Chapter 129: 129

“Let’s scout around first,” Yan said as he picked up his harpoon.

The innermost part of the island was quite far away from its shore. Apart from that, it seemed impossible for them to swim toward land from the shore due to the heavy rain and waves.

“Ah, dammit… What the hell is this? Getting shipwrecked on an island in a river? It’s not as if we’re at sea or anything,” Henrick grumbled.

Yan replied, “There are a lot of people who get shipwrecked or swept away by the river. It happens pretty frequently on a river as large as the Cayman River.”

“Like your father?” Henrick replied.

Puek!

Yan’s eyes widened in shock.

Henrick’s face crumpled as Shaneth elbowed him, rubbing his stomach and muttering, “I deserved that just now.”

“Please be careful with your words,” Shaneth said.

Then, Rick suddenly spoke up. “I want to hit Henrick too.”

“What?” Henrick replied, scrunching his eyebrows and glaring down at Rick.

There was a sinister look in the little girl’s eyes as she moved her tiny hands toward Henrick’s stomach and said, “I want to cut your stomach open and touch your organs.”

“…This is driving me crazy,” Henrick grumbled, then quickly stuffed Rick into his summoning box.

Rick’s mental state was clearly deteriorating. Henrick rubbed his chin and muttered, “This… I might be murdered by my own doll at this rate…”

“You have to stabilize her mental state,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

Henrick continued rubbing his chin and asked, “How am I supposed to do that? You do know that the way I speak is more likely to result in mental disturbance than mental stabilization… Right?”

“Lullaby,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Isn’t there something else aside from that…?” Henrick asked.

“Love,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Why is it all so extreme…” Henrick grumbled.

“It doesn’t have to be the kind of love between a man and a woman,” Kang Yoon-Soo added.

Rick was a strong doll, but it was difficult to maintain her mental state. She could go crazy depending on her mood, even if someone looked after her as if she were their own child. It could be said that Henrick was an awful match for her.

“I actually wanted to ask this a long time ago. Ahjussi, are you confident you can take care of Rick?” Shaneth asked.

“Take care? Is she my daughter or something? Why are you asking me that?” Henrick grumbled in response.

“But still, she’ll go crazy if you leave her be. Please look after her like your own daughter,” Shaneth said.

“A real parent would raise their kid to be strong and tough. Don’t you think so?” Henrick asked.

“No way! Who does that?” Shaneth exclaimed.

“My mother and my father,” Henrick replied.

“…”

“I roamed around the continent at a young age thanks to my amazing parents,” Henrick added.

Yan stared in amazement at them before saying, “What a strange conversation you’re having. I don’t think your journey will be boring at all, at least.”

“It’s too eventful to ever be boring. That’s the problem,” Henrick grumbled.

There was a small forest on the island. Its ground was covered in moss, and large, coarse ferns grew all around the area.

Yan looked around, inspecting the nearby bushes, and found a round bluish fruit. He said, “This is an airdrop fruit. It’s quite rare to find one of these.”

“Airdrop fruit…?” Shaneth asked.

Yan nodded and gently squeezed the fruit.

Shwiik…!

What emerged from the fruit after it was squeezed was not its juice, but rather a burst of air. The stream of air lasted for quite some time, even though the fruit was not particularly large.

“There’s air coming out of the fruit?” Shaneth exclaimed in amazement.

“It’s only a small fruit, but it contains a surprisingly large amount of air. That’s why it’s considered a golden fruit among divers, because they can dive and breathe underwater as long as they have one in their mouth,” Yan explained.

He then pointed up at a tree with dark leaves. There were dozens of airdrop fruits hanging from its branches, but it was so tall that it hurt the party members’ necks just to look up at it.

Yan looked a bit disappointed as he said, “It’s a rare fruit, but unfortunately, it’s hanging too high up.”

Kang Yoon-Soo stabbed his sword into a birch tree beside the airdrop tree. He then used his sword as a stepping-stone to jump up toward the other tree’s branches, then plucked a bag’s worth of airdrop fruit.

“What is his identity, really?” Yan asked in surprise.

Henrick replied, “It changes from time to time. He’s sometimes an alcoholic, a con artist, a kidnapper, a thief, a swordsman, a craftsman, a magician, a blacksmith, a fisherman, a boatman, a fighter, and so on... Hmm… I guess we can call him a tree-climbing master right now?”

“…He’s quite talented, then,” Yan said with a strange expression.

They continued scouting the island. There were a lot of small animals living in the forest; they saw a few raccoons trying to steal some eggs from a nest hidden between colorful flowers.

“This island actually seems to be pretty peaceful. I was expecting a monster I’ve never seen before to pop out and that we would have to fight it to the death, but look at how fat those raccoons are,” Henrick said.

Iris, on the other hand, looked gloomy as she watched the fat raccoons. She said, “I’m worried about Mung Bean. I told Mung Bean I’d be right back…”

Henrick seemed to be feeling guilty about what he had said previously. He let out an awkward cough and said, “Hey, just forget about that thing already. It’ll live just fine without you. Besides, it’s not as if you can take it with you, right?”

“Hmph! Henrick should just take better care of Rick and mind his own business!” Iris retorted.

“Wow, look at you. You’re getting pretty good at talking back now, eh?” Henrick grumbled.

“I learned it all from Henrick,” Iris replied.

“Wow, I’m so proud of you. Let’s have a drink later or something,” Henrick said sarcastically.

“I don’t want to drink too much,” Iris replied.

“You don’t know the bliss of being drunk yet,” Henrick said.

The rain kept pouring without showing any signs of stopping, and its sound continued to fill the air around them. However, Iris suddenly stopped and looked around. She exclaimed, “Mung Bean?”

“Are you whining about that turtle again?” Henrick grumbled.

However, Iris shook her head and said, “I can hear Mung Bean calling out somewhere.”

She started walking, and the rest looked at each other before deciding to follow her. They walked for a while before hearing a familiar cry.

“Krwak! Krwaaaak!” 

The forest soon gave way to a clearing that contained a pool. There, a green softshell turtle crawled on the ground toward them.

Iris was the first to run toward it, exclaiming, “Oh my! Mung Bean!”

“Krwaaak!” the softshell turtle replied.

“So you followed me here!” Iris cried in delight as she hugged the turtle. The turtle’s short legs shook in delight as it cried out as well.

Henrick looked at the unbelievable scene unfolding before him and grumbled, “How the hell did he find us here…?”

Shaneth tilted her head in confusion and asked, “It wasn’t there when we were traveling here on the boat. How did it survive the school of piranhas, even assuming that it secretly followed us underwater?”

It was then that Kang Yoon-Soo answered her question, saying, “Underwater tunnel.”

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“What?” Shaneth asked in surprise.

“There’s an underwater tunnel connected to that pool,” Kang Yoon-Soo explained.

“It came through an underwater tunnel? Hoo, this turtle… It’s smarter than it looks,” Henrick said in amazement.

“That is because it takes after me,” Iris said proudly while patting the turtle’s head.

Henrick let out a snicker and said, “You wish.”

The pool water was clear and transparent; it seemed to be the kind that started out narrow, but widened the deeper it went.

Mung Bean looked at the pool and cried out, “Krwak! Krwaaak!”

“Why is that thing doing that all of a sudden?” Henrick asked.

“Mung Bean, what’s wrong?” Iris asked with a worried expression.

Mung Bean walked around the pool in circles and dipped its short leg into the water, stirring it around a little while crying out, “Krwak! Krwaak!”

Yan looked at Mung Bean and said, “It seems to be asking us to follow it.”

“Correct,” Kang Yoon-Soo said as he took out the bluish fruit from his bag.

Shaneth asked, “Why are you taking out airdrop fruits?”

“We have to go through the underwater tunnel,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied. The others all froze and stared at him for a while.

Shaneth was the first to speak up, asking, “How will we do that?”

“By swimming,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Henrick let out a sigh and grumbled, “I’m tired of being surprised all the time now. Why do we even have to do that?”

“The owner of the island lives there,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“And who’s this owner of the island?” Henrick asked.

“The gigantic fish that kidnapped Nell,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Yan jumped in surprise and asked, “Are you saying the thing that kidnapped my father is the owner of this island?”

“Yes,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied before staring down into the pool. Although the water was clear, it was quite deep, and nothing resembling the bottom could be seen from above. He explained, “The owner of the island lives in an underwater cave. That’s why we have to go there.”

“But it’s dangerous to swim in a storm! The tides are very rough, so we might be swept away. That’s especially true for areas that are this deep,” Yan protested.

“Nell is in that underwater cave,” Kang Yoon-Soo said coldly.

Yan gripped his harpoon tightly before replying, “Let’s go.”

“…You can’t tell from the way that guy speaks, but he’s a master at persuading people,” Henrick said.

Shaneth looked worriedly at the pool water and asked, “But aren’t we rushing too much? It’s getting darker, and it’s dangerous to enter the water at night.”

“I’ll lead the way,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“What if someone gets left behind or swept away by the tide?” Shaneth asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo pointed at Mung Bean with his chin. The turtle cried out as if to say ‘just leave it to me’. “Krwaaak!”

“Mung Bean says it will save anyone who gets left behind,” Iris explained as she gently patted the turtle.

Henrick looked at the turtle skeptically and asked, “But still, isn’t it a bit too much to leave our lives in the hands of a wild animal…?”

“You can trust that turtle. It’ll go with us all the way to the underwater cave,” Kang Yoon-Soo explained.

It was only then that Henrick nodded in agreement, replying, “Is it? Well, if you say so. Is there anyone here who can’t swim?”

Iris raised her hand. Henrick spread out his mana threads and wrapped them around her waist, then tied them around the turtle’s thick shell.

“What are you doing?” Iris asked.

“That turtle will swim for you and pull you along just in case you get left behind. The threads will disappear the moment I cut off my mana supply to them, so you have to tug on the threads if they get loose or the turtle swims in another direction,” Henrick explained.

“Thank you, Henrick,” Iris said, tugging on the mana threads a few times. She seemed to be more excited than nervous.

Meanwhile, Henrick looked as if he could not believe what they were about to do. He complained, “I don’t feel good about this. Do you think we’ll surface from the water with our lives intact?”

“Yes,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied curtly with his usual confidence.

Shaneth tied her hair up before going into the water, then took out another hair tie and bound up Iris’ hair into a ponytail as well.

“Why are you tying my hair up this way?” Iris asked.

“It has to be tied up like this so your hair won’t get in the way of your vision later when you’re in the water,” Shaneth explained.

Each of the party members placed an airdrop fruit in their mouth.

“I can really breathe with this?!” Shaneth exclaimed in surprise.

More air would emerge from the fruits the harder they bit down.

Henrick nodded and said, “At least there won’t be any reason for us to suffocate to death down there.”

Yan further explained, “Breathe through your mouth instead of your nose, and never let the airdrop fruit fall out of your mouth. It’ll be a big problem if you lose the fruit because you let your mind wander.”

As the sky started to turn darker, they jumped into the pool one by one.

Plop!

Plop!

It was dark in the underwater depths, so Kang Yoon-Soo, who was at the forefront, turned on the flashlight on his wrist device.

Ziiing…

A bright light emerged from his wrist device and lit up the area in front of him. The party subsequently navigated through a series of tunnels filled with mud and rocks.

The underwater passage was strangely filled with noise, as it seemed to amplify all sound. They could hear themselves kicking against the rocks, the surging tide in the distance, and their hearts thumping nervously, all seemingly louder than usual. It was dark all around them, and the fact that the quiet sounds they were not used to hearing were being amplified only made them even more nervous. In time, the sound of their thumping hearts became even louder still.

They were extremely focused on where they were going, as it would take only a split second for one of them to be separated from the others and get lost underwater.

However, there was something that kept them calm regardless. Kang Yoon-Soo was swimming ahead of them, and they all followed his lead. The fact that there was someone setting the course gave them the courage they needed to swim underwater at night.

They wandered around underwater for quite a while before the narrow cave suddenly became wide enough for all of them to swim side by side at once. There had been numerous forks in the path while they were swimming, but Kang Yoon-Soo picked a side without any hesitation every time he had to make a choice.

A message popped up soon after.

[You are entering the Underwater Cave of the Abyss.]

[It is easy to lose your way in the dozens of small and narrow passages that make up this place.]

[It would be wise for you to request help from an underwater explorer.]

[WARNING!]

[This is a dangerous area where the owner of the island resides!]

[The vicious owner of the island will eat any living thing it sees!]

[A battle against the owner of the island will be unavoidable if you ever come across it.]

The party then entered an underwater cave.

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