The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

94 The half-Vampire's house visit to conquer the monkey

TLN: I've retranslated the word 怪物/kaibutsu, which is the Title Vandalieu gained last chapter, from "monster" to "monstrosity" to avoid confusion with the actual monsters found in Lambda.

"According to Isla, Chipiras and the 'Mad Dog' Berkert~ climb the mountain~ fly through the sky~ go into the lake~"

Vandalieu was singing the route he had planned using information he had gained from the Vampires while doing warm-up exercises by the lake.

Although it was spring, it was still only March. It was too early in the year to go swimming. And Vandalieu wasn't particularly good at swimming.

"I only barely managed to swim fifty meters with the school group... I can hold my breath for over thirty minutes now, though."

How long could seals, sea lions and sea otters swim underwater? Would Vandalieu be able to overtake them soon?

It doesn't matter, I suppose, Vandalieu thought as he flew into the lake.

CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK!

Pete stretched himself out from Vandalieu's head towards the shore and pulled Vandalieu back. Vandalieu let out a strange noise of surprise that sounded like, "Hogeh!" as he landed on his back.

"Your Majesty, are you alright?!" asked Princess Levia. "The noise you made was very strange!"

"P-probably?" said Vandalieu. "Pete, as long as you stay inside me, it's just like when I take a bath, so it's fine. Ah, wait, stop, don't take root in the shore."

A considerable amount of time passed as Vandalieu calmed down Pete and the plant-type monsters, who seemed opposed to going underwater. Symbiosis was quite a troublesome thing.

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Vandalieu was walking smoothly inside the cold lake water.

He skillfully manipulated the Immortal Ent branches extending from his hands and used the earth and rocks at the bottom of the lake as footholds.

"They would probably have disliked it if it was sea water, though," Vandalieu whispered through his spirit-form mouth as he continued along the bottom of the lake. "Maybe I should take this opportunity to think of a way around that?"

It was dark, but even here, there was no problem with visibility thanks to the Dark Vision skill.

But if the water was cloudy with dirt and microscopic organisms, he wouldn't have been able to see even with Dark Vision, so it was fortunate that the water was clear.

"Hmm?"

Several dozen silhouettes holding spears appeared in front of him. But looking closely, although they were human in shape, their whole bodies were covered in scales, and their faces were like a mixture between those of people and those of fish.

These were aquatic demi-human-type monsters, Gillmen.

Sahuagin, who were also aquatic demi-human-type monsters that were like fish with human limbs, known as the Goblins of the sea, also existed in Lambda. But Gillmen were far more powerful monsters than Sahuagin.

Since their mental structure was different from that of people, communicating with them was difficult, but they were highly intelligent, creating equipment from the shells and carapaces of other creatures, and they formed groups of as many as several hundred individuals.

People were not very familiar with Gillmen as they didn't share the same environment as them, but in fishing villages, Gillmen were feared more than Ogres. And perhaps because there was some connection between them and Tristan, the God of the Sea who had created them, they rampaged like berserkers whenever they laid eyes on Merfolk, leading to Gillmen becoming known as the 'Merfolk's enemy.'