CHAPTER 517: CHAPTER 517 - JOURNEY TO CERYNEIA (PART 1)

From the time we reached the sandy beach, I started taking my time in enjoying the cool sea breeze and warmth of the sun as it rises to signify the start of a new day. As for Marius, instead of enjoying the view with me, he chose to just sit quietly next to me on the spot I chose as my seat on the sandy beach. I avoided looking at him though I can clearly see in my peripheral vision that he is more interested in watching my silliness instead of the perfect view of nature that I am looking at that moment.

After the sun is already quite up in the sky and as the sand has started to warm up more than my bottom can take, I stood up suddenly, stretched my body and patted the sand off of my clothes. Marius, seemingly stunned at my sudden movement, stood up abruptly as well but ended up almost sitting back to the ground.

Well, the reason for this is that his legs cramped up a bit from sitting for more than half an hour with me since he stayed unmoving all that time. As for me, I enjoyed myself while wiggled my legs playfully in the sand so the cramps did not happen to me.

I grabbed both his arms to steady him. As for the guy, besides the shock from being grabbed by me, he realized the blunder he was in so he blushed in embarrassment. I only let go of his arm once I was sure that he got the feeling back in his legs and he can steadily stand on the sand on his own. I winked at him and told him that I already had my fill of the view and it is finally time to go back to his hometown.

He rolled his eyes in response but still nodded once firmly to tell me that he’s ready to leave anytime with me. His eyes then widened as if remembering something important as he asked, "Can you breathe just fine underwater? I may not look like it but once my body is underwater, I have gills somewhere in my neck and I can breathe but how about you?"

I smiled at him and assured him that I will be able to manage on my own though that needs a bit of experimenting on my end. I also don’t want to be soaked in seawater for too long so I am planning to just put myself inside a bubble barrier or something while travelling towards the ocean floor. I also know how to swim if needed since I took some lessons back in my previous world.

At that, I started walking towards the edge of the water slowly while I was admiring the vibrant sea green color of the water. I wasn’t scared because I was expecting that this part will still be shallow based on the color.

Surprisingly, even after walking for more than 50 meters from the beach though, we were still in shallow waters. I was getting more and more confused as to why the water level has still only reached right around my waist level. I couldn’t help but look at Marius in confusion.

As if understanding reflexively what my look meant, he answered the question boggling my mind quickly, "The reason why I told you that this entrance to Cyreneia is the nearest but most dangerous is because this place is what they call a seamount."

Hmmm... A seamount? I think that is a part of the ocean floor that starts in shallow water then suddenly becomes a steep cliff of hundreds or thousand of meters. I think it was something like that if I remember my geology class lessons correctly.

I couldn’t help but wonder how big sharks are in this world if there are any? I just remembered that animals and crops are bigger here in Aeocrescens because of the existence of mana in the atmosphere so I am getting excited with this trip. (A/N: Aren’t you supposed to be scared of oversized sharks?! O_o)

After walking a little over 200 meters from the shore, I can see from a bit in front of me that the color of the sea water is gradually turning to a darker shade of blue which meant that finally we are reaching the deeper water or to be exact the seamount or maybe, it was more appropriate to call it sea cliff.

Since we were walking on the sea floor, I was able to feel with my feet when we reached the edge before the sudden drop in depth. Just out of curiosity, I dunked my whole face under water to look underneath and for some reason, I don’t feel any sting in my eyes even if the water is obviously salty and my eyes were fully open. It is good that I don’t have thalassophobia (fear of deep water) or else I would have ran back to the shore at this moment.

I maintained that position (my face dunked under the water) to see if I can hold my breath for about 2 minutes which should be possible for a human. As expected, I was able to easily do it and even longer.

To confirm if I can really breathe under water, what I did next after keeping my face under water for more than 2 minutes is that I inhaled deeply while both my nose and mouth were under water. I tried to brace myself for possibly a violent cough or the feeling of being suffocated or drowning but nothing happened of that sort. Does this mean I am just like fish then?

I grabbed around my neck to see if I have gills like how Marius described earlier but I easily confirmed that I don’t have any. How is this even possible?

WAIT. Why would I even have to know, question or complain about this? This is just an amazing ability that suddenly sprouted just when I needed it the most.

After confirming that I can survive just fine under water, I abruptly pulled my face from the water and the first thing I saw was Marius’ worried face. Did he think that I was simply trying to see how long I can survive underwater or possible drown my self?

Well, he is not wrong on that. I would have coughed violently and felt like drowning if my little experiment ended up as a failure.

Since I have enjoyed enough of the seawater and I do not have any intention to stay soaked until we reach Cyreneia, I decided to end my little experiment at that point. I don’t trust people who tell me that places that they have been before are just "near". Their idea of "near" might be different from mine so it’s better to be ready.

Without any warning for Marius, a spherical barrier suddenly appeared and enveloped the both of us. I also made sure to clean up and dry both of our bodies and clothes from all the sand and seawater. Marius looked at me as if I betrayed him and he even poked angrily at the bubble surrounding the two of us like it was his enemy.

I then whispered to Marius to assure him, "I just don’t want to get soaked in cold water for too long. I can breathe just fine underwater so this is not because of fear or anything. As for you, you can freely get in and out of this bubble to swim and then come back when you are tired. I am not stopping you from enjoying the sea since you should have not visited this place for quite a long time."

His face that looked bullied suddenly changed to that of one with sparkling eyes that were showing gratitude towards me. He must have thought that we will simply travel in the bubble without him being able to swim freely like the cute fish that he is. His pouting face looked adorable by the way.

Just like how I do things, he spoke just two words: "Follow me." then he jumped towards the sea cliff outside the bubble and in the blink of an eye, I can clearly see that some parts of his body started having scales of different shades of purple with some tinge of black and gold. The gills that he told me about also appeared on both sides of his neck but only as very thin lines, almost unnoticeable.

He was swimming at first just like how humans do. After a few minutes of swimming and being submerged in the water though, his legs started to merge and turn into a beautiful merman tail, the same color as the shiny scales in his arms and some other parts of his body. He spent his time playing and swimming in the water like how a happy dolphin looked like while still leading the way. I could not help but smile at his obvious happiness of being under the sea after so long.