“All my good deeds and accumulation of virtue in normal times were for this very moment.”
“It's time to test my luck!”
Li Xiuman opened the blue chest floating in front of him.
The moment the chest opened, a blinding blue light burst forth.
Li Xiuman's eyes lit up, his gaze locked onto the opening gap.
When the blue light faded, he finally saw the item lying inside the chest.
[Deep Water Leather Armor] Made from the hide of a special monster, the Deep Water Sea Monster, condensing the power of deep water.
[Special Effects] 1. Water Magic Amplification
2. Underwater Swiftness Amplification
3. Underwater Defense Amplification
4. Underwater Perception Amplification
“...A leather armor specialized for aquatic environments...”
Li Xiuman retrieved the leather armor from the chest and murmured.
The Deep Water Leather Armor was sleek and pitch-black, looking much like a wetsuit.
However, it was only for the upper body, not a full-body suit.
Initially, seeing that it was armor-type magic equipment had made Li Xiuman rather happy.
After all, his magic armor, [Bound Flame], had been damaged in the previous battle.
Even so, Li Xiuman didn't mind too much. He took off the leather breastplate made of troll hide he was wearing and changed into this new leather armor.
At the very least, it was a High-Magic-grade magic item of Blue Quality.
Having put on the leather armor, Li Xiuman could feel a snug, tight sensation.
The surrounding flowing water also became slightly more cooperative.
At this moment, Li Xiuman felt that even if he didn't know how to use mana, he could still control the flow of the water around his body.
“The underwater amplification is indeed very strong.”
“It's just a pity that it only works in aquatic environments.”
He put on his Deep Black Cloak to cover the leather armor.
After all, wearing such tight-fitting leather armor on a skeleton was hardly a pleasant sight.
It was extremely skeletal.
But if this kind of tight-fitting outfit were worn by a woman, it would indeed be a beautiful sight.
Next, Li Xiuman swam toward the octopus monster's corpse, sitting beside it to recover his mana.
Only when his mana had recovered to two-thirds did he raise his wand and point it at the corpse.
“Tier 3 Magic, Special Individual Reanimation.”
A pitch-black magic circle expanded from the tip of his wand, slowly descending upon the massive corpse of the deep water monster.
In an instant, the wand in his hand seemed to turn into a bottomless pit, frantically draining his body's mana.
“How is the consumption this high?!”
Li Xiuman was startled; this mana consumption was far higher than during his experiments. Nevertheless, he quickly calmed himself down.
After all, he had designed this spell himself, and not too long ago, so it was only normal for there to be some flaws.
His mana pool was vast, surely it could handle the drain.
He refused to believe that his mana pool, which was vastly larger than that of others at his tier, could actually be drained by a mere Tier 3 spell.
Absolutely ridiculous.
As if a mere Tier 3 spell could squeeze him dry.
A brief moment later.
Li Xiuman collapsed to the lake bed, the wand slipping weakly from his grasp.
The remaining two-thirds of his mana had been completely drained, not a single drop left.
“I... I let my guard down. Damn it.”
“This spell still needs refinement. It's too lethal, absolutely exhausting.”
Li Xiuman struggled to get back up. Number Zero hurried over, supporting his trembling body.
Once standing, Li Xiuman hastily turned his gaze to the corpse of the deep water monster.
By now, the deep water monster had already been revived.
Each of its severed tentacles had been reattached, and its split head was fused back together. Combined with its dark, murky skin, it looked even more menacing than before.
“Shake hands.”
Li Xiuman shakily extended his hand.
The water monster also raised a tentacle and reached out to him, tapping against Li Xiuman's outstretched hand.
“Good boy, good boy.”
Li Xiuman was highly satisfied.
With this water monster on his side, his progress through the upcoming floors would be like giving wings to a tiger.
He would make the entire dungeon grovel and tremble at his feet!
But before that, he had to wait for his mana to recover.
“Number Zero, carry me up.”
Li Xiuman pointed at the water monster's massive head.
It was incredibly spacious up there, more than enough to accommodate a single skeleton.
As for his previous mount, the Black Dolphin, he would simply phase it out once they reached the next floor.
Climbing onto Number Zero's back and feeling the soft texture of its spine, Li Xiuman felt extremely glad that he had found pink-melt stone.
Settling onto the water monster's head, Li Xiuman patted it.
It felt like a waterbed—a very bizarre sensation.
The fastest way to recover mana was meditation.
However, Li Xiuman still preferred to study while waiting for his mana to restore, as meditation always made him feel like he was wasting time.
Pulling out the Memory Crystal of the Tier 6 Elementalist, Li Xiuman began searching through it for magical knowledge, studying with earnest focus.
By the time his mana was fully replenished, half a day had already passed.
Li Xiuman stood up and retrieved his Dungeon Core. Confirming that teleportation was functioning normally, he walked through the passage behind the Boss room and arrived at the 31st floor.
Entering the thirty-first floor.
Land was entirely nonexistent now.
The entire floor was completely submerged in water.
Phosphorescent moss-like deep-water plants grew on the stones and rock walls under the water, providing illumination to the surroundings.
And the path to the deeper levels lay even further down, at the bottom of the deep water.
“It seems this floor sector is going to be quite a chore as well.”
Li Xiuman sighed.
Ordinary humans weren't like his skeleton self, who could exist entirely without air and had no need to breathe.
They would have to prepare underwater breathing spells or magic items in advance.
Li Xiuman recalled that there seemed to be an underwater breathing spell among Tier 2 water magic, but it had a high learning curve and constantly drained mana.
Consequently, Li Xiuman hadn't bothered to learn it.
Li Xiuman waved his hand.
He felt the surrounding pressure.
“And it's not just a matter of breathing...”
“There's also the effect of the water pressure.”
Li Xiuman could feel the heavy pressure the surrounding flowing water exerted on his body.
The deeper he went, the more pronounced the pressure became.
However, Li Xiuman's Constitution stat was sufficiently high, and the Deep Water Leather Armor also weakened the water pressure, so it didn't affect him in the slightest.
After adapting to the negligible water pressure, Li Xiuman swam toward the deeper water.
As Li Xiuman swam deeper and deeper, a large, flat fish suddenly darted out from the rock wall, snapping its razor-toothed jaws toward him.
The fish's body surface had mimicked the color and texture of the rock wall, blending flatly against it, and it had completely concealed its mana signature and life aura, making it extremely difficult to detect.
[Camouflage Piranha Lv. 28]
Just as the piranha was about to bite Li Xiuman, a tentacle reached out from the darkness, wrapping tightly around the piranha and rendering it completely immobile.
“Nicely done, Takoyaki.”
Takoyaki was the affectionate nickname Li Xiuman had given the deep water monster.
Staring at the struggling Camouflage Piranha, Li Xiuman drew his Rib Sword and slowly drove it into the fish's head.
It was a clean kill with a single blow, leaving no large wounds behind.
[Killed Camouflage Piranha Lv. 28. EXP +3,600 + 360]
Then, skillfully drawing his wand, he pressed it against the piranha's head.
“Tier 1 Magic, Individual Undead Reanimation.”
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