Mid Afternoon - Early Summer : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)

It had only been a few minutes since I left the Kraken's nest but I was already distracted from my nervousness.

-Evolution... How do you even come up with this sh*t?-

In front of me was a spider-like crustacean that looked like something between a crab and a squid and was nearly 80 meters long from leg to leg.

I cringed a bit as I swam past it and noticed the giant circular mouth laced with sharp teeth on its underside.

It took every bit of willpower I had to leave it alive since it didn't do anything wrong, but that was only the beginning. The deeper I swam, the more nightmarish the creatures got.

At a depth of around 55 kilometers, the creatures were already consistently on par with older adult and younger elder dragons and were simply made of nightmare fuel.

-Mother's outlandish stories about the deep ocean are starting to sound awfully plausible now..- I started feeling a bit anxious as the stories I had previously assumed were just meant to scare me as a kid became more and more realistic.

But I tried not to dwell too much on those worries. -If anything too strong for me is down here, I can always resort to nuclear or even escape through the void..-

Not long after suppressing it though, I came across a sudden cutoff in the amount of life in the area and the anxiety washed over me like a wave.

The fish and crustaceans I had consistently seen as I went deeper had vanished, with even the tiny shellfish that littered the bottom being nowhere in sight.

-Something feels.. wrong..- But with my curiosity still blinding my rationality, I ended up continuing even deeper until I got to around 70 kilometers down.

At that depth, although I could handle the pressure without much difficulty, I was by far the most restricted I had ever been, but even that was far from the most concerning thing.

At just beyond the 70-kilometer mark, the slope of the mountain, which had nearly remained linear the entire way down, simply ended.

I was simply standing on a huge ‘overhang’ that just looked into the open ocean. -What the..-

Out of curiosity, I blasted an incredibly focused beam of light to try and test the depth, but couldn't see the ocean floor or the base of the overhang at all. -It's like the mountainside is just.. floating over an abyss..-

I ended up standing there for several days, being sure to keep a close eye on the currents to make sure nothing big could sneak up on me, and keeping my eyes peeled for anything living.

But in the end, there was simply nothing. The largest lifeform I saw was only a few cells clumped together, and nothing big had even come remotely close to me. At least not that I knew of.

-But things still aren't adding up..- Although at first, I assumed the lack of life was because of the depth, the longer I sat and thought about it, the more unlikely that reality became.

To put it simply, the amount of life was far too low and the cutoff on its volume was far too steep for it to be natural. -There must be something down here keeping larger creatures away..-

The more I thought about it, the more my curiosity ate away at me, and the more I wanted to try and swim to the bottom, but that urge could no longer blind my instinct.

My entire body was screaming at me to the point that it was nauseating. There were simply too many red flags for me to ignore and it had gotten to a point that my curiosity was finally getting overpowered.

Just as I was about to start making my way to the surface though, a sound pierced through the silence.

*C..R..R..E..E..E..A..A..A..K..* The warped yet familiar creak of metal filled the water.

Immediately setting off even more red flags, my body did everything it could to try and get me to leave, but I stood firm as if I didn't notice. -Is there.. a metal structure down there?-

With my curiosity now launched through the roof, I prepared myself to jump off the overhang and swim towards the noise, but I stopped myself just short. -Wait.. if I haven't heard it before, then.. what made it creak?-

A mix of realization and horror kicked in as I felt the currents shift entirely.

Finally looking down I noticed that, just beneath me, was a boney and hardened snake-like body, nearly 60 meters in diameter, moving around in the darkness.

-O..h..- Although I couldn't feel its aura, my instinct told me all I needed to know.

'That creature can kill me.'

As I stood there, completely frozen, I watched the small section of its body slither through the darkness. All of my previous questions were immediately answered.

-The reason nothing is down here.. is because of that thing..-

- Liv Sigmond ~

*Distant Vomiting*

I could hear vomiting among the soldiers behind me as we finally made it to the field of mutilated bodies. -The guild master's report wasn't an exaggeration at all..-

The dense smell of rotting flesh filled the air to the point that it was nauseating even for the most resilient of soldiers

"C..Commander, several soldiers have passed out already with some others' eyes burning and visions going blurry." A medic ran up to me in a panic.

-Sh*t..- Finally piecing a course of action together, I turned to the soldiers with an unwavering look. "Alright, attention everyone! I know some of you are struggling to handle the stench and others are worried about the loss of friends or family, but this is an official mission we cannot back out of!"

Hearing my voice, everyone turned to look at me but their expressions lacked trust and faith.

I couldn't blame them though. The first mission I sent them on after becoming their leader was to check if their fellow brothers and sisters are alive, but their lack of faith wasn't something I could just leave be. "This will be the course of action! Those who can't handle the sight or the stench will scour the perimeter to check for traces of those who ran away, injured or not! We must find survivors if there are any!" Seeing the expressions of the soldiers start to change, I felt some confidence build within me. "As for those that can handle it, we will be looking through the bodies in hopes of recognizing as many as we can. Everyone who correctly recognizes one will receive a reward that will increase depending on the rank of the person you identified!"

Although the expressions of every one were still mixed, it was much better than before.

"Whenever you find someone you can identify, immediately report it to the medic team! If you purposefully lie in order to get a reward, you will be punished, do you all understand?!" I spoke with a strict attitude and held my head high.

"""Aye, aye!"""

With most of the soldiers responding in unison, I felt a small sense of accomplishment. "Alright! We will meet back up at the camp tonight and pay respects to those who have fallen! If you understand, you are dismissed!"

With my dismissal, the soldiers quickly split up and spread out, with each focusing on their own task.

Thankfully, the idea of getting rewarded for each body they could identify helped push most of them through the horrid stench, but it still wasn't enough for everyone.

About a third of the soldiers decided to walk the perimeter with the rest following me into the field of dismembered limbs and shredded organs, but it didn't take long for us to notice some unusual patterns with the ‘bodies’.

Although they were all practically piles of shredded meat, a large majority of the corpses still had their IDs perfectly intact without as much as a scratch on them.

Although I assumed it was a coincidence at first, the more bodies we looked at, the odder it felt.

Nearly everybody had an ID, with only about 1 for every dozen missing one.

But, as weird as it was, it allowed for things to progress extremely quickly and smoothly.

Before I knew it, we had scoured the entire field and documented everyone left recognizable but to my surprise, we were still missing the Commander and top squadron leaders. -Could they have really survived?-

The more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed, but their bodies not being found left an undeniable possibility.

By the time the end of the day came to a close, I was still left empty-handed and had no choice but to head back to camp and see if anyone found them among those who ran away.

-They weren't insane enough to sacrifice the soldiers to run away, right?- The thought crossed my mind as I reached down and picked up the last ID I could find at the very base of the mountainside.

As I turned it over to see who it belonged to, I felt as if I saw something in the reflection of the 'faith' insignia and jumped to the side.

*Thump*

Landing right next to where I was standing was a blood-covered and half-broken ID tablet with a name on it.

'Njal Dolph'