The final chamber of the forgotten domain was, frankly, a letdown. The air was thick with the damp, clean scent of hydro energy, and the floor was littered with the gelatinous remains of the slimes you'd just dispatched. But the prize — a magnificent chest, overflowing with imagined Mora — remained stubbornly locked behind a shimmering, aqueous barrier.

"Now that's just rude," Venti huffed, tapping his chin. "We cleared out the welcoming committee and everything! You'd think they'd have better manners."

Just as you took a step closer to inspect the barrier, a sharp gasp from the bard made you freeze.

"Whoa, watch out—!"

It was too late. You felt it then — something cold and slick, like a rope made of chilled water, coiling around your ankle with surprising speed. Before you could even process it, another snaked around your waist.

In an instant, you were pulled firmly, but not painfully, from your feet, suspended in the air by glistening, translucent blue tentacles. They emerged from a large, pulsating core of a hydro slime that had oozed from a crack in the ceiling, its form shifting and bubbling with a strange, playful energy.

And Venti? He wasn't summoning his bow. He wasn't calling forth a hurricane.

He was laughing.

A hand was pressed over his mouth, his shoulders shaking with poorly suppressed mirth. Emerald eyes sparkled with unabashed amusement as he took in your captured state.

"Ah, my dear adventurer! It seems we've found the real guardian of this place," he chimed, his voice light and musical. "A rare mutation, you see. All that concentrated hydro energy in one place... it does strange things to the local wildlife. Don't worry, it's quite harmless. A little mischievous, perhaps. It'll just... play with its new toy for a bit and then get bored. Probably."

He took a leisurely step closer, a wide, teasing grin spreading across his face as one of the tentacles tightened its grip just enough to be noticeable.

"Though, I must say... it certainly seems to have taken a liking to you."