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Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Central Sirathan Mountains

*Splash-Crash*

The sound of waves slamming into the side of the mountain filled the air as I made my way down to the shore.

"Hooh.." I took a deep breath as I looked over the edge of the cliff and into the abyssal-blue water. Although I was excited to explore the unknown and to try something new, I couldn't deny that I was nervous. -But.. there's no point in hesitating..-

*Splash*

Quickly sinking into the water, I extended my wings and glided along the slope of the mountain.

As I made my way deeper and deeper, my surroundings got darker and darker until I could barely see the cliffside just a few meters below me.

For a while, I saw nothing other than extremely small fish and rocks, but once I got about 3 kilometers down, I stumbled across a small ledge with a massive skeleton laying on it.

The bones were still somewhat intact with cartilage still holding it all together, but even without that, I would have recognized what it was immediately.

-A dragon..- It was the skeleton of a dragon that would've been around 40 meters tall if it was alive and to go along with that, it had died in the midst of a fight.

All of the ribs had been broken along with two of its legs, it was missing a wing and its tail, but above all else, the top of the skull was totally caved in.

-This is directly down the mountain from the cave... There's no way right?- Although it sounded crazy, the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.

Not only did the skeleton still have cartilage, but the bone marrow and the few scales left behind weren’t that aged. -The time this dragon and that halfie died is similar..- Although not exact, they were close enough to be linked together.

Continuing to inspect the skeleton for a while after that, there wasn't much else I could figure out. Nearly all the conclusions I came to were assuming too many things and I was still left in the dark about too much to fill in the gaps.

-Assuming this was that halfies parent..

it probably died before that hunter found the place.

- My assumption was mostly based on the fact that the monster noted in Cleric Yrsa's notebook, never broke through the entrance or forced its way in at all.

-If this dragon was worried of its child dying, that heavy door might as well be a piece of paper. .-

But just because that sounded most plausible didn't make everything else make sense and even added more questions to the pile. -Just what could kill such a big dragon like this..-

Question after question arose in my mind until I finally forced myself off the topic. -Haah.. if I continue to try and figure everything out with just this much information, I wont get anywhere…-

Finally calming my curiosity and quelling my anger towards the cleric, I finally turned away from the skeleton and continued making my way into the abyss. -I hope you have better luck in your next life, whoever you may have been..-

The next several minutes were filled with silence as I continued going deeper and deeper.

Eventually though, I started questioning that motive to go deeper. -Just how deep is this place..- I had already swam enough to be around 15 kilometers down but there was no sign of the steep cliffside leveling off in the slightest.

My nervousness only piled on as I continued to sink further and further into the abyss, thankfully though, not long after, I found a fairly large shelf that was home to a large coral reef. -Im at what.. 18 kilometers deep? How is there coral here..-

Without even the slightest bit of light from anything other than me, bioluminescent fish and plants, the coral seemed to be thriving.

-How odd.. how does it stay alive?- As I got closer though, that question was quickly answered.

Each coral had a small pile of fish bones in a small bowl-like divot on its body, and it looked as if the coral was eating them.

But the oddities didn't end there, every now and then, a part of the coral would open up and spit out a pea sized marble that a smaller fish would come out to eat. -Was that a small mana core?-

After eating the core, the fish swam to the bottom and picked up one of the millions of bones littering the ground and set it on the coral.

It was the perfect symbiotic relationship, the fish would give the coral bones and the coral would provide it shelter and give it small mana cores.

-To think that's the solution evolution came up with… To use the accumulation of bones as sustenance..- It was fascinating to watch, but after a few minutes, I decided to move on.

Swimming across the shelf with water magic, I started noticing that there weren't any really large fish or creatures in general. Almost everything was less than a meter or two long and everything was skittish. -For how many fish are here.. there really aren't many predators huh..-

As I thought that, something huge entered my aura.

-WHAT THE?!-

*BANG*

Something massive had come out of nowhere and slammed my head and neck down into the coral.

“Ugh..” Trying to jump back up and retaliate, I quickly realized it was already gone.

*Crunch*

The coral and bones on the ground crunched like ice under my weight as I looked around in a panic. -What the hell was that thing?!-

Eventually looking up again, my light magic illuminated a colossal, grouper-like fish as big as me.

Without being able to use my honed magic trump cards, the fish was more intimidating than it should have been.

*Fwoosh*

Charging at me once again, I narrowly dodged and dug my claws into its side, but the fish was quick to retaliate.

*WHAM-CRUNCH*

In a flurry of movement, it slammed me back into the ground with its body and darted off into the darkness again.

-Ugh..- I groaned as I pulled myself out of the pile of rubble.

Quickly looking around to find it again, I simply didn't see anything. -Did it swim off?-

After another few minutes of looking around, my nerves finally started to calm down again. -My god.. fighting in the water is just awful..-

I felt slow and sluggish, and couldn't use most of my magic. I felt incredibly weak. -I didn't think this would be so diffi-

Cutting off my thoughts, I noticed the giant fish charging straight at me. -YOU'RE BACK?!-

As I tried to think of how to kill it, its mouth opened wide and sucked my head and neck into its mouth.

In the next instant, I swung my body around and dug my claws into it.

-Got ya!-

*Siiiizzle-blub*

The water around us boiled for a short instant as I discharged a huge amount of electricity into the fish’s head.

*Thump*

Finally sinking to the bottom again, I pried open the fish's mouth and pulled my head out.

The water was filled with blood but instead of being nervous about it attracting more monsters, I felt a deep excitement I hadn't felt for a while.

It was the thrill of a challenge, the thrill of a real fight! -To think fighting with so many disadvantages would be so fun!- My body was already the most strained it had been in months, but I was too excited to pay it any mind.

With a crazed smile on my face, I dragged my claws through the fish to chum up the water.

-To think they're here already!-

With my senses having adjusted, I could feel the gaze of several creatures peering at me from the darkness.

Glancing towards them, my pupils dilated and my stance changed slightly. -Lets try that again!-