Chapter 167
Chapter 167
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 167
Chapter Title: Clash with the Mermaids
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“Leaf.”
—Yes, Administrator.
Even with Aegis, the most versatile defensive artifact for aerial combat, you're still so fragile.
Leaf positioned himself diagonally in front of Adelian, blocking the way as he replied in a low voice.
“I’ll draw their attention for a bit, so slip back quietly and handle the ship’s flank.”
If they sent Kane, with that personality of his, he might just slice through the merfolk in one go and go hunting ocean monsters.
Leaf gave a short nod at the whispered words and stealthily retreated backward.
‘There’s only one merfolk circling the ship, posing a threat.’
Living beings naturally emit mana, and while the stronger ones learn to conceal it, unlike on land, it wouldn’t be easy for even Luna or Rachel in these waters.
But Leaf was originally a golem. He minimized his mana heart’s output to suppress it completely, then slowly walked through the water toward the ship.
His mana was fainter than that of a hand-sized swimming fish. Thanks to that, the merfolk menacingly circling the ship, preventing them from raising the anchor, didn’t notice Leaf and swam overhead, kicking up foam with its long tail.
“Ahh, so boring. The ones who went up to the island must be having fun.”
Maybe because it was a merfolk. Its words rang clearly even underwater. At that moment, Leaf kicked off the sandy seabed and surged upward.
“W-What?”
The merfolk with its deep blue-green tail twisted in surprise. But only for a moment. It quickly swung the spear in its hand, shooting out a current ahead. Leaf twisted his body, swimming and kicking the water to close the distance.
“Guh!”
Blood faintly spread around the merfolk, who failed to fully dodge Leaf’s attack and got grazed on the arm.
Clearly, Leaf held the advantage in raw power.
But the merfolk lashed its tail with a face that said it couldn’t possibly lose, pushing Leaf back once before opening its mouth.
“Idiot. Magic or herbs, their effects wear off quick. From your mana, looks like you came in without either? I’ll watch you turn blue and choke to death any second now.”
The merfolk curled its lip at the sight of Leaf, showing no signs of mana waves from breathing-assist spells or the telltale chewing of special herbs that let one breathe underwater briefly.
To move freely enough in these depths to attack it, this thing was pretty strong.
‘But unless you’re merfolk, no one’s free from the breathing problem.’
No need to kill it directly anyway. Just push it back with the tail when it gets close, graze it occasionally with the spear, and the enemy can’t do a thing.
So even if power was slightly lacking and it took some wounds, as long as it blocked the foe from surfacing for air, merfolk could never lose against other races.
Plus, the underwater environment wasn’t forgiving. Directions blurred—no up or down—and even identical-looking water could have currents flowing differently above and below.
Relying solely on mana to hold and move the body led to double the consumption compared to land, with mana depletion coming fast.
“Ugh! Damn it!”
So just hold out a bit longer, just a bit more. As long as it didn’t get caught for sure.
The merfolk ground its teeth as Leaf forced his way closer again, slipping through the currents after being shoved back by tail strikes.
During that time, the merfolk’s spear thrusts had pierced or grazed Leaf’s arms and legs, but not a drop of blood spilled—its visibly rapid regeneration left the seawater dyed entirely with the merfolk’s own blood.
In that instant, vision blurred as if thick paint had dropped into the water. Seizing the moment, a shadow closed in fast. This time, instead of a tail whip, the merfolk thrust its spear straight to impale.
“Die!”
A thud. Definitely not an arm or leg—the satisfying feel of ripping into organs.
The merfolk grinned wide, baring its teeth, and soon the currents swept its scattered blood farther away, revealing the figure.
Leaf, staring blankly at his own belly pierced by the spear, emotionlessly gripped the shaft and pushed it deeper into himself.
No—he grabbed the spear and shoved forward, inching closer to the merfolk until he seized the wrist holding it. Then his mouth moved silently.
“…C-Caught…?”
But… why wasn’t that bitch bubbling air from her mouth? Why had nothing spread but my own blood since earlier?
Shouldn’t she be gasping for breath by now, desperately trying to reach the surface?
Like she didn’t need to breathe at all…?
“Ah.”
The moment the merfolk realized something and looked at Leaf, his mana-clad handblade sliced strongly across its throat.
* * *
Honestly, it wasn’t a work that lacked popularity that much. The original, I mean.
If it had been written well, it could’ve at least been average, right?
The world-building was vast, and sure, the story was a clichéd hero-vs-demon-king tale that reeked of outdated tropes if you nitpicked—but that’s why they’re clichés. They work.
A protagonist who never breaks no matter what happens, enduring any hardship desperately, even if no one acknowledges it.
Even if everyone points fingers, misunderstands, curses, and spits on him, he doesn’t rage—instead walking the path of revenge for his family and the precious people from his childhood.
Honestly, that plot feels stale now, but you can’t deny the thrill it delivers.
And like any standard male-oriented fantasy, it threw in a harem just because the protagonist was handsome. Some cute, fluffy moments here and there. In a way, it was your typical moderately failed novel.
‘But thinking back now… wasn’t this just harem bait?’
I still haven’t dumped all my shares yet.
Anyway, it was a novel that polarized opinions hard.
That’s why it snagged core fans like me, got crowdfunded, and even got a game adaptation.
‘The world-building was ridiculously detailed, for one.’
Like it was transcribing an entire world into text. People even joked if it was a setting collection, commentary, or dictionary, with every trivial detail spilled across multiple chapters.
‘Emotion descriptions were minimized, lots of action and background instead.’
Don’t most novels do that? When the protagonist’s suffering, they describe how much, how sad, in detail.
But this one wrote like a historian chronicling events, dry as bone. And from other perspectives too.
Meaning, stories from enemies or former allies popped up, but it was mostly stuff around Kane.
So us few fans joked among ourselves that it was his debut work, cramming every hardship trope in existence.
‘Looking back now, it had to be that way.’
Leaf was a golem already low on emotions, plus the Writing (D) trait stacked on top.
He probably wrote exactly as he heard. The original covered Leaf before meeting Kane, including his childhood, but that was likely pieced together from what Kane himself told him.
And as a commander-type golem, basing it on analysis, he detailed climate, vegetation distribution, even merfolk breeding methods down to the nitty-gritty.
“You really think I don’t know? You mass-produced fake merfolk royals hatch from eggs. Prattle on about princes and royal blood all you want—it’s just spawn dumped in a breeding pond, isn’t it?”
‘Scored a point there.’
Like with bees. All larvae get royal jelly at first, but after three days, workers get honey or pollen, queens keep the jelly.
Merfolk royalty was similar.
Just stronger than average merfolk because they absorbed royal blood sprinkled into the breeding pond of pre-hatching eggs.
Yet these self-proclaimed collateral royals—countless mass-produced types—were actually elite guards bred pure for true royal blood.
In the end, the ones selected as Levi’s close aides betrayed him, trampling merfolk ideals of safeguarding the seas for petty piracy.
‘Even sold Levi out.’
To protect Levi, they’d been empowered nearly to royal blood levels, these so-called brothers. Levi was forcibly dethroned from his future as next merfolk king.
Humans lurked behind it all, and Levi, unable to hate his own kind fully, directed all his loathing at humanity.
‘All because of those bastards.’
Thinking of our healer’s ordeals, I could send Kane-mon out right now and it wouldn’t be enough.
‘But we’d all get wiped if I did.’
After seeing the Evil God Cult’s tributes, Kane was in a foul mood and deliberately hung back.
I’d given Leaf separate orders too.
“Oh, was that a secret even among you? My bad.”
I deliberately let arrogance drip as I mocked openly, and the self-styled royal merfolk ground its teeth.
“Dare spout nonsense you can’t back up? You’ll come to your senses once that ship—the only way off this island—sinks before your eyes.”
At that, I pretended to touch my chin while covering my mouth to laugh.
Knew you’d say that. Honestly, our party’s strong enough for me to bluff; normally, merfolk in the ocean are balance-breakers you can’t push hard against.
‘But this is the main party.’
“Do it if you can.”
As I laughed loudly, the merfolk slammed down its raised hand.
Probably signaling other merfolk waiting underwater with mana or something.
Meanwhile, the ones human-disguised on the island or dinghies gathered, wrapped themselves in water mana, and reached toward us.
In that instant, Luna, who’d stepped one pace ahead of me, shot forward.
“That all the power you’ve got? Wanna try suppressing us?”
Even full force wouldn’t cut it, and that mana level screamed they were holding back.
I chuckled merrily, about to pull out the codex from my subspace to back Luna, when Rachel grabbed my hand.
“Don’t you dare steal a bite!”
Especially at you! she snarled at Kane, then belatedly joined Luna against the merfolk.
Guess her fists had been itching.
“Arrogant rabbit bitch!”
“We’ll dunk you in the water—you lowly things can’t even breathe!”
“Shut up.”
“Kyahaha! Die!”
Rachel took the strongest merfolk, Luna the remaining four or so regulars.
Luna’s speed let her cover multiples; Rachel coated her gauntlets in aura and smashed fist-to-fist into the merfolk’s.
I watched, sidling up to Kane—who’d retreated on my orders—and asked.
“What do you want to eat?”
“Apple.”
Then I’ll have grapes.
I handed an apple to the guide, who alternated bewildered glances between the merfolk and us, and pulled out chairs from my subspace to sit.
“Uh… excuse me, young master, it’s dangerous. Merfolk in the ocean aren’t like anywhere else…”
“I know, cheat units, right?”
The guide blinked at my shrug and laugh.
Toss them in a desert stage like Chabid or a labyrinth without big water sources, maybe. But with a decent river nearby, they got attribute bonuses—and this ocean brimming with water everywhere?
‘Regen, recovery, base strength, all mana stats jacked up, sure.’
But my main party loses?
No way in hell.
I eyed the guide, who despite my offered chair couldn’t sit from nerves, rolling his eyes scheming escape routes on this tiny island, then turned to Kane.