Pioneer of the Abyss - Book 3 - Chapter 8 (Patreon)

For those of you who are reading this on a website that is not Patreon, please stop. You're reading a pirated version. Instead, if you would be so kind, please click on the table of contents link below and go to my Patreon instead. Or even read it off of Royal Road, which is free.

Discord Invite

Table of Contents

Click the following link for the 1416 word chapter 8:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kN0-5k4thXTzgvJbHtBaoSXNbhzkSwcoe-OWK4YkLFo/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

Aqua

Countless strings of flesh rush to strike at me, but most of them are struck down by Vir, who is hovering around me to guard me. And the few ones that do hit me manage to draw blood, only to be regenerated almost immediately. Even my armor repairs itself immediately thanks to how thin the cuts were in it, leaving me without any signs of being hit.

After a little while of traveling through the strange floating object, I begin to strike at the monster with my own weapon in harpoon form. But no matter how many strands I cut off, the thing just grows more. And I still can’t find the stupid organs even after slicing my way through the strands for half an hour.

So I finally try out a skill I haven’t actually used very often.

[REQUESTING SKILLS: USER AQUA AZURANTH]

[18 SKILLS RETRIEVED]

[MORE THAN THREE SKILLS DETECTED]

[ALL SKILLS CONDENSED]

[Skill 1: Abyssal Kraken’s Embrace]

[Skill 2: Hydrokinetic Wrath]

[Skill 3: Call of the Abyss]

[Skill 4: Abyssal Kraken’s Partial Shift]

[Skill 5: Pressure of the Abyss]

[Skill 6: Abyssal Reversal]

[Skill 7: Maw of the Abyssal Kraken]

[Skill 8: Devourer of the Abyss]

[Skill 9: Converging Maelstrom]

[Skill 10: Abyssal Ruler]

[Skill 11: Light of the Abyss]

[Skill 12: Claw of the Abyssal Kraken]

[Skill 13: Ink of the Abyssal Kraken]

[Skill 14: Abyss]

[Skill 15: Abyssal Transformation]

[Skill 16: Abyssal Plague]

[Skill 17: Aquatic Tide]

[Skill 18: Abyssal Purge]

[Description: Allows the user to temporarily burn their own regeneration in order to purge a target. While a target is being purged, their body will slowly be filled with water, their body’s cells will slowly die off, and all of their healing will be halted.]

[Cost: Abyssal Purge temporarily decreases the user’s REGEN stat when used. The decrease will return to normal ten minutes after the skill is no longer being used. The more REGEN stat points are temporarily burned to use the skill, the greater the skill’s effect will have.]

[Cooldown: Abyssal Purge has no cooldown.]

[END SKILLS]

Abyssal Purge.

The skill is a good one, but not one I’ve used very much. Since its usage tends to be pretty specific.

But the exact usage of it works out very well for this monster.

I smile at the sight of the thin strands of the monster’s body beginning to turn deep blue before adding in hints of black as its flesh dies and is filled with water. With the skill starting from the outside and gradually moving inside of its body.

The reason I don’t use the skill very often is because of this very reason. It starts out from the exterior and only moves inwards by killing off the flesh there. So the thicker the creature’s flesh and blood, the longer it takes.

On top of that, it also has to flood the creature’s body with water, which takes longer depending on the material it is crushing and replacing with the water.

So it would take a lot longer for a crab to be killed by it thanks to its shell than a shark, for example.

This creature, on the other hand…

Its flesh is literally just a string. And the skill affects the target’s entire surface area at once regardless of how large said surface area is.

I put my hands in my pockets as I sit back and watch the flesh strands gradually die off before bursting and shooting out dead flesh and blood into the surrounding waters. Then I get a wave of System Messages.

[You have killed a level 731 Ilgarivoras. EXP has been substantially increased due to the level difference between the user and the monster. EXP has been granted accordingly.]

[You have killed a creature underwater. Apex Predator of the Depths has been activated, increasing your REGEN stat by one.]

[Congratulations! You have now reached level 607! As the current First Ranker of Dartric, your total free points have increased by three and your mana stat has increased by one hundred. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

[Congratulations! You have now reached level 608! As the current First Ranker of Oceana, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by one hundred. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

[Congratulations! You have now reached level 609! As the current First Ranker of Dartric, your total free points have increased by three and your mana stat has increased by one hundred. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

[Congratulations! You have now reached level 610! As the current First Ranker of Oceana, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by one hundred. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

[Congratulations! You have now reached level 611! As the current First Ranker of Dartric, your total free points have increased by three and your mana stat has increased by one hundred. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

…

[Congratulations! You have now reached level 616! As the current First Ranker of Oceana, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by one hundred. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

Hmm. Yeah, that was a lot easier than I was expecting.

The only downside about using the skill is that my regeneration decreases by the amount of power I use for the skill. But at least I don’t actually have to use any mana for the skill.

It temporarily burns REGEN points instead, reducing my REGEN stat by the amount I burn for ten minutes after I burn the stat points in question.

Overall, it’s a useful skill for certain situations. Even if it isn’t the best skill in all situations.

How useful it is depends on the target in question, and this target just happened to fit the conditions for a good target perfectly.

I glance at the chat to find them going wild asking what just happened.

[am I the only one who noticed her mana didn’t decrease when she did whatever she did?]

[Was that even her who killed it, or someone else?]

[She leveled up from it quite a bit, so it has to be her.]

“I used a skill and the thing died,” I answer without explaining further. Which only serves to rile up the chat even more.

[that doesn’t answer anything]

[Why did it suddenly go splat?]

[What’s with the dead flesh? What did you even do?]

[I feel like she’s messing with us on purpose…]

Not that I care. In fact, I find it rather amusing to rile them up.

I wonder why?

No idea.

Anyway, there’s one other issue with Abyssal Purge. It makes it so I can’t use any materials from the monsters I kill with it.

The materials just straight up die and are ruined by the water. So the monster’s corpse is useless in terms of selling.

But that’s fine in the case of this monster, since it didn’t exactly have much in terms of materials. Not to mention that I cut off quite a few of its flesh strands before using the skill. Leaving them scattered around the strange floating object.

Anyway, the chat continues going wild as I both ignore them and begin heading to the next job location, finding their frustration mildly amusing while I do so.

The next job I go to is also at a strange floating object. But this job is different from the first one, since it’s not to hunt a monster. This one is to mine ore within a strange floating object.

Although there are quite a few monsters in the strange floating object.

They just aren’t my target. They’re the reason the job isn’t considered easy.

After all, for a vanguard to mine the ore in the strange floating object, they have to get past the monsters in it. Which makes it a lot more dangerous. And the ore that forms inside of the strange floating object is, for some reason, minable. Unlike the rest of the strange floating object.

It also reforms after a period of time. Almost like a dungeon or gathering spot in a video game.

Not only is it a well paying job, but it’s rather interesting. Enough that I want to go see it just to satisfy my curiosity.

Now.

I just hope these viewers don’t go bringing that hashtag back since I’m going mining.