Shrouded Seascape

Chapter 622: Submerged

In the end, Anna and Charles' argument ended with neither side convincing the other. Strictly speaking, Anna had come from Charles' consciousness, but she was still her own individual, which meant that arguments were inevitable.

Charles thought hard and long about it, and he eventually decided to send a telegram to Anna, telling her to prepare Newbound City in advance, not for his sake but for humanity's sake.

If the plan to find and retrieve the darkness truly failed, then Newbound City could become humanity's final safe haven.

Charles didn't think too much about it, as he knew that Anna was good at handling such things. Moreover, he had something more important to do at the moment.

Outside the outpost, radiant white electric arcs zigzagged across the ground as they followed the trajectory of Charles' tentacles. With just a will from Charles, more than a dozen intertwined tentacles emerged from the ground and slammed hard.

A thunderous boom echoed, and a charred line at least ten meters long was left on the ground.Th.ê most uptodate novels are published on n(0)velbj)n(.)co/m

Lily's golden fur stood on end as the radiant white electric arcs dissipated.

Charles' earlier assumption was right. His lightning ability had also been enhanced along with his tentacle ability. The lightning that he could wield wasn't coming from him, but he could still control them quite easily.

Charles took his sweet time checking his special abilities and discovered that his bat form had gone through a change that he couldn't quite describe.

Black fur sprouted all over Charles as he morphed into a monster. This time, however, his bat monster form had become extremely deformed, looking quite bizarre.

A chicken claw-like wing was drooping on the left side of his torso in addition to his fleshy wings. There was a fissure on his terrifying visage, and the fissure was so huge that it almost split Charles' face into two. To make matters worse, two huge cysts were growing on the fissure.

Charles' back was bent into an L-shape, forcing him to hunch over, which made him look even uglier and terrifying. Fortunately, the changes didn't affect Charles' flight ability, and in fact, he had become even stronger after these changes.

The most noticeable change was his size. Despite his hunched back, he towered roughly six meters, and it was a height capable of instilling fear in just about anyone, especially when coupled with his appearance.

Just then, Charles opened his ulcerated, bleeding mouth. An extremely powerful sonic wave burst out of his mouth. The semi-desert around him cracked instantly beneath the attack.

Seeing that, Charles realized that he had underestimated his own strength. If he were to measure his strength using the power level rankings of the Subterranean, he'd say that he was a Level 13 explorer.

As Charles shrank and returned to his human form, Lily ran over from the side and exclaimed, "Mr. Charles! Mr. Bandages told me to tell you that everything is ready, and we can immediately set sail."

Charles lifted Lily and used his fingers to part her golden fur, examining her flesh underneath. Lily's wounds had completely healed, and not even a single scar was left behind.

This wasn't the best time to wage war, as it would make life even more difficult for the denizens down below, but for some reason, Julio had decided to do it anyway.

Of course, Charles was convinced that Julio's decision wasn't made lightly. They had decided to use war to distract the islanders, and this could only mean one thing—the Subterranean Sea was in an extremely bad situation—bad enough to warrant such a move from Julio.

The outpost wasn't that huge, so Charles soon found the Narwhale among a group of airships. Two massive dark-brown gas bags were suspended above the Narwhale, and the ship's propellers had been lengthened to provide enough thrust.

The Narwhale's animated ropes wrapped around Charles' waist and lifted him onto the deck.

"The crew... is assembled... The test flight is complete... The ship is functioning normally... I've been... keeping an eye on it while it was being retrofitted," Bandages said.

Charles patted Bandages on the shoulder and replied, "Great job. Where are the things that Paiper must have sent here? They can apparently isolate us from the radiation effect of relicfication, so I want to take a look at it."

The ship's cabin had become quite lively with more greenery. Charles saw green vines running along the corners of the walls, and there were more ivies than usual as well.

"My ability... can now... detect..." Bandages muttered. It seemed that Bandages' special ability had also been enhanced by Paiper and the others.

Bandages led to the turbine room, and Charles saw something attached to the hot outer wall of the turbine. Upon closer inspection, It looked like a clump of rotten flesh with a huge orange-colored blister growing in the middle of it.

When Charles got close enough to it, eight eyestalks sprouted from the blister, and they seemed to be staring intently at Charles. Clearly, the clump of rotten flesh was alive, and it was intelligent, to boot.

"Did they say anything about how to use this thing?" Charles asked, touching the basin-sized blister in the middle of the clump of rotten flesh.

"It's activated... right now... And it survives on heat..."

"It looks strange, but as long as it works. Anyway, tell Audric to keep a close eye on this thing. This can't go berserk in the middle of our exploration," Charles remarked.

"Captain... I contacted... my mother... via telegram."

"Oh, how are your family at home? Are they doing all right?"

"The doctor's grave... has been submerged..."

Charles' heart trembled slightly at the remark. He fell silent and stayed silent for a long time. Finally, he turned around and left the turbine room with a determined gaze. "Let's go. Let's set sail."