Book 1: Chapter 76

Aqua “Why didn’t I expect this?” I can’t help but mutter out loud as I see the guide Jen set up for me. The one, the only, my tour guide. “I hear you’ve been bankrupting this guild branch,” the tour guide says matter-of-factly with a straight face. “How you manage to do that within a week of arriving is beyond me, but I’m starting to get used to your surprises.” It’s not like I’m trying to surprise you on purpose. “We should head out now,” he continues as he begins heading towards the edge of the city. “You may not be as familiar with this since you’re from the deep layers, but the ocean flip flops for which times of day are the most dangerous depending on the depth. The upper layers of the ocean are the opposite of the deep layers and are the most dangerous during the day and tend to be easier to travel through at night. And whenever one travels between oceans, it’s best to go through the upper layers.” “Why?” I ask when we arrive at the edge of the city, where the tour guide begins to stretch a little. “If you’re asking about why the ocean flip flops like that, it’s because the stronger monsters of the upper layer go down to the deeper layer during the night, leaving the deeper layer with more monsters and the upper layer with fewer during that time,” he says while still stretching as I stand by watching, just wishing I could put my hands in my nonexistent pockets. “If it’s about why it’s best to travel through the upper layers? It’s because this month’s migration period is nearing, and the last thing you want to do is run into the migrating monsters.” Huh. I guess monsters in the ocean migrate too, just like animals. Wait a second... “What happens if the monsters migrating cross paths with a city?” I ask with a frown on my face. He tenses up a little before finishing his stretches and answering, “We fight to protect the city.” I feel slightly awkward as he goes silent after saying that. Clearly implying some sort of story there. Was a city he cared about destroyed in the past or something? Probably. As if noticing my unasked question, the tour guide says, “Most cities are built outside of the regular migration routes. But sometimes they can float near them, or monsters might end up forced somehow to change their route, making them collide.” His face grows even darker. “And when that happens, the city is usually destroyed.” Right. He’s definitely lost someone to this before. Anyway, after that, we both enter the water and begin swimming upwards. Which will mark the first time I’m really leaving the deep layers of the ocean. I wonder if I’ll get close enough to see the sun? Probably not. The deep layer starts at about six thousand meters deep after all. So if I had to guess, we’ll probably go to around five or four thousand meters deep to swim. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. We’re only entering it for safety during the trip and going back in when we arrive after all. Not to go to the surface. And just as I guessed, we stop swimming upwards before the water’s darkness really changes much at all. Then we begin swimming in a position east of the city. Which I can only tell based on the way the city is facing. Well, that and the sight of the castle and mountain in the far distance when I transform my eyes. An action that startles the hell out of the tour guide when he sees it, but he calms down quickly enough afterwards. No doubt blaming it on a skill. Which he’s not wrong about. And thus begins the incredibly long and boring trip to the next Hunter’s City. With a rather talkative tour guide after he gets over his previous dark mood. In the ocean’s Upper Layer The list of things Jaleth finds odd about Aqua is growing by the day. She’s the strongest person on the planet in level, brings in far more monsters on a daily basis than entire groups of hunters can manage, knows suspiciously little about the planet from what he’s seen, and is wearing armor that is made of materials his blacksmith friend has never seen before. On top of all that, she has strange hair, even stranger eyes, and can breathe underwater. Now, at first he assumed her features were shared by all those in secret clans or something. But when he did some research on secret clans to get to know her better, he didn’t find a single thing about her hair or eyes in the texts he could find. Nor could he find anything about her armor. Or even there being a secret clan in this area of the ocean. Not even suspicions of one being here. And on top of that, there’s her family name that keeps changing for some reason. Even if she insists on others calling her Aqua Fallen and ignoring the listed family name. None of it lines up with the backstory he thought she had. Which led to him realizing that he made up that entire backstory on his own. She never once agreed to any of it. Still. Even after realizing all of this, Jaleth doesn’t really care about it. The only reason he’s curious about her origins is to learn more about the strongest hunter on the planet. Information that he can potentially use to recruit her into his group. As for her actual background? That’s her business. It’s set in stone in the ocean to stay out of others’ affairs after all. But now? As he finds himself shocked watching her slice a monster fish that’s five levels above him – one he would normally avoid – in two without even batting an eye? Mid-conversation at that? Now he feels more interested in how she got as powerful as she is. Although it takes him a while to recover from the shock of seeing her slicing a massive shark in two. Time passes on the trip, and he runs out of things to talk about as they occasionally pass by Anomalies and fight with monsters along the way. Only for something to happen a little past three quarters of the way through the trip. When she mentions seeing a massive horde of thousands upon thousands of monsters in the distance down in the deeper layer. “That’s the current migration,” Jaleth answers with a grimace on his face. “What monsters are they, and what are their levels? If you can tell from here.” “Sharks,” Aqua answers with that usual lazy tone of voice. “Lots and lots of sharks. Most of them range from levels thirty to fifty, but there are some at level sixty and seventy, and a single massive one at level ninety.” A chill runs down Jaleth’s spine at that before he says, “We need to hurry. Now.” Aqua shows a slight hint of confusion for a moment, only to follow him as he begins to hurry faster towards the Hunter’s City. At this point they’re close enough to the Hunter’s City of the neighboring ocean, Cryaxis, that he’s already feeling the frigid cold of the northern ocean’s waters. But he doesn’t care about any of that as they rush through the water. All the way until they finally get within sight of the Hunter’s City, which looks similar yet different from the other Hunter’s City he’s been staying in for a while now. With this one having slightly paler stone for the city that is obvious as they sink deeper down back into the deep layer where the city is located. The water of the deep layer is also slightly lighter and paler than the water in the deep layer of the other ocean they came from. Which Jaleth assumes is because it’s colder, but he’s never tried hard to figure out why the different oceans look the way they do. After arriving in the city, he quickly takes Aqua in the direction of the Guild Building while asking various different questions about the migration she saw. All while desperately hoping the migration doesn’t get anywhere near a city. Because a migration of sharks is never a good thing to nearby cities.