Chapter 363: Deep Undersea (Unedited)

Francine stood on the Island of Beginnings’ northern coast, her eyes gazing at the sea. The mission was for her to bring Luaid to somewhere undersea. Not only did she need to travel on the sea, but she also had to dive underwater. This was not to mention that even Luaid only roughly knew the location, not an exact spot.

The ocean was vast, but they didn’t know where their target was staying. The quest of finding a single person undersea was no different than looking for a needle in a haystack.

“Forgive me, Savior. I’m so useless. If His Majesty is here, he will be able to locate the target in no time,” Luaid said with a sad expression. He regretted not training his psychic abilities in the area of searching.

“It’s okay. I’m sorry I can’t be of much help either.” Francine was a monster expert. She might be able to pull it off if the quest was for her to search for a hidden monster. However, Luaid said that this evil sorcerer belonged to the human race.

“How about we enter the sea first?” Francine suggested. “Maybe we can find him by chance.”

Luaid nodded, though he inwardly thought that things wouldn’t be so easy. Their opponent was the King of Spells. It was highly likely that the man had erected another kind of domain to conceal his power and his presence. They might not notice the man even if they swim past him.

“How are we going underwater, ya?”

Francine held Quasar with two arms. “It’s fortunate that Qua-chan is here, or it will be very troublesome otherwise.”

“...” Quasar said nothing in response.

“Are you okay, Qua-chan? Are you feeling unwell?” Francine sensed Quasar’s worry.

“I’m not. It’s just that the undersea is not safe. You should abort this mission if possible. It’s no different from throwing away our lives.”

Francine was doubtful. In the regard of sensing incoming dangers, psychic-type is usually the best. However, Quasar—who was a magic-type—declared that the undersea was dangerous while she and Luaid felt nothing unusual.

“Aren’t you thinking too much?” asked Francine. “Our role is just to find the person and disturb his spellcasting. There is no need to fight.”

Quasar sighed. “You people don’t see ambient mana like I do. What we’re going to encounter is not someone who we can meet up and simply return. That guy is dangerous... extremely dangerous...”

Fluffy snorted while looking at Quasar with contempt. Since their minds were connected, the girl could sense that the rabbit was mocking her, telling she was a coward.

“You can say that because you don’t see what I am seeing!” Quasar shouted. “The range of his Mana Tempest Mastery reaches this far! He is undoubtedly at Emperor Rank. Just his magic arrows are probably enough to kill us several times.”

Magic type focuses on skills, so there are a great number of them. Mana Tempest Mastery is one of the eight ultimate passive magic-type skills, which every mage in the Monster Realm always possesses at least one of them. Their names consist of Mana Radiance Mastery (Light), Mana Shadow Mastery (Dark), Mana Tempest Mastery (Wind), Mana Terra Mastery (Earth), Mana Blaze Mastery (Fire), Mana Torrent Mastery (Water), Mana Glacial Mastery (Ice), and Mana Shock Mastery (Lightning). These skills are useless on their own, but they can greatly enhance the user’s abilities to use their spells. Quasar, too, possessed one of them, namely Mana Torrent Mastery. Though her skill level was nowhere near Kritsana’s.

Mana Tempest Mastery extends the effective range of other spells cast by the user. The fact that the King of Spells could cast spells from such a long distance helped Quasar to discern that the level of his Mana Tempest Mastery must be above 70 but less than 100.

As far as Quasar knew, God was the only being in the Monster Realm who possessed the Mana Tempest Mastery skill at level 100. Not even other archangels had ever reached this level. At level 100, Mana Tempest Mastery allows the user to aim their spells across dimensions, though whether they can see their targets or not is up to their techniques. It is a very fraudulent power against an opponent who can’t travel across dimensions, especially qi-types who tend to be helpless against long-distance attacks. Still, these eight Mana Mastery skills are insanely difficult to level up. They tend to stop improving at level 90.

It wasn’t that Quasar could see through Kritsana’s strength, however. It’s just that both of them are magic-types, so she could more or less gauge her opponent’s strength just by judging his supporting skills.

From Quasar’s perspective, she witnessed ambient mana being pulled toward the deepsea at an astonishing rate. This level of magic power consumption implied that the spells he was casting were tremendously powerful. Being able to cast such spells indicated how mighty the spellcaster was.

Even before Quasar had encountered this opponent, and even when she had never met him, she was fully aware that she wasn’t his match.

Francine could sense heavy fear in Quasar’s heart. What Quasar feared the most was none other than death. Although her current status was a pet, meaning she would revive even if she died, she was still afraid. She dreaded the feeling of desperation when she was losing her breath, which connected her to her experience in Hell. It was the death that brought her to that hellish place, so she wouldn’t risk herself to attempt a suicide mission.

Fleeing is not a crime. For Quasar, the term “Savior” was a terminology to call a fool who walks into death while overestimating oneself.

“In that case, Qua-chan, you don’t have to participate. Just guide us. You can enter the seal when we’re close to the target.”

“I don’t have to fight? Am I allowed?” Quasar was doubtful. In her world, there were only either ‘using others’ or ‘being used’. There had never been a third option.

Francine nodded. “I won’t force you.”

“...” Quasar pondered for a few seconds. “Fine, then. When we reach to where I’m uncomfortable with, I will tell you the direction one last time, and you have to seal me immediately.”

Quasar had heard that humans possessed some kind of fraudulent ability that prevented them from going to Hell, so she understood why Francine wasn’t afraid of death.

“Okay! First things first, please use Eclipse Scale Mana Shell on me,” requested Francine. She was different from Sila. As soon as she got a new pet, she would thoroughly study it and its skills, sometimes asking it to demonstrate them. This kind of information is of utmost importance to a monster tamer like her.

Quasar drew her hand, transforming Francine’s clothes into a one-piece swimsuit with blackfish scales pattern. Eclipse Scale Mana Shell increases the wearer’s dark resistance to 75% and allows them to inherit some abilities from Quasar—such as seeing in the dark or breathing underwater.

“Can’t it be another outfit?” Francine asked as she looked at herself in a swimwear, embarrassed.

“Just get it over with.” Quasar was uninterested.

Since there was nothing she could do, Francine shifted her gaze to Luaid, who was now sitting on her palm. “Slimes are vulnerable to seawater. Fortunately, you are a psychic-type like me, so we can rely on my Unleash the Monster special skill. I’m going to seal you inside the bracelet, okay?”

Unleash the Monster is a special skill exclusive for psychic-types. It allows the user to activate the skills of their psychic-type pets directly from a pet-sealing accessory of A Grade or higher, though the number of times that she can use the pet's skills is limited.

At Francine’s current level, she could activate the pet’s skills for five times. After that, she would have to let her pet stay outside for at least a day for her to use its skills in this manner again.

“Roger, ya.”

“Seal Luaid.”

Luaid’s body was absorbed into Francine’s bracelet. Witnessing so, Quasar made an annoyed expression.

“Hang on. You only have two bracelets, don’t you? This rabbit surely can’t swim. You have to leave one open for me, remember?”

Francine only had two A-Grade pet-keeping bracelets on her. She rarely paid attention to the lower grades since their abilities were quite bad. Now that she had three pets, however, she had no choice but to let at least one of them outside until she found another A-grade pet-keeping item.

“I do, Qua-chan.” Francine smiled. After looking around and found that there were no one else besides them, she reached her hand to touch Fluffy, her only Lord Rank monster who also had the maximum Affection Level toward her. She activated her ultimate skill.

“Monster Fusion.” Muttering the skill name, Fluffy turned into a beam, merging with her body. The only change in her appearance was that she now had bunny ears protruded out of her head.

“Ah... I look just like a bunny girl.” She looked at her current appearance—a bunny girl in one-piece—and found that it was very eye-catching.

She tried using Qi Circulation and felt coldness running through her veins. Opening her palm, a few white snowflakes were dancing on it.

“I can stay like this for only half an hour. Hopefully, we will find the target before the time runs out.”

Monster Fusion is a high-tier special skill. With it, Francine could seal her pets into her body. She would temporarily gain stats and skills of the pets sealed this way. Additionally, the gained stats would increase by 20% for each additional pet sealed inside her. The main drawback of the skill is that her health points and psychic points would stay the same despite the increase in other stats. She might found qi circulation was an easy thing to do, but it was actually thanks to Fluffy’s Qi Circulation skill being very high. She possessed neither monster’s learning instinct nor proficiency to make use of her pet’s skills. Her control over the new skills was bound to be poor, so it was entirely possible for the fusion to diminish user’s overall strength instead. Also, dying in this state would result in her pet dying with her.

Francine’s understanding of the Monster Fusion skill was still developing. When used it on a qi-type pet like Fluffy, if she managed to find a method to let it circulate qi that had the property of increasing the maximum values of health points and qi points, she would partially benefit from the permanent increase of them.

“Follow me closely.” Quasar jumped into the sea. Francine slowly submerged her legs into the water and got a peculiar feeling. The sea was comfortably cool while the air seemed too dry to her taste. Once she dived into the sea, she felt excited. It was like her body was being embraced by tenderness. She guessed this must be what a fish feels when it is in the water.

She could see in underwater despite the darkness. She kicked the water, trying to follow Quasar. However, her swimming speed was poor. On the other hand, Quasar seemed to be exceptionally fast, her movements were also smooth.

“Don’t swim using a land animal’s manner.” Quasar knew what Francine was thinking. “Moving only a little is enough. You are under the effect of my Mana Shell, so you should be able to do it. Let yourself flow with the torrent. Imagine you’re a fish.”

Quasar relied on the principle of levitation. Francine was a psychic-type, so she didn’t have any experience levitating. Fortunately for her, Quasar’s power worked great in water, and swimming in the sea is naturally easier than floating in the air. Thus, after putting in some efforts, plus using Psychic Impact to push herself forward, she eventually learned how to swim like a fish.

You have gotten a new special skill: Flow Reading.

After acquiring the special skill, her movements became noticeably faster. She was suddenly aware of sea currents flowing past her. The skill would allow her to feel the air currents as well. It is one of the important skills for a strategist, providing various utilities when using together with other skills.

In any case, Francine was only short on one skill learned from monsters for her to acquire the Monster Heir special skill.

Quasar stopped swimming and pointed her finger at the deepest part of the ocean. “Head that way. That spot is where mana flows and gathers. The spellcaster is here.”

With the power she obtained from Quasar’s Mana Shell, Francine saw an elderly man sitting on the floor at the bottom of the ocean with his eyes closed. A mage staff rested on his lap.

“It’s still not too late to change your mind. As soon as you dive further, you will enter his magic domain. He will immediately sense your arrival,” warned Quasar.

“Blub blub blub.” It seemed Quasar was the only one capable of talking underwater. Francine realized it once she tried to thank the girl.

Bubbles of air gently came out of her mouth, but that was enough for the detection spell—which Kritsana had cast around him—to detect an anomaly. The old man abruptly opened his eyes, gazing at Francine.

A part of mana in the water formed itself into a blue magic arrow, which was difficult to spot underwater. The lone arrow pointed at the invader since it was enough to put a player to death.

The magic arrow was still in the casting process. Kritsana had yet to select a target, so neither Francine nor Luaid were aware of the danger. Given the speed of Kritsana’s spell, Francine’s life would already be taken before she could react.

When elite spellcasters clash, they can rely on their abilities to see ambient mana to observe its response to the spells being active or cast. With this approach, they can guess which skills their opponents are going to use.

Quasar was capable of interpreting the changes in ambient mana, so she immediately sensed the magic arrow before Kritsana released the spell. Beside the old spellcaster, she was the only one making a move. She wanted to yell at Francine, calling the woman “Stupid girl!” but there was no time to say even a word.

Quasar quickly bumped into Francine as the magic arrow shot forward. Confused, Francine and Luaid shifted their gazes toward the little girl and spotted a fist-sized hole on her face.

Her body broke apart and became a group of black blood, dyeing a part of the ocean black before slowly fading away. Another magic arrow flew toward Francine. This time, however, Luaid was ready for it. He activated Psychic Manipulation through the bracelet, diverting the path of the arrow.

Kritsana was currently using many high-tier spells in conjunction, so he was unable to unleash his full power. He had thought of a countermeasure against uninvited guests beforehand, however. He activated an item skill attached on one of the eight rings he wore.

Each of the eight rings possessed a rare magic-type item skill that Kritsana couldn’t normally cast, so the skill was strengthened by his Art of Magic, becoming three times more powerful than it should have been.

“Spirit Slave.” A large translucent lifeform emerged from mana. Kritsana knocked his mage staff on it, changing its color to light blue. Fish scales appeared on its skin while its hands became webbed like those of a frog. The size of its body doubled. Water-element magic particles swirling around it.

There was no need for instructions. It dashed through the sea, heading toward Francine.

The item skill, Spirit Slave, is the spell to manifest a magical being called Djinn, who exists to protect its master and eliminate their threats. The first attack that it receives, which doesn’t need to be magic-based—it can be either physical, qi, or psychic power—will determine its foundation. It will absorb that attack, letting the attack become its power. From then on, it will recover its health and power every time it takes a hit from the same kind of power.

Most of the time, Kritsana would use it as a shield, blocking an enemy’s attack. For example, if his opponent slashed Djinn with a sword made of psychic power, he would get the psychic-based Djinn. The more it was hit by psychic power, the higher its recovery rate, greatly limiting his opponent’s actions and giving him time to cast other spells.

This time, however, Kritsana exploited the environment, hitting his Djinn with a water-element attack. Thus, it became a water-based Djinn. As long as it stayed underwater, its power would constantly recover.

Spirit Slave is an S-grade item skill that comes with a couple of downsides. Firstly, Djinn is extremely vulnerable to the element that it is weak against. Secondly, one can only summon a single Djinn at one point of time. Though Kritsana could actually summon four of them simultaneously if he relied on the Arch-Mage Staff. Unfortunately for him, his focus was on the Slime Kingdom, so he was unable to withdraw the mage staff from casting main spells.

Francine’s Psychic Sensory sensed that Djinn’s level of power was superior to even Fluffy’s, her strongest pet. No wonder Kritsana didn’t bother moving from his spot.

Because this Djinn alone was enough to annihilate her team.

Francine was made to remind the absolute logic of the world: The strong devours the weak.

The world has been that way, and will always be.

The sight of the King of Spells, who refused to spare her another glance, was comparable to the King in a chessboard. The most important piece in the game of chess. His existence alone decides the fate of the whole army. Meanwhile, the light blue Djinn represented the Queen, the strongest piece who can crush small fries like them to bits as easily as moving away from its position.

‘We’re just mere pawns, aren’t we...?’

“That was close.” The voice of someone who should have died rang out.

Quasar, in her blackfish form, swam next to Francine. Seeing the human’s confused expression, she explained.

“My human form was just a shell made from my magic power. It’s not my physical body. That arrow missed me, stupid girl.”

“It’s okay if we’re just pawns, Savior.” Luaid ignored the fact that Quasar was alive. His brain was fully active, searching for a way to obtain a victory. He encouraged Francine, “Lord Divine told me that even a pawn can be superior to the Queen if it is in the right position.”

“Heh. Don’t group me with the likes of you.” Seeing Luaid ignoring her, Quasar was upset. “At the very least, I would be a Bishop.”