‘Damn, if only I had enough mana to recreate my past skills,’
Zyrus cursed as he swam for his life. He felt that it was pathetic that he, a renowned dimensional mage, was weak in movement techniques.
Teleportation, dimensional clones, great shift… he knew pretty much all of the space-related abilities. There was nowhere he couldn’t go with his mastery over dimension. The problem was that he didn’t have enough mana or the level of existence to use those skills.
‘Whatever, it’s not like I didn’t improve my current abilities,’
Zyrus changed his direction again and fled downward. For once he was glad that this was underwater. There was much more room for movement in the abyssal zone than on the ground.
He used vortex manipulation once again, but the skill was different this time. The pressure here was close to a 1000 atmosphere. It gave him the perfect condition to try out one of the variations he had created.
*Sizzle*
An invisible beam of vortex passed through where his finger pointed at. And the effects were much better than he had anticipated.
*Kreeeee*
*Skre-*
-1500,-1500,-1500,....
Exp +1000
Exp +1000
Nothing except clean sets of bones were left behind the beam’s trajectory. Zyrus had increased the kinetic energy of the molecules within a vortex by consuming 50 MP.
If it were aboveground, then it could at most create a blast of hot air. But at this was a place filled with water at high pressure.
‘Huh, looks like I need to experiment more,’
Zyrus swam away once again while using various versions of the skill. At the core, the skill relied on generating high-temperature steam. The boiling point of water was reduced due to the increased pressure, and it allowed such a phenomenon to occur.
Of course, it was only possible with mana. Ideas that might seem nonsensical could be put into good use by using mana.
Just like that, he leveled up once again after running for two hours. Things were going better than he predicted. A lot of monsters were attracted by this commotion, but thankfully, the frilled sharks didn’t have the concept of comradery.
They killed everything on their way which wasn’t of their kind. And if that enemy was stronger? Swarm them or run away. Their simple reasoning was quite effective in a place like this.
*Booom*
Zyrus once again used the skill, but this time the target was himself. He created a vortex behind him with the principle of hydrokinetic propulsion to push him forward.
Not only didn’t it push him forward, the jet stream created in the aftermath scattered his pursuers as well.
Now that he didn’t have to worry about the pesky sharks anymore, he once again focused on finding the clues. But there was nothing related to this incident that connected it with the deepest layer of the ocean.
‘They’ve done nothing except pursue me all the way…wait, pursue?’
A spark of insight lit up in his head. The frilled sharks weren’t stupid enough to barge into anywhere in the abyssal zone. There must be some boss-level monsters that could annihilate them in the abyssal zone.
He didn’t know where these creatures were at, but maybe the way down was related to them? Anyway, he’d find the answer as soon as the sharks ended their pursuit.
‘Dealing with that creature would be a challenge as well, but I’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it,’
Zyrus didn’t know at this time that his guess had hit the mark, and that he was charging straight towards that bridge.
…
The chase went for hours with neither side showing any sign of exhaustion.
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Zyrus was getting deeper and deeper into the ocean. Now, even his connection with the flag was becoming unstable.
‘What the?’
[Eye of Annihilation]
Zyrus swept his eyes across the area to see who was sending him the telepathic message, but there was no one in sight.
Even the telepathic voice vanished as if he was hallucinating in the first place.
‘No rather than vanishing, it looked like it was cut off,’
He became alert and concentrated all of his mana. The chasing sharks were the last of his concerns right now.
If he was correct, then there were two creatures who had sensed him just now. One that was sending him the message and the other that cut it off.
‘The best-case scenario is that one of them would be related to the mission,’
But even then, he’d have to face the remaining one.
*Skreeeee*
“FUCK OFF.”
Zyrus roared and created a gigantic vortex around him. The situation would become messy if a hostile third party was present when he encountered the danger.
And since he was already noticed by others, what was the point in concealing himself?
[Avatar]
His furious eyes swept over hundreds of sharks that were chasing him to no end. The projection of the Azure dragon formed behind him, and it too glared at the insolent creatures.
“You have served your purpose,”
Zyrus waved his hand and in that instant, half of his energy was consumed.
[Shackles of Nihility]
Hundreds of chains bound the sharks in his vicinity. He didn’t intend to run this time; nor did he want to attack them. The reason he used so much energy into using his authority was simple- he wanted them to suffer under the curse of nothingness.
He wanted the approaching enemy to see them suffer.
Yes, by this time, he could already see the enemy that was heading in his direction. He was sure that the other party came with bad intentions after a single glance.
*ROOOOAR*
“You’re mad huh. Looks like you have nothing to do with the mission then,”
Zyrus snickered at the approaching monster. It was a gigantic shark which was bigger than three of his galleons combined.
[You have encountered the Roaming Boss monster: Reken]
[Caution! The boss monster is showing hostility towards you]
Unlike the field bosses who spawn at the fixed location, the roaming bosses were encountered at random. They were synonyms of disaster.
However, Zyrus was unfazed in the face of such an opponent.
Everything made sense at this moment. The reason why there was shadow iron lying around on his path, the chase of the frilled sharks, and the telepathic voice he had just heard.
The Reken’s maw was getting bigger and bigger in his vision. It was a fearsome creature with reddish-black scales and yellow eyes. Its glowing jagged teeth were like a lighthouse in this abyssal zone.
“Say, did you lose some of the materials needed for your evolution? Did it look like this?”
*ROOAR*
“Ooops! Too bad. It’s mine now,”
Zyrus taunted it further as if he were the stronger party. Reken was a lv 45 roaming monster who was much stronger than the Nidhogg king.
There was no way he could deal with it with his present strength.
‘But so what? This is sanctuary,’
The rules that restricted the players also protected them against the monsters. It was one thing if he courted death by intruding a monster’s lair, but no roaming monster could kill him when he was doing a mission.
Zyrus could feel the foul breath of the monster as it charged ahead to engulf him whole. But still, he just remained in his position with a calm smile.
Just as he needed help from Nidraxis and the others, they also wanted something from him. It was an equal exchange as far as he was concerned.
He didn’t mind facing any challenges as long as it made him stronger, but at the same time, he also wanted to remind them about who he was.
His entire vision was covered by a disgusting red mouth. He was no bigger than Reken’s teeth which were about to close down behind him.
“And you’re being dramatic,”
*ROOOOOAR*
Zyrus was bathed in fountains of blood as soon as the message ended. He didn’t know how Reken was attacked before it was flung away like a ragdoll.
He wiped the sticky blood that stuck to his horns and looked at the one who had saved him. From the throbbing sensation of his mana, he could tell what it was.
“I didn’t expect one of your kind to be here,”
“Hmph! That spirit bastard trapped me in this shithole,”
Zyrus looked at the enormous centipede who was going on about how it was humiliating to eat the leftover fish carcasses. It was by far the biggest creature he had seen after regression.
‘And he's stronger than any monster or alien I've met in this life,’
He would’ve called any other 1000-foot-long centipede disgusting, but not the one in front of him. Be it its purple metallic scales or the thousands of eyes that were blinking on its legs, everything exuded a strange power.
It was eerie yet majestic, a creature that gave off a corrupted yet noble aura.
“…And I’m going to wipe out their whole kingdom. Hey, are you listening?”
“Yes, yes,”
Prideful, Strage to the point of being freaks of nature, and most importantly, Powerful. These were the traits that defined the abyssal creatures.
The blabbering centipede in front of him was one such example.
“Haa…anyway, I’ll follow you from now on. I was supposed to test you and save you at a critical moment, but whatever. Let’s just go to the trenches and leave this gloomy place,”
“Just what I was thinking,”
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