ICS - Chapter 104: The Undersea Behemoth

"Kill!"

With a thunderous shout, Roland advanced instead of retreating.

The instant [Fighting Spirit] activated, the mithril longsword in his hand seemed to come alive.

Every curve of the blade, every slight shift in its center of gravity, every tremor as it cut against the air became the most direct "language" and poured into Roland's perception.

Almost the moment the longsword hummed, Roland moved.

It was neither a stiff retreat nor a blind charge, but a flowing motion, smooth and precise, perfectly aligned with the weapon's edge.

With [Knight Dies Not Unarmed] and [Martial Combat Step] working together, the sword light became a silver trail tearing through the gloom and stabbing straight toward the enemy's head.

Purple light flared violently in the unnamed monster's eyes. The mental impact it had just begun to gather was forcibly interrupted by this lethal thrust, and one tentacle hastily returned to block.

Clang!

Sparks burst everywhere.

At the instant blade and tentacle collided, Roland used the force of the impact to spin half a turn like a top. While shedding the impact, he poured all his body's rotational force and battle aura into his left fist.

That clenched fist was now a heavy battering ram.

The reef stone beneath his feet cracked.

This punch had no flourish. Carrying pure force powerful enough to shatter stone, it slammed ferociously into the opening at the unnamed monster's chest and abdomen exposed by its block.

Bang!

With a dull, heavy sound, the unnamed monster's tall body jerked.

It seemed completely unable to understand a heavy strike that combined raw physical force with refined footwork.

The invisible force field fluctuated violently and gave a wavering hum, barely dispersing part of the force. But the remaining impact still drove solidly into a body that had not been born for physical combat.

A soundless mental shriek erupted. Its entire body staggered backward under that tremendous force, "floating" away as its movements fell into fatal stiffness.

Just as expected. Its close combat is a paper tiger!

Joy rose in Roland's heart, and he stepped forward again.

Like teleportation, he intercepted the unnamed monster with perfect precision along the path of its retreat.

Stab the wrist.

The sword tip darted like a viper toward the fragile connection at the base of a tentacle, forcing it to defend.

Raise beneath the arm.

The sword edge swept upward from below, cutting toward a gap that resembled a joint and making the force field flicker beneath the continuous attacks.

Cut the knee.

Battle aura infused the blade, and the sword chopped toward its lower body with a heavy howl of wind, forcing its center of gravity to shift.

Bang, bang!

Clang, clang!

Shrrrk!

On the reef shore, the roars of battle aura, the clashes of metal against metal, and the muffled impacts of flesh striking force field rang out without pause.

The unnamed monster was trapped in an unprecedentedly passive position.

Its two lethal tentacles looked clumsy and slow under Roland's close-range strangling assault, which flowed like water, blended offense and defense, and seized the initiative with every move.

It tried in vain to gather mental power, but Roland's sword edge always stabbed into its most uncomfortable position the instant its mental fluctuations appeared, forcing it to stop.

It tried to slide away with speed, but the Combat Technique [Martial Combat Step] made Roland stick to it like a curse buried in the bones. Every step landed exactly on the nodes where its power shifted.

The suffocating pressure from before was torn apart by Roland's exquisitely honed combat technique, leaving only offended fury and...

unbelievable humiliation.

The line between hunter and prey had blurred completely.

And this narrow ochre patch of land seemed to have become Roland's personal arena.

The perfect concerto of weapon and body forcibly dragged this desperate battle into a rhythm where life and death belonged to him.

The mithril longsword became an unbroken silver storm. Every slash and thrust landed precisely on the weak points of the unnamed monster's defense or the gaps between its movements.

The unnamed monster's tough tentacles floundered left and right. Its invisible force field flickered under the violent impacts of battle aura, giving off an overwhelmed hum.

The cold purple light in its eyes pulsed fiercely. It had clearly realized that the mental attacks it prided itself on were almost useless against this human.

It could not remain entangled.

After realizing this, just as Roland delivered a heavy diagonal chop, the sword edge tearing through the air as it hacked toward the relatively fragile connection between its waist and abdomen, the unnamed monster made an extremely dangerous yet clever decision.

It did not try to dodge or block clumsily. Instead, it abruptly sent one slick tentacle forward to meet that lethal sword light.

The tentacle did not take the blow head-on. The instant it touched the blade, it curled inward at a strange angle to shed force, while a surge of immense power traveled from within its body along the tentacle like a fully compressed spring.

Clang!

A piercing metallic clash rang out together with a teeth-grating tearing sound.

Amid flying sparks, Roland's sword edge bit deep into the tentacle's tough horny layer, even cutting open a wound so deep it nearly exposed bone.

Viscous purple blood, thick as oil, sprayed out at once.

But this was exactly what the unnamed monster wanted.

It had not endured the blow passively. It had borrowed the force on purpose.

The instant the blade cut into the tentacle, its tall body followed the direction of the sword's chop and the counterforce of Roland's erupting battle aura. In a manner almost like being launched, it shot violently backward and upward.

Its speed far exceeded its previous sliding or floating retreat.

"Damn it!"

Roland's heart jolted, and he immediately understood the enemy's intention.

It had taken his sword head-on solely to buy precious space to escape.

Bang!

His boot blasted a small pit in the ground, and his body lunged forward again like an arrow leaving the string.

Although the battle was fierce, only a brief moment had passed from Roland's ferocious close engagement to the unnamed monster borrowing force to break away.

On the deck, Teresa was still unconscious.

The short Halfling had curled into a ball, groaning without pause.

Galvez, kneeling on the ground with his head in his hands, barely opened his bloodshot eyes to a slit and happened to see Roland cut the unnamed monster away with one sword as purple blood sprayed.

His cracked lips seemed to want to shout something, but the violent headache left him able to produce only a pained hiss.

The other sailors had collapsed all over the deck from the aftershock of the earlier mental impact, lying weakly where they had fallen.

Just as Roland was about to close in again, while the unnamed monster's backward-flung figure had yet to regain stability...

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

Beneath his feet, the unusually flat, solid, ochre "ground" that stood out sharply from the jagged black reefs around it began to shake violently without warning.

In an instant, it felt like the entire seabed of Wailing Gorge was roaring in fury.

The tremor was so violent that heaven and earth seemed to overturn. The entire "ground" arched upward like a living creature, then split apart.

Huge, bottomless cracks spread in an instant like a spiderweb.

Broken stones, wet mud, and vast amounts of icy seawater were thrown into the air by that terrifying force.

"Ah!"

Terrified screams erupted across the deck.

The already unsteady sailors fell to the ground like gourds rolling across the floor.

Galvez was overturned by the sudden violent quake, the back of his head slamming hard into the bulwark. Stars burst across his vision, but he still struggled, one hand clawing tightly into the cracks of the bulwark's wood while the other abandoned the harp beside him and gripped Teresa's wrist.

As for Roland on the reef below, he bore the brunt of it.

His body, moving at high speed, was abruptly thrown into the air by the tremendous force from beneath his feet, rolling backward like a kite with its string cut.

The mithril longsword drew a silver arc through the air by instinct and stabbed deep into a piece of black reef stone that had not yet cracked apart.

Only after broken stones flew did he barely halt his momentum, his entire body hanging above the raging waves as he stared down in shock.

He saw that enormous stretch of ochre "ground" splitting and rising in a way that made the soul tremble, revealing its true appearance.

At its edge, a portion of an enormous limb covered in thick blue-black carapace and packed with giant barnacles and coral reefs broke through the sea surface and the "ground." It looked like a mountain reaching out from hell as it lifted.

The mere motion of that limb rising set off towering waves and produced a dull low roar like an ancient beast awakening.

And the unnamed monster that had borrowed force to fling itself away was now hovering above the churning waves and shattered chunks of earth and stone, looking coldly down from above.

Its tentacle, which Roland had severely wounded, hung limp, purple blood dripping into the sea.

But the two clusters of purple light on its smooth head remained cold. With cruelty and mockery that seemed to see through everything, they locked firmly onto Roland, who had been thrown into disarray by the quake.

It did not even glance again at the enormous creature whose terrifying outline was fully emerging from beneath the "ground."

Clearly, the awakening of this giant beast, powerful enough to destroy ships, was only an insignificant part of its plan.

Immediately afterward, under the cover of spreading sea mist, flying broken stones, and towering waves, the unnamed monster melted into shadow and turned into a dim purple streak.

In an instant, it plunged into the deeper, darker, more turbulent waves in the distance and vanished without a trace.

Only Roland was left hanging from the crumbling reef.

Alone, facing the unknown, terrifying behemoth below him, whose vast body caused tsunami-like disaster merely by rising...

Boom!

The unknown giant beast's enormous body completely tore through the seabed, rising like an undersea mountain range thrusting out of the earth.

The cliffs on both sides of Wailing Gorge gave overwhelmed groans, and massive stones collapsed like rain.

The sea surface was no longer waves. It had become a roaring, upright wall that seemed capable of devouring everything.

The Seabird was as insignificant as a falling leaf before this world-shattering force.

The giant wave wrapped around it. In a single instant, together with the horrified Galvez, Teresa, Hobby, and the others aboard, it was swept viciously out of Wailing Gorge and vanished completely from Roland's sight amid the rolling sea.

Roland, clinging to the cliff wall, drew a deep breath and forced his surging emotions under control.

But the cliff wall, cracking section by section like a spiderweb, clearly would not let him remain there for long.

Seeing this, he fixed both eyes on the surging sea below.

At the instant another massive wave carrying wreckage slammed toward the cliff, his sharp gaze caught a dark shape rolling within the crest.

It was a battered pirate ship drifting in the waves.

Without hesitation, Roland kicked off the rock wall. His body shot out like an arrow leaving the string, accurately passing through the curtain of water and falling stones before crashing heavily onto the deck of that broken ship drifting with the tide.

Bang!

With a muffled sound, Roland ignored the pain coming from his body, immediately rolled to his feet, and clung tightly to the thick mast that had not yet snapped.

The world spun in his vision.

Roaring, cracking, and the bellow of seawater filled his ears.

Only when the suffocating turbulence eased a little did Roland struggle to lift his head.

The perilous Wailing Gorge from moments before had already disappeared without a trace. Even the edges of the land connected to both sides had begun to crumble inch by inch.

And the raging waves had not stopped.

The broken ship was as small as dust before this tremendous force.

Driven by the residual power, it had no control over itself as it rushed toward an unknown distance.

Roland gritted his teeth. His fingers almost dug into the slick wood grain as he poured all his strength into his arms and held the mast with a death grip.

Time lost all meaning amid absolute terror and the contest against raw force.

He did not know how long he struggled. Only when that powerful pulling force began to weaken did he finally collapse onto the deck, his chest heaving violently.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

Only when cold sea wind poured into his throat did Roland's scattered consciousness clear.

"What... exactly was that thing..."

Recalling the colossal creature whose edge he had barely glimpsed, his heart still pounded.

"Mr. Roland, are you all right?"

Just then, a pleasant voice sounded beside his ear.

Hearing it, Roland rolled up into a sitting position, his hand tightening around the hilt at his waist.

But when his gaze focused, he relaxed slightly.

"Why are you here?"

The speaker was none other than Tracy, the Pixie who had previously begged to stay aboard the Seabird to recover her strength.

"When you were fighting the Mind Flayer just now..."

Tracy's voice carried caution.

The circumstances of their first meeting had clearly left a shadow over her.

So at this moment, she hovered in the air a full five steps away from Roland. Her gaze flicked from time to time toward the mithril longsword at his waist as she explained very quickly.

"I was by your side the entire time, providing support. I just... did not show myself."

"You took me in, and I help you while you fight. Was that not what we agreed to before?"

"Is that so?"

Hearing Tracy's words, Roland thought back to the battle just now.

"When I released [Fire Bolt], the casting speed and power were indeed much stronger than usual... wait!"

He sharply caught a key phrase in Tracy's words, and his brows furrowed.

"You just said... that tall, thin monster with the octopus head was a Mind Flayer?"

Seeing the Pixie nod in confirmation, Roland's frown deepened at once.

A Mind Flayer, also known as an illithid.

Although Roland had never read any records about them in this world's ancient texts, in the memories of his previous life, this terrifying race from the D&D world was infamous.

These horrifying beings from the depths of the Underdark fed on the brains of intelligent creatures.

Their deadliest weapons were not claws, but powerful psionic abilities that could easily crush wills, manipulate minds, and turn creatures into ignorant, unthinking puppets.

A mature Mind Flayer colony could pose a threat far greater than even the most ferocious Dragon.

Encountering them was sometimes more hopeless than death itself.

"Then that colossus just now was being controlled by the Mind Flayer?"

"I actually... survived something like that..."

Although Roland had been somewhat interested in the D&D worldview in his previous life, he had never studied it deeply.

Precisely because of that, when he encountered that monster just now, he had not connected it with the legendary Mind Flayer at all.

Now that he recalled the danger from moments before, a chill ran down his spine, and his gaze dropped.

"Hm?"

When his eyes moved to the mithril longsword in his hand, the one that had nearly severed the Mind Flayer's tentacle, Roland made a puzzled sound.

He saw that on the originally mirror-bright blade, a mass of purple liquid was now clinging to it and writhing like a living thing.

"Is that... the Mind Flayer's blood from just now?"

Under the support of [Material Synesthesia], his dissipating mental power keenly sensed a strange pulse.

This blood...

emitted a kind of powerful might.

But this might was completely different from any energy he had come into contact with before.

Cold. Pure.

If he had to describe it, it was somewhat similar to the power that surged from the depths of his soul when [Steel Will] was triggered.

And at the instant his mental power touched that mass of purple liquid, lines of golden text appeared before his eyes.

[Abnormal energy reaction detected. Detecting...]

[High-purity psionic source substance detected...]

[Soul-level energy resonance detected in Host (Steel Will)...]

[Conditions met...]

[Upon inspection, you qualify for the hidden occupation: Psion]

[Requirements: Spirit 22, learn and master 0/1 basic psionic technique, resist 0/3 mental shocks or mind-control effects stronger than yourself, successfully guide and release pure psionic energy 0/5 times, use psionic energy to interfere with physical reality 0/1 times]

"Another hidden occupation! And..."

Surprise crossed Roland's eyes.

"It was actually triggered by Mind Flayer blood?"

Just as he wanted to examine the occupation prompt more carefully, an ethereal whisper burrowed into his ears without warning, reaching straight into the depths of his soul.

The whisper was not made of clear words. Instead, it promised absolute power and twisted knowledge, while the price was the collapse of his own will.

This tempting whisper did not seem to count as direct mental control or an attack, so his [Steel Will] was not triggered.

"Mental corruption!"

Realizing this, Roland quickly retracted his mental power and shook his heavy head hard while reaching toward the pouch at his waist.

He groped through numerous shattered alchemy bottles and finally found an intact vial of stamina potion.

After pulling out the stopper and drinking the potion in one gulp, he carefully brought the empty vial close to the sword blade and guided that writhing mass of purple liquid into it.

"Mr. Roland, what happened?"

Noticing the grave look on Roland's face, Tracy asked.

Seeing the young man shake his head without answering, Tracy cleverly changed the subject.

"By the way, Mr. Roland, your luck is truly unusually good..."

As the tiny Pixie spoke, she looked around curiously.

This pirate ship that had somehow not been torn apart by the waves was already listing severely.

The few remaining sails hung weakly from the thick mast like tattered rags.

"I really did not expect this ship to still be in one piece after waves like that."

Hearing Tracy's words, Roland recalled the feeling of pitching and rolling through the raging waves, and surprise stirred in him as well.

"Could it be..."

A thought crossed his mind, and Roland's gaze moved to the Trait on his occupation panel, whose description carried a hint of dark humor.

[Shar's Favor]

"Could it be this death goddess's hidden favor that let me escape that desperate situation?"

Temporarily setting aside that nearly fanciful guess, Roland reassessed his current situation.

The pirate ship beneath his feet was dilapidated and had no ability to make a long voyage.

Worse still, other than himself, there was not a single living person aboard who could help operate it.

As for the surroundings...

Roland's gaze crossed the ruined deck and turned into the distance.

The vast, boundless, ink-blue sea rolled on, extending all the way to the gray horizon. Not the slightest trace of land could be seen anywhere in sight.

"Looks like I can only drift with the current. Still..."

Thinking back to the terrifying scene caused by the undersea behemoth, Roland let out a slightly relieved breath.

"At least I'm alive. That's already lucky enough."

After confirming that he had temporarily escaped danger, Roland rested and recovered the stamina he had lost just now while focusing his gaze on the occupation panel again.

Seeing that all the requirements for changing to [Pirate] had been met, he did not hesitate and silently recited in his heart.

"Change occupation to [Pirate]."