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Chapter 76: Water Beasts and Soul Cultivation
🕑 Added 2024-10-30 10:00:19 +0000 UTCAnnie, Seraphina, and Thalion sat at a giant table with over 50 seats, while butlers brought them food and drinks as they discussed various topics.
"So, is it true that you fought three nobles simultaneously while bombarding the city?" Seraphina asked excitedly.
"Wait, you just told us that you killed a bit more slaves than us, but instead, you fought three nobles in the sky above the city and killed over four hundred?" Annie exclaimed.
"Well, I just didn’t want to talk about it that much," Thalion murmured.
"And you’re a shapeshifter? How does that actually work?" Seraphina asked, intrigued.
"It’s pretty simple. You touch the beast after you kill it and take its form. You also gain all the skills the beast had before its demise," Thalion explained. "On that topic, what are the strongest beasts underwater?"
"Hm, it’s hard to say because it highly depends on whether the beast is a high variant, but there are some sea snakes that are very powerful, maybe sharks too," Seraphina said.
"Would it be a lot of trouble if you two helped me slay one of the stronger beasts?" Thalion asked with a smile. This had gone better than expected; Seraphina wasn’t mad at all that he had killed many of Nerissa’s people.
"Gladly! What water-related skills do you have, and can you breathe underwater?" Seraphina asked.
"No to both. Are we not going fishing with a boat?" he asked.
"Haha, of course not. The strong beasts reside in the depths of the ocean," Seraphina explained with a smile. "That you can’t breathe underwater will make things difficult."
"Shouldn’t be that much of a problem. If I manage to kill a weak water beast, I can take its form to dive down. Maybe I can switch between forms and use the water form just for breathing," Thalion said, deep in thought.
"That could work, but Annie will need some training first. I’m not sure I’d be able to protect her from the stronger ones," Seraphina said, waving for her butler to bring another plate of seafood.
"On that topic, did you buy the body-tempering our patron provided in the system shop?" Seraphina asked Annie.
"Yes, I bought it before we started the journey," Annie said.
"Good, then don’t wait any longer. You can use my pond. It should get you to the second stage by tomorrow," Seraphina said.
That’s how their first meeting ended. Thalion was led to the guest room, which was larger than some palaces of the old world, while Seraphina and Annie began their body-tempering. Thalion sat down on a four-meter-long couch and started with his soul cultivation.
Stage 1: Soul Awakening
The first stage involves awakening the dormant potential within your soul. By meditating and attuning to your spiritual core, you begin to sense the true depth of your soul. This stage builds your foundation and allows your soul to start absorbing ambient energy from the environment.
Information flooded his mind after reading the description of the first stage, and he knew exactly what he had to do next. Thalion fell into a deep meditation, searching for his soul. Normally, you would let mana rush through your body, and where it lingered the longest was likely where a large part of your soul resided. But Thalion had a better option. He used the heartbeat of the sanguine archon to let mana rush through his body. In combination with his heightened senses through the Guardian’s Remnant title, he quickly found the parts of his soul.
The soul was like an overlay on the physical body, but it took longer to grow than the body itself. His soul seemed to have torn into pieces inside his body, connected only by thin spiritual veins. His goal in the first stage was to find his complete soul and strengthen the connections between its parts. The second step was to build a soul-body overlaying his real body. The stronger his spirit body became, the better the connection to his limbs, allowing him to use skills faster and more effectively, but that would come at a later stage. For now, the first stage would only result in a crude ghostly overlay, while in the higher stages, he’d have to rebuild every muscle fiber and blood vessel, which would be a massive undertaking.
The largest part of his soul resided in his head, as was normal for most beings. The second largest gathered around his heart. Over time, he found two parts in each of his arms and legs, and a small one near his belly. That seemed to be all the spirituality he had. Next, he worked on strengthening the connection between the different parts of his soul with mana strings, but it was so difficult. It took forever for each part of his soul to absorb the mana he provided, and the mana strings were even more challenging. After six hours, he gave up on the mana strings and focused entirely on growing the parts of his soul.
On the positive side, he didn’t need to alter the form much. After the soul part he worked on grew, it already resembled the part of his body it resided in, and he only had to make minor adjustments. The night passed quickly as Thalion worked tirelessly on his soul without stopping once.
"This was a bad idea. How do I fix it? How do I fix it?" Evelyn desperately thought as Kargul, Vorlok, and herself descended the stairs to go hunting.
"So sad that Sylas wouldn’t stick to his word," Kargul said after Sylas had declined to help with the hunt.
Evelyn desperately hoped that the turtle would just take its chances and fly away the moment they exited the tall building where they and Kael lived.
"Why do you look so exhausted, Eve?" Kargul asked with concern. "Here, Vorlok will carry you."
With that announcement, Kargul grabbed her and sat her on the shell of the giant flying turtle, which didn’t move an inch. It was a wonder the turtle hadn’t tried to fly around in the tall entrance hall, but now she was sitting on the beast, shivering, as Kargul happily opened the gate.
"Oh god, now it’s happening," Evelyn thought, sitting on the turtle's back, still in shock.
But nothing happened. Kargul happily walked through the streets toward the city gate while Vorlok hovered five meters above him.
"Eh, what?" Evelyn thought, looking around. Could Kargul have been right? This was unbelievable. Kargul strolled through the outer gates like a child, while she was perched on the turtle’s back, fifty meters in the air. It turned out that she actually liked flying. Her class was all about healing and moving quickly, but flying felt so peaceful.
They ventured through the jungle until they found their first prey: some kind of vine elephant, level 45. Upon seeing the beast, Vorlok dove down, crashing headfirst into the elephant's back while Evelyn was still on the turtle’s back. She managed to roll off just before the impact, landing hard on the ground.
When she looked up, she saw a gleeful Kargul hammering the head of the seven-meter-tall elephant, while a blood-covered turtle fed on the beast’s belly, disappearing inside. It took thirty seconds before nothing of the elephant was left. Vorlok sat contentedly on the ground, a bone from the elephant’s rib in its mouth, which it cracked clean in half with a loud snap.
"That was awesome!" Kargul roared. "What’s wrong, Eve? Why do you look so glum?"
Before she could respond, Vorlok seemed to notice her distress. The turtle paddled over and vomited half of the dissolved elephant onto her while flapping his flippers in joy.
"I can’t take this anymore," Evelyn thought, nearly passing out from the stench as she crawled out of the heap of flesh and bones.
"This is only the beginning. We shall hunt the whole night," Kargul roared and patted the head of Vorlok.
"Come on, Eve, don’t be like this," Kargul said happily as he set her on the back of the turtle.
Kargul moved quickly through the forest while Vorlok happily flew after him, with Evelyn lying flat on the back of the turtle, vomiting from time to time.
"This must be hell," Evelyn muttered as they moved through the jungle, praying they wouldn’t find any more prey. To her dismay, it didn’t take long before they found the next beasts.
Fireborn Grasshopper Level 42
Fireborn Grasshopper Level 44
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Fireborn Grasshopper Level 43
They found a swarm of grasshoppers—these beasts were a meter long, their shells seeming to burn in multiple spots. This, of course, didn’t deter Vorlok or Kargul at all, and they charged at the beasts. Kargul hammered the grasshoppers to the ground while Vorlok gobbled up every single one when they took flight. Evelyn just tried to hang on to the turtle, which performed one crazy maneuver after another to gobble up every single grasshopper. By the time they were finished, Evelyn had passed out multiple times. The only good thing was that her clothing had cleaned itself from that disgusting vomit. She sat down on the ground, leaning against a tree for support.
"Oh, Eve, it’s no fun when you’re staying out of the fight," Kargul said. "You should have seen her, Vorlok. She can make those mana walls, which made it impossible for the enemy to escape—sometimes they even ran into them!"
"Just give me a bit more time, then we can go for more hunting," Evelyn murmured, quickly moving away from Vorlok, who looked like he would vomit on her again.
They hunted the whole night, and in the end, she had to admit that it was fun. She liked flying on the back of the turtle, and Kargul had the time of his life, smashing every beast while Vorlok happily devoured everything. The only problem was that not only did Kargul try to train her in smashing stuff, but now the turtle tried to teach her how to eat beasts, constantly dropping half-eaten corpses in her lap and nudging her with its head until she ran away. But the turtle was as stubborn as Kargul when it came to teaching her stuff.
In the morning, the butler informed him that it was time for hunting, and shortly after, Thalion stood on a boat out in the ocean with Annie and Seraphina. The ocean was full of life; even this far out, there were all sorts of aquatic beasts swimming in the water beneath him. There was even a coral reef floating hundreds of meters underwater. Annie and Seraphina dove down to bring him a beast to kill while he waited on the boat with some servants, admiring the beautiful ocean. It felt like he was back on Earth, spearfishing with his friends. It didn’t take long before Seraphina surfaced from the depths, carrying a 3-meter-long blue marlin speared with ice.
Azure-Finned Blue Marlin Level 44
Thalion immediately killed the fish with a mana slash and took its form.
"Looks like I found just the right one," Seraphina laughed, seeing how fast Thalion had reacted.
Thalion quickly checked out the status screen of the blue marlin, and it was not bad. It had no attack skills but a strong passive skill.
Camouflage of the Depths
This passive skill allows the creature to seamlessly blend into its underwater surroundings, becoming nearly invisible to both predators and prey. As the fish moves through the deep, its scales reflect the shifting colors and shadows of the ocean, providing natural concealment. This ability enhances its stealth, making it incredibly difficult to detect in darker or murky waters, especially at greater depths where light is scarce.
This would come in handy when he found a better form, as the marlin’s rarity was only epic. With anticipation, he jumped into the water and transformed into the Azure-Finned Blue Marlin. It had more fins than the marlins from Earth, but otherwise seemed identical.
"Can you talk in that form, or are you just a dumb beast now?" Seraphina asked, curious.
"Nah, I’m still me," Thalion replied, which was strange since he shouldn’t have been able to talk.
"Good. Annie is hunting on a deeper coral reef. Follow me," Seraphina said, shooting down like a torpedo.
Thalion dove after her, every beat of his tail propelling him forward with incredible speed. Swimming felt like gliding on ice—he barely slowed down even when his fins weren’t moving. Now underwater, there was even more life than he’d expected. There were even coral golems walking on the reefs. They swam past the first reef and spotted another 50 meters below, almost the size of a small landmass. If they wanted to dive deeper, they’d have to use holes in the reef, as swimming around it would take too long—if it was even possible. The reefs were full of life, and they soon spotted Annie, who had just killed a coral golem and was now trying to store the beast in her spatial ring.
"I say we spend the next few hours here to get you more comfortable in the water, then we’ll dive deeper," Seraphina announced, with Annie and Thalion nodding in agreement.
"How do you like your new form?" Annie asked, spotting him.
"I like it—the way I swim with no resistance from the water feels amazing," Thalion explained.
So they spent the next few hours hunting beasts. Thalion focused on squids, whose skin was easy to rip apart with his beak, and they were all above Level 44. In two hours, he killed over thirty squids and a few fish, finally pushing his eagle form to Level 41, while the others remained at Level 40. Annie had a great time, killing more beasts than Thalion, while Seraphina gave her tips to improve her abilities. Seraphina didn’t hunt at all, focusing fully on teaching Annie, only stopping to gather the occasional pearl growing from the reef.
"I think you’re ready. It’s time to go for the stronger beasts in the ocean," Seraphina said, pointing to a hole in the reef.
Together, they swam through the tunnel into darkness. Thalion could see just fine, though. Without his title, he might have had trouble, but with it, he could see as if it were broad daylight, though only for a kilometer or two. Beyond that, the water grew darker until he couldn’t see anything. Some plants drifted by, glowing with bioluminescence. Annie and Seraphina didn’t seem to have any trouble, diving deeper in search of their first prey. Seraphina even pulled out her staff, engraved with blue crystals and runes. Her staff made Nerissa's snake staff look like a walking stick. Seraphina pulled out some fish corpses, ripping them apart with a water skill. It didn’t take long until the first shark appeared—a true giant of the deep, over ten meters long.
Ninegill Shark Level 51
This shark was many level above Thalion, but it didn’t seem to be a high rarity creature.
The shark shot toward Seraphina, who waved her staff, firing a water slash that cut deep into the shark’s nose. The shark thrashed wildly, giving Annie an opening to fire an ice spear, which pierced deep into its side. Thalion quickly circled the giant shark but wasn’t sure what to do—his current form couldn’t harm the beast. If he rammed the shark and couldn’t break free, the shark might even bite him in half. He decided to wait or transform into his human form to attack with a mana slash, likely his most effective underwater skill. But before he could act, Seraphina's charged water slash cut the shark in half, killing it.
To his surprise, Thalion was able to take the shark’s form without attacking it. Maybe his assumption about needing to fight a beast to obtain its form was wrong. He transformed into the shark and swam around, mostly to experience the difference. Being a shark felt strange—his nose tingled from all the blood in the water, and he couldn’t wipe or scratch it. Swimming was also harder than in his marlin form, so he quickly changed back and transferred the passive skill tidal surge to his marlin form.
Tidal Surge
The shark can harness underwater currents to increase its movement speed, allowing it to close distances with prey rapidly or escape danger.
This skill had a massive effect, allowing him to speed up without using more energy—a welcome upgrade. The blood in the water attracted more sharks, which turned out to be great for leveling. Annie shot up to Level 49, while Thalion barely reached Level 41 in his eagle form.
"Okay, I think we’re ready to dive deeper," Seraphina said, beginning her descent.
Thalion and Annie followed closely, with the only light coming from the bioluminescent plants drifting in the deep. It was as though curtains had fallen, revealing one of the real big shots—a giant squid swimming slowly around a giant blue pearl that radiated a strong aura.
Giant Squid Level 61
The body, without the tentacles, was already over twenty meters long, and the tentacles were even longer.
"They're not as dangerous as they look," Seraphina said, very focused. "Aim for the body and try to evade the tentacles; they die faster than you think."
The fight began when Seraphina shot a jet stream of water at the squid, ripping off three tentacles that the squid had used to block the attack. Thalion tried to get behind the squid, using his incredible speed. The squid’s skin was so weak that he didn’t fear getting stuck in its body. Annie dove to the other side, firing ice spears at the squid, which blocked them with its tentacles. The squid had clearly identified Seraphina as the biggest threat and charged toward her. This gave Thalion the chance to get close to the back of the squid. In his current form, he wouldn’t do much damage, so he transformed into a shark and bit down on the squid’s head, ripping a large chunk of flesh out before he had to turn around to escape from a tentacle shooting toward him. Thalion switched back to a marlin and darted away. In the meantime, Annie and Seraphina had also retreated, seeing how badly Thalion had injured the squid, only attacking it from a distance. Seraphina had been right—the squid couldn’t take much damage, and minutes later, it was so weakened that Annie could finish it off with a giant ice spear.
"Don’t you want to take the form of the squid?" Seraphina asked.
"Nah, I don’t think I can manage that many arms," Thalion retorted. He would also be much smaller since he would only be a squid at level 40, and he didn’t like squids that much in general.
"Okay, then let’s keep going," Seraphina urged them on.
It took some time until they found the next great beast. It was a giant crab, sitting on an even bigger crystal. On its shell, multiple corals grew, adorned with shiny blue pearls. The crab had built its own cultivation garden on its back. There were a lot of pearls on that crab, which was the size of a school bus, and its pincers could cut through steel without a problem.
Shellcrusher Crab Level 62
"Always stay behind that crab," Seraphina ordered. "These crabs are very dangerous and can shoot a jet stream of water that can cut you in half." The crab noticed them and instantly attacked, jumping off the pearl and sprinting toward them, as they were no longer underwater. Seraphina summoned a wall of ice in its path, while Annie dashed to the side, charging up a giant ice spear. The crab broke through the ice wall with ease. In the meantime, Seraphina dove below the crab, positioning herself underneath and shooting a giant water blade upward, but it barely pierced the thick shell. Thalion circled above the crab, uncertain of what to do, as he wasn’t sure if he could even bite through the shell covering its body. Thankfully, Seraphina kept the crab busy, shooting multiple water spells that slowly chipped away at the outer shell. The crab started to glow a bright blue and unleashed a water beam at Seraphina, who managed to twist out of the way. Realizing the danger, Thalion transformed into the shark again and bit down on the crab’s back. Most of his teeth broke on contact with the crab’s shell, and he barely escaped from the giant claw, only managing to get away by shifting back to human form and activating mistform to reappear above the crab. He unleashed a mana slash downward, then shifted back into a marlin and swam for his life. Luckily, the crab didn’t follow, as Seraphina and Annie used the distraction to fire charged water blades at it. Before Seraphina could cast more spells, she had to dodge a giant water beam that slammed into the crab, tearing it in half.
Thalion looked down and saw a watersnake approaching, but this beast was clearly a higher variant. The water seemed to flow along its blue scales. The snake was just six meters long, which wasn’t as large compared to the other beasts they had encountered in these depths, but it radiated pure power.
Tidecaller Serpent Level 61
"Focus up! That’s one of the strongest beasts in this area. They can unleash massive spells, but they’re not tanky. A good hit can deal lethal injuries," Seraphina shouted, her aura rising beyond anything she had displayed before, and the large crystal at the top of her staff began glowing with radiant blue light.
Thalion turned and dove down on the left side of the snake, while Annie and Seraphina kept their positions, casting powerful water magic at the serpent. The serpent darted to the side, dodging the spells with its slim body, making it difficult to hit. It opened its mouth and fired a water cutter at Annie, who managed to dodge, but the snake turned its head and cut her left arm clean off. Seraphina exploded with power, charging at the snake with a shockwave of water in front of her. The serpent countered by whipping its tail, sending an incredibly powerful water slash at Seraphina, completely annihilating her attack. Seraphina dodged at the last moment, firing multiple water beams at the snake, which created a water shield around its body. The shield held against all the attacks and only disappeared when the serpent fired another beam at Seraphina. Then, the attack stopped as a marlin pierced the head of the snake with its beak. Thalion had waited until the snake was distracted enough and sped at it from behind, piercing its head and killing it instantly—lucky for him, as the snake was stuck on his beak.
"Ah, shit, my arm!" Annie said through gritted teeth. "Do you have any healing skills?"
"Yes, where is your arm?" Seraphina asked, more calmly than expected after such an intense situation.
"We need to leave," Seraphina said while healing Annie’s arm. "The blood and mana will attract more beasts, and we don’t want to risk anything."
Thalion was more than fine with that. He discarded the shark form and took the form of the Tidecaller serpent. Maybe this was his lucky day. The serpent was a legendary beast, and without the help of Annie and Seraphina, he could only dream of acquiring such a powerful form.
