CH 270

April 3, 2023

TL note: that’s an intentional pun, I want to make it sound like bikini bottom.

The next day.

After waking up in the morning, I promised Rin-chan that we would explore the city at night, so I spent the whole morning alone working on my diving skills.

After eating dinner, I started to stream and informed my viewer about my schedule, then I spend the time to grind my diving skills.

“At last, my diving skill has exceeded 100!”

<Ya–ay!>

<Hi-hi-HO!!>

<Congratulations!>

<Finally.>

<Whee!>

<I’m tired.>

<Please work a little faster lol>

“Can’t chat be a bit nicer to me!?”

When the time was around two o’clock, my diving skills finally surpassed the 100 proficiency level, which would allow me to accept the quest to go to the city at the bottom of the lake.

However during the process, the chat room was almost silent, and the only response from the viewers was something like, [Finally!].

“Kuru?”

“The only one on my side is my little Suiryuu-chan.”

<That’s sad.>

<Mm.>

<You’re so sweet, Suiryuu-chan.>

<She must like you since she’s been hanging out with us all day.>



<Please at least make it a swimsuit episode.>

“But the diving skill requires me to swim to raise its proficiency.”

<Well yeah.>

<The requirement should be reduced to 10 or so.>

<Without the water dragon, it would be a real bland streaming.>

“Please spare me some slack, consider the difficulty of talking while swimming. Well, let’s go accept a quest for now~. I wonder how we will go about it.”

According to the official information, you have to take a quest to go to the city at the bottom of the lake.

But since you are going to a dungeon with a high degree of difficulty, you will need to have a certain amount of ability to go through it.



<↑They can’t do that with the level of technology they have.>

<If we could get wrapped up in a big bubble, wouldn’t that be…. romantic?>

<Abyss Trout, btw.>

<The deep is too dark, the view is not good… >

<↑Lake exploration is scheduled>

☆

“Okay, you’ll just need to dive down to get there.”

“ha?”

This is the Adventurer’s Guild in Trillia.

The number of players has increased after noon, but there are not many NPCs who have been active since this morning.

And in a corner of the reception area, I received a quest to go to the abandoned city at the bottom of the lake.

<LOL>

<JUST USE YOUR BRAWN>

<Well, I mean, that’s given right?>

“By the way, how long does it take to get there by normal diving?”

“A good swimmer would take a little over two minutes.”

“That’s the maximum duration for a diving skill of 100!”

<ROFL.>

<LOOOOL.>

<They are playing you.>



<all I see is LOL on screen>

<Nice reaction.>

The time to dive underwater with the diving skill was exactly 30 seconds at level one. As I increased my proficiency from there, it increased by one second per proficiency level.

In other words, at 100 proficiency level, my diving skill lasted 130 seconds, which is only a little over two minutes.

A good swimmer needs about two minutes to reach it. In short, it’s not that you need to have 100 proficiency to take the quest, but rather that you can’t reach the city at the bottom of the lake if you haven’t reached 100 proficiency.

It would be more helpful if this condition was told first before we took the quest rather than after it….

“Damn it… ah, thank you anyway. I’ll try to get there somehow.”

“If you think you don’t have enough time, you might want to increase your proficiency in diving skills.”

“I understand!”

We left the Adventurers’ Guild and headed for the diving point for the abandoned city at the bottom of the lake.

I’ve been told that I’m going to have to have a monster-repellent spell cast on me so that I won’t be attacked by monsters while diving.

But since I had been with Suiryuu-chan for so long, I had forgotten that the monsters here would attack. While reminiscing about this, I was preparing myself for the way to the harbor.

“Since it’s come to this, I’ll go with my guts and proficiency level 100.”

<That’s the spirit! That’s what makes a real adventure!>

<if you can’t make it, will you end up drowning?>

<↑Probably.>



<Sukuna, are you bad at swimming?>

“Just not as good as land sports, that’s all. You saw that I can swim normally.”

But the viewer was right. To be honest, I am not much of swimmer.

Still not as bad as Rin-chan tho, she is so bad that she drowns anywhere, be it in the ocean, rivers, or pools.

However, I am me. I think I’m probably a better swimmer than most people. I’m just not as good at it at my standard.

“It’s weird that there is little to no effect of your status on underwater movement.”

When moving underwater, a player’s status is almost completely useless. I noticed this by the fact that I was not very responsivei while swimming.

When I first went underwater, it seemed like my status was reassigned. To be precise, it seems that the status is capped at about level 30, except during combat, only at that time I can feel a little more powerful.



<It’s nothing compared to moving at supersonic speed.>

<Even though she finally reached level 100.>

“It’s a recommended level 100 dungeon, but it might be like that… Oh, there it is. ah look, there are some people lined up.”

While talking a bit randomly like that, we arrived at the departure port for the sunken city. Although it’s called a port, it’s just a slightly spacious and plain pier.

I followed behind the players who were lined up patiently waiting in line. I was glanced at, but since I wasn’t spoken to, I didn’t react.

“Would you like to go to the abandoned city at the bottom of the lake?”

“Yes.”

“Then, I will cast a magic spell to avoid getting attacked by monsters. Just for your information, the entrance to the lakebed city is at a depth of about 300 meters.”

“Thank you!”

A kind of blurred aura was attached to me. Avoiding monsters, I’m just going with the flow, but then I suddenly realized something.

“It’s kind of too late now, but I have the title [Friend of the Water Dragon], so I don’t need this magic..”

<Ah.>

<Did you finally notice? >



<Maybe we all noticed.>

“Well…… no, I mean. It’s a bit of a cheat, and there’s a proficiency issue anyway, so it didn’t hurt to take it, yup.”

Right now I’m in the area that is said to be closest to the lake bottom city, still, I felt like I did something meaningless and wasteful, even though monster-repellant magic was free.

I jumped into the lake from the edge of the pier and after diving a little, I tried to find the lake bottom city to aim for. There, I saw a faint light from a group of buildings at the bottom of the lake.

“I was diving towards the bottom of the lake for 130 seconds, since my speed is about 3 meters per second, I should be around 300 meters deep now. But it appears that it’s not exactly located directly below us, camera, show them what’s in the water.”

<Is that the shiny thing?>

<Oh, there really is a city.>

<like something I’ve seen in a comic book.>

<It’s exactly like the Dragon’s Palace.> {Ryugu palace from Urashima Taro}

“It’s probably that one. It’s hard to measure underwater, but it’s probably about 400 meters away.”

The location is not directly below this pier, but diagonally below it. It is just at the end of the diagonal of the square.

“I’ll just go for now!”

<Go for it!>

<Hang in there!>

<At least you’ll die painlessly.>

<a noble sacrifice.>

<LESGOOOO!>

<Now let’s begin the RTA to the city at the bottom of the lake!>

I breathe in without any meaningful reason and then dive in one breath.

As I swam diagonally towards the lake’s bottom ruined city, I soon realized that I had made a mistake.

(This angle, I must have been shifty…. and I meant both in terms of distance and efficiency. Ummm, diving is really something I’m inexperienced at.)

The force was subtle, it’s coming both from above and below, and it felt like I couldn’t dive as smoothly and deeply as I wanted to.

After about a minute and a half of diving, I kept moving my legs, thinking that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t reach the surface… but my diving skills ran out when I only need 20 meters to go.

Once this happened, there was nothing more I could do. The cost of diving without diving skills is that I lost my SP, and next to SP, my HP.

Not long after, I was resurrected at the Adventurers’ Guild in Trillia.

I got the death penalty, but at least now I know that diving skill as a passive skill doesn’t affect your swimming speed by much.

“ughh… I ran out SP… but considering I did it without plan that was already pretty good.”

<About 10 meters to go.>

<a pity~~>

<Have you improved your diving skills?>

<Your swimming was getting more and more optimized.>

<Don’t you feel that it was scary to be swimming in the dark after 100 meters?>

<Only the eyes of the fish were gleaming down there.>

“Scary? fufu, my vision was not that different from the ground.”

<fine, fine.>

<You have strange eyes, X( > { X( emoticon }

<Cat eyes.>

“Phew….. I’m starting to calm down. And no, I’m not getting any more proficiency, by the way. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m avoiding demons or what. Well, it’s called challenge for something, I guess.”

I thought that after diving for two and a half minutes, one of my proficiency levels would have increased, but it didn’t seem to be the case.

Maybe it’s treated as an event, and it’s not supposed to go up with this challenge. It’s a little stingy, isn’t it?

“When I think about it calmly, diving at an angle is a huge waste of time. You need to think about gravity, it is definitely faster to dive directly down. And it takes more time to move sideways. So I’m thinking of swimming quickly to the surface and then diving down.”

<Isn’t that cheating?>

<Cheap trick.>

<No, I think it’s called clever.>

<It’s worth a try.>

<Jackknifing? but you’re right, it should be doable in the game.>

<Surprisingly, you are capable of thinking about it.> {implying she is muscle brained}

“I do think, you know!”

If you look at the sides of a square and the diagonals, the diagonals are longer. I think it’s the one that says, let’s see, √2 times the diagonal.

I know it’s a very obvious thing, but if the pier is set up like that, you would think that you are supposed to swim from the pier, wouldn’t you?

No matter how you think about it, it would be more efficient to dive from right above the city at the bottom of the lake all at once, but since all the players are swimming diagonally from the pier, and by now, they are probably guided by the same thought process.

Even so, I wasn’t sure if I should do it, so I decided to ask an NPC who put a monster repellant magic on me.

“Is it okay if I swim straight up first?’

“Yes. The monster repellant spell lasts for five minutes, so you can do it any way you want within that time.”

“Thank you very much.”

As expected, they didn’t give me any strange stare at all but rather gave me their approval as if it was a matter of course.



<We lost this time.>

<I’m surprised she noticed.>

<Lol.>

<By the way, the wiki says you have to do that.>

<↑ Does this mean there are many players who are trying to conquer this with their own style somehow? >

“I think it’s fun to explore by yourself, isn’t it? Okay, let’s swim to the top of the city at the bottom of the lake first, and then dive all the way down!”

<Can you do it this time?>

<Do we have to see the scenery of the deep sea again?>

<↑This is not sea btw.>

<I’m going to take a bath.>

<That’s a flag.>

I took two minutes to swim above the top of the city at the bottom of the lake, and then I started to dive toward the city after I fired up my spirit, hoping I could reach it this time.

===*

Suiryuu-chan is staying at home.