Demi-human Girls Completion Manual
Chapter 326 - 132. Coward_3

Chapter 326: 132. Coward_3

"Grab onto me!"

Fisher cursed inwardly, straining to keep all three of them from falling, but the rocks beneath his feet had become slippery, covered in moist vapor at some unknown point. Even as he tried to prop them up, he was forced to watch helplessly as his body uncontrollably plunged into the dark space below.

"Ah! Fisher!"

"A ghost!!"

"Hmm!"

For a moment, the dark cavern echoed with the screams of the three women, like a chain reaction, as they all slid deeper into the cave, calling out as they went.

Weightless, Fisher did everything he could to grasp onto someone, to prevent them from sliding elsewhere. This would ensure he’d land first, to protect them from harm, but during the fall, Fisher only managed to grab one of the ladies, unsure who it was.

The screaming continued unabated as Fisher and his party tumbled into the darkness, uncertain of how long they fell until Fisher suddenly felt a substantial impact against his back.

"Splash!"

The sound of hitting water rose simultaneously, as Fisher and his company plunged straight into a pool of water, which was still and quiet, more like a serene pond. Splashes came from all sides, indicating that all four had landed.

"Fisher!"

Moli’s voice, still very lucid, rang out from some distance away.

At that moment, Fisher was holding a trembling body in his arms, the lady clinging to him. Upon closer examination, he realized the person hugging him like an octopus was, in fact, Anna.

"Xiayat?"

Since Anna was there, Fisher, floating, called out to Moli in that direction.

"She... she sank! She can’t swim!"

With that, Moli flipped over in the water and dived down towards the bottom, attempting to retrieve Xiayat. Meanwhile, Fisher, still afloat, vaguely saw a shoreline in the distance and decided to take Anna to the bank first.

"Hmm..."

Feeling Fisher start to move, Anna clung to him even tighter, terrified of being tossed aside by his movements. Evidently, she wasn’t much of a swimmer, either.

Luckily, the shore was not far, and it didn’t take long for Fisher to swim there, dragging Anna out of the water onto the bank.

"We’re on shore now, it’s okay."

"Uh-huh..."

"...so, let go already."

In the pitch darkness, Anna, soaked to the skin, belatedly realized she was still clutching Fisher’s drenched clothes and quickly let go, allowing him to stand up.

"Sorry."

Her cheeks flushed unnaturally, and even her cheeks began to warm up, but fortunately, it was too dark for anyone to see her expression.

"Moli!"

"Coming!"

As Fisher just called for Moli, she emerged from the chilly pond like a mermaid, supporting an unconscious Centaur Xiayat. Fisher helped haul Xiayat ashore, relieving that at least the four of them were okay now...

But who was that silhouette he had seen on the hillside just before?

Fisher didn’t dwell on it, for as Moli neared the shore, the entire cavern seemed to hit some kind of switch and came to life. Lines of light the same color as Moli’s glow began to spread across the ground like fireflies, gradually illuminating the entire cave.

"Is it lighting up?"

Following the illumination, Fisher looked around, only to discover they were in a narrow cavern with a forebodingly dark pool, whose depth was unclear, as was its ultimate destination.

They stood on the bank, watching the light spread along the ground and eventually crawl up the walls behind them, revealing one by one convoluted, esoteric patterns that seemed to be both pictorial and textual.

Anna, hugging her soaked body, sat still, merely following Fisher with her gaze as he examined the writing on the stone wall...

Yes, Fisher concluded it was a script, but not human—more like that of some demi-human civilization...

"Hey, this is our Whale-man Species language!"

Next to him, Moli gently patted Xiayat’s flat chest; a sudden rush of water sprayed out of Xiayat’s mouth, but Fisher couldn’t be sure whether her soul went out with it, watching Moli’s patting with a sense of dread.

"Whale-man Species’ script?"

Wait a second, how could a race from the deep sea trench have left their script here?

Could it be the writing left by Moli’s aunt, Mu Xi? That seemed to make sense.

"What does it say?"

Moli walked slowly to Fisher’s side, reading the characters one by one, but her expression turned odd after only the first few words, and she hesitated to speak beside Fisher.

"What’s wrong? Does it pertain to some Whale-man secret?"

"No... No, it’s just..."

Moli’s cheeks reddened slightly before she covered her face, embarrassedly translating,

"The first line reads... ’Ah hahahaha, a coward got scared, I won’t say who’..."

Even though Moli spoke in a whisper, both Fisher and Anna could still hear how dreadful the Whale-man’s character was from that recorded phrase.

So, was the shadow they saw on that slope left by the Whale-man? Perhaps an illusion, a relic, or could it be magic, or a Whale-man’s Blessing?

Was it all just to scare someone, with no other purpose?

Isn’t that just insane?

The cave fell into an awkward silence, broken only by Xiayat’s almost lamenting breaths.