CH 11

Chapter 11

It was then.

The king of the snare fish had emerged.

News of his brutally murdered kin must have reached the bottom of the lake…

Good Luck Fighting!

A translucent system message–vaguely cheering an indeterminate side–popped up, and the name <Io, the king of the human hand snare fish> appeared over his head.

Io was a monster with the head of a fish and, below the neck, the body of a bulky, half-nude man. That image was already shocking, but the giant eel he was riding looked to be a huge problem. At a first glance, his weapon was unrecognizable due to its sheer size. The length was enough to clear the expanse of the lake, with a little bit left over. The party members urgently gathered near the lake, preparing for defense.

“Shit….Hey, we’re on normal mode right? Why is there a named monster in the first stage?”

“Is that an eel?”

“Wow…The fishy smell of the water is nauseating.”

“If we blast past this guy, I think we’ll be in the normal route starting from the next stage.  That means this guy is an entrance mob monster….”Suman said, a bit embarrassed. As soon as Io appeared, he had taken out a strange telescope and peered out across the lake.

‘What on earth, does that mean that extraordinary force is wielded by an entrance monster?’ I thought. However Kim Sangyoon didn’t hesitate after hearing Suman’s report. He simply shouted, “Let’s go!” and stormed forward, Berserker in hand. The other party members also didn’t seem all that nervous either.

“Do you want a sacrificial blessing?” The bard asked.

“Let’s give it a try, first.”

“Alright.” The bard was poised to play another melody but instead, at Sangyoon’s words, put down his flute.

I couldn’t believe he didn’t request extra buffs while facing a mob that size…I looked at the party, half worried and half trembling with anticipation.

Suddenly, the trap room’s master, Io, began his attack.

A  [Danger!] sign enshrouded in red light popped up in the air. Io stabbed the eel in the head with the gargantuan staff he was holding. The giant eel began to flail its head around; a massive tidal wave formed in the lake in accordance with its movements, threatening to flood the party members.

“Undine! Stop it!” The Animist protected the party by building a huge water barrier just before the tsunami hit, but, soon afterwards, a black and long body slithered in front of the barrier. The giant eel had surfed the current.

“Dodge!”

“Arghhh!” One mage, who had not avoided its first attack, was hit directly by the eel’s tail and bounced off the wall.

‘That ear-splitting scream just now, surely….he isn’t dead, right?’ The Mage that flew into the wall crumpled to a heap and did not stand up again–I found it hard to tear my eyes off him.

However, with the situation ahead, there was no time to worry about the Mage.

“Damn it…What kind of scales are so thick?” Kim Sangyoon lifted his sword and brought it down on the tip of the eel’s tail. As the two clashed sparks, like grinding steel, flew, but not even a small scratch was left on the eel’s surface.

The same was true for another Mage, on the opposite side of Kim Sangyoon.

In addition to the obvious Fireball, the Mage threw around “Additional Fyre!”, a more sophisticated flame magic. The eel’s scales were only barely scorched–no real damage.

Furthermore, the real enemy was not the eel.

The eel was just a means of transportation for [Io].

[Human beings? How fresh.] Io grinned. His aforementioned staff was revealed to be a fishing rod at a closer glance.

When Io wielded his rod, a lure connected by a transparent thread hooked into a User’s collar. The User, a Treasure Hunter, floated into the air and was flung into the lake behind Io; dozens of white hands breached the surface and pulled him under.

Those must all be human hand snare fish…. those who fell must have been ripped apart, like a piranha swarm. Likely, those Users are now dead.

It was disgusting and horrifying to see faint blood clouds spreading from the place where the Treasure Hunter sank. The Bard, who was watching next to me, was ill at ease and white in complexion.

“Buff, hey! Give me a Buff!” Eventually, Kim Sangyoon shouted at us, avoiding the violent movements of the eel’s tail. Despite his pale demeanor, the Bard picked up his flute and began to play. The melody of his strongest buff, “Sacrificial Godly Protection,” disseminated in the air.

However…

[So loud~.] When Io heard the song, he turned straight around and rushed towards us. Of course both the Bard and I were startled and immediately ran away.

It was for naught: Io swung his shiny fishing rod, producing a frightening noise that resembled air ripping apart. Though we were far away, a huge pit formed straight in front of our noses. It was as if a bomb had fallen before us.

If I had taken one more step, I would have been caught in the explosion and killed….At that moment, my feet stiffened in fear.

“Urk!”

My neck felt a bit strangled–immediately my struggling body was dragged into the air by some terrible force.

That monster was aiming for the moment we stopped in our tracks, unable to run away–that moment when I can’t help but pause in fear. As soon as I stopped, he wrapped the base of my neck with fishing line.

‘But, if it wants to complain about the noise, why grab me instead of the Bard who performed?!!’ I lamented the injustice, even as I struggled against the dragging force. In the blink of an eye, I was low enough to make eye contact with the fishy pupils of its young.

Just before I bumped into Io’s body, I screamed “Don’t!”

Io’s grotesque smile widened. He then cast me into the lake at a far greater speed than before.

‘This, crazy….!’

As the surface of the lake got closer, I managed to come to my senses and called out the only weapon I had. “Lackey!” My minion was summoned the moment I splashed into the lake.

I had no desire to learn that, if you fall into the water at a very high speed, the shock of the impact will dull your senses. No matter how hard you try to calm down and move, you can’t, and your body just sinks deeper and deeper…

I held my breath in anticipation of the fall, but I had not predicted that I’d sink almost to the bottom of the lake. Unfortunately, I had kept my eyes open through this whole process.

The lake seemed to be well over ten meters deep. But, more than the depth, the main issue was the white hands swimming quickly to where I sank.

Fortunately Lackey’s summoning completed successfully. Though it was a bit slow, Lackey, as a skeleton, had no particular restrictions in water. Slowly, it pushed my floundering body to the surface.

However, this was fish vs human.

Of course the opponent had superior speed.

‘No…!’ I continued to desperately struggle to swim, but I had no suitable items or skills to utilize in this situation. Furthermore, I had little experience in swimming, and soon began to suffocate.

White hands, writhing like seaweed, had chased right behind Lackey. It was only a matter of time before the fishes caught me and I became another trophy ‘hand’ in their mouths.

Just as my life flashed before my eyes, the temperature of the water felt like it became much colder, and my body tilted in the current. The snare fish did not dare swim any closer; on the contrary, they began to back away.

….What’s this?

I glanced down and screamed silently. I had been expecting the bottom of the lake, but, instead, an endless precipice came into view underneath my floundering feet.  I turned my gaze to the surface, worried about what might pop out of that never-ending darkness. No matter how I struggled to swim, however, my body kept on sinking downwards. As if something was pulling me down.

‘Am I going to drown like this….?’

When I once again thought it was the end, fortunately a small bubble of air formed next to me. The air bubble began to cling to my neck, travel towards my face, and became rounded like a spacesuit helmet.

At first I was panicked, thinking it was another attack. But, after the bubble had completely enveloped my head, I could begin to breathe the fresh air that was injected into the bubble as water around my head evaporated. Perhaps this was a skill cast by one of the other party members.

After a while, I heard a familiar voice within the air bubble.

[Hey, you. You hear me?]

It was a calm, rich voice of a man.

This voice is…..The Animist….? I’m saved! He’ll come to rescue me!

“Haaa…Haaaa….Yes! Yes!”

[Hey, you. You’re alive right?]

“Yes!”

However, the risk of drowning was not completely alleviated. Even after the bubble formed, my body submerged endlessly. I cried and shouted, “But I’m still sinking! What should I do?!”

[Where are you? At the lake bottom?]

“Yes! It’s so deep…..”

I felt some current swirling around me, negating my efforts to swim. Rather, it may be more useful to stay still and not waste any extra energy. Nevertheless, swimming or stationary, my body continued to sink quickly.

Now my body had entered the consuming darkness in which I couldn’t see anything but the faint glim of the spirit that surrounded my neck and head. Although Lackey’s cold fingers were clinging to me, I was more shocked by the sudden chill of the cold stream of water that brushed my arms. Goosebumps came over me–it felt just like a shark hovering, hunting….(Of course, though, this was a lake….)

In the end, shaking, I cried, “Hyung-nim! Hyung-nim are you there? I’m so scared….” After hearing my voice, the Animist attempted to explain something to me.

[Right now you….It says you’ve moved onto the next zone?]

“Eh? What does that mean….?”

[That’s why…..you know?]

“What??? I can’t hear you very well….What did you say?”

[Ah, you’re too far away…….How…….That……]

“Hyung-nim?”

[10 minutes to go…..]

His hazy voice trying to explain something was the last I could hear before an ominous disconnecting sound. Was the spirit too far from its summoner? What will happen to the spirit? I was nervous and trembling in fear, worried that I may lose my ability to breathe.