I was shocked at the sight of Jana single-handedly defeating a divine monster, for a number of reasons. First of all, this was the first case in the history of my world where a non-divine entity has managed to personally kill a fully divine being. Although I knew such a thing was possible, I didn’t expect it to happen in such a manner.

Secondly was the fact that the divine beast appeared with no warning. Unlike when people ascended, or even when the tamed monsters did so, I never received a prompt for this creature’s ascension. This implied that there were likely countless divine monsters already roaming the vast reaches of space. More to the point, that they might be drawn towards inhabited worlds.

Finally… Jana wasn’t the only one that received an achievement when she killed the monster. I received one as well, for having the first fully divine entity dying in my world. I supposed that the invading forces wouldn’t count for that. The achievement was called Deicide, and offered a small boost to divine affinity.

Sinclair Song sat within the hollow of his tree, carving a makeshift wooden staff. He had been in his current world for just a few hours now, just long enough to find a temporary shelter to defend himself against the wild beasts. At this point, panic had begun to loom in the back of his mind, and realization dawned on him just how bad his situation was.

It had been… days, maybe even over a week since he had been to a world where monsters were not too powerful for him to defeat, and yet were strong enough to provide the nutrition needed for him. His stomach ached, and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to sustain himself with only his ki for much longer.

Even if by some miracle this world did have monsters that fit the standard, he would have a hard time fighting them with only a sharpened stick, no matter how much energy he put behind it. At this point, he was only left with a few options. First, he could hope for some miraculous encounter with herbs that were extremely nutritious. This was extremely unlikely, in either this world or wherever he would go next, as he couldn’t even be sure those plants were safe to eat.

The other options… either risk his life to fight in the hopes of defeating a powerful beast, or shed his flesh body and reach perfection. The first two options required a high amount of luck to succeed, simply in encountering the plants or beasts necessary to enact his plan. Only the third option was one that he could attempt wholly on his own.

He scolded his past self for being so unwilling to use the perfection chambers, simply because they were one of James’ inventions. His petty attempts to distance himself from the researcher that rejected his achievements were coming back to bite him.

Thinking about that, he let out a sigh, setting aside the stick he had been sharpening. He had yet to find any ores during his time in this world, so even a simple blade was beyond his ability. And unfortunately, he was in no position to reclaim the items he had recently lost. At least if I achieve perfection, I can create weapons from my own body. Then it won’t be a problem even if I do enter another acidic world..

With that in mind, he focused, connecting with the natural energy of this world in order to seal the opening of the tree he was sitting in. He could leave himself some holes for air to come through, but it was too dangerous to have a large entrance when he was going to be in a defenseless state.

Within the oceans of Earth, a large ship sailed, one of the few that still traveled the seas. With the gate network established, it was increasingly more rare to find anyone willing to traverse the water. Those that did so would have a special purpose behind their journeys.

One such purpose could be to undergo some form of personal training, as was the case with the recently appointed God of Water. Others could be for fishing trips. After all, with the decline in people willing to expose themselves to the dangers of the ocean, seafood became more scarce.

The third reason, and the one that applied to this particular ship, was exploration. Not exploring the world of the surface to look for new islands, but the world beneath the waves. The underwater realm that had yet to be fully explored due to the inherent dangers was something that enticed many a traveller.

However, there were special requirements to be able to perform such a journey. It required a certain amount of wealth to simply create a ship capable of withstanding the assault of the various sea monsters. Such ships came in a number of different ‘grades’ depending on the class of beast it was able to withstand. This ship, for instance, was a Demigod class and was claimed to be able to resist a single full-force strike from a beast on the road to divinity.

The second requirement was a method to explore or sense beneath the water, up to two hundred kilometers at least. After fifty kilometers, in some regions, the brine lakes would appear. These areas, termed as the ocean beneath the waves, often carried strange forms of life. Powerful monsters that could easily tear apart weaker ships if they ever came to the surface existed in great numbers within the brine.

The captain of this particular voyage had managed to employ a great number of sailors, particularly those from Kione. In that world, one could not claim to be a sailor if they did not have an aquatic familiar. Thus, in the ocean beneath their ship was roughly fifty familiars swimming about to perform reconnaissance.

The captain’s own familiar was a beautiful woman with the lower body of a fish. According to the records of the church, such a familiar was known as the Queen of Songs. Her voice carried with it a natural hypnotic effect, and could be used for long-distance echolocation. Among the aquatic familiars, the Queen of Songs ranked within the top ten most beloved. Their only shortcoming was that they could not personally withstand the pressure from more than twenty kilometers after using reinforcement spells.

Through his link with his familiar, the captain directed her to dive down to the limits of her comfort, and map the area below with her voice. Should she find anything of value, there were other familiars present that could withstand a deeper dive.

Within the mind of the familiar, the world below seemed to open up and reveal itself. The murky water failed to cloud her senses, and she could see a great number of creatures big and small beneath them. Some of these creatures clearly noticed the sound waves that she had sent out, turning their attention towards her. However, she was being protected by several combat-oriented allies.

Deeper and deeper the sound waves went, until they pulsed against the rocky surface below. There, the Queen of Songs was surprised to find numerous humanoid figures walking alongside each other. These figures similarly were curious about the familiar, and began swimming up towards the surface.

Receiving this information, the captain’s eyes bulged out briefly. “Halt the bloody ship!” He shouted at the top of his lungs, surprising his crew. A small sphere was dropped into the water, which pulsed with energy. Immediately, the ship was rendered motionless, the crew jerked forward slightly by the loss of momentum.

“Captain?” One of the lycans from Kione walked up to question the man. The captain of this vessel was a human with a scraggly black beard, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

“We found ‘em, lad. The seawalkers.” This was why the captain had ventured so far into the ocean, always ordering his familiar to scan as deep as she could. There were legends about powerful creatures that lurked within the waves, having forms similar to people. They did not lure sailors to their death, nor did they attempt to initiate trade. They would simply watch from afar.

People had attempted to make contact with them before, but these creatures did not seem to possess any spoken language. As such, they would often be scared away before such a dialogue could even begin.

However, the captain had come prepared. His familiar had long since learned a spell that allowed it to communicate telepathically with any creature of the sea. This was all in the hopes that they would manage to find this elusive race of fish-men.

It was hard to tell how powerful this ancient race was. What could easily be assumed was that they were able to withstand pressure a thousand times stronger than a normal man, given that they lived at the bottom of the sea. Similarly, their survival meant that they were able to defeat those powerful beasts that lurked on the ocean floor.

When the captain announced that they had found their objective, the people of Kione rejoiced. They instructed their familiars not to bar the passage of those ascending from below, and to protect both them and the Queen of Songs.

Meanwhile, the captain’s familiar initiated its telepathic spell, directed at the sea-walker leading the pack. May we know your name, friend from below?

After she asked that, the familiar recoiled in pain, flinching back as hundreds of voices assaulted her mind at once. Each voice asked a different question of their own, drowning out the familiar’s thoughts. What is a name? What are you? Are you friend? What is that above you?

These questions seemed to come without end, and the familiar soon realized that the minds of those below seemed to be linked. Fighting back the pain, she struggled to send another message. Friends, please, calm your minds. Pain. Too many voices. Only one at a time, please.

By this point, the creatures from below, which had easily been a hundred miles beneath the ocean, had arrived surrounding the Queen of Songs. Seeing her obvious look of pain and hearing her plea, they went quiet. They did not seem to know which of them should speak for the others.

Seeing this, the familiar was relieved. Better that none of them speak as opposed to everyone talking over one another. She pointed towards one individual, the same she had spoken to originally. You, friend. May I know what you are?

She had prepared herself to be assaulted by the swarm of voices, for her mind to crack under the pain and force herself to recall to her partner. Instead, only a single voice entered her mind. We are the ancient tribe, the walkers of the deep.

The ancient tribe? The Queen of Songs looked happy as she heard that, despite not knowing the differences between the various tribes of these people. How old is your tribe?

Many songs record our path. Many trails followed without end.

The words of the other party were not so much cryptic as they were simplistic. As if she were talking to a slightly more intelligent fish. May I hear one of your songs? It was a bad habit of this type of familiar to love collecting any type of music.

The sea-walker nodded its head, closing its eyes as a melody thrummed within the Queen of Songs’ mind. However, as she listened to it, her brow furrowed. There were no words to this song, and it took her quite some time to realize what she was listening to. These songs were a map, a sonar map to be precise, one that only people like herself that used echolocation could ‘read’.

Once she realized this, she hurriedly began to convert the sound into a map in her mind. She saw a deep trench, beneath the brine lakes, where yet another acid river seemed to flow. Underwater waterfalls that led to ancient paths carved out over countless years.

She saw giant fish, unbelievable creatures that defied all manners of logic. She saw the sea-walkers traveling together as distorted figures, carving their own way throughout generations. Despite the melody itself being dull, a smile was brought to her face. It’s beautiful.