Chapter 14: A Brief Escape (2)
TL: Hanguk
The quiet morning sea around 9 AM.
I moved forward carefully, parting the sunlit sparkling waves.
Trying to make as little splashing as possible, hiding my body underwater by diving from time to time, I swam quietly until Wolgwang Island became distant.
Surprisingly, the progress wasn't slow.
All thanks to my high stats.
'Should I speed up a bit now?'
The reason I'm swimming so cautiously is to avoid attracting the attention of flying monsters.
I heard that flying monsters are sensitive to noise and have good vision.
So, I covered my whole body in black clothes and tried not to attract attention by swimming quietly.
And it seemed my effort paid off as I gradually distanced myself from Wolgwang Island, and I was able to gradually increase my swimming speed.
‘Whoa! Damn, that scared me. What the hell is that?'
When I reached more than halfway to the unknown island, which was my first destination,
I noticed a few large shadows in the water.
Thinking it might be a shark or whale, I took out my silhouette goggles and saw...
'This, this is definitely not...'
It was definitely not the shape of a fish but had a monstrous form.
The silhouette goggles display humans and NPCs in white, monsters in red, and everything else in gray.
These alien beings were gray just a moment ago, but they were gradually turning red.
-Papapapapapa!
There's a saying that 'the day when you want to do something is the day when the market is opened¹' and as you live in the world, there are situations that make you say 'it's a coincidence'.
My current situation is one of them.
In other words, I'm screwed.
'Damn it! Why of all times is there a water monster now!'
Monsters began to spawn in the tranquil depths of the sea.
When flying monsters suddenly appeared with an update, I thought something like this could happen at any time, but...
I didn't think the timing would be this bad.
If I had detected the anomaly in advance, I wouldn't have had to leave Wolgwang Island.
However, I'm more than halfway to my destination, and I can't go back to Wolgwang Island. I have no choice but to reach the unknown island that lies before me.
- Papa Papat!
Fortunately, there weren't many aquatic monsters yet, and they mostly squirmed without making any significant movements.
Still, I can't let my guard down.
I had a feeling that they would attack soon.
'I need to escape.'
I took advantage of this brief respite to swim as hard as I could.
At this moment, I'm like a dolphin in human form, a motorboat made of vigor.
- Kieeek!
Thanks to the splashing, the wyverns on Wolgwang Island noticed me sooner than I would have liked. Even if flying monsters have good vision, I didn't expect them to fly this far...
'I have no choice! The things in the sea look much more dangerous than the wyverns!'
First, I have to reach land before I can do anything. So, without looking back, I swam as hard as I could.
‘Damn it!’
Then, I began to hear the wyvern's cry getting closer. The unknown island is about 300 meters away. It seemed that the wyvern would reach me much faster than I could reach the island.
- Kieeek!
In the end, I opened my inventory and took out the 2m*2m giant Styrofoam blocks I had brought for emergencies.
- Tutututu
The pink styrofoam boards popped into the air like gunshots and one by one, landed on the sea surface.
I brought a large amount of this insulation styrofoam from the store for two reasons.
One is that it has high buoyancy, making it easy to get on top of. The other is that I thought that the intense pink color could distract attention if it covers the sea.
I swam under the sea covered with pink styrofoam.
- Kiek?
The wyverns were bewildered by the unexpected situation.
They had come to eat a madman who was swimming loudly, but instead, found a massive dump of pink.
They patrolled the sea surface filled with floating styrofoam, searching for me.
"Puhah!"
- Kiaaa!
Every time I stuck my head out of the water to breathe, they swooped in aggressively, but I was able to evade them easily by diving back under.
Long-distance swimming in the sea is faster with freestyle than with diving because it's easier to breathe.
Even though I couldn't move as quickly as before, I was able to travel tens of meters with each dive thanks to my high abilities.
"Puhah!"
- Kiaaaak!
"Puhah!"
- Kiaaaak!
Just like playing a game of whack-a-mole, I swam in the pink-dyed sea. Eventually, the island, my destination, came into sight.
'Damn!'
But the real crisis was just beginning...
- Shuuuuuk!
Because the aquatic monsters that had been quietly lurking started to rush at me.
I could feel the abnormal presences behind me, one by one.
It seemed like enormous monsters, unlike any I'd seen before, were chasing me.
"Puhah!"
In the end, I escaped out of the water.
-Gasp.
And as I stood on the Styrofoam and looked into the ocean...
I could see the huge jaws approaching, corroding the surrounding space.
'Leap!'
Startled, I stepped on several styrofoam boards and jumped high into the sky using the leap skill.
Then, a giant fish that looked like a shark with a crocodile face and a sea dinosaur-like monster surged out of the water after me.
Just how big it is?
10 meters? 20 meters?
It was so like a scene from a horror movie that I got goosebumps all over.
-Thunk!
Fortunately, its mouth did not reach me.
Thanks to not holding back on the leap skill, I had jumped a good 30 meters into the air.
But even if there were giant jaws and dinosaurs in the sea...
I mustn't forget that these guys are in the sky too.
- Kieeek!
The wyverns, which had been making fun of me until now, were descending with a terrifying momentum.
'Huh? Good angle?'
At this point, I saw a chance for escape.
As my jump reached its peak and I was about to start free falling, the wyverns with their razor-sharp talons extended swooped at me.
Just before colliding with them...
'Create Intermediate Shield!'
I used the inbuilt skill of the Magic Robe I got from killing the Golden Goblin.
- Kwaang!
Instead of the sound of talons digging into flesh, there was a sound as if a hammer was striking an iron plate, and I was shot off like a cannonball.
'Thank you!'
My expected landing point, as a cannonball, was none other than today's first destination, the unknown island.
And I crashed into a heavily wooded mountain there.
"Ugh!"
The shield absorbed some of the impact of the crash, but I still felt a significant amount of pain all over my body.
"Finally on land. Haha..."
I used the intermediate recovery skill embedded in my ring of recovery to heal my injuries and quickly hid myself deeper in the dense vegetation.
- Kieeek!
The wyvern's angry cry resounded, frustrated by being manipulated and ultimately used by me.
'I don't think I'll be able to enter the sea in the future.'
I almost died when a water monster suddenly appeared.
I'm incredibly proud that I made it out of such a dangerous sea unscathed.
Although I did create a lot of marine waste in the process...
I didn't care much.
The reason is that the items in the shop are quite eco-friendly.
[If left unused and in its raw material state, it will automatically disappear after one week.]
Like this.
So, I walked without any guilt.
*
"What is this place for?"
Not every strange terrain necessarily has a meaningful use.
Is this place the same?
The island was small to begin with, but I didn't expect to not see a single monster.
Thanks to this, I was unobstructed until I left the island and walked along the beach with the tide out.
[I just heard from the navy, how flustered they were... Are you really okay?]
"Yes, I am fine. Your son seems to have a strong luck."
[I'm sorry. My suggestion turned out to be a bad idea.]
"No, I'm glad I came out like this. If I had missed this timing, I think I would never be able to leave Wolgwang Island."
The navy was constantly monitoring the emergence of aquatic monsters using sonar.
But the underwater monsters really appeared, which meant a complete blockade of the sea route, so chaos was inevitable.
Of course, my father had to panic for different reasons.
[Phew, it's great.]
My father laughed bitterly and told me one thing.
That is...
[It seems there's an incident on Gauido Island. It's not an accident caused by monsters, but friction between people.]
"Really?"
[I heard that the village head of Gauido Island is directly requesting help from the police and the military through the fishing community.]
Since the start of the disaster, emergency calls like 112 or 119 have lost their function.
So it seems he is seeking help through the mainland fishing community.
But who doesn't need help right now?
It was pointless.
"Do you know exactly what the situation is?"
[A feud has formed between the villagers and the tourists, and the tourists have attacked the villagers and taken their territory.]
I roughly understand the situation.
But given the situation, I couldn't just believe one side of the story.
[I'm telling you to be very careful because the situation on the island is grim. Don't try to interfere with other people's business.]
"Yes, I understand."
I'll just mark the waypoint on of Gauido Island and go back to Wolgwang Island.
There's no need to get involved in human conflicts and trouble myself.
It's ridiculous that humans are still fighting each other when threatened by monsters.
I couldn't help but shake my head.
"Is that Ungdo?"
After ending the call with my father, I left the unknown island and walked an uncomfortable path to Ungdo. After dealing with the orcs in Ungdo, I embarked on the sea route to Dando.
***
- Kieeek!
"What, what's happening?"
Kim Yong-geun, a 40-year-old resident of Gauido Island, was startled when the wyverns, which could be considered the new owners of Gauido Island, suddenly roared.
He quickly hid inside a building, and so did the other villagers.
However, when he realized that the sounds of the wyverns were getting further away, he had to question.
"What's happening? What did those bastards find that they're making such a noise?"
At Kim Yong-geun's question, his son, who was hiding in the same place, shook his head.
"It would be great if they took this chance to bite those greedy guys."
"Father, the flying monsters went west, and those people are in the east."
“Ah, is that so?”
Once they realized the wyverns had not discovered and attacked them, they carefully ventured out of the building and moved to the vegetable garden in front of the yard.
No matter how crazy the world is, people have to eat and live, so their jobs were not much different from before.
“Ah, these jelly bastards have come out again."
However, there were uninvited guests in his garden.
A monster with a green, semi-transparent body.
It was a slime.
Despite its harmless appearance, it's a monster that causes burns when touched, so it was quite dangerous.
[You have cooperatively defeated the slime and acquired 3 experience points.]
[You will receive a reward for defeating the slime.]
-You have gained 1 coin.
Kim Yong-geun swung his hoe with his son and exterminated the slime.
In doing so, they were able to receive modest experience and rewards.
"Do you want to level up by killing slimes and take revenge?"
"Huh?"
As they were about to start working in the field.
A man in his 20s approached them, sneering.
When Kim Yong-geun saw him, he frowned.
Seeing Kim Yong-geun's reaction, the man chuckled and asked,
"Where did those lizard bastards fly off to?"
“I don’t know, maybe to bite and kill you?”
"Look at this guy's foul mouth?"
Kim Yong-geun's words made the man flare up, and his son had to stop his father's blunt behavior.
Currently, the Gauido Island is under the control of that man's gang.
There was nothing good about him that would make me feel affectionate.
On behalf of his father, the son answered the man's question.
"The, those monsters went west."
Upon hearing this, the man flashed a triumphant smile.
Kim Yong-geun sighed and started digging up potatoes in the field.
"Oh, potatoes? Give me some.”
Then the man snatched a bundle of potatoes from Kim Yong-geun.
Kim Yong-geun wanted to scream out his pent-up anger, but if he did, monsters would swarm from all directions, and his son could be in danger, so he held it in.
Just then,
-Clang. Clang.
Someone appeared walking on the western road.
It was a young man, more fitting to be called in his early twenties rather than a man.
Since they had never seen him before, they said nothing, and the unfamiliar young man glanced at the three of them before silently walking up the hill road.
There was a long sword hanging from the young man's waist.
*****
TL Notes:
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