Chapter 29: Where's the Gillyweed?

  After securing the second key they had rested for a while but it was not long before they were eager to move on.

  There had been eleven yuren in the village which they had easily dealt with. Unfortunately, the XP gain had been less as they were all level 4 now.

  The sky was still light. The sun did not seem to move, which Billy found disorienting. Still, this was a dungeon. How there was a sun was anyone’s guess.

  They walked around the lake, looking for the door or gate to the next section, but with no luck. They had even walked past the lake, but there was just empty space on the other side.

  “Well!” said Billy. “I guessed we all knew it would come to this.”

  “You had to say it,” muttered Trevor.

  “Should I swim down and look,” Lorna said.

  “There could be more of those creatures down there,” Trevor said.

  “I’m a good swimmer,” Yuki said. “I can go with her.”

  Billy looked at them thoughtfully. “We cannot just blindly go as a group. Yuki and Lorna, you go scout out but do not engage if you see trouble. I don’t know how we could fight underwater.”

  Lorna looked at the spear in her hand. “Might as well leave this here. It would just get in the way.”

  Yuki agreed and laid her staff down. Soon, the two of them were ready and entered the water.

  Billy fidgeted uncomfortably. He felt useless at the moment.

  “I want to look around a bit,” Trevor said.

  “Okay,” Billy replied. “Be safe.”

  Trevor nodded and then trotted off. He continuously stopped at each new plant he saw.

  “Billy!” Su Li said.

  Billy turned to see that she looked worried. “What’s up?”

  “I don’t know how to swim. I’m sorry.”

  Billy smiled gently. “I am not a strong swimmer either but that was the old me. Plus now you have working legs. You will soon pick it up.”

  She jumped up and down. “I do have working legs… but what if I can’t swim?”

  “We’ll think of something. I have a feeling that swimming won’t be the biggest problem.”

  Lorna and Yuki returned after a couple of minutes.

  “Well?” Billy asked impatiently.

  Lorna shook the water out of her hair, spraying Billy in the face. “There is not much down there, and it is difficult to see. However, we did see two of the yuren standing guard outside of what looked like an opening to a cave.

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  “How far down is it?”

  “Not far, about twenty metres down.”

  “It’s on the opposite side of the lake to where we are now,” Yuki said.

  “Well, two guards shouldn’t be too difficult to deal with,” Billy said.

  “Famous last words,” Lorna replied.

  “I don’t see that we have much option,” Billy said.

  At that point, Trevor returned. He was carrying a handful of plants.

  “Is that gillyweed?” Su Li asked.

  “Unfortunately not,” Trevor replied. “Mind you, I don’t want to be stuck breathing water for an hour – so thankfully no. Just watch.”

  He took one of the odd shaped plants. It had a long stem with a flat looking flower. The flower was green with red tinged veins.

  “This is called an air-lily. If you chew it will reduce your need for oxygen by fifty percent.”

  “So we can stay under water twice as long?” Billy asked.

  “That’s the idea. I did test it and it seems to work. Tastes horrible, mind. I didn’t find many so we can’t waste them.”

  “Well, if the whole area down there is under water we are screwed,” Billy said. “Given that the villages are on dry land, we have to assume that the passage will lead to a dry area.”

  “First, we have to get past the guards,” Lorna said.

  They looked at each other. Billy couldn’t think of a good way to fight in the water.

  It was Trevor who finally said. “I have an idea. We will only get one shot, though.”

  ###

  Billy lay as quietly as he could. He was buried under the silt at the bottom of the lake next to Trevor. He couldn’t see anything or hear anything. He was reliant on his mana sense to know what was happening around him. Meanwhile, he could only wait and count the seconds as his air slowly depleted.

  Trevor had been right. The plant did taste foul. He had once tasted durian, and it was like that mixed with oil. Lots of oil.

  Finally, he felt a foot hit the ground near him. That was the signal.

  He counted to three and then surged upwards. He immediately saw the back of a yuren as it tried to stab Yuki. There was another yuren to his left. Billy wrapped his arms around the closest yuren. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Trevor do the same to the other one.

  He then pushed up. The yuren struggled in his grip but Billy was able to hang on. It was difficult however, to swim upwards with the writhing creature. He forced his legs to keep thrashing in the water. The air now burned in his lungs. His oxygen was running low.

  With one last effort, he forced them out of the water. As they rose into the air a knive flashed forward, sinking into the forehead of the yuren. A spearhead followed, sinking into its throat. Billy gulped a breath of air and held on until the creature stopped struggling.

  He slowly swam to the edge of the water, dragging the creature with him. He saw that Trevor’s yuren was also dead. Yuki poked her head out of the water like a water goddess. She looked triumphant. Billy could swear she wasn’t even breathing hard.

  Billy flopped onto the grass like a wet sponge. Trevor flopped next to him.

  “Well, that was fun,” Trevor said.

  “Come on,” Lorna said. “We need to go down quickly before their absence is noted.”

  Billy cursed but sat up. He was soon having to force down rank chunks of air-lily. At least everyone had to do the same this time.

  The swam down as a group with Yuki leading the way. She made it look effortless.

  They reached the tunnel to find it went on into the dark. The swam forward. Billy was praying this was not in vain. He could see from Su Li’s eyes she was starting to panic. He reached out to hold her hand and she looked at him gratefully.

  Just as he was about to give up they came to a closed space. There was no way forward.

  Trevor pointed up, and Billy saw I was lighter there. They swam upwards. Billy had to fight the urge to inhale. He needed to breathe. But he knew there was no way back now. They had come too far.

  Su Li started to thrash. She was panicking. He ignored his own urges and held onto her tightly. He could sense someone else doing the same from the other side.

  The light was growing stronger. They crested the surface to loud gasps, which turned into cries of pain as spears rained down on them.

  Billy could see that there were six yuren standing in front of a large stone door. They were already readying other spears.

  “Fight!” he cried out.

  Yuki almost flew out of the water. Her staff whirled in her hand. She pushed away two of the yuren and nimbly dodged another. Lorna and Trevor were soon to follow. Billy struggled with Su Li, who was limp in the water. As the others fought, he pulled her to the edge and pushed her over the side.

  He could see she had swallowed lots of water. He put his head to her chest. She was not breathing.