Chapter 178: Vesselforging
The safe room is a pretty place. It matches the theme of the spire - this one, namely, is faintly water-aligned and seems to generally prefer wet environments. So, its safe rooms are beaches. Very calm, sunny beaches, with lots of sand leading up to faint ocean waves. There’s a single palm tree in its centre.
A single tree with eleven coconuts growing on it.
“Hm,” I hum, looking at the tree. Slowly, I walk closer. Safe rooms are finnicks - according to the little pamphlet Elli gave us, killing in them incurs the Monolith’s Ire. Which is kind of like the Tower’s Wrath but on a smaller scale. It just makes everything in the monolith harder and more miserable. Same goes for not having the “correct” amount of party members.
Of course, monoliths also have a growth and recovery mechanism included - otherwise, climbing without a healer would be death. Now, of course, the church of Respitia still makes a lot of money by renting out healers to people climbing the monos, but it’s not impossible to reach the top without them. Because of safe-rooms.
With smooth steps, I walk up to the tree, and hold out a hand.
“No way this works,” Opal snarks.
“Watch,” I say simply. Another moment passes, and then, one of the coconuts falls. It even slows down faintly before touching my fingers, letting me easily catch it.
Opal’s jaw drops open. “That’s way too cool,” they say. They [Blink] next to me, stretching out their hands. The coconut falls, and Sylves makes it smack into their forehead with a quick application of wind. Then, Opal catches the fruit.
For a moment, they stare at it in indignation. Then they look at Sylves, and both of them laugh. It’s nice, and I smile.
Then, I sit down in the sand. I lean my back against the palm tree, feeling its rough husk against my back, though muffled by the layers of fabric - and Kuro, of course. I turn the fruit in my hands, then poke at it with my mana. In an instant, I crack it open - and find a second, smaller coconut inside.
Of course, I know who it belongs to. With a gentle motion, I press it up against my cloak, and Kuro swiftly devours the sweet treat. A small shudder runs through my cloak, and the darkness in it grows a little deeper, as the power suffuses them.
This is the reward for climbing a floor in a monolith. A permanent enhancement to one’s base. The coconuts will make me think faster, improve my vessel, my heart, my power, everything. They’ll make me intake essence more easily, let me control mana more easily, enhance any future upgrades I get, and even increase the base power of my skills.
It’s a tiny increase, since it’s so universal - and also slightly impacted by a mono’s affinity - but it’s there. Kuro felt it, just now.
Also, they have a healing effect.
Now, of course, if I were a smart person, then perhaps, I would simply accept that I don’t need healing. I’m in good shape. Entirely okay, really. I’m not injured, and surely there’s no injury rapidly approaching my location. If I were smart, I’d simply eat this, enjoy the boosts, and keep climbing with a reasonable stat distribution that doesn’t threaten to blow me up.
A thin smile spreads on my lips. “Hey Inu?” I ask quietly.
The girl turns to me, between bites from her own coconut, and tilts her head, black hair framing her face. “Mh?” she hums, her mouth full.
“Disconnect your [Empathy] from me. This’ll hurt.”
Her eyes narrow, and she’s about to argue, when she catches my eyes. A single heartbeat passes, and I feel that passive connection fade away. Then, I turn inwards.
My mana suffuses my vessel. There’s a ton of it, enough to break my vessel entirely if not for my attunement loop. It’s a torrent of power, far, far greater than anyone at my level should have, and it’s a chore to even control. It wants to be free, to tear me to pieces and escape into the surroundings.
But I refuse to let it.
Instead, I take that absolute horrific torrent of mana, and pour all of it, every single drop, into the walls of my vessel.
[Vessel Construction 11 > 12]
A heartbeat later, a million tiny cracks spread through that ethereal organ, and I wrestle my mana into the cracks. They mend. Then it breaks again. Then it heals. Then it breaks again.
Within a minute, I’ve cracked and healed my vessel a dozen times over. Blood pours from my skin, where leftover mana ravaged my insides. Lacerations cover my muscles, blood pools beneath my skin. Everything hurts, every part of me is in pain.
I shatter my vessel again. Then I suffuse it with mana. Then I shatter it.
My ribs crack, my mana trying to tear out of my chest. My skin cracks like cobblestone, fissures arcing across it like lightning. My vessel fills with mana. It heals.
Then I shatter it again.
[Vessel Construction 12 > 13]
[The Vesselmaker watches you with horror… and fascination.]
I take my first bite of the coconut.
Healing power pours into me, mending my cracked skin, my broken bones, making blood return into my veins and arteries. My body stitches itself back together, into a fleshy cage for my mana.
I shatter my vessel again.
Mana pours into my bones, into the spaces that just healed, and ruins my insides again. I cough up blood, leaning forward to keep my shirt clean as I stain the sand red. Mana pours into my vessel, stitching it up. There’s so much of it, and by now, the construct is made almost entirely from my mana.
What used to be thin, malleable cracks lining a rigid structure has turned into a strange composite of crystalline power. I stitch back the pieces of my vessel, a material that I cannot recreate, naturally made by my body, and now so full of my mana it’s incredible. It brims with it, and all at once, I squeeze it with my mind.
The lattice I applied through it has broken. The multi-faceted dispersion thing I wove has shattered. My mana strains to escape its cage, but more and more of it pours into the vessel, as I hit a tipping point. I’m spending mana faster than it can try to escape. My vessel suddenly drinks it up like a black hole.
[Vessel Construction 13 > 14]
[Staring at your audacity, the Vesselmaker has no choice but to laugh. And watch on.]
Voyeur. They should pay me for the show.
Blood streams so steadily from my eyes they might as well be wounds. My insides are a ragged mess. I take another bite. And then, I let the dam break.
[Class up! Vesselsmith 6 > 9]
[Job up! Core Controller 7 > 9]
[Level Up! 83 > 85]
Instantly, all my points go into more mana. More mana, always more mana.
Vessel: 497 > 530 - Abiding Apathy
I smash through the next threshold. Crossing 250 increased my mana to a horrible amount, and this is even worse than that. So much mana pours into me, it’s enough to completely tear my body to shreds. Enough that I should explode into a blood smear on the spot. And yet, I smile.
My vessel, shattered, ruined, soaked in mana, drinks deeply. It becomes so malleable. My blood boils to heat the vessel, my body ignites itself to turn it as malleable as possible. It expands, it grows, the terrifying pressure turned into a crucible.
If I had been reasonable, the pain should have made me quit here. It doesn’t. I take another bite of the coconut.
My injuries stitch themselves back up. My blood refills - then boils again. Heat suffuses me and my vessel grows. Mana pours into its walls, turning them denser, fusing into them, building semi-organic support structures. It’s brutal, but it’s also powerful.
I take another bite, then focus. More and more and even more mana pushes into my vessel, suffusing the ethereal organ, reading it for more forging. And my will combines with the pressure, stretching it out, cracking it. Mana fills the gaps, keeping the walls uniform even as it grows, letting me contain even more in the future.
Another bite, and the fruit disappears in my hands. My blood boils so hot I feel my skin blistering. And still, I live. I survive. I smile, and I fricken thrive.
My vessel grows. I’m out of healing, so in a simple move, I pour every single bit of mana I have into tempering. All at once, instead of suffusing it, the mana curls around the walls, creating a second layer. The vessel burns so hot, it easily alloys with the mana, already so filled with it.
[Solidification 26 > 27]
My mana turns fully solid, organic, and into a permanent structure - just the same as my vessel usually is. The brutal torrent from the ascension past another threshold finally, finally stops.
Still, my blood boils. The heat remains. I let myself fall forwards, Kuro forming a mask to keep the sand out of my face - and drinking the blood that endlessly pours from me. I bury myself half-heartedly in the sand, letting it cool my skin. I try to speak, but my voice is muffled, ragged.
I have no mana. But luckily, Jean is there. His healing spell wraps gently around me, keeping my body together as it cools down. Slowly, terribly slowly, giving the mana-vessel alloying-fusion thing I did time to cool down. Bit by bit, it crystallizes, forming a solid, permanent structure.
Then, my mana regeneration kicks in - and I hastily apply my attunement loop. A ragged, choked laugh bubbles from my throat, accompanied by more blood pouring into the sand. Even after this, after everything I did to make my vessel stronger…
It still isn’t strong enough to hold the mana that comes with the threshold. I would still shatter and break without the attunement loop. But despite that, a grin spreads on my face.
Because as long as I have mana, I can wreck every other skill and spell. As long as I have mana, I can protect my friends, I can learn more, I can indulge my curiosity, and I can use every drop of it efficiently.
And now? Now I have mana for days.
With that final, happy thought, I black out.
Chapter 179: Breather
“So… do we just like, leave them there?” Opal asks, pointing at me in the dirt. It must’ve been only about fifteen minutes of me being passed out. Every single bone in my body hurts. Every single muscle hurts. I can feel bruises all over me.
Sylves, very gently, pokes me, and when I let out a groan, she gasps. “Oh, I think Snow’s awake! Wowa, you sure lost a lot of blood, there. Are you alright?”
Very, very slowly, I manage to give a single thumbs up. My entire body protests in pain. I think I can hear my bones grinding against each other. It’s like someone filled all my joints up with chalk powder. Everything feels stiff and horrible.
Inu kneels next to me, inspecting me with a small frown. “You really have to stop working yourself to death,” she says.
I open my mouth to reply, only for more blood to pool against Kuro, who greedily drinks it up. Which would be disturbing, if it didn’t also leave me clean and dry. Which, like, entirely worth it. It does, however, stop me from replying.
Sighing softly, Thatch flips me around, now that I’m no longer at risk of choking on my own blood. His touch is careful and gentle, as if he’s afraid he’ll hurt me in my fragile state. And my bones do feel a little like glass.
However, in those fifteen minutes, I’ve regenerated what is about a quarter of my previous maximum mana. And right now, it’s not even scratching the surface of what I can hold. I smile, and am glad for the mask hiding my grimace of bloody teeth. I take a moment to drink some water from my refilling phial, rinsing my mouth, and swallowing some.
Then, finally, I speak. “My insides are a bit of a mess,” I admit. “But it was worth it.”
Inu stares at me, full of suspicion. “Uh-huh. Was it now?” she asks.
I nod, confidently. “Yes. I’m now good to go until my mana crosses a thousand.”
“What did you even do?” she asks.
“Completely reforge my vessel,” I reply, taking another sip.
Trey raises a hand, as if nervous to ask a question. I turn to him, and he flinches for a second. I blink in confusion, then frown and wipe the dried blood from around my eyes. “Sorry for scaring you,” I say. “You wanted to ask something?”
He nods, bravely, then wagers. “What does reforging your vessel mean?”
Smiling softly, I answer. “It means I broke it, then filled the gaps with mana, alloyed that mana into my vessel’s walls until it was saturated, heated it by boiling my blood, pressed against it from the inside with my own mana, expanded it, mended the new cracks, and then restored it to proper thickness by alloying more mana with it.”
“What?” Isabelle tries.
Trey, however, looks horrified. “You cracked your vessel?!” he asks, scared. “Why would you do that?”
Oh right. That had kept him bedridden for the last couple years of his life. “I fixed it for you, didn’t I? So I can fix it for myself even easier,” I reply.
At that, he freezed, then nods. “Did… your experience with mine help?” he asks.
“Yep,” I say simply. “It helped a lot. Thank you, Trey.”
For a bit, his lips open and close. Anna looks at me with suspicion, probably thinking I must’ve been less than charitable. The truth is, I did learn some things, but nothing that big. It was more helpful for my job, rather than my class, really. But that’s fine. I don’t need them to worship me.
I helped them because it was the right thing to do. It cost me almost nothing, and it gave them a lot. That’s why they’re along, too. I get a small benefit, they get a big one. Why not bring them?
Ignoring those troublesome things, I close my eyes and focus. “Jean, could you heal me some more?” I ask. “My mana is still low.”
This is true. My mana is low. It’s also about thrice as much mana as the boy has, total. But it’s the truth. Sylves does give me a smirk, and Thatch rolls his eyes at me - both of them can tell, after all. But neither says something as the kid approaches me.
Healing mana pours over me, and through me. There’s a lot still to be learned from his skill, and I’ve grown a lot better at dissecting them. So, I watch.
[Annexation 5 > 6]
Without too much trouble, his entire spell-pattern is locked into my archive and memory. Since it acts inside of me, it’s easier to observe, and I don’t even have to do the invasive thing we tried last time. Annexation is just a far more powerful skill.
Breathing in relief as Jean’s spell washes over me, I smile. “Thanks,” I tell him.
The boy looks at me for a long, quiet moment. Then, he just nods. “It’s okay. We’re friends.”
“Are we?” I ask, tilting my head.
Jean gives me a smug grin in the way only kids can. “I decided it. You’re my friend, Snow.”
What a brave kid. I shrug, then sigh softly. “I can’t stop you from liking me, I suppose.”
That’s only half a lie. I could, of course, but then again, it’s not a problem for people to like me. It’s a problem when they have unfair expectations of me, and right now, I don’t think Jean has those. He expects me to help him if it costs me nothing, and I’m fine with that, really.
I did save him, after all. In a way. In a selfish way. Obviously I only did so to set up a healing scam and run Raven for all they’re worth. Surely.
A soft sigh leaves my lips, as everyone else lays down in the safe room. Opal steps towards the water, stepping slightly into it. They don’t take off their boots, though. In fact, they hardly ever do so. Opal is firmly in the camp of people who hate being seen.
Sylves is the opposite. Getting her to wear shoes is harder than the opposite. She, for her part, smiles at me. “I’m glad you’re healthy, Snow,” she says. A moment later, she floats into the air. “Now that I’ve confirmed this truth-” the magic in her words makes me heal just a hint faster, “I will enjoy my time at this beach.”
Then she drifts away on a gust of wind, leaving me laying in the sand, bleeding and dirty. I smile happily, dragging myself up and leaning against the tree. “How were the coconuts?” I ask. “I didn’t taste much other than my own blood.”
“Delicious,” Thatch provides helpfully. “I’m looking forward to the next. I feel more solid.”
I nod at his words. That feeling is one I have, too. Despite everything, despite how ragged my body is, I can feel it too. My vessel is strong, right now. But even more than that, my entire body feels just a bit better than it ever did.
If I were fully healed, I’d stretch. But with my muscles still in shambles, I decide it’s a bad idea, and instead just settle for enjoying the sensation. I can feel that it even made pain a little easier to endure, all the little stings bothering me less than before.
Maybe, since my “base” has been upgraded, the injuries are just a little less “significant” in comparison? How strange. I’m curious how they work, and I wish I’d taken a better look. But, then again, the tower would have penalized me, probably. I sigh softly at that, and call up a specific line of my status.
Floor: 5 (Downpour) - 1
The second number is new. It’s there because I’ve climbed up one floor in monoliths, total. Minor monoliths have ten floors. Every single number there implies an improvement to the basic capabilities of myself.
I sigh softly, then close my eyes, letting the sun warm it, feeling the sand against my fingers. Some is stuck to my face, but I make Kuro brush it off, keeping me clean from all my mistakes. The dry blood flakes away, the sand falls off, and I brush my clothes clean.
For a few minutes, I simply enjoy the feeling of the sun, and watch my friends fool around in the water and the sand. It’s beautiful. Hearing them laugh, seeing them smile, seeing the way they feel safe. I smile, happily, and breathe it in.
Bofoy sits down next to me. They don’t say anything, just sit. Their eyes drift over the entrance, over their own hands, over the portals to the next floors. But they don’t speak, and I appreciate that.
Eventually, I heal myself. Eventually, Richard sets up a small campfire and a cooking pot. We sit at the campfire, the fake sky in the safe room turning to dusk. We cook dried vegetables, making a soup from them. We roast things that are decidedly not-quite-marshmallows. It’s calm, and it’s nice.
And then, after a while, it comes to an end.
I lay on my bedroll on the sand, staring at an open sky, one hand underneath my head, the other on my ribcage. I feel my heart beat under it. They way mana flows through me. My own breath going in and out. I let myself feel alive.
Then I close my eyes and fall asleep.
- - -
What wakes me up should, reasonably, have been the sun. It isn’t. I open my eyes, to find Inu there, crouched next to me. Her dark hair tickles my nose, and my eyes flutter open. Hers meet mine, and I tilt my head.
She brings up her hands into my field of view, signing. “You. Want. Die?” And, going along, she mouths the words. “Do you wanna die?”
I tilt my head a bit more, then shake it. “No.” I sign and subvocalize.
Inu stares at me for a long moment, then smiles. It’s brighter than the sun ever could have been. Then she nods. “Good,” she signs, her lips moving in tandem. Then, she keeps staring at me, for a few moments.
Very gently, I bring my hand up, and brush her hair out of my face. She snickers at that, struggling to hold back a laugh. I reach out, and boop her nose, then slowly rise from my bedroll. She quickly signs, then reaches for my hand. “Walk.” She raises her eyebrows to indicate it being a question.
With a short nod, I take her offered hand, and walk. Along the beach. It’s lucky my right arm is missing - since she holds my left, she’s closer to the beach. My shoes stay delightfully dry, while Inu’s pants soak, just a bit. Not that she seems to mind.
For a long while, we just walk. Inu hums to herself, watching the sun rise over the horizon, and when we turn around, we stop holding hands. Mainly because she’s still closer to the ocean, and I lack an arm on my other side. Inu will forgive me, I’m sure.
During the walk, I don’t use mana. When we come back, Sylves is the only one up. She floats up as we come closer, and waves. Then, two quick blasts of air smack Opal and Thatch in the face - completely harmless, but waking the both of them up. They stir, then look at Sylves, and Opal just about opens their mouth when the fairy lays a finger on her lips.
Instantly, they all fall quiet. Their eyes turn to me and Inu, and Opal grins happily. Thatch smiles. Sylves hovers down from her position in the air, and her mana turns off. For a long, shared moment, we’re almost mundane. We sign to each other, speaking with gestures. Sylves and I have to improvise a lot, and sometimes mouth words multiple times to get their meaning across, but we make it work.
And they gift me, perhaps, the most beautiful hour in recent memory.
It’s so, so wonderfully quiet.
Until, of course, the others stir. When the sun fully crests the horizon, the day begins in earnest. We all stop our self-imposed limiters. I cast a healing spell with half my current mana pool, and it washes over me like a tidal wave. It feels a bit like drinking a whole palette of energy drinks. My heart flutters for a moment.
Then, the jitters rapidly fade, and my flesh knits itself together. The remaining pains from my little experiment vanish. I breathe in, and out. Then I inspect the portals.
The left one, leading to a beach much like this one - except with monsters coming from the seas. The middle, portraying a fully submerged shipwreck. And finally, to the right, more salt. Salt flats, in fact, with ravines where water once flowed.
To me, the choice seems pretty obvious. I can’t breathe underwater - yet - and neither can any of the others. And the salt flats just seem worse, especially if we’re being chased. Time seems to work a little wonky in the safe-rooms, but I’m sure we won’t be on our own for forever.
So, the beach it is. A simple, straightforward level.
Chapter 180: Swarm
A tuna-faced man walks from the ocean.
It’s a bit of a bizarre thing to see, someone coated in seaweed, with a fish-face, covered in scale, holding a spear with a tip made from bronze. Then he charges at me.
A moment later, his legs disintegrate.
[Deconstruction 23 > 24]
“Ow,” I say, feeling the way my mana burnt its way through me. I’m not yet used to having so much of it, so I overfilled the spell a bit. Oops. I cast another heal, stitching my body back together, as Richard hands me a cereal bar. She made them herself, using some syrup she bought back in the city. They’re nice.
One of the fish-people coats their spear in lightning, which I very rapidly put a stop to.
[Class up! Vesselsmith 9 > 10]
Another five points trickle into my vessel stat, enhancing my already monstrous amount of mana. I breathe, then shatter another spell cast towards us. [Annexation] picks up the pieces, feeding them to my memory and, in turn, my mantle. Tiny pieces of essence flood me.
Soon, maybe I’ll learn to charge my own headphones.
But for now, I really need Bay to come up here already.
“Snow, a little help?” Anna yells. I look over to find her in a one-on-one with an especially big fish guy, swinging a claymore, forcing the girl to consistently retreat. I stretch out my hand, casting [Suppression], and instantly he slows down.
Again, my mana charrs my insides just a little, more of it pouring through me than my frail form can handle. I frown, reinforcing my attunement loop to keep it under control. My control is lacking, but it’s nothing a bit of practice can’t fix. To do just that, I summon a dozen needles, floating around me.
The constructs themselves are simple, the solidified mana coming easily, especially after breaking the second threshold on [Solidification]. But controlling all of them is mentally taxing. Nevertheless, I send them into the fight like a swarm of angry, anti-magic bees.
We mop up the rest of the fish-people rather quickly. Richard takes a few bites from the bodies, and still, I’m not quite sure how she fights. She mostly seems to spit attacks used against her back and rely on her physical body. Which is… remarkably strong, to be honest. She moves very fast, and hits rather hard.
“Richard?” I ask.
“Mh?” she asks, mouth full.
“Do you want a knife? Or, like, four?”
Her eyes light up, all six of them. The little blue alien nods very quickly, chelicerae twitching at her excitement. “I will take many knives. Burning ones.”
I smile at her, and nod. “Sure. If we find any, I’ll happily enchant them for you. Otherwise, we’ll have to buy ones on the outside.”
“No problem,” Richard says, that same glint in her eyes. “I will find knives I enjoy.”
And with that, we walk on.
- - -
This floor really is a lot simpler. The enemies, made to be such by this minor monolith, always crawl from the water. They’re usually around level 30, with some champions reaching the 60s. But the champions are easy to pick out, since they’re the only ones casting proper skills.
Isn’t that a strange thought? These monsters seem a lot stronger than their levels would make me assume. They’re tough, and fast, and hit hard. But they often don’t cast skills - or only very instinctual ones. Maybe some of them have [Bite] or [Cut] or something, but if so, they’re not very creative with them.
Which, well, is kind of expected. Shame, though, because deconstructing skills is one of my ways of earning essence. I guess my best work is still as an anti-person special weapon. Weird thought, that.
But I disregard it as we walk further along the beach, occasionally drinking from my refilling phial. I’ve still not figured out the enchantments on that item. They’re extraordinarily clever, and even after breaking another one, I’m not done. Hopefully, I can… legally acquire some more, soon.
I look behind me, towards where we entered the floor. Just in case.
A few minutes later, Sylves nods. “They’re here!” she says, hovering high in the sky. She free falls downward for a few seconds, before catching herself with a spiral of wind, her dress and hair fluttering. “I can’t tell who it is - aside from Raven. Raven’s obvious. Big edgy feather-coat.”
“As we expected, then,” Opal says with a small grin. “Wish we could leave some landmines for them.”
Shaking my head gently, I reply. “We don’t wanna give away that I’m not actually a shadow-mage.”
“Fair. Can I go stab ‘em, tho?” Opal asks in response.
Thatch is the one to calm them down, pulling at their coat. “Eyes forward, heroine,” he says. “We’ll look for a better chance.”
“An ambush?” Bofoy asks, then smiles faintly. “How devious.”
The zoof seems rather pleased at the notion though. Hm. I shoot one of my mana-needles off into the distance, stabbing into a fish-guy before they even leave the ocean, their mana brushing against the edges of my [Observation]. Since I have mana to spare, I make more and more needles, ensuring that I’m always a little underneath topped up. To efficiently use my regeneration, and all that.
By now there’s a swarm of them hanging around me. Whenever I have focus to spare, I try to manipulate them, adding additional mana. By now, some of the needles are slowly growing into flying spears. At the same time, they disintegrate into ambient mana - held together by my will, and with me patching up their flaws consistently.
Still, I do feel really awesome. Shooting needles and lances at enemies the others can’t even see yet, having a swarm of projectiles hovering around me… it’s really dang cool.
Opal has a sword, Inu gets armor, Sylves gets to be a faerie, and Thatch has the pseudo-shapeshifting thing going. In a way, all of those are pretty cool. But I think I’m the coolest, still.
“Nah, I’m way more awesome,” Opal says from next to me. I stare at them, and they just grin. “What? It was written all over your face.”
“It really, really wasn’t,” Anna says, her own lips pressed into a tight line. She glares at Opal, who just tilts their head in response, confused. Then, the girl turns away with a stomp, heading to fight the fish-people I haven’t stabbed yet.
- - -
Come evening, Bofoy informs us that they’ve found the way to the next floor. It’s on a little island, just off the coast, and when Thatch narrows his eyes, staring ahead, he nods and confirms it. So, in a very reasonable scenario that is not at all excessive, I use an entirely normal amount of mana to make a small boat.
Okay. Calling it a boat is very generous. It’s… a vessel. It has the very rough shape of a boat, a narrow front and a wide back. But it’s also a lot more smooth than a real boat, without any seats, ridges, or anything fancy like that. And it’s disintegrating quickly, so it takes a chunk of mana to maintain, especially when I take a seat in it.
An entirely reasonable bit of mana, that doesn’t at all burn my insides a bit. Trey looks down at the ocean through it, the brave boy being one of the first to sit down in it. I see the hair on the back of his neck rise as he looks through the translucent bottom of the boat. “Okay, that’s a little scary,” he admits quietly.
Not too long after, everyone else joins us in the vessel. Opal smirks, even as they and Inu are assigned rowing duty. Opal shifts their sword into a somewhat suitable shape, and Inu punches the water, generating momentum-vortices or something like that. Slowly but surely, we begin to crawl forward.
And we even make it half way before a very large, very hungry flesh-eating whale slams into the bottom of the boat, cracking it in half, sending us into the wet darkness. Except, of course, Sylves, who quickly saves Trey and Anna as well, lifting them into the air.
“Why not m-”
I don’t get to finish the sentence. The rest of the words turn to bubbles as I fall into the water.