Chapter Nine

From opposite directions, movement drew her attention away from admiring her handiwork. On instinct, she gathered the remaining lightning strands ready to release them in both directions, but at the last second, she glimpsed sparks of lightning off the form approaching from the right.

A quick prod of her bond confirmed her guess, prompting her to return her lightning strands from her wrists back toward her chest near her core.

Looking ready to fight an army, both her sister and bond shot toward her while scanning their surroundings for threats. Before they went crazy, thinking she was in danger, Elysia pointed down at the crater below them while sending images to both of them detailing how it happened.

The tension broke an instant. She even heard a giggle from her mermaid sister. A fishtail playfully whacked her as Sereia turned, then shot off to wherever she came from. Ione contrasting Sereia rubbed her body along Elysia before she too swam off, leaving Elysia alone.

Apparently, whatever they were doing was more interesting than her. She really felt left out. If her next evolution offered her fins, she might even take it just to feel included. Though in all seriousness, she liked the way she was. Sure she couldn’t swim super-fast or fly, at least not yet. Flying could be a possibility or something similar.

Alex practically teleported in front of her when they first met in Port Alberni’s dungeon, so that had to be a possibility. If he could do it as a lightning changed, there was no way she couldn’t. There were so many tricks she needed to learn and without a teacher, she had to figure it out on her own. Her pride as a lightning elemental meant she needed to learn all the tricks, even if she had to experiment.

Lightning could do so much more than simply electrocute things. That fact was a big reason why she chose control over power. She doubted skills from the power path had many of the utility skills lightning could be capable of. Why did she keep dwelling on her choice? She made her decision, and she didn’t regret it.

Now the question was, what to do now? Her family seemed busy with their own things. Knowing her twin, she was probably raiding submerged stores for anything salvageable. Though the dungeon swallowed up most of the shopping district so she doubted there was much worth stealing. She supposed a couple blocks of the neighborhoods fell victim to the wave too, but most survived the wave and were instead speared through by trees.

At the thought of the dungeon, she perked up. Should she run it? Wouldn’t her family want to join in? If she ran the dungeon alone, they would have to wait a day to run it together, and she wasn’t sure it was safe for them to stay that long. Though if the elementals knew where they were, they would have ambushed them by now. Or they knew where they were, but were waiting for something. She found it hard to believe the elementals couldn’t track them when they chased Sereia thousands of kilometers.

Whatever the reason, they probably shouldn’t stay too long, so that left one dungeon run. Could she really find out how far she came since the last time she ran the dungeon if she took her family with her? Was it worth the risk to delve a dungeon when she had her family? If she survived the dungeon mostly unscathed at level 5, she somehow doubted the current her would have trouble.

She promised to avoid impulsive choices, though. Should she warn her family? No, if she did, they would want to come along. Warn her crew? Yeah, that would work. By the time they told her family she would probably be done with the dungeon already, but it couldn’t hurt to tell someone before going off on her own.

Decision made, however flawed it was, Elysia swam upward toward the surface. Upon poking her head out of the water, she found she was a hundred meters from Umbra, causing annoyance to spark, but she began swimming. Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry about taking breaths, so it sped up her swimming, but that didn’t mean she was fast. Sure, she probably reached Olympic level speed, but compared to running on land, that was really slow.

When she finally reached Umbra, she pulled herself on board from the rear deck and plodded toward the cabin. A quick break in the bathroom, which she found had a stock of towels and she was dry. Another bonus of being an elemental. No need to relieve herself.

Really, were there any positives a human had over an elemental? Sure, they received the identify skill and a tutorial, but that was about it. If she didn’t have an army of elementals chasing her, she would have a pretty cushy life in this new world, unlike the humans.

Though just because she was superior, that didn’t mean she should act like it in front of the humans. All that created was animosity and division. She couldn’t really act like she was superior anyway, as she was a former human herself.

With her sensitive ears, she picked up the conversation in the control room, but a moment later she froze, face reddening. She really didn’t want to interrupt their sexy talk. That would just be awkward. Maybe a rule banning anything above PG-13 outside of bedrooms would be a good idea. She wasn’t a prude though and didn’t want to run her ship like that. Still, if those two wanted to flirt, they should take it down to their bedroom.

Well, now what? She didn’t want to interrupt their flirting, and from the sound of it, heavy petting. Should she just run the dungeon without telling anybody?

An idea sparked for a solution a moment later. She just hoped she had the materials to pull it off. If it was like any kitchen, it should, though.

After opening and closing several drawers along the peninsula countertop, she found what she wanted. She wasn’t sure when someone added it, though. She knew she didn’t, but it didn’t have any water damage either.

Elysia ripped off a piece of paper and used the accompanying pen to scribble down a note. She even used big blocky letters to make sure they noticed. Not that it would be hard to see it, as it was the only thing on the countertop.

Duty done, Elysia trotted out of the cabin and toward the back of Umbra. She flipped open the storage compartment to reveal the raft. Just like old times. It might not be a bad idea to pass by the same gas station convenience store either. Not that she needed any supplies, especially food. Though she did have humans to account for.

With surprising ease, she slid the raft into the water motor and all then hopped on. She froze for a moment and poked the side of the raft, but sighed in relief when she found it hard. It would be embarrassing to sink. Her family could probably retrieve the raft, but she wouldn’t hear the end of it like most things. The downside of having a family now was one had to avoid making embarrassing mistakes. Though on the flip side, she wasn’t the only one who could make mistakes.

Elysia braced her foot on the back of the raft and yanked on the pull cord, only to stumble back as the pull cord shot out faster than she expected. After plopping on the bench, she stared at the homing motor. That was a clear indicator of how much stronger she was now. Soon she might even break the pull cord. Probably the first time she had seen a cold boat motor start on a single pull, too.

She shook her head and flipped around on the bench to face the front. Why did she keep thinking in human terms? She wasn’t a human anymore, really since her resurrection. Obviously, she would beat a human in pretty much everything as the superior race.

Before her mind went down that particular rabbit hole, she bonked herself on the forehead, then shook the gas tank to find it full. Soon she would need to find an alternative fuel. Unless the oil drilling rigs and refineries restarted, if any survived, it wouldn’t take long to run out of fuel. Even if they didn’t run out, it would go bad eventually.

She bet there was a magical alternative. She just had to find out what it was. Somehow she doubted the elemental’s fleet ran on fossil fuels. Though who knew, it wasn’t like she had any experience with their world. Maybe they had a similar level of technology with a side of magic.

Magic was probably their form of technology. Why innovate non-magical means when one had magic to innovate? From the way the Chrotile talked about the system and magic, they probably had both for a long time.

With a clunk, she shifted the motor into drive and twisted the throttle, though she kept it at a low rpm as to not draw attention. Not that she expected the two lovebirds to notice the sound of the motor. Her family though, she wasn’t so sure. They might follow her just for curiosity’s sake.

That thought caused her to crank the throttle to max, lifting the front end of the raft as she accelerated. Even as it reached its max speed, she felt like she was crawling across the water. After riding Ione, everything else felt slow in comparison. Not like the raft was fast to begin with. It wasn’t designed for speed after all.

Fortunately, her target wasn’t far. Though she had to zigzag a few times to dodge buildings and sunken boats just below the surface. The closer she was to the new shore, the shallower the water was, only increasing the difficulty of navigation. It didn’t help that the path she took last time wasn’t recognizable. Either the obstacles shifted or the water levels changed. More likely, the obstacles shifted because she remembered far more moss covered boats last time and the shoreline appeared unchanged.

She picked a spot on the shore to land that looked similar to her last landing spot, but it was hard to tell.

After pulling the raft up on to the barely visible pavement covered with weeds to the point, she doubted could see the pavement if she stood even five meters away. With the rope tied to the front of the raft, she anchored it to shore by wrapping it around a sturdy-looking pine tree, then tying it off. The endeavor earned her a few quickly healing scratches, though her armor she forgot to take off since Mezo protected her from most of it.

To prepare herself for another assault of sharp pine needles, Elysia ducked her head and closed her eyes, then plunged through the tree line. When she opened her eyes, she frowned. She guessed wrong. She didn’t pop out near the gas station but instead one of the neighborhood streets. It might make navigating back difficult. Even before the merge happened, these neighborhoods all looked the same. She avoided running in the neighborhoods for that reason. It was annoying to get turned around, especially on a run.

While trying her best to memorize the location, she walked down the grass covered street flanked by trees speared houses, most of which collapsed. The merge sure wasn’t healthy for structures, especially ones left abandoned. She hoped their house survived, but seeing this, she didn’t expect it. It wasn’t the strongest of houses even before the merge, after all.

That was for future Elysia to deal with, though. Current Elysia had an undead dungeon to conquer.

She kept an eye on her surroundings just in case something jumped out at her, but nothing did as she traveled in what she assumed was a northward direction.

Soon she spotted familiar locations like a restaurant they went to for their seventeenth birthday. Though she nearly missed it as half the building collapsed while the other half looked to be on its way to the ground, only held up by a couple of trees speared through it.

A pang of sadness hit her at the sight. She really needed to ask Sereia what happened to their father. It didn’t make sense, but she got a strange sense he was fine and somewhere safe. She didn’t have a bond to check up on him it was just a feeling. Maybe that was why she didn’t feel the need to ask.

Logically, she should have barraged her sister with questions, yet she didn’t. It almost felt like something interfered with her thoughts or feelings looking back. She made a mental note to ask her sister. If nothing else, she might confirm her own feelings.

Any further thoughts froze as she felt the familiar barrier pass out of nowhere, plunging her into a decayed version of her hometown.

You have entered The Forsaken Town! As the second participant, you shall receive a 25% experience boost.

A quick survey of her surroundings told her she entered the dungeon near the electrical substation she trapped herself in so long ago. Unlike how she left it the fence appeared intact which didn’t surprise her because as far as she knew the dungeon reset every time it was conquered.