'That was such a fucking flag. Shit.'
Soon after Ackster decided to brave the depths of the Habitat while hoping that the Space Jellies remained docile, he felt a chill run down his spine. His Keen Senses and Strong Body's amped-up survival instincts had picked up on a thread of hostility belonging to a space jelly lurking in the depths of the Habitat.
Ackster stopped swimming for a moment as he thought about what to do. The thread was getting shorter, and Ackster sensed the source getting closer despite not being able to see through the swarm of jellyfish crowding his immediate vicinity.
He could retreat.
But why?
The Space Jellies were mystical beings, sure. But they weren't threatening or dangerous, even if he didn't know what they were capable of in combat. Since they were mostly docile, cute, and harmless, Ackster also wasn't sure about killing them or what kind of opinions the Guild would have if he did.
However, retreating meant forgoing a chance to increase the odds of his survival. There was no way he could do that.
Ackster gritted his teeth and pushed aside the heap of Space Jellies around him to welcome the one wanting his vitality for itself.
So what if they were cute? Ackster wanted to live.
So what if they were part of the reason the Habitat existed and why he could get an inventory here? Ackster wasn't going to let anything stand in his path.
So what if the Guild probably wouldn't appreciate him killing what they were trying to protect? Ackster knew his worth. The guild wanted him more than they wanted a single Space Jelly.
Ackster swam forward while eyeing the Space Jelly, which propelled itself toward him while spreading its tentacles like a bed of seaweed.
Ackster made note of the tentacles since they were most likely the jellyfish's main attack.
Since they were mystical beasts, they could probably use magic. But jellyfish were brainless, and it would, at most, be something primitive and instinctual. Ackster was confident he could react in time.
After all, not even the hostile Space Jelly gave Ackster as bad a feeling as the Ant Queen had done. It was that he didn't know what it did and the fact that he had to think about where he was that made fighting the Space Jelly a challenge.
Ackster didn't have anything other than his fist to use as a weapon, so he raised it as he kicked himself forward through the nectar with his legs.
'How the fuck do you fight underwater?'
Ackster wasn't technically in water, but the nectar, despite the feeling of weightlessness it gave, still behaved like water.
'It's good practice for the Sea God Temple, I guess.'
But Ackster was mostly undeterred by the unfamiliar environment.
The Space Jelly would die if he hit it. Hopefully.
The basics of combat hadn't changed just because the nectar affected his movements. He had to hit his opponent while not getting hit.
However, the Space Jelly had an overwhelming advantage by being in its home and having more tentacles than Ackster could count. Ackster realized that the not getting hit part of his plan would have to experience some liberties as he barreled through the net of tentacles toward the jellyfish's main body with his fist poised to launch.
Ackster fluttered his legs and gathered enough speed to torpedo into the Jelly. He felt a slight sense of trepidation as he closed in on the tentacles. But the Space Jelly was hiding behind them and expanding its net. If Ackster didn't push through, he would get caught or be forced to retreat.
He clenched his teeth and continued kicking with his legs to the point the waves he made were enough to push the other Space Jellies back.
Ackster came into contact with the Space Jelly's thread-like, light blue, almost white tentacles. They easily budged and caved as he continued forward. But they weren't meant to resist his advance. They were there to trap him, catch him in their sticky tendrils.
Ackster winced mostly out of the anticipated shock. But as one could expect from mystical beasts with the space attribute and not ordinary jellyfish, they didn't sting. At first, Ackster didn't feel anything despite the tentacles wrapping around his arm and starting to do the same with the rest of his body.
But as more time passed and more tentacles clung to him, Ackster began to feel a prickly sensation all over his body.
It was the same feeling as the general baptism of energy inside the Habitat but magnified manyfold. It was also more forceful and unpleasant.
Ackster realized that if he didn't get out of the tentacles soon, he would be forced back to the surface since the Space Jelly was forcefully overloading him with the space energy in the Habitat, though, considering the Space Jelly was holding onto him, he wouldn't even be able to retreat anymore. Fortunately, Ackster had long discarded the thoughts of retreating.
He reached out in an attempt to punch the main body of the fist.
However, the bandage of tentacles and the nectar were too much, and his punch slowed down to a crawl, and he grabbed the Jelly's main body instead.
Ackster barely managed to wrench open his fingers and pinch the edge of the Space Jelly.
"You know what…?"
Ackster curled his arm and pulled the Space Jelly closer to himself.
"Down the hatch, you go!"
Ackster activated Limit Breaker to help ignore the tentacles' resistance as he moved his body and bit down on the head-sized jellyfish, not that there was much to bite down on since it was so soft.
The Space Jelly was surprisingly tasteless, but compared to some other stuff Ackster had eaten, a lack of taste was synonyms with a blessing.
Before the Space Jelly could resist or try to flee, or before he suffered even more from the forceful overload, Ackster ate the rest of the Space Jelly, tentacle and all. He slurped on it like noodle-tipped monster jello.
Although it wasn't a monster, Monster Muncher still activated.