Aqua
Okay then. That’s a wrap on this battle.
I pant in exhaustion, blowing bubbles into the water around me in the process. But my attention is solely focused on the System Messages in my vision. Including the ones I was ignoring during the battle.
[You have killed a level one Deepsea Delfish. EXP has been granted accordingly.] x3
[You have killed a creature underwater. Apex Predator of the Depths has been activated, increasing your REGEN stat by one.] x3
[You have killed a level three Deepsea Angler Shark. 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 3! Your total free points have increased by two, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]
Good. It’s just too bad that the shark killed two of the delfish, taking away two of my REGEN stat points.
I go ahead and allocate the two stat points into dexterity and constitution.
[REQUESTING STATUS: USER AQUA FALLEN]
[STATUS RETRIEVED]
[Name: Aqua Fallen]
[Level: 3]
[Mana: 30]
[Strength: 16(11)]
[Dexterity: 14]
[Constitution: 12]
[Magical Strength: 12]
[REGEN: 22]
[Free Points: 0]
[Traits: Physique of the Abyssal Kraken, Apex Predator of the Depths]
[Skills]
[END STATUS]
That said, everything hurts.
Bruises all over my body from these damned fish chomping on me. Then there’s the damage to my gut from the shark’s tackle.
And sure my regeneration is increasing, but a small bruise still takes somewhere around a week or so to heal. And bruises these large take three or four weeks to heal for a normal person.
And with my REGEN at 22, that means it’ll only heal a little faster than twice as fast as a normal human.
Which still means it will take a couple weeks to heal naturally.
I grit my teeth as I let myself float in the water amidst the bleeding corpses for a few seconds. But when the blood from their corpses get closer to me, I finally push myself to move through the pain until I reach the other end of the cavern. At which point I enter the tunnel connected to it.
Damn, this hurts.
But it’s fine. I just have to push through the pain and continue killing monsters.
Because the more I kill the higher my REGEN stat will go and the faster my wounds will heal.
I’m totally not thinking this just because I want to level up, even though I’ll end up with more wounds as I continue fighting.
Absolutely not.
On another note, I glance at the chat again. Only to find it currently flooded with activity talking about the unique monsters in this place that they’ve never seen before.
And it’s only now that I realize another draw that I apparently have as a Pioneer over other Pioneers.
The fact that I’m hunting underwater monsters.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Little to no Pioneers ever bother hunting underwater monsters. It just almost never happens.
In fact, most people are weaker underwater than on the surface. So they avoid any underwater fights that they can.
Which leads to a strong lack of content online for underwater battles.
Guess I stumbled on that little benefit by luck.
And that angler shark was enough to draw their attention away from being toxic as well.
Another plus.
Anyway, I continue swimming through the tunnel. Albeit slower than I was before due to the pain. And once in a while I run into more delfish, which I kill. Once again increasing my REGEN stat.
And I continue to kill the delfish one after another. Over and over again. Just slaughtering fish.
Until I once again find a cavern. But this one is different from any of the caverns I’ve seen so far.
This cavern is massive. And it has walls and floors and even ceilings covered in some eerily glowing moss. With various different fish of different types swimming around the place. Some of which are monsters and others are not.
As for which ones are considered monsters, that’s judged by the System.
The creatures that have an ID and a level are considered monsters. Whereas the ones without those are not.
But even amongst the monsters here, not including the other fish, there are a lot of new fish.
I go through identifying them all while staying relatively close to the edge of the cavern.
[Deepsea Angler Shark – Level 3]
[Deepsea Blue Octopus – Level 2]
[Deepsea Leg Crab – Level 3]
[Deepsea Swarm Piranha – Level 1]
[Deepsea Bloodzap Jelly – Level 4]
[Deepsea Green Eel – Level 3]
[Golden Viperfish – Level 2]
At some point I give up on identifying all the unique monsters though. Because there are just too many of them. And some of them are camouflaged as well.
I barely even manage to catch the viperfish and the octopus because those two are so well camouflaged.
What’s most interesting about this cavern though is that the monsters aren’t targeting me. They’re just going around doing their own things. Some are hunting each other, others are just calmly living their life, and others are hunting regular creatures.
It’s like an entire ecosystem down here involving both monsters and non-monsters.
And my chat seems to be just as interested in it as I am.
[So many fish…]
[Why does that crab have legs three times as long as its body? And what are those lumps in its legs?]
[I’m betting my salary that the green eel thing is poisonous. It just has that vibe.]
[that’s a lot of piranhas… you should avoid that swarm]
[I want to bring that blood red jellyfish home.]
[That jellyfish is probably one of the stronger monsters here considering its level. I wouldn’t be surprised if it packs quite the shock.]
[What’s with that tiny blue octopus? It just sprayed a blue liquid out at a delfish and turned the fish’s entire body blue before it died!]
I glance at the non-monsters while pursing my lips.
Earlier on I already tested to see if Apex Predator of the Depths worked when killing plants, but I haven’t seen if it works when killing regular creatures that aren’t monsters. The trait says it is for every creature I kill. But I also know that traits and skills are rather picky and don’t always do exactly what they say.
For all I know it could only count things that the trait considers a predator in some way.
Or it could only count things in the System.
So to test that, I go ahead and kill a random fish in the cavern. But it doesn’t do anything. I don’t get a message about my REGEN stat going up.
Even when I check my status I don’t see any change whatsoever.
Alright. Now I at least know it doesn’t apply to all living creatures.
Which means I can ignore most of these non-monster fish.
I float down to the bottom of the cavern before heading towards a crab. One with incredibly long legs. Legs that are over three times the length of its body. And for some reason have lumps in them. Almost like there are organs or something in the legs.
Which is kind of gross to look at.
With all the monsters in here, some of which don’t seem too fast, I should be able to get my level up to level five. The level I need to be to get my first skill from the System.
And I really need a skill down here.
Regeneration or no regeneration, it’s not a good idea to continue fighting endlessly without anything but a trident, my armor, and my rather lacking combat abilities.
I continue slowly moving towards the crab before rising upwards a little bit when I get close enough. Just to make sure I’m not in reach of its legs on the ground.
Then I kick my legs off of a large rock, sending me flying straight towards the crab as I thrust my trident straight at its head. Piercing into the head and then into the shell in the process.
I feel a brief hint of relief after killing the thing. But when I try to pull my trident out of its body, a few things happen all at once.
For one, I realize the crab didn’t give me a kill message through the System.
For two, the trident won’t come out.
And for three?
Half of the crab’s legs are all rushing straight towards me. So I immediately let go of my trident before hurriedly swimming downwards, beneath the crab’s own body. After which all of the legs it used to attack me end up slamming into the crab instead.
Okay. The only explanation that makes sense for how a headless crab is walking around and attacking with a trident stuck inside of its body is that its organs really are in its legs.
And said organs seem to be moving fluently around the legs.
Except that before they were moving between different legs. Whereas now they’re locked in the legs they were already in. What with my trident having ruined the ‘main body’ of the crab.
And with me hiding underneath its own body, there isn’t much it can do against me.
The main issue is that my trident is still inside of its body sticking upwards. Meaning I can’t pull it out from this angle without being attacked by its legs.
So… what to do…
Oh. That might just work.
I glance at the crab’s rather skinny legs despite the fact that they have organs inside of them. Then I glance at my hands.
Doesn’t hurt to try.
I swim up to one of its legs before grabbing it, instantly making the crab begin going wild in an attempt to make me let go. But the crab itself isn’t all that strong. Or rather, it weighs too much to do much without the momentum of its legs moving through the water.
The four-meter-long legs to be specific.
So without hesitation, I grab the base of the leg and snap it with my bare hands. Proving that my physical strength is enough to do just that.
Cool.
The crab convulses while standing in place somehow, not making a single sound other than that. Probably because it’s headless and therefore likely has no vocal cords.
Totally not my fault.
Anyway, after breaking off that leg, I go ahead and proceed with the next. And the next. And the next.
One after another until I finally break off its last leg.
Then I just waltz over to the lumps in the legs – after retrieving my trident, of course – before piercing the legs with the tip of my trident. Destroying the crab’s organs one by one.
Although the thing dies by the time I’m only halfway finished according to the messages.
[You have killed a level three Deepsea Leg Crab. 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.]
And there we go.
One kill down without any extra pain for me.
Time to move on to my next hunt.