Suddenly something occurred to me. The stone Amelia was holding right now... Maybe that stone was the treasure of the lord of Noark. Of course, for now it was just baseless intuition.
«...What is that stone?» I asked coldly, like a barbarian.
Amelia's response was ruthless. «Don't worry about that».
Gosh, then don't make me worry. Judging by that reaction, I think it's that treasure.
I didn't think he would answer me even if I asked him more questions here, so I stopped being interested in that stone and focused on something else. Right now there was something that took precedence over curiosity.
Shot!
A crack was created in the barrier that prevented water from entering, almost like the glass of an aquarium, and water began to come out of it.
[The sanctuary will disappear soon].
We had to start preparing soon. First I took my mace, picked up the crushed pieces of my shell from the ground, and put them in the subspace.
«What are you doing? Come here. Unless you want to be swept away by water». Also, I pulled out a rope.
Realizing what she was about to do, Amelia frowned. «Aren't you going to use the scroll?».
«Oh, you mean the Multiple Teleport scroll?».
This scroll was the key to Plan B, an item I asked Kyle to produce for me after the events with Abyss Lord Berzak left a deep impression on me. However, the maximum number of people it could carry was two. It was also not possible to designate coordinates, and could only transport us to the coordinate transmitter registered at the time of its manufacture.
If performance had not been lowered by such means, it would have been impossible to turn it into a scroll like this.
For reference, Raven had the coordinate transmitter. He normally carried it in his subspace, but as I told him beforehand, I would have taken it out. In other words, I could go see my clanmates just by tearing this scroll.
«The monster is trapped, we are not in danger, why use that expensive object?»
Wearing this just to be a little more comfortable was foolish. Kyle said he could make it again when he had the materials, but when would he have those materials ready? Aside from being expensive, most were rare items that were difficult to obtain.
«So sit down now. Once the water recedes, our comrades will come to save us anyway».
«Then until the water recedes?»
Why do you ask the obvious? We have to hold our breath. It'll only take a few minutes, can't you stand that?
«...It doesn't matter, I'll tie myself up.» Amelia pulled a nail out of the subspace and stuck it into the ground. Then he took the rope from me and connected it to his own body.
«If you're done, come help me. I only have one hand».
«...How ridiculous.»
I know you're still going to help me.
When I raised my free hand, Amelia tied a rope around my torso to keep it in place. This finished the preparations.
Shoot!
Watching the water seep through the holes in the sanctuary, we chatted for a while. Surprisingly, it was Amelia who started the conversation. «I guess the pain has gone away».
Oh, I was starting to forget about that. «...Ugh.» The pain had the characteristic of growing the more you faced it, so I quickly changed the subject. «Enough talking about me. Can't you tell me now? That stone. What is it for? Looks like it's that treasure those bastards coveted, right?».
«Barbarian, I told you not to worry about that». Amelia drew the line in a cold voice.
But one of the characteristics of a barbarian was not being able to bear curiosity. «I can't help but worry when he keeps shining like that next to me! I don't want much, so at least tell me why it shines. Before you also seemed startled».
«That's right...» Why was that stone shining? At that question, Amelia interrupted herself and squeezed the stone in her hand. «I don't know why either».
«h? "No lo sabes?».
When I stared at her perplexed, Amelia clicked her tongue and glared confidently at me. «Yeah I don't know. Is there any problem? To begin with, I don't know much about this object. Only with this...»
With this? Without interrupting his words, I watered my ears.
[The sanctuary has disappeared.]
When the barrier that kept the sea water out broke, the water began to enter like in a disaster movie. It had to be at that moment.
I could have learned more if I had more time.
It was a shame, but what could I do? I had to ask more questions later, when I had the chance.
«Hold your breath! And hold the rope well». The moment I took a deep breath and screamed loudly, the cold sea water enveloped us.
¡Shaaaaaaaaaa!
From now on, it was time to hold on. If we held our breath and waited, the water would drain on its own. Then our shipmates would come back to look for us.
Would ten minutes be easy?
Was it because of the lung capacity that came with Storm Gush essence? Although he was holding his breath, he didn't feel much discomfort. It was a stat that didn't have much use in the game. It was natural, because if there was an underwater battle, all the preparation was done beforehand, so there was no need to increase the dive time or anything like that.
But could this be a surprisingly good thing?
Unlike the game, this was a world where you had to fight only with your body. Lung capacity statistics would be useful in battle. Now, it was no longer Hansu Lee fiddling with his keyboard. He also knew how important breathing was in real combat.
I think my body is also improving little by little.
The unmistakable tingling sensation that blossomed when a wound began to heal pricked my entire body. It wasn't because the water here had the properties of a potion. They were just the effects of my newly acquired ability.
[The energy of the sea inhabits your body. Due to the passive Origin ability, natural regeneration has increased greatly].
The effect of Storm Gush's passive ability, Origin, was simple. Natural regeneration increased when it touched seawater, and as the duration was prolonged, the rate of increase rose as compound interest. I remembered that it took about ten minutes for an amputated arm to sprout again.
However, this is of no use outside the sixth floor.
I once tried to store seawater in an empty bottle and use it as a potion, but the result was a huge failure. After just an hour, the ability lost its effect. What was good about sea energy?
Anyway, I finally regained my regenerative power.
A smile naturally appeared on my face. The most disappointing part of the loss of vampire essence had been resolved. He had a whopping rank 3 essence, and not just focused on regeneration. Origin also had other effects.
I can replace it later, when I start cultivating a rank 2 essence.
Unable to hide my joy, I was watching my body recover in real time when I realized something late.
¿Eh?
As the water entered, the torch I used to catch the Storm Jet went out, not to mention that everything was blurry from being in the water.
Why can't I see forward?
This time too, the cause had to do with the mysterious stone that Amelia had. That thing radiated bright light and served as a light source even though it was in subspace. As soon as I saw her, I started wondering things. Aside from the question of how light could leak out of subspace, where spatial separation was the basis, somehow the light seemed stronger.
I tilted my head and pointed to Amelia's subspace bracelet. The gesture contained this question: Is that thing okay?
At my question, Amelia hit me in the chest with her fist. Mind your own business. I thought that's what I meant. But I assumed that he also found the increasing intensity of the light peculiar, because Amelia opened the bracelet and took out the stone. It emitted a light incomparably brighter than when it was in subspace. It was clear that it was not normal.
Pica, pica.
Feeling anxious for some reason, I hurriedly pricked Amelia's side with my finger. But is it really okay?
The meaning of my gesture should have been clear, but Amelia did not respond. As if not blinding him, he just stared at the stone like someone possessed.
Geez, this is making me anxious...
The moment I instinctively felt something was wrong, the stone spat out white light almost like an explosion and dyed everything white.
¡Flash!
That was the last of my memories, like the day I was dragged into this world.
¡Miss soy!
That's how I fainted.
***
[An error has occurred. Cannot find character location.]
[The transmission of the character record is temporarily suspended. The administrator must immediately...]
***
When I opened my eyes, there was light beyond them, a red glow as the sun set on the horizon.
«Shit!» Realizing the time, I hurriedly lifted my body. «Has a whole day passed?»
The battle with the Storm Gush took place at night, but was the sun setting? That meant he had been unconscious for at least a day.
Uh, what is this now?
Soon, I was faced with a problem much more serious than the passage of a day.
Where the hell had all my equipment gone?
Realizing the emptiness a moment later, I saw that I had no equipment. Not just equipment, there was nothing: subspace ring, earrings, magic charmed panties with acid immunity, everything was gone. She was completely naked.
Did someone see me unconscious and loot everything? But don't they usually kill the unconscious person for that? Wait, there's no one else on the island besides us to begin with. What have the others on the ship been doing all this time then? Ugh, what's going on?
«I'm going to lose it».
A scrambled head was not enough to describe it. This situation could not be explained with my common sense.
«Hello». I shook Amelia, who was lying next to me. Of course, my eyes were directed elsewhere. Like me, all his equipment had also been stolen. «...Amelia, wake up.»
Hmm? Please wake up. You were the owner of that stone. How did this happen?
«Ha...» I desperately tried to wake Amelia, waiting for an answer, but she didn't respond. Judging by her breathing, she wasn't dead.
Damn sea.
I stopped trying to wake her up for the moment and checked our surroundings. They were full of contradictions as soon as I opened my eyes, but I still hadn't confirmed anything.
El brazo.
Okay, the arm would be intact because it had regenerated due to sea water.
Nail and rope.
The nails and ropes fixed to the ground to prevent us from being swept away by the water had disappeared. It wasn't like we had been transported to another island or anything like that. This was the same place we fought Storm Gush before.
The soil is already dry.
The entire island had been submerged in sea water, but the grains of sand under my feet were crumbling. Was this physically possible in one day? I didn't know it, but the important thing was that if the ground had dried naturally in the sun, why were Amelia and I wet?
¡Buzzzzz!
Just then, I heard the characteristic sound of an insect's wings in the distance.
¿Ah, si?
Rank 8 insect type monster, Krungby was the main entity that originally inhabited Farune Island.
Why the hell is he coming out now?
I was beyond incredulous. The event ended a day ago, but were these guys coming out, who would originally regenerate at the next maze opening?
Anyway, let's think about the rest later.
I hurriedly got up and picked up a suitable tree that was on the ground nearby. The grip feeling couldn't compare to that of a mace, but it was fine to use just once. This should be enough for a rank 8 monster.
Run.
Kicking the ground, I charged at the insect monster emerging from the bush.
Hit.
I started spanking angrily.
Hit!
There was no message from the system, but the feeling in my hand was the same as always, which relieved me a little. Well, at least the essence was fine.