Aqua

  The next morning at the Cryaxis Ocean’s Hunter’s City, I go through my usual morning routine before heading to my jobs for the day. Which starts with a job that a lot of people in the chat have been wanting to see.

  A photoshoot involving me just swimming underwater wearing my current armor with my abyssal servants summoned around me.

  Even the dead maw.

  As for the pictures themselves?

  The main one has me with the dead maw in the background. Just faintly visible behind me.

  All with the other abyssal servants eyes glowing in the dark of the water.

  Overall, I’d say the photoshoot ends up going very well. And it’s in a different image than a lot of my other photoshoots.

  After all, most of my photoshoots end up being to advertise stuff. Like clothes and items and the like.

  So a lot of them are in different casual or nice looking clothes, dresses, and even some swimsuits and diving gear.

  It’s a nice change of pace.

  And this isn’t the only photoshoot like this. I end up doing more shoots just like it, along with some scenes for a drama involving my abyssal servants.

  I even get some jobs asking for just my abyssal servants. Since they make for great monsters in videos and the like.

  Some people have me use the abyssal servants for tv shows and movie scenes, and others have me summon them for their music videos. For scenes like a hero in a music video fighting against a swarm of monsters.

  Overall, my abyssal servants are making me a lot of money.

  Which is nice.

  And after my jobs for the day, I head out to the deeper layers of the Cryaxis ocean to hunt stronger monsters. Ones that will give me levels and REGEN stat points.

  As for the ones I target in particular?

  I go for the ones that have minions. Either monsters they summon or just monsters that gather around them.

  Like a massive ice whale that has hundreds of little fish swimming around it.

  I slaughter the fish by the masses while gathering REGEN stat points. Then I kill the ice whale itself.

  And the entire process is rather easy thanks to the dead maw.

  I just have to push all the fish down into the maw while it’s sinking in the water. Killing them all in a single gulp.

  The only problem with doing that is that I don’t get the chance to extract their blueprints when they’re eaten.

  As for the ice whale itself? I kill that one personally.

  Then I extract its blueprint on the fourth try. Getting it as an addition to my forces.

  A rather useful addition at that since the monster naturally releases cold energy into the water around it. Rapidly dropping the temperature around it in the process.

  The ice whale is also level two hundred, and when I kill it along with its minions, I get quite a few levels myself.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  A smile stretches across my face as I swim through the ocean in the direction of the next large target pointed out to me by the Hunter’s Guild, just looking at the message in front of me confirming the final results of the ice whale hunt.

  [Congratulations! You have now reached level 189! As the current First Ranker of Oceana, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

  [Congratulations! You have now reached level 190! As the current First Ranker of Dartric, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

  [Congratulations! You have now reached level 191! As the current First Ranker of Oceana, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

  [Congratulations! You have now reached level 192! As the current First Ranker of Dartric, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

  [Congratulations! You have now reached level 193! As the current First Ranker of Oceana, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

  [Congratulations! You have now reached level 194! As the current First Ranker of Dartric, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

  [Congratulations! You have now reached level 195! As the current First Ranker of Oceana, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

  [Congratulations! You have now reached level 196! As the current First Ranker of Dartric, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]

  [You have killed a creature underwater. Apex Predator of the Depths has been activated, increasing your REGEN stat by one.] x461

  My next hunt should bring me to level two hundred.

  Probably.

  Hopefully.

  And when I hit level two hundred, I’ll finally get another skill again.

  It’s rather disheartening how quickly skills end up drying up in how often they’re given out. Going from one every five levels, to every ten levels, to every twenty five levels, to every fifty. And so on.

  When I get my next trait at level three hundred, I’ll only be getting a skill once every one hundred levels.

  And that will be brutal. Waiting every one hundred levels for a single new skill.

  Then there’s the next trait level after that.

  Level five hundred.

  Where it becomes one skill every two hundred and fifty levels.

  And then the level one thousand trait, where it becomes one skill every five hundred levels.

  It reaches the point where skills are nearly as uncommon as traits.

  I let out a sigh at that thought while dearly missing the times when I would get skills on a regular basis.

  Still. At least my skills are all incredibly powerful.

  Like Abyssal Ruler.

  My smile grows a little at that thought.

  Abyssal Ruler is still by far the strongest skill I’ve ever gotten. And it honestly makes me more curious about the Abyssal Kraken.

  Not to mention makes me want to know more about what skills the Abyssal Kraken has.

  I’ve actually heard a little bit about it already from my Kraken Bloodliner grandfather. Specifically some of the things depicted on the murals in the Abyss. Along with a few things they saw those large tentacles doing in the Abyss.

  Of course, there’s the obvious things they’ve seen it do. Like Abyssal Ruler with its abyssal servants, and its Domain that is likely the entire Abyss itself.

  But they’ve also seen the thing’s tentacles emitting mana into the surroundings. With that mana itself forming the monsters in the Abyss.

  Now whether the Abyssal Kraken can actually control those monsters or not is a different question. But I do know that it needs an enormous amount of mana to be able to emit it like that.

  Especially to emit enough mana to form monsters from it.

  And even more to form monsters whose levels are in the several tens of thousands.

  Which likely means that the Abyssal Kraken either has a mage skill increasing its mana, it’s an enormously high level, or both.

  Likely both.

  Regardless, it shows my potential for the future.

  On top of that, the Bloodliners also saw signs of the Abyssal Kraken draining power from the Ancient Monsters it’s imprisoning.

  So I might get a power draining type of skill in the future as well.

  That also explains one potential reason for why the Abyssal Kraken might want to imprison them.

  To use them as batteries.

  The only thing I’m still strongly curious about the Abyssal Kraken right now is just how intelligent it is.

  After all, like two or three known Ancient Monsters have levels of intelligence comparable to humans. Meanwhile most of them are only at the level of a smart animal. One that can’t really communicate well with others but can at least understand things that are happening and might be able to communicate a little.

  So where does the Abyssal Kraken land on that spectrum?

  And is it even an Ancient Monster?

  Or is it something worse?

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