Pioneer of the Abyss - Book 2 - Chapter 40

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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 1447 word chapter 40:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vb8aqCRFiW43R9o63xEQDoRqX1tGkd7Lw9wIaZ_B2OM/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

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Aqua

Huh. Well, this is quite the situation.

I silently nod to myself as I watch the army of orcas – a force that’s only grown larger as we traveled here – charge at and tear the massive five-headed fish to shreds. Literally ripping its head off as the thousands of orcas attack the thing.

Of course, tour guide number eight with me here is shocked and straight up trembling at the sight of the monster that gave them so much trouble being torn apart. Ironically enough, by other monsters that gave them trouble.

All right in front of her eyes.

Although I personally find the sight kind of amusing.

The chat, on the other hand, seems to pity her. Talking about how she’s being broken by my lack of common sense and my odd and out of the normal actions.

All lies, of course.

Well, anyway, I still send in quite a few abyssal servants to help. Because if I don’t, I won’t get any credit for the kill.

And that would be a shame.

After all, other than seeing the orcas, the reason I came here was to train. To level up.

And if these orcas take all the credit for themselves, I won’t exactly be doing that.

So, under the gaze of tour guide number eight, I help the orca’s finish off the large creature. Eventually giving me a few System Messages in the process.

[You have killed a level 310 Velatron. EXP has been substantially increased due to the level difference between the user and the monster. EXP has been granted accordingly.]

[You have killed a creature underwater. Apex Predator of the Depths has been activated, increasing your REGEN stat by one.]

[Congratulations! You have now reached level 301! As the current First Ranker of Dartric, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

[Congratulations! You have now reached level 302! As the current First Ranker of Dartric, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

Not half bad.

And it looks like the orcas didn’t steal my EXP either. So nice.

As for the mana cost of the abyssal servants? It was negligible.

I have ten times as much mana now as I used to. Which is a massive leap.

All thanks to my latest trait. One I’ve been looking forward to for a very long time.

It’ll make things a lot easier for me, after all.

Far easier.

Anyway, I turn to the velatron now that it’s dead before using Abyssal Ruler to revive it. Only for that to fail. Then I use it again and again until it finally fails one last time on the fifth try.

I frown.

So much for the biological breath attacks…

After staring at the corpse for several seconds, I eventually stuff it in my storage ring – a new one I got at a much larger size for this very purpose – and turn towards the eighth tour guide. Who still looks shocked.

I swim up to her before asking, “So, you wouldn’t happen to have more of these for me to hunt, would you?”

She blankly stares at me for several seconds, only to eventually mutter, “If we did then our ocean would’ve long since been abandoned…”

My interest in this ocean significantly drops as I look down and mutter, “Oh… a shame…”

I swear I see her forehead twitch at my words, but I’m probably just imagining it. Meanwhile the chat is laughing for some reason.

Definitely nothing to do with me though.

I ignore the people in chat calling my sad face cute as I begin heading in the direction of my next hunt. Which should be some sort of living tentacle monster found at about the same depth in the Fortal Ocean.

The thing should be about the same level as this one was.

After that I can go deeper into the ocean to hunt for stronger monsters. Seeing as there currently aren’t any other threats at a level I can handle right now that are getting too close to the cities.

That said, I’m still very interested in seeing this living tentacle. Because it’s a living tentacle. How does that even work?

Just a single massive tentacle that’s alive.

Does the thing even have organs inside of it? Does it need food? Can it even eat? Or does it go around slamming into things without a care for food?

Also, if it’s really hundreds of meters in length, how does it move around? Does it squiggle through the ground like a worm? Through the water?

And what does the end of the tentacle where a body would normally be look like?

Does it have an actual body back there, with organs and a brain?

Or is it just an entirely instinctive tentacle in the middle of the ocean?

Either way, it’s so weird.

And I have to find out myself.

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Somewhere Deep In the Ocean

“It’s decided then,” a single man with slit grey eyes, long bluish gray hair, and grey scales emerging and vanishing across his face under his hood declares amidst the room of several similarly dressed people with similar features. “The heretic shall not survive the night.”

All of the people in the room nod their heads. Meanwhile several windows in the floating palace they’re standing in deep at a layer in the ocean far beyond any depth the rest of the planet’s residents have ever been show shimmering scales swimming by outside. And when the people in the room notice the scales, they all bow their heads low in reverence.

For their god is all to them.

And now a strange heretic has appeared with unusual traits claiming to be one of them. Traits that are completely different from their own traits.

Leading them all to believe her to be the emissary of a different godlike entity. One entirely different from their own.

And that is heresy.

Heresy that must be stamped out.

Even if the leader of the Ancient Clan must do that himself.

“Five of us will go on the assault tonight, myself included,” the leader of the Ancient Clan declares. “And the power of our lord will carry us to victory. No matter what.”

The twenty individuals on the planet nod their heads in agreement, with each one being over level two hundred and fifty.

Far higher leveled than any of the other beings on the planet aside from the heretic.

And so, with that, five of the twenty leave their palace and immediately shoot through the oceans in the direction of the heretic. Meanwhile the shimmering scales stop for a moment as they turn in the direction of the very heretic the people are hunting. With two glowing grey eyes shimmering into existence along with the scales.

Eyes containing immense intelligence.

Aimed directly at the familiar sensation it feels.

A sensation that feels equal if not potentially greater than its own unusual bloodline.

So after a brief hesitation, the creature begins to transform into a humanoid creature with even more features than its worshippers. Then the creature heads down deeper into the water.

To begin its training once again.

Because the creature strongly dislikes the feeling the aura gives off.

An aura that’s oppressive even to itself, who has declared itself as the ruler of this ocean planet long ago.

And no creature is allowed to give off an aura greater than its own. It doesn’t even bother looking at the worshippers as they rush off to hunt the predator they have no idea they’re facing.

The creature knows the worshippers are bound for death, for if there are any other creatures on their planet similar to it, then they stand no chance against it. Even if they have been baptized in the creature’s mana and blood for hundreds of years.

They will never be as powerful as a true Bloodliner.

So it completely ignores the insignificant creatures to hunt.

It simply does as instinct demands.

As is its blood right.

As the owner of the Azure Dragon’s Bloodline.

A creature, as explained by the System, known as an Ancient Monster.

And while hunting the monsters at the deeper layers of the ocean, the Bloodliner, who barely even identifies as human anymore in its own mind, continues to hunt. Eventually returning to its Azure Dragon form to hunt the larger monsters when outside of the caves.

All to grow stronger and wipe out the unknown Bloodliner who dares to encroach on its planet.