Page 170
Story: The Dragon of Dreams
Mid Afternoon - Early Summer : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)
It had only been a few minutes since I left the Kraken's nest but I was already distracted from my nervousness.
-Evolution... How do you even come up with this sh*t?-
In front of me was a spider-like crustacean that looked like something between a crab and a squid and was nearly 80 meters long from leg to leg.
I cringed a bit as I swam past it and noticed the giant circular mouth laced with sharp teeth on its underside.
It took every bit of willpower I had to leave it alive since it didn't do anything wrong, but that was only the beginning. The deeper I swam, the more nightmarish the creatures got.
At a depth of around 55 kilometers, the creatures were already consistently on par with older adult and younger elder dragons and were simply made of nightmare fuel.
-Mother's outlandish stories about the deep ocean are starting to sound awfully plausible now..- I started feeling a bit anxious as the stories I had previously assumed were just meant to scare me as a kid became more and more realistic.
But I tried not to dwell too much on those worries. -If anything too strong for me is down here, I can always resort to nuclear or even escape through the void..-
Not long after suppressing it though, I came across a sudden cutoff in the amount of life in the area and the anxiety washed over me like a wave.
The fish and crustaceans I had consistently seen as I went deeper had vanished, with even the tiny shellfish that littered the bottom being nowhere in sight.
-Something feels.. wrong..- But with my curiosity still blinding my rationality, I ended up continuing even deeper until I got to around 70 kilometers down.
At that depth, although I could handle the pressure without much difficulty, I was by far the most restricted I had ever been, but even that was far from the most concerning thing.
At just beyond the 70-kilometer mark, the slope of the mountain, which had nearly remained linear the entire way down, simply ended.
I was simply standing on a huge ‘overhang’ that just looked into the open ocean. -What the..-
Out of curiosity, I blasted an incredibly focused beam of light to try and test the depth, but couldn't see the ocean floor or the base of the overhang at all. -It's like the mountainside is just.. floating over an abyss..-
I ended up standing there for several days, being sure to keep a close eye on the currents to make sure nothing big could sneak up on me, and keeping my eyes peeled for anything living.
But in the end, there was simply nothing. The largest lifeform I saw was only a few cells clumped together, and nothing big had even come remotely close to me. At least not that I knew of.
-But things still aren't adding up..- Although at first, I assumed the lack of life was because of the depth, the longer I sat and thought about it, the more unlikely that reality became.
To put it simply, the amount of life was far too low and the cutoff on its volume was far too steep for it to be natural. -There must be something down here keeping larger creatures away..-
The more I thought about it, the more my curiosity ate away at me, and the more I wanted to try and swim to the bottom, but that urge could no longer blind my instinct.
My entire body was screaming at me to the point that it was nauseating. There were simply too many red flags for me to ignore and it had gotten to a point that my curiosity was finally getting overpowered.
Just as I was about to start making my way to the surface though, a sound pierced through the silence.
*C..R..R..E..E..E..A..A..A..K..* The warped yet familiar creak of metal filled the water.
Immediately setting off even more red flags, my body did everything it could to try and get me to leave, but I stood firm as if I didn't notice. -Is there.. a metal structure down there?-
With my curiosity now launched through the roof, I prepared myself to jump off the overhang and swim towards the noise, but I stopped myself just short. -Wait.. if I haven't heard it before, then.. what made it creak?-
A mix of realization and horror kicked in as I felt the currents shift entirely.
Finally looking down I noticed that, just beneath me, was a boney and hardened snake-like body, nearly 60 meters in diameter, moving around in the darkness.
-O..h..- Although I couldn't feel its aura, my instinct told me all I needed to know.
'That creature can kill me.'
As I stood there, completely frozen, I watched the small section of its body slither through the darkness. All of my previous questions were immediately answered.
-The reason nothing is down here.. is because of that thing..-
- Liv Sigmond ~
*Distant Vomiting*
I could hear vomiting among the soldiers behind me as we finally made it to the field of mutilated bodies. -The guild master's report wasn't an exaggeration at all..-
The dense smell of rotting flesh filled the air to the point that it was nauseating even for the most resilient of soldiers
"C..Commander, several soldiers have passed out already with some others' eyes burning and visions going blurry." A medic ran up to me in a panic.
-Sh*t..- Finally piecing a course of action together, I turned to the soldiers with an unwavering look.
"Alright, attention everyone! I know some of you are struggling to handle the stench and others are worried about the loss of friends or family, but this is an official mission we cannot back out of! "
Hearing my voice, everyone turned to look at me but their expressions lacked trust and faith.
I couldn't blame them though. The first mission I sent them on after becoming their leader was to check if their fellow brothers and sisters are alive, but their lack of faith wasn't something I could just leave be.
"This will be the course of action! Those who can't handle the sight or the stench will scour the perimeter to check for traces of those who ran away, injured or not!
We must find survivors if there are any!
" Seeing the expressions of the soldiers start to change, I felt some confidence build within me.
"As for those that can handle it, we will be looking through the bodies in hopes of recognizing as many as we can.
Everyone who correctly recognizes one will receive a reward that will increase depending on the rank of the person you identified! "
Although the expressions of every one were still mixed, it was much better than before.
"Whenever you find someone you can identify, immediately report it to the medic team! If you purposefully lie in order to get a reward, you will be punished, do you all understand?!" I spoke with a strict attitude and held my head high.
"""Aye, aye!"""
With most of the soldiers responding in unison, I felt a small sense of accomplishment. "Alright! We will meet back up at the camp tonight and pay respects to those who have fallen! If you understand, you are dismissed!"
With my dismissal, the soldiers quickly split up and spread out, with each focusing on their own task.
Thankfully, the idea of getting rewarded for each body they could identify helped push most of them through the horrid stench, but it still wasn't enough for everyone.
About a third of the soldiers decided to walk the perimeter with the rest following me into the field of dismembered limbs and shredded organs, but it didn't take long for us to notice some unusual patterns with the ‘bodies’.
Although they were all practically piles of shredded meat, a large majority of the corpses still had their IDs perfectly intact without as much as a scratch on them.
Although I assumed it was a coincidence at first, the more bodies we looked at, the odder it felt.
Nearly everybody had an ID, with only about 1 for every dozen missing one.
But, as weird as it was, it allowed for things to progress extremely quickly and smoothly.
Before I knew it, we had scoured the entire field and documented everyone left recognizable but to my surprise, we were still missing the Commander and top squadron leaders. -Could they have really survived?-
The more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed, but their bodies not being found left an undeniable possibility.
By the time the end of the day came to a close, I was still left empty-handed and had no choice but to head back to camp and see if anyone found them among those who ran away.
-They weren't insane enough to sacrifice the soldiers to run away, right?- The thought crossed my mind as I reached down and picked up the last ID I could find at the very base of the mountainside.
As I turned it over to see who it belonged to, I felt as if I saw something in the reflection of the 'faith' insignia and jumped to the side.
*Thump*
Landing right next to where I was standing was a blood-covered and half-broken ID tablet with a name on it.
'Njal Dolph'
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170 (Reading here)
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191
- Page 192
- Page 193
- Page 194
- Page 195
- Page 196
- Page 197
- Page 198
- Page 199
- Page 200
- Page 201
- Page 202
- Page 203
- Page 204
- Page 205
- Page 206
- Page 207
- Page 208
- Page 209
- Page 210
- Page 211
- Page 212
- Page 213
- Page 214
- Page 215
- Page 216
- Page 217
- Page 218
- Page 219
- Page 220
- Page 221
- Page 222
- Page 223
- Page 224
- Page 225
- Page 226
- Page 227
- Page 228
- Page 229
- Page 230
- Page 231
- Page 232
- Page 233
- Page 234
- Page 235
- Page 236
- Page 237
- Page 238
- Page 239
- Page 240
- Page 241
- Page 242
- Page 243
- Page 244
- Page 245
- Page 246
- Page 247
- Page 248
- Page 249
- Page 250
- Page 251
- Page 252
- Page 253
- Page 254
- Page 255
- Page 256
- Page 257
- Page 258
- Page 259
- Page 260
- Page 261
- Page 262
- Page 263
- Page 264
- Page 265
- Page 266
- Page 267
- Page 268
- Page 269
- Page 270
- Page 271
- Page 272
- Page 273
- Page 274
- Page 275
- Page 276
- Page 277
- Page 278
- Page 279
- Page 280
- Page 281
- Page 282
- Page 283
- Page 284
- Page 285
- Page 286
- Page 287
- Page 288
- Page 289
- Page 290
- Page 291
- Page 292
- Page 293
- Page 294
- Page 295
- Page 296
- Page 297
- Page 298
- Page 299
- Page 300
- Page 301
- Page 302
- Page 303
- Page 304
- Page 305
- Page 306
- Page 307
- Page 308
- Page 309
- Page 310
- Page 311
- Page 312
- Page 313
- Page 314
- Page 315
- Page 316
- Page 317
- Page 318
- Page 319
- Page 320
- Page 321
- Page 322
- Page 323
- Page 324
- Page 325
- Page 326
- Page 327
- Page 328
- Page 329
- Page 330
- Page 331
- Page 332
- Page 333
- Page 334
- Page 335
- Page 336
- Page 337
- Page 338
- Page 339
- Page 340
- Page 341
- Page 342
- Page 343
- Page 344
- Page 345
- Page 346
- Page 347
- Page 348
- Page 349
- Page 350
- Page 351
- Page 352
- Page 353
- Page 354
- Page 355
- Page 356
- Page 357
- Page 358
- Page 359
- Page 360
- Page 361
- Page 362
- Page 363
- Page 364
- Page 365
- Page 366
- Page 367
- Page 368
- Page 369
- Page 370
- Page 371
- Page 372
- Page 373
- Page 374
- Page 375
- Page 376
- Page 377
- Page 378
- Page 379
- Page 380
- Page 381
- Page 382
- Page 383
- Page 384
- Page 385
- Page 386
- Page 387
- Page 388
- Page 389
- Page 390
- Page 391
- Page 392
- Page 393
- Page 394
- Page 395
- Page 396
- Page 397
- Page 398
- Page 399
- Page 400
- Page 401
- Page 402
- Page 403
- Page 404
- Page 405
- Page 406
- Page 407
- Page 408
- Page 409
- Page 410
- Page 411
- Page 412
- Page 413
- Page 414
- Page 415
- Page 416
- Page 417
- Page 418
- Page 419
- Page 420
- Page 421
- Page 422
- Page 423
- Page 424
- Page 425
- Page 426
- Page 427
- Page 428
- Page 429
- Page 430
- Page 431
- Page 432
- Page 433
- Page 434
- Page 435
- Page 436
- Page 437
- Page 438
- Page 439
- Page 440
- Page 441
- Page 442
- Page 443
- Page 444