Chapter 241: Fishing? (Patreon)

From the floating platform connected to the ornate door that had appeared when the crystal leviathan showed up—the door I assumed led to the divine dragon’s treasury—I looked down. The giant structure of Fold was already below me. Like every other ship that required fuel to move, Fold had its own needs, and right now the Kovraths were seeing to them: getting the required fuel, which just happened to be monster cores.

The crystal leviathan we had hunted had a really powerful core. This creature was at the peak of the Gold core stage, after all. Like I said, it wasn’t quite at Ceil’s level, but it wasn’t something to be taken lightly. Even its bodily materials were far too precious to waste, so an entire team was working to get as much out of it as possible. All its organs and everything in between would be harvested and possibly turned into something useful.

Still, it was exhilarating that I had gone toe to toe with such a being. Granted, I had the support of an entire army, but still—I had managed to more or less let out all my frustrations on that thing.

The quantum gremlins—those small caricatures of me—had dispersed the moment the leviathan died. It seemed there was no target left to terrorize, so they just disappeared. Their antics hadn’t done any significant damage to the leviathan, but I could see why they had still managed to cripple that behemoth: they forced it to the ground and drove it into a blind, thrashing hysteria. If I had to compare it to something, it would be having really nasty, intangible mosquitoes on you. They won’t kill you, and you won’t kill them, but one is capable of driving the other to the brink of insanity— and it isn't you. They were utterly terrifying.

It also made me realize a possible use for that ignored ability. I doubted I’d be able to create another situation where my opponent could both soak damage and resist the effects of magic attacks, so I wouldn’t be able to summon a swarm like that. But if I could create or find a loose, large area spell that inflicted a debuff yet lacked potency— so that even minor resistance would make it fail— then maybe I could satisfy the trigger condition. It was just too far-fetched, though. With my current knowledge, I didn’t think I’d be able to create such a spell. After all, I had tried brute-forcing spells with whatever runes I had access to, and I had never quite found a good enough breakthrough. Whatever I created on my own was also clumsy and prone to instability. It had never been an issue for me, but who didn’t crave some kind of stability in their spells?

I had a lot of work to do.

I looked back at the giant door and its gigantic skull-shaped keyhole. I guess this was it: the end of this very long and frankly shittiest journey I’d had. I was just waiting for everyone else to finish with the leviathan’s corpse and get back into the Fold before I opened it. Nobody knew what would happen— except Ceil, probably.

Soon enough, the time came. I was done waiting— and done procrastinating. The crystal leviathan’s skull was carried onto the platform by Curious and Terrorist, with Lazy pretending to hold it up from behind, and placed there.

A prismatic barrier had enveloped the Fold. I had already filled its core to the brim with my divinity a few days prior; that should last us… I didn’t know how many days in the spirit world. The density of spirit matter varied from area to area— some regions would degrade the barrier faster, others slower— and since we didn’t know what density we would face, there was no way to tell for certain.

But I wasn’t too worried. I had an entire stock of Ceil’s physical body from which to recover my divinity. That was her, uh, “gift” to me. She was a creature fundamentally bound to this space— or at least her physical chassis was. From the way the divine dragon had designed it, once it was completed, even she would cease to exist along with it.

I’d been aware of that for a while, but it only applied to her physical body. Her soul now resided in my dreamscape. It was similar to Sybil’s situation, but since Ceil wasn’t a creature of water affinity, Lotte couldn’t turn her into one of those dolls either. So, she would stay in my dreamscape indefinitely, becoming a disembodied ghost within my skull. Not that she gave a damn. As a self-proclaimed Deductor, physical matter for someone like her was an… inconvenience; those were her own words. As long as her "cues" were anchored across the waking world, she could read and steer the tides of fate just as easily.

While I was a little sad at the prospect, Ceil wasn’t. If anything, she seemed thrilled to stay in my dreamscape— now even the thought of having a physical body appalled her. She had been growing a bit more frantic about it lately, and I was starting to get a little concerned.

I shook the thought away and signalled my clones. It was finally time. We lifted the massive skull toward the enormous keyhole and fit it snugly inside. Nothing happened for a few moments before the entire realm shook with intense force. The massive skull slowly dissolved into the gate in a pale blue glow, and azure cracks crawled up over its surface. I had to back off for a bit— and thank Thalador I did— because a few seconds later the gate blew inwards with a massive kinetic force.

I could only stare at it with a deadpan expression. But once I looked inside as the dust settled, my deadpan expression slowly turned to excitement. After all, this was what I was here for.

I immediately went through the opening with my clones following. But just as I stepped in, a system screen suddenly popped up in my vision.

15:00

I frowned at it.

14:59

I frowned some more as the number went down.

Wait—don’t tell me…

I immediately flew outside and saw that the edges of this realm were slowly disintegrating in a blue light. If the timer was anything to go by, it seemed to signify the time before the entire treasure room would be assimilated by the spirit plane.

Fuck!

Why in Thalador’s name had I assumed my past self would leave an air-conditioned waiting room for her own reincarnation? That dragon was an absolute lunatic.

Well, so much for an open vault piled high with gilded chests. I immediately dived back in, taking in the vast chamber I was in. The gate had opened in the middle of this chamber, and all around I could see vast stretches of water glowing with a neon light around the central area.

And right in front of us was a swirling portal— one that would probably lead me, the winner of this trial, back home. I had a few kovraths outside waiting for me to open this room so they could help me haul back whatever treasure I found inside. But right now, it seemed a thin barrier was stopping them from entering at all.

I quickly ordered them to retreat to the safety of the Fold and started looking around the vast bioluminescent lake in front of me. I had indeed expected just a vast treasure room at first, but it seemed reality had once again delivered a swift, contemptuous kick to my metaphorical balls for even thinking something could be that simple. Ceil had confirmed it was indeed the treasure room, but she hadn’t told me what to expect. SO WHAT ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO THINK?!

The timer was counting down. I had just 15 minutes to figure out what this chamber was and take whatever I wanted before time ran out.

Fuck.

Well.

Guess it was time to get to work.

My clones and I immediately rushed to the shoreline and looked down. Soon we understood the structure of this so-called treasure room. Beneath the crystal-clear surface, we could see a myriad of fish-like creatures. I say fish-like because it was clear they were some kind of aquatic monsters— from leviathan minnows to sleek draconic eels to small serpentine wyrms to hauntingly beautiful phantom jellyfish that were blitzing around the water.

I wished I had time to savour the ethereal beauty of this entire structure, but I didn't. The main thing to notice was the bellies of the fish. They were entirely translucent, and each fish had a glowing ball inside.

Most of them were blue, but almost ten percent radiated a royal purple. Not only that—every few seconds a streak of golden colour tore through the depths, only to vanish the next instant.

I guessed that was our… treasure? These glowing balls. If so, it was indeed rather straightforward.

A grin appeared on my face as I spread my purple quantum mana outwards. The simplest method to collect as much treasure as possible right now was to cast a vast web of telekinesis and haul up as many fish as possible. And yet… just as my mana touched the water, it dissipated as if there was nothing beyond the surface. I frowned. Even Curious seemed surprised. But seeing my attempt fail, a massive Lightning Bolt matrix immediately appeared above her, charged with divinity, and she hurled the lance straight down.

Just like the telekinesis mana, it didn't stand a chance and immediately dissipated upon contact with the surface.

Oh, you absolute divine whore.

I swore on Thalador that if I ever unearthed the original Divine Dragon’s tomb, I would grow organs for the sole purpose of taking a monumental, rancid shit across her grave.

“Well, Main Body, it appears the water has some really nasty anti-magic properties. No matter what I do or what vector I prod it with, nothing works,” she said through the observer's mark, since talking was rather inefficient time-wise.

I could only sigh in defeat and look at the timer. 14:28. Over half a minute had passed, and we hadn't even gotten started.

“Please don't tell me we have to catch these bastards with our damn bare claws if I want this divine whore's treasure?”

“Well, I'd say yes, but one thing I've noticed is that our biology is somewhat incompatible with water.” She looked down, her eyes especially drawn toward the almost blurringly fast-moving golden-core fish. “But that's not to say we don't have an option.”

She was right. While my body was a monster's— with nasty claws, tentacles, teeth, and powerful limbs— my hydrodynamic grace was similar to that of a falling boulder. It was especially not enough to catch even the purple fish, much less the elusive golden ones. The structure of the challenge was now clear: within the time limit, we had to get as many fish as possible.

We could easily save time by grabbing as many blue fish as possible and hoping they turned out to be good, or be a little greedier and chase the faster purple ones for higher-quality treasures— or even the elusive golden ones.

But that wasn't all.

“Could you feel that?” I asked my clones. They sort of share all my senses, and they had cores just like mine, so I was wondering if they could feel it too.

Curious nodded. “If by that you mean the quantum mana in our cores reacting to something in the lower trench, then yes, I can confirm I feel the same.”

Even Terrorist and Lazy nodded at that.

I had learned a bit about ascension treasures. Once you reach the top of your core level, your core becomes attracted to compatible anchors in the physical world if one happens to be nearby. And I was feeling that very same pull right now. I knew there was something compatible down there— it had to be one of those golden-core fish.

“Well, here's the plan. Curious, I think the best position for you is to patrol the waters from above. Look around and see if you can catch a glimpse of those golden-cored fish, and try to figure out what direction that pull is coming from. Terrorist, come with me—we'll work together to haul up as many of these fish as possible. And Lazy,” I stared directly into her eyes, “for all we know, this might be your last mission ever. So, you better plant your ass on the shore, catch whatever we fling out of the water with telekinesis, and fillet the bellies. Extract the cores into the spatial sacks as fast as your lazy claws can move.”

I once again expected that same half-hearted compliance from her, but this time an unholy fire ignited in her eyes as she nodded rather enthusiastically— so much that I had to double-check Terrorist’s position just to confirm I hadn't swapped the two by accident.

I couldn't help but smile internally as I looked at the time.

13:35

It was time to start. I immediately jumped into the water, and just as I expected, as soon as I got in, I felt every sort of magic sense turn off. Even spatial sense was absent, since even that required mana. I tried to use divinity again, but even that was shut down. Anything that had to do with external mana manipulation was shut off. However, the water held no dominion over my internal biology. I could still feel divinity settling in my throat and my mana rushing through my veins.

My body began morphing immediately. My bones elongated, my wings folded and transformed into graceful fins, and my scaly torso soon stretched into a long, sleek coil.

I had turned into an eel, the same kind I'd used to hunt down the Ice Leviathan after obtaining its quantum imprint. After all, even the Black Sea was technically an ocean. And as I settled into my new form, I could feel that this underground lake wasn't all that different.

My tail flattened into a massive, muscular scythe, while tentacles sprouted from my back. My mouth yawned open, revealing concentric rows of nasty teeth, as my new eel senses stretched outwards.

I was no longer an ungraceful boulder. I was a marine apex predator.

My eyes locked onto the group of purple cruisers on the neon reef below, and I grinned.

13:27

It was time to go fishing.