This world of darkness and silence was extremely unnerving. It was impossible for me to tell if an enemy was approaching, or if it was safe. Hence, I had to be in constant battle mode, which was extremely taxing for my psyche.

However, even after hours of aimless wandering... There was nothing. No attacks, no noise, no nothing.

Completely empty.

I cautiously touched the floor with my nose, feeling it easily shift away. Sand, then. How peculiar.

I wish I could say more about this place, but alas, there really isn't much I can say about it. It's dark, it's creepy, and it feels as though there is nothing and yet everything is watching me.

It was unnerving. I recoiled violently when I accidentally bumped into a rock, immediately retreating a good distance away.

And thank god I did. The next moment, the water in the spot I'd just been in shifted violently, signifying something large just moved.

I desperately tried to sense what was happening, but... nothing. There was no smell, no sound, no aura. And yet, I was sure that I'd just escaped from certain death.

And yet, I couldn't even tell what almost killed me. I was very, very quick to escape from that area.

Thankfully, that... thing... did not chase me. In hindsight, perhaps that thing was in my same situation, blind to everything except touch, and that was how it knew I was there but didn't bother chasing me.

Who knows. I certainly don't, and I hardly care to find out.

I continued my search, now much more subdued. If only I could see something, anything, this whole trip would be a thousand times easier.

... I suddenly had an idea. Oh god, if this works, I will proclaim myself the genius of geniuses, the best and brightest danger noodle to have ever noodled.

Snickering in my mind at my own shitty joke, I dug myself into the sand, only leaving my head out. Then, I began to concentrate on my Aura Manipulation.

During my 'lazy period', I hadn't actually been completely useless. I'd still worked quite hard at understanding the ins and outs of my new skills, as well as how to efficiently use them.

Theoretically, if I could somehow see through auras, they would replace the need for light to act as a medium. Then, I could easily see in the dark!

... Ok, let's be real, that makes zero sense. Still, this world makes no fucking sense, so why shouldn't it work? It's worth a shot, at least.

I focused my entire mind inward, focusing on my own aura. It had a slithery feeling and vaguely resembled a giant snake, just like the real thing. I concentrated every little bit of myself into my aura, and with a gentle push, I guided my aura to my body's eyes.

Carefully, I 'returned' to my body, but the moment I did, I accidentally let my aura go, and it went back into my body. Frustrated, I tried again... and again... and again...

After the 200th try, I was ready to kill someone. Every time it seemed as though I'd got it, I would accidentally let it go at the last instant. It was... frustrating.

Nonetheless, it was very beneficial for my skill mastery, which shot up from the 7% I'd grinded during my lazy days to 10% in such a short time.

Eventually, after what must have been at least 300 tries... I succeded, and boy was it strange.

It was like seeing in black and white, and everything was still blurry. Furthermore, I could see lingering auras all around, and even vaguely see more concentrated auras far, far away that must have been other living beings.

It's hard to explain exactly what and how I saw what I did, but it was useful. After half a dozen seconds though, I accidentally let my aura slip, and the world was back to darkness. However, I did earn a sweet skill.

Skill (Aura Sight) gained ---> merged into skill Aura Manipulation, 5% mastery gained due to the merge.

Thanks to having earned the skill, my next attempts were much easier. Eventually, after only another couple hours of practice, I was able to hold the sight for as long as I needed it to, although I wasn't sure if it would also hold up during combat.

Still, it was a start. With my newfound sight, I immediately began exploring once more, feeling a lot more confident.

... Holy shit. That is definitely not a rock. Nope nope nope nope nope nope!

I fled as fast as I could, not stopping until I was a good 10 or so miles away. Yeah, that's not a rock. Definitely not a rock.

Once I was sufficiently far from that monstrosity, I once more began to investigate the area... After reactivating my sight, of course.

In hindsight, blindly running away like that might not have been a good idea... Eh, I lived to tell the tale, so it must not have been that bad, right?

Ignoring that little shameful moment, I did eventually find another monster, one a bit less overpowered and oversized.

It was a sea slug that was somehow larger than two trucks put together. It had no eyes, and it slowly lumbered forward, sucking up the ground and then spitting it out through its anus.

Now, if this world has taught me anything so far, it's that appearances can be deceiving. For example, this perfect example of what should be a huge load of Disgusting might very well be the most delicious meal I will ever eat. Hence, discrimination in death is unacceptable!

... Okay, that's a lie. I'm just hungry, and that thing looks as dumb as a box of rocks, and also pretty defenseless.

I slowly swam around it, examining it. The slug didn't react to my presence at all, so as a test, I exhaled out a cloud of my venom on its body.

Its skin began to sizzle quite violently, and the slug began to squirm. I backed away, waiting to see if it would do something.

However, it did nothing. After a while, the sizzling stop, and the mucus that had been infected was easily shed off, with new mucus quickly replacing it.

Now feeling a bit more curious, I once more exhaled venom, but this time, I made the density, power, and quantity of my venom much higher, and then exhaled it right into its gross face.

The thing began to shake violently, and I once again put some distance between us, which proved to be quite a good idea as its mucus suddenly exploded outwards in the form of barbed tentacles wildly swinging everywhere, attempting to catch and probably murder whatever attacked it. Which in this case would be good old me.

When one of the tentacles came a bit too close to me for my liking, I was quick to snap my jaws around it, easily severing it away from the rest. I quickly swam to another spot, not too close and not too far, easily avoiding the rush of tentacles that charged at my previous spot. Instead, I focused on tasting this weird tentacle-mucus thing.

It was... Surprisingly good? It reminded me of chocolate pudding, except it was a bit denser than that. Still... It was good enough for me.

Thanks to its blindness and relative slowness, it was all too easy to snap my jaws around one side of it's body, retreat while avoiding the rush of tentacles, attack another spot, dodge, repeat. After only a dozen minutes of this, the giant slug finally perished, it's crazed tentacles finally going still.

Gobbling up the slug was surprisingly easy. Its body was squishy and malleable, which made it easy to stuff into my jaws and down my throat. Furthermore, it had a surprisingly very high quality, but I suppose that was to be expected of an open ocean beast.

Still... If I'd met this thing while blind myself... I shivered at the thought. Yeah, thank god for my idea.