Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

There’s no way to defeat an opponent you can’t even see.

Only now, captured within my sight, within my Current Sense, did I scan over that body.

I noticed something strange immediately.

‘…This thing is smaller than I expected?’

Click, click. The sharp pincers were still threatening even while coated in sticky mucus. They were thick enough to crush my head, too.

But when I swept the area with Current Sense, its actual size seemed somehow smaller than what was visible.

Was it just my imagination? I quickly snapped back to attention upon seeing Ji-eo frothing at the mouth in apparent rage.

There were only two ways to overcome the near-omnipotent Current Sense. Hide, or…

-Hssss! “Gkh!”

…be fast enough that even seeing it wouldn’t help.

Ji-eo, perhaps annoyed at having fallen for a trap, unleashed attacks far more violently than before. It was a barrage so fierce that even reacting and moving with Current Sense would leave me hopelessly behind.

Just as knowing the exact moment someone pulls a trigger doesn’t let you survive a gunman, surviving Ji-eo’s attacks should have been impossible for me.

Yes, it should have been.

[???]

Ji-eo, watching me dodge the pincers far more nimbly than just moments ago, flailed its legs in irritation.

There was no way a monster of that caliber hadn’t realized how slow I was.

It must have assumed that pushing and pulling myself with Currents to barely dodge was a feat bordering on the impossible, one that would end soon enough.

But ten minutes passed, and I was still evading every single one of Ji-eo’s relentless attacks.

And that wasn’t all.

[….!!]

Crack. Suddenly, the creature curled its body up in a frenzy.

It had felt the stab wound on its abdomen.

“So that’s the spot after all.”

I lowered my right hand, unable to hide a twinge of regret.

The only area not protected by its carapace. The belly.

I had tried to pierce through it in a single strike, but even the less-protected flesh underneath wasn’t so easily punctured. It would take at least three stabs to burst through.

[…]

Having been stabbed in the belly, the creature showed a reaction distinctly different from anything before.

Curled up like an armadillo, it made none of those frantic clicking sounds. Instead, it quietly swept over me with Current Sense.

It was searching, trying to uncover the secret of how I was dodging its attacks.

I thought this might be what a duel in the Deep Sea was like. A game of poker where everyone could see each other’s hands.

Yet every time I played a card, what came out was nothing like what it had seen. It must have wanted to figure out what kind of trick I was pulling.

“Take your time and look all you want.”

I spread my arms slightly and let the creature examine me to its heart’s content.

Finding the secret was an impossible task.

From the moment it had entered the range of my Current Sense, every attack was preceded by a telltale ripple of foam.

‘Never thought I’d end up owing that bastard a debt of gratitude…’

The ability that had manifested during my fight with Lump, the one that went beyond Current Sense.

No matter how fast an attack was for me to react to, it made sure I could feel it. The flow of water that inevitably occurs when anything moves through the Deep Sea, its result.

Every time Ji-eo swung its pincers, a faint membrane of water appeared ahead of them. Tiny clusters of bubbles that formed ahead of each strike told me exactly where every attack would land.

Even if I couldn’t dodge a bullet already in flight, I could prepare if I could read the trajectory.

It was still dangerous, certainly, but I had steeled myself for that from the moment I first fought this thing.

[…]

In the end, having found nothing from studying me, Ji-eo lowered its pincers.

It couldn’t catch me in close combat, and its weakness had already been exposed.

What would it do next? I waited tensely for its next move.

[-.-.-..–…]

“Ngh.”

Without warning, my entire body froze in place.

‘Here it comes.’

I clenched my teeth and locked eyes with Ji-eo, who was watching me without eyes. Probably. I was probably meeting its gaze.

Once the creature realized its hunting methods weren’t working, the next step was obvious.

The power that every creature of the Deep Sea possessed as naturally as breathing.

Currents and Current Sense.

And Water Pressure.

Ji-eo was now intent on crushing me to death with its own Water Pressure.

I had anticipated this, of course. Most Deep Sea Creatures didn’t use Water Pressure often, but the whale that had lived in a similar depth as Ji-eo had specialized in crushing opponents with overwhelming Water Pressure. It would have been strange to think Ji-eo couldn’t do the same.

However, Water Pressure wasn’t something you could dodge just because you anticipated it.

When the space around you suddenly becomes the inside of a compactor, how exactly is one supposed to avoid that?

There was only one way to deal with Water Pressure.

Endure it.

“…”

[…]

Seeing Ji-eo holding me in place yet hesitating, I waved my arm at it.

A silent expression that at this level of pressure, I could escape anytime I wanted, and even if it came at me directly, I could simply break free.

Whether the provocation worked or not, Ji-eo resorted to force.

“Mm…”

Amid the crushing sensation threatening to pulverize my entire body, I smiled.

‘Once it comes to this, the advantage is mine.’

Why didn’t Deep Sea Creatures use such a powerful ability?

An ability that could easily kill an opponent on the spot, why not?

Simple.

Using Water Pressure subjected oneself to the same pressure.

It was a double-edged sword. Not even Deep Sea Creatures could escape that principle.

The reason the whale had been able to exert such overwhelming Water Pressure was likely because, as its massive body suggested, it was already enduring tremendous pressure at all times. So even adding just ten percent more of the pressure it was already bearing meant several times the normal pressure for any other creature.

Judging by where Ji-eo lived and its carapace, it was handling Water Pressure that, while perhaps not matching the whale’s, would be impossible for a human body to withstand.

Yes, a human body.

I had neither an overwhelming carapace like Ji-eo’s nor a massive frame like the whale’s. Far from enduring tens of thousands of tons of water pressure, I had a body young and fragile enough to be crushed to death by a single carriage.

And with that body, I was standing in the same space as Ji-eo.

-Crunch!

I chewed down every last World-Sealing Pill I had and glared at Ji-eo.

It was shallow. The creature was still carefully regulating its Water Pressure.

It was afraid of getting hurt.

[…!]

“Want to try harder?”

But the moment it saw me alive and breathing without a scratch, it immediately shifted into a higher gear.

My chest squeezed tight, and a suffocating agony closed in.

It was fine. This body was never one that breathed to begin with.

[……..]

“Harder.”

My robe itself reduced the Water Pressure bearing down on me.

The First Wizard. A name that sounded different now that I knew what it meant. This was the Holy Relic that figure had worn. The Water Pressure reaching me was one-tenth of the true amount.

Add to that my Water Barrier, still working diligently, and the pressure on me was reduced even further.

Even the filtered grains of sand were painful enough, but that thing over there, bearing not grains of sand but an entire desert on its back… how much Water Pressure was it enduring?

“I said harder, you’re nowhere close!”

-Crack!

The moment I shouted, a fissure split across Ji-eo’s carapace.

From the way its pincers trembled and shook, I could roughly gauge the Water Pressure it was enduring.

The crack gradually spread, opening far wider than it ever had under the whale’s pressure.

And through the gap that formed, something became visible.

It was a carapace.

“?”

Even while enduring the agonizing Water Pressure, even while bearing the sensation of my bones about to snap, I tilted my head in confusion.

A carapace under a carapace? Was it molting or something?

In any case, it was clearly how the creature was withstanding the Water Pressure. I examined it more closely.

Only then could I identify what it was.

“No, no… this son of a…”

I stared in genuine shock as the crack slowly narrowed shut.

That wasn’t a carapace.

To be precise, it technically was, but if that counted as a carapace, then I had one too.

…Ji-eo’s outer shell was a Water Barrier.

“Why the hell do you have that?”

I spoke aloud despite knowing I’d get no answer, too dumbfounded to help myself.

A Water Barrier so impossibly thick it even had color.

That was the evolutionary branch Ji-eo had developed to endure Water Pressure. The exact same method as mine. A diving suit within the Deep Sea.

But why? Water Barrier was a world. A human world, the world of a human named Jern.

It was not something a mere Deep Sea Creature should be able to wield.

But I soon shook my head. Now wasn’t the time to get lost in stray thoughts.

‘…So that’s why it looked small.’

Water Barrier only blocked things of the Deep Sea, not physical impacts.

When I had sensed its form surrounded by jellyfish mucus, I had only detected the main body rather than the Water Barrier, so of course it would seem smaller.

In a way, I had found a kindred spirit, but I felt no joy whatsoever.

If anything, things had just gotten a bit worse.

“Don’t tell me…”

I grimaced, watching the gradually restoring Water Barrier and the still-intensifying Water Pressure.

The robe helped, sure, but my tiny Water Barrier and the creature’s massive one weren’t even in the same league.

On top of that, it could even repair itself, which meant if this contest of strength dragged on, I would be the one pushed to the brink.

Of course, for now, my side still had an easier time enduring thanks to the World-Sealing Pills.

‘This thing turned out to be far more troublesome than I expected.’

But that also meant the creature was just as valuable.

The Deep Sea was vast, but how many beings out there survived using the same method as me?

The creature before my eyes was starting to look like a priceless treasure.

‘If I can catch it…’

Perhaps I could reap a harvest incomparably greater than anything before.

Of course, the same was true from its side. Whether it was the hostility Deep Sea Creatures held, or whatever else, the obsession they showed toward me was equal to or greater than mine toward them.

Still, if there was one difference between that creature and me…

I wasn’t afraid of breaking.

“Alright, let’s see this through to the end…!”

[….?!]

While being crushed under its Water Pressure, I deployed my own Water Pressure as well to bear down on it.

My Water Pressure and its Water Pressure. Under the shock that had suddenly doubled, blood surged up from my abdomen.

Breathing was beside the point. I could purely feel the process of a living body transforming into a lump of meat.

I had shoved myself into a hell from which there was no escape.

[…!]

Ji-eo, too, writhed its body in agony.

The ambient pressure of this place, its own Water Pressure crushing me, and my Water Pressure on top of that. I wasn’t the only one taking a triple dose.

Of course, when I was crushed, it wouldn’t share the same fate.

If anyone died, it would be me alone.

The creature would merely be immobilized for a time, nothing more.

“Kh, gakh…!”

Meanwhile, my entire world had gone white.

The liquid flowing from my eyes was too hot and thick to be tears.

Yet, enduring the sensation of my fingers twisting apart, I stretched them out.

The fingers wound with Threads.

[?]

Unlike Ji-eo, which genuinely couldn’t comprehend what I was doing, I was certain.

‘For some reason, the Puppet ability doesn’t require consent in the Deep Sea.’

Normally, the Puppet ability could only establish Servitude over a target that had given consent.

Without that, it would merely be a Marionette moved by the raw force of the Threads, and with this small amount of Thread, something like that was impossible.

But strangely, I could control every Deep Sea Creature without any process of consent.

As if every Deep Sea Creature had already agreed to the act.

‘That can’t be right, but…’

It had worked every time so far.

Would Ji-eo be any different?

[…]

Ji-eo flinched, eyeing the Thread slowly approaching its head with visible wariness.

If it wanted, it could release the Water Pressure and cut it away.

But then, the creature swept over my slowly breaking body with its Current Sense.

In the end, wariness was all it amounted to.

Its judgment was sound. Rather than wasting caution on a single Thread extended by a dying opponent, better to finish things decisively with Water Pressure.

A last-ditch dagger was, at the end of the day, just a dagger. Whatever it was, it could be endured… that must have been its reasoning.

Coughing up blood, I managed to mutter.

“…You never learn.”

Ji-eo.

Slow Fish.

Perhaps that name referred to a slowness not of the body, but of learning.

[!?]

The Thread made contact and coiled around Ji-eo’s head.

At the same time, unable to hold on any longer, I clutched my reeling head and collapsed, barely managing to form a single word.

“…Release… it.”

No object specified.

Only meaning was contained within.

And the meaning was received.

-Ssshhhhh…

[…?? !!!!!!!]

Ji-eo foamed at the mouth watching the Water Barrier vanish from its body like smoke.

Even as it was dismantling its own defense, the creature seemed utterly unable to comprehend why it was doing such a thing.

“Kh, hakh…”

The Water Pressure disappeared the instant Ji-eo’s Water Barrier was gone. Barely freed, I crumpled to the canyon floor.

My bones were shattered beyond shattered. Amid the agony that came with every slightest movement, I forced myself upright using Currents.

‘It’s not over yet.’

Losing its Water Barrier didn’t necessarily mean death. From here was phase two; the fight against Ji-eo without its Water Barrier had to begin.

The best option would be to order it to kill itself, but would it really obey a command like that? I gritted my teeth and forced myself to stand.

“…Huh?”

Contrary to what I’d braced for, Ji-eo was fleeing.

More precisely, now that I could see it with my bare eyes, a red-bodied Ji-eo had turned around and was desperately scrambling to get away from me.

But it was utterly pointless. I stared in disbelief at Ji-eo’s retreating form, now so much smaller than before.

“So that’s why it was called Ji-eo…”

It was just as sturdy as before.

But.

Watching it take a full thirty seconds just to move a single front leg forward, I let out a sigh of relief.

Slow learner, my ass.

…It was just plain slow.