Chapter 143: Middle Peak Circle

Gray pressed his feeding surface against the Cerulean Doom’s dissolving body and began to absorb its flesh. The first taste hit him immediately and it was salty, oily, with a sharp metallic edge that lingered unpleasantly on his senses.

’...This is weird,’ he muttered. ’It tastes like canned sardines that expired six months ago.’

Cindy turned toward him, her frills twitching with disbelief.

"You can recognize the taste of sardines? How do you even know what sardines are?"

Gray paused mid-chew.

’Sea creatures usually have distinct flavors. Sardines are... fairly common where I—’ He cut himself off. ’—somewhere.’

Cindy stared at him with those silver eyes, clearly unsatisfied with the unfinished answer. But she didn’t push. She just let out a small sigh and returned to watching the dark water.

Gray continued eating, though the taste genuinely bothered him. Sardines had never been his favorite, even in his human life and they were too fishy, too cheap, too often the emergency dinner in his apartment. But the Doom’s flesh was at least dense and filling, and its mana-rich blood helped restore his battered body.

When he finished, he wiped his feeding surface with one tentacle and turned to Cindy.

’Cindy,’ he said. ’You said you absorbed the mana from the collapsed cavern. Was it enough to reach Fifth Circle?’

Cindy was quiet for a moment, her frills lowering as she checked the condition of her own mana core.

"Not yet," she admitted. "I’m still at middle peak. Not full Fifth Circle, but at least... it’s decent. I’m much stronger than I was."

’Middle peak?’

"Yes. Somewhere between Fourth and Fifth Circle. Like standing on a hilltop, not a mountain peak. It’ll take more time, but I can feel the path now."

Gray nodded slowly. ’At least you’re not at the bottom anymore. That’s already significant progress.’

Cindy lifted her head, and there was a flicker of pride in her voice when she spoke again. "And there’s one more thing."

’Oh?’

"I’ve started to cast water magic."

Gray stared at her, his blade-tentacles going still for a moment in surprise.

’Water? I thought you used ice and binding spells before?’

"Ice is a derivative of water," Cindy explained, her frills perking up. "And now I’m stable enough to manipulate water in its base form. I can create currents. Whirlpools. Even... a vortex if I focus hard enough."

Gray turned the idea over in his mind. Then, slowly, a smile formed.

’If you can create a vortex strong enough to lock enemies in place, that would be incredible when combined with my attacks.’

Cindy tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

’Imagine,’ Gray said, ’I hit them with Void Reaper’s Lance, and right as they try to dodge, you pull them back into the strike with a current. Or I’m charging a big attack and you hold them in place with a whirlpool so they can’t escape.’

Cindy’s silver eyes widened as the implications sank in.

"That’s... that’s actually terrifying."

’Yeahh,’ Gray said. ’You lock them down. I tear them apart. That’s the kind of combination that could kill things way above our level.’

Cindy was quiet for a moment, her frills swaying thoughtfully. Then she nodded, a small, determined smile forming on her face.

"Then I’ll master it. I’ll make a vortex so strong that nothing escapes."

Gray absorbed the last of the Cerulean Doom’s remains and flexed his blade-tentacles, feeling the new strength settling into his body.

’Good,’ he said. ’Because we’re going to need it.’

Cindy drifted closer and pressed her tiny hands against Gray’s cracked carapace. A soft green light pulsed from her palms, seeping into the fractures, mending torn tissue and easing the ache in his core. The warmth spread through his body like a gentle current, and Gray felt his tension melt away.

’That’s... nice,’ he admitted, his mental voice relaxed.

"Hold still," Cindy said, concentrating. "You’re still a mess. What were you thinking, fighting something that big alone?"

’You were still absorbing mana. There’s no way I was going to wake you.’

"You don’t have to worry about that. You fought for me too, so next time just wake me up."

’Hmmm... don’t want to.’

Cindy huffed but didn’t argue. She kept healing him, her green light steady and warm. Gray let himself drift in the sensation, his bell softening, his blade-tentacles relaxing.

"So," Cindy said after a while, "are we going to explore again?"

’Yeah,’ Gray said. ’We’ll try exploring this area. There’s still something interesting here, I can feel it.’

Cindy’s frills lifted slightly. "If we’re exploring... I’d like to find another herb like the Blue Pearl Mushroom we found near the egg."

’Oh, that one. It was delicious.’

Cindy’s hands paused mid-heal, her silver eyes narrowing.

"You ate all of it. You didn’t leave a single piece."

’That’s because you didn’t have a body yet,’ Gray said. ’And besides, rather than carrying it around, it was better to just eat it right away.’

Cindy let out a long, exasperated sigh.

"...Yeah. Hopefully we’ll be luckier next time and find something like that again."

’Why don’t we go back to that place?’ Gray suggested. ’Maybe another one has grown by now.’

Cindy immediately bit his bell margin to make her point. Her tiny teeth pressed against his carapace with indignant fury.

"Don’t be ridiculous," she snapped, pulling back. "That herb takes decades to grow. There’s no way another one has appeared. And even if there was, I wouldn’t want to go back to that terrifying place again." Her frills quivered. "Its gaze... it was horrifying."

Gray remembered the eye. That massive, depthless eye, opening in the dark, watching them leave. He couldn’t blame her.

’...You’re right,’ he said.

Cindy finished healing him and drifted back, her glow dimming to its normal steady pulse.

"There. You’re patched up. Try not to break yourself again."

’.....I’ll think about it.’

Cindy groaned.

They left the collapsed cavern behind and drifted back toward the pale stone ridges, Gray leading the way with Cindy close beside him.

His senses swept the terrain ahead. The ridges here were unfamiliar and rougher than the areas he’d mapped, broken by deep fissures and jagged outcroppings that jutted from the seafloor like the teeth of some buried giant.

’Stay close,’ Gray said. ’This area is new.’

"I know," Cindy replied, her silver eyes scanning the dark. "The mana currents here are... strange. They’re not flowing like they should. They keep looping back on themselves."

’Looping?’

"Like the water is trapped in a cycle. Something is disrupting the natural flow."

’That’s not natural,’ Gray murmured.