Unlike the dazed Sixth Master,
it took Mono over ten seconds to recover from that near-fainting state of oxygen deprivation.
However, as soon as he regained his senses, he was stimulated by the strange taste coming from his mouth.
He suddenly remembered the scene from just now.
"Holy f—!"
Mono's expression changed.
"Gag~"
He leaned against a tree, bent over, and let out a series of dry heaves from his throat.
He had just kissed Sixth Master, so didn't the water from the gutter get into his mouth?
At the thought of that murky, decaying Stinking Gutter water, filled with who-knows-what organic matter, entering his mouth, Mono felt his stomach cramp.
It was truly disgusting.
"Gag~"
"Gag~"
Seeing this, Sam was stunned for a moment. After hesitating, she swam over and grabbed Mono's hand.
She didn't understand why Mono's reaction was so extreme.
However, she seemed to want to comfort him in this way.
Mono looked up, and his gaze involuntarily drifted to Sixth Master's thin lips, and then... he couldn't help but bend over again.
"Gag~"
Sam also finally seemed to realize something and touched her own lips.
Then, looking at Mono's incessant vomiting, her originally blank expression became slightly dazed.
She finally understood.
She let go of his hand expressionlessly.
After silently watching Mono for a while, she said faintly, "Mo~ mo, no, are you... alright..."
"Alright...?"
Mono said weakly,
"I almost died because of your heartlessness, and you're asking if I'm alright?"
"Gag~"
Sam remained expressionless and said faintly, "Sorry..."
"Hey, is'sorry' enough?"
As Mono was shouting, Sam turned around.
"Hey, why are you turning your head? Look at me. Hey, don't leave."
Sam had swum to the other side.
For some reason, she was very unhappy now.
Mono vomited for a while longer before finally managing to recover.
If the Hunter weren't still nearby, he swore he would never let Sam off so easily for making him swallow such disgusting stuff.
Wasn't she usually quite capable?
Yet now she couldn't even hold her breath?
And what was with this cold attitude after doing something wrong?
The Hunter's light was still scanning back and forth.
Mono swam over.
"Hey, we have to keep diving. Remember this time, relax, don't use so much force. Strength isn't meant to be used like that for holding your breath."
After speaking, Mono pointed to another tree stump not far away.
"We have to swim over there."
This distance was much shorter than the previous one, so Mono wasn't worried.
Even a useless person should be able to dive across this.
"Understood," Sixth Master nodded.
"Take a deep breath first~" Mono told her.
Sixth Master obediently sniffled.
"Ex— cough, exhale~" Mono said again.
Sixth Master exhaled.
After a few repetitions, Sixth Master's state completely calmed down.
Mono squeezed her arm to check her condition.
Surprisingly, the muscles on her thin arm weren't many, nor were they hard.
"As expected, she can't be measured by common sense?"
Mono was surprised and touched his own muscles.
There wasn't much muscle on his thin arms either.
But why, when the conditions are the same, can you run so fast?
Mono really wanted to ask her that.
"Alright, since we're ready, let's go."
Mono grabbed Sixth Master's hand again.
Sixth Master didn't resist.
The two heads disappeared from the surface again.
The distance this time was clearly much shorter than before.
And after adjusting her state, Sixth Master no longer showed the same weakness as before.
The two successfully reached the next stump.
In this way, while diving and hiding behind stumps, they arrived at a huge mound of earth exposed above the water.
Further ahead was an even wider expanse of water.
Looking at the width of this water, no matter how well they could hold their breath, there was no way they could dive across in one go.
The lights were still searching.
Mono turned to look around again.
Soon, he discovered that above the mound of earth, there were several pieces of decayed, dried-up wood that had lost their moisture.
"Hey, go and bring those pieces of wood down."
Mono decisively ordered Sam.
He had suffered quite a bit along the way; making this arrangement wasn't unreasonable.
Sam followed Mono's direction, nodded, slowly swam to the edge of the mound, and climbed up.
Then she threw down several pieces of wood.
The wood fell into the water and floated on the surface.
"Drag them; we'll use them to hide our bodies," Mono said.
Sam understood Mono's meaning.
She blinked and looked at Mono.
She seemed to be wondering why he could always come up with good ideas.
Each of them pulled a piece of wood, hiding their heads behind it as they swam slowly forward.
When the light hit, they immediately stopped moving.
When the light moved away, they continued paddling.
Soon, using the wood as cover, they successfully reached the opposite bank.
Mono couldn't wait to throw down the wood and climb up the riverbank.
He had truly had enough of the smell of this Stinking Gutter.
Sam was not slow either, following closely behind Mono as she climbed up.
The Hunter didn't seem to have noticed them.
Continuing forward, after a few steps, a patch of Intertwined Roots appeared ahead.
Mono walked over and tried to jump across, but he couldn't reach.
He looked around but couldn't find anything to use as a stepping stone.
Sam seemed to see Mono's predicament.
She walked over and, without saying a word, jumped straight up.
Slap!
Her hands firmly grabbed the edge of the roots, her entire body dangling outside.
She wiggled her feet: "Hurry up!"
Mono glanced at her smelly feet, which had just crawled out of the ditch, and curled his lip.
But he still made a dash and grabbed her feet.
Then, using her body, he climbed upward.
Once he reached the top, he pulled her up with all his might.
The two of them successfully crossed the obstacle of the roots.