[Multiverse2] Ch: 10 [X-Genes detected]

After a well-deserved bath and a hearty breakfast, Harley and I decided to explore the underwater tunnels surrounding Crystal Island. It's been a while since we dived underwater, and considering this weird crystal island is from another dimension... It could be fun...

We geared up in sleek, form-fitting diving suits, the kind that made us feel like underwater superheroes. Harley couldn't stop giggling at how ridiculous I looked with my hair squished under the tight cap.

"With your power, you could easily dive without the gears you know that, right?" She teased, bumping against my side.

"Yup, but the point is I don't want to use it. We're supposed to be relaxing, remember? Not overexerting ourselves... I want to spend some normal life moments with you and, for once."

We held hands while waddling our way towards the clear waters. Before entering the vast ocean, I looked at her and we nodded before swimming in the ocean.

We reached the end of the land's end, and found the ocean deep and blue, clear and inviting. We both swam down the crystalline waters. The further down we dive, the more stunning the ocean views are. Schools of colorful fish, corals, and seaweed. There are sea creatures unknown to earth, but not in an alien sort of way. Instead, they all look familiar; strange and unfamiliar, yet very pretty. And the weird thing is everything has little bit of colorful crystals stuck in it, including the seaweeds and other algae that made this ocean world to look like one colorful universe.

As I swam near one particular sea creature, it looks like a clownfish only bigger with glowing red fins. Harley was flapping her limbs like a cute frog, excitedly chasing after something, probably a jellyfish? Well, that is a huge jellyfish! And she doesn't seem to see how the jellyfish was emitting a faint pink smoke coming from it. I dashed towards her and grabbed her arm and shook my head at her, gesturing towards the 'jelly' fish.

Harley tilted her head for a moment before clenching her fists, and then pointing it towards the jelly.

"That's freaking poisonous," I spoke through telepathy while showing her another, safer seaweed-looking thing.

"Aw~," Harley playfully pouted forgetting about the jellyfish, and followed me. "It's not my fault the animals and plants here look so shiny and colorful." I heard her thoughts.

I chuckled and faced her, swimming closer, "Sure, but not everything that glitters is shiny," I mumbled telepathically, smiling. "And it's dangerous, no less."

"Aw, Alex, is it too obvious how excited I am?" Harley sniggered while trying to grab at an orange and white weirdly adorable turtle-looking creature that was darting quickly. "I never did get to do scuba-diving before meeting you," she mumbled through telepathy, taking her eyes off her goal for a brief second to glance at me, "This is 1000 times better than the last time on Lizard Island."

She successfully grabbed the creature, and her smile bloomed, it almost appeared to glow beneath the water.

"The view down here is magnificent and otherworldly... I've never seen anything so gorgeous. Well, except for you of course..."

I couldn't help but smile as I looked around, listening to my wife's mind.

My eyes fell on a deep cave opening. But I don't think our gears could take us deeper than that. Curiosity tugged my feet towards the entrance. Well, time to use my power I guess. Well, a little bit of aura shield and Adaptation Skill Sharing with her should do the trick. I grabbed her arm and shared my power with her.

"You see that cave?" I pointed at the cave opening using telepathy, and she glanced around before spotting it, nodding, and pulling her mask tighter around her face.

"Ohhh! Somethin' hiding in there!" She commented, "A monster, perhaps~?"

"Or treasure," I smirked, teasing.

We swam, following the underwater path. Every turn brought us to breathtakingly beautiful sea creatures and their environment. But one thing is clear. In a place full of abundant colorful corals and fish, you'd realize you wouldn't see many crustaceans. A shame, since they're super easy to level up and cook. And boy, do I need some good shellfish to cook right now!

My heart raced faster as we entered deeper into the caverns, and not for the reasons I'd like. The caves are becoming more and more obscure and dark, yet a strong current seems to be urging us onward. The deeper we went, the stronger the pull of the currents, the less light could enter.

"Alex!" Harley yelped, "Looooook!" Her arm gripped around mine tight. She was pointing out at the depths, far ahead where we could barely see the watery passage leading to some large mass.

I used my enhanced vision and narrowed my eyes. It appears that in the depths is a collection of some kind of shiny things, more crystals maybe? They are shining with a prismatic rainbow beneath the water. It's faint and far away, but the small glint could be seen despite the water obscuring the light's clarity.

"Let's get closer," I suggested.

"Sure," She agreed.

We dived down for half an hour or maybe an hour now. The glow is getting brighter with each passing minute. Eventually, a giant door of colorful crystals came into view. And before long, I started to spot weird-looking sea creatures.

A swarm of black fish with gold frills is swimming gracefully, creating a stunning sight. Their skin seems to reflect light and not absorb them unlike their pitch-black coloration would make it seem. It seems the fish are thriving and flourishing with this large amount of colorful crystals.

The second set of creatures I saw was a school of yellowish and brown fishes, about the size of a kid's hand, all had flat oval-shaped bodies, short rounded snouts with no visible eyes, no visible fins, and odd two tail fins that seem to look like rudders. I recalled seeing these in biology class, named the Oarfish! They have extremely long bodies and can live longer than humans could possibly dream of, some even reach the astounding length of 25m, 82 ft. long! They are the World's longest bony fish! Yet, the one I was staring at didn't seem that large, reaching around a foot or so. And honestly? That's good enough since I didn't want to battle a behemoth in this small narrow place.

I wonder, what's hiding behind that giant ass door and why did no one find out about it? I mean with the technological development after the merge, the explorers managed to map out many of the oceans but this area was completely absent, I wondered why this area was a black spot in their maps.

As I pondered these thoughts, my eyes locked in front of the huge door with dozens, if not hundreds, of various sea creatures swimming around it. Harley couldn't contain her giddy squeals, and the faint thought of her saying she never imagined a sight such as this. Her words seem to disappear when the mysterious mass in the depths becomes clearer.

"Don't even think of doing anything funny," I warned her because we didn't have any idea what kind of freak was hiding in these dark waters, and to top that, it's uncharted territory, home of the unexplored. Well, this could be fun or could turn into a horror fest very quickly.

Suddenly, a tiny blip of light appeared at the center of the door.

A small orb of multicolored flames was growing bigger, and with its brightness, my eyes grew wider. I instantly created a triple-layer aura shield around us. Can't take any risk. 'Hey System, scan. I want to know the shit we are dealing with.'

[Mutation detected...]

[X-Genes detected...]

[Mutated lifeforms detected 10x. Suspended hibernation.]