Data.139 – Old Bowman, to the South Again

I hadn’t been to the sea since the Cancer trial.
It was there that I underwent the class change to the special 3rd job, Sagittarius, after the battle.
Considering that I had also met Garbow at sea, it seemed to be a place that resulted in important encounters for me… But I was wasting time here being sentimental. I had to hurry up and get into the water.
Garbow showed no signs of change as we stepped onto the beach. And so I wanted to go someplace where there were no other players.
After all, my current equipment was a little mismatched.

My head was covered in the Goat Skullmet, which as the name implied, just looked like a goat skull.
I had acquired it in the labyrinth with the white and black goats.
It looked rather satanic, but had decent stats.

◆Goat Skullmet
Type: Head(Helm)
HP: 55
MP: 30
Weapon Skill: None

My arms were protected by metal gauntlets called ‘Finger Scorpio.’
They were strange gauntlets, in that they only protected your fingers.
As for the weapon skill, it shoots out poisonous needles from your fingertips.
In other words, it wasn’t a really good fit for my combat style. But I equipped them because of their stats.

◆Finger Scorpio
Type: Arms(Gauntlets)
Attack: 60

Defense: 25
Weapon Skill: Scorpion Stinger

And around my legs was the ‘Bone Skirt’ which was made of layered bones.
I had acquired it from the Bone-ted Mansion in the Ghost Float.

◆ Bone Skirt
Type: Legs(Skirt)
Defense: 40
Magic Defense: 45
Weapon Skill: None

In NSO, there was no male or female exclusive armor, and so you could wear anything.
And so if the strongest armor just happened to have a more feminine design, then the next event would be overflowing with crossdressers.
Well, there wasn’t really such a thing as a set that was the strongest in NSO. And even if there was, it wouldn’t be something that anyone could get.

“In any case, I’d like to get out of here before someone takes a picture and spreads it.”

And so I entered the water and walked on the ocean floor.
Today…there was no Blue Sea Dragon.
While it had helped us during the Poseidon Kraken fight, it had once killed me on sight.
And so unless it was an emergency, I would rather not meet it.

Now, I switched Garbow’s orders to ‘Free.’
Like this, he should go off and find the necessary items for evolution…

“…Gar!”

He reacted…!
Garbow began to swim through the water along the coastline.
This was surprising, as I thought he would go straight to the deepsea where we first met.

As he was swimming at a pretty slow speed, I had no trouble keeping up with him.
This was good, as I would not be able to match his speed when under water.

After swimming for some time, we suddenly arrived at a place where the water cut into the shore.
Was it a harbour?
Instead of going back on land, Garbow entered this port-like area.

After advancing a little bit more, the scenery began to change.
Instead of sand, there was gravel under my feet, and the water was flowing from up ahead with no change.
The seaweed was also different, and the monsters…

“Are we…in a river!?”

There was no doubt about it…!
Garbow was swimming up a river!
Like a salmon!

This was unexpected.
We weren’t going deep into the sea at all. We were going upstream on land…
There are plenty of stories about people adventuring on the ocean floor, but not so much a riverbed.

Well, the strength of the current and clarity of the water would be an issue if you thought realistically, but even from a fantasy point of view, it just wasn’t very exciting.

A treasure hidden at the bottom of the sea smelled of adventure. But if you heard about a treasure in a river, you might want to ask some specialist to retrieve it for you.
Though, in real life, you should probably hire someone regardless of where it was.
Water is pretty but also dangerous.

However, you could breathe underwater in NSO, and aside from movement being a little slower and weapons and skills weakened, there wasn’t really a problem.
Walking in the water was something that could be experienced casually.
The water was quite clear here, and as it wasn’t very deep, the sunlight shone through it beautifully.

But how far was Garbow going to go?
In the first place, was he okay in freshwater?
Well, it seemed doubtful that they even differentiated between seawater and freshwater in this game. But I did wonder, since he was based on the garfish.

Ah, but Garbow was also quite big and thick, so perhaps he was closer to the alligator gar.
They were freshwater fish that lived in rivers.
Thinking this, it was not all that surprising that Garbow would swim upstream in order to evolve.

“Still, the fish here are getting bigger…”

Arowana, catfish, pirarucu, freshwater stingray, and freshwater sharks were swimming around lazily.
It seemed like they had just shoved all of the large river fish into this area.
There were even some fish that I had never seen before. Perhaps they were undiscovered fish?
I’m sure Anne would know all about them. Unfortunately, I was alone now.

But none of them showed any signs of hostility towards me, and so I ignored them.
Garbow was usually very sensitive towards other monsters, but he was being very quiet right now.
It really did seem like he was moving towards something that was top priority.

“Gar! Gar!”

Garbow was crying…!
He did this to intimidate. So there was an enemy!
The other fish seemed to detect something as well, as they began to swim away.
I made sure that I had my Seabow Arts Grow Card equipped and then readied my weapon.
Without it equipped, I would be helpless in the water.

GAAAAAAAAARR!! GAAAAAARR!!

It sounded like Garbow’s voice, but was much lower…
It was likely angry at us.
Garbow seemed to shrink back a little after hearing it.
Was this enemy a similar type to Garbow…

“No, that shape…!”

While the enemy did have the same kind of long, sharp snout as Garbow, it also had four legs!
And it was much larger than Garbow, as well as being in a pack…
It wasn’t an alligator gar. It was a real alligator…pack!

We were surrounded by what was likely the strongest freshwater creature…
A fish could not beat a large reptile.
As a mammal, I would have to fight for Garbow!
Nevermind the fact that alligators eat mammals like gnus and the fact that we’re inferior to fish in the water!