Chapter 96: Fishmen Live Below the Lake

Our plan was simple.

The main point was to catch the Blue Apostle, weaken him mentally and physically, and take his body.

Then, disguise ourselves as heretics and carry out heretic subjugation in the maze below the floor division of the underground city.

And to execute this incredible plan, we first needed to explore the lake district and go down below the floor division.

Splash. Splash.

As we walked on the lake, it sounded like walking in a puddle wearing boots.

It feels strange, like walking on pudding.

“This feeling is strange. It feels like I’m stepping on corpses.”

“Saint, your expression is very much like you..”

The Saint kept stomping on the ground as if fascinated, causing ripples in the water.

The other companions are also amazed at this unfamiliar sensation.

Every time they moved, the surface of the lake rippled.

‘It is fascinating.’

We’re now walking on water through water-walking necklaces and rings.

There’s no other effect, just that we can walk on water while wearing these accessories.

Who would have thought that these accessories, which originally weren’t popular because there was no proper use for them, would now become a hit product that can’t be kept in stock?

Splash-!

“Uwaaak! Fuck!”

“Raphael!”

“That human fell in!”

Raphael fell into the water.

He was jumping around excitedly because it was fun to make the water surface ripple, and ended up falling in.

Come on, he’s not a child.

“Oh. If you jump too hard, you’ll fall in.”

“Oh no..! You should have told me sooner!”

“Well, I didn’t think you’d get so excited.”

“Ugh.. My clothes are all wet. Damn it.”

“Pfft.”

Paramel snickered at Raphael, who looked like a drenched rat.

Then, fiddling with the accessory around his neck, he explained the weakness of the water-walking necklace to Raphael.

“This accessory isn’t omnipotent. If you jump too hard, you’ll fall in, and parts of the body other than the soles of your feet are outside the effect range of water-walking..”

Also, if something from under the water grabs our ankles, we’d have no choice but to be dragged in.

The water-walking accessory isn’t omnipotent. It has clear limitations, and is just a means to move around more efficiently in the lake district.

Whiiing…

Slap-!

“Ow. Bugs.”

“The further in we go, the more bugs there are.”

“From flies to mosquitoes. All the pests have gathered.”

“Paramel. The blessing of insect repellent, please.”

“Yes, yes.”

Paramel chanted a spell and cast the blessing of insect repellent on us.

It’s the same exorcism used to repel skin walkers.

“Now I can breathe a little.”

“It’s good to prepare in advance because we don’t know what diseases these pests might carry.”

With the blessing of insect repellent, it’s definitely better.

It was difficult in many ways with flying insects swarming everywhere, but now it seems more bearable.

Splash.

“Huh?”

“Did anyone else hear that sound just now?”

“What was it?”

While we were standing still for a moment to cast the insect repellent blessing, a sound of splashing water came from somewhere.

Something’s there.

“It’s a monster.”

“Gaze below the water surface, we’ll be dragged in if caught.”

“Porter, do you have any spears?”

“Here they are.”

I distributed spears to the companions. To fight enemies in the water, weapons with the longest reach possible were best.

If they’re what I think they are, they’ll likely try to drag us down from below.

No matter how strong we are, if we’re dragged into the water, we’ll die of suffocation unless we can breathe underwater.

No one here can breathe underwater. We’ll struggle and die.

Plop.

“They’re coming!”

Raphael shouted, seeing water splashing up ahead.

Several shapes swimming towards us in an instant.

“Mermaids!!!”

The native species of the lake district.

Devils below the water surface.

Fishmen approached us.

Fwooosh-!

Raphael and the Saint threw spears at the approaching fishmen.

Befitting the two with the highest combat power among the companions, the thrown spears pierced right through the swimming fishmen, and the fishmen with spears stuck in their bodies floundered in the water and floated to the surface.

“They keep coming!!”

There were quite a lot of them.

I kept supplying throwing spears to the Saint and Raphael, and the two threw spears like they were possessed, turning the fishmen into fish skewers.

“They’re close!”

“Draw your weapons!”

Sasaro and Rosie drew their sword and mace and swung at the fishmen surging up.

Sasaro’s sword deflected the bone harpoons thrown by the fishmen, and Rosie’s mace bashed the body of a fishman trying to throw a net.

Bang!!!!

With a sound like a balloon popping, the upper body of the fishman flew off.

Fish flesh splattered everywhere and blood spread.

As the bloody water seeped into the lake, the fishmen became even more frenzied.

“Hup!!!”

I also thrust my spear below the water surface.

‘Shit..!’

The fishmen dodging here and there.

The ones grazed by the spear opened their mouths wide in anger and reached out towards me.

“You bastards!!!”

I drew a one-handed sword from my inventory and struck down at the fishmen grabbing my calves and ankles.

They clung to me, not caring whether their fingers were cut off or not.

Like water ghosts. As if determined not to go down alone.

The black fish eyes glared at me.

I swung my sword more violently at the unpleasant resonance leaking from their mouths.

“You fuckers!!!”

Even with their arms half-severed and dangling from my sword strikes, the fishmen didn’t let go of me.

I’m being sucked into the water more and more.

What should I do? Pour oil? Would they suffocate and die if I pour industrial oil into these fish bastards’ gills?

It’s the labyrinth anyway. A little environmental destruction should be fine, right?

Splash-!!!

“Are you alright!”

“Yes!”

Just as I was about to take out an oil bottle from my spatial pocket, Rosie quickly ran over and struck down with her mace on the water surface.

A quite heavy shockwave spread through the water, and the two fishmen clinging to my legs seemed to have their brains turned to mush from the impact, spewing blood from their eyes and mouths as they floated up.

“Kyaa!!!”

Once again, water splashed everywhere as fishmen surged up.

This time, Paramel was caught by the fishmen.

“Uwaaah!! You crazy bastards!!! This is so gross!!!!”

Paramel freaked out at the hideous appearance of the fishmen, as if he had seen bugs.

He resisted with all his might, and a fishman’s chest burst from Paramel’s swinging mace.

‘What! He’s strong!’

It’s easy to think Paramel is weak because of his frail appearance, but he is also an inquisitor.

He’s stronger than most adventurers. The skulls of the fishmen clinging to him are being crushed.

Their heads burst like watermelons.

“Looks like we don’t need to help over there.”

Rosie nodded, looking at Paramel.

Even I can see there’s no need to help. Paramel was killing all the approaching fishmen while screaming that they’re disgusting.

“Rosie! Retrieve the spears during this chance. I’ll take care of the corpses.”

“Understood.”

Rosie ran to retrieve the spears thrown by the Saint and Raphael, and I quickly gathered the scattered fishmen corpses and put them into my inventory.

“Take this!!!”

“Kieeee!!!!”

Meanwhile, the upper body of a mermaid trying to throw a bone harpoon at Sasaro’s sword was cut in half.

The face of a fishman grabbing Raphael’s thigh was crushed by the Saint’s kick.

In an instant, dozens of mermaids were killed, and their corpses floated all over the lake surface.

The lake water is turning red as it’s dyed with blood. It’s about time we should get out of here.

“Everyone else, quickly remove and retrieve the spears from the corpses! And push the corpses towards me!”

From now on is when it really gets urgent.

We needed to get as far away from here as possible.

Why, you ask?

‘They’ll swarm in after smelling the blood spread in the water.’

It’s one of the characteristics of mermaids. Smelling blood spread in water.

Olivia told me they have a very keen sense of smell for blood.

It was also written in the Monster Dissection Manual. So we needed to leave the battle scene soon.

If we delay any longer, the fishmen will probably gather in droves.

“I’ve got all the corpses! Let’s run!”

We ran.

There were quite a few abandoned buildings in the lake district too, and we decided to catch our breath for a moment in one of the stilt houses that looked relatively intact.

“Phew…”

“It’s chaos over there.”

“Can you see that far from here?”

“Yes. I can see it. My goodness.”

The Saint with good eyesight marveled as she looked at the place we had fled from.

It seems the fishmen drawn by the smell of blood are flapping about like a school of fish.

“So this is why we were told to avoid fighting as much as possible.”

“I didn’t know so many would gather from the smell of blood.”

I added one horrifying fact to Sasaro and Paramel’s words.

“If it gets worse over there, the ones at the bottom of the lake will crawl up too.”

“The bottom of the lake, you say?”

“Yes.”

Even the inquisitors don’t know much about the lake district.

It’s a new district that appeared after the great cataclysm, after all.

So the inquisitors didn’t have much information about the lake district.

Even the underground city conquest teams didn’t come in much because the environmental factors of the lake district were too harsh.

“Yes. There are three particularly dangerous monsters among those living at the bottom of the lake.”

If there were wild dogs and wolves in the plaza district, here there are aquatic monsters.

This is information obtained by cross-referencing Olivia and the Monster Dissection Manual.

“First, there’s the man-eating catfish. It’s called a Bore Fish, and it comes up at an incredibly fast speed and swallows a person in one bite.”

“What an absurd thing.”

“That’s not all. Leaving out the small monsters, there are two more big ones left.”

The likes of Garum, Harti, and Gulun in the plaza district were types that overwhelm with numbers.

But the lake district has fewer in number, but each one is as strong as a mid-boss.

“Besides the Bore Fish, there’s the Kraken and the Killer Turtle.”

In addition to the Bore Fish that quickly swallows adventurers and drags them underwater to suffocate them, there are large threats called the Kraken and the Killer Turtle.

“The Kraken is a gigantic octopus. It grabs adventurers with its 8 tentacle legs and drags them in. While the Bore Fish quickly bites and drags you in, this one slowly pulls you in with tentacles that are hard to shake off.”

“It’s over if you get caught.”

“What about the Killer Turtle?”

“It’s like a wolf turtle. There were records of it having incredibly strong jaw power. I wonder if you’d be split in half if it bites you?”

“Um, Saint. It seems too dangerous here…”

“But going down from here is the fastest way.”

“Ah….”

Paramel made a sad face, saying the level of the monsters was too high.

It can’t be helped. To deal with this quickly, finding a way down below the floor division from the lake district is the fastest.

“The commotion seems to have died down a bit. Let’s move again.”

We left the stilt house.

We finished regrouping during the short rest.

“Is anything showing up on the map?”

“Nothing much yet.”

I’m continuously scanning the surroundings with mapping, but no special buildings are visible.

There’s nothing special except for the stilt house we just hid in.

‘Should we go deeper?’

Maybe we should.

We have to keep moving around. Until something shows up.

“There! There’s something!”

After wandering around for about 4 more hours, we were finally able to discover a building that looked like something.

It was somewhat different from the dilapidated stilt houses we had encountered until now.

It’s a stone building. An abandoned building that gives the feeling of a historical site.

We carefully approached the unidentified building scanned by the map creation.

“This is…”

A cathedral half-submerged in water and collapsed.

Inside were iron cages for imprisoning sinners.

And in those iron cages, an unimaginable being was waiting for us.

“Hey there, adventurers. Won’t you let me out? Croak.”

Eyes that you can’t tell where they’re looking.

Green skin so shiny it looks like it’s been oiled.

And round fingertips with a flicking tongue.

“Is this a curse of deformation?”

“Well, you could say it’s similar. Croak.”

That guy isn’t cursed. It’s originally that kind of species.

‘Frogman.’

We encountered the Frogman, one of only two neutral NPCs in the underground city.