The ocean's surface rocked.
A dull sound continuously echoed like a bass drum with a loose resonant head.
Sylas ripped his way out of the mouth of the floating sperm whale, his body covered in muck. His nose twisted with disgust, and he immediately dove into the ocean waters, preferring the salty streaks to whatever disgusting concoction this was.
He reflected on the battle and realized something profound. These creatures were definitely powerful, but their Mental didn't scale as fast as their Physical, leaving them without flexibility in combat. Even if the sperm whale had over 400 Strength, that was useless in the face of 550 Defense. It had been completely outdone by just a single skill. But that also meant that at higher Levels, when their Mental, and Intelligence especially, began to catch up... well, they'd be as shocking as the mage snail that Sylas had met that day in the volcano portal.
Sylas plucked out the Gene Core of the sperm whale and used his Rune mastery to extricate the Ice-Poison from it, then tossed it into the Madness Key.
He was about to leave the rest of the sperm whale behind when he shook his head. His Madness Key was enormous by now. Why leave such good food behind? He still hadn't forgotten that he wanted to find a convenient way to cook a lot of food, but while he had yet to find those means, taking on such good meat wouldn't be bad. The high Physical of the sperm whale would definitely come with great nutrients.
There were a lot of things that Sylas knew that he had to take more seriously. Sleep, hydration, nutrition... they were all just as important as they had been on Earth before the Summoning. He had to treat himself like a high-performance athlete, or else he would end up breaking his body down. The impurities sickness he had suffered was only just one aspect of that.
Sylas was about to reorient himself and continue on his way when he spotted something else. At first, he thought that he had run into yet another creature who needed to be taught a lesson. But then he saw it...
The blood of the sperm whale was pooling around this place oddly. It was hard to tell with the waters churning so much and the dark clouds above, but Sylas' sensitivity to Ice-Poison and his visualization had picked it up.
With narrowed eyes, Sylas dove into the waters, trying to sharpen his focus and night vision, looking around in the dark waters.
'Odd... is it really the blood?'
Sylas chose to follow it. Logically, he would think that the blood would spread out and dilute, especially with how agitated the waters were. But they ignored the currents and flowed along a completely different path. Sylas followed silently and found himself sinking deeper into the ocean on a slow, declining path.
After over ten minutes had passed, Sylas felt that it was too much of a danger for him to continue . If he dove too deep, let alone oxygen, he would have to worry about decompression sickness.
Sylas chose to do so; however, he slowed his decline. He could continue to sense the blood even outside the range of his visualization thanks to his Ice-Poison affinity. Since the blood was tainted by his poison, he could keep tabs on it from at least a hundred meters out.
Time ticked by, and an entire hour later, Sylas saw it before he even got close. It was a familiar glow, one that he recognized even more when it was in water. A Dungeon.
That was when it struck him. It wasn't the blood that was being attracted, but rather the Ice- Poison attached to it specifically. Dungeons pulled all the Aether in the surroundings toward itself.
Usually, Sylas wasn't very sensitive to this. But after he gained a strong Ice-Poison affinity, he had become able to sense these slight changes. The warp door to the Dungeon was just standing in free-flowing space, but what was odd was that while Sylas could see the vague outline of the Dungeon, he didn't see any beasts around it. Why was that?
'Is that really a Dungeon? Or is it that it only recently formed and hasn't had time to call large numbers of creatures over?'
Sylas immediately dismissed the second thought. After all, it had taken him over an hour just to get here. That was more than enough time, especially since he had run into three more battles just to make it on top of having to take breaks to the surface just to breathe.
Luckily, he eventually learned how to form a bubble around himself with his Aether, like an evolved Aether skin. But, that didn't work if he went too deep because the pressure would shatter it.
Sylas' expression changed. 'Wait...'
With a kick, Sylas suddenly accelerated toward the "Dungeon," moving with pace. He had come to realize something after staring at it for a while. It, indeed, wasn't a Dungeon after all. A Dungeon would be far more aggressive with how it pulled Aether. This was something different, and he felt that he had an idea as to what it was...
When he got close enough, Sylas realized that it wasn't a warp gate he was looking at, but rather a bluish tablet with a delicate glowing light.
[Sperm Whale Den (FFF+)]
[Mutation Rate: 0.005]
[Would you like to begin Den Establishment Challenge?]
Sylas' brows raised. So this was how Dens were created...
It was only a Level 5 Den, but did that matter when it spawned one sperm whale a day? They would, presumably, be even more powerful than the first one that Sylas had defeated today, and that was huge. Plus, there was a 1 in 200 chance of a mutation. He wasn't sure exactly what a mutation entailed, but his assumption was that it was a positive one that would likely form an even more powerful sperm whale.
However, what was a Den Establishment Challenge?
Soon, Sylas found out. It seemed that this Den needed a few... sacrifices to activate. And they had to come in sperm whales that were at least Level 5. Or, more accurately, he needed 10 Level 5 creatures of similar affinity and of FFF+ Grade.
Sylas frowned. This wasn't a simple task at all. However, after a while, he chose to accept.