“Urgh … got it. And remind me again why the closest entrance to a water reservoir under the city is in the Falls, of all places?” He opened the door and stepped out, with his mother and uncle right behind him.

  “This is quite beautiful, though, isn’t it?” Mary asked, looking around at the dozens of waterfalls in her sight, almost cutting the buildings scattered around the area in half. Since this was directly next to all the waterfalls, there weren’t a lot of homes, but there were a lot of mining operations around. The housing in the Falls was a little farther away. This part was a bit too dangerous for people to live if the weather turned too bad and the rivers overflowed. However, it was an extremely popular tourist destination and was another place where tons of people gathered for Goria’s day. There was still some garbage left around from yesterday.

  Ryan walked toward the crowd and was met by someone in long, white, pale blue robes, which looked a little weird: rather than waving in the strong wind up there on the mountain as robes like this should, they were moving around like … waves. Like water. It was probably a specially enchanted fabric, but even knowing that, Ryan was a bit taken aback.

  “You are the one that was summoned?” the acolyte said with a smile on his face, though behind that smile, Ryan could feel the jealousy almost boiling over.

  “Yeah, that’s me. So, uh … how does this work? Is there some kind of submarine or something?” he asked, glancing past the man at the pool of water that all of those people were standing around. Still smiling, the acolyte stepped aside and led Ryan closer to the edge of the water, looking down. But instead of seeing what he was hoping for, he just saw the beginnings of steps leading deeper into the water. He had a bad feeling about this. And when Yamada came to him with a hiking backpack filled to the brim, that feeling came even worse.

  “Wait, are we walking?” Ryan asked with a wry smile, looking over to his uncle.

  “We? Sorry, but you have to go alone,” Runar replied. “And yes … you have to walk.”

  “What? Why? You said, ‘We got permission,’ in your text, so why are you suddenly pulling out?”

  The acolyte explained. “Gaining permission to enter Goria’s domain is not easy, even for us. You have been invited to enter her shrine, so that is a journey you will have to take on your own.”

  Ryan clicked his tongue as he put on the backpack. “Urgh, fine … So, it’s all … steps? Is there some kind of slide hidden there?”

  “I am afraid it is ‘all steps.’ Though it should only take you four or five hours to reach the bottom if you walk at a brisk pace, and then another few hours to reach the actual shrine.”

  With a sigh, Ryan stretched a bit. “Might as well get something out of it. Four hours? Let’s make it … three.”

  “Ryan …” his mother said with a slight frown, “don’t overdo yourself.”

  “Nah, it’s fine. Even if I do get hurt, I’ve got the Blood Rose stuff,” he pointed out, stepping closer to the edge of the water. “Alright, what do I do?”

  Ryan was given a shell that was clearly infused with some kind of magic. “As long as you have this with you, the water will make way.”

  “Right. Got it,” he replied, clutching the shell as he took a step toward the first step. The water moved out of the way, like it was repelled by him. “There’s no branching paths or anything … right? Just this one stairway?”

  The acolyte nodded. “Yes, just the one. I wish you a good journey down to the shrine.”

  Ryan waved at his mother, uncle, and Yamada, then took the next step into the water. The stares of the people standing around the small pool were pretty uncomfortable. They were barely moving, just staring at him with a strange mixture of expressions. Some were excited to be there for the moment someone was called to meet Goria, while others were incredibly envious that it wasn’t them walking down those steps. Others were even looking at Ryan with disgust on their faces, as if they hated to see someone who wasn’t one of Goria’s followers like them.

  But he just had to ignore it. Ryan continued down the steps, and before long, the water closed up behind him. All the noise from the waterfalls and voices from above was shut off, and he was left alone. Since there was nothing else to do, Ryan put on his headphones and started listening to some music. He probably wouldn’t have good signal going down, so luckily, he had a lot of stuff downloaded.

  Once Ryan followed the steps down to the pool’s bottom, he entered a tunnel. Now not just the noise from above was gone but also the light. The walls of the tunnel were lined with lamps, so he was able to see anyway. The tunnel itself was pretty roomy, probably because it was made so that anyone that could ever be called by Goria could make their way down there. But that also meant that the steps were pretty large, making every step downward incredibly annoying. Four hours of this was going to absolutely destroy his knees.

  Just for a moment, Ryan squatted and touched the steps. He thought they would be slippery and covered in algae, but they were actually pretty dry and rough. If this continued on all the way to the bottom, maybe Ryan could use to boost his physicality stat training. That was the last stat that he really wanted. The resistance stat was also useful, but it didn’t seem easy for him to awaken that right now.

  Taking some deep breaths while mentally preparing himself, Ryan started walking again. He first tried to move at a pace where he could walk these steps as though they were the size meant for a human like him. It was a bit uncomfortable, since he had to take extra long steps, but he soon got into a good rhythm. When he managed to get his breathing under control, as he did whenever he did those long runs at the gym with Yanna, Ryan started to try and speed up a bit. He wasn’t quite sprinting, but he was definitely moving along those steps much faster than normal.

  “This shouldn’t quite take four hours,” he said to himself. He should be able to cut that down to at least two hours if things continued this way. Though, about an hour and change later, Ryan grew a bit worried. The lights that he was completely relying on weren’t continuing at some point farther down the stairway. It didn’t seem to be a curve, either, though, as he could see the steps themselves continue, submerged in the dark water.

  And it didn’t take long until he understood why. As Ryan continued down the steps, the walls disappeared. Instead, what was in front of him was a massive, dark cave. How was he supposed to navigate this space? He might be able to manage if he slowed down a ton, but there wasn’t even anything like a safety railing there. And with the shell, if he fell off the side of the steps, he would be left in complete free fall in a bubble of air.

  But as Ryan walked a bit more, he came to a small platform. It was like a place to take a break during the descent, with a table, a bench, and everything. Figuring that he might as well sit down and eat something, Ryan dropped onto the bench and opened his backpack. For some reason, it even had a change of clothes in there … When did Yamada prepare this?

  Either way, he promptly got out one of the packed boxes of food. Runar had shown them to Ryan before; these boxes were specially made to keep the food inside at the perfect temperature, using an assortment of runes on the inside.

  “When it comes to convenience, he really doesn’t hold out, does he?” Ryan sighed as he started to eat the food. Tiar also seemed quite happy that Ryan was finally eating something. They had been getting a bit tense since the descent started, though part of that could be the fact that they were getting closer and closer to Goria. The Great Spirit’s energy was flowing through all of the water around Ryan, and since symbiotes seemed to be connected to her, maybe Tiar was sensing something like that. If Ryan was sensitive to matters like that, then Tiar had to be as well.

  At the end of his brief break, once Ryan was done, he put everything back into his bag and decided to continue beyond the platform surrounded by complete darkness. At least the shell itself was giving off a small glow, so Ryan had some light to himself, but it really wasn’t a lot. It was like the strength of a weak night-light. It wouldn’t be easy to walk down the steps with just this. But it wasn’t like he had a choice, so he carefully started walking down the stairs connecting to this platform.

  And as his foot touched the first next step, a soft light shone from the stone slabs, illuminating the edges.

  “Urgh … you could have done that earlier.” Ryan groaned, quickly continuing on with his journey. He didn’t know exactly how long it would take him to reach the bottom, but even once he got there, he was apparently supposed to keep walking for a while. According to Runar, Goria’s shrine was actually constructed during the times of Old Riverside. That meant they were part of the ruins under where Ryan lived, though far, far deeper down. Which also meant that after crossing that distance vertically, he would have to walk all the way to Oldtown. But once he was able to just move horizontally, he should be able to jog part of the way. Doing all this with this backpack on him should actually be pretty good training.

  Though he did feel a bit bad that Gaia wouldn’t be able to tend to her garden tonight. But this was just a bit more important. It was possible that Gaia would be able to give him something to prevent any further attempts by the White Shadow Society to infect spirits. In the meantime, the Aglecards were taking proper care of everything and would use the cure to help out any spirits that were corrupted.

  An hour after Ryan got to the second half of the stairway, he finally reached the bottom of the massive dark cave. This must be one of the many water reservoirs hidden under the city … no wonder Goria was born there. The waterfalls, the river, the lake, these reservoirs, and rain season apparently got pretty bad in these parts as well. Either way, the energies of water surrounded this town from quite literally all directions.

  But now it was time for him to enter the next tunnel, leading away from this cave. There was another place to rest at the beginning of this tunnel, and it was actually a bit larger, with space to spend the night. Looking up at the steps whose light was slowly fading away, Ryan certainly understood why. If it usually took at least four hours to go down these stairs, unless you basically ran down them like Ryan, then going up would be quite the ordeal. Depending on when you got there, it might be better to spend the night than to force yourself up the steps and risk falling down due to exhaustion.

  That being the case, Ryan didn’t need that right now. He might consider it on the way back, though. He definitely wasn’t excited about having to climb those stairs at all. But for now, he took a break, ate something again, rested for ten or twenty minutes, and then continued on his way. Since he was in another tunnel, the walls had lights on them again, so he was actually able to see quite well. The water was also absolutely pristine, so he could see the lights stretch out for quite a while like this.

  As Ryan continued on this path, he passed through two more larger reservoirs, though he really had no idea how big they could be. Before long, Ryan made it to the end of the path, entering the last and apparently largest underwater cave hiding under the city. Different from the others, this one was as bright as the tunnels that he had been passing through. Massive towers of glowing crystals were growing alongside each part of the cave. Bioluminescent fish that were larger than Ryan were swimming through the water in small schools. Every once in a while, a curious straggler came by Ryan to check out his bubble, but it would disappear the moment one of its scales touched the air hidden inside.

  But none of what he was seeing compared to the sight of the massive building in the distance. Almost the entirety of the cave’s wall was carved out into the form of pillars and statues. This must have taken years and years to create, even with the assistance of skilled earth mages. The whole place was illuminated by a swarm of jellyfish. Ryan really wanted to avoid accidentally bumping into one of their stingers … Which wasn’t hard, considering that they were the brightest part of their bodies.

  Ryan continued into the hall, reaching a pedestal. It had a sign with a sentence in different languages: Leave the shell here

  Though he was nervous, since this was the rule of the shrine, Ryan did as told. He placed the shell on the pedestal and watched as the bubble of air that was surrounding him shrank. He was panicking, trying to grab the shell again, but before he could, the water had already enveloped him completely.

  But … Ryan didn’t get wet. He definitely felt like he was underwater, with his body feeling a lot lighter, and he could feel the water’s cold touch, but he wasn’t wet. Not to mention he was even able to breathe, as no water seemed to be able to enter his mouse or nose.

  “Huh,” Ryan let out, his voice blunted by the water, though still fairly audible. He continued on the path inside of the building and soon reached a large double door, too large for even the largest giant to open.

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Goria

  Massive doors the size of a high-rise stretched upward in front of Ryan. Each half of the door was decorated with enormous carvings of a woman. Her upper body appeared similar to that of a common humanoid, though her lower body was a fish tail. She appeared to be a mermaid, at least outwardly. Though Ryan had never seen one himself, in one of the books that Runar had given him, he read that they were part of the species under the Aglecards’ protection.

  In most drawings of Goria, she was usually depicted pretty much exactly like this, so Ryan knew that it was supposed to be her. Something like this must have taken years to finish, especially all the way down there.

  A bit nervous, Ryan stepped up to the door, and as he got closer, it slowly opened. The motion created a strong current that pulled Ryan into the space beyond the door. It was where he wanted to go anyway, but it still felt nerve-racking. But he didn’t have much time to really think about that in the first place, because what Ryan saw beyond the doors was absolutely breathtaking.

  For a few moments, Ryan was unsure if he had suddenly moved up at some point on his way there, because he could see rays of sunlight breaking through the surface of the water above, illuminating the massive reef below. It stretched out as far as Ryan could see in this crystal-clear water. Numerous breeds of fish swam all around him. Some were the size that he was used to, while others were as massive as the ones in the reservoir outside.

  The reef’s corals climbed up on top of each other like densely growing trees, creating a glittering forest. How was this space so large? There was no way this was part of the same reservoir. It seemed as though Ryan had entered a whole other space. He was now inside of Goria’s domain. The water that surrounded him was so densely filled with magic that it felt incomparable to the mana density of dungeon air, but somehow, it wasn’t as offensive as in a dungeon. This space was inviting, and the magic inside of it was trying its best to not hurt Ryan.

  Ryan walked on, looking around him as he did. Everything around there was so massive, it felt like he had been shrunken down and dropped into the most picturesque reef you could find on the coast. At this point, Ryan understood why Goria’s acolytes were so jealous of him. This was a once-in-a-lifetime sight, and he hadn’t even met Goria herself just yet.

  The path in front of Ryan continued for a while. It was lined with shells like a brick road, and though it was a bit bumpy to walk on, he didn’t really care. He was barely able to focus on what was below him, because there was something new to see with every step he walked and every breath he took.

  Ryan continued on through Goria’s domain. Its size was truly incomprehensible. It didn’t seem like it would ever end, and even when he looked back, an infinite ocean was stretching out beyond the door that he had come through. It took him about an hour of walking to get to the end of the path. He looked around, trying to see if the path continued somewhere else, but there was nothing. Ryan was just standing at the edge of a cliff, staring down into an abyss that was glistening and glittering like stars in the night sky shining through the dark fog.

  As he looked around, Ryan spotted something in the distance. There were fish all over the place, but this was something else. It was clearly massive, approaching him from the distance. It was a whale, larger than any that Ryan believed to exist in the world, with a forest of barnacles, kale, and corals growing on its back. But atop its crown sat a figure, hidden between the underwater creatures swimming on of the whale’s back. It was a woman with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a fish.

  Soon, the whale came to a halt, and the woman swam away from her throne, approaching Ryan. But she continued swimming for far longer than Ryan expected. She appeared rather small from a distance, but as she approached, her body seemed incomprehensibly large. It was an even greater size difference than there was between Ryan and Maximus.

  The massive mermaid came to a halt, looking down at Ryan with a soft smile. She was beautiful. That was the only word that really came to mind. Though she didn’t open her mouth, a voice soon reverberated through the water.

  “I thank you for coming to this humble place. First, allow me.”

  Goria’s voice was calming and soft but still carried an unbelievable authority within it. Ryan was almost stunned by its sound, though he was snapped out of it when a message appeared in front of his eyes.

  [You have completed the Quest -Goria’s Gratitude-]

  Ryan waved to the side, getting rid of the system window. He slightly bowed his head to the figure in front of him. “Thank you. It’s an honor to be able to speak to you.”

  Goria laughed slightly, shaking the water around Ryan’s body. “Please raise your head, my child. You should not be the one bowing but I. You have done me a great favor.”

  Though he was grateful to hear something like that, Ryan felt a bit unsure about what he was hearing. “I’m sorry, but … I don’t know if I did anything to deserve those words from you. I just poured out a potion over a spirit’s head; that’s all.”

  “I am not merely speaking of your curing of the child of the lake but much more than that. You and your predecessors have been of great service to us for many an era, and we have seldom had the opportunity to thank you.”