NOVEL NEXT Chapter 22
“Surely it must be nearby.”
Parang scanned the surroundings with cold eyes.
After a while, she finally spotted a faint yellow glow seeping from a distance.
Rushing over, she discovered the reason it took so long—it was much smaller than she anticipated.
“This is…”
An earring crafted in a circular shape from a high-quality magic stone radiating blue light.
Like a legendary item in a game, the earring emitted a yellow glow.
A divine artifact. A phenomenon found in top-tier artifacts.
Then Parang pondered.
“What is this?”
It was just on the tip of her memory. It was an artifact frequently used in the original work, but there were so many items already appearing in the story that she felt confused.
Thus, she contemplated!
In the small library of her mind, tiny mini Yu Parang were busily shuffling around, pulling out and reading books.
Suddenly, one particularly wobbly mini Yu Parang at the top of a ladder lifted her hand high!
“I found it!!”
The mini Yu Parang gathered below chimed in, each asking their own questions.
“What is it?”
“What?”
“What?”
“What could it be?”
The Yu Parang above proudly opened the book over her head.
“It’s setting sail!!”
Upon hearing this, the mini Yu Parang at the bottom finally shouted, “Oh, I get it!”
“It’s setting sail!”
“Oh, it’s setting sail!”
“It was setting sail!!”
And from within her head, the big Yu Parang emerged.
She gazed at the artifact, mumbling.
“It’s indeed setting sail.”
The third-in-command of the Slayers, Han Siwoo’s second woman.
The unrivaled spear wielder, Olivia Cloverfield.
This was the first artifact Han Siwoo’s Hunter had given her.
The pivotal moment in the story, where Han Siwoo presented this earring, is one of the memorable scenes in the novel… or not.
By the time they started crafting the earring, 70% of the readers had already guessed, “That’s going to Olivia.”
Of course, so did Parang. Anyway.
The name of this earring is [Setting Sail].
Ironically, Olivia, who used to be a sailor, never boarded a ship again after receiving this earring.
This was one of the reasons Parang binge-read the novel to its completion.
A small hope of “Won’t she ever sail again?” Of course, the biggest reason was that she liked to kill time.
Parang stared at the Setting Sail lying across the ground.
If it were a divine artifact, one would assume it would have a theft prevention option. It definitely would be top-tier.
For an ordinary person, just touching it could drive them insane, burn them, blow them up, or something along those lines.
But this is underwater, and the one attempting it is Yu Parang.
[Skill, ‘Aqua Cleanse’ activated.]
The curse began to wash away from the earring right before her eyes.
As if a wet tissue soaked in paint was releasing colors underwater, the artifact steeped in various spells was vomiting them out into the water.
Black, green, red, yellow—curses unraveled in every color.
“Wow, they really layered it on thick.”
Just visually, Parang confirmed at least 12 kinds.
And about five minutes later,
The very last security spell of Setting Sail was coughed out.
Parang picked it up.
Then she attached it to her ear. The yellow light dimmed.
It meant it was mounted correctly.
An invaluable treasure. Especially for Parang, even more so.
Fitting the name “Setting Sail,” this earring could transform the surrounding area into an ocean-like environment.
In addition, it offered various options like breathing underwater and boosting stats, but Parang considered those irrelevant.
This was why underwater action scenes could happen in the original novel without the existence of the ocean.
Anyway, such a treasure had come into Parang’s possession.
Being able to fill any space with water anytime was an immense help for her, and it was nothing less than the ultimate buff.
Ironically, thinking back, it was more often used as a wide-area debuff in the original.
Parang finally blurted out a line she had wanted to say for a long time.
“I’m feeling lucky.”
She was indeed lucky.
As it’s an earring, wearing it during a broadcast is totally fine.
Parang had worried internally about finding a weapon instead.
Why? Because then she wouldn’t be able to stream.
As far as Parang knew, no divine-class artifacts from the Slayers had been discovered so far.
What divers brought up were only low-tier items like C-B grade or jewels, gold bars, and so on.
In the midst of all this, if news spread out that “this dope artifact belonging to someone from Slayers was found in the depths!” wouldn’t people jump into the deep sea with all they had?
Parang was even thinking it would be better to pass the artifact to someone else if such a situation arose.
That’s also why she hadn’t streamed this time. She was 4 km deep and couldn’t manipulate the broadcast with her phone. If she had streamed while descending, this sight would have been live-streamed.
That’s a big no-no.
Anyway, Parang began to make her way back up following the brightly glowing jelly path she had come down.
Before long.
“Oh, this!”
The U-shaped monster fish they encountered in Aurita’s territory reappeared in Parang’s sight.
Quickly reaching for her phone to check the list Berthea had sent her, she hesitated.
Her phone had crashed.
Right, she had gone above 4 km.
She checked how far she could rise toward the cave’s ceiling, but it felt just out of reach.
Should she climb up through the passage to check and then come back down?
No, that miserable passage?
Feeling slightly claustrophobic as she descended, she didn’t want to go out and then back in again. Absolutely not.
So she thought she just had to recall what she could remember.
Parang quickly decided and rummaged through her mind.
What was it this time? “What did Berthea tell me to do?”
Once again, tiny mini Yu Parang moved busily about in Parang’s mental library.
Then, with circular glasses on, a Yu Parang flipping through the books like crazy raised a hand and shouted.
“I found it!”
Hearing that, the tiny Yu Parang rushed over, asking what and what they were supposed to do, causing quite a commotion.
The bespectacled Yu Parang, pounding her chest, said, “She said to pull out its eyeball!”
“Ooh!!”
“Eyeball!!”
“As expected!!”
The crowded little Yu Parang also marvel at this.
Pleased as punch, the bespectacled Yu Parang’s happy expression radiated joy.
And then the big Yu Parang recalled something.
“She said to pull out its eyeball.”
Parang went to the U-shaped creature, swiftly slicing off everything except its eyeball.
And then, using a harpoon as a lever, she thrust it into the eyeball and pulled it out in one smooth motion.
Thud—
Just like the sound of Legos snapping apart, the eyeball was cleanly extracted.
Parang tilted her head in confusion at the bizarre sight. Is this right?
She determined to rush back up and contact Berthea.
With great effort, Parang started to crawl back up through the cramped passage.
As soon as she emerged, she typed a message to Berthea.
She detailed the sound and sensation of pulling out the eyeball, adding that it felt like it wasn’t a living creature.
Only then did she realize something.
Come to think of it, couldn’t she confirm if it was a living creature with the Kraken? Why did she forget that?
She must have got too excited about the idea of pulling the eyeball out.
In her mind, the bespectacled mini Yu Parang was getting beaten up by the other Yu Parang.
Parang glanced back at the hole she had come through.
Then she realized she had to give up. How would she go back in there? No way, no thank you.
Thinking that she might have another chance later, she just resurfaced.
#
Gulp, gulp.
As Parang mercilessly devoured Lotus biscuits, Xiao looked on with a slightly pitiful expression.
What was she supposed to do about delicious treats? Parang didn’t even make eye contact as she inhaled the biscuits.
Dipping them slightly in coffee only made the experience divine.
“So, is this the skull?”
“Yep.”
“Hmm….”
Staring at a skull that was clearly a human skull set on the table while Parang munched on snacks right in front of her, Xiao contemplated.
Right in front, Parang was munching, but their tolerance had transcended humanity. Even a meal prepared in Rassius’s pocket would be devoured deliciously.
“But with this level of preservation, basic identification and ‘Dive’ should be doable.”
‘Dive.’ It was Xiao’s unique skill. Jumping into the memories of the deceased underwater, experiencing their memories.
Of course, this was about underwater experiences. If it were possible outside of the water, Xiao would have already achieved S-class Hunter status.
Oh, but it didn’t mean she had to dive back into the sea just for the sake of identifying the skull.
“Have you eaten enough?”
Parang quickly shoved ten Lotus biscuits into her pockets and nodded.
She probably has a lot of money, but saying, “If you like it so much, just buy it yourself,” is meaningless.
Once you pay for it, the taste of the Lotus biscuit diminishes.
It is the snack that tastes the best when eaten for free.
Anyway, after scooping up the free snacks, Parang stood up and stepped back from the table.
Clack, clack.
Xiao fiddled with a controller that appeared from nowhere, and
Clunk- Woooooosh—
The table in the center of the round living room sank down. The wooden floor’s center opened up like a camera aperture.
Below it was a shimmering blue water.
Xiao’s multi-purpose aquarium. It’s bigger than most aquariums. Well, it’s like making three floors of the building into one aquarium.
Splash—
Xiao dove into the tank with perfect form.
Parang, after neatly folding her suit, jumped in with the skull.
The loud sound of water splashing filled the air.
The moment they landed, the floor closed up again, and the round table returned to where it had been above in the living room as if it had never disappeared.