Chapter 1

I’ve never actually swum before.

Even if I was able-bodied, there was never any opportunity to actually swim. In the small town that I was located in, there wasn’t a single swimming pool and the canal was too dirty to actually be viable as a swimming location. The closest I’ve been to water was when I shower, which was an awkward business especially since it's rather difficult to balance myself.

Now, imagine that you were at home. Imagine that you’ve taken your car keys and whatnot, your wallet, tissues and anything that you would need in order to function outside your abode. You’ve felt ready, the kettle off the stove, lights turned off and there is nothing amiss.

You placed your hand on the doorknob and pushed the door open.

However, imagine that what greets you is not the pavement or the corridor to the lift. There are no lights or ground, for that matter.

Imagine that as soon as you open the door, there was water.

An unending amount of water the crashes into you as much as you crash into it because you were launched into it by a cannon known as a [Corridor].

That was my reality.

Then, anyone could tell you that when you were underwater, it felt just like you were in the air, really really thick air — free-floating, even. Aside from the sensation of things rippling on your skin or the air in your mouth and lungs, nothing could actually indicate you were not in fact, on dry land.

It was good that I lack the instincts to actually breathe or my mouth would most definitely be filled with liquid.

Although I do feel sensations of water on my form, there wasn’t any indication of heat or cold. There was no shock, no blindness of the senses that I would have expected.

Just wham, and suddenly the world was water.

For a moment I twisted around, the sudden increase of pressure from the water pressing down upon me. Then, as soon as it came, I got used to it.

The thought that I was in water didn’t come to me until I’ve gotten my bearings — which was that there was none. Even though there my eyes could pierce through the watery shimmer and the haze of dirt, it was evidential that I was in a cave system of some sort. The walls surrounding me extended far and wide, drilling and twisting beyond with no end point in sight. The [Corridor] behind me fizzled as bubbles constantly gushed out of it, pushing the water forward.

And with the water, I got pushed along too before I realized so. At that time, my only thought was of colorful vocabulary.

Jostled around with water, I spiraled out of control with it. I flapped my fins in a hopeless effort to direct myself from spinning in circles as I got flushed out.

The world around me blurred and shook as bubbles filled my view, rock walls flying past as I got propelled by the watery blast. I felt some of my plates crack as I hit something on the way, slamming and dragging me along the walls, scrapping my scales off like a cheese grater.

Before I knew it, I got flushed out into some calmer currents like sewage sent to the open sea, tumbling through the water in loops.

I landed on the ground with a heavy thud, grinding my side along the sand and pebbles. Somewhere along the way, the air in my stomach and lungs had gushed out when my mouth inevitably opened, allowing the water pressure to plaster me into the sand.

For a while, all I could see was grey and flashes of white.

…

Fucking hell.

It was good that I don’t feel pain or get vertigo, or else I would probably be screaming my head off right now. However, all that I could do was to enjoy the few moments of reprieve from the turbulence, lying there, prone and unmoving while I processed what just happened.

Fuck.

…

Water rides are overrated.

Some distant part of my mind remarked and insisted on freaking out, but I lacked the capabilities to do so. I should be gurgling, coughing up clouds of blood and generally having a bad time dying painfully.

I didn’t, for which I was thankful.

I don’t want to get up, I complained to myself as I combated memories of ‘pain’, But I would be wasting time that way.

My ability to free float and move with my will alone transitioned strangely when I abruptly submerged in water. I struggled to right my body as I calmed my mind down, fins flapping with more difficulty through the strange medium.

With a startle, I realized that the grey and white am seeing are in fact, plants. Grey tendril-like seaweeds reached up from the sand and dirt, disturbed by my fall.

I looked upwards and saw that instead of a sky, it was simply more cave, this time with stalactites and stalagmites reaching for each other grandly. My eyes, being capable of seeing through the darkness, could see all of it as clear as day, limited only by the natural obscurity produced by the water.

Wherever I arrived in from, I’ve been mercilessly flushed out into this… underwater cavern. The bubbles continued to stream out from the cave entrance, floating upwards and splattered against the ceiling, congealing into slug-like beads and rolling off somewhere. I tracked them as they all trailed off into the same direction and disappeared into another tunnel. Other than the plant matter around me, the cave was completely empty.

That can wait, I decided, health is more important.

I knew that I had cracked something on my back along the way. I flexed my [Feelers] and [Spears], testing if they were in working order. Satisfied, I twisted around to look at my wound.

…

Shit.

As opposed to having a shattered backplate as I was expecting, it seemed that un-life decided to screw me over royally.

Instead of having cracks, I was treated to a view of it being completely missing.

There goes two-three hundred worth of [Essence], I guess.

The area where it had ripped off was bleeding somehow, my flesh flaking off like a crumbling sand dune. I wasn’t sure how bad it was since I lacked the capabilities to feel pain, but the damage was definitely worse than I thought. With haste, I forced the surface of the wound to solidify, creating a membrane above it to stop it from turning worse.

Before my eyes, the damaged portion quickly congealed as I channeled [Essence] towards it, broken skin mending together. However, even though I had eaten that bird-thing from before, I still lacked the resource to recreate the plate, leaving a spot that was tender and defenseless. Aside from the obvious wound, some of the other plates were also cracked, their surface littered with fissures.

At least I am in a new area. If push comes to shove, I could settle for the [Seaweed].

Or, you could get eaten by some water-monstrosity.

When all goes wrong, hide.

I surveyed around me once again, seeing that aside from the patch of [Seaweed] I mowed down during my entrance, there was no movement or indication of life. Given there were [Seaweed], the lowest on the food chain, there should be some herbivores loitering around somewhere.

Maybe I scared them away?

Well, one thing’s for certain, its gonna be a pain to hunt in the [Seaweeds]. They would hear me coming from miles away.

As of now, my highest priority was safety, seconded by getting more [Essence].

Suddenly, I was reminded of the fact that I am currently filled with water. The [Lungs], [Breath Gland] and [Stomach] — all chock filled. With a groan, I began to decompress by pressing down with the muscles, forcing the water to back out from my innards.

And my throat needs a sphincter — or a gill.

…

Great, more expenses.

Balefully, I gazed at the mass of grey colored things around me. The walls of the cavern were pretty far away, which meant that I could spend a long time eating [Seaweed] before it runs out.

Seaweed…

Better than nothing.

Experimentally, I tug a piece of [Seaweed] loose with my [Spear], shoving it into my mouth. Again, water gushed into my mouth as I opened it, and allow with it the [Sea Weed]. The plant taste as expected — dull and strangely fruity. However, the water threatened to gush into my [Human-Voicinator] and [Breath Glands], so that was unpleasant.

This is not working too well.

The [Sea Weed], I concluded after some difficulties in digestion, contains approximately two to three [Essence] per strand. Computing quickly, I came to the conclusion that to repair a single plate, which takes around two hundred [Essence], I would have to eat at least sixty-seven pieces of these [Sea Weed].

That wasn’t too bad. It would suck if the [Sea Weed] only give one [Essence] though.

I dismissed the thought and proceeded to flush the water out of my systems.

If I had to purge the water every time I eat, it would be a tremendous pain in the ass. Better to just shove a whole bunch of food into my mouth, digest and purge the water afterward.

My [Stomach] functions by whacking at the food with crystalline spikes and whips until they break down enough. However, that meant it requires some space or I would be whacking myself instead, which would be unpleasant. That meant that in order to eat, I need to let it inflate.

I hate water.

Moving on deliberately, I ripped the another [Sea Weed] from the dirt.

…

Huh.

Oddly enough, despite being torn in half, the plant wasn’t breaking down on its. Generally, most things made of [Essence] would crumble when they are extensively damaged, like how [Green Worms] would splatter when they were bitten in half or when [Red Blobs] could be popped like balloons.

However, the [Seaweed] stayed in once piece, fluttering stubbornly in my grip.

I checked within my stomach and saw that it was empty — no residues or whatsoever left. Despite it being unexpectedly tenacious, it could be absorbed just fine.

Strange, but useful.

I rolled the plant matter into a ball, grasping it with my [Feelers]. I proceeded to systematically harvest the [Seaweed] around me, draping it over the ball to keep it from scattering.

The process was rather simple and dull — a swish and flick with the [Spears] to cut off the base of the plant, the others to harvest them into bundles. With every five or six strands, the ball would thicken into a ‘large enough’ mass, where I would pop it into my mouth and swallow it.

Of course, the process would include swallowing a huge amount of water, but that is fine. By the time my [Stomach: Mashers] pummelled the [Seaweed] into bits and purged the water out, I would have another ball ready to be consumed.

And so, I spent my time harvesting and eating.

When I ate the ball of plant, the extra texture reminded me of brussels sprouts that were boiled till the leaves felt more like jelly, but with the flavor of apples instead.

It wasn’t particularly tasty, but it was certainly peculiar.

As someone that grew up feeding on bread and gruel, I had never actually eaten seaweed before, though I expected it to taste a bit less fruity than this.

As I settled into the monotonous activity, my mind was free to start contemplating on ‘just where did I end up’.

Judging by the cave system and the fact that there was water everywhere, it would lead to the conclusion that I am most probably underground in the tunnels somewhere. I could be under a sea, a mountain or lake — it would be hard to tell since I couldn’t actually taste the water to see if it was salty or not.

The tunnel that I was blown in from seemed to be generating a current of bubbles that kept flowing upwards somewhere towards the ceiling, but wasn’t strong enough to actually send things and creatures upward.

With the tumble-inducing entrance towards this place, it would be obvious that nothing much could have survived the trip. [Blobs] certainly wouldn’t stand a chance, [Deers] could maybe survive provided that they didn’t hit the walls or stalagmites, but without fins to steer them, they would most likely splatter over the place.

Perhaps the remaining [Essence] was what fuelled the growth of these strange [Seaweeds]?

I wouldn’t know if it was true or not since the rules that seemed to concern how the [Beyond] interacts with the [Material Plane] seemed rather ambiguous. However, I would bet that the possibly decades of being showered with [Essence] would certainly induce something.

Each ball of [Seaweed] would give me approximately around ten to fifteen [Essence], which made the process quite a bit quicker than I was expecting. Despite being quite numerous, it was only the height and waving pattern of the plants that gave the illusion the field of [Seaweed] to be endless. After eating for a while, being on the twelve ball then, I noticed the plants were located rather sparsely — by human standards there would be at least eight inches between each one.

In that way, I was rapidly clearing out the [Seaweeds].

That too was fine, since I didn’t plan to stay.

What I was curious about was why there weren’t any creatures around yet. By now, I would expect the local wildlife to start investigating the commotion I made. If the exit of the tunnels were to be flattered with [Essence] every now and then, there should be something, anything that should have noticed a pattern there and decided to be a scavenger.

But there was no movement from between the plants. No reds or greens popping up at all.

Maybe…

The floor is made of sand. Maybe these are burrowers.

Would the answer be that simple? I questioned myself, pausing.

Certainly, it wouldn’t be out of the norm to have burrowing creatures, like crabs or underwater insects and the like. If there could be green colored worms, then a spirit Bobbit worm would be perfectly acceptable.

Letting go of the unfinished food-ball in my [Feelers], I began prodding the sand beneath with my [Spear]. Using the tip as a spade, I began digging into the ground and punting it to the side like an excavator. First thing I would like to check was how deep I could go since there would always be a [Boundary] in every [Area] that would block off my path.

As I dug deeper and deeper into a cone shape, the surrounding sand started to drizzle down into the hole I made, so I ended up punting the sand further and further away.

Soon, about a meter deep down I started meeting resistance. The sand turned into a putty-like constancy and became like liquid rock, bubbling at the edge of existence. However, there still weren’t any creatures to be found.

Disappointing, but oh well. Can’t expect everything to go my way.

However, as I observed the dirt settled down on the floor, I arrived at another question.

How the heck am I even digging?

Or for that matter, how am I interacting with this water?

Obviously, I couldn’t be actually interacting with real water, because if I am indeed displacing water, I would be leaving a very strange looking, Elisa-shaped void in the middle of the caves. A weird empty spot of nothing because I pushed the ‘water’ out and I am literally made of nothing physical.

Could water be…

I paused again.

That made absolutely no sense. How could ‘water’ be from the beyond — no, not just water. How could there be ‘air’?! If I could fly through trees, then how on earth could I be blown about by wind?

For all I know, I could be on a planet at the edge of space, eating some underground alien plant.

Either I am interacting with the ‘physical’ water, or I am currently swimming through some kind of mystic representation of [water]. Both are equally preposterous.

Another observation I made was that the [Seaweed] do have roots. They protruded directly from the sand, but beyond the first grain of sand, there was just a blur of something that was not particularly substantial, turning more and more transparent until it completely fades out.

This is too weird.

Nothing makes sense.

None of this makes any sense.

Ah, but common sense is hardly applicable in this scenario, isn’t it?

I told to myself that I probably should stop thinking too hard about this.

It was frustrating. I would never know if my theories were correct — I would never know if the rules across every [Area] holds true. If there could be a [Water] filled world, there could just as easily to exist a world made of giant [Red Blobs] out to murder everything.

But I don’t have many options, do I?

I popped the ball of [Seaweed] into my mouth.

Were there any poisonous [Essence]?

Maybe.

But I wouldn’t know, would I?

It was mildly depressing, but then, I am used to feeling down all the time.

I resumed the harvesting of [Seaweeds]. Rather than worrying about these questions that I wouldn’t arrive at an answer anytime soon, I might as well focus more on the immediate task of healing up.

Chop, slab, chop, slab, chop, slab, chop, slab, chop, slab.

Eat, let the water out again.

Repeat.

The [Seaweed] slowly began to run out in my immediate vicinity. I ended up slowly circling around the perimeter of the rather spacious cavern, mowing down the rows and clumps of grey plants. My mouth became stained with the flavor of apples as I chomped on more and more [Seaweeds], the taste rapidly getting dull.

Fifteen [Essence] more.

Again, and again.

The counter went up, and up and up.

Three hundred [Essence] as a minimum for a single plate, translating to a hundred strands of [Seaweed].

Food and lives shouldn’t be just numbers, in my opinion. Living beings eat until they are full, kill or harvest to save it for later — but not me. I eat and eat until it all runs out.

Why should I care? I have no ties to anywhere at all.

Human values held none for me.

So I ate and ate and ate.

A hundred strands of [Seaweed] — Why should I stop there? There wasn’t anything that was reliant on these [Essence] anyway. Might as well take advantage of all of it.

…

It was odd how much time you would gain when you no longer require rest. When your muscles never ache, when your throat never parches and all that could tire was your mind, there was suddenly so much more that could be done.

And so much more to be bored of, incidentally. Despite my rather lonesome habits in my previous life and the fact I spent most of my time stuck in a bed trying to stay unconscious, chopping down plants in the middle of somewhere proved to be quickly mentally tiring. One would have expected that doing repetitive tasks would cause one to “zone out” while doing so, but for some unknowable reason my mind refused to wander off and nap, leaving me frustratingly awake with this field of [Seaweed].

It quickly proofed that no matter what I do, it was impossible to stop thinking about the stress-inducing nature of the world around me.

I briefly contemplated about burning down the place and just slurp up the mess later but was quickly dissuaded by the thought of accidentally setting the [Water] on fire as well.

It was like lighting up a match in a dark room that may or may not be filled with leaked gas. By the time you know, you would most probably be dead.

Fucking hell, this is boring.

There is only so much boredom the human psyche could handle without going crazy, after all. Even without a body, I was swiftly feeling lethargic.

By now, I had torn up more than half the cavern, leaving it mildly barren on one side. The other end stayed populated with the [Seaweed], giving not a single crap about me devouring everything in sight.

Frankly, I had absolutely no interest in staying behind in the cave.

The [Seaweed], despite being nourishing, was absolutely a pain to actually eat.

As far as I could perceive, the only exits were either going up or back the tunnel I originally came from. Seeing that the ridiculous currents and air bubbles that kept billowing out from the entrance, I wasn’t feeling exactly thrilled with the prospect of going back to where I came from.

Following that line of thought, I should probably go upward and seek… something. Anything. There should be some other exits somewhere up there, if not…

Oh well, then I’ll probably get stuck for eternity.

Despite my discouraging thoughts, it does offer the prospect of having more varied food than the [Seaweed] I was stuck with. As a person that acts with prudence, I told myself that I should probably exhaust the cave of its [Essence] before moving on. However, I couldn’t help but to find that thought… displeasing.

They don’t fight back though, and they are a reliable source.

…

And it is a safe decision—

Yeah, screw that. I’m going.

My back shivered as a brand new plate sprouted out from my albino flesh, growing up like some cancerous fingernail the size of a tray. As the [Essence] crystals covered up my wound, I immediately felt much safer. I spent a little bit more [Essence] to mend the slight cracks here and there, just to make sure they wouldn’t break off from the smallest bump.

I stretched my jaw and regurgitated the water from my stomach, flexing my various appendages. My fins weren’t damaged from the bumpy ride to this watery hell, which was fortunate since they were already ideally shaped for water travels.

I was conflicted for quite some time. Just what was my purpose? Why do I bother living? What am I seeking?

The answer was simple — surprisingly so.

Entertainment.

It was certainly not enjoyable to spend my second life as a wandering spirit-ghost-thing that could only terrorize all things. I died already once without any expectations, so I really shouldn’t be scared to stop existing and die again.

I had absolutely no idea what awaits me, the potential dangers or riches that I could get, but I hardly cared about the risks.

What I wanted was excitement, I had realized. Being stuck in a bed for years had warped my mentality, stripped me of my will to achieve and wishes to do anything at all.

For years, I had lived without even wishing for anything or doing anything.

All because I was doomed to die.

But now is not then.

I wasn’t burdened with a faulty body, I wasn’t just something waiting to die, controlled by others as they wish. For the first time, I realized that I could live for just myself, that I could set out and do things, achieve things and even simply see things.

I was no longer limited to the world I lived in, stuck in the society of humans, strapped and bound to a bed in the middle of nowhere for nothing.

I am Elisa, I vowed, suddenly breathless without needing to breathe, blood pumping without the ichor to do so. The thought was… sudden and foreign, new.

Even though I might die, but so what? There would always be a road ahead, no matter what I do. As long as I do not behave like a lunatic, recklessly courting death, I would be just like any other.

There would always be uncertainty. There would always be danger wherever I go.

It hardly matters. I could no longer feel tired, so I might as well spend it doing something.

Hold on there, Elisa. That's really close to destructive nihilism. Nothing matters doesn’t mean I should do whatever I want.

But I can.

What happened to being human?

Having morals doesn’t mean being human. Humans are perfectly capable of being jackasses. Besides, I’m just living my second life. There’s no point in following the standard.

I creaked my jaw, my lengthy body tensing up as I stared up at the opening above. The bubbles continued streaming upwards, disappearing without knowing or caring about the turbulent thoughts in my head.

Who cares if nothing makes sense? A bird doesn’t have to understand aerodynamics in order to fly, a fish certainly doesn’t have to care if there exist fishes without scales.

Worrying about things like this were in its nature, highly unproductive. Details weren’t needed.

Take it as it comes, Elisa.

Then, I left again, leaving a trail of disturbed water behind me.