[Quest Completed Survive]
[Reward 100 EXP 100/200 EXP]
"Come on Rain keep up!" Serena yells out through the shifting currents.
"Your dog is doing better with his new fins than you!" She mocks, seeing how quick to adapt his companion is.
"Hey! Can it! I was never a good swimmer, okay! Even with aquatic features I still suck." Rain retorts openly admitting his flaws.
"Good lord, do I have to teach you how to swim too!?" Serena scoffs, twirling her tentacle strand in boredom.
"You know that might be a good idea." Rain admits shamelessly.
"You're lucky you're a diamond in the rough kid, or I wouldn't bother wasting all this time on you!" Serena scoffs, not being able to make heads or tails of Rain despite everything.
"It's appreciated. I'll return the favour of equal partnership, remember." Rain says, putting one of his scaled fingers to his nose.
"Yeah, yeah just get to making Shells! Maybe I'll treat you to a decent meal." She exclaims, praying that he won't backstab her.
"There's still food service down here?" Rain questions imagining a burger shack underwater.
"Ever heard of the term adapt or die?" Serena responds back in a condescending tone.
"No?" Rain says, not recognising the quote.
"Well that's what the seas run off now. It's brutal at times but it's home. Just wait till you get to Scavengers Reef it gets harsher there. Lucky for you I look out for my allies. So you'll have a spot in this whole mess." She says sticking her tongue out. Sending waves of nostalgia in Rain. Lucas surfaces to mind seeing the gesture.
"Maybe we can get you on your fins. 5 years is a lot, everything here has changed. There are a few things that remain painfully the same but i'm not getting into that right now." Serena says brushing off her odd feelings on their surroundings.
"Now LET'S GET TO WORK!" Serena roars out, gesturing a chop in the palm of her hand.
"Alright, alright. What's first on our list?" Rain says, trying to form a mental list of supplies to gather.
"Rope would be a great starting point, we could also use some componentry any old bit of scrap will do." She says setting the bar low for her new companion.
"However, the prime items for today. Gasoline, rubber, first aid and other medical supplies, knives or anything sharp that can be formed into a weapon. What else, abandoned engines would be great too but i think that's all. Don't expect you to get all of this, it would be absurd." Serena says already exhausted from thinking about that level of workload.
"On it, I'll be scouring the whole area!" Rain says pumped to get to work, something to distract him from his wounds.
"Hey, I'm not done yet! Serena snaps, wrapping a tentacle around his leg to stop him from swimming off well struggling to swim off.
"Oh, I thought that was all?" Rain says.
"No, there's one item that matters most out of all of them. It's rare but still it's worth so much. Sea crystals!" Serena says dead serious.
"Crystals?" Rain questions, completely lost by the notion.
"Yes, they are incredibly valuable. Depending on the grade of crystal of course. However some are like a battery itself housing tons of Magic, having the ability to recharge."
"I would love to have one. It'll keep the debt collectors away from my shells, tired of that damn power bill barely giving me anything anyway." She scowls, clenching her fist, thinking about this month's payment.
"Power bill. There's power in the ocean!?" Rain says, his mouth completely agape by the complete absurdity/
"Yeah duh. How the hell do you expect anything to function without some sort of energy source." Serena responds equally confused by Rain not expecting this.
"Currently there are two variants, magic deposits and tidal generators, both are a pain to manage." Serena explains.
"Magic deposit takes a decent chunk of mana from you in return for power. So depending on the amount of mana you can house depends on the power we can get out of you". Serena says squishing a nearby fish to demonstrate her point before biting its head off with ease.
"Tidal generators are finicky, not only do we have to repurpose old parts like engines and the like. But we have to find a strong current area and that isnt easy to set up even for the best swimmers." She says continuing to munch on the carcass of her snack.
"But the crystals are immense, a year or two of power just waiting to be used. Although some like to use them for their magical progression. But that can be risky, best case you progress your mana foundation and supply or just waste the crystal. Worst case you go pop, from all the mana inside." She says, pecking at the remnants of flesh on the spine of the fish.
"Noted." Rain says, trying to absorb the information through the grotesque display.
"But keep in mind that's dependant on the grade. They go from F-S though I doubt they will be finding an s tier sea crystal anytime soon". Serena scoffs down the spine of the fish, breaking it down with each bit.
"How can you stomach that?" Rain says losing what little appetite he had formed.
"Girls gotta eat. I just think of it as sushi." Serena says licking her beak clean.
"Alright i'll survey the area on my end to see if i can't find crystals of some kind other than salt. Take this with you, your pack seems full enough as it is." She says, chucking Rain, a fish net woven bag of sorts.
"While you do that I'll start gathering as much of those materials as possible, where do I leave them?" Rain says, seeing the plethora of spots before him.
"This will be the gathering spot for now. Anything you collect leaves it in the entrance of this house." She says flicking her tentacle strand out at the wall marking her territory.
"Once we are done, we will call the collectors, they are a trusted org. They take a cut of our shells for transport and guarding of our goods" Serena says, wincing at the idea of the shells having to fork over.
"Please don't get on their bad side." Serena pleads.
"Why would i? anyway i'm off for now we don't have much time right?" Rain says, boiling with determination wanting to go above and beyond.
"4 Hours Rain meets back by then any longer and will incur fees. Look out for more infant leviathans. This place is their nursery, ironic considering how much loot is up for grabs here." Serena smirks.
"WAIT THAT WAS JUST AN INFANT!" Rain roars out in complete shock at the idea of something even bigger than that.
"Keep your maw shut, you dipshit. Last thing we need is to attract any thiefs or worse, more leviathans!" Serena says, gripping Rain's mouth with her tentacles.
"Noted." Rain mutters. Breaking away from Serena and swimming off to possible troves of loot.
"Half fish and I still swim like shit, thank the seas for gills. I would have suffocated ages ago." Rain chuckles to himself in a dry humour. Thinking about how painful it would've been to try and survive that flood.
"Lets see what's first to grab. First aids should be the easiest off the bat."He says. His focus and concentration are searing to the front of his mind. Despite what his father thought, he was a hard worker much harder than most.
Adjusting to his new body he's barely able to manage a stable coherency in the open waters. Up and down mix together for a couple moments as he tries to regain equilibrium.
Crashing through another decaying window, glass fragments shatter and descend to the floor. Yellow eyes survey the destroyed kitchen he crashed into. Scouring for medical supplies of any kind. His eyes are drawn to the signature red of a first aid cabinet. A staple in the neighbourhood houses.
Stuffing his hands in the cabinet he shoves whatever supplies in the net bag before moving further into the destroyed house. Grabbing some of the kitchen knives on his way. Searching for their garage he followers the same build scheme as most of the houses in his neighbourhood.
Easily finding his way to his neighbours garages, he starts rifling through their abandoned supplies, gathering bundles of rope and duct tape.
"This stuff should still be good underwater right? Well guess I'll find out after." Rain questions before stuffing the tape into the sack with the rest of the supplies.
"Time to rip their engine out." He says psyching himself for the difficult task at hand.
Swimming over, his eyes are met with a nostalgic Suv similar to his family. A tear of pain emerges out of his eyes like bubbles.
"Now's not the time to get distracted, I have a time limit to work with." Rain says, brushing away the bubbles of tears. Extending out his dense nails, he claws into the hood of the Suv with ease.
"Now the tricky part, getting this out relatively undamaged." He mutters trying to figure out the best way.
His scaled fingers grip at the rusted machinery, hoping to pry it loose from its grave. Sending as much strength as he can his fingers begin to bulge as they grip onto the rusted engine. Until it comes loose with a rough snap of metal.
"Well that stayed relatively intact, the rust did me a favour this time." Rain says chuffed, seeing the rust act as an armour of sorts to the delicate contents of the engine.
"The swim back might be some good training with my new body!" Rain says trying to make the most of the difficult task. Trying out his new appendage. His aquatic tail coils around the rust ridden engine. Gripping it firmly with all of focus.
"How the hell, does anyone figure out how to use a damn tail. It's like an odd weird leg. Well this should work for now at least " Rain mutters, just barely able to manoeuvre his tail around the appendage having to reinforce it further with rope.
Managing to partially ride some of the current, Rain flutters past sea weed and moss. Dropping of the gathered resources in the entrance of the meeting spot. Another engine might help with making some more shells, I'm gonna need as much resources as possible. Money and gear.
"That leviathan was no joke, my ribs are still sore after that whole ordeal. I was lucky my teeth even had a chance against those scales, like chewing rocks" Rain says, checking over his teeth for cracks.
"Alright what's next? Gasoline, batteries, an engine and some rubber." Rain says going over his mental checklist trying to think of a hotspot for these kinds of resources.
"Wasn't there a mechanic nearby? I swear dad would always go there for servicing on the suv, where was it again." He says struggling to recall the clouded memories of years past now.
"Somewhere near the park, right after the park, wasn't it near the grocery store. Yeah, yeah it was!"He yells out in clarity remembering the direction from the ride there and back.