Wizard of the Abyss - Chapter 237

Chapter 237: Depth (4)

TL/ED – Miso

First things first.

I repeated a slightly dangerous experiment.

[Ugh, ghk… g-, g-….!!]

“Hmm… 5m?”

As I was casually measuring the distance, I snatched up the Shark that had begun convulsing, using Water Pressure.

It was something I’d come to realize after hunting quite a few of them: the ones that spotted me always displayed symptoms bordering on madness.

They twisted their whole bodies, expressing what little of something like emotion they could manage. Movements that could only be described as seizures.

It didn’t last very long. Three seconds at most.

To me, with only some of my Water Pressure recovered, it felt like an eternity.

-Crunch!

“I guess I’m done with the area…”

Lightly swallowing the creature that had turned into a Fish Pill, I looked around.

Current Sense let me easily survey a few hundred meters in all directions. The Deep Sea, usually teeming with Deep Sea Creatures, was far quieter than I’d expected.

That was because I’d hunted down everything in the vicinity. And yet I still hadn’t recovered even half of my abilities.

Unsatisfied, I rolled my tongue in my mouth and fiddled with the Current I’d regained.

The loss of my abilities, well, that I could live with. I’d found a way to restore them.

But it didn’t change the fact that I’d entered the Deep Sea carrying a massive problem.

And the same went for my objective.

“Hmm.”

I tapped my head lightly and anxiously checked my condition.

Time was notoriously difficult to track in this space, but I was certain I’d been here at least a few hours.

At that point, even with my original abilities intact, I’d normally start feeling the pressure. In my current weakened state, my already-broken ribs should have been completely crushed by now…

Strangely, I was fine.

‘…What?’

Had my abilities disappeared, and the Burden with them?

I briefly entertained that hypothesis before shaking my head.

Water Pressure, Current, and the Deep Sea Creatures themselves. None of it was significantly different from what I’d known. Which meant the Burden hadn’t changed either.

It felt more like I was simply receiving less of the Burden. I couldn’t wrap my head around how that was possible when my Water Barrier had also been reduced.

Letting out a sigh, I gazed down into the pitch-black pit of the Deep Sea.

“Nothing for it, I guess.”

I’d already eaten up every Deep Sea Creature roaming around at this Depth.

If I descended any further, I doubted I could handle the Burden that would grow even stronger, but I’d come down here having already decided to reach the bottom.

No matter what excuse I made, ascending would be running away. I clenched my teeth and descended toward the seafloor.

First, until I found a new species of Deep Sea Creature. Once I did, I’d resume hunting in the area, recover my abilities, and descend deeper.

With the goal of recovering as much of my original power as possible on the way down…

“?”

Just as I was settling on my plan for what came next.

I felt something strange.

A sensation that absolutely, positively, could not be felt in the Deep Sea. Naturally, something I’d never once encountered here before.

A smell.

To be more precise, it was closer to a very dense fragrance. Something like that was being picked up.

“What on earth…”

Could smell even travel underwater?

I sniffed a few more times to make sure my nose hadn’t malfunctioned, then inspected my head to check whether the part of my brain that governed smell had been damaged.

Neither showed any serious injury. A scent really was wafting through the Deep Sea.

If it had been just a simple smell, I could have dismissed it as some strange phenomenon.

But within the scent, I could feel the implications the creature that had left it was trying to convey.

[Path.]

[Food.]

[Cold.]

“Ugh…”

My head throbbed.

There was no mistaking it. It was an extremely primal scent, but because of that, it left no room for confusion in the intense will it conveyed.

Now I thought I could identify what this scent actually was. It was less a fragrance and more like pheromones.

Feeling a sense of wonder, I slowly nodded, then immediately scrunched up my face.

“Wait, why is this suddenly…”

It couldn’t be chalked up to the greater Depth either, since there wasn’t any huge difference from earlier.

It had just suddenly started being detectable. Almost exactly in sync with my ability recovering.

“…”

Powers that had vanished, now being restored through Fish Pills.

A Burden that had, for some reason, noticeably lessened.

Pheromones from Deep Sea Creatures that had suddenly started to be perceivable.

It seemed like some connection was almost within reach, yet nothing tied together. After pondering for a while, I shook my head and headed in the direction the pheromone marked ‘food’ led.

Nothing was certain until I verified it. The Deep Sea was a claustrophobic enough space to drive people insane, so it was possible I’d just lost my mind.

Not long after, a few Deep Sea Creatures began to register on my Current Sense.

Roughly six of them. Each a different species. As I swam carefully, keeping my distance so as not to make contact, I saw another group mixing in around them.

Six became dozens in an instant, and then dozens became hundreds.

A staggering number of Deep Sea Creatures, unlike anything I’d ever seen, were all heading somewhere.

“Oh fuck…”

I felt my heart plummet.

If my presence was ever detected and a fight broke out, I’d suddenly be facing hundreds of them at once.

In my current state, that would be the worst possible scenario. Just as I was thinking of putting off verifying whether the pheromones were real for a bit longer.

I saw it.

[Chomp… chomp…]

[Mmm…]

From somewhere in the deep reaches of the Deep Sea, remnants that had once belonged to some creature were drifting upward.

Along with droplets of water mixed with blood came severed limbs, pieces of what had been tentacles, eyeballs, and more.

The Deep Sea Creatures were fighting over them, devouring them greedily. For some reason, it never escalated into actual bloodshed.

…Probably because, in an environment where food was being supplied endlessly like this, there was no point in fighting over it. I, too, used Current to gently pull one of those eyeball fragments toward me, and noticed something strange.

This was clearly larger than a Pill, yet it wasn’t being compressed by Water Pressure.

Was it immune to Water Pressure? Tilting my head, I tried crushing the fragment with my own Water Pressure, and slowly widened my eyes.

“It’s hard.”

I was bearing down on it with what I’d call full force, yet this sliver of flesh, no more than a fragment of a crystalline lens, wasn’t showing even the slightest tremor.

No matter how monstrous a body might be, once it died, wasn’t it just a lump of flesh?

This one apparently wasn’t. Nodding, I popped it into my mouth.

“…Ugh.”

And immediately spat it back out at the fishy sensation.

It wasn’t just that the texture was disgusting. Fish Pills didn’t feel like eating so much as being directly absorbed into the body, but this one had the alien sensation of chewing meat.

Even after I’d swallowed a bit of it, nothing changed, so it didn’t look like it would help. Rubbing my tongue, I tossed the fragment away and slowly backed off.

‘So the pheromones are real after all.’

The pheromone labeled ‘food’ really did lead to where food could be found.

However it was that I could sense these things, if I was aware of them, it was an ability I could definitely use efficiently.

Even right now.

I closed my eyes and focused on my sense of smell.

In addition to ‘food’, countless other pheromones began to register. As I checked them one by one, I noticed a pheromone meaning ‘food’ trailing behind a Pufferfish that was swimming hurriedly, and I checked where it was heading.

Sure enough, it was making its way toward that Deep Sea soup kitchen.

‘So they leave them automatically.’

Come to think of it, these creatures weren’t leaving pheromones behind for anyone’s benefit in particular.

It seemed they were left naturally in their wake whenever they acted with some purpose in mind.

Like ants. Nodding, the more I tried to confirm what I was sensing were pheromones, the more I realized there was something deeper to perceive.

How to put it, it almost felt like I could see the pheromones with my eyes. In reality, I could only smell them.

“All right…”

First I followed one pheromone, and it led to a large Stingray I’d hunted before.

So this creature smelled like this. Next, I followed a new pheromone.

It led to one I hadn’t hunted before. A shark-shaped creature with three heads, a Mutant Shark.

[Ugh. Gah… Transformation, Transformation…]

I approached the creature as it muttered its strange word, and slowly choked its neck with Water Pressure.

-Crunch!

[Ugh, gah…!]

The Shark, leaving behind a death rattle, was crushed into a Deep Sea Creature Pellet.

I felt its pheromones thicken and frowned.

Because the meaning contained within them was overwhelmingly dense.

Death.

‘These things leave pheromones when they die too?’

No wonder any area I’d cleared out was so empty.

Not that it really mattered to me, since I had to hunt each species one at a time anyway. With the Shark’s Deep Sea Creature Pellet in my mouth, I committed the pheromones this one gave off to memory.

“Something like that, huh.”

For the first time since entering the Deep Sea, I let out a sigh of relief.

Thanks to these pheromones, I’d be able to cut down on trial and error significantly. From now on, unless I specifically followed a pheromone, there’d be no reason to run into the same species again.

It looked like I’d be recovering my abilities faster than expected. Just as I was thinking that, the density of the pheromones grew even stronger.

“…?”

I tilted my head at the sudden change, then realized that wasn’t it.

The pheromones hadn’t changed. What had changed was my sense of smell. More precisely, whatever organ was detecting the pheromones.

The moment I consumed a Deep Sea Creature, it grew stronger.

Was this part of the ability too? It wasn’t something I’d ever had before…

I was scratching my head, thinking along those lines, when.

“Ugh.”

I felt my vision go white and clamped my nose shut tight.

Blood was streaming from my nose. It wasn’t from overuse so much as,

this scent that had begun to register the moment my pheromone detection grew stronger.

“Ngh, hnngh…”

Grinding my teeth hard enough to shatter them, I grimaced.

This wasn’t a pheromone that conveyed any particular meaning.

It was closer to a pheromone that stirred something in the instincts.

Every nerve ending stood on edge. Kill whatever was giving off this scent, it told me. Kill it and devour it, chew it up and swallow it down.

A rage carved into my instincts was awakening. I clenched my teeth and resisted.

“What… the hell is…”

This pheromone.

It was flowing along exactly the path I’d been traveling.