There's a big problem with dreams in this world.

Underwater Sprint (Blue)

[By focusing spiritual energy in any direction outside the body, one can greatly enhance their agility underwater. Furthermore, using this skill upon emerging from the water allows for a leap to greater heights.]

[Unlocked with 100 Magic Essence.]

"......"

I really have no magic essence left.JPG

Undeniably, both of these newly added skills are quite useful, but the problem is that Lu Qing only has 190 magic points at this time, which means she can only learn one of them.

"If I'm only ten points short, I should be able to farm them now..."

Shaking her head, Lu Qing gave up the idea of ​​farming magic essence on the spot. The healing from the Sacred Tree was still crucial. She wasn't really playing a game; as long as she didn't do any quests, the plot wouldn't advance in the slightest.

With that in mind, Lu Qing unlocked the [Underwater Breathing] skill and then closed the skill panel.

Time resumed its flow at this moment, and for Bolton, Ling, and Maeveline, Lu Qing had already learned how to use the skill of [Underwater Breathing].

Time was of the essence, and after learning to breathe underwater, Lu Qing and Ling dived into the dark Fanling Lake.

As for Bolton, he still needed to block the flow of void power at the junction of Fanling Lake and the river, so he couldn't go into the depths of Fanling Lake with Lu Qing and Ling.

A pale blue protective shield enveloped Lu Qing and Ling. This shield, created by Ling, was designed to keep out the pollution from the void.

"It's so dark here," Lu Qing said, looking at the pitch-black surroundings.

Because she learned the skill of underwater breathing, she was able to speak even underwater.

Perhaps due to the pollution of the void, the light transmission of Fanling Lake is very poor. Except for the area very close to the water surface, no light can be seen anywhere else.

In addition, the only sound here is the sound of flowing water, and the temperature is very low, which can give people a creepy feeling.

Fortunately, Lu Qing's eyes could see through the darkness and she could see the pale gray bottom of the lake at a glance. She also had Ling by her side to talk to, so she wasn't too afraid.

To be honest, she wasn't this brave before. She remembers playing a deep-sea game once, and the visuals alone gave her a suffocating sense of fear.

This should be considered thalassophobia. Even if it's not the deep sea, calm and dark lake water can be just as frightening.

But after being tempered by the dark forest dream, her resistance to darkness increased to some extent, and sometimes she would inexplicably have a strange feeling of returning home.

"boom!"

Suddenly, the sand beneath Lu Qing's feet exploded, and a huge, gray-black crab crawled out from under the sand, swinging its massive claws at her.

"Hehe..." Lu Qing chuckled softly. She had actually spotted the crab long ago. Besides it, there were two other crabs lurking nearby.

She gently stepped back two steps to avoid the crab's attack, then crouched down and raised her right hand.

"drink!"

With a sharp shout, Lu Qing suddenly swung her right fist, slamming it hard into the mutated crab's face!

"Hiss..." The mutated crab screamed and fell backward rapidly. Lu Qing's punch shattered its shell and almost killed it.

However, since this punch didn't kill it, she would just throw another one. Lu Qing wasn't going to give it a chance to escape. She took a step forward and threw another punch!

[Fighting Proficiency LV3-LV4]

[Magic Element +50]

A skill upgrade notification popped up in her diary. Lu Qing glanced at it and immediately felt a slight sense of crisis creeping in.

Then, the other two crabs that were lying in ambush opened their mouths and sprayed venom at her!

The venom spread rapidly underwater, leaving no room to dodge. Although her [Intuition] skill indicated that the venom wouldn't cause her any harm, however...

The liquid that creature spews from its mouth looks disgusting.

The Blessing of the Wind Element

Lu Qing had a sudden inspiration. She used the blessing of the wind element to stop the flow of all the poison in the water, and then used the elven fire to burn away all the poison that was close to her.

After she finished all that last night, she suddenly drew Altaïr's sword and in the blink of an eye arrived in front of one of the mutated crabs, stabbing it hard into the part of its lower abdomen that was not covered by its carapace.

[Magic Element +50]

With a swift motion, Lu Qing drew Altaïr's sword and kicked another mutated crab that had circled behind her and was attempting to attack, knocking it to the ground.

"Pfft!"

The sharp sword of Altaïr pierced through the mutated crab's brain from top to bottom. After a spasm, the last mutated crab stopped moving.

[Magic Element +50]

Shaking off non-existent blood from their swords, Lu Qing and Ling continued their journey into the depths of Fanling Lake. According to Bolton, the water element was located below a water vent at the very bottom of the lake, where the current was swift, swirling eddies were everywhere, and caves were interconnected, making it easy to get lost if one wasn't careful.

Lu Qing and Ling searched underwater for about four hours before finally finding the entrance to the undercurrent that Bolton had mentioned. During this time, they killed several mutated lobsters, piranhas, and other creatures that tried to ambush them, increasing their magic power by 260 points.

With the magic points she had left, Lu Qing now had a full 500 magic points, enough to learn the purple skill [Elf Blade].

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Chapter 562: Vein, who can't swim

Lu Qing originally planned to learn the purple skill [Elf Blade], but when she opened the skill panel and saw that the [Underwater Dash] skill had not disappeared, she gave up the plan.

She will be navigating through caves filled with hidden currents, and the underwater dash skill will help her move more nimbly underwater. It's only a hundred mana points anyway, which she can replenish later.

Thinking this, Lu Qing learned the skill [Underwater Dash], and her magic power dropped from 500 to 400.

"Let's go, Ling." After learning the skill, Lu Qing looked at Ling and said.

"Hmm," Ling said, swaying slightly.

As she plunged into the surging water, the first thing Lu Qing noticed wasn't how rapid the current was, but rather how clear the water was.

Unlike the polluted Fanling Lake, the water flowing through this outlet was incredibly clear. After diving in, Lu Qing even saw many plants and fish that were still alive.

"The water flowing beneath the water's edge is constantly moving, and because the water element is so abundant, the water here has a strong self-regulating ability. That's probably why this place hasn't been polluted," Ling said after looking around in surprise and thinking for a moment.

"But wasn't the water element itself already polluted?" Lu Qing asked, somewhat puzzled.

“Water is the element with the strongest self-regulating ability of all elements,” Ling said, her body shimmering with light. “If Ling’er is not mistaken, the pollution in the water element itself may have already been cleared away.”

"The remaining pollution... Ugh, if the pollution of the water element itself has been cleared, then Fanling Lake should also return to its original state."

"Ling'er suspects that there must be something in Fanling Lake affecting the water element's self-regulating ability!"

"In any case, let's find the water element first!" Ling concluded.

“Okay.” Lu Qing nodded, agreeing with Ling’s statement.

Although Ling often seems a bit silly, she is actually very reliable. She has thought carefully about most of what she says and can keep her promises.

Regardless of whether the water element has purified the void power through its self-regulating ability, they still need to check on the water element's condition.

"......"

Lu Qing moved slowly in the water, carefully observing every part of the terrain.

Bolton had said the terrain here was extremely complex, and one could easily get lost. On land, Lu Qing would use blood to mark her location, but here...

She had already tried it, but because of the water's purifying ability, the blood she smeared on the walls or corals was quickly washed away by the water, rendering it useless for recording locations.

[Explorer: By throwing a part of their body out of the way or leaving it in place, they can clearly sense the location of the part that was thrown out.]

Lu Qing carefully read the skill description of [Explorer], thinking about what other ways she could find water elements in this place full of caves.

Any part of the body will do. If Lu Qing is ruthless enough—no, even if she cuts off some pieces of flesh and throws them on the ground or buries them in the soil to mark their location—other creatures in the water will smell them and eat them.

As for hair and nails... they are not within the effective range of the [Explorer] skill. Otherwise, she wouldn't be so foolish as to stab herself twice with a knife every time she uses the skill. Wouldn't it be better to just bury her hair or nails in the ground?

"Splash..."

Lu Qing swam past a seaweed, her gaze lingering on it for a moment. Unlike Fanling Lake, which was polluted by the power of the void, all sorts of plants grew here.

“Plants…that’s it, plants!” Lu Qing suddenly thought of something and exclaimed with delight.

She remembered that the cabin had a loot feature: the Whispering Heart she had obtained in the Dark Forest, which, after being sacrificed to the cabin, granted her the ability to communicate with plants.

Thinking of this, Lu Qing returned to the algae she had just passed and used her ability to whisper to the tree heart to communicate with it.

As soon as she connected with the algae, Lu Qing felt its closeness to her, which was definitely due to the effect of the [Festival Attire] skill [Natural Affinity].

Since a plant cannot move, even if Lu Qing asked the other party, the algae could not answer much of what she wanted to know. Lu Qing originally only planned to use the [Mental Contract] skill to sign a contract with the other party to record the location, but the algae gave Lu Qing a very unexpected answer.

"Water element... it's warm, and the clearer the water, the closer you are to the water element..." This was the answer the algae gave when Lu Qing asked if it knew about the water element.

After that, no matter what Lu Qing asked, the algae would only give some vague answers. After repeating this a few times, she left.

"Wayne, can you breathe underwater?" Lu Qing thought of Wayne at this moment. Back in Storm Valley, Wayne could see the density of wind elements in the air. If she could be pulled underwater...

“I can stop breathing, but…” Before Wayne could finish speaking, Lu Qing drew a drop of blood from her fingertip, summoning him over.

As soon as Wayne entered the water, she was sucked into the depths of the cave by the swift current. She flapped her wings violently, but the speed at which she was sucked away only increased. "Damn it, gurgle gurgle, listen to the bird finish speaking, gurgle gurgle, I can't swim, ga gurgle gurgle!" Wayne struggled violently in the water.

Just as Wayne was about to be sucked away by the water, Lu Qing reached out and grabbed one of Wayne's paws.

As for why she didn't use wind to stop the water flow here... well, that's a secret.

"Alright, don't worry about me holding you back." Lu Qing suppressed a laugh and looked at Wayne, saying, "Could you help me see which direction has a higher concentration of water elements, or which direction the water is clearer?"

How could Wayne not see that Lu Qing was doing it on purpose? But there was nothing he could do; after all, the other party was his willful little master.

She looked around, then said to Lu Qing in her mind, "There are two caves in the upper right corner. It looks like the water element is more concentrated there."

"Are both of these cave entrances?" Lu Qing asked as she led Wei Yin and Ling to the cave entrance she had mentioned.

"They're all pretty much the same, I can't really tell the specifics," Wayne said, looking at the cave in front of him.

"I see..."

After thinking for a while, Lu Qing summoned the wolf spirit and asked it to explore the cave on the left first, while she and the spirit explored the cave on the other side.

They hadn't gone far when a message came from the wolf spirit that her path was a dead end.

"It seems we made the right choice," Lu Qing said after receiving the message from the wolf spirit.

With Wayne's help, Lu Qing and Ling gradually approached the water elemental in the depths. After exploring for about two hours, they finally arrived at the location of the water elemental.

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Chapter 563: The Mutant Piranha King