Bloodline Research Center
The Bloodline Research Center of the Alliance. It’s the foremost research center in the entire Alliance when it comes to researching the Bloodlines. Remnants of the old Ancient Monsters who have since gone extinct.
All of the Bloodlines are precious, and the only method to bring them out is when the System occasionally awakens them in a person. But even that is only possible when that person has even a single fraction of a drop of blood passed down by the Ancient Monster still in their veins.
And even then, most of the time the Bloodline awakening is a failure.
So the incredibly rare successful awakenings are always recorded and researched to the extreme.
But even more rare are the awakenings that occur outside of a known Bloodline family tree. With an unknown Bloodline not found in their database.
So ever since the Pioneers from Equeter were sent to their new worlds, and the Pioneer known as Aqua Fallen awakened her new, undiscovered Bloodline, the entire Bloodline Research Center has been abuzz with activity. Practically overworking every last member of the staff in their frenzy to figure out what Ancient Monster her Bloodline is from.
And yet, despite all of this, no progress has been made beyond the obvious.
“This is infuriating!” the head researcher of the research center, Fraxis del Marton, shouts while slamming his hands on the desk in front of him. Making most of the other researchers in the room flinch. “The only things we’ve found so far are all signs of the Abyssal Orca Bloodline! Just how similar is this Bloodline to the Orcayne family’s Bloodline?!”
“Sir, should we make another call to the Orcayne family?” one of the mid-ranking researchers at the center asks from his desk on a lower floor of the main research room.
“They haven’t bothered with answering the first three times, so why would they answer on the fourth?!” Fraxis shouts, his frustration getting the better of him. “Idiots!”
The mid-ranking researcher grits his teeth at the treatment from his superior. But he doesn’t say anything as he still enjoys his job and wants to keep it.
Fraxis turns his gaze towards one of the other mid-ranking researchers as he asks, “What about the Aquamarine-Life Laboratory? Have they discovered anything about the Bloodline yet?”
A few seconds pass in silence, grating on Fraxis’s nerves. Then the mid-ranking researcher finally answers, feeling more than a little nervous, “Um, sir, the Aquamarine-Life Laboratory has responded saying they will not be looking into the Bloodline.”
The moment the researcher finishes speaking, a cracking sound comes from the desk Fraxis is leaning against. Drawing the gazes of the other researchers on the same floor of the room towards him and the desk.
A desk that is now with a large crack running from the top to the bottom of its height.
“Would you care to run that through me again? I seem to have misheard,” Fraxis grounds out while glaring at the researcher in question.
The researcher hurries to answer, “Sir, they said they will not be looking into the Bloodline as they are too busy researching all of the marine-life and aquatic monsters shown on Miss Fallen’s broadcast.”
Fraxis glares at the man as his hands clench tighter and tighter. Then he finally turns his gaze back to the main screen on the opposite wall. Where he sees the Bloodline holder in question just slowly and carefully swimming through the massive cavern, occasionally killing the monsters in it that aren’t very strong. While staying far away from the stronger looking monsters like the bloodzap jelly and the larger sharks.
“Her Bloodline seems to have the strength of the Abyssal Orca, the visibility of the Abyssal Orca, and the aesthetic look of the Abyssal Orcas,” Fraxis begins to speak without taking his gaze from the screen. “And since she never takes off her armor, we have no way to tell if her wounds are more or less severe than they should be, or if they’re regenerating faster than they should. Nor can we tell if there are any other noticeable differences in her body.”
A heavy silence befalls the room. But Fraxis just continues speaking.
“The Pioneer has made no visible attempts to reach out to any businesses that have sent her inquiries, shown nothing clear that isn’t something someone with the Abyssal Orca Bloodline would have, and the Orcayne family still refuses to answer any questions,” Fraxis says while slowly walking over to the stairs before climbing down them to the bottom floor. Then he walks over to the screen and looks straight up at it. “Right now public sentiment is starting to turn her way, making her into a popular figure. So trying to pressure her into revealing her Bloodline could strongly backfire. And the only person the Pioneer has that was close to her seems to know nothing about her Bloodline or origins.”
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After a few seconds of the tense atmosphere filling the room, Fraxis turns around and looks at each and every researcher as he states, “Every last one of you will be staying overtime until we can figure out just what her Bloodline is. I don’t care how long that takes.”
Movement can be heard throughout every corner of the room as the researchers all show discontent with that. But not a single one says a word as Fraxis turns to stare up at the screen behind him once again.
“I will find out what secrets you’re hiding,” he mutters so quietly that only the higher level researchers can hear him. “You can count on that.”
I pant in exhaustion as I finish off my latest target. A large blue octopus that’s currently level four.
The stupid creature kept trying to spray poison at me, but I manage to kill it without getting poisoned thanks to the range given to me by my trident. And since the poison isn’t sticky, and I’m underwater, I don’t have to worry about carrying the poison with me as I get away from the corpse.
So I make as much distance as possible between me and the poisoned water and corpse while reading the System Messages in my vision.
[You have killed a level four Deepsea Blue Octopus. EXP has been granted accordingly.]
[You have killed a creature underwater. Apex Predator of the Depths has been activated, increasing your REGEN stat by one.]
[Congratulations! You have now reached level 5! Your total free points have increased by two, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please. Additionally, you have now unlocked your first skill.]
A faint smile spreads across my face at that message.
I continue swimming through all the pain covering my body until I make it to the tunnel out of the cavern. The one I entered the cavern through a little while ago, before starting my hunt. Then I continue swimming until I eventually find that little crevasse leading to that waterless cavern.
After finally making it out of the water, I place my trident back into position over the entrance before dumping my backpack and collapsing down on top of it. Still panting in exhaustion.
My armor is keeping me from getting any really severe wounds, and from actually getting cuts. So I’m not really losing much blood. But I’m covered in bruises and what I’m suspecting may be a few fractured bones on top of that. So it’s hella painful even just sitting here on this rocky cavern floor.
A few seconds pass as I try to make myself as comfortable as possible before I open my status again and allocate the free points.
[REQUESTING STATUS: USER AQUA FALLEN]
[Magical Strength: 12]
[Traits: Physique of the Abyssal Kraken, Apex Predator of the Depths]
This time I go ahead and put two points into strength after having put two into constitution last time. When I reached level four.
And just putting two points into strength is enough to give me three points in strength when I’m underwater. Which is nice.
As for my regeneration? It should now be about four times as fast as a regular human’s regeneration speed.
It should be the end of my second day here. And that’s judging based solely on the timestamps in the livestream chat, seeing as I don’t exactly have a sun to go by down here.
Anyway, I go ahead and select the Skills tab on my status. Just hoping for something good.
And the moment I do, I find my eyes widening ever so slightly as I see what appears in the next menu.
[REQUESTING SKILLS: USER AQUA FALLEN]
[Skill 1: Abyssal Kraken’s Embrace]
[Description: Abyssal Kraken’s Embrace allows the user to summon tentacles of the Abyssal Kraken within three meters of their body. These tentacles can then stretch for five meters away from where they are summoned.]
[Cost: Abyssal Kraken’s Embrace costs a total of 10 mana for every tentacle summoned. The tentacles can then stay summoned free of charge for a maximum of one minute.]
[Cooldown: Abyssal Kraken’s Embrace has no cooldown and can be used as many times at once as the user has mana.]
That’s… a really good skill. Although it’ll give the viewers and the researchers no doubt studying me a headache trying to figure out what the Abyss my Bloodline is.
After all, summoning tentacles practically screams kraken. Yet my appearance doesn’t match the usual kraken appearance. Which is much lighter in color and has slit eyes.
Although I’ve seen chatter in the livestream chat that say my eyes do become a lot narrower sometimes when my adrenaline is running. So there’s that.
Still, it doesn’t fit anything the research center should know about.
That said, I don’t really care about their issues trying to dissect me through a screen.
As long as these tentacles help me in a battle, that’s all I care about.
And they absolutely will help in battle. Even if they’re weak, they’ll serve as a great distraction. And if they’re not weak, they’ll help even more.
A faint smile spreads across my face at the thought. Then my gaze turns towards the broadcast icon in the corner of my vision, which I’m only realizing now is off.
Time to check my mail again.