Pioneer of the Abyss - Book 3 - Chapter 23 (Patreon)

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Table of Contents

Click the following link for the 1425 word chapter 23:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YBqdv3oBl_vVJjRAQy62Pg5aV0uQ9Vit8thS-MEM0oY/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

Aqua

Huh. Well, this is… unexpected.

The four Pioneer Games for this month were a mixture of two sports category games and two combat puzzle category games. With this being the second to last game of the month. Meaning there is one more game left this month before next month begins and the cycle starts anew with the level five hundred to nine hundred and ninety nine game of next month.

The last game of this month will be a sports game. A racing one at that.

In the game, the Official Pioneers will be racing in special race cars that each have the ability to use a total of three of the Official Pioneers skills. The Official Pioneers must designate which of their skills their race car can use, and they will only be able to use those skills through the race car until the end of the game.

However, that’s just the skills they can use through the race car itself. If they exit the car, they can still use their skills normally. And they can use their skills normally inside of the car as well.

They can even attack other Official Pioneers while inside of their car so long as the skill is capable of going through their window after rolling the window down.

Most Official Pioneers in a situation like this would apparently choose projectile skills or skills that can protect their car. Both so the car can fire off attacks at other players’ cars, and so their own car will be protected.

Anyway, the Official Pioneers have to race through the course while trying to slow down, stop, or even kill each other. With the first to cross the finish line being the victor of the Pioneer Game.

Players can also steal other people’s cars during the game and drive them if their own car is damaged or destroyed, although they won’t be able to use it to fire skills.

Overall, it’s a rather interesting sort of game to have people at level seven thousand five hundred to fourteen thousand nine hundred and ninety nine playing.

There are additional rules on top of those to protect the racetrack itself, since even regular users at that level, much less Official Pioneers, can easily destroy the entire map.

I wasn’t expecting even the higher level games to be so sporty, with so many rules.

Then again, they’re sports for viewer entertainment. So it makes sense at the end of the day.

As for the next Pioneer Game for my own level?

It’s a lifestyle category Pioneer Game. But not any regular lifestyle category game, no, this one is very strange.

The game is set place in a sky world setting with no ground and only clouds all around the players. Every player is placed on an airship – which is a magically flying ship with a design similar to steampunk style flying ships in older fiction – and their goal is to capture or kill the bird monsters flying around the air with them. Or, to be more specific, to claim the ribbons tied to the birds legs.

The brighter the color the ribbon going from black to gold, the stronger the monster it’s attached to.

Meanwhile there is a single dragon-like monster that will appear at the end of the game with a clear blue ribbon that is worth far more points attached to it.

Of course, this dragon-like monster is a monster beyond the level range of the participants. So most people in the game won’t have any chance of fighting it.

That said, Official Pioneers can also use their ribbons to upgrade their ship. And if they upgrade it enough, the ship will gain combat capabilities including magic cannons.

With the help of magic cannons, and if the Official Pioneers work together, it should be possible to take down the dragon monster.

Overall, the game sounds like a lot of fun to me. And it is pretty disadvantageous to me since there’s no water anywhere nearby.

Which works well for my purpose in competing.

Trying to fight away from water to see how I fare.

After a moment of thought, I go ahead and send a message to Rhett telling him to go ahead and sign me up for the next Pioneer Game for levels five hundred to nine hundred and ninety nine. Following which I get a thumbs-up message from him, confirming that he’s seen the message. Then, after several minutes, I get another message from him telling me that he’s signed me up for the game.

That sure didn’t take very long…

I shake my head at the thought before heading up to the surface and then using Call of the Abyss to test out what the skill can do in an area that is far too large to completely fill with water. And the result is pretty satisfying.

The skill fills a massive amount of the air above the water with more water in a radius of about two hundred and fifty meters around me. Although whether it would be less than that if the skill had to fill the water in the ocean beneath me as well, I’m not sure.

To test that theory, I wait the thirty minute cooldown before using the skill again while on a private ship flying high in the air. But the exact amount of space around me that is filled with water doesn’t change, so I guess it doesn’t matter if there’s any water already present or not.

After figuring that out, I proceed to do several other tests on the skill. And I soon find out that this skill is actually a lot more useful than I thought.

The orcas aren’t all that useful, but they’re cute. What is very useful is the battlefield it makes for me.

The water lasts either until the orcas die, or until thirty minutes pass. And the cooldown of thirty minutes starts immediately after the skill is used, not after the little water territory disappears. So, if I can keep the orcas alive for the entire thirty minutes of the skill’s usage, I can immediately use Call of the Abyss again after the orcas despawn.

The orcas have four-fifths of my stats, which should likely include my Hidden Stats.

I blink at that thought before grinning.

The Hidden Stats including Regen.

Doesn’t that mean the orcas should be able to regenerate just as fast as me?

If that’s the case…

I should test that out too. But for now, I continue testing what I can up here above the ocean.

Another thing to note that I find out about the little pseudo water domain made by the skill is that it does not move along with me. I can swim all around it and the area filled with water stays in place. It will also defy gravity and just float in the air.

Which is absolutely necessary for the game I’ll be participating in. Considering that it would be rather awkward if the water I summoned to battle in just kinda fell down out of the sky.

I can still use Pressure of the Abyss in this water and control the pressurized water, and I can summon my abyssal servants in the water I create with Call of the Abyss. So the skill really is just turning an area into my own little domain.

The only issue, again, is that they can cancel the domain by killing the four orcas.

Oh, right. There’s one other issue.

If they do kill the four orcas and cancel the water, the water will just up and vanish. So everyone in it will just kinda fall if I’m using it high in the sky.

Since they can’t swim in the water anymore if there’s no water to swim in.

There are a couple of things I can do to deal with that. Aquatic Tide creates a large tide of water and I could try to swim up that tide back onto my ship. And I can also transform to make a tentacle and use that to grab onto the ship.

I purse my lips in thought before going into the ocean and searching for opponents to have the orcas fight. Just to test their regeneration.

Which it clearly does when I test it on several monsters around level seven hundred or so.

Alright.

Now I just need to figure out the best way to protect these orcas and I’ll feel comfortable about fighting on the surface.