Under The Sea

Splatter, plash, gurgle gurgle... Heian Ciemnosc slowly woke up from his stupor. He spent 3 hours resting and re-healing his body but didn't sleep. He was awake and conscious, even hiding his body with Spirit Sense and a couple devices with array formations he pre-inscribed. Everything he used was made by him, after all, except for that one vigor array formation, of course. The 'trip' to this body of water left Heian Ciemnosc baffled and hurting like hell. After finally stopping, he lay motionless and focused on healing. He didn't bother entering a meditative state and continued to heal until now.

“Aahh…” Heian Ciemnosc exclaimed. His noise was hoarse as he turned the water into a solid surface, supporting himself on it to lay on top of the water. His head was mostly underwater all this long, but that was hardly a problem for a brand new cultivator, even for hours, let alone someone already between the scopes of a Second Step cultivator such as Heian Ciemnosc. As he lay on the water's surface, his purely bare body showed his pale bum.

‘Mh, it’s a bit fitting.’ Heian Ciemnosc thought, putting a good, bright side to his current situation, still feeling pain all over his fragile body. The ‘trip’ had been so awfully forced and speedy that he lost everything he wore except hair and his Covert Space bags. He didn’t even have time to protect them. It was all the Water door’s place doings. Even now, Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t figure out what in the fuck happened back there. Nor did he want to. He focused on revising the information he had been gathering so far and studied it.

Feeling this body of water’s resonance and similitudes with the Water element information he’s been studying, Heian Ciemnosc discerned that the Water door was either forced to be nice or were too rude in their kind actions. Tsun tsun. However, he was confident it was not malignant. The speed at which his body was struck into was enough to kill 10 of him in a second, but he spent more than 10 minutes, and even nearly 15, to crash upon this body of water.

It was the same with his hair and Covert Space bags. They would’ve turned into dust as soon as Heian Ciemnosc gave up protecting them if he had had a chance. He wasn’t worried about voyeurs. With his Spirit Sense’s 10,000 kilometers range, he could tell that no living being was near except for ordinary fishes and organisms. He spent a few minutes like this, on top of the solid water’s surface, before finally acting.

SPLASSHH… Heian Ciemnosc fell into the water again. It wasn’t cold or warm, but very refreshing and made it feel similar to cooling. The scent of this body of water wasn’t salty. It was like a field of flowers without the floral scent, well-protected and without assaulting one’s nostrils with their smell. From his Covert Space bags, he took his brand new little pet out, the Simmer Shark.

Its 17 meters long and 6 meters wide body crashed into the water, sending a few waves and emphatic bursts with bubbles outwards. Heian Ciemnosc, however, was unmoved as he looked at the cutie. Its bubbly bumps before its head and its chunky sides looked more luscious when covered in water. As soon as it appeared, it became excited and glad to be in this kind of water, but it knew its duties as his pet. It turned around and faced him, waiting for his order.

Heian Ciemnosc nodded and patted its tiny, bouncing nose as its emotionless eyes looked dull and as if bored, but Heian Ciemnosc felt its mood was compliant and content. He pushed himself onto its back with a push, his body now clothed even if wet, and asked the Simmer Shark while softly rubbing its right side. “Hey, tell me. Is this place an ocean?”

Bubble, bubble. Its nose nodded and formed bubbles. The sound of those made Heian Ciemnosc understand even without having a pact with it and using only his nature reading… or instincts, even. Heian Ciemnosc nodded at its response and looked up ahead. The water was blue, not too dark, and definitely not light. The profundity was beyond his Spirit Sense, and there was no shore nearby, either with his naked eye or Spirit Sense. In this case, the former had it easier discovering things farther away.

Tshing, rustle. Presenting a piece of paper with a map rapidly being drawn in dark by his dark Soul, Heian Ciemnosc let his Simmer Shark visualize it with its dummy, expressionless eyes. His voice commanded him again, “He, we should be somewhere close to this place. Bring me to the mark. If you know any places to stay or can figure out a zone, bring me there first.”

Bubble, bubble, bubble. The Simmer Shark appeared like a businessman as its blank, black eyes rolled a little before directing its body in a way. It submerged with Heian Ciemnosc on its back. In a single second, it traveled close to 200 meters underwater. Its master wasn’t perturbed. Instead, Heian Ciemnosc felt smooth and oily, passing through the water as natural light ceased to exist real quick the more this Simmer Shark went down.

As if knowing the place despite not being born or having visited the Semi-Dimension’s continent, Heian Ciemnosc’s Simmer Shark moved and dived expertly, finding a few places that made Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes gleam with no light in them. He saw a few warships. Some were similar to those he built in the Sinvonnia Kingdom but made with metals and other solid substances. He even saw a few shield devices, old and broken to no repair.

When he passed through an actual town with corals, shells, boulders, and skeleton structures floating as ibe and not drifting one bit to the side, up or down, Heian Ciemnosc wanted to take a look. However, they had nothing going on. And even though Heian Ciemnosc read many within the town with his Spirit Sense, they were all spending a warm time in their houses. Some were even engaging in direct confrontations of talks about life in bed.

He didn’t want to knock at their entrances and ask to be shown the place. His Spirit Sense let him witness the entire town in under an instant. There was no fun in seeing that. Besides, with nature reading, he quickly figured out some traditions, customs, and festivities they would hold and when.

These weren’t the places his Simmer Shark wanted to bring him. Heian Ciemnosc could see its nose sniffing nonstop, working hard to find a place that suited his Master. Instead, it looked as if the Simmer Shark was used to these settlements floating in water, attached to the ground, a wall, and even a structure made outside the ocean. It simply didn’t care and just moved between these settlements. If they saw it, good. That meant more things for its master to know about and sightsee. If they didn’t, it didn’t matter.

… After 5 hours of passing through settlements, broken machines, broken war instruments, and historic places such as skeletons much more immense than the Little Lake of the long gone Sinvonnia Kingdom, desolate Cities where civilizations once lived, and witnessing schools of all kinds underwater Fauna, Heian Ciemnosc finally met some light from afar. The Simmer Shark finned faster as it grew in heat and formed little rocks on its passing.

Wubble wubble wublee. Psst, psst, psst~...

Heian Ciemnosc was unhurt. These heat levels were far from what he couldn’t endure after venturing into the Semi-Dimension for a few days. Even now, the day was still not over, and Heian Ciemnosc hadn’t spent a day inside the Water door. He had basically gone in and came out in a flash. As Heian Ciemnosc thought about it, he placed vital importance on continuing to solidify his path after entering this City.

After more than 10 minutes, the Simmer Shirk brought Heian Ciemnosc to the gates of the fabulous underwater City. It was an immensely thick, fortress-like wall surpassing 500 meters in width, gray, and only about 100 meters tall. However, underwater, this was hardly important. The thing was, after many hours of diving and taking turns around reefs and massive solid bodies, they had arrived at one of the ocean’s floors. It wasn’t the deepest, but it was at least close to the deepest floors.

A gigantic bubble encompassing a Small City hovered from the walls to the rest. Heian Ciemnosc and the Simmer Shark floated before one of its gates. They waited for someone to open them as Heian Ciemnosc saw some people atop the walls. The Simmer Shark bubbled some of its understandings to him, worried. Heian Ciemnosc gave it importance and thought, waiting to enter the place.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Fu-thud… gurgle.

At last, the gates were opened, drawing a lot of water outside even further out, quickly returning to calm as the dust in between the gates ceased and spread, revealing what was on the other side. Heian Ciemnosc sat atop his Simmer Shark as a bunch of mermaids came out! They weren’t as humanoid as other Beast Race members of the same species and had many more fishy features. But were they were all still humanoid and had legs, arms, hands, and heads like any other Beast Race member.

Heian Ciemnosc immediately noticed something - most of them were females. There wasn’t any other person from another Race coming with them, seemingly receiving Heian Ciemnosc importantly. The guards sent here to supervise didn’t come close to him and only watched as many of their fellow merfolk all lunging towards the most handsome, pale young man. He looked Human but didn’t smell like one, so they felt more or less alright. Even if they weren’t, they could only throw threatening gazes at this new visitor. As for the Simmer Shark, he was treated as Heian Ciemnosc’s mount, ignored by the beauties.

“Big Brother, do you have a wife?” A young mermaid girl came to Heian Ciemnosc, hugged his right thigh, and asked him with hunger in her eyes. A young female adult mermaid came and stroked the back of her head, “Shh! Don’t be too straightforward! Ahem… Sir, please excuse her, she’s new…”

“...” Heian Ciemnosc embarrassedly smiled. If he wasn’t wrong, these beauties were trying to get a ticket out of this Semi-Dimension and come out. For that, they had to become one’s property, either as servants or sexual partners or married to an event’s participant. He wasn’t going to pick up maids, but now that they brought this matter forth, he didn’t mind looking for new subordinates…

They were all pretty, so it wouldn’t be bad to get some talented mermaids and a few mermen before leaving the City. Just then, as they saw Heian Ciemnosc hugged by his thigh by the newbie, the other beauties came flocking, slapping their fins harshly against the water and rushing towards him. Afterwards, Heian Ciemnosc was filled with sweet and wanting voices. Although some were hungrier than others, reminding Heian Ciemnosc of his habits.

“Young noble, please!! Pick me tonight. I will pick some more and make you faint with lust!” - “Young hero, take us all! If you embrace us now, we’ll all be yours, aaah~!” - “Me first, me first~!!” Heian Ciemnosc felt this pale skin manhandled and bullied as his arms and legs were felt up nonstop. His body was beautiful and attractive even when lacking muscles, but that didn’t mean it was everyone’s!

“Ahem, everyone, behave. I came here to rest… first.” Heian Ciemnosc covered his lips with dark Power Energy and drew an inscription before dissipating his dark Power Energy. He was still in the First Step, after all. Eloquently speaking, he calmed all the beauties, who fell enthralled by his calm and soft voice. When he added, hinting that he would be taking some with him, they grew exhilarated!

“Yesss!” - “Yeah~!” - “We did it, girls! Don’t let the crazy ones get him again. Now, young noble, let us guide you inside!” A young woman, mermaid, grabbed his right hand lovingly and tried pulling him, but it was hopeless. The other beauties were whispering among each other as Heian Ciemnosc felt like a pervert buying little girls from another world. He shook his head as he looked at the young mermaid holding his hand, who looked back at him as if waiting for instruction.

“My pet, this little fellow, needs some care as well. Nothing… delirious. Just treat him right and keep him contented. If you do well, I’ll let you name him.” Heian Ciemnosc patted the Simmer Shark’s bubbly back and said, causing its emotionless black eyes to remain blank. On the other hand, without the young mermaid speaking, the others went around it and started caressing it and speaking softly to it. “Hello, mister shark. What kind of bubbles do you like the most?” - “Sir shark, what is your adequate temperature?” - “Ah, shirky sharky, would you like living prisoners or almost dying ones? Hehee, I know sharks don’t like motionless food!”

‘Hm!’ Heian Ciemnosc praised them inside his head. He didn’t know the merfolk of the City were so up to his tastes. With this knowledge, he took even more care of his surroundings. Even if he didn’t see any Neutrality realm Fauna on his way here, it didn’t mean there weren’t any in this City. Looking at him from the side, the young mermaid smiled and charmingly blinked. “Young master, don’t worry. We’ll show you around so you can see the ‘important’ things first. Then… maybe we can ‘talk’ a little?”

“...” Heian Ciemnosc looked at the mermaid’s face turning darker and bluer, his eyes looking at her from the corner of his sockets for a moment as she shyly lowered her head. In her eyes, however, was desire. He nodded and patted his right palm on her back, covered only by 2 strings crossing each other. “Alright. But I also need more people to come with me. I’ll just buy the rights to take you out, and the Semi-Dimension’s owners will come pick you up later. Is that understood?”

“Of course. But please, young master, do not separate from us and don’t accept any other mermaid’s invitation!” The young mermaid nodded professionally before reminding him, growing more anxious after hearing his proposal. Heian Ciemnosc rubbed her back, understanding the difference between underwater-living merfolk and those he experimented with previously. The underwater merfolk were much more slippery, but he felt more muscles hiding beneath their unique anatomy.

“Mn,” Heian Ciemnosc nodded and brought the younger mermaid to his lap, not molesting her or groping her, but keeping her close to him. She had good enough Water affinity to be selected by him already. As for the others around him and his Simmer Shark… maybe they would have to ‘fight’ for their spot. Because if Heian Ciemnosc considered their cultivation talent, they were slightly inferior to his COs. That would hardly interest him.

Heian Ciemnosc wasn’t planning to act like this in the City. But after seeing this ‘tradition’ and willingness, and after passing the Water door’s trial, he could only release himself like this since he couldn’t wantonly eat others… Unless they were Fauna, but he wasn’t planning on creating a diet now.

… Walking through the City, Heian Ciemnosc saw tens of thousands of merfolk walking around, every single one from the Semi-Dimension, and had no sight of other participants yet. After 15 minutes, as he was shown the landscapes and known places from the zone where the hotel he would stay, he finally saw a few participants. However, it was first a creepy surprise. The first time he saw a participant inside the City was a male Titan surrounded by 13 mermaids. By the time Heian Ciemnosc arrived at the place in the middle of the streets, he was already dead, as the mermaid’s bellies were overgrown and impregnated.

At that time, 4 of them were sharing the deceased Titan’s humongous penis. With its unreleased state and using an Art to grow larger and stronger. They were barely starting at the tip and side of the shaft. They were like wolves starving for weeks, eating as a pack and taking turns to devour it. The rest were at his balls, doing the same and even playing with each other as they did. It was… entirely different from what Heian Ciemnosc would ever do. His actions were just as cruel but didn’t involve sexuality or humiliation without a story behind his victims.

Only then did Heian Ciemnosc understand what these mermaids were worried about. They could meet newcomers at the gates, but once inside, any visitor was anyone’s possible game. If their catch decided to throw them away or accept these other mermaids. Then, they could only watch as their supposed savior was eaten by their fellow merfolk.

Heian Ciemnosc wondered what made these Beast Race members regress so much in their civilization, as not even the Demon Race would behave like this from ancient times. The Semi-Dimension wasn’t older than a Change. It was incredible to think about it. However, feeling some newfound annoyance when thinking about it, Heian Ciemnosc decided to drop it as he didn’t want to let his mind divert to other isolated civilization’s problems.

He didn’t know how, but somehow, he felt that doing such things was obnoxiously pointless if he couldn’t just deal with it forcibly. He ignored the other groups of participants dodging other mermaids with hunger in their eyes, but only that. These mermaids would choose to copulate, giving half-truths and lies to their catch. And once they had their wombs filled up with brimming life, they would feast.

Any cultivator who didn’t bother trying to look further into it would be at their mercy. It was like entering a Second Step organization or higher. Their Souls were bound in an intricate oath. Without trying to discover all conspiracies in the world, Heian Ciemnosc deduced this was a deal made by the Semi-Dimension’s owners to the isolated civilization down here. This meant they might be used to such. Thus, the mermaids escorting him to their hotel weren’t worried or cared about the other participants, only about Heian Ciemnosc.

Swiftly, Heian Ciemnosc let his Simmer Shark be brought to a large bathroom in the hotel, which could hold up to hundreds of such Fauna at once. Currently, it was half-full and echoing with activity. Many people living in this hotel often brought their favorite ones to be cleaned up and treated like kings and queens. After looking at the cost of such treatment, Heian Ciemnosc’s left eyebrow was lifted.

Ignoring everything else, he pain with a Supreme Powerful Stone he still had in his pockets, shocking the whole reception before taking the gigantic elevator to his magnum bedroom’s floor. In the elevator, every single mermaid was lightly caressing his body, and this time, Heian Ciemnosc didn’t mind and let them around him. He would meditate while dual cultivating with them. It would be a good workout.

Once inside his bedroom, he didn’t last 0.3 seconds after stepping in before he felt his clothes skillfully taken off with a mastery that put even his Vocón Link’s dexterity to shame. None of them were above the First Step, and only the youngest ones were in the Spirit Birth realm but were barely 15 or 16 years old. It was clear that even if the City had some rules, they also had standards to follow.

As soon as he felt a delicate hand push his upper back, Heian Ciemnosc let his body float towards the massive bed with bright red bedsheets and turned around. When the flirty mermaids saw a humongous monster point at them, they were petrified. But soon after, their skin turned darkish bluer before lunging at their guts-shaker. And their new, and for some not-new, owner of sorts.

…