Book 1: Chapter 22

Aqua A few seconds pass before I finally begin to move. Swimming downwards to find a place to rest as the dungeon begins to collapse. When the boss dies, so goes the dungeon. Which means I’m going to be spat back out where the shark is. While covered in wounds and with a dislocated shoulder. Actually, on the note of the shoulder. I glance at the chat, grimacing at the pain from my shattered collarbone. Then I weakly ask, “Does anyone know how to reset a dislocated shoulder...?” The chat, which was already going wild from everything they just saw along with my new skill, immediately goes even more wild. But it’s going too fast for me to read any medical comments. I take a deep breath before raising my right hand to the screen as it screams at me in pain. Then I scroll up on the chat to look at older messages with them locked in place. And after a couple scrolls, I find the answer to my question. That’s going to hurt like hell... I find the rock the commenter pointed out before pinning my dislocated shoulder between it and the cavern wall. Then I do exactly what the reader suggested, making me let out a loud scream in the process as a popping sound and sensation comes from my shoulder. And the pain completely disappears. From the shoulder that is. I pant in exhaustion and pain as tears flow from my eyes. But the viewers can’t tell that part because of the fact that I’m underwater. Then, as if trying to contradict my thoughts, the dungeon stops shaking and everything just blanks out for a moment. Then I find myself falling to the ground on some ruins. The very same ruins that the dungeon Gate was located in the first place. And the orc king’s corpse falls right next to me. I don’t hesitate and quickly climb to my shaky feet to look down at the water below. Only to surprisingly find the shark missing. Huh? I look around for a bit before noticing some signs of battle, along with a lot of orc corpses floating in the water, and more signs that the shark left through the tunnel into this cavern. But that’s fine. All that matters is that the shark is not here. The dungeon is dealt with, and the mana levels down here are far more stabilized. And since the dungeon is gone, no more orcs will appear. Which means no more land roaming monsters. I should finally be able to stay up here without worrying about being attacked. Unless the shark comes back and turns out to have a ranged attack. Even then... I look around at the walls before finding some walls at the top of the cavern that are dented rather deeply in how they were formed. Making a small pocket that should be able to comfortably fit me. And with my trident and my own strength, along with some careful shooting, I should be able to expand that place. Giving me a relatively safe place to stay. A faint smile spreads across my face at the thought of a safe place to stay. Safe... a safe... place... My vision begins to blur as my thoughts become sluggish. And after moving closer to the center of the large broken sideways pillar I’m on, I feel my vision going completely dark. As I fall down unconscious to the ground beneath me on the pillar. In a convenience store on the Planet known as Equeter Viridia feels tears coming to her eyes as she watches the TV in the corner of her convenience store. And she’s not the only one as dozens of people are with her in her store just gazing up at the screen. All of them are people Aqua has met during her time living in the neighborhood. Some of whom she has even helped out from time to time while going about her day, while others helped her out. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. But now everyone can’t take their eyes off the screen as they watch the news reporter staring in silence on the screen at the screen behind the news reporter. Where Aqua has just fallen unconscious on a sideways pillar about a meter away from the orc king’s corpse, which is leaking blood that’s falling into the water down below. Just dripping off the side of the ruined structure. The camera angle moves in closer to Aqua, showing right up in front of her face as she lies on the ground. And the moment everyone sees that she’s still breathing, every person in the convenience store and even the news reporter herself let out sighs of relief. “Aqua Fallen is still alive!” the news reporter exclaims with obvious relief in her voice. “Thank the Abyss! If she’d died after all that work, it would’ve been so sad!” Viridia wipes a tear from her eye, and she’s not the only one as the others in the convenience store – which is growing annoyingly cramped with all these people in her opinion – do the same. With a lot of them hugging each other and cheering. Which doesn’t help the poor smell coming off half of them. A good number of them are homeless and can’t bathe after all. So her convenience store currently stinks up a storm. And normally she would kick them all out for ruining work hours. But today she’s in a good mood. So she lets it slide. Not because of Aqua’s survival though, just because she’s in a good mood. Absolutely not Aqua’s survival. Viridia huffs as a faint smile touches her lips. “The cranky grandma is smiling!!!” one of the troublemakers shouts while pointing at her. Following which everyone in the convenience store turns to Viridia. “Holy fuck, she really is!” “Is it raining pigs outside?” “Wow... never thought I’d see the day the old crone broke out into a smile...” “Get the hell outta here you brats!” Viridia shouts, finally chasing them all away. And they all run out while laughing, clearly cheerful. But as Viridia turns her gaze back to the news report, she still can’t help but think about the many wounds the girl has. She should be fine with the regeneration she’s shown, and with it almost being the tenth day now. Making it so she should be getting those antibiotics soon. Still... Viridia watches the screen with a worried expression on her face. “You better come back for those mints, you brat...” she eventually mutters to herself in the silence of her store. Aqua Several hours later Awareness slowly returns to me in two phases. The first being light, and the second being pain. Light completely fills my eyes to the point of blinding me before my eyes adjust again, then the pain I’m currently feeling floods back. Albeit not as badly as it was hurting after the battle. Wait, battle? I quickly shoot up to my feet as I remember falling unconscious, only to realize there’s nothing here in the cavern still. Except corpses, that is. And the pain from my arm and collarbone. That realization makes me let out a sigh of relief again despite the pain. Then I notice something as I look at the orc king. Specifically being some sort of bracelet that I hadn’t noticed before. The thing is around the orc king’s wrist, and it’s actually rather tight on the monster. So it takes some work getting it off. Huh. I wonder what this does? Dungeons don’t have any real rewards in them other than the monsters’ corpses and any items the monsters have on them. So the fact that this orc king actually has an item is already good for me. I just need to figure out what it does. Maybe something to do with why the orc king was so strong? I should ask the chat later. For now... I glance at the chat’s timestamp to find that it’s the tenth day. At last. And to prove that, there is now a third and a fourth icon on the right side of my vision. Right beneath the Broadcast System menu. Without hesitating, I select the icon right beneath the Broadcast System one. With that icon being a money symbol. Then a System Notification appears in my vision for the first time in a while. System Notification Congratulations, Aqua Fallen! You have survived to the tenth day of your time in Oceana, therefore the System officially recognizes you as a resident of Oceana! Thanks to your official System residency in a planet, you are now being added to the following leaderboards: Oceana Leaderboards – 2nd Dartric Galaxy Leaderboards – 41st Additionally, you have unlocked the Sponsorship System. A branch system of the Broadcast System created by the current System Administrator. Through this you may accept specific System approved sponsorships from System users from the Alliance. I don’t bother reading most of the notification as I already know all of what it says. Instead I just go ahead and select the Sponsorship System icon again to open it. Then I check if I have any sponsorships right now. And lo and behold, I do. Multiple of them in fact. But only a single one matters at this exact moment. A wide smile spreads across my face at the sight of the universal antibiotics item sponsored by Oliver Ashfyre. The director of the drama I’m gonna star in later on. Without hesitation, I accept the sponsorship, making a system screen appear in front of me before a small container of pills just slowly emerges from the screen and floats towards me. I grab it and immediately pop a single pill into my mouth. Which is all I need. And, proving the sheer efficiency of the universal antibiotic, I immediately begin to feel relief from my severely discolored arm. I can’t help but collapse onto my back on the sideways pillar as the relief spreads through my body for the first time in days. Finally... the pain is going away.