Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 491 - 55 Level 3_1

Chapter 491: Chapter 55 Level 3_1

Deep in the ocean, the bone-chilling water was as calm as ever, not a single ripple to be seen. The sunken ship, covered in seashells and tangled with seaweed, was also as silent and dark as always. On occasion, marine creatures would swim past, but otherwise everything was still. It was as if the entire scene had been frozen in a picture. However, what was happening inside the ship was far from this external tranquillity.

The luminous glow of the phosphorescent algae couldn’t reach the second floor, which was a lengthy corridor. There, a column of light shot straight down the hall. Its concentrated beam was not enough to illuminate the whole hallway, but it clearly revealed everything it touched. At the end of the corridor stood five haloed figures, representing the adventure team. They clustered together in a battle-ready formation, slowly advancing down the corridor. Ever since the sudden attack by the creatures from the sea, they had recognized that the shipwreck was not as tranquil as they had previously imagined. They had taken on the caution typical of an adventurer and embarked on a careful exploration within the sunken ship.

In the second-floor corridor, few remnants floated about: a few wrecked iron barrels, four to five shattered crystal mirror fragments, and some chunks of unrecognizable light metal. But what was most present in the ship’s corridor were the white bones. Skeleton after skeleton lay in the water, pinned down by armor so they couldn’t float. Most of them were in distorted positions, revealing the agony they’d endured right before death. Every skull had a gaping mouth—evidence that they had desperately tried to draw their last gasps of air. However, instead of sustaining life, the cold sea water flooded in, proving lethal instead.

As the girls walked among the skeletons, it felt as if they had travelled thousands of years back in time. They could almost envision the days of the past: the calm sea shrouded in a thick fog, vessels led by controlled members of the Sea Race weaving between hidden reefs, heading towards an unknown destination. Suddenly, a massive wave crashed against the peaceful sea; a great force clung to the ship, dragging it whole into the sea depths. The intense pressure of the depth made the vessel creak dangerously as if on the verge of breaking apart. Gaps in the hull widened under the pressure, allowing water to flood into the cabins from every direction. Within the second-floor corridor, the elite troops—consisting of Lower Rank professionals—descended into chaos. Fervent believers they might have been, but they were helpless in the face of such overpowering natural forces. In desperation, they attempted to scramble up to the deck to escape the cabins, but the relentless water pressure and rushing currents shattered their hopes of survival. Encased in heavy armor, they couldn’t struggle, only allowing the merciless sea to engulf them. Their heads disappeared underwater, yet they continued to claw at the air above in a futile attempt to grasp onto life. Bubbles forced out from their gaping mouths floated up in strings and burst in the small air pockets within the cabins; they were swept away before they had a chance to surface, just like their lives—dissipated without a trace.

When a cabin door was pushed open, the decayed door crumbled at a mere touch, and a skeleton leaning against the door toppled out from the cabin, shattering into pieces that managed to slink through the gaps in the armor and float towards the top of the cabin. Apart from the bed, all that was left in the cabin was a box—or rather, the remnants of one. The box had long been corroded by the everlasting elements and the omnipresent seawater, leaving it in ruins. A few gold coins were scattered within. The surfaces of the coins sported red spots of rust, which with a slight rub shone brightly as before. Beside the coins lay a crystal trinket—a long, golden strand of hair faintly visible within its semi-translucent body.

"This is the last cabin," Catherine put the crystal trinket back into the decaying wooden box, a strange depression filling her heart. She forced herself to toss aside the image of what she had seen, raising her spirits as she said, "But we still haven’t found the cabin of the important person."

"It seems we’ll have to move downward," Vivian softly pushed Catherine away from the box as she nonchalantly said, "We’re quite lucky, though. I thought we would encounter a few sea monsters while exploring this level."

"There probably aren’t many of those things, right?" Pannis asked Lina with his eyes. "Even if it’s a demigod or a blessed one, they couldn’t possibly provide unlimited support to summon those creatures."

"Not necessarily." Lina shook her head. "But that isn’t important. I’m more intrigued about something else. Undoubtedly, Demos has fallen, the Nightmare and the Sect of Fear have perished. But the power derived from Demos’ dream, or to put it simply, the Nightmares born from Demos’ power, should have vanished along with him. However, as you’ve seen, not only are the Nightmares not vanished, they are also in no way weakened. Where does their power come from?"

"Maybe those questions don’t have answers," Pannis said, "Considering the fact that the mysteries behind a deity are far beyond any mortal’s comprehension."

"Actually, your question earlier could also be answered in this way," Lina nodded. "Ordinary professionals may not be able to sustain too many summoned creatures, but there could be an exception—archbishops, the Gods’ agents on earth, possess various ways to cheat."

"Then we have to be more careful when getting down to the third floor." After contemplating for a moment, Freya flicked her fingers. Four conical tetrahedra—they were the size of a human head—flew out of her, three of them fanned out in a triangular shape to cover the team, whereas the fourth floated right above their heads, shaping an identical cone to surround them all. As the team began to move, the four metallic bodies would float along, as if they had consciousness, "Antimagic Marionette Mark 75-modified. My original creation, combining machinery and magic, these puppets can generate a force field to effectively repel attacks from the Legendary Rank and below, disassembling and absorbing the mana in the attack to strengthen its own force-field. It’s still not so practical as the four puppets are the weak points. If an enemy targets and attacks the puppets, they’d easily be destroyed. But I doubt those nightmares are smart enough to consider attacking the marionettes."

"This is already very good, at least we can avoid being ambushed." Vivian made a supporting gesture with her left hand on her chest, a disc formed of seawater quickly took shape in her hand. Freya was taken aback, then released a mouse-shaped puppet, taking out a Tear of Light and fixing it on the puppet’s head. Vivian waved her magic staff on the puppet with her right hand, and Freya began controlling the puppet to step into the staircase leading to the third floor.

The mouse-shaped puppet hopped and floated down the stairs, as Vivian’s Eye of the Mage cast on it started to work. In the disc held by Vivian, the scene seen by the Mage’s Eye appeared, shaking violently.

The staircase to the third floor was not long, the puppet quickly submerged to the bottom and began to swim around the staircase, sticking to the ground. The surroundings of the staircase seemed to have no difference from the second floor, except for fewer corpses. Confirmed that there was nothing strange at the entrance to the third floor, and no Mare present, Vivian nodded to Catherine. Catherine gestured that she understood and led the way down the stairs with her shield up.

The space of the third floor was still dark, only illuminated by the massive illuminator on Catherine’s back. As she stepped into the third floor, Catherine found that it was slightly taller than the two floors above, and there was almost nothing floating in the seawater at the top of the corridor. Looking down the corridor, there were only seven doors in the long corridor, meaning there were only seven rooms on the entire third floor, which was much wider compared to the twenty or so rooms on the upper two floors.

"Perhaps we have found the place." Catherine stared at the pitch-black corridor and lowered her voice, "Any change is good news. Fewer rooms mean their importance has increased."

"Seems so." Pannis, who was last on the stairs, looked around with the help of the pillar of light and said, "If this is where the top forces of the Sect of Fear live, does that mean they have at least seven powerful beings?"

"Seven demigods?" Lina asked curiously, "Isn’t that a bit too much?"

"Do you think Demigods are pasfruit on the roadside?" Pannis rolled his eyes, "Although at the end of the Third Epoch, due to the presence of God’s Children and God’s Chosen, the number of demigods has risen to hundreds, having seven demigods in a small sect is too exaggerated. However, who knows maybe Demos had used some strange method to temporarily increase these people’s combat power, otherwise, with just two or three demigods, it would be not different from suicide to provoke in the deep sea."

"Yeah, I don’t think two or three demigods could have killed those two outside." Lina said, "The combination of the Sea Beast and the Sea Race is not as simple as one plus one, right?"

"Of course not." Pannis nodded, "That Sea Beast could perhaps be barely killed by a single demigod, but if there is a Sea Race inside that can control it, even three or four demigods attacking might not win, so..."

"Look, what have we found?" Vivian suddenly exclaimed. During the gap in their conversation, Vivian and Freya had begun to explore the interior. Neither of them moved forward, but cautiously stayed where they were, controlling the mouse-shaped puppet to slowly swim to a cabin door. The mouse-shaped puppet rose up on its hind legs outside the cabin door, its front paws clawing at the door. The decaying door was easily torn open to create a small hole, and the puppet crawled into the cabin, casting the scene inside onto Vivian’s seawater mirror.