ENTERING THE GREAT ELROE LABYRINTH
“U-um, hey. The thing is, I kinda can’t swim…”
After Basgath agreed to guide us yesterday, we finished our preparations and are now about to enter the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
Instead of the entrance that was guarded by a fortress, we’re currently standing by the ocean.
“Listen up. If you jump off this cliff, there’s an entrance to the Great Elroe Labyrinth on the ocean floor below. We don’t have any idiots who can’t swim here, right?”
That was the question that prompted Fei’s reluctant confession.
When everyone stares at Fei with disbelief, she shrinks in embarrassment.
Even Basgath was probably joking when he said that; I doubt he actually expected that someone in our group couldn’t swim.
Now he scratches his head awkwardly.
By the way, we’re all in swimsuits right now.
Which means that Basgath had already told us that we’d be swimming, and yet Fei held out until the very last minute to admit that she can’t.
“You really can’t swim?”
Hyrince breaks the awkward silence with a somber tone.
“Yeah…”
Fei’s voice nearly fades into the wind.
This is kind of…unexpected.
In both this life and her previous one, Fei has always seemed like someone who can do just about anything.
But now that I think about it, I guess I’ve never seen her swimming.
Of course, there aren’t any safe places for swimming, like pools, in this world, so we’ve rarely had the chance to do it here anyway.
There was a pool at the high school we went to in our previous lives, but since boys and girls had separate swim classes, I never saw her swim then, either.
In short, I have no way of knowing how bad she actually is.
“Fei, what’s the best you can do?”
“Beats me. In our old world, I couldn’t even swim eighty feet. And I haven’t tried it at all in this body.”
That wasn’t a very helpful answer.
Does that mean she can swim a little bit, just not eighty feet?
Otherwise, she probably would have just said she can’t swim at all.
Plus, with her status, I bet she could manage to swim somehow.
Her stats alone are higher than mine.
She is a dragon, after all.
“What should we do?”
Hyrince furrows his brow.
Fei is the strongest fighter in our group.
Since we’re going to battle Hugo, we can’t just leave her here.
“If you’re having trouble, I’ll help you get down there.”
Katia shoots me a glare as soon as I say it, but what else are we supposed to do?
Fei’s body is heavy.
She may be in human form now, but she still weighs the same as she did as a dragon.
When she’s in this form, she gets around this by using Heavy Magic to manipulate gravity.
But underwater, she might have to cancel the spell, since she won’t be able to control it precisely.
If that happens, I’m the only one who would be able to support her weight, since my stats are the highest.
It doesn’t make sense for anyone but me to take on that job.
Katia must know that, which is probably why she’s merely glaring at me and not saying anything.
I feel like it would be less intimidating if she would just say something, to be honest.
“Fei, you had better swim like your life depends on it.”
Katia directs her wrath toward Fei instead.
It sends a chill down my spine, even though it wasn’t directed at me.
Fei nods silently, but I’m pretty sure I see her face go a little pale.
“Hoo, boy. Are these kids gonna be able to keep it together?”
“I don’t know if I can promise that, but there’s not much we can do.”
Basgath’s raised eyebrows and Hyrince’s sigh are a little painful.
“All right, kiddos. Focus! The ocean is the water dragons’ territory. If you let your guard down, it’ll snap you up just like that!”
At Basgath’s scolding, we drop the light bickering and tense up.
“All right, here we go! Follow me, you lot!”
With that, Basgath jumps off the cliff.
The rest of us follow close on his heels.
Plunging into the water, I quickly look around.
Right nearby, Fei is flailing her limbs in a frantic attempt at swimming.
She doesn’t seem to be drowning, but she’s not really getting anywhere, either.
Grabbing one of her hands, I pull her along.
I don’t know if it’s the Heavy Magic or the effect of the water, but she doesn’t feel heavy at all.
It shouldn’t be too hard to reach the entrance with her.
I start swimming, following Basgath.
We dive deeper and deeper. After maybe thirty feet or so, the entrance to the Great Elroe Labyrinth comes into view.
Basgath swims into the gaping hole in the rock face first.
He’s followed in order by Hyrince, Ms. Oka, Anna, and Katia.
Just then, I suddenly feel a presence behind me.
Turning apprehensively, I see a huge creature swimming toward us serenely.
A water dragon.
It looks just like the Loch Ness Monster.
As soon as it sees us, the water dragon charges without hesitation.
“Mmph?!”
Fei struggles to get away, but all she can manage is whipping around in the water, making very little progress.
I try to quickly move us away, too, but of course the water dragon has the edge on underwater maneuvers. At this rate, it’ll catch up to us before we get to the entrance.
If it reaches us, it’s all over.
Fighting a water dragon while holding my breath underwater would be nothing short of suicide. On top of that, my weapons are currently in Basgath’s Spatial Storage bag, so I’m unarmed.
Fei glances at me and sees my panic, then turns around and opens her mouth.
A torrent of brilliant light rushes out from her throat.
It’s a breath attack!
The breath surges through the water toward the water dragon.
Defending itself, the water dragon counters with a breath of its own.
The light dragon’s and the water dragon’s attacks collide, sending shock waves out through the water.
Luckily enough, the waves push Fei and me right into the entrance to the labyrinth.
As we’re sent spinning through the narrow tunnel, our bodies tumble off the walls repeatedly.
Not wanting to get separated, I pull Fei toward me and hang on tight.
It’s almost like we’re hurtling through a waterslide with no safety measures whatsoever.
For a second, it feels like we’re floating.
Finally, we crash to the ground magnificently.
In my attempt to shield Fei from the impact, I end up getting slammed that much harder.
Somehow, we’ve made it to the cave at the end of the tunnel.
Opening my eyes, I see Basgath with a torch in hand.
His body is pretty scratched up.
Everyone else has a considerable amount of scrapes, too.
We were basically flushed at high speed through a fairly long tunnel, so I guess we’re lucky the damage wasn’t worse.
It’s certainly better than it would’ve been if we’d ended up fighting that water dragon.
However, although the wounds are shallow, our bathing suits have all been torn in some places.
Ms. Oka and her childlike body are fine, but Katia and Anna have been left in a pretty suggestive state.
Also, Katia is glowering at me as she covers up her ripped swimsuit with her hands.
“Urk, sorry.”
“I won’t dare to ask what that apology is for, but perhaps you could let go now?”
At Katia’s cold words, I realize I’ve been holding on to Fei this whole time.
Suddenly deeply aware of her soft skin pressed against my body, I hastily pull away.
“S-s-s-sorry!”
“Hmm. Well, you saved me, so I guess we’ll call it even.”
I bow my head in gratitude to Fei’s generous decree.
“Argh! With a start like this, I dread to think how the rest of the journey’s going to go!”
Privately, I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Basgath.
At any rate, since we’re all scratched up, we’d better treat our wounds.
We have to change into our regular clothes, too, but it’d be better to take care of our injuries first, right?
Although the women probably don’t want to remain in this state any longer than they have to.
“Well, at least we managed to enter safely, more or less. Welcome to our hell on earth, the Great Elroe Labyrinth.”
Groaning at Basgath’s dramatic line, I set about preparing some healing magic.
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