They all call me an Outer God.

Chapter 317 I, a Black Market Merchant, Am Frugal and Thrifty

"I……"

"If you fail the challenge, you can go die."

Hysevier's icy tone struck Emigana like a hammer blow, causing its heart to clench, finally confirming that its father truly did not care about it at all.

"You're so heartless, no wonder you ate your own mother."

Emigana was truly enraged. It tried with all its might to tear a piece of flesh from its father's body, but Hysevich did not let it run rampant. It swung its axe to split its son in two.

At the crucial moment, Erigana kicked its father's body directly, and then the recoil propelled it forward. At that moment, it suddenly smiled, because it actually had a whole piece of Deep One's flesh in its mouth.

Blood continued to flow from Hysevich's neck, but it simply conjured a ball of blue flame and pressed it against the wound for a moment, stopping the flow of blood.

The air was filled with the aroma of roasting fish.

"I told you you're old. Look at you, I managed to hurt you today. What right do you have to look down on me?!"

Emigana pointed at his father, trying to discern his other expression, but Hysevich remained unmoved.

"You are not a Deep Diver."

"I am the Deep Diver!"

"You are not human either, you are nothing."

Hessevier was about to say something when he was caught off guard and found that the seawater around him had turned grayish-white, as thick and bubbly as a swamp.

A skull floated to the surface of the water, and then the strange phenomena disappeared automatically.

"Is the mayor having another episode?" Upon seeing the skull, Hayes Weston immediately lost interest in chatting with the group. He quickly dived back to the seabed, and the many deep-sea divers followed closely behind, fearing that something might happen to Dagon if they were too late.

At that moment, the skull on the sea surface also started to laugh.

Haha, I was just kidding them. This trick always works wonders on those guards.

Emigana's gaze shifted to the skull, and she exclaimed, "Lord Hydra!?"

Call me Ms. Hydra, it makes me feel young again.

The skull sprouted centipede-like limbs and crawled onto the ship, then secured its body to the ship.

【Nice to meet you all. I think I heard you mention the impending destruction of your people while I was underwater, and you even requested an audience with Dagon. Is that true?】

“Yes, beautiful lady.” Ria removed her hat and bowed slightly.

The skull that now appears before them is the Hydra's alter ego used to deliver messages. The Hydra is the mother goddess worshipped by the Deep Ones, and although it is not the original Hydra, its abilities are still extraordinarily terrifying.

You have excellent taste.

Hydra was probably pleased to be complimented on her beauty for the first time.

Dagon can't show himself right now. Every time he swims from the seabed to the surface, he exhausts himself. Just tell me what you need to say.

The investigators looked at each other in bewilderment. In the end, they decided to tell the Hydra what had happened and ask it to take everyone to the bottom of the water.

Hydra generously agreed, saying that with its capabilities, enabling humans to breathe underwater was a trivial matter.

However, Ria still felt that this matter had come too easily, so easily that it made him uneasy.

"Ms. Hydra, what exactly is wrong with Dagon's health?"

[When fish get old, they tend to become like this. For them, the longer they live, the more painful their lives become, so they might as well die sooner.] [Sigh, don't tell it this, and don't tell it you've seen me. I don't want to be scolded for not doing my job properly.]

The skull shook its head frantically, almost shaking itself to pieces. After a few seconds, a faint green light appeared in its eye sockets, and flames suddenly burst into flames on everyone's bodies.

"call--"

The raging fire engulfed everything on the water's surface.

After an unknown amount of time, everyone regained consciousness and found themselves submerged in water, while all their companions had turned into fish.

"what's the situation?"

Salle wagged its tail uncomfortably, suddenly realizing that there were some strange creatures besides the fish around it.

The creature was entirely black, changing shape in the water. No one could tell what it was, because no matter how hard they tried, it looked like a pure black object created after a space had been completely annihilated, and even the strongest light could not illuminate it.

Suddenly, the dark thing opened two golden eyes: "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"This is the first time we've ever seen this kind of...fish."

That's not a fish, it's a mythical creature.

The skull that Hydra had transformed into explained from the side.

"I've never seen it before, and I don't understand it."

In short, I turned you all into fish so that you could all go underwater and dive down.

But for some reason, this person couldn't transform into a fish; instead, they ended up looking like this.

Lia tried to see what she looked like, but all she could see was darkness.

Perhaps this is all thanks to the mythical creatures that parasitize the body.

He transformed into a mythical creature, the other investigators into sea fish, while Emigana remained as he was.

It can swim naturally; it doesn't need to become a fish.

【let's go】

With that, Emigana carried the skull and swam toward the seabed, while the others followed after they had adjusted to their bodies.

Visibility on the seabed of the Black Sea is extremely low, and the fish here have grown bioluminescent organs to attract prey to hunt them.

The distance from the sea surface to the seabed is at least several thousand meters, which is enough to demonstrate the deep-sea divers' architectural prowess. Although those buildings are built in shallow waters, the fact that they can keep the city stable at sea for a long time is still worthy of praise.

The underwater world was a blur. As the group swam downwards, the pressure they faced only increased, and soon some of them could not hold on any longer, their entire fish contorting into bizarre postures.

It was my oversight.

The light within the skull rekindled, helping them counteract the external influences so they could focus on diving into the deep sea.

The journey was long and oppressive. In complete darkness, people lost all sense of time. If it weren't for the occasional communication between companions, such an environment could have driven a person insane.

Ria felt fine. Ever since they entered deeper waters, as long as Ria closed his eyes, no one could find him. Moreover, he soon discovered that his vision was quite good here.

He could observe the predators that came to ambush him; they were a group of extraordinary fish with ferocious and terrifying appearances. To avoid trouble, Ria simply dragged them into the void of darkness with his tentacles.

These fish can be sold for money or used for barter; they should not be wasted.

(End of this chapter)