Chapter 86
The Sea (1)
The sea.
The father of all nature and the starting point of all life.
It was because the sea existed that countless forms of life could emerge, and it could be called the source of water itself.
Any living creature would wither and die without water, which was why the sea was so important.
But as the “father” of nature, the sea was also harsh.
Not only was it harsh, but its depths were unknowable.
Someone once said that even if humanity came to understand the entire universe, it would take even longer to fully understand the ocean.
And depending on the rise and fall of sea level, entire regions could become either habitable or uninhabitable.
That was how closely intertwined the sea was with life—and how complex and dangerous it could be.
Whoooosh—
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
It looked like the color you’d get if you melted down a blue sapphire crystal.
There was a smooth sandy beach without any muddy tidal flats, with waves gently washing over the sand.
At first glance, it was an ordinary yet beautiful sea.
The salty breeze and seagulls soaring freely through the sky made everything seem utterly peaceful.
But I absolutely could not let appearances fool me.
Whoooosh!
I turned my head and saw the river connected to the sea.
Strangely enough, the colors were sharply divided, almost as if someone had drawn a boundary separating the river from the ocean.
It was another incredibly beautiful sight.
But the reality was something else entirely.
‘…The sea is flowing into the river?’
The sea was where rivers ended.
You could safely say that almost every river eventually flowed into the sea.
At least, that was what I knew as common sense.
I had never heard of the reverse happening.
And now, with my own two eyes, I was watching that common sense get completely shattered.
‘This makes no sense…’
Surprisingly, I hadn’t felt all that hopeless when I first encountered the ocean.
Along the way, I had discovered another branch of the river flowing in a different direction, as well as some areas that seemed suitable for exploration.
But the moment I saw seawater flowing backward into the river, my head began to spin.
It felt as though every law of common sense was collapsing.
I even began to wonder whether this could truly be called an environment as I understood the word.
‘I should… make sure this is actually seawater…’
My mind had taken enough of a beating that I decided to verify whether this really was the ocean.
The wind carried salt, but maybe it had picked that up somewhere else.
I felt like I wouldn’t be satisfied until I took a sip and confirmed it myself.
“Blech! Ptooey! Ptoo! Ptooey!”
It tasted incredibly salty.
And sandy.
Judging from that, this was definitely the ocean.
The occasional waves only reinforced that conclusion.
Title) Guess What I Found After Following the River?
Wild Grylls
(Photo of the vast ocean)
(Photo of seawater surging backward into the river)
It was the ocean!
And amazingly enough, instead of the river flowing into the ocean, the ocean flows backward into the river!
Fantasy worlds are so fascinating!
How the hell does nothing but fucked-up shit keep happening to me?!
Do I have to swim across that ocean to escape? Somebody please tell me!
└ Heavenly Demon) What a beautiful sea. But art thou all right? Even through thy words, this Lady can sense thy despair.
└ SwordMaster) Of course he’s not all right. Please learn to read the room;;
└ Heavenly Demon) Was this Lady at fault?
└ SwordMaster) Yes. At times like this, just keep quiet and cheer him on.
└ You can really tell Heavenly Demon has zero social experience;;
└ If she’s actually an old-timer, that makes it even worse. Otherwise, she’s basically just a kid.
└ Surprisingly, there are a lot of nobles like that. They get spoiled rotten growing up and end up completely clueless.
└ Especially if they’re the youngest child born way later than their siblings. They tend to be even worse.
└ Starlight Princess) I’ve never seen an ocean flow into a river before… You’re sure that really is the ocean, right?
└ Wild Grylls) Yeah. I took a sip just to make sure. It was insanely salty.
└ Starlight Princess) Hmm… Hang in there. I don’t even know what to say.
└ Wild Grylls) There’s no situation where the ocean flows into a river, right?
└ Starlight Princess) Situation or otherwise, something like that is impossible in a world fashioned by the gods. Just what kind of place is the Forest of Four Seasons…?
└ Wild Grylls) Maybe the gods are incompetent?
└ Don’t Abandon the Hero) Don’t blaspheme! The Goddess is absolutely perfect!
└ Wild Grylls) Perfect, my ass lol. The fact that a forest like this even exists already makes no sense.
└ Don’t Abandon the Hero) Even so, you shouldn’t insult Her! There must be a reason!
└ Wild Grylls) As soon as I hear that reason, I’ll curse Her the fuck out. Or maybe I’ll just curse Her out anyway.
└ Don’t Abandon the Hero) Just stop insulting Her!!!
└ Allfather) An ocean flowing into a river… Could you show me more footage?
└ Wild Grylls) (Video 2 of seawater flowing backward into the river) Want to see more?
└ Allfather) No. That is sufficient. This… Even I cannot explain this. It completely violates the laws of nature, so I have no idea what to make of it.
└ What if the lake and ocean have switched roles?
└ Wait, Grylls. Was the river water salty?
└ Wild Grylls) Nope. Not salty at all. It tasted completely normal.
└ That’s weird in its own way. Why isn’t it salty?
└ This place seriously won’t even let you get close to escaping;;
The gallery erupted into chaos.
Naturally so.
A phenomenon that completely defied the laws of the world had just appeared.
Apparently, even in a world where fantasy and murim coexisted, the laws of nature were still roughly the same.
Well, a world where space randomly twisted around and oceans routinely flowed backward would be completely insane.
There was no way humans could live in a place like that.
Normal really was best.
Title) Just Asking to Make Sure
Wild Grylls
Things like space getting distorted or oceans flowing backward don’t normally happen here, right?
It’s this place that’s weird, right?
└ Nope. If shit like that happened every day, this world would’ve been destroyed already.
└ There are occasionally monsters powerful enough to slice through space itself, but those are exceptions.
└ We have common sense too, Grylls;;
└ Wild Grylls) Thank god.
I had asked just in case.
Everyone agreed that this was abnormal.
Apparently, there were rare occasions when the collision of tremendously powerful forces could distort space, but those were extreme exceptions.
Moreover, most such cases were caused by artificial forces.
For something like this to occur naturally was impossible.
‘Putting that aside, this fucking ocean is ridiculously huge.’
All I could see beyond the horizon was more ocean.
Unlike the wide-open horizon before me, my chest felt completely constricted.
What was I supposed to do now?
The ocean was so damn vast that I couldn’t even begin to formulate a plan.
‘For now, let’s look around. I need to find some kind of trace.’
Thanks to the river flowing backward, I didn’t have to worry about losing my way.
And since the beach was covered in clean sand, walking wasn’t difficult either.
‘I need to be careful. There could be something else weird living here.’
That didn’t mean I was letting my guard down.
For starters, there were far too many suspicious things about this place.
The first was that it was too quiet.
Back at the lakeshore, creatures had constantly been busy fighting among themselves.
The river had been the same.
Right before I arrived here, hadn’t some spotted predator been sent flying through the air?
But this place was unusually quiet, even for an ocean.
‘And it’s too clean.’
That was the second strange thing.
The beach was far too clean.
There wasn’t a single trace of any animal anywhere.
At least the lakeshore had small crabs crawling around.
Here, there wasn’t even that.
That could only mean one thing.
Some powerful beast definitely lived here.
Every step I took made me uneasy.
Whoooosh!
‘So there’s more than one river.’
Before long, I discovered another river.
Just like the first one, seawater was flowing backward into it.
I followed the river with my eyes and spotted a dense forest far thicker than the one I lived in.
The trees grew tightly packed together, and everything was covered in green.
Calling it a jungle wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
Someday, I might have to go there.
‘And it’s not just the jungle.’
The snowy mountains, desert, swamp, volcano, and everything else I had seen across the river.
To find a clue that could lead to my escape, I might eventually have to explore places like those too.
But if I ever reached the point where I actually went into those places, wouldn’t that mean I had already lost most of my hope of escaping?
No matter how much stronger I became by adapting to this forest, those were environments where simply surviving would be difficult.
‘I’d basically be going there to die—’
Rrrrrumble!
Just as I was staring at the entrance to the jungle, lost in thought, the ground began to shake.
Nothing good had ever happened whenever the ground started shaking.
I immediately went on high alert.
‘Where is it? Where’s it coming from…?’
FWUMP!
As I hurriedly searched for the source of the tremors, something burst out of the ground.
It was mostly red and stretched well above my height.
And then there were the suckers scattered along its surface.
Anyone could tell what it looked like.
An octopus tentacle.
Whip!
“Aaagh!”
The octopus tentacle that had erupted from the sand wrapped around my leg and yanked me away.
It happened so suddenly that I nearly dropped both my sword and shield.
Just as the tentacle was about to drag me beneath the sand, I barely managed to slash through it with my sword.
Slash!
The tentacle was severed with ease.
The detached limb trembled violently, perhaps from pain.
In the meantime, I sprang to my feet and readied my equipment.
I could remove the severed tentacle wrapped around my leg later.
FWUMP! FWUMP!
Apparently, losing one limb had seriously pissed the thing off.
Several more tentacles erupted from beneath the sand.
Octopus tentacles writhed in the air like a mass of feelers.
I briefly considered what to do before deciding to break straight through.
Getting out of here came first.
Whoosh!
One of the countless tentacles shot toward me.
This time, rather than trying to grab my leg, it came stabbing down from above.
And it wasn’t like the other tentacles were sitting around doing nothing.
Some stabbed downward from above.
Some swung like whips.
Others tried to wrap around my legs.
The sheer variety of attacks nearly overwhelmed me, but I forced myself to remain as calm as possible.
‘Deal with the closest ones first!’
I dodged the tentacle stabbing down from above and barely blocked the one swinging like a whip with my shield.
Finally, I cut down the tentacle trying to bind my feet before it could grab me.
Slash!
A huge chunk of the octopus tentacle was sliced clean off.
The other tentacles flinched, as though the creature could feel the pain.
I seized the opportunity and immediately made a run for it.
If I kept fighting like this, I would eventually be at a disadvantage.
Swoosh!
The tentacles pursued me as I fled.
The severed ones stopped midway because they couldn’t reach any farther, but the others kept coming.
In the end, I had no choice but to fight.
Still, this was much better than being attacked from every direction.
‘Dodge, block with the shield, cut with the sword.’
Anything I couldn’t dodge, I blocked with my shield.
Even blocking required quick reactions.
And blocking alone wasn’t enough.
If I couldn’t properly counterattack, I would be trapped in an endless cycle of defending myself.
Every single strike mattered.
But I had the Heavenly Demon Sword.
And I had aura.
Aura in particular allowed me to cut through an area far beyond the sword’s normal reach.
Slash! Slash!
“Guuuuuuuh!”
As I repeatedly cut through its tentacles, a strange sound emerged from beneath the sand.
It was probably the creature’s main body screaming in pain.
Served it right.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Eventually, the creature must have decided it couldn’t win and retreated.
Its tentacles disappeared back beneath the sand.
I panted heavily for a moment before gradually steadying my breathing.
That ambush had nearly gotten me killed in the most anticlimactic way possible.
Fortunately, I had already sensed that something was suspicious and had been prepared.
‘But is that thing really an octopus?’
The suckers made it resemble one.
But an octopus living in sand—
‘No. Stop thinking in terms of common sense.’
I shook my head.
There was no point.
How many times had common sense already been proven wrong in this place?
I couldn’t rely on it anymore.
An octopus living beneath the sand wasn’t strange at all by this forest’s standards.
‘If the land is already like this, what the hell lives in the ocean?’
I turned and stared out at the sea.
The ocean.
The birthplace of all life.
What kinds of monsters could possibly be living beneath those waters?
The thought alone was already terrifying.
But I still had something to do.
‘There’s an octopus on this side, so I’ll head the other way.’
Finding a clue that would lead to my escape.
That was my highest priority.
‘I’m getting out of here.’
No matter what.