B4 - Chapter 17 - Swimming

Lily woke up the next day feeling much better, especially since she got to sleep in this time. She'd actually been tempted to set up some kind of soundproofing with glyphs so that not even Rose banging on her door would wake her up, but thankfully that hadn't been necessary.

As for her evening under the stars, it had gone well, or at least that is what Lily felt despite there being no visible signs of progress. In an effort to help her, Arakil had been hard at work translating other texts he unearthed from his archives, but all of it was just as vague as before. For someone as logical as Arakil, she now understood why he had lingering prejudice against astral magic with all this uncertainty.

Is it really going to work with glyphs? Lily couldn't help but ask herself. Glyphs and inscriptions are pure logic and facts, while astral constellations are based on feeling and what I'd call intentional vagueness at this point.

Arakil still seemed to believe so, so she refused to give up hope, although that all still relied on her being able to even start the first steps. She'd tried tracing on her Nebula Veil, and also against the night sky with her finger as the pen and her imagination as the ink, but neither had worked.

After taking a relaxing bath, there was still a bit of time before she was going to meet Lotte and Hana, so she pulled out the piece of wood and got to work on transcribing it. She'd given it to Lily last night for this exact reason, so each of them could keep a copy in case they wanted to explore solo and promised to share whatever was buried.

They might find it next week while I'm studying with Arakil if Hana keeps her enthusiasm going.

Lily finished drawing the map in Arakil's grimoire; he effortlessly replicated it onto three more pages for her. This way, they could each use the much more legible page rather than the piece of wood, while still keeping the original around just in case, even though it was now permanently archived in the book. After that, she left and once again met up with her two friends.

"I don't think anyone has found out yet," Lotte whispered.

"I expect Alice will announce it tomorrow. I wonder if anyone else managed yesterday?" Lily asked.

"Hopefully Arthur and Thomas did, although realistically I can see Clarissa making it as long as she stepped foot in the deep forest. Thankfully, the third floor won't give her any benefits, so we probably don't have to worry about our streak being broken."

"Yeah, it's the water mages we have to worry about," Lotte agreed.

After finishing their brunch, they left for the dungeon, this time being allowed to descend the seemingly endless staircase down to the third floor. They opened the door and were shocked to find that it didn't open directly to the dungeon floor. Instead, there was a blurry image, almost like a painting, of the beach and ocean.

Hana cautiously touched it, finding no resistance before stepping through. Lily and Lotte carefully followed, and after stepping through, found themselves once again on the beach of the island they had arrived upon.

"That was weird, but I suppose that is how it has to work if everyone is in different locations," Lotte commented, looking around.

"Imagine if instead of it being that generic picture, it showed everyone their own door; that would have been really interesting," Lily replied.

"That would have definitely been better, although I guess that would be very inconvenient for the dungeon," Lotte giggled.

"So, what's the plan? Are we going to try exploring the reefs or should we head toward one of the islands?" Hana asked.

"Well, the coral and plants are what I need to gather for alchemy," Lotte said, pointing through the crystal clear water. "I went early to the lab this morning and told Professor Sylwel we made it to the third floor. The crazy professor then gave me a crash course on what to look out for."

"Oh, that reminds me," Lily said and reached into her pouch to pull out the maps. "I drew these this morning. Also, someone else can keep the original; it's taking up way too much space in my pouch…"

"Well, now I'm feeling bad that I wasn't proactive this morning…" Hana chuckled as she took her page and the wooden map, thanking her.

"You can make up for it next time," Lotte joked. "Not that anyone is keeping track."

Lotte then began searching through her bag before pulling out a marked case and opening it to reveal what must have been several Riverfolk's Lung potions safely stored. Her bag was stupidly large, the grand prize of the mock gauntlet, with the only downside being trying to find anything in it, hence the marked case for specific potions.

"It's a pity we didn't get around to brewing any Mermaid Lotion," Lotte said, gesturing for her friends to grab a bottle.

"Thanks, but I also have mine," Lily replied.

"Yeah, but save those for yourself," Lotte insisted. "I don't have any way to pay for your glyphs and talismans and whatnot, so this is my way of contributing to the group."

"You mean besides melting monsters?" Hana teased.

"Well, that's just expected. Although I have to admit I'm worried about using my magic underwater…"

NovelPhoenix's website contains the chapter published by the author, while this copy appeared without their permission.

"Oh, that's a very good point," Hana replied as she frowned. "My wind magic is going to be severely affected underwater, but my light magic should still be good. What about you, Lily?"

"Um…"

[No effect.]

"My stars are safe."

Hana nodded, but it looked like Lotte was really concerned about how to approach this. It was completely understandable, as there was a very good chance her spells would contaminate the surrounding water.

"I'm going to avoid casting anything for now," Lotte sighed. "Well, I guess my scales are fine. At the very least maybe I could punch a fish."

{Arakil…}

[I'll look into it.]

{Thank you.}

"Don't worry, I'm sure there will be monsters on the islands too with your name on," Hana suggested with a sympathetic smile.

Lotte grinned back before chugging one of her potions and kicking off her shoes. "Last one in is a rotten egg!" she shouted before running into the sea.

Hana nearly ran after her before she stopped, sighed, and shook her head. "That girl is going to ruin her uniform…"

"They're supposed to be enchanted for this type of stuff, so I think it's fine," Lily replied as she began carefully taking off her socks and shoes and placing them in her pouch. Then, after thinking about it, she also took off the blazer and folded it before storing it.

At this point, Lotte had already dived underwater, probably to experience the effect of the potion firsthand. Hana sighed again and picked up Lotte's discarded shoes for her, placing them in her pouch before beginning to take off her own clothes.

"Hana!?" Lily cried out in shock as the girl kept taking off more and more until she revealed she was wearing some kind of one-piece swimsuit with a belt underneath.

"Am I really the only one who brought a swimsuit?" she asked, taking off her glasses and carefully storing them away before drinking her potion.

"I don't even own a swimsuit!" Lily replied.

"Maybe we need to change that," Hana chuckled before suddenly running toward the ocean. "Sorry, Lily, I guess you're the rotten egg!"

Lily blinked a few times and realized she was now alone on the beach. Lotte was laughing like a maniac in the water, and now Hana had also dove under the gentle waves. She sighed, double-checked that her pouch was sealed shut, and finally made her way to the water after drinking the potion Lotte had given her.

Ew… Spicy… I bet that's the Scarlet Fungus…

The water was colder than she expected, but her body surprisingly adapted to the temperature very quickly. She nervously ventured farther into the water, floating on the surface without going any deeper.

While her two friends were acting like they were born in the water, Lily was carefully observing her clothes. As expected, the enchantment prevented them from becoming drenched and clinging to her, instead causing the water to be repelled in a strange effect.

{Are you okay, Arakil?}

[Yes, as I've said numerous times, this book is entirely waterproof. Even the most stubborn coffee stains could not blemish these pages. Although having just said that, I would not attempt to use any of your talismans underwater…]

{I'm too scared to even open my pouch… That's going to make gathering anything very difficult.}

[Hana might be able to make a temporary air pocket; otherwise, you could do the same with a glyph.]

Lily nodded and continued slowly swimming out deeper, wondering how hard it would be to draw with her wand while submerged. At this point she had still not gone underwater, and Lotte swam up to meet her.

"The potion works great; it feels like my lungs can hold an ocean of air," Lotte said, sticking out her tongue teasingly.

"That's, um… great," Lily replied, still wading and floating.

"Come on, Lily, I'll help you. It's beautiful down there," Lotte said, offering her hand.

Lily nodded and grabbed it, before copying Lotte as she took a deep breath… and kept going. Lily was extremely surprised, and wondered how the potion was achieving this. Magic was the obvious answer, but it didn't feel like her lungs were any bigger, yet it still stored far more air than was possible.

However, her thoughts were interrupted as Lotte pulled her under the water and kept going. Lily had to fight her instincts screaming for her to swim back to the surface, as she slowly began to relax and realized that she was perfectly safe. As she glanced at Lotte, the girl flashed her back a smug grin, then pointed down.

Lily nearly gasped at the sight as the coral reef took on an almost otherworldly beauty now that they were submerged. Almost unsurprisingly, she spotted Hana energetically swimming around deeper down as if she had conquered it.

Once she learns to fly, she will have conquered land, ocean, and sky… Lily joked to herself.

With Lotte's help, she gradually became more comfortable swimming and, after some time, better at it. After some time, they all swam to the surface to talk.

"I haven't seen any monsters around. I wonder if our starting island is a sort of safe zone," Hana replied.

"That sounds reasonable," Lily agreed. "It would be a bit unfair to drop us in the middle of the ocean, fighting for our lives right at the start."

"How are you seeing without your glasses?" Lotte suddenly asked, pointing at her own eyes.

"I only need them to read, but it's easier to keep them on all the time," Hana explained.

"Oh… Actually, I'm surprised your parents didn't pay for a healer; aren't you supposed to be rich?"

"That type of magic can only be done when you're older, and by then I'd grown used to the glasses. My parents did offer, but I said I'd pay for it myself through adventuring if I wanted it."

"Damn, I wish I had your confidence," Lotte admitted.

Lily nodded in agreement.

Hana only shrugged in response. "This potion is remarkable. I hope we can gather plenty of ingredients for more of them."

"If me and Lily pool our resources we still have a ton of them from the tournament. Professor Sylwel was overly generous in that regard, although we still need to brew them successfully."

"What about the other one?"

"We haven't tried it, but I suspect it's something to make swimming easier, judging by the name," Lily replied.

"Yeah, if it just kept you dry, it wouldn't be a magic lotion," Lotte agreed with a nod.

"Rather than venturing out too far, I suggest we stick to this location while we get used to the water. Lily seems to be learning fast, but when monsters are involved, I'm not sure how that will change," Hana said.

"Good idea. I want to also try swimming away from you two and seeing how my magic reacts to the water," Lotte replied.

"Just be safe," Lily quickly said.

"I was thinking of just going to the other side of our island, since I assume the shallows there are also safe."

"A safe bet," Hana concurred.

"I'll be right back; you keep practicing your swimming, Lily," Lotte said before heading back to the island.

Hana offered to help Lily once she had confirmed her own spells, and Lily gratefully accepted. While Hana swam off a bit deeper, Lily stuck to the shallower waters and began slowly swimming down on her own. Even though she wasn't useless in the water, she still felt a little down at how she compared to the other two. Lotte had been quite a surprise, as Lily thought the sickly girl wouldn't have had the opportunity to learn how to swim so well.

Well, I knew I'd never be considered athletic, but I should be able to solve my shortcomings with magic. After all, isn't that what glyphs are all about?