Tendril asked ‘Is there anything like it on the surface?’ Jade said ‘I wouldn’t know since I haven’t been everywhere and there is no internet but I’ve been to more places than most people have and I haven’t seen such’. Tendril nodded and said ‘You seem to be a maker of artifacts. I’m sure you will enjoy meeting our best crafter but he is currently busy now and he hates disturbances’.

Jade said ‘No need to rush him I have time’. Tendril considered something for a moment before she said ‘There is a split between how most merfolk view you humans. There are those like Eel who see you as aliens that took the world from our ancestors. And there are people like me who see you as just another intelligent race in this world’.

Jade said ‘I kinda got that vibe’. Tendril said ‘Vibe… interesting concept. There is someone who would love to meet you but he is from the first group that views humans in a more prejudiced light. He will probably ask for a fight, are you ok with that?’

Jade said ‘It seems you’re done with me’. Tendril said ‘You’re very wrong; you are the first human to visit us so there are many departments that want to meet you. I can’t just keep you to myself’. Jade said ‘Oh, sorry for presuming. I don’t mind a bout but wouldn’t it be bad if I beat someone in his home?’

Tendril laughed and said ‘You are very confident in your strength! You and Quake will get along swimmingly. By the time you return, I will have more detailed questions for you; your arrival was a surprise so I wasn’t prepared’. She pointed to the entry of the building where an Orca (Killer Whale) was waiting and said ‘Race will take you to Quake’.

As Jade floated toward the Orca he thought ‘Quake… going by their naming logic he must be someone who shivers all the time. This Race guy doesn’t have anything that says race so I might be wrong’. Jade waved goodbye toward Tendril who looked at him confused; she didn’t understand the gesture.

Jade thought ‘Culture Shock!!!! Who knew they didn’t say goodbyes’. Jade exited the building and approached the Orca that was slowly but surely distancing itself from Jade. Jade stopped floating toward it and thought ‘Do I smell?’ as he looked at this body.

Now that he was closer to the Orca he saw that its spots had curvy while patterns running along them. His IP denoted it as [Semi-Conceptual Being: Orcavus]. He sent a psychic message to the Orca saying ‘Why are you running away? I’m not that scary’. The Orca snorted and said ‘Who would be afraid of you? Try to keep up, maybe you’ll get to the place you want to go or maybe you’ll get lost’ and swam away very quickly.

Jade who thought he was going to ride the Orca was left in the dust as he stared agape at the rapidly shrinking image of the Orca. He snorted as he thought ‘Race, no wonder it was given a name that doesn’t describe a feature. It’s just crazy’ and disappeared from where he was.

Jade easily kept up with the swimming Orca by teleporting intermittently and said ‘If this is what you call a race then you are undeserving of your name’. Race smiled and said ‘It seems you really want to get lost. What a waste of my kindness’. The space around Race changed and distance shortened, no it was being absorbed by Race’s space control.

With a flash of purple light Race was gone as he released the distance he absorbed behind him while absorbing more distance to be released again. Jade teleported again and again but could not catch up with Race. He followed the trail of distorted space past the borders of Atlantis-Border 8. Jade tried to copy what Race did but found it too complicated to just copy it on the fly.

He disappeared and reappeared rapidly until the trail stopped around an empty region on the ocean floor. Race was floating in front of a 6 meter tall man with a full black beard and long hair. He was ripped and brown skin. He wore only a pair of trousers as he floated idly in the water. Jade’s IP denoted him as a [Rank 25 Olympian (Poseidon) (Quake)] [Soul Glyphs: 0] [Soul Mandalas: 1] [Rhythm].

Race said ‘Took you long enough! Slow poke! I win!’ Jade said ‘Yes, you won’. Race laughed as he zipped off to somewhere else again.

Jade focused on the man that he assumed was Quake. He said ‘Hi there-‘ but he was cut off by a question from the man who said ‘How do you see Atlantis-Border 8?’ Jade thought for a while before saying ‘It was like nothing I’ve ever seen, very beautiful and very large. The diversity of people adds a color that I’ve never seen anywhere else. I didn’t get a tour so I can only make comments on the superficial details’.

The water around the man vibrated for a moment and the man said ‘I guess it is to be expected. You humans have way better technology than we do so you wouldn’t be impressed by our defenses’. Jade showed a confused expression before saying ‘You seem to view me as an emissary from the human empire. I am not. I am just a human. I haven’t seen the best of human defenses and it is to be expected that if you have defenses I might not recognize them as such since I have never seen an underwater city before’.

The man vibrated again causing the water around him to vibrate and Jade was now certain on why he was called Quake. Quake said ‘I guess you’re right. I’ve always wanted to test myself against a human but the leaders, they always said it would cause the humans to attack us. I hear you’re quite confident in your strength, would you like to indulge me in a fight, or will doing that cause humanity to attack us?’

Jade smiled and said ‘No problem’.

“BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

A loud blast rang out as the man shot toward Jade, ripping through space. Jade sighed as he saw this and redirected the man back to where he was previously by controlling space. Jade thought ‘I’ll just keep him in one spot, it should prove that I am too much for him’.

Quake tried to head toward Jade again but all his attempts failed and he remained in one spot. He smiled and thought ‘Snakes would enjoy fighting him since they fight alike. Too bad she is with the human acceptance faction’.

Quake vibrated in place very fast and at varying frequencies. Jade felt a weird feeling in the space he was controlling. It was like Quake had become a very slippery object, like a wet soup bar covered in oil on a banana peel. Jade could not grip the void around Quake since they were just vibrating out of his control.

Quake smiled and sent ‘Good trick but it won’t be enough to save you’. Quake launched himself toward Jade again but this time space wasn’t ripped apart. Jade teleported away to create some distance and created a portal along the path of the approaching Quake.

The portal disintegrated when it made contact with Quake and the space it occupied became chaotic but the space around Quake just kept vibrating. Quake sent ‘Are you going to just keep running away?’

Jade replied ‘Until I know how to properly fight you, yes’. Quake smiled and said ‘Smartass’. He pointed his finger toward Jade and his energy condensed on the finger. His energy vibrated and vibrated before it was released toward Jade as a beam.

Teleported away from the obvious attack and it hit the sandy ocean floor turning the sand to glass and the rocks underneath to magma before making everything disintegrate into individual atoms and releasing pure energy as a result of the reaction. The energy that was released was the same shaking energy and it caused the same reaction in whatever it touched, making the water bubble with gas as the chain reaction continued.

Quake said ‘Can you handle an attack like that? I don’t want to hurt you if you’re too weak’. Jade smiled and said ‘Bring it on shaky boy’ as runes of energy formed around him.