My New Life as a Leviathan in Another World

Chapter 10: Entering the Temple! Part 1

Carrying an unconscious Penelope on my back, I made my way through the vast jungle and by the time she awoke; we had already made it to the temple.

"Mmm...Huh? Where are we?!" Penelope shouted as she became wide awake.

"This should be the temple that houses the treasure inside. I did the heavy lifting while you were sleeping so soundly." I replied as she looked down at me, realizing she was on my shoulders.

"Can you please put me down?" She asked, hurriedly.

Seeing her slightly panicking was kind of cute and definitely lowered the tension I had been feeling since earlier a great deal.

After relieving myself of the extra weight, we both looked towards the temple standing before us.

Or should I say, sinking before us?

The temple was half way buried deep in the lake covered up by the jungle.

"It almost feels dead..." I commented aloud.

"Yeah, it's like there's no vitality coming from the building or surroundings at all." Penelope nodded in agreement.

"Well, there's nothing more to gain from just staring, let's go!" I shouted as I was about to dive into the lake.

"H-Hey, wait a minute! What are you doing!?" Penelope panicked seeing me ready to dive straight into the lake.

"What? Don't tell me you can't swim?" I asked.

"Of course I can! I'm a pirate! Any sane person sailing the seas should be forced to learn how to swim!" She retorted.

"Then what's the issue?" I asked.

"It's just...Isn't the temple half buried? Look how big it is right in front of us, and this is only half of it? Won't it take a long time to reach the bottom? How are we supposed to hold our breath for long enough?!" She replied.

"Oh, is that the problem? Fine, come here." I answered back while making a gesture for her to get on my back.

"Wha-" She seemed to want to make another comment, and as I was getting annoyed by how slow we were progressing with the temple before our eyes now, I decided to just pick her up and drag her with me.

After picking up an unwanted dead weight, I ended up jumping straight into the sea, and quickly picked up the pace.

The lake was big enough for a wide variety of fish to live in it, and like any good fantasy world, a number of magical looking creatures seemed to populate this place.

An orange fish in the shape of a decagon seemed to speedily swim past causing a stream of different colors from the rainbow to appear.

I have no idea how something like that works, but given where the stream seemed to be coming from, I had a guess, though it seriously annoys me that something so beautiful could come out of something so disgusting....

There were many other kinds of exotic life as well, even some predators like a shark-like creature came rushing towards us, before it saw me and decided to swim past.

I couldn't help but give a slight smirk as I saw it run with it's fin flapping speedily.

I checked behind me to see the condition of my passenger and noticed Penelope enjoying the sights of the lake.

She was panicking and freaking out behind me back when we first entered, but after she realized what was going on she seemed to have calmed down a bit.

See, I used my water magic to give us (her) some protection while submerged.

Well, enough about that.

I assumed there would be some kind of door sealing the entrance off, but nope, there was just a giant ass hole on the side of it.

Or, maybe something created it? I have no idea.

Either way, it saves me the trouble of having to figure out a stupid puzzle like in those movies.

Seriously, couldn't people like, blow up most of those doors just to save time?

I'm sure there's lots of reasons, but we all know it's mainly for plot convenience.

Anyway, I swam straight into the temple and on the other side was...nothing.

At least at first.

After swimming deeper into the temple, I managed to find a lever that opened a set of stairs leading even further underground. Somehow the water remained floating just above the staircase, which was really cool, but also trippy.

Whoever built this place must have known the temple would sink eventually, or it was always built like this?

Who would build a temple half submerged in water?

Considering their mostly likely dead, I may never get the answers my questions.

And I have quite a lot already.

When I realized we were in a breathable atmosphere, I set Penelope down and undid my magic around her.

"How exactly could did you do all that?" Was the first thing she asked me.

"Uh, magic?" I answered quickly.

"Even magic has it's limits! And don't say it's a skill, because I've never heard of a skill that let you breathe underwater for as long as you want! So, tell me, are you..." Before she finish her sentence, she was cut off as the exit to the outside behind us was closed shut.

Then, torches lining the walls slowly lit up one by one until far beyond our line of sight.

With the staircase now dimly lit, I gestured down towards the stairs.

Penelope looked at me, both furious and suspiciously.

However, she simply let it slide for now.

"Fine. I'll be asking you for some real, honest, answers after we're done finding the treasure."

I wiped the non-existant sweat off my brow and continued further down with Penelope into the temples depths.