Chapter 607

Chapter 607: The Second Checkpoint

The depth of the second checkpoint is 20km. If it’s just swimming or running, 20km is not that difficult to reach. It won’t take long for me to arrive.

But if it’s depth, it’s difficult. Even if I try to just continue diving, there will be monsters blocking the way. And even if Victoria is changing her weight into the maximum weight she can handle, reaching the deepest part is still difficult.

And even though I have been there before to place the Blobbyflags to use as checkpoints, I still don’t know what kind of danger exist here. Even with my Divine Vision combined with Mind’s Eye, I still can’t see everything.

It was just yesterday when I put the Blobbyflags. When I reached the deepest area and stabbed the Blobbyflags, I thought that the place I stabbed was just some rocks. But it turns out to be a giant crag with shell as hard and similar to rocks. And even the internal organ of the crabs were as hard as rock. I didn’t notice it even with my Divine Vision.

Fun fact. When cooked, that crab’s meat were still as hard as rock. But they are extremely delicious. Though in the end, only those with srong jaw and teeth like the werewolves, and I who can infuse Aura to my teeth, can eat them. It’s a delicacy only us can taste.

If I can find it again, that would be great. Even though that crab was huge, the werewolves were able to eat everything in an instant. Next time, I will make sure that I got the most portion.

It was not hard defeating the crab. Though its camouflage was difficult to see even with my Divine Vision and Mind’s Eye. I can only tell its whereabouts when it’s moving after I stabbed the Blobbyflags on it.

.....

Well, I might be able to find them if I look somewhere. Maybe further into the ocean, there’s a trench deeper than this one. And there will be more monsters like the crab. More delicious monster.

Anyway, I keep defeating monster after monster while I continue diving into the trench. I think Ray or Spot can handle them. But I don’t want to stay here longer than necessary. That’s why I will clean up more enemies so the two monsters can get there faster.

Halfway to the checkpoint, I encounter a pod of whales. They are much bigger than most monsters I encountered! Though they are still smaller than Andro. That guy is on his own level.

Fortunately, those whales don’t seem to have interest in me. I guess it must be because they are not hungry or because I’m not a food for them. I heard that despite their size, they only eat much smaller creatures than themselves. Though they still ate tons of them every day.

Seeing that they didn’t attack me, I think they are safe and won’t cause trouble to Spot and Ray. So, I let them live as I continue going deeper and fight more monsters.

I thought that I have defeated most of them yesterday. Turns out, I was wrong. There are still many more of them. And even if I defeat them again, by tomorrow, there will be more of them.

Compared to this, the sea near Cassau where I often dive for treasure hunting is much safer. And there’s no trench as deep as this. At least there’s none of them anywhere near the place I dived.

And if I defeat a lot of monsters, it will take some time until they appear again. More than that, there are lots of sunken ships with a lot of treasures. Unlike this place. Though the reason is obvious because there’s no humans in this world. Why else would there be treasures under the sea?

The exceptions are pearls and treasure chests from the dungeon under the sea. Other than them, there is no other way for treasure to exist here.

Finally, I reached the bottom-most part of the trench. I see two Blobbyflags still standing on a reef I stabbed them at. It’s not a crab shell anymore so it’s fine.

I thought that the water pressure would have destroy the Blobbyflags. So, I infused a bit of my Aura into the flags when I raise them. I guess it works.

But there’s a monster staying here this time. And it’s not a crab.

“That’s a mantis shrimp! The animal with the fastest and strongest punch. And that’s just when they are small. Since this one is about as big as a human, its punch must be stronger,” Victoria said.

Mantis shrimp? First time I heard of that animal. Though it’a monster in front of me.

The length of the mantis shrimp is actually longer than human’s height. But the front part which is standing is about the same height as me.

“Watch out, Roy! The shrimp’s punch is so fast it generates heat even underwater!” Victoria said.

It’s always good to hear some warning from Victoria. Although there’s no monsters in her world, there are some animals that is close to monster I guess.

A punch underwater which is so fast it could generate heat, huh? If I can do that as well, won’t that make me the strongest?

“I guess it’s time for another training. Let’s defeat it before Ray and Spot reach here,” I said.

And so, I started a boxing match against the mantis shrimp monster. A punch underwater that can generate heat because it’s too fast? I’m interested in seeing... WHOAH!

“Whoa, what!? If I don’t have Mind’s Eye, I would have die already! And it’s hot!”

I managed to dodge the surprise attack of the mantis shrimp. In just one punch, bubbles appear and I can feel the heat even though this is the deep sea and there shouldn’t be any underwater volcano here.

“What a punch! Can I win this?”

Even if I dodge, I would still get hit by the heat. So, I need to cover my whole body with Aura at all time.

I keep dodging the fastest punches, and return it with several punches of my own. My punches were slower, but the mantis shrimp didn’t dodge. It’s because it has hard shell. Even harder than the rock crab.

Still, I’m an Aura Master. And after a lot of exchanges, I finally broke through its hard shell and killed the mantis shrimp.

“Huff... that was hard!” I complained.

“And close as well. There were many times that you were so close to get hit. Being underwater also slowed down your move,” Victoria said.

She’s right. But at least I have witnessed that punch. Until Ray and Spot reach here, let’s try to throw some punches. Though I don’t think I want to copy the same punch power and speed as the mantis shrimp.

Because unlike the shrimp, if I actually throw a punch like that, I will end up losing my arm instead. That’s just how scary that punch was. The speed of that punch was beyond what a human body can do even if they are Aura users.

The only reason I can dodge its punches was because of Divine Vision and Mind’s Eye. I can still tell when the mantis shrimp was about to throw its punch and dodged it beforehand. But even so, I still only managed to dodge them by a hairbreadth.

Even if I can’t copy that punch, I can at least throw improve my punch to the limit of what my body can handle.

And to be able to do that, I will practice my punch while being underwater. It’s also good way to spend my time while waiting for Spot and Ray.

Thirty minutes after I started shadow boxing, I can finally see Spot. As expected, he has passed Ray in the sea.

Spot saw me pointing at where the flag is with my left hand while pointing at where Andro is with my right hand. Even though it should be a straight track, there’s a chance that Spot and Ray could forget which direction they should take.

“I’m going up!”

As soon as he reached the bottom, Spot destroyed a flag and raise to the surface following the direction where I’m pointing.

And while Spot changes his direction to upward, I can see Ray is coming. The gap is not as much as the gap in the land when Ray and Spot reached the first checkpoint. But once they are out of the sea, Ray will be faster than he is now. We still can’t tell who will win.

As soon as Ray destroyed the flag and changes his direction, I swim away from there so I can open a portal. If I open a portal while they are still close, they will end up getting sucked into the portal after all.

After seeing that they are far enough, I returned to the previous island before I dive,and opened another portal to the beach where Angela, Shelia, and some werewolves are waiting.

“Are you done with the race?” I asked.

“There are still some werewolves coming. Don’t worry, we can go back on our own,” Jack said.

“Okay. For those who wants to wait for the result of the race between Ray and Spot, you can enter the portal and wait for them on Andro’s back,” I said.

Though in the end, only Angela and Shelia come. Well, that’s fine.

Finally, the race is reaching its climax. Who will finally win the race?

...My heart says it will be Ray.

...I lied. It’s not my heart. It’s my wallet.