Chapter 70 - Underwater adventure (2/2)

So, he quickly swam towards the hole. As he reached near the hole, a cyan colored tentacle suddenly shot out of the hole and grasped him around his waist. He couldn't do evade it and when he tried to stab at it, his daggers simply passed through it.

The tentacle pulled him into the hole at a breakneck speed which immediately dazed and blinded him. When he could see again, he was seated on a chair in a pitch-black room filled with water. ”I am still in the lake,” thought as he looked around.

He wasn't bound but he had an eerie feeling like he was still being constrained. A silhouette of a man was in front. The man glowed in a cyan light and appeared translucent. The scenario reminded him of the ambush and interrogation he had suffered just before his reincarnation. The silhouette immediately moved towards him as the tentacles that caught sprouted off its back slithering towards him.

[Guardian Spirit Barbotul - Polypoda Spirit]

Level: ??

HP: ??

The Spirit had the shape of a thin beautiful lady with long hair. It was the same color as the tentacles and was staring at him with its head tilted bearing a confused expression.

”Another high-level NPC?” thought Shadow surprised. He had seen two high level NPCs by now in exploring the plains. One was Arius and the other was a polypoda spirit. Polypoda's were supposed to be tier 2 sea monsters at the very least and can go up to tier 5.

He was extremely confused by the appearance of these high level NPCs. He didn't know that at the start of the game any new area or expansion had such entities to inspire interest to quickly explore the new areas at the start of the game. But the developers later decided to remove these special quests after the first upgrade.

”You are an odd creature. You bear the aura of merman royalty, but you are obviously not one,” said the spirit in shrill voice as it continued to look at him. The tentacles caught his hands and pulled him to her. ”Tell me, what reason do you have to come to this sacred place and why do you have that aura?”

”I was sent here by a captive merman to retrieve something of his. He needs it to return back to his homeland and provided me with something that leads me to his possession. The item also releases the aura to protect him,” replied Shadow.

”Hmm! Recently an escape gem did find its way down to the holy grounds. It made its way in here. I would like to help the merman. But I can't trust your words blindly,” said the Spirit. ”Even if true, I can't let in anyone without confirming them to be not an enemy of the merfolk. I am bound by the rules and can't help you.”

It threw him down on the floor in front of it. A few symbols immediately appeared beneath his feet and magical light poured out of them like a gush of water covering Shadow blinding him again. A few seconds later, the light covering him receded. He could clearly see that he was no longer in the lake.

He was at the edge of an island. There was a hill about 1 kilometer high out of which lava was pouring. There were a bunch of larian running towards him. These were creatures that looked like bulldogs made of stone with red glowing eyes and fire spurting out of their mouths.

These were a subspecies of the Hell hounds which were sworn enemies of the mermen. Hell hounds breathed hell fire having dark and fire attributes. Mermen were being that lived most of the time in water and many of them were civilization that mainly consisted of druids that practiced holy magic. There were natural enemies due to their natures.

[Larian pup] (Common monster)

Level 7;

HP: 2000/2000;

Shadow was still reeling from the shock of the light effects when he heard the barks of the larians running towards him. He immediately realized that the test of the spirit probably involved killing these small monsters.

The voice of Barbotul suddenly sounded in his ears. ”This is the old training grounds for the young ones of the mermen race. They learn how to fight the larian at this place. It serves as a breeding ground as well as a prison to them. It has been a long time since this has been put to use, but it will serve well to determine your allegiance.”

”Killing the larian in large numbers leaves mark on your body that makes you an enemy out of all the creatures of underworld. I am leaving you here for an hour. Impress me,” said the voice as it disappeared.

Quest Updated: Save the merman prince: Prove yourself to guardian spirit Barbotul by killing the larians. Time: 1 hour.

”This was ridiculous. There is no indication of what the spirit means by large numbers or anything. How am I supposed to know what to do?” thought Balthazar.

Luckily, he was on an island on its shore. His feet were wet due to the water. The main weakness of these monsters is water. They are entities which seem to be made of something like hot clay with skin that looked like it was made of porcelain. It would be easy if these are directly step into the water. They would harden a bit and they tend to go get brittle which would allow him to kill them easily.

But the larian never get into water. Though it sounds easily to kill them by using water, it wasn't really a feasible option for him. He would need to improvise a bit if he wanted to do it. A group of them were rushing towards him from the hill. He had an idea to handle this group, but there were only about 50 larian. He was sure that he needs to kill more if he wants to impress Barbotul.