There was a quiet crackling in the air. Nathan jumped forward. Behind him, he heard the sound of lightning striking the spot he’d just been in. He didn't even have a moment to relax before another bolt was already on its way.
He dodged to the right. Another one came straight toward him. He began to dodge forward, but at the last second, his instincts screamed that a lightning bolt would strike there. Instead, he threw himself to the left.
Nathan's eyes flickered toward his companions. Luckily, it still looked like he was taking the brunt of the attacks. Fuge was gracefully dodging every strike with the ease of a master combatant. Zayen and Omarn were replicating Nathan's trick with the water to redirect the lightning strikes—
Oh, that’s a good idea.
Riptide mastery came to life around Nathan. Water surged forward, redirecting the lightning strikes into the ground, turning the sand into glass.
Nathan's gaze shot toward the milky orb.
It needs to be taken out!
He reared back his fishing rod and swung forward, the hook flying through the air like a laser-guided missile. It slammed into the milky orb, shattering it into pieces—
Wait, no it didn’t. It just… passed through.
Nathan squinted. Had he missed? No. If there was one thing he was confident in, it was his aim with a fishing rod… and that wasn’t a sentence he ever thought he’d say in his lifetime.
The hook had clearly hit, yet it was like the creature had just ignored it. But how was that possible?
Come to think of it, the milky white orb… it was translucent, wasn’t it? Just like the spirit fish.
Nathan looked down at his fishing rod. He had done something to it back then—manipulated his internal energy to make it able to hook the weird spirit fish.
Could he do it again?
His eyes flickered back and forth between the milky white orb and his fishing rod.
I hope this works.
Nathan guided the energy from his core and let it extend into his fingers. From there, he pushed it into his fishing rod. In seconds, the fishing rod began to glow ever so slightly blue.
His eyes snapped back to the white orb. He tilted his chest to the right. Another whizzing noise—a laser beam flew past him and the ground behind him exploded into a cloud of dust.
A single droplet of sweat rolled down the back of his neck.
Yeah, I don’t think I want to get hit by one of those.
He reared back his fishing rod and, for the second time, tossed forward his hook. This time, the hook slammed into the milky orb, visibly knocking it backward and carving a line across its side.
Nathan sucked in a breath, eyes wide.
Before he could launch another attack, the white orb began to repair itself. Just like that, the damage Nathan had done was gone.
Another whizzing noise.
Dodge.
A sudden pain in his chest distracted him—right where he was drawing that energy from.
I overdid it!
He tried to pull his hand away, but it was too late. The laser knocked into his hand, blasting him backward and sending his fishing rod flying into the distance. He tumbled and rolled for several seconds before landing hard on the ground. Groaning, he pushed himself up and looked at his hand. To his surprise, the damage wasn’t as bad as he’d expected—just a gigantic red splotch covering his entire arm.
If I lose another arm, I’m gonna riot.
His jaw clenched.
I need more power.
He’d been saving up his stat points, hadn’t he? But the question was, which one would be the most helpful? His gut told him to go with strength. Maybe just a little more, and he’d be able to swing his fishing rod hard enough to destroy the orb in one go.
He pulled open his stat window. He hadn’t checked it in a long time, most enemies in the circle being too easy for him to deal with.
Stats:
* Strength: 30 (+92) = 122
* Dexterity: 50 (+13) = 63
* Constitution: 50 (+40) = 90
* Magic: 3 (+15) = 18
* Luck: 22 (+66) = 88
* Soul: 30 (+30) = 60
Available Stats: 32
Magic? No, he didn’t use magic. Emi had made that clear, and besides, he could feel what magic felt like. Whatever he was using, it wasn’t magic.
That left… Soul.
This was a gamble. He didn’t fully understand the Soul stat. He didn’t fully understand the strange energy allowing him to attack the Dustend in its current form.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Still, something inside him screamed that this was his best shot.
He put all his points into Soul.
Soul: 62 (+30) = 92
There was no flash of bright light, no dramatic transformation. His eyes wandered, searching for a weapon.
His fishing rod was too far away—but something metal gleamed in the sand nearby. He reached out and pulled free his trusty harpoon, dust-covered but intact.
"Let’s hope this works."
He channeled his inner energy into the harpoon. His breath caught—it was so much easier now. Before, it had felt like scooping water with a spoon. Now, it was like lifting water with a bucket. Not an overwhelming difference, but he no longer felt like a cripple. The power flowed easier.
His harpoon lit up with a bright blue glow. He reared back and threw it forward.
The harpoon sailed through the air, water bursting out of it like jets, louder and clearer than ever before. The light refracted off the water, creating a rainbow of colors as it streaked toward its target.
The Dustend roared, lightning crackling against the sides of the harpoon. Bolts slammed into it, but it continued on, completely undeterred. A wall of sand rose to block its path—the harpoon cut through it effortlessly, striking the milky white orb dead center.
It went straight through. A hole gaped in the orb’s surface. For a few seconds, everything went still—the lightning, the sand, even the faint hum of the orb itself.
A crack appeared.
The fracture spread, webbing across the orb's surface until—
The orb exploded.
Nathan shielded his eyes as shards flew past. One cut a thin line across his arm, another embedded itself into the glass behind him.
When he dared to open his eyes again, white sparkles floated gently from the sky.
Nathan exhaled a deep breath.
It was finally over.
----------------------------------------
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[Achievement get: Storm Killer].
[Achievement get: Savant Cultivator].
Nathan brushed aside the level-ups and walked over to where the Dustend had been defeated. Lying on the ground was a pearl. It was small, almost unnoticeable among the grains of sand. Even so, Nathan couldn't help but notice it. It almost seemed like it was calling to him.
He reached down and picked it up, activating his scan ability.
[Heart of the Desert]
A relic of scorching ambition and poor hydration choices. Swallowing this crystallized essence of the wastelands will either elevate you to legendary heights… or turn your insides into sand. Fortunately, it’s the former (probably). Triggers an SSS-rank class-up to Silver rank. Side effects may include an insatiable thirst for power and, well… just thirst.
Nathan rolled the pearl around in his hands. Yet another item of power that would elevate him even further in strength. He seemed to have a bad habit of getting his hands on these things.
"Is that what I think it is?"
Nathan turned to see Zayen staring at the pearl with wide eyes.
"If you think it's the Heart of the Desert, then yes, it is," Nathan said.
"Class-up items are already nightmarishly rare. But I would bet that item right there is one-of-a-kind. It will be the purest class-up obtainable on this circle, I can guarantee you that."
"Purity?"
"Well, of course. You don’t think all class-up methods are made the same way, right?"
Nathan was silent for a few seconds. “Uh… yes?”
Zayen sighed. "Some class-ups are worth more than others. The truly rare ones allow for a custom class upgrade path."
Then I wonder how it is that I received a custom class so easily and early?
Nathan shook his head. There would be time to contemplate things later. For now, it was time to enjoy the fruits of his labor.
"How do you plan on consuming it?" Zayen asked.
"Oh, I was just going to eat it."
To demonstrate, Nathan opened his mouth and swallowed the pearl. When he lowered his gaze back to Zayen, the boy king was staring at him in abject shock and horror.
"Are you insane!?" Zayen exclaimed. "Why in the name of all that is good would you just swallow it?!"
"That’s not how you’re supposed to do it?"
"No! Items of great power like that must be diluted and fed over the course of several days. The amount of pain you'd experience just from eating it all at once—the shock alone could kill you!"
Nathan squinted. "Wait, you’re telling me that the Pandora wasn’t supposed to be eaten like that? I could’ve avoided all that pain?"
"You’ve done this before!?"
Before Nathan could inform Zayen that yes, he had, in fact, done this before, pain hit his head like a hammer. He doubled over and groaned aloud.
"I can already tell this is gonna suck," Nathan muttered.
"For someone so staggeringly powerful and so stunningly clever, you can be unbelievably idiotic—"
Nathan groaned again, clenching his fists.
"I don’t suppose you happen to have painkillers?" he managed to squeak out.
"Just stay calm. Omarn is an expert in this sort of thing. I'll ask him for help."
Nathan's vision began to blacken. "Yeah, you do that..."
His limbs started shuddering, and he lost control of them. He shut his eyes, focusing on his soulbound town portal.
"Omarn is here," Zayen said. "He'll be able to take care of you. Just relax."
"The portal—" Nathan slammed his head against the glass. "—I’m leaving the portal open."
Zayen stiffened. "You are?"
"Yes, get me back i-inside—you can use the resources from the town to help me out, I think."
Fuge, who had been quietly in the background, nodded. "I will make sure you are taken care of, Commander."
Nathan was about to thank her when he felt his consciousness begin to fade.
"See you on the other side," he muttered before his mind went blank.
----------------------------------------
When he next opened his eyes, he felt no pain. It was as if he were an entirely new creature. He looked out to see that he was on a beach, the gentle push and pull of the tides just in front of him.
He rubbed his feet into the sand, absentmindedly noting that he was barefoot.
"Am I naked?"
"No. I believe you humans find that improper, no? As such, I ensured that you would be clothed."
Nathan nearly stumbled backward. "Who is that?"
"You don't sense me?" the voice said. "I should be a familiar presence to you by now. Though you haven't heard my voice very often, I have been with you in spirit."
Nathan's back stiffened.
Somehow, he knew exactly who this voice belonged to.
No, he knew exactly who she was.
"Are you…?"
The water shifted and changed. A figure rose out of the waves, like Aphrodite emerging from the sea.
It was a woman—probably the most beautiful woman Nathan had ever seen. Her long hair was the color of clear blue water. On either side of her head, tucked into her hair like buns, were two types of underwater flowers. Nathan couldn’t recall their names, but he remembered seeing them in countless pictures of underwater seascapes. She was dressed in something similar to a Greek toga, the white robes wrapped loosely around her body. Around her neck was a conch shell necklace, one that looked strikingly similar to the one Nathan had been wearing since way back in the first circle.
But it was her eyes that caught his attention.
Just looking into them filled him with a deep, instinctual terror. There was something ancient within them, something old. They were cold, distant—less like the eyes of a person and more like those of an unfeeling force of nature. Worse than a monster, worse than the Dustend. Worse than anything he’d ever seen before.
And then, all at once, the gaze softened. An odd sort of warmth entered them.
Then she smiled.
Nathan almost cringed. It was too wide, and her eyes weren’t in it at all. It was like watching a robot attempt to smile.
Despite that, he got the strangest feeling that she was being sincere.
"Hi, Nathan," she said. "I am what you call the sea. It's good to finally meet you—properly."