The question post I wrote was not one many people would read.
But there is always someone who reads everything.
A comment appeared only seconds after I posted it.
ㄴScholar of Truth: The deep sea? Could it be the deep sea? No matter how I look at that force field, it seems like technology from the Lost Era.
The user with the nickname Scholar of Truth posed a question to me.
Was it the deep sea…?
I glanced at the window.
The sight of that thing and its grotesque tentacles still flickered in my mind.
It certainly seemed like the deep sea.
The bottomless abyss where I could barely see an inch ahead, and even creatures with forms unimaginable on the surface.
I focused on the gallery again.
In that brief span of time, Scholar of Truth had left another comment.
ㄴScholar of Truth: This is a space I’ve never once researched before... Could you perhaps tell me your location IP? If you go into your profile, just tell me the number that appears right away.
ㄴAurora: It’s 00.24.98? Do you know where that is?
I told him the location information I found in my profile, but silence fell.
Just as I wondered if that wasn’t it and was about to write another comment—
ㄴScholar of Truth: Are you human?
ㄴAurora: Pardon?
ㄴScholar of Truth: The place you’re in is the deep sea, and the very bottom of it at that. If you were an ordinary person, the water pressure would crush you flat and leave only traces behind.
A chill crawled up my spine at Scholar of Truth’s comment.
If I had been outside instead of inside this submersible…
“I’d have died instantly…”
The moment I realized that fact, it felt as if my breath were being squeezed out of me.
My already gloomy mood tumbled endlessly downward.
Even so, I tried not to lose hope.
ㄴAurora: About how deep am I?
ㄴScholar of Truth: Converted, roughly about 9 km.
ㄴAurora: What are my chances of going outside?
ㄴScholar of Truth: If you’re strong enough to fight two Dragon Lords barehanded and win, you should be able to go outside.
My struggle not to lose hope became a step into the pit of despair.
Every time Scholar of Truth answered one of my questions, my mood rotted away in real time.
According to Scholar of Truth, the deep sea wasn’t only under immense water pressure; the mana there was also dense.
The deeper one went, the worse it became, so the creatures in the place where I was were expected to be extremely powerful.
Scholar of Truth said the creatures where I was could “basically” defeat dragons.
When I asked how strong dragons, those mythical creatures, were—
ㄴScholar of Truth: Dragons have destroyed about nine countries for fun.
ㄴAurora: Pardon?
ㄴScholar of Truth: If you don’t believe me, read Grand Mage Agentas’s paper, The Footsteps of Dragons.
ㄴAurora: Where do I read that?
ㄴScholar of Truth: Just at a bookstore… Ah.
The possibility of going outside turned into dust.
Even if I gathered together a chance that was close to a speck, it would still only be a speck, and all the strength drained from my body.
I stared blankly up at the ceiling.
I didn’t feel like doing anything.
Grrrgle….
…Apparently, my stomach still wanted to move.
Clutching my stomach as it kept sending signals, I walked to the drawer.
I took out a packet of jerky from the drawer and chewed on it.
As the red meat slid down my esophagus, hot vitality coursed through my body.
After eating something, my head started working again.
I sat down on the floor of the submersible and decided to set my goal first.
“Escape is… no matter how I look at it, too difficult. Survival comes first.”
Escape or whatever else, right now I was in such a frail state that without the submersible and the green force field, I would die instantly.
So, for now, my goal was to survive.
What did I need to do in order to survive?
My mind immediately picked out what was necessary for survival.
Two objects entered my eyes.
The firmly shut hatch, and the crafting machine.
Food was limited, so going outside the hatch was not a choice but a necessity.
Fortunately, the force field extended to the place where the submersible was located as well, so I wouldn’t turn into minced meat the moment I stepped out.
And the crafting machine attached to the wall.
That would become the foundation of my survival, since among the machines it could make were things like water purifiers and cooking equipment.
Then now I had to open that hatch…
“How do I open it?”
There was no separate key for the hatch.
I thought it might be an electronically opened structure, but I couldn’t see any such control device anywhere.
Even when I tried to move it with force, it only shifted ever so slightly.
The hatch remained in place, as solid as Mount Tai.
At a loss as to what to do with this, I decided to receive help from collective intelligence.
I immediately took a photo of the hatch and uploaded a post to the gallery.
-Aurora: How do I open this??
(Photo of a white hatch)
Even when I try to open it with force, it really only moves a little and won’t open…
There isn’t anything like a key, so what am I supposed to do?
ㄴScholar of Truth: Have you tried using mana?
ㄴAurora: How do I use mana?
Mana, a power that could be called the foundation of another world.
Something suited to another world, capable of distorting reality and advancing one toward transcendence.
I wondered whether I could use such a power.
Scholar of Truth wrote a comment to me that seemed steeped in intellect.
ㄴScholar of Truth: It isn’t difficult. You just have to feel the flow of mana.
ㄴ ?? How do you do that, though?
ㄴScholar of Truth: You just… feel it?
ㄴFuck, does this guy think mana is something you can touch or what?
ㄴIs this bastard bragging about being talented?
Hm. Suddenly, Scholar of Truth was catching strays.
It seemed feeling mana was in the realm of instinct.
When I searched mana in the gallery and roughly looked through the posts, about one in ten people could feel mana.
And even among those people, more than half took over five years to sense it.
But I was short on food… so I had to obtain mana as soon as possible.
If I couldn’t obtain mana, I would starve to death.
I immediately recalled Scholar of Truth’s and the others’ words and focused on my senses.
Mana was said to be something close to warmth. Like the vitality that had coursed through my body after eating the jerky…
“Huh?”
Something was strange.
The vitality coursing through my body moved through me in time with my heartbeat.
Wondering if this could possibly be mana, I immediately decided to try the next step.
After perception came manifestation.
Infusing my will into mana and making it reveal itself outwardly.
The will for mana to flicker from my hand.
I infused it.
‘Burn.’
At that moment, the mana reflected my will.
Fwoosh!!
“Uaaagh!!!”
The mana flame was too large, and I suffered a light burn on my hand.
‘It’s not like it needs treatment, but…’
…There was no way this could be normal, so I immediately asked the gallery.
-Aurora: Does mana normally come out like this?
(Photo of green mana flames extending from my hand all the way to the ceiling)
They told me to feel mana and infuse my will into it, so I tried it and this happened;;
Don’t tell me this is normal? I burned my hand;;
ㄴScholar of Truth: ?? This is bigger than when I first used mana…
ㄴSword Saint of Drawing: No!! Such a talent for the drawing sword!!
ㄴ? Fuck, some people strain with everything they have just to use mana once, so what is this?
ㄴMod!! Ban this flexer!!!
Of course, my mana was abnormal—in other words, it was closer to the mana of a genius.
Unlike the other gallery users, Scholar of Truth looked at the situation rationally.
ㄴScholar of Truth: It’s probably because of the characteristics of the deep sea. The deep sea is dense with mana to the point that observation magic is impossible.
ㄴAurora: Dense with mana?
ㄴScholar of Truth: Yes. For some reason, mana is especially dense in the deep sea. Its mana concentration is five times higher than the World Tree’s.
Just as Scholar of Truth said, my senses were certainly feeling the mana around me.
Vast mana, like the pressure of the deep sea.
But if there was one problem…
ㄴAurora: But how do I control mana?
ㄴScholar of Truth: I did it with the feeling of restricting the flow of mana… but that probably won’t work for you.
Narrowing the path of mana.
That was the usual method of mana control.
“Aaaargh!!”
…When I did it, it felt like a hole was being punched through my palm.
ㄴScholar of Truth: Mana is like water, so the greater the amount, the harder it is to handle delicately.
Ah, he could’ve told me that a little sooner.
That thought passed through my mind, but I didn’t write it as a comment.
The fortunate part was that physical reinforcement was simply wrapping mana around the body.
If I wrapped it around my whole body instead of concentrating it in one place like before, I didn’t injure myself either.
-Aurora: I’ll try opening the hatch.
If I get outside, I’ll at least take some pictures.
After writing a post in the gallery, I stood in front of the hatch.
I wrapped my whole body in the mana circulating through me in time with my heartbeat.
Will settled into the mana, and soon it lingered around my entire body.
I grabbed the hatch door.
The solidity transmitted through my hand was completely different from before.
Creeeak!!
Perhaps because it was old, the hatch moved with a scream-like sound.
I flinched for a moment at that sound, but then I put strength into it again.
When my hand turned once, twice, and finally three times—
The hatch pushed forward without resistance.
Cheering inwardly at the sight, I stepped outside the submersible.
The first sight I saw after leaving the submersible was the green force field.
Since the place where I was stood at the edge of the force field that surrounded the city, I turned around and took in the sight of the city.
The old city I had seen through the window… well, it existed.
It was simply not the city I had imagined.
Chrrk. Chrrk.
Kkak.
A red mass clumped together as if imitating a human.
Where a face should have been, there was only a single eyeball instead of features.
Every time the eyeball rolled, a chrrking sound rang out.
And that creature was gnawing at the buildings of the old city with long, sharp claws.
…Even thinking it over again, my starting point was the worst.