Pioneer of the Abyss - Book 3 - Chapter 7 (Patreon)

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Table of Contents

Click the following link for the 1387 word chapter 7:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bRFqbb-B7bHIINhHrfKBgKChuz2R1X3sbqAwGy0qp5M/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

Aqua

 I start my trip just by exploring a little bit and not directly rushing to the first job. Because I really want to see just how different this ocean is from the previous ocean world.

Of course, ocean is ocean no matter what world I’m on. So there isn’t an incredible amount of difference even as I explore.

That doesn’t change the fact that it’s nice to swim around the ocean, though.

The viewers watching me seem to be enjoying it as well. They all say something about how relaxing it is to just watch me swim through the ocean, with the sounds of the ocean filling the livestream.

And it’s not just the livestream chat that makes that clear to me. It’s the donations that are flooding in like crazy.

I’ve earned more money in just the past few hours of swimming through the ocean, occasionally killing a monster or two, than most people get in their lifetimes.

It’s ridiculous.

Not even most people in their lifetimes, I’m getting more in the past few hours than most lower ranked planets earn in a year.

And I’m not even doing anything other than casually swimming through an ocean.

I’m honestly not sure what exactly these people enjoy about watching me swim, but I don’t really care. Because I agree that it is at least very relaxing to just swim around the ocean at my own leisure.

There’s no time limit. No race. No nothing.

I’m completely free to go at my own pace.

Of course, the leaderboards for the galaxy I was initialized in still exists. So there is still something motivating me to level quickly. Simply to get the stat boost from being first on the leaderboards.

But even there, I have a pretty good lead on the others. So there isn’t an enormous rush.

With that in mind, I continue leisurely swimming for a while before finally making my way towards one of the jobs I picked up. A job to kill an enormous monster nesting inside of one of the strange floating deposits.

These strange floating deposits are random objects floating in the ocean that no one knows the origin of. At best, a lot of people guess they are parts of broken dungeons. But no one knows for sure.

And the strange floating deposit that my first job is at looks very bizarre even from far away.

It’s in the form of an enormous blob filled with holes of all shapes and sizes. With the blob itself being larger than the city I arrived at.

Which is certainly saying something…

What’s even stranger about the strange floating deposit is the fact that there seems to be something wriggling around inside of it. And when I get closer to take a look, I find some sort of weird string thing inside.

The monster living inside of this strange floating deposit is apparently some sort of string-like worm. One whose body stretches on for a very long distance and branches off at random points with seemingly no understandable internal system.

The only thing the people were able to figure out about how its insides work is that its heart and brain both freely traverse its body at will. Showing up in the form of a large mass inside of its otherwise string-thin body. Making it rather obvious to find when you spot it.

Of course, the monster’s body is so incredibly long and branches off so much that it’s very difficult to actually find the heart or brain.

No one knows how the thing fights, though. Because everyone who has seen it just flees at the first sign of it. Other than the initial group who studied it from afar.

The thing’s level is just too high.

Its identify result – which shows the thing’s name as an Ilgarivoras – is around level seven hundred and thirty-one, after all. And while there are plenty of vanguards that can easily be called to deal with a monster of that level, there are few that can be called to deal with one underwater at that level.

Thanks to that, there are plenty of monsters of this level and higher down here living in these strange floating objects that never get dealt with.

And the strange floating objects themselves are for some reason indestructible. So the natives can’t even just destroy them to make it so no other monsters settle in them.

Anyway, I go ahead and summon my army of abyssal servants before having them surround the entire strange floating object. Then I sit back and watch as the abyssal servants begin to move in to test the monster.

Meanwhile the chat goes wild.

[that thing is disgusting as hell]

[grooooossss]

[What even is that thing?]

[How can something like that even live? It’s so thin…]

[Does it not have any organs? Is that thing even alive?]

[Deep ocean monsters are all so strange…]

[Creatures like this actually exist…?]

Yeah, their reaction is perfectly understandable. In fact, it would be weirder if they didn’t react like that.

This thought only grows stronger in my mind as I watch some of the string-like parts of the monster stretching out of the strange floating object. Making it look like a massive blob with strange, squishy, and thin flesh-like strands sticking out of it sweeping through the abyssal servants. Slicing them apart with ease.

And while the stronger abyssal servants amongst them can at least crack the strands – yes, crack, since thin cracks appear on the narrow strands instead of them cutting or anything – the rest of the abyssal servants can’t harm them at all.

I frown at the sight of most of the abyssal servants serving as nothing more than bait and cannon fodder to the monster.

The only one that fights well against the monster is Vir. But Vir still has a large level gap between himself and the monster in terms of level. So his advantage over the monster isn’t very great. And it is likely only over these exterior tentacles.

As for where the heck the monster’s main body is? Assuming it even has a main body…

I have no idea about any of that.

In fact, I don’t have much information about the monster at all beyond its traveling heart and brain and the branching thin strands of flesh that make up what has been seen of it so far.

I can only assume that the thing is stronger the closer to its center it is.

But that’s just an assumption. There’s no telling how its body works.

I continue watching the monster as its strands fight against my abyssal servants, with it eventually clearing out all of the weaker abyssal servants. And when it clears out my stronger abyssal servants too, I just resummon those without summoning the weaker ones.

Then I proceed to watch the strands fighting against the abyssal servants for several minutes. All the way until I finally move forward to step in and fight personally. Simply because the monster isn’t leaving the strange floating object. It’s just hiding in there fighting with the strands.

And the strands are constantly being replaced by new strands that come out of the holes in the strange floating object. Making this assault by my abyssal servants seem rather pointless. Since they just never end.

When I get close to the thing, all of the strands suddenly tense up for a moment. Then they begin rushing straight at me. Almost as if they’re sensing some sort of predator that threatens them.

Which is probably exactly what’s happening. The monster noticed me and is attacking me since it sees me as a threat.

I counter every last strand that gets near me with my harpoon, slicing them all to ribbons. Tiny little string-sized ribbons at that.

But they just keep on coming. Endlessly.

And I can’t catch sight of the monster’s heart or brain no matter how long this stretches on.

I guess if I want to end this, I have to enter the strange floating object to find it.

With that thought in mind, I quickly rush towards the strange floating object while slicing apart more of the strands. Pushing inside the darkness of the object to find the way to kill this thing.