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“I just detected a reaction that’s similar to Eros’ mana. It looks like he’s below here.”

They had been flying through the sky on the Argo for some time, but Libra’s words caused the ship to stop.

Hearing this, Ruphas leaned out of the ship, but the vast sea extended as far as her eyes could see. She narrowed her eyes and concentrated to see if he was somewhere on the sparsely scattered islands, but she couldn’t find anyone anywhere. Under normal conditions, Ruphas had a visual acuity of 12.0, allowing her to distinguish the silhouette of an insect less than one centimeter at a distance of twenty meters.

If she were to use arcane power to create a lens of light in front of her eyes, she could see even further. Two lenses would be created. Mana would be used to create an object lens and an ocular lens. The perimeter would then be surrounded by mana to prevent light from escaping. By creating an improvised refracting telescope, it would be possible to see distant scenery. This was called Light Scope, a support-type arcane magic.

The in-game effect was just a simple zoom-in. If this was done too close to a character, the player would see through the polygons and see behind the character. The administrators should fix this.

However, there was no human to be seen even after it was used.

“Is he under the sea?”

“Yes, most likely.”

That wasn’t surprising.

As the name Pisces of the Fish implied, he was unlike the other Twelve Stars whose activities were mostly on land. He was the type who could show his true worth only in the sea. His combat power was at its greatest in underwater combat.

Therefore, it was only natural to expect him to be under the sea, but this was also why it was really troublesome. After all, the sea was much wider and deeper than land. In other words, the place that they needed to search was much larger than if it was on land.

Furthermore, none of Ruphas’ companions were particularly adept in moving around underwater. Naturally, this was also the case for Libra, Sagittarius, and Aigokeros, who were in charge of searching for Pisces this time. In other words, they needed to make some preparations before diving into the sea.

“How long can each of you hold your breath?”

“I don’t need to breathe, so I can do so for any amount of time.”

“I haven’t tried, but it should be possible for a few hours.”

“My best record is forty-five minutes.”

The three of them answered Ruphas’ question and the difference between biological creatures and non-living creatures became apparent.

As a non-living creature, Libra had no time limit. However, despite her appearance, she weighed three hundred kilograms, so she would definitely sink if she was thrown into the sea.

Ruphas wasn’t sure what exactly Aigokeros was, but he could probably be considered as a half-mana lifeform. He was halfway between a biological creature and a demon, but it didn’t seem like he had completely lost the functions of a biological creature.

Since Sagittarius was a centaur, a completely biological creature, his limit was less than an hour. Even though it was only forty-five minutes, it was already an amazing feat after taking his race into consideration. This was like a human who could hold his breath underwater for more than ten minutes.

“We need some countermeasures. Sagittarius, can you do it?”

“Leave it to me. Oxygen Suction!”

The effect of Sagittarius’ divine magic, Oxygen Suction, was simply the collection of oxygen. This increased the oxygen absorption capabilities of living creatures, allowing them to take in oxygen that was dissolved in water as if they were on land. In short, it could simply be thought of as a skill that allowed one to breathe underwater.

By the way, there was a penalty in the game if one were to enter underwater fields without using similar skills. HP would automatically decrease. However, Ruphas would simply charge without hesitation and force her way through, depending on her HP regeneration instead.

One wouldn’t need oxygen if it had overwhelming vitality. As such, Ruphas had probably surpassed the realm of biological creatures. However, there was no reason to do the same thing in this world.

“Next, Libra. If I make some optional parts for underwater movement, it should be manageable.”

Ruphas said and then entered the cabin to work on it. Then, after a while, there was the sound of iron striking iron, the sound of something breaking, and the sound of explosions. It didn’t really sound like the process of manufacturing something, but nobody present particularly cared about that. If the youth Sei was here, he would have made a straight-man retort, but unfortunately there was no one who would play that role here.

Then, after waiting for a few minutes, Ruphas returned with something with several blue wings. It looked somewhat similar to Libra’s support golem, Astraea. A closer look revealed four pairs of wings. In addition, two cannons extended from the waist when it was attached. However, it was missing the shoulder cannons of Astraea.

“It’s done. This is a golem for underwater movement. Its name is…Astraea Type M. There’s a small screw at the end of each wing, which can be moved to change direction. The waist cannons can fire harpoons, which would pierce an opponent and deliver vibration and ultrasonic attack to destroy the body from within. If you equip this, you would be able to move freely in the water without sinking.”

Ruphas docked Astraea M onto Libra as she explained its functions. Libra tested it out immediately, firing an harpoon from the waist cannon. The fired harpoon was attached to a long wire, which extended to a far distance. Eventually, the harpoon fell into the sea and stabbed a shark-like magical beast which just happened to be there.

This was a dangerous magical beast known as a deep blue, which liked to consume human flesh. When ultrasonic waves were emitted in the monster’s body, the deep blue bled from its eyes and mouth before it stopped moving. With the harpoon piercing the corpse, the wire was wound back into the cannon and the shark corpse was hauled onto the Argo.

“This is a great piece of equipment. With this, I can definitely slaughter Eros.”

“No, please bring him back normally instead of slaughtering him.”

While speaking, Libra’s equipment was changed to prepare for underwater combat. Her favorite machine gun was mostly useless underwater, so it was left on the Argo. Instead, it was replaced by an underwater assault rifle made by Ruphas. Thus, she was now prepared for anything.

“And this is for Aigokeros.”

After equipping Libra, Ruphas retrieved a weapon through a rift in space created by X-Gate. However, it was the wrong size.

It was a huge death scythe that seemed to be emerging from the deck of the ship. It was obviously intended to be used while enlarged since it wasn’t a size that people could normally use. The length of the handle already reached one hundred meters long. The blade glowed ominously as if a single slash could reap an entire city.

“As you can see, it’s intended to be used when you assume giant form. You can store the weapon away in your shadow when you’re not using it.”

Aigokeros could merge with the shadows. Not just for himself, he could also do the same for clothes and other items. This was something that Aries and the others couldn’t do. Even if they were given weapons to be used when they were in their giant forms, they didn’t have a place to store the weapons.

But Aigokeros alone could do this. That was why only he could use this weapon which required one to be in giant form. The huge size itself was its destructive power. In addition to STR +2,000 attack adjustment, it also had an instant death effect. Of course, most boss-class monsters were immune to instant death attacks, but weaker opponents would most definitely die.

“Thank you very much. With this, I can definitely slaughter Eros.”

“Like I said, don’t slaughter him. Just bring him back.”

Ruphas handed the weapon to Aigokeros, who stored it in his shadow. The sight of handing over a hundred-meter-long weapon with one hand was rather unrealistic, but there was still nobody around to make a straight-man retort. After all, this was actually quite normal for them.

Then, Sagittarius looked at Ruphas expectantly, but she didn’t give him anything.

“You already have a weapon, right? I have nothing for you.”

“……”

Indeed, Sagittarius already had a weapon made by Ruphas. Therefore, he was the only one who didn’t get anything. Sagittarius drooped his shoulders and sat on the floor, hugging his knees. But this gloomy man, whose lower body was naked, ended up being kicked off the ship by Benetnash. When he debuted, he was so serious. This was just terrible.

“Then, we’re going.”

“Please wait for our good news.”

Libra and Aigokeros jumped off the ship one after another, diving into the sea with large splashes of water. It looked as easy as if they were diving into a pool, but the Argo was currently at an altitude of ten thousand meters, so their falling speed would have reached two hundred kilometers per hour.

Jumping into the sea at this speed was equivalent to smashing directly into concrete, but Libra and the others did not take any damage. If they took damage from this, they couldn’t be called the strongest golem or devil king in Midgard, where power balance was crazy.

“I can’t find Sagittarius.”

Even though she was underwater, Libra spoke normally. Humans couldn’t speak underwater, but she was a golem. She could speak underwater by emitting only sound without releasing air. In terms of the things known to Ruphas and Sei, it was like playing music from underwater speakers.

“He probably has already started searching for Eros.”

Aigokeros also spoke as if he wasn’t underwater. It seemed his voice was passing through the water via telepathy.

They weren’t particularly concerned about Sagittarius as he excelled in stealth. To begin with, he was someone who rarely showed himself even before his own allies. Although this had not been the case since the return of Ruphas, what he was doing now could be said to be his original style. Since it was him, he would have started taking actions as a merfolk, just like how he had turned into a beastkin in Draupnir.

“Anyway, do you know where Eros is?”

“I felt a reaction from there earlier. Let’s go.”

Libra indicated the destination and flew through the water using the wings on her back. Likewise, Aigokeros followed as if he was flying. After swimming for a while, a strange group emerged to block their way. They were humanoid creatures whose heads had mutated into those of fishes.

Were they…mermen?

This appearance was really weird. They were probably mermen, but this group was really eerie. Their arms were drooping and swaying left and right. They were dragging their tails on the seabed and they moved by jumping like frogs. Their faces were very distinctive and their appearances were very disturbing. It was as if they were deep-sea mermen.

“Are those merfolk?”

“I don’t know. Whatever it is, since they’re in the way, all we need to do is to eliminate them.”

Aigokeros moved his right arm and a giant demonic arm instantly materialized, holding a huge scythe.

—Flash.

The demonic arm moved as Aigokeros moved his own arm and the scythe killed the mermen instantly. The two of them passed over the mutilated corpses without changing their expressions or looking back.

“It’s a species that we didn’t see before two hundred years ago. Was it a mutation?”

“Maybe. In the deep sea, mana tends to concentrate densely like it does in my homeland, Helheim. It won’t be strange if they have similar mutations as ours as a result.”

Mana had the property of flowing from high to low. The reason for this had been studied for many years, but it hadn’t been fully understood. The only thing that was certain was that mana tended to accumulate easily underground and in the deep sea.

In fact, a high concentration of mana had accumulated in Helheim, the underground world. As a result, the creatures there had demonic mutations. The humanoids were no exception. The humanoids in Helheim mutated to become as similar to devils as possible, becoming the ancestors of vampires.

Therefore, it was no wonder if the same thing was happening in the deep sea. Presumably, the merfolk had completely become magical beasts under the influence of mana. This was probably a new generation of monsters that were as yet unnoticed by the Goddess.

“Eros and these unknown magical beasts…This is becoming a little annoying.”

“This doesn’t change what we have to do. We just have to fulfill our master’s order.”

“That goes without saying.”

It didn’t matter whether the enemy was known or strong. Unshaken, Libra and Aigokeros continued to swim towards their destination. Eventually, they arrived at the glorious capital of the sea.