I Became an Evolving Deep-Sea Creature-Chapter 28

Chapter 28. Javarel
Being an orca practitioner was a profession impossible without a touch of madness.
Spending the entire day staring at a wall in meditation—how could one not go insane?
The unsolved mysteries of the stone tablet.
Letters that could not be read.
The pressure of having to achieve Ascension.
Practitioners, by their very nature, gained access to the secrets of the Mantras and could wield far more of them than most professions. Yet the majority of them grew eccentric, unstable, or outright deranged.
For this reason, becoming a practitioner among orcas was extremely rare. When young orcas announced they wished to become one upon reaching adulthood, their families almost always tried to stop them.
Those who succumbed to the temptation of Ascension often crossed a line they could never return from.
Among them, Ogh of the Rising Tide was considered one of the more “sane” practitioners.
But that, in turn, made him even more dangerous.
He held firm convictions, and his twisted personality meant he would do anything to uphold them.
Among the Ascensionist orcas, Ogh was one of the worst—positioned at the most extreme end of the spectrum.
Having obtained a special relic, Ogh engraved numerous Mantra tattoos across his body.
Among them was one known as the Mantra of Truth, said to distinguish between truth and falsehood.
Several months ago, Ogh had approached Yul—and since then, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Yul knew something.
He asked him about the stone tablet—and through his Mantra, detected a clear reaction of deceit.
From that moment on, Ogh resolved to “deal with” Yul.
‘He’s protected by the Matriarch in the village, but outside of it, things will be different.’
As a Patroller, Yul was free to roam the seas—but that freedom came with exposure to danger.
‘Time to start separating these guys from him.’
Ogh looked around. Near the stone tablet, there were always Traditionalist orcas watching.
Most practitioners belonged to the Ascensionists, so surveillance from the Traditionalists was only natural.
Ogh of the Rising Tide was well aware he was being watched.
He cast the Mantra of Illusion, showing them what they wanted to see, and slipped out of the village unnoticed.
He pursued Yul, who had become a Patroller, but Yul disappeared too quickly—his trail was impossible to follow.
So Ogh decided to wait for him at his northwestern border post, knowing Yul would eventually return.
‘There you are. I knew it.’
Through his sensory organs, he detected an orca scattering ultrasonic waves in wide arcs as it patrolled the waters. It was Yul.
Ogh had no intention of making direct contact right away.
He was cautious by nature and preferred slow, safe solutions to dangerous, impulsive ones.
‘No need to fight him from the start. Let’s wait for the right moment.’
Being appointed a Patroller meant Yul possessed substantial combat capability.
Sure, Ogh could overpower him using his Mantras—but there was no point in confronting a skilled warrior head-on.
Besides, killing Yul would yield nothing but fat and flesh. What Ogh wanted was the information on the stone tablet.
So he came up with a plan. This area was very close to the border of the Turtle Kingdom.
And whether turtle or orca, crossing the border unintentionally was not uncommon—whether during a hunt or some other accident.
Whatever the cause, this kind of border incident would serve as the perfect excuse to approach Yul on friendly terms.
‘Alright then, I’ll cross into the Turtle Kingdom. Maybe I’ll drive some Turtle Knights this way.’
Maintaining his Mantra of Illusion, Ogh crossed into Turtle territory.
Several knights swam past him, but hidden by illusion, Ogh slipped past them effortlessly.
He entered the kingdom, wandered about, and gathered information—until he decided to adjust his plan.
‘Hmm. A mining engineer ran away because of low wages?’
A turtle wearing glasses was on the run.
‘And there are pursuers.’
Behind the fleeing turtle came several pursuers. Ogh discreetly helped the fugitive escape bit by bit—while simultaneously guiding his path toward the Orca Tribe territory.
-Tch, slippery bastard!
-After him!
The fugitive narrowly escaped capture again and again, and soon the number of pursuers increased—from one to four.
-What’s going on?
-Sir Knights! Please, help us catch that criminal!
‘So even the Turtle Knights are getting involved? Perfect. This’ll make quite the surprise.’
Ogh’s plan was simple. First, send the turtles into Yul’s patrol zone. Then, once Yul found himself outnumbered and in danger, Ogh would appear to “help” him.
‘Approach him favorably first. Then, gradually, I’ll draw out everything he knows.’
Finally, as he confirmed the confrontation between Yul and the turtles near the border, Ogh began to move—slowly and silently.
* * *
Yul gave the turtles crossing the border a second warning.
-That’s far enough! From here on, this is Orca Tribe territory! I am Yul, Patroller of the Orca Tribe!
The first warning had been through a magic signal, and the second through Transmission of Thoughts.
But they ignored both.
-Spare meeeeee!
-Stop right there! How far do you think you can run?!
Guess I’ll have to use force, then.
Yul immediately surged forward to intercept them.
The pursuers consisted of two turtles whose shells had hardened like metal and two ordinary ones.
‘So, a mix of Turtle Knights and regular turtles?’
The fugitive turtle, wearing glasses, looked like an ordinary turtle otherwise.
Using both ultrasonic waves and Transmission of Thoughts, Yul sent out a powerful warning.
-Leave this area now, or I’ll attack. You’ve just trespassed into the Orca Tribe territory.
Apparently, a warning given face-to-face was harder to ignore—the turtles emitted a burst of magic in response.
-A Patroller, huh? Just our rotten luck. Anyway, we’re chasing a criminal who fled our kingdom! It’s none of your business!
-Is that so? Then the negotiation is broken.
Yul invoked the Horn of the Sea King, summoning a powerful current that crashed toward them.
-Activate the Mantra of Flesh!
-Mantra of Flesh!!
The turtles clad in metal armor bulked up, thick cords of muscle swelling beneath their shells as their bodies grew larger.
But Yul now was nothing like the Yul from his jelly octopus days.
-So?
Whack!
With a single swing of his tail, Yul struck one of the Turtle Knights and sent him crashing deep into the seabed.
‘Didn’t even trigger my Stone of Authority.’
They were clearly of equal or lower rank. Confirming the difference in strength, Yul immediately turned to the fleeing turtle with glasses, pinned him down, and pressed him against the seabed.
-You, the fugitive turtle. Your punishment will come later. Don’t move. If you try to run, I’ll smash your glasses.
-Eeeek!
The bespectacled turtle recoiled, trembling as he stayed perfectly still.
Yul swiftly turned and charged toward the remaining pursuers with blinding speed.
-How dare you hit my comrade!
-So what?
His body slam carried tremendous momentum, his massive head striking like a blunt weapon. The impact sent one Turtle Knight spinning violently, while Yul turned his gaze to the two remaining ordinary turtles.
-And who are you supposed to be?
-W-we’re mining supervisors, sir!
-Supervisors?
-Y-yes! We were chasing that fugitive mining engineer turtle! We never meant to anger you, Patroller!
Oh? A mining engineer, huh? Yul tilted his head slightly toward the bespectacled turtle, then looked back at the others.
-Get lost. The Orca Tribe will handle this one.
-Eeeek!
Unleashing a burst of killing intent, Yul made the two turtle pursuers flinch and immediately flee.
That left only the two Turtle Knights.
The one buried in the seabed twisted his body and forced himself free, while the one spinning near the surface managed to regain his balance.
-You want to keep going? Why don’t you leave before this turns into something bigger?
It was clear—the ones who had crossed the border were the Turtle Knights.
-You…! We’re not done yet!
-We’ll show you the Turtle Eight-Trigram Fist!
-……??
What?
As Yul tried to process what he’d just heard, the two turtles took their stances, aligning their bodies vertically.
Their metallic shells flexed and bent smoothly, allowing them to assume strange martial poses.
‘Turtle Eight-Trigram Fist?? What kind of martial arts novel did these guys crawl out of?’
-Heaven Trigram!
-Water Trigram!
‘Huh?’
Yul could sense the flow of magic energy coursing through their bizarre movements.
These weren’t mere punches—they carried the flow of magic within each strike.
As Yul swiftly dodged their blows, he couldn’t help but wear a look of sheer disbelief.
-Heaven Trigram!
-Fire Trigram!
-Enough of your nonsense!
Whether it was kung fu or nonsense, seeing their short limbs flail made Yul hit them upward with another sweep of his tail.
Pshshshsh!!
The turtles were flung upward, spinning as they rose.
-Aargh! Too strong!
-If it were the Knight Commander, you wouldn’t have beaten him!
-Stop the crap.
Yul kept whipping them with his tail, spinning them all the way to the surface.
-Whatever martial art it is, it's over if you just use brute force.
And indeed, in real combat, differences in physical scale were an unavoidable fate. The larger the creature, the stronger it was. Yul also possessed muscle and strength born stronger than other orcas.
He chased them to the sea surface and, with a tail strike, sent them flying toward the Turtle Kingdom.
‘Like spinning tops.’
After flinging them roughly a hundred meters into the air, they arced high and fell back into their territory. Yul finished them off enough and returned.
When he came back, the bespectacled turtle was still there.
-Unexpected. I thought you’d run away.
-Ah, actually, I don’t think I could swim much farther.
He looked utterly exhausted—completely spent. How had he managed to flee at all in that state?
Yul decided to start by extracting information.
-What’s your name?
-Javarel.
-What did you do, and why were those guys chasing you?
-Well……
Javarel, the bespectacled turtle, sighed and spoke.
-Actually, I’m a mining engineer. I mostly worked on locating undersea mines.
-Oh? And?
-Those guys chasing me were from my previous employer, Ryuga Corp. I was contracted by Ryuga Corp to survey underwater metal deposits……
-Those men chasing me were from my former company, Ryuga Corp. I’d been contracted to survey the seabed for metal deposits…
A company, huh?
-Interesting. And then?
-They were trying to exploit me. They wanted to pay my weekly wage with a single sardine, so I got angry and protested, but my contract had been swapped out for a different one.
From what he said, the original signed contract was gone, and in its place was a slave contract for Ryuga Corp.
‘That’s employment fraud. Don’t they have a police force?’
-So I ran away. Then I ended up near the border with the Orca Tribe.
-Hmmm. As a mining engineer, you’d know quite a bit about metals, right?
-Yes.
What luck. Yul asked the question that had been nagging him.
-Do you know about metals that block magic?
-Ah. You mean Krelsite?
-That’s right!
It was probably Yul's translation function making it sound like Krelsite, but in any case, that was what he was talking about.
-Why would such a common metal be needed?
-What?
Ian had told him that on land, a pinch of Krelsite was worth several times as much as gold. He’d heard it was used to make the emperor’s crown to protect against magical threats.
-There’s plenty of Krelsite around here. Most metals in this area have abysmal magic conductivity, so the turtles of the Turtle Kingdom don’t use them.
-Could there be Krelsite deposits inside the Orca Tribe’s territory, too?
-I’d have to look to be sure……
Sensing Javarel’s discomfort, Yul studied him.
Javarel had fled the mine and was heading entirely out of the Turtle Kingdom’s territory—that meant he had fully escaped their control.
-Anyway, back to the main point—what were you planning to do after you ran here? This is the Orca Tribe territory.
-I was panicking, so I thought, “I’ll figure it out somehow.”
His nervous eyes darted around; it seemed clear he hadn’t planned to come here deliberately.
-If they catch you, you could be exiled from the kingdom.
-P-please, could you spare me that?
-Hmm.
Normally, he should have followed protocol.
-If you can find me some Krelsite, I’ll help you. I’ll make sure you can leave safely, wherever you want to go.
* * *
‘What the…? How did he win so easily?’
From a distance, Ogh of the Rising Tide watched as Yul effortlessly defeated the Turtle Knights clad in metallic armor. Seeing how easily Yul had handled them, he abandoned the idea of intervening.
‘Was he always this strong?’
To take down Turtle Knights who wielded mana-infused martial arts purely through close combat—it was no small feat.
‘Nugh trained him well, it seems. Hmm. In that case, stepping in now might not be the best idea… What should I do?’