I don’t end up hunting for very long before something rather surprising happens though. Something that literally has me stopping in the middle of a battle against several piranha monsters. Allowing said monsters to go chomping on my arms and legs and torso with abandon.
Fortunately for me the things are all rather weak and can’t even get past my armor. So all I feel is some pressure in all the places they bite.
And I recover quickly enough to kill them simply by shapeshifting to grow tentacles that I then use to either devour the piranhas or crush them by wrapping around the things.
After that I find myself nodding in satisfaction after seeing the ID that appears in front of my face.
[Aqua Azuranth – Bloodline: Unknown – Level 42]
I at least managed to ditch the family name of that blubbery general. Which is likely infuriating that very same man right about now.
As for the Kraken side of my family? I don’t really feel upset with them, but at the same time, they’re strangers to me as of now.
Taking on their family name is fine since I don’t have a grudge against them. So I’m pretty much just thinking of this as using them to get rid of the Orcayne name.
Nothing more nothing less.
On another note, the chat is currently going absolutely wild at this new development. With some asking if there’s some sort of disagreement between me and the Orcayne family.
But I just stay silent on the subject as I don’t like drama.
And it’ll probably die down if I continue to stay silent.
As long as the Krakens don’t make a fuss that is.
Which I doubt they’ll do considering that the public believes they’re dead. And I’m assuming they probably won’t break out of that and announce their continued survival just to defame the Orcayne family.
They can’t be that petty, right?
Yeah, they wouldn’t be. The twenty four Bloodline families are all at the very top of the Alliance, so I can’t see them acting so petty as to come back just to publicly defame another Bloodline family. No matter how much they hate each other.
Even if it is the Kraken and Abyssal Orca families.
The two most powerful amongst the Bloodline families both due to the power of their Bloodlines and their having more Bloodliners than any other Bloodline currently active.
Unless some have died since I last heard, the Krakens should have a total of six Bloodliners. Meanwhile the Abyssal Orcas should have eight.
Despite the fact that most Bloodline families only have between one to three awakened Bloodliners at a time currently alive.
The reason for the Krakens is obvious. They live longer than other Bloodliners thanks to their Kraken Bloodline extending their lifespan almost indefinitely. Making it so they generally only die when killed, and not due to natural causes.
Plus there’s their regeneration in general making it difficult to kill them.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
So I believe the oldest living Kraken Bloodliner should be at least several thousand years old.
Actually, I think the blubbery general is around the same age as the Kraken patriarch now that I think about it. So they tend to live pretty long too.
Then again, most Bloodliners have long lifespans. It’s just that Krakens don’t actually die from old age while the others will eventually die of old age.
Still, Abyssal Orcas are often considered the apex predator of Bloodliners, with the exception of the Krakens. Since they can flood any area with water thanks to domain skills. And in the water they are far stronger than someone of the same level. Both in maneuverability and pure strength.
So it’s simply that no one can kill them.
And with how powerful the two families are, I highly doubt they’ll go fanning the flames to shame each other.
I nod my head firmly at that thought before finally continuing on through the tunnels of the mountain broken dungeon. Just killing any monsters I see along the way in a rather carefree manner.
There aren’t many strong ones here so far. Probably because I’m still too high in terms of ocean depth.
Maybe I should focus on heading downwards?
I don’t exactly have a map of these tunnels after all.
That thought makes me purse my lips before eventually shrugging.
Whatever. I’ll just hunt until I get to three hundred mana remaining. Then I can test out my new skill and head back to the city.
After deciding on a plan, I continue to hunt for about another hour before I stumble on a rather interesting looking cavern. One filled to the brim with eels.
And surprisingly enough, at the center of them all is one enormous eel sitting at level 46.
A few levels above me.
I glance at the other eels in the cavern to find them all between levels 35 to 40. With several of them being of adequate level for me to get REGEN stat points from them.
So after taking a deep breath, I go ahead and activate the skill at the center of the cavern. Only to feel an immense pull on my mana before the entire cavern begins to tremble.
Oh, wow. This is more showy than I expected.
Wait a second, how is this place even trembling? It’s a broken dungeon…
Then the ground in the center of the cavern begins to crack before numerous large tentacles around the same size but longer than the ones I summon with Abyssal Kraken’s Embrace emerge from it. But they’re all attached to a large central body-mouth thing.
Just a single massive and circular mouth with large rings of razor sharp fangs.
The mouth itself had a diameter of about five or so meters, and the tentacles are all tipped with claws and are rushing out to grab nearby eels.
And unlike the tentacles I summon, these tentacles seem stronger. Strong enough that they ignore the electricity that zaps them from the eels as they drag the eels down into the mouth.
All while a powerful suction force begins rushing straight into the mouth. Drawing everything in the cavern into it.
The large eel whose level is higher than my own tries to fight back, actually succeeding in electrocuting a couple tentacles that rush it to death. But it eventually gets overwhelmed by both the tentacles, the suction force, and the status effects it is currently under.
And it gets pulled down into the mouth to be shredded to bits by the razor sharp teeth that are all spinning in circles, with each row of teeth alternating direction.
Meanwhile I find myself floating here just watching all of this from the entrance. With the status effects obviously not affecting me, and the tentacles ignoring me.
Even the sucking force doesn’t seem to do anything to me somehow.
Yet despite it all, I just find one System Message after another appearing in my vision. Flooding it from all the eel kills.
Finishing it off with the big eel before the cavern begins to tremble again and the tentacles begin to go back into the ground along with the large mouth. With the cavern itself returning to its previous state.
Huh. So it didn’t actually damage it. More like it pushed it aside then returned it to normal afterwards.
I glance at the System Messages before smiling.
[You have killed a level forty-six Deep Blue Eel. EXP has been granted accordingly.]
[You have killed a creature underwater. Apex Predator of the Depths has been activated, increasing your REGEN stat by one.]
[Congratulations! You have now reached level 44! 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 45! Your total free points have increased by two, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.]
I give a firm nod of my head.
Then I realize a problem with the new skill. A big one.
I frown as I slowly swim through the place, just looking around at the empty cavern.
Right. That might be annoying.
There aren’t any corpses.
And no corpses means no money for hunting them.
That’s kind of disappointing.
I let out a sigh at that before turning around beginning to look for the way out of the mountain to head home. Only to realize I have no idea where I am.
“Uh, chat, any chance you remember the way out?” I awkwardly ask while scratching the back of my head.