Wizard of the Abyss - Chapter 246

Chapter 246: Depth (13)

TL/ED – Miso

[Do it.]

After that, the Middle Layer began producing Deep Sea Creatures in a bizarre fashion.

It writhed like an ox chewing its cud, and from what could only be called its mouth, it spewed out all manner of grotesque Deep Sea Creatures.

[Ah, uh, ngh. Eh….]

“Fuck.”

I lost count of how many times this was repeated.

Without even knowing what the hell this was supposed to accomplish, I used the Current to crush something resembling a sea snail that was oozing thick fluid from a Barnacle.

-Crack…!

At the very least, after this endless battle, I had caught on to something like the weak points of certain species, and I immediately went for its shell first.

It was the right call. The tentacles that lashed out from the shattered shell, with the main body already pulverized, only managed to wrap weakly around my right arm before turning into a Fish Pill.

The fight had ended the moment it pulled out the Deep Sea Creature, but the Middle Layer showed no sign of stopping.

[…]

“Don’t tell me there’s still more to do here?”

No matter what I complained, the Middle Layer simply watched. Or perhaps it was pretending to, while it scoured around for more Deep Sea Creatures.

During the brief silence, I peeled off the tentacle that had barely managed to reach my right arm, and frowned.

A pretty sharp pain shot through me. When I pulled it off, I saw a purple venomous stinger attached to it.

‘This is starting to get dangerous…’

My mental sense of time was warped, but the fatigue piled up in my body had not gone away.

On top of that, my whole body was being crushed by the Water Pressure.

If I still hadn’t satisfied the Middle Layer, if I lacked the so-called qualifications, then the odds of me dying a pointless death from pushing any further looked far higher.

If there was another option…

It would be to attack the main body directly.

‘How do I take it down?’

The Middle Layer remained silent. It almost looked off guard.

If this thing were gone, surely a path would open one way or another. Of course, that was nearly impossible, but if it kept throwing me into fights with Deep Sea Creatures with no intention of sending me to the Deep Layer, the end result would be the same: my death.

While I was weighing such possibilities, it spoke.

[It is not enough, but I have no choice…]

It exhaled what looked like a sigh in the form of bubbles, and slowly shrank.

“Can I take that to mean you’ll send me down?”

[As long as your life is tied to my existence, I cannot.]

“?”

Has this bastard lost it.

Wondering if I really would have to clash with it, I slowly began drawing up the Current, but the creature once again hauled something up from inside its body.

-Gurgle…!

[Take it…]

“…What is this?”

I had been bracing myself thinking it was another Deep Sea Creature, but at the sight of several tiny living things popping out, things that didn’t even look capable of being enemies, let alone using the Current, I frowned.

What it had spit from its mouth weren’t monsters but lumps of Jellyfish. And they were even slightly smaller than ordinary Jellyfish.

The Jellyfish drifted without will and soon approached me. Not by their own volition, but because the Middle Layer had grabbed them with the Current and rubbed them against my body.

The stinging sensation was sharp enough that I twisted my body with a grimace.

“What the hell are you doing.”

[This way, the time you can endure down below will be extended.]

After smearing the Jellyfish onto my body, the Middle Layer then dragged me along with the Current.

[Heed this well.]

And, drawing out from within itself the antenna of an Anglerfish that glowed of its own light, it handed it to me and slowly began to speak.

[Whatever you seek down there, you will not obtain it. Your expectations and hopes will end with the realization that you mistook the object of your longing.]

“Thanks for the advice, but I’ll handle my own business.”

I frowned at the abrupt ill-omened words but quietly accepted its Current. I didn’t know why it had changed its mind, but it seemed ready to stop torturing me and finally send me to the Deep Layer.

[Hear me out. Before you die, let it go. If you do, you will realize where you must go. I will be waiting.]

“…What?”

[And remember. You still lack the qualifications…]

After spouting incomprehensible nonsense to the very end, the creature suddenly vanished with that final remark.

I don’t mean it stopped speaking. The Sea Water that had composed it literally evaporated and left nothing behind.

Wait, then how the hell am I supposed to get down. Dumbfounded, I kicked at the floor, and my foot sank straight through.

“…”

A little startled, I rubbed around the spot and realized that a very small, circular passage of sorts had opened inside the Middle Layer.

Just large enough to fit one of me. Catching its meaning, I steadied myself for a moment and was about to throw myself in.

[Jern.]

Mallo, who had been quiet even while I fought the Deep Sea Creatures, suddenly hesitated and spoke up.

It was impossible to fight without taking any wounds at all, so I supposed it had drunk plenty of my blood. Its tone was unusually grave, so I tilted my head and answered.

“You’re still around. What is it?”

[That thing, whatever it was, it’s probably right. It would be best not to enter just yet.]

“What are you talking about. Are you going to start spouting nonsense too?”

I had long grown sick of the way creatures from the Deep Sea spoke in their own private code that only they understood.

When my tone came out a little prickly, Mallo, still hesitant, laid out its thoughts.

[I… I don’t really understand what that thing is talking about. Honestly, I can’t see it, can’t feel it. The only thing I know is that you’ve been fighting nonstop. That’s about it.]

“Ah…”

That made enough sense, so I nodded.

Come to think of it, Mallo wasn’t a Deep Sea creature; it probably had only the barest sliver of vision in this pitch-black darkness. It wouldn’t be able to see the Middle Layer’s shape at all.

Mallo continued in that same anxious tone.

[The thing I can see most clearly right now is you. You… you’re changing.]

“Yeah. Because I’m turning into a Deep Sea Creature.”

[No… at first I thought that was it too, but now I don’t think so.]

“?”

What is it on about.

[You’re not adapting to the Deep Sea and becoming a creature similar to those Deep Sea Creatures. If that were the case, you’d be growing more like them. You’re adapting to something… something else. That’s probably what that thing meant by ‘qualifications.’]

“I really don’t get what you’re saying. If this is the Deep Sea, what else is there to adapt to besides the Deep Sea?”

[Hmm, perhaps…]

Mallo said this and looked down toward the passage.

[…another World…?]

“?”

[I really don’t know either… in the end, it’ll be your choice.]

Mallo soon let out a sigh and went quiet.

I didn’t fully understand, but that part was right.

That this was my choice to make.

It was a pretty easy one.

“It’s not like I can stay here forever.”

That if I reached the very bottom, a way would open.

That alone was all I could believe in.

I shrugged and threw myself into the passage.

***

-Cold. Freezing.

It was a feeling that had to be described that way.

“Hmm…”

Holding my body still, I trembled slightly as I felt a chill I hadn’t felt in a long while.

It was a fairly bothersome sensation. But the Burden that bothered me far more, the Water Pressure, the Burden that had been threatening my very life…

‘I can handle this?’

It was weaker than I’d thought. No, far weaker than I’d thought.

It was so weak that the pressure the Middle Layer had put on me felt like it had been dozens of times stronger, no exaggeration.

Even my Current Sense and Current abilities were still intact. With that Current Sense, I could see that, save for the cold no matter where I looked, this was no different from an ordinary Deep Sea.

Calling anything in the Deep Sea “ordinary” was an absurd thing to say. As I looked around, I noticed something else as well.

“It’s just me here.”

Stillness.

Even though they had been unwelcome predators, life had existed up above. Down here was completely different.

Not a single Deep Sea Creature swimming, not even a bubble rising. It was utter nothingness, and I had been quietly bracing myself in case something like the giant Octopus that had tried to kill me was lying in wait to ambush me, but I felt relieved and stayed still for several minutes, watching for any movement.

“Hey, Mallo. What’s it look like to you?”

[…]

In the meantime, I tried calling out to Mallo, who had been worried about my coming in.

No reply came. For a long time.

At first I tilted my head, wondering if it had gotten scared, but once I realized Mallo was outright asleep, I lightly cut my finger with the Current and smeared blood onto the robe.

“I made it, so wake up.”

[…]

But no matter how much blood I smeared, no matter how long I waited, it wouldn’t wake up.

If anything, I started feeling like a lunatic, talking to a robe and rubbing blood onto it.

Could it be dead? Worry crept in, but I was hardly in a position comfortable enough to be worrying about anyone else.

‘I’d better stay sharp.’

It might look peaceful, but this was the very bottom of the Deep Sea.

It was likely a place teeming with Outer Gods who wanted me dead. If they spotted me, the odds were high I wouldn’t last a single second.

Which presumably meant I hadn’t been spotted yet, but that part didn’t add up either.

The ones who had noticed me even when I was up above, why not now?

‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.’ [TL: The original Korean idiom is “좋은 게 좋은 거지” (literally “what’s good is good”), meaning to accept good fortune without questioning it.]

This stretch of apparent safety wouldn’t last forever, so I had to make the most of it.

What I needed to do was clear too.

The bottom.

Hadn’t Cheon-hwa told me to reach the very bottom? This was that place too, in a sense, but since this was the Deep Layer, there had to be another bottom below.

I dove straight toward the very bottom.

For a long time.

Ten minutes.

Thirty minutes.

Three hours.

And… three days.

“What the fuck is this…”

Floored, I stopped swimming midway and stared up in bewilderment.

I didn’t know the exact time. But I had been swimming downward and only downward for what felt like nearly three days.

At least, that’s what my senses told me. Maybe it had been thirty days, or three hours…

…?

I frowned and pressed a hand to my forehead. Something was off.

The sensation that I had only just begun descending, and the sensation that I had been descending for an entire month, were tangled together. Something somewhere in my head felt broken.

The Deep Layer was still empty, and nothing had changed.

For now, I figured I’d better head back up, mark a reference point, and let out something like a thread to secure my way.

I had been so fixated on the word “Deep Layer” that I’d assumed the bottom would be just a little further down, but if I’d known it was this deep… thinking that and turning to head up, I suddenly froze in place.

“…Which way was up?”

I couldn’t tell up from down.

Only then did I grasp the situation I was in, and I clenched my teeth and let out a sigh.

“At my age…”

I was…

a lost child in the Deep Sea.