Chapter 95. Sea Elves
Lucian was putting the finishing touches on his work in a small back room.
“Block this part, and connect this side….”
What he was working on was a glove designed to fit his hand perfectly. And only for the right hand.
Fizzzt.
“Tch.”
Seeing the short-circuited magic circuit, Lucian leaned his head back.
At tis like this, he regretted the dulled sensation in his fingertips. The section he had just worked on required delicate precision in designing the magic circuitry.
But he couldn’t ask soone else to do it for him. A magic engineer had to be fully prepared for the consequences if they chose to share what they were developing with others.
In such cases, the only answer was to invest more effort and ti to reinforce the failure.
Click. Click.
“Done.”
He refocused, repaired the circuit, and reconnected it. He had used up every bit of available budget, yet all he had managed to complete was the right-hand glove.
This glove had been crafted to fit perfectly within Lucian’s grip.
He removed the Krelsite glove fitted to his hand and put on the glove.
“Comfortable and light.”
This was the right-arm armor segnt of the Rune Fra. It had been tailored specifically for Lucian, and under normal circumstances, its magic connection was blocked.
“To produce a magic-blocking effect even without Krelsite.”
Magic shielding technology. This was a technique he had derived while analyzing the structure of the Rune Fra.
Inside the Rune Fra existed a vast array of magic circuits. Each was shielded in a special way, and the shielding could be activated and canceled very quickly and naturally.
He had applied that thod of blocking and reconnecting magic to the right-arm armor. And it functioned with perfect blocking efficiency.
“If I apply this, I could even make handcuffs that safely detain magic users.”
The Rune Fra was not built upon a single technology, but was the pinnacle of hundreds of magic engineering techniques combined.
A technology that still inspired awe.
Even though he had only constructed the right arm, omitting the parts he couldn’t afford, it had consud an enormous amount of ti and effort.
Still, he felt a sense of pride in having restored even a fragnt of such a marvelous technology.
“Shall I try it? It definitely had strength enhancent as a basic function.”
Lucian picked up one of his inventions that had turned into scrap tal.
Creeeak.
The mont he applied strength, it crumpled like paper. Even though the material was clearly steel.
Besides strength enhancent, there were additional functions, but since only the glove portion was complete, the rest could only be used once the Rune Fra was finished.
Lucian switched back to his original glove and set the object down.
Then his gaze turned to the book that had co with the card.
『The Gray Barrang』
An ancient historical record. He had discovered its existence while digging through old docunts, and it was at the place he visited to find it that he encountered the “Bookstore Owner.”
Lucian could not shake the suspicion that this entire process had been organically connected.
Inside the Gray Barrang had been the Black Card.
Yul had said that directly witnessing the Black Card could be fatal, making it extrely dangerous, but Lucian thought otherwise.
This book, The Gray Barrang, was several tis more dangerous than the Black Card.
At first, Lucian had assud it was an ordinary history book.
However, after reading it himself, his thoughts changed.
[The Gray Barrang]
[The being that gave birth to the first human was not a human, but an ape.]
The introduction itself was radical.
[If living beings exist based on evolution, then at the point where sothing was first called human, there must have been a trendous origin. Sothing that should have evolved from ape into human.]
[That sothing is magic.]
[The first human was born through magic. Beings born through magic are what we call magic spirits or gods.]
[However, as a theorist of humanity, the author will refer to the first human as a mage with power akin to that of a god.]
[He wished to distinguish the madness before his ti from the peace after his ti. For the apes who closely resembled humans in both appearance and intellect, he created the ‘Gray Barrang.’ For humans, he created the ‘Sanctuary.’ And he separated the two worlds, isolating them from reality.]
This was a history from before humanity.
These ‘apes’ were said to be beings very similar to humans.
Their appearance was almost identical to humans, they could speak, possessed intelligence, and could wield weapons.
And they were madly aggressive, desperate to kill one another.
“The apes, who developed weapons to kill one another, destroyed every nation and every world among themselves….”
Even the apes before evolving into humans possessed wicked malice.
The mont Lucian read this history, a chill ran through him.
The account described how the first mage erased the era before his own.
He protected the humans born from apes and built a haven for them.
[Thus, the old world, the old history, and the apes were all exiled into The Gray Barrang.]
“Into The Gray Barrang….”
[The thod to reach The Gray Barrang]
The instant Lucian saw the section detailing how to reach The Gray Barrang, he closed the book.
This was an extraordinarily dangerous book. If it were revealed to the wicked….
“I’ll seal this book until Yul returns.”
* * *
Yul received his reward from Lui and put it away. However, it seed that even Lui did not know the full truth behind this incident.
If Yul had failed to stop that monster, sothing from the otherworld would have been summoned.
Yul stared at the eyeless, noseless creature trapped inside the glass bottle.
Unlike other Parasites, it did not emit sticky tar. Instead, soft, fluffy fur filled that space.
-Huff, huff. I will serve you as my master. Please, just spare my life.
After being confined for so ti, Puyo had now sunk to the level of desperate groveling.
‘Could a Parasite like Puyo really have done that?’
Looking at it now, doubts arose. For a brief mont, he considered the possibility that the Seaborn itself had been the Irregular, but he did not let go of his suspicions.
-Enough. Can you really guide ? It’s your creator we’re talking about.
-Anyti! That Mother Nest bastard! That damned son of a-!
-……Fine. What do you need? It’s been a while since you’ve consud anything.
-P-please, just so water. And, if possible, could I have so wild animal blood? N-not for any evil purpose, just that I need blood to take in nutrients.
-…….
After providing water and catching a suitable wild animal to share so blood, Yul placed the creature back into the glass bottle.
He decided to postpone verifying his suspicions about it.
Because he felt sothing strange near the Island of Boundaries.
‘What is this?’
This sensation was new. An unpleasant and massive presence approaching the Island of Boundaries.
Instinctively sensing danger, Yul imdiately reverted to his original form and sped across the sky.
* * *
As soon as he reached the Archipelago Ocean, a storm was raging over the Island of Boundaries. The storm’s range was imnse.
‘The storm is too violent.’
Yul’s sense of ‘flight’ felt like swimming through the sea.
Pushing through a fierce storm felt like being caught in the center of a raging current.
‘But there are ships?’
Sothing appeared in the distance. Three ships were sailing through the storm and towering waves.
At the center was a massive sailing ship. On either side, two smaller vessels ford a fleet formation as they advanced.
He could not understand why they were sailing in such dreadful weather, but they were desperately trying to escape the storm.
Yul halted his movent and hovered in midair, observing them.
At the very front stood the captain.
When he enhanced his vision and zood in, it felt as though she were right before his eyes.
Focusing past the howling wind and crashing waves, he distinguished the faint voice of the captain shouting.
“First mate! Take the helm! Lookouts, keep sharp watch! It’s a black shape beneath the surface!!”
It was a female captain of small stature, barely reaching half the height of others.
She wore the black-and-teal uniform of the sea elves.
Her mint-blue hair flowed in waves, even soaked through with seawater.
“Admiral! A black shape at the lower starboard!”
“Prepare to fire! Don’t worry about hitting it!”
A black shape? Yul looked down from high in the sky and spotted sothing pitch-black beneath the rolling waves.
‘Is that the threat I sensed?’
Without a doubt. It was no ordinary creature. Sothing far larger than Yul’s current form, and utterly black, lurked beneath the sea.
“It’s rising!”
“Fire the prepared batteries!”
Boom! Boom-boom-boom!
Flas erupted from dozens of cannon ports on the largest sailing ship.
Yet a massive limb erged without hesitation. It was the enormous tentacle of a cephalopod, lined with suction cups.
‘A Kraken.’
It was Yul’s first ti seeing a Kraken, as they did not inhabit the Great Azure Ocean.
The colossal Kraken targeted the smallest sailing ship first. One tentacle latched onto the vessel, reaching for the deck.
“Kyaaaah!”
"Get inside the deck!"
The young admiral shouted at the sight.
“Concentrate fire on the Shalomina! Aim for the deck!”
The large sailing ship, which had been firing outward, now included the smaller vessel within its firing range and continued launching cannonballs.
‘Their accuracy is remarkable.’
The bombardnt from the large sailing ship, whose na was unknown, was striking.
Avoiding the hull, they scraped off the tentacle invading the deck with cannon fire, tearing it away.
Perhaps it was luck, but not a single shot struck the ship itself.
Upon closer inspection, neither the large ship nor the smaller ones moved ordinarily.
Even in such a storm, they maintained proper helm control and formation, all while fending off the Kraken’s tentacles rising from below.
The severed tentacle fell from the deck, cut apart by cannon fire.
“I-is it over?”
Just as several sea elves sighed in relief, more tentacles surged upward and latched onto the ships.
This ti, not the small vessel, but the largest ship.
“Fire on the Isilien! Fire!”
They attempted to repel the Kraken by bombarding one another’s decks.
Their cannon gunnery was extraordinary, but this ti, the situation was different.
As if determined, the Kraken’s tentacles erupted from every direction.
“Tentacles rising on this side too!”
“Selodra is being grabbed as well!!”
“H-how massive is this Kraken?!”
The mutual covering fire faltered, and each ship was forced to deal with the tentacles that had climbed onto their own decks.
At this rate, all the ships would surely sink.
‘That won’t do.’
All of these ships were heading toward the Island of Boundaries, and the Kraken was an intruder in Yul’s domain.
He had to save them first. Yul imdiately descended.
‘This ti… shall I try using that?'
Previously, while traveling across the Great Azure Ocean, Yul had retrieved ‘that weapon’ he had hidden within his Seal.
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(T/N): I’m done at laaaast.
Motivation boost from ChatGPT (LOL):
Your pace is enough. Progress isn’t about speed; it’s about consistently moving forward, even in small steps. Every little effort compounds into mastery.
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