We started looking around, and if I saw a monster I could handle, I would kill it.
If I saw a monster I could avoid, I would teleport.
And if I saw a monster I couldn't handle, I would teleport to a Claw member.
Simple, right?
It's working for now. S-Rank or above shouldn't be present this close to the shore.
We moved, searched, and rested whenever we were exhausted.
The treasure we had used for breathing in the lake, which lasted four hours, was discarded. I bought a better one—this one worked for twelve hours straight.
We searched for half a day and rested for the other half.
This went on for eighteen days, after which we found a karst cave.
We decided to enter it the next day. If there were a monster, we needed to be in the best condition to fight—it would be tough.
The next day, we finally dove again.
The sea around me grew darker with every stroke. Sunlight above had long since faded, barely reaching this depth. The water felt heavier, colder, pressing against my skin. Ahead, through the haze of drifting silt, I saw it: the yawning mouth of a karst cave, ancient and immense.
Its entrance was carved into the seafloor like the maw of some forgotten leviathan, framed by pillars of pale limestone. Long strands of seaweed coiled around the rocks, swaying slowly. Each movement stirred the fine sand, revealing glimmers of crystal-like deposits embedded in the stone. I hesitated for a moment—then dove in.
The temperature dropped sharply the moment I crossed the threshold. The light dimmed to a faint azure glow, provided only by colonies of luminous plankton clinging to the cave walls. The silence was profound, broken only by the soft hum of the current as it funneled through the narrow tunnels. The stone around me shimmered faintly—smooth in some places, jagged in others—carved over millennia by unseen streams.
As I swam deeper, the cave expanded into a vast chamber. Columns of limestone—massive stalactites and stalagmites—rose like pillars. Some touched, forming archways that glowed faintly with bioluminescent fungi. The water carried faint echoes, distant and hollow, as if something massive had moved deeper inside.
Then I saw it—a flicker of motion at the edge of my vision. I turned just in time to glimpse a Lumishade Serpent, its body translucent and faintly glowing from within. It didn't attack—merely watched, its form fading into the darkness as it slithered between rock crevices.
Further ahead, the floor dipped, and I descended into a lower cavern. The terrain here was rougher, scattered with shards of coral and fractured shells. Strange coral growths clung to the walls—some shaped like delicate feathers, others like clawed hands frozen mid-reach.
Movement again—this time below me. A cluster of Cragback Eels lay entwined in the rocks, their thick bodies armored with jagged scales resembling cracked stone. Their eyes glowed as they tracked my every motion. When one hissed, I teleported, and they missed. Raven handled them after that.
I pushed onward into a narrower passage. The current here grew stronger, pulling and twisting. The glow ahead brightened—a faint violet light. I followed it, curiosity outweighing caution.
The tunnel opened into another vast chamber, breathtaking in its beauty. The ceiling arched high above, covered in crystal formations that refracted the faint light into countless colors. Floating gently in the water were Jelly Wisps—ethereal beings made of light and translucent membrane. They pulsed slowly, illuminating the cavern in waves of soft blue and violet.
The deeper I went, the more I felt it: subtle pressure shifts rippling through the water, faint vibrations brushing against my skin. Something vast and unseen existed deeper within.
As I swam past a cluster of glowing corals, I noticed symbols faintly etched into the stone—spirals and runes that didn't look natural. They seemed deliberate, carved by hands long forgotten. Perhaps explorers had reached this place before me.
Suddenly, a crack appeared beneath us, and we were swept away. I could have teleported, but the previous owner had also experienced this, so I let it be.
After the violent movement settled, I realized I was far from where I had been—maybe tens of kilometers ahead. Unknown to me, an eye opened in the darkness of the cave. It sensed our movement. The creatures surrounding it moved toward us, then it closed its eye again.
We slowly moved further. I was now certain this was the place—the surroundings were filled with crystal formations giving off a white hue. The previous owner had mentioned this.
Soon, I sensed approaching monsters and informed Raven and the others. We were soon locked in combat. Monsters of all ranks attacked, and I helped as much as I could.
Then I saw an entrance and smiled—a mouth-like stone formation, with a tongue-shaped rock protruding as if teasing.
"Hahaha! Finally!" I laughed.
But suddenly, I felt an intent, a pressure on my skin, and then—"Apocalypse."
Two forces met and clashed for dominance. Apocalypse lost.
It was an SS-Rank monster. I absorbed more Nature Mana and fired again:
"Apocalypse."
The monster fired a water spell in response, but Apocalypse won. Due to the limited Nature Mana I had absorbed, it didn't do much damage. I began absorbing more Nature Mana for the next attack.
My mouth was already full of blood. This time, the monster fired a compressed wind spell—literally the size of a two-story house—but it took a minute to build.
I smirked. "Idiot."
That gave me time.
"Apocalypse."
We fired simultaneously. The structure quaked from my force, and the monster's body was shattered—no part left intact. This was the strongest monster I had faced so far.
Far from me, the quake destroyed a bright symbol. Many symbols were spread across a huge chamber, all bright, but one destroyed caused the others to flicker. I had been gathering Nature Mana for over five minutes, just in case.
Then, I felt a massive power from a long distance, comparable to the Powerhouses. I began teleporting everyone to our destination. Lucas was the last to move.
A tentacle flew toward me, and I sensed the incoming attack.
"Apocalypse."
Lucas had already erected a barrier around himself, seeing me move everyone with urgency. The clash of tentacle and Apocalypse injured all Claw members even though they were at a distance, but I was the worst off—even more than Lucas,since he was A-Rank. Others had blood flowing from eyes, mouth, nose, and ears, their bodies convulsing.
I had it worse: both my elbows bent unnaturally, all my limb muscles torn, bones visible, and a huge dent in my chest. My skull cracked open.
Lucas moved me to the other Claw members, even though he was injured as well. Only I noticed something before he did—thanks to Omniscient.
A huge chamber wall and roof were slowly falling, curving pillars with strange symbols flickering. Inside the pillars… a creature.
The kraken rose from the depths like a living tempest, its immense, coiled tentacles stretching farther than the eye could see, each lined with armored, scale-like ridges that glimmered faintly with embedded runes. Faint pulses of magical energy sparked from the tips, bending the surrounding water. Its eyes, vast and unblinking, glowed with unnatural intelligence, while a jagged, obsidian-black beak could crush a ship's hull in a single bite.
Bioluminescent patterns along its limbs shifted like living glyphs, illuminating the dark water with flashes of blue and violet light. Every movement stirred violent currents, as if the kraken commanded the sea itself. Strange symbols trailed in its wake, signs of ancient magic older than the kingdoms of men. Its immense body, partially cloaked in shadow, exuded raw power and arcane presence. The kraken was no mere monster—it was a living weapon, guardian of forbidden depths, and embodiment of the ocean's wrath, majestic and terrifying all at once.
Then after Lucas completely moved me through a hole I saw a black haze.
Then I teleported. Already covered in blood and not seeing a need to make a cut on my finger, I fell onto a black haze floating just a centimeter above the ground—and lost consciousness.
In a ruin, a haze floated a centimeter above the ground.
Suddenly, a boy appeared above it, the haze surrounding his chest. He had blond hair, his eye color unknown since they were closed. Even the best healer, armed with all kinds of potions and elixirs, would declare he had less than a minute left to live.
Why?
Because bones were visible all over his body.
130 bones were broken. A rib pierced his heart. His brain was being compressed due to fluid buildup. His left hand was half-cut, and even a little force could have detached it completely. Both hands bent unnaturally, his jaw just supported thanks to skin with no structural support and toes bent to side with a finger crushed completely.
After a few seconds, the haze assimilated into his chest, disappearing as if it had never been there.