The dungeon has been parasitized

Chapter 39 Exploring Underwater Again

"Klein, I'm going to dive."

Yanami emerged halfway from the pool, with Klein's vines tied around her waist, the vines leading directly to the bottom of the water.

She gave Klein a thumbs-up, then opened her mouth and bit the diving device that Klein had specially made for her.

Actually, it was just a lotus stem reinforced by Klein. This stem has a special structure; it is not only hollow but also has good resistance to water pressure.

With some reinforcement, it can become very long, allowing Yanami to breathe while swimming.

"Take me to a safe house."

Yanami used telepathy to communicate with the underwater plantlets.

puff!

The vines around Yanami's waist suddenly exerted force, pulling her towards the bottom of the water and then into the underwater passage.

The passageway was filled with Klein's plants, serving as a protective net for Yanami.

Three minutes later, the underwater journey of more than 300 meters reached its destination, and Yanami emerged from the water safely.

"Haa...cough cough, Klein..."

Yanami lay on the ground and pounded her chest.

Are you alright?

"It's nothing... I just accidentally choked on some water."

I thought the water pressure was too high and had damaged my lungs...

"Hey Klein, this is so much fun! It's just too dark down there, I can't see anything."

"Really... Anyway, it seems this method works. From now on, this will be our special safe house. We'll hide here whenever there's danger."

Klein set up an automated device for Yanami, utilizing the various abilities he had acquired.

Underwater vines act as supports, vacuum stems serve as oxygen tubes, and then the capabilities of the offspring are utilized to pre-program a command into the offspring—"Obey Yanami's command."

This is similar to how Yanami can command the Thunderhorn Deer, thus allowing her to completely control Klein's vines.

Klein also gave this order to all the vines in the Wild Dog Forest, meaning that Yanami can now control all of Klein's vines through her ability to communicate telepathically.

The purpose of this dive was to test the feasibility of this method. Prior to this, Klein had already tested the safety of the fully automated device using a stag.

As a result, the fully automated underwater towing device was a complete success. With such a device, Yanami could hide inside on her own when Klein was not around.

The safe house is a hollow space of about 20 cubic meters. It's not big, but it's enough to hold two Bloody Slimes at their maximum size.

Most importantly, it's safe enough; unless there's some terrifying demonic fish, it poses no threat to them.

"Why are there so many plants here?"

Yanami stood up and found the safe house lush with foliage.

"These are all my plants, connected to our plantation."

If no plants grow here to produce oxygen, Yanami might die from lack of oxygen.

"By the way, Klein, the underwater tunnel doesn't seem to be ending yet. What's ahead?"

"I'm not too sure about that either; I haven't explored it yet."

thump...

Huh? Vibration?

The underwater vine network in Klein vibrated, as if it had been hit by something.

"You rest here for a bit. There seems to be something underwater. I'll go check it out."

The underwater passage had many branches. Klein had explored it casually beforehand and found that all the branches were very deep, except for the tributary leading to the plantation, which was shallow and had a weak current.

By gripping the rock wall at the top of the passage, Klein set up an underwater network of vines leading directly to the safe house for Yanami's convenience.

The soul moved to the vines at the bottom of the water, where the water was washing over them, and something was hanging on the vines.

"What's underwater? Are there monsters?"

It seems that Yanami was too bored, so she asked Klein through telepathy.

"I don't know, but it's probably not alive."

It's too dark underwater, I can't see anything... I've got it.

Klein extended a vine and cast a spell on it. The vine glowed with magical power, illuminating anything it was hanging on.

"What is that?!"

Klein saw a pair of devilish, horizontal eyes!

"Klein?! What happened?!"

Klein reacted quickly, manipulating a vine to lash out at it.

puff!

The solid touch made Klein realize that he had pierced his own flesh.

But the target who was stabbed did not struggle at all.

Huh? A corpse?

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a dead sheep...

Sheep can also have horizontal pupils; I thought I'd encountered a demon again.

………………

thump.

"Wow, it's... a sheep?"

Yanami stared in astonishment at the corpse that Klein had thrown to the ground.

"Um."

Klein pulled the sheep out of the water; judging from the condition of the carcass, it hadn't been dead for long.

Why are there sheep underwater?

"It probably got swept in by the current? Its horns got caught on my vines."

There are many forks in the underwater path, but there is only one channel through which the water flows in, and that channel happens to be right below the safe house.

Perhaps it connects to another cave?

Perhaps a sheep from another cave accidentally drowned, was swept to the bottom, entered the underwater passage, and was then carried away by the current.

It should have disappeared into any of the forks in the road, but now it's caught on the ram's horn by Klein's vines.

"Klein, there seem to be some decorations on the sheep."

Decorations?

Is it just a sheep that loves beauty...?

It was only after Yanami pointed it out that Klein noticed something unusual about the sheep.

The sheep had a lot of algae on its body, and Klein initially thought it had gotten off in the water, but upon closer inspection, he realized something was wrong.

The water plants were clearly tied to the sheep, with obvious knots, and were woven into the shape of a fish tail.

The waterweed braids were used to tie the sheep's tail, legs, neck, and mouth.

Especially the mouth, it was tied with several bandages, making the cheeks puff out?

"There seems to be something in your mouth too. Yanami, take a look inside the seaweed around your mouth."

"oh oh."

Without hesitation, Yanami untied the seaweed and then opened its mouth.

"Ugh...it stinks!"

"I can't smell it, haha."

"Waaah..."

Yanami squinted and punched Klein's vines.

Klein stuffed a few round balls into its mouth.

"There's something, put it there—"

"Take it out," Klein was about to say, but then decided to take it himself; the vines weren't afraid of getting dirty.

The vines curled into several finger-sized white spheres, round and smooth, reflecting rainbow colors in the light.

Is this... a pearl?

"Klein, this looks like a sacrifice from the merfolk?"

Yanami looked at these things, lost in thought.

"Fishmen? Could there be fishmen underwater?"

"No, those in the water are mermaids. Freshwater fish-men live in shallow water, Klein."

Fishman? Mermaid?

One is the fish head, and the other is the fish tail.

If they mate, will the resulting fish be a complete fish?