Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

I stepped forward as if entranced by something.

-Crack…

“Tch.”

But I quickly came to my senses. Seeing the Water Barrier slowly warping like heated steel, it was clear that the depths the Lobster had descended to so effortlessly were beyond what I could endure.

I could barely handle the depth I was standing at now. Going any deeper would accomplish nothing; I’d just be crushed into a human pancake.

I had no choice but to retreat, yet I kept glancing back with lingering reluctance.

Perfect resistance to Water Pressure.

Not just natural Water Pressure, either. It had effortlessly overcome the Water Pressure generated by another living creature, one capable of producing force far greater than mine.

For all I knew, the way it moved so naturally at those extreme depths was thanks to that very unidentified ability. ‘That’s the only option left.’

I quietly clenched my teeth and steeled my resolve.

Of course, in this vast Deep Sea, there were surely more than one or two Deep Sea Creatures with abilities like that.

But right now, the closest one was that Lobster alone.

I didn’t have enough time to gamble on finding something easier.

Even after retreating a sufficient distance, I watched the Water Barrier continue to shrink without stopping and hardened my resolve.

The resolve that if I had to consume something, it could only be that.

After pulling back a long way, I returned to a place where the Clams were visible and the water wasn’t terribly deep.

There was no time to waste. I immediately surveyed the surrounding Clams.

[Awaken from your illusions! Even if you knew you would die tomorrow, if you lack the confidence to live another day like today, you are deceiving yourself! You are betraying yourself!]

Keeping some distance from the Clams, still spouting their incomprehensible nonsense, I waved the Anglerfish Bait.

“You want to eat this?”

[!!]

-Slurp. The Clams greedily extended their tongues, using Currents to try to snatch the first meal they’d found in a while.

“Not a chance.”

I hadn’t lived such a easy life that I’d lose to mere Clams. As I lightly swatted their tongues aside and toyed with them, they clacked their shells in fury.

I’d held some hope given how fluently they spoke, but unlike the Anglerfish, they apparently lacked that level of intelligence.

Still, yes.

They did speak fluently.

And if they lived here, they were within Current Sense range of that Lobster.

They must have seen it at least once.

Then they’d know something. I rolled the Anglerfish Bait teasingly as I spoke.

“If you want to eat, answer me. Do you know the Crayfish?”

[…?]

“Crayfish. Lobster. You know?”

[…]

The Clams showed not the slightest reaction.

Just as disappointment set in, a brilliant idea struck me.

“How about this.”

These things had no eyes. No ears either. Ordinary clams might, but these weren’t that sort. Even at this very moment, they perceived the world through nothing but Current Sense.

Recalling how I used to carve wood with wind magic when I first learned magic, I tried shaping a form using Currents.

After several rounds of trial and error, the flowing Current sculpted the shape of a living creature.

It was the exact image of the Lobster I had just seen moments ago.

The Clams, confirming the shape through Current Sense, immediately began clacking like mad.

[Ji-eo! Ji-eo! Ji-eo! Ji-eo!]

“Ji-eo? Is that its name?”

[Ji-eo, Ji-eo!]

“?”

As I puzzled over what they meant, I recalled the Whale saying something like “ji-something” while looking at the Crayfish. Of course, since it was in the Deep Sea Creature language, it didn’t sound exactly like “ji”, but it had a different feel to it.

It seemed the Lobster’s name was Ji-eo, meaning “Slow Fish”.

‘Slow fish?’

That thing is slow? It was incredibly fast.

It wasn’t even a fish, for that matter. Thinking how strange the Deep Sea Creatures’ language was, I asked again in their tongue.

“This thing. Where does it live.”

[Bottom! Bottom! Bottom!]

“…What’s its weakness.”

[?]

“Do you happen to know what its favorite food is?”

[??]

Just the name Ji-eo. That seemed to be the entirety of what they knew.

If even the nearest Clams had only this much information, the others would be no different. It was easier to just accept that what I already knew was all there was and work from there.

“Hmm…”

I sat on the edge of the Canyon and sank into thought.

All I knew was that it was a monster with speed my Current Sense could barely track.

And that trying to fight it with Water Pressure was borderline insane. Even if I used it, I’d only be able to hold it for the briefest moment.

If I let it get close, I was as good as dead. I had no confidence I could survive those pincers.

Could my Water Pressure cutter slice through its shell?

I clenched my fist tight. In this place, it wasn’t entirely impossible.

At the very least, I had never seen a creature here capable of forming a blade out of Water Pressure. If I struck the same spot multiple times, then yes, I could definitely cut through.

…But was that actually feasible?

‘Absolutely not.’

Hitting the same spot, over and over again?

Against something I couldn’t track with Current Sense, couldn’t stop with Water Pressure, and that was several times faster than me?

‘If I took all the World-Sealing Pills and went all out…’

Would my full power be stronger than that Whale’s Water Pressure?

‘Should I try to play the opportunist?’

Wait for another Whale like before, and when it started hunting, ambush from the side…

No. Thinking about it now, that had been a completely one-sided fight. Even if I’d joined in, it wouldn’t have made a difference. Ji-eo had simply been hunting, nothing more.

I spent precious time agonizing over it dozens, even hundreds of times.

The result was always the same. At the end of every hypothetical, I was always the one being devoured by Ji-eo.

“Think…”

The more hopeless it seemed, the harder I gritted my teeth and thought.

Before seeing it, I might have been able to walk away. But the moment I laid eyes on Ji-eo, retreating was no longer an option.

The difference between obtaining that ability and not was painfully clear.

Even if it meant overextending myself, even if I had to force my way through, I had to hunt Ji-eo.

What could I use? How far was I willing to cross the line?

What I had in my hands right now was…

“…Oh.”

In that instant, a thought connected somewhere in my mind.

I checked the Water Barrier briefly. If I hurried, it was doable.

I swam with all my strength toward the opposite side of the Canyon.

‘Will it still be there?’

It was uncertain, but checking couldn’t hurt.

Going back and back again, the place I headed to was where I had first seen the corpse.

There might soon be two, but for now there was only one.

Dark Night’s corpse.

“…”

So much time had already passed.

I swallowed my disgust at the sight of the body, not rotting in the slightest, not crushed by the pressure, still floating as if alive.

‘This thing, if I remember right…’

Didn’t she say it had dissolved into my Deep Sea?

It was like a leftover byproduct from when the Puppet collapsed onto me.

Then perhaps.

I was about to touch it directly but decided it seemed a bit filthy, so I examined the fingers with Currents instead.

…There it was.

“So this is still here after all.”

There really was a ring made of several loops of Thread.

It was a fragment of the ability Dark Night had used to control humans.

Since the ability remained, I briefly worried she might still be alive. But if she could have survived this long in the Deep Sea, she wouldn’t have died to me in the first place. She was definitely a corpse.

I shoved the now-useless Dark Night aside, pushing her out of sight, and slipped the Thread ring onto my right index finger.

-Hiss.

“Ugh.”

Along with a slight headache, I found I could now naturally draw white Thread from my right hand.

Having once been her right hand, it wasn’t particularly difficult. In fact, because the Thread had been immersed in the Current, it felt even more natural than before.

Though there was far less of it than back then.

As a test, I bound a passing Shark with the Thread, specifically one with three tails.

[…? …]

It was similar to before.

The Shark began to move at my command. I couldn’t issue orders like “fight” or “kill”, but simply making it move was possible.

Hmm. So this was the extent of it.

“Not bad, but… will it actually be useful?”

It wasn’t that it was no help at all, but since Deep Sea Creatures were so dim-witted, making them move didn’t really require Thread in the first place.

Just as I sighed and was about to retract the Thread, it happened.

[U, useful.]

“?”

[Not, bad.]

The Shark twitched and awkwardly repeated the words it had heard.

“…What?”

[…What, what, what…]

Feeling a spark of disbelief at a reaction so distinctly different from any Deep Sea Creature before, I spoke.

“Can you understand what I’m saying?”

[…]

“No, wait, that’s not right. If you can understand, try nodding your head.”

[…]

“Your, uh, head means the top part of your body.”

Something astonishing happened.

The Shark nodded.

“…What the…”

The last time I had bound Deep Sea Creatures with Dark Night’s ability, something like this had been impossible.

Thinking about what was different this time, there was only one thing.

“The language…”

So that was it.

Back then, I could control the Deep Sea Creatures too.

But unlike with humans, I hadn’t had the remote control.

Other species required a different controller. Every command I had given was essentially incomprehensible to the Deep Sea Creatures.

That was why they obediently followed direct, brute-force commands like “move,” the kind that needed no words, yet nothing beyond that ever worked.

Now it was different. I had gained control over the Deep Sea Creatures I was dominating through Puppet.

“Ugh…”

Knowing that made the thinness of this ring feel like a curse.

With this little Thread, even if I caught Ji-eo, I couldn’t tame it. No, domination required mutual agreement in the first place. There was no way Ji-eo would answer “yes” to the question “Will you submit to my control?”

…Then again, why was this Shark obeying me without any such agreement?

Maybe Deep Sea Creatures simply didn’t have free will or anything like that. I sighed, but a strange thought crossed my mind.

‘Did Cheon-hwa know about this?’

Dark Night’s ability could only truly shine if one knew the Deep Sea Creatures’ language.

If she had known that, it would explain why the first thing she did was teach me the language. It would also explain why Sharmia of the Crimson Circle had delivered the completed version. But how could she have known…

…That was a question for later. I shook my head to clear the stray thoughts and looked up at the Shark.

I’d called it a curse moments ago, but when I thought about it practically, it was actually the opposite.

“Hey, go crush every Clam you can see over there.”

[Cr, crush…]

Without a shred of hesitation, the Shark thrashed its three tails wildly and surged forward, biting into the clacking Clams.

-CRUNCH!

[!?, ???!!!!]

The Clams panicked at the sudden attack and tried to resist, but against the Shark’s savage jaws, it was meaningless.

The Shark crunched and swallowed the Clams like a thing possessed. Until I told it to stop.

“…This.”

It was quite good.

I gave a slight nod.

Of course, the odds were still slim. But at the very least, it felt like I’d been about to fight a bear bare-handed and someone just handed me a steel knife.

This Puppet ability was likely the sharpest blade I could bring to bear.

So how should I use it?

How could I make the most of this power, these few strands of Thread, to their absolute fullest?

[…Gr, grk.]

“Whoa, you scared me…”

In the middle of my deliberation, the Shark suddenly approached and broke my train of thought.

It seemed to have returned from carrying out its orders. I scratched my head and looked at it, then…

“…”

I was struck speechless by the white shell armor covering its outer hide.

There had been dozens of Clams. And in exchange, the Shark had gained that armor.

Stunned, I paused for a moment, then…

“This is it.”

The corner of my mouth twisted upward.

The only way to catch Ji-eo.

I think I’d found it.