My health recovery is incredibly fast.

With a maximum energy value of 175, he can stay in a shallow meditative state for more than 9 hours.

Xia Zuo was getting further and further away from the ocean observation room. The surrounding blue sunlight was rapidly diminishing, the light was becoming dim, and the bright sea above his head was becoming as distant as a skylight.

Further down, the seawater turned black, as if it were soaked in ink.

The surrounding sounds became monotonous; the gurgling of the churning seawater and the panting of breathing echoed each other, making the silence and oppression even more profound.

"How are you feeling?" Hillenburg's voice came through the alchemical communication device built into the diving suit.

"Everything is normal, Master." Xia Zuo calmly lowered his head and gazed at the endless ocean. In the dark seawater, a faint light seemed to be gradually growing larger.

"You should be able to see the A-type seaweed field platform, which is 25 meters directly below the diving room. We've set up alchemical lights there to repel marine life, and it's also protected by multiple magic arrays. Your chances of being attacked are less than 1%, so focus on finding the lost toolbox."

"Received, Master."

"I'm going to start filling the dive room with water. You'll feel your body being compressed, your eyes bulging, slight tinnitus, and difficulty breathing. This is a necessary adaptation process. You must make sure you're completely acclimatized to the water pressure before leaving the dive room, understand?"

"clear."

"It's starting." Hillenburg pressed the button in front of him, staring intently at the orb on the control panel, keeping a close eye on Xia Zuo's condition.

Dozens of small holes appeared in the glass floor of the diving room, and seawater seeped into the room, submerging Xia Zuo's ankles, knees, and abdomen, eventually swallowing him completely.

Xia Zuo struggled to swing his arm in the water, feeling his wetsuit tighten considerably. His body felt as heavy as if it were bound by several large men, and even twisting his wrist was difficult.

The message from the cheat system came to my mind:

"The host was detected to be affected by the upper ocean environment (Note ①). The alchemy diving suit offset some of the negative effects, granting 3 stacks of Slow and 3 stacks of Stasis, reducing movement and action speed by 45% until the host leaves the environment."

(Note ①: The upper ocean layer is defined as the area from 0 meters to 200 meters below sea level.)

The negative effect values ​​in this message are nominal values; the willpower attribute value has not been calculated.

Xia Zuo brought up his character template and looked at the data in the status bar.

[3 stacks of Slow Effect (Upper Ocean Layer), reduces movement speed by 37%]

[3-layer Slowing Effect (Upper Ocean Layer), reduces movement speed by 37%]

These two lines of data represent the actual negative effects.

They were slightly lower than the values ​​Xia Zuo had anticipated.

Based on the existing Willpower attribute value, the reduction should be around 40%, which is 3% lower than the actual value on the panel.

Why is this so?

Just as Xia Zuo was beginning to have doubts, Hillenburg's voice rang out again.

"We're almost at the A-type seaweed field platform. How are you feeling?"

Xia Zuo wanted to scratch his slightly stuffy ears, but the gloves and helmet of his wetsuit stopped him…

“Aside from feeling very quiet around me, there is nothing that makes me uncomfortable, Master.”

Xia Zuo took a few steps toward the glass door of the diving room, swaying like a penguin in slow motion.

"That's good. Your physical condition is even better than I imagined."

Hillenburg's words were a wake-up call for Xia Zuo!

The negative effects he currently has are caused by water pressure and seawater, not by magic; they come from the interaction of forces.

Since it's a physics problem, we can look at it from a physics perspective.

If one's physical fitness is strong enough, one can further mitigate the negative impacts on the upper marine environment.

In data terms, when calculating the specific values ​​of the Slowing Effect (Upper Ocean), the cheat code defaults to incorporating Strength, Agility, and Stamina attribute values ​​as weights.

Hillenburg's voice brought Shazo back to his senses:

"Attention, I'm about to open the hatch to the diving room."

"The moment you step out of the cabin, you must put the safety harness hanging on the walkway railing around your waist and fasten the buckle."

"This will prevent you from being swept away by some unknown undercurrent."

"A similar accident happened a few days ago. On the way back by the elemental golem, the multi-functional toolbox was hit by an undercurrent and swept into the experimental field by the turbulence. The positioning device inside the box was probably broken, so there was no positioning signal transmitted back and we could only search manually."

"Although the probability of two undercurrent attacks occurring within ten days is very low, we cannot let our guard down."

"Received, Master."

A layer of white light appeared on the glass door in front of Xia Zuo. As the light dissipated, invisible seawater squeezed in from the outside. Xia Zuo knew that the hatch had been opened and immediately reached out to grab the lasso that was being disturbed by the water flow.

The seaweed field platform is very large.

Its base is a special alloy floor.

After being processed by enchanting techniques, the alloy floor not only resists seawater erosion but also remains stably positioned at preset spatial coordinates.

The origin of the spatial coordinates is the alchemy castle on the sea surface. As long as the castle does not shift significantly, the seaweed field platform and other underwater facilities below the sea level will not shift.

This is an enchantment called [Spatial Lock], which is often used on giant creations. Xia Zuo once studied it at Starry Night Academy.

With the help of these alloy floors, marine life that can only grow under specific depth, pressure, and light conditions can be transplanted to the vicinity of the Alchemy Castle for cultivation.

"Master, I've fastened the lasso." Xia Zuo tugged hard on the metal chain around his waist; it was very sturdy and gave him a great sense of security.

“I’ve searched all the surrounding fields along the path through the seaweed field, but found nothing. So, the lost toolbox should be in one of the three cultivation fields, numbers 18 to 20. Look carefully.”

"It looks similar to the metal boxes we usually use to transport important props. It is about half a meter tall and very heavy."

"Received." Xia Zuo lifted his leg and stepped onto the non-slip, recessed floor. Following the signs on both sides of the road, he walked step by step into the depths of the seaweed field. At the same time, he did not forget to release a detection spell on the seaweed that passed by to collect their information.

Chapter 52 Egg

Xia Zuo turned on the spotlight on his diving suit and slowly explored among the popular seaweed.

The information from the detection technique indicates that the seaweed planted here is an alchemical product.

Their prototype is the common large-leaf seaweed, which, after alchemical treatment, can theoretically grow to 1 meter long, twice the length of ordinary large-leaf seaweed.

In places far from sea level, where light is weak and the environment is dark, red and blue algae absorb more blue and green sunlight than green algae.

In the bright light of the searchlight, the blue and red alchemical seaweed swayed like a slender woman towards Xia Zuo as he passed by, wrapping its sticky, slippery, long body around his limbs or patting him on his helmet...

Sticky and slippery...

When the stickiness and slipperiness, two slightly nauseating characteristics, occur simultaneously, they can torment a person to the point of mental instability.

When seaweed gets tangled in your clothes, it makes full use of its sticky properties, clinging firmly to your wetsuit like a wanton prostitute pulling and tugging.

If you try to tear them apart, you'll find it difficult to hold them by hand, let alone exert any force; your hands will slip and become covered in a sticky liquid…

As soon as Xia Zuo was entangled by seaweed, the status bar on his character template changed, and the cheat system indicated that he had acquired a negative status:

2 stacks of binding effect (seaweed entanglement), reducing movement and action speed by 30%, with a higher chance of gaining an additional stack of binding effect with each struggle.

Xia Zuo knew that the more things were like this, the calmer he needed to be.

Any mage can overcome their fear of the ocean through shallow meditation and remain calm in the face of the swarming seaweed.

However, very few mages are able to handle difficult problems calmly and patiently when they are not allowed to use magic.

They might be forced to exit a shallow meditative state, then immediately re-enter it, repeating this several times until they become proficient and eventually solve the problem.

However, this method of completing a task through trial and error may not work in this test.

Because diving suits require energy to operate.

Once Shazo is forced to end his shallow meditation state, the diving suit's power and auxiliary power systems will immediately shut down, and this will be detected by Hillenburg in the ocean observation room.

Xia Zuo cannot guarantee that the other party will tolerate his mistakes, and he cannot place his hopes on the tolerance of others.

Therefore, he chose to calm down and slowly deal with the seaweed on his body, preferring to take it slower.

Anyway, he has the "Full of Energy" special effect, so he can easily spend hours entangled with seaweed.

Hillenburg, who was waiting in the ocean observation room, fell silent as he watched Shazo struggling forward in the jewel.

He deliberately avoided mentioning how troublesome the seaweed was, and didn't provide any cleaning tools. In fact, every researcher who went to the seaweed field would spray a special oil in front of them to quickly disperse the alchemical seaweed, causing it to shrink back into the soil...

Hillenburg wanted to use this simple test to fully explore Shazo's physical strength, energy, temperament, and many basic qualities as an alchemist. Doing so was far better and safer than putting him in a dangerous situation to test him.

It seems that things are going well. At least after being in the dark seawater for almost ten minutes, Xia Zuo remains calm and unhurried when dealing with the seaweed.

How long can it last?

Ten minutes earlier, when he was first entangled by seaweed, Xia Zuo's answer was "about 9 hours".

But just now, he broke free from the seaweed's grasp for the first time and received a message from a cheat code:

"The host has successfully manually removed the restraint effect. Reward: 5 experience points, 0.005 points of Strength, Agility, and Endurance attributes, and a small amount of Perception attribute value."

This works?!

In just 10 minutes, you get 0.005 points of Strength, Agility, and Endurance attributes—it's such a great deal!

Is this the legendary underwater kung fu training?

Xia Zuo stared blankly at the countless seaweeds in front of him.

In his eyes, these blue and red seaweeds seemed to have truly transformed into beautiful women, no longer annoying marine plants.

I have to stay, join Hillenburg's working group, and find another opportunity to dive into the sea!

Xia Zuo's gaze sharpened, and he made up his mind to perform well.

He activated the primary alchemy stone again, took a few mouthfuls of a satiety potion, obtained the [Full of Energy] special effect, and then charged forward at full speed.

In the ocean observation room, Hillenburg noticed that Shazo's strides had become longer, and assumed that the other man was getting impatient and wanted to speed things up.

Just as Hillenburg was about to sigh silently, lamenting the impulsiveness of young people and feeling sorry for Xia Zuo's defeat, he saw that after being entangled by seaweed, Xia Zuo's movements to break free from the restraints became increasingly skillful and swift...

Hillenburg swallowed the sigh that was about to escape his throat, and leaned closer to the jewel to examine the scene inside, muttering to himself, "Is it a coincidence?"

He saw that Xia Zuo was entangled in seaweed again, which was expected. The faster he walked, the easier it was to get entangled, and walking slowly was more efficient.

This time, Xia Zuo only needed half the time to break free of his restraints.

"It's not a coincidence... Could it be that Xia Zuo possesses exceptional physical talent, or perhaps he received training from the Warriors' Guild? But wait... I remember he didn't practice breathing techniques..."

Hillenburg was a little confused.