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Pioneer of the Abyss - Book 2 - Chapter 20
🕑 Added 2025-06-20 19:54:21 +0000 UTC--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Don't mind this. It's so that free readers can't see half the chapter when the chapter eventually becomes patron only.
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For those of you who are reading this on a website that is not Patreon, please stop. You're reading a pirated version. Instead, if you would be so kind, please click on the table of contents link below and go to my Patreon instead. Or even read it off of Royal Road, which is free.
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Click the following link for the 1459 word chapter 20:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XvPksfYaMAt1-Ixwb2rR7Se0DUy1LANTQaJkbdNkPZQ/edit?usp=sharing
Or you can read the unformatted version below:
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Aqua
“A-Aqua, what happened here?” the tour guide asks in a rather shaky voice. “What was that… thing…?”
I purse my lips and tap my chin for a few seconds before nodding and answering, “A giant crab with a mouth.”
He stares at me.
I stare back.
The chat goes crazy with laughter while calling me shameless. Which is a complete lie.
“Oh, and I just cleared one of the portals, so there’s nothing to worry about,” I tell him with a smile on my face. Ignoring the dumbfounded looks on all the hunters and what look like researchers faces here as I do so.
Several seconds pass in silence as they all look bewildered, afraid, and confused as hell. At which point I decide that there’s no point bothering with staying here.
So I wave at the tour guide again and say, “Well, it was nice and all, but I’m heading back to the city now.”
Then I climb onto one of the haunted ships and lie down on a bed inside of the ship while having the ship and the rest of my currently summoned abyssal servants head towards the city.
Not even bothering with looking at the people I’m leaving behind.
And just like that, I let my servants take me all the way to the city before dismissing them and entering the city itself. Then I ignore the shocked and frightened looks from the people I pass by in the city until I arrive at the inn I’ve been staying at.
If I had to guess, they’re afraid and shocked because of my level.
After all, the average hunter here in the deep cities is around level fifty or so. With the tour guide being level sixty something.
Meanwhile I’m here almost at level one hundred and fifty.
They’re not even at the third trait, much less where I’m about to reach with the fourth trait. And then there’s the fact that I’m a Bloodliner with two Bloodlines merged into one.
So I started out with two traits as is.
And the levels where people get traits are generally how people in the Alliance separate users into different categories of strength.
Traits are powerful after all.
And they don’t require mana to use either. They’re actual changes to the user’s body.
I can’t help but anticipate my next trait.
It’s not just traits though, but the skills users receive at the trait levels. They’re a lot stronger that the other skills from other levels.
Like Abyssal Ruler for example.
A smile spreads across my face as I think about that while entering the inn and lying down on the bed.
Tomorrow morning I’ll do my regular jobs before heading out to get those last few levels.
Although I’ll have to go down deeper in the water to find monsters that I can actually get levels off of. Which will be annoying.
But that’s fine.
I just have to find a broken dungeon deeper down.
So with that in mind, I go to sleep before waking up in the morning. Following which I do my usual routine, head to my jobs that I get out of the way real fast, and then move out while once again ignoring the shocked and fearful looks of the people I pass by in the process.
After that I go deep down in the water towards the seven thousand or so meter mark. Where I start fighting monsters in the low to mid-level one hundreds range.
And after letting my abyssal servants go wild for a little while, I finally find the System Message I’m looking for after leveling up a few times.
[Congratulations! You have now reached level 150! As the current First Ranker of Oceana, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please. Additionally, you have now unlocked your thirteenth skill and your fourth trait.]
I take a deep breath before opening my status and looking at my new trait’s name.
Which surprises me a bit.
[REQUESTING STATUS: USER AQUA AZURANTH]
[STATUS RETRIEVED]
[Name: Aqua Azuranth]
[Level: 150]
[Mana: 1102/1500]
[Strength: 192(128)]
[Dexterity: 102]
[Constitution: 98]
[Magical Strength: 97]
[REGEN: 1873]
[MEN: 106]
[Free Points: 9]
[Traits: Physique of the Abyssal Kraken, Apex Predator of the Depths, Lifeblood of the Abyssal Kraken, World First Ranker, Scales of the Abyssal Kraken, Galaxy First Ranker, Special Core 1x, Mana Metabolism]
[Skills]
[END STATUS]
What… does that even mean? Mana Metabolism…
Instead of trying to figure it out, I go ahead and select the new trait. Only to feel even more surprised by what I find.
[Mana Metabolism – The Abyssal Kraken’s metabolism has surpassed that of all others, evolving to feed on mana itself instead of food and water. The Abyssal Kraken will both passively absorb mana from their surroundings, making food and water unnecessary, and will absorb mana from anything they do consume, erasing it in the process. Additionally, a small percentage of the mana metabolized by the Abyssal Kraken is converted into the user’s own mana.]
Holy shit…
Did this new trait just give me a way to regenerate mana throughout the day instead of waiting for the mana reset at midnight?
Also, does this mean I won’t ever have to go to the bathroom again?
I blink at that before shrugging and opening my skills list to see my new skill next.
[REQUESTING SKILLS: USER AQUA AZURANTH]
[13 SKILLS RETRIEVED]
[MORE THAN THREE SKILLS DETECTED]
[ALL SKILLS CONDENSED]
[Skill 1: Abyssal Kraken’s Embrace]
[Skill 2: Hydrokinetic Wrath]
[Skill 3: Call of the Abyss]
[Skill 4: Abyssal Kraken’s Partial Shift]
[Skill 5: Pressure of the Abyss]
[Skill 6: Abyssal Reversal]
[Skill 7: Maw of the Abyssal Kraken]
[Skill 8: Devourer of the Abyss]
[Skill 9: Converging Maelstrom]
[Skill 10: Abyssal Ruler]
[Skill 11: Light of the Abyss]
[Skill 12: Claw of the Abyssal Kraken]
[Skill 13: Ink of the Abyssal Kraken]
[Description: Allows the user to fill the area around them with Abyssal Ink, which heals the user while they are inside of the ink. Meanwhile all enemies declared as targets by the user will be slowed, blinded, and poisoned while within the Abyssal Ink.]
[Cost: Ink of the Abyssal Kraken costs 250 mana to use.]
[Cooldown: Ink of the Abyssal Kraken has no cooldown and each use lasts for either one minute or however long it takes for others to clear out the ink.]
[END SKILLS]
Hell yeah! A healing skill!
Now I can heal myself without having to wait for my regeneration and without having to use Devourer of the Abyss.
And on top of that, the skill also blinds, slows, and poisons enemies in the ink.
As for whether I’ll be able to see in the ink? That’s not a problem.
The skill sounds like I should be able to see since I won’t be targeted by blindness. But even if I am blinded in the ink, it won’t matter since I can use my sensory organ to find my way around through vibrations instead.
Overall, this is a very nice boost in my power from reaching level one hundred and fifty.
The trait makes it so I don’t have to eat or drink anymore, which wasn’t particularly pleasant when all of my food was waterlogged. Especially the after effects of eating while in the ocean.
And more importantly, it makes it so I regenerate some mana even without the reset at midnight.
Although how much mana I’ll regenerate I’m not sure about.
And the skill gives me a way to heal myself without having to wait.
I’m very satisfied with this trait and skill.
With that in mind, I go ahead and focus on my mana. After allocating my free points, that is.
Specifically, I allocate two points to everything except for strength, which I allocate a third point to, and REGEN, which I don’t allocate anything to. Using up the full nine points in the process.
Then I focus on my mana. Just watching it to see how fast I regenerate it now.
I watch it and watch it and watch it until it finally rises by one point of mana after ten seconds. Which makes me frown.
That isn’t much.
I purse my lips for a second as a thought comes to mind. Then I head to an area of the broken dungeon that has more mana. And when I do I find that my mana starts to regenerate a bit faster.
Interesting.
It looks like the amount of mana in my surroundings affects how fast my mana will regenerate with this new trait.
Regardless, this new trait is going to help a lot.
Comments
WolfShine
That's not how it works at all. All it does is help incredibly slowly refill her mana that she's used up. It doesn't change her maximum capacity at all.
PaintedMirror36
Aqua needs to go on a foodie tour; and fortunately she has a tour guide! It sounds to me like now anything she eats (including the passive absorption) adds to her maximum mana, on top of the 10/level. So I think this new trait is more of a long term capacity gain rather than the mid-combat mana recovery effect…. Though since it’s a percentage of the eaten mana, it’s probably a very slow incremental gain
WolfShine
Say that again after looking at REGEN. Hidden Stats aren't full words.
Brian
I think its a little weird that all the other stats are actually words but her new stat is just MEN.
WolfShine
When she has that much REGEN she'll be fighting numerous monsters that can almost catch up with her regeneration at once, leading to them being able to catch up with her regeneration. So healing skills will ALWAYS be necessary.
Apoca
She stopped at 99 magic strength... Wasn't there a skill of hers that had a milestone at 100? Also, healing skills are good, but I'm not sure how much it will worth in the future once she has 200 000 Regen and magic strength is still below 500
WolfShine
Eating something gives her a tiny, itty bitty fraction of a mana point. Not even a hundredth of a point for most things unless they're monsters. So that's not gonna work.
Aura
Everything she eats is a mana potion! Hamburgers, pizza, fish… mints! Probably not ocean water ‘cause that’d be absurd, but… still. She can just snack her way to full MP as she swims from fight to fight.
WolfShine
Do remember that someone who is level 5000 would have 50,000 mana. And a mage with a trait for mana at level 5000 would have all the way up to 500,000 mana total that resets daily. Even a mage at her own level would have ten times as much mana as she has total. So is one mana every ten seconds in a broken dungeon that is full of a lot of mana, lots more than most places, still a lot?
Jumper2105
To have almost teen times as much mana as other persons is not much?
