A few minutes later, two amorphous heads rose from the water, eyes the size of small lakes gazing down upon Sam with rage.

Water began to swirl around the creatures, creating a pair of whirlpools that rapidly grew in size, merging into one colossal vortex that seemed to stretch down into infinity. Sam merely smiled. Now he could fight properly.

He dropped his hammer, and raised his palms to the sky, gathering elemental energy and Dao upon them. Twin stars of energy blossomed into being, and then lengthened into beams that lanced through the air. Flame spread along its length as the air itself was ionized. The krakens tried to retreat, but they were too large by far.

The twin beams of light impacted the monsters like drills, searing through their heads. Flesh bubbled and boiled, the monsters unused to anything but the cold darkness of the ocean’s depths. The flesh melted, creating an acrid scent. However, the creatures were still E Rankers. Something as small as a paltry hole through their heads would do little against them. That was why Sam’s skill had a second part. The beams detonated, blasting apart the krakens into chunks of seared flesh.

The two behemoths were scattered across the dark waters, their ink turning the twilight hue into one of midnight. Essence trickled into Sam, annoyingly small compared to the magnitude of his feat.

It had started to feel like he was a hamster running in a wheel, never really getting anywhere. The only break from the monotony of weak monsters were the section bosses, and his title increases. By now, his title was one of his most powerful, giving him a massive 38 percent boost to all of his stats. He had a sneaking suspicion that clearing the final floor would award him whatever was the highest grade of title. Otherwise, the resulting 200 percent boost would be utterly absurd. The only people who were likely to have titles like that were the A Rankers, and they were few and far between.

The floor shifted, his title upgrading with him. He balled his fists, clenching his hammer tightly. He was hoping that the section boss would actually put up a decent fight.

Sam blinked. The next floor was not what he had expected. Rather than being the same blank expanse of water as before, with only the moons for light, he stood upon what seemed to be a beach. However, each grain of sand was the size of a boulder, and the actual rocks were like mountains. In the distance, a reddish shape roamed, and the omnipresent sound of water lapping against a distant shore serenaded his ears.

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You have entered the Endless Depths: Layer 10

Your objective is to kill Karak’thos, King Crab of the Tidelands

Completion: 0/1

Rewards: Title Upgrade

The crab seemed to notice his presence, as it began to meander towards him. As the creature came closer, Sam realized just how large it was. The creature was mountainous, not as large as the Titans, but close. Instead of a typical crab’s features, its head was more humanoid in appearance, with eyes, and a vast, flat mouth filled with crushing teeth. It was still made of chitin for the most part, with the standard legs and armor plates that made up a mundane crab.

“Welcome to my domain, challenger,” Karak’thos rumbled, its voice louder than thunder. It took a few thunderous steps forwards, and Sam heard the noise of water in the distance, as if the land was rotating below the monster, with it as its fulcrum.

Sam could have responded, but he didn’t bother. This was just a stepping stone on his road to greater things.

“Too afraid to speak-” the monster began.

Then Sam was hovering over its head, his hammer glowing like a star. Energy blossomed around it in a sphere, appearing like a new sun in the sky. He decided against half measures here, using the full might of his Primal skill. Karak’thos hissed in rage and stomped the ground with its segmented legs. Sand began to rise into the air, the massively enlarged balls of rock beginning to swirl. It was too late for the monster though. Sam fell like a comet, his hammer tracing out a perfect arc. The air blazed around the hammer, energized by its might. Then it struck the King Crab’s shell.

Chitin exploded outwards below him, the Crab staggering as a strike that could have obliterated a small city was leveled against its back. A ripple of destruction thundered through the monster’s body, boiling its flesh below. Sam gritted his teeth, forcing as much power into his hammer as he could. He stood almost suspended in the air, his hammer serving as the focal point of a massive cone of energy that stretched outwards for hundreds of feet. Had it been directed at anything other than the body of an E Ranker designed for defense, it would have reduced it to ashes drifting in the wind.

As it was though, he only crippled the massive crab, rather than killing it. His next attack saw it off to the afterlife, a beam of energy scorching through its insides, before detonating deep within the monster’s body. Karak’thos, King Crab of the Tidelands, breathed its last without even scratching the latest challenger to its domain. Its body fell to the ground with a colossal thud, sending up plumes of sand. A sudden darkness shrouded the edges of the realm as a tidal wave the height of a mountain appeared.

As the realm faded around Sam, he smiled wryly. If anything, the floors seemed to be growing easier the further he went.