I spent a few minutes resting in the sand, letting the piercing pain in my brain slowly fade away. Then, as the effects of the Call of the Ocean faded into the back of my mind, I made my way towards the village. Since my arm and some of my ribs were broken, every single step hurt, but I needed to make it to the village to get the healing process started as soon as possible.
One of the first people I saw was the village chief, who was sitting at the edge of the village and looking out towards the ocean. I couldn’t tell if he was watching for signs of the outsiders or waiting to see if I would appear. Perhaps a bit of both. When he saw me slowly making my way across the sand, he gave me a huge grin.
“You returned,” said the village chief. Then, he seemed to notice my meandering limp as I tried not to aggravate my injuries. He frowned. “You’re hurt.”
“Healers please. Bones broken. Ribs and arm. Left side,” I said.
The village chief nodded, and left to fetch some healers for me. A few minutes later the village chief returned with three healers, as well as my parents, Sallia, and Felix. Two of the healers got to work restoring my arm and ribs, while the third healer grabbed a bucket of water, before he looked at my arm and frowned.
“I’m going to make a small cut here. I need access to a wound to restore the blood you lost,” he said.
Since I didn’t object, he made a small nick with a knife, before he started converting the water in his bucket into blood and helping me recover from my injuries. Within a few minutes, my bones were reset, and the minute amounts of blood I had lost were also restored. It would take me another day or two for my bones to finish healing, since they were still a little fragile after being mended, but the pain from moving around was gone and I didn’t have to be worried about my ribs piercing my organs and suddenly killing me anymore. I thanked the three healers, and the village chief paid them each two fish cores before they left.
Before the village chief could say another word, my parents both hugged me, being gentle around my newly-healed bones, but otherwise more than happy to show me how much they had missed me and how worried they had been.
“You returned! I’m so glad you returned!” said my mother, while my father gently smiled at me.
“I’m back,” I said, grinning.
“What did you see in the ocean?” Asked Sallia, practically bouncing with excitement as she looked at me.
“I’m glad that you returned safely,” said Felix.
I smiled at the four of them. I hadn’t been sure if I would return, so seeing everyone again made me feel incredibly happy.
“Did you find what you were looking for? Or something to help our other idea along?” whispered Felix, quietly enough that Sallia wouldn’t be able to hear him.
I frowned as Felix mentioned our plan to get Sallia a good keyword ability. I had hoped that I could find a resource in the ocean that would let Sallia beat a land beast, or help her do something impressive enough to get a keyword Ability. However, the only new resource I had found was the black pearl, and there was no way Sallia would be able to absorb that. She only had a Willpower of Grade 4. In other words, my intention of helping Sallia wouldn’t come to fruition as a result of my ocean exploration.
My frown deepened, as I tried to think of a way to turn Sallia’s situation around. But I was still at a loss. While I was lost in my thoughts, the village chief seemed to take my silence as an opportunity to finally interject in our conversation. He strode forward, before gently ruffling my hair.
“I’m glad you’re back, little Miria,” said the village chief. “Truly. I’ve never heard of someone returning from the Ocean alive. They usually just disappear.” He looked at me, his eyes filled with a mixture of curiosity and hope? “How did your exploration go? Did you find a resource to help the village during the fight?”
I frowned, wondering where to start. I decided to introduce as much information as I could to the village chief. Even my first foray into the Ocean had nearly killed me several times, and I was fully aware that any journey into the ocean could be the end of my time in this world.
“I’ll start by discussing what I witnessed in the ocean, as well as the dangers I found,” I said, giving the village chief a nod. “That way, if anyone else goes into the ocean in the future, they know more about what to expect.
“The first thing to keep in mind is that the Call of the Ocean is much stronger inside of the ocean. Even if you close your eyes, you’ll still experience a very heavy influence on your mind. At my level of Willpower, I could probably only last two or three hours at maximum, and I’m above average in Willpower in the village. I imagine people who have a higher level of Willpower, such as the hunters who were picked to absorb Storm Orbs, could probably last a little longer. However, it’s a good idea to limit their time inside of the ocean, even if someone with a similar ability set and desire to explore the ocean comes along in the future.”
The village chief frowned as he nodded. “I see. That certainly makes sense. Since the Ocean itself is what calls to us, while within its embrace the call would naturally grow stronger. I’m glad that you’ve always had such a strong will. If you didn’t, you might just be another person who entered the Ocean and never returned. Hmm… I recall that you also weren’t very influenced by the Ocean before you absorbed the Storm Orb, right? In that case, I’ll need to encourage villagers to be more proactive in training their minds during storm season, since many people don’t think it’s worth the risk.” He nodded to himself, before turning back towards me. “Continue.”
“The biggest threat to any future explorers, assuming drowning and the Call are dealt with, is the darkness and the wildlife. The water of the ocean seems to absorb light; as a result, it rapidly gets much darker under the surface of the ocean. I was able to make do using the spatial vision granted to me by the Storm Orb I absorbed, but I know not everyone got that kind of vision. It might be safer if people with abilities that enhance hearing, or compensate for lack of sight, are the ones to explore the ocean in the future. While the Call of the Ocean is stronger underneath the waves, it’s still much weaker if you close your eyes.”
The village chief nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind. Abilities that enhance senses beyond eyesight aren’t common, but they exist. And hunters get much better senses with every additional mental rune. How easy is it to hear in the ocean?”
I frowned. “I don’t think that would be a reliable method of sensing one’s surroundings while underwater. Are there any people who can… just ‘sense’ things in their surroundings by using their runes?”
The village chief nodded. “There are plenty. It gets much easier if one has at least ten runes, because those enhance your previous runes and start to blend their abilities together in beneficial ways. However, there are also abilities that let people, say, use plants around them as their eyes and ears, or let people sense others around them in a certain radius.”
I nodded. “In that case, future exploration would best be done by people with abilities like that.”
The village chief nodded again, frowning thoughtfully before he turned back towards me. “Now, you say that the wildlife is also a threat? What is there beneath the waves? Are there dozens of Glowing Fish?”
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“I only saw three creatures so far during my exploration, but each of them was potentially a threat to my life. The first thing I saw was a school of Great Fish.”
The village chief frowned, giving me a bewildered look. “Great Fish? Are they a threat? You almost got killed by a great fish?” The look he gave me turned from a mixture of hope and respect to total confusion. “Were they… a special kind of Great Fish?”
I felt my cheeks start to heat up, and I awkwardly chuckled. I had felt a similar way before raging ocean currents had nearly ripped me apart. “The Great Fish are indeed not a threat on their own. However, when they work together, they coordinate with each other, which allows them to create massive currents of water. Most threatening is the fact that they know how to create points of space where different ocean currents crash into each other. In this case, rather than just water, it’s more like two walls of stone slamming into each other directly on top of your body. I was only caught in the aftereffects of an attack, but I’m still lucky to be alive. If I had been the focus of their attack, rather than a few broken bones I would have just been flattened into paste.” I saw my mother’s eyes widen out of the corner of my eyes, but my father gently patted her shoulder, and she didn’t end up saying anything while I continued reporting to the village chief.
The village chief frowned, before nodding. “I suppose I can see several of them working together as a problem. It is pretty ridiculous to think of the Great Fish being a threat, but I suppose the Glowing Fish was a warning about how dangerous a Great Fish can become in the right circumstances.”
“There were two other creatures that I saw while in the deeps. The first one was the giant sea monster that destroyed much of the first outsider fleet. Do you remember those giant tentacles that tore out of the ocean and towered over the islands?”
The village chief’s expression paled. “It’s still here?”
I nodded. “Apparently, it’s just… relaxing under our islands. I’m not quite sure why it doesn’t bother us, although I’m quite certain that if it wanted to, it could make our villages all disappear overnight. But luckily, it’s not too interested in our existence.”
The village chief frowned, as if trying to reassure himself that things were really fine with a giant sea monster several times larger than our island relaxing right underneath us. After a few minutes, he relaxed and nodded. “If it’s content to ignore us, I suppose it’s not a problem.”
I nodded, before continuing. “The third creature I saw was transparent. It was hard to notice at first. It’s some sort of stealthy ocean creature. The one I saw used ice, teleportation, and possibly invisibility? It wasn’t a very fast swimmer, so as long as you notice it in advance it’s probably not a huge threat. But it does actively hunt and ambush other creatures of the ocean, so it’s important to keep an eye out for it.”
The village chief frowned, and then nodded. “I’ll keep these creatures in mind in the future, and make sure the other villagers have some awareness of them as well. I doubt anyone is going to want to explore the ocean in the near future. But just in case, gathering as much information as possible for future generations might save the village someday. What about resources? Did you find something to help us fight the outsiders?”
I waited for a moment, curious to see if I would get any influence Achievement for spreading information about the Ocean’s creatures and environment. Sadly, I didn’t get a reward for it. Perhaps the village chief needed to spread word about my findings before I got an Influence reward? After a few seconds of waiting, I shrugged, before moving on.
“I saw a very large black pearl; it was probably the size of my head,” I said. “It distorted space around me, and also absorbed a great deal of mana. I’m sure it’s some sort of resource, similar to the Storm Orbs and floatwood of our village.” I saw the village chief start to get excited, and before I could say another word, he laughed giddily.
“Another one? Miria, you’re really the favored child of the ocean mother. I can’t believe you managed to pioneer the use of storm orbs, AND discover another resource.”
“There’s a problem with it,” I said, before the village chief could get too excited. “Two problems, in fact.”
“Oh?” The village chief’s excitement started to die down, and he looked at me with a more nervous expression. The outsiders were clearly searching for the islands, and we still had no clue how strong they were. We probably only had a week or two before they found the islands.
“First, the orb has an incredible amplifying effect on the Call of the Ocean whenever someone looks at it,” I said. “I don’t know if anyone in the village can resist it, especially while they’re already underwater. The only reason I lived after seeing it is because the great ocean monster broke my sight on it for a bit, which let me regain my senses. Otherwise I would have lost my mind during my exploration, and I never would have returned here. The bright side is that it’s pretty dark in the ocean, and the pearl only works on line of sight, just like the ocean itself. So it won’t be a problem until we get closer to the surface. But absorbing it is probably impossible.”
I saw Felix frown, before taking a glance at Sallia out of the corner of his eye. I also felt the urge to wince a little bit. Since the new resource seemed to need Willpower to be absorbed, Sallia couldn’t use it. I couldn’t think of a way to help her get a Keyword ability.
The village chief also frowned, although it was for a different reason. The problem of Willpower and the Call of the Ocean wasn’t easy to resolve. Most hunters who had the Willpower to resist the impact of high-level resources like the Storm Orbs were also usually out of room for more runes, or only had enough essence for one or two more runes at most. If it was difficult to absorb a new resource without assistance from mental runes, the resource wouldn’t be very useful for increasing the strength of the village.
“What’s the second problem?” He asked.
“The really strong sea monster wants to hoard the black pearls for itself. While it doesn’t react to storm orbs, it certainly seems to care about the black pearls. If it notices us taking one, it will probably kill us all.”
The village chief turned pale as he imagined fighting the great ocean monster, before he shuddered.
“If that's the case, there’s nothing useful in the ocean, right? I’m sorry that the risk you took didn’t end up being useful. I know that you worked hard to do your best for the village, and you even took on a huge risk just to find a way to tip the odds in our favor. Rest assured that I’ll still give you access to my fish cores, because I won’t let your actions be for nothing. In fact, I think that you-”
“I’m not saying that my exploration was totally useless, village chief,” I said, cutting him off before he could finish.
The village chief seemed confused as he looked at me.
“I’ve been thinking that we might be able to hide the theft of a single black pearl from the great ocean monster for a bit, if we have the right rune abilities working together. It probably wouldn’t be possible for us to permanently hide it, since we wouldn’t be able to keep a Stealth rune ability applied every hour of the day. We don’t have enough people with stealth rune abilities to keep up with the mana consumption that would require. But that doesn’t mean we have no use for a black pearl, even if we can’t absorb one. What do you think about using a Stealth Rune Ability to grab a black pearl, fleeing the depths of the ocean, and then dumping it into the middle of the outsider fleet? Half of them would go nuts on the spot, and then the ocean monster could destroy a couple ships before getting the pearl and leaving. It’s definitely risky, but if it works… we could single-handedly remove most of the weaker combatants from this fight, and maybe even destroy a few ships. The outsiders only have eight ships. If we can demolish most of their weaker combatants, our weaker combatants would be free to interfere with more important battlefields, which could tilt the whole battle in our favor…” I said, grinning.
The village chief looked thoughtfully at me. Then, a few moments later, he frowned.
“It’s a big risk, Miria. Are you sure you’re willing to try again? If it fails, you would die, along with whoever you took with you in this attempt. I know that you don’t have any stealth abilities, and the village doesn’t have many stealth abilities either. The best I can think of is a rune user that makes things touching wood seem to disappear for a while. He’s mostly a scout for the hunter group he’s part of. I have no idea if that ability would fool the senses of the great sea monster long enough for you to reposition the orb. And there’s no guarantee your plan will work, even if everything works out perfectly.”
“Absolutely,” I said. “I know it’s a big risk, and I won’t force anyone to join my plan. But if the stealth ability user is willing to work with me, I’m also willing to try to make this work.”
The village chief frowned, before he sighed. “In that case, we can give it a try. I’ll let the hunter know what you’re planning tonight, and if he accepts, I’ll let you know. What are the specific details of your plan?”
Thus, the village chief and I began discussing the detailed plan of the great pearl heist.