Pioneer of the Abyss - Book 3 - Chapter 15 (Patreon)

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Table of Contents

Click the following link for the 1377 word chapter 15:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uFZy1vdqMTA-Fc3vX_iOw9XmjI46Vn42kq7P-GNTbcw/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

Aqua

I stare blankly at the massive tentacle whose width spans the entire hallway at the end of the throne room as it slams into the ceiling. Then the mouthed tentacle slowly lowers back into the now-crumbling ground. Leaving nothing behind in its wake.

Not a single offering nor abyssal servant.

Wait, so this thing is willing to protect its offering, but not the sentinels here making the offerings?

That’s kind of messed up.

Actually, now that I think about it, the thing just ate a couple of the sentinels in that attack as well. So it might not care about the sentinels whatsoever.

Or maybe it was threatening them into making offerings?

I know some gods in stories and myths would threaten people into becoming followers and offering sacrifices. Although it’s more common for beings pretending to be gods or just not gods at all to do that.

Either way, that tentacle probably belongs to the Special Boss. So I just have to follow the tentacle to find it.

For now, I rush to stab my trident into the high sentinel’s side while said high sentinel is distracted. Piercing through its armor and into its torso, making the high sentinel let out a pained hiss before swinging his sword to hit me. But I block its sword with a tentacle I summon before ripping out the trident and kicking the high sentinel.

The high sentinel cleaves through the water to slam into the wall of the throne room. Meanwhile I extract copies from the sentinels killed in here by my abyssal servants before summoning more abyssal servants to replace the ones killed by the tentacle using those copies.

Making the sentinels in the throne room fight their own as I focus on the high sentinel.

I briefly glance at the chat before smiling.

[Let’s deal with this high sentinel fast and move onto the Special Boss!]

[Yeah!]

[Special Boss! Special Boss! Special Boss!]

[I wonder what it was? It has a tentacle tipped with a mouth, so it can’t be a normal creature. Some sort of squid?]

[I’ve never seen a squid with a mouth on its tentacles before.]

[I have. On this very broadcast.]

[yeah, it’s happened before]

[Who cares! Just finish off the sentinels and go check out what the boss is!]

I almost chuckle at their discussion while rushing forward with my trident again to strike at the high sentinel. Only for the high sentinel to swing his sword and parry my trident.

So I use several skills at once while they’re bringing their sword back from the parry. Increasing the pressure of the water around us, reversing their movements with Abyssal Reversal, and shining Light of the Abyss around us.

The high sentinel lets out a growling hiss as it suddenly finds its movements struggling and trying to move back towards where he parried me from. Which gives me the chance to strike at him again with my trident that I transform into a harpoon to make it smaller. Piercing a hole directly through the high sentinel’s chest.

To my surprise, though, that doesn’t actually kill the high sentinel. And the high sentinel manages to snap out of the reversal effect and mental damage to rush to the side. Getting away from both me and the wall in the process.

But when I follow the high sentinel with my gaze, I find that the monster still isn’t doing so well.

And how could it? The thing has been skewered twice, and hit by mental damage on top of that.

I smile at the sight of my abyssal servants finishing off the sentinels and beginning to surround the high sentinel. Only for my smile to twitch when the high sentinel looks around and then focuses on me before letting out a loud, low pitch screeching hiss.

Then the ground beneath it shatters and a large tentacle rushes upwards to eat both the high sentinel and my abyssal servants.

My jaw drops open.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” I can’t help but shout at the sight of the powerful enemy I was hoping to turn into an abyssal servant being eaten right before my eyes.

Now I can’t extract its copy…

The tentacle gradually begins to lower back down into the ground again. But this time I make sure to identify it beforehand.

And in the process, I confirm that it is very much the Special Boss.

[Churale – Level 1212]

What else could a monster with that level be? It’s almost four hundred levels above me.

My eyes narrow at the thing as the tentacle disappears into the ground again, leaving me alone within the throne room. With the exception of a few abyssal servants who weren’t in the way of the Special Boss’ tentacle.

[level… 1212?]

[The fuck is that?!]

[This… might be tough.]

[You can do it Aqua!!!!]

[Again. What is this thing?]

“That’s what I want to know…” I mutter before swimming over towards the massive hole it made and looking down. But I can’t see anything.

It’s just pitch black.

And if I can’t see anything while looking down, that means it must stretch on for an incredibly long distance. Since I can see for a very long distance underwater and in the dark.

I look down the hole for a while before glancing at my current mana. Then I move away from the hole and try to leave the throne room. Only to find the entrance sealed off.

Hmm. It looks like I can’t leave.

I wanted to find a safer spot to rest until my mana recovered, but I guess I’m stuck resting here instead.

It doesn’t feel exactly safe in this throne room, where a massive tentacle could shoot up from the ground at any moment. But I need to rest until I’m fully recovered for this fight regardless, so I’ll just have to keep an eye out for the Special Boss in case it tries to kill me.

With that thought in mind, I find a corner of the throne room and just float there. Not staying very close to the ground because the tentacle could easily break through the ground at any moment. And if I’m on the ground of the throne room, I won’t have enough time to get away.

So I just float in the water closer to the ceiling while watching the chat debate about what monster they think the Special Boss is. With most of them guessing some sort of squid and other creature hybrid. Like a crab with tentacles or something.

That debate lasts for a while before they eventually begin setting up entire betting pools over it.

I find myself feeling more than a little amused watching them. To the point that I even make a bet myself, putting a few credits on it being some massive monster that has parts from numerous different creatures and no singular animal it centers around.

Deepsea monsters like to look weird, after all.

After the betting pool opens up, the conversation begins to shift towards them debating what hidden stat I’ll awaken through the Special Core given by this Special Dungeon. Since the hidden stats people awaken do often tend to fit what they need. Even if it isn’t always what they need most.

It’s always at least something relatively useful to the user at the minimum.

I’m kind of looking forward to it as well, even though I know I won’t actually be using the Special Core for a while. Not until I find an emergency that requires it.

The later I use it, the better the initial stats I’ll be given by it, after all.

So it’s like getting free stat points just for waiting to use it.

I will admit, though, it’ll probably be hard to patiently wait to use it. Since it’s a free, large power-up just from using it.

Using this strategy definitely requires a lot of patience.

I smile at that thought before continuing to patiently watch the livestream chat as I wait, occasionally talking with them as I do so.

All the way until my mana finally recovers and I move towards the holes in the ground.

Time to see the Special Boss.