The abomination swam closer towards Kaian despite having no fins or any noticeable form of a limb meant for movement. The mouths opened and shut and as it got closer, the eyes blinked and focused on Kaian. He started trembling, it was like an ant meeting an anteater, a deer meeting a lion or a mortal seeing a god. He simply couldn't compare, even trembling seemed like an impossible task for him right now.

No! He couldn't be this weak! Did he survive all that - the fight, transmigration, the tomb - just to die to some failed experiment?! NO! Kaian started struggling. At first he looked like he didn't even move. Then his fish body started shivering. It was unrecognizable at first, but it was there. His fins started moving as well. Kaian felt like he was breaking ice on his body.

Crack

His left fin was completely under his control. The monster got even closer when it noticed movement.

Crack crack

Kaian's entire body regained the ability to move. Too late. The monster was already touching him.

"Damn..."

Kaian got ready for death, for his body to get chewed on as it got consumed and turned into paste…. Nothing happened. The creature just swam by after touching him, ignoring him. Kaian turned gobsmacked, befuddled and flabbergasted. All that for no reason. Kaian looked at its back as it left, noticing more eyes and mouths. The mouths looked exactly the same as always but Kaian felt like they were laughing at him. His eyes reddened and he nearly started attacking the blob of flesh. He swore that he would get back at it, even if he couldn't kill it. Before that, however, a temporary retreat is in order.

Kaian started rising slowly. He noticed that his fish body lacked a swim bladder. This was both a positive and a negative. As a minus, he'd have a slower time moving upwards and would have to spend energy to stay at a certain level of depth. As a plus, he could withstand higher pressure. That would come in useful. Maybe he'd get to explore the depths of the oceans! That was a dream of Kaian's for a long time, such an interesting place that is mostly unexplored. Kaian hoped that his curiosity wouldn't kill him in the future.

The water rippled and splashed as Kaian in his human form left the lake. A forest unfolded in front of his eyes. The trees towering above him, unmoving. Despite being a forest filled with life, it felt very dead. Kaian sighed and ran his hand through his wet long hair.

Sniff. "...Fuck" Kaian started crying. His willpower had ran out. It wasn't easy to handle being in life and death situations constantly. So Kaian sat down and let his tears flow. He thought about Earth and his late parents. He thought about Nell. He thought about everything and also nothing. He felt lost.

...

Once he finished crying he felt much better. His hands wiped away his tears, his expression returning into his resting face. The time to face the world again has come. Kaian turned around. He saw the big lake. He saw the village. He saw the sky- Wait, a village?! His eyes widened and he couldn't believe his eyes! A village! Humans! If it was the Earth him, he would've already ran towards it. He was better, smarter, more courageous. Well, to a certain degree. He ran towards it, transforming into a snail midway. Then he moved in the direction of the village, as a shelled gastropod .

…

This was much slower than Kaian expected.

…

After a long time, he got to the fence. He could hear people shouting something about god inside the village. Kaian grew surprised, not because of the shouts, but because of the fact that he could understand them. Snails don't have ears. The only thing he should be capable of 'hearing' are vibrations. He didn't even realize when listening to the crazy guy. Though, he was thinking about slightly more important stuff; like not dying.

Kaian decided to ignore it again. No point in thinking about it now. He planned to transform into a human and walk inside with his hands above his head. Nevermind, that was stupid. Instead he would put vexastone into his shoe so it would touch his skin and he could change anytime. Once he decided on this he carried it out.

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[Vexi, human.]

Kaian grabbed the stone and-.

"Oukysaqhiw jeohar lappphrv!"

"What?" Kaian muttered in shock, his mouth opened wide before closing again. Was this really that much of a shock compared to other stuff he'd seen? He couldn't understand the people in his human form. No problem. He always wanted to learn a new language anyway.

Kaian decided to infiltrate a house where children lived so he could learn the language with them... Alright, that sounded kinda weird. He changed into a snail and went to check out his future home. The houses were built close to the lake with the monster. Close enough that he considered stalking people as a fish instead.

Then he remembered the monster's appearance and quickly shut that idea down. All of the houses were made with wood, not much to choose from. Kaian hoped they had some comfortable places at least.

Unfortunately, a problem appeared soon. All the villagers were at the gathering. How should he know where a family lives? Kaian hesitated for a bit and chose a building that was among the bigger ones. If it didn't have children, at least there would be more people - an opportunity.

He slowly crawled inside and headed towards the ceiling, hoping there would be an attic. It would take a while so he had some time to check out the furniture. Most of it was also wooden and the quality was pretty low. Both the wood and the carpentry. The chairs stood crooked and chipped, long use taking its toll on them. The table had a piece of cloth on top, stains aplenty.

All in all, Kaian grasped that there were no carpenters nearby, which was not a good sign. This village was remote. He'd have a hard time getting into a city.

Kaian wasn't that surprised, a random settlement in a jungle? Of course it won't be near a city. And of course something couldn't go instantly well for him. He felt like someone was throwing sticks under his feet, testing him.

Before he could complain a bit more, he arrived into the attic through a hole between the ceiling and the wall. Kaian grumbled about wanting a faster transportation form and changed into a human.

It was dirty... Now that he had a "home", his mild germophobia appeared. Kaian thought back to his home one on Earth. Sure it wasn't exactly huge but it was his. And clean. His mood quickly turned gloomy, he missed the feeling of eating food too. Despite not being hungry he craved a meal. Shaking off his newly acquired depression, he sat down in a lotus position and decided to study vexastone a bit.

He pulled it out of its hiding place and took his first proper look at it. It was as enchanting as the first time he saw it. The colors swirl- haah, that wasn't what he took it out for. He tried saying multiple words to access some hidden function and after a bit of trying, he succeeded. When Kaian said "Amount" it would say how many vexapoints he had. Which was zero… Just like the amount of bitches he had. Sad.

The second command he unlocked was storage. It contained the book that disappeared back in the tomb. He did some testing and realized that he had to pay for putting in more items. And it was beyond his financial capabilities right now. Even the smallest piece of wood he could find in the attic cost 1 vexapoint. And the price rose sharply with size. An item the size of the book would cost him around 100vp. That was ridiculous. He also realized that once he had purchased it, he could put the item inside and back whenever he wanted. And that the book was a freebie. Nice.

Creak

Kaian froze in the middle of his exploring. He put the book into storage and changed into what was slowly becoming his main form. The people finally arrived. One of them sighed and started talking - a man.

"It's such a shame that Berry had to go, she raised me when my parents went. She was a very kind woman."

Another voice replied in a consoling voice - a female.

"Cole, you know how it goes. They're all happy now. He has accepted them into His sunken kingdom."

Cole sighed again, muttered something Kaian didn't register and left the room. Kaian could tell because of an inner door shutting.

Silence.

Nobody said anything after that and Kaian just waited. He heard a few more people entering and upon realizing that there wouldn't be any more talking today, he went to sleep.

…

When he woke up the sun was already high in the sky and though the village wasn't exactly bustling, there were a lot of people moving and children playing. Kaian crawled outside and started listening to conversations. He realized he made a mistake yesterday. He should've changed into a human and tried to understand that way as he was snail-locked during the day. At least it wasn't completely for naught. The more he heard like this, the easier would understanding the same as a human be.

The children didn't have any idea that a snail might be listening and so he got to know quite a lot. For example the world was called Kecralon and little Wod over there wanted to be the strongest in it.

Kaian got to know quite a lot. Quite a lot of useless information that is. Children weren't the best subject to listen to in order to gain information.

One thing he did get to know was that they had a poor naming sense. Cole, Wod and Berry. Really? His name was much better.

…

And so more time passed, days, weeks and even a month. Kaian used the time to move into a house with children but once he realized that they weren't getting taught reading, he left. His progress in learning the language skyrocketed and with the help of his snail form, he managed to master all but profession-related words. He'd get by in a village flawlessly; a city was something different altogether.

He had also grown to like the people inhabiting his new home. They were simple and he enjoyed it. The only thing that was blocking peaceful inhabitation were their religious practices. He never got to attend a gathering - he was too slow and they wouldn't ignore a snail chilling on their religious site. The lake was blocked for obvious reasons. Though he started suspecting their religion might be related to the monster with the talk about sunken kingdoms and all.

Kaian also noticed some merchants that arrived during the middle of his stay. They left after selling and collecting some herbs. Kaian noted the direction they went in for later.

What wouldn't wait for later was Kaian's thirst for human contact. His sanity slowly deteriorated as he watched people converse with him being stuck watching, he felt like a stalker, like a subhuman. He had enough! Kaian crawled into the forest, took his human form and walked out, his hand on vexastone.

Once the people noticed him, they backed off and put their hands in front of their children who watched him curiously - a stark contrast to the wary gazes of the adults. One odd thing Kaian also noticed was the lack of old people.

This wasn't the time to think about that, however. And so Kaian spoke to the people, his words overflowing with charisma. Invigorating all people on Kecralon, inciting even the gods to listen and learn. The emperors kneeled before his powerful words, the strongest people bowed, the biggest beasts got forced into submission. For what he said was LEGENDARY!

"Um, hello."