The entire expanse of Cider Lake, as shown on the in-game minimap, had two large shadowed regions—these darkened patches denoted areas of significant depth.
One lay to the northwest of Mondstadt, curving around the protruding edge of the city. The other was closer to the lake's northern shore, further away from the city itself.
Teyvat's full map also marked these deepwater zones, and compared to the game, there were far more of them—understandable, since the actual world was a hundred times larger. Still, the compression of the in-game map hadn't been arbitrary.
After so long in Teyvat, Victor Wang knew well that the game retained all significant locations.
In reverse, that meant: if a place had been kept in the game despite all the compression—it mattered more than the ones that had been cut.
Thus, the true focus for exploring Cider Lake lay in those two major shadowed areas. Only if those yielded no results would he consider searching elsewhere.
"But this is way too deep...!"
Victor was currently within the deepwater zone northwest of Mondstadt. From his perspective, this trench was practically an underwater canyon.
He had fallen from the shallow zone—from the mountaintop of this submerged range—and already descended nearly forty meters.
Even the benevolent sunlight, at this depth, was feeble—reduced to barely a fifth of its strength at the surface.
He could see clearly underwater, as if in air—but he couldn't see in the dark.
Everything around him took on hues of deep blue. Passing fish appeared only as black silhouettes. Only when he looked up could he still see the broken reflections of light across the water's surface, like clouds.
But the bottom still hadn't come into view. Only endless darkness stretched below.
He pulled out the Day Pearl. Once it was charged with enough elemental energy to activate its third layer, visibility returned.
The startled fish nearby scattered in a panic.
"Bass? They can survive at this depth? Then again... I can't really apply Earth's logic here."
Perhaps because the air in his lungs had been strangely replaced by water, the pressure hadn't bothered Victor much. It was far less oppressive than the Light Realm's pressure.
He continued descending along the slanted mountainside, which angled inward—making it the kind of slope one could never climb back up. How narrow would the base be if it kept going like this?
At 50 meters, fish began to appear in greater numbers. Schools upon schools, in dazzling variety.
Bass, above all.
At 80 meters, he spotted an oval-shaped bubble slowly rising.
"Hm?"
Raising the now four-layered Day Pearl, he moved in to inspect it. Normally, fish used to darkness would scatter at the sight of such brightness—but one fish, of unknown species, thrashed its tail wildly and swam toward him.
Just as he was about to reach the "bubble," the fish darted ahead and swallowed it whole.
"..."
It swam upward with even more vigor—only to be intercepted by a much larger bass, which flashed past Victor and gobbled up the smaller fish in a single bite.
"...That's vicious."
The water pressure increased. To avoid getting blindsided by any more hyper-aggressive fish, Victor activated an elemental shield. Wind energy reacted constantly with the water, draining steadily—but still within manageable limits.
At 100 meters, he looked up—the water's glow was gone. Only a dim blue sky remained.
"Earth's deepest lake is 1,637 meters. Don't tell me you're just as deep?" he muttered, addressing the lake itself.
["Here we go again! Master's back at it with the muttering. And I'm the one accused of being a chatterbox…"]
"What are you even on about? I'm reflecting. Reflecting, you hear me?"
Victor would never admit he had a habit of talking to himself. But Little Wen's assessments were never influenced by his pride. It sighed. ["Haaa…"]
Victor didn't respond—he'd just spotted another "bubble" drifting upward. This time, fish with blue, black, red, and yellow hues all bulged their eyes and surged toward it.
He reached out and snatched it first.
It felt soft and sticky to the touch—not a real bubble.
But the fish didn't slow. They rammed toward him like lunatics.
"Hmph."
Two punches later, the lead fish floated belly-up. With a taste of this terrifying upright ape's wrath, the others backed off, and Victor opened his hand to examine his prize: a piece of slightly tacky Slime Condensate.
Slime residue... from over 100 meters deep in Cider Lake.
There really was something down here.
As he considered this, a gleaming half-meter-long golden bass lunged to steal the slime from his hand. Victor clenched his fist—and the fish tried to tail-slap him.
"You're asking for it."
Though wind was heavily restricted underwater, its power drastically reduced, it was still enough to shred a fish when spun properly.
Blood exploded into the water. The surrounding fish, already keeping their distance, panicked anew. A chain reaction began—this entire depth layer boiled with terrified retreat.
Except the bass.
They didn't flee. They huddled together, watching him like predators.
At this depth, the water was starting to feel genuinely cold. Seeing their eerie behavior, Victor felt a chill of his own.
Even ten times their number wouldn't be enough to kill him—but this was unnatural.
Do they think they can take me?
"Hmph. Come at me, then."
Ignoring the circling bass just beyond reach, he resumed descending—who knew how deep it truly went?
At 200 meters, he felt as if he'd donned two suits of 20-kilogram armor. Every movement met resistance. A normal person would be in serious danger here.
As for light—there was no trace of it. If the Day Pearl went out, this world would be absolute black.
He pushed more energy into the Pearl. Now it illuminated an eight-meter-wide sphere of brightness—beyond that, the light quickly faded.
The bass continued to gather. Over a thousand now, swirling like a vortex just outside the light's edge.
"Hss... Little Wen, you know a lot—can bass really survive this deep?"
["Umm! Something's definitely off... These fish look mutated or something. They're creeping me out."]
"...So, just rabble."
But the very fact that he'd asked the question meant Victor himself was on edge.
Suddenly, the outer ring of the bass began to stir. Their tight formation scattered in chaos. And Victor swore they seemed... excited?
Ever since that inexplicable ambush by Isshin, the Cursed Blade, Victor had been more vigilant than ever. If the enemy wanted to play in the shadows, he'd light them all up.
The Day Pearl flared—its glow tripled, stunning the bass. And beyond their wall, Victor spotted a massive black shadow—at least three meters long.
Exposed by the light, it darted away with startling speed, disappearing past the edge of Victor's vision.
Then the bass attacked.
From all directions, they surged inward—like tendrils growing from the cylindrical wall of fish, lashing toward the glowing orb in his hand.
To Victor, this was a massacre. Wind Blades spun into life, forming a true waterspout around him. The attacking fish were minced instantly—their blood and viscera churning the water into a horrific stew.
"!"
Blood slipped into his nose with every breath. The coppery-sweet tang blended into the water. No escape. He could only grit his teeth and bear it.
With the light intact, the shadow in the dark finally struck. It moved like a blur, shooting through the field of carnage to stab at Victor's back with a bone spear from its head.
The spear was tough—it hadn't been shredded by the vortex. But it also gave Victor just enough warning.
He tried to twist and dodge, but with no footing and the resistance of the water, his motion was clumsy and distorted.
In that instant, he thickened his elemental shield behind him to tank the blow.
The force condensed to a single point, driving through layer after layer of protection. Luckily, it spent itself just before breaching his flesh.
Blocked, the black shadow retreated swiftly, hiding again among the fish and dark.
But Victor had glimpsed it.
A massive fish, armored in white bone along its head, back, and tail. Its skull jutted forward like a sword, dorsal fin sharp as a blade, tail fin curved like a scythe. Outside the bone plating, its body was water-blue, adorned with wind-green markings.
It was enormous—four meters from head-tip to tail, about 1.5 meters tall.
Its design—cold, deadly, beautiful in motion—was familiar.
"A Consecrated... Consecrated Bass?"
Its original species was unrecognizable due to its mutation, but with that many bass following it, the base must've been a bass too.
But that didn't matter.
What mattered was that Consecrated Beasts were born from ordinary creatures that had eaten on the remains of great lifeforms—and mutated as a result.
Which meant...
There really was a god's corpse at the bottom of this lake!