We took another small break before standing at the edge of the outcrop. "I will stick a barrier around us. I will use wind magic to keep us from falling too fast in the water."
The last thing I wanted was for gravity to take effect and the girls to fall through the barrier. It would only be designed to keep water out, and that was it. I did not wish to block other things. Because if a monster shows up, it could swim at us and attack and then fall into a space with no water where it would be vulnerable. Easy win!
With this in mind, I wrapped our feet in wind magic to make us all hover in the air and then put a barrier around us. I reached out and took Adel's and Atollie's hands. "Hold hands. We will jump at the count of three." When everyone was ready, I counted down. "1…. 2…. 3!"
We were definitely a good team. We were all in sync as soon as we jumped. Even Atollie jumped at the right time. We jumped up into the air and out into the water. The water began to part as he landed, and with the wind magic under our feet, we floated in the middle of the ball like barrier I made and slowly sank to the bottom of the ocean.
Our vision grew dark as we slowly descended. Many fish even entered the barrier, but these were just normal fish. We fell into the abyss of the deep dark ocean for what seemed like forever until we finally reached the sandy floor.
"Why is it not muddy?" Adel asked in confusion, which was not surprising. After all, the whole area was once under water until the barrier pushed the water away.
"The barrier repels all the ocean water. This includes the water in the sand. It won't affect living begins, though." I answered. I also did not wish to be walking through a bog the entire time we were trying to find the exit to this floor.
"Ah! I knew my wife was smart!" Adel praised me, causing me to blush. Only when they call me their wives do I remember I am really married. Diablo does the same thing as well. Not that I plan to run off and marry someone else. To be honest, I find having four people hard enough to deal with. I love them all, but I have to always make sure they are not being neglected. Relationships are hard, and even more so with more than one person.
"So, which way do you think we should go?" I asked. I had no idea where I should go from here.
"Well, we can backtrack to the rocks that support the outcropping we jumped from, if there is any, and try to see if we can follow anything," Sei suggested.
"Then let's do that. It is better than wandering aimlessly. Sei. get ready to map things out." Sie's idea was the only option. If we began wandering around underwater for years on end, it would not be too good. I did wish to try to reach the end of this dungeon. So far, things have been quite steady, and we have only spent a few days down here, and I wanted to keep it this way.
We did as Sei suggested and moved backward. Luckily the base of the rocky outcropping was really there. It was just a bunch of rocks, but it was enough for us to at least have a starting point. Sei took out a piece of paper and marked it on the map. "Okay, we will say that anything directly away from the rocky outcropping is north. We will walk around the rocks and see if it extends into a lower wall that we did not see while above water. So let's head southwest around the outcropping and then south."
"Sounds good." I nodded, as did everyone else. We walked towards our right since we were going southwest.
The rocks were piled up as if someone had placed them by hand. It looked strange and unnatural. I do not know why I felt this way, but I did. We walked for like five minutes before Sei stopped. She was leading us since she was mapping, but she stopped and took out the map once more. "The underwater portion extends out like this…." She drew more lines on the map that showed that the further we followed the rocks, the more it brought us to a wall that blocked us from heading any further south. "It seems if we wanted to go south anymore, we would need to jump off the other side of the rocky outcropping."
"Well, if worse comes to worst, we can do just that. There is nothing stopping us from surfacing and going to the other side." I did not see any issue with us being blocked off. I just worried that there was no end to this room.
"I figured the same. So let's follow the wall for now." Sei suggested, and once more, we were on our way.
The thing I found strange thus far was that there were no fish this deep in the ocean. I had yet to see any monsters as well, unless they were waiting in other areas that we had yet to reach. But for now, we were taking the safest route, and hopefully, if we were lucky, we would end the path to the next floor.
We walked for a few more hours, taking a few twists and turns as the rocking wall that blocked us was not straight. We rested for about thirty minutes before continuing our walk. Atollie seemed excited as she walked beside us with her eyes glowing. I guess things like this were not something she would get to see at all. I do wonder how long she was truly stuck guarding the gate.
I know I would go crazy if I was stuck doing such a thing. But then again, it seemed someone took pity on her and allowed her to come down here with me, which was a good thing, I guess. But everything had a time and place, and right now was not the time. Our quest right now was to find the stairs leading to the next floor.
