Tide Worm

Chapter 30 - 30 - Tide Worm

It was midsummer again. The azure sky was as clear as washed jade, and the sunlight poured down like melted amber, casting a golden edge over the abandoned port.

Sixteen-year-old Rosaline stood atop a half-collapsed watchtower, silently observing the derelict port below. The salty sea breeze brushed past her nose. The tower walls were covered in moss and ivy, and dewdrops sparkled in the sun.

Compared to when she first arrived six years ago, the young girl was undoubtedly more mature and beautiful. She had grown to be nearly 1.7 meters tall, a full head taller than her teacher, whom she used to look up to. Her delicate face had shed its childish roundness, replaced by a calmness very similar to her teacher's, but with an added touch of vibrant spirit.

After observing for a while, she leaned her notebook against the rusty railing and began to take notes.

"Grayport City Port Area, Aberrant Beetle nesting grounds... All base type beetles, no evolved types found... Bodies are decaying, covered in flesh tissue... Primary attack methods: claw strikes, head-on charges... Notes: They prefer dark areas like containers and breakwater crevices. Beware of ambushes..."

A moment later, having finished recording the observations on the aberrant beetles, Rosaline hummed an unknown tune and, like a gust of wind, departed from the watchtower's summit. She drifted down to the abandoned streets of Grayport City.

Observing and recording information about various Aberrations was a long-term task her teacher had assigned her at the end of last year.

The main reason was that after extensive practice and with the enhancement of military-grade weaponry, Rosaline had fully gained the strength to survive independently in this wasteland. Therefore, she no longer needed to stay within certain designated safe zones and was allowed to freely explore areas outside the central district, or even beyond Ish City.

Of course, there were two dangerous areas she was still forbidden to approach: Mount Ish and Luya City, located beyond Mount Ish. These were two high-risk zones that even her teacher found formidable. Rosaline, having learned to think before acting, naturally kept a respectful distance.

Stepping over rubble and debris, she walked slowly along the desolate streets, the sunlight casting sharply defined shadows from the ruins.

Suddenly, in the next instant, two giant Tide Worms burst out from the shadows of the nearby ruins. These were two Aberrant Tide Worms covered in flesh, over a meter long. Their blood-red heads had no additional organs, only a gaping maw split vertically, filled with sharp teeth. They lunged towards the girl's head like two foul-smelling black shadows.

Rosaline's face clearly showed surprise, but no panic. Being ambushed by suddenly appearing Aberrations on the street was a common occurrence; she was used to it.

Dark red, glowing runes suddenly appeared on her skin and clothing. She immediately unleashed immense strength, powerfully kicking the ground. As the ground cracked beneath her, she dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow.

Then, she skillfully drew her Alloy Combat Blade from the metal sheath hanging at her waist. With a flash of blue light, the two Aberrant Tide Worms shattered like sacs filled with pus, splattering foul yellow bodily fluids. Rosaline, prepared for this, used Wind Control to blow them away beforehand, not allowing a single drop to touch her.

"Phew... Damn it, no matter how many times, they still startle me..." she muttered, using simple water magic to clean her beloved blade before sheathing it again.

Then she looked down at the two Tide Worm corpses.

These were actually what were commonly called pill bugs, but their size was terrifying. Their heads had mutated into giant mouths densely packed with hundreds of fine teeth. Even a child who had played with countless pill bugs would likely develop a phobia here.

However, Rosaline wasn't staring at the corpses to desensitize herself. She had encountered too many disgusting Aberrations over the years; two giant Tide Worms were nothing.

What truly puzzled her was that she hadn't found any of these Aberrant Tide Worms during her exploration of Grayport City last year, yet they were becoming increasingly numerous now, as if breeding rapidly somewhere.

The problem was that Aberrations had terrifying regenerative abilities and seemingly immortal lifespans as long as they fed. However, in terms of reproduction, neither she nor her teacher had ever witnessed it. The primary source was still the reproduction of wild animals, which were then infected and transformed into Aberrations, a cyclical process.

So why were the Aberrant Tide Worms in Grayport City increasing? As a student bearing her teacher's expectations and a seeker of knowledge, Rosaline felt a responsibility to investigate.

She would try to gather clues first and retreat immediately if she encountered danger, then inform her teacher...

She cautioned herself silently, then walked into a small alley and picked up her magic-guided skateboard that she had left there. The runes lit up, and the skateboard moved forward silently, carrying her through streets overgrown with iron ferns as she began to venture deeper into Grayport City.

Because it was a low-profile, ground-hugging flight, without being conspicuously exposed in mid-air, Rosaline encountered little danger along the way.

However, as she approached the core area of the port, a dense, heart-pounding rustling sound and non-human roars caught her attention.

Rosaline immediately controlled her skateboard to ascend, landing on the roof of a relatively intact ruined building nearby. What she saw made her extremely surprised – hundreds of Aberrant Tide Worms were moving in a group, devouring all the animals and Aberrations they encountered along the way.

Afterward, the satiated Tide Worms would immediately return to their original locations without being attacked by their companions, while other Tide Worms continued to surge forward, heading to an unknown destination.

Rosaline was stunned. These Aberrations actually understood how to act in groups, had a common objective, and did not attack each other at all!

This completely contradicted her impression of basic Aberrations as "killing machines without self-awareness"!

Impossible, how could this happen? Could these all be evolved types?

Rosaline's brow furrowed, and a strong sense of strangeness and unease arose within her.

In her teacher's classification, Aberrations were generally divided into two levels.

The most basic were called "base type Aberrations," or "base types" for short. Their characteristics included mutated heads, exposed flesh, deformed heads, and a lack of self-awareness; they would attack their own kind and devour everything in sight.

The advanced ones were called "evolved types," characterized by reduced exposed flesh, the evolution of new offensive or defensive organs, and a low-level biological instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm.

Rosaline had encountered both types over the years.

Base types were the most common and were often instantly killed by her, just like the Tide Worms earlier. Evolved types were rare and varied greatly. Powerful evolved types could force Rosaline to flee and keep her distance, while weaker evolved types were only slightly more troublesome than base types.

But the swarm before her...

If she called them base types, they could distinguish their companions and didn't attack each other. If she called them evolved types, setting aside their sheer numbers, their mutations were only in their heads and large areas of flesh covering their skin, which were entirely the external characteristics of base types.

Why was this? Could it be a unique trait of Aberrant Tide Worms, possessing some ability to distinguish companions through pheromones?

But if so, why didn't other insect Aberrations have this ability?

Furthermore, the direction some of the Tide Worms returned after feeding was towards Mount Ish, which was precisely one of the two most dangerous places her teacher had sternly warned her not to approach on Ish Island!

Could this have something to do with the dangers within Mount Ish?

At this thought, Rosaline's resolve to retreat grew – just in case, she should go back to her teacher first!

But just as she was about to step on her skateboard and fly back to Ish City, a malicious gaze suddenly alerted her.

She immediately looked up and saw a pitch-black humanoid shadow standing on the top floor of a ruined building not far from her, staring intently at her.

It was a humanoid Aberration clad in pitch-black scales, undoubtedly a top-tier evolved type! It had four pairs of dragonfly-like wings on its back, and the ends of its arms were two sharp bone blades. Its pitch-black face resembled an iron mask with huge gray-white compound eyes, but the outline of human-like facial features could barely be discerned.

Such... such high evolution... It's probably the highest evolved Aberration I've ever seen, and by a significant margin...

Rosaline's mood became heavy, her well-defined right hand slowly moved towards the Alloy Combat Blade at her waist, preparing to fight and retreat.

According to her teacher's assessment, for all biological Aberrations, the less exposed flesh, the higher the degree of evolution. Having completely concealed all external flesh exposure meant it was a monster at the apex of Aberrations, one that would require her teacher to go all out.

Drawing her Alloy Combat Blade, Rosaline retreated step by step, intending to step onto the magic-guided skateboard. To her surprise, throughout the entire process, the humanoid Aberration standing on the rooftop, looking down from above, made no move to stop her escape. It was as if it were watching a play unrelated to itself.

Why wasn't it attacking? Rosaline's vigilance and suspicion grew even greater. She even suspected that the opponent might have limited vision, appearing to look at her but actually being unable to see very far.

But in that very instant, she suddenly saw that on the face of the humanoid Aberration looking down at her, at the position of its mouth, an extremely slow, upturned curve revealed a subtle arc – anthropomorphic, contemptuous, and full of malice.

Was that... a smile?

Rosaline doubted her own eyes, but the moment she blinked, the figure of the humanoid Aberration abruptly vanished from the rooftop, as if it had never existed.