Fifteen days later.
Green, in his bamboo-jointed thorn and evil taro flower form, stood atop Boiling Conch's colossal shell as they stopped before a desolate, uninhabited trench.
"Up ahead is the Trembling Trench, Master."
Based on the information about several ocean-world nodes provided by Boiling Conch, Green had determined that the Trembling Trench was one of the locations most likely to be a major node of the Parasitic Spore World.
The world's laws here seemed to have undergone some kind of mutation. Invisible vortex currents filled the seawater, with dark tides surging beneath the surface. Any low-level creature swept into them would face considerable danger.
"Trembling Trench... is that Eight-Horned Giant Serpent really so terrifying?"
Green had long since obtained intelligence. The reason this trench was so dreadful, aside from the vortex currents dangerous to low-level creatures, was that super-creature revered as a terrifying legend of this world's oceans.
According to Boiling Conch, it was an ancient creature left behind from this world's primordial seaweed era, even older than the fern domain kings upon the world's continents.
If one traced things back, only the legendary Kinsfern King could barely be considered an existence from the same era as this ancient creature.
"Perhaps the Eight-Horned Giant Serpent is nothing to Master and those divine trees of the continent, but to ocean creatures, it stands at the undisputed pinnacle of the marine food chain—the unshakable ultimate predator. Every few centuries, after it awakens and stirs up storms throughout the ocean, the powerful beings of every sea tremble before this trench for a long time."
Even after becoming Green's soul slave, Boiling Conch could not shake its reverence for the vast and mysterious trench ahead.
"Oh?"
Green gave a low laugh beneath the Face of Truth.
"Heh heh, I'm looking forward to it