After about ten minutes of rolling around on the dry rock they were on, everyone ieam, apart from Gustav, mao shapeshift! They had been in a sub-liquid-like form all this time, because that was the key part of the process, but this part didn't bother them whatsoever, because it wasn’t painful at all. Having sub-liquid bones and flesh for ten minutes was exceptionally painless, it was even therapeutic actually, because even their light joint pains disappeared during that period.

  Anyway, ohey shifted, they left their backpacks behind, and jumped ier quite fearlessly! They didn't fear these a creatures of the deep, because if their uanding of this time period was correct, then the fish within the sea here didn't have any magical powers at their disposal. The fish were just big, and hungry, which was the main way for them to be threatening, but that was about it.

  The tter wasn't too big of a challenge for them. Ead every member of this group had faced greater challenges in the past, so not only did they leap ier, but they ended up killing a couple of big fish soon after! The eyes of the on aqus goblin were very sharp, it allowed them to see perfectly within the increasing darkness of the sea water!

  Arvena killed three of them, she was the main shooter! Her Laser Shot ability was very useful in absolutely crippling her defenseless oppos, even from a great distance, because she would impale their skulls. That was one of the best ways to kill any huge fish or animal, she even killed a shark-like creature that looked a lot like a smaller version of a megalodon, and she did so easily! Arvena believed that if they bothered to sell the meat of these fish, they could make a fortune, because meat like this was surely rare, almost impossible to find!

  Anyway, with little challenges in their way, the team progressed expoially. They swam deeper, and tried to hit the bottom of the sea, because that's where the roots were supposed to be. Mana roots were either wedged between rocks, covered by sand, and sometimes they were even a couple of feet underground, but they were always at the bottom, so it was best to try and swim as deep as they could.

  The pn was sound, but they noticed that their mana decreased faster, the deeper they swam. What started as a few points every now and then, turned into five points per sed! It was arming.

  Arvena was a bit more lucky here, because her mana was too dense for a simple root to abuse. She only lost a couple of points every now and then, while everyone else’s mana pool was dropping quicker than a dog's to the sight of a potential mate! It was rapid, so at the one-hundred meter mark they even sidered turning back!

  [-4 mana points]

  [-6 mana points]

  [-3 mana points]

  [-5 mana points]

  The system kept notifying him about this leak every other sed. She dispyed them on the er of his eye, and he was getting really nervous about this leak, because although the points he lost didn't look like much, the overall loss accumuted over time! At this rate, he was losing about three-hundred mana points a mi was a huge amount, and it could deplete a great portion of his mana pool even if he stayed iers for half an hour!

  At the two-hundred meter mark, their mana was going down even faster, so he had to pressure the other. “Do you at least know how to stop the mana roots from using us as its fertilizers, woman? Don't get me wrong, sleeping for almost two days has its bes, but even the 37k mana points I have, may not be enough to feed the hungry bastards below us!”

  “I have an idea in mind, but we o find the roots first.” Arvena answered, knowing that his question was directed at her. “Don't worry about losing points, because ohe roots are fed, they'll give us our mana back tenfold! Let's try to have a positive attitude here, because at this rate, there has to be tens of mana roots down there, we have to find them!”

  “Tens, eh? It's worth the trouble, then.” He said, and started swimming just a little bit faster, he fot to be nervous. “Maybe we'll even bolt through the God's Punishment Realm of mana today!”

  A result like that was what made him more fident. He didn’t fear losing mana as muow, and he certainly didn't fear the creatures of the deep, so he pushed forward with a stubborhat would surpass that of a hormonal donkey's!

  At the four-hundred meter mark, they made it to the bottom of the sea, this was as deep as they could go. After they explored the bottom a little bit, they discovered a few roots soon after, and this got them very excited, but then they discovered another patch, and started getting weirded out!

  The team foueen mana roots all together, which was a great find, however, they were aligned so perfectly with one ao the point where the team was sure that someone had phem! Someone was looking after these roots, and it couldn't be the fish here, no, as their heads were as empty as one’s head could be!

  [-55 mana points]

  [-77 mana points]

  [-62 mana points]

  [-87 mana points]

  The system kept showing those little notifications at the er of his eye, but he didn’t bother with them. The fusion he felt while he observed the ly rowed roots, was a much greater emotion than the fear he felt regarding losing mana! At this point, his pool could be emptied up until the st drop for all he cared, he just wao know if someoed these roots!

  “This 't be normal, right? I’m thinking that a human swam down here and phem. Either a human oblin, because they shouldn't be all together in one pce.” Tim theorized, and he was right to think so, as this enter enced it.

  Arvena was fused as well, but thankfully she was more optimistic about the matter, so she started guiding the team. “It's not normal, but it doesn't matter. Let's try and overload the roots, and we'll be able to harvest them soon. Everyone, pour your mana into it, the roots are already growing, I see them moving around!”

  Afterwards, she went ahead and id on top of a bunch of roots, and didn't fear them, because they were premature roots, so they couldn’t hurt her even after they were done feeding. The brown roots around her grew as thick as her arms, in mere seds, because she was feeding them hundreds of her points without batting ahe roots surely enjoyed mung on the det mana quality that she had to offer!

  Eventually, the roots got too big, so she was covered by them, she was stuck betweehough this was a bit arming, she didn't care about being trapped, because she was going to harvest them sooner or ter!

  The rest of the team did the same thing, they id down on a bunch of roots, and hoped for the best. Whatever Arvena's pn was, they were hoping that it would work!

  “A root is trying to climb, and sneak in my ass.” Timothy mumbled, and moved his anus out of harm's way.