Night Wandering

When he opened his eyes again and felt the darkness before him, Theus sighed.

"Looks like I'm back again. That was the quickest time yet."

"It wasn't unexpected, but at least I have a clue now. There are Transcendence creatures in the Deep Sea."

"Another Descent... Hmm?"

Theus sensed that something was off. He rolled over on instinct. The damp scent of the tide carried on the evening breeze stirred his muddled mind, and after a few seconds, it cleared. Theus abruptly sat up in bed.

"Wait! This is that island. I'm not dead!?"

Theus felt himself all over. He had no missing limbs or wounds, and someone had changed him into a loose set of pajamas. The room was pitch-dark, and no light came in from the balcony.

Was it night?

He examined the room carefully. This was his bedroom. At the foot of the bed, a maid was leaning against a chair, head tilted, fast asleep.

On a tall table not far away sat a calendar. Someone had polished it carefully, and it showed the third day of the Flowering Moon.

The third day... His memory stopped on the first day of the Flowering Moon, the day before the Descent. He'd encountered the Swollen Monster at the docks on the second day, so...

"I was unconscious for an entire day?"

After thinking it over, Theus shook his head. "The servants turn the calendar over during their morning cleaning. It's the middle of the night now, so I must have been unconscious for two days and one night."

"At least I haven't missed anything. The pirates won't come to negotiate until tomorrow."

Theus slipped out of bed and walked to the table. He picked up a glass, poured himself some water, and drank.

The clear, sweet water flowed down his parched throat, and Theus felt fully alive again. Then he noticed a few details.

"...When did my eyesight get this good?"

The curtains were drawn. Their thick velvet barely let any light through—and it was the middle of the night, so there were no lamps lit in the room.

There was indeed an oil lamp beside the maid's chair, but its wick had been turned down to a tiny flame to prevent a fire. Its bean-sized flicker was the room's only source of light.

Theus lowered his gaze to the glass in his hand. It was made of silver mixed with some copper and a very small amount of tin. Among its intricate patterns was an iris, the emblem of the Cohen Family.

Copper and tin? He could tell at a glance that the silver glass contained copper and tin?

Theus swallowed, took several deep breaths, and held back his excitement.

That so-called "Symbiosis Ritual" didn't seem to be all about taking. He could see in the dark now, and even sense the materials used to make the silver glass!

This was wonderful. What could be better for industrialization and technological advancement than the ability to sense the composition of matter?

He'd know the instant he touched a smelted ingot whether it contained impurities. He could directly sense the synthesis of chemical substances. On Blue Star, this ability would have pushed materials science forward by three whole stages.

Theus focused on the strange sensation within him. It was something beyond the usual senses. Recalling the fleeting glimpse he'd caught before passing out, he closed his eyes and tried to call upon his newly acquired sense to perceive the world.

Have you ever tried to perceive the world without using your eyes?

Humans are remarkably adaptable, especially in... certain ways.

The image on the retina is actually upside down, but the brain adapts to it. That's nothing unusual.

But someone once wondered: what if, one day, the image suddenly wasn't upside down anymore?

He designed a special pair of glasses with no other function than to flip the image seen through them.

Everyone who wore them stumbled around, unable to tell up from down or left from right. They couldn't even manage daily life on their own.

It might seem as if this proved something about the limitations of the human body and natural evolution.

But... the experiment didn't end there.

He kept making the test subjects wear the glasses—to eat, to live, never taking them off even for a moment.

It didn't take long. In about ten days, every subject had fully adapted to the flipped world and could live normally.

The entire world was upside down in your eyes. You might find it absurd, terrifying, inexplicable, but your body told you: It's nothing much. Just adapt.

Human potential is always beyond what we expect.

Theus felt that way now. It was as if he were immersed in warm currents, with countless pieces of information washing over him like water.

And to his astonishment, he could actually make sense of them.

At some point, many things about him had changed.

So this was the Symbiosis Ritual. It really was "symbiosis." They hadn't just shared life force; they'd even shared some of their sensory abilities.

Theus suddenly understood. Could the days he'd spent unconscious have been spent adapting to these new senses?

He casually explored this new perception and found that it seemed connected to water. He could easily sense nearby bodies of water, and the larger they were, the clearer they felt.

Since this ability came from the strange fish, that made perfect sense. Theus tried to sense the waters nearby.

The sea should be the easiest thing to sense.

Theus sensed it effortlessly. The sea was only a few hundred meters beyond the balcony... No, it was even closer!

Beneath the estate, beyond the soil and brickwork, warm ocean currents flowed.

"Hmm?"

Theus raised an eyebrow and focused on sensing them.

As he probed carefully, the underground waterways unfolded in his mind like a scroll. He could sense the slow-moving currents not just directly beneath the estate, but faintly beneath the entire island.

As he sensed them, a familiar presence entered his awareness.

It was...

"The Swollen Monster?"

Theus was startled. He'd thought the Swollen Monster had either been killed on the spot by the soldiers, fled far away, or somehow made itself a guest of honor at the estate. He hadn't expected to find it in the waterways beneath the estate.

Why was it still here? Was it waiting for him?

Come to think of it, beneath this estate...

Theus frowned and searched his memory. He hadn't been here long since arriving as the Border Count. Who had owned the estate before him?

A merchant, apparently?

Of course, "merchant" was merely the official description. The Empire didn't recognize the Pirate King and his Black Sail Fleet here, so this place had nothing but lawless merchants.

The Storm Ocean, the Empire's only pearl to the east. The Empress's gaze was fixed on it at all times. Unfortunately, the navy had only recently been established, and the Empire's borders ended at the sea.

At that thought, Theus pursed his lips. The fact that he, a bastard son, had been directly made a count gave him some idea of how much the Empress coveted this stretch of ocean, and how urgently she wanted it.

Theus quietly walked to the bedroom door and carefully opened it. Sensing the direction of the tide, he reached out to feel along the wall.

In the quiet night, Theus could hear his heart pounding.

He wanted to see the Swollen Monster. This was his first contact with Transcendence. He swallowed, stepped through the doorway, and left the bedroom.