Aelon's body plummeted toward the forest below. He didn't even have the strength to scream.
Then...
Crunch.
Something beneath him burst apart.
His vision exploded with pain as several bones cracked, but the impact wasn't nearly as lethal as it should have been.
[Congratulations, you have defeated an awakened beast, Soft Mussel.]
[You have received an awakened memory, Shell Bed.]
'What?'
Aelon had expected to die in that moment.
But instead, he found himself laying on the carcass of what used to be a mussel-looking nightmare creature, it's flesh splattered everywhere.
Everything hurt, but at least he wasn't dead.
That was what mattered.
Reluctantly, Aelon started to stand up, and everything ached. The prior wounds were as painful as ever, and the fall had certainly broken one of his ribs.
'Fuck.'
Quickly summoning his runes, to check the new memory out, Aelon hoped that it would be something that would keep him alive.
Something that let him survive the next day.
Memory Description: [The sea remembers even those too weak to flee.
Among the coral forests lived a quiet creature that knew neither fang nor claw. When danger came, it endured. Season after season, its shell thickened beneath countless tides until it could bear the weight of the sea itself.
In the end, it was not the jaws of a predator that shattered its home, but something that fell from the heavens.]
With a painful scoff, Aelon diverted his gaze to the enchantments.
[Camouflage]
[A mussel can only hide]
[Muscle Control]
[Control over the mussel's body is the same as if it were your own.]
Aelon tried climbing out of the gory mess he got himself in, and felt a hard little thing in his grasp.
'The soul shard?'
To reenergize himself, the short boy tightened his grip around the shard, and felt it crumble in his grasp.
The familiar euphoric feeling of vitalization enveloped his body, making the pain a little easier to handle.
With enough energy, he managed to exit the shell, which resembled more of something straight out of a splatter movie.
Seeing the Nightmare Creatures' organs and innards sticking to him, Aelon hurriedly brushed them off, and then vomited.
'Disgusting.'
As low as his energy currently was, he managed to summon the new memory he had gained.
Before him was a huge mussel, the insides seemingly made out of cotton or something similar to it. It had enough space for at least three people, and like five people of his size, if they had to stick close together. When Aelon climbed in, he felt how soft it was.
Suddenly, he felt a sensation draw at him. Like he gained a new limb.
'What's that?'
Instinctively he moved it. The shell closed out of nowhere, and his entire surroundings went dark. Although there didn't seem to be a gap anywhere, the quality of the air didn't diminish in the slightest, oxygen continuously supplied.
When he moved the new 'limb' again, the shell opened once more, letting light in.
'So that's how it works...'
Only now, that he opened the mussel, he noticed that the sun was setting, painting the sky in a beautiful illusory mixture of purple and orange.
Forgetting himself in the adoration of the sight before him, Aelon's breath halted.
The sensation of water creeping up his feet immediately took him out of his trance, bringing him back the harsh reality.
'Fuck, the water is rising already.'
Luckily, the [Aquatic Hide] kept his skin dry. At an altercation about what to do, Aelon settled on using his newly acquired memory.
'There weren't any gaps, yet the oxygen supply was constant... so in theory it should hold up under water.'
Before the water could reach his torso, Aelon entered the open shell of the mussel, and used it's enchantment to close it.
The surroundings turned dark, and Aelon was tired, fatigued and exhausted.
Yet his heart raced.
'Please let this work.... please let this work. Please please please.'
The black haired boy doubted he would survive another night, especially since his body was already giving up control. Just when climbing up the statue, he had already collapsed from fatigue, and he had a few broken ribs, not to speak of the quite literal myriad of injuries he had sustained from the Nightmare Creatures.
That was when he felt the mussel floating upwards.
Professor Julius' lessons appeared in his mind.
'In water, things containing air float because their overall density is lower... The shell has a sealed cavity filled with air, so it should work. Though if I open it, it'll probably sink right away.'
After feeling that he was finally secure, and subconsciously relaxing all of his muscles, Aelon was immediately drawn in by sleep.
...
"Fuck..."
Everything hurt.
After waking up from his sleep, the adrenaline from yesterday had completely subsided, leaving Aelon aching and in pain.
Feeling that the mussel wasn't floating any longer, he opened the shell, letting the daylight in.
To his dismay, Aelon found himself in a completely new location.
Around him, he found the same crimson forest of endless coral-like trees, but the Statue was out of sight, which was quite ridiculous at it's height.
Stepping out, the short boy dismissed the memory, and walked around. Making sure not to make too much noise, he explored the surroundings in a five hundred meter radius, and then decided to hunt for food.
'I need to be careful not to encounter any awakened abominations. I doubt I can even kill a dormant creature in my current state.'
Indeed, Aelon managed to escape quite a multitude of awakened, and dormant creatures. His body was loud and clear. He would die if he fought them.
Not after long, he found a flock of crabs feasting on a corpse of what seemed to be a even bigger crab, with an elongated body, and a human-like torso.
They finished eating, and departed, leaving the corpse for Aelon. Waiting ten minutes, until he was sure they left, he approached the awakened being's corpse, and cut off a leg.
Barely managing to saw through it with Minos' Soulblade, he made a fire using the branches of the coral-like trees, and used mussel's to reflect the strong sunlight onto it.
After a while the scent of smoke, and cackling of fire permeated through the air. Aelon held the flesh of the Nightmare Creature above it, and cooked it.
The aroma, and taste was quite amazing, and since the leg was quite big, Aelon summoned the [Mussel Bed] once again, and rested in there.
There was one problem though.
Water.
The juices from the crab's meat had at least kept his mouth from going completely dry. It wasn't enough, though. Blood was no substitute for water, and Aelon knew it.
But now... he was weakened.
Deciding to wait until the water took him somewhere else, Aelon decided to hide in the mussel for the entire day, letting his wounds heal.
He was thirsty.