Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 440: An Unnatural Shore

The next day, Thalion thought about the Scarn and those seawomen. They weren’t that strong or dangerous, but it was just the matchup. The Scarn were fish that could easily grow to a length of over ten meters. One bite was enough to swallow or kill one of the sailors. They had very resistant scales that could block light attacks and were highly resistant against anything with water affinity. The sailors weren’t that practiced when it came to underwater combat, and none of their blows were strong enough to get through the scales. Thalion was confident that an E-grade tidecaller serpent could blow them into pieces, but how things stood right now, he was simply too weak to hunt them.Then there were the seawomen. Those Thalion could kill. Their defenses were relatively weak compared to the Scarn, but their water skills definitely were on the powerful side. They could pull entire ships underwater when they weren’t moving. The conclusion was simple. To dive in the ocean was simply too dangerous for Thalion. To sail the ocean with food running out in days while also being unable to go for dives weren’t the best requirements to win this treasure hunt.

The last day had also been very depressing when it came to the leaderboard. Thalion no longer held first place but had instead completely dropped out of the top ten. Currently, he occupied the twenty-seventh place and continued to drop further. Whatever was happening on this stage, the others had a lot more luck. In the passing days, Thalion had no chance to earn leaderboard points besides killing the water mage and losing out on the kill of the trialtaker on the other ship they had destroyed. Even if Thalion had been strong enough to kill the Scarn, seawomen, and everyone else in this stage so far, he wouldn’t have the chance to make million after million of points.

So he sat there on the bow, his feet dangling over the side of the ship, watching the ocean’s surface while his world was breaking apart. If he dropped further, he could forget his divine class, and then he would face massive problems when it came to the future and the dream of living forever. All the adventures that lay ahead. At the moment, it all seemed so distant and unreachable. In this trial, as an F-grade, he wouldn’t make it with raw strength. No, he would somehow need to push forward and somehow get an advantage and snatch the prize while the others were fighting it out.

“I have to say, those Scarn are tasting a lot better than I first thought, but my girlfriend is quite angry right now since she had to work this much and break the big thing down with all the other cooks,” Rid said, sitting down beside Thalion, who was still too caught up in his thoughts to respond.

“Okay, I know things aren’t going so well, but that is how adventures go all the time. You never know what you get. The water mage said that you are no longer in first position, but don’t worry too much. I believe that you’re going to catch up soon enough. That you were even in first place in a trial against E-grade chosen while still in F-grade is something I’ve never heard about. This story might even have the potential to be told far and wide in the multiverse. Everyone likes stories, especially those of a loser giving those noble chosen brats a run for their money.”

“Hmm, I doubt that anyone will hear this story. In the end, the victors are those who tell the tales,” Thalion answered. “I’m also not sure if it is good to be known in the multiverse. Doesn’t sound like an advantage.”

“Who knows… In the end, I still believe that you’re going to make it. I’ve never seen someone this strong at F-grade. I’m not even sure if I would win in a fight. To be fair, I’m not the strongest, but still—an F-grade being able to fight E-grades is unheard of where I’m from. Also, the way you fight is… inspiring. The quick changes of tactics and always perfectly adapting to the situation while not giving your enemy a chance to do the same. I like it,” Rid continued with an encouraging smile.

“You don’t need to be so nice. I’m not done, and something like giving up doesn’t exist. My journey will be endless. Sometimes life really isn’t that good to you, and I just need to figure out what to do next,” Thalion said with conviction in his voice.

“Huh. Endless. Not bad, I like it. Endless adventures sound like something I would be on board with,” Rid laughed, handing Thalion a bottle that smelled of strong alcohol. He took a good sip and gave Rid the bottle back. It tasted like very strong rum. Yet before Thalion could thank the sailor, a loud voice tore over the deck.

“Land! I can see land!”

This was enough to get everyone on their feet, and sure enough, at the end of the horizon, they could see what looked like a relatively big island.

Cheers broke out all over the ship. Everyone had already feared that they would need to go for another dive, which likely would end with even more dead. The island also meant that they finally could find a piece of the map that led to the big treasure. Thalion honestly doubted that there was a chance for them to find this treasure before the others. By how their leaderboard points were shooting upwards, they already were a few days ahead of them. No, this stage was likely doomed, and Thalion would be happy if he reached the ten million leaderboard points to get to the next stage. It could also be that it was the time they were all getting lucky, but Thalion doubted that. So far, the stage really hadn’t been good to him.

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“Haha. Finally, it is time for us to get lucky. We’re gonna search for anything valuable and refill our supplies. Everything you find you can keep besides the treasure map. I need to know where to steer our beautiful ship next, right haha.” The loud voice of the captain echoed over the deck, agitating the whole crew.

The closer they got to the island, the more upset Thalion got. There simply wasn’t anything on the island besides trees and a few beasts. The whole island also stood over twenty meters above the water level, which meant that they had to climb up the cliff first. Thalion even contemplated if that was the best course of action. Maybe he should swim around it and search for an underwater entrance to a secret cave or something like that. This close to the island, they were hopefully safe from the Scarn.

On second thought, when Thalion looked down, there was no ground in sight even when the ship was already slowing down. Back on Earth, it wasn’t really surprising, mostly due to the water being relatively muddy. Here, the water was crystal clear, and you could see hundreds of meters down. It seemed that the island was like a giant pillar that rose up above the water level, which would mean that the ship shouldn’t be safe at all, and Thalion really began to worry. If the ship sank while everyone was on land, he had not the slightest idea how to earn the rest of the ten million leaderboard points. The captain must have had similar thoughts as he bellowed new orders over the deck.

“Okay, it looks like we won’t be entering shallower waters, which means that I and a few others will stay on the ship to keep it going around the island. Now go, I expect you all back by nightfall.”

Rid and the others didn’t need to hear that a second time as they almost launched themselves overboard and into the clear water. They shot like torpedoes over to the cliff and began climbing upwards. Some formed a small river under their feet and used it to surf upwards. No one wanted to stay longer in the water than necessary.

Thalion watched it all from the ship, uncertain where to go first. As long as he stayed close enough to the surface, he should be safe from any Scarn or fishwomen. In the shallow waters, he also could shift to Eagly and shock them without needing to fear that the water masses were destroying his body. When he had the time, he should definitely test how deep each form could dive without getting damaged.

After thinking it all over, Thalion decided diving around the island should be worth the risk. Thalion jumped headfirst into the cool water and shifted into the tidecaller serpent. From underwater, the island before him looked even more special. It was just like an extremely long and slim pillar rising from the depth of the ocean. The structure looked a bit alien to Thalion. He had anticipated that the island was the peak of a mountain, but that it was just this unnaturally slim and long pillar looked so wrong. Almost as if it was crafted by design. Or it might also be that this ratgul hadn’t wanted to bother much with design and had just thrown building blocks of islands into the sea.

Still, Thalion was intrigued. Maybe there was more to it. He was confident that it was very unlikely that he was missing much on this island besides a few beasts. Checking the depths below him, he didn’t see any movement and began to circle the island while diving downward. The island was roughly circular and had a few kilometers in diameter. It took a while to surround the island, but the more Thalion saw, the more confused he got. It more and more looked like a ritual monolith.

From time to time, he used aqualance and blasted off a few corals and algae off the surface. The stone of the island also was indestructible and didn’t even take a scratch from a fully powered aqua lance. The surface reminded him a bit of Ankhet’s temple and the corridors, which also couldn’t be damaged. There were lines that looked a bit like veins that were snaking their way downward. It reminded him a bit of the runes he had used for his sword to enchant the blade.

After swimming around the island, Thalion was so intrigued that he followed the lines further down. It was clear that they were inactive, but maybe there was a power source on the island that could activate them. While diving downward, he always kept watch on the surrounding waters to not get ambushed by the Scarn or seawomen.

Thalion guessed that they hadn’t noticed him due to his passive skill, Camouflage of the Depths. At least, those were his hopes. In the meantime, he also tried out how deep Eagly could dive down, and after two hundred meters, the pressure became so great that he feared that his bones might break. Good that he hadn’t shifted into Eagly at far greater depths. It could also have something to do with this stage, and he might try it out again on New Earth, depending on if he still had Eagly by then.

What was surprising was that the wyvern was completely fine underwater and could actually move quite fast. Not that it mattered against Scarn, but to know that he wouldn’t drown when hitting the water’s surface was pretty damn good.

Thalion continued to dive deeper and deeper while circling the island and clearing it of corals and all the other stuff that had begun to grow on it. This was just so fascinating, but at some point, Thalion had to dive up since entering the darker waters was just too dangerous right now, and he wanted to know what was positioned on the top of the island. There had to be some construction to activate the whole thing or the whole construction.

Thalion wasn’t the only one circling the island, but the ship was also going around. This time, Thalion could see how in the depths, shadows moved under the ship. The Scarn were definitely there, and it didn’t look like they wanted to let the ship go freely. This was also enough underwater action for Thalion at the moment, and he shot upward, shifting to Eagly the moment he breached the surface.

Wasting no time, he activated Tempest Glide and shot upward and right over the edge of the cliff while rising higher and higher so that he could get an overview of the island. The edges were filled with trees and all sorts of beasts. A two-meter-wide crab and gigantic grasshoppers seemed to be the dominant species on the island. In the middle of the island was a crater, and in the middle of the crater stood some kind of castle made from the same material as the island.

Sailors were already all over it, and Thalion couldn’t wait to join them as he laid his wings in and dove downward.