Museum Core Chapter 107: Hell’s Aquarium

Thomas looked around the newly expanded arena that he’d modified purely for this purpose, creating what, at the end of the day, was effectively a fishbowl the size of a football stadium.

As per usual, he’d overdone things by a truly ludicrous margin, creating it entirely out of D-Rank steel, to the point where it equaled a large chunk of the country in value.

But then again, water was freakign heavy, and at the end of the day, going over the top due to his capabilities, allowing him to do so, purely to avoid having to learn engineering and architecture … who was there to tell him no?

Part of Thomas agreed that he’d gone completely over the top, a two-hundred-meter deep “ocean” was probably a few steps too far, he could have built something shallower and been fine, but he’d been done with the “building” part of the process like five minutes in, and he’d had to give advanced warning to the delvers so they’d participate, leaving him with a significant amount of time to play around in.

Thomas and bored and freedom. A bad combination.

So he’d gone a hell of a lot further, turning up the natural illumination of dungeon stone on the bottom of the “ocean” significantly, then planting a combination of real plants and crystaline sculptures of the same to turn the floor into a sparkly and verdant paradise, then painted images of other sea monsters along the walls,  popped some observation domes into the walls and floor at regualr intervals, and finally built some more random decorations … only to remove half of them a few minutes later when Elias pointed out that he really shouldn’t have known what half of those looked like.

Fun “easter eggs” were cool and all, but recreating something out of a video game that wouldn’t have worked in the transformation zone would have been way too telling.

People likely at least suspected there was something weird about him, and how he was different from other dungeon cores, but there was no reason to give them proof.

But the big “fishbowl” was just there for the Kronosaurus, presently F-Rank, only holding the power to breathe underwater. Building something for the sharks was much simpler; he created a bunch of regular swimming pools with turquoise tiles made from actual turquoise, which was all-around fancy, but also very clearly basic.

The sharks would stand out in there, but it wasn’t like they could hide in the open ocean either.

One last check to make sure everything was fine, then he went over to invite in the delvers. Though when he did start paying attention as to who had shown up, he found himself surprised.

***

Director of Operations for the BPA, Nicole Foster, was rarely seen outside of headquarters. She was simply too busy; the addition of magic had made the effort of keeping abreast of logistics balloon to the point of utter insanity. Every second not spent working was needed to either digest the literal mountains of information necessary to know what was required by the ever-changing circumstances of this new and magical world … or trying to maintain her sanity in the face of her workload.

But learning about the “no deaths” event Daedalus was hosting to try out some new monsters was one of the few things that were worth leaving Bristol for.

She glanced at her status sheet for what felt like the hundredth time since this morning.

Name: Nicole Foster

Race: Human

Class: Anima Monk

E-Rank, Level 19/20

Class Abilities

Spirit Bond: Mimic Octopus (F-Rank)

Spirit Projection (E-Rank)

Statistics (0 points available)

Body: 105

Magic: 5

Mind: 110

Spirit: 105

Skills

Logistics 44

Multitasking 28

Abstract Thinking 27

Cat Herding (Metaphorical) 45

Inspect 25

Detect Idiocy 39

Alternate Skill Set (currently inactive, switch available)

Spatial Awareness 16

Martial Arts 17

Utility Magic 15

Destressing 39

Acrobatics 19

Lie Detector 21

***

One more level, just one more bloody level, then she could pick her third power. Just that tiny bump up to D-0 that she hadn’t managed to get. One fight, one proper battle that wasn’t just her standing on the back lines while others fought, mental wheels continuing to turn, grinding away at the never-ending source of confusion that was logistics … this was the perfect chance to do this.

There were all those various power leveling arrangements the BPA had had with Daedalus for one reason or another, either bought with rare resources or offered in exchange for future gains in the form of an anchor beast’s heart, but she’d never felt it proper to claim one of the spots for herself any more than Frye had.

Either of them could have gotten away with it, granted, but that was hardly a reason to go through with it. They were already sorely lacking in the fronline fighters department, not just in the sense of people capable of fighting in melee but in terms of people they could dispatch, at all, empowering bureaucrats at the top such as herself beyond what was needed to do their jobs at superhuman levels was, quite simply, a waste.

Now that the chance was open to all comers, though … she could afford to lose some sleep to catch up on the paperwork tonight. And this was even all about aquatic monsters, something she was in a decent position to combat due to her octopus bond.

Nicole’s hand drifted down to her waist were, beneath the unfamiliar combat uniform she was only wearing for the second time today, she could feel the bone handle of a dagger made from the claw of a tiger, an E-Rank artifact that was occaisonally dropped by the final boss of the dungeon’s “easy” circuit.

There were a few of these in the armory, and she’d chosen to sign one out for today. Between its ability to temporarily prevent the healing of the wounds it caused and the power to project its edge outwards at the cost of mana, it was a formidable tool that should compensate for how far she was out of her element here.

Nevertheless, she was still seriously nervous. She’d never been in a real fight, not unless one were to count the “level the bureaucrat” program that basically boiled down to just her being present. Well, she supposed that, in some abstract way, basic firearms training also kinda sorta qualified … actually, no it didn’t.

Simply being able to control the phantasmal octopus arms she could manifest well enough to make coffee in the next room over wouldn’t necessarily translate well to actually being able to fight.

Nicole patted another pocket, ensuring the tiny vial of heavily diluted healing potion was still present. It shouldn’t be necessary, even if she did get hurt, the dungeon should provide … but she wasn’t taking any chances here.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a monkey looking at her. She waved, summoning a pair of tentacles to mirror the motion on either side. There wasn’t much reason for that; she just felt like it.

But then she just proceeded towards the entrance of the massive arena, which was practically surrounded by various signs. Some were comparable to the noticeboard in front of the dungeon’s entrance, others were more like the sign that was said to be somewhere in the Panacea Challenge within, made of weathered wood, with chunks taken out of it by gigantic fangs.

“Lost toes will be healed.”

Good message, creepy delivery. She stepped beneath it to enter.

There was a large room on the other side, with a massive aquarium in the center, judging by the evenly spaced windows set into the walls.

And within was some kind of dinosaur … not that it was an actual dino in the scientific sense, Nicole knew that there was some definition quibble around that which she did not know enough about to make a proper judgement, but for her, the reptile with four fins and a stubby lizard’s tail was a dinosaur, plain and simple.

Though she couldn’t see any way to get in, there was likely an entrance somewhere up top.

But going from training straight into picking a fight, which was likely the “boss” of this whole affair, seemed … well, not exactly like the most intelligent of decisions.

She didn’t have to, though, as there was a long line of swimming pool-like holes in the ground all around the main attraction, clearly containing other monsters, clearly labeled either “F” or “E.”

After thinking about it for a couple of seconds, she marched towards the nearest unoccupied one labeled with an F. Between the fact that raw physical mass and power mattered a lot more at the lower end of the powerscale and how there was literally a full rank separating them, whatever was in there shouldn’t stand a chance.

But once again, she wasn’t here for an honorable duel with a powerful adversary, or a right scrap with an opponent who could match her blow for blow until one of them finally hit the floor for good.

No, she just needed to hit D-Rank, and she was so bloody close, she just needed to do it without embarrassing herself.

She walked up to the edge and just stared in. It, well, looked like a standard swimming pool, with surprisingly sparkly tiles, and a couple of small sharks inside. They looked to be the same pajama catsharks that were used in a couple of sections of the main dungeon.

Hm, they were kinda cute, certainly cuter than she’d expected from the descriptions she had. Though then again, those had been in reports bitching about how one had bitten off a toe, or wrecked a boot, or something.

Deep breaths, deep breaths.

She closed her eyes, steeling herself for a couple of seconds before realizing that she was standing close enough to the pool that one of the sharks could realistically reach her if it lunged out.

Come on, you can do this …

Things had reached a point where she needed to either act or remove herself from the situation.

Before she could talk herself out of it, Nicole took a step forward, into the pool, pitching forward and falling in, the water sloping back into place above her while the noises of the world went silent, replaced by the low splashing sound of water against stone.

Calm and peaceful … or that’s what it would have been, had it not been for the little murder machine that exploded into motion a mere three meters from her, lunging straight for her.

Whoa!

All eight of her octopus arms manifested around her, pale and ethereal-looking but fully physical despite that, each nearly twice as long as she was tall, they all converged on the onrushing shark … and missed. All except one, which barely managed to snag the monster just before the tail.

But even that didn’t truly help either.

Because as dextrous as her phantom limbs were, and as strong as they could be,  they were set up like an octopus’ arms, keeping something at a distance, or pulling it away from her, wasn’t exactly what they were good at.

She might have managed to slow the shark, but she couldn’t stop it.

Only now did Nicole belatedly realize that she hadn’t even drawn the dagger she’d brought, so she whipped it out, pointing it at the nose of the monster, a projected edge leaving behind a shallow, practically nonexistent cut.

And then the monster was already too close, and acting entirely on instinct, she shoved the knife into its open mouth, clouds of blood immediately beginning to waft out of its gills … but it survived. Easily.

That was when she realized its mouth was darkening, growing indistinct, as though the weapon was being swallowed by fog … it was using its power!

Nicole let go of the hilt to put her hand out of harm’s way, planting her other palm against the base of the knife to hold it in place while her ethereal limbs finally managed to grab a hold of the shark and pushed it into the blade before its power could fully trigger.

With one more burst of blood, the monster died, vanishing, its power likewise disappearing … but as she watched, her dagger also came apart into fragments, wrecked by the spatial magic of the shark’s maw.

Shit …

It was at this point that she felt sharp teeth clamp down around her ankle and kicked out, ripping off the second shark that had managed to sneak up on her, then spun around to get a bead on it. The little blighter was already recovering from her kick, clouds of her blood drifting from its mouth, but before it could do much more than begin its “charge,” the shark found itself caught, tangled in four octopus arms that held it fast.

And then, she twisted it, the two arms grasping its front moving clockwise, the two closer to its tail counterclockwise. For a brief moment, nothing seemed to happen until she finally managed to overcome its resistance.

With a crunch she felt more than heard, it was wrung out like an old rag, blood and other liquids she didn’t want to think about clouding the water before fading away along with the rest of its body as the dungeon creature vanished, leaving behind a far smaller red cloud, and tiny particles that may or may not be fragments of flesh that it had torn out of her leg. And, of course, a not insignificant amount of cloth.

Nicole glanced down and winced at what she saw, the pain actually hitting her at that point. She couldn’t even see the wound itself, just a massive cloud of red that hid anything below the knee.

Oh, hell …

Immediately, she scrambled out of the water, only stopping once there were several meters between her and the pool, and looked over the wound once again.

Okay, that looked a lot worse underwater. She sighed.

Her trousers had caught the worst of it, even the tough fabric of a BPA uniform having been shredded by the monster’s teeth as it had been torn away. As for her leg, it was covered in more tiny scratches than she could easily count, but none were more than a millimeter or two deep. Still bleeding, turning the water dripping off her pink, and the saltwater stung like a bastard, but at the end of the day … disinfectant and a bandage, that was all it’d take.

Nicole sighed and hung her head.

Bang-up job, that. Jaclyn lets herself get stabbed so she can beat a cultivator, and I run after getting a scratch.

And her leg still burned with pain.

Well, that wasn’t very good … maybe she should equip pain tolerance as a trainable skill and crawl through a few bramble bushes, or something equally ridiculous.

She looked back over at the pool. Little bastards, one and all.

“You might want to be careful kicking them off like that. They’ve got inward-facing teeth meant to hold onto prey, so if you rip them off, you’re bound to lose some flesh.”

Nicole glanced up at the man who was clearly waiting for his turn at the pool.

“Noted,” she sighed. Fucking sharks.

Something nudged her ankle, and she looked down to see a monkey there, offering her a water balloon-like thing that glowed with the warm green light of a healing potion. Probably designed that way so they could not be portioned out,  popping one of those over a wound or your mouth would be an all-or-nothing affair. That way, no one could squirrel away unearned potions; Daedalus just had to watch and make sure no one left injured, and he’d know what had happened to the magical medicine he’d handed out.

“Thank you,” she said, taking the ball and crushing it against her leg where it burst, soothing liquid running across her skin and into the wounds, which almost immediately vanished.

She looked back at the pool. She didn’t have a weapon anymore; she’d managed to break it. It was hardly unique, powerful, or irreplaceable, but still … that was one fewer weapons that would be wielded against the monsters of this new world if needed. Could she afford to risk another, assuming she could go ahead and borrow one in the first place?

Nicole sighed. How about she just tried to learn to use her powers instead? It wasn’t like this could get her killed, or even permanently injured. And running away after that felt simply wrong. In for a penny, in for a pound, and all that.

There was a loud splash as she leaped back in, ethereal octopus arms spreading out around her. Nasty bite aside, compared to her strength, these things were barely more dangerous to her than rats to a normal human, even if you decided to ignore the risk of disease.

A freshly respawned shark launched itself at her, but this time, she was ready … ish. Tentacles manifested and converged on the monster, moving towards it from the front rather than trying to catch up from behind, and several hit it, wrapping around it and holding fast, then she ripped her arms away in every direction, tearing skin and breaking cartilage.

And when the second shark attacked while the first one dissolved … well, Nicole tried to grab that one too, but both her real and spectral limbs were out of position and it slipped past, managing to bite down on her forearm. But she’d learned her lesson from last time.

Ripping her arm free might have saved her from its power, but she’d have left quite a bit of flesh behind, caught in its fangs. Instead, she brought her free hand down on its head, crushing the shark’s head between her forearm and fist.

This time, she climbed out of the pool at a far more measured pace so she could observe her wound without blood misting all over the place. But when she rolled up her sleeve, the injury was exactly as minimal as she’d expected. Small, shallow, cuts and one bigger one from where she’d clearly pushed the teeth deeper when she’d smashed the monster’s head in.

She was about to hop back in, when she was handed another potion ball. Not needed, but appreciated. Nicole used it.

But after another dozen or so sharks, she hadn’t really gotten very far. As in, nothing to show for save a couple of skill levels.

F-Rank was clearly far too weak an opponent.

Nicole marched over to the nearest, unoccupied, E-Rank pool and leaped in … only to realize that it really was unoccupied. As in, entirely empty, devoid of not only another person but also monsters. Were they still respawning, or …

Something bit down on her big toe, a crushing force bearing down on her foot even as the tips of tiny needles, dozens of them, bit into her flesh.

But it was a familiar sensation, just like how the sharks always felt. Even though she couldn’t see it, she was pretty sure that yanking her foot back would rip off the tip of her boot and effectively flay the part of her body that was in the monster’s mouth … but waiting would see that toe outright erased from reality as the shark triggered its power.

Bam.

Her other boot came down on where the monster’s head had to be, pulping it. Done.

Now, how many more of these invisible blighters were in here with her?

Her senses weren’t bad, especially underwater; her eyesight was excellent, and her sense of smell was far better than she’d like in many circumstances, but the entire pool “smelled” of salt and the people who’d been in and out of it all morning. She could also tell there were sharks in here, but “smell” wasn’t exactly the best way to quickly locate something, especially if it was in motion. Detect, yes, but she already knew they were there, didn’t she, just not exactly where they were located, and what they were doing?

The etheral tentacles twitched, whipping through the water as quickly as she could, hoping she’d hit the sharks if they attacked.

But nothing ever appeared. Had she killed them all?

Nicole was starting to feel ever so slightly ridiculous … and then she realized that the monsters might have decided not to lunge into the proverbial meatgrinder, even if they might have been able to get through in theory.

So she pulled in the tentacles instead, trying to create a fence of sorts around herself. Hopefully, something that attacked her would touch at least one of them, and then, she’d pounce on them!

… it still took five minutes for her first “bite,” and that startled her so badly that she tore away the shark regardless of the consequences and left most of her right sleeve in its mouth. Her fence had failed miserably.

But after some more experimentation, she’d started to get better, until she was starting to reliably kill them.

Still no level … but she didn’t want to take a crack at the big brute in the central arena. And since it was either that or stay in here, she stayed. She stayed and hunted invisible menaces. Sometimes they managed to stay invisible right up until she killed them, others became visible the moment she hit them, but not a one actually survived.

Still no level, but she felt like she was on the right track.

***

It had taken hours, but now that was done.  She’d emerged from the pools covered in scratches and shallow bites that had stopped bleeding in minutes, even underwater, but she’d achieved her goal.

You have reached the peak of E-Rank and must now choose a new power to advance to D-Rank.

Two powers will be unlocked by reaching E-Rank, Level 20, and two more can be unlocked by achieving certain things. These powers will not necessarily be stronger than the standard offerings.

If you have already achieved the requirements, they will be listed aside the unlocked power; if you have not, they will be listed alongside the name of the power they gatekeep.

Two default powers, two that could, in theory, be unlocked through sufficient effort, but she’d only managed to get one of them.

Familiar Bond

This power grants you the ability to summon your bonded animal as a spectral companion.

Additional Bond

This power grants you the ability to form a bond with another currently living, mundane animal.

Familial Bond (unlocked by making your original bond your own)

This power grants you an additional bond that you can attach to any being in the same family as your original bond, but you can swap this bond at any point, for any number of times.

Ancient Bond (locked)

This power grants you the ability to form a bond with another mundane animal; however, you also have access to extinct creatures.

This power is unlocked by defeating a vastly superior enemy and defying the tyranny of rank.

Her idea for an ancient bond had been pretty much perfect, but she hadn’t managed to go through with an insane stunt … or basically, the kind of thing Jaclyn seemed to do on a weekly basis.

But at the end of the day, the advantage from the ancient variant over the modern day version she could select anyway was practically non-existent, considering that she was walking the path of projection.

So, grab the additional bond, and select “Wandering Glider,” the most widespread dragonfly in the world, capable of agile and precise flight, accompanied by world-class vision and, most likely, some kind of hunting power.

Spirit Bond: Wandering Glider

The Spirit of the Wandering Glider now empowers you, granting the following benefits:

-Dragon’s Flight (you gain the ability to somewhat control your movement in midair, and are able to easily control your movement in general by adjusting your center of gravity)

-Tiny Predator’s Instinct (you gain an improved ability to sense both prey in your vicinity, as well as any larger predators nearby that may hunt you)

-Perfect Vision (your vision is massively improved, including your ability to sense and observe motion)

-Instant Reaction (you gain massively increased reaction speed)

-Lethality (you gain an innate ability to sense an enemy’s most vulnerable point)

But of all her powers, the one she wanted to try out the most was flight.

How did this work … a kind of horizontal shrugging motion to manifest them, then control/guide them with your shoulders.

Nicole jerked her shoulders back, then forward, and even as the “new manifestation type registered” message flashed in her vision, she went flying across the room, pulled away by her new wings.

“Sod!”

She hit a pool with a loud splash and found herself face to face with yet another of these damn sharks lunging for her face.

It hit the web of tentacles she’d learned to manifest in front of herself and found it tangled, and a brief thought crushed it into paste while she scrambled back out of the water.

This was something she needed to do elsewhere, to be specific, a place meant for this nonsense. Such as the poor, abused, field behind headquarters that had eventually been designated as the testing ground for non-destructive powers. Though “non-destructive” was a surprisingly open definition. Henderson had certainly left it covered in scorch marks while trying to figure out how to stop using his face as a landing gear while in phoenix form.

On the other hand … she glanced towards the central aquarium. Only a few people had dared pick a fight with that thing. But they’d mostly been lower-ranked fighters who’d wanted to shoot their shot, rather than people who’d actually stood a realistic chance at defeating it. Much like her, even with her new enhancements.

But when would she ever have another chance to pick a fight like this without the risk of getting herself killed?

So in the end, after five minutes of searching for replacement weapons and another minute of searching for the stairs, Nicole found herself standing on the roof, looking out across the vast expanse of water that sparkled beautifully in the light of the evening sun.

This was insane … but today was the one day that the consequences of insanity weren’t permanent. Unless she managed to break another weapon.

But both her new daggers were, at the very least, more replaceable than the first one, being the personal weaponry of a Gearhead, magically uplifted to E-Rank over the course of weeks of mana infusions, then given a temporary bump to match her new D-Rank.

Granted, the only thing she’d gotten out of it was a handful of stat points and a power she barely knew how to use, but it was getting dark outside. The Event was ending, and so was her shot at this thing.

Apparently, it was called a Kronosaurus, a Cretaceous-era monstrosity named after the King of Titans in Greek mythology. It also obviously had a power related to being able to breathe underwater, since it had never once come up for air despite being an air-breathing reptile.

Nicole gave one final glance down at the two weapons sitting in her hands.

One was a classic combat knife, with a sharp point and lethal edges meant to be pushed between an opponent’s ribs into their heart when possible, but also served perfectly well to slash at limbs and try to get to arteries.

The other was something more like the American K-bar, which would serve perfectly well to fight, but had also had its potential utility be a big driving factor behind its design, meaning it would be able to open cans without risking damage, cut wires, etc.

Come on, come on, you’re stalling …

Nicole jumped into the water, then immediately began swimming downwards, even as the monster turned to face her, spinning in place and glaring up at her, then suddenly beating its fins in sync, launching itself up at her like a rocket.

Even as she was already paddling out of the way, the world seemed to slow to a crawl while her newest power began to highlight weaknesses on her foe. Eyes, base of the skull, places where vital blood vessels were close enough to the skin for her to reach with her present weapons … useful, but she didn’t quite trust herself to be able to exploit these vulnerabilities.

The Kronosaurus flashed past in an instant, unleashing a wave of water as it passed, sending her tumbling, but the monster also stopped on a dime a mere couple of meters past, turning on a dime and bringing its head over to her, ready to chomp her in half. Or at least hurt her badly enough that she just had to throw the towel.

What would Jaclyn do?

Well, she’d probably throw herself in the damn things mouth and tear it apart from the inside, or something similarly ridiculous.

But Nicole couldn’t pull that off. Yet she couldn’t evade that thing either, it was too agile, and the slower it was, the more easily it would be able to bring its fangs to bear.

So she did the only thing she could: launch herself at it, get so close that no matter how it bucked and twisted, she’d be able to stay close.

Two octopus arms wrapped around the base of the front-left fin, the place where it would move the least, and Nicole let herself get dragged behind the monster, the wake of its movement causing her to slamm against its torso, but she didn’t let go, instead using her power to manifest two more arms and wrap them around the now-close rear fin, leaving herself practically strapped to its side. And she still had her knives.

And then, she began to do just about the only thing she could do. Start cutting.

Blood bloomed into the water, spraying out of wounds and blinding her, and she was damn far from anything vital, but she still kept cutting, spluttering as the chemoreceptors she was borrowing from her octopus bond was giving her far more information about what was flowing past her than she’d ever wanted, but she kept trying while the monster bucked and reared and tried to get her off … until it tried to slam itself into the wall … with her between it and the unforgiving stone.

She quickly released her hold of all the arms that were holding the left side and yanked herself over onto its opposite one, where she’d managed to anchor herself with her remaining projections.

Again and again, it tried to crush her, but anytime she was about to get caught between the hammer and anvil, she monkey-branched over to another point, never ceasing her cutting until eventually, finally, the monster collapsed into nothingness.

Bloody hell.

Nicole sighed and began to swim skywards.

That. Was. Disgusting.

But even as her heart was slowing down from a pace that felt as though it were trying to hammer her ribcage to pieces, she could feel the grin spreading across her face as the combination of exhilaration and relief flooded her.

This had made her happy … but there was no way on God’s green Earth she’d be willing to do that for a living.

***

And now, that was over and done with. Finally. Endlessly respawning the same monster over and over again had been boring, repetitive, and a lot of the time, they’d just gotten squashed without him gaining any new information. But this still hadn’t been a waste of time. He’d managed to upgrade the Kronosaur to D-Rank and then put an F-Rank pattern back into the pool in the hopes of getting another upgrade path, not that that had worked, and had even gained two variants of the D-Rank sharks.

One had Badger’s Fury as its D-Rank power, gaining aggression and durability, the other was effectively ice-based suicide bombers that could freeze the area around themselves solid to trap enemies at the cost of their own lives.

Of course, both were stuck at the very beginning of the rank, but they should still be useful.

And he’d even gotten somewhere on the knowledge front.

So, what had he learned?

For one, the catsharks were a little vulnerable to entanglement, or otherwise being confronted by an aware enemy. And they were still not quite at the point where they could survive getting bodyslammed by a larger monster. But give it a few hours, and he’d have them at D-Rank and upgrade them with power that increased their durability and aggression, based on a honey badger.

This wasn’t about making them invulnerable, this was about making them too damn tough to get casually splattered. In essence, he was copying Abrams’ trick of always getting pushed away rather than crushed when struck. And if the enemy was large enough that deliberately biting down on his critters would likely result in swallowing them whole instead, well, that was a bonus. After all, with that as a starting point, he could have his enemy devoured from the inside out.

However tough that foe might be externally, there was a high likelihood of their interior being far less durable.

… unless their toughness stemmed entirely from their rank, rather than a physiological adaptation.

And so on, and so forth.

Fundamentally, however, he had at least enough to make the initial attempt. A kaiju Kronosaur, once he tacked on the Titan’s Physique power, and smaller allies it desperately needed.

Granted, there weren’t many creatures that could do what Foster had done, sticking that close to a bucking Kronosaurus desperately trying to chomp down on you while being able to manipulate water pressure to force you off was incredibly difficult, but that didn’t make the point any less valid.

The bigger a creature was, the harder it’d be for it to attack something small, but with magic in play, even a small creature could hold incredible destructive power. A whole bunch of small critters would take care of that somewhat, but a proper medium-sized attacker might be a good idea too.

Regular-sized Kronosaurus? Nah, that thing was still plenty big. Sure, it’d be tiny compared to the kaiju version, but even the regular version was susceptible, as recently demonstrated.

Great white, or maybe a giant squid?

Honestly, after today, he figured he’d just try things out and make new plans for if that didn’t work out.

Although … well, now was probably the right time to “announce” that he’d be sending the Belfast to the nearest oceanic transformation zone.

***

Frye frowned as he looked over the report about the expedition to the Atlantic. Parts were reassuring, others … well, others were about as far from a calming influence than one could possibly get without being an immediate reason for all relevant branches of government to go to their highest possible alert level.

Firstly, there was very little still alive down there, be it plant or animal, the former dying due to a lack of sunlight while the pressure had dealt with the latter. Anything still capable of moving around would have to be pretty powerful, but creatures that fit the bill tended to be sparse in any transformation zone. Perhaps the anchor was the only thing down there.

And secondly, either the anchor was terrifyingly powerful, or there was an even more dangerous monster down there that had been able to ignore the first one as it stirred. Between what Jaclyn had seen and the outline they’d been able to see via radar, the thing that’d chased her off had been massive, to the point where even underwater, the only thing capable of keeping it alive and moving was magic.

But the thing that had really sent the alarm bells in his head ringing was that it had managed to scare off his second in command.

Not just made her conduct a tactical retreat, not simply forced her to back off with the plan to reengage at a later date, but actually scared her.

As far as Frye knew, none of the other monsters had managed that so far. Her unflinching willingness to pick a fight with everything that entered her field of view with hostile intent was such a constant presence that he’d been dithering on whether or not to send her in for a psychiatric evaluation for weeks now. Though he’d always fallen on the “no” side of things. There might have been a fine line between bravery and foolishness, but she’d always walked away relatively fine from any fight that she’d had a choice in whether or not to pick.

So yes, if she’d been scared off by what was most likely the guardian of Atlantis, it had to have been terrifying to behold in a way that the report had been unable to convey.

And then, five minutes later, he got the message that Daedalus wanted to go down there and poke the monster with a stick … except the stick in question was a a goddamn C-Rank magical super-submarine.

*******************************************************************************I just realized that I made a small mistake about Jaclyn's stats, I'll be fixing that going forward.