Mastore 143 - Dumpster

Magic Realm Convenience Store – Ch. 143

Regular customer assembly (5)

- Hey. Stay perfectly still and don't make a sound.

Even if someone pointed a gun at my head, I wouldn’t make a sound. This octopus tentacle must absolutely not be angered.

An octopus tentacle, easily fifty centimeters thick, was squirming right in front of me. It stretched from the depths below the left side of my vision to the slope I was holding onto, brushing against the wall just within reach.

As the blunt tip of the tentacle stopped scraping the wall and slowly turned toward me, I stayed perfectly still with all my might. I barely even breathed.

After what felt like dozens of seconds, the octopus tentacle slowly sank to the bottom of the ocean and disappeared. I counted to five more seconds in my head before asking.

"Why is that thing so big?"

- That’s just how big they originally are. Not common, but still.

“.....”

- Anyway, you held out well, Lee Chan. Even trained guys pull all kinds of nonsense when they run into something like that."

I did pull some nonsense too. It just so happened that my nonsense was staying completely frozen.

The calming potion I got from Elena seems to be doing its job properly. I can feel it. Even after seeing an international-news-worthy octopus tentacle flailing right in front of my face, my reaction had stopped at the level of ‘That was damn scary’.

- How are the other three? Are you alright, Mongmong?

- It’s tolerable, despite the water in my ears. Truth be told, being inside the bag suggest I can't see anything...

- It might be better if you don’t see it, Mongmong. What about you, Elder?

- I’m fine as well. But Miss Yoonha, what do you think about subduing that octopus before it harms us?

- That could work, but I'll let you know if it seems necessary. That guy seems to be asleep right now. Its tentacle movements are extremely irregular.

The reactions around me are much calmer than mine. And as I begin to think this is a manageable situation, my fear gradually transforms into confidence that this is quite doable.

There isn’t a single basis of it, but this is better.

- We're going to continue descending, but do you need time to catch your breath, Lee Chan?

"I'm alright, let’s hurry down, Noona."

I couldn’t help feeling eager to get this over with.

As we descended further, the slope of the cliff we had been clinging to turned completely vertical. I let go of the wall and looked up at the wall I’m holding on to.

It disappeared in an instant. At this point, I couldn't go back even if I wanted to.

I tried to flail my arms and legs. Far from maintaining an upright position, my posture became even more awkward. Guess I would have to give up on telling up from down.

I just kept sinking helplessly, like floating through space without a spacesuit. Noona and Manager were barely visible, and only the Elder was glancing over here from a close distance.

He seems concerned, so I just slightly raised my hand to show him I was alright. I'm fine. For now.

More and more questions arose. How fast were we descending? How far down had we come? Were we even descending at all?

I wanted to ask, but the silence made it hard to speak up. With octopus tentacles of unknown origin roaming around, I wonder if making noise is even appropriate...

- Yoonha, how much longer do you think we have left?

Thankfully, Manager spoke first. She must’ve sensed my growing unease.

- These ocean-themed gates usually have something like an underwater cave, Unnie. When we see rocks that could be the entrance to a cave, we’re almost there.

- Since we can’t even see the bottom yet, does that mean we still have a way to go?

- We're about two-thirds of the way. The mana concentration is denser than before, so... Wait, we might need to descend a bit slower.

It seems she's seen something again, but there's no way to reduce speed even if we wanted to descend slowly. Thankfully, the Elder immediately grabbed my leg.

He rotated me half a turn to stabilize my posture, and I noticed the edge of his shoe soles faintly glowing silver. He must be doing something with his magic power, like stepping on rainwater.

- I can see something like lantern lights below, Miss Yoonha.

- Yes. Besides the lantern lights, there's a bit...

"What is it, Noona?"

- There's something, and quite a lot of it.

Before I could even ask what there was a lot of, the Elder extinguished the light at his feet, grabbed my arm, and descended further.

As I descended with him, Manager and Noona came immediately into view, and I could finally see what the Elder referred as lantern-like lights. I saw it, but that's... shit...

"Noona. That's an anglerfish..."

There’s a fish here that could hardly be named anything else. The real problem is that its size rivaled the octopus tentacle we has seen earlier.

Below the luminescent part that looks like a lantern, I could see what appeared to be its head, and excluding the mouth, the rest of its body was so vast it extended beyond field of view.

Around the luminescent part was a cluster that looked like offspring. Perhaps not fully grown yet, they had no lanterns and were much smaller. They are about the size of a piranha.

And then the octopus tentacle. The anglerfish’s jaws were slowly moving toward it.

As it approached, its mouth gradually began to open. Countless teeth too numerous to count came into view. Without directing the question at anyone in particular, I asked.

“Why is that crazy bastard trying to eat that?”

― ... Ah, damn it.

Noona clicked her tongue just as the anglerfish’s jaws snapped shut. Dozens of teeth sank into the octopus tentacle, and at that exact moment.

― %#$~~~~~~!!

The octopus whose tentacle is bit began to shriek in pain. It sounded like fingernails scraping a chalkboard.

The Dark red fluid sprayed out as the octopus leg thrashed wildly. The anglerfish that had sunk its teeth in was whipped around as if being dragged along.

A creature as big as a humpback whale was being whipped around as if playing with firecrackers. I asked Noona as calmly as I could.

“No, there are so many other things to eat. Why would it eat something that was just sleeping!!”

- Enough! Everyone grab onto me tight now! I'm going to use magic!

I immediately grabbed the hem of Noona’s pants with one hand. The Elder held onto her jacket. Just as Manager grabbed her hand, Noona's body began rapidly descending.

Only now did I realize that the octopus tentacles were far more numerous and massive than I had thought. Octopus tentacles were wildly thrashing through the darkness below our feet and above our heads.

Among them was the tentacle with the anglerfish attached, which showed no sign of movement whatsoever except for its embedded teeth, seemingly unable to withstand the pressure of being whipped around.

Baby anglerfish were swimming around following it. Seeing them occasionally trying to sink their teeth into the octopus tentacles, it looked like they were really mad too…

“Noona! What are we gonna do now!!”

- Now that those things have started moving like this, there's no reasoning with them. We’re going straight there without delay! Once we hit the bottom, you three head for the entrance right aw—Wait, let go!"

Manager and the Elder let go right away. I was a little late. . As soon as her body was fre, Noona shot up and stretched out both arms.

An octopus tentacle whipped across my sister's arms.

It was like David blocking Goliath's club with his bare hands. For a split second, the thought of what must have happened to Noona flashed through my mind. But then.

My sister was completely fine. Rather, the octopus tentacle was half-severed and spurting blood everywhere.

I saw many things in that spray of blood. Noona wiping the blood from her face, a dagger in her hand, and the corners of her mouth turned up into a distorted grin.

- Happy now? You happy now that I shredded your leg? Huh?

― #[]$~~~~!! $%~~!!

- If you like it, bring more legs! I’ll beat you up so much that you’ll want to die!!

I could hear the agonized screams mixing with Noona's rage-filled cursing. Her enthusiasm was great, but is this really the time?

- Yoonha! Relax!

- I am relaxed! Unnie!

As she spoke, she took off her jacket and let go. The jacket fell straight down vertically onto Manager's head, who felt around and grabbed it, holding it to her chest.

- If we leave this guy alone, he’ll chase us to the end. I’ll deal with him for a bit, so go down first and find the exit! Got it!

- Okay! But don’t push yourself too hard!

They are exchanging conversations that are inappropriate for the situation, such as ‘lemme deal with it for a bit’ or ‘don’t push yourself too hard’. Meanwhile, the writhing octopus tentacle had been completely torn and was sinking...

I shouldn't try to understand. Sometimes the world just works like this.

I cleared my head as best I could and grabbed the jacket. The zipper pointed down like a tip, and the whole jacket tilted sharply and began sinking fast.

Noona vanished from sight in an instant. If things go wrong, I'll make an A-class hunter my gossip fodder, saying they weren't all that special. If she doesn’t like that, she’ll find her way back herself.

After what felt like an eternity but was only about ten seconds, the jacket touched the bottom.

The moment I landed, I pushed myself halfway up and scanned my surroundings. There was nothing to see but the damn deep-sea floor and rocks. No seaweed, no entrance, not even a drain for water to escape through.

“Manager-nim, can you see something? My eyes suddenly gone bad in this water—"

- Could you lower your head a bit, Chan?

She answered my question with a request. As I immediately lowered my head, I noticed her right hand lingering beside her skirt. Her middle finger and thumb were touching.

Manager snapped her fingers. I felt and heard consecutive vibrations like soccer balls bursting above my back. Shredded fish rained down all around me.

They were literally the size of soccer balls. And their teeth were unnaturally sharp. Manager stared at her fingers and muttered under her breath.

- Three left now. Or is it four?

“It’s three, but what if even using them all isn't enough? What will happen then, Manager-nim?”

- I’ll be a burden. I’d hate that too, so we should hurry.

An honest answe I glanced back and saw the Elder placing a hand on my shoulder, bracing my back with the other. It was as if he was supporting me from behind.

- You won’t float upward again. Let’s go, Boss.

No words, just action. As we walked, I heard another scream from the octopus and followed by the wet sound of something tearing and falling. Noona must’ve torn off another leg.

And then, a baby anglerfish right in front of me.

We suddenly found ourselves in a standoff, and its bulging eyeballs strongly reminded me of that guy who’s good at coding. Why the hell are these little freaks taking their boss’s mistakes out on us…?

- You don't need to stop.

As he spoke, the gentleman Elder darted out and grabbed the anglerfish's body with his hand. He firmly pressed the side of the anglerfish with his thumb then let go.

He looked down at the anglerfish that had its body turned upside down for a moment, then came back and placed his hand on my back once more.

- We should be able to reach the swarm without issue. Let’s keep going.

"Yes... Yes. Let's, continue."

My voice started to tremble. Maybe the calming potion was wearing off, or or if it's rational fear. I bit my lower lip and kept walking. And walking. And walking.

A rocky wall appeared at the edge of my vision. Looked like the bottom of the cliff I had been climbing down earlier. Beneath it was a grid of iron bars.

Looked like a sewer drain. Since the gate environment and sewer are half-mixed, that must be the cave entrance. I immediately raised my head and called Noona.

“Noona! Yoonha Noona, I found it so come down! Quickly!!"

- ...!! ......!!

"I said come down quickly!! Now—"

What’s she doing? There was no need to ask. Noona already came down. Along with two octopus tentacles.

Two tentacles covered in knife marks completely blocked the sewer hole without a single gap. They were much thicker than before, probably not the tips but the midsections part of tentacle.

Noona had her arm deeply embedded in one of the severed tentacles. Above it, a dozen, or more tentacles, were squirming ceaselessly.

- Hey, Lee Chan. Where are you.

“.....”

- I asked, where are you?

And at the center. The octopus body was above our heads. It felt like the deep sea that couldn't possibly get any darker seemed to darken further, as if dark clouds had covered the entire sky.

The eyes on the octopus’s head stared down at me, Manager, and the Elder. I could feel the remaining tentacles slowly approaching. Thi- This is a bit.

"...Isn't this too much for a newbie, Manager-nim...?"

- That’s too much, Chan-ah.

- P- Ple. Ple, plepleple, please!

Suddenly, I heard a stammering voice coming from the cloth bag slung over my shoulder. I stiffly turned my head to look down at the slightly unzipped bag.

Through the small gap, Mongmongwas peering up. He seemed to have made eye contact with the octopus. Before I could tell him to get back inside as it was dangerous, Mongmong continued shouting.

- Please stop! Honorable Elder Octopus!

His voice was trembling violently. By the time this shout ended, the octopus tentacles had approached and surrounded us within a radius of about 2 meters.

But they froze right there. The dozen or so tentacles not moving an inch.

- Th- This humble dog tastes terrible, Boss tastes even worse! Miss Yoonha, the great Manager, and the gallant Elder Wolf are the same!

- ......

- We have no intention of harming Honorable Elder Octopus, we merely wish to pass through the entrance. We have business beyond it! And that business is, a matter of utmost importance… Cough! Cough!

Maybe his throat gave out from suddenly yelling after staying quiet for nearly an hour. Still, the octopus seemed to understand him well.

As if to say, “Are you talking about here now?” he lifted his severed leg slightly. The iron bars of the sewer were briefly visible through the gap between his severed leg and then disappeared.

- …Thi- This humble dog can’t see it from here, but yes! That must be it! If you’ll just let us pass through, I, Mongmong, will be eternally grateful to Honorable Elder Octopus!

- ......

- When we meet again, this humble dog will give you my favorite hamburger. So please, just for a moment, a very brief moment, would you make way for us?

(D: My favorite fast food is also hamburger. Hats off to Mongmong.)

Having said this, Mongmong inside my bag bowed his head. Noona, who had been listening while holding her dagger from a distance, looked at me with an expression that seemed to ask what the heck was going on.

I probably have the same expression. I decided to just accept the result. The octopus, after staring at Mongmong for a while, slowly rolled its eyes toward the entrance.

And then, a few seconds later, it moved out of the way. What kind of absurd situation is this now?

- Hey. What was that just now, Lee Chan? Did he use some kind of language command?

"What's a language command?"

- I know what it is.

"Really? What is a language command?"

- Before we start explaining, I think we should get moving first. Guys.

- I agree. Because of the metal bars, they can't follow us anyway.

Perhaps because the octopus was standing firm, the baby anglerfish, though desperate to tear us apart, couldn’t recklessly approach.

It still seems safe, but there’s no telling when this octopus might have a change of heart and try to eat us. Noona sheathed her dagger at her waist and spoke in a voice half-disbelieving, half-relieved.

- I don’t know what just happened, but whatever…

She glanced at the metal bar showing through the gap in the tentacles and added while pointing to it with her finger.

- My skin’s tingling. Feels like it’s inside that way. We’re almost there.



|Note

Consider supporting me by subscribing on Patreon for 5$. 

Advance chapters of Magic Realm Convenience Store Worker : 10 Chapters

Also, consider visiting my patreon to check out my other projects