WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 169 - Resident (5)

"Are you saying you became like this by eating?"

When I pressed for an answer, one of the octopus’ tentacles twitched.

I tilted my head wondering what it was doing—

[-- It is… time…]

-Crack, snap!

Suddenly, fractures began to spread across the tentacles.

The suckers slowly darkened, and purple blood burst through the cracks, staining the Abyssal Sea. Caught off guard by the sudden turn of events, I watched as the last remaining tentacle began to slowly sink.

"What is this—? What’s happening?”

[All things sink…]

"What?"

[If bound by shackles, one cannot rise again. If one rises, one is cursed…]

"...Ah. Are you talking about decompression sickness?”

It seemed that those tentacles had climbed an absurd distance upward all of a sudden, and now they were paying the price for the massive pressure difference.

But decompression sickness could be avoided if one ascended slowly, right? Did it climb with everything it had because it desperately wanted to catch me?

A chill ran down my spine. Not because it wanted to catch me, but because it had endured up until now.

'So this bastard endured decompression sickness head-on and still…'

I glanced at the canyon wall the tentacle had struck. It looked as though a massive meteor had collided with it.

Just moments ago, when I attempted to rise toward the surface, I had personally felt how violent the burden of pressure imbalance could be.

And while suffering from that kind of burden, it still managed to cause this much damage.

And that wasn’t all. Though most of its tentacles had already descended, there was a single one remaining, just to communicate with me.

As I watched the tentacle slowly sinking into the chasm, I shouted urgently,

"What the hell are you guys?”

[...]

"What do you want from me? Why are you trying to kill me?”

[........]

"This bastard—”

Seeing the octopus remain silent, I felt my blood boil.

If it were a moment ago, I would have just let it go, but not now that I knew it was dying.

-Cruuunch!

I seized the tentacle with all my strength, crushing it with pressure, I threatened,

"Where do you think you're going? Talk before I rip this off.”

[......]

"You think I can’t do it? Hm…"

I realized halfway through that I actually couldn’t.

The octopus wasn’t even resisting. It was just unbelievably heavy. Just that single tentacle.

It felt like trying to grab hold of a mountain and move it.

'Aren’t we in the ocean……?"

I felt like this was some kind of joke, but watching it continue to sink, I forced myself to focus again.

I changed tactics. Sharpening the surrounding currents, I formed a blade of water and lightly grazed it across the tentacle.

-Spurt!

[…Hmm.]

Purple blood scattered once more, to which it reacted.

"I haven’t lived here that long, but I’ve seen what happens to things that lose limbs.”

Any deep-sea creature that suffered even a small wound would eventually fail to endure and become food for other creatures of the Abyssal Sea.

Seeing how large it was, I knew that it wouldn’t die immediately from losing a single limb, but a fatal wound was still a fatal wound.

I scraped the tentacle several more times with pressure blades and kept threatening it.

"Answer me. What am I? What the hell am I that makes you all so desperate to kill me? Is it just because I’m the master of this world? Or…”

[...---,----!---------!]

Before I could finish, the octopus let out a roar.

It was on an entirely different level from its previous voice. The canyon trembled, and the barnacle- or clam-like things clinging to the walls tore loose and fell.

[---!------!!!]

At first I was panicking, thinking that it was extremely enraged.

But the more I listened, the stranger it sounded.

The vibrations were rhythmic and steady, similar to laughter.

[--, Child.]

And somehow, I understood.

That octopus was mocking me.

[Come down.]

"What?"

[...We are waiting …]

The next moment, something began to boil in the deepest part of the canyon.

-Blublublublub…

An enormous amount of bubbles surged upward, turning into a torrent.

"Tsk.”

The instant my Tide Sense caught that current, I knew further threats were meaningless.

The current wasn’t visible, but it was rising at an impossible speed, grinding down everything in its path.

It resembled the tidal wave I had once used against Great Void in Heaven, but the scale and velocity were on a whole other level.

I hastily pulled back, hearing clicking sounds fill the surroundings.

[The End! The End! The End!]

[The End! The End! The End]

[The End! The End! The End!]

[The End! The End! The End!]

The shellfish.

They too could use Tide Sense, so they also sensed the coming wave, but they were slower than me.

They couldn’t flee. They had chosen to bind themselves permanently to the canyon wall.

Living things, after all, struggled to survive. They pushed and clawed at the stone with their tongues, but their efforts were useless. They were reduced to concentrated slurry.

-Ruuuumble...

Boooooom!!!

"...What the hell is this?”

It was like throwing seashells into a jet engine.

One second before the surge hit, the canyon walls had been covered in white shells, but in the next, the entire wall had become white with their pulverized remains.

Now the tidal wave could be seen even with the naked eye, painted with the white powder of crushed shells.

I cautiously approached the canyon and looked down.

The octopus had long since disappeared. Only the abyss remained, welcoming me.

-That was too close for comfort.

"We…huh.”

I slowly chewed on that word.

So that meant—there were plenty of things like that octopus down there.

And one more thing.

I was gradually sinking, like a human version of Venice, and would inevitably fall to where those things lived.

I stared into the abyss.

A dark hole in which one couldn’t even see an inch ahead.

"So that’s my future.”

It was a rather accurate assessment.

* * *

Anyway, I began observing the area around the canyon.

Unlike before, I watched with great focus.

After all, some of those things were going to end up inside my mouth.

'There’s a lot.'

The usual appeared. Eels, anglerfish, pufferfish, sharks, cutlassfish, and more. Some sounded edible in theory. But once you saw the jagged red entrails producing between their scales, you’d quickly change your mind.

I had thought this for quite some time already, but these things were truly grotesque.

They looked like the amalgam of leftovers. As if the Creator had swept together scraps of different species and mashed them into one being. Even individuals of the same type all looked rather different.

The jellyfish moved in groups, but some had fins among their tentacles, some had teeth, and some were entirely different colors. So it was difficult for me to say that they were of the same species. At best, I could only conclude that they just gathered because they were vaguely similar.

Anyway, in summary:

"I really don’t want to eat these. Even if I die…"

I hadn’t even liked seafood back on Earth.

Putting these embodiments of sin into my mouth just triggered an instinctive revulsion.

And there was another problem.

'Did that thing even tell me the truth?’

I didn’t trust that octopus at all.

It had clearly tried to kill me, so the odds that it had sincerely given me the correct answer were extremely low.

Sure, I shouldn’t complain since I was the one who went down there asking questions.

But just believing its words would be the height of folly. If I ate a deep-sea creature and died from poison, it would probably applaud and laugh, saying, “Look at this idiot actually believing me!”

Still...

"Hmm..."

I raised my hand.

The Water Partition covering it let out a creaking scream as it shrank slightly.

I was in no position to be picky here. The air bubble was still intact. I could retreat now and return with what little information I gained.

But if I came back later, I would have even less time left. I would suffer from even greater pressure and even more urgency.

So even if I didn’t fully trust what it had told me, I still had to act on it.

"Alright."

First, I chose the weakest-looking one.

What caught my eye was an anglerfish. I couldn’t judge everything from a single specimen, but this one was stupid and obedient enough to make a good test subject.

"Follow the one at the very front."

[...?]

[...]

"Good. Wait here.”

Fortunately, the others were just as brainless. I gathered five drifting anglerfish and made them remain near the canyon.

Now it was time to acquire the test material.

[...?]

[...]

After swimming for a while, I found a swarm of orange and red jellyfish.

Their colors varied so much that I hesitated, wondering if they were the same kind, but I didn’t have the luxury to perfectly control every single variable right now. Using the currents, I sliced through their tentacles in a single sweep.

[...!!!!]

[!!!!]

The surrounding jellyfish, their limbs severed, trembled and compressed into small spheres under the pressure. They silently screamed and tried to flee, but they couldn’t withstand my pressure blades.

Apparently, the creatures in this region still didn’t know how to use the sea as their weapon. I was genuinely grateful for that. I gathered the compressed jellyfish… or rather, the jellyfish balls and returned to where the anglerfish were waiting.

Preparation complete.

[...Food.]

[Must eat...]

The moment they saw the jellyfish balls, their eyes gleamed as they moved towards me.

"Wait."

I calmed them, then dragged one individual aside.

"Stay still. I’ll give you food.”

[Food...]

Unfortunately, this first batch was for testing.

-Crunch.

[Food...?]

The anglerfish grotesquely swelled and then began to shrink.

[...!!]

It tried to resist midway, but it was too late.

-Crunch!

The anglerfish that tried to eat the jellyfish balls became an anglerfish ball.

I didn’t need that anymore, so I tossed it aside and focused on memorizing this sensation.

'So that’s about how much it can withstand.'

Its body had seemed soft, but it endured far more than expected.

Of course, there would be variations between individuals, but roughly speaking, this was the pressure threshold at which it would burst.

So what if I tried feeding the jellyfish balls to them first?

If there was a meaningful difference in how much pressure they could endure when I crushed them, that would prove the effect was real.

Only after confirming that would I consider consuming this stuff myself.

'There might still be side effects…’

I clenched my fist, crushing that weak thought and steeling my resolve.

I wasn’t hoping to survive with an intact body. Even if my limbs shattered, even if my skin melted, I just wanted to live.

With my resolve hardened, I dragged another anglerfish forward.

"Here, eat."

[...]

The anglerfish swallowed one jellyfish ball, then two, then three without any hesitation.

After giving it about five minutes, I crushed it again.

[!!!!]

-Crunch.

"Hmm..."

The resistance felt the same.

Maybe three wasn’t enough? I brought another anglerfish over and fed this one ten.

[...Ptoo.]

"...What? This little bastard..."

To my surprise, it spat out the eights after swallowing seven.

I felt annoyed, but it had still eaten more than double the previous one, so I crushed it again.

-Crunch.

"...No."

It was the same. If anything, it felt even softer.

Had the octopus been lying after all? Sighing, I dragged another anglerfish and fed it jellyfish balls.

This one spat out the sixth.

Of course, I didn’t just leave it at that.

"Don’t you dare get picky.”

[...Kgh, Kegh...]

I forced nearly twenty jellyfish balls down its throat.

That was almost all I had left. If there was still no effect after this, it would prove the octopus had given me false information.

Since I had fed it so much, I waited properly for it to digest this time.

An hour passed, so it should have digested them by now.

I steadied my pounding heart and prepared.

"...Please, endure it.”

If this worked, everything would change.

As I wrapped the anglerfish in ocean currents, I sent out a prayer that wasn’t quite one.

"?"

But something felt off.

A texture I hadn’t felt when I brought it here. I turned the dumb, vacant anglerfish to the side and looked at the source of the discomfort.

“...What is this?”

On the anglerfish’s fin—orange tentacles had sprouted.

...Tentacles with the exact same texture as a jellyfish’s.

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