Chapter 470: Pandora in the Abyss!!!
Chapter 470: Pandora in the Abyss!!!
"...So I just step in here and I’m gone, right?" I ask Delphina while pointing at a hole that has appeared in front of me. Delphina nods affirmatively, looking at me with embarrassment.
"..." Aqua watches me, and I feel uncomfortable under her gaze. I get the sense she’s thinking something I’d clearly dislike, but I have no way of proving or knowing what it is.
"See you as soon as I can..." I say, walking towards this hole in space. Delphina approaches, grabs my hand, and briefly pulls me in, giving me a kiss. Although, since she’s too short, her kiss lands on my chest instead of my lips.
"..." I bend down, give her a kiss on the forehead, then turn around and throw myself into the hole. Immediately, everything turns dark, just like when I was heading to the Abyss before, and I take a deep breath, preparing myself for it.
[Reactive System! Current Status Update]
"...?..." The system appears before me. It seems that outside of that place, the system can reach me again. This makes me wonder where that place was where Delphina kept me trapped for so long, to the point even the system couldn’t reach me.
"Hmmm... wow... this is... shocking." The Status appears before me, and I look only at the most important parts, surprised.
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[Status]
Name = Pandora Aegis Oblivion
Race = Tenebris Abyssus (Daughter of the Abyss)
Physical Age = 3 years old
Mental Age = 10249 years old
Level = 750,000 / 100,000,000,000
Power = 749,993 / 749,993
Life = 749,993 / 749,993
Stamina = 749,993 / 749,993
Resistance = 749,993 / 749,993
Magic = 749,993 / 749,993
Total = 3,749,965 / 3,749,965
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’Unbelievable... Did I jump straight to level 750 thousand just from having sex with Delphina?... No... it can’t be that... maybe... it’s because of the environment?’ I judge it to be a mixture of the long period of 10 thousand years and the environment we were in.
On the planet, the ambient Mana seems to also act as a limiter, preventing my level from rising too much on that planet. However, since the place Delphina took me was outside of it, that natural barrier was gone.
And since we spent 10 thousand years with my body suffering from sensory overload, and me receiving blows from a being with a level in the billions, my status must have kept increasing on its own over time.
"Fuck, 10,249 years of mental age? Am I really that old?... Well... it’s a bit more than I expected..." The System only counts physical age when time passes naturally.
In places where time passes extremely slower, the physical age doesn’t change, so it makes sense that now that I have an elevated mental age, the system decided to show it to me.
"Hmmm, at least I’m really strong now..." It’s a power increase I like. Level 750 thousand puts me far above where I was when I went to save my sister in the seal on the moon.
Plus, it’s good that this will help keep me alive in the Abyss, which must be a really tough place to survive. With this, I can at least guarantee basic survival in general.
"Ghrmm" I seem to hit a wall and soon fall into a dark place. I blink my eyes, trying to make sense of the environment, but all I see is darkness, and it gives me the chills.
’My eyes, which before could see colors normal eyes could never perceive, which were capable of seeing temperature, cosmic radiation, among many other light spectra... can’t see beyond the darkness of this place?’ I look around.
It’s a forest, undoubtedly shaped like a forest. I can vaguely distinguish the forms of the environment. Besides, even though it’s dark, I can see myself.
I look at my body, which, being pale, stands out blatantly amidst the dark environment. It seems the Abyss is naturally completely black—the ground, the sky, the horizon, and even the vegetation, everything is in different shades of black.
’Extremely dark, no doubt...’ I feel as if I’m inside something alive, or maybe I am? My mother fused with the Abyss, literally becoming it, so perhaps the Abyss really is something alive.
"Well, that doesn’t matter..." I try to use magic to make clothes.
"...Clothes?" I try again, and again, repeatedly, but for some reason, the magic doesn’t solidify. It’s here, it exists, and I can use it, but it doesn’t manifest as it should.
[The system informs that the Abyss has an ambient Mana density so high that any low-level mana is completely destroyed before it can form.
Abyssal beings have adapted to manifest Mana in its purest form to bypass the density of the ambient Mana, which can be considered [Impure] due to containing environmental impurities.
Any magic, attack, mana formation, magic circle, and even abilities that use normal mana will be destroyed if performed by beings below level 1 billion.]
"...Are you fucking kidding me..." I’m incredulous at this. I do know how to use pure Mana, but the point is that the cost of using pure mana is absurd, and although I know how to use pure mana, I don’t know how to integrate it into the spells I already have.
For example, [Essence of Creation] uses pure mana from the start, but other abilities that, according to the status, use normal mana are abilities I have no idea how to use with only pure mana.
’So you’re telling me that, apart from a few abilities, I can barely use my status?! What a sick joke... Besides, pure mana is so costly to use...’ The consumption is several times greater if I use pure mana.
I try to use [Essence of Creation] to create a dress, but as soon as the dress appears in my hands, it disintegrates.
"..."
[System Warning, the mana in the Abyss has such density that any common material is existentially eliminated, devoured by the instability created by the magical density.
The Abyss’s mana, which was already unstable since its emergence, became extremely unstable after the Abyss Goddess fused with the Abyss, generating an instability that forced everything in the Abyss to adjust to the new destructive density of mana.
This process eliminated any monster below level 79 thousand, who were no longer capable of surviving here even if they adjusted to the new environment.]
"Okay, okay... I get it... I’m without weapons, without clothes, without magic, and without any means to orient myself... anything else to tell me, system?" I say with irritated sarcasm.
[Through your question, the system responds that the Abyss is of infinite extent. The more you move within the Abyss, the more reality, physics, and logic distort, causing the Abyss to have no beginning, middle, or end.
Thus, the best method of locomotion in the Abyss is through certain types of magic.
Along with this information comes the information that the Abyss functions through a complex network of ecosystems that do not interact with each other.
Thus, each area of the Abyss has a specific type of "inhabitant," and there are also "cities" within the Abyss, although the system strongly recommends not interacting with anyone in "cities."
Because unlike common societies, the "cities" in the Abyss are actually places where intelligent monsters gather and live in a semi-peaceful manner, usually feeding on the weaker ones.
There is no money, morality, ethics, honor, justice, or laws; it’s pure survival of the fittest disguised as society.]
"I was going to complain, but you gave such a good answer... wait, why are you answering me so directly? Normally you don’t answer my questions like this, especially ones asked with obvious sarcasm."
[...]
"System?"
[...]
"...Tsk" At least the system gave me truly useful information. It’s interesting to know there are cities in the Abyss.
’Although it’s somewhat worrying... being a Demon King doesn’t matter here inside...’ The title of Demon King holds no weight here inside the Abyss, so to any being here, I’m just another random abyssal being who may or may not become a meal.
"Alright... it’s a chaotic society where the only rule is the law of the strongest... so it must be an environment where I need extreme caution... after all, I don’t want to become a meal or get raped by some random monster wanting to have children..." Although I mention being raped, I think there’s like a 99% chance I’d get devoured before that.
But since they’re all monsters, I can’t discard the idea that some monster might try that craziness if it finds me.
’The goals are pretty clear, though... Get stronger, find my mother, and get strong again until I’m powerful enough to kill Elysia...’ I like simplifying my objectives like this; it’s good and helps me see the finish line. I stretch for a moment with a slight crack.
It’s not so bad, actually. I like the dark environment; it’s a balm for my eyes that were forced to see that infestation of various colors. There’s also plenty of hydrogen here for me to breathe.
And now that the system is back, my passives have reactivated, so through fights, I’ll slowly adapt and get stronger.
’I want to at least increase my strength a bit before going to see my mother... so I should try to hunt monsters that are weaker or at the same level as me... but without magic, that will be difficult...’ Even though I can use [Essence of Creation], it’s practically useless.
Because the materials I create with it will be automatically destroyed. Of course, there must be materials that aren’t destroyed, but the problem is the cost of such materials, a cost I can’t afford right now.
Since I need mana to strengthen my body to the maximum in a fight or an escape, I don’t have the luxury of converting so much Mana into Pure Mana just to create clothes and weapons.
’It makes more sense to fortify my hands than to create a weapon, just as I need mana for the Mana Armor...’ I decide to leave this place quickly. Staying in one place for too long leaves me exposed and vulnerable, especially since my pale skin stands out negatively in the darkness.
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