Chapter 5: 1.04

Thera 1.04

When Thera woke up, the world was dark. The void had consumed her only sanctuary: there was no safety for the baby Mystic Turtle. She recoiled in fear— and banged her head on something hard. Blinking, she poked her head out of her shell to find the enchanted room was still intact.

Safe… A strong sense of relief washed over her as if she’d really been in danger. Like death had been too shy to take her in her sleep. Raising her head, she took in the room she was in and remembered the events that had led her here. Her gaze stopped before the black hole in the wall, and she needed no reminder.

Thera was trapped in the bottom of the ocean. Dark creatures lurked around in nearby waters— some of them alluring, and others terrifying, but all of them dangerous. She backed away from the hole before finding her back flippers pressing against something cold.

Yelping, the baby Mystic Turtle spun around and swung for the cold thing, thinking it was a monster. Her flippers slapped the dented metal door, and it groaned open. She recoiled at the loud tinny sound echoing down the corridor as her flippers stung in pain. Then she leaned forward curiously.

What’s this? She gently tried to push the metal door open, but it barely budged this time. Thera tried harder, and it finally moved, revealing an empty hallway at the other side. Was this always here? the baby Mystic Turtle wondered as she stared into the dark corridor.

She glanced back once— towards the call of the void. But she didn’t want to try her luck swimming in complete darkness again. A creeping fear ensnared the Fledgling Testudine: she imagined giant tendrils breaking into the sanctuary through the hole and grasping for her. She shuddered violently in fear. She needed to get out of this room. Escape that terrible death.

There were only two exits here. Two ways out of this deathtrap. Yet there was only one Thera dared venture through. Heaving the heavy metal door open, she dragged herself through the doorway and exited the room.

Hngrhhh. The door groaned shut once she was through. Instantly, the room darkened. Only the dim light leaking through the fringe outline of the doorway illuminated part of the corridor. Beyond that, Thera couldn’t see anything but vague silhouettes.

She instinctively swallowed out of fear. Immediately, she regretted leaving her little sanctuary. But she pressed on slowly. She moved like, well, a turtle. Each wet step echoed like the dripping water in the background. It took her a while, but she eventually reached the end of the hallway.

There was a stairwell at the end that only led down. The ceiling collapsed, barring the steps that lead towards an upper floor. So, curiously and cautiously, Thera made her way down the stairway, approaching the repetitive plopping sounds that were now clear to her ears. There, she found water.

The stairs were half-submerged. The entire floor below had flooded, although the water didn’t rise any further. Thera stared down at it— at the smudgy reflection of her shadow on the sable surface. A water droplet fell onto it, sending a small ripple out. More ripples bubbled on the water line. The baby Mystic Turtle blinked and curiously poked a flipper into the water.

Safe? she wondered.

And the water splashed out. It was long and large and that was all she cared to see before she fled. Thera scrambled back as it crashed into the steps. It broke the wooden boards, barely missing her as it thrashed on the stairs.

Not safe! Thera hurriedly climbed back up the stairwell. She glanced back down at the shadow as it flopped on land for a moment before rolling back into the water.

The baby Mystic Turtle turned back around and ran. Well, with how she was biologically built, it was more like she waddled away at a surprisingly fast pace for her size and shape. She pried the metal doorway open and collapsed back in the glowing room. The place of magic and safety. She lay there for a moment, panting in a wheezing breath.

Scary… Thera closed her eyes, feeling her racing heart settle. When she got back up, it was to eat. She fed on the moss growing in the damp room. There was nothing else for her to do, and she was hungry after the brief scare she had with whatever that monster was down the corridor. Safe here. Just stay.

She focused on gorging herself— on filling her stomach so that her worries would be forgotten. But she was so engrossed in eating she didn’t notice how the room was emptier than before. How the skeleton was now suddenly missing.

Thera only noticed something was amiss when a dark shadow passed the hole in the ship. She blinked and looked up, still chewing on the moss. And her jaw dropped— spilling the moss onto the wooden floorboards— at what she saw.

A giant thing blotted out the hole. It had an undulating body that was at least ten times her length and three times as thick as she was. It was orange-ish in color, and it didn’t have any scales. Its texture looked similar to Thera’s own skin. It opened its mouth, crunching on the last bits of a skeleton with rows and rows of spindly teeth.

Thera stared at it for a moment. The monster swallowed. And she ran. Once again, the baby Mystic Turtle found herself moving at a full-sprint (or a fast waddle) for the door once again. The monster made a bubbling sound as it swept into the room. It barely even fit through the hole, but it scraped the floor and the walls with its teeth. There were no scratch marks. Thera pushed the door open again and slammed it shut once she was through.

Crrrnk! She heard the grating sound of teeth on metal. But nothing else. A shadow passed under the doorway before disappearing. Thera stared at the doorway, the familiar terror washing over her.

She wanted to just recede into her shell and hide. Run, run, far away. Escape from the death and the danger that surrounded her. And she would have, if not for the fact that she was standing out in the open in the middle of the dark hallway. Her stomach lurched. She felt her lunch threatening to escape from her mouth. It took everything the baby Mystic Turtle had from puking it all out.

I… Thera recoiled, breathing heavily. She straightened and looked between the end of the hallway with the stairwell and the metal door. This was tiring. Again and again, all she did was run. From her nest to the kelp forest to this place. I don’t—

The darkness encroached on her. Shadowed tendrils crawled over her back, pinning her down. Thera struggled against it defiantly and fought back against her instincts that drove her to flee. A glimmer ran over her shell. Her body shimmered as a bright light engulfed her, chasing away the shadows.

I don’t want to run anymore! And with that thought, she lit up the corridor— a single lantern that fought back against the night.

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[Indomitable Soul]. It drew something from within her. It awakened a fire in her heart. Thera strode forward, making wide steps with her little flippers as she headed down the dark hallway. A confidence she previously lacked pushed her; her fear had slunked back into a corner as her passion took control.

The glow from her soul magic shone a light down the path. She could see the end of the stairwell clearly now— it descended ten steps before sinking underwater. An orange thing lurked in the murky water below. Thera narrowed her eyes.

That was the creature that scared her just earlier? It was barely even bigger than she was. It had a long body, and it moved in circles like it had been waiting for her to return. But compared to what she’d just survived, it was nothing. In fact, it even looked like a baby version of the monster that ate the skeleton.No scales. No fins. A long and thin body.

Thera marched down the stairs, unafraid. There was no more darkness. No more shadows. She could clearly see the monster and she faced it without fear. She remembered how it attacked her earlier— how it had crawled out of the water for mere moments before flopping back in.

And her mind slowly worked, telling her what to do.

Come, she thought as she stuck a flipper into the water. The long monster leapt out once again. It jerked so suddenly, this time prepared for Thera. The Fledgling Testudine moved back, but she wasn’t in a rush to dodge out of the way. This creature had far smaller and fewer teeth than the one that had attacked her in the room. But it was still dangerous enough to smash through the wood.

Thera winced when the sharp jaws of the monster struck her shell. Her aura from [Indomitable Soul] protected her, but it still hurt. It gnawed on her back as Thera bit back with a [Power Bite]. Her own mouth grazed the skin of this monster.

It was stronger than she thought. Thera continued to struggle with it on land as it wrapped its body around her, threatening to drag her with it into the water. Thera fought back to do the exact opposite, keeping it on land.

It reminded Thera of when she was struggling, caught in seaweed, and it only made her fight harder. She flapped her flippers and struck the long monster’s back. The aura around her body worked as both armor and a weapon. It cut into the monster’s skin, making it shriek in pain. But still, it was winning. It dragged Thera closer to the water as she helplessly bit back into it.

The moment it pulled Thera into the water, she would lose. The baby Mystic Turtle understood that she had the advantage on land, and the fact that she was struggling this much here meant that she’d instantly lose in the water. So she bit and she wrestled and she did all that she could to overpowered the long monster.

She needed to tie up its movements— keep it from getting back into the water and bring it further onto dry land. Somewhere, deep inside the baby Mystic Turtle, she remembered the frustration of being bound and helpless. Tangled in something she couldn’t escape from. And her soul answered, manifesting this memory.

The aura around her body shifted. The golden glow thinned out and reached out of her, snaking over the long sea creature’s body, like golden seaweed. With the monster’s movements now restricted, Thera had the edge in the grappling even though the monster could bite through her defenses now.

Thera clenched her jaw in pain as the monster’s teeth tore through her shell. But she was dragging it across the wooden boards, hauling it up from the stairway far from the water. With all of her might, she yanked it up and slammed it against a nearby wall as her bindings over it dissipated.

The long monster flopped over and thrashed on the ground as she let out a squeak-like warcry. She pounced on it, biting and tearing into the bits she’d already shredded as it helplessly lay there, no water to escape to. Thera bit and bit and bit with all her might— each of them [Power Bites]. Until, finally, it stopped moving. The Voice of the World resounded for her to mark her victory over the monster.

You have leveled up!

[Fledgling Testudine (Mystic Turtle) - Level 4] -> [Fledgling Testudine (Mystic Turtle) - Level 5]!

Species Skill gained: [Manifestation of the Heart]!

Thera fell back, inundated with joy. She was happy. Happy that she’d leveled up and gained a new Species Skill. But she was also glad that she’d finally broken her streak of fleeing. The room was dark again now that she no longer had [Indomitable Soul] coating her body, yet she was not afraid.

In fact, she welcomed the shadows. She challenged it to throw something else her way. She wasn’t going to run— she was tired of it. She would fight.

But just as she accepted the darkness, a dim light pierced through the veil of darkness. A single glowing orb shone in the water down the stairwell. A bloated fish emerged, carrying over its head a ball of light.

Thera got back up, standing in alarm. Whatever it was was large. Bigger than that long monster she’d killed. Although it looked fatter and not as long too. She readied herself for battle once again— to pull it out of the water and kill it. But just as she was about to pounce, she heard a voice echo out.

“Greetings,” it said softly. “I hope I am not interrupting?”

And she paused. What…?

The bloated fish smiled with a mouth full of sharp teeth. “Don’t worry, I don’t bite.”

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