There was no creature this shark was chasing after and drake's instincts told me something was amiss.

It was indeed this monstrosity of a fish that was bleeding this heavily to even dye the water slightly red.

This giant shark seemed confused.

It behaved just like I assumed it usually would although it should be in pain right now and on the verge of dying.

It seemed as if this giant who appeared to be unbeatable wasn't the apex predator of this lake.

I didn't want to lose time.

I was in the middle of a lake. If the shark or whatever attacked the shark saw me I would be in trouble.

I swam as fast as I could but not towards the shore which was far away now.

I swam towards the bottom of this lake and hid in the many plants down here.

Although I was afraid I also felt a hint of happiness when I looked around me. This variety of vegetation would leave any of my professors speechless.

?Focus'

Drake was right. We had to know what it was that could attack a shark of this size. I waited for about half an hour. If I wanted to know what was behind this secret I had to hurry because I couldn't stay under water forever.

One hour; this was the timer I set for myself.

After that I would have to resurface to breathe.

Fortunately the shark slowly became dizzy and I could feel its lifeforce decreasing until its lifeless body resurfaced with its stomach towards the sun.

After five minutes something neared the corpse. At first glance I thought it was a professional diver with some special gear. It was a female and her upper body seemed to be covered in some kind of semi transparent diving suit but when I looked closely she wasn't human...

at least not from the waist downwards.

It was a snakes tail which she used to gracefully move towards the dead shark.

She tried to rip its flesh apart but she was to weak. When she realized it she used a small dagger to cut of one of its fins.

I was curious and slowly swam towards her.

Even if she turned out to be an enemy I was confident that this body could overpower her and the better scenario was that she would tell me about this world and maybe give me some of this meat.

But my priority was to warn her because the creature that wounded this shark had to be around here somewhere and naval animals often had a very sensitive nose when blood was involved.

I wanted to shout and opened my mouth:

?Hey, you there"

Wait what? Why can I talk underwater.

?Our lungs have been modified... and the muscles as well. I think some small vocal cords aren't that much of an exercise for my dad when he was creating our body'

Drake seemed a little arrogant but nonetheless...

He was right.

I stopped these thoughts and continued: "the beast that killed the shark is probably still around. Fast, hide somewhere!"

I had hoped that she would understand the language I was using and suddenly my thoughts were interrupted once more 'of course she will. What did I just tell you about the vocal cords? My dad created them. That means every being that is similar to your race back on earth won't have trouble understanding you just like snakes won't have trouble understanding us because they are somehow similar to dragons.'

The snake lady seemed to be taken aback: "where have you learned to sssspeak the language of the Naga? It isssss ancient and divine and no mortal should be allowed to ssssspeak it.

Allow me to make you repent for your ssssin!"

I was ready to take her on in a fight but she only swam towards my body while her eyes emitted a light that was similar to the silver which my eyes could emit but not even half as bright.

She looked deep into my eyes and said: "kneel and tell me who told you the secrets of our language. After that forget everything about it and about this encounter and never return to this lake!"

I was surprised. This order seemed quite nice because previously I thought she might kill me.

I tried to be polite and answered: "I am sorry but I can't do that. I'm very hungry and this lake is full of tasty fish so I am going to stay"

She was taken aback "you will obey me"

I was slightly angry now because she wouldn't even listen to me.

My eyes started gleaming and I approached her while saying: No, you will listen to me, understood?"

"Yessss, massster" she replied immediately

"What?" 'What?" Suddenly she stops being dominant and is willing to listen?

Both drake and I were confused.

I wondered what happened but when I looked at her once more I understood.

Her eyes weren't as alive as before. They were very calm just like the big shark's eyes.

"I hypnotized her!! It was just as easy as hypnotizing drake!" 'Hey!' "Sorry, that wasn't on purpose and you know that" I sensed drake was still angry but he understood what I meant.

I was still thinking about drake when I heard a female voice: "are you a wizzzzard?" "A what?"

"A wizzzard! Only a high ranking wizzzard or a naga of similar power can withssstand a Naga and even hypnotizzze her."

Drake seemed uneasy and told me. 'You know that I died a lot but one time I managed to become very strong. No creature in the wild could contend with me, but unfortunately I met some wizards in my past life. Many were easy to kill but one was able to overpower me after his comrades gave their lives.

He took my life with his dying breath.

I thought this world would be a good one but if there are wizards then our life could end sooner than expected.'

I listened patiently to drake and swore to myself for my own and for drake's sake that I would become stronger than any of those wizards.

After I recollected my thoughts I looked at the naga who appeared to be quite shy now because she blushed when I looked at her for a few seconds. I told her a part of the truth: "actually I am neither of the two although I am closer to the second thing. My bloodline is related to the Naga bloodline."

She seemed very confused because my outer appearance was indisputably human.

"Really? Usually magic creaturessss with abilitiesss sssuch as yourssss have a hm...well..."

I tried to complete her sentence: "...a build such as yours"

She hissed at me and held her hands in front of her flat chest "I am ssstill growing, you idiot"

"No, I meant that..." I realized I shouldn't say anything about her bottom half while she was angry.

This time she finished the sentence:

"I understand that you meant the snake-like lower half, which indicates my origin. Usually strong beings such as yourself have some features such as this as well." Her curiosity seemed to have awakened know as did my own.

Before she could ask any further questions asked: "did you hypnotize that shark?"

Her smug face when she heard this clearly said ...

I mean . Damn it! I start adapting to the way she speaks.

She explained to me that she used her ability on the shark and then she stabbed it a few times with her dagger. When the ability weakened she allowed it to swim away in case it would regain its senses.

After that all she had to do was wait.

When I realized that there was no monster which would cause me any danger I was very happy because that meant we had a lot of very fresh sushi floating above our heads.