Aqua

  Once I wake up and take care of my morning routine – or what I can take care of here at least – I go ahead and put my backpack back on again, grab my trident from where I left it lying across the entrance, and dive back down into the water. With the livestream turning on again the moment I enter the main cavern beneath this one.

  And there goes my peace.

  I let out a sigh before continuing my earlier exploration of the tunnel system.

  Although, on another note, I can’t help but feel a lot more comfortable now that I’m in the water. Like the water is my natural home or something.

  Which I guess it is now, considering my Bloodline.

  I continue swimming through the tunnels until I find another delfish. This one being a bit larger than the others.

  A frown spreads across my face as I identify it.

  [Deepsea Delfish – Level 2]

  This one is level two, huh? So does that mean they grow when they level?

  That doesn’t bode well for the future.

  Fortunately it’s not that much larger, and therefore isn’t that much harder to deal with.

  After doing my usual process with them of baiting before stabbing, I manage to skewer the thing without much trouble. Finally beginning to grow more used to my trident at this point.

  I glance at the corner of my vision only to frown at the sight of my inbox being at 999+ again. Even after just a single night.

  That’s annoying.

  But it is a little understandable. Bloodlines are incredibly rare after all, so I’m sure having one put me in the spotlight.

  Out of curiosity, I select the red circle while continuing through the tunnel. Opening up the livestream chat in my vision as I swim.

  And it’s… not exactly as I expected but also is.

  [Good morning sleeping beauty!]

  [She’s awaaaake and slaayin!]

  [Anyone know what her Bloodline is yet?]

  [Something aquatic.]

  [No shit.]

  [Serious answers please.]

  [She’s so fucking beautiful!]

  [I like that lazy look in her eyes. It’s as if she doesn’t think this is a challenge.]

  [Could you stop gushing about her looks? She’s only beautiful because of her Bloodline.]

  [You did see her before awakening her Bloodline, right? She was beautiful then too, so shut up.]

  [Who cares about her looks, we’re here to watch her fight. Not to watch her show off her appearance.]

  [I’m guessing her Bloodline must be related to the Abyssal Orcas in some way, since her appearance is the same and she seems to be stronger than she should be at her level. But I don’t know any Bloodlines similar to the Abyssal Orcas, so it’ll take more research to determine.]

  Yeah… there’s a lot to process.

  It looks like the chat is largely split right now.

  There are trolls galore. Researcher types. People who only seem to be interested in my appearance. And a rare few who actually seem interested in me personally.

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  Meaning most of my viewers right now don’t care about me personally. They just care about my Bloodline or looks. Or stirring up trouble.

  And ironically enough, the few who seem interested in me personally seem to have taken an interest in my lacking facial expressions. Which was a problem when I was searching for jobs.

  The fact that I find it a little difficult to express much on my face. So my face tends to stay in a rather lazy looking expression most of the time.

  Then again, I’m a relatively lazy person in general. So it’s not like it’s that far off of my thoughts most of the time.

  The main reason I ended up like this though was due to suppressing the emotions I show in order to avoid getting shocked by Alliance guards on the street. Guards who are too petty for their own good and sometimes even shock someone just for frowning at them.

  I let out a sigh as I continue swimming through the tunnel. Only to find a rather unexpected end to this particular tunnel.

  Just like a lot of the other tunnels, this one ends in a cavern. But unlike them, this cavern has several monsters inside of it. Not just one.

  There are five delfish inside of the cavern, along with one new monster.

  I grit my teeth as I identify the creature.

  [Deepsea Angler Shark – Level 3]

  Right. It’s a shark.

  With a lantern hanging from its head.

  So… it’s an anglerfish and a shark merged into one?

  It’s also glaring at me while opening its mouth filled with razor sharp teeth.

  Right. This is bad.

  The shark for some reason lets out a screech that makes my ears ring before swimming straight towards me. All while the other delfish in the cavern look a little disoriented themselves.

  Without hesitation, I twist my body to move out of the way of the shark. Then I rush towards the closest delfish and stab it straight through the face with my trident. And without hesitation, I move the trident with it still inside of the delfish around to slam straight into the shark as it approaches me.

  Which actually ends up working. So yay.

  What’s not so yay is the fact that the shark just looks disoriented. Not genuinely injured.

  So I use this moment to yank the trident out of the delfish as I get a message about its death and my additional point of REGEN. Only to stab the trident straight into the shark’s eye while its finally beginning to get over its disorientation.

  But my trident doesn’t go far into its eye, especially when the shark closes its eyelid. Somehow trapping my trident in place.

  I try to move out of the way as the shark begins to charge again, with the delfish coming this time as well, but the shark is too close at this point. So all I manage to dodge is letting it chomp on me.

  And when the shark’s tackle hits, sending me spinning through the water, I feel a couple delfish latching onto my arms and worsening the bruises that are already there.

  I grit my teeth hard while reaching for the delfish and grabbing them with my bare hands. Following which I jab my fingers into their eyes, blinding them before ripping them off my arms and slamming the two delfish into each other. Killing both with my enhanced strength from Physique of the Abyssal Kraken.

  And, of course, getting two more points of REGEN along the way.

  Then I see the shark, still with my trident in its eye, eating the last two remaining delfish itself. Only to grow larger for some reason as my trident is pushed out of its eye, and said eye heals on its own.

  Wait, does it grow stronger from eating other things? Or is it just a temporary boost?

  Growing stronger from eating things is a common power, but only from stronger monsters. Not something like this.

  Most likely it’s a temporary size boost, with the healing being the main factor of its power.

  Healing from eating.

  Would certainly be nice right about now, but that’s not something to worry about at the moment.

  I narrow my eyes a little at the monster, then at the delfish corpses around me, and finally at my trident that is floating in my direction.

  Let’s see if this will work.

  Pioneer Monster Hunts Live

  “And the strange angler shark has grown in size! Will our aquatic Pioneer be able to take this thing down?!” Roxane exclaims without taking her eyes off of the screen showing Aqua facing off against the level three monster. “The creature seems to heal from eating, and experts are suspecting that the creature gains a temporary growth in size as a side effect of healing. And that it’ll likely slow down for a bit after it shrinks.”

  This is always Roxane’s favorite part of Pioneer broadcasts. Watching them fight against unknown monsters and having her team of researchers study the creatures mid-battle through the broadcast.

  But this new Pioneer, Aqua Fallen, has really blown up her broad cast’s popularity. All because of the uniqueness of the aquatic monsters she’s fighting.

  Very few Pioneers fight deep underwater after all. Which makes her broadcast a unique one.

  And that’s on top of her being a Bloodline holder.

  At this point Roxane is convinced Aqua is her lucky star.

  She and the experts all watch as Aqua moves to grab two of the corpses near her before throwing them at the shark right when it begins to charge. Blocking its sight of her. And during this time she rushes towards her trident, grabbing it with one hand before kicking off against the floor at the last second.

  Leaving the angler shark to slam straight into the ground after gobbling down the two delfish corpses. Stunning the creature rather badly even as it grows in size even more.

  Then Aqua rushes over to it and stabs her trident straight downwards into the creature’s gills on the side of its body. Piercing into the thing while it’s dazed.

  And she doesn’t just do it once. She does it over and over again while gripping onto the large shark.

  All the way until it’s finally dead.

  “And she did it! She has slain the angler shark! Which means it’s time to start the wrap-up analysis of this beautiful sea creature!” Roxane exclaims while rubbing her hands together.

  Meanwhile Aqua herself just pants in exhaustion after her long winded fight.

  Yes, my lucky star. Continue to grow stronger and earn me more money!