When the Pope Becomes Competent - Chapter 155



Only Noblemtl

155. Let’s Become a Mermaid
2024.04.03.

Suction cups had grown on Dionik’s legs.

If that were the only problem, I wouldn’t have been so surprised.

Surprisingly, the number of legs had increased to eight.

So in short, you could say that he had become an octopus mermaid, even among mermaids.

I thought he would be a normal mermaid with a fish lower body.

It was a huge shock for me.

However, Dionik, who had become an octopus, didn’t seem to think much of it.

“Oh, my lower body became an octopus. So does that mean I’ve become a ‘demon octopus’, half demon and half octopus?”

“… … ”

He was leisurely defining his identity. He

was wiggling his octopus legs.

I couldn’t help but ask at that point.

“Are you okay? Even if you’re not a normal mermaid.”

“I like it? See, I can do this because I have many legs.”

As he said that, he started to tie my body with his legs.

I struggled to escape, but it was no use.

The Dionik had eight legs, and each leg had a suction cup, so it wasn’t easy to break free of the restraints.

“Eww! I got it, let go! It feels weird!”

I screamed as I writhed at the sensation of the octopus touching my arms and legs.

Fortunately, the octopus didn’t seem to want to play any more, so it let go of my arms and legs.

I kept rubbing my skin to relieve the goosebumps that were rising up.

“We’re not going to turn into octopuses, are we?”

The mermaid who heard me kindly answered me.

“Not necessarily. It’s just a random transformation.”

“Ahh… … .”

I nodded and picked up one of the scrolls they had brought.

Then I gathered my courage and tore it open.

I prayed that I wouldn’t turn into an octopus-human. Soon,

light flowed out from the scroll and enveloped my body.

I felt the shape of my lower body changing depending on the power of the skill contained in the scroll.

I stared at my brightly shining legs.

And when the light finally died down―

“… … .”

I could see that my legs had transformed into the lower half of a fish in a colorful tropical fish form.

‘But it’s not an octopus or a squid, at least.’

The bright yellow and black colors were a bit jarring, but I felt like it wasn’t an octopus like Dionik.

Elodie’s eyes sparkled as she saw my transformed legs.

“It’s pretty. I want to try it too.”

Soon, Elodie followed me and tore off the scroll.

After that, she transformed… Elodie wasn’t a normal fish like Dionik. Elodie

… had the lower half of a jellyfish.

Fortunately, it looked beautiful, as if she was wearing a pink lace skirt.

“Oh… … .”

I exclaimed in admiration.

Jellyfish tentacles fluttered in mysterious colors.

The tip of the longest tentacle was sparkling.

It seemed like the tentacle contained a luminous substance.

“I want to try it too!”

Following Elodie, Rubin tore the scroll.

Then Rubin’s body also began to glow just like us, and after that, we saw a conch shell growing on Rubin’s back.

So Rubin could be said to have become a conch mermaid among mermaids.

“A conch shell has grown on my back! I can fit inside!”

Rubin seemed to like his appearance as a mermaid.

Now, only Luciana and Cheonggwang remained.

Of the two, Luciana picked up the scroll first and tore it.

After that, Luciana also transformed into a mermaid, and fortunately, it was a creature that Luciana would like.

“I’m a seahorse. I’ve always wanted to be a horse.”

“… … You wanted to be a horse?”

Luciana nodded without hesitation when I asked.

“Knights often have jousting matches, and to win, you have to get along well with your horse. So I wanted to feel like a horse at least once. Of course, my lower body is a seahorse, but a seahorse is still a horse after all.”

“Positive… … ?”

I don’t quite understand what he meant when he said he wanted to make sense, but it was a good thing since he liked it anyway.

Finally, the remaining Cheong-gwang soon tore the scroll.

We all stared intently at Cheong-gwang’s lower body (…), wondering what he would turn into.

Then, when Cheong-gwang’s lower body completely changed, I said,

“Oh… It’s chubby… …?”

Cheong-gwang had the lower body of a chubby dolphin(?) seal(?) or some other creature, just as I said.

While we were confused, not knowing what it was, the mermaids next to us kindly told us what Cheong-gwang’s lower body was.

“Congratulations. You’ve become a dugong mermaid.”

I’ve heard of dugongs before.

Those creatures that look like dolphins, seals, or something else entirely are called dugongs.

Anyway, Cheong-gwang had become a mermaid dugong, but he didn’t seem to like it very much.

“Dugong… … I don’t know what kind of animal it is, but it doesn’t seem to be a beautiful animal… ….”

Rubin consoled Cheong-gwang as he muttered bitterly.

“No! It’s cute!”

Then, Elodie and Dionique nodded and accepted Rubin’s words.

“It looks perfect as a body cushion.”

“If it’s a dugong, it’s fine. Let’s be thankful that it won’t turn into something like a sea snail.”

Thanks to our consolation, Cheonggwang seemed to be somewhat relieved.

I took advantage of that moment to tell the group,

“Okay. We’ve secured our mobility in the sea. We’ll go out to hunt monsters at dawn tomorrow.”

Speaking in the form of a colorful mermaid made me feel a bit charismatic, but fortunately, no one seemed to care.

The group simply waved their jellyfish legs around, sprayed octopus ink, and agreed with me.

* * *

Before going out to hunt monsters, we prepared for the battle in our own way. Since

it was our first time fighting underwater, there were many things to worry about, but fortunately, we were able to get some help from the mermaids.

-“First, take off those cumbersome clothes. If you wear something like that, you’ll experience a lot of resistance from the water, which will slow your movements.”

-“Instead, wear this chest cover made of shells.”

-“The monster wakes up early in the morning, so you can go there at dawn and hide nearby and ambush them.”

The mermaids gave us a lot of advice, some of which we accepted and some of which we rejected.

We had no choice but to reject the part about wearing chest covers made of shells.

However, it was true that wearing regular clothes would cause a lot of resistance underwater, so the men took off their tops.

And Luciana and Elodie had no choice but to wear shell clothes made by the mermaids.

It was more like a bikini than clothes, but anyway.

Now that we were fully dressed, we had arrived at our destination.

“Is that the breeding rock?”

When I pointed to the huge pyramid-shaped rock far ahead, Dionik nodded.

“It looks like it is, judging by the shape.”

It would have been more certain if we had asked the mermaids, but the mermaids were scared and only brought us close before running away.

So we had to decide for ourselves whether or not that rock was the breeding rock.

“I guess so. Let’s ambush them nearby and wait.”

As I said that, the group began to hide themselves in their own ways.

Dionik lay flat on the ground and covered himself with sand, and Elodie hid among the colorful and large sea anemones.

Luciana hid in a nearby coral reef, and Cheonggwang also lay flat on the ground like Dionik.

Rubin hid himself inside the conch shell on his back without having anywhere to hide.

And I… … .

‘Where am I going to hide?’

My mermaid lower body was so fluorescent yellow that it would be visible no matter where I hid.

That way, I would be discovered in one shot as soon as the monster appeared.

I thought and thought again, and then approached Dionik.

“Hey, if you spread your legs wide, it’ll be pretty wide, so cover me like a blanket.”

“Huh… …?”

“There’s nowhere for me to hide right now. My body color is too noticeable, so cover me with your legs.”

Dionik looked a little bewildered at the thought of covering himself like a blanket, but soon spread his legs wide.

As expected of an octopus, it spread its legs out and its surface area increased considerably.

I covered its spread legs with my body, covering my fluorescent lower body.

“All right. Now we just have to wait for the monster to appear.”

“A surprise attack and take it down in one blow, right?”

I nodded at Dionysian’s question.

“Yeah. First, you go and spray some ink on the monster’s eyes. We’ll rush in and destroy its shell.”

The mermaids said that the monster had a very hard shell.

And it seemed to have sharp pincers.

It seemed to be a crustacean-shaped monster, but even so, if the group rushed in and attacked it, it would be possible to destroy it.

After roughly planning the strategy and waiting for about an hour, we heard a sound from the ground, as if something was digging through the sand. The sound continued without stopping.

Crunch , crunch, crunch— That’s how we were able to tell. Something huge was crawling up from under the ground, digging through the sand. Guessing that it was the monster, we signaled to each other with our eyes. And we waited for the monster to completely emerge from the ground. Crunch, crunch, crunch— Finally, the monster emerged from the sand. When I saw it, I realized why the mermaids were so afraid. ‘It’s bigger than I thought… …?’ The monster was so fucking huge. It looked like a giant lobster. We had faced many large monsters, so we had let our guard down. The monster that had just appeared was bigger than any monster we had faced so far. At that point, Dionik said, “Hyung… … If I go and spray some ink, it’ll just look like a fly flying around to that big guy.” “… … That’s right. Let’s cancel the ink spraying plan.” “Then?” “Then—” I cut short my words and activated my Deification skill. Then, I summoned the Sword of Judgement and rushed towards the monster’s eyeball. “Just hit it!” I shouted and extended my sword to attack one of the monster’s eyes. The monster, who hadn’t noticed our ambush, couldn’t even try to block it and lost one of its eyes. Krrrrrr!! The monster let out a roar. It was such a huge roar that the entire ocean shook. Fortunately, my companions weren’t frozen. Starting with my attack, Cheonggwang swung his sword energy first. Saaaaa― A sharp sword energy shot out from the blue sword made of water and struck the exoskeleton of the giant lobster. Then, the blue rose petals created by Luciana’s skill “North Wind that swept over the garden” swept over the area that Blue Light had struck. The two attacks were concentrated on one spot. However― “It didn’t even get a scratch… …?” The back of the lobster where the attacks had been poured didn’t even get a scratch. Its exoskeleton was much harder than we had thought. In the meantime, the lobster, which had noticed our presence, extended its claws toward Blue Light. “Blue Light! Get out of the way!” Fortunately, Blue Light, whose lower body had become a dugong, was able to move quickly even underwater and avoid the claws. It was a moment when I felt grateful that the mermaids had given us the scroll. I infused the Sword of Judgement with even more divine power so that the lobster would aim for me. As I waved the sword that had become brightly shining, the lobster’s gaze naturally turned to me. The claws extended outward. I barely avoided it with the lower body of the fish, thinking to myself, ‘The exoskeleton is much stronger than I thought. I need to find the weak part and focus my attack on it. But is there a weak part…? Where is the weakest part of a lobster? To think about it, I thought back to when I bought a lobster from the market and ate it cooked.