68. Underwater Exploration

68. Underwater Exploration

“Uwaaang!!”

Even though I could breathe, didn’t feel cold, and my fur wasn’t getting wet, sinking deep into the water was still terrifying.

The water’s color, turning a deep blue that hurt my eyes, and the distance from the surface, which was slowly increasing, pressed down on me.

Most of all, the fact that my body wouldn’t float up no matter what I did was the part that filled me with the most fear.

It felt like I was making an irreversible choice, and even seeing the fish swimming beautifully and the clams clacking on the bottom only made me scared. I couldn’t feel at ease even as the bottom drew closer.

My feet touched the ground, and the sound of splashing echoed muffledly. Dust swirled up in the water.

“Hoo…!”

Looking up at the sky, I realized anew how incredibly deep I had fallen. No matter how hard I jumped, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to get back up there.

The surrounding scenery was the same. Everywhere I looked was just blue, making me feel like I had fallen alone into a blue world.

I’m suffocating.

Although the magic prevented me from actually having trouble breathing, I felt a psychological tightness in my chest. My heart pounded, and my breathing became rapid. My tail also stiffened.

I should have learned to swim beforehand.

As a wolf that lives only on land, I never thought I’d have a reason to go into the water.

I resent my past self for avoiding water because I hated getting my tail wet.

“Kkang!”

“S-Seol-gu!”

At that moment, a face so foolish it blew away all my fear, a white, fluffy, and cheerfully soft ball of fur, appeared before me. I almost fell over from the sudden appearance.

Seol-gu, swimming skillfully, soon approached me and then turned around, offering his tail.

It meant, ‘Grab me.’

I reached out and grasped Seol-gu’s tail.

The moment his tail was gripped by my two paws, Seol-gu swam forward, vigorously paddling his short front legs. At the same time, my body finally floated up in the water.

“Wow…!”

Seol-gu swam effortlessly even with me clinging to his tail. When Seol-gu moved up, I moved up too, and when Seol-gu spun around doing tricks, I also spun with him, complaining of dizziness.

The sensation of freely swimming through the water was astonishingly strange. This lake, which had been pressing and oppressing me just moments ago, now felt like it had completely become my domain.

It felt like I could go anywhere like this. Of course, I could only follow Seol-gu, but that’s metaphorically speaking.

Seol-gu headed towards Uncle Polar Bear, who was swimming above.

“Uncle! What are you eating?”

“Fish. Want some?”

“Ah, no.”

Uncle was catching a fish and chewing it with a crunch. Eating it raw the moment he caught it was a bit… grotesque.

I turned my head away from Uncle and looked around.

The sight of fish swimming freely amidst the blue water. It felt strange to think that I was at the same altitude as the fish.

As a small fish that looked like a goldfish swam by, I reached out and poked it.

“Hee hee….”

The goldfish, startled by my touch, instantly disappeared far away. Perhaps because it’s at the bottom of the food chain, its speed is comparable to a wolf running on land.

After a very short time, from the direction the goldfish had disappeared, another goldfish, looking very angry, began to charge at me.

I briefly wondered if it was the mother of the previous goldfish, but as it got closer, I was stunned by the gradually increasing size of the goldfish.

It’s a super giant goldfish!!

“S-Seol-gu!! We have to run!”

“Kkang?”

“Quickly!!”

I pulled Seol-gu’s tail. Seol-gu tilted his head and looked back at me, but then, seeing the approaching super giant goldfish, he started swimming in surprise.

However, the distance from the enraged goldfish showed no signs of increasing. In fact, it was getting closer.

No matter how good Seol-gu’s swimming skills were, he was still a land animal, and moreover, with me as a burden on his back, it was impossible to escape.

“Seol-gu, faster…!! Hiiik!!”

“Kkae-aeng!”

Soon, the goldfish was right in front of us. It was bigger than us.

“Ugh!!”

The goldfish, filled with rage and snarling, swung its tail wildly the moment it caught up to us, hitting me repeatedly. I flailed my arms and legs to resist as much as I could, but it was no use.

Finally, the goldfish’s anger subsided after I was slapped about ten more times.

“Kkae-aeng….”

My cheek hurts. My tail and head are also a mess. Sister worked so hard to brush them….

I weakly clung to Seol-gu’s tail and returned to Uncle Polar Bear. I’m already exhausted, and I haven’t even seen a trace of the mechanical monster yet.

“Ugh… If I were an adult wolf, I would have caught a goldfish like that long ago… Huk!”

The moment a complaint escaped me due to the hard work, I quickly covered my mouth. But the stone had already heard the word ‘wolf’ that I uttered, and accordingly, the magic began to weaken.

I could feel the oxygen escaping.

“Kkang kkang kkang kkang kkang! Seol-gu, you do it too!!”

“Kkang?”

“Good job!!”

But fortunately, thanks to my quick action, the stone regained its strength. I sat on Seol-gu and let out a sigh of relief, “Hoo.”

My goodness, this stone is too demanding. It’s good that I can use magic, but it’s a pain that I can’t even say ‘wolf’ when I’m a wolf.

Uncle, who had finished eating, asked.

“So, what do we do now?”

“We have to catch the mechanical worm.”

“That steel eel?”

“Yes! Whether it’s a steel eel, a mechanical worm, or a spider, anything!”

The name doesn’t matter. What matters is that those machines are eating away at the North Pole, and we have to stop them.

Uncle scratched his head.

“Can you even catch it? Even hitting it with full force just dents it.”

“We can use magic! … Probably.”

I’ve caught wyverns, but I’ve never caught a mechanical worm, so I’m not sure. However, it must be possible, because Seol-gu brought me here.

I gently moved forward holding Seol-gu’s tail and then petted Seol-gu’s head. Even underwater, Seol-gu’s body was very fluffy.

“Kkang kkang.”

Seol-gu let out a pleased cry.

… By the way, where is the worm?

I looked around. The lake is wide and deep, but even so, it’s not so large that I wouldn’t see a giant mechanical worm.

However, there was nothing here that could be considered a worm. Even though I could guess it was around here, considering the red laser just shot out from here.

“Down there.”

“Down where?”

Where Uncle pointed was… the bottom of the lake. Looking closely, there was a huge vertical tunnel dug there!

“Huk….”

A tunnel so deep that the end was invisible from here. It was such an artificial terrain that anyone could tell the worm had gone in there.

“When I hit it once, it ran in there. I don’t know how far it went.”

“Then we should go down there!”

There’s no reason to waste time here. Thinking about it, I came to Uncle Polar Bear’s house on an errand, so if I go home too late, Sister will surely worry. So I need to hurry.

If I successfully defeat the machine here, my heroic tales to tell Sister will increase. This time, I even swam freely in the water, so she’ll surely be even more surprised.

And not just Sister. Yura and Yuri, who are probably playing at their house right now, will surely be incredibly surprised when they hear my story.

They’ll probably grab me and beg me to let them go into the water too!

I can clearly picture my friends clinging to me, wagging their small, delicate wolf tails.

And in the center of it all is me, the magnificent wolf Rang Seol-ah!

-Rumble!

“Hiiik!”

As I chuckled and fell into a state of grand self-admiration, a huge vibration echoed from below. The fish swimming leisurely were startled and fled.

-Rumble, rumble….

The vibration sound grew fainter and smaller. It seemed to be moving elsewhere, so I felt the need to hurry.

“Seol-gu!”

“Kkang!”

I tapped Seol-gu’s tail, signaling him to go forward. Then Seol-gu, with me clinging to him, swam forward with all his might.

“Let’s go, into the deep sea!”

“It’s a lake here.”

… Ah, right.

It was so big I mistook it for the sea. I touched my cheeks, which had turned red with embarrassment, and corrected myself.

“… Let’s go, into the deep lake!”

Uncle Polar Bear and we slowly began to enter the tunnel. Even here at the bottom of the lake, it was incredibly deep, and the thought of going even deeper made me feel strangely tense.

But for some reason, my tail has been feeling a little ticklish since a while ago.

It feels like something is gently tapping my tail. Is it because we’re underwater?

No matter how much I shake my tail, this strange sensation doesn’t disappear. It’s bothering me.

“What keeps tapping my tail….”

I finally looked back and was surprised to see a school of fish following us.

From small ones to larger ones, without discrimination, they were all circling around my tail and following us.

It’s like….

Like fish drawn to bait.

“My tail isn’t food! Go away!!”

I shook my tail vigorously to shake off the fish.

Even at this moment, we were descending into the endless vertical tunnel.