“Oh, come on,” Toby yelled right before his face hit the water.
With the force of Elaria’s throw, Toby shot toward the eel like a rocket. Shiiiiiiiiiit. And just like a rocket, Toby tilted his body forward to let his shell hit the eel right in the eye and knocked the monster at least ten feet away. The eel let out a soundless roar that made Toby feel a tingling sensation on his skin before it looked at him.
It was at least sixteen feet long and had a drab gray color. Its elongated shape hid how big its body was - as thick as a grown man’s thigh. The small horn protruded from the middle of its forehead cracked with electricity as it looked at Toby with its bleeding eye. Its mouth still opened from the roar, exposing eight sharp fangs – four on the top jaw, four on the lower jaw. From its nose, two long whiskers, like that of a cat, swayed along the current. But on a closer look, the end of the needle-like whiskers also cracked with electricity.
Toby was certain he didn’t want to be anywhere near this eel.
“Fight with everything you got. If you don’t, you will die.” Elaria’s clear voice reached Toby’s ear as if he wasn’t under the sea while she was on land.
Dammit. Toby thought right when the eel lunged at him with a wave of its body.
The eel tried to bite him, but Toby grabbed its jaws with his flippers to stop it from clamming down on him. His flippers shook as he felt the mouth was closing on him. He wasn’t strong enough to stop it.
Toby quickly used [Magic Hand] to create two hands out of Mana then fried the eel's mouth open.
Just when he thought he had done it, his muscles spasmed as he felt something had stabbed his shell. He slowly looked back only to find the eel’s whiskers – filled with electricity – were wrapping around him. Without his omniscient view, fighting alone was a lot harder than he thought.
Toby gathered Mana in front of him, then used [Push] and [Mana Hand] to create some distance from the monster. With a quick burst of force, Toby was able to push himself away from the eel. But it wasn’t a long distance, as he stopped at the full length of the eel’s whisper. But it was enough for him to get about six feet away from the eel’s jaw.
His muscles were still spasming from the electricity. He had to think of some way to cut these whiskers if he wanted to get out of this monster's grasp. The inventory. He thought.
Just then, he sensed the eel was gathering Mana around the small horn on its head. Toby had some inky about what that would do, and it was bad news.
He summoned a broken blade from the inventory and used one of the [Magic Hand] to grab the blade while he used the other to grab the whiskers.
Let go of me, you fuck. Toby cursed as he slashed at the whiskers. The blade cut deep into the first whisker but wasn’t enough to completely cut it. The eel roared soundlessly again as the electricity sent through its whiskers intensified.
Toby’s body started to feel numb despite the quick but constant waves of sharp pain ran through his body. Shit shit shit, quick, cut quickly, was the only thing he could think of.
He used the broken blade and slashed at the whiskers again and again until one of them was cut off. Purple blood oozed out from the cut and dissolved into the water as the eel started to flail around. It looked at Toby with murder in its eyes as the horn shone brighter by the seconds.
It aimed the horn at Toby and shot out a ray of electricity as big as a lightsaber.
Toby guessed correctly, and he was prepared for it. Despite not being able to move much, he could still summon things from his Inventory. With a thought, a dull steel shield appeared behind him. He used [Push] to throw the shield toward his [Magic Hand] then used the shield to block the attack.
The shield was able to stop the laser for a brief moment before it broke into pieces. But it was long enough for Toby to use [Float] and dodge out of the way.
Once he was out of immediate danger, he grabbed the broken blade and started hacking at the other whisker. The eel tried to bite him again, but every time it got closer, Toby pushed himself away. The eel swung its body and hit Toby, hard. Since he couldn’t use his flipper to block, he had to create multiple [Floating Water Platforms] and use them as walls to minimize the impact. It might have worked, it might not have, since he felt like he was hit by a minivan instead of a tail.
Toby clammed his mouth down and endured the throbbing pain exploding from his chest through his body and kept on hacking at the whisker. Finally, he was able to cut the second whisker and free himself.
The monster flailed around even more with both of its whiskers bleeding. Toby took advantage of this and summoned another blade. When he was about to charge forward and end the fight, he sensed something was approaching him from the left. He turned and looked, but it was too dark to see anything.
He distanced himself from the eel and turned his body toward the new threat.
Once the thing got closer, Toby sensed that it wasn’t just a single something. It was a group of something. More specifically, a group of piranha-like fish, but each one of them had two small, wiggling arms. Each arm had three fingers with sharp, hooked claws. One of them was only one-third Toby’s size, but there were at least thirty of them.
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Toby immediately used [Insight] on them and prepared to fight.
[Rendjaw – Rank 1 – Level 2]
[Alliance: Monster – Suggestion: Use thick armor]
Each one of them was weak, but killing them would reward Toby with nothing since they were Rank 1. Toby needed to kill at least Rank 2 monster to gain Exp.
Then that leaves me with only one choice. Toby thought as he snapped his head toward the eel.
He used [Push] and launched himself toward the eel as he initially planned. Dragging the two broken blades behind him, Toby used the momentum to stab one into the eel’s throat. He grabbed one of the whiskers with his flipper and grabbed the eel’s head with [Magic Hand].
Goodbye, he thought as he stabbed the other blade into the eel’s eyes. As the monster continued to struggle, he controlled [Magic Hand] to tighten its grip while using [Push] to shove the blade deeper and deeper into the eel’s head.
He looked at the incoming piranha school and breathed out a sigh of relief once he heard the System’s voice.
[You killed a Rank 2 – Lighting Eel for the first time]
[Reward: 20 Exp. Exp 0 -> 20]
[Reward: 30 Life Exp. Life Exp 10 -> 40]
Toby quickly let go of the whisker and swum away. Once he got far enough, he turned back. Only to see the bloody scene of the piranha school ripped and tore the eel’s body piece by piece. The eel’s purple blood spread out like a smoke cloud until the only thing he could see was wiggling shadows along with muffled sounds.
He closed his eyes, then opened them again to take in the consequences of his actions. Along with the outcome if he was the loser in the fight. This wasn’t Earth. Here, power was tangible. If he ever lost, he would die. Being eaten like that eel he just killed was the outcome. He needed power.
With such thoughts, Toby returned to the flat rock Elaria was on and flopped on the ground.
“You did well for your first time fighting underwater.” She said as she sat next to him.
“…How do you do it, master Elaria? How do you get used to killing?”
“I simply killed until I was used to it.”
“…That so.”
Elaria looked at the sky that was brightening by the seconds and sighed. “This is the kind of world we were born in, Toby. If we don’t kill our enemies, they will kill us. If we don’t fight, we will be shackled. If we aren’t powerful, we will be trampled. The only way to protect ourselves and what we hold dear is to fight.”
Toby looked at the horizon. The sun still hadn’t risen yet, but its light had already reached the heaven. A new day had begun.
“Thank you, master Elaria. For everything.” Toby said honestly.
The elf seemed to be bashful for the first time as she scratched her head before letting out some fake coughs. “Anyway, remember to tell Lukas that our training location will change to here starting tomorrow. And let’s go back. I still need to announce which parties were selected for the mission.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
-----
“That will be the two parties to take part in this mission. Dismiss.” Elaria announced.
The news surprisingly didn’t gain that much reaction from the Adventurers.
Lukas’s party was selected just as Elaria said. Toby, Lily, Grillion, and Tootha were in Lukas’s party and will begin their training for the mission starting tomorrow. Elaria will be the mentor for them. While the other was a pain in the ass.
“Hah, I told you she wouldn’t be able to do that.”
Voss’s obnoxious voice was as similar to a pig's squeal as ever when he boasted about how Elaria and the entire Adventurer Guild couldn’t do anything to him.
Toby didn’t give a shit about the dumbass, but there were two things that caught his attention.
First, that Hero of Lighting will be the mentor for Voss’s team as Elaria said. The guy didn’t show anything and still had that admirable atmosphere around him. But with how he dropped Lukas to test Toby and how much Elaria warned him, Toby must be on high alert against anything that knight might throw at them. Using the other team to sabotage them.
Second, much to Tobby’s surprise, that team had three more people who could tolerate being there. An archer, a shield wielder, but the one who caught Toby’s eyes the most was the rabbit girl Mage who hit Tootha with her staff.
It seems like working with them will be a pain in the ass. Toby thought.
Elaria approached Lukas’s team and looked at Lily. After that, her gaze shifted to Toby as if she were in deep thought. But it was only for a moment. She quickly welcomed Lily.
“Welcome to Eldium’s Adventurer Guild, little lady. I’m Elaria D’vanna.”
“Greetings, madam D’vanna. It’s a pleasure to meet you too.” Lily bowed slightly as she raised the hem of her robe.
“The rest of you already know me, so I’ll cut to the chase. From tomorrow, we will start your training as a team to infiltrate the vampire’s hideout. I’ll explain the details and talk about your objective tomorrow before we start our first training day. You can take today off to prepare because, from tomorrow, all of you will be so tired you won’t even be able to breathe. Any questions?”
“Madam, how will we breathe and fight underwater if the Bubble Breather Skill can be disabled easily by the vampire?”
“I’ll explain that tomorrow. Anything else?”
“Can we keep any treasure we found down there? The ladies would love them.”
“If you found anything worth taking at all, you can keep them.”
“Can we beat up the baddies as much as we can, master? I can’t wait to show them the result of my training. Those wicked evildoers will know the fear of facing justice.”
“Sure, if you think you can beat them all up. Go for it. Also, don’t obviously try to hide that you are disappointed that I’m the one teaching you instead of Hero of Lighting.”
At her words, Lukas smiled sheepishly and scratched his head.
“Anything else?” Elaria looked at the five. “Nothing? Good. I’ll see you tomorrow before dawn.”
“Before dawn?” Tootha exclaimed. “But I’ll miss my beauty sle…” He stopped when Elaria glared at him. “Nothing ma’am, I’ll be there before dawn.”
After the elf went away, Tootha sighed. “Why do people glare at this poor, humble me so much.”
“Maybe it’s because of the hair. Have you tried shaving your head bald?” Toby joked.
“Ah, my friend, your word hurt me so. How can I shave this majestic hair of mine? Just look at how my hair shines in the sun. The ladies love to ask how I keep my hair in such perfect condition.” Tootha flicked his hair constantly.
“Little Toby,” Grillion called out.
“Yes, Gramp?”
“You feel it too, right?” He asked solemnly. “Suddenly doing something that no one even attempts anymore in decades like this. A storm is coming.”
“A storm is coming?” Toby smiled. “I am the storm, Gramp.”