Pioneer of the Abyss - Book 2 - Chapter 41

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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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Click the following link for the 1423 word chapter 41:

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Aqua

Turns out the tentacle was more of a worm than a tentacle. Just that it had the shape of a tentacle.

Which is bizarre.

Regardless, it doesn’t let me extract its blueprint.

A shame.

I let out a sigh at that as I swim through the ocean in the direction of the deeper layers of the Fortal Ocean. Only to suddenly pause when I sense something… odd.

Seconds later I feel a flash of pain as three deep cuts appear across my body.

One on the left side of my waist, one on my right arm, and one on the back of my neck. Each with some sort of deep blue liquid in them that seems to be poison.

I feel more than a little shocked at the sneak attack. Especially when I feel a prickling at the back of my mind that immediately makes me back away. Narrowly avoiding two more slashes that I see swiping through the water in front of me.

What the hell is going on?

My eyes narrow as the chat goes wild about the sudden ambush. Then I begin activating one skill after another. Taking full advantage of my vastly superior mana capacity.

I activate Pressure of the Abyss to increase the pressure around me, Converging Maelstrom to draw the would-be attackers in, Light of the Abyss to hit them with a mental attack, Ink of the Abyssal Kraken to poison them and heal me, and Abyssal Plague to further poison them.

Instantly turning the area around me into a nightmare for an enemy.

And to top it all off, I summon dozens of abyssal servants all around my immediate vicinity. Surrounding both myself and the five people I see slowly emerging in the water now that whatever they were using to conceal themselves is being shattered by my attacks.

I find my eyes widening as I see their identify results along with the changes to the leaderboards.

[Aelion Thalassor – Bloodline: None – Level 261]

[Calyth Seraphiros – Bloodline: None – Level 271]

[Nerion Veythalis – Bloodline: None – Level 268]

[Orionis Deytharion – Bloodline: None – Level 280]

[Vaelus Drakonis – Bloodline: None – Level 281]

Meanwhile the top six on the leaderboards change with me being the only exception as I remain #1. Having all five of these suddenly taking second to sixth places.

The hell?

These people… have a skill to conceal themselves from the leaderboards? But the only people who should be able to do that are Bloodliners…

Does that mean there’s a Bloodliner on this planet that is concealing his or her people from the leaderboards?

That… could be both a problem and interesting.

A problem because they clearly don’t like me and are attacking me, with their levels implying they could pose a threat. But interesting because these five have features I don’t recognize and are clearly aquatic in a way.

Likely that clan thing the natives kept mentioning.

But the problem is that there aren’t any aquatic Bloodlines with concealing type powers.

Even the Kraken’s Bloodline can only conceal someone’s physical body and magic. Not their presence or their leaderboard rank.

So… does this mean there’s a Bloodliner with an unknown Bloodline awakened on this planet?

Anyway, the five attackers look shocked when they somehow see me through the ink, and see the wounds they gave me already beginning to heal. With their poison being completely crushed by my own plague and ink during the healing process.

I’m mostly just surprised that they managed to sneak attack me in the first place. Especially since these five aren’t even Bloodliners.

Although, now that I focus on them a bit more, I do feel remnants of a Bloodline aura on them. Meaning they’ve been in contact with a Bloodliner.

Very interesting.

I grin before using Abyss to control the high pressure water around us to crush the five. All while sending my enormous abyssal servants to attack all at once.

To my surprise, though, the five all manage to make their way out of my Abyss’ control. Freeing themselves.

Of course, they get caught by the enormous abyssal servants who are literally so large they’re blocking the sight of the ocean around us. And within seconds they all get caught.

I glance at my status to see my mana, only to find my eyebrow raising at what I see.

That drained a lot of mana. More mana than I even had before getting my mage trait.

I turn my focus back onto the five I have being held in place by some large abyssal servants. Each with tentacles wrapped around their bodies to keep them still, and poison still flooding them as well.

With that, I clap my hands once and dispel several of my skills. Then I move up to the first of the five as I ask, “So why did you attack me unprovoked?”

They spit at me.

Of course, the spit doesn’t exactly go anywhere in high pressure water, plus the very fact that we’re underwater in the first place. But it’s rude, nonetheless.

So I have the abyssal servant cut his head off before moving onto the next one.

“So why did you attack me unprovoked?” I repeat the question, not giving a single shit about these five since they tried to assassinate me in the first place.

This one at least doesn’t spit at me. But they just glare instead without saying a word.

I move onto the next one without kill the second yet. Since they at least didn’t insult me or anything like that.

Although I’ll be killing the rest when I finish up here regardless, so.

“Why did you attack me?” I ask, shortening it this time.

The third one – the highest level of the five – actually answers me with a simple, “Because heretics who claim to be one of us must be punished.”

I blink at his words.

“Since when did I ever claim to be one of you?” I ask while tilting my head. “I didn’t correct anyone when they assumed, but I never once claimed to be anyone.”

The man continues to stare at me with what looks like a fanatical hatred in his eyes as he says, “It matters not. You besmirch the honor of our god by your actions and will be punished soon enough. Even if it’s not us who do it.”

I scratch the back of my head while the chat starts talking about how these people are clearly fanatics of some religion. Probably one following the Bloodliner if I had to guess.

Some sort of group who believes their Bloodliner to be a god or something?

Kind of messed up, but whatever.

They’re a threat and it’s clear as I continue questioning them that they have no interest in ever talking to me.

They just want my head.

Not that cutting off my head will necessarily kill me, but the point is made.

Anyway, I kill the rest of them after another round of rather pointless questioning that either gets me spit at, called a heretic, or just ignored. Then I go ahead and use Abyssal Ruler to extract their blueprints. Which works quite well, surprisingly enough. Getting all of their blueprints.

They’re also my very first formerly-human abyssal servants I’ve gotten blueprints from.

So I dismiss my other servants near me before summoning the new ones. And just like my other servants, they’re obedient to a fault.

The only difference is that they look generally human. With the exception of the abyssal servant traits, but those can be covered up by clothes.

I firmly nod my head in satisfaction at the sight of them before continuing my trip through the ocean.

It’s too bad I don’t have a way to find the home of this Bloodliner. But those fanatics were on the verge of trying to kill themselves just to not give me any intel. So that was largely impossible.

And I don’t really like torture. Not that it would work well on fanatics anyway.

I did at least get out of them that there are more of their number aside from their ‘god’. Also, that they’ll probably come after me with more numbers next time.

Which I perfectly welcome.

I wonder just how many of them there are?

Having more humanoid abyssal servants might be useful in the future.

Oh, I wonder what level the Bloodliner is?

And more importantly, if I’ll be able to get the Bloodliner as an abyssal servant should they attack me?

That could be interesting.