Ocean Master

As soon as Sebastian came out of the hole, the red environment of this region was presented before him once again. He cautiously hovered higher above the seamount to scout the surroundings.

As he hovered higher, the enormous seamount slowly presented itself before him in its entirety.

The seamount looked exactly like a mountain back on earth, only the redness of the surrounding added an ominous vibe to it. Just like other mountains, it had trees and some weeds.

The only difference was that these trees were far more rugged. Their skin was as wrinkled as an old grandma's, their branches stubbornly grew out leaves despite the extreme hotness of this region.

Seeing them reminded Sebastian of the stubbornness of a goat.

Though he didn't see to all crooks and corners of the seamount, he was able to deduce that lots of sea creatures were inhabiting the various holes that filled the seamount.

This was the same for the countless other seamounts in the surrounding.

After seeing this, he confirmed again that no predator was nearby before swimming outwards. He wanted to swim to the edge of the seamount, he wanted to see what was below it and the environs.

As he swam forward, he was able to appreciate the dangerous majesty of the circular cliff again. He looked for other terms to describe it, but his brain kept on seeing it as a giant wardrobe filled with sea creatures.

As he swam closer to the edge of the seamount, he also started seeing the countless sea creatures living in different levels of the circular cliff more clearly.

As he saw them, so was he being exposed, most especially when his dark blue skin formed a sharp contrast to the red background. He stuck out like a beacon in a darkness-filled world.

"I wish I had an invisibility skill".

[Invisibility is not a skill; it is a unique skill.]

[You can only have access to a camouflage skill.]

Sebastian was surprised by the sudden proactiveness of the system to explain things to him. Before, it was more comfortable with staying silent while he discovered things by himself.

Following that train of thought, he guessed that the system was some kind of A. I that was only triggered when he said some keywords, like the invisibility skill he just said.

Thinking of that, the system mentioned that it is a unique skill.

"System, how many unique skills are there?"

[You do not have the required level to access such information yet.]

"…"

Now, Sebastian felt aggrieved. Though he felt like punching the system, he had to admit that the conversation eased his nerves a bit.

And he got a new discovery too. If there were other unique skills, does it mean that he had a chance to get them too?

"Damn!" He suddenly couldn't wait to get over with his evolution.

Consumed by excitement, he subconsciously started swimming faster and in moments he arrived at the edge of the seamount.

He looked down, then he almost fainted from shock.

"This…?"

Sebastian felt fear grip him from the depth of his heart. For a moment there, he felt like he was grabbed by an invisible existence and thrown into a world of fire.

Hundreds of kilometers down from where he stood flowed a world of fire. Boiling lava flowed at the bottom of this place, spreading extreme heat everywhere as small explosions were induced frequently on the surface of the fire.

At different intervals, the lava was stimulated, splashing fire everywhere as the surrounding water was ignited.

This was a volcano, and not just a volcano, an extremely big volcano.

Sebastian already guessed this before, but seeing this sight still left him feeling breathless.

Everything that he was seeing was part of this enormous ocean volcano.

The flowing lava at the bottom were the foundations, and the wardrobe-like circular cliff was the walls of the volcano that towered to heights of hundreds of kilometers.

It looked just like a world of fire.

Even at lower levels of the circular cliff, Sebastian could faintly see signs of animal activities, which meant that some sea creatures were inhabiting there.

He did not dare imagine how exaggeratedly strong creatures living at such depths are. The thought alone left him shuddering in fear.

"Which mad deity created this world, really?"

At this moment, he sincerely regretted his encounter with the Killer Whale. He originally wanted to identify routes to leave this place, but from what was before him, this dream was far-fetched for the current him.

The hundreds of kilometers that he needed to swim and the numerous sea creature territories that he had to pass through alone left him feeling cursed.

"Dogshit! This is teenage abuse!" He cursed.

He felt like he was carried without his consent from his previous world of calm, and was now thrown into this fire world of death to suffer.

He wanted to yell angrily in despair but experience told him that doing that was equivalent to courting death. Left with no choice, he could only turn and start swimming back to his hole before a predator rushed at him.

He knew that he was here already, and the situation was practically irreversible. To survive in this world of fire, he needed strength and that was exactly what he was going to do.

In just a few minutes, his despair turned into motivation that pushed him to get more strength.

"Besides, I will have numerous strange ocean creatures to dissect here".

Pumping himself with that, he swam back inside his hole. Getting back inside, he diligently covered the entrance to the hole completely with the rocks.

He stacked even more rocks on it, forming a heavy gate in the process. He stopped only after he was satisfied with its sturdiness, then he found a comfortable corner to rest.

Though the heat meant that nowhere was really comfortable here, he had to bear with it.

His eyes gleamed sharply. "System, give it to me".

[Affirmative! Proceed with breakthrough attempt: Yes/No?]

"Yes". He practically growled it out.

[Breakthrough mechanisms have been put in place. Stabilizing host…, host has been stabilized.]

[Mental check: Pass.]

[Physical check: Pass.]

[All parameters for evolution are complete, the host's consciousness will now be drawn into the illusion realm.]

Having experienced it before, Sebastian reacted milder to it as he felt the mental prick again. This continued for a few seconds until his consciousness was forcibly pulled out of his body.

Bright light flared for a moment before becoming dark the next.

He was gone, his consciousness was gone.

*****

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