She was in the water, her body out, tail buried within, while her fingers, now in the shape of long claws covered in blue fish scales, pointed at her stomach.

"In here," she said, and Everlearn's hair rose on end.

"Tehehe."

The sight of his standing hair made her giggle weirdly again, and she soon swam out of the water.

"Doragun owns the forest. He's very troublesome to deal with and will kill you if you wander into his territory," she said to him, as Everlearn's heart pounded loudly.

He recognized the creature being described.

One attack of it had launched him into the sky, and the follow-up force had thrown him straight into the sea.

If he had not reacted fast enough, he would have been crushed to paste by that blow.

"Tch, bastard," he cursed beneath his breath, but settled his anger, turning to her.

"Where is this place?"

"You don't know?"

"I don't. I jumped off a bridge and fell out of a waterfall, yet I landed right here. It doesn't make sense at all."

If he had simply followed the waterfall and dropped into the water below, there was no reason he should have landed in the sea… unless he had somehow fallen from the sky!?

It just didn't make sense, and something must have gone wrong during the fall.

"You most likely fell through the portal while trying to escape imprisonment from the Yorimunda Race…" she said with a shrug, and Everlearn's brow furrowed.

That kinda summed things up, too.

"A portal, huh. Do you know how I can get back to it?" he asked, and she pointed to the forest.

"You'll have to meet Doragun for that. The portal is within the cave he sleeps in," she said, and Everlearn's spine chilled.

The portal was within that fiery creature's abode!?

"Don't tell me you go to him and he just allows you in?" he said, and she giggled evilly.

"Of course not."

"Then… how did you ever get out?"

"At first, the strength of I and Doragun was equal," she said.

"I was a full Nagas at first, and we shared the island. A stalemate, so to say, and that was when I could go and leave as I liked."

"But as I moved to the water and awakened my Mermaid bloodline, I lost some of my Nagas' brute power, gaining Aquacana in exchange."

"Thing is, Aquacana is only powerful in water, and Doragun never comes out of the island, so I became much weaker than him."

"I've fought him seven times in a row now, trying to step out of here, but he pretty much wins all the time, so I don't go out anymore."

"You… you seem pretty chill with that…" he noticed, and she shrugged, lying on her back in the water as she swam around.

"Awakening my Mermaid bloodline might have indeed made me lose my brute power, but it also gave me a different power."

"Life Energy. I can tell I can live for more than 300 years," she said, as Everlearn's jaw dropped.

"As for Doragun, he'll be dying in 30 years at most from now. In the end, I'll be the one with the last laugh. Tehehe."

She cackled coldly after that, and Everlearn's brow quivered in disbelief.

"That's… that's quite cold," he mused beneath his breath.

She was patiently waiting for her enemy to die, trusting that she could outlive them and gain everything of theirs for herself once they're dead.

Now that was another level of patience and cold thinking.

"But I can't wait 30 years…" he mused beneath his breath.

If he lost his consciousness here, his body didn't disappear; it remained.

And who knew what would happen to him with two monsters around?

Most likely, one of them, either her or the Doragun, will devour him.

He needed a safe place, or he might never wake up here again.

"I need to get past that monster…"

The second, he came to that conclusion:

|| EPIC QUEST ISSUED ||

|| Defeat Dorimunga! ||

|| REWARDS:

1. +100,000 EXP!

2. +10 LEVEL UP CARDS!

3. +10 ABILITY UPGRADE CARDS

4. +100,000 PURCHASE POINTS

5. +1 All Injuries Rejuvenation Card||

The system panel flashed, and Everlearn's eyes glinted.

'So many rewards,'

But turning down, he quickly understood why.

|| Mission Difficulty: IMPOSSIBLE! ||

'An impossible mission. I've never gotten that before…' he mused, turning to the Mergas in the sea.

"Hey, uh, how strong exactly is Dorimunga?" he couldn't help but ask, rising to his feet and turning to her.

One moment, she was swimming, and in the next, her image began fading.

"FUUUU!"

An exhale of air hit Everlearn's ear from behind, and he turned to find her now on her feet, looking at him.

"So fast," he mused in disbelief.

She was fast… too fast.

The water didn't even ripple from the speed she had used to move out, and turning to the sea, he would see her afterimage slowly dispersing into motes.

'She even leaves afterimages…'

"Now if you think I'm fast… well, Dorimunga is as strong as I am fast," she explained.

"But if you're as strong as he's fast, you should be able to defeat him. Speed equals strength, always wins…" Everlearn mused, but she shook her head.

"You're right, but he has a way to slow down my speed to his level, so it's kinda useless."

"Unless you're as strong as him, then there's no beating him," she said, her fingers reaching out and booping his nose as he shook his head back.

"Your best bet is to wait till he dies like me, or watch out for when he leaves the cave and goes into the portal."

"Then you can quickly use it before he arrives," she said, and he hmmed quietly.

"Are you really just gonna let me leave like that, though? I should be your prey, remember?" he said, and in the next moment, he felt his leg yanked up, and in the next moment, he was hanging upside down.

She had changed to her Nagas form in a blink, both her hands wrapped beneath her jaw as she stared at him dreamily.

"Do you really want to be eaten so bad, pretty boy?"

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