Chapter 9
‘This is… a jellyfish?’
Nereia looked at the deep-sea creature pierced by one of its tentacles and thought.
Its shape, for one.
The way it felt when Nereia touched it with its other three tentacles, too.
And the way its body swayed in the deep-sea currents.
No matter how Nereia looked at it, the creature before its eyes was unmistakably a jellyfish.
‘I… was scared of a single jellyfish?’
Nereia shuddered, belatedly remembering how frightened it had been just moments ago, going on about ghosts and the like.
It was embarrassing.
The fact that it had been so scared of a single jellyfish.
At least there was no one around to see it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been strange if Nereia had died of embarrassment.
Well…
‘Enough joking around. Anyway, what is this thing, and how did it evade my sight?’
The embarrassment of having made such a fuss over a jellyfish lasted only a moment.
Nereia soon began examining the jellyfish pierced by one of its tentacles closely.
The dead jellyfish’s body was quite transparent, and its reaction to mana was extremely faint.
That must have been why, even with its eyes, Nereia could see nothing but the mana-light that had appeared for a split second.
Perhaps this jellyfish was…
‘Some kind of camouflaged deep-sea creature.’
There had occasionally been deep-sea creatures like that on Earth, too.
Creatures that, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, deceived their predators’ senses and escaped.
When Nereia had been human, it had studied them and even published a paper announcing the discovery of a new species to the academic community.
But—there was only so much one could learn by simply looking at it.
To find out exactly what this was, there was really only one way.
‘Trying it would be the most accurate.’
If it ate the creature, it would learn what it was.
Having settled on that, Nereia opened its mouth without hesitation and said,
‘Let’s eat.’
It swallowed the corpse of the jellyfish pierced by one of its tentacles in a single bite.
Munch, munch.
It was then, as Nereia chewed the jellyfish’s corpse with the tiny, serrated teeth in its mouth, tearing it to shreds.
【You have devoured a Ghost Jellyfish.】
【You have acquired the new trait 「Mana Concealment Membrane」.】
The system windows that appeared in its vision told Nereia what it had eaten.
Nereia skimmed through the information provided by the system and thought.
‘A Ghost Jellyfish. The name certainly suits its characteristics. And Mana Concealment Membrane… So that’s why I couldn’t see it.’
When Nereia prodded its body with a tentacle, it realized that a thin, transparent membrane covered its translucent outer shell.
This transparent membrane was probably the new trait it had just acquired: Mana Concealment Membrane.
Anyway, this…
‘It’s quite a useful ability.’
As one might expect, the performance of the Mana Concealment Membrane it had just acquired varied greatly depending on how much mana it put into it, but it was definitely a good ability.
A simple test showed that a small amount of mana did little more than make it blurry.
But when Nereia put in what even it thought was ‘too much,’ it became transparent enough that it could barely be spotted even with the ‘eyes.’
It might not have been as effective as the Ghost Jellyfish, which had been so impossible to spot that Nereia had mistaken it for a ghost, but even this was quite useful.
All the more so considering that its eyes were somewhat special compared to those of other deep-sea creatures.
At the very least, other Lesser Predators like itself wouldn’t be able to spot it.
Of course…
‘That depends on whether they have any special abilities of their own.’
This was a world where mana existed.
Any deep-sea creature here would probably have at least one special ability, like the Ghost Jellyfish.
So, no matter how useful the Mana Concealment Membrane was…
‘I can’t let my guard d—?’
Just as Nereia was reminding itself not to rely too heavily on the Mana Concealment Membrane and die pointlessly,
a new system window appeared in its vision.
【The number of deep-sea creatures devoured has reached a certain threshold.】
【The number of traits possessed has reached a certain threshold.】
【Unique Trait 「Trait Predation」 is growing.】
【Unique Trait 「Deep-Sea Bestiary」 has been unlocked.】
【Unique Trait 「Deep-Sea Bestiary」 has been linked to the ■■■■ system.】
‘…Deep-Sea Bestiary?’
Nereia’s eyes widened at the system’s announcement that it had acquired a new Unique Trait called Deep-Sea Bestiary.
* * *
【Deep-Sea Bestiary】
＊Deep-Sea Unicellular Larva
＊Deep-Sea Carapace Microbe
＊Deep-Sea Mana-Absorbing Colony
＊Deep-Sea Erosion Larva
＊Deep-Sea Propulsion…
＊Deep-Sea…
‘So this is what it looks like.’
The Deep-Sea Bestiary was exactly what its name suggested: a bestiary.
It listed the names of various deep-sea creatures, including those Nereia had discovered and eaten so far, as well as many it had never encountered.
The Deep-Sea Bestiary provided information about the creatures Nereia had eaten and observed, starting with their names, followed by their characteristics and the traits they possessed.
Although the names of deep-sea creatures it had neither discovered nor eaten appeared in gray, it couldn’t view their entries.
The most striking part was the indicator showing how thoroughly it had analyzed each creature, along with a section telling it which traits it had and hadn’t acquired.
The entry for the Ghost Jellyfish it had most recently eaten looked like this.
＊Ghost Jellyfish
└Analysis: 38%
└Information: Locked.
└Characteristics: Locked.
└Acquired Traits: Mana Concealment Membrane.
└Unacquired Traits: ???. ???.
Its analysis was only 38% complete.
It also showed that the Ghost Jellyfish had three traits Nereia could acquire, but so far, it had obtained only the Mana Concealment Membrane.
‘Anyway, the more I look at this… the more it reminds me of the deep-sea creature bestiary I used to keep when I was human.’
Nereia closed the Deep-Sea Bestiary and thought to itself.
It wondered if this new Unique Trait, the Deep-Sea Bestiary, might be connected to who it had been as a human.
The layout of the Deep-Sea Bestiary reminded Nereia so much of the deep-sea creature bestiary it had compiled as a human that it couldn’t shake the feeling.
And so, Nereia thought.
If this bestiary of traits had really been influenced by the deep-sea creature bestiary it had compiled when it was human…
‘Could the Unique Traits I might acquire next be connected to who I was as a human, too? If so…’
…could being reborn as a deep-sea creature have been more than a coincidence?
Muttering that to itself, Nereia shook its head to clear its thoughts and stopped itself from overthinking.
‘I shouldn’t think too deeply about it. Not now.’
Just focusing on staying alive was already more than enough.
Even though it was a Lesser Predator, the deep sea was vast, and there were many predators.
So, for now, it couldn’t afford to worry about anything besides survival.
It definitely shouldn’t have…
‘Anyway, this is really bothering me.’
Nereia reopened the Deep-Sea Bestiary it had closed and murmured as it looked at the Ghost Jellyfish’s analysis percentage.
It knew only 38% of what there was to know about the Ghost Jellyfish.
And there were still two more traits it could acquire.
The more Nereia looked at the Ghost Jellyfish’s entry in the Deep-Sea Bestiary…
‘I want to study it.’
At the thought of filling its analysis from 38% to 100%, Nereia’s research obsession—bordering on madness—flared up.
No, it simply wanted to study the Ghost Jellyfish.
Besides, to study the Ghost Jellyfish, it would have to eat it. And eating it would make it stronger. Wasn’t that killing two birds with one stone?
So…
‘Let’s go study it right now.’
Though it tried to hold back, Nereia eventually gave in, poured mana into its Mutant Propulsion Sac, and shot through the darkness of the deep sea.
Its target was…
‘Ghost Jellyfish. A colony would be even better.’
It didn’t know if one existed, but Nereia would be delighted if it found a Ghost Jellyfish colony.
* * *
‘This is insane!’
After traveling through the darkness of the deep sea with its Mutant Propulsion Sac for several hours, Nereia finally found a Ghost Jellyfish colony and cried out with joy, its research obsession bordering on madness.
The Ghost Jellyfish colony was located inside a massive deep-sea coral.
Hundreds of Ghost Jellyfish, appearing and disappearing around the softly glowing coral, gave off an almost dreamlike air.
In particular, the sight of the coral’s gentle light passing through the Ghost Jellyfish’s distinctive transparent bodies and spreading around them made Nereia regret that it couldn’t capture the scene in a photograph.
It was like…
‘Being in a dream rather than reality.’
But the joy of finding the Ghost Jellyfish colony lasted only a moment.
Nereia was entranced by its dreamlike beauty, staring blankly at the hundreds of Ghost Jellyfish, when…
Gooooo…
Suddenly, an unknown creature’s cry echoed from the darkness of the deep sea, beyond the reach of the coral’s light.
Startled, Nereia looked toward the darkness where the cry had come from.
At that moment, the hundreds of Ghost Jellyfish swaying around the deep-sea coral all vanished at once.
A massive something emerged from the darkness.
It was…
‘A mon…ster…?’
A monster.
Its long body looked several meters in length, even at a glance, and brought an eel to mind.
Its long body was protected like armor by something hard that looked like pure white bone.
And inside its slightly open mouth were countless sharp, pointed teeth—thousands of them, judging by the look of it. Just seeing them made Nereia’s legs tremble.
The monster that had emerged from the darkness—or rather, the unidentified deep-sea fish—
Crack. Crunch.
Slowly moved forward and began tearing apart the deep-sea coral where the hundreds of Ghost Jellyfish lived.
Nereia simply watched in silence as the unidentified deep-sea fish tore into the coral.
Fortunately…
‘Its main food seems to be deep-sea coral.’
Nereia murmured to itself.
The only thing that sudden deep-sea fish was interested in was the massive coral where the hundreds of Ghost Jellyfish lived.
If it had been a species that preyed on other deep-sea creatures, like the ones Nereia had encountered so far, Nereia wouldn’t have been able to observe it like this.
Still, here it was, in a life-threatening situation, and its first instinct was to observe.
‘I could end up dying pointlessly like I did when I was human.’
Nereia recalled how it had died after disturbing the enormous eye it had seen in the deep sea as a human, and gave a faint smile.
Crack—!
Something suddenly flashed past in front of it.
At the same time, an ominous sound rang out, and the massive deep-sea fish vanished in an instant.
‘Huh…?’
Nereia let out a confused, faltering sound without realizing it.
What on earth had just…
‘What just went by?’
Just a moment ago…
‘Where did that enormous deep-sea fish that was eating the coral go?’
The deep-sea fish that had been tearing at the coral was several meters long, at the very least.
It was overwhelmingly larger than any deep-sea creature Nereia had seen so far.
And yet that enormous deep-sea fish had vanished from its sight in an instant.
As Nereia stared blankly at the spot where the unidentified deep-sea fish had been, unable to believe what had just happened,
Boom—!
The spot where the deep-sea fish had been.
No—in the darkness of the deep sea beyond it, an enormous eye appeared.
The spot where the deep-sea fish had been.