Chapter 153

Chapter 154: The Mermaid Girl of the Water City (Second Update, Please Subscribe!)

The melodious sound of a silver bell mingled with the thunderous roar of the waterfall.

And amidst it all, the conversation continued without pause.

Mary.

That was the name of the mermaid girl.

The heretics, though born in the dungeon, possessed clear rationality and intellect. Naturally, they had their own names.

During their brief exchange, Izay earned her trust, and they exchanged names.

Hmm… but for some inexplicable reason, he felt like he was deceiving an innocent girl.

‘Hold on, deception requires causing harm to them. I don’t intend to hurt her, so this doesn’t count.’

Izay convinced himself of this internally.

Seeing Izay suddenly freeze, lost in thought, Mary shook her azure hair and tilted her head again.

“Hey, Izay.”

She softly called out, drawing his attention back to her.

“Let’s go over there, okay?”

Her delicate finger pointed towards the entrance of the cave maze, the mermaid girl’s expression tinged with unease.

Realizing something upon hearing her words, Izay slightly raised his head to observe the sky.

The dome of “Water Riddle City” was undoubtedly the highest ceiling within the dungeon so far.

On the ceiling of the floor, remnants of the “Great Tree Maze” could still be seen, massive tree roots at least five meters in diameter spreading out radially.

Far above, a few crimson streaks danced sparsely, and the shadows of harpies and sirens flew by. So far, no one had noticed the two by the waterfall pool.

Rational heretics would be attacked by other monsters in the dungeon as outsiders. It was likely due to sensing the approach of these new monsters that Mary felt uneasy.

The vast open space of the Great Void waterfall pool made it easy to become a target for beasts. There was also the possibility of being spotted by adventurers newly arrived on this floor from the cliffs.

“Yeah, we should move.”

Without hesitation, Izay nodded in agreement.

Mary’s face lit up with a radiant smile as she gave Izay a sweet grin.

As a mermaid, Mary couldn’t accompany Izay into the labyrinth through land, but the dungeon always seemed considerate towards its monsters.

Underneath the waterfall pool, there was a waterway connecting to the river within the cave maze, allowing Mary to enter the maze through this route.

Within the maze, countless caves existed, making it incredibly easy to find a secluded spot.

After waving goodbye to Izay temporarily, the mermaid girl dove into the water, creating ripples. Izay stood up as well.

“BOOM～～～”

Seemingly faintly, the crystals in this cliff seemed to tremble?

As if struck by some creature, causing a reaction.

“Did someone provoke a large monster?”

Feeling the tremor coming from the lower levels, Izay approached the edge of the cliff to look down, but saw nothing.

Not dwelling on it after a quick glance, Izay soon returned to the crystal maze.

The “Zodiac Disk” opened once more, displaying a mini-map as he navigated through the complex divergent paths, arriving at a small cavern.

Inside the cavern, there was no flowing water, only a pool surrounded by icy blue crystals resembling ice blocks on the crystal rocks around the shore.

Mary and Izay arrived here almost simultaneously.

When Izay entered the cavern, Mary was sitting at the water’s edge, eyes gently closed, pink lips slightly parted as if preparing to hum a tune.

However, seeing Izay walk in, the mermaid cutely froze, her eyes blinking as if asking, “How did you find me here?”

She had originally intended to guide him with her song.

“In the future, sing less in the maze. If people hear you, it could be dangerous. You might get captured and sold.”

Reading her thoughts from her expression, Izay patted her head as a warning.

“Oh…”

Awakened from her daze, Mary rubbed the spot he had tapped, responding absentmindedly.

“Izay… how did you find me?”

Quickly regaining her senses, Mary continued to dwell on this question.

“If I must say, it was by following my instincts?”

“Instincts?”

Izay nodded but didn’t elaborate further, finding it amusing to see the mermaid girl furrow her eyebrows in an attempt to understand.

This girl’s curiosity was clearly abundant, and her innocence and naivety made her seem exceptionally gullible.

But upon reflection, it made sense.

As a mermaid, she couldn’t fly like the sirens nor walk on land like other monsters; she could only move in the water.

In the environment of Water Riddle City, adventurers were always cautious around water and rarely ventured into it willingly.

This meant that Mary had extremely limited contact with other creatures.

Even underwater, she had to avoid other monster types, leaving her with no one to interact with except the heretics, severely limiting her experiences.

Despite possibly having existed for quite some time, she retained this innocent demeanor, which could only be attributed to her isolated environment.

“Enough about that, Mary, why were you at the waterfall pool? Shouldn’t you have stayed in ‘Secret’? ”

Shaking his head, Izay pushed aside other thoughts and focused on why she was there.

Izay undoubtedly held a friendly attitude towards the heretics.

Why fight against creatures who don’t actively attack adventurers or even harbor hostility towards them?

Why not give them more tolerance? The heretics just wanted a place to survive.

Personally, there was no reason sufficient enough for Izay to oppose them.

As for why he cared about Mary… perhaps it was because she was pretty.

Who could resist a天真 and clingy mermaid girl?

“There’s only me left in ‘Secret’…”

Perhaps recalling something unpleasant, Mary pouted in frustration.

“Layla and the others went upstairs. They left me behind to watch the house.”

With her hands resting on the crystal rock, Mary slapped her tail, which lay sprawled on the land, producing a loud slap-slap sound, a unique sign of dissatisfaction for a mermaid unable to move on land.

“So you came out to play alone?”

Izay felt he had already guessed the answer.

“No!”

This drew a strong rebuttal from the mermaid girl.

Then, she lowered her eyes dejectedly.

“There’s something scary in ‘Secret’ now. It wants to eat me, so I ran away.”

Izay massaged his forehead, trying to grasp the key points in the girl’s words.

“It?… Is the scary thing a monster?”

“Yep!” Mary vigorously nodded her little head and continued, “It always wanted to eat us… but before, Reid and Gurosu would drive it away. Now that they’re gone, I had no choice but to run… I can only return when it leaves.”

Finally, the mermaid girl added a sentence.