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Shuoooooooo!
As the boss struggled, ink rained down in all directions.
The ink, which already has paralysis components, was now mixed with a dragon’s venom. It would definitely be fatal if it touched a human body.
“Mercury’s Barrier.”
Protected by the Silver Citadel. We waited leisurely for the rain of poison and ink to stop.
“That must hurt.”
“I know.”
At first glance, the Kraken’s mouth was completely torn.
If the mouth was like that, the internal organs would have suffered quite a bit. Eventually, the rain stopped and we decided to finish the job.
“Divine Punishment!”
After removing the barrier, I put in a second wave of attack.
This time, the thunderbolt hit the head instead of the leg.
With this, Kraken couldn’t come to his senses for a long time and just trembled in place.
The smell of burning octopus wafted from all sides of him. The steaming body of the Kraken slowly sank into the water. He seemed intent on running away but to no avail.
“Come on, let’s check if the inside is well cooked. Vanquish of Evil!”
I pointed the tip of Serpens, not my fingertips, at the Kraken, and at the moment the tip fell downwards, the divine skill reached the Kraken across a long distance.
The invisible sword of judgment split the target vertically in exact halves.
Pushushushu!
The stomach at the center of its torso also split open and at that moment, poisonous gas and the sparks of the blue flame met the outside air causing a splendid explosion.
Kwagwagwang!
Ripe flesh splattered everywhere. I was about to cast Mercury’s Barrier, but Thesilid made the first move.
“Eli.”
He wrapped himself in a tent with one hand and hugged me with his remaining arm.
Ash seemed to have crawled into the tent on his own.
[<System> Congratulations! You have defeated the owner of the dungeon, 610th place in the Demon World, ‘The Kraken Who Blocked The Sewers’.]
[<System> The demon area ‘Sea of Great Flood’ is assigned to the dungeon conqueror ‘Ellet Rodellaine’.]
Kururururu.
Eventually, the rain of boiled octopus meat stopped and the colossal body of the Kraken sank into the water.
Ash pulled back the tent and stuck out his head.
“Phew, looks like we got rid of it. You worked hard.”
“Ash too.”
“By the way, sister.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“Why doesn’t the whirlpool stop?”
Shiwiiiiiii!
Right. Our gondola was still spinning in a torrent of whirlpools.
I calmly opened my mouth.
“It’s all right. This is a natural phenomenon.”
“Why? We’ve got rid of the Boss?”
“Exactly. This is what happens when you catch the boss. Or, more precisely, by making him leave the place.”
The reason can be easily guessed from the fact that the boss we just defeated is the Kraken that blocked the sewer. According to the mermaids, it has been a hundred years since the Kraken appeared and blocked the entrance to their house.
This is a huge difference compared to the 40 days recorded in the Bible.
“In fact, the stormy period of disaster ended a long time ago. Nevertheless, it was the drainage problem in this world that sustains this continuous flood.”
“Drain?”
“Yes. The Kraken was clogging the drain. But now we’ve killed that it, right?”
In other words, we’ve just pulled the drain cap off a giant bathtub.
“Aha.”
Ash, enlightened, nodded his head like a diligent student. But his face soon turned dark.
“Wait. How big is that drain?”
“A fairly large pond?”
“I’m guessing it must be bigger than our gondola?”
“Yes.”
“Then if we stay like this, won’t we also be sucked into the drain?”
What a smart student.
Sure enough, the circle radius of the gondola we were riding was getting narrower. It meant that we were being sucked deeper and deeper into the hole of the vortex.
The sea level was dropping rapidly and in the distance near the horizon, mountain peaks were already visible.
All around us, reefs were poking out sharply.
I put my hand on Ash’s shoulder.
“It’s all right.”
“Is really okay?”
“Yes. We just need to escape before being sucked in.”
“What? Whoa……!”
I grabbed Ash by the scruff of his neck and leaped off the gondola.
The landing point was a huge mushroom-shaped rock.
Glancing to the side, Thesilid also succeeded in safely escaping.
Kwiiii.
The whirlpool made a creepy noise, signaling that it had almost sucked in all the water. Inside the vortex, we saw the gondola we were riding in, broken in half and swallowed.
Koro-ro-ro-ro-ro.
Eventually, water drained away and dry land appeared. At the same time, thick dark clouds dispersed without a trace.
As if the rain had never fallen, the night sky was filled with a bright, full moon that bathed the world in moonlight.
It was the first time light finally reached the land that had been submerged in seawater for a hundred years.
<There’s nothing. I thought there’d be a lot of coral reefs.>
“It was too deep for coral to live because there was no light.”
Corals live in shallow waters resembling the color of Thesilid’s eyes.
“Sister, who are you talking to?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“You said something earlier, using honorifics.”
“You must have heard it wrong, don’t say weird things.”
“……”
I’m sorry, Ash.
I apologized inwardly, and a small laugh passed through my ears.
It was obvious who could make such a pleasant sound.
It was a Thesilid.
<He can’t see me either. It’s funny that he’s laughing while in the same situation.>
At that moment, Thesilid stopped laughing as if he were serious.
I moved, treading carefully on the swampy ground. Not too far away was a spring that could be tens of meters wide.
That was the “Fountain of the Deep Sea,” the drain that sucked in the water.
I picked up the fish that fluttered around me and threw them into the fountain.
The bottom of the spring was connected to the deep sea, so they should be able to live in it as before.
<Hey, help me too.>
<Here, here too!>
There were other beings besides fish that struggled to get into the water.
The mermaids were trying to crawl to the spring, but exhausted, they called for help.
“Terry, Ash, you stay back.”
The men took shelter in a safe place and I went out alone.
The fishy smell was going to get on my clothes if I carried them around so I grabbed a large towel, wrapped the mermaids one by one, then carried them to the spring.
The mermaids showed interest in the towel.
<Wow, what is this? It feels weird to the touch>.
“It’s called a towel. Use it to dry yourself off.”
<There are many strange things on land. Can I have this?>
“Take it.”
I was going to throw it away because it smelled fishy anyway.
<Me too, me too!>
Somehow, I was robbed of a dozen towels.
Cut off from civilization, the ocean was a wild land, and mermaids seem to find even the most mundane items of humans strange.
“Now, focus.”
I drew the attention of my favorite mermaids who were merry after receiving the towels.
“I killed the Kraken, and ownership of the dungeon was vested in me. So please keep your promise.”
<Since you are the owner of this place, I suppose we have no choice.>
“Well, I won’t ask too much. Roughly once a month, I’ll draw just enough tears to fill these three vials.”
The required volume is about half a liter.
The period was appropriately set considering the ratio of time flow between reality and the dungeon.
Then the mermaids began to gossip among themselves.
Why? Are there any disagreements with my reasonable proposal?
<Excuse me.>
The mermaid, who seemed to be the eldest sister, tightly held onto her towel and met my gaze, desperately trying to negotiate.
<I want to attach a condition.>
“What is it? Tell me.”
<Every time you come here, we would like for you to bring us more things from the land.>
“Things from the land? Like towels?”
<I like towels, but I want to have a variety of other things.>
“Hmm……well, would things like this be enough?”
One by one, I pulled out miscellaneous items from my inventory: a spare set of clothes, some pretty dishes, dried tea leaves in a glass jar, and writing utensils.
Then the mermaids suddenly lit up their eyes like crows who found a sparkling jewel.
<Wow! Pretty!>
<There was nothing like this on the shipwreck!>
<I want that one!>
<Give me, give me!>
Seeing the enthusiastic mermaids makes me smile.
A devious smile.
“I can’t just give these away. How valuable are these?”
<Agh, so they are precious.>
“Right. The towel I gave you earlier was a big gesture to commemorate the start of our trade, but not these. I’ll have to make a separate deal.”
<Deal? Can I give you more tears?>
“If I needed more tears, I would have asked for more in the first place.”
<Then what do you want? What can we give?>
The mermaids seemed nervous as if the deal might go awry.
“Well, I don’t intend to make unreasonable demands……”
I stretched out my hand toward the neck of the youngest mermaid.
What I picked up with my fingertips was a necklace of very large natural pearls.
“I’ll take a pearl of equal weight. How about that?”
<Oh, that’s all? There are plenty of pearls spread out on the sea floor. You are very nice.>
“Right? I think so too.”
A satisfactory transaction was thus established.
[‘The Spoiler Inspector’ is disappointed to see you betraying your humanity to become a miser.]
[‘The World-building God’ brushes it off as an overreaction over nothing, covering up the controversy about your personality.]
[‘The Creative Business Manager’ expects you to buy the ticket to change the genre soon and help sales performance.]
[‘The Scales that Judges the Soul’ bless you so you will definitely pick up a 19+ rated reverse harem Rofan in one draw.]
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