Chương 15

As a kid, Oliver's parents had rented out a house down at the coast for a summer weekend. That had been his first and only experience ever seeing the sea. He still remembered scavenging for shells, watching the critters caught in the tidepools, and exploring the caves in the coastal cliffs. Gulls squawking overhead, the rhythmic waves beating the shoreline, a tapestry of orange and red for a sunset. It was a picturesque memory fueled by nostalgia and longing.

The Deep Sea Biome was a far cry from his childhood memory. It was an unwelcoming shade of dark blue. While it maintained a current which created movement on the surface, from afar the waters looked dead, lacking any clear signs of life. The edges of the biome were shrouded in a thick wall of fog, obscuring the land. Staring down into the water's depths gave him the shivers. Just a vast nothingness that shielded the horrors that rested underneath from the natural eye.

The only similarity that sparked any sense of nostalgia was the scent of salt in the air. That, at least, remained the same despite all the other differences. Unlike flying over the mushroom forest or weaving between the skyscrapers of Neo Nova City, this flight was dull. With so little changes in the scenery, it barely felt like they were moving at all.

"Can you swim?" Kiki asked.

"Yeah. Parents taught me as a kid. You?"

"Uncle made sure I learned how." Oliver paused.

"You mean he taught you?"

"Threw me in a lake when I was four."

"Oh." Oliver considered that. Then altered the trajectory of the conversation.

"We had the blood river in my biome, but it always had rotting corpses floating down it. The bloated bodies would explode whenever something touched them and then slowly refill to their bloated state over the next hour or so. I only swam that river once and it wasn't by choice. The rash took weeks to fade. So I might be a bit out of practice. My vote is to not fall in."

"Interesting," she said. Oliver couldn't see her face behind her mask, but he thought he heard a smile in the single word.

"We had a pool in the city. Last year I took to swimming morning laps as a means of building natural muscle outside the system Strength attribues. But I'm still not particularly good. So my vote is likewise."" I will do my utmost not to drop you," Ben said dryly through his drones. Eventually the island at the center of the biome came into view and they started their descent towards it. They needed to swap drones to a fresh pair to complete the trip to the Nightmare Biome.

"What's that over there?" Oliver asked, squinting at movement in the distance." If it is a large creature piercing through the sea's surface, likely a massive serpent of some kind. Or it could also be a dolphin if it is smaller. I will note that my scanners are not currently picking up any living creatures across the sea's surface. Though they are not infallible and there are skills that keep monsters hidden from my detection. Do you have a rough distance estimate?"

"Maybe a mile? Two?" Oliver didn't really know. Having only a vast empty sea spread out before him messed with his sense of distance.

"I don't see anything," Kiki added.

"It's likely a mirage. I doubt your eyes can spot something that [Technomancer]'s drones are unable to."" While I appreciate the confidence in my capabilities, remain vigilant. I am not infallible. The island I am dropping you off at is designed to be one of the safest spaces in this biome. However, it is also the closest you will be to the sea during our journey. The sea is a threat. I recommend you avoid approaching the water if possible. I will strive for efficiency and speed as I switch out the drones.

Please alert me if you spot further irregularities." The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Oliver released his grip on the drone as his feet touched down on the sandy beach. The island wasn't huge, but it had a small little forest and he spotted a pig bolt away at the sight of him. It disappeared into the foliage. He stepped forward and his foot knocked into something solid and round buried in the sand. He reached down and dug out a fuzzy brown coconut.

He sighed. Bacon, coconuts, sun. This little island looked like paradise. Some people had all the luck when it came to their biomes.

"Crab!" Kiki passed Oliver by in a blur. By the time he turned his body, she had a crustacean the size of his head skewered on her katana. Its legs flopped to its sides, the body giving up the creature's life before his eyes. Kiki ripped off her helmet. There was a gleam in her eyes as she beamed at her catch.

"Go build me a fire," she demanded.

"It's unfortunate I didn't have the foresight to bring a pot. But I know how to grill it. I simply require fire."

"Do we have time for—""Fire!" Oliver threw his hands up in defeat and went to find sticks in the small forest. He spotted a few more pigs, but nothing overtly dangerous.

"I wonder if there's buried treasure," he mused out loud.

"That would be pretty on brand for a lonely island in the center of the ocean. I do have a shovel. I'm very capable of digging." If he'd taken the [Crypt Seeker] class he might have been able to detect any signs of buried loot. That would have been phenomenal. Alas, his [Paranormal Hunter] class had been the better choice at the time. Without it, he doubted he would still be alive after these last few days. No point in experiencing buyer's remorse.

A pile of sticks under one arm, he returned to the beach to find Kiki up in a tree, knocking down more coconuts. They thudded into the sand at the tree's base, one by one.

"We have rations," he said. His pockets were still full of the bars he'd taken from the safehouse.

"I don't know how necessary it is to eat crab and coconut right now."" She will not be talked down,"Ben said sadly." She has set her sights on this course and Kiki is nothing if not stubborn." Oliver started at the sound of [Technomancer]'s voice and looked around. The drones that had dropped them off were long gone and their replacements had yet to return. Then his eyes fell on Kiki's bag in the sand next to the fallen coconuts. It sounded like Ben's voice came from there.

"It has been five years since I ate a meal that isn't dried in a rectangle or slop in a bottle," Kiki called down to them.

"Crab is the best meat in existence. I am not turning down this opportunity."

"Is there a drone in your bag?" he asked Kiki." Simply a communication device,"Ben answered for her." I have a rudimentary means in which to see and hear the events nearby. New drones will arrive on your position shortly. In the meantime, Kiki is insistent that she partake in the local delicacies." Oliver didn't really mind the brief break. It gave him a bit of time to throw together a plan on how exactly he would infiltrate the Vampire Lord's castle.

He sat on a driftwood log and considered while absently watching Kiki fall out of a tree and scramble to put together a fire with his gathered sticks. He could use himself like bait and get captured by the Vampire Lord. That could get him into the building's human livestock holdings. But he wasn't keen on the idea. It might also require him to have his blood drained first. Not ideal. Sneaking in seemed the best possible option. Stealth was a strong point for him.

And with Uncanny Sight, he'd be able to spot any invisible spirits designed to sound the alarm on any intruders. But he still required a way in. Walking through the front door was foolish. He wished he knew someone on the inside he could bribe. If he even just had a map of the building everything would be so much easier. He'd spent the last half a decade actively avoiding the Vampire Lord. He knew nothing of his castle's layout.

There were carts of human livestock that occasionally went up there, maybe he could stowaway among the other humans or use the wagon as cover for his own entry. He looked out to the sea. Then he frowned. His Uncanny Sight was activated again. But it took him a few seconds to puzzle out why. There was a ship in the distance. It flickered in and out of existence under the sunlight. The sails were in tatters and its hull was made from a dark black wood.