The sound of dozens of waterfalls drowned out almost everything else. The car's engine, the footsteps of the crowd that had gathered around one of the pools at a waterfall's base, not even Ryan's own thoughts were easy to hear with all this much noise.

  "This is it? This is the entrance we're going to use?" looking out the windshield from the back of the car, Ryan tried to figure out what was going on, "Aren't there too many people around?"

  Runar let out a long sigh, "They're Goria's acolytes. Self-appointed, for the most part. They're the people we needed to get permission from, and it looks like they want to see who it is that was personally invited by a Great Spirit."

  "Urgh... got it. And remind me again why the closest entrance to a water reservoir under the city is in the Falls of all places?" he opened up the door and stepped outside, with his mother and uncle right behind him.

  "This is quite beautiful though, isn't it?" Mary asked, looking around at the dozens of waterfalls in her sight, almost cutting the buildings scattered around the area in half. Since this was directly next to all the waterfalls, there weren't a lot of homes here, but there were a lot of mining operations around here. The housing in the Falls was a little further away. This part here was a bit too dangerous for people to live if the weather turned too bad, and the rivers overflowed. However, it was an extremely popular tourist-destination, and was another place where tons of people gathered for Goria's day. There was still some garbage left around here from yesterday.

  Ryan walked forward toward the crowd, and was quickly met by someone in long, white and pale blue robes. Though, they looked a little weird. Rather than waving in the strong wind up here on the mountain as robes like this should, they were moving around like... waves. Like water. It was probably a specially enchanted fabric, but even knowing that, Ryan was a bit taken aback.

  "You are the one that was summoned?" the acolyte said with a smile on his face, though behind that smile, Ryan could feel the jealousy almost boiling over.

  "Yeah, that's me. So, uh... how does this work? Is there some kind of submarine or something?" he asked, glancing past the man at the pool of water that all of those people were standing around. Still smiling, the acolyte stepped aside and led Ryan closer to the edge of the water, looking down. But instead of seeing what he was hoping for, he just saw the beginnings of steps leading deeper into the water. He had a bad feeling about this. And when Yamada came to him with a hiking backpack filled to the brim, that feeling came even worse.

  "Wait, are we walking?" Ryan asked with a wry smile, looking over to his uncle.

  "We? Sorry, but you have to go alone," Runar replied, "And yes... you have to walk."

  "What. Why? You said 'We got permission' in your text, so why are you suddenly pulling out?"

  The acolyte quickly explained, "Gaining permission to enter Goria's domain is not easy, even for us. You have been invited to enter her shrine of all places, so that is a journey you will have to take on your own."

  Ryan clicked his tongue as he put on the backpack, "Urgh, fine... So it's all... steps? Is there some kind of slide hidden there?"

  "I am afraid it is 'all steps'. Though it should only take you four or five hours to reach the bottom if you walk at a brisk pace, and then another few hours to reach the actual shrine."

  With a sigh, Ryan stretched a bit, "Might as well get something out of it. Four hours? Let's make it... three."

  "Ryan..." his mother said with a slight frown, "Don't overdo yourself."

  "Nah, it's fine. Even if I do get hurt, I've got the blood rose stuff," he pointed out, stepping closer to the edge of the water, "Alright, what do I do?"

  Ryan was given a shell that was clearly infused with some kind of magic, "As long as you have this on you, the water will make way."

  "Right. Got it," he replied, clutching the shell in his hand as he took a step forward toward the first step. The water moved out of the way, like it was repelled by him, "There's no branching paths or anything... right? Just this one stairway?"

  The acolyte nodded, "Yes, just the one. I wish you a good journey down to the shrine."

  Ryan waved at his mother, uncle, and Yamada, and then took the next step into the water. The stares of the people standing around the small pool were pretty uncomfortable. They were barely moving, and just staring at him with a strange mixture of expressions. Some were excited that someone to be here for the moment someone was called to meet Goria, while others were incredibly envious that it wasn't them that walking down those steps. Others were even looking at Ryan with disgust on their face, as if they hated to see someone that wasn't one of Goria's followers like them.

  But he just had to ignore it. Ryan continued down the steps and before long, the water closed up behind him. All the noise from the waterfalls and voices from above was shut off, and he was left alone. Since there was nothing else to do, Ryan put on his headphones and started listening to some music. He probably wouldn't have good signal going down, so luckily he had a lot of stuff downloaded.

  Once Ryan followed the steps down to the pool's bottom, he entered a tunnel. Now, not just the noise from above was gone, but so was the light. But the walls of the tunnel were lined with lamps, so he was able to see anyway. The tunnel itself was pretty roomy, probably because it was made so that anyone that could ever be called by Goria could make their way down here. But that also meant that the steps were pretty large, making every step downward incredibly annoying. Four hours of this was going to absolutely destroy his knees.

  Just for a moment, Ryan squatted down and touched the steps. He thought they would be slippery and covered in algae, but they were actually pretty dry and rough. If this continued on all the way to the bottom, maybe Ryan could use to boost his 'Physicality' stat training. That was the last stat that he really wanted. The resistance stat was also useful, but it didn't seem easy for him to awaken that right now.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Taking some deep breaths while mentally preparing himself, Ryan started walking forward. He first tried to move at a pace where he could walk these steps as though they were the size meant for a human like him. It was a bit uncomfortable since he had to take extra long steps, but he soon got into a good rhythm. When he managed to get his breathing under control, as he did whenever he did those long runs at the gym with Yanna, Ryan started to try and speed up a bit. He wasn't quite sprinting, but he was definitely moving along those steps much faster than normal.

  "This shouldn't quite take four hours," he said to himself. He should be able to cut that down to at least 2 hours, if things continued this way. Though, about an hour and change later, Ryan grew a bit worried. The lights that he was completely relying on weren't continuing at some point further down the stairway. It didn't seem to be a curve either, though, as he could see the steps themselves continue, submerged in the dark water.

  And it didn't take long until he understood why. As Ryan continued down the steps, the walls disappeared. Instead, what was in front of him was a massive, dark cave. How was he supposed to navigate this space? He might be able to manage if he slowed down a ton, but there wasn't even anything like a safety railing here. And with the shell, if he fell off the side of the steps, he would be left in complete free-fall in a bubble of air.

  But as Ryan walked forward a bit more, he came to a small platform. It was like a place to take a break during the descent, with a table, a bench, and everything. Figuring that he might as well sit down and eat something, Ryan dropped down onto the bench and opened his backpack. For some reason, it even had a change of clothes in there... when did Yamada prepare this?

  Either way, he quickly got out one the packed boxes of food. Runar had shown them to Ryan before, these boxes were specially made to keep the food inside at the perfect temperature using an assortment of runes on the inside.

  "When it comes to convenience, he really doesn't hold out, does he?" Ryan sighed as he started to eat the food. Tiar also seemed quite happy that Ryan was finally eating something. They had been getting a bit tense since the descent started. Though, part of that could be the fact that they were getting closer and closer to Goria. The Great Spirit's energy was flowing through all of the water around Ryan, and since symbiotes seemed to be connected to her, maybe Tiar was sensing something like that. If Ryan was sensitive to matters like that, then Tiar had to be as well.

  At the end of his brief break, once Ryan was done, he put everything back into his bag and decided to continue on beyond the platform surrounded by complete darkness. At least the shell itself was giving off a small glow, so Ryan had some light to himself, but it really wasn't a lot. It was like the strength of a weak night light. It wouldn't be easy to walk down the steps with just this. But it wasn't like he had a choice, so he carefully started walking down the stairs connecting to this platform.

  And as his foot touched the first next step, a soft light shone from the stone slabs, illuminating the edges.

  "Urgh... you could have done that earlier," Ryan groaned, quickly continuing on with his journey. He didn't know exactly how long it would still take him to reach the bottom, but even once he got there, he was apparently supposed to keep walking for a while. According to Runar, Goria's shrine was actually constructed during the times of Old Riverside. That meant they were parts of the ruins under where Ryan lived, though far, far deeper down. Which also meant that after crossing that distance vertically, he would have to walk all the way to oldtown. But once he was able to just move horizontally, he should be able to jog part of the way. Doing all this with this backpack on him should actually be pretty good training.

  Though, he did feel a bit bad that Gaia wouldn't be able to tend to her garden tonight. But this was just a bit more important. It was possible that Gaia was able to give him something to prevent any further attempts by the White Shadow Society to infect spirits. In the meantime, the Aglecards were taking proper care of everything and would use the cure to help out any spirits that were corrupted.

  An hour after Ryan got to the second half of the stairway, he finally reached the bottom of the massive dark cave. This must be one of the many water reservoirs hidden under the city... no wonder Goria was born here of all places. The waterfalls, the river, the lake, these reservoirs, and rain season apparently got pretty bad in these parts as well. Either way, the energies of water surrounded this town from quite literally all directions.

  But now, it was time for him to enter the next tunnel, leading away from this cave. There was another place to rest at the beginning of this tunnel, and it was actually a bit larger, with space to spend the night. Looking up at the steps whose light was slowly fading away, Ryan certainly understood why. If it usually took at least four hours to go down these stairs, unless you basically ran down them like Ryan, then going up would be quite the tough ordeal. Depending on when you got here, it might be better to spend the night than to force yourself to get up the steps and risk falling down due to exhaustion.

  That being the case, Ryan didn't need that right now. He might consider it on the way back, though. He definitely wasn't excited about having to climb those stairs at all. But for now, he took a break, ate something again, rested for ten or twenty minutes, and then continued on his way. Since he was in another tunnel, the walls had lights on them again, so he was actually able to see quite well. The water was also absolutely pristine, so he could see the lights stretch out for quite a while like this.

  As Ryan continued on walking this path, he passed through two more larger reservoirs, though he really had no idea how big they could be. Before long, Ryan made it to the end of the path, entering the last, and apparently largest underwater cave hiding under the city. Different to the others ones, this one was as bright as the tunnels that he had been passing through. Massive towers of glowing crystals were growing alongside each part of the cave. Bioluminescent fish that were larger than Ryan were swimming through the water in small schools. Every once in a while, a curious straggler came by Ryan to check out this bubble, but it would disappear the moment one of its scales touched the air hidden inside.

  But none of what he was seeing compared to the sight of the massive building in the distance. Almost the entirety of the cave's wall was carved out into the form of pillars and statues. This must have taken years and years to create, even with the assistance of skilled earth mages. The whole place was illuminated by a swarm of jellyfish. Ryan really wanted to avoid accidentally bumping into one of their stingers... Which wasn't hard, considering that they were the brightest part of their bodies.

  Ryan continued on into the hall, reaching a pedestal. It had a sign with a sentence in different languages, "Leave the shell here"

  Though he was nervous, since this was the rule of the shrine, Ryan did as told. He placed the shell onto the pedestal, and watched as the bubble of air that was surrounding Ryan quickly shrank down. He was panicking, trying to grab the shell again, but before he could the water had already enveloped him completely.

  But... Ryan didn't get wet. He definitely felt like he was underwater, with his body feeling a lot lighter, and he could feel the water's cold touch, but he wasn't wet. Not to mention, he was even able to breathe, as no water seemed to be able to enter his mouse or nose.

  "Huh..." Ryan let out, his voice blunted by the water, though still fairly audible. He continued on the path inside of the building, and soon reached a large double door, too large for even the largest Giant to open.

  Check out the Patreon! Read up to 15 Chapters ahead!

  Join the Discord!