[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 166 - Meeting

Freddy stopped swimming and turned around. Behind him, he could see the island Sophia was waiting at in its entirety. It looked pretty small from there. “This should be far enough,” he said.

Then, he finally stopped pouring essence into the water to keep himself afloat.

He immediately started sinking, with his dense body carrying him deeper and deeper.

The increasing water pressure barely bothered him.

He relaxed his whole body and threw out his senses, focusing until he finally started feeling the surrounding water aura.

There were many water wisps around him. And the deeper he went, the greater their density became.

While the Northern Belt was something of an ether desert, this place was nothing like that. The ether was rich and plentiful. There had to be a good number of passages around, too, but thankfully, nothing dangerous had targeted Freddy. So far, at least.

He allowed his body to keep sinking while he focused on gathering the wisps around him. They flowed into his soul like a river—no, like a deep ocean stream.

The sunlight kept getting weaker, and before long, he found himself alone in the dark.

There, he finally found what he’d been looking for.

Everything had the touch of insanity upon it. Water was no exception. Here, where the light barely reached, where a number of horrible creatures lurked, ceaselessly searching for prey, was the birthplace of a unique breed of fear.

At its core, perished water had a strong conection to thalassophobia. There lied its tether to insanity. It wasn’t crazy to fear the depths of large bodies of water. But phobias had a way of steering minds out of order.

In the wisps Freddy so greedily absorbed into his body, he could feel a number of concepts strongly tied to his unique affinity. But unraveling and interpreting them was a lot of work, work he was wholly unused to doing. Still, he patiently kept at it, supplementing his lack of experience meditating like this with the sheer volume of ether.

Before long, he had absorbed a little too much. After processing what he could, he discarded the rest.

Eventually, he finally reached the bottom. His body gently impacted the sandy ocean floor.

He resisted the urge to chuckle. He could feel the dormant insanity kick into a frenzy around him. It seemed that the very act of coming here was a bit crazy.

Raising his hand into the empty water, he channeled his unique affinity.

It drained his essence a drop at a time, slowly converting the salty ocean water into the substance of his unique affinity. As he started the process, he couldn’t help but scowl. It was… cheap. The amount of essence he was consuming was far lower than what it usually took when he cast the ability through create water.

All around him, a number of wicked phantoms appeared. Ghastly forms of strange fish, some bigger, some smaller. He focused harder, spilling out a larger chunk of essence. It hung there for a moment, before taking the form of a spindly shark.

Once he had a small swarm surrounding him, he used Ghosts of the Drowned to take control of them. Then, he sent them out.

They obeyed his mental command, and before long, the swarm started swimming in a random direction, with some of the phantoms breaking off and going their own way. Once they reached about 20 meters away from him, his control of them suddenly vanished. But the phantoms themselves weren’t gone. They continued swimming into the distance without a care in the world.

Freddy was already starting to feel alarmed. He had tested in the ability in shallower bodies of water he’d stumbled across in the interspace, but it never worked like this. It was never this cheap, and the phantoms had a limited range of motion.

He was getting an unpleasant feeling about this whole thing.

A moment later, he felt a tiny little burst of essence flow into him. The phantoms had killed something, likely a fish.

And as soon as they did, he noticed something happen in his soul.

Perished Water: Stage 0—51%.

Ghosts of the Drowned: Stage 0—51%.

He shouted something into the water. It came out as a bunch of blubbs and bubbles but roughly translated to, “Are you fucking kidding me!?”

No wonder he kept failing all this time.

It appeared that the unique blend of dark, deep water and hunting for prey was the key to fully unlocking its potential.

Suddenly, he felt the onset of a headache as the implications settled.

There was no such thing as a bad unique affinity. They all had their kinks and quirks, but they were always mighty when used the right way. Perished water was no exception.

But Perished Water’s kinks were a little too quirky.

Freddy wasn’t a fish. He didn’t live at the bottom of a large body of water.

This didn’t necessarily mean that he had no way to use it on land. But it did mean that he would have to bend over backwards. As for actually putting any of this bending over into practice, he’d have to reach the third star, first. He had no space for new abilities.

He spent a while just loitering in the depths, preying on innocent fish and one medium-sized octopus monster.

The monster just couldn’t put up a fight. It wasn’t weak, either—it was naturally stealthy, as were many of the sea creatures in these parts, but Freddy could just barely tell that it was almost at the third star in power.

It thrashed and fought, even resorting to running away, but no matter what it did, the unyielding phantoms gradually whittled it down.

While it seemed obvious that Freddy should be able to beat a random peak two-star monster, it absolutely shouldn’t be this easy.

He was using a stage 0 ability. Single-starred. And that was enough to defeat a creature at the same gathering as him. In its natural habitat. Where it should be at an advantage.

This was the power of a unique affinity. This was why the Kraven patriarch pursued Bloodshed like a lunatic. The baseline power of a unique affinity was far beyond any basic, advanced, or even special affinity. To a frightening degree.

The perished water abilities eventually reached 52% and stalled there. Freddy simply had too many abilities that were too advanced. This was probably the last bit of growth he’d see before he entered the third star.

Thankfully, he at least knew how to grow the affinity.

Suddenly, he felt a deep vibration in the water. It buzzed through his body, causing his chest to tense up. Slowly, he turned around but spotted nothing there.

Well then. Might be a good idea to leave. 

He cautiously made his way back to the shore and appeared before Sophia.

She shot him a snarky grin and scoffed. “You didn’t catch even one fish?”

He chuckled. “Come on. Let’s go back. Something big is swimming around.”

Sophia’s joviality vanished as she shot the water a concerned look and took a few steps back. A slightly bigger wave than usual reached the shore, sweeping under their feet. “Yeah,” she said. “I think it’s time to go.”

They ran until they reached the forest, and then, they slowed down again.

“So,” Sophia started. “You were saying something about preparing for this crazy thing that may or may not come to kill us?”

“Right,” he said. “That I did.” He scratched his chin. “The most important thing I have to do is reach the third star. With three spirit abilities, I have to be a hundred times more impressive. It’s already hard enough as it is. Frankly, I have no idea how far away I am at the moment and that’s really annoying.”

“And what exactly do you expect from me?” she asked. “Because if this crazy thing is powerful enough to endanger you, I’d rather be as far away from it as humanly possible.” Then, she lit up and snapped her finger. “Oh, I know! Why don’t I just leave?” She glanced at him and squinted. “You aren’t gonna force me to stay, are you?”

He chuckled. “I’ve already told you that if you want, you’re free to go. And yeah, that’s a fair question. I have a few ways you could—”

“Hold up,” she said, raising her hand. “I hope these ways don’t involve undead.” She squinted. “Do they?”

“Oh, you mean the type of undead you could make by putting a soulless corpse back into perfect shape and awakening it as a monster that would then develop a horrifyingly powerful inborn trait?”

She paled. “We aren’t doing that, are we?”

He stared at her for a few agonozing seconds. “No.”

“That pause was waaaay too long, buddy.”

“Look,” he said. “As long as you make the undead dumb enough, they’re never going to become self-aware and grow a soul! Problem solved!”

“Taking that risk is still very illegal. Also… just wrong. I don’t wanna do that…”

“Well… I never said you have to raise human bodies.”

“Right… I’ll think about it.”

“What’s there to think about?” He stepped ahead on her, getting in her way and crossing his arms. Leaning forward a bit, he said, “It would be very dumb not to use this opportunity.”

Her expression darkened. “Don’t take this the wrong way but just because you’ve lost your damn mind, it doesn’t mean I’m going to play along with every crazy idea you have.”

“But this isn’t even that crazy!” he argued. “I’m pretty sure everyone with the death affinity would love to be able to use the undead.”

She snorted. “Well then you’re completely divorced from reality.”

“I would beg to disagree.”

“You see nothing disturbing about hauling living corpses around with you everywhere you go? Freddy, do you have any idea what people think of necromancers? How many necromances have you come across?”

“Very few.”

“And you never wondered why?”

“I know why,” he said. “Because it’s damn hard to be a necromancer. Skeletons slurp essence up like there’s no tomorrow, and fleshy undead are hard to command and even harder to create. It’s hardly a mystery they’re a rare sight.”

“That’s a part of it, sure. But plenty of people just don’t want to be necromancers,”

“Why the hell not? I can’t imagine anything cooler than lording over the undead.”

“It’s gross and weird.”

“Bah. You’re weird.”

“Freddy, you do realize you can’t magically put the undead away unless they’re small enough to fit into a storage ring? You have to haul them around in plain sight. Where other people can see them.”

“So?”

“So!? Really?”

He hesitated. “Well you don’t have to take them everywhere…”

“If that’s the path I go down, I’ll have to take them everywhere I want to feel safe. And for me, that is everywhere.”

“Just think about it.”

“Freddy, I never even wanted the life affinity. To be honest with you, playing organ farmer has made me realize I’m not cut out for this kind of gross stuff. It makes me feel dirty. And the undead are just… I don’t want to be known as a total freak.”

“I don’t get it, then. What are you even going to do with the death affinity?”

“Just leave that to me. I have a few ideas. Now let’s get moving before something jumps out of the bushes.” She slapped a hornet out of the air. “And these bugs are pissing me the hell off!” She brushed past him and continued down the path, walking briskly.

He sighed and followed after her.

They slowly made their way out of the interspace in silence.

Just as they were about to leave, Freddy put his hand on Sophia’s shoulder. “Wait.”

“Hmm?” She stopped, turning to face him. “What’s wrong?”

“Stay behind me.”

“Something wrong?”

Glacing at the passage back to the plaza, he groaned. “The adjudicator is waiting outside.”

Sophia’s eyes widened, and she nodded severely.

Slowly, the two of them left the interspace. There, just as Freddy had sensed, stood the adjudicator.

The man was releasing just a bit of his aura—enough for someone like Freddy to sense it, but not enough to cause an uproar in the city. “Hello there, Mr. Cliff.” He glanced at Sophia. “And you must be Sophia. Pleasure to meet you.”

“Hello,” Freddy said, taking a few steps forward. “Is there a problem?”

“I would like to discuss a few things with you. In private, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure. But she’s coming with us.”

The adjudicator shrugged. “If you trust her, I see no issue with that. Please follow me, if you will.” The man turned around and started walking away.

Sophia tugged on Freddy’s hand. “Are we in danger?” she whispered to him.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” he said.

She suddenly paled. “You think he heard us!?”

“No,” Freddy said. “I doubt it.” Sighing, he scratched the back of his neck and took a step forward. “We don’t really have a choice here. Let’s just follow and hope for the best.”

Freddy didn’t exactly trust the adjudicator. Not one bit. But he knew that the man had plenty to gain from nurturing Freddy. Far more than he had to gain from hurting him. And, besides, if it came to a fight, without a big Blood Sacrifice, Freddy had no confidence in winning. If the man wanted to hurt them, there was no reason to pull tricks.

The man walked to the closest building and stepped inside. There, they took the stairs to the highest floor. Where, apparently, the adjudicator had a penthouse. Which made sense, Freddy supposed.

The penthouse was very well isolated, with a number of enchanted wards installed to stop those with special talents from taking a peek inside. Other than that, however, it was quite… barren. Other than a table and a set of chairs, there was literally nothing in the large open space other than white walls. And the plush carpet flooring, he supposed. Clearly not a place meant to be lived in.

Freddy and Sophia took a seat at the table, with the adjudicator taking a seat on the other side.

The man smiled pleasantly at them and pointed at a tablet resting on the table. “Please, feel free to order anything you wish. And thank you for sparing the time to come meet me.”

Freddy’s eye twitched. The man hardly gave them a choice.“It’s not a problem,” he said politely. “Thank you for the invitation. So. What’s going on?”

“First, I’d like to congratulate you on swiftly stabilizing the situation in your city. Excellent work.”

Freddy laughed awkwardly. “I hardly did anything. I just offloaded the work on Valhalla.”

The adjudicator’s smile widened a little. “Finding allies you can entrust with such a task is more impressive than you might think. Now, with congratulations out of the way, I would like to get into the main topic of this meeting.”

Freddy subtly swallowed and then casually asked. “What’s going on?”

“It appears that someone in a neighboring city had stepped into contact with a higher power. And now, judging by what they’re leaving in their wake as they travel further into the Frozen Wastes, they’re likely amassing a vast horde of monsters that will wipe out the entirety of the Northern Belt.”