He had done this before. Granted, it had been while he was outside of the trench, but this dance was familiar to him. William was moving side to side to see if the tiny turtle kept its attention on him.

It did.

William wasn’t sure if he was supposed to melt from the cuteness of the tiny thing or shudder at being reminded of the intelligence that the Shadowpack Hunters had shown him. However, unlike those malicious beasts, this palm-sized turtle didn’t have the basic information the system usually gave him.

“What is this turtle? Is it a spirit beast?” William asked the Sophia-doll behind him without taking his eyes off the turtle.

“All life at this level exists to convey the significance of growing contamination. Please ignore them and avoid making contact. Any attempt to damage aquatic life will result in swift punishment.”

That made William’s eyebrows raise in surprise as he looked back at the Sophia-doll. Of course, she still had a blank expression, so there was no point in looking at her.

“If you have no other questions, please exit the safe zone.”

And there was the repetition he was expecting. William looked away with a roll of his eyes to stare at the turtle.

Now it looked like it was smiling at him. A toothless, gummy, silly smile.

“Alright, tiny turtle,” William moved a little closer but made sure to stay in the bubble, “Can you understand me?”

He wasn’t surprised when it nodded its tiny head, the beady eyes somehow gleaming after the question. “Are you the one that’s supposed to lead me to what Sophia mentioned?”

That was a vague way to ask about the realm stone, but William had no intention of saying that out loud. He suspected that Sophia had drawn him into some type of illusion before talking since all the aquatic life had disappeared until she was done with him. He would continue to be careful with his words if that sort of caution was needed.

However, the sudden change in the turtle’s demeanor confused him. It had been smiling at him foolishly, but now it seemed to be angry, with one of its flippers curled as if it was shaking a fist at him.

Of course, William doubted he would discover why this thing was mad at him. It couldn’t exactly talk to explain what it was feeling.

“Was I wrong? Sophia didn’t send for you?”

William got even more confused when the little thing somehow seemed angrier. Whatever bothered it didn't stop it from beckoning him out of the safe zone.

“Give me a second,” William felt far more casual with this weak-looking creature, though he had to admit that he was enjoying the increasingly indignant look the turtle had on its expressive face.

William turned back to the Dread Empress imitation. He asked, “If I can’t touch anything on this level, where can I find the contaminated beasts?”

He expected to get the same, repeated canned reply. It almost shocked him to death when it wasn’t.

“After you are accustomed to the pressure of the Qi, you will be free to explore as you please. If you have no other questions, please exit the safe zone.”

William couldn’t say that answered his question exactly, but it seemed it would be the best he would get with what followed.

He grunted in surprise when it felt like someone booted him right in the chest. If he hadn’t been panicking about exiting the bubble, he would have thought more about the slight smile on the Sophia-doll’s lips before she disappeared into thin air.

William didn’t care about that. He was tense, preparing himself to leave the safe zone, and if he couldn’t handle the density of the Qi, rush right back to safety.

When the Sophia-doll told William that he would need to get accustomed to the pressure of the Qi, he was actually excited about it. After all, why would he not be? William was thinking about how many more experience points he would be able to accumulate.

Of course, that quickly changed to fear for his life when he was unceremoniously ejected from the bubble.

William held his breath when his body passed the bubble wall, expecting the worst when he was surrounded by water. He was already shifting his body to let his legs get some sort of purchase on the floor, more than ready to take action and return to the safe zone.

However, all that worry was for nothing. Instead of his health rapidly dropping, what ended up happening was William standing with a scrunched-up face, waiting for an event that never occurred. It would have been something that he would have passed off with relief since he wasn’t harmed, but he currently had a spectator.

And it seemed to be laughing at him.

William foolishly opened his mouth to ask the slightly quivering turtle what was so funny, forgetting that he was no longer under the safety of the bubble.

It might have been a fear that wasn’t based on any logical sense, especially since his body was taking in small amounts of water naturally. Still, when his mouth was filled with water, William thought he might implode from the massive amount of Qi it likely held.

The turtle’s tiny head started to move even more in amusement at William’s constipated expression.

He narrowed his eyes at the turtle before deciding to ignore it. Other than the scarily intelligent thing that was laughing at him, there were more of the aquatic life that had stared at him intently when he was looking into the trench. The problem was that they were nowhere to be seen.

All William could see were the prevalent schools of fish swimming about mindlessly. Watching them go between the corals as a dense mass was almost soothing, but it disappointed him more than anything.

What was the point of the safe zone if there was nothing out here that seemed dangerous? With the instruction to leave all the life on this level to their own devices, William didn’t expect aggressive spirit beasts to lurk here.

He blinked when the turtle swam in front of his face, a little too close since focusing on it nearly made him cross-eyed.

William could only glare at it since there was no way to communicate. He quickly realized that this was a problem that he should have foreseen. While the turtle could understand him, he couldn’t speak to communicate with it, leaving him with only gestures as an obvious option.

He ignored the turtle moving closer to him as he groused to himself mentally. He decided to deal with the communication issue after trying to cultivate. If that failed too, then this level had nothing for him.

William supposed that it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise. After all, this dimension had been ripped into four. Perhaps not everything was how it was supposed to be due to the dimension not being whole.

He rolled his eyes in exasperation when the turtle moved even closer, letting him have far too close of a look at the stupid toothless smile on its face. He was going to continue ignoring it by taking a seat to cultivate, but he saw it suddenly speed up and slap its flipper on his cheek.

[Lord Paddlington of Deepwater Abyss is requesting a connection]

[Allow: Y/N]