Chapter 532 - 531: The Demon Fish’s Treasury

Chapter 532: Chapter 531: The Demon Fish’s Treasury

*Murmurer, heh, heh... I know what you want. You want the knowledge in my brain, but you won’t get it. You won’t!* The Aboleth’s voice came again. *Soon, someone will come for your life... I know your fates. I know everything, while you are nothing but a plaything of the gods.*

An instant later, Colin felt the pressure on his chest rapidly decrease.

The Aboleth retracted its tentacles. A few of them plunged into its own body through its spiracles, and more viscous green blood bubbled out.

Then, a tremendous downward force yanked on the hilt of his sword.

Colin had no choice but to grip the hilt tightly. The blade slid out of the Aboleth’s body, and its massive corpse immediately began to sink into the depths.

The distant Kuo-toa froze when they saw what was happening. Then, the whole group turned and fled into the depths, abandoning the battlefield without a moment’s hesitation.

’It should be over now.’

Colin thought, letting gravity pull him down toward the bottom. He fired three more Magic Missiles at the Aboleth’s corpse and only relaxed after seeing it remain completely still.

He looked down to inspect his body.

The Plate Armor on his arm had been warped by that last strike. While his Chest Armor wasn’t obviously deformed, his insides were definitely not in good shape; sharp, throbbing pains pulsed from his abdomen.

Colin compared the sensation to when he was thrashed around by the White Dragon.

It was honestly hard to say which was stronger—the White Dragon or this Aboleth.

He drew a bottle of Healing Potion from his Medicated Bandage. Bringing it to his lips, he uncorked it and downed the Potion in one gulp.

As a warm current spread outward from his stomach, the agonizing, throbbing pain subsided considerably.

Once he’d tended to himself, Colin sank to the bottom of the cavern and scanned his surroundings. It wasn’t long before he found Orelia, who was using a Divine Art to heal Dorn as he lay unconscious on the floor.

A moment later, Kase swam over as well.

The bleeding from his wounds had stopped completely; it looked like he had taken a Potion.

They exchanged hand signals.

Kase swam toward the surface while Colin, gripping Burning Blood, stood guard by Orelia, watching for any potential enemies.

A short while later, Kase returned with the Dimension Bag.

Colin had specifically told him to check the surrounding area. It seemed the battle was truly over.

The moment he knew they were safe, Colin’s entire body went limp, like a deflating balloon.

He took the Dimension Bag from Kase, and then he and Orelia began taking off their Armor, stuffing it into the bag piece by piece.

As he packed away the Armor, he took a moment to review the entire battle in his mind.

With Donkexes, Langgrin, and the Tritons joining the fray, the battle hadn’t been as difficult as Colin had imagined.

At least they had people to deal with the Chuul and the outer ring of Kuo-toa.

The party could still just about handle a skirmish of this level. He still had a few High-Level Healing Potions left, and Ale could probably still cast a few more spells.

The main problem was the terrain; it was just too troublesome. Most Magic didn’t work as well as expected underwater. The area of effect for many spells was also amplified, making friendly fire a serious risk. The whole time, it felt like they were fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.

Of course, that feeling of being hamstrung was also part of the Aboleth’s power.

If the Aboleth didn’t live in the water, it likely wouldn’t have been nearly so difficult to deal with.

After stowing their gear, Colin and Orelia swam to the surface with Dorn. By then, several Dwarves had appeared near the crack in the cavern ceiling.

Langgrin’s head was bleeding for some reason, and he was pressing a bundle of bandages against it. Donkexes was in better shape, though he looked somewhat haggard.

Surprisingly, Durkin was also standing beside them, holding a Hand Cannon.

He wasn’t wearing Plate Armor, just a set of filthy Armed Clothing.

Durkin rested the butt of his Hand Cannon on the ground and asked, "You guys take care of that monster?"

"Just about," Colin said, treading water. He still felt breathless. "’The bends’ will last for several hours, so we probably can’t head for the Surface yet. It’s a good opportunity to harvest materials from the Aboleth."

"Alright, we’ll haul Dorn up first," Langgrin shouted from above.

After they had lifted Dorn out of the water, Colin and the others dived back under.

Kase took out a Small Knife and started harvesting materials from the Aboleth’s corpse.

The monster’s mucus, eyeballs, and brain were all valuable materials.

With great effort, the group began to dismantle the Aboleth’s body.

The Aboleth’s skin was composed of many layers of thin membranes.

The skin looked like a layer of extremely dense mucus, or perhaps some kind of absorbent rubber.

The creature’s anatomy was surprisingly fish-like, with organs such as a swim bladder inside its belly. Because its body was so massive, it had two hearts—one in the front and one in the back.

Colin noticed the creature seemed to have no lungs or gills, and he had no idea how it was able to breathe.

Colin also discovered that the Aboleth did have a mouth, though it was hidden deep beneath its jaw. At a glance, it looked like a simple fold of flesh. The structure inside, however, was very similar to a lamprey’s mouth, filled with fine, small teeth that were rather nauseating to look at.

Finally, they used an Axe to slowly hack open the Aboleth’s skull.

To their surprise, the creature’s brain was enormous. The entire front half of its body was just brain matter. Colin felt that even a Giant’s brain wouldn’t be much bigger.

Unfortunately, the Aboleth had pierced its own brain with its tentacles before it died, so Colin had no idea how much of it was still usable.

While Kase and the others packed up the harvested materials to send to the surface, Colin searched the cavern for the Aboleth’s hoard.

After a bit of searching, he found a pile of treasure in a corner at the bottom of the cavern.

Black coins from the depths and various currencies only found on the Surface were piled into a small mountain. The heap contained a significant amount of gold. A copper candlestick and a flattened silver teapot were stuck in the pile, and besides those, there was a silver necklace inlaid with rubies.

The hoard was quite a spectacular sight.

Colin could only tell that it was worth a lot of money; he’d have to get Ale to appraise its exact value.

He then called Kase and the others over to sort through the treasure, planning to send it up later along with the materials from the Aboleth.

After a thorough search, the party found two well-preserved pieces of equipment and a Magic Scroll.

For the items to have been preserved so perfectly underwater, Colin didn’t even need to see the Magic Radiance on their surfaces to know they had to be Magic Items.