher glanced at her, then raised his hand to point at the dark cave above. The space above was wide, and as Xiatu spoke, her words echoed repeatedly, resounding in the area.
“There’s no way up, only this underground river right in front of us. Plus, staying here might attract that ghostly figure that came before.”
“Huh?!”
As soon as Xiatu heard that the ghost might come looking for her, her attitude changed immediately, insisting that Fisher and the others wouldn’t leave her behind.
“I’d better follow you into the water. I’m so cute; if a ghost grabs me, there’s no good outcome, boo hoo.”
Anna looked speechlessly at the shameless centaur who called herself cute. Her clothing was still somewhat damp but didn’t feel as cold as before. She recalled the general location before they entered the cave and then spoke to Fisher.
“We’re still quite far from Nali Lake. Even if we swim through the underground river, neither I nor Xiatu can hold our breath for that long.”
She knew Fisher and Jasmine could breathe underwater; although she didn’t know how this human managed it, perhaps it was due to different physiques? Or maybe he had some relic?
“Yeah, there’s a good chance we might gloriously sacrifice ourselves in the water before reaching Nali Lake.”
“I’ll carve a spell for you that ensures you can breathe smoothly in the water during this time.”
When Fisher suggested going through the underground river, he had actually thought of using magic to help them breathe underwater. A few years ago, at the Magic Association exhibition in the Northern Region of Saint Nali, Fisher had seen a magic designed to help fishermen breathe temporarily underwater.
He glanced at it back then and still vaguely remembered how to inscribe it now, making it just right for use.
“Come over; this magic needs to be placed on your bodies, preferably as close to your neck as possible.”
He lowered his head, bit his finger to draw blood, and gestured for Anna to come over. Her traditional Nali clothing became almost transparent upon getting wet, and from this angle, one could see her curves and that hint of white lingerie.
Fisher didn’t look longer than necessary, and Anna didn’t mind at all. She simply sat down in front of Fisher, allowing him to inscribe the rune on her back.
“The rune will sting slightly when carved into your skin. Please bear with it.”
“Mm.”
Her response was calm, and as Fisher’s magical circuit glowed, his fingers touched the spot on Anna’s skin, which immediately turned hot. It wasn’t painful per se, more like the sensation of a needle gently pricking the skin.
“Zii.”
Xiatu watched with a frown as the magic, ringed with “Air,” was inscribed onto Anna’s skin. She guessed it must hurt quite a bit, but Anna’s expression remained incredibly calm, as if she felt nothing at all.
While Xiatu was observing Anna, her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a tiny red mole on Anna’s nearly transparent chest, which highlighted her allure even more.
The centaur Xiatu, utterly defeated once again.
Sure enough, in the face of sensuality, her cuteness held no advantage whatsoever.
“Alright, Xiatu, it’s your turn now.”
Ignoring Xiatu’s somewhat resentful eyes, which were not even looking at him, Fisher focused on the carving of the magical rune in his hand. Fortunately, his memory was quite good; despite having seen the magic only once a few years ago, he was able to engrave it successfully in one go.
On Anna’s back, a bright white glowing rune flickered with the aura of “Air.” When Xiatu came over, Fisher repeated the process on her back.
While he was engraving the spell, Jasmine slowly floated to the surface of the nearby pool. She pointed excitedly at the bottom of the pool and told Fisher and the others.
“There’s indeed a passage leading to the lake below. It should only take about ten minutes to swim there, and there are many things left behind by the senior there for you to see!”
With the swimming speed of whale folk, that ten-minute journey should not be short.
“That’s enough time; this magic will last for over an hour.”
As he waited for the magic on Xiatu’s back to finish, Fisher snapped his fingers, and the magical rune suddenly lit up, absorbing the surrounding air like a vortex, forming an unclear shield over their heads.
This shield could continuously draw in the surrounding air, maintaining its effect even underwater. It was the first-place design from the previous World Magical Association’s newly emerging magic design competition.
Curiously, Anna reached out to poke the air shield on her face, only to find it extremely hard and impossible to stick her hand in. Xiatu then directly plunged her head into the water, observing the situation at the bottom through the transparent shield.
“Wow, we can really breathe underwater. Magic is amazing.”
“And there’s even more astonishing magic.”
Jasmine had somehow also dived into the water. With a smile, she knocked on the stone wall at the bottom of the pool, which awakened, slowly spreading luminescent arrows along the bottom. On either side of the arrows, there were many whale folk characters.
“These are symbols left by that senior. Over there is the ocean; this way leads to the lake. He traveled through this passage many times before.”
Underwater, Jasmine’s beautiful long blue hair spread out as she floated, extending her hand toward Xiatu on the shore, urging her to hurry down.
Jasmine and Fisher each took one to swim, with Jasmine pulling the heavier Xiatu along faster, while Fisher took Anna with him.
Fisher jumped into the water; after two or three training sessions of swimming underwater, he was gradually getting accustomed to the sensation of breathing underwater, and now, entering the water felt like coming home—quite comfortable.
Anna carefully entered the water and grasped Fisher’s hand. Xiatu’s hooves kept kicking in the water, clearly still feeling somewhat uneasy. Jasmine empathetically took her hands, helping her gradually adapt to the sensation of being in the water.
Jasmine’s large whale tail swayed slightly, flipping like an elf in the water, and then took the slowly calming Xiatu toward some direction deep in the water pool.
They followed the glowing passage upstream. On the stone path, Fisher finally saw some signs of human habitation: a giant oval-shaped cave room with some golden furniture inside, the things Jasmine had mentioned left by the senior.
She excitedly gestured toward the furniture and items in the cave as if introducing her own boudoir in the trench.
“Fisher, the homes of whale folk underwater likely look something like this. This senior lived here for a long time, so many marks were left behind.”
Jasmine pointed to the sparkling golden furniture in the darkness. The furniture had strange shapes and was made entirely of gold; the most common thing among whale folk was gold. According to Jasmine, there was much more than in goblin caves; otherwise, they wouldn’t be extravagant enough to make furniture and armor out of gold.
Fisher also noticed a gold helmet resembling a crown in the corner and a set of deformed golden armor, densely engraved with fork-like symbols. Sometimes the corners of the forks had a few dots.
“This symbol represents the enemies the owner of the armor has defeated. For every enemy defeated, we would carve a fork onto the armor. The dots on top indicate characteristics of that enemy; no dot means it’s a same species, while a dot on the left side indicates an intelligent life of a different race, and dots on the right indicate a sea beast.”
“What about this symbol?”
Fisher raised the already broken crown, where a cross shape was faintly carved at the center, with a small circle inside the cross.
“Eh, this… I don’t know either.”
Jasmine looked somewhat troubled at the symbol on the forehead. She couldn’t exactly describe what kind of symbol it was.
But at that moment, a line of ethereal text suddenly appeared before Fisher’s eyes. It was the iconic mark of the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans.
[You have discovered an ancient clue of the whale folk·2]
[Would you like to read the content of this clue to gain progress in studying whale folk society?]
Huh? Another new anomaly from the Sub-Humans?
Fisher silently told the broken crown in his hand, “Yes,” and the next moment, countless ethereal texts surged out from the crown.
[Ancient clue of the whale folk·2: The Crown of the Destruction God]
[Clue content: This is the crown worn by the whale folk, invincible on land and sea. Why it ended up here is entirely unknown; it is simply damaged beyond recognition. It is said that the arrogant one once challenged the gods to duel, but the outcome remains unknown to this day.]
[Recorder’s comment: Why would such an angry destruction god emerge among a bunch of lazy and adorable orcas? It really gives one a headache.]
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(End of chapter)
