Hooray, an Underwater Adventure!

In the end, Furina still grumpily took a bite of the little cake.

Wu Wanghai thought for a moment, looking at the river beside him before checking his extra skills. He suddenly realized he had plenty of fresh ingredients now.

But what about fire? He would figure something out after coming back up. If that did not work, he could find a Hilichurl camp. And if all else failed, there were Flaming Flowers, Pyro Slimes, and fire-elemental helpers. There were plenty of options.

"Next, I want to blow up some fish. Fufu, you can go underwater too, right?" Wu Wanghai walked to the riverbank and looked around. There was not a single crab in sight, so he could only check the water and see what he could eat.

Furina bristled. "What kind of look is that? My full name is Furina de Fontaine. I'm Fontainean, at least. There isn't a single Fontainean who can't swim!"

"Come on, then!" Wu Wanghai said, starting to take off his clothes.

"You! What are you doing?!" Furina immediately turned around in embarrassment.

"Don't you need to take off your clothes to swim?" Wu Wanghai said, placing one hand on his waist and raising the other high as he began warming up.

"You don't!" Furina ran into the water, then vanished with a dive.

"Uh." Wu Wanghai froze.

Splash. Furina surfaced, and the hat on her head had somehow not fallen off. "Come on in too."

"I'm coming!" Seeing Furina enter the water fully clothed, Wu Wanghai hurriedly put his clothes back on and jumped in after her.

Once underwater, Wu Wanghai could not help looking at Furina's hat ahead of him. Was it glued on? How had it not fallen off?

Kick, kick... But there was a serious problem now.

"Pfft, hahaha! You swim so funny. Your breaststroke is completely improper." Furina's voice somehow reached Wu Wanghai's ears underwater.

"Glub glub. Gwah... urgh." Sure enough, he could not talk underwater. Wu Wanghai finally witnessed the Hydro Archon's privilege for himself.

Furina swam over to Wu Wanghai in just a few strokes, grabbed him, and pulled him deeper. "I'll take you."

As Furina pulled Wu Wanghai along, she occasionally explained the secrets of swimming to him.

Before long, Wu Wanghai's swimming posture had become much more proper. At the very least, it was no longer so funny.

"You still need lots more practice!" Furina smugly patted Wu Wanghai, then spotted a Fontemer Aberrant in the distance—a cute little blue crab.

Furina's eyes began to shine. The tiny crab was so cute. They would catch it while it was not paying attention.

Heave-ho! Furina hugged the entire crab to her chest.

The crab's little legs flailed wildly beneath her, rocking Furina from side to side, but it still could not shake her off.

"Hahaha." Playing with little animals really was the happiest thing.

Meanwhile, the moment Wu Wanghai saw that familiar crab, his phone suddenly popped out on its own again.

Wu Wanghai then tapped open his phone and looked at the flashing quest icon.

? I remember when I checked the quests last night, there was nothing here. It was blank.

[First Encounter with a Fontemer Aberrant]

Underwater, even gods find it difficult to use their skills. However, we can borrow the power of Fontemer Aberrants to protect ourselves underwater.

Reward obtained: Extra Skill, Aberrant Theft.

Wu Wanghai hurriedly opened the skill description.

Aberrant Theft: Based on the type of target stolen from, temporarily gain a special skill and enhanced abilities. All skills automatically disappear upon leaving the water or moving more than one thousand meters away from the stolen target.

Fontemer Aberrant Stingray: Rapidly launch two water blades, dealing massive true damage. After charging, the water blades become larger and move slower, increasing their damage.

Fontemer Aberrant Crab: Gain a shield that automatically reflects attacks, dealing damage equal to three times the shield's value. After charging, you and your teammates gain shields, and reflected damage equals five times the total shield value.

Fontemer Aberrant Blubberbeast: Continuously fire sonic bubbles, dealing true Reverberation damage. Reverberation: When continuously hitting a target, the next bubble additionally deals true damage equal to fifty percent of the previous bubble's true damage. Reverberation can trigger consecutively up to ten times. If the chain breaks, the count resets.

Fontemer Aberrant Jellyfish: Launch a large spinning water sphere that pulls in nearby enemies. After traveling a certain distance, it explodes, dealing massive true explosive damage.

Nice, nice, nice.

After reading those skills, Wu Wanghai only had one thing to say. Awesome!

From now on, the sea was his home. Wasn't this way stronger than his current Summoner class?

On land, his level-two self was so weak. The little water balls he summoned were only slightly bigger than the level-one version.

He had only managed to fight monsters on even terms by relying on himself and Furina's signature weapon.

"Glub glub!" Wu Wanghai hurriedly swam over to the Fontemer Aberrant Crab and hugged it too.

The crab, which had been wildly struggling with all its limbs moments ago, was now caught between the two of them like a hamburger patty.

So, the crab gave up struggling, went completely still, and began playing dead...

After touching the crab, Wu Wanghai casually activated a charged skill.

In an instant, a blue halo appeared around Wu Wanghai and Furina.

Furina jumped in surprise and asked, "What is this?"

"It's the crab skill I stole!" Wu Wanghai instinctively replied, forgetting again that he should not have been able to speak underwater. Then he suddenly realized. "I can talk too?!!!"

Confused, Wu Wanghai canceled the skill. "Glub, blargh."

"So that's how it is. This crab skill is way too useful. The shield it generates lets me talk underwater! Hehe."

"Is that so...?" Furina looked at the shield around them in surprise, then looked at Wu Wanghai.

This guy was pretty impressive too. Furina nodded in satisfaction.

Thus, Wu Wanghai and Furina began exploring underwater.

They even encountered a mechanical fish that attacked them on its own initiative. But when it rammed into them, it immediately flipped belly-up and went motionless. Wu Wanghai directly gained +50 experience.

Afterward, Wu Wanghai also tried the Fontemer Aberrant Blubberbeast's skill. The effect was average. He could not move while using the bubbles, and moving easily broke the chain. Once the chain broke, the damage became pitiful. Monsters that the crab could kill with one reflection took two or three bubbles.

When they had first encountered the Fontemer Aberrant Blubberbeast, it had swum incredibly fast. Fortunately, Furina was nimble enough. After circling around for only a few rounds, the Blubberbeast ended up beneath Furina as she rode it.

They also encountered a Fontemer Aberrant Jellyfish. Its skill was average too, since there were rarely schools of fish nearby. Otherwise, it would have been quite powerful as a depth charge.

But if they were talking about useful skills, then of course it was the Fontemer Aberrant Stingray they encountered last. This creature had also let Furina hug it freely. It was quite docile. None of these Aberrants attacked humans.

Swish, swish, swish. Countless water blades flew out.

At the same time, countless fish flipped belly-up.

Countless +5, +10, and +20 numbers floated before Wu Wanghai's eyes.

"Glug glug!!" Wu Wanghai was thrilled. Although the stingray skill did not let him speak underwater like the crab's did, a single water blade sent his experience soaring.

He was also delighted that killing fish granted experience. It was practically free.

In such a short time, Wu Wanghai had already reached level five.

Furina could not see the scene of Wu Wanghai's experience skyrocketing. All she saw was him swish, swish, swishing around and catching an absurd number of fish.

The countless dead fish before them were proof of his crime!

Had something happened to him? Why was he so happy just from killing fish?!