Chapter 44: Swimming Practice
I have arrived in Ca.s.sau City. Since I"m going alone, it"s pretty fast even if I go by foot.
Well, it"s not like I"m all by myself. I have Blobby who sometime turned into Victoria.
During my journey, Victoria would volunteer to fight monsters on her own. Since I have my spear by my side, it"s fine if she leaves me for a while. And it feels like I have become a proper summoner. I stay in the back while my summon will defeat monsters.
So while Victoria is defeating monsters and improving my summoning element, I practiced Air element so it can reach Intermediate level. It"s two birds with one stone.
Although it was only for a few hours a day, it was worth it. Little by little, Victoria"s time has increased again. I believe soon I will reach Intermediate level in my summoning element. Especially soon when I will fight more monsters underwater.
In just three days, I have arrived at Ca.s.sau City. I went to find an inn to lodge in and see around the city first.
Since this city will be my base in the future.
There"s a medical college I will attend. I won"t attend right away after graduation. At least two or three years after. Since during that time, there"s no incident caused by the cult.
If I remember correctly, the cult only attacked the cities like Melk and few others along with the villages nearby the target. And after that, they somehow disappeared for about five years. So I want to train myself and improve my magic level before I attend college.
Why did I choose to attend college here? At first, I was fine choosing anywhere. Then when I thought of getting treasures from the bottom of the sea, I want to choose a city close to the sh.o.r.e.
I have several options, but the college in Ca.s.sau is pretty high-leveled. The magic college wasn"t that well-known around the country, but the medical college does. It"s not the best but at least it was pretty good. And I know that the students has much freedom. They don"t need to take cla.s.ses, but still need to pa.s.s the exam. Just like in introductory school. In other college, their attendance will be important for graduation.
It has too much freedom that the professor doesn"t even try to remember the students" names. At least only the smart ones are remembered.
As long as the students doesn"t makes the school looks bad, they are free to do whatever they want. Of course they still have to pay tuition.
Once I graduate from introductory school, I will move here and go "fishing" for two or three year, then I will attend college after that. If Kayla and Angela still doesn"t know what they want to pick for their future, I will suggest them to move with me to this city.
If my treasure hunting now is a great success, Sam will probably move here like I told her to. Then I could ask for her help to find a house to live in. a big building perhaps, so that Daniel, Kayla, Angela, and probably the girls from the Red Tail can live together with me in this city.
Maybe I can build a clan? That"s for the future, so it"s not important right now. For now I will just improve my strength, magic, and wealth. Also personal connection if I found someone interesting.
The next day, I went to a beach somewhere where no one goes to. Since it will be surprising for them if they see someone dive into the sea and never comes out after several hours.
"Now then, let"s dive!"
I changed into a shorts so that it won"t restrict my movement underwater since the water already restricted my movement so much.
My Air element is fully activated. And I can breathe normally underwater. I made a s.p.a.ce inside my mouth to be filled with Oxygen, so I can breathe in just fine and I breathe out from my nose. So far so good. I can breathe just fine.
Now then, the real thing. Aura has many function. And I will try to use Aura to cover my body so I can move better underwater.
Aura has a lot of function. One of them that I tried is covering my body with Aura to increase my defense. This is what Victoria said should be able to make me walk on air. In the future, after I become better in using my Aura, I should be able to walk on air by covering my feet in Aura, then it will makes me able to step on air just like that. I can"t do it now, but since I have Air element, as soon as I can materialize air, and make it touchable, I should be able to do it soon. Not needing me to grow my Aura power that much.
But using Aura to cover my whole body underwater, it only makes me sunk deeper underwater. I can reach the bottom of the sea faster, but that"s not what I needed. It"s difficult to move. What I want is to move freely underwater.
Then I realize something. I was so stupid.
Since it"s underwater, trying to walk underwater is a stupid thing. What I should do is to swim faster. That"s all I need to do. Not trying to force myself to move normally as if it"s on the land.
Trying to cover the whole body might be a good idea if I"m about to fight underwater, but this is just a movement practice. I will try to swim with the help of Aura. Maybe I will get faster like how I run on land with Aura covering my feet.
That"s it!
I only need to cover my legs with Aura! Maybe my arms as well for maneuverability. But for a straight line, just my legs should be enough.
I did that and as I thought, I can swim very fast!
In fact, it was too fast!
"GLUGLABLALABLUBLUGLUB-"
It was too surprising that I opened my mouth and forgot to use Air magic. And it also hurting my eyes moving too fast! I was in panic so I tried to calm myself down.
It works that I can swim fast, but I need to think everything else as well. But the answer to my new trouble is simple. First, I have to keep my mouth shut. Then I need to keep my eyes shut.
I don"t need to open my mouth to breathe, but I forgot about my air magic because I was in panic. I also don"t need to open my eyes since I can see through my eyelid with my Divine Vision.
I did just that and the result is clear. I can now swim faster than most of the fish around me!
WOOHOO!
I shouted internally since I"m still afraid of opening my mouth and make another blub-blub. If there"s anyone on the surface see, they might be curious about the sources of the bubbles. What do they think? A mermaid? I should try to find a pair of sh.e.l.ls in perfect size then. To be more convincing.
I"m having the time of my life. Swimming to the bottom of the ocean, then quickly raise to the surface. Because it"s just a straight line, I don"t need to cover my hands with Aura. Just keep moving my legs so I can be faster and faster. Having Vision Divine also helped me to see what"s in front of me.
I want to jump to the sky!
Finally I reached the surface and Boom!
"WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!"
This time, I no longer shout internally. And I also jumped as high as thirty meter. That"s so high. I feel so close to the sky. Although it was just thirty meters, but I started from the bottom of the sea. And it"s also about 50 meters underwater because I"m still not that far from the sh.o.r.e. But the feeling I have is like I"m with the sky.
As I"m still in the air, I also tried to walk on air using just Aura under my feet. But I still can"t do it. Then I used Air magic to make air resistance denser under my feet. I feel a bit of resistance but still not enough to make me stay on air. But being able to swim fast is more than enough at the moment.
To make it more stylish, I did a flip and "land" on the sea surface. Since I just learned to kick water, I tried to step on water. And I landed perfectly.
"A perfect land for a new mermaid."
What I don"t know, is that about 80 meters from me, there"s a fishermen on a ship looking my way. Although I have Divine Vision, I was too focused in what"s in front of me so I didn"t notice it at all until I landed on the sea surface.
"A sea demon! A sea demon appears!"
"I"m a mermaid!"
Oh s.h.i.t!
I undo the Aura under my feet and let myself sink. Why the h.e.l.l did I shout back? Just few days ago, I make a ruckus in Mellian with a fake dragon. Now I make a new trouble with a fake mermaid?
I hope the chaos this time won"t be too big.