Entering the depths of the sea, Jason quickly realised that he was unable to see everything with his naked eyes.
Thus, he instantly activated his Emperor Eyes to see everything properly.
The darkness that slowly permeated the surroundings the deeper he got, prevented him from being able to see any other colors except occasional bright lights that flashed past him.
Having enveloped his entire body with a membrane of mana, while circulating some of it through his body, Jason gauged that he would be able to stay underwater for far longer than 20 minutes.
This should be more than enough to reach the bottom of the sea in addition to being able to find his way towards the mana vein.
Unfortunately, he forgot to consider one important factor in his calculations- attacks of marine beasts!
Jason should have expected attacks of marine beasts other than the beings from the Oceanfolk, but somehow, he had hoped that they were as placid as the beasts on land.
Because of that, Jason had attempted to avoid encountering the remaining beings of the Oceanfolk's attack wave, failing to understand that the marine beasts were highly territorial.
In the end, he quickly realised his mistake as a gigantic Eel of a length of more than 20 meters appeared behind him, trying to eat him alive.
This would definitely not be a nice way to die, and Jason, who had already entered a deep enough part of the sea that rendered him capable of seeing anything with his normal eyes, could only perceive the Eel's energy fluctuations. As he thought of a way to defend himself, the Eel released a dense electric current as it appeared right in front of him.
It was not the Eel's affinity, but simply a body function of it, and Jason was so astonished about the sudden attack that he subconsciously exclaimed something.
Yet, it was at that moment when Jason noticed that he made a big mistake as water entered his mouth and nostrils, breaking through the mana membrane that was supposed to prevent things like that.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})To his dismay, the mana membrane got hit by the electric currents just as Jason exclaimed unintentionally.
Thus, many things happened at once, but the most important was that he was unable to hold his breath for much longer.
The moment Jason noticed this, he fully unleashed his Celestia aura and Stigma before Petri's tail grew out of his back.
Swinging it around, while moving his arms and legs almost in sync, Jason simply ignored the Eel, after shooting a few icicles that were enhanced by the moonlight affinity.
This was a means to distract the Eel long enough to allow Jason to swim back to the surface as fast as he could.
Breaking through the surface for only a minute, he gasped for breath before stifling the urge to vomit because he had inadvertently swallowed a mouthful of water.
However, what astonished him was that the water hadn't been freshwater.
It was filled with salt which was the reason for Jason to feel so disgusted.
Owing to the protective mana membrane around him, he hadn't noticed anything, but the moment it got torn just a little, his eyes began to ache.
Meanwhile, the mouthful of water was more than enough to make Jason regret having exclaimed.
Despite that, it gave him important information, which was crucial to know.
'This sea is completely different from the river!'
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})While the river was a freshwater body which was something commonly found in a mountain range, the sea was not.
Jason had already been confused as to why the Oceanfolk emerged from the river because it was consistent with freshwater. This would indicate that the Oceanfolk came from somewhere else only to use the river as a means of transport.
This was something Jason didn't take seriously before.
However, now he thought hard about it after realising that the sea and possibly other existing seas or water sources originated from the ocean despite the mountain range being directly around.
He was not someone well-versed with topography, which meant that Jason was not sure how exactly everything around the environment and their physical features worked in a specific territory, but the more he thought about it, the weirder it got.
Still trying to gasp for more air, his mind seemed to have entered a completely different dimension as his train of thoughts forced him to comprehend the situation at hand.
'Considering that the sea in front of me is so small, it should be comparable to a hole…is it even a naturally created sea?'
This question flashed through Jason's mind, and the thought of it being artificially created made more and more sense.
As such, he couldn't help but feel that the Oceanfolk might have started the preparations of their conquest months ago before actually attacking the villages.
Considering that the sea was likely to be artificially created, only for the mana vein directly below it to have been heavily damaged by clogging it up with something, the Oceanfolk's doings were probably much more in-depth than he initially thought.
Without knowing what that other thing was, he had to be close to it and see everything for himself.
The smallest details could be important, and Jason had to know them in order to fix the issues the mana vein was facing.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})With that in mind, he reached a conclusion before looking at the seven-meter-long tail behind him.
Using Petri's tail as a means to dive faster, and evade specific attacks should work like before when he had wanted to escape the Eel as quickly as possible.
Yet, at the same time, Jason was not sure if it could turn into a hindrance.
However, after giving it a second thought, Jason noticed that he was overthinking once again.
Thus, he enveloped himself with a membrane of mana yet again before he took a deep breath.
Jumping into the air, he made a dive into the sea before starting to move his arms, legs and swung his tail in sync to propel himself towards the deepest possible part of the sea in a matter of seconds.
His speed had thus increased by a lot, and if Jason were to be able to use the Floating Sky movement technique to increase his speed inside the water, he would have exerted it too.
Unfortunately, this was not possible, and Jason had to make do with the speed at which he was currently diving into the depths of the sea.
Just at that moment, the electric Eel he had encountered before, shot towards him once again.
Yet, this time, Jason was ready with a counterattack unlike before when he had simply endured the hit of the weak electric currents.
Instead, he first manifested several icicles within the water before shooting them towards the Eel, but their speed was too slow to achieve anything great.
Afterward, just as the Eel was about to reach him, Jason's eyes began to glow in a bright golden color, while his Celestia aura and Stigma were fully utilized.
Jason solely exerted the Petrification curse, because he knew that it was more than enough. After being hit by the curse, the Eel petrified right in front of him as he raised his hand to touch the Eel without hesitation.
'Die please, will you!"
