It was honestly quite amazing. Daz had to put very little effort into dodging any and all of the explosive projectiles that came his way. The rounds from the cannons were a bit of a different story, however.

His Lifeforce was slowly being chipped away as the rounds impacted on his armour or his flesh. He had enough Constitution and Defense for the bullets to not burrow into his body, but they certainly drew blood before they fell out of his skin and into the ocean below.

With very little hesitance, Daz willed Hamson to bring him directly in front of the bridge of the largest ship which he hoped was the flagship and held the person who commanded this fleet of warships.

Admiral Fudo ordered his men to halt fire since the target was so close to their flagship. Perhaps if Daz had retaliated in some way, then Admiral Fudo would not have been so willing to stop their attack and would have continued to recklessly attack him despite the risk to himself and his men, but thankfully, the man standing atop of a shovel had seemingly come in peace.

Pushing a button on the control panel in front of himself, the window between Admiral Fudo and Daz untinted itself, allowing the reaper to see into the bridge. After he had done that, the admiral pressed and held another button.

"You are Daz-kun from the auction, are you not?" the aged veteran questioned.

'It's the same with Sakura, but it's a bit weird that I hear him calling me 'kun'. I guess it was the same with Krishan Ladakh and Hindi's 'ji', but still, it's like being called 'lord' again. Not the easiest thing to adjust to.' Daz looked around in curiosity a bit before he nodded. "Can you hear me? Yes, I'm that Daz, as evidenced by my halo and shovel."

"It is easy to disguise one's appearance, Daz-kun. Your ability to avoid death in the wake of our weaponry though has convinced me. What business do you have here?" Admiral Fudo asked with a base-level of respect, but it was quite clear that he saw Daz as a lesser party seeing as how he had no intentions to apologise for attempting to end Daz's life.

Smiling faintly, Daz replied, "I intend to claim Atlantis. I have the means to reach the bottom of the ocean, so you can't stop me in doing this. What do you guys want? Maybe I can help... for a price."

'He wants Atlantis? Thankfully, that's not our main objective... Can we work out a deal? Is it worth it? We can't risk letting him expose our objective to the Chinese, Russians or the Koreans though... What a bother. If only our subs could withstand the pressure...' Admiral Fudo wasn't quite sure what to do, but being an admiral of the JMSDF wasn't a position one could get if they were indecisive.

"Sign a system-bound contract to not expose what I'm about to tell you, then we can talk. If not, I'm afraid we will have nothing to discuss. I would advise you to oblige me here though. This ship is armed with a nuclear warhead capable of surviving the deep-sea pressures, so we will stop you from acquiring 'Atlantis' - as you called it - should we deem you an enemy," Admiral Fudo said in a commanding and compelling tone.

Daz shrugged. "Threatening me? I can do that too. I could summon my clones and my golem companion and destroy your fleet in less than 10-minutes, killing everyone here if I wanted to. Don't make an enemy out of me. I came in peace. You guys were the ones that tried to blow me up and gun me down first. Don't forget that."

Admiral Fudo frowned deeply and removed his finger from the comms button before sighing deeply. "This damned new world... To think that I'm genuinely scared of a kid... What's even more frightening is that I don't doubt he can actually take out at least ten of our ships before we kill him... Damn it..."

Taking in a deep breath, steeling himself and pushed the button again, he said, "Fine. Let's talk."

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Daz patiently waited for the fleet to leave as he stood on top of Hamson. Before long, all that remained was himself and his car above him.

Returning to the Ridomochi Final Model, Daz opened the driver-side door and asked, "Hey, Rose. Is there anything down there that I should be worried about? Like, monsters or something? I made a deal with that fleet, by the way. They want the corpse of the being that owned the sword stabbed into Atlantis' palace."

Rose raised her head from her laptop curiously. "What'd you get out of that deal?"

Daz shrugged. "A system-bound alliance of the entire JMSDF. Admiral Fudo is the highest-ranking officer that remains, so he's basically their leader. You know, his weapon is actually that aircraft carrier. That's kinda insane. He's got a lot of potential."

Rose shrugged. "You're living proof that what your weapon is means nothing in regards to your potential."

"True enough," Daz replied with a short laugh.

Rose rolled her eyes then said, "Anyway, yeah, there are monsters down there. The system added monsters to the oceans, the skies - like, way up high, higher than where we are right now, for sure - and all of the harshest places of Earth. It also added permanent dungeons in those places too. I can't tell exactly where the dungeons are, by the way, but there should be one nearby."

"Huh. Is that so? Monsters though? As in, the people who weren't holding weapons?" Daz inquired.

Rose shook her head. "No. They were sent to other worlds. Did you not read the initial system notification from when this all started?" she asked condescendingly.

Daz reached into the car and tussled her hair roughly. "If it can take them away, then it can bring them back. Anyway, is that it, or is there more that I should know?"

Frowning, Rose replied, "Well... Your earring and rings will probably get crushed from the pressure, so take them off. Your armour should be able to fix itself fast enough, so you don't need to strip, thankfully."

Daz grinned. "A shame. I'm sure the aquatic wildlife would have loved the chance to admire my body."

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Rose snorted. "I'm sure."

Daz leaned into the car and kissed Rose's head. "Well, I'll be back soon. Look after my jewellery while I'm gone, 'kay? I wanna save my Lesser Item Box's five slots for that massive sword, the corpse, and any other awesome loot that I find."

"Lord of Waterford and its subsidiaries demoted to nothing more than a petty treasure hunter. What a fall from grace," Rose sneered sarcastically as a way to hide her embarrassment.

Daz's grin remained on his expression as he replied, "I bet Maddy would love to merge that goliath of a weapon with her Family. You got a VR capsule, but I've only gifted her a pair of B-ranked gloves so far."

"B-ranked gloves that she adores," Rose noted.

"That she does. Anyway, be back in a bit," Daz said in farewell.

"Try not to drown. I wouldn't put it past you to somehow forget how to use a passive skill," Rose quipped as her brother left.

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'It's hard to move normally,' Daz thought as soon as his feet touched the seafloor. 'System, how deep am I?'

Confirmed. This host is currently 8,129-meters under the surface.

'I see... and how is my body holding up, exactly? My chest, back and shoulders all feel heavy and it's hard to breathe... Well, if you can call Waterbreathing breathing... My head hurts too, as do my eyes a bit,' Daz asked.

Confirmed. The host is currently enduring 11562.1558 PSI of pressure.

'That's not really something that I recognise. I know PSI has to do with pressure but is that a lot? What's the normal level of PSI on the surface?' the reaper inquired as he looked around his surroundings. All he could see were the walls of the trench he was in and the odd strange fish that got exceedingly close to him.

Confirmed. The average PSI level of [Earth]'s surface is 14.7.

'Okay, shit. Wow. Will I be okay down here? I'm not racing against the clock to find Atlantis, am I?' Daz asked with a hint of urgency in his tone.

Denied. The host's [Pressure Resistance], as well as the host's [Constitution], [Defense] and [Regeneration] stats, are holding the host's body together. The more time the host spends down here, the more acclimated to the pressure the host shall become, resulting in the side-effects lessening. The host may experience minor hallucinations depending on how long the host stays down here due to the ingestion of the pressurised oxygen in the water. As the oxygen content is fairly low, it will take a great deal of time for any adverse effects to appear.

'So they'll lessen but not disappear, huh? Still, hallucinations? Lovely. Well, I'm sure my instincts can help me deal with that if it becomes an issue... For now, I can barely see a thing. Hell, if it weren't for my halo, it'd be pitch-black in this trench... System, do you know exactly where Atlantis is, and if so, can you tell me?' Daz requested with a polite tone.

As a reply, he was given a quest.

Quest Title: The Search For The Lost City of Atlantis Quest Type: Side Quest Difficulty: A-rank Quest Goal Find the city which has been lost for hundreds of thousands of years, Atlantis. Quest Rewards 1,000,000 Merit Points. +100 to all stats. A C-ranked shovel or trident.

'A trident? Well, at least it's thematic. Well, if you won't show me the way, system, I guess I'll have to create some light myself, huh?' Daz rhetorically asked as he held his palms out in front of him and then chanted mentally, 'La morte consuma ogni cosa e converge nel nulla.'

A massive purple beam shot through the darkness, revealing hundreds - if not thousands - of monsters all lining the walls of the trench peacefully.

Just before the light from the beam faded, every single eye turned to stare at Daz. 'Well, shit.'

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Madison stumbled out of her and Daz's bed after having finished her afternoon nap and she then stretched.

Following a short yawn, she got dressed and then grabbed her Shapeshifting Plushie which perfectly mimicked Daz and his current condition.

Mr Barrier floated over to her head and settled there while her eyes frowned upon seeing the doll's condition.

'Why does he look wet? And why does he look annoyed? His body is also smaller than normal... Is Daz okay?' Worried, she left the room and immediately went to the throne room where she would find Crosius.

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"His Majesty? I'm sorry. I am unaware of where he currently is. The last I had heard he was helping out the new arrivals. Perhaps they know more?" Crosius answered Madison's concerns to the best of his ability.

"New, arrivals?" she asked with a tilt of her head.

"Indeed," Crosius replied proudly. "His Majesty summoned 64 new citizens to serve him. As they all have special needs like Young Lady Rose, he bought a new building for them. It's rather hard to miss."

"Espers?" Madison asked herself more so than she did Crosius. She waved one of her hands politely at the old man then left the room.

Crosius chuckled and mumbled, "His Majesty is lucky to have such a caring partner."

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Vanessa smiled after hearing Madison's request. "Ah, Daz and Rose left to go claim the city of Atlantis. It's at the bottom of the ocean, so that's probably why Daz is all wet and compressed like that."

"Left, without, me?" Madison asked a bit sadly.

Vanessa's smile cracked and she awkwardly scratched her head. "Um, they probably didn't want to bother you since you were sleeping? Or, um, maybe there wasn't enough room? Like, they didn't take Fort Sky, so maybe Daz has a new vehicle that only has two seats?"

Madison slowly nodded. "Could, have, sat, on, lap. Understand. Thank, you."

"Um... sure. W-Wanna help me out here while we wait for them to come back? We're done settling the new arrivals in, but, um, they don't know anyone here, so maybe you could become friends with them along with me?" the German teen asked a bit timidly.

She hadn't spoken to Madison much since she was quite reserved and not the best of speakers when she actually wanted to get close to someone, obviously, so Vanessa was hoping that by becoming Madison's friend, then she could also strengthen her bond with Rose and Daz.

Madison was about to nod when a soldier burst through the dormitory's front door.

Upon seeing Madison, he bowed very politely and announced, "Lady Madison! We have just received word from Lord Shen Mu that a convoy of 12 trucks is approaching Waterford! They don't seem to be armed, but Lord Shen Mu was able to identify the driver of the leading truck as 'the woman that used red lightning during the auction against Daz'. He told us to inform you and Lady Crusher immediately. Lady Crusher is already on her way to Camp Waterford!"

Madison's eyes narrowed as she squeezed Daz's doll. "Aila..."