Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Palpable thickets of the energy had integrated themselves into the vast waters all around, making each movement of the sea quite literally like a heavy storm that the three had to struggle to swim past.

A rather troublesome experience.

‘Such thick mana! There’s even more in here than outside!’ Skullius remarked with shock and awe.

If the outside mana was rich, then he didn’t know what word to attach to the mana mingling with waters abundantly.

Skullius, Red Rage and the Hound immediately began their descent but the Discount Human was not quite proficient in moving swiftly within the aquatic waves.

Seeing this, the Pelvis-Boar-Man’s body pulsed with the radiant blue energy of Null Life that burst outwards, expelling the water and leaving only air as it created an expansive sphere that covered all three protectively.

The sphere gave Skullius much needed stability as with this, he became much more comfortable while dropping down with his Apostles.

He looked at Red Rage and nodded with approval but deep down he was lamenting his inability to manipulate Null Life Essence. He could be utilising it like this himself bit that didn’t seem like something he was even remotely close to achieving.

This made the Discount Human wonder if perhaps manipulating Null Life Essence required a formula that much different from mana.

Fortunately, the trio could still see what was beyond them despite the barrier of Null Life Essence, as meters away, the waters kept rippling as if it was being heated, phenomena akin to mirages wrinkling its surface.

Also…

“Watch out!” Skullius warned, Red Rage and the Hound instantly raising their guard!

Before them, swimming within the waters, were different assortments of fishes with their common organs revealed – fins and gills.

From what looked like sky blue coloured bream to luminescent gold pike, these fishes swam without minding the trio within the large sphere as if they didn’t even exist.

Skullius narrowed his eyes as he watched these creatures merely pass while enjoying their natural habitat.

“They are not going to attack?” Skullius questioned himself. Did he overreact?

His experience with fish was not very pleasant.

He had first met the creatures when he was with Tulnas and his ladies, the once innocently swimming fishes turning into large beasts that attacked them with extraordinarily power.

But now, as he sensed around these fishes with his [Elevated Mana Manipulation], he didn’t feel the edgy presence of Primus energy within them.

They just seemed like ordinary creatures.

It only took a moment for Skullius to evaluate these creatures as harmless after to not pay them any mind.

Different variations of them swam around the three, some looking vicious while others were extra cute, invoking… strange feelings within Skullius.

His mouth suddenly opened as he analysed these creatures, him uttering words he didn’t expect to.

“She… liked fish too, didn’t she…? Hmm? What am I saying…?”

The Discount Human shook his head to rid himself of all these thoughts. This wasn’t the time. He needed to be fully focused. This place wasn’t clean as of yet.

The lower the three went, the thicker the mana around them became which made Skullius especially wary and excited at the same time.

With this much mana, if he could constantly absorb it, didn’t that mean…

‘Of course not, tomato flinger! If it were that easy to forge a higher level core from just having an abundance of mana, the whole world would be full of purple core experts! Condensing high level cores requires finesse… and talent!’ Sila responded to Skullius’ thoughts.

The Discount Human could only grumble. He had thought this was an easier way out. Perhaps seeing all those blue core combatants since arriving in Aigas made him think that it was easy to reach that level.

Then again, was Sila implying that he wasn’t talented?

The Discount Human bickered with himself and Sila for a bit before, after twenty more minutes of the increase in the quantity and quality of mana, the bottom of the sea started to become visible. Or at least what he thought was the bottom.

Tall structures began to appear in the vision of these descenders.

Hundreds of them.

They were crude, bulb-shaped buildings that rose from the sea floor to reach great heights.

They looked to be made of a substance like mud, algae growing over the sides and top with a strange blue glow that vividly highlighted the locations of these structures.

Their clustered arrangement had a sort of soothing effect as it somehow heavily emphasised how close a community the Terrors had built for themselves.

Large poorly gouged out holes could be seen within the bulbs of these structures, obviously being the entrances to these…homes.

For creatures that were that violent in Aigas, they really seemed to have a peaceful lifestyle, even going as far to create such a close knit homestead.

Or rather, it seemed most Cluster beasts changed their character when they met anything outside their environments.

That seemed to be the trend.

Skullius and company swam towards one of the larger bulged structures and entered via the entrance.

Nothing of note could be found inside, there only being an empty space that concentrated the surrounding mana within the confined space.

‘Interesting…’ Skullius thought.

‘Indeed! The mana is naturally coagulating into these spaces, magnifying its compression!’ Sila pointed out with hints of excitement.

Red Rage’s sockets twinkled as he saw this phenomenon. It was perfect for his training!

Skullius had the Pelvis-Boar-Man shift them out to other bulbs, discovering nothing else within the first few.

In the next one they ventured, something caught everyone’s eye.

A larger space could be seen as the bulb in the structure was relatively large, accommodating the things within it.

Within said space, hundreds of glowing gems that looked like bright diamonds could be seen clustered around head-sized eggs!