Chapter 161: Unplanned

The early morning sun greeted me, causing me to open my eyes with a lazy yawn. My surroundings were still destroyed, no change over there. I took a few seconds to regain my bearings, a part of my mind still wishing to sleep some more.

Shaking my head at that thought, I slowly stood up another yawn escaping my mouth. "I wonder how the others are doing?" I muttered, my eyes subconsciously glancing behind me in the direction of our floating home.

After a few seconds, I walked towards the edge and dived headfirst towards the sea below. The water against my scales felt refreshing, making me feel alive. A few small fishes didn't immediately run at the sight of me prompting a small smile to extend on my face.

I unhurriedly swam to the deeper ends of the sea, drawing closer to the ocean floor where I sensed a few large presences over there. The sea bed was dark and the closer I got to my destination the harder it became to discern anything. Still, it was as if my eyes were specifically made for this since I was able to see everything as clear as day.

The ocean floor was not flat, quite the opposite. It appeared as an underwater mountain range. Extremely large and overwhelming. I could feel countless eyes on me as soon as I appeared. Most came from within the mountains, and between the deep crevices.

Still, since none of them dared to show their faces, I simply chose to ignore them as well. Glancing behind me, I spotted the enormous cliff that extended above the water. It was akin to a giant spectacular wall.

Turning my gaze ahead, the endless underwater mountain range full of deep chasms greeted me. 'Well, this looks rather cozy' I inwardly chuckled. Reaching out to the water mana, I extended it outwards from my body in all directions, using it as a radar of sorts to scan the area.

Every time my mana passed by a cave, or a deep chasm that contained a presence inside, the occupants would immediately shrink back in fear. After a few seconds, I had the general outline of the sea bed close to the cliff in mind. Most of the caves were already occupied, not that I cared.

Although the place did look cozy, it was still too close to shore for my tastes. If anything, I would have preferred a place deep within the sea, far from any landmass. After making sure that there was no immediate threat in my surroundings, my mind spun as I began to think about my previous teleportation attempts.

Most could be considered a success, whilst my mastery over the cosmic element and the teleportation spell had increased by leaps and bounds. A question, however, still plagued me. Would teleportation be the same when I'm underwater?

Here, the abundance of the water element was undeniable. This made me curious to see whether or not the teleportation process would remain the same. Would such an abundance of water mana affect teleportation in any way? I was curious. Besides, I was planning to spend a lot of time in the sea, hence why it was best to get this over with.

Floating a distance above the mountain range. I closed my eyes and reached out to the cosmic mana inside my soul space. It steered immediately forming the usual thread that extended to the sky. Soon cosmic mana surrounded my entire body, my eyes locked on a mountain top a distance ahead.

The world stretched again in its usual pattern, losing all colors. The water mana in my surroundings seemed to struggle against the outside force, locking the space around me. This caused me to frown as I summoned an even larger amount of cosmic mana.

I could feel the force lessen as I broke through space and traveled across the astral plane reappearing shortly on the mountain top. Glancing back at the area where I was, a water whirlpool formed as the water element seemed to have been thrown in disarray.

Seconds after, however, the whirlpool calmed down ad disappeared as if it never existed. My frown deepened. The thing that I feared happened. Although the teleportation process was a success, it took me much more cosmic mana to do so compared to when I was above water.

The abundance of the water element did interfere with the cosmic element making it harder to break through space and into the astral plane. 'That's strange though,' I inwardly mumbled scratching my head deep in thought.

'But even above the sea, most elements are present too. Not to mention wind mana which is almost as abundant as the water element right now. Could it be that the wind element is more compatible with the cosmic one?'

'Hmm, I mean that would explain why it doesn't interfere with teleportation as much as water does. Still, more research is needed to be sure.'

My eyes locked on another mountain top. This time the amount of cosmic mana I summoned was significantly larger than before just to be safe. I could feel it surrounding my whole body. Using my spirit vision, I could see the cosmic elements trying to break through space and pushing back the water elements.

Soon, the world stretched before my eyes once again, losing its color. Something, however, went wrong at that second. The force of the cosmic elements seemed to go out of control, the area around me was cleared of any other elements.

I easily passed to the astral plane, all colors changing as I appeared there. The problem though was that I remained there as well ... My eyes darted about in shock and disbelief. I was still in the sea, well 'a' sea to be exact. The ocean I found myself in was multicolored, its appearance akin to that of the mana stream.

My scales tingled as I sensed a dangerous presence lurking beneath me. Subconsciously, I flapped my wings, swimming farther away from the depths and out of the water. I trusted in my instincts, and they warned me of something dangerous hidden inside the water.

I nervously gulped down and turned my attention towards the world around me. My eyes widened as a gasp escaped my mouth. "Is this the astral plane?"