Chapter 152 - Origin Of Diddle Diddle
"The SeaFolk race is split into mainly three factions, the Water God Hall, the Sea Serpent Hall, and the Arctic Hall. These three halls combined to make one of the two Great Clan of SeaFolks. According to what I've learned many years ago, the Water God Hall is the most powerful among the three and has an elder that has already reached the half Immortal stage. The other two halls each have one or two Fusion stage warriors as well. This was many years ago, who knows how many Fusion stage and Half Immortals or even Immortals they have among them" for the first time, he heard a sliver of awe in her voice.
"One-half immortal and two Fusion stage warriors, wow" Michael was also astonished by listening to Lailah. As she said, this was years ago, he could only imagine how powerful they are now. He did not think any one of the races living on the land was weak but because the SeaFolk never took part in any wars, he knew their strength is far superior to the land crawlers.
If he could, he wanted to visit the SeaFolks soon. He had gained a rather rough understanding of the SeaFolks from Lailah. After getting some ideas about the SeaFolks, he continued to ask Lailah about the other races along the way, slowly expanding his knowledge about this world.
The ocean they were flying above was enormous, several times larger than the Elon Continent. Even though The Treacherous Ocean was very close to Rainbow Island, it took the two of them a full day and night of flying at such a speed before finally arriving.
The Treacherous Ocean was a region of sea shrouded in a dark mist and stormy clouds. The sound of thunderclaps reverberated the entire sea while violet streaks of lightning kept lighting the gloomy clouds.
The Ocean itself seemed endless. Currently, Michael and Lailah hovered in the sky a couple of kilometers away, staring at the mist cautiously.
Lailah knew that Michael's understanding of The Treacherous Ocean was limited, so she explained, "The real dangers of the treacherous ocean lies in an island within the thick mist. We need to pass through the mist to reach there. You must never underestimate this mist. It's extremely powerful and strange, as soon as you enter it, all your sensory abilities will be suppressed, and your vision will also be greatly affected"
Michael nodded, immediately becoming vigilant. The Treacherous Ocean was a dangerous zone, second only to the Demons Grave. He could already see his Environmental scanning is being disrupted by some kind of interference.
"System, can you upgrade the Environmental Scanning?"
[Unable to upgrade spells...]
[The System is in safe mode!]
Michael kinda expected this but it did not hurt to try. Since he got no help from the system, he had to rely solely on himself, on his skills as a hitman/assassin.
"Let's go in. Follow me closely and don't stray away from me. You might see some illusions in the mist, but you need to remember that all of them are just illusions" Lailah spoke with a soft voice, before handing over the baby dragon back to him. She then placed Angel's Veena into her left hand and gently played her other hand onto the strings.
Seeing how cautious Lailah was, Michael raised his own vigilance by taking out a few shiny bright orange pills and eating them like candy. The pills he just took were the Perception pills, he concocted these pills as the new badge using a few herbs he brought from the Sky garden.
The Perception pills had the ability to increase the consumer's sensors and perception by approximately four times and because his Environmental scanning is being disrupted by the Treacherous ocean, these pills helped him stay keen about the surroundings. Although the pills were not as great as the Environmental scanning, taking the pills was better than nothing. It only took a couple of seconds before he felt his senses getting heightened.
He turned to see even the smallest details of Lailah's robes like those few dust particles on the robes, the teeny tiny birthmark on her slender neck that he didn't notice before.
"Lady Alden, you want some?" He quickly stopped checking her out and asked her.
"No, thanks" she gently shook her head. He shrugged, putting the baby dragon into his pocket, and moved closer to Lailah before they slowly flew towards the fog together.
As soon as he entered the fog, Michael felt like he had stepped into another world. It was misty white all over, even with his heightened vision, he could only see five meters ahead.
"Even with your dragon's aura around us, we'll encounter some attacks in this mist. Be careful." Lailah 's voice appeared on one side. Michael unsheathed his sword as he did not underestimate this place, not even for a bit.
The two of them advanced carefully. They did not travel very fast, while the light in their eyes flickered, carefully observing the surroundings.
At that very moment, a white light suddenly appeared, shooting like a lightning bolt towards Lailah.
"Be careful!" Michael cried out, directly slashing his sword at the light.
"Ding!" However, Lailah 's reaction speed was faster than Michael's. The finger she had placed on the veena strings plucked gently, and a note rang out. It turned into a sound wave, colliding with the white light before Michael's sword could cut it.
The ball of white light turned into a pile of dust and fell from the sky without any sound.
Michael stared blankly at the pile of dust, "What is that?" just a moment ago he did not manage to see what the ball of white light was.
"Those are mutated fish that inhabit the nearby water. Its speed is especially quick, and this fish has already reached the strength of level 5 Body Refining beast" Lailah spoke indifferently. She clearly had an extremely great understanding of the place.
Hearing this, Michael was secretly shocked. People like Victoria were boasting about their cultivation speed when they were at the Level 5 Body Refining stage but here, even a mere fish was at that exact level. A cultivator could manage to easily kill the fish just how Lailah did but Michael knew if those fishes came to attack with hundreds of its friends, they would be in deep trouble. Coupled with the limited vision thanks to the mist, even a Core Formation warrior could be killed if hundreds of these fishes attacked together.
The two of them continued their way in the mist. After the attack from the weird fish earlier, he became even more watchful of his surroundings. The last time he checked, the Responsive shield was still working, therefore, he did not need to worry about the attacks of anything under Body Strengthening stage level 6. However, he could tell that he's going to meet stronger foes further down in the road.
As they advanced deeper and deeper, the weird mist also became thicker and thicker. Michael's heightened range of vision had already shrunken to two meters, crossing the two meters, he could see nothing but the misty-white screen. For others, looking through the eyes was the only way to see but for Michael, he trained to perceive the surroundings using all of his senses. He listened and smelled on top of looking to be aware of the mist. Even though Lailah's figure started to become blurrier, he followed her behind smelling the alluring fragrance coming from her.
"Lady Alden, just how big is this area? How much further until we leave this damn region?"
"We need to travel roughly a hundred kilometers more to get out of this mist. With our current speed, it should take five or six hours, if we are lucky" Lailah spoke calmly while her bewitching eyes flickered, vigilantly observing the surroundings.
At that very moment, another few streaks of white light shot from the surroundings with lightning speed just like before, except, this time Michael had sensed them thanks to his enhanced hearing. He swiftly slashed at the two streaks of white light without moving his body too much. There was no fancy move, just a plain simple slash but it was lethal enough to take two lives.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a Body Refining stage level 8 mutated beast. The reward is 6000 Experience points and 200 Badass points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a Body Refining stage level 8 mutated beast. The reward is 6000 Experience points and 200 Badass points]
Soon, the two white streaks of light turned into dust, falling near his feet.
Just as he lifted his sword to kill the rest of them, a clear note suddenly rang out. It turned into a visible sound wave that expanded into the surroundings. As the streaks of light came into contact with the sound wave they immediately turned into a pile of dust, ripped apart by the veena note.
Michael narrowed his eyes slightly in a way it could not be detected. His recognition for the woman's strength increased by a level; she could display such strength with just a casual note. Even if these fishes were at the Core Formation stage, he could tell that they would not be able to withstand the power of her notes.
Continuing onwards, Michael and Lailah both suffered constant attacks from the mutated fish. With each wave of the attack, the number of fishes that attacked them increased significantly. Fortunately for Michael, they didn't get attacked by fishes stronger than a Body Strengthening stage 5. He slashed and diced them effortlessly, this put a small smile on his face as he acquired quite a lot of experience points killing these fishes. He would have killed more if Lailah didn't massacre the majority of the fishes of each wave with a single note from her veena.
The two of them flew steadily through the fog for seven continuous hours before passing through the region of fog and reaching the outskirts of The Treacherous Ocean.
The deeper they went, the thicker the mist became. After over eight kilometers, the mist had become so thick that he could barely see anything. Only the faint fragrance at Michael's nose signified her existence. This made Michael rely on his nose to detect where she is, using the fragrance from her body.
Suddenly, Michael felt the mist before him surge violently. Shortly afterward, a blurry figure suddenly appeared, before quickly becoming clearly visible. It was a man in his late sixties, he wore a black suit and black trousers, in one hand, he held a bloody knife while in the other, he held a silencer attached Beretta 92. Michael stared blankly at the old man who is smiling wickedly at him. His emotions were overwhelmed by disbelief. Along with disbelief, in Michael's eyes, a cocktail of anger, fear, and respect could be seen.
"Diddle...Diddle...Diddle...we...are...so little" The old man slowly uttered these words, stirring the buried emotions deep within his heart.
"Spectre!" Michael unconsciously called out. His voice was filled with rage, and even his eyes became rather bloodshot.