Chapter 53: Invading the Underwater Palace - First Part
 
 
The members on the raft had originally been lively and seemed to enjoy having a conversation along the way. However, after three hours had pa.s.sed, the journey on the raft was more boring than they had imagined. They had nothing left to chitchat about.
 
Sila closed his eyes and tried to empty his mind, readying himself for the upcoming battle.
 
Burapha was standing on the front of the raft. He was sweating despite the wind blowing strongly. This was because he had constantly been using Water Spirit for more than three hours. His psychic points had been depleted twice, stopping the journey two times while he waited for his energy to be fully recovered.
 
Meanwhile, Bluebird was sleeping while standing up in his tailorbird form next to Burapha. As for Bow and Lookhin, Sila had sealed them into his ring when they first got on the raft as he wasn"t sure that he would have the time to look after them.
 
The raft had come to a stop. Sila, who had been fully rested, opened his eyes only to see nothing but skylines. As for Bluebird, he woke up, frightened by the sudden stop.
 
"I wasn"t sleeping, Boss!!" Bluebird shouted.
 
Once he had fully woken up and looked at Sila and Burapha who were staring at him, Bluebird was quick to peck at his feathers and change the topic.
 
"Resting again? When will we arrive there? Can you please hurry up? It"s almost midday."
 
"d.a.m.n, Big Bro. You are always sleeping. How do you qualify to be a nitpicker? The one who is very tired is me," complained Burapha.
 
"That"s fine. We can rest for a moment before we go on," Sila said.
 
"There is no need. We have arrived." Burapha sat down on the raft.
 
Sila and Bluebird were looking around. There was no visible object in sight except the sea and the sky.
 
"We have arrived? Are you sure?" asked Bluebird.
 
"Try opening the map. I"m certain we have arrived. The distance will be no more than 100 meters off," said Burapha.
 
Sila bent his head down to look into the water. Although the sea was very clear, he couldn"t spot the bottom of it nor the ident.i.ty of the Underwater Palace.
 
"Please wait for me to regenerate my psychic points for a moment before we go. Now, we should summarize our plan," Burapha said while Sila and Bluebird nodded.
 
"First, Big Brother Sila can fire hidden weapons, but firing hidden weapons underwater won"t be that effective unless they"re a harpoon-like object." Burapha"s sentence ended by him taking out around fifty of harpoons to give them to Sila.
 
Sila looked at the harpoons with eyes filled with curiosity. Their appearance wasn"t the same as usual harpoon he had seen. They were shorter to the point that they were more like steel arrows. On the head of the harpoons, there was a small yellow stone buried on it.
 
"I have modified it to make it shorter. Ordinary players will need a harpoon shooter to fire it, but for Big Brother Sila, I think you can fire it yourself. I also gave them to an acquaintance craftsman to bury Lightning Insect on their head. However, it was too urgent so I can prepare only 42 of them," Burapha explained.
 
Sila nodded. Burapha was indeed a careful person and very well-prepared.
 
"You are very well-prepared," Sila complimented.
 
"Of course, I guessed that Big Brother Sila wouldn"t prepare anything in advance. If there is a person who goes to fight against a dragon without being prepared, that person would only be you."
 
"Hey, that"s not true. I"ve prepared for this fight too. See? I"ve bought a lot of health potions," Sila argued.
 
"People always carry potions. That won"t count as being prepared. By the way, what kind of health potions did you purchase?"
 
"What kind of health potions? They"re the normal kind, obviously. They"re potions that increase health point the most, you know?" Sila showed off his potions to Burapha.
 
"How do you plan to drink those underwater?" Burapha asked.
 
Sila was speechless while looking at the health potions in his hands. "How? That"s right… its content would leak out immediately if the cap is removed, wouldn"t it?"
 
Burapha opened his system window and took out health potions similar to Sila"s. The sole difference was that they didn"t have a cap. A straw was attached to each of them instead.
 
"These are Health Potions for Ladies. Don"t mind their name though. Mainly, they are attached with a straw. They are usually used by a woman who doesn"t prefer to drink directly from the bottle."
 
Sila took around ten of them from Burapha. He put them into his system window and said, "I will give you the money later."
 
"There"s no need, Big Brother Sila. Do you remember the excess Merpeople Cards that you have given to me? There is a shop in Merpeople Island that willing to buy them for 100 golden coins each. I sold ten of them for raising my initial funds. Then, I put four of them on the auction. I"m currently waiting for the auction time to come to an end. I have already become a millionaire. In a sense, my business is funded by you. Thus, for Big Brother Sila, everything is free."
 
"Do you possess that many Merpeople Cards?" asked Bluebird.
 
"They"re Big Brother Sila"s possessions. He has given them to me. I"m now keeping thirty of them with me," Burapha answered.
 
"Why don"t you put all of them on the auction?" Sila asked.
 
"This is the reason why you can"t be a merchant, Big Brother. If I put all of them on the auction, their price would drop due to a higher in supply. It is better to release only a few of them at a time so people fight to win them by placing higher bids," Burapha answered.
 
"How much do you gain from each of them?" Bluebird asked.
 
"Each of them should be sold at approximately 5,000 gold coins, I guess."
 
"5,000 gold coins!!" Bluebird"s eyes were wide open. For four of them, that would be 20,000 gold coins. This wasn"t an amount that individual player was normally able to possess.
 
Anyway, Sila didn"t listen attentively to it. He was just thinking that, to help him clear his debt, he should ask Burapha to come to his Chamber of Secret later to appraise the prices of the items he had collected.
 
"About the plan, Big Brother Sila will be the main damage dealer, while Lala and I will help attacking if given the chance. As for Big Brother Bluebird…" Burapha looked at Bluebird.
 
"I will support you guys," Bluebird said.
 
"What do you mean by "support" though," Burapha asked.
 
"I mean, I will watch your back. If the situation changes, I will act to help your guys."
 
"To summarize, you"re planning to just stand by?" Burapha plainly said.
 
"Rather, you should say that I"m preparing myself to handle any given incoming situations. It sounds better." Bluebird tilted his head, trying to be cute.
 
Sila didn"t argue. He was planning to fight alone from the beginning. It didn"t matter whether Bluebird intended to help him or not.
 
Burapha sighed. "At least, I will give these Underwater Bombs in your care. I have brought them to use in an emergency situation."
 
At the end of his sentence, he put fifty of red tin cans on the raft.
 
"These tin cans are Underwater Bombs?"
 
"Yes, don"t you know that despite being a newshawk? It"s no wonder that you were fired from your guild," Burapha mocked Bluebird.
 
"I wasn"t fired! I just took a break to discover myself. By the way, my field of interest is not the information of items ."
 
"Yes~ I see." Burapha seemed to not be interested.
 
"Anyway, Burapha, are you ready now?" asked Sila.
 
"It will take around 10 minutes for my psychic points to be fully replenished."
 
"I will go in advance, then. Just in case we aren"t in the right spot. You can follow me when you"re ready," Sila said.
 
Burapha didn"t reply. He thought that Sila must have some urgent matter to do to be this impatient. Anyway, he sent the party invitation to the two.
 
Party: Kill the Great Turtle +1
Party Leader: Burapha, Squire Rank, Level 1000
Health Points: 390,000/390,000 Psychic Points: 556,500/556,500
Member: Sila, Knight Rank, Level 1
Health Points: 860,000/860,000 Qi Points: 955,000/955,000
Member: Bluebird, Knight Rank, Level 1000
Health Points: 800,000/800,000 Magic Points: 1,640,000/1,640,000
 
T/N: Author seemed to make a mistake in Burapha"s psychic points being full. 
Burapha looked at Bluebird"s stats and frowned. This man seemed to be quite skillful, so why is it that his actions were not like an expert at all? He later dismissed this thought though. Bluebird was a vice-leader of the Blue Pigeon guild. It wasn"t weird for people in high positions to have subordinates grinding experience points for them. There were many players out there that had a high level but actually weak.
 
"I will send Lala with you though," Burapha said.
 
Sila nodded while using the lighten attribute of Formless Soldier to make sure that the raft can take more people on it.
 
"Release Lala."
 
A woman appeared on the raft. She had light blue hair that was held together by a hair pin in the form of a sh.e.l.l. She was wearing a polite deep blue dress.
 
"Greetings, everyone."
 
Sila greeted her back, while Bluebird in bird form was drooling, "Whoa, she"s so pretty."
 
Burapha ignored Bluebird"s behavior. "Be prepared, Lala."
 
"Yes, Master." Lala jumped into the air with a beautiful motion as if she was a professional diver. Her two legs transformed into fishtail in the air. She dived into the sea without the splashing sound.
 
"Fish"s Ally." Burapha touched Sila"s shoulder while activating his skill.
 
Sila"s body was temporary glowing in the soft blue light.
 
"Big Brother Sila, now you can breathe underwater, resist water pressure, and perform other actions almost as well as a merperson for 30 minutes. However, be aware that your movement will become stiffer. Please familiarize yourself with water first."
 
Sila dived into the sea. While he was floating on the sea surface, he tried bending his head down underwater and found out that he really can breathe.
 
Suddenly, Bluebird said, "This mission should be easy. Actually, it may be a good that Sila decided to hunt the Great Millennium Turtle before the Underwater Palace surfaces above the water."
 
"Why?" Burapha asked.
 
"Based on the information I have gotten, it seems all four mysterious places have a concept that if you invade them before they appear naturally, there are no subordinates to help the boss."
 
"Really?" Burapha said. This was good news for them.
 
"I"m not sure about the Underwater Palace though. It is the case for the Labyrinthine Forest Cathedral and the Cloudy City. Thus, this place should be the same."
 
"Hm? In the end, will there be the subordinates or not?" Burapha asked.
 
"I don"t know too…" replied Bluebird.
 
"In that case, why did you bring this up?" Burapha inwardly sighed.
 
"Anyway, follow me later." Sila didn"t wait for a reply and immediately dived down.
 
Sila used the b.r.e.a.s.t.stroke to swim underwater. His body was moving slowly though. Although he didn"t feel much water resistance, his speed had become much slower.
 
Sila sighed, yet there were bubbles coming out of his mouth instead.
 
"Moving slowly like this, how can I fight well? It seems I have to adapt myself using the skills I possess."
 
With that thought, Sila activated the heavier attribute of Formless Soldier. His body was as heavy as an anchor and dived down to the bottom of the ocean without him having to do anything.
 
Lala watched Sila"s actions with astonishment. She hurriedly swam after Sila.
 
***
 
On the sea surface...
 
The body of a blue tailorbird flashed one time before transforming back into a human form. Bluebird appeared and whistled in a very good mood.
 
Currently, Burapha was already in the sea and was about to follow Sila. Although his psychic points still weren"t fully replenished, they were almost full.
 
Anyway, seeing Bluebird"s carefree behavior, Burapha couldn"t help but feel p.i.s.sed.
 
"I forgot to tell you one thing," Burapha said.
 
"Hm? Are you still here? What is it?" Bluebird replied.
 
Burapha was suppressing his anger. Although it was true that Bluebird wasn"t a part of the initial plan, isn"t chilling like this too much for a teammate?
 
The system sounds were ringing in both people"s head.
 
Monster Underwater Guard, Squire Rank, Level 800 has appeared.
Monster Underwater Guard, Squire Rank, Level 800 has appeared.
Monster Underwater Guard, Squire Rank, Level 800 has appeared.
Monster Underwater Guard, Squire Rank, Level 800 has appeared.
Monster Underwater Guard, Squire Rank, Level 800 has appeared.
 
Burapha was alarmed. This meant Sila had already encountered a group of monsters. He turned his head to look at Bluebird. "Big Bro, didn"t you say that there will be no subordinate monsters?"
 
Bluebird spread both of his hands. "Teehee. Information can be faulty sometimes. This is common."
 
"There"s no time. I will now go after Big Brother Sila to help him. As for what I was about to say before, I want to tell you that those bombs are 300,000 silver coins each, you understand?"
 
"Huh? Why are they free for Sila but not for me?" Bluebird argued.
 
"For an unprepared person like you, you have to purchase them from the money-sucking merchant like this." Once he finished his sentence, Burapha then immediately dived down.
 
Bluebird looked blankly at the bombs on the raft and muttered.
 
"Well, I won"t use them so there is no need for me to pay."
 
He then opened his system window.
 
"How can you say I"m unprepared? I"m a very well-prepared person."
 
Then, he took out a fishing rod and started fishing. Not only that, he even took out a pair of sungla.s.ses and a straw hat to wear, preventing him from the sunlight. Lastly, he took out a gla.s.s of fruit juice and placed it next to him.
 
He was humming in a good mood.