Chapter 86: Master Fish Monster
Facing the Level 70 fish monster, Shen San’s instincts instantly kicked in. He stepped forward, shielding his mentor behind him. “Master, we can’t force an exit… we’re completely locked inside this secret realm.”
However, because Lu Yunxi was currently only ten centimeters tall, his broad frame did absolutely nothing to obstruct her view. Standing right behind his heel, she frowned and massaged her temples. With a swift flick of her fingers, she materialized two separate protective barriers, enveloping them both in shimmering pockets of safety.
“Shen San, keep your wits about you,” she commanded, her tiny voice sharp as she anchored herself to the center of the lotus craft.
Her apprentice was currently gridlocked at Level 69. In the mechanics of this world, a combatant had to completely shatter the Level 70 threshold to be recognized as a true Master-level expert. Level 70 itself was merely the gateway to becoming a quasi-master, and Shen San hadn’t even bridged that gap yet.
The chasm dividing an Advanced-peak fighter from a quasi-master might appear trivial on paper, but the disparity in raw combat execution was staggering. Truthfully, she harbored very little optimism regarding his chances against a Level 70 boss, but she refrained from pouring cold water on his determination. They were actively trapped within the instance layers and lacked the administrative clearance to force a logout.
Shen San still retained the mechanical option to sever his network feed and drop offline, but as for her…
SHIT—
The gargantuan, shark-like fish monster unhinged its jaws, violently expelling a high-pressure torrent of water directly toward the vessel. Lu Yunxi moved with micro-second precision, vaulting into the deep recess of the hull to evade the blast.
Down in the dark trenches, Shen San successfully dodged the primary trajectory, but his heavy plate armor severely crippled his mobility under the surf. His boot caught a jagged shelf of coral, his features went rigid, and he tumbled helplessly into the black depths of the lake.
“Shen San!” Yunxi instinctively clamped her miniature hands over her eyes, unable to bear the sight of his undignified plunge.
The fish monster let out what looked like a smug, bubbling sneer, proudly swishing its massive caudal fin as it glided away into the deeper currents.
Minutes bled away, yet the surface of the lake remained entirely still. Shen San failed to breach.
Lu Yunxi’s baseline aura of absolute, unbothered serenity systematically fractured, replaced by a wave of frantic anxiety. She pulled up her internal interface, watching the system clock tick away. Crossing her tiny arms over her chest, she aggressively tapped her foot against the deck, her dread mounting with every passing second.
What is taking so long? It’s been nearly thirty minutes. Even if his model fell into a subterranean trench, he should have climbed back up by now!
The longer her mind looped over the worst-case scenarios, the more unraveled her composure became. Unfastening her green wool shawl, she took a sharp breath and plunged over the side with a clean splash.
The lake pool was exponentially deeper than her exploration radar had initially indicated. Fortunately, the water matrix was pristine, offering crystal-clear visibility through the deep trenches. Holding her breath and locking her mental focus, she paddled her tiny limbs with ferocious speed, diving straight into the abyss while scanning the layout.
“Master!” a familiar, booming voice echoed through the water layer.
Lu Yunxi flinched in surprise. Whirling around, she spotted Shen San standing a short distance away on a sandy shelf, paddling toward her with a look of pure, unadulterated joy painted across his features.
The suffocating tension gridlocking her mind instantly evaporated, instantly replaced by a towering wave of absolute fury.
This absolute brat! Does his programming contain zero capacity for situational awareness?! He had been lingering at the bottom of the lake bed for half an hour while she was up on the surface convincing herself his data node had been permanently corrupted! She had thrown herself into the freezing depths in a blind panic for absolutely nothing!
“Master, look! You won’t believe what I unearthed down here on the lake floor!” Shen San beamed, his massive hands cupped together as if cradling a fragile treasure.
“What could you possibly—cough, splutter!“
In her irritation, Yunxi completely forgot she was entirely submerged. The second she opened her mouth, a massive volume of lake water rushed down her throat and nasal passages. The agonizing sensation of sudden suffocation caused her miniature eyes to roll back, her consciousness hovering on the brink of a blackout.
“Master?!” Shen San’s expression shifted to pure horror. He lunged forward, carefully scooping her tiny form into his palm to arrest her descent. He gently traced his index finger down her spine to help clear her lungs. Watching her hack and wheeze, he let out a heavy, helpless sigh. “Master, why did your station dive without initializing a protective barrier? Free-swimming in an uncalibrated water zone is far too dangerous!”
Lu Yunxi, finally managing to clear the brine from her lungs, froze completely.
Right. How on earth had she forgotten her own Master-tier barrier skill? She had literally jumped face-first into the lake like a common civilian, reducing herself to a drowning, waterlogged mess! Furthermore, she had explicitly bound a continuous shield to his account before he fell; even if a legendary Grandmaster-tier boss ambushed him in the dark, his health bar wouldn’t have sustained a single point of damage.
She aggressively smacked her own forehead. Dehydration must have rotted my brain!
Once her metrics stabilized, she sat cross-legged in the center of his palm. Just as she opened her mouth to demand an explanation for his discovery, she felt his massive hand violently tremble.
“What is it?” she asked, her posture stiffening. Is there another mob initializing?
Tracking his line of sight, she realized her apprentice’s ears had turned a brilliant, searing crimson, a light pink flush creeping across his gaunt cheeks as he aggressively locked his gaze onto the empty sky above. She stared up at his face in total bewilderment. What is wrong with this kid? Why is his model acting so bizarrely?
“Master,” he choked out. Though he was explicitly addressing her, he refused to lower his gaze, directing his words strictly to the clouds. “Would your station… require a private coordinate to change garments?”
Lu Yunxi lowered her gaze to her own frame. Because she had plunged into the lake unprotected, her custom-tailored tube dress was thoroughly saturated. The wet fabric clung seamlessly to her miniature skin, perfectly outlining every line of her figure. Worse, the damp linen had turned entirely translucent under the light; a single glance downward offered an unobstructed view of her bare shoulders and torso.
Her chest tightened in mortification. Without uttering a single word, she manifested the fabric tent from her inventory, scrambled inside, and rapidly changed into a fresh, dry green skirt. Wrapping her thick shawl tightly around her shoulders until she resembled a secure wool bundle, she finally emerged to confront him.
“Master… does your station genuinely expect me to harvest this entire sector?”
Shen San stared hesitantly at the lake floor, which was entirely carpeted in rows of glowing, luminescent alchemy flora.
Since instances operated under an infinite refresh loop, he wasn’t concerned about permanently depleting the node. He was simply calculating the sheer physical labor required—even if he grinded with his trowel for a day and a night, he wouldn’t make a dent in this volume! This wasn’t like harvesting wild greens on a surface map where a player could simply clear a field with a single sweep of a sickle; alchemy roots required meticulous, high-precision extraction to preserve their chemical data, meaning every single pull demanded his absolute focus.
“What? Are you turning your nose up at a fortune?” Lu Yunxi snapped, her voice still carrying a trace of lingering embarrassment. But as she processed his complaint, her professional crafting mindset overrode her irritation. “This is a legendary discovery. The chemical properties of this specific herb can be refined into premium elixirs that permanently scale a character’s baseline physical strength attribute. If your account doesn’t want the modifier, we can leave them rot.”
“Wait—what?” He froze, the laziness vanishing from his face as pure, unadulterated joy took over. “Master, are you serious? These leaves can permanently permanently buff raw strength metrics?”
His eyes locked back onto the glowing meadow, his gaze burning as if he were staring at a mountain of pristine gold bullion. “If that’s the case, Master, if you consume the refined batch, won’t your own combat parameters skyrocket?”
“…” She paused, the final remnants of her annoyance dissolving at his words. She found a flat stone nearby and sat down. “These specific modifiers are mathematically hard-coded for you outworld adventurers. They hold zero statistical value for native residents like myself.”
“Oh.” Shen San’s shoulders slumped. Seeing that his mentor possessed a model that perfectly mirrored a live player’s interface, he had subconsciously assumed her character could utilize the same stat-boosting consumables as an active account. What a massive system waste, he thought.
Ultimately, under her strict technical supervision, Shen San set to work strip-mining the lake bed. These were, after all, Orange-grade legacy ingredients. Encountering them stacked in such obscene density—as if they were common weeds on a city street—was a statistical anomaly. Leaving the node unharvested would be an absolute crime against his inventory space.
With their path forward clear, the two of them effectively established a long-term camp at the bottom of the lake.
The Level 70 fish monster made no further attempts to breach their perimeter. Across the entire subterranean instance layer, the only active entities were the young warrior, the tiny girl, and the gentle white luminescence radiating from the flora. Every time the regional clock rolled over to night, the water faded to a deep midnight blue, and the glowing blossoms cast an ethereal, mesmerizing aura across the sand.
While Shen San spent his cycles grinding his harvesting professions, Lu Yunxi utilized the high-quality clay from the lake bed and various mineral ores to forge specialized crafting tools. Once she had successfully produced several alchemy cauldrons of varying sizes, she initiated high-tier refinement protocols right there on the lake floor.
“Master, which specific recipe line is your station researching?” Shen San asked, pausing his trowel to observe her fluid, high-precision movements. He had long since ceased to be startled by her mechanical efficiency. His mentor was an omnipotent force who commanded an infinite database of life skills; even if she suddenly announced she had maxed out every single crafting profession in the game’s code, his brain would simply accept it as baseline lore.
Oblivious to the legendary narrative his imagination was constructing, Yunxi replied casually, “I am attempting to synthesize a breakthrough elixir to forcefully shatter the Level 70 threshold for your account… However, this is my absolute first attempt at compiling this specific dataset, so the structural success rate remains unverified.”
Her tiny brow furrowed as she systematically calibrated the herb ratios, drawing a deep, focused breath.
“Master, clear your tension. My account holds absolute faith in your execution!” He flashed her a bright, confident grin. “There isn’t a single mechanical constraint in this world capable of gridlocking your skills!”
She glanced up at him, a trace of genuine surprise crossing her miniature features. She hadn’t realized that in her apprentice’s eyes, her master persona had achieved such a legendary, infallible status. A swell of intense pride warmed her chest.
“Naturally,” she huffed, tossing her head with an adorable air of confidence. “Leave the parameters to me.”
After all, if she failed to engineer a mechanical shortcut to force his level breakthrough, the two of them would be gridlocked inside this aquatic dungeon instance for a full calendar year until the mushroom debuff naturally expired! The raw provisions and water reserves they had hoarded simply wouldn’t sustain their characters for that many cycles.
Delivering her promise, Lu Yunxi completely immersed herself back into her alchemical research.
Time flowed seamlessly as the two remained locked in their respective crafting loops.
One afternoon, while Shen San was manually managing the timers on his cooking pot, a bizarre, intensely potent aroma suddenly drifted over from the adjoining sector. He froze mid-motion, his curiosity instantly piqued as he leaned over the partition to investigate.
The miniature alchemy cauldron resting before his master was violently vibrating against the sand, and the rich, complex fragrance erupting from the iron vents was rapidly multiplying in intensity, completely overwhelming the scent of his own cooking.
