This Text Adventure Game is definitely poisonous
Chapter 154 - 146: Underwater World_1

Chapter 154: Chapter 146: Underwater World_1

[Congratulations, you have triggered the hidden mission ’Captain Vieri’s Grudge’.]

[Mission Content: Enter the Underground Dark River, find the berth of the Ghost Ship, and kill all crew members.]

[Mission Time Limit: Before Vieri’s spirit completely dissipates.]

[Mission Reward: Ownership of the Ghost Ship Pirate Ship and the acknowledgment of the ship’s spirit.]

[Do you accept?]

"Huh?"

Mu You was taken aback. So, he had triggered a side quest, moreover, it seemed to be a large-scale mission. It required him to kill a bunch of crew members of unknown levels - the final reward was pretty big - directly offering a ship!

"Accept!"

Given a brief glance, Mu You immediately chose to accept. Without any punitive punishments for failure, there was no harm in accepting it upfront.

Even if he found the ship, he probably wouldn’t be able to beat the crew. But didn’t he have the Shadow Ghost? In any case, he would figure it out when the time came.

What interested Mu You more about this mission was a phrase in the text: ’The subterranean waterways of the Star Spirit World are intricate and interconnected’!

This reminder made Mu You realize, yes, why did he have to confront the imperial knights on land? He had the Merfolk Mask and could completely use the subterranean waterways!

He didn’t believe that those heavily-armored knights could chase him underwater!

[You have agreed to Vieri’s request, pulled the lantern column from the weeds, and stored it in your backpack.]

[Be warned, Vieri’s residual spirit can only survive for a month. It’s best to complete this mission within a month, otherwise, the mission will disappear early.]

[You walk to the edge of the lake, one foot stepping into the water - the lake’s temperature seems to be within an acceptable range for you. Do you want to jump into the lake?"

"Yes."

Mu You opened the panel and put the Merfolk Mask on his character, then clicked confirm.

[You dive into the lake.]

[The moment the gentle lake water engulfs your head, a bone-chilling cold assaults you from all sides.]

[As you continue to sink, you are enveloped only by the boundless darkness at the bottom of the lake and the hazy glow of the starry sky above. Unable to reach the bottom, at times you suspect that you didn’t fall into a lake but into a seemingly bottomless abyss.]

[Luckily, you eventually hit the bottom.]

[Feeling the touch of your feet on the ground, you fell into the sludge of the riverbed. The buoyancy underwater ensured that you weren’t injured when you landed, but it also made your movements sluggish. You’re currently 13 meters below the water level.]

[You turn on the Pumpkin Lantern. The bluish light spills from the lantern, illuminating the scenery at the bottom of the lake.]

[What presents before you is a captivating underwater world - rocks, plants, colorful corals, tall aquatic plants, and streams of seaweed stretching up from the lake bed to the surface, creating a diverse underwater habitat. The sound of water hitting the nearby reefs is a continuous echoing in your ears.]

[You notice the water at the bottom of the lake seems to be flowing. This isn’t simply a stagnant pond, beneath the layer of rocks at the bottom of the lake are several tunnels leading in all directions. Through these tunnels, you can reach a wider space beyond the lake bed. Fool, which direction will you choose to depart?]

"West!"

No need to hesitate. On land, heading west would lead to Sunset City. The same could be true underwater.

[You choose to head towards the western tunnel.]

[The Merfolk Mask ensures that your underwater breathing is smooth, the Mud Boots let you walk as freely as on flat ground despite the soft, muddy lake bed, but the resistance of the flowing water slows you down. Your speed has reduced by approximately 34%.]

[As you approach the entrance to the western tunnel, you can suddenly hear some strange noises coming from inside, and it’s rapidly closing in on you.]

[You sense danger and promptly retreat. A little red fish darts out from the tunnel. The Omniscient Crystal quickly helps you analyze the species of the fish - this is a Self-Destructing Fish.]

[Self-Destructing Fish: A creature that grew in the sulfurous sea bed with a very aggressive territorial instinct and a hot temper, believing in the principle ’the essence of life is explosion’. When a living creature approaches its territory, it will actively attack. Upon nearing its target, the adult Self-Destructing Fish will explode, causing severe physical damage, and scattering its eggs deep into the ocean through explosion to wait for more Self-Destructing Fish to hatch. It’s a very tricky creature in the underwater world of the Star Spirit World.]

[The Self-Destructing Fish spots you, its belly instantly puffing up into a ball and charges towards you at lightning speed.]

[You want to escape, but sadly, the speed of the Self-Destructing Fish in the water far exceeds yours. In a blink, it’s in front of you and detonates!]

[You suffer close-range blast damage from the Self-Destructing Fish, HP-600, Remaining HP500. Due to heart damage, your vampire skin’s ability to automatically recover HP is deactivated.]

"What the heck, it exploded upon meeting!"

With a start, Mu You hastily rewound time, trying other operations.

Finding no use, the fish was too fast. It blew itself up before he could even cast a spell.

Realizing he couldn’t avoid the damage, Mu You gave up struggling. He’d just let the explosion go, knowing he wouldn’t die.

[You searched the area where the exploding fish disappeared and found ’Unstable Sulfur’*1.]

[Unstable Sulfur: A special alchemical material formed by the self-exploding fish swallowing and condensing sulfur from the sea floor for a long time. It has the properties of certain explosives, It will explode when stimulated, be careful when you keep it.]

He had been bafflingly blown up, and had received a consolation material in return.

Without time for sorrow, Mu You quickly switched to vampire skin in the real world, taking off the Ghost Cloak from his skin.

The explosion of the self-exploding fish was a physical damage, the cloak in the ghost form could perfectly block it. He didn’t have time just now, but now he quickly put it in.

Since the tunnel was considered a ’territory’ by the self-exploding fish, there might be other similar fish inside.

After equipping the game character with the ’Ghost Cloak’, Mu You clicked on the ’Life Drain’ in the panel’s spell bar.

[You walk up to a nearby water plant and use Life Drain on it. The plant quickly wilts, and its life force is sucked in by you, healing the injury to your heart.]

[Under the effects of the Butcher Wolf Talent, your injuries quickly start to heal and your HP is revived to full in a blink.]

He kept Mirror of the Heart in the real world so that it wouldn’t be wasted in the game.

Now, the exploding fish could damage his heart at once, making the healing effect fail, so Mu You had to use this complicated way to heal.

However, the ’Life Drain’ spell turned out to be quite useful, it could be even cast on plants, not to worry about not finding objects to cast on.

[You proceed forward and enter the narrow natural tunnel under the lake on the West side.]

[The tunnel is a very long and dark sea trench that narrows as you go deeper. Suddenly, you hear a familiar chirping sound coming from the front. Through the light of the Pumpkin Lantern, you see a dozen of self-exploding fish rushing at you...]

"As I thought, there were more!"

A dozen fish rushed in at once, and Mu You figured he must have stumbled straight into the fish nest.

Without having much time to think, he quickly opened the panel and used Ghost Cloak.

[You transitioned into a ghost form, and the self-exploding fish exploded one by one around you like firecrackers, but not even scratching you.]

[After a short while, all the self-exploding fish finished exploding, and there were no mentions or sights of any other adult self-exploding fish in the tunnel. You searched around rest assured, obtaining ’Unstable Sulfur’*17.]

He turned into a ghost form and randomly picked up seventeen loot items, which was delightful. However, what Mu You was more glad about was that the sea trench was tough enough to withstand the explosions from so many fish. It didn’t collapse, otherwise, he would have been buried alive here.

[You continue to swim forward. After the narrowest part of the sea trench, the path gradually widens. After traveling a few dozen meters, it suddenly opens up...]

[You have entered a new sea area, with no cliff around, the sea stretched out as far as your eye could see. When you looked down, there were countless glowing sea plants on the seabed dozens of meters below, dotting the dark seabed like thousands of lights on land.]

After going through the sea trench, it seemed he had entered a new underwater paradise.

The text described the scene beautifully, but sadly Mu You couldn’t see anything. He could only imagine what was in front of him while controlling his character to keep moving.

[You are at the bottom of the sea, currently 74 meters under the water surface.]

[You see a Merfolk (Level 7) passing by, waving a blade made of shells and rushing at you.]

[After a chaotic battle, you successfully killed the Merfolk, Life+1, Experience+7, and summoned a Merfolk Zombie from its body.]

...

[You see a Dual-headed Tailless Salamander (Level 9) lying in the mud ahead. This creature, with heads at both ends, has a poisonous nature.]

[With the help of a Merfolk Zombie, you succeeded in killing the salamander, Life+1, Experience+9, and summoned a salamander zombie from its body.]

...

[As you were passing by the seafloor rock, you were attacked by an Amphibious Nightwalker (Level 8).

[With the help of the zombie beasts, you successfully killed the Nightwalker, Life+1, Experience+8, and summoned another new zombie beast from its body...]

...

Mu You found that his strength was greatly limited underwater. His movement and attack speed decreased by one-third, and his bow and arrow were also restricted, not to mention his inability to shoot far. What’s more, Fire Magic could not be used and his most powerful summon, the Battle Eagle, couldn’t come underwater.

Fortunately, it seemed that the levels of sea creatures nearby were not very high. So far there hadn’t been any magical beasts over level ten. Even without the help of the Battle Eagle, his vampire skin was still capable of dealing with them.