Book 3 - The Merchant from the Depths: Chapter 17; Amateurs in the Deep

The screen turns on as the chapter title card plays "Chapter - 17; Amateurs in the Deep''.

They were now in the Mirror Chamber with Ace and Deuce as they looked at Azul's water-breathing potion.

Deuce asked "Will Azul's potions really let us breathe underwater?" with some caution. But Jack shrugged and said "Only one way to find out. We'll have to chug 'em and see for ourselves."

Ace told them "Okay, on three. One, two…three!" as they all drank the potion.

Deuce puts a hand over his mouth as he says "Whew… That was…" But Grim finished for him as he shouts "NASTY! It tastes like someone mixed together dried frog and rotten mushrooms!"

Jack, slightly worried, asks Grim "How would you know what that tastes like?"

But then coughs as the flavor pops back up into his mouth and he says "It's a…powerful flavor, all right…" Ace complained "What genius decided that potions have to taste like crud, anyway? Someone oughta fix that."

Before Ace burped, which made him gag with the flavor coming into his mouth again.

Deuce asks "Shouldn't we be more worried about efficacy than flavor?"

But then quickly grasped his hands around his neck as he told them "W-wait a minute. It's…getting harder to breathe…" Jack's breathing is heavier as he asks "Are our lungs adapting to breathing underwater?!" Ace seems to be one of the ones struggling more as he lets out a pained "Gah…" before gasping for air before shouting at them "Aw geez, this is gettin' bad! Let's get in the water, quick!" Yuu nods in agreement as she also holds onto her throat struggling to get enough air in.

Jack shouts at the Dark Mirror "Mirror of Darkness! Guide us to the Coral Sea!"

They then all hurriedly rush into the mirror as soon as possible.

When Yuu opens her eyes again, she's surprised but not too surprised to see that she's deep underwater at the bottom of the ocean in the middle of the sea. She spots a coral reef nearby, that's beautiful and an old shipwreck as well. She was amazed by the plants and sea life.

It seemed she was the first to take a proper breath down here and become aware enough to look around as Grim gurgled water and shouted "It just dumped us in the water! I'm gonna drown!"

She then looked over to her friends, as they figured out the water-breathing potion works well.

But was definitely confused by the fact that Grim's fire ears were somehow still lit even though they were now at the bottom of the ocean.

Deuce is the first to get the hang of breathing after her as he tells the others "Wait. I'm breathing just fine."

The rest of them calm down as they take deep breaths with no water filling their lungs, negatively at least.

Grim looks around as he says to Deuce "Huh? Oh, hey, you're right."

Jack's tails wagging a lot, producing a decent bit of bubbles around him as he says "We really can breathe underwater." Ace is the next one who actually looks around and shouts at the others "Dude! Get a load of this coral reef! If Cater was here, he'd be hashtagging pics of it faster than you could say the word 'Magicam'!"

Yuu smiles as she lets herself fall entirely back against the seafloor as she looks around from below as she exclaims "It's gorgeous!".

But Jack ruins their moment as he reminds them "We don't have time to gawk at the scenery. We'd better get a move on and head to our target."

Yuu pouts and starts to swim around more as she looks for any signs of where to go next.

Jack had looked at some maps apparently as he started to swim in the right direction. Ace and Deuce quickly follow behind them. But Grim is having trouble as he shouts complaints "So hard to move! Mrrrah! I feel like a fish outta water here! Or whatever the opposite of that is!"

They eventually make it over to the Museum.

The Museum definitely had an interesting look. It seemed to be winding or coiling around itself, with a ton of pillars. It was mostly a lighter periwinkle with some gold and yellow mixed in. The gold and yellow was mostly on the seashell type roofs with only a few of the towers being a gold/yellow. The entire thing also seemed to be on a mountain of sorts.

Deuce tells them "Hey, check it out." Ace asks for confirmation "That's it yeah? The Atlantica Memorial Museum?"

They all stare, amazed by it, for a second or two.

Grim then spots two guards as he shouts "Myah! Look at all these guys with fish tails instead of legs!"

The two merfolk in question had blue or teal typical mermaid tails. They didn't have shirts and instead just had an armor piece around their right shoulder with a light seafoam color cloth piece attached to their armor and hung down their right shoulder onto their back."

Jack asks slightly surprised "Are those…mermen? Wow. There really ARE people out there who live underwater." as it seems he didn't really believe it before.

Just then two longer merfolk pass above them causing a shadow to fall over them.

A rather familiar voice is then heard shouting excitedly "Eeeyyy! There you are, Little Shrimpy and co.!~" Another familiar similar voice is then heard asking them "Good day, everyone. How are you liking it here under the sea?"

Yuu's eyes go wide as she recognizes who said those things.

Although Grim is the first to say anything about it as he shouts "Those voices… It's the lookalike brothers!"

The two are then seen as Floyd shouts happily "Got it in one!~"

Although the two look extremely different from normal.

Their skin is now mostly just a dusty dark teal green. With only the center of their chest, faces, and hands being a white color with a green undertone. The majority of their skin has different colored speckles on it with some darker green markings on their biceps, faces, and tails. The two now also have long rather thin and flat tails. Their eats fan out more and look more like mini fins, especially with their teal tips. The two also have a similar long fin that goes all the way down both sides of their tail fanning out more at the tip. The twin duo also have a fin running down their forearm. All of their fins are black or at least very dark at the base but fade out into a more teal color. Yuu also notes that the two are surprisingly muscular.

The group is all extremely shocked as they see them, especially in this merform.

Jack shouts "Why d'you look like that?!" at them in his surprise.

Floyd puts a hand behind his head as he answers rather lazily now "Whaddaya mean? This is how we normally look. After all, we're mermen!~" As he gets closer to them towards the end. Yuu shouts "You are?!" in surprise as the most unusual magical creatures she's actually met are the beastmen with their ears and tail and that one horned boy.

Jade once again puts a hand over his chest as he explains to them "We use potions to change our forms when we're on land. After all, we can hardly walk on solid ground with these tailfins."

But Ace seems more shocked by something else as he shouts "Dude, they're long! How tall— uh, I mean, how LONG are you?"

Jade seems to be about 12'5ft or 380 cm. While Floyd is about 12'6ft or 282cm. Or rather about double the height of their human forms.

While Deuce notices their slimer tails and length compared to the others as he asks "Are you some kind of sea serpent?" Floyd smiles as he answers "Solid guess, but nope. We're morays."

But Grim isn't putting up with them at all as he shouts at them "Who cares what they are?! I wanna know why they're here!"

Floyd laughs as he grabs his shoulder and answers "That's easy!~ We're here to get in your way!~"

Ace scowls as he says "I shoulda known."

Jade crosses his arms as he tells them "It wouldn't do for you to complete your challenge too easily."

They start to get into a fight with the twins in their eel forms.

The screen then fades to black as "To be continued" plays before it fully turns off.