Chapter 276: Partner (4)

The 'field' she thought was flat from a distance wasn't actually that flat. There were hills as well as several craters.

200 metres underwater was overall very dark, and that was why she initially thought it was flat.

If Yeorum hadn't found the flag on the way down, she would have been at a loss. In other words, she was currently standing in front of the flag.

There was no reason to further mention it at this point, but Yu Jitae really was a son of a bitch…

Although she found the flag on the way down, it was by coincidence that she was able to find it this fast.

After all, the flag was black.

This was on purpose. He must have intentionally chosen a black flag.

Like, it's already dark on all sides like a small jail cell. Is it that hard to at least make it a white or a yellow flag…?

It was when Yeorum grabbed the flag whilst grumbling. The place around her chest suddenly tensed the moment she relaxed as the diaphragm spasm visited yet again.

'Uht…'

Blocking her mouth with one hand, Yeorum used the other hand to grab tightly onto the flag and crouched. The desire to breathe soared up from her lungs, through the throat and tried to crawl on top of her tongue.

Although this was already the third time, the impulse directly related to survival was extremely difficult to ignore.

Is this how it feels for food to get stuck on the throat on its way down? No, it in fact felt as if food got stuck on the way out of her body.

Fuck. I might die for real.

Crouching her body like a prawn, Yeorum waited for the stuffiness to disappear. She held even harder onto the flag so as to not run away. If she ran away despite coming this far, she would feel more like a worthless fool in front of Yu Jitae later on.

'…'

After a minute of pain that felt like 10 minutes, Yeorum finally lifted her head. Her mind would turn blank a little straight after enduring the urge to breathe so she simply lifted her head from the crouch.

Finally feels a little better…

With a hazy pair of eyes, she stared at the ocean scenery. There were only rocks and piles of dirt nearby.

A little further away was also about the same, but there were some hills and algae although rare.

Even further away was too dark to see. It was the tightening wall which she tried exceptionally hard to ignore on the way down.

…It was slightly weird.

Shouldn't there be tons of corals, seaweed and fish in the ocean? Of course, there were some algae and seaweed here and there, plus rocks and mysterious black things, but even with all that, this ocean was very desolate.

Looking back at that from the bottom of the world, Yeorum suddenly felt as if she was the only one left in this world.

'…'

She wanted to smoke.

By habit she touched the part around her ribs only to find her bare skin.

Oh right, I left my jacket behind.

I need to go up.

Lifting her body, Yeorum started swimming in the opposite direction, by pushing aside the heavy water.

Kugugugung… That was when the surrounding waters began to tremble.

What?

Her red eyes shot wide open.

***

"…"

Above water.

Gyeoul was throwing glances at Yu Jitae.

Right now, he was setting up the grill after preparing the pork belly and king oyster mushrooms that he had brought from outside.

But there was a problem. The lighter he brought appeared to be broken and was unable to create any fire.

Throwing that aside, Yu Jitae used the mana operating method of red dragons to create an ember of fire on his fingertip. And soon, the charcoal was lit.

"Don't."

His sudden word made Gyeoul flinch.

"…Don't wat?"

"Don't go inside water."

"…I, I wasn't, goingg to…"

She was caught red-handed but she pretended otherwise. For almost 3 hours, Yu Jitae wasn't able to catch any fish and Gyeoul wasn't allowed to enter the water.

Yu Jitae had been fishing with an extremely long fishing line. Whenever it felt like there was a catch, he had to turn the reel for three minutes because it was that long.

But the only things that came out were seaweeds and mysterious chunks. They even fished a shoe once.

Although he had the same expressionless look on his face, in this context it appeared as if he was dejected and Gyeoul found that very amusing.

On the other hand, Yu Jitae was constantly stopping her from entering the water for the past 3 hours. For Gyeoul, it was a fun game. Whenever he turned around, she would charge towards the water but would be grabbed by him before she could enter the water.

But at last, the chance came knocking on the door.

He half-bent his back into the tent, scavenging through the bag. Seeing that, Gyeoul slowly crawled towards the water.

Blindly charging into the water every time must have been the problem. It would be better to kill her presence and slowly crawl there.

But unlike what she thought, Yu Jitae still somehow noticed it and suddenly turned towards her.

Hukk. Their eyes met. Immediately after that, Gyeoul started to dash and then jumped towards the ocean, but Yu Jitae's hand grabbed the child and lifted her up into the air.

"Kyaa—!"

Although it was yet another failure, she chuckled out loud.

"I said you can't."

"…Hehe."

In the end, Gyeoul was arrested by Yu Jitae.

That was how they spent their time.

Yeorum was still inside the ocean but Gyeoul wasn't interested in that in the slightest. So what if she didn't come out, she thought, but Yu Jitae from time to time glanced at the water.

Gyeoul was curious why he wasn't letting her enter the water, since she had already put her feet in it. Therefore, when she was so curious that she couldn't help it, she asked him.

"Why can't you go inside the water, was it?"

"…Yes."

"Actually, it is okay for you to go in."

"…Then?"

"But if you go deeper than 10 metres, that's when it will start getting troublesome."

Gyeoul couldn't understand his words, because the tourists inside the pamphlet were fine swimming and such.

"Humans are fine, but aren't you a dragon?"

"…Yes."

"This ocean has an owner and the house owner has laid a trap. If you try to leave after entering it, the trap will bother you."

"…Why?"

It was because the ocean owner has a peculiar taste – they liked locking the visitor up in the basement. Because of that, the ocean owner was no different from a hunter.

"…Would I, be at risk?"

"You won't be at risk. Because you are friendly with the water."

His words made her think of Yeorum.

Yeorum wasn't friendly with the water.

***

Something unbelievable happened.

Yeorum had to change her analysis yet again.

On the way down, she thought the water was thick like nutella but that was wrong. When she was around 10 metres higher than her original position, the water-attributed mana converged and began to form a shape. It was thin and long, looking just like a tentacle.

Thinking that something was odd, she was about to dodge it but the formed tentacle came flying in and wrapped itself around her toes.

Wait, fuck.

Is this that tentacle play or something?

Shit.

Memories came back of the time she visited a normal(?) website out of curiosity, only to never look back at it out of disgust. That was when the water-attributed mana, crawling up her toes, suddenly caught her by the ankle and pulled her towards the depths again.

It had an astonishing strength to it.

It was ridiculously strong that she thought her ankle might explode at this point. And yet it still got stronger.

Huh?

Uhhh?

Wait, this is—

Crackkk!

Ahkk!

Both her foot and her ankle were broken – not just once, but at least more than 6 times. Her muscles and ligaments were all torn.

It hurts like shit…!

The pain belatedly came flooding in. At the same time, she could feel the bones being out of place.

Looking down at her legs, her face turned stiff.

The bones were piercing through her skin; and her skin was either torn or squashed. As if it had just come out of a compressor, everything was crushed beneath her right shin.

Her mind turned blank.

What was happening right now? She couldn't comprehend what was happening. She heard nothing about this from Yu Jitae.

Her lungs cried for breath and she had to focus even harder.

After using up its force, the water-attributed mana dissipated on the spot. Startled by what happened, Yeorum hurriedly began to swim up. She flailed her arms and legs rapidly and unsparingly used her mana but the ocean then started to steal her mana.

Her right ankle didn't move at all, so she could only rely on her left leg and her arms to move forward. It therefore took a long time.

"Huuk…!"

Even though she wasn't moving it, the swaying ankle cried out in pain and Yeorum couldn't help but let out a groan. Blood oozed out but it simply floated in the middle of the dense water.

Calm down.

Calm down.

Let's think.

Diligently moving her arms, Yeorum pondered.

Was it done by a living being?

No. There had been no such thing, nor is there anything similar right now.

The only thing she could feel with her senses was the 'Tranquil Sea' that she had been feeling the whole time.

In other words, it meant that the tentacle wasn't something intentional that someone had sent for her.

It was then highly likely for it to be a basic mechanism of the mana spreading across the ocean, similar to how they were all 'hook-shaped molecules'. Their job might be to break the legs of people whenever they tried to escape the water, like a reflex action of the central nervous system.

That meant it wasn't necessarily aiming for her and because of that, it might be fine after that.

Right. It will be all fine.

There's no reason to be scared like a coward…

Huh…?

But then why is there another tentacle there…?

The aura of water gathered in one place yet again and formed a shape.

Startled, Yeorum began to swing her arms even faster.

The storming tentacle dashed in; this time towards her left leg.

She couldn't sit still and let it do its thing, so Yeorum turned her body with a flick and kicked the stream of water as hard as she could. It was a kick strong enough to break the skull of an elephant, but the water dissipated only momentarily before simply gathering again and landing on her leg.

No.

No no no no.

In the end, it wrapped itself around her ankle.

Ah fuck that's…

Crackkkk!

"Uhuhk…!"

A shriek left through her clenched teeth as her left leg crumbled from the irresistible force. Her eyes were about to bounce out. This time, it happened while she was conscious of it, and the pain was thus almost enough to make her faint. She wasn't crying and yet tears flowed out of her eyes on its own.

'Hah, fuck…'

Again, the water tentacle lost its force and dissipated after breaking her leg.

While sobbing, she waved her arms. Her breath that was already close to running out squeezed her throat. She wanted to vomit.

She had to regain her composure.

Whatever the case, I wouldn't die here would I?

Would Yu Jitae leave me here to die? Besides, even without Yu Jitae I'll never die.

However, thoughts weren't always in alignment with emotions.

She was inside the detestable water. She had to swim through the suppressing friction, wave her arms and hold her breath, and yet now her legs ached as if they were scorched.

Though she was used to pain, it was still hard for her to withstand it. She wanted to throw everything away and drop it. She felt a strong urge to dispel the polymorph and teleport out in her dragon form.

The strong urge encroached her emotions like a flame.

What kind of fucked up traning is this?

How is this a way to get stronger?

Feels like dog shit…

Why do I have to be the only one suffering through this?

That idiot must be playing her heart out by now…

Her frustration became oil that stimulated her impulse.

…That must be why he said that at the start.

– Prepare yourself mentally.

– Arm yourself mentally before you go in.

– Endure it no matter how painful.

Yeorum clenched her teeth.

It was now a matter of pride. Whether it be training or whatever, she simply wasn't allowed to give up in front of hardship. Becoming stronger came second.

In order to survive, she had to advance.

She forcibly suppressed the impulse. Fortunately, the diaphragm spasm didn't happen again, but it was still unclear what other dangers there might be. She had to continue moving even if that meant losing more energy.

Her right leg from the ankle to halfway through the shin; and her left leg was crushed all the way down from her knee.

However, she tried moving both of them and realised that her thighs could still move.

'Uukk….'

Although the pain was immense, the fact that she could move them was important. Regularly moving her thighs back and forth, she added to the speed.

Though she was losing blood, she could heal it once she was outside.

Although her mana was being snatched, she could recover outside.

Though she was short of breath, she could breathe the fresh air when outside.

As expected, going back up was a lot harder than coming down. That probably would have been the same even if her legs were fine.

Yeorum felt as if she would lose her mind. Her mind was unfocused and her eyes were hazy but she did not stop swimming up.

She proceeded on.

Towards the transparent and bright sky above.

*

Peng– peng–

"…Aht."

It was a bite…! Startled, Gyeoul tapped Yu Jitae's arm with her palms. But Yu Jitae tilted his head as if he didn't understand so Gyeoul rushed him while pointing at the reel of the fishing rod.

"…Nnnn, hurry."

"Huh?"

"…Aren't you pulling?"

"Ah, right."

Yu Jitae started to turn the reel.

Before long, something came out of the water. Thinking that it was a very large fish, Gyeoul flickered her eyes.

Puaak–

The thing that came up holding onto the fishing line, powerlessly opened their mouth.

"Fishy Yeorumm is heree…"

It was Yeorum.

She crawled on her knees and staggered before falling on her side. 'Huuk, huuk…' She murmured under her breath.

"A big catch, you fuckers…"

Soon she laid down on her back, closed her eyes and took deep breaths in and out. Both her lips and her face were pale.

Gyeoul widened her eyes.

Yeorum was bleeding from both of her legs and it appeared very severe. Regardless of whether she liked her or not, an injury of that level came as quite a shock to Gyeoul. It would have been interesting if she was slightly injured but that was way too much. Startled, she rushed towards her with blinking eyes.

"…Are you alright?"

"Yeah… I'm alright…"

"…What, happened?"

"Dunno. Maybe I bumped into something on the way."

How could she be this injured from bumping into something? Gyeoul pondered curiously.

While Yu Jitae was walking towards them, Yeorum twitched her fingers.

"Ey. Bring your head closer."

"…Head?"

A fist suddenly came flying towards her head.

Kong…

"…??"

Gyeoul was startled from the sudden attack.

But it didn't hurt.