I thought I was gonna die.
I’ve thought that several times since I came to The Abyss, but every time I bump into these Earth crust moving class kaiju, I feel like my existence itself will be blown away.
I don’t know how the three-way kaiju battle turned out, but while the sea turtle seemed to really want to kill me after regenerating, it couldn’t ignore the other two, so it took its attention off me.
Then I somehow managed to get away… Or rather, I got caught in the shocks of this battle and got blown far away.
I grabbed Fuuma and created a shelter, but the intense force made me pass out.
I woke up near a river.
Fuuma is next to me, and the loser of the kaiju battle.
It’s that giant sea turtle shell.
It has no eyes, or life.
Mister turtle? Did you lose again?
This sight that feels like a rehash from last time gives me a headache, but I use Limit Break Burst to attack with magic, and put it back in my Storage Space.
Just in case.
I don’t want it regenerating again. I don’t have any more magic potions.
In any case, I eat when Fuuma wakes up, and wonder where to go.
I see a big river in front of me, and a vast grassy area behind me.
The flow of the river is gentle, but it’s so wide that I can’t see the other shore. Just the horizon.
I look at Fuuma, asking where to go, and it points to the river.
I ask why, and it gestures that it wants to eat fish.
No no, they’ll be monsters of this place, so we don’t know if we can eat them.
Even if there are fish, they could be poisonous.
What? We have to go because we’re low on food?
It’s true, it’s getting to be like that.
I bought a lot before entering the dungeon, so I should be good for three months. And I hunted enough sky fighting fowl and mirage great snakes that I should have enough for half a year.
We’ve been eating a lot in each meal, and I also don’t know how long we’ve been here.
Since I can’t tell by day and night, I have no way to know. I just know that if I make it to the surface, I’ll see a lot of time has passed.
But not seeing an end in sight is taking a toll on my mind.
If I don’t make it back… If I end like that…
The image of that person who died just like that appears in my mind.
Let’s stop that. I shake my head to shake off that image.
Let’s stop thinking and move forward.
It’s all I can do.
I can’t say I’m sick of exploring grassy fields, but I feel like I won’t find anything no matter how much I explore, so I think I’ll cross the river.
I get on Fuuma, and run over the river with Wind Magic.
The horizon goes on forever.
It flows like a river, but it feels wide like an ocean.
We jumped onto this river that’s like an ocean without thinking about it, but if we don’t reach the shore, or if there is no shore, we might end up feeding the fish.
And just as I’m thinking that, something jumps from the water. It’s a carp big enough to swallow a person whole.
I use Wind Magic to cut the carp monster coming at us with its mouth open, and reach out to put it in the Storage Space.
But I feel something buzzing, and pull away.
The next moment, something like a black line finely chops the carp I cut.
All that’s left is an undulating black line.
It looks like a parasite, swings itself at us, and then falls.
Well, we’re in the air. You’re not going to reach us unless you can also move in the air, jump this high, or use a long range attack.
A lot of water splashes where we passed. I’m sure it’s the parasite raging.
I knew there were fish monsters in this river, but apparently they can have parasites like on the surface. And big ones.
I can’t eat this. Even if I boil them, I won’t be able to tell if the parasite eggs are dead, especially since they’re monsters. It could destroy my stomach the moment I eat them.
I tell Fuuma that’s too bad, and it snorts like it’s saying we don’t know yet, and goes back to flying low.
It’s doing that to bait the fish in the river.
The water is very clear. Still, we can’t see the bottom, so I don’t know how deep this is. I don’t want to check it or touch it either.
Even if we don’t have a lot of food, we still have plenty of water. I can create more with a magic circle, and I have that flower vase that generates it using not much magic energy.
So water isn’t a problem.
So there’s no need to pull up water.
Like the sky and river are reversing, a lot of water flows into the air. It goes up far enough that it feels like it will literally touch the sky, and it tries to bring us down.
I activate Enlarge, amplify, and Maintain magic circles to create a particularly large tornado with Wind Magic.
The big tornado clashes with the large amount of water, and sends the river going up flying.
The monsters in the river bare their fangs, but Fuuma sends its chakram at it to rip them apart, and sturdy magic to deflect their path.
All right, we got through this river surge.
I think just before another wave comes.
I’m late to deal with this one, and it engulfs us.
I sink deeper and deeper as I tailspin. I almost lose consciousness, but keep it together with Limit Break Burst.
I infuse the greatsword of fortitude with magic energy as hard as I can, and swing towards where I see a bit of light. A lot of water is cut aside.
Oxygen comes down, and I take one breath, before grabbing Fuuma, whose eyes are spinning, and use Wind Magic to propel us high.
This is bad. This isn’t a normal river.
I want at least the field to be normal, but it’s like the river is self-aware and wants to kill me.
I cough in the air, spitting out the water I swallowed.
I also hit Fuuma on the back, and it regains consciousness after vomiting water.
I pulled us up high just to be safe, but the river stretches back up to grab us again.
I’m not fighting that, I think as Fuuma runs away at a mad speed. I know it just woke up, but I have to rely on Fuuma’s speed. After all, the river is starting to reach up in other places too.
It’s going up all over to encircle us, and even if we go higher, the river follows.
Dammit, I think as I grind my teeth and look around, but all I see is a flat world.
The endless blue sky and the vast landscape I can finally see.
Up until this point, I’ve seen hazy sights and rugged mountains that I thought were like dead ends on this floor.
Those aren’t here. Or maybe they are, but I can’t see them.
Fuuma keeps dashing with Wind Magic.
It just keeps trying to break through this danger, regardless of my surprise.
Yes, if we don’t cross the river, there’s no point in thinking about The Abyss.
I infuse the greatsword of fortitude with magic energy, and hold it up.
The river is already coming from all directions, and even if we go higher, it’s now going up faster than us.
There’s no point in going higher, so we charge at the river to kick everything around.
“Limit Break Burst.”
I call out my full power, Fuuma neighs, and it’s painted gold.
I send a projectile slash towards that enormous amount of water, and split it in two. But soon new water rises.
But Fuuma is now even faster, so it runs through before it swallows us.
One, two, three, we push through them all and accelerate more, leaving sound in the dust.
If we can land, we can say goodbye to this river.
I can faintly see land far away, so we keep running. Fuuma keeps using a lot of magic energy, but we should be able to just barely make it.
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