Chapter 54: Invading the Underwater Palace — Middle Part

The system alarm was going off continuously but Sila didn’t hear them as he had turned off the system sound. He heard only the first alarm that went off when he encountered a monster.

Finally, Sila’s feet stepped onto the bottom of the ocean. He turned his head to the left only to see the Underwater Palace next to him. There was only a 10-meter distance between him and it.

More than a hundred Underwater Guards were swimming out of the Underwater Palace. They didn’t look like merpeople he had met. They had two arms and two legs like a human, but their head was that of a fish. Some had a head that resembled a shrimp while some had a head that looked like a crab.

Each Underwater Guard took out a trident and charged at Sila.

Sila continued to focus on looking for the Great Millennium Turtle. This must be a drawback for turning off the system sound.

He readied a harpoon in his hand. Since the beginning of the game, Sila had never once seriously used a weapon due to the penalty of the Right Arm of the Sealed One. However, after it had malfunctioned, Sila found out that he could wield weapons normally.

He wasn’t familiar with handling weapons, but with him being underwater and unable to move properly, using a weapon should be better than using his bare hands.

Many of the Underwater Guards stabbed their trident at Sila.

Instead of dodging, Sila hardened his body using Formless Soldier to block the attacks. He knew that he couldn’t dodge all of them anyway.

The tridents stabbed Sila and the metallic sound echoed throughout the sea. They were all stopped by Sila’s skin. During that time, Sila had a chance to counter attack by stabbing his harpoon toward one or two of them.

Lala also was doing her best to defeat the guards. She was swimming at high speed and attack the guards in her swimming route.

Once she turned her head to peek at how well Sila had handled the guards, she was able to witness the strange sight.

It was the sight of Sila standing still and trading blows with the Underwater Guards. Both sides continued stabbing each other. The weird thing was that the guards’ tridents were completely blocked while Sila’s harpoon could easily pierce through them. The Lightning Insect on the harpoon performed its duty and electrocuted the guards, sending them on to the afterlife.

‘These guys are easier to kill than I anticipated,’ Sila thought.

What Sila was thinking was not entirely correct. The slime race’s skills are a direct counter to dragons, so their power is naturally high. Coupled with the training from the Slime King which increased Sila’s mastery in using the skills, it could be said that Squire Rank monsters are no longer a threat to Sila. They must be Knight Rank or higher to pose him a threat.

Usually, normal players would have to take a step-by-step approach to reach this level of battle prowess. However, Sila had skipped many steps so he himself couldn’t measure his own fighting ability. That was why he regarded the Underwater Guards as weak.

Plus, there was even help from Burapha. The lightning harpoon was able to inflict more damage to water type monsters. Once it stabbed into the opponent, the Lightning Insect would inflict continuous damage by electrocuting the enemy every five seconds.

Finally, the Underwater Guards recognized that they couldn’t harm Sila so they backed off from him. Burapha had arrived at this moment so he couldn’t witness the previous strange sight. He was relieved to see that Sila was fine.

Sila tried to ask Burapha by gesturing with his hands, ‘Where is the Great Millennium Turtle?’

Burapha didn’t gesture back but pointed at the Underwater Palace.

“Blub blub blub blub?” (Is it inside the Underwater Palace?) Sila asked.

Burapha waved his hand to deny that statement. Again, he pointed at the Underwater Palace.

Sila followed the direction of Burapha’s finger. He couldn’t see anything except the Underwater Palace.

Soon, the answer came out by itself. The Underwater Palace was shaking and slowly pulled upward together with the ground.

Sila rubbed his eyes. He finally found the Great Millennium Turtle. Actually, it would be weirder not to see it due to its size.

The entire Underwater Palace was located on the turtle’s shell. A huge black turtle was moving forward slowly. It was the largest monster that Sila had ever encountered. Even the huge Earth Dragon was only half the size of the Great Millennium Turtle.

Sila was lost in thought. He didn’t have any ideas on how to defeat it. Based on its size, he would have a hard time damaging it. He was looking at Burapha who was still calm.

“Blub blub blub blub,” Burapha said.

Sila furrowed his brows. He couldn’t understand a thing.

Burapha opened his system window and typed in it quickly. Afterward, there was a message sent to Sila.

Sila hurried to read it.

[From Burapha 1/1]

[Based on Big Brother Bluebird’s information, the Great Millennium Turtle has limited attack patterns. Its strong points are only its high defense and high health points. You should pierce all the harpoons in it and back off. Then, we can just wait until it dies.]

Sila nodded once he finished reading. Maybe all the Great-Millennium monsters were like this. For example, the Great Millennium Ape Boss only had one strong point, which was its speed. Its other specs were not very threatening. The fact that its attack seemed terrifying at that time was only because Sila back then was a new player.

Sila tried firing one of the harpoons because he had never fired them before. The harpoon flew slower comparing to the knife he was used to firing. However, the Great Millennium Turtle was a slow-moving gigantic target so it was easily stabbed by the harpoon.

The harpoon flashed a yellow light every five seconds, but the Great Millennium Turtle was almost completely ignoring the damage. It might think that somebody had lightly tapped it.

Using the opportunity that the Great Millennium Turtle was still unaware of the danger, Sila hurriedly stabbed the harpoons continuously. Once two of the harpoons flew out of his hands, the next two immediately followed.

The harpoons were pierced all over the Great Millennium Turtle’s body. The light from the lightning harpoons was flashing non-stop as if a disco ball was turned on.

It seemed the Great Millennium Turtle finally noticed Sila. It turned its head toward him and opened its gigantic mouth to swallow the sea water.

Sila didn’t understand what it was trying to do. Did it want to spout water out of its mouth? Doesn’t this sound too harmless? Anyway, Sila activated the harder and heavier attributes of Formless Soldier to strengthen his defense just in case.

The Great Millennium Turtle stopped swallowing water and indeed spouted water out. The sea current was shaken. Sila could feel it. However, he couldn’t see the water that was directed at him.

A water bullet underwater.

Sila didn’t know what to do except increase his qi reinforcement. Although Poluk had taught him to use qi reinforcement only upon contact, Sila couldn’t see the attack so he had no choice but to keep his qi reinforcement up all the time.

In the next five seconds, Sila’s body was hit by the unseen powerful bullet. His body was hurting all over. He was pushed backward to collide with the boulder that was one meter behind him.

Sila inspected his health points and felt shocked. It had decreased by almost 200,000 points after only one blow despite him doing his best to put up qi reinforcement.

Looking back at the Great Millennium Turtle, it started to swallow the sea water again.

Sila turned his head to look at Burapha and Lala, expecting their help. However, those two were busy preventing Underwater Guards from pulling out the lightning harpoons on the Great Millennium Turtle’s body.

‘Hahaha. Since when did I start expecting the help from others?’ Sila smiled at his own thought in a self-ridicule manner. He had always been alone since young. It was his nature to not depend on others.

‘This is my own problem. I have to handle it myself. What should I do though? If I get hit again, it will take only two or three more blows for me to die,’ Sila thought while taking out a Health Potion for Ladies to drink.

In this game, the potions don’t have an immediate effect. They increase the recovery rate of the player for a brief period. The potions or medicines that have an immediate effect are those that refined by players. They are also very expensive.

‘I have seen it. No, I was even hit by it. Will I be able to use Moon Reflecting Mirror to return it?’ thought Sila.

Though, Sila hadn’t tried it yet. He was still thinking over. Moon Reflecting Mirror was a very risky skill. He had to use it at the exact moment that the attack was coming. He also couldn’t activate another skill at the same time.

He had used heavier and harder attributes of Formless Soldier coupled with qi reinforcement before, but he still had taken damage around 200,000 points. There was nothing to ensure that he wouldn’t die in one hit if he disregarded his defense.

‘What should I do? Should I take the risk? Is there no way for me to make the bullet visible?’

Sila was looking around. He couldn’t see anything except the sea and the sand.

Not long after, he smiled. He took the red tin box out. It was the Underwater Bomb that he obtained from Burapha a night ago. He had only five of them though.

The Great Millennium Turtle stopped swallowing water and was about to spout it. Sila didn’t wait any longer and threw the bomb toward the sand in front of him.

‘Let’s see whether it will work or not.’

The Great Millennium Turtle once again spouted the water bullet. The bomb was blowing at the same time.

As expected of an expensive item, the bomb was powerfully exploded, causing the sand to blow away. Sila could clearly see the water bullet. He put his hands in front of him. Once the bullet came closer, he immediately used his hands as a paintbrush, activating Moon Reflecting Mirror.

The water bullet was very powerful. Once it collided with Sila’s palm, he instantly realized that there was no way for him to reflect it right back at the Great Millennium Turtle. Having no alternative, Sila instead parried the water bullet away to his right side. The water bullet crashed there, causing a long mark on the sand.

‘If the attack is too powerful, I won’t be able to reflect it. I need to be more careful next time,’ Sila reminded himself.

The Great Millennium Turtle swallowed sea water for the third time. Its body was badly bruised though. It seemed the lightning harpoons were finally showing their effectiveness. The Great Millennium Turtle would die in a short while.

‘There is no way I will allow you to fire another one.’

Sila tightly grabbed two of the Underwater Bombs. He fired them like hidden weapons toward the Great Millennium Turtle. Once they left his hands, he promptly fired another two of them. Now, Sila had no bombs left.

The four Underwater Bombs flew toward the Great Millennium Turtle. Instead of exploding, they were swallowed into its mouth.

The Great Millennium Turtle’s stomach became slightly bigger from the explosions within its body. Then, the lightning from the lightning harpoons seemed to be much more effective as the Great Millennium Turtle was crying in pain.

At first, the Great Millennium Turtle didn’t take much damage despite its element being weak to lightning. It was due to its body being full of natural qi reinforcement. However, with it taking the explosive blow from Sila’s bombs, its qi became dispersed, causing it to take full damage from the lightning.

For it to re-activate its qi reinforcement, concentration was required. As it was now, only death awaited it.

The system sound alarmed.

[You have defeated the Great Millennium Turtle, Level 650 Knight Rank. You have received 15,000,000 experience points, 3,000 gold, (A) Great Millennium Turtle Card, (B) Millennium Turtle’s Shell, and Scroll of Qi of Little Turtle.]

[Your level has risen to 150.]

[Player Burapha has defeated the Great Millennium Turtle, Level 650 Knight Rank. Player has received 150,000,000 experience points, 1,000 gold, and (B) Millennium Turtle’s Shell.]

[Player Bluebird has defeated the Great Millennium Turtle, Level 650 Knight Rank. Player has received 300,000,000 experience points and 1,000 gold.]

The subordinates of the Great Millennium Turtle were gone. Everyone sighed in relieved. The mission that seemed almost impossible to accomplish was instead easily ended in success with Burapha’s preparation, Sila’s cleverness, and Bluebird’s support(?).

However, the system sound that everyone didn’t expect to hear echoed in their head.

[You have achieved a certain secret condition: Killing the Great Millennium Turtle underwater while being a member of the slime race.]

[You have awakened the Water Dragon Leviathan, Level 200 Marquis Rank, from its slumber due to the Decolonize the Slime Kingdom quest. If a slime is killed by the Water Dragon, that slime’s rank will be demoted by 1 rank.]

Sila was shocked and quickly took out the map he had gotten from the Slime King. Then, he blamed his own carelessness. The spot of the Underwater Palace was overlapping with the blue spot on the slime seal map.

The sea current was shaking. Sila knew well how strong dragons were. It wouldn’t be as easy as the Great Millennium Turtle. He was quick to swim upward while activating lighter attribute of Formless Soldier. He didn’t have to fear that he would miss the Water Dragon. It was sure to hunt him who was its mortal enemy.

Burapha who listened to the system’s alarm also felt shocked. He calmed his mind as he witnessed Sila swam upward. He and Lala hurriedly followed Sila. Both of his hands were busy typing something on the system window.

***

On the sea surface,

“I’m fishing on the shore. It’s surprising no fish have been caught. I’m fishing until I’m bored. No fish have been caught, I’m surprised.” The humming was echoed softly in the air by Bluebird.

T/N: These are the lyrics of an old Thai song.

He reached for a glass of fruit juice with his hand, sucking the straw one time.

“Hahh, very refreshing. When will those two come back though?”

The system alarmed Bluebird that there was an incoming message.

“Hmm? I guess they have finally finished it.” He muttered while reading the message.

[From Burapha 1/1]

[The situation has changed. Please be ready to support.]

[P.S. Dragon]

“P.S. Dragon? Is it a typo? Aha. Is he testing my information comprehension ability? This must be a secret code.”

As Bluebird had been afraid that the system alerts would interfere with his fishing, he had turned off the system sound. Needless to say, Bluebird had no clue what was happening underwater.

Bluebird placed his fishing rod on the raft and began to ponder about Burapha’s secret code.

“Dragon, dragon. What should dragon mean? This kind of a secret code… don’t you dare think that a vice-leader of Blue Pigeon Guild like me can’t solve it.”