Bloodline Research Center
“Yes, Mr. Chancellor, sir,” Fraxis states as he stiffly stares at the screen in front of him. Where Aqua is growing tentacles with mouths out of her back. “We haven’t been able to make any clear progress in identifying her Bloodline.”
“So it’s a new Bloodline is what you’re telling me?” the Grand Chancellor asks, his voice sounding calm and slightly cheerful. Which is pretty much the default for his voice from what Fraxis has heard.
“Yes, Mr. Chancellor, sir,” Fraxis repeats with a nod of his head. “There isn’t a single Ancient Monster that shares all of the traits and skills she has shown off. The closest we’ve managed to get is determining that some of her skills seem to coincide with skills from two different Ancient Monsters. The Kraken and the Abyssal Orca. But the possibility of a Bloodliner awakening two Bloodlines has long since been ruled as nearly impossible.”
“You said nearly impossible,” the Grand Chancellor continues, immediately latching onto that part of his statement. “If there’s even the slightest chance of it happening, it could happen. Look into it.”
And the moment he finishes saying that, the Grand Chancellor hangs up the call. Not wasting another second on the conversation or even letting Fraxis respond.
Fraxis immediately proceeds to crush his phone as he growls in frustration and anger. Then he reaches into his desk to grab one of the couple dozen spare phones hidden there – he’s crushed a lot over the past few days – before turning off the screen and walking out of his office. Heading in the direction of the main research room.
Only for his anger to rise even higher when he arrives at the main research room and immediately sees the current broadcast shown on the main screen.
Where Aqua is currently moving seamlessly through the ink as if she can tell exactly where she’s going. Without any difficulty in the slightest.
Fraxis has already tried asking her directly through a sponsorship what her Bloodline is despite his own pride. But she didn’t answer. He isn’t even sure she saw the question.
Either that or her agency is having her keep quiet about it.
Which would make sense as the mystery surrounding her Bloodline makes for incredible promotional material for her. Showing small hints every now and then to make people keep guessing without ever confirming it.
He even tried asking the hydra bastard at the Star Pioneer Agency, but all he got in response was a bone-chilling smile. One that looked at him like he was an ant that was doing something amusing.
So he doesn’t even know if the agency itself knows what her Bloodline is.
And to this day the Aquamarine-Life Laboratory is ignoring his calls to study these squids she’s currently killing.
Now, to top all this off, the Grand Chancellor himself is ordering him to consider the possibility of her having two Bloodlines? A possibility that’s so preposterous that Fraxis fired multiple researchers for even suggesting it?
Fraxis feels his headache growing worse by the moment, making him reach into his pocket to grab a painkiller.
Which is the second change to his regular habits since Aqua becoming a Bloodliner aside from his phone stash.
Keeping painkillers with him wherever he goes to manage his headaches.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
After taking the painkiller, he raises his voice, shouting, “New orders directly from the Grand Chancellor. Search for signs of different Bloodlines and try to link them together. We’re to figure out if she really has more than one Bloodline or not.”
All the researchers look shocked at his words, but no one argues with him. Especially not after hearing it’s directly from the Grand Chancellor.
Because no one who openly opposes the Grand Chancellor lives a good life.
And that very chancellor is the man who is funding their operations.
Fraxis walks over to the desk and grits his teeth while his fists clench on the desk itself.
I will figure this mystery out no matter how long it takes.

Aqua
Well that worked well enough.
After messing around with the various sensory organs available to me between the Kraken, Abyssal Kraken, and Abyssal Orca Bloodlines, I find several that work really well. And I get an answer to a couple of my previous questions as well.
Apparently squids, like the Kraken which is a vague type of squid, have some sensory organ that lets them smell chemicals and the like underwater. Which explains my sense of smell as I probably have that too without even transforming.
As for Abyssal Orcas? They have incredible hearing and can also navigate through echolocation. Both of which I get from partial shifting.
And since I have the squid’s vibration detection, the echolocation is even stronger. Pretty much giving me a sense of everything in the area position-wise just from ambient sounds.
Oh, and there’s one more change I find. But it’s rather uncomfortable.
As it turns out, the fangs transformation does actually include my own mouth. But it changes my entire jaw and mouth in general and not just my fangs.
So it’s incredibly uncomfortable.
Turns the entire lower half of my mouth into something more similar to an orca’s mouth.
Which makes my chat go crazy again, of course. But I ignore them.
On the bright side, that means I should have the jaw strength of an Abyssal Orca. Which is the greatest jaw strength in the universe.
After all, just like how orcas have by far the greatest jaw strength of the natural animal kingdom, the Abyssal Orca is the same for monsters.
While orcas and the Abyssal Orca may not be the absolute strongest creatures in existence, they do have the strongest jaw strength. Being able to bite down with the most force in the universe.
Orcas are the apex predators of the ocean for a reason.
The only reason the Abyssal Orca isn’t necessarily the top apex predator of the oceanic monsters is because of the Kraken. Which counters it thanks to its regeneration.
Still, the Abyssal Orca and the Kraken are the undisputed apex predators of the universe’s waters.
Some people even wonder if they’re still alive somewhere in the Abyss.
I shiver at the thought of the Abyss. That seemingly endless ocean in the form of a dimensional pocket in space.
The most dangerous place in the universe.
Putting aside thoughts on the apex predator amongst marine monsters for the moment though, my jaws when transformed are strong enough to literally chomp straight down on the stone walls. Ripping off parts of the walls with my fangs alone.
And of course spitting the stone out because eating rock isn’t very sanitary. Or safe.
Anyway, once I make it out of the ink-filled section into another tunnel, I continue moving along. With my orca summons having long since disappeared due to the time restriction.
Those squids made for good EXP just because of how many of them there were. Their actual levels were too low to help with my REGEN stat much.
Especially after I got that level-up to level 20. Since after that all of them were too low level to give me any REGEN stat points.
But it’s fine. Because this new skill will help me a lot.
It doesn’t even cost much mana to stay transformed all the time. At least for the sensory organs.
At most it costs about a single point of mana every ten minutes to keep the sensory organs transformed.
Oh, and one other sensory organ that is rather useful to transform using are my eyes. Since apparently the Abyssal Kraken’s eyes are extremely good. So good that I can see for hundreds of meters through the dark, underwater tunnel. All the way to the next bend in it.
Although the chat says it makes me look scary, since the white of my eyes turns black and my pupils and iris merge while narrowing into a simple deep blue glowing light.
Of course, I keep my eyes like this. Both because it’s useful, and because I’m hoping it might shatter that adorable and cute image I’ve apparently built up.
Because I may have moments that I guess could be considered cute, but I would much rather be considered cool or intimidating.
Less people would underestimate you like that after all.
So I continue swimming through the tunnel for a few hours until I arrive at another large cavern.
And this cavern is… also different.
Huh.
The cavern is pretty much filled with landmines called jellyfish.
Glowing blood red ones at that.
This is quite a sight.