The next morning, our whole cheerful company once again set out to grind levels, but this time I didn't push the circular-movement scheme, simply deciding to move away and dive as deep as possible into the Archipelago. I still wanted to raise my own level, but the chances of doing so were slim, and the only thing that could change that, in theory, were the strongest monsters of the island — the ones we went out to find.
"Ugh. I can't believe I made such a mistake. Sadeena-san turned out to be too cunning…"
All the way, Atla kept lamenting the fact that in the morning she happened to see a disheveled Sadeena carefully trying to sneak out of my room. She wasn't a foolish girl, so it was easy for her to put two and two together and guess exactly what we had been doing. Which resulted in endless regret and frustration — not only from the "missed opportunity," but also because she had let her guard down, allowing her rival to break ahead. At least, that's how Atla seemed to think — if she herself couldn't make any progress, then she had to fight with all her might against any attempt by the other "contestants" to get through. Yeah, well.
Eventually, it took us several hours to reach the deepest part of the island chain, during which we had to cross from one island to another four times. On the last one, we didn't even manage to find transportation for the crossing, since our destination was considered too dangerous for travel. We had to improvise.
Luckily, up to that point I had managed to acquire several skills related to swimming. Among them were ones that allowed me to breathe underwater in one way or another.
Sadeena didn't need such skills, since she was, after all, an orca herself — which she demonstrated by transforming into her anthropomorphic form as soon as we reached the second-to-last island on the list. And that was…
"…"
"What's wrong, Nott-chan? You're awfully quiet. Were you that struck by the beauty of my true form?" she giggled playfully, looking at my dazed face, which, to be honest, I was trying to control — but that form…
"You know… Forgive me, my dear, but I'd rather have a beautiful, big-breasted girl with a fine figure than a muscular orca."
"O-o-oh…"
"So, unless an emergency absolutely requires it, could you… look the way you usually do?"
"Is it really that bad?" she asked more seriously now, her playful tone fading.
It's worth noting that we were talking underwater, which didn't bother my companion at all thanks to some spell she cast on herself right after diving in. As for me, I was using one of my own skills, creating an air bubble around myself.
We were the only ones who could stay underwater freely, so while the rest of our group swam across the surface from island to island, we took on the job of guarding the "rear" beneath the water.
"I don't mean to offend you, but I can say for sure that the aesthetic tastes of humans and demi-humans can be very different. No — now I'm absolutely certain of it."
I had once overheard Sadeena mentioning that Fohl should probably unlock his beast form as well. Just as I'd heard her half-joking words that his form would probably be rather cute.
Now I understood she wasn't joking. The tastes of beastfolk in terms of appearance… were broader than those of humans. Sure, perverts exist everywhere, always — that's inevitable. But for humans, it was normal to find "humans" attractive. Without extra ears, tails, or whatever else. As for me, even considering my otherworldly origin, I was drawn to human girls. Well, ears and tails were fine, even better, actually.
But a full-fledged anthropomorph? No, thanks. I simply couldn't feel even the slightest attraction to something that looked like a two-meter-tall, upright, muscular orca. Not even the realization that this was still Sadeena — whose human form I found very attractive, and had proven so more than once in practice — helped.
"Hm… That's a little unexpected, but I understand you. I've heard something similar before, but I was born and raised in places where the beast form was considered… how should I explain it… the most proper one." The orca thoughtfully put her hand-fin to her chin. "It's considered the 'true' form in every sense of the word."
"I understand that much myself. But I came from a world where the only race that existed was humans. Humans always bonded with humans, and the standard of beauty was always human appearance. Yes, small details could differ, but the base was always human. No one ever seriously thought otherwise."
"I see… I understand, Nott-chan. For you, I'll walk as a beast, a human, a half-human, or even naked."
"I'll be glad for anything except the first one. Especially the last two options."
"O-o-oh… So Nott-chan really is a pervert…"
"That's how it is."
"By the way, since we're talking about my homeland. Nott-chan, Mia, she…"
Sadeena didn't get to finish. A massive shark surged up from the depths at high speed. Cutting herself off mid-sentence, she began chanting a spell, and short bolts of lightning rippled across her body.
Now that was a strange thing. Lightning magic used underwater didn't harm its caster at all. In fact, no spell could really hurt its user — fire didn't burn, ice didn't freeze, lightning didn't shock, and so on, with only very rare exceptions.
Sadeena finished her chant just as the shark lunged at her, jaws wide open. A yellow flash — and the fish was fried instantly, not even given the chance to finish its attack. Unlike Sadeena, it was still subject to the natural consequences of lightning in water. And that made it very effective.
"Hm?" I mused, checking how much experience I'd gained.
"What is it?"
"Looks like I'll be able to level up a few times after all. That fish gave a pretty decent amount of experience."
"Actually… that's strange," the orca's voice carried a note of thoughtfulness. "That monster was definitely a sea creature. I've seen them before, when I was leveling with Fohl. But this one gave much more experience, even though my level is higher now…"
"Interesting…"
Could it be that two facts overlapped? For some reason, deep-sea monsters gave much more experience than their land-dwelling counterparts. But what if an Activation event occurred not only on land, but under it as well? And in addition to the naturally higher experience, there was also a bonus from the event itself?
"We'll need to test something else later. For now, let's head up."
"All right, Nott-chan."
...
The most dangerous island in the archipelago could already put up some resistance even against me at my level. With a bit of lag, but still without too much trouble, Sadeena could handle them as well. But for everyone else — Night, Atla, Fohl, and Mia — the monsters here were a real challenge.
If the orca not only had the level but also impressive battle experience, the others had only their level, which, for the most part, these monsters couldn't care less about.
Still, all the difficulties were more than compensated by the experience. The monsters here were extremely generous with it.
"Nott-sama, that sphere…" Atla frowned as she looked up at a pitch-black orb floating high above the ground.
"A peculiar source of life, yeah. Something like a spawner, I'd say."
"Spawner?" Fohl repeated my word exactly.
Hm… so the translator couldn't find a proper equivalent?
"Something that creates monsters. Look, see there." I pointed at the orb, which had just rippled, and within a few seconds "spat out" a black dog that looked somewhat like a Doberman — only this one was nearly the size of a small car.
"Whoa…"
After regaining its footing and shaking its head, the dog glared at us and growled menacingly.
[Black Karma Dog]
Then the beast threw back its head and howled, somehow provoking the sphere to ripple again and spew out smaller dogs.
[Black Karma Dog Familiar]
Whoever designed this system didn't have much imagination. On the simpler islands we'd already seen the same monsters, only they were called "Karma Dog" and "Karma Dog Familiar." Now, though, the simple addition of "Black" marked a whole new tier of monster. Yeah, well…
"All right, he's yours. Go for it." Just in case, I fully materialized a Scythe with the best stats I had at the moment, then stepped behind the group, pulling Sadeena back with me. Let the youngsters gain experience — in every sense.
Since only my party members were nearby, the Scythe I chose was the Dragon's Tyrannical Scythe I'd unlocked not long ago. But… as I'd found out recently, it came with another drawback — the intimidation skill it carried didn't just repel humans, but monsters too, which was completely unacceptable. That meant I could only use it once a battle had already started, not during hunting runs for experience.
In the end, I even disabled experience distribution for myself and Sadeena so that it would go entirely to the others fighting.
"Kh! Why is this thing so damn strong?!" Fohl shouted in frustration, forced to hold back the gaping jaws of the Black Karma Dog with both hands while the rest of the group dealt with its minions.
"Don't complain, brother. If that is Nott-sama's will, then you must sell your soul to the devil, but still fulfill your duty."
"What the hell are you talking about, Atla?!" The bewildered tiger cub strained with all his might, muscles bulging, and then, with a battle cry, simply threw the Dog over his shoulder, making it whimper pathetically.
Fortunately for him, the only one willing to banter with him at all was his little sister. Though… I suppose that was all he really needed.
Night, having turned into a filolial, tore into the smaller dogs with claws and wind magic, while Mia cut down the rest cleanly and precisely on the move, occasionally covering the bird's back.
Then, while the main Dog was recovering and the fodder it had summoned was being methodically culled by Birdie and Foxie, Atla narrowed her eyes slightly and dashed at the just-rising Black Dog. She struck it with a flurry of lightning-fast finger thrusts into all the weak points of its Qi pathways, simply tearing or breaking their flow.
As a result, the Dog froze as if turned to stone, and a moment later collapsed like a helpless puppet, blood trickling in a thin stream from its still-open jaws.
"O-o-oh… They're growing up so fast, don't you think, Nott-chan?"
"You're telling me. But you still would've finished it faster, wouldn't you?"
"Who knows?"
In the end, by roaming the island and clearing out such "spawn points," the whole crew successfully broke through the level 70 threshold, while Night — who had the lowest level of the group — got as close as possible, reaching 68.
Once night began to fall, Sadeena and I took over, this time switching to an "individual" experience distribution. Fortunately, the system was quite flexible in that regard.
Fighting on her own and taking all the experience for herself, Sadeena quickly caught up to the rest of the team in level and soon even surpassed them, reaching the long-awaited 80. Meanwhile, after slaughtering monsters nonstop for a good three hours, I finally managed to push my own level from 95 to 96. For comparison — that shark had given me as much experience as four fully cleared "nests" with those black orbs.
By the way, the orbs themselves couldn't be destroyed. Any damage dealt to them was answered only with irritated elastic ripples.
An unpleasant surprise was that the Activation event flooded the surrounding magical field so badly that Teleportation became unusable. Which, after weighing all the pros and cons, forced us to spend the night right there on the island. It would've taken too long to return, and night had already fallen.
The problem of monster danger was solved in the simplest and crudest way — I just materialized the Dragon's Scythe and laid it beside me. Thanks to the "Tyrant" effect, it worked like a kind of mosquito coil, scaring off any monsters that got too close.
The next morning, after a short brainstorming session in my head, I came up with the simplest and most effective plan of action for the near future. According to the words of those in the know, leveling on these islands remained relatively efficient up until about level 80 — which Sadeena had already confirmed, having noticed the disproportionate drop in gained experience once she passed that point.
Thus, I came to the conclusion that it made sense to push my whole group up to level 80, and only then, once they were prepared at least in terms of fighting power, would we move on to sea monsters.
And only after that — when I was confident enough in both my own strength and that of my group — could I attempt to search for those very Dragon Epoch Underwater Clocks, which, if memory served, should be somewhere beneath the main island.
And then, when the wave came again on the Cal Mira Islands… I would meet her once more.