Chapter 105
“We’re going to a city beneath the sea, so it’s a city in the water. It’s where the Water Spirit lives.”
“Can we… breathe there?”
“Of course not. If you just dive into the water, you’ll drown.”
It’s obvious, but humans can’t live in the sea.
“Humans need to breathe. No matter how skilled a person is, if they just jump into the water, they’ll die. The same goes for heroes. Unless the Holy Sword helps, even a hero can’t breathe underwater.”
“But we’re going under the sea? Seriously, are there really people living in the sea?”
“Yeah. It’s impossible for an ordinary human.”
More precisely, humans can’t live underwater.
Humans breathe through lungs, and there are no organs to extract oxygen from water like gills.
“There are many methods, but it’s not that we’ll ‘live’ in the water like we do outside. It’s more like we’ll ‘go underwater for a while and come back.'”
You could bring a device to breathe that doesn’t let water in, or create a barrier to bring in oxygen.
Alternatively, humans could transform over generations to live underwater.
“The easiest way for humans to enter the sea is to contract with a Water Spirit. If the Water Spirit grants its blessing, humans can breathe underwater.”
Even though I can’t handle spirits, I could survive underwater for about a day just by contracting with a low-level Water Spirit.
“The Water Spirit places a spherical helmet on a human’s head, typically resembling a bubble, which filters and only lets oxygen in.”
“So… without the spirit’s power, it’s practically impossible.”
“That’s one way to look at it. Unless some special technology has been developed.”
Spirit Users can do this.
And Spirit Users….
“They’re heretics, right?”
“…That’s correct.”
Those who contract with spirits as ‘humans’ should not exist publicly.
“The Order of the Goddess classifies those who contract with spirits as heretics.”
“I understand. They probably think relying on someone else’s power is enough if you have a Goddess.”
I can guess the background reasons and have no intention of badmouthing the Order of the Goddess.
“Only Elves can contract with spirits.”
“…That’s true. Among humans, there are no ones who contract with spirits. Though among Elves, regarding spirits….”
“Don’t Elves know much either?”
“…No. They just live as friends of nature; they don’t get into spirit devices or anything like that.”
It seems even among Elves, the source of spirits is a mystery.
‘There’s no need to understand spirits in vain.’
Given they’re hiding spirit devices, it’s somewhat expected to suppress Spirit Users.
“Then… if the Saintess is okay with it, can I call ancient spirits like Celcius ‘Spirit Deities’ from now on?”
“That’s fine.”
Surprisingly, the Saintess readily accepted my suggestion.
“I’ll just think of it as heresy.”
“That’s a pretty clear distinction.”
I refer to spirits like Celcius as Spirit Deities, while the Saintess Yan silently tolerates it but would never acknowledge them as deities.
Her view of them as heretical is certainly valid.
And comfortable for me.
“Alright. Back to the issue of entering the sea, humans still can’t go underwater without spirit power.”
In these 500 years, humans haven’t developed any means to explore the deep sea yet.
Aside from the usual methods, like through mana or spirit power, we haven’t found any way to descend under the sea.
“Then… Lucius, what do you think about the opposite case?”
“The opposite, like the creatures from the sea coming up to the continent?”
“Exactly.”
What would happen in the case of the opposite?
“I already spoiled it. There are other intelligent life forms living under the sea. Can those life forms come out?”
“Um… I think they could.”
Everyone seems to have a lot of thoughts about completely unknown beings, but when it comes to the realm of imagination they haven’t seen yet, they get stuck.
“Alright, we really don’t have much information. I don’t think the past 500 years is the same as now.”
Technology has definitely advanced over these 500 years.
If nothing changed in 500 years… then…
‘There’s no way that would happen.’
The remnants of the Demon King’s Army, which I assume are Asydia, must have entered the deep sea in numbers.
“Master, why did no one know until now?”
“I think the information has been completely cut off, and there’s been no exchange at all until now. There’s hardly any interaction between the deep sea and the land right now. Even if they did discover each other, they’d just see one another as monsters. And….”
That’s the part I’m worried about.
“Among the people who went into the sea, some live with the help of the Spirit Deity Celcius, but some fled to the deep sea after the fall of the Demon King’s Army.”
“Does that mean….”
“Yeah. That could very well be the base of Asydia.”
The plausibility is sufficient.
Perhaps Celcius is a collaborator of Asydia, or perhaps another ruler of Asydia.
“So, Lucius, you need to go down and keep the Holy Sword opened.”
“With the sword, not the ring?”
“Right. Put the Holy Sword on full display. …Why do you look so regretful?”
“Oh, well.”
Lucius scratched his head and smiled lightly.
“I thought it would be better to hide my power and then reveal it.”
“Haha, you’ve finally reached that stage.”
If that’s the case, it’s correct.
Drawing the Holy Sword while shouting ‘Wind, rise!’ from the ring form.
Having reached the understanding of that coolness, Lucius now can be rightly called a hero.
“Then, should we trust the hero and head to the underwater city?”
It seems the location has been arranged, so we just need to descend now.
“One question. The beings in the sea must also need to breathe, right?”
Can creatures in the sea come out and breathe?
“Do you think it’s possible?”
“Yes. Things like turtles alternate between water and land. There are creatures that do that.”
“That’s right.”
There are indeed.
Typically, amphibians breathe in water through gills and through different means on land to breathe in oxygen.
Some say that when humans can someday breathe underwater, they’ll venture into the depths of the ocean, but humanity hasn’t reached that level of technology yet.
“But why haven’t they come out onto land?”
“Um… well….”
“What would be the best way to go underwater?”
From now on, we’re in the realm of human imagination.
“How could there be people living in the sea? How would that even work?”
“Um… would they live in the sea like fish do?”
“Maybe they’d build buildings in the sea? Like, huge glass walls or something.”
“Or maybe they can just breathe normally underwater.”
Everyone is sharing their thoughts, but no one has reached the truth.
“We’re about to go check that with our own eyes.”
I pointed below.
“When we just go north of the continent, it’s like going to see the sea. There’s nothing there.”
“Have you been there?”
“I heard it’s true, but I’ve never been.”
In the north of the continent, there’s genuinely nothing.
There’s really nothing at all.
So suspiciously nothing that those who reach the end of the continent might kneel in despair at the stark absence of anything.
How absurd.
If you’ve risked your life to reach the northern tip only to be met with nothing but a cold, vast ocean, you’d want to do nothing but give up.
‘Of course it’s easy to get lost.’
I don’t want to offer any consolation.
They got lost all on their own.
“There’s one secret hidden in the north of this continent. A place that the Undead are desperately trying to keep hidden.”
“They’re hiding it?”
“Exactly. To be precise, the Undead are wandering this land in a natural way, guarding something somewhere.”
Creepily.
As I started to move a little closer, the Undead began to reveal themselves gradually.
Gurghh….
“Is that… an Undead?”
“That’s right.”
Monsters appearing one by one.
They look pale like corpses, but something about their suspiciously white skin suggests they might not truly be corpses.
“Adventurers who tried to head north of the continent long before the last 500 years have become Undead, wandering this world. But there’s one thing the world doesn’t know.”
They appear to be ordinary people on the outside.
But their true nature is different.
“I don’t know how many of them remain, but those that come from the south have a reason to stay here. They want to go down.”
“Down… could they be….”
“Right. They are souls who wish to return home. After coming out and suffering like that, they are now poor spirits who long for their homeland but cannot go back.”
They don’t approach us to take our life force.
“They’re not trying to attack us. They just….”
“Just?”
“Simply want to return to where they used to live.”
There’s a saying that you suffer when you leave home for a long time.
But they can never return home.
“For the beings of the sea, the surface air is poison. They end up like walking corpses.”
“…The difference in air?”
“Yeah.”
That’s why they can’t return.
Even if they did, they’d just die isolated.
“Whoever comes near here remembers the need to keep their hometown a secret in their bodies. But since they are already dead, they can’t do anything about it; they just wander this place.”
“That sounds….”
“Well, don’t feel sorry for them. They can just be ignored. After all, they’d be rejected back home anyway.”
It’s not strictly because they’re dead; the reason will become clear before long.
“We can descend into the underground ourselves.”
“…Is there a way down?”
“No.”
A way down has to be created.
“I told you. There’s an ocean down here.”
“……Master?”
“Lucius. This is a place where no one resides. Unleash the Holy Sword.”
I pointed down.
“With your Holy Sword, pierce deeply. Got it?”
“Master.”
Lucius just smiled broadly.
“I will pierce through spectacularly.”
