Stomping around in the shallow water got old. Fast. James didn’t have quite the same soggy boot problem that Virgil did, but the further they walked into the water, the deeper it became. It was gradual at first, and it felt like they were walking on a smooth concrete ramp, so he was surprised when the water suddenly reached his calves.

  And then, it didn’t matter if his boots were waterproof or not. Eventually, the water would reach something that wasn’t.

  It made him want to rush ahead. Once they were fully underwater, it wouldn’t feel so disgustingly soggy.

  “Should we leave our armor behind?” James asked as casually as he could, definitely not thinking about Inara in a bikini or what it would be like to finally see her abs.

  He was sure she had abs.

  Desiree, Inara, and Virgil all gave him matching, scandalized looks.

  “So we can swim? It’ll just weigh us down…”

  “Do you think armor grows on trees?” Inara practically shouted.

  “We were so lucky to find this stuff in the Warden’s secret stash, are you kidding?!”

  “It would be better to stay on the ground, regardless,” Virgil added last.

  “Okay, okay!” James raised his hands in total surrender. It had seemed like a reasonable question!

  He was relieved when Desiree finally called out that she saw a fish.

  James readied his fireball. It might become a pointless spell once they were underwater, but at least he could use it against some surface level fish in the early stages. It was like shooting fish with a gun or throwing dynamite in a river: grossly overpowered, but technically it worked.

  “Fireball.” The spell shot into the shallow water. A cloud of steam hissed into life, and when it cleared, two fish rose to the surface, belly up.

  You have defeated a SilverFish! EXP +100

  You have defeated a SilverFish! EXP +100

  Desiree whooped. James approached the fish cautiously. He expected there would be a bigger fish after it, some kind of momma fish that might take issue to the killing of its babies, so he rushed to loot the kill.

  You have received (1) Roasted Filet of the SilverFish.

  Just for kicks, James inspected the filet.

  Roasted Filet of the SilverFish

  Can be eaten to restore 10HP. Also useful as bait.

  He whistled. 10HP wasn’t much, but it wasn’t nothing, either, and Desiree hadn’t gotten her healing spell yet. James slotted the fish into his inventory.

  You have received (1) Ring of the SilverFish.

  James inspected the ring.

  Ring of the SilverFish

  SilverFish can breathe underwater. When you wear the ring, so can you!

  James slid the ring onto his forefinger. “I guess we just need three more of those. Sounds easy enough.”

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  As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them. He knew better than to tempt fate like that!

  Sure enough, the SilverFish were elusive, and they had a miserable drop rate for the rings. Even with the meager experience granted, James feared he might level up entirely off of fish. Until at last, when the water reached his chest, they found their last ring.

  James rubbed his temples. The only good news about all the extra farming they’d had to do was that the fish filets stacked, and he’d picked up 28 of them. It should have been an even thirty, but he’d found out the hard way that if he didn’t use his fireball, they didn’t loot pre-cooked.

  That was 280HP worth of free health points, and after their last boss fight, James was glad to have the safety net. He still had his last health potion, but his goal was to save that against the final showdown against the Demon King. Ideally, the Demon King wouldn’t expect him to have it, and he could pull it out in the final stages and get the added benefit of surprise.

  He was also glad to note that, no matter how deep the water became, he was still able to move and fight without resistance. He chalked that up to his System-empowered strength and was glad of it.

  Up ahead, the water deepened further, and James knew that they were only steps away from being completely underwater. He twisted the Ring of the SilverFish. He wouldn’t admit it, but he was nervous. Even if the magic ring said he’d be able to breathe underwater, what if they got underwater and he couldn’t breathe? What if??

  But nobody else seemed concerned, so he kept moving. He’d be able to just stick his head under first anyway, to test it out.

  And then— the Hero’s worst fear became a reality. Throughout the course of their fishing expedition, he’d stopped checking the floor for sudden dips and divots. It was hard to make out the exact topography since it was all the same color, but after a while, it had become simply too cumbersome to keep testing the waters, so to speak.

  So when the floor suddenly dropped open into a sinkhole, James stumbled and fell and, thanks to his armor, sank like a stone.

  “AhhhH!!” he blubbered. Air bubbles rose from his lips and when he sucked in a huge, panicked breath — he was fine. He didn’t splutter or gasp or gag.

  It was fine.

  Well. He was breathing fine. He was still falling through a progressively dark tunnel with no end in sight, and that was decidedly not fine at all.

  He tried to swim upward. He kicked as hard as he could but couldn’t make any headway, only barely managing to even slow his progress. It wasn’t just the weight of his armor, he realized. There was a current in the water that pulled him down, harder than he could fight even if he discarded every piece of metal that he wore.

  Once he accepted that, James stopped fighting. He gave in to the pull of the water and spent his effort instead on getting used to breathing water instead of air. It was a super weird sensation, thick in his lungs and with pressure every time he exhaled.

  He’d just have to hope the others came in after him, and that this was the right way to go. Hell, maybe they’d get lucky and he accidentally found a shortcut or secret passage!

  The walls around him changed, gradually at first and then all at once. Gone was the sterile concrete look. First the rocks grew more ridged, then gained hints of green. Then algae and coral sprung up in fits and spurts, and soon small fish swum between them.

  Until at last, James landed at the center of a coral reef, alive with thick bushes of colorful plant life and fish as large as his hand. It felt like landing on another planet. There were vibrant colors where colors usually wouldn’t be — bright pinks and sharp yellows next to textured blues.

  He’d always wanted to go diving and never found the time, and now he kicked himself for every missed opportunity. If he’d known it would be like this, he’d have gone a hundred times.

  James was almost disappointed when he heard the thud of Inara’s boots behind him. He was peering through the ledges of the coral — or algae or fungus or whatever it was, he wasn’t an oceanologist — and he felt he could do that all day. Everywhere he looked, it seemed, there was a new color or a new texture, and since he could breathe the water he could take his time and get as close to each thing as he wanted!

  Inara did a quick turn around the reef, with her hand ready on her scythe. She looked like she wanted to cut the whole thing down just to improve visibility, but to James’s relief, she restrained herself.

  Virgil and Desiree weren’t far behind. The scholar had a panicked look on his face, and Desiree was grinning wildly, and James had to wonder if the girl had pushed the poor man in. Her STR was certainly high enough to shove Virgil forward, and the scholar wasn’t nearly paranoid enough to have been ready for it.

  James grinned. No matter what happened down the line, he loved this group of people. Here and now, they were friends, and that meant everything.

  Desiree opened her mouth to speak, but instead of sound, only bubbles came out.

  James cocked his head. “What’d you say?” he tried to ask, only to suffer the same effect. One by one, each member of the party realized, with mounting horror, that for as long as they were underwater, they would not be able to speak to each other.