Nakate was lying on his back, the cool surface beneath him felt unfamiliar. Slowly, his eyes fluttered open. Overhead stretched an endless expanse not sky, but water. He blinked, confused. He was lying on a small altar, yet everything around him shimmered with the soft distortion of being submerged.
It felt like he was underwater, though he wasn't floating. His body remained grounded, but each breath made him feel lighter, as if gravity itself had softened. The air felt thick and strange in his lungs. When he exhaled, bubbles drifted upward, confirming the impossible.
The light filtering through the deep blue around him wasn't harsh, but dim and surreal. Still, his vision reached far, at least 400 meters in every direction. Coral spires and alien flora stretched like an endless forest beneath the sea, glowing faintly with bioluminescence. Here and there, the jagged peaks of submerged mountains pierced the horizon of coral.
He wasn't in the world he knew anymore, Nakate was in the Depths Below.
Nakate sat up slowly, then rose to his feet, his new boots scraping softly against the smooth, altar-like stone. His eyes scanned the strange underwater world around him, searching for anything: ruins, a structure, even a broken statue, anything besides the endless forest of coral.
Then, far to the west, a faint yellow light flickered.
He narrowed his eyes. It wasn't natural, at least not like the soft bioluminescence glowing around him. This light pulsed irregularly, almost like a signal… or a warning.
Instinctively, he checked himself. His clothes were intact, despite the scorching flame that had devoured him earlier. Even his dagger was still at his side, looking untouched, as if nothing had happened. The familiar weight of it offered the smallest comfort.
Nakate had heard stories, whispers at the inn about the Depths Below. Adventurers spoke of it in hushed voices, treating it like a myth best left unexplored. But none of them had said it felt like this. It was like breathing through water without drowning, like walking across the ocean floor beneath a false, eternal dusk.
One thing he did know: the Depths were tied to Willpower. Only those with extraordinary resolve could survive here.
And the monsters? Every single one was classified S-rank.
He swallowed hard. All he could do now was hope; hope that if anything found him, it was a Tier 1. Anything stronger, and even with his strange stats… he wouldn't stand a chance.
He jumped down from the table the altar he had rested on and began heading west, toward the flicker of yellow light he had seen earlier. As he moved, he unsheathed his dagger. Purple lightning danced faintly along the blade, crackling in sharp, silent bursts. The sight stirred caution in him, but also a flicker of excitement.
The coral forest loomed around him like a living labyrinth, its branches swaying gently in the slow, dreamlike current of the Depths.
It didn't take long before he saw it- his first monster.
It looked like a jellyfish, light blue and translucent, floating eerily between the coral stalks. It wasn't huge, but it wasn't small either; perhaps a meter and a half tall, and nearly two meters across. Its trailing tendrils shimmered with faint electric energy.
Nakate didn't hesitate. He lunged forward and drove his dagger deep into the creature's soft body. For a split second, it convulsed and then it released a burst of blue lightning.
A sharp sting coursed across his exposed skin. His arms and neck burned, small arcs of energy searing flesh not protected by clothing. He gritted his teeth and endured it, refusing to let go of his weapon.
Nakate panted, his heart pounding.
Then the jellyfish twitched once… and collapsed, its glowing core dimming.
Suddenly, its entire body began to shimmer.
Light burst from within the creature, bright and pure, forcing Nakate to shield his eyes. The jellyfish's form dissolved in a swirl of radiant particles before vanishing entirely, leaving no trace behind.
Nakate stood frozen, watching the last of the glowing dust drift upward and fade into the dark blue sky above.
His first kill… and it hadn't even left a corpse.
He had been lucky that it wasn't a high-tier monster. But luck or not, he'd survived. He stood straighter, and kept going west.
***
After what felt like hours wandering the forest of coral and strange shadows, Nakate finally reached the source of the yellow flicker.
He crouched behind a jagged reef, peering out cautiously.
'Wait... are you telling me those are people?' he thought, eyes widening in disbelief.
Two figures stood at the entrance of a narrow bridge that stretched over a massive pit, leading to a small fortress suspended at its center like a spider in a web. The structure looked ancient, it was made of the same smooth, gray-blue stone as the altar he had awakened on, its surface etched with faint, glowing lines that pulsed like veins. Coral clung to its edges, but couldn't hide the sharp, deliberate architecture beneath.
The guards flanking the bridge didn't move much. They wore bulky, diver-like suits reinforced with blackened armor, and right where their hearts should've been, a yellow light burned, steady and unnatural, like a core or power source.
Nakate's grip tightened around his dagger.
They looked… human. But were they?
Were they survivors? Or just another type of monster?
Nakate tightened his grip on the dagger and stepped cautiously onto the bridge, eyes locked on the two guards.
He didn't try to hide his approach. If they were monsters, stealth wouldn't save him. And if they were people… well, maybe the dagger would at least make them cautious.
But before he could even get close, one of the guards raised a hand and called out casually, voice echoing strangely in the water-thick air.
"What are you gonna do with that? You're not gonna hurt us... At least not with that little thing. Looks like both you and that knife are about as threatening as a gigamed monster."
Nakate froze.
His dagger dipped slightly.
Disbelief spread across his face as he stared at the armored figure. The voice wasn't hostile. It was bored. Almost amused.
'Are they… actual survivors?' he thought. 'People who live down here? In the Depths?'
The other guard just leaned on his polearm and watched in silence, the yellow core in his chest dimly pulsing.
Nakate started to approach the guards slowly, his eyes locked on them as he unsheathed his dagger with a quiet, deliberate motion. The faint crackle of purple lightning traced along the blade, casting flickering reflections across the stone floor beneath his feet.
"So… uuh, is this place safe?"