Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 209: What Did the Sea Demons Do Normally?

This was Gawain’s first time seeing such a stern and grave expression on Tiel’s face. He originally thought that such an expression would never appear on this deep-sea saltwater fish’s face, which seemed like she could go into an eternal sleep anytime. However, the facts had proven that her indolence had a limit.

Furthermore, since Tiel used this expression to speak, it was obvious that she wasn’t joking. Heidi immediately followed up with a question: “You mentioned about remodeling the world… What does that mean?”

“The literal meaning.” Tiel shrugged her shoulders and her tail. “All matter will experience a transformation in characteristics. Some would have subtle transformations, and it would hardly be detected by humans and would seemingly not affect the original characteristics. Some would have thorough transformations, like a rock turning into a magical mineral. There would be transformations to the magical environment in nature too. Places that are overflowing with magic might become magic exhausted. Places that have scarce elements might become a new elemental world. The living beings would go through a large-scale extinction or mutation. New species will be formed in a short period of time, and most of the civilizations would vanish in this overwhelming transformation.”

“…You are just trying to scare us, right?” Amber listened to the sea demon’s explanation with a distracted look. She understood all the words that were said, but when all the words were put together, there was a hidden meaning that was unbelievable. She stared blankly for a moment before she shook her head and said, “Your statement is the same as those heretics declaring that the apocalypse is imminent.”

Tiel moaned lightly and said, “There is a difference. They only know that the apocalypse is arriving, but the sea demons know how the apocalypse is going to arrive.”

Gawain looked at Tiel’s eyes and said, “Have you experienced a real Dark Wave?”

“All of you should know that the sea demons are an intelligent species that is far more ancient than the land races. Before your civilization even learned how to start a fire, we had been in this world for many years.” Tiel continued using her tail to wrap onto a fork to pick up the bread and potatoes in front of her. She used a very natural tone and said, “It is obvious that we have seen things that you humans have never seen.”

Gawain continued to ask, “If the Dark Wave is truly as you describe, how did your race survive from the real Dark Wave?”

Rebecca stopped massacring the bread and lifted her head to look at Gawain with surprise. “Lord Ancestor, do you really believe her words?”

Gawain shook his hand and said, “It is just a casual chat. It is fine to discuss a little.”

“That’s right, it is just a casual chat.” Tiel smiled and said, “The Dark Wave is indeed very frightening, and most of the mortal beings are unable to withstand it. But we sea demons are rather special. We are… mm… It should be related to our innate elemental biology. The Dark Wave might have a great impact on magic and energy, but it doesn’t have the ‘ability’ to change elements. The sea demons’ biology is based on elements, and most of our magic is also driven by elements. As such, we continue to exist until today, and our civilizations are still intact. Of course, there is still an impact…”

Tiel stopped here and didn’t seem like she wanted to continue this topic. She merely muttered softly, “Every time, it will have to restart again…”

Heidi and Rebecca looked at each other with dismay. In their opinions, Tiel’s narration was overly outrageous, and when a rumor was exaggerated to an extent, it wouldn’t feel real anymore. However, Gawain still continued the topic with a serious manner, “Does it mean that the ‘Dark Wave’ that happened on this continent seven hundred years ago was just a ‘small wave’?”

Tiel replied casually, “Probably. After all, I never witnessed it personally, and I am guessing according to your descriptions.”

“Do your people know when the real Dark Wave will happen in the future? When is the next one?”

“I am unable to answer this question.” Tiel shook her head. “We are certain that the Dark Wave will happen after a period of time, but this ‘period’ is very unstable. The deviation would be calculated in every thousand years. It also means that, even if today is the theoretical day for the Dark Wave to erupt, the actual eruption time might be within the next thousand years. It is very hard to say.”

The atmosphere had already sunk down unconsciously. Gawain noticed that Heidi and Rebecca didn’t touch their food for quite some time and immediately knew that the sea demon’s unreserved words had given them pressure.

As such, he smiled and shook his head. “Since it is hard to say, then we don’t need to worry. Don’t forget why we decided to establish ourselves at a place like the Dark Range.”

“Just treat it as if I am telling a story.” Tiel had also noticed that she had ruined the atmosphere; of course, it might also be because she was too lazy to continue the topic. She shook her head and said, “With you humans’ average lifespan, there isn’t a need to worry about such disasters that might happen many generations later. Cheer up and look on the bright side.”

“Let’s talk about something more relaxing.” Gawain took the opportunity to shift the topic. “Let’s talk about life in the deep sea. What do you normally do?”

“We sleep.”

Gawain: “…What about the normal sea demons apart from you…? Furthermore, you can’t be sleeping all the time without doing anything else, right?”

“We do plenty of things normally. We repair our dwellings, raise jellyfish, conduct transformation competitions.” Tiel used the spikes on her tail to count and suddenly got happy and said, “However, the most interesting thing is still to dig for squid!”

Gawain was dumbfounded in response. “What is digging for squid?”

“Digging giant squid! It is a kind of…” Tiel frowned and was working hard to find a suitable term. “Natural resource that can regenerate?”

Subsequently, she moved her tail around and said, “In short, it is something that looks very similar to a giant squid. It might be the remains of an ancient life form. It is very, very gigantic and covers an entire patch of the sea bed. Its tentacles could grow and regenerate. After it is dug out, it will regrow after a period of time. Furthermore, the giant squid’s tentacles would greet or dance with the sea demons. It is especially interesting! Every few days, we will go and dig the squid. Ah right… Previously, we fought with a group of deranged humans because they put down a foul altar on the sea bed where we dig the squid. That altar would constantly stir the sea bed and mess up our fields. We sent people to negotiate with them, but it was useless, resulting in the battle.”

This time, even Amber and Rebecca were stunned. To be honest, for a regular human’s world outlook, it was truly impossible to understand what this sea demon was trying to describe!

“A kind of giant living corpse? It is already dead but it will constantly regenerate?” Rebecca was distracted as she said, “Then… how many individuals can be fed by it?!”

This young lady might be an unconventional viscountess, but her train of thought was correct. In fact, when Gawain heard of this description, he immediately wondered if it was edible. However, his mind thought a little more thoroughly than Rebecca and immediately realized that a constantly regenerating flesh probably wasn’t ‘safe-to-eat food’. Especially when that thing came from the strange and horrific deep sea. Who knew how much more peculiar and stranger things were down there?

In fact, the sea demon race was already considered a “peculiar and strange thing” in Gawain’s eyes…

Even Amber couldn’t help but feel interested in this daily activity as she asked, “What do your people dig the squid for? Do you really eat it?”

“Mm, it is actually mainly used as a fuel for the magic reactor, but it can also be eaten…” Tiel had a rather embarrassed expression. “The large squid’s flesh has very concentrated energy and a great texture too. We sea demons don’t really have a great sense of taste, right? Therefore, if something is rich with energy and has great texture, it is a delicacy for us. But in normal situations, the giant squid has the priority to supply the reactor. We will normally just take a few quick bites…”

Gawain continued to be dumbfounded: “It can be used to burn as fuel and can also be eaten? What kind of sick thing is that?!”

Furthermore, these deep-sea creatures would actually eat the fuel of their homes… Wasn’t it the same as those little brats that tried to sneak a sip of gasoline?

Just as Gawain expected, the deep sea… did have some strange things.

Due to curiosity, Gawain followed up with more questions regarding the “giant squid”, while the giant squid’s various traits slowly pieced together in the minds of everyone.

It was a massive ancient lifeform’s remains. A single tentacle had a length of a few kilometers, and it was just like a small mountain.

It was dead on the sea bed for countless years, but there were no signs of decay, and it would constantly regenerate. But every time it regenerated a little, the sea demons would dig it up and burn (or eat) it.

The giant squid’s tentacles would occasionally grow smaller tentacles that would greet or dance with the sea demons. However, the sea demons’ main evaluation of these tentacles were their chewiness.

The giant squid was normally surrounded by deep-sea creatures that were rather aggressive, but they were also rather chewy.

The giant squid would occasionally attract some creatures from some remote area and make them die in the vicinity of the tentacles while making it as though the creatures went there to suicide. As for the creatures that came from the other sea regions, they didn’t have as much chewiness.

It was obvious that Tiel judged many of the things in the deep sea based on their “chewiness”… It was unknown if this was her personal habit, or were all the sea demons the same…?

After listening to Tiel’s descriptions, Gawain’s mind had a sudden doubt:

What exactly did this group of fish dig up from the sea?

Didn’t they dig out an ancient god?!

Gawain’s mind wasn’t overly imaginative, but after hearing all the descriptions from Tiel, he couldn’t help but associate it with the god’s flesh that was found in the ancient fortress. The god might be dead, but the flesh wouldn’t decay or disappear; furthermore, it would affect the minds of other lifeforms. This trait was simply too special and distinct, and it was hard not to recall about it.

The deep-sea “giant squid” would constantly regenerate, but the god’s flesh that Gawain found wouldn’t regenerate. Perhaps it was some kind of suppression effect from the crystal cube that the Gondor Empire’s Master Mages had created.

However, the giant squid could affect the minds of many lifeforms, but why wasn’t it able to affect the sea demons? The sea demons didn’t just treat the “giant squid” as a fuel, they had also treated it as food… What was this group of fish made of?