Pioneer of the Abyss - Book 2 - Chapter 51

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Don't mind this. It's so that free readers can't see half the chapter when the chapter eventually becomes patron only.

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Table of Contents

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Click the following link for the 1363 word chapter 51:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LCGEKSNYgDk9cDhU3UXqtipOtuWXsMkNZJmfiuPDdAY/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

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Aqua

When I arrive at the Dark Ocean, I find the borders around it flooded with the dark marauders. All of whom are rushing towards the various cities of every ocean closest to the Dark Ocean’s border.

So I summon my abyssal servants and send them all across the border, using my immense pool of mana to do so. And while the dark marauders do end up killing my abyssal servants with ease, I also manage to easily kill off a lot of them in return. Simply thanks to overwhelming them with numbers.

As for the ones I attack personally? I easily tear them apart.

Out of curiosity, I use a skill I’ve barely used before. Just because I want to see how much of my body I can transform now with Abyssal Transformation.

After all, the skill description says that the amount of my body that I can transform depends on my Magical Strength stat. And I haven’t tried the skill for a long time.

So I activate the skill and transform, only to surprisingly find that it transforms my entire body. Unlike the last time I used it where it only transformed parts of my body.

That said, I’m nowhere near the size of other Bloodliners who transform. Which is probably due to my Magical Strength stat not being high enough.

Anyway, when I have an abyssal servant bring a mirror, I find that I look like a kraken but pitch black tinted strongly with shades of deep blue and with scales. And just like the tentacles my parents mentioned in the Abyss, my tentacles have a faint blue glow shining from underneath my scales.

Meanwhile my main body is just like a squid, also with scales, and with a large maw at the center of my body between the tentacles.

And my eyes are glowing with a pale blue glow.

As for my actual size? My main body seems to be about ten meters in height. With my tentacles stretching to about thirty meters in length.

Although, calling this size small is rather weird. It’s just that the Bloodliners’ transformations are far larger.

Some Ancient Monsters can be terrifyingly large.

And while some are small, like the Voidwalker, which is the size of a human hand, nearly half of the Ancient Monsters are enormous. Like the Nryog-el Variol, which is said to be large enough to swallow entire suns.

Anyway, I feel my strength increasing with my size. And since I have dozens of tentacles, it makes it easier to slaughter these dark marauders.

So I gradually kill the creatures by the dozens. Using both the tentacles in my transformed state and the tentacles I summon using Abyssal Kraken’s Embrace.

And bit by bit, I raise my REGEN stat that’s been stagnant for so long.

Even as my mana drains at a rapid pace from the constant transformation and the army of abyssal servants, I continue to slaughter the dark marauders. Not stopping all the way until I finally level up to the point of no longer being able to get any REGEN stat points from them anymore.

At which point I finally drop my transformation with only a tenth of my mana remaining.

I can’t help but smile at the sight of my REGEN stat finally breaching the five digits with this hunt. Making my regeneration over a thousand times that of a normal person.

Now my REGEN stat is high enough that I can regenerate a wound that would normally take a month to heal in just less than an hour. In just a little over forty minutes, if my math is correct.

And random cuts, bruises, and the like heal in minutes.

I’m finally at a point where my regeneration is at a visible speed that’s easily practical in the middle of a battle.

After leveling up enough and raising my REGEN stat, I retreat a bit. Which, in the process, lets the dark marauders begin to flood the other oceans again after all of my efforts to clear them out.

Just how many of these things are there, anyway?

I frown after beginning my break. Since I need to recover my mana before anything else.

So I go ahead and call the guildmasters to inform them of the situation. And to tell them that when I return to fighting, I’ll be going straight into the Dark Ocean instead of dealing with the dark marauders.

On the note of the Dark Ocean, thanks to my latest trait, I can clearly ‘see’ everything inside of the Dark Ocean near me. But even with that, all I see are the dark tentacles stretching from deep within the Dark Ocean. Deeper underwater than I’ve ever been before in any of the oceans.

I make sure to mention that to them as well, surprising them by the mere fact that I can ‘see’ into the Dark Ocean.

Not that I care about their surprise. I just rest for a while until my mana finally fully regenerates. Then I head straight into the Dark Ocean after returning to peak condition. And I follow the dark tentacles deeper and deeper inside.

Killing dark marauders I see along the way through physical strength alone so as to save up my mana.

After all, while I do have items to restore my mana, I don’t want to waste them when I don’t need to.

As for the dark marauders? Those things seem to be coming from the same direction that the tentacles are. Deeper in the ocean.

I continue swimming deeper and deeper down into the Dark Ocean. Following the tentacles like a direct path.

Eventually I find the source of the tentacles deep down in the water. And they’re surprisingly not a part of anything’s body.

Although I guess it’s not quite as surprising considering that they’re made of dark energy and not actual flesh.

That aside, the source of the dark tentacles is very unexpected.

It’s a suit of armor standing stiffly at the center of a large ancient-looking ruin on the ocean floor. The suit seems to be made out of dark energy and looks pretty ominous in appearance. Especially with the dark tentacles stretching out of it, with the tentacles splitting off over and over again like a tree’s network of roots.

The thing doesn’t look like a human under the armor either. Since its body has the same general shape as the dark marauders.

Of course, that’s not the only reason I think it’s like them.

When I identify the creature, I find something linking it directly to the dark marauders.

[Dark Lord of the Marauders – Level 821]

This thing is… very high level.

Far higher level than I thought.

The livestream chat goes wild.

[holy shit…]

[what is that?!]

[Is it some sort of dark marauder in armor?]

[A BOSS!]

[Is this the boss of a dungeon that broke out and grew stronger?]

[Probably.]

[I bet the boss broke out of a dungeon and hunted freely in the monsters in the Dark Ocean who have been left alone by humans.]

[Can Aqua actually… kill that thing?]

[She’s Aqua. Of course she can!]

[I hope she can…]

What’s worse than the incredibly high level that the monster has is the fact that there are hundreds of dark marauders here too. With most of them ignoring me and heading towards the edges of the Dark Ocean.

Some of them are paying attention to me, though. Which will make facing this boss harder.

It won’t be alone after all.

My eyes narrow at the boss before a faint grin stretches across my face. At which point I finally catch a glimpse of the boss’ face.

And, to be more specific, its eyes.

The suit of armor, which looks like a full body suit covering a fishman type creature, has two holes for its eyes. Each with glowing crimson lights shining through them.

And those eyes?

I feel a genuine chill run down my spine when they lock onto me despite my inherent bloodline suppression.

All because of its massive lead in levels.

This is going to be a difficult battle.