Book 2: Chapter 1

Alan Pioneer News “It hasn’t even been a day and she’s already back at it again! Slaughtering monsters in the broken dungeons!” Alan exclaims with a wide grin on his face. “What do you think, Rodrick? Do you believe she’ll take control of the planet within a year? Or will we be seeing her returning to the Alliance before her first year as a Pioneer is over?” “She’s grown very powerful in just a month since the selection, but a year might be stretching it,” Rodrick says while shaking his head. “To become the owner of the planet in the eyes of the System, she has to be the highest level being on the planet. And we’ve already seen monsters over level two hundred at just the seven-thousand-five-hundred meter depth within the oceans.” Alan nods his head in agreement as the two watch the screen next to them. One showing Aqua lazily swimming through a broken dungeon as a few dozen Abyssal Servants – as named by the Bloodline Research Center – go around killing the monsters near her. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there are monsters over level five hundred at the bottom of Oceana’s oceans,” Allan says while leaning forwards over the counter in front of him a little. “Her latest skill isn’t as powerful as a lot of people assumed from her dramatic introduction of it either.” “Yeah, it looks like she has a chance to make a copy of every monster she kills, but the copy only lasts for an hour before dissipating,” Rodrick explains as the screen changes to show her previous battle with the migration. “Her first extraction of a servant automatically summons the monster for each monster, but after that it requires mana to summon them. And her supply of mana is nowhere near infinite, allowing her to only summon several dozen of them at a time instead of the tens of thousands she had before.” Allan claps his hands with a smile and says, “Great explanation! Even if I know you’re just repeating everything the Bloodline Research Center has already discovered about her new skill.” His co-host completely ignores him as Rodrick continues, “On the other hand, her skill has no cooldown, and while it has a limit of five attempts to extract a servant from each monster, she can repeatedly summon that servant whenever she wishes so long as she has the mana for it.” “Yep, yep!” Allan says with a nod. “If the servants could level up or use mana then it’d be the most powerful skill known to man! But even without that, this is still the most powerful skill seen at this early a level!” He then narrows his eyes and changes the screen again to show Aqua just floating in the middle of her servants after the migration battle. “Which brings us to the question that has been flooding every corner of the internet.” “Does she have a merged Bloodline of some sort, right?” Rodrick asks as he focuses on the screen to see Aqua looking both intimidating and lazy with the massive shark slowly circling around her and the other servants moving all around her at a distance further than the large shark. “There isn’t enough information about it, but I have heard that we’ve recently gotten some news from the Abyss.” “Ah, right,” Allan exclaims with a clap before turning to face the camera. “The Abyss news will be released to the press in one week. So stay tuned for that! I’ve heard it has something to do with new monsters discovered in the middle layer of the Abyss!” “Speaking of the Abyss,” Rodrick says, bringing Allan’s gaze back towards him again. “Do you think Aqua may become the very first Bloodliner Pioneer of the Abyss? After she becomes the owner of Oceana.” Allan doesn’t say anything for a second before a splitting grin stretches across his face and he says something many people across the Alliance are wanting to say, “Is there any doubt about that?” Rodrick nods his head wordlessly in agreement as numerous different commercial videos and images begin playing across the screen behind them. All of Aqua in different outfits and videos. There isn’t a single person who doesn’t believe she’ll enter the Abyss eventually. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Not when her parents are known to be lost in the Abyss. Aqua I yawn after the abyssal servants – the name I stole from the chat since it sounds cool – finish dealing with the monsters in this particular broken dungeon. Feeling rather disappointed by the lack of level progress I’ve made here. Unfortunately, I’ve run into a bit of a problem since that migration battle. The monsters at this elevation are too weak to give me any levels or REGEN points. Even if I’ve leveled up a lot from the migration battle itself, not to mention gotten quite a lot of REGEN points. I glance at my status at that thought. [REQUESTING STATUS: USER AQUA AZURANTH] [STATUS RETRIEVED] [Name: Aqua Azuranth] [Level: 87] [Mana: 870] [Strength: 124(83)] [Dexterity: 59] [Constitution: 53] [Magical Strength: 53] [REGEN: 1321] [Free Points: 0] [Traits: Physique of the Abyssal Kraken, Apex Predator of the Depths, Lifeblood of the Abyssal Kraken, World First Ranker, Scales of the Abyssal Kraken] [Skills] [END STATUS] At this point my regeneration is a hundred and thirty-two times the speed of a regular human. Which is fast enough to regenerate bruises that would normally take a week to heal in just a bit over an hour. So, incredibly fast. And I even heal broken arms in just around eight or so hours now. But the problem at this point comes in the fact that the monsters start spiking in level as I get deeper in the water. Much faster than they were before. Monsters at the seven thousand five hundred meter mark are all around the low two hundreds. Meanwhile monsters at the eight thousand meter mark are at the mid to high two hundreds with some reaching three hundred. And the monsters at the nine thousand meter mark are in the four hundreds. No one knows what level the monsters beneath that are. Actually, no one even knows how deep the ocean goes below that. Another issue is that the Hunter’s City is far away from the lower depths of the Deep layer. Meaning it can sometimes take half a day just to find a broken dungeon down there and another half a day to get back. With me getting lost at least a couple times during that. So after my first two days of trying to go down deeper into those layers – which was one trip separated into two days due to getting lost – I decided to wait until I reach level one hundred and can get a tracker to determine where I’m going at that pressure. Since the current tracker I’m using just breaks when I go down that low. But this wait is turning out to be longer than I expected. And I can’t find any monsters close enough to me in level to get REGEN stat points. I let out a sigh at that thought before reaching out to the pile of corpses lined up for me by my abyssal servants and storing them all into my storage ring. Then I hop onto the massive shark and lie on my back as he – I’ve since learned the shark is in fact a he – swims out of the broken dungeon. Which is a massive tower floating in the water. And without hesitation, I let out a yawn as I order him to swim off towards the city. Part of me feels a little awkward entering Hunter’s Cities now though. After what happened at the Cryaxis Hunter’s City that is. It’s been a few days since, but the hunters at both the Cryaxis Hunter’s City and the Fortal Hunter’s City look slightly afraid of me now. Even if the stronger ones that I’ve gotten to know over time have largely gone back to how they used to treat me. Like the tour guide, his group, and the staff at the guilds including the Guildmasters. But I can’t really blame them. Not when my level is almost twice the second highest level human on the planet’s level now. And, of course, when I arrive at the Hunter’s City – this one being Fortal’s Hunter City since the other one is still being rebuilt – everyone looks at me in terror. Even as I dismiss all the abyssal servants. Although I can’t help but notice that their fear drastically lessens after dismissing the servants. Regardless, I enter the city and begin heading towards the Guild building. Time to drop off another haul. And tomorrow I can try that special dungeon for the Special Core. Since I feel safe enough to do that now. It should get me closer to level one hundred too.