A lonely ship was sailing many nautical miles away from Coral Pavilion. The wood of its hull was crafted from night oak, hiding it beneath the veil of darkness.
Four human males stirred into consciousness from their bunk beds.
"Urgh," They collectively groaned, spitting blood from their mouth, and bled from their ears, eyes, and nose all at the same time.
Knock, knock, knock.
Rythmic thuds sounded out from the door to their room.
"I'm coming in, boys." A feminine voice sounded from beyond the door, as it clicked open to let in a gust of ocea air.
A lady whose bearing was brimming with intelligence and grace walked in with a sisterly smile. She waved her hand as a grey energy emanated from her fingertips and landed atop the four men's foreheads.
Their rugged breathing calmed, as the lady wiped the blood from their faces. Gently, she tended to the injuries they incurred.
"If only we did not have to resort to such barbarian methods," The lady sighed as she dripped a concoction of healing onto the tongues of each person in the room.
The lady continued to mumble as a pitiable expression was painted unto her youthful face, "I never expected the price to ascend would be a mountain of corpses... There should be another way, right, father?"
.
.
.
Athelei's unhurried gaze scanned what he could see of the giant sea serpent that consumed his entire view.
In front of him lay a multi-coloured screen that remained unseen by all.
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Ulthasiair
Health: 891/920
Defence: 42
Strength: 58
Dexterity: 39
- Race: Mutant Sea Serpent (3% Lesser Water Dragon)
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'It has a name,' Athelei thought in pleasant surprise, 'That's a first...'
In the past week, he had been using his Inspect non-stop on everything and everyone, and he knew that beasts normally did not have names. A humongous amount of information had flooded into him, and he learned much more than he could ever have from simply reading books.
The Skill had levelled up due to the sheer addiction that Athelei had delved in, even. Whatever mysterious requirements had been met in the span of seven days.
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Trinity Analysis Skill: Inspect (Level 6/10)
Cooldown per target: 24 Hours -> 18 Hours
Information: +Basic Physical Stats automatically supplied every cast execution.
Surveillance Targets: 1 -> 2
Appraisal: +1 Level
Judgement: +1 Level
Examine: +1 Level
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CRASH!
Ulthasiair lunged towards the ship Athelei stood on from its lofty position in the sky. Wood was splintered and sent flying everywhere while the humans were petrified. Their ship sunk into the sea under the beast's immense weight.
Ulthasiair wrapped around the two halves of the vessel, shaterring it in the process. The humans were being picked off one by one by the rest of the rampaging beasts.
They were helpless in the dark waters. Not even the lights of battle could save this specific crew as water filled their lungs and they vanished into the volcanic depths.
Athelei had to abandon Nikiri Mist's belongings, as he had wound up inside the mouth of Ulthasiair. He dispersed into a grey fog and leaked out of the mutant sea serpent's body.
Peacefully, he made his way towards the sundered God's Altar. He filtered out the screams and the blood of the battle that raged above his head and focused on the questions he wished to have answers to.
A child-like body of grey fog with folded wings solidified before the fissure that blasphemed against a God. It moved through the water in the same way it moved through the air.
It phased through the enfeebling particles and water pressure to arrive in front a small, aquamarine light.
Athelei reached into the crack in the altar, and grabbed with his fingers. He pulled out what looked to be a handbook, not any larger than one of Earth's tablets. The aquamarine light he had spotted through his Inspect glowed from a gem on its ancient-looking leather cover.
When the altar had been destroyed earlier, he had Inspect targetted at it. He was using the real-time update function to have a better idea on what exactly what was happening.
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Sea Master's Pedestal
- State: Sealed -> Opened
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'Did they not expect the God's Altar to be a storage device?' Athelei asked himself as he caressed the antique book in his hands. 'Was their target simply enraging the sea beasts? Were they trying to push forward the beast tide?'
Athelei glanced over towards the trident that had been laid atop the altar. Similar to the Sea Master's Pedestal, it had snapped in half despite being at the ground zero of a self-destructing squad of Nightwalkers.
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Mystical Seal
[ "Thalassa's Trident" ]
Lethality: 12
Durability: 368/400
- State: Dormant
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'It looks like a weapon, and yet it was a seal...' Athelei chuckled as he picked up the two pieces of Thalassa's Trident.
He discovered that where the trident had been snapped in half, it looked to be hand-cut. It did not looked damaged. In fact, Athelei saw that the two halves could fit back together like a puzzle piece if he had to.
And so, curiously, he put the two pieces together.
Click!
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Mystical Seal
[ "Thalassa's Trident" ]
Lethality: 12
Durability: 368/400
- State: Dormant -> Primed
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'Primed?' Athelei thought to himself, 'Would it seal something if I put it on top of an object? Hm, I think that is most likely...'
In the next second, Athelei felt the handbook in his hand shudder with a wave of power. Athelei tilted his head as he belatedly executed Inspect on it.
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Enchanted Mystical Book
[ "Tidal Tome" ]
Mana: 2/30
Durability: 1203/1500
- [Active Effect: Blessed of the Storm] Greatly enhances the water attributes of one's Mana for ten seconds.
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Athelei wondered as he observed the Tidal Tome and Thalassa's Trident. They continued to react to each other, and the reaction grew stronger when Athelei brought the two closer together.
He allowed his curiosity to dictate his actions, and brought the two items together.
Whooop!
An intriguing sound was released as Thalassa's Trident was sucked into the Tidal Tome. Nothing else happened after.
Athelei tilted his head and opened the book.
When he turned to the first page, the tablet-sized handbook suddenly grew to a massive size. It became a bulky book, much wider than Athelei's childish fog-body. He could barely carry the item that he resolved to just placed it on the sea floor.
Thud!
Dust was kicked up in the previously pristine waters near the Coral Pavilion.
'So many water-based Mystic Patterns!' Athelei's eyes shone in pleasant surprise when he saw pages upon pages of those patterns. The earlier pages composed of normal patterns for Rank 0 Artists, sequences for Rank 1s, circles for Rank 2s, and even concentric circles for Rank 3s.
At the same time, Athelei grew dizzy from seeing all of the relevant sidenotes each Mystic Pattern had. There was even some kind of calculation system being used. And everything was handwritten by a high-ranking Artist, with their beautiful strokes and flicks of the wrist.
'Being an Artist indeed requires the most studying out of the three classes,' Athelei wryly chuckled. His schedule was already jam-packed.
Now that he had a spellbook to research, he had to push out lower-priority activities.
'But... where did Thalassa's Trident go?' Athelei wondered. He flipped through every page of the half a foot-thick Tidal Tome.
It was only when he reached the final page that something occurred.
'...I should've done this earlier,' Athelei scoffed at himself before letting out a dry laugh.
Fwhip!
Athelei watched as the back cover of the Tidal Tome let out a wisp of aquamarine light.
In the blink of an eye, there was now a four-pronged trident lying where the thick tome had been just a moment ago.
Curiously, Athelei picked up Thalassa's Trident and gave the sealing item a few swings.
'Its main purpose is for sealing, but unless I supply it with Mystical Energy, or well... Mana, it would act like a normal object. Or in this case, a decent weapon by my standards.'
Athelei's eyes were then drawn to the area where the trident could be snapped in half. There was a change that had occurred.
'Probably due to the Tidal Tome,' Athelei thought as he placed his thumb on the Mystic Pattern that had found itself carved onto the trident's basalt-like shaft. He then poured a pinch of his Mystical Energy into the pattern and Thalassa's Trident promptly turned into a familiar handbook.
Athelei played around with the treasure he had found for himself. Whenever he opened the handbook-sized Tidal Tome, it would always turn into the gigantic book he could not carry. If he closed the book, it would shrink, but if he turned the last page and touched the back cover, it would turn into Thalassa's Trident.
Even when the Tidal Tome was handbook-sized, if he opened the back cover, he would find himself wielding a trident.
'Nifty,' Athelei complimented the intricacy present in the item's mechanics.
BOOM!
A rather powerful crack of lightning illuminated the area above Athelei's head. It made the angel glance up to see the nasty state that the battle between humans and beasts had become. Corpses and carcasses literred the waters, debris and blood was everywhere.
The many innards of sea creatures were serving as a vicious ornaments, suspended at different depths. On the sea floor were the remnants of many of the larger species that had perished. They were now being devoured by scavenging beasts who had been drawn in by the scent of blood and death.
'It seems like my fellow humans were not wiped out...'