The first encounter!

He emerged from the top of the Bluek Hylark. The dead fish was far under the water bed. He stored the dead body of the giant in his system inventory and swarm upwards.

The battle was hard and draining, but with the help of potions, he was good as a reborn phoenix.

The water was the same as before the battle. Calm and colourful, even the coral reef that was destroyed by the blue giant was the same as before, like nothing of any sort of battle just happened there, like a kid was swallowed and later he set the blue creature on fire and that too under water.

He swam for some distance and experienced all sorts of madness under water. In a distant corner at the far end, pearls shimmered to life before dying down in a moment, only to shimmer to life again in the next moment, making it seem like a beating heart of this magical ocean.

[System notification!]

"Oh?...open it." He commanded.

[Congratulations on defeating the guardian of the first gate, Bluek Hylark.]

[Reward- 2000 golds]

[Accept- Y/N]

"Guardian of the first gate? What does that mean? This is the first time I am hearing about it." He asked, feeling something was off. Then it hit him. He remembered the system mentioning something about the mountain dwellers and their strongholds.

"Hey system, are there any paths that connect to any underground passages?" He asked, feeling excited. "And accept the reward."

[Reward accepted. 2000 coins added to your inventory.]

{There is a narrow passageway that leads to a tunnel and you might need to hide before they come for investigating their guardian of the first gate.}

"...Tell me the passage. Oh, wait... open the system store first." He was going to prepare for any unexpected things before it happens like before.

[System Store]

[Buy] [Sell] [Search] [Filter]

"Filter."

[Filter]

[Weapons] [Armours] [Potions] [Gadgets] [Apparels] [Other miscellaneous items]

There were many filters to choose from. He was itching to try them all, but he knew better than anyone about the situation. He swore to check all the things in the shop after he got home.

"Potions." He wasn't sure, but if the thing he is looking for is here, then it would be a jackpot.

[Potions]

[Healing] [Life] [Offense] [Defense] [Others]

"Well, this is boring and hard. Scratch it. Go to search." He was wasting time. He knew some beings were coming for him. Some beings he didn't even know existed, even in his last time.

[Search]

"Search for invisibility potions."

[????? - ?????]

[???? - ????]

[??? - ???]

[Epic - 10000 golds]

[Rare - 8000 golds]

[Uncommon - 5000 golds]

[common - 1000 golds]

"..."

[...]

"Fucking hell! Why is it so expensive?!!" He took a deep breath and calmly thought about the situation at hand. If he were to infiltrate whatever this first gate was without proper preparations was sure death and straight up foolishness. Having a backup like this can be very helpful in situations like this.

'It's only some golds, I can always earn it by killing monsters and completing quests.' He reassured himself, or so he wants to. It was hard to spend the hard earned money on something that you just saw, which is also ridiculously expensive, but alas, he can only command to buy in this situation.

"Buy the common ranked. Make it two." He bitterly ordered.

[Buy 2x common ranked Invisibility potions?]

"...Yes."

[2 Invisibility potions added to your inventory.]

"Appraise it."

[Invisibility potion]

[Rank - common]

[Makes you invisible for 5 seconds once consumed.]

"..."

[...]

{...}

"...What? Ha ha ha. You're kidding, right? This is a joke, right, system?"

{I am afraid this is the reality, host.} System reassured him.

"...5 seconds? Only 5 seconds? I just spent..." He trailed off. He took a deep breath. Calming his nerves. He knew he was just robbed but decided to put a hold on that matter for later as he sensed other life forms moving to his way.

"System, the passage."

[It is the direction they are coming from. Go around the coral reef to avoid sighting.] The annoying virus was the one to answer that.

Without wasting time and contemplating on his losses, Desmond swam towards his destination.

"How many of them are there?" He swam through the coral garden.

[Three. There are three of them.]

"Can I take them out?" He was genuinely curious about seeing the mountain dwellers.

[Yes, you can take them out, but if you take them out, the others will be alert. They seem to be like rank F. They are more likely to get alerted once they find out their guardian is missing.]

"I see, well I guess I can see them inside their strongholds. If the first guardian and their people is this weak, then I guess the whole 1st whatever will also be a base for weak peoples." Desmond was getting more and more excited about the whole ordeal. He was curious. He was curious about so many things. One of them being their reason for hiding from the human world.

He swam for some more before coming to a stop after seeing it.

On the wall opposite, he saw a large hole in it. A tunnel. It was large enough to fit the Bluek Hylark on it. There were so many artificially lit lamps on the tunnel, giving the tunnel a mysterious aura. It was not the tunnel that made him stop in his tracks. Rather, it was the being guarding the tunnel. A short man, only around 4 feet, with a stout and broad body. He was wearing a full body armour, making it impossible to see his natural features. He was holding a... gun. A gun. Desmond was so astonished to see a gun being carried by a dwarf who was said to be the master artisans of the greatest weapons.

The dwarf was pacing around the tunnel in a systematic way, almost like the ants transporting their foods to their home in a straight line.

"Th-there really are dwarves. Why did they hide from us? Or do people know about them and are hiding this information from the common people? But why?" He was so in ecstatic after seeing the legendary dwarves from the stories in real life.

[Make it fast, you fool. Soon they will be alerted of the missing guardian and the infiltration will be a failure.] The A.I. warned him about the situation, pushing him from his dazed state.

"Right." He rubbed his palms. "Let's see what you're hiding in that tunnel." He wore a devilish smile.