Zyrus activated his eyes of annihilation to detect any hidden enemies. His red eyes passed by dozens of hydrothermal vents without finding a soul in sight.
There should be some harmless lifeforms living near the vents due to the area being full of nutrition. But such wasn’t the case here.
‘Well, this makes things easier,’
Only one option was left after eliminating everything else: The guardians were inside the hydrothermal vents.
He preferred this outcome because it was difficult to mine the metals. Whoever guarded this place must be using the minerals as their food as well. Thus, he just had to kill them and store their carcasses.
Butchering them was easier than mining near the vents. Zyrus didn’t want to make too big of a commotion to finish the job. He released his abyssal mana at a steady rate while he observed the different vents.
Taking advantage of the environment was a common tactic, and his abyssal mana and vortex manipulation were perfect for the task.
The hydrothermal vents were concentrated with mana and thermal energy to begin with. There was an equilibrium between the dispersion and release of the various energies. He didn’t have to fight the guardian directly; all he had to do was break the balance to disrupt the vents from the inside out.
Zyrus used half of his MP and created a vortex right above the nearest hydrothermal vent. It was a simple task as there was already a chaotic region shaped like a reverse cone on top of it.
‘Surge,’
He concentrated his mana and churned the energy that was in equilibrium. It didn’t take long for the cones to transform into drills.
*Ribbbit*
‘That’s a surprise,’
Zyrus snuck a glance at the guardian. Without exposing himself from behind the coral, he observed the frog-like creature that was crawling out from the vent. It was silver blue in color with large rubylike eyes.
And since it looked like a hybrid of a fish and a frog, he could more or less guess its abilities. Jumping and tongue attacks were a given, and its outer appearance showed that it had strong defense as well.
He wasn’t in a hurry this time around. He decided to use a tactic that would do the job while creating the least amount of disturbance.
‘It should be around lv 35…an hour should be enough,’
Zyrus wasn’t too worried since it was at most at the level of an elite monster. Even the cannon fodder Nidhoggs were stronger than it.
Of course, this didn’t mean that fighting it would be easy. Environment was an important factor in any fight. Despite being weaker the frog-fish had more combat power than the Nidhoggs.
However, it was easy to turn the environment against it. Zyrus used the simplest yet the most effective method used by those who had the power of abyss, Corruption.
Invisible threads of abyssal mana were tangling with the hydrothermal vent. This wasn’t undetected by the creature’s senses, but there was nothing it could do about it. The black threads vanished once they touched the creature’s body, and more and more would replace them.
*Ribbbiiiit*
*Thump*
*Klang*
*Thump*
It felt like an earthquake when the monster jumped around the seabed. It was hard to imagine that a few meters tall creature would have such an impact.
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‘It’s like an armored tank,’
But regardless of its strong defenses, its fate was sealed.
-50,-25,-63,-25,-50,-0,-29…
Black spots appeared on its shiny exoskeleton. The power of abyss could corrode and corrupt everything in existence. Even a dragon would fall if enough abyssal mana was spent, much less a pesky frog.
The reason Zyrus didn’t use this as a main attack was because his current MP wasn’t enough to sustain it. There were more efficient ways of using his mana than to slowly corrupt an enemy.
-50,-86,-21,-126,-14,-0,-224…
Rows and rows of damage values floated above the hopping creature. Zyrus was worried that others of its kind might come to its aid, but his worries were proved needless. It looked like the creatures were solitary and a bit dumb in nature.
-316
Exp +750
‘This’ll be easier than I thought,’
Zyrus snuck closer to the dead creature after seeing that no one was looking over this area.
*Clunk*
His claws failed to penetrate its skin. As he had guessed, its defense was stronger even when compared with some lv 40 creatures.
*Riiip*
Zyrus tore of its neck and frowned at the bloody mess he had created. The smell of blood might attract more creatures, but he didn’t have another way to deal with it.
‘Might as well collect it’s blood,’
*Whoosh*
A tiny vortex formed above the corpse and purified the blood and flesh of the monster. The temperature near the hydrothermal vent was close to 400 degrees, so it was easy to deal with the leftover flesh and organs.
‘My scales are surprisingly resistant to this much heat,’
The heat here was comparable to a low-level fireball spell. But come to think of it, he wouldn’t be injured by an attack like that either.
He placed aside his useless thoughts and placed the bones, skin, and blood essence of the frog into the flag’s storage. At first, he had thought that his tongue and eyes would be useful as well, but that wasn’t the case.
It was apparent that there was nothing special about its eyes from the fact that it failed to discover him. As for its tongue, he figured out that it was used for eating the metal rather than for attacking.
Zyrus didn’t bother with materials like polymetallic sulfide and cobalt granules which were scattered around. Monster’s remains like the one he stored were both stronger and easier to work with.
‘Maybe I’ll level up once as well…’
Thus began the days of his grind and the frog-like creature’s extermination. It took him four days before he killed more than half of them.
More than a hundred of them were killed in the process. It was no longer safe to remain in this region.
Zyrus left the region and swam ahead at full speed. Almost half of his journey was completed without a hitch, but the toughest part would start from now on.
The deepest part of the ocean was similar to the carmine mire of the first ring: Both were forbidden zones where no one had returned alive.
This was a weird place that was only accessible during the second ring. This region would vanish from existence once the second and third ring started their merging process. Zyrus knew about this because as the ruler of the entire continent, he had access to all the knowledge stored in the royal library. That was the fruit of generations of hard work.
There was a prophecy and some battle chronicles about this place as well. He wasn’t too interested in them, because the time for prophecy was long gone by the time he conquered the continent.
But whether he knew about the fragmented history or not wasn’t the main point. The crux of the problem was that just like the carmine mire, it was almost impossible to reach the deepest region of the ocean.
How hard had he worked during the tutorial to finish the mission? That was the whole reason why he decided to change his race in the first place.
There was no way he could just swim into that region without special circumstances. Some may call it luck, but Zyrus was sure that this was under someone’s arrangement.
It was obvious that both Aurora and Nidraxis knew about the cube. He didn't believe for a second that this was just a standalone mission.
‘And that means that I’ll have to find a way in the next zone,’
Even if there were some clues or lucky encounters left for him, how could it be easy to get them?
Zyrus also knew that the journey itself was similar to a test. His class was restricted and he was unable to rely on the players as well. He had to survive in that dreadful zone with such a handicap.
He swam in the endless darkness while thinking about countless plans and countermeasures. The journey was monotonous except for a few times when he fought to get some valuable resources.
Things like hydrothermal vents were rarity. The chance of him encountering a similar place while traveling in a straight line was slim to none.
Time passed like a fistful of sand as he reached closer and closer to the next zone.
Abyssopelagic Zone, also called the Abyssal Zone.
It was a region that was 4000-6000 meters deep. The pressure increased by hundreds of times while the temperature approached the freezing point. Most of all, this was a region where sunlight couldn’t reach.
The only source of light in this region was from the bioluminescence. Hence, the presence of light signified danger.
Zyrus stopped his movements and dived down to the seafloor once again. Even someone like him felt apprehensive of the sight ahead of him.
He could see and perceive mana even in this dark region. Thus, he 'saw' the seafloor disappear a 100 feet ahead of him.
What lay beyond was a cliff that led straight to the abyssal zone.