I Became an Evolving Deep-Sea Creature-Chapter 30

Chapter 30. The Archipelago Ocean Entrance
Yorum finished his teleportation and muttered,
-As expected, the passage leading to the First Stratum always feels disgusting. Makes me sick to my stomach.
This planet, often called the edge of the universe, looked deceptively ordinary—but Yorum knew well the ominous entities that lurked beyond this space.
He hadn't wanted to come here at all. But the possibility that the Stone of Authority on this planet might be genuine left him with no choice.
-To think I'd actually set foot in this cursed ocean.
The place he had arrived at through spatial transfer was none other than the ruins where the Stone of Authority had once been sealed.
-Empty. Completely abandoned.
Even the last Guardian stationed here had deserted.
The High Council had anticipated this to some extent, knowing that a lack of administrative control would eventually lead to this situation.
They had set up numerous failsafes to prevent such a collapse, but ruins like these were fairly common on a cosmic scale. The longing for freedom had outweighed the fear of surveillance.
Yorum gazed down toward the seabed.
-So many powerful beings teeming down there. As expected of the First Stratum... the ominous edge of the cosmos.
Even Yorum shivered at the sheer number of formidable entities detected within his scanning range.
He moved quietly, making sure not to stir up any disturbance.
According to the information he had acquired from Arctar, the species called the jelly octopus was a deep-sea cephalopod.
If it were still alive, he would surely find it somewhere in this vicinity.
After wandering across the seabed for some time, Yorum sensed the clash of two immense presences.
-Hm?!
Through his Mantra, he read the flow of surrounding energy, retrieving fragments of the recent battle's record.
A giant eel, the Sea God Kaidron, and a formless creature, the Abyssal Lord Abysarion, were locked in a mythic confrontation.
'A battle between myth-rank entities...? At this shallow depth?'
They were still in the outer reaches of the deep-sea—yet such overwhelming beings were waging war here.
The Sea God's massive body was marred with gashes and gouges, bleeding profusely, while the Abyssal Lord seemed to have lost a significant portion of its size.
'They must've been fighting for years.'
Witnessing the moment where both fought for their very existence, Yorum moved between them and leveled his UV-Thermal Gun.
A blinding ray burst forth, evaporating seawater in an instant and scattering bubbles as it illuminated the dark depths.
The abyss, once shrouded in total darkness, blazed bright as if the sun had risen underwater. Startled by the sudden radiance, both titanic beings immediately sensed Yorum's presence.
-Who are you?
-Kk-ge-ge-gekk... Extraterrestrial—creature—do not meddle—in our battle—
Their thought projections struck Yorum's very soul, their voices echoing like thunder inside his mind.
He clenched his teeth and endured the crushing pressure of their presence, gripping his weapon tightly and keeping his guard up. These opponents might be stronger than he expected.
But there was no need to cower before mere creatures from the fringe of the universe. The UV-Thermal Gun was one of the highest-grade weapons of the Ktazar race.
He projected his will directly into their minds.
-I'm looking for a creature. A certain jelly octopus, one that's hiding something extraordinary.
-Jelly octopus?
-A lesser creature?—Do—not—know.
The two colossal entities halted their battle for a moment, wary of Yorum's UV-Thermal Gun.
-You truly don't know? If it had been caught in your battle, its whole body would've been infused with a crimson aura and yet somehow survived.
-Never seen it, alien.
-Kk-ge-ge-gekk—Questions—over?
That was when Yorum felt something massive strike into his back.
He hadn't let his guard down for even a second—yet it was a kind of stealth assault he had never experienced before.
A fragment that had broken off from Abysarion's body was now moving with a will of its own, lunging at Yorum from behind.
-Gahk!?
-Kk-ge-ge-gekk! Foolish—alien!—Did—not—see—attack!
-Tch, foolish thing!
Even with his back impaled, Yorum raised his gun and fired at Abysarion at maximum output.
The beam erupted with monstrous power—more than enough to wound even the Abyssal Lord.
But Abysarion, a creature of a formless mass, quickly created a ring-shaped hole through its own body to let the ray pass harmlessly through.
At that exact moment, Kaidron, the Sea God, anticipated the move—swinging his tail and smashing the upper half of Abysarion's amorphous form.
The watery space warped, compressing as though reality itself were being crushed, and Abysarion's body was forced directly into the path of the blast.
-Kk-ge-ge-ge-ge-ge-gekk!!
The tremendous ray scorched its surface pitch-black, and for the first time in three years of battle, the Abyssal Lord sensed defeat. Acting purely on instinct, it retreated—sinking back into the deepest trenches of the ocean.
-Khugh!
Yorum, with a gaping wound through his torso, began repairing his body through Mantra. In front of him, Kaidron's massive eyes gleamed with something close to goodwill.
Even if unintentional, Yorm had helped him put an end to a three-year battle.
-Are you all right?
-I owe you my thanks.
-Abysarion's kind are born cruel and cunning. It will return to the abyssal floor, its own territory.
-Why was that creature here in the first place?
heaven-and-earth-shaking event
-Because a cosmic upheaval—a shifting of heaven and earth—draws near. An event that happens perhaps once in several millennia. It seeks to use the chaos to expand its territory into broader seas.
-What do you mean by... ngh—!
-Abysarion's tendrils carry a potent toxin. Even regeneration spells won't cleanse it. You should rest in my territory for a time. I have a skilled healer of jellyfish venom among my kind.
Yorum didn't trust gods—not even this Sea God. But the poison searing through his body demanded treatment.
-Very well. I'll accept your hospitality.
The search would be delayed a little—but not by much.
* * *
For several months within Yul's patrol zone, Javarel had been working tirelessly—constructing mining equipment and even calibrating it so that Yul could use it with ease.
He might not have had any talent for combat, but when it came to deep-sea mining, Javarel was the real deal.
With a peculiar Mantra ability of his own, he could soften and reshape metal without any reaction of extreme heat.
The ability was called "Refinement Ratio (제금률)," though Yul couldn't quite understand the principle behind its activation.
What was certain, however, was that Javarel seemed to combine at least two different Mantras to manifest it.
Whatever the case, using that ability and some steel he'd acquired somewhere, Javarel had crafted a proper mining device.
-All right, try turning it now.
Whirr–rrrrk.
Yul clamped the handle in his mouth and began swimming in a tight circle. The circular motion translated into kinetic energy that powered the mining mechanism.
-It actually works?
Fragments of Krelsite broke free and briefly floated upward before sinking back down under their own weight.
-Mission accomplished. I'm moved to tears.
Just as promised, once mining became possible, Yul decided to keep his word and set Javarel free.
It would be a waste to lose someone with such talent, but keeping him by force wasn't an option. Besides, Yul had already acquired what he needed.
The Archipelago Ocean was several thousand kilometers away—but with the Horn of the Sea King, the trip would take only a few days.
It was nothing short of the perfect evolutionary advantage for ocean travel.
Yul surfaced, letting Javarel climb onto his back. Then, activating the Horn of the Sea King, he surged southwest across the waves.
-Whoa, this speed is insane!
-Don't fall off.
If he manipulated the currents underwater, he'd need to apply the spell to both himself and Javarel, wasting twice the magic. But moving across the surface required only half as much.
'I've never actually run out of magic, but the Horn of the Sea King eats through it faster than any normal spell.'
In truth, activating one of his "Formulas" consumed barely a hundredth of the Horn's magic output.
That sheer difference was why he preferred this method of travel.
There were no borders in the ocean, yet he could tell he'd entered a completely different ocean.
They passed through a massive expanse of apricot-colored coral reefs—and immediately, Yul could feel the difference.
The temperature shifted.
The ecosystem changed.
Even the dominant species was different.
But, according to Javarel, all sea creatures here still use magic signals to communicate.
Yul continued asking questions as they traveled.
-So, what exactly is in the Archipelago Ocean?
-Each island has its own unique race living on it. In ancient times—back in the age of the Empire—there were even Tursans there, or so I've heard. I'm not entirely sure.
-Oh? Those immortal beings once lived on the islands?
The Tursans were the ancient race who had created the Syrendron—or more precisely, they had selected members of their own kind to be transformed into those biomechanical entities.
-Yes. And later, all sorts of races gathered there—humans, sea elves, sirens, the swordfish tribes, the sun-flying fish tribes... even some of our turtlefolk live nearby.
-What about orcas?
-I imagine there are orcas who aren't affiliated with any tribe living there as well.
Just like in the Great Ocean, orcas were scattered across every sea in the world.
-And the climate?
-They say it's mild all year round.
-Hmm.
As Yul skimmed the surface, admiring the changing scenery, he intermittently sent out ultrasonic waves for mapping—and that was when something caught in the echo.
-A ship?
From its outline, it clearly had the shape of a vessel.
‘Humans...? They came all the way out here?’
Yul didn't know every human kingdom's maritime policy, so it could have belonged to some other nation.
It didn't matter if they simply passed by—but the ship had clearly noticed him and was now changing course in his direction.
‘They must've seen the white wake on the surface.’
The white foam was the telltale sign of Yul's incredible speed through the water. If he'd stayed submerged, they wouldn't have spotted him at all.
‘Well, let's hear what they want.’
Yul rarely felt any sense of danger from things atop ships.
After all, anyone commanding a sailing vessel could do little once he dove beneath the waves. There was no such thing as torpedoes in this era.
In the distance, he saw a ship of unfamiliar design—not a wooden sailing ship.
Its outer frame gleamed faintly with a soft sky-blue hue, and metallic structures shaped like wings adorned various parts of its hull.
It didn't even have sails. From afar, one might think it a small, winged boat gliding across the sea.
But Yul's ultrasonic waves readings told a different story—the vessel was far larger than it appeared.
He watched it from the surface, but it was still too distant to make out any details.
-Perception.
He cast the Perception Formula, scattering magic to grasp its exact nature—but the feedback came back scrambled, the information distorted.
There was a mage aboard that ship.
-What the...? A humanoid with turquoise hair, standing on deck."
-Ah, those would be the Sea Elves."
-Sea Elves?"
-Yes. I don't know much myself, but according to old tales, their ancestors committed a sin and were cast out from the heavens into the sea."
Yul recalled then why he'd never seen them among the Maritime Powers.
It wasn't that they were weak—it was because they hunted alone, not as nations.
‘Interesting.’
-Uh, shouldn't we... run? That ship's coming straight for us!
-Why are you so scared? Worst case, we just dive. I doubt that the ship can chase us underwater.
The winged ship slowed its approach once it drew close enough to Yul, maintaining distance instead of accelerating further.
At the bow, someone stepped forward.
A male elf with long turquoise hair and confident, sharp eyes, dressed in a silver-gray ceremonial coat.
He reached out, grasped one of the metallic wings affixed to the ship's prow, and tore it free—then flicked it into the air like a paper airplane.
The detached wing slowly twisted midair, reshaping itself. It resembled a bird—but had no body, only wings.
The autonomously flying construct glided toward Yul and delivered a voice.
-Who are you?"
The transmission wasn't through magic signals—it was mental projection, akin to ideation speech.
-I am Arurion Phantarey, captain of the First Winged Vessel and prince of the Sea Elves.
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(T/N): Change Lord of the Abyss to Abyssal Lord