The village floated in its usual rhythm. Nets were lowered, ropes creaked, and children ran barefoot along the planks, laughing in the salt-stained air. To anyone looking, it was just another morning.
But Ren felt it before anyone else did.
The ocean's song was wrong.
Sitting cross-legged on the edge of a pier, his spear resting across his lap, Ren closed his eyes. Since fusing with the relic, his senses had sharpened. The air was sharper, the water clearer, and beneath it all, a distant pulse echoed in the abyss.
It was deep. Vast. Moving closer.
The system responded to his unease.
[Warning: High-tier Abyssal Presence Detected.][Recommendation: Avoid Detection.]
Ren opened his eyes, gaze hardening. "How strong?"
[Estimated Class: Tier-3 Abyssal Beast.][Recommended Hunter Level: 20+]
Ren's stomach dropped. He was level 7. Against something like that, his spear was nothing but a toothpick.
The villagers, oblivious, kept hauling their catch. A group of men laughed loudly as they wrestled a stubborn net, unaware that death swam toward them from the black.
Ren rose slowly, his body tense. If it comes too close… we'll all be wiped out.
The water beneath the village darkened. Fish scattered in frantic bursts of silver. Ren's grip tightened on his weapon as the shadow grew. It was massive easily longer than three houses, its form just out of sight in the gloom.
Then, from below, an eye opened.
It was larger than Ren's body, burning faintly with an eerie blue glow. The beast didn't move toward the villagers yet. It simply watched. The weight of its presence pressed down on Ren like a storm about to break.
[Abyssal Detection Sequence Initiated.]
Ren's heart hammered. He felt it, the creature's awareness sweeping through the water like a net, searching. His lungs locked as that vast will brushed past him. It wasn't sight. It wasn't sound. It was something deeper a primal recognition of prey.
For an instant, the beast's gaze scraped against his soul.
Then…
It slid away.
Ren's breath burst from his chest in a shudder.
[Abyssal Veil Active.][Detection Resistance Applied: Success.]
His body shook with the realization. The relic's power had cloaked him, masking his presence from a monster that could have devoured the entire village.
The beast drifted beneath the platforms, its shadow blotting out the morning light through the cracks in the planks. Ren watched, every muscle rigid, as its enormous tail swept lazily, stirring waves strong enough to rock the floating houses.
Villagers stumbled, laughing nervously at the sudden shift, thinking it nothing more than rough water. None of them saw the truth.
The beast lingered. Its massive form circled slowly, testing the vibrations of the structures, tasting the currents. Each pass made Ren's skin crawl. He could hear its heartbeat in the water, a slow, thunderous drum.
If the veil fails, I'm dead.
But the system held. Each time the creature's awareness pressed near, the veil shimmered faintly around Ren, bending, twisting, erasing him from the beast's sense.
Minutes stretched like hours. Ren's nails dug into the wood of the pier. Sweat mingled with seawater on his brow. The urge to run, to scream, burned in his chest, but he forced himself still.
At last, the beast stirred. Its colossal body angled downward, slipping back into the deep, as silently as it had risen.
The darkness beneath the village lightened. The water grew calm again.
[Threat Departing.][Detection Avoided.]
Ren collapsed to his knees, chest heaving. His hands trembled uncontrollably.
He had faced danger before the abyssal shark, the relic but nothing compared to this. That thing hadn't even attacked, and still its presence had nearly crushed him.
If the system hadn't shielded him…
No, he wouldn't think about it.
The villagers carried on, blissfully unaware of what had passed beneath their homes. Ren stared at them, sweat-soaked and shaking, a strange mixture of relief and frustration twisting inside him.
They had no idea how fragile their safety truly was. A single shift in the beast's hunger could have erased their entire world.
Ren clenched his fists. I can't stay weak. If I rely only on luck or the system's veil, I'll never survive when monsters like that decide to attack outright.
The image of that eye burned in his mind, searing itself into his resolve.
The system's voice broke through his thoughts.
[New Quest Generated.]
[Quest: The Abyss Stares Back]
Objective: Hunt and absorb three abyssal beasts related to the relic's energy.
Reward: Abyssal Veil Enhancement + Unique Skill (Locked).
Warning: Quest Difficulty – High.
Ren's breath steadied. His fear hardened into determination.
The system wasn't going to let him hide forever. If he wanted to walk this path, he had to step forward into the abyss willingly.
He rose, gripping his spear once more. The wooden pier groaned under his weight, the village buzzing with its ordinary life around him. None of them knew what had brushed so close to their fragile safety.
But Ren knew.
And that knowledge demanded he grow stronger.
He looked toward the open horizon, the endless sea rolling in sunlight. Somewhere out there were three beasts tied to his relic's power. Somewhere out there, death waited.
Ren's lips curved not into a smile, but into a grim, steady line.
"Then I'll hunt them first."
The boy who had once been broken now carried the gaze of someone who had faced the abyss and refused to drown.
And as the tide swelled, so too did the shadow of his next trial.