It was fair to say that curiosity won over the young man, so he approached the large crack a bit closer.

He tried to be especially cautious through the process, as he understood that any little mistake could get him killed.

Sure those enemies were perceived as dead by now, but it never was a bad idea to be careful in such situations.

Eventually he got close enough, but then felt a bit unfulfilled; as there wasn't much to see down in that hole.

Sure there was a layer of that same blue-liquid, it was laid across the bottom portions of the crack. But apart from that, there wasn't anything else to witness.

The adrenaline across his veins slowed down after that point, as he acknowledged that the risk factors had died down; and now he could only talk to himself.

"No more weird souls ha? That's good I guess but where's my reward?" The hero questioned.

He felt convinced that all of that effort should be paid one way or the other. Every portion of the prior battle could have gruesomely ended his life, such risks weren't supposed to be sealed off without a reward.

But yet the system was quick to contradict, [You technically didn't kill any of those souls, their deaths fall under the categorization of suicide]

"Really?" Timmy asked.

For once he didn't want to put up an argument, but he actually felt sad over the fate of those same opponents he wanted to kill.

[It almost was suicide. Some of those souls wanted to crash against the ground, some didn't; but they all were sick of this existence either way]

"How could you know all that?" He questioned once more.

It was not that he was sceptical. In fact he wanted to figure out the process behind such conclusions, as he wanted to develop such skill.

Thankfully the system was happy to answer, [I handled thousands of guests and was present in millions of social interactions in this sea life. I have a good sense of behavioural patterns thanks to such experiences,]

[In this case, those souls all felt beyond tired. I could tell all the hints of pain that they hid behind their stubbornness,]

The hero's heart softened beyond expectation after that point.

And all he could say was, "I feel sad now. Maybe it was a bad idea to kill them?"

[No, you did them a favour. Those souls have long left their original bodies, and in some way they didn't entirely die and had their souls trapped here]

[This necessarily led to a fear that they would permanently disappear, if they lost the source here which kept them from fading away]

"That does sound very scary honestly," Timmy followed along.

[Such a fate scared them beyond measure, but at the same time they were stuck here]

[This sticky blue pool somehow kept these souls in tact, but it didn't offer them a permanent solution either; they couldn't leave this very place that gave them energy]

[Such aspects had led them to a permanent repetitive and bleak existence, they were all beyond depressed]

[So yes, you did them a big favour]

In an attempt to compliment, the hero recited. "Wow... sometimes I forget how smart you can be, system."

[Thank you,]

In a related note, the hero also felt a little depressed after he heard out the details of such fate.

So he wanted to push such a nagging feeling aside, which was why he thought about the team-oriented task. Specifically, why he got here to begin with.

Such a thought was embraced once more after he figured out what suddenly popped out of the blue, heavy slime that was underneath him.

It was an orb of some sort, it undoubtedly was the one he came here for to begin with.

Before he could properly observe this item's details, it bounced upwards right away!

But that wasn't the weirdest part of this scene, the oddity advanced as this thing continued to rise upwards.

By now the hero figured out that this shiny stone, had features that were really similar to diamonds!

This thing was perhaps that exact type of mineral, as it had a discoloured shade of grey.

It was difficult to figure out the exact details, regarding how such a gem was trapped under the cavern's floor. In fact a lot of things in this odd world did not make sense...

But in this case the hero felt happy that he could progress with the quest.

He wanted to grab this two-foot wide spherical diamond, and had enough motivation to do so; even though he understood that he likely had to latch on this thing with his fins.

Such a procedure could consume a lot of his time, but he didn't want to slow the task down over a silly reason of that liking.

So he lunged towards the diamond and tried to stop its rise towards the cavern's ceiling, but his efforts were quickly proven worthless.

As the same item charged towards the other side of the cavern, and it had quite some speed behind its name.

The hero couldn't nearly understand how a diamond could move in such a matter, but now he slightly understood why this thing had been trapped underground.

If the idea was to keep this shiny stone away from that big door, then it seemed reasonable to trap this item in a place where it could not move.

This only solved one pattern out of the tens, but this situation proved useful at least, regardless of its odd ends. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

And at this point the hero had no other option but to chase the same item, even though it seemed impossible to do so.

The tasked item pierced across the waters at a decent speed, but the hero was still fast enough to follow along.

Timmy noticed that the precious gem was at least one hundred meters away from him, but he simply had to try his best to follow along.

The task was one worry, but he also didn't remember the tunnel that he had come out of earlier.

So if this expensive mineral truly headed towards that big door, the hero understood that it was beneficial to catch up; as it would solve one possible headache.

"You dare oppose me, mortal?" The large snake shouted out right after.

And regardless of how terrifying that scream was, Timothy didn't really plan to back down.

Instead he continued to taunt, "Yes, sir sea worm, I oppose you."

"Then taste my power," That same gravelly voice thundered.

And before the hero could fully grasp his surroundings, a fire-like light shot out of the worm in an instant.

Unsurprisingly it reached and surrounded the hero within an instant, and he could fully feel the burn that came along with this shot!

The attack of which this massive enemy had unleashed, seemed like simple light which generated a fire-like view.

But it couldn't be actual fire, because the team was underwater after all; so it wouldn't be possible for fire to generate in this environment!

As for the actual shot, Timothy could guess that the attack spread nearly four meters wide!

So necessarily he couldn't escape that opposing force whatsoever. He was in the eye of the red and orange storm, and had to withstand every infliction that came with such fate.

[You've lost twenty points of health,]

[Total health = 113/133]

After the system gave out such a notification, the blaze-like attack had already dissipated.

But the problems had not exactly halted there, specifically since the enemy's large body violently slithered across the waters!

And it was easy to notice what this opponent craved, he wanted this whole small group of fish to embrace death.

So of course this was the best time to fight back, Timmy certainly didn't want to stay idly by while this bastard attacked.

For a second the sea-disk thanked his bodily-durability upgrades for enduring all the damage of that shot, and then his fins put in work to tame this battle.

He slapped the waters as hard as he could, just to fling a meter or so behind so he could gain more space.

The enemy charged forward as if there was no tomorrow, so an extra second was always good in such a matter.

In the process of dashing backwards, the hero decided to try his luck once more, with a specific powerful attack.

So he hollered with all of his strength, "Azelaq's scream!"

And of course a small bit of silver light, shot out of his mouth and instantly expanded, as it headed towards this foul enemy!

Timothy hoped for the impact to be strong enough, to entrap this bastard in a whole layer of silver ~ such a result would help them out big time.

But the silver shot simply crashed against the enemy's head, and disappeared in that very same second.

This had left the hero in a sour situation, where he had to escape the enemy's ashy jaws!