Aqua
After my first run-in with a delfish, I end up facing off against several more of them. One after another. And by the time I make it to my seventh kill, I finally get the message I’ve been looking for.
Albeit not without some pain along the way, considering the bruises lining my arms and legs.
[You have killed a level one Deepsea Delfish. 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 2! Your total free points have increased by two, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]
A smile spreads across my face despite the pain of my bruises. And without hesitation, I go ahead and use the two free points to increase my constitution and dexterity stats. Increasing the amount of damage my body can withstand along with my speed and maneuverability in the process.
Then I go ahead and check my status again.
[REQUESTING STATUS: USER AQUA FALLEN]
[STATUS RETRIEVED]
[Name: Aqua Fallen]
[Level: 2]
[Mana: 20]
[Strength: 16(11)]
[Dexterity: 13]
[Constitution: 11]
[Magical Strength: 12]
[REGEN: 17]
[Free Points: 0]
[Traits: Physique of the Abyssal Kraken, Apex Predator of the Depths]
[Skills]
[END STATUS]
Good.
I close out of my status again before continuing through the tunnels, hoping the bruises heal soon. But even if the REGEN stat works on the same ten point average for humans thing as non-hidden stats do, healing at one point seven times the normal speed still won’t instantly heal the wounds.
At most they’ll heal in a little over half the time it would normally take.
Even longer probably, seeing as I didn’t have the stat that high when I got the wounds.
As for my armor?
I look down at it while swimming, finding the armor to still be in pretty good condition. Despite the bite marks covering quite a few parts of it.
Might as well do it now.
The weapon and armor cores given out as starter gear are all set in stone to have one specific skill. A skill that repairs the armor and weapon using the wielder’s mana should they infuse it into the weapon or armor.
Since durability is generally considered to be more important for a Pioneer at the start, that’s what the Alliance decided on for the starter kit.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
So after using up two units of mana, my armor quickly begins to repair itself of any of the damage it’s taken thus far.
Good.
With that dealt with, I move on to find a nice place to sleep. Because I’m getting really tired right about now.
I’m glad I don’t have to use the bathroom though. Because that would be… awkward.
The livestream pauses whenever it senses your intention to do something that would require privacy. Like bathing, using the bathroom, and so on. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m deep underwater.
And using the nonexistent bathroom in this situation…
I feel a shiver run down my spine at the thought.
So I continue to search through the tunnel system, going from one cavern to another, one tunnel to another. But it’s only after a few more hours of searching, along with a few more fish monster kills, that I finally find something.
A small piece of cavern at the top of another cavern, reachable only through a small crevasse that I barely fit through. Where there isn’t actually any water.
Finally.
After surfacing in the little piece of cavern, I set my backpack down in a corner, place my trident across the hole leading down to the cavern below so that it’ll make noise if moved, and search the little stretch of cavern a few times to make sure, then lie on top of my backpack. Using it as a pillow in this rocky cave.
But while I’m trying to get comfortable here, I notice something strange. That being that my hair isn’t wet. Not even the slightest bit.
My skin isn’t either.
The only thing on me that’s wet are my clothes, armor, and backpack.
Huh. Odd.
Probably something to do with my Bloodline.
Anyways, in addition to the livestream detecting when someone is doing something private, it also detects when someone’s not doing anything livestream worthy. Like right now as the red circle in the corner of my vision dulls to gray. Implying that the livestream is now off.
I let out a sigh of relief now that I’m no longer being broadcast to the Alliance. Then I go ahead and glance at the bell below it, which currently has a red 999+ on it. Which doesn’t look very welcoming to me.
For some reason seeing big numbers on notification buttons has always made me want to just click on it and click ‘mark all as read’ instead of actually reading them.
Maybe it’s just my naturally lazy nature.
Although this time it’s probably the same for most people, considering just how many notifications there are.
Regardless, I focus on the bell notification, making a screen appear in front of me. One that’s kind of in the format of a website’s profile dashboard. With several tabs on the top.
There’s ‘Junk Mail’, which is listed with over ten thousand messages, followed by Business Inquiries, which is listed with just about a couple hundred messages, and finally Official Messages. Which just has a single message in it.
I go ahead and open the Official Messages section before checking out the one message in it titled ‘Welcome, Pioneer!’, which I’m pretty sure is just the default first official message sent to all Pioneers based on what I read when I open it.
To start off, it mentions the main goals of a Pioneer.
Survival. Intelligence gathering. And building connections.
But it also mentions that the main priority is to just survive. After all, Pioneers can’t do the latter two things if they die.
After that it mentions sponsors, which become available after ten days on the new world. With sponsorships being available through the System itself. A feature made by the latest System Administrator.
The Grand Chancellor.
The same man who altered the System to benefit the Alliance and added this whole Pioneer bullshit in the first place.
Then there’s details about this very screen. Talking about the junk mail being mail from fans who have signed up through the System as fans of me as a Pioneer, followed by the business inquiries, which are inquiries from various businesses throughout the Alliance.
These business inquiries aren’t there for nothing as they can straight up teleport me to different locations across the Alliance for reality TV shows or even advertisement or commercial shoots. Where I’ll get a small split of royalties from it along with greater publicity that can potentially increase the number of sponsors I will get.
But I can only take a certain number of them every week, and I’m limited in how long I can spend at each place.
Most importantly though, it’s only a phantom copy of me that is actually at those locations. So my real body is still here in this world and can be attacked while I’m away.
And last but not least, official messages from the System and the System Administrator and Moderators. Which, from what I’ve heard, almost never happens.
At the end of the message are details about the world that I’m in.
A faint smile spreads across my face at the sight of that part.
As it turns out, the world I’m on is 87% ocean. With a total of two dozen large islands that can’t even be considered continents scattered around the world, along with a great many smaller islands.
Meaning this is a world without continents. But it’s not quite an ocean world either.
Now I understand why the System chose this world for me, and this location.
My Bloodline seems to thrive underwater after all.
That’s all the Alliance knows about this world though. Any more research and they’d have to actually land on the planet itself. Which would sound the System’s alarm, notifying the denizens of the world about our presence.
The only way the Alliance has found around that is through the Pioneer System. So finding out more about the world and its denizens is supposed to be my job.
I let out a sigh before closing out of the official message. Then I move to the junk mail for a moment to read through some of them. Only to frown when I do.
Because sure there is fan mail in it, but there’s also all other kinds of mail as well.
Toxic trolls trying to insult me or say they could’ve done things better, people jealous of my Bloodline saying I don’t deserve it, and even people trying to sexually harass me.
I let out a sigh before noticing a button saying, ‘clear spam and toxicity’. So after a brief shrug, I go ahead and select said button. Instantly making all that harassment and toxicity vanish while leaving behind the fan mail.
That’s nice.
I leave that tab with the fan mail still there to go check out the Business Inquiries section. Where I find half a dozen invites to variety shows, over two dozen requests for interviews, and several requests for ad and commercial appearances.
These can all wait for after I find a safe home where I can comfortably leave my body.
So without opening any of them, I go ahead and close out of the screen entirely.
Time to rest.