Chapter 89: Lord of Deepwater Abyss

Chapter 89: Lord of Deepwater Abyss

He had done this before. Granted, it had been while he was outside of the trench, but this dance was familiar to him. William was moving side to side to see if the tiny turtle kept its attention on him.

It did.

William wasn’t sure if he was supposed to melt from the cuteness of the tiny thing or shudder at being reminded of the intelligence that the Shadowpack Hunters had shown him. However, unlike those malicious beasts, this palm-sized turtle didn’t have the basic information the system usually gave him.

“What is this turtle? Is it a spirit beast?” William asked the Sophia-doll behind him without taking his eyes off the turtle.

“All life at this level exists to convey the significance of growing contamination. Please ignore them and avoid making contact. Any attempt to damage aquatic life will result in swift punishment.”

That made William’s eyebrows raise in surprise as he looked back at the Sophia-doll. Of course, she still had a blank expression, so there was no point in looking at her.

“If you have no other questions, please exit the safe zone.”

And there was the repetition he was expecting. William looked away with a roll of his eyes to stare at the turtle.

Now it looked like it was smiling at him. A toothless, gummy, silly smile.

“Alright, tiny turtle,” William moved a little closer but made sure to stay in the bubble, “Can you understand me?”

He wasn’t surprised when it nodded its tiny head, the beady eyes somehow gleaming after the question. “Are you the one that’s supposed to lead me to what Sophia mentioned?”

That was a vague way to ask about the realm stone, but William had no intention of saying that out loud. He suspected that Sophia had drawn him into some type of illusion before talking since all the aquatic life had disappeared until she was done with him. He would continue to be careful with his words if that sort of caution was needed.

However, the sudden change in the turtle’s demeanor confused him. It had been smiling at him foolishly, but now it seemed to be angry, with one of its flippers curled as if it was shaking a fist at him.

And it seemed to be laughing at him.

William foolishly opened his mouth to ask the slightly quivering turtle what was so funny, forgetting that he was no longer under the safety of the bubble.

It might have been a fear that wasn’t based on any logical sense, especially since his body was taking in small amounts of water naturally. Still, when his mouth was filled with water, William thought he might implode from the massive amount of Qi it likely held.

The turtle’s tiny head started to move even more in amusement at William’s constipated expression.

He narrowed his eyes at the turtle before deciding to ignore it. Other than the scarily intelligent thing that was laughing at him, there were more of the aquatic life that had stared at him intently when he was looking into the trench. The problem was that they were nowhere to be seen.

All William could see were the prevalent schools of fish swimming about mindlessly. Watching them go between the corals as a dense mass was almost soothing, but it disappointed him more than anything.

What was the point of the safe zone if there was nothing out here that seemed dangerous? With the instruction to leave all the life on this level to their own devices, William didn’t expect aggressive spirit beasts to lurk here.

He blinked when the turtle swam in front of his face, a little too close since focusing on it nearly made him cross-eyed.

William could only glare at it since there was no way to communicate. He quickly realized that this was a problem that he should have foreseen. While the turtle could understand him, he couldn’t speak to communicate with it, leaving him with only gestures as an obvious option.

He ignored the turtle moving closer to him as he groused to himself mentally. He decided to deal with the communication issue after trying to cultivate. If that failed too, then this level had nothing for him.

William supposed that it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise. After all, this dimension had been ripped into four. Perhaps not everything was how it was supposed to be due to the dimension not being whole.

He rolled his eyes in exasperation when the turtle moved even closer, letting him have far too close of a look at the stupid toothless smile on its face. He was going to continue ignoring it by taking a seat to cultivate, but he saw it suddenly speed up and slap its flipper on his cheek.

[Lord Paddlington of Deepwater Abyss is requesting a connection]

[Allow: Y/N]