Aqua
It takes me a moment to realize something as the queen is chomping away at the tunnel.
She’s not just chomping and devouring the stone, but she’s also chomping and devouring her own children. The bugs I was crushing over and over again.
What the hell?!
Did she just let me kill them all to eat them herself?!
That’s just twisted.
Also, she’s pushing into the abyss’s pressure without any trouble beyond slowing down a bit. Like the shark from before. Which is no doubt thanks to her vastly higher level compared to the small bugs, not to mention her species being different from them. With her being the queen.
I grit my teeth and glance at my still largely missing arm. Then I pull back and begin testing a few things out.
First I try to send blades of pressurized water at her using the water from the Pressure of the Abyss skill. But all they do is slowly chip away at what I quickly find to be some sort of carapace or something inside of her mouth. Clearly proving that she is literally made out of different stuff from the smaller bugs.
After that I try binding her with tentacles, but she just eats the tentacles without any trouble. The same as the other bugs and the tunnel.
Hmm. This isn’t going very well.
At least there aren’t any other bugs to deal with anymore besides her.
I frown when I look at the scythe-like blades chomping away at the stone. Then something about this bug and all the others I’ve seen so far crosses my mind and a plan begins to form.
So without hesitation, I leave the tunnel and enter the cavern where the shark’s corpse is still floating on the surface of the water. Then I jump out of the water entirely and onto one of the ruins.
And after glancing down at the water again, I begin the waiting game. Just waiting until the bug finally finishes expanding that tunnel.
Which doesn’t actually take too long.
When the bug enters the cavern, I see it scuttling across the floor. The same as every other time I’ve seen it and the other bugs.
I am pretty sure these bugs either don’t know how to swim, can’t swim, or they won’t swim.
If it’s one of the first two, then they’re rather odd critters. Living in the water but not being able to swim.
If it’s the last option though… that must mean they have a weakness under there they’re trying to hide.
Which makes sense. It’s their underbelly after all. A place not protected by its adamantium-level shell.
And since it either can’t or refuses to swim, I just need to find a way to get it into a vulnerable position that I can flip it over. Or to just force it to swim.
It only takes a moment for the bug to find me. But despite that, it doesn’t go straight for me. Instead it actually goes and eats the shark’s corpse first.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
To my surprise, the monster doesn’t swim up to the corpse or anything like that. Instead it just extends its scythe-like appendages and literally grabs onto the shark. Pulling the corpse straight down towards its mouth to begin gobbling up like a snack.
All without taking its eyes off of me.
And I have to say, seeing a massive bug halfway between a beetle and an isopod staring at me while eating a shark is disturbing as the abyss. Not literally.
Out of curiosity though, I go ahead and begin studying the creature a bit more while it eats. The thing doesn’t appear to be growing stronger in any way while eating, so if I had to guess, the fact that it eats so much must be related to its diet of adamantium.
This is a completely wild guess, but I know the discomfort of eating foods your body is not used to. Especially foods that are easy to digest after your body is used to eating food that’s difficult to digest.
And if the bug is in any way similar, eating regular food must be practically insatiable to it.
Since the body just doesn’t correctly digest it.
Then again, I could and am probably very wrong about this.
Anyway, the bug finishes eating the shark, finally getting that smelly corpse out of my cavern for me in the process. Then it finally raises its head to directly look at me.
And we proceed to have a staring contest that lasts several seconds.
“Why does this thing like staring at me so much?” I mutter my brief confusion out loud, making the chat in the corner of my eye go wild in the process.
But I ignore them as the bug begins to make its move at last. Heading towards the pillar holding up the ruins I’m on and beginning to climb it.
I’m a little surprised it’s not just eating the pillar, but a small part of me wonders if the thing is just full or something.
Either way, my strategy seems to have worked. So I let the creature climb halfway up the pillar before jumping down, activating Pressure of the Abyss, and swinging my left fist straight at the creature’s shell from close to the edge of the shell.
Of course, the queen quickly notices my approach, but there’s nothing she can do about it. Not when I was already so close to it, and not when it’s under my pressure.
So my fist slams into the thing, making some of its legs lose balance and fall off of the pillar. But it still has legs on the pillar even as its pincers snap at me over and over again. Seeing as I’m almost right above its head.
Fortunately for me, the thing’s pincers don’t seem to have much range when it comes to up and down movement.
With that in mind, I swim back up and jump out of the water before diving back down and coming straight at the bug once more. Slamming my fist into its shell for a second time.
And dislodging more of its feet from the pillar right as it was about to regain footing on some of its feet.
Just one more should work.
So without hesitation, I head back up before coming down one last time. But this time the bug manages to actually swing its head backwards, making it even harder for it to retain its balance as its scythe-like pincers slice between my knuckles. Practically extending the gap between my fingers as I finally slam my fist into the thing a third time.
Knocking it off of the pillar onto its back in the water.
I grit my teeth at the pain in my hand, but the pain isn’t anywhere near as bad as the pain of losing an arm. So I force any sort of cries down as I slowly float towards the bug that is on its back.
Exposing a practically slime-like underbelly.
I grimace slightly at the sight of its organs clearly visible through its slimy flesh. Then I just shake my head with a slight shrug and summon my trident into my left hand.
The slimy flesh is gross but at least it’s practical. For me.
I swim straight out of the water before diving down again for that nice speed boost . And in a single instant, I cross the distance between us and stab through several of the bug’s organs through the slime. Making the bug itself let out a miserable screeching sound in the process.
And after a few seconds pass, I finally get the System Message I’m looking for.
[You have killed a level twenty-five Deepsea Adisopod Queen. 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.]
A faint albeit slightly sad smile spreads across my face at the sight of the System Message.
Success.
Even though I didn’t really get much out of that battle. Other than maybe the monster’s shell, but I can’t exactly use that.
It’s not like I can send stuff back to the Alliance and get it forged into equipment after all.
That won’t be possible until the ruler of the planet is eventually decided, and the planet is open for visitors.
I let out a sigh at that thought before beginning to swim back to my little home.
Whatever.
Time for a break.