novelraw Chapter 265: Coral Tower
Chapter 265: Coral Tower
[Your group has defeated Reef Lurker lvl 115~136 x14 exp rewarded]
[Congratulations you have leveled up]
Violet was pleasantly surprised at the fact that she received a level up from that fight, sure a couple of the fishes were kinda strong but they were all so stupid that even with their numerical advantage the fight truly wasn’t all that hard once she got accustomed to them.
Still Violet was not one to turn down a free level, that coupled with her winning the bet with Luna ensured that Violet was in quite a good mood!
But for now she had more important matters to get too, most important amongst them being gloating!
"I am so looking forward to eating fish this evening! I wonder how you will cook it?" Violet said, her voice one of poorly controlled neutrality.
Luna slumped slightly at her words, yet she did not respond, instead she took a step and appeared by the nearest dead fish that was mostly intact and swept it up into her storage ring. She repeated this process a couple of times to ensure that they had plenty of food for the foreseeable future, only then did she return to Violet’s side.
"You will just have to find out won’t you." She said upon her return. Whilst she was slightly sad that she lost their bet, she truly didn’t mind all that much, it only meant that she would be able to cook a meal for the person that she loved. Do not exactly a bad punishment, the only damage dealt was to her pride but Luna could ignore that in favour of enjoying Violet’s happiness.
So it was that with a smug smile Violet began to slowly swim forward towards the coral tower that had so attracted her attention.
As they got closer they got a better understanding of the actual structure itself. It was actually a truly massive thing, all of the coral towers were.
It was hundreds of meters tall, they were unable to see exactly how tall as its base was hidden by the thick kelp forest far below. It was around 90-100 meters in diameters, in fact it more resembled a miniature mountain than anything else, only one made from coral instead of rock.
All throughout the structure innumerable openings were present, some no larger than a human fist, others large enough for Violet to easily enter into the interior of the structure in her current giant form with some wiggling. Still Violet was not eager to get stuck so she concentrated on her shapeshift skill and focused on shrinking her size down to something more reasonable to explore the interior of the tower.
Soon Violet was just slightly smaller than she was when she first reached level 80, allowing her to easily manoeuvre within the organic walls of this wonderous structure.
Luna too copied Violet’s actions and shrank herself somewhat so that she too could better traverse the coral corridors.
Arriving at the enterance that the Reef Lurkers emerged from, Violet peered inside curiously. The interior was pitch black, no light able to penetrate its depths, with a though several glowing orbs appeared around Violet giving off a faint blue and golden glow.
The two companions entered into the tower carefully observing their surroundings in case of a ambush by any stragglers that may have not gone on the initial attack. Thankfully none came as the two steadily explored deeper.
The passage took them down, in twisting and convoluted pathways that only made sense when able to travers in any direction. On the surface this would be naught but impossible to traverse for any regular person without flight or teleportation powers. Thankfully they were in water and had both alternative abilities.
So the two descended, Luna briefly worried about if they would run out of breath yet quickly realised that she surprisingly felt no need to breathe, even though it had been well over 20 minutes since they had entered the ocean. She briefly worried if that was normal and shared her thoughts with Violet.
"Hey, do you think it’s strange that we don’t need to breath yet? It’s been quite some time and I still feel fine."
Violet paused at that, her head tilting as she thought about that fact that she too had ignored till that point.
"Hmm, I might have an idea but I’m not sure on it."
"Oh what is it? Asked Luna curiously, wondering if it matched her own idea on the matter.
"Well as we have gotten stronger our bodies have become more and more reliant on mana right?" At a confirming nod from Luna she continued. "Well I’m thinking that mana is able to effectively replace normal bodily functions to a certain extent, so maybe we don’t actually need to breath so long as we have mana? Or at least will be able to last significantly longer than normal."
Luna nodded her head at her companions words. "Yeah, I was thinking much the same. I did notice on the shallows that my body felt slightly... sluggish where the mana was thinner, but now I feel fine, great even after that fight."
The two took a moment to process that. "Well either way it’s cool and so long as it doesn’t effect us then it’ll be alright!" Was Violet’s nonchalant answer, swiftly changing the topic and continuing on with their exploration, Luna just huffed in amusement but followed along behind without complaint.
Eventually the two reached a stone platform of sorts, maybe the base of the entire coral tower? They had traveled down quite some distance after all, still that was not what caught their attention upon reaching this location.
No what they focused on was a peculiar plant that was growing in the middle of the stone platform.
It was a brilliant cyan blue, mixed with deep blue striations leading to several white bulbs that adorned the plant. It was relatively small when compared to other plant life in this biome, only standing at 6 meters tall. Still the powerful waves of mana that radiated out from the plant, or to be more specific the white bulbs were what truly caught the girls attention.
The bulbs released a powerful sense of water, but not like the ocean around them, no this was colder, denser, darker. Like the chill of a deep abyss where light had never reached, where the weight and chil of the waters would crush any that dared delve that deep.
It sent shivers down Luna’s spine as her fur stood on end, yet she could not look away. That chill in the feeling was enticing, it called to her in a way that she struggled to understand. Like a long lost friend that one hadn’t seen in years but finally returned, familiar yet desirably different.
Violet too felt the powerful man’s coming from the bulbs, yet she only felt the powerful fluctuations and the hint of cold water coming from it, it was interesting yes but she was struggling to understand why this called to her so.
That changed however, when she looked over at Luna who was floating there whilst entranced by the plant. Then Violet realised what had caused her to be so interested.
Whilst Luna was now a beast, she was still a humanoid for the most part at heart. Her senses were new to her, that beastly aspect of her existence strange and somewhat foreign to her. So she subconsciously ignored some of the sensations that her beastly nature made her aware of.
Violet, having long learnt to rely on her senses and instincts did not do so. This she believed that she had picked up on that faint longing through their bond and had honed in on the source using her draconic senses.
Realising this Violet smiled as she realised that she would be able to help provide something to her companion that so obviously called out to her.
With a smile Violet extended a wing and gently pushed Luna forward. "Go on eat one of them, its obviously compatible with you so what’s the harm in eating on. It is our reward for defeating the old defenders of this place.
Luna needed no more encouragement than that, she barely managed to restrain herself from rushing forward, instead she steadily approached and used her ice to slice off one of the bulbs then swiftly bringing it closer to her to have a closer look.
Yet she quickly noticed that the bulbs was loosing its mana at a predigious rate now that it was no longer attached to the plant. In fact the entire plant looked to be shrivelling up in death.
Not wanting to loose this opportunity she seiftly swallowed the bulbs with no more hesitation.
At first nothing happened.
Then a wave of pressure and cold spread through her body. The pressure was minimal at first, the cold hardly more than a fleeting thought. Then the pressure began to increase as the cold grew more intense.
The cold would not bother Luna, she was an Arctic leopard after all, the cold was her home and would not harm her. The pressure however, that was swiftly becoming an issue.