If he had the ability to go anywhere within the ocean, where would he go? Logan was transporting a hundred octopuses; although he knew there were some species that didn’t mind the cold like the Giant Pacific, he also knew that many preferred tropical waters.
The System Integration might have changed that—for all Logan knew, they might thrive in the arctic, but when it came to places he could picture in his mind, there were limited options. He’d been on a European vacation years ago, traveling up the coast of Scotland and Ireland; he’d been to Florida, but the place that he’d gone the most—a place where he had a firm picture in his mind—was the coast, and specifically, Vancouver Island.
It was summer, and although Vancouver tended to be cooler than the Okanagan, the water would be warm enough for even vibrant, blue ringed Vicious. Besides, if he wanted to leave them in a place that was less likely to be harvested by Pied’s agents, it was Vancouver Island. Yes, you could find Giant Pacifics there, but the other species didn’t call Western Canada home. That might give them a chance. A chance to stay under the radar.
When Logan was younger, Vancouver Island was another place that he’d visited every summer with his grandfather. Exploring the beaches, trekking over sand and picking up starfish and clams. More than any other place in the ocean, he knew Vancouver Island.
Concentrating on Vicious and the mass of life around her, Logan used [Life Fabricator] to latch onto the octopuses’ auras, doing his best to make sure he didn’t leave anyone behind. With the rest of his concentration, Logan fixed a point in his mind; a scene from his childhood, picturing the beach, the lush, green rainforest, the damp, soaked grass. The seagulls and foxes, the crabs and shrimp. Then with a wrench, he concentrated on a patch of the ocean a half mile away from the shore, envisioning deep, dark waters.
Latching onto the octopuses and keeping that picture in his mind, Logan deployed [Threshold Shift]. It began as a cold sensation, as if he’d walked into a freezer, a layer of ice rushing through his body, making him feel as if his hair might as well have become brittle with frost. Logan didn’t know what was happening, only that this was the first time travelling such a long distance. The Okanagan to Vancouver Island was over 250 miles—250 miles in one shot! His vision narrowed, his head growing foggy, and then, in one blink, he was gone.
Logan splashed into the ocean, slamming into the surface, the hundred octopuses slamming into the water at the same time. Splash after splash, water flying, seaweed covering his facemask. He’d traveled from a lake to the ocean, and although it was summer, the difference in temperature was a shock. His exoskeleton took the brunt of it and cushioned him from the effects.
A cacophony of voices slammed into his mind, octopus after octopus expressing its pleasure or annoyance. Logan flared his nostrils. The smell of sulphur and salt, of algae and rot—it was all around him.
Logan rubbed away the water droplets covering his face mask, bobbing in the water and looking around. The sky was clear, blue, the sun bright in the sky, white clouds drifting in the distance. He was so used to the smog in the Okanagan that the clear air was a welcome change. Off in the distance, he could make out the shoreline, the pine trees and forest. He’d teleported into a remote area, with no human habitation. Damn. He’d done it.
Elated, Logan grinned, kicking his feet and swinging his arms in the water. All it had taken was 500 Karma and he’d transported a hundred octopuses over a massive distance. 250 miles!
A bright, blue blur flashed in front of his eyes before Vicious paused and bobbed in front of Logan while giving him a narrowed-eyed glare. “This is not home, human. This is not what you promised. Vicious was smart! Vicious knew not to trust!”
Logan blinked. “It’s the ocean, isn’t it?”
“Not my ocean!”
Did this thing think that he was going to drop off each octopus in different areas? Hell no.
“I promised Ernie I’d take you to the ocean. He never said anything about where in the ocean; if you try to tell me that was the agreement, I won’t believe you.”
Logan kicked away with his legs, trying to put distance between him and the little glaring monstrosity. He could just leave, but the least he could do was tell them where they were. And that they needed to hide from Pied’s agents.
“We’re…”
What.
Deep below, a dark, immense shadow had just passed underneath his legs.
Vicious stilled, her blue eyes widening, hardly blinking as her tentacles froze. Behind her, the other octopuses became motionless, their heads moving so slowly it was as if they were on cranks as they looked down. Because he’d transported them half a mile off the shore, they were deep, deep in the ocean, so deep that you couldn’t see the bottom. Logan didn’t know what that shadow was, but whatever it was, it was immense.
Logan felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck. Although he couldn’t see what was below, there was a pressure in the air. It was the same sensation he’d felt when confronted with Pied’s aura. Whatever was down there was big, big and high leveled.
And oddly, something else rose to the surface. Black bubbles, drifting up to the waves, pooling around them. What…? Lifting his hand, Logan examined the black spots. They clung to his exoskeleton, an oily substance. It was if he were wading through tar.
Logan clenched his fist, looking from the octopuses to the darkness underneath him. He felt a conflicting sensation, his priorities tearing him in two different directions. He’d satisfied his promise to Ernie; he’d transported the octopuses. Strictly speaking, he no longer had any further obligations to keep them safe. He needed to get out of here and back to the cabin so he could take care of the Matt problem, and then find time to finish off his Empire Building quest. To do that, he didn’t have time to flail around in the ocean, chasing after shadows.
At the same time, if he transported Ernie’s brethren and then left them, knowing that there was something below that could threaten their lives, what would he tell Ernie when he asked? The guilt would eat him alive.
But again, that aura had felt immense—did he really want to involve himself in this? What if whatever was down there was so powerful that it gave him trouble? Real trouble?
The octopuses were still frozen. Vicious’ eyes were like saucers, her pupils narrowed into pins.
“What’s down there?” asked Logan.
Vicious’ eyes grew wider. “Quiet, stupid human! It might pass if we don’t move! Whatever you do, don’t move.”
Logan would never be the type of person who hid. Whatever was down there, he wanted to know. Moving slowly, Logan stopped swimming and let himself drop below the surface, the water passing over top of his helmet. Then deploying [Deepwater Explorer], he let himself continue to drop. Normally, it would be difficult without his exoskeleton, but his armour was sandstone; its weight was like holding two boulders in front of his chest. That was enough to drift, dropping in the ocean.
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Turning his head as slowly as he could, he looked down and then frowned. It was black. Dark as night. A few strands of seaweed and algae drifted in front of his facemask, and faint light from the surface shone around him, but past a few meters, he couldn’t make out anything.
Instead, Logan tried to open his senses by deploying [Life Fabricator], searching for that aura he’d sensed before. In short order, he winced, his ears ringing. Holy crap, there were so many spots of life it was overwhelming! Never mind the hundred octopuses—crabs, fish, eels, plankton and shrimp. Not to mention the tiny spots of life that represented animals he couldn’t recognize. He scanned for that immense shadow, thinking that if anything, if it were still down there, it should shine as bright as anything, but there—
Wait.
It was like a blip on his radar, there and then gone. Whatever it was, it was moving. Moving fast. Logan glanced from the surface where the octopuses floated, frozen, to the darkness below. Well, if it were moving that fast, maybe it was just passing by? It could be that it was so big that it didn’t care about a bunch of octopuses. It—
Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!
Out of the darkness, a massive animal surged to the surface, going so fast it moved in a blur; all Logan had was a second to comprehend grey flesh, barnacles, an eye the size of his head, and a gaping mouth that could fit a car!
The sound of his heartbeat thrashing in his ears, Logan deployed his Pink Sock to jerk to the side, shooting through the water just in time to avoid its gaping, wide mouth as it surged to the surface. The water was displaced, a mini hurricane swirling around him as he was bashed to the side like he was inside of a washing machine. Its tail, the size of a trailer, bashed him on the side as it swept past, sending a massive crack through his armour.
It was going directly for the octopuses.
Adrenaline shooting through his system, his heart surging, Logan felt like he couldn’t breathe as he made his way back to the surface. If he lost the octopuses, let them get killed by what he suspected was a whale, Ernie would never let him live it down. Ernie had barely managed to get over the shock of the skill rings; it was only the fact that he’d managed to save his brethren that had kept him sane. Logan couldn’t be responsible for shocking him again. He wanted his bright Ernie, his slaughter happy, optimistic Ernie. Not the Ernie that he’d experienced in Pied’s Kingdom.
Surging to the surface, Logan kicked with his Pink Sock, pushing himself through the ocean like a rocket. As he breached the water, Logan had a second to comprehend the carnage—the octopuses that had grouped together, motionless, were now scattered over the surface as if someone had hit them with a bomb. Only about half remained, the other gone. Logan looked around for Vicious, scanning for her bright blue rings. But tentacles were all over the place, too many colors to count.
Logan couldn’t see her.
Fuck. Had the thing eaten them? Worry knotted his stomach as he kicked his feet and sent himself over to the largest clump. “What—”
Holy shit!
Off to his left side, the whale breached the surface again, its mouth gaping wide and swallowing everything in its path. It had nodules on the top of its head, barnacles clinging to its gray skin. Long pectoral fins flapped through the air as its body slammed back to the surface, the underside of its gills rippling as it swallowed and then drifted below the ocean, leaving a mini whirlwind of oily residue in its wake.
Logan had just enough time to scan it with [Idiot’s Inspect]:
[Rabid Humpback Whale: Level 190. This whale drifted into polluted oil-spotted waters and absorbed the oil into its pores, warping its throat so that it can swallow large prey, giving it a rabid need to kill everything in sight.]
[Highest Stat: Agility. Characteristics: Unhinged. Hidden name: Lucky.]
Only ten octopuses remained; it had swallowed the rest. Vicious was nowhere to be found. Logan ground his teeth, feeling his rage surge, a vein on his forehead throbbing. He’d brought Ernie’s brethren here to save them; although he felt no sentimentality for Vicious or the others, he’d made a promise to Ernie, and this fucker had just ruined everything. Although it was higher leveled than Logan—way overpowered—Logan found himself disregarding it, only knowing that he couldn’t let this stand.
Logan remembered that Ernie had mentioned fleeing from rabid humpback whales in the ocean, that he’d given them a wide birth. Somehow, Logan had managed to transport Ernie’s brethren in its path, leaving them vulnerable to attack.
Growling, Logan kicked off with his Pink Sock, drifting over to the remaining ten octopuses, swimming in place and staring down at the dark ocean below.
“I’ll save you,” he said. “I’ll save them all.”
The water started to move, as if a huge vacuum cleaner were pulling them under, but Logan knew it was the whale displacing the water. It was the length of a bowling alley, creating massive pushback, its gaping wide mouth sucking everything down.
Logan screamed as a black eye blinked at him, just before its mouth swallowed Logan whole.
***
Throughout the System Integration, he’d been through many dicey circumstances, from the serpent queen tearing off his arm, to the torture of the attribute trials. Logan had encountered absurdities, such as leading a blob army, and chatting with a mutated, smelly snail. But this situation… this situation had to top the cake.
As the whale had swallowed him whole, he’d entered its mouth, forced through razor sharp bristly baleen plates. It was like being forced through hundreds of claws. Blood went flying as the octopuses’ tentacles were severed, the whale forcing each octopus through its gullet. Logan was engulfed in darkness at the same time that he felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his foot. It stunned him, making him grind his teeth and hold back a scream. But [Idiot’s Paradox] was already at work; he’d advanced it to level 28, and short of a severed limb, it…
Ah, fuck.
The thing had cut off his foot.
Logan felt woozy, cotton in his head as he kept travelling inside of the whale, pushed forward through its swallows until he landed on something soft and spongy. He was covered in darkness. It reeked like rotting fish mixed with cat piss; the smell so horrid even through his facemask that he couldn’t help gagging.
Logan was losing blood, but since the last time he’d lost a limb, he’d leveled up [Regenerate] to a massive degree. He’d believed that eventually, if he leveled it up enough, he could sever a limb and watch it grow back just as fast. It was Asthea who had told him that his skill was so desirable that it was like a fable.
Feeling woozy, he sagged, grabbing clumps of… something, his body lurching from side to side as the whale moved through the water. What was it doing, acrobatics? He’d already lost a lot of blood, and this lurching rollercoaster wasn’t helping him, his stomach sloshing.
Swallowing, Logan willed out a flashlight from his spatial collar, hitting the sides when it didn’t turn on, then squinting as light flared, illuminating the… cavern stomach.
The spongy bottom of its stomach was pink, but covered in digesting fish and animals, severed tentacles already covered in a milky, digestive film. As he turned the light to the sides, eyes flashed, blinking.
Shit.
Most of the octopuses were alive, but many had severed tentacles, and they were sagging, their skin washed out. They were stuck to the sides of the whale’s stomach, as if the baleen plates continued on the sides. Logan had no idea how a normal whale’s digestive track worked, but he knew that this couldn’t be normal. Whales couldn’t swallow a man whole!
Shining the light down at his foot, Logan retched. Yep. Completely severed. But already, there was a stub growing, like a mutated foot. Ugh. It looked like something from a Science Fiction movie. Gross, gross, gross!
But at least this time, losing a limb hadn’t brought him down for the count. The last time it had happened, Logan had collapsed outside of the portal dungeon, and it had taken a whole day for him to wake up. Regrowing the limb had taken a huge toll on his body. Fuck, imagine if that had happened here! Logan would be whale food!
“It’s all your fault, stupid human. Vicious knew not to trust. What did you do? You took us to a rabid whale’s territory! Transporting us it into its mouth!”
Logan shone the light to the side, narrowing in on the fist-sized octopus. Her blue rings glinted in the light, her eyes accusing. She was stuck to the stomach just like the others, but she was fully intact. Perhaps she was so small that she’d managed to pass through the baleen plates without any issue.
“I’m going to get you out of here.”
After all, just because he was inside of a whale’s stomach didn’t mean that he couldn’t use [Threshold Shift].
Logan used [Life Fabricator] to scan for the octopuses’ auras, latching onto each one, and then envisioned the shore, the beach, anywhere that wasn’t the damn whale’s stomach. Deploying [Threshold Shift], he felt the portal open, and the—most extreme pain he’d ever felt.
Screaming, a gush of blood drizzling down his nose, Logan had a second to collapse his facemask before he was sick, leaning over and retching.
Holy crap, had that ever been unpleasant! Fuck. [Threshold Shift] still worked; Logan could tell that if he wanted, he could escape, but because the whale was in the midst of digesting the octopuses, the skill couldn’t separate them from the whale’s aura. [Threshold Shift] considered them one and the same.
That meant he wasn’t teleporting out of here.