Catlen slept until she woke up naturally, and by then she had no idea how long she had been in the land of dreams. For some reason, sleeping underwater was very comfortable.
She felt a little sad when she realized she was still trapped in the game. A large part of her heart had been hoping that it was all a nightmare, but it turned out not to be. She sighed, stretching her arms above her head.
However, she she opened her eyes, she involuntarily screamed.
"Ah!"
A school of fish with dozens of eerie, gelatinous eyes were motionlessly staring, watching her sleep. A chill spread over her back.
The fish reacted when she screamed, scattering from one blob to separate forms surrounding her from all sides. They collectively made a soft clicking noise, and waved their fin-like arms, with webbed hand-like protrusions at the ends.
They started to speak.
"Screaming!"
"Oh, a land-walker!"
"Land-walker, screaming!"
"Scared?"
"Scared, scared, scared."
"Why here? What's here? Land-walker came?"
"Underwater, breathe?"
"Breathe, breathe!"
"Ah, breathing!"
Musical notes streamed from the necks of the fish-like semi-humanoid creatures. Their scaled bodies moved side to side like fish, but their proportions were similar to the upper bodies of humans, so it looked like a smoother swaying movement..
Their bottom halves had tails like manatees. Their heads were square with big eyes and small mouths. The sides of their necks had two holes in them that looked like the earholes of birds, but bubbles carrying music came out of them when they spoke.
Catlen finally calmed down from her initial impression of imminent death. She saw the tags on top of each of their heads.
'Lvl. 1 Mermaid'
When she took a good look at them, they were pretty cute. Their overall size wasn't very big, but she wasn't sure if it was because they were young or if that was their general size. Anyway, she didn't feel threatened.
She tapped on their tag to read the description.
'Mermaids live in colonies with a clear division of hierarchy, and move in schools when they leave their home. Their ability to compact and split their movements with tacit coordination make them excellent hunters and troublesome persecutors. Their spells can disorient and confuse their victims.
Much like seahorses, the females lay eggs and the males hatch the tadpoles. The king and queen are an exception, and each lay their own eggs to let them hatch independently.'
The description was short and didn't provide a lot of details, but Catlen was able to grasp the key points of the whole ordeal.
She slowly sat up, and the mermaids retreated a certain distance in unison. The way they all moved together just like the description said really was a little eerie...
Catlen had no intention of sticking around to play with the mermaids, so she picked up her things and prepared to leave the shipwreck behind.
The mermaids followed behind her when she kicked off, always keeping their distance while they chattered amongst themselves. Every word they said was in song format, and she didn't know if it was because she was a siren, but Catlen could more or less understand what they were saying.
"Land-walker, leaving?"
"Leaving, leaving. Going where?"
"Going."
"Why?"
"Oh, a map!"
"Map, map. Searching."
"Searching what?"
"Searching treasure."
Catlen swam through the seaweed with a little choir following behind her. Aside from the fact that she wasn't used to the sea, at least it wasn't boring and it sounded quite nice.
The surface of the ocean was bright with the sunlight. According to what she could see in the sky, she had slept until noon.
Using that light, she pulled out the map she'd salvaged from the shipwreck and unrolled the scroll. Some of the ink was a little smudged, but it was still a leather scroll, so most of it was readable. Catlen had no problem figuring out which way to go..
She pulled out the compass and flipped it open, following the general direction pointed out in the map. She swam all day, until it was too dark and dangerous to see anything.
The mermaids had stopped following her at some point, so she was all alone. Catlen swam toward a coral reef she could see in the distance and wandered around until she found a rock to make do for the night.
Thankfully, the bottom of the rock was unoccupied, so she slept unimpeded until she woke up the next day. The coral reef was already bustling with activity when she came out of her hiding spot.
Many fish of different colours swam here and there, and there was even an octopus sitting on top of the rock where she'd hidden for the night.
Catlen shivered at the sight of the rugged, slimy thing. Thank goodness she'd left the rock when she did, otherwise she would've been at a disadvantage fighting it in such a tight space.
Octopi were territorial creatures, and the body of a full grown adult could still squeeze into a hole the size of a medium sized coin. They could contract and expand at will, and somehow, with such a boneless body, they could still overpower an adult human.
If she wasn't sure if she could fight it on land, Catlen didn't dare to give herself laurels and say that she could fight it in the water. The ocean wasn't even her home turf, so they definitely were not on equal footing.
Thankfully, the creature did not chase after her, and Catlen was able to continue on her journey without any mishaps. She swam for two whole days before the water began to feel warmer, and the sea creatures grew smaller and smaller.
According to the map, she had entered thermal waters.
It wasn't until she felt the difference of the heat that Catlen realised just how cold the water she'd first fallen into was. She had been numb to it the entire time, but at the moment she felt like a thawing fish.
The aquatic plants growing from the seabed also started to look different. Many of them glowed and had rich colours on them instead of translucent bodies.
Catlen also realised that her body reacted differently in warmer waters. Her internal organs felt a little uncomfortable.
When passing by a glowing reef, there was a squid-type creature entangling with a fish. Some of the ink from the squid was being spurted out into the water, making it murky.
Seeing it trying to eat the fish reminded Catlen that she hadn't eaten properly in days.
Her only consumption so far had been from the health ink, which ended up replacing both food and drink for her. While it did keep her HP up, it wasn't the same as a full belly.
Actually, according to her character in the game, Catlen wasn't sure when the last time she'd eaten was.
But there wasn't anywhere around to make a fire and she was unwilling to eat raw seafood, so she didn't give it much thought, lest she make herself more hungry.
After another day of swimming, the waters were warm enough to make her suspect she was in a hotspring. There were no more sea creatures swimming in this part of the ocean, likely due to the hot temperature, but there were more and more glowing aquatic plants. It didn't make much of a difference if it was day or nighttime anymore.
According to the map, she was already in volcanic territory, so Catlen followed the general direction until she reached a rock protruding from the seabed. Given the texture of the rock, it looked like magma that had solidified after an eruption from long ago.
Around the base of the rock protrusion, Catlen found the entrance of a cave. It was dark inside the tunnel, so she was forced to break off part of a glowing plant to use as a lantern.
The tunnel wasn't very long, and pretty soon, she reached the hollow inside of the rock. Part of that hollow was above water level, so Calten climbed up and walked on dry ground for the first time in what felt like a century.
She had been in the warm water for long enough to make her feel awful. Her skin felt oversaturated and gross, and her internal organs felt queasy.
Considering that she was a siren type, she shouldn't have felt that way, but Catlen also didn't think it was too strange. Even sirens didn't live in the water constantly.
What was so great about the sea, anyway?
She grumbled for a while, kicking off her shoes and planting both feet on the hot, rocky ground. The inside of the cave was unlike the exterior. It was polished so smoothly that it almost made one think someone did it on purpose.
It was also after she was barefoot that Catlen noticed how hot the cave was. After walking for a few minutes with her bare feet, her clothes were already dry and so was her hair. Further ahead, the cave hollowed out even more, integrating into an even bigger, seamless cave.
To one side, there was a small hole emitting searing steam. In the centre of the cave, a pile of what looked like armour and leather was gathered into a small mountain.
Clearly, others had been there before.
With her growling stomach, Catlen wasn't very curious. She first left the cave and went back into the water with the intention to catch something to eat. It wasn't easy to find fish, but she was able to forage some edible seaweed and aquatic plants, per the game's description. She took it back and cooked it over the steaming hole.
And while that was cooking, she began to check the map again for the location of the Flaming Sea Flowers. She was already at the outskirts of the volcano, so she estimated that she would be able to find the flowers within a day.
Catlen was excitedly making plans, unaware that a great danger was lurking around her, one that would send her to the very start of everything and alter her course.