Chapter 39: A Beautiful Plan
Gray stared at the Broodmother’s massive head rising from its coil, its stripes flaring brilliant yellow-green.
’Fuck, fuck, fuck. How is that thing so huge?! Isn’t an eel supposed to die after spawning? What the hell is that?!’
The eels began to advance. Hundreds of them uncoiling from the walls, their bioluminescent stripes pulsing in synchronized waves. The Broodmother’s massive head turned toward him, its oversized eyes swiveling independently before locking onto his position.
’Ah... I should have been more careful. I walked right into their nest.’
He pulsed backward toward the crevice, but something was wrong. The gap was tighter than before. His bell scraped against the volcanic stone, and he had to compress himself further just to fit partway through.
’Why is this hole smaller?! It was bigger when I came in! Did the rock shift? Did they seal it somehow?!’
The Broodmother’s head was fully oriented toward him now. Its stripes flared. The deep, resonant vibration of its growl shook the water.
Gray’s mind raced. The crevice was too tight. The eels were closing in. The Broodmother was seconds from attacking.
’EMP Shroud!’
The silent electromagnetic pulse radiated outward. Every eel in the cavern froze. Their bioluminescent stripes flickered erratically as their electroreception went dark. Their lateral lines went blank. For eight seconds, Gray simply vanished from every sense they possessed.
He compressed his bell as tight as it would go and shoved himself into the crevice. The volcanic stone scraped against his margin. His tentacles squeezed through one by one. He pushed and twisted and forced his way through the narrow passage.
He burst out of the crevice into open water. He didn’t look back. His bell pumped with everything he had.
Only when he was deep in the fronds, hidden among the thickest stalks, did he allow himself to stop.
His bell heaved. His tentacles trembled.
’I need to be more careful. I can’t just chase every creature into random holes. That was reckless. That was stupid. That was...’ He paused, his tentacles curling with self-reproach. ’...exactly the kind of mistake I should’ve learned not to make by now.’
The tension slowly faded. His bell softened. His tentacles uncurled.
"Alright. Time to get back to work."
He pulsed out of the kelp and began hunting again, his senses sweeping the water for familiar prey. But as he drifted, his thoughts wandered.
Somewhere far above, beyond the kelp, beyond the twilight zone, beyond everything he’d ever known in this ocean, there was a surface. A boundary between water and air. He’d seen it in documentaries during his human life. He’d watched footage of waves crashing against rocks, of sunlight glittering on blue water, of clouds drifting across an endless sky.
’I wonder... is the sky here the same? Is it blue like Earth’s? Are there clouds? A sun? Or is this world’s surface something completely different?’
He drifted to a stop, his tentacles hanging motionless in the water.
’I want to see it. I want to know what’s up there.’
But then he remembered the shadows that had passed overhead. Creatures so massive they blotted out what little light filtered down from above.
’No. Not yet. I’m not strong enough. If I go up there now, I’ll just get eaten by something I can’t even comprehend. I need to be patient.’
He turned away from the distant surface and refocused on the volcanic slope.
’Alright. Let’s find some more Lampreys.’
He hunted for hours. The volcanic slope stretched before him, its rocky terrain pocketed with crevices and burrows. He found small creatures but no Lampreys. The elder he’d killed seemed to have been the only one in the area.
’Dammit. Where are they all?’
He was about to give up and try a different hunting ground when a flicker of movement caught his attention near the base of the slope. A sinuous body. Bony plates. That sickly green phosphorescence.
A Nightmare Lamprey — smaller than the elder, maybe four feet long, its bony plates less jagged, its glow less intense. A younger one. Still dangerous, but nothing he couldn’t handle.
’There you are.’
He approached with Hollow Cloak active, his eight tentacles reading its vibrations. The Lamprey was feeding on something — a crab, from the look of it, its circular maw latched onto the shell as its needle teeth ground through the armor.
Neurotoxic Drift deployed. The Lamprey jolted. Overcharge answered its confusion.
[NIGHTMARE LAMPREY DEFEATED — 120 EXP]
[TRAIT FRAGMENT ACQUIRED: "Venomous Spines" (2/3)]
’Yes! One more!’
He absorbed the corpse and kept moving, his senses sweeping the slope with renewed energy. The next Lamprey appeared twenty minutes later — another juvenile, slightly larger than the first, its green phosphorescence flickering as it hunted among the volcanic rocks.
He killed it the same way.
[NIGHTMARE LAMPREY DEFEATED — 120 EXP]
[TRAIT FRAGMENT ACQUIRED: "Venomous Spines" (3/3)]
[Trait Complete! Venomous Spines will be available as an evolution option at Level 20.]
Gray hovered in the water, staring at the notification.
’What? That’s it? Two kills and the trait is complete?!’
He pulled up his status, checking the list.
Completed Traits (Waiting for Evolution):
· Cavitation Bubble (5/5)
· Crystalline Dentition (5/5)
· Pharyngeal Jaw Structure (5/5)
· Reactive Agility (3/3)
· Venomous Spines (3/3)
All five trait slots were complete. Every fragment he’d been grinding for days was finally done.
’After all those hours... the last trait drops in two kills. My luck really has turned around. LUK 15, I take back everything I said about you. You’re beautiful. You’re my favorite stat.’
Gray lingered near the volcanic slope, his tentacles still tingling with the satisfaction of completing his last trait. But the feeling didn’t last. His mind was already turning toward what came next.
’I can’t stay here forever. The prey in this area is thinning. The Runners are almost gone. The Dreadmaws are learning to hide. I need new hunting grounds. New territory.’
He turned toward the deeper waters beyond the volcanic slope. The darkness there was thicker, colder. His enhanced senses could feel the faint electrical fields of creatures he didn’t recognize.
’But I have no idea what’s out there. New territory means new predators.’
He hesitated at the edge of the familiar rocks, his tentacles curling with uncertainty.
Then a thought struck him.
’That eel nest...’
His mind raced, piecing together the details.
’The entrance was tiny. Only my size or smaller could squeeze through. Larger predators couldn’t follow. It’s a natural fortress. But the eels... most of them are juveniles. The only real threat is the Broodmother herself. And she’s too big to chase me through the crevice.’
His tentacles began to spark with excitement.
’I could farm them. If I position myself at the entrance, I can deploy Neurotoxic Drift into the cavern without even going inside. The venom will spread through the water, kill the juveniles, and I can absorb the fragments without ever facing the Broodmother. She can’t reach me in the crevice. She’s too big. And even if she tries, EMP Shroud will give me time to escape.’
The plan assembled itself in his mind like pieces of a puzzle.
’Of course, I’d need to be careful. If the Broodmother has a ranged attack, I’m dead. If the juveniles swarm the entrance, I’ll have to retreat. But the rewards... hundreds of eels. Each one a potential EXP source. And if I can weaken the colony enough, maybe I can eventually take on the Broodmother herself.’
He let out a pulse of self-satisfaction.
’I’m a genius.’