Drewells976
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Chapter 240 - Dark Waters
🕑 Added 2024-05-29 01:25:58 +0000 UTCA/N: Sorry that took so long! I liked the suggestion of Ele and Flynn being part of it a bit, so I tried to incorporate that! Thank you for the feedback. Lemme know if you like it, I might edit the previous chapter like this too when book 4 is finished.
I know people are eager for stats. I just finished fiddling with the math this weekend to make sure everything was right. You should get to see them on Thursday or Friday :)
And don't worry for those eagerly waiting for the next steps in Kai's adventure, they're right around the corner! Major family reunion and flashbacks are almost finished. I'm excited for where things are going. I know the start of books can feel slow to set things up, and things always take longer than I want them
https://www.patreon.com/file?h=105133884&i=19165971
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“You took a swim in a sea full of monsters?” Ele hugged one of his pillows with a horrified expression.
“Well, I didn’t know that at the time. And the other options sounded worse.” Kai shrugged. He had skipped over the most gruesome and dangerous details in his retelling, but there was no way to make his first year on the island sound cheery. “We can stop here, you don’t have to listen to more.”
“No, you must finish the story.” Flynn leaned forward in his chair. “What did you see in the water? Did you find what you were looking for? How did you survive?”
Ele chewed her lip. “I’d feel better knowing how it ends. If you don’t mind continuing.”
“Of course, you don’t have to tell us if you’re not ready.” Flynn bobbed his head, watching with a pleading expression that said the exact opposite.
Kai fiddled with his silver ring, gaze lost in the grain of the floorboards. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago. I’m over it.”
His sister rested her hand on his back. “You made it out in one piece in the end, right?”
“Not exactly.”
~~~
The isle stood about two miles off the coast. Ivory structures covered in algae and vines rose from the dark frothing sea, staunchly buffering the waves.
Occasional ospreys and cormorants landed on the ruins. There were no flashes to indicate the presence of defensive wards—at least on the outside. Despite the millennia of abandonment, the other site Kai visited on his way here had incinerated a winged serpent. The ruins on the archipelago were only bare of enchantments because the mana density had fallen too low to sustain them.
“Waiting any longer won’t help.” He had observed the target for a full day-and-night cycle—three days on the outside. There were no low or high tides, the deep waters shifted between rough and rougher, though that made little difference. If he pushed his skills, he could cross the distance in minutes while sustaining a cloak of Shadow.
“Mrow” Hobbes pushed his head against his leg, always keeping Kai between him and the water. The little guy had no problem finding him each night, though his blinking range didn’t reach that far.
Kai bent and scratched his ear. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back sooner than you know. Ow! What was that for?”
The kitten had pawed his hand and mistrustingly watched the turbulent waves. “Meew!”
“I have to go. It’s either this or crossing the island for a place that might be even more dangerous.” Kai licked the blood off his hand and applied a balm to close the scratch.
This was one of three sites that held an Astral Harmonizer, and it might be the only ruin not protected by active wards. Without the artifact, the gateway would shred him to pieces, Zervathi had been pretty clear on that.
I can’t wait for seven years, I need to leave this place.
“It’ll be alright,” Kai spoke in a soothing tone as he stroked Hobbes’ back, away from the claws.
Hallowed Intuition murmured of danger below the waves, but that was hardly news. Even on shore, in one of the lowest mana areas he had found, the skill never stayed silent. There were threats in the greenery to his left, threats circling the sky, and even threats buried underneath the sand. Of course, the sea would be no exception.
On a more positive note, the essence density didn’t increase as far as his senses could reach. He shouldn’t encounter anything higher than low-yellow. “C’mon, I can do this.”
Kai stripped off any clothes that would slow him down and strapped two knives to his legs. The sea serpent sword, ready to be drawn lay in his ring. His mana reserves were full with an abundance of Water and Shadow.
“I’ll be back in a jiffy.” He cheerfully booped Hobbes. The cat watched him from the cover of a palm with pale blue eyes.
In and out. I can be done in under an hour.
He checked the whispers for any looming danger and crept forward. His feet dug into the cold sand pointing toward the closest point to the isle. The deafening roar of the waves erased his memories of the crystal calm of the Shallow Sea.
Just a little swim.
When the next wave retreated, Kai leaped into the frigid waters and swam under the surface to escape the waves pulling him to shore. Blessed Swimmer told him how to slip through the currents, though the feeling of peace he expected didn’t come.
He had no time to dawdle, the faster he reached his target the sooner he could get to safety. The murky waters hardly contained any life, only the dark green kelp swaying in the currents and playful white fishes trying to take a bite out of him.
Hmm, that’s better than I imagined.
Kai limited Mana Observer’s range to half its maximum radius. Powerful beasts could be alerted to his skill, but from that distance, they would notice him anyway. He channeled his mana into Empower and Blessed Swimmer to skim through the sea with minimal resistance.
The seabed disappeared into an unnatural darkness with scattered fields of anemic kelps poking through. A whisper of warning prompted Kai to take a hard left.
Right.
Left.
Lay still.
Kai strengthened his cloak of Shadow and retracted his senses, floating just below the surface. He disregarded the instinct to run, trusting the skill that had kept him alive thus far.
The kelp jerked away as some big fish headed toward him. A pale emaciated fin poked through the inky blackness below. Murky waters stirred as frenetic whispers filled his mind. Death was approaching, and moving would bring it faster.
Not—.
A ghastly presence washed over him, freezing his blood. Terror gripped his soul. Kai was about to run for his life when the swaying kelp trailed away. The beast having missed him or uninterested in such a stringy meal.
Damn fish. You made me lose a decade of my life.
Kai stole a breath of oxygen and raced toward the isle as soon as Hallowed Intuition allowed. The seafloor only grew more desolate, devoid of plant or animal life, just him above a dark abyss.
He leaped out on the sea onto a slick ivory slab. His body shivered uncontrollably, but not from the cold. The ruin loomed over him like a cluster of towers half sunk into the sea.
“I’ve done it.” He dried himself with a spell and took out a pelt to fend off the gust of winds.
~~~
“Most of the entrances had been sealed millennia ago. And a ward protected the only open passage I found that couldn’t be seen from the shore. It was just a force shield that rebuffed anything trying to cross, but I had no way to break through.”
Flynn furrowed his brows. “Couldn’t you cut through the rock with your echo skill?”
“I almost got fried trying.” Kai shook his head. “The enchantments protected the entire structure from magical tampering.”
“So you crossed the dead sea for nothing?” Ele grimaced, now squeezing a pillow in each arm. “Did you manage at least to safely go back and look for another ruin?”
Perhaps I should have.
“Not exactly.” Kai scowled. They couldn’t understand his level of desperation, he would have done anything to escape. “I had noticed the structure had sunk, so I thought there might be an entrance underwater. And I was right…”
~~~
A dark breach in the stone two dozen meters below the surface led deeper into the ruin. Hallowed Intuition alerted him of danger lurking inside.
Not any worse than a day spent in the Sanctuary.
He had taken a huge risk to reach the isle, he couldn’t leave empty-handed. The Astral Harmonizer was the hardest piece to recover. He could fulfill most of the other requirements with enough time and practice, but this artifact wasn’t optional.
I have to at least try.
Filling his lungs with a mouthful of oxygen, Kai dove toward the passage. The breach welcomed him like a dark maw. He wrapped a crystal with a cloth to soften the light, just enough to illuminate the way.
The rift cracked the ivory stone through three different chambers. Kai squeezed into the upper layer since it had the smaller entrance—and hopefully, the lowest chance of being occupied. The ivory room was vaguely familiar, though larger and with fragments of broken runes etched in the walls.
Zervathi had only given precise directions to the location of the site, and not a mote more.
Kai avoided the enchantments still pulsing with mana and swam into an empty corridor. The passage led into a maze of chambers, enough to wander for hours. From the glyphs he could decipher, the site was some kind of research facility or place of study.
He committed the writings to memory. The language he had found around the Sanctuary was much more specific than the one in the archipelago, with more technical elements and less religious undertones. He’d need hours of study to be certain of their meaning. Given his limited air supply, he couldn’t afford to dally.
Active wards and collapsed passages forced him to loop back around when he tried to enter the upper chambers. He was about to return to the surface when he popped out into a room that still held air.
Finally a little luck.
The chamber smelled of mold and death, with a single entrance and blackened runes circling the walls. Whatever their purpose, they allowed algae to cover them, so he felt daring enough to send out a filament of mana. Receiving no reaction, he cast a Nature spell to wither the algae off the stone.
“Hmm… this is more like it,” Kai observed the results of his efforts with a silly grin. A network of circles and lines pulsed in a blue light. Once he made sense of the perspective, he easily matched his memories with what was depicted. He had found a map of the ruin.
It was high time my Favor paid off.
A myriad of delicate runes wove inside the wall and around the map, likely hiding more uses. “Some kind of control room maybe?” Kai decided not to push his luck by messing with millennia-old enchantments. “It’s clear enough already.”
If you wanted to store something important or precious, you’d probably choose a room with fewer entrances, close to the center of the facility. Six chambers fulfilled the criteria, set in a spiral, each on a different layer. The geometry was far too precise to be a coincidence.
With a mix of excitement and apprehension, Kai plunged back into the dark waters. Feeling safer the closer he was to the surface, he headed to the top room first. More chambers contained breathable air, but every passage to the upper levels was barred by wards, buzzing with mana.
I should have known.
Swimming in a convoluted loop past the defenses, Kai managed to reach the chamber below. An array of flowing runes on the entrance flickered without triggering. Rows of immaculate shelves stood arranged in a circle inside, but whatever they had contained must have turned to dust long ago.
Without letting himself get demoralized, Kai dove toward the lower levels. The waters grew colder together with the whispers of danger—still within an acceptable degree. The third chamber was empty while the fourth contained a hexagonal altar brimming with a strange mana. An affinity he didn’t possess.
Hallowed Intuition advised him to go back like it always did.
I’ll check just one more.
He might have missed a chamber, but his instincts told him he was following the right track. The whispers reluctantly provided another winding path downward. There were hardly any runes active at this depth, or an enchantment that wasn’t broken.
Or shattered by something… I better hurry.
Kai released one extra breath he had saved in his ring and used the last specialization of Blessed Swimmer to refill his Water mana reserves. He was so close. Pushing against one corner, he dashed into the fifth chamber.
Yes!
Six artifacts rested on a circle of plinths and failing runes. Each shone with multiple layers of runes, but a silver pyramid caught all his attention. The shape and iridescent motes blinking over the surface fit the description Zervathi had provided. The first piece to bring him home.
Kai stored the Astral Harmonizer in his ring when the whispers suddenly turned into frantic screams, deafening his thoughts. By the time he turned around, inky darkness was already flooding the chamber like smoke in water.
Fuck.
He froze a barrier and wielded the sea serpent sword, but the approaching darkness swallowed his shield as if it wasn’t even there. He was thrown into the pitch-black nothingness, losing his sense of sight and hearing. Only dread remained. Pain exploded from his right leg as a series of curved hooks cut into his flesh and dragged him down, toward the depths of the facility.
Kai desperately channeled every element into his sword and swung. His strike was rebuffed without the slightest give. More hooks dug into his arm, wringing the blade from his hands. He screamed into the inky darkness when an aura far beyond any peak-yellow beast silenced him.
His mind went blank. Only the certainty that he was about to die remained. He had made a bet and lost, been too confident that Hallowed Intuition would warn him in time to escape. His magic wouldn’t be enough to save him even if he were the luckiest man in the world. He wouldn’t be seeing his family, or anybody else again.
Please, help me.
Piercing pain shot up his chest as if his ribcage was being pulled apart, digging toward his heart.
~As you wish, elfoid monkey child.~ The haughty voice of the god shrilled. ~Get your odd-shaped tentacles off my property.~
A flash of prismatic colors banished the darkness. The next thing he knew, Kai could feel rough sand pressing against his face. He pushed himself up, spluttering and wheezing for air. The ivory isle stood across the sea, miles away.
What—
His hands searched his body for injuries, but there was no blood. Even the scratch Hobbes had given him was gone.
~I chose to interpret your request charitably and stitched your fleshy body up.~
“Thank you,” Kai muttered, hugging his body in shock.
~You’re very much welcome. You’re lucky I was bored enough to watch your idiocy. Though this still counts as your second wish. You only have one remaining.~
“I—” He was about to die, then he was not. He had gotten away with the artifact and his life, though he had lost his only protection. There would be no second chances the next time he ran into trouble. Not if he wanted to leave this realm.
Kai closed his hands to stop them from shaking, though he couldn’t stop his teeth from clattering. A cold dread was rooted into his bones. “What was that thing?”
~Just some misshapen horror that snuck into my Sanctuary while I was away. The fauna of my Sanctuary has evolved in peculiar ways without my supervision. To think sapient creatures would dare attack someone blessed by me. Truly scandalous. I shall add a culling to my list of chores…~ Zervathi rambled on about his grandiose plans to regain his glory.
~~~
Ele wrapped him in a hug. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
“You don’t have to apologize, I told you I’m fine.”
“You had a literal divinity fish you up from the jaws of a sea monster.” Flynn watched him gobsmacked, leaning on the rim of his chair. “Stop saying you are fine.”
“You didn’t go back into the sea, did you?” Ele probed him.
“I’m not that stupid. That was the first and last time I willingly took a swim.”
Comments
Deathhead
Quick thought, if Zervanti was able to teleport Kai out of there, don't you think he would be able to teleport that monster in the room with Kai(so he wastes a wish) to make sure he doesn't owe him anything when he gets out of the Sanctuary ? :)
ManguKing
I hope that ele does not say everything to her husband. I just don't trust him
Butters
You can join the discord and link discord and patreon and see his status if u really want
Lauri
After 8 chapters still no stats. I want to see how much progress he has made
Michael
Ah, that makes sense! Thanks for the explanation.
niko north
The day and night cycle in sanctuary does not match the outside and night is longer than day.
Eric M
I feel like he should go chill out at his beachfront property he owns that Virya left him for a couple weeks and unwind after this, maybe fix up the building that is left, think he intended to add some runes for water, etc. last time he was there. He really really needs a vacation at this point.
Eric M
I suspect that the day and night cycle is just longer, so one full day in the hidden realm is 72 hours long. If it was a time dilation issue, I don't think he'd be able to determine it until he exits to compare how much time has passed.
Michael
TFTC! "a whole day-and-night cycle—three days on the outside" I am confused, is time moving faster in the real world, or is he saying between one and three days have passed? If the former, has that been mentioned before? If the latter, maybe replace "on the outside" with something like "at most".
Simon Hoerder
No worries about stats. Stats are nice but good story telling is much more important. I appreciate what you’re doing there and keeping Ele and Flynn involved is a good thing too.
Felix S
With the swimming in that level of danger, I wonder how the growth of blessed swimmer was, that must have been ticking up a level every 5 min 😂
Monadologist
I just want to say this arc has worked very well. I like the retelling with Ele and Flynn in the mix. Normally slice of life tales get old fast as there is no real mystery to be resolved other than what was dangled in front of us from the get-go, and time-skips tend to cause folks to lose the plot and move on, making it hard to keep caring about a character you've been following day by day year by year up until that moment. More specific to this story, prior to this arc the loss of agency was getting to be a truly daunting prospect. Now we have a whole couple of years of backstory to explore, a much nervier and edgier protagonist, and the fact that we spent so much time dwelling on his family and friends means we can enjoy their reunions and sympathy a lot better. Beats the hell out of the alternative of reading him grind out 2 years as a big town alchemist / runesmith trying to give back his profession.
Larc
Haha, chapter length is the same as usual, but anything will feel short compared to The Wandering Inn. They just feel shorter now because they're purely descriptive, we already know he survived and that it sucked. Now we're just getting the how of it. We also just learned that he used his 'free' wish to stay alive, which is the most logical answer but also nothing new or unexpected. It makes much more sense to think of these flashback chapters as an interlude rather than a 'proper' start of the new book.
Larc
Great chapter, Drew. Flashback works much better. What would elevate it further for me is adding a little bit of extra detail about Flynn and Elle during the conversations, no more than 1-2 lines. Something to indicate the changes they have gone through. As it is now, they're mostly reactive in a same-y way - kind of serving as a framing for the flashbacks but maintaining a purely passive role from a storytelling perspective.
Julkur
IIRC the mana level of the archipelago dropped over the last millenia with the fall of Vastia. The "new" spirits rose afterwards. So I hope that in the next decades or centuries the mana level will rise again to former level with the fairy god in power
PloofDoodle
This is way better!
KollegvomMirgan
“I’m not that stupid. That was the first and last time I willingly took a swim.” So he clearly went back just unwillingly 😂
Bosparan
Thanks for the chapter! Agree with many of the others - the conversation bits help smooth it out :)
Eric M
Ele and Flynn are the only ones he's ever shared his status screen with, so guessing that is the finale of the story. Very well presented, I would definitely go back and edit the previous chapter to add in some conversation between the three.
Gromaul
Nice chapter! One question, didn't he explicitly hold back on Zervathi info for his family? Is he now going to move forward with acknowledging his existance?
Timothy Pressey
Thanks for the chapter!
mehmed zepcan
Totally into it benbo just been on a wondering inn BING and in comparison I feel like every other author is rushing their stories and not flushing the world building/ details nothing on drewabu or his writing style but I'm missing his nitnd gritty long chapter from day onesiez ¯\(°_o)/¯or at least I think his were longer man poppin in for updates after months gets the noggin a bit jumbled
David
The flashback is better with the Ele and Flynn conversation. Also interesting that the sanctuary mana is dense enough to support green beasts. Zervathi seems able to do a lot more than the archipelago gods. Is that because he has a physical avatar? Kind of seems like he was the original god of the sanctuary and archipelago and the others are new gods that came after he was trapped. A lot seems to be happening with divinities in the background
Andrew
Thank you!
ben
When he arrived all the monsters were atleast a level above him. I imagine that there were some challenges to overcome before he could thrive.
James Faulkner
Goddamn, a green kraken maybe?
gigabik
“He might have missed the artifact above, but Kai his instincts..” Take out Kai
saltyApple
still anxious for a fate fulcrum update. Its kinda the elephant in the room at this point lol
Alex
Yeah, flashbacks are way better as a story to Flynn and Ele. That is a good and proper scary adventure !!!
George
helps a ton to add the conversation!!!
mechanizedbush
Tftc! I like the framing with Flynn and Ele a lot, it makes the flashback much more enjoyable. "channeled every elemental" -> "channeled every element"
mehmed zepcan
Tftc question did Kia just survive or did he thrive if he just survived I feel like the time skip wouldve been better off in the army . The PTSD gave off major ijust survived vibes I'm totally down for a little I'm a lot stronger and kind of crazy now vibes
gigabik
Thanks!
