"Who are you?" Valenia asked. She was ready to slash if he came any closer.

"Whoa whoa. Calm down, woman. Who am I? I am the professional coral stones harvester that you guys are talking about. My name is Cora." Cora introduced himself.

Cora wore a ragged shirt and shorts. More than twenty space bags were hanging around his belt.

"Why do you have so many space bags?" Leyvi asked the thing that intrigued him the most.

He had noticed Cora approaching them, but since he was alone and only at the peak of the Foundation Building realm, he wasn't that concerned. This place was already the most deserted area they had chosen to explore.

"Haha! Brother, look at how massive and how many coral structures are here. If I bring only one space bag, how am I supposed to harvest a bunch of them? This is common sense, brother!" Cora replied.

Leyvi was stunned. What he said was right. His common sense had already been distorted because he was used to the internal storage room, which seemed to have unlimited space. The more things he put in there, the more spacious it became.

"Hahaha! Is that so? Don't mind me. I live off my women, so I'm ignorant about a lot of things." Leyvi laughed it off. This level of shame was nothing to Leyvi.

It was Cora's turn to be stunned. He fell to his knees a few seconds later. "Brother, how did you achieve this? I want to live off women too, but I can't find anyone. Every time any woman got interested in me, they would scam me, leaving me broke."

Leyvi shook his head. "Brother Cora, unfortunately, I have no answer to that. I was just lucky. But I believe, if Brother Cora is honest and treats them sincerely, eventually a woman will appear and fund your life." He started talking bullshit halfway.

"Is that so? I will keep your advice in mind. Thank you, brother!" Cora stood up and expressed gratitude. It seemed like he believed what Leyvi said.

Sawi, Lina, Rosa, and Terra were speechless. What kind of weird interactions did they just hear? Aren't you supposed to find love?

Cora stood up and turned around, intending to leave.

"Ah, brother, I only come here to warn you about something since you don't seem to be locals. You need to be careful on any hunting grounds. There are many vile people here. If they see the ladies here, they might target your group. Alright, I'm leaving to harvest!" Cora left immediately, going deeper into the Reefworld Lagoon.

"He seemed like a good guy. It's rare to meet one outside." Leyvi said after Cora was out of their sight.

"I've seen him before. He is a regular supplier of coral stones." Sawi said.

"Is he going to be fine alone?" Leyvi asked.

"I'm not sure." Sawi was clueless about life outside the city.

"If he could make a living out of harvesting coral stones, he definitely has his way around this place." Anda chimed in. She didn't sense any malicious stench from Cora, so she wasn't really concerned.

Leyvi nodded and then turned, facing everyone. "Alright ladies. Today we will enjoy ourselves here. This place seemed to be safe. Hahaha!"

Leyvi immediately stripped, leaving himself only in shorts. His toned, masculine body caught the attention of the innocent ladies, causing them to blush.

He then jumped into the water from the coral platform and swam around.

Huh? Leyvi sensed something. The usual feeling of being spied on by someone intensified after he stripped. When he met with the three ladies today, the feeling appeared again. So Leyvi concluded that the ladies had someone secretly protecting them, likely their senior sister.

"Darling! Wait for me!" Nala removed her clothes and jumped into the water naked, joining Leyvi. Reddie also happily joined them in the water.

"Eh? Miss Nala!" the innocent ladies exclaimed when they saw the butt-naked Nala.

"Why are you naked? Wear your swimsuit. There are people around, you shameless girl." Leyvi 'reprimanded' Nala while staring at her floating round butt.

"Hehe, there are only ladies here. If men approached us, you could help me put on my swimsuit. Problem solved," Nala said. She knew Leyvi possessed extraordinary spiritual sense, so she took this advantage to act upon her exhibitionist nature.

"Fine, fine." Leyvi sighed and accepted. He didn't intend to change the nature of his women. As long as their actions didn't cross a certain line, he had no problem with whatever they did.

Not long later, all the ladies changed into their swimwear and joined the fun in the water, including Scarlet. Stripey, Mr. Bison, and Slashy didn't join them and went to climb a coral tower nearby.

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Mr. Bison had convinced Stripey and Slashy that he was the protagonist of this world and that they should prepare themselves for when he would need their assistance. At first, Slashy was skeptical, but after sparring with Mr. Bison, he realized he couldn't even harm him. All the damage was reflected back on him. Slashy admitted that Mr. Bison's power was something that a protagonist should possess.

Sawi wore a shirt on top of her swimwear, but the water betrayed her. Her curvy figure became visible because of the water, so she hid behind Lilian all the time, feeling shy. Lilian's floating melons could help her hide from Leyvi's sight.

Lilian didn't mind at all. She had accepted the fact that she was the best hiding spot for the girls. It happened many times already.

Ignoring the others, Lilian was lost in her own world, having a great time. She had been testing the buoyancy of different plants in the water and determining which plants were suitable for use as weapons underneath the water.

Valenia also started training to move underwater with her broadsword after she realized that it was extremely hard to fight in the water. What if she had to fight underwater in the future? She might be in trouble.

The next day, Leyvi and the group started moving toward the inner region of the Reefworld Lagoon.

As they went further, the coral structures that were empty so far started to give off the sign of living beings.

When Leyvi's spiritual sense explored the small holes within the coral structures especially underneath the coral platform, he spotted small creatures with tentacles hiding inside.

"What are these things inside the holes? A small octopus? A hole squid?" Leyvi asked.

"These are demonic coral polyps. They are the ones that built all these huge coral structures." Nala explained.

"Should we catch them and let Tasha cook later? Maybe they taste good." Leyvi suggested.

"Darling, no no. You can't do that. These things are Coral Polyps. They are usually harmless. They only eat nearby dead bodies. If you attacked them first intentionally, countless of these things might target you. In the past, a group of Core Formation mercenaries came to hunt these polyps, but they all went missing overnight." Nala said.

"Uhh.... Sorry little ones. I was just joking. Don't come after me, please. Here's a nice demonic boar as apologies." Leyvi pretended to be scared and brought out a big demonic boar carcass as an offering.

"Hmph! What do you mean little ones? You are the little one. I could swallow everything in this lagoon if I wanted. And you dare think about eating me? Maybe I should eat all of you first. Oh well, since you human apologized, I will accept this boar and won't hold any grudge. It's been a long, long time since I tasted one. They don't wander here often."

As Leyvi heard the sudden mystical voice from a direction he couldn't determine, an inexplicable chill rippled through his body. The hair on his arms bristled, and tiny bumps rose along his skin. He was scared for real this time. It was scarier than when he got attacked by the hunched old man.

While feeling extremely shocked, Leyvi saw a small coral polyp come out of its hole, enlarge itself, and use its branched tentacles to grab the demonic boar carcass. It then shoved the whole boar into its big mouth at the center of its tentacles. After swallowing the boar, the coral polyp shrunk again and returned to the small hole.

"Nala is right. They do eat dead bodies. But I did not expect it would swallow everything like that," Anda commented as they witnessed the feasting.

"I thought many of them would come out and devour the boar together. That's how I imagined it at first." Valenia added.

All the ladies nodded in agreement. They all had the same thought.

"Then... did those Core Formation cultivators in Nala's stories....all got swallowed like that?" Sawi gulped.

Oh my lord, life outside the city is so scary. Ancestor Vulcan, forgive me. I don't think I can go to your place. I want to hide in the city forever after this trip. I'll make babies with Leyvi and pass the legacy to my children instead! Sawi's mind was taken over by fear.

It wasn't just Sawi who was in fear. Leyvi also remained frozen with fear, unable to shake it off since hearing the mystical voice that he believed belonged to the coral. Based on the voice, he firmly believed that all the coral polyps here were of the same single entity.

"Leyvi, what's wrong with you?" Anda noticed that Leyvi was visibly shaken. When she held his arm, she could feel his raised hair.