Before jumping into the water, Kim Yeong checked the time and saw that it was 10:26. Kim Yeong then took off his shirt and jumped into the water, swimming around in the water, feeling the coolness surrounding his whole body. Diving under the water, he instantly felt the cold sensation removing any remaining sense of tiredness. He rose out of the water and looked around.
Making sure that no one was looking for him, he gave Star the OK signal and she began to scan the area for the third item.
[The item is not in this area, move to the next area please.]
After hearing confirmation that the item was not near him, he began to swim to different areas of the lake. He had to hurry though, as he had 30 minutes tops before everyone else jumped in and came looking for him.
Double checking that no one was looking at him, he saw Michael taking a small glance before instantly collapsing asleep.
'Maybe I shouldn't have given him so much stuff to carry...'
[You know his stats, and even his class is a big sign that he is very weak. It's called 'Weakling' for crying out loud.]
'Shut it, when you reform your body, I'm going to make you do double his work.'
[HAH! As if.]
'...Just get back to work.'
Ending the conversation, Kim Yeong activated one of his skills, [GROWTH(Super Rare)-Skill: Boost], which allowed him to boost a specific stat by 10% as long as he provide energy. He chose to boost his Agility stat from 18 to 19.8, allowing him to swim faster as Star scanned the areas he passed by.
Every time he took a breath, he looked to see if anyone was watching, but thankfully, everyone was preoccupied.
As Kim Yeong swam around the whole lake, he was just about to pass a group of fish when he heard Star yell in his head.
[WAIT! I've found it!]
The moment he heard this, he stopped and looked around. Below him, the only thing he could see was a bunch of plants.
[Underneath the plants is the item, you are going to need to dig it out. Shouldn't be too hard for you.]
'Well that was easy, I thought it would be much harder to find in than that.'
Kim Yeong took one last look around before diving down underwater. His vision was slightly impaired but he was able to make out the general form of the plants. Once he reached the plants, he changed his boost from Agility to Strenght, he felt his body grow heavier as his agility returned back to its original state. On the other hand, his body slowly felt less and less burdened by the weight of the water in his back.
He first relocated the plants by gently uprooting them and replanting them to a new location.
Taking another look at where the plants used to be, he could barely see an outline of the item, signaling that it was buried very very deep under the sand.
After confirming where the item was, he began using his hands to dig away at the sand. The sand slowly floated in the water and after a while, it completely blocked his vision, but he wasn't that fazed by this as he could still somewhat see the outline of the item.
He continued to dig his way to the item as he went deeper and deeper into the lakebed. Before long, he created a pretty big hole but was still quite a bit away from the item.
'Jesus, how did they manage to find this? Was it lifted out of the water when 'The Invasion' happened or did someone use a skill?'
Kim Yeong wasn't really worried that he would drown. That is until he heard a notification from Star.
[Carbon dioxide levels are steadily rising. I estimate that you have 5 more minutes before you need to breathe.]
'Wait what? How is that possible? Damn it, I'll ask you later. I gotta focus.'
With not much time left, Kim Yeong began digging even faster. Handful of sand after handful of sand, the water surrounding him within 2 meters quickly filled with displaced sand and dirt.
After 4 more minutes of digging, he finally reached the item
[Hurry up and grab it, we gotta put back all the sand!]
Grabbing the item, Star immediately stored it in his inventory and Kim Yeong started pushing back all the sand he could.
With 30 seconds remaining before he reached critical carbon dioxide levels, he filled the hole back up and used all his strength to push him back to the surface. However, due to not thinking about the consequences of just jumping straight up, he almost shot out of the water.
Thankfully, he didn't just too high out, so if anyone saw anything, he could just write it off as him playing around. Kim Yeong swam to a different part of the shore and used his mana to dry himself off. Siting on the shore, Star showed herself through an interface.
"Hey Star, why did I almost suffocate? Even with Michael's stats, I should be able to stay under water for at least 15 minutes."
[I do not know, something must have induced an effect to protect the artifact.]
"But that should be impossible before 'The Invasion', should it? I mean, this world's energy hasn't been awaken and most of the higher beings haven't discovered this world yet. Even the ones that have have no relation to this item."
[I guess we're going to have to find out.]
"I guess so. Oh also, what time is it?"
The interface changed from Star to a picture of a clock and he saw that it was 11:03.
"Oh shit!"
Kim Yeong looked around and saw that both Elizabeth and Lily had jumped into the water and started looking for him. Changing the boost back to Agility, he ran across the shore back to the newly formed camp.
=-=
Michael woke up to the extremely cold sensation of water seeping through his face.
"Ahhh, what the fuc-"
Jolting straight up, he could hear Elizabeth and Lily giggling while Kim Yeong was ready to splash him with more water.
"Hey! What was that for! I don't got any other clothes!"
"You can just dry it later, just come join us."
"Grrr, you little shit, get over here!" Michael threw his shirt off and jumped into the lake. The following splash threw waves into the faces of Kim Yeong and the two girls.
Kim Yeong wiped off the water and started to push more water at Michael. The two girls also joined in.
Soon, a free-for-all started.
While all of this was happening, Shiratori was busy cleaning the dirty dishes, not noticing what he was missing.