D.I.O

“Ugh… ek… phew… dang, that was hard. Anyway, where am I?”

Once Merlin recovered, he looked around. Anyone else would have just seen an endless sea all around them and be totally lost, but Merlin was able to use his Enhanced Eyesight to look further and see land.

“Oh, it seems I’ve drifted quite far from the shore.”

After surveying his surroundings, Merlin thought of something and raised both hands. As Merlin had developed his Seven Jewel school of thought, the magic circle on the back of his right hand had become a spinel from an Emerald. Merlin closed his eyes to concentrate, and soon, a slight glow emanated from this spinel as magic power started emerging. His left hand also began to glow with a golden hue as internal energy was released.

“Meal time.”

Merlin fed magic power to the egg on his right shoulder and internal energy to the spirits, Shining and Younghwi, the former still carrying the egg while the latter held the external Golden Core.

Whoosh.

Initially, this process would only take about ten seconds or so, but as time went on, it took longer and longer for Merlin to feed his spirits and egg, eventually coming to take one to two minutes. However, once he was done this time, a text message popped up.

/Your Wicalein Ring has increased to the 6th tier!/

“Okay, finally. Both rings are the same tier.”

Merlin had previously worn both Wicalein Rings on the middle finger of each hand, but he now moved the ring on his right hand to the pinky finger of his other. With the spinel or magic stone on his right hand, the internal energy he released to feed his spirits was slightly impeded, so he decided to consolidate his internal energy by imbuing it into the rings on his left hand.

Bam!

Visualizing his spirit becoming a perfect square, Merlin swung his left hand at the spirit. Surprisingly, rather than scattering or breaking apart, the spirit was able to sustain Merlin’s swing. Although Merlin had been holding back, his physical power was already at a considerable level. So, when his spirit endured that punch, it meant that it was stable and firm.

“Good. At this level, it can block an arrow or bullet without any issue. However, it still probably can’t block that girl’s aura bullet….”

Merlin recalled the bullets Cruze had fired. To outside observers, one would probably only see a young girl using a modern weapon, but Merlin knew that this was far from the truth. In terms of pure physical power, her bullets were slightly stronger than normal ones by about two or four times; however, Cruze’s bullets possessed a strong sense of ‘idea,’ so they could destroy her enemy’s defenses and be more impactful.

These projectiles possessed penetration power that could pierce any defenses that were based on internal energy, life force, or even divine power, which utilized the reflection of other-dimensional powers. Merlin was certain that he’d instantly die if he were hit with such a bullet.

“Hmm, to block that attack, I’d need to be able to deflect it….”

Yet, that line of thought was useless. A bullet was too fast. At this point, Merlin had risen to a level where he’d be able to avoid or deflect multiple arrows simultaneously, but an arrow's top speed usually peaked at 250 to 300 kilometers per hour. In comparison, a bullet traveled at 990 meters per second. If this were converted, it would be 3,500 kilometers per hour. A bullet was ten times faster than an arrow. Would he be able to see and deflect such an attack? How fast of a reaction speed was needed to deflect a speeding bullet?

“No, wait. That orc leader was able to deflect some of her bullets, right? Moreover, he deflected the ones that were from her automatic machine gun.”

However, Merlin felt that something was contradictory. If that orc leader had such quick reflexes, how could he have lost to users? For him to recognize and deflect a machine gun’s projectiles, it didn’t make sense for the users to be capable of hitting him at all. Every attack would have looked as though they were traveling at a snail’s pace, so why did he succumb to defeat?

“Then, that means he used some other method to see the bullets… did he calculate and predict their position and where they were headed? No. That explanation would definitely simplify things, but that guy also blocked attacks coming from behind him.”

If someone in front of Merlin shot at him, he’d probably be able to avoid the attack. His internal energy gave him superhuman powers, so he’d be able to utilize this to somehow dodge successfully.

The main issue with this logic occurred when the target didn’t know a bullet was flying toward them. People can avoid projectiles that they’re aware of, but it's impossible to react with the same speed if they don’t know it’s there. Furthermore, if an attack is quicker than the time it takes to recognize it, Merlin could just form an internal energy shield around his whole body to prevent any injuries. It would be futile to try and deflect the bullet with a slim sword blade.

“However, that guy really did it. That means there’s another approach to resolving this problem… hmm?”

Merlin stopped thinking as he felt a formidable power beneath his feet, underwater.

Whoosh…

Merlin held his breath. The power of this entity was no joke, and when he sensed its overwhelming life force, Merlin essentially became frozen.

“W-what the hell? Is it a field boss?”

With that said, Merlin couldn’t sense any harmful intent from the entity. It was just there. It seemed likely that nothing would happen as long as he didn’t provoke it, but Merlin decided to dig a bit deeper, so he used Aura Vision to look into the sea.

“That’s…”

Like radar, Merlin everything within two kilometers around him and visualized a three-dimensional field within his mind. Like this, he was able to see the general shape of the entity below. The entity was located in the deep sea, and it was able to meld and blend into its surroundings to camouflage itself perfectly. Yet, since Merlin was scanning for an aura, it couldn’t avoid being recognized.

“A squid?”

It was a Level 17 Kraken, a symbolic mythical creature of the sea that would arise in legends and myths. This sea monster was enormous, beyond any imagination. From the tip of its body to the ends of its legs, the sea monster’s length came in at 600 meters. And although this was its size put into words, the sea monster’s monstrous mass went beyond mere measurement. In fact, Merlin couldn’t even describe the Kraken’s body as a living organism. It was double the size of the Eiffel Tower, which was 300 meters tall. In addition, if its elastic legs were pulled, the actual length of the sea monster would be much more vast. To sum it up, this Kraken was absolutely massive.

“Woah! Due to the monster’s size, the amount of energy it has is crazy. It doesn’t seem like the energy is internal energy or magic power, either… is it a type of life force? I should really get a closer look.”

As he mumbled this, Merlin started diving down without any hesitation. Merlin didn’t know, however, that the Kraken was programmed to attack anything larger than a particular size. More specifically, it had been ordered to attack anything like a submarine or a ship that reached a minimum size. Essentially, the Kraken was a trap monster.

The Kraken was placed to prevent ships or other vessels from entering farther south, as that area was a secret space that hadn’t been released yet: [New Land]. Furthermore, there were more Krakens placed at regular intervals to prevent such crossings, so the Kraken that Merlin saw wasn’t unique. The developers of DIO had created the Krakens to fend off intrepid users who tried to cross the dangerous seas using a vessel or other large object.

This meant that, for Merlin, the Kraken was a harmless entity that wouldn’t attack him, as its targets were any ship or vessels that went beyond a certain size. In other words, as long as Merlin didn’t provoke it in any way, the Kraken wouldn’t respond to him.

Alas, Merlin didn’t know this, so he started circulating his internal energy.

Whoosh.

Ten years of internal energy expanded into 20 after going through Mercury. Then, with Venus, these 20 years became 40.

This was the Golden Pill Immortal Technique’s greatest strength: creating something from virtually nothing. The technique was optimized to output the most internal energy in the shortest amount of time, and though it was undoubtedly less efficient than other techniques, its maximum output easily made up for it. The internal energy that Merlin currently wielded was more explosive and powerful than what a three-cycle (180 years) internal user was capable of outputting.

Boom!

The stone-like façade of the Kraken was instantly deformed from Merlin’s strike. Obviously, the Kraken wouldn’t just stay still after this.

Oom!

/Field Boss, Kraken, has made an appearance!/

The movement of the 600-meter-long Kraken caused the sea to shake violently, creating a tsunami. Each of its ten legs was the size of four or five train cars put together. Even a modern aircraft carrier would be fully enveloped and crushed if the Kraken’s long, wide legs wrapped around it.

Ooh!

It went without saying that every time the Kraken moved, the sea’s current changed, and the surroundings shook. The volume of water it displaced was enormous. It was as if someone put their hand in a basin full of water and moved around; all the water in the sea seemed like it would rush out of it. Tsunamis and whirlpools could be seen forming here and there.

Boom!

It was a spectacular sight to behold. Even a modern submarine wouldn’t have been able to survive 30 seconds in this turbulent seawater, and although the Kraken hadn’t attacked, just its movements could create a hurricane underwater. However, the Kraken had eventually pinpointed Merlin’s exact location, so it was moving to launch an attack.

The Kraken was like a massive elephant to the tiny ant known as Merlin, and its overall size also gave it an incomparable recognition ability.

‘Hehehe.’

However, Merlin just smiled despite his obvious fear. Facing such a large monster was literally a catastrophe-level event. However…

Merlin couldn’t be caught while he was in the water.

Splash!

Merlin navigated the chaotic currents to slip through the Kraken’s building-sized legs as they moved. Like a speck of dust floating in the air, no matter how much anyone tried capturing him, he would always find a way to slip past.

Koo!

The Kraken exhibited a mind-boggling amount of power, but it was no use. Merlin had already slipped past its legs. The Kraken recognized this and located Merlin once more as it struck out consecutively with its legs. Yet, Merlin was like a UFO in the water. As if the world’s physical laws and inertia didn’t apply to him, Merlin was able to evade at unnatural right angles and avoid every hit. Although Merlin’s speed was capped at 300 kilometers per hour, his ability to move freely and unnaturally underwater made it impossible to catch him.

“Oh~ it’s angry!”

Merlin chuckled in jest as he swam around. He was as slippery as a tadpole, accelerating as fast as an arrow. The oversized Kraken, which wasn’t optimized for precise movement, couldn’t touch even a single hair of his. Merlin didn’t feel any sense of urgency or nervousness as he continued to casually avoid the attacks, and he soon rose to the surface to get a better look at the Kraken.

“I hit it with a pretty powerful attack, but it didn’t seem to do anything. I can’t believe that 40 years of internal energy did nothing.”