Chapter 432 - Fourth Floor 2

"Oh wait, I didn't look underwater yet!" Cecil exclaimed.

He then turned his attention downwards and under the water. He didn't think about this at first since Nessie's mana signature didn't indicate that it had dove underwater, it had just simply disappeared.

So Cecil thought that Nessie had either passed through the transfer gate along with his brother, sister, and disciple, or Angelia had recalled it into its pet form.

Cecil sent his Mana Sense down below and he quickly found something very astounding.

"Th-this...it's a city?"

Beneath the water's surface, about a kilometer or so, Cecil's sense finally hit upon what seemed to be the ruins of some city.

He also noticed that the city had a similar structure to the flying fortresses of the Machina Reggio Empire. He quickly dropped back down to the boat and relayed his findings to the rest of the group.

"Everyone, I believe that the transfer gate is located somewhere in those underwater city ruins. We'll have to go down there and find it."

The group nodded at Cecil's words however, Celestina couldn't help but voice out a few of her concerns.

"It'll be possible to create a large barrier with the number of mages we have on hand, but what about the underwater monsters? I'm sure that ruined city isn't going to be an empty place..."

Cecil nodded since he had the same concern.

"I checked earlier with my Mana Sense. There are plenty of monsters down there and there are even a few monster nests and homes. It's not surprising to find any of those since it's just a great place for any species to live in."

"So how will we proceed? It'll be hard on any of us to fight underwater. Not to mention that the mages will be preoccupied with conjuring a barrier around all of us. We'll be virtually helpless," Karen said.

"Don't forget, under the water is their home grounds. It'll be even more disadvantageous for us..." Cecilia added.

Ren turned towards Cecil and asked, "...Master, what should we do?"

Everyone else turned their attention towards Cecil. If anyone had a solution to their predicament then it would naturally be him.

Cecil saw that this was probably going to be the most troubling obstacle for anyone to overcome in this trial. He wondered how Angelia, Gabriel, and Kira did it. Then again, they did have Nessie. That underwater behemoth was like a cheat ticket.

"I'll carve a path for us first. You guys just stay here and defend against any monsters that attack. It'll take a while, but be prepared to move out at a moment's notice," Cecil said before quickly walking towards the edge of the boat.

"H-hey, wait!"

Cecil didn't bother turning around and responding to Cecilia's cry. He quickly jumped off the ice boat and plunged into the water.

He activated his aura and pushed back the water a few centimeters away from his body. He created a small 'bubble' around him and quickly dove down.

As Cecil got closer and closer to the city, he felt the water pressure slowly begin to rise. When he dove to around 500 meters under the water, the aura surrounding him immediately began to falter due to the rising water pressure.

Back on earth, the water pressure at 500 meters below the ocean's surface level was the simulated safety threshold that a human body could endure. Since it was only a simulated threshold, this meant that it wasn't for certain.

Right now, Cecil was pushing past the human limits, but this was only natural since his cultivation allowed him to. In fact, if Cecil wanted to, he could release his aura and directly use his body which was cultivated to the third level of Ki cultivation to withstand the water pressure.

This was possible and he could definitely do it, but he wanted to save his strength for later when he had to deal with the monsters that were living in the underwater city ruins.

Cecil slightly increased his mana output and the aura surrounding his body re-stabilized. He adjusted his mana output according to the pressure and strain he was feeling through his aura. When he was just about to reach the ruined underwater city, the pressure he was feeling through his aura was pretty substantial so Cecil wanted to experiment a little.

"Yeah, let's just release it for a bit before quickly turning it back on."

With that thought, Cecil quickly released his aura and braced himself.

"Eh?"

He felt...quite disappointed.

"I feel...nothing?"

Reality didn't quite meet his expectations. Cecil honestly thought that the water pressure at around 1,000 meters below sea-level would be able to pressure or hinder him somewhat, but he was moving just fine.

Cecil didn't feel burdened or anything. He felt the same as he did if he was above the ocean.

"Weird...I thought the pressure would at least let me train my body...��

He was quite bewildered. The feeling he got from his aura was quite different from what he got from bearing the water pressure directly with his body. The pressure he was feeling through his aura made it feel like the water pressure at this depth would cause some hindrances to his movements, but the reality of it was not like how he envisioned.

Cecil quickly put up his aura again and the pressure he felt returned.

"Hmmm...I did train my body to become quite powerful... does this mean that my mana is weak?"

This was the only conclusion that Cecil could come up with. He had checked earlier with his Mana Sense and found that there wasn't anything unusual with his surroundings or with the water. There wasn't anything from the water that would cause his mana to falter.

Cecil looked up at the boat floating on the surface and back down to the city ruins. He then looked past the ruins and saw the black abyss of the ocean.

"It'll probably take only a few minutes to clear the city, let's go see if my thoughts are true or not. If they are, this might help me breakthrough to the next level!"

Cecil made up his mind and decided to forego clearing the monster ruins for now. He wanted to confirm something. Once his hypothesis was confirmed, he'd then go clear away the monsters in the city.

*****

Cecil continued diving down, moving past the ruined underwater city. As he moved past, Cecil scanned the entirety of the underwater city with his Mana Sense and soon enough, he quickly found the transfer gate to the trial's next floor.

He nodded to himself and continued downwards.

"The structure of the ruins is indeed similar to the flying fortresses of Machina Reggio..." Cecil mumbled to himself.

Continuing his venture downward, once he passed the 1,500 meter mark, he quickly released his aura and tested the water pressure on his body.

"Nothing, let's continue."

He continued doing this with a 500 meter interval between each test. When he hit the 3,000 meter mark, Cecil finally felt some pressure affecting his body. He inwardly grinned to himself.

"I'll train here for a bit," Cecil released his Mana Sense and after finding that there were no traces of any monsters around him, he closed his eyes and slowly began to release his aura.

The pressure he felt from his mana was pretty substantial. When he had released his Mana Sense earlier, he had felt a little bit of strain from doing so.

"Indeed...my mana is 'weak'..."

Cecil used the pressure he felt from the ocean to refine his mana. He slowly increased the output of his mana to fight against the pressure he felt and as he did so, his body slowly descended.

4,000 meters, 5,000 meters, 6,000 meters... Cecil continued to descend downwards as he adjusted his mana output.

When he hit the 10,000 meter mark, Cecil was surrounded in complete darkness and the pressure his mana was bearing was beyond immense. If he lost focus for even a second, Cecil felt like his aura would immediately collapse.

He didn't know whether his mortal body would be able to withstand the pressure of the ocean once his aura broke, but he didn't want to find out. He had already felt a serious strain to his body when he hit the 5,000 meter mark.

The water pressure here probably wouldn't kill him, but it would likely injure his internal organs, something that he wouldn't want to happen.

Cecil continued to remain focused. He channeled his mana through his energy circuits and out of his body, maintaining the protective aura around him. As his mana was sent outwards, it was slowly refined and compressed.

When the mana reentered his body after circulating outside of it, Cecil felt the huge and obvious change to his mana's quality.

He was indeed in the mana core stage and the mana at his mana point had solidified, but whenever he circulated his mana through his energy circuits, the mana released from his core would go back to a semi-gaseous-liquid state.

However, after being refined and compressed by the huge pressure he was enduring, Cecil could feel that his mana had become much denser than before.

'Great! I knew this would work!'