Thirsty Sea Glow Algae

Riding Blaze Horses, Kroya and Joshua soon arrived at the shore.

Joshua had already seen the situation before coming to fetch Kroya, but Kroya's expression turned complicated once he saw it for himself.

The moon was bright and the stars sparse, making the night fairly well lit, but that paled in comparison to the scene along the shore.

An eerie blue glow filled the seawater. It twisted and darted through the water like a living thing, constantly spreading toward the surrounding rocks and boats to cling to them.

Whenever it completely enveloped a rock, the rock shrank at a rate visible to the naked eye, truly looking as though it were being devoured.

In all fairness, if one ignored the way it was "devouring" the rocks, it was actually quite beautiful.

A clear blue glow had suddenly appeared in the dark, fathomless ocean, roaming about as though it had consciousness and intelligence. People really might mistake it for some sea god, wouldn't they?

Rob, three knights, and Batos stood at the shore.

Behind them were local soldiers in tattered leather armor, each gripping a weapon that already looked somewhat rusty.

The atmosphere was extremely tense.

"Don't panic. Let me see what's going on!"

Kroya approached with his staff in hand.

"My lord!"

They visibly relaxed when they saw Kroya coming and hurriedly stepped aside so he could get closer to observe.

Batos added nervously, "My lord, be careful. They even eat people!"

The poor former lord was already trembling, both legs shaking. If Rob hadn't been standing behind him, he probably would have fled long ago.

Kroya nodded casually, then took a closer look.

He discovered that whenever the blue glow clung to a rock, there seemed to be an explosion of mana. The small explosion shattered the rock, which the glow then swallowed.

"This looks a little familiar."

Once he cast the Eagle Eye Spell on himself, the blue glow rapidly enlarged in his vision, revealing incredibly tiny, translucent blue particles.

They gathered together to form this spectacle.

"...Aren't these just algae?"

The longer he looked, the more it resembled a sight created by marine microorganisms like bioluminescent algae, just like those "blue tears of the sea" he had seen before.

But they really were devouring the rocks along the shore, and were even slowly eating away at the beach. Despite constantly exploding, their numbers showed no sign of decreasing. Instead, there were more and more of them.

He sensed mana fluctuations that were neither particularly strong nor weak, at most on the level of a rank-one magical creature.

It didn't seem to be anything serious.

Having reached that conclusion, he asked the former lord, "Have you personally seen them devour someone?"

Batos nodded hurriedly. "Yes, my lord! I saw them devour a farm servant with my own eyes. Not even a scrap of bone remained!"

"I see."

They devoured people, then. In that case, they certainly couldn't stay.

No matter how beautiful something was, if it threatened the safety of his territory, it had to be driven away-killing them all was probably impossible.

Completely eradicating this unusual ocean algae was beyond the abilities of a rank-one mage like him.

Kroya slowly extended his hand, silently reciting an incantation.

Threads of mana immediately gathered in his palm, forming a huge crimson fireball the size of a human head. Its scorching heat made those standing nearby uncomfortable.

Apart from Rob and the four knights, everyone lowered their heads in reverence and fear. Naturally, they were deeply afraid of a powerful mage.

But if another mage had been present, they would certainly have noticed something unusual about this rank-one Fireball spell-its power almost approached that of rank-two magic.

This was the result of his entirely new mana. The red mana seemed to enhance fire magic.

That was what allowed him to create such an enormous fireball.

"Go!"

He hurled the fireball straight into the sea. Normally, the flames would touch the seawater, causing an explosion and evaporation that would surely frighten away these strange algae.

But the instant the fireball touched the surface, it stopped!

The strange blue algae immediately swarmed over the fireball, turning the originally crimson sphere blue.

The dense, clear blue coating enveloped the crimson fireball within, pulsing in the seawater. Somehow, it looked wondrously beautiful.

"?!!"

Even Kroya lost his composure at the sight.

Fire was the most unstable magical element, bar none. How could a swarm of magical creatures formed from water elements envelop it like this?

It wasn't exploding?

Even more surprisingly, the Astral Body Inscription Technique suddenly gave him a notification-

[Magic plant suitable for Astral Spirit Inscription detected: Thirsty Sea Glow Algae. Please activate Astral Spirit Inscription to view the magic plant's Astral Spirit Body and inscribe a spell.]

After reading the notification, Kroya boldly stepped into the sea, approaching the now-quiet sphere of mingled red and blue.

Footsteps immediately followed behind him-the four knights came along too, ready to pull Kroya away at once if anything went wrong.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Kroya slowly pressed his finger against the algae-covered fireball and activated the Astral Body Inscription Technique.

He had thought it wouldn't consume much mana, but it drained every last bit he had accumulated through an entire afternoon of meditation before an image finally appeared.

The Astral Spirit Bodies of this mass of algae were actually joined together.

Azure threads wound around the nearly identical points of light at their center, flickering within the colony of Thirsty Sea Glow Algae enveloping the entire fireball.

"The sun! The sun! The sun!"

"Ah... I'm so bored. I want to explode."

"Daytime! Why can't we see the sun during the day?"

Countless faint voices echoed throughout the Astral Spirit Body, making Kroya feel as though his head were about to burst.

So many voices and consciousnesses gathered together exerted pressure no weaker than certain mental spells.

To keep these consciousnesses from contaminating his own mind, Kroya unceremoniously inscribed the first chapter of the Song of Red he had just learned—the meditation method—inside the Astral Spirit Bodies of these Thirsty Sea Glow Algae.

He had worried about whether he could finish inscribing all of them, but to his surprise, a strange, unending stream of mental energy flowed back to him as he worked.

At the same time, the voices of the Thirsty Sea Glow Algae grew increasingly joyful-

"The sun!"

"Whoa, we can explode now!"

"We're going to see the sun!"

The algae immediately abandoned the fireball they had surrounded and surged toward Kroya.

The fireball sank into the water with a hiss and quickly went out.

The sight instantly put everyone on edge.

"My lord!"

"Be careful!"

The four knights, led by Joshua, nearly drew their swords in their alarm, but fortunately, Kroya stopped them in time.

"Don't worry. They pose no threat to me."

Able to see their Astral Spirit Bodies directly, Kroya sensed only joy and delight, with no threat whatsoever, so he let them swarm over him.

He continued inscribing.

The azure algae felt slightly cool as they crawled onto his skin, but their mana and ceaseless mental energy kept pouring into Kroya's body.

With their help, after a full half hour of work, the incredibly complex inscription of the Song of Red...

Was finally complete.