Book 1: Chapter 90

Aqua I glance at the chat again before trying out my new skill. [VICTORYYYYY!!!] [SHE WONNNNN!!!] [THAT WAS INCREDIBLE!] [What skill did you get?! Tell us!] [What about your new trait!?] [#TELLUSYOURTRAITANDSKILL!!!] Well they look like they’re having fun. I glance around at the battle raging on around the largely ravaged city. Where there appear to be even more hunters and soldiers fighting than before. No doubt people from other cities that have arrived since I last looked. But more importantly, there are corpses everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. I focus on the new skill again before looking at the part that said how the exact range of the skill can be expanded through using more mana. So I glance at my status to find my mana being at around a little over five hundred mana remaining thanks to getting 90 more mana from leveling up nine times after killing that shark. I face towards the massive shark again before raising my hand towards it and activating the new skill. Abyssal Ruler. And the moment I do, using an entire one hundred mana for it to expand the range of the skill to the entire battlefield around me, a dark and sinister black and deep blue aura appears around the massive shark in front of me. Along with the thousands upon thousands of monster corpses scattered across the battlefield. Startling the humans in the process. Enough that they stop attacking the monsters. But it’s not just them as the living monsters pause as well. The sinister aura around the corpses either infuses itself into the corpses or breaks apart like a disconnected electrical circuit depending on if they succeed in extracting the copy or not. And the ones that succeed immediately begin altering the corpses they succeed on. Making me realize something incredibly important. It looks like it summons a copy when I succeed in extracting a blueprint from a monster. Free of any extra charge. I watch as thousands of corpses throughout the ocean and city around us begin to convulse as their wounds start healing and their eyes start glowing with a deep blue light. And their bodies all change color to a deep blue almost black color similar to my hair and summoned tentacles. Unfortunately the big shark fails rather quickly in its blueprint extraction. But despite that I feel a connection appearing between me and the ones it succeeded on. After the skill finishes running its course, I take a deep breath before using it again with another one hundred mana. And just like the last time, the big shark fails miserably while thousands more of the other monsters all rise again. So I use it a third time with a hundred more mana. And a fourth time. But the big shark keeps failing, even if almost all the other corpses across the battlefield have risen and begun swimming over towards me. Where they eventually settle into slowly circling me and the massive shark corpse with a couple dozen meters of distance between us. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I glare at the massive corpse for several seconds as the swarm of monsters – most of whom are sharks but not all of them – swim in circles all around me and the corpse. Then I move closer to the massive corpse before placing my hand on its head between its eyes and activating Abyssal Ruler one last time. Except this time without expanding it to the rest of the battlefield. I narrow my eyes as the sinister aura engulfs the massive shark for one second. Two seconds. Three, four, and five seconds. Then the aura finally blows up, expanding outwards while sending water shooting out and making my hair flare out behind me as my eyes widen. Only for the aura to suddenly freeze before finally disappearing into the massive shark’s corpse. A grin spreads across my face at the sight of the massive shark’s corpse beginning to repair itself with that sinister energy. All the way until the thing opens its eyes, which are glowing with a deep blue light. But unlike the other copies made through the skill, this one also lets out a glow from within its mouth as well. I remove my hand from its head and slowly float backwards with a grin on my face. Meanwhile the chat is completely dead silent without any messages being sent for an entire two seconds. Until messages gradually begin returning again, and the chat explodes in a few more seconds. [WHAT IS THIS?!] [Is this... even a skill from the Abyssal Orca? Or the Kraken?] [I don’t remember this skill being from either of them...] [What’s going on? What am I watching?] [she’s like a queen...] [The queen of the ocean.] Eventually the massive shark’s body is fully healed as it slightly lowers its head to me. Almost like it’s treating me as its ruler. And the massive shark isn’t the only one doing that. All the other sharks and other monsters finally stop swimming and begin to look towards me with fealty clear in their eyes. I look around them all before glancing at the other monsters on the battlefield that aren’t under my control along with the humans to find them all staring at me and my monsters. Then I focus on my Abyssal Copies again. This particular skill seems incredibly powerful. But there are clear limitations. They’re copies made from blueprints, so they can’t level up. Which will make any blueprints I get now practically useless when I reach like level five hundred. Where I’ll be fighting monsters at level five hundred, making level thirty copies nothing but food for them. And the copies also don’t have magical skills or traits. So they’re weaker than the originals. But still. The skill is nonetheless incredibly powerful even with those limitations. After a brief pause, I go ahead and enter my Sponsorship System menu before accepting weapon and armor cores for level seventy-five. Then I take my armor off and crush the new armor core. Making new armor cover my entire body including my badly damaged, but not indecently damaged, clothes underneath. My new armor is a lot like my old armor with glowing blue lines across it, but unlike my old armor, this one actually has a bit of a skirt to it. One made of some sort of layered material to make it not interfere with my movements. In fact, the skirt is more like multiple different layered pieces of plate armor. Except not made out of metal and made out of some sort of smooth deep blue material instead. There are also some places that look cracked with the glowing blue lines but are obviously not cracked. More of just an aesthetic than anything else. After that I crush the weapon core, making another trident with glowing blue lines running through it appear in my hand. Except with this trident being a lot darker blue in color than the last one. Finally. Some new equipment. I feel a grin stretching across my face at the sight and feel of it all. Then I turn my attention back to the humans and monsters, completely ignoring the looks of confused shock sent my way by the humans who no doubt saw me crushing the cores. “Let’s finish this,” I state before raising and pointing my new trident forwards. At the armies of monsters. And, reacting to my actions, the Abyssal Copy monsters begin slowly swimming around me for a moment before suddenly shooting off towards the other monsters all around and outside of the city. Attacking them like an army attacking another army. Then the massive shark moves up beside me before locking its eyes onto the highest level monster of the enemy swarm. Following which it moves at a blur, shooting straight at the monster before chomping down on it and eating it with a single bite. Moving just as fast as back when I fought against it prior to its injuries. I watch it all happen as the humans stare in shock and a little fear at what’s happening around them. [She’s the queen of the depths!] [Oh, how she’s grown!] [This is going to go viral. No doubt about it.] I chuckle for a moment before just sitting back and watching while my army slaughters the other army, giving me a lot of System Messages thanks to their kills counting as mine. With the massive shark feasting on all the other monsters with ease. Several seconds pass in silence and my expression returns to normal. That’s one more milestone reached. And with it, another step towards my goal.