Chapter 300 Tears (4)
After calling for Kate to join them, Bill guided his wives toward the lake. Naturally, they never tried to swim before, so learning will keep Natalie's protests in check for a while. Kate asked why they weren't going using a carriage, but Billy said that the walk would be part of their new exercising routine.
"It is pretty cold," Kate said.
"You will get used to the temperature soon, anyway. It will be better if you don't swim with too many clothes on," Billy said.
"I feel like you are saying that with some ulterior motive," Kate frowned.
"You are not completely wrong, but we have seen each other naked. What is the problem in seeing each other with a few pieces of clothing while completely drenched?" Billy asked.
"When you admit that openly, I feel like there are many wrong things with it," Natalie said.
Although they protested a bit, those two didn't take long to take most of the clothes, but they only ended up taking out until they showed some small shorts and shirts that they used at home when training. Billy wanted to see some drenched underwear, but he would be scolded if he were to say that out loud. Not to mention, it would be embarrassing for them to be in their underwear only and in the open.
While there are the main styles of swimming that are used in competition, Billy showed them the others in order to see which they would be most comfortable with. Still, since they weren't used to the water or floating, they didn't make much progress on the first day. Billy did it, though.
You learned the skill Swimming.
Swimming: increases your swimming speed by five percent per level.
Billy wasn't quite expecting that, so he tried to take a dive, and then he learned Underwater Resistance, a skill that granted him the chance to stay underwater for longer, and also, his movements didn't become that sluggish. He didn't know when he was going to fight underwater, but it certainly was a useful skill to have in case it happened.
In any case, after one week, Kate and Natalie lost their fears of staying in the water when their feet couldn't touch the ground and began to learn how to swim. Billy laughed a little when he saw that Natalie was pretty good at breaststroke and Kate was good at backstroke… it certainly wasn't because of the sizes of their chests. It didn't make any sense. Natalie's boobs were supposed to get in the way…
Eventually, his friends with too much free time joined them in those activities. Only Sarah, who was busy helping the traveling Elementalists didn't come every day. At first, Lily was scared of letting Lara in the river, but swimming was also a good exercise for babies. After a while, they noticed some improvements in their lives.
"Lara doesn't cry at night anymore! This is great!" Lily said. "Now she basically sleeps around the same time as us, with the exceptions of the long afternoon naps."
"Your house is big. I can make a pool for her there," Billy said.
"What is a pool?" Alexander asked.
"It is like a mini man-made lake," Billy said. "When you are feeling too lazy to move to the lake, you can use the pool. But you need to change the water periodically. You can do that much with your magic."
Billy probably could connect the river with the pool with his current level of magic, but that seemed too much of a pain. In any case, those two accepted the idea since it might be good to give Lara some exercise on the days that she looks troubled. Besides, she looked quite cheerful on the lake.
"Isn't this lake a bit weird?" Sarah asked.
"... How so?" Billy frowned.
"I feel like… it is too round. Lakes aren't like that, at least most of them, right?" Sarah asked while looking at the shore in all directions.
Billy did the same, and he realized that she was right… almost as if… the lake was actually as round as a crater. To confirm that, he created an earth pillar that reached five meters of height, and once again, he confirmed things. The lake was too round… something fell there a long time ago and opened a hole in the ground and the rainy seasons of many years filled that place up.
"I suppose this requires some investigation," Billy rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
If something fell from the sky and hit the ground to create q five kilometers wide crater, it was unlikely that Billy would find something at the bottom, but it wouldn't hurt to try. Since his body was way stronger than his previous one, he probably could dive pretty deep, but he still would need some goggles and something to mimic a flashlight. He used torches on his cart to mimic one and to illuminate his tunnels, but that probably wouldn't work underwater. The humidity would stop the whole process… Regardless, Billy had an easy time making the googles. The only problem was that he traded the plastic parts for iron and glass. It still worked, though.
"I suppose I need to make a flashlight that uses mana… Imitating things on Earth will take too much time," Billy thought.
Just like with the cart, Billy made a replica of a flashlight with the intention of making one using mana. However, he didn't quite know how he was supposed to make the bubble that would emit the light… In the end, he created some glass bubbles and then put several other layers on it. When he did some tests and emitted his mana to the center of the smallest ball, that emitted an intense light that crossed all the spheres. It was hard to say if Billy had done things right or if mana had become strong enough to be seen even in its raw form. Regardless, he finished the flashlight.
