It was nighttime now, and after Athelei's usual day of endless studies and practice, he had finally finished copying the entire Tidal Tome into his mind library. Now, he was once again descending from the Arthime household's hilltop mansion. He drifted through the streets as a nigh-invisible grey fog while he glanced around.
The people around him all looked anxious and scared. Many had large packs with many of their belongings slung on their backs. They likely came from the lower areas of Avina and were looking for a place to stay.
Their fears had been amplified because Ulthasiair had made its presence known earlier this morning. Its humongous draconic body made many onlookers' knees weak, as they feared further destruction.
But fortunately, Ulthasiair did not attack. Not yet, at least.
After giving people heart attacks, the one-tenth of a water dragon dove back into the sea. It made many of the common folk sigh in relief.
The officials, however, had pale faces.
'If the tides rise further... then...'
They did not want to finish that thought.
But I will finish it for them;
If the tides rose further, it would give way to beasts even larger than they have ever known. The king crab, sea serpent, and other creatures who guarded the God's Altar had yet to appear. It had allowed Lady Karire and Apple the freedom to rampage without fearing too much.
The beasts now could be likened to Rank 1 Evolvers without any techniques and only strength. The large beasts guarding the God's Altar, however, were at the level of Rank 2 Evolvers, all focused on their bodies.
They were like Evolvers who only practised body strengthening techniques like Stone Skin and whatnot, caring nothing for the more graceful sword arts or martial movesets. And when you pair such a phenomenon with their naturally sturdier physique as beasts of the sea, you get tanks.
The squad of Exiled fighters had barely done any damage to Ulthasiair despite their rumoured frightening strengths. What could the defenders of Avina do better? Especially now, that Ulthasiair had gone through some kind of evolution.
Perhaps it could be in preparation... but that would be it.
One still had to remember that the beasts were bringing the sea with them. How they were doing it was still a mystery, but with every beast that moved into the flooded city, the higher the tide got.
The sea beasts were taking the drylands for themselves.
'I still haven't figured out who is after my other identity, Nikiri Mist...' Athelei recalled his trashed room after floating through a house.
'Where can I find clues?' Athelei thought as he continued to drift downhill. When he saw the floods in the distance, the location of the Adventurer's Guild suddenly flashed into his mind.
'Wouldn't that area be flooded now as well?' Athelei's nonexistent eyes glistened as he rose into the sky and coalesced into an angel with outstretched wings. Those grey wings kept him in the air with rhythmical flaps and strong gusts of wind.
Heightened by Mystic Patterns and his Tangible Will, Athelei then flew through the sky, shortening his trip by a good hour. Drifting around as a grey fog wasn't the fastest mode of movement, after all.
He arrived above the Adventurer's Guild that was still rather dry. The floods here were only up to an average human's heels. After climbing up the guild's stairs, the visiting Adventurers would be saved from soggy boots.
'Hmmm,' Athelei inwardly hummed as he watched the Adventurers come and go. They had already adapted to the floods with a few specialised pieces of gear. Athelei even identified familiar faces who had fought at the God's Altar, laughing and joking around with others who had been through that tragic battle.
They seemed unfazed despite the massive losses incurred.
'They must be the ones who had gone solo,' Athelei thought to himself as he scanned the many faces around. The Adventurers who had lost good friends and comrades didn't seem to be in the area. Athelei had also not seen Cammille since the fight.
'Did she head back to her party members in the subterranean kingdoms?' Athelei wondered before infiltrating the Adventurer's Guild itself.
There he saw the familiar sights of the reception tables, the lounge and small restaurant, the benches, and the iconic bulletin board.
The ceiling was as tall as ever, pairing well with the magnificent chandelier that hung from above.
Athelei looked around the bulletin boards and concluded that the quest flyer that asked for information on him had disappeared.
'Those black market guards probably made the report somehow...' Athelei thought to himself as he continued to read the flyers.
There was a multitude of hunting quests that rewarded Adventurers for hunting in the flooded areas. The flyers claimed that the more beasts they slew, the slower the tides would rise, and stopping the rising tides was the only way for the city of Avina to stay dry.
There were also a few quests centred around the Eastern Wall, and a few of the braver, more adept Adventurers fancied taking those. The ones that did were usually in full parties who all had shopped for supplies to keep them alive.
All in all, the lives of the Adventurers weren't impacted as much. In fact, they were all growing richer by the hour with all of the quests they could do. It had surpassed the number of quests one could find in Revillie and Zi which were sometimes hailed as one of the best places to be an Adventurer.
Those sister villages were a good place to start, and a good place to return to.
'It seems like I must go to the black market next if I want any clues... but that place should be deeper in the floods...' Athelei floated back into the sky while he was thinking, 'Would it still be operating?'
Athelei had fun betting against himself whether or not the black market he had been to twice already was still lively. He flew under the faint moonlight and among the clouds, gazing at the darkness below him. The streets now looked like rivers and streams, with water flowing forward with the wind and waves.
The occasional flash of light caught Athelei's eyes, and the boy guessed that a sea beast had likely surfaced from the waters. Those light flashes had come from their shiny scales as they reflected the silvery moonlight.
When Athelei made it to the slums, he found the area rather empty. He couldn't spot any humans if there were any, and the lack of mystic lights made things harder.
'This area has probably become beast territory already,' Athelei created a torch of Tangible Will for himself when he noted a low groan sounding out from one of the flooded streets.
A ragged cloak was floating on the waters and Athelei decided on making himself a target instead of doing arduous searching. He was going to take on Nikiri Mist's appearance to see if trouble would come to him and bring him answers.
'Based on the operations of the Harmonic Knights...' Athelei opened one of his mental notebooks and scanned his eidetic memories, 'The likelihood that they are staking out the area where I was last seen is pretty high,'
The ragged cloak that had been drifting aimlessly suddenly came to life, jumping towards a nearby building with a splash of water and bronze Tangible Will.
This sudden movement caught the attention of a few beasts, making them surface above the ripples that had been left behind. Those beasts that looked akin to oversized piranhas swam around as if they were looking for scents in both the waters and the air, but they ultimately found nothing.
Athelei was made out of fog. He did not smell human in the least, and the cloak that he had draped over his shoulders had already been stained by the scent of the floods.
The beasts had no way of actively tracking him. And if they did, why would they? They wouldn't be able to feed off of his Nightwalker fog-body.
Thus Athelei moved around, without bothering to hide much of his presence. He had scavenged a few clothes that fit him as he went and even retrieved an old shortsword and dagger he could play with after breaking into one of the houses.
It took an hour, but eventually, Athelei felt that a few unfamiliar gazes had locked onto his figure.
'I should be in black market territory now... I was right,' Athelei excitedly thought to himself.
Bzzzt!
Athelei felt the activation of Analysis Skills that caused discomforts in his body. He instantly responded by activating Sneaky so that he could progress through the Skill's requirements.
He dulled the electrocution he usually felt and turned it into a shiver as a multi-coloured screen appeared before him.
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
You have disrupted ten (10) unique attempts of Analysis Skill execution. Sneaky has reacted.
- Skill progression updated.
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Athelei then turned around and spotted the noticeable lights of cyan and purple Cosmic Interfaces hovering in the shadows.
"Who are you, and what do you want from me?" Athelei called out, and he watched six cloaked figures appear under the moonlight.
"Nikiri Mist?" A careful, modulated voice posed a simple question.
Athelei placed his hands on the pommels of his scavenged blades, "Who is asking?"
"Hana of the Banishers." The voice perfunctorily replied, "We would like to ask you a few questions, and we are hoping for your cooperation. Run, and we will assume that you are hostile, and that will be your end."