I’m… drowning!?

[Golem’s Nest]

[Floors: 100]

[Recommended rank: E]

[Current: Floor 77]

[Difficulty: ???] (Status level too low, cannot be measured)

[?????: ???] (Status level too low)

[????: ???] (Status level too low)

Really!?

As my body was tossed around in the violent current, I almost shouted at the status window for displaying such useless information at a time like this. With seemingly no end to how far I was being dragged or how long I would have to hold my breath, I cast [Time Perception] on my mind, slowing down the world and giving myself time to think.

The surroundings were completely dark, meaning I was deep inside a body of water. Since the dungeon, [Golem’s Nest], mostly housed golem-type mana beasts that fought on land, this water likely wasn’t filling the entire floor.

A river? Maybe a lake?

But how far does it stretch?

I briefly switched off [Time Perception].

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The water dragged me from side to side as I tried to hold my breath. After five seconds had passed, I quickly recast [Time Perception], quickening my thoughts while slowing down the world. I then cast [Recall] while maintaining [Time Perception], recalling my body’s movements from just a few seconds ago—how my body moved, the positions I held, how the water flowed—everything rushed into my mind as I analyzed the situation.

I see.

A whirlpool. That meant the body of water was likely still, ruling out the possibility of being a river since it would drag me in one direction. So, a lake? Judging by how limited it was in throwing me around, the body of water must’ve been relatively small. Since mana beast didn't need any water for survival, I was almost certain that this body of water was exclusively created for this trap, giving me more confidence in my analysis.

With these thoughts in mind, I decided to take a gamble. I spread my mana throughout the water, my breath growing thin. Then, I cast [Object Perception] on the water, slowing it down almost to the point of freezing. After releasing [Time Perception], the water no longer pushed me around.

The gamble paid off.

If my estimates had been wrong and the water was much larger than I thought, all my mana would have been depleted in an instant, causing me to pass out and drown to death. I couldn’t ‘partially’ cast [Object Perception] onto something. Whatever item I selected as a target would be affected in its entirety. So, if I cast the skill while my hands were in the ocean, the entire ocean would be seen as the target, and since my mana couldn’t spread that wide, it would deplete instantly.

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After confirming how much mana I had depleted—almost 6%—I was able to deduce the exact volume of water present, but one problem still remained.

I still can’t see.

Without knowing which direction was up or down, I wouldn’t be able to swim to the surface. For this, I cast [Recall] again, revisiting the memory of the moment I was thrust into the water.

Since I was standing upright when I was transported here, returning to that position and looking upward should point me toward the surface. But since [Recall] was such a useful skill, I used my previous positions while keeping my initial one in mind to calculate the direction of the surface from my current position.

This is a bit straining.

I started to feel mental fatigue from using the skill this way, but I powered through and finally got an estimate. I immediately started swimming toward what I thought was the surface, still completely blind. After swimming for almost a minute, I reached the surface.

It seemed my assumption that I was in the deep end wasn’t accurate. Instead, when I reached the ‘surface,’ I ran into a wall.

This is why it's so dark...

After feeling the wall a few times, I decided to channel some mana into my hand, forming a fist and punching through the wall. The moment I did this, light rushed into my eyes, causing me to squint. I quickly pulled my head out of the water and gasped for air, fresh air entering my lungs as my mind began to relax.

That was too close.

This is why I didn’t like dungeons. Even in the future, the only times I entered dungeons was as a non-combatant sent to investigate anomalies or disappearances. Since I was always escorted by powerful individuals, I thought I wouldn’t suffer too much, but wow, I might as well have been one of their teammates instead of a ‘non-combatant.’

As bitter memories of the future crossed my mind, I pulled my body out of the water, my feet finally touching solid ground after what felt like an hour.

The surroundings finally came into view. It looked similar to the first floor, but it stretched on in one direction. Is that where we should go? I asked myself as I looked around. Next to the hole I had just created, there were three others at separate ends of the cave, all filled with water.

“Oh, you made it out?” A drenched Roran suddenly approached me from the darkness ahead, followed by my other teammates, who were also soaked from head to toe. They went through that too. I tried to imagine how each of them might have tackled it as I approached them with a smile.

“Normally, I’d want us to start moving immediately, but...” I looked down at my drenched uniform. If we continued like this, we might not be able to fight in our best condition.

Although the academy uniforms were designed like battle suits—worn by most fighters outside the academy (even professors)—they didn’t have features like temperature control or automatic drying. Otherwise, the academy’s uniform bill would skyrocket.

“Can’t we have Roran run around with them so they can dry quickly?” Rin suggested, glancing at Roran, who scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile. The maximum time he could use super speed was limited, so he couldn’t waste it on just anything, but he seemed reluctant to say it out loud.

“No, that’s wasteful. I think Ruby’s authority would be much more useful,” I said, looking at Ruby, who immediately shrank back.

“M-mine?” she muttered in surprise, likely wondering what I could be thinking. The others also seemed skeptical as they looked at me for an explanation.

“You can shrink our clothes as much as possible; that way, it will be easier to drain the water from them,” I explained, causing her to nod slowly as if thinking carefully. Compared to draining water from a large cloth, it’s much easier with a smaller one because you can exert more pressure across the surface area with little effort.

“I guess that might work,” Rin said after thinking for a split second, her tone sounding like she wasn’t impressed by my suggestion. No, she was not impressed at all.

We decided to do exactly that while also revising our strategy to include ‘unexpected separations’ like the one we’d just experienced. There was no doubt all of us had let our guard down, thinking we would be transported on dry land. Seeing their slightly reddened eyes, I was able to guess that all three of them probably choked a few times before getting their bearings.

This Is why I hate dungeons.

After 20 minutes, we decided to move forward with newfound vigor.