The Apocalypse is a Side Quest: Book Three, page 40
It could’ve been that the soulbound towns of the other top ten simply didn’t have enough people interested in exploring, and he had just never come across the handful who did.
Nathan focused his attention back on his boat and continued for as far as he could go, rowing for about an hour before he judged that he was finally far enough away from any potential problems or other people.
As he sat down, Nathan’s thoughts wandered back to his conversation with Emi. There was a time coming, soon, when they would be able to work together again. They just had to help her.
And that made him think of the other female in his life who was currently in a difficult situation.
His sister was somewhere on an island, seemingly fishing away the time. They both knew where the other was. They’d both been looking for each other for a long time. And yet, they were still separated. Sarah was simply in too much of a state to stand by Nathan.
But maybe, like what he was doing with Emi, Nathan would be able to simply barge his way in? He wasn’t 100 percent sure about the idea. Frankly, it seemed like a terrible one. Not only that, but it was vague and undefined.
He had to workshop it a bit.
Similar to the island where he found the blacksmith, the island that Nathan was currently on was a deep forest—its branches so thick that scarcely any light seemed to penetrate to the ground inside. Nathan trod inside and immediately caught sight of multiple large boulders scattered around. They were a little bit bigger than him and easily dwarfed him in width. Nathan walked past them, idly noticing a cluster of moss that had seemingly cropped up on top of one of them. As he did, he thought of the skill he needed to develop: True Maelstrom. What exactly was the technique?
Nathan knew what Basic Maelstrom was. It created that huge cyclone that he was able to manipulate, compress, move around, and do all sorts of strange things with. But what would a “True” Maelstrom look like?
Well, Nathan had a rough idea. It had to be fueled by his direct connection with the water, not through the usage of skills. That seemed to be what Thalassa was implying. The only skill that wasn’t actually a skill—the only one that met Thalassa’s qualification—was True Water Manipulation. That’s why it was labeled as true, because it wasn’t like the rest of his skills.
Nathan needed to hammer down the difference between the two types of skill usage and get a feel for them.
First, he forced a ball of water into existence in the air using his modified Riptide Grasp. Of course, he’d basically so thoroughly abused the skill at this point that it barely qualified as Riptide Grasp.
Still, technically, at its core, this was the usage of the skill, even though Nathan was still using his weird cultivator thing.
Nathan then dissipated it and focused on tapping into that same feeling he’d gotten when he combined those skills together to fight against the boss monster. For a split second, he’d felt… something. It was hard to nail down, and he couldn’t quite articulate it. But there’d been something different about that moment.
Nathan tried to tap into this feeling and summoned the ball of water out of the air.
He frowned.
The ball of water was floating in front of him, but he knew in his gut that he hadn’t actually used the skill correctly. It had just been a repeat of Riptide Grasp.
Nathan tried to go back to his memories of True Water Manipulation. What had it felt like?
Despite himself, the memory was refusing to come to mind. It felt as if it was locked behind some sort of wall, impassable and with no way to overcome it.
Before he could think on this any further, he heard something shuffling in the grass ahead.
There was a crack—like stone shattering.
Nathan broke his concentration and stared around himself in a circle.
“Wait, where had the boulder gone? It was there just a moment ago.”
Nathan looked over at all the other areas where the boulders had been and noticed, to a T, every single one had just gone missing. It was as if they’d just vanished.
Nathan tensed his legs. He was getting major bad vibes from the situation. Something was clearly wrong.
He heard a loud roar and turned directly around toward the sound, where a hulking figure towered over him. It was composed of all the boulders he’d seen, with one small one at the top for a head. The whole thing was arranged in the form of some sort of humanoid, with several rocks for long arms, and the biggest boulder saved for the chest and torso.
“Wait a second,” Nathan said. “You look just like that thing from the legend of—”
The stone monster reared its fists back and smashed them into Nathan’s chest, sending him flying through the air, through a tree, and into the ground. Nathan frowned and reached up to touch his chest.
“Yup, that one’s going to bruise.”
His eyes wandered over to the stone creature. He used Basic Inspect.
[Stone Ignis - Lv. 53]
A Stone Ignis. A creature born from the ground itself. He’s very angry about the fact that he’s in the sky and has decided to take out his anger on the closest available target. Namely, you.
There was a loud grunt, and then the creature bounded forward, its elbow aimed directly at Nathan’s chest like some kind of WWE wrestler. Nathan rolled to the right as fast as he could. The elbow slammed into the dirt, sending up a cloud of dust and pushing a shockwave through the ground, jolting Nathan’s spine. He quickly got to his feet and pulled out his trusty fishing rod.
The stone ignis turned its head rock and stared at him. It lifted itself back to its full height, then sprinted toward Nathan as fast as it could. Nathan jumped to the right and threw his fishing hook forward. The hook zipped through the air and clanged against the stone head, seemingly doing nothing.
Nathan reeled in his fishing pole and dodged to the right. A split second later, a massive boulder—the detached arm of the stone ignis—sailed past him like a speeding bullet. He glanced back to see it crash into a tree before it dropped to the ground unceremoniously.
Nathan watched carefully to see if it would move and start flying around like some of the boss monsters he’d encountered, but to his relief, no such thing happened. He frowned intensely. His fishing rod was seeming less and less up to the task of killing monsters. Which, granted, wasn’t entirely its fault. After all, it was meant for fishing, not fighting monsters.
Nathan wondered how his life had gotten to this point.
As always, he could only conclude that it was Thalassa’s fault. Somehow. In fact, Thalassa was probably to blame for the apocalypse, too. And world hunger. Nathan wasn’t entirely sure how she was responsible for that, but he was pretty sure she was.
Out of nowhere, a rock fist came flying toward his face. Nathan dove out of the way and pulled his harpoon out instinctively threw his harpoon back at the head. There was a loud clang, and the harpoon out of his inventory. He threw it forward.
It bounced off the stone head.
He held out his hand, attempting to summon True Water Manipulation—!
It fizzled out.
He had to get consistent. Actually, he’d settle for inconsistent right now. The point was that he needed it. Nathan backpedaled out of the way of another fist that slammed down in front of him, digging into the ground and shaking the island.
Nathan thought about how best to fight this thing if he didn’t have that option available. Nothing was really coming to mind. He considered simply using Basic Maelstrom on its own; that seemed to be the only option he had available.
Nathan dodged out of the way of another attack and briefly considered simply dropping the thing into the sky below. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure if there was any ground down there. If it fell forever, he wouldn’t get the EXP.
Nathan groaned inside his mind.
His thoughts had now turned psychotic enough that his main focus was just trying to get EXP. Then again, it felt like most of the other top ten had already gone in that direction. Nathan was the only one who held onto any semblance of sanity. Although even that was debatable.
Nathan shut his eyes and concentrated again. This time, he tried not to focus on replicating his earlier feats but instead on that feeling he’d had when he first pulled it off. For a split-second, it was as if he was the ocean itself. As if he was the water. It had moved. There hadn’t been any clear division between him and what he was manipulating. For a brief moment, the water had become an extension of himself.
Nathan’s mind cleared away. The sound of gushing water filled his ears. His eyes shot open just in time to see a stone fist flying toward his face.
A sweeping cyclone of water rushed from the side and slammed into the stone ignis.
The water seemed to screech as it rubbed into the stone, driving the ignis off to the side and into the ground. It rolled along, the water continuing to crush into it, grinding the stone, driving deep gashes along the side before it finally died down to a stop.
Nathan blinked. For a second, it was like he’d been in another world. His consciousness had faded away, and all he could hear was the sound of bubbling.
Nathan took a few steps toward the stone ignis. Was it over?
The ignis shifted, and Nathan got ready to deal the finishing blow when something made him pause.
There was someone else. A presence? Where? Who was it?
Nathan heard rapid footsteps in the forest. He turned his head just in time to see an arrow pierce right past him and directly into the stone ignis’s head.
The arrow pierced directly through the stone skull; the creature perished, and Nathan heard a ping out of the right side of his viewpoint.
[You have leveled up!]
Nathan slowly turned his head toward where the arrow had come from. A figure stepped into view.
Hot rage flowed through Nathan’s veins.
This bastard just stole my kill!
Chapter Fifty-Seven
“Ican’t say I was expecting to see you here, Leviathan.”
Nathan’s left eye twitched.
Leviathan tilted his head awkwardly. “I could say the same thing to you, Nathan Lee. The whole reason I came out so far was to avoid any accidental kill steals.”
“You mean you didn’t see me?” Nathan said.
“My goal was the suppression of a dangerous monster. I didn’t know if you were in danger or not; I just figured the best thing to do would be to put an end to it quickly.”
Nathan frowned and looked back at the arrow. Nathan was stronger, right? How was it that Leviathan had managed to defeat the stone ignis so easily? Had Nathan just weakened it enough?
He chose to believe that’s what happened.
“That was a good shot,” Nathan said.
“Thanks, I have a skill for it. There’s been a lot of grinding, but I managed to eventually get it to work.”
Nathan internally filed the information away and frowned sharply. That didn’t make any sense. He had seen Leviathan use other skills, like some kind of fire spell. But none of the skills seemed to link back to any kind of central theme or class or idea.
Chad was a duelist. His skills primarily focused on one-on-one fights and increasing the power and speed of individual strikes.
Mara was a marksman. Although Nathan didn’t know her exact skills, he definitely hadn’t seen her slinging around spells like some sort of mage.
Bree was an earth cultivator; there was no ambiguity, no extra skills.
How was it that Leviathan had such a variety? It had to have something to do with Thalassa.
“Again, sorry about the kill steal,” Leviathan said. “I really didn’t mean to do it. It just sort of… happens.”
“No, no, it’s fine. These things happen. Actually, this is a good opportunity. I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while,” Nathan said.
Leviathan’s eyes narrowed by the slightest of margins. The expression was gone as quickly as it came; Leviathan’s face returned to its neutral expression, and he nodded.
“Very well. Let’s talk.”
Nathan had two goals. He wanted to get Leviathan on his side. Secondly, he wanted to learn more about the man, find out his past, get an idea of his character and who he was, and maybe find out his connection with Thalassa.
They’d been walking for the past minute or so in silence as Nathan tried to get his thoughts together. He paused, looked around, then sat down on the grass. “This seems like a good enough place to stop.”
Leviathan nodded and sat opposite him. Nathan reached into his inventory and pulled out a raw fish. He started to hand one to Leviathan before he paused and realized that most people did not enjoy eating raw fish.
“I’m going to assume you want this cooked,” Nathan said.
Leviathan stared at him for several long seconds. “You eat this raw?”
Nathan’s lips stretched into an awkward grimace. “Not so much anymore. Mostly because I don’t really eat that much.”
Leviathan went pale. “I don’t care if we’re in an apocalypse or not; we can still eat like civilized people.”
Oof.
Leviathan stood up and started gathering some sticks. He arranged them into a bunch between where he and Nathan were sitting. Leviathan pointed a finger at it, and instantly the sticks went up in flames.
“Give me that fish.”
Nathan handed it over, and Leviathan practically snatched it out of his hand. He pulled a knife from a strap on his side and started slicing open the fish with smooth, calculated motions. Within about thirty seconds, he’d gutted and filleted the fish into little strips of meat. He reached into his inventory, pulled out a pan, set it above the flames, then threw the pieces of fish onto it. He pulled out a jar of some sort and poured a few grains of a delicious-smelling spice onto the fish.
Nathan watched all this in surprise. “You know how to cook?”
“My cooking is ranked at a solid gold.” Leviathan shifted the pan around. The fish began to sizzle. “I’m very, very good at it.”
“How did you have time to upgrade your cooking skill?” Nathan said.
“I just know how to manage my practice sessions well. Plus, I realized that we were going to probably be in here for a long time. I wanted to make sure I could enjoy good food. What’s the point of survival if you’re just going to be miserable the whole time?” Leviathan said.
Nathan couldn’t really argue with that logic.
The two sat in silence, nothing but the sound of fish sizzling.
“So,” Leviathan said, “I thought you said you wanted to talk with me.”
Nathan blinked. “Oh, yes. You’re right. Sorry.”
Leviathan stared at him, obviously waiting for him to start the conversation.
“So, um, how has the apocalypse been for you?”
As soon as the words exited his mouth, Nathan winced. That was one hell of a way to start a conversation.
“Great.”
Nathan’s eyes snapped back over toward Leviathan. “What?”
“I mean that it’s been great. Fighting monsters, meeting new people, seeing incredible sights. I mean, I get that it’s dangerous. But across all of humanity, how many people can say that they’ve been through what we’ve been through? This is an extraordinarily rare opportunity.”
“You’re not at all worried about dying?”
“Everyone dies eventually. If it happens now, or if it happens sixty years from now, is there really much of a difference? At least if I were to die today, I would go out doing something interesting.” Leviathan smirked. “Not that I intend to die, of course.”
Nathan tried to wrap his head around the man’s logic. He had to admit there was something of a point there, as well. Even Nathan had been staggered by some of the sights that they’d seen. Floating islands? Magical monsters? It was like something out of an adventure novel. But on the other hand, Leviathan seemed way, way too happy. Even if Nathan was willing to grant him that maybe he might even be right—which Nathan didn’t necessarily agree with—it was the attitude. The laissez-faire nonchalance of the way he spoke about it.
“What was your life like before the apocalypse?” Nathan asked.
“Me?” Leviathan adjusted the fish in the pan. “I was an office worker. I showed up, manipulated some things on a spreadsheet, talked with my coworkers, then went home.”
“That doesn’t sound that bad.”
“It was fine.” Leviathan shrugged. “It was routine, and normal, and safe. I was on track for a promotion. There was a girl, too. A coworker. I thought of asking her out once or twice.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Same reason I didn’t chase after that promotion. It all felt so… pointless.”
“What do you mean?” Nathan asked. “I mean, starting a family, working a good job. That doesn’t really sound that bad.”
“But it didn’t actually do anything. I wasn’t making a difference in the world. I wasn’t really happy where I was.
“Eventually, I’m sure that I could’ve continued on. It would’ve been fine, but at the time it all just seemed to be this unending cycle of mediocrity, something akin to the First Circle of hell.”
“Well, you’re probably wishing that you were back there now, right?” Nathan tilted his head. “At least a little bit.”
“Absolutely not.” Leviathan’s tone was almost fervent. He looked up at Nathan, his breath speeding up slightly. “When I came here, it was like something clicked. I had all these instincts, these feelings that helped me to survive even when everybody I knew died. It was like… it was like I was made for this. Like I’d been born in the wrong time, and this was a restoration of where I was truly supposed to be.”
Nathan, on the outside, didn’t make any expression whatsoever. On the inside, however, he was internally screaming.
