I Became an Evolving Deep-Sea Creature

Chapter 5. Madness

【Authority】

[「Madness (狂化): When a Authorityful enemy appears, this ability activates automatically. During its duration, strength increases dozens to hundreds of times, and the user becomes invulnerable, taking no damage at all.]

[Activation Condition: After assessing the opponent’s rank (格), if you encounter an enemy of higher rank who harbors hostile intent, it activates automatically.]

[Cost of Use: Lifespan.]

《That warrior knew neither pain nor mercy—a berserker who obliterates all that dares to stand in his path. Even with the certainty of his own destruction looming, he does not stop.》

Reading the text carefully, Yul realized that the Stone of Authority absorbed into his body wasn’t a replica, but the real thing.

‘But where the hell did that bastard Arktar go!’

Seriously, was he not obligated to guard the Stone of Authority?

The moment Arktar’s necklace was undone, he didn’t even bother taking proper care of Yul and just bolted.

Later, when he went back whining and checked, there was nothing in the sarcophagus—he had just teleported away.

‘……That crazy alien! He really left.’

Yul opened the remaining sarcophagi, too, but they were all empty shells.

He regretted not pressing him with more questions, but decided to be satisfied with what he had gained.

If the Stone of Authority really turned into a problem, wouldn’t a retrieval squad show up? He’d think about that when the time came.

The ones who dumped the Stone of Authority in a place like this and didn’t even manage it properly were the ones at fault.

‘Anyway, the activation condition is insanely strict.’

First, he must encounter an enemy stronger than himself, and that enemy must have hostile intent?

But there were no further details. When does the activation end? Is there a cooldown? It seemed he’d have to figure that out himself.

The exploration of the ancient ruins had ended in vain, leaving him frustrated and unsatisfied.

‘Tch.’

A traitor, a cuteness addict, and a slightly unhinged rebel—but still, not having him around felt lonely.

Time to go back to being a deep-sea octopus with nothing to do.

But that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

After all, exploring these underground ruins had completely drained him, and he had absorbed enough dopamine. Now, until his lifespan ran out, all he needed to do was accumulate experience.

* * *

He explored quite a bit around the ruins, but there still wasn’t anything resembling another site.

The bottom of the deep sea was nothing more than uneven and flat.

What Yul realized after drifting for quite a while was that even in the deep sea, there were distinct environments. In particular, there were variations in temperature.

‘It’s pretty warm here?’

Finding a strangely warm place, he flapped his fins to move toward it.

‘And the ultrasonic waves are a bit odd too.’

Do different temperatures mean different wavelength bands? The returning echoes of the ultrasonic waves seemed slightly different.

Going in a little farther, he came across a region rich in vegetation.

For Yul, whose growth in experience points depended entirely on feeding, a place with abundant prey was important, and this seemed to be exactly that place.

‘What the?! Why are there so many bugs here?’

In the depths of the deep sea, there was a place that was incredibly warm.

Yul tried to approach, but stopped—it was too hot.

‘Is that what they call a hydrothermal vent?’

He saw chimney-like holes where water and gas spewed upward from underground.

He had seen it in a nature documentary before: a place where the heat from the deep subsurface vents out.

Yul was a deep-sea creature, designed to endure extreme cold, but the core of that hydrothermal vent exceeded 100 degrees, and even the surrounding area wasn’t much cooler.

From the outside, it looked like a giant magma flow spewing gas.

Using ultrasonic waves, he detected a great number of worms, clams, and shrimp.

‘Right, there was one on the evolution list too—the worm that can survive in hydrothermal vents.’

If he evolved into that creature, he’d be able to freely come and go through the vent.

‘Slurp.’

All that experience lying around in there, and he couldn’t reach it……!

Just stirring things up inside would be like an experience bonus event……!

With no other choice, Yul settled for catching the smaller creatures living on the outer edges of the vent.

Even the periphery, compared to the number of animals he had seen while exploring the sea floor, was overwhelming.

A true hunting ground of the deep sea.

Extending his tentacles to snatch shrimps and crabs one by one, he found them so nutritious that each gave him about 5 experience points.

[Until Next Evolution]

[120/400]

‘If I just keep hunting like this, I’ll advance smoothly.’

Whenever he grew full, he would stop, rest briefly, then repeat the cycle of eating again.

And then, among the prey, he spotted a peculiar specimen.

‘What is that? A balloon?’

It was among the shrimp, but its body was at least twice the size of the others.

‘I’ll eat you too!’

As he flicked out a tentacle to grab the shrimp, its body began to shudder violently.

Something about it seemed to have reached a critical point, so Yul froze.

KWHOOOOM!

The shrimp exploded, scattering a tremendous shockwave.

‘Guhhhk!’

Underwater, the shockwave reverberated even more intensely.

Yul felt the impact all throughout his body.

‘What the hell, a shrimp exploding—does that even make sense?’

Sensing the danger, he pulled back just in time, so his tentacle was unharmed, but it felt like his entire insides had been shaken to a pulp.

The problem didn’t end there. The explosion hadn’t just been noise—it had drawn nearby predators.

As always, Yul scattered ultrasonic waves in steady intervals, and this time he detected a shark far off, swimming in after catching the scent of blood.

It looked to be about 5 meters long—a massive shark. Being a deep-sea shark, its eyes were blind.

It was a form he had never seen before, with long holes pitted all along beneath its jaw, and it surged through the water like a runaway dump truck.

Bzzzt. Bzzzt.

‘What’s that?’

Suddenly, he felt an intense energy. He knew right away he had been detected.

Was it an electromagnetic field?

This shark seemed to be detecting Yul using a method different from the established system.

Not just Yul, but every clam, shrimp, and creature in the vicinity was caught in its detection.

Schlack!

The shark’s mouth opened wide.

‘What kind of shark mouth is that……?’

Its jaws stretched like a snake’s, grotesquely wide. It might not even have jawbones.

And then—it scooped up a massive mouthful of seafloor dirt.

Right next to where Yul was.

Crunch, crunch.

It filtered the soil through its lower jaw, and like a net catching everything, the sea creatures—clams, shrimp, and so on—were crushed and devoured.

Among them was the bomb shrimp, which exploded inside its mouth, but the shark didn’t even flinch.

‘What the hell is this thing?!’

Its mouth must be unimaginably durable.

If Yul were a marine biologist, he would be watching with eyes blazing, but unfortunately, he wasn’t a predator—he was a prey.

As the shark lunged again, Yul flailed and tried to flee, but ended up caught in the range of that engulfing maw.

‘D-didn’t I get an Authority?!’

【Authority—Madness (狂化) Activated】

At that instant, an immense force surged up from within Yul.

It was as though memories arose of an ancient warrior, stripped of reason, filled with rage, who dared challenge beasts many times stronger than himself.

Overwhelming, heaven-shattering power possessed him, and Yul’s eyes rolled back.

‘Rip and kill!’

Crack. Crackkkk.

His skin flushed red, muscles knitting tighter. With sheer strength, he forced apart the two teeth clamped on his tentacles.

Rrrrip!

The shark’s teeth tore out, its jaw snapping shut.

Yul’s eight tentacles writhed, grabbing at the slits beneath its jaws.

Those gaps—originally sieve-like filters for sifting sand—were ripped apart, just like prying open iron bars with bare hands, and Yul broke free.

Brimming with ferocious spirit, his body bursting with explosive elasticity, he charged the shark again, whirlpools forming as he accelerated.

In an instant, he caught up to the retreating shark. Clinging to its dorsal fin, Yul thrust out his tentacles, tearing it apart with both hands.

Screeeeech!

In that moment, the blind predator of the deep writhed in agony.

‘That’s right! Hurts, doesn’t it? Listen well, I am your end!’

Rip. Rrrrip.

Clinging tight with his suction cups, Yul rammed his reddened tentacles in, shredding its body.

It was like riding a tiger’s back—impossible to dismount.

The deep-sea shark thrashed to shake him off, but Yul only tore deeper, ripping at its head.

This was the way to victory!

But just as triumph was in reach, Yul froze. The surroundings had turned hot!

‘What?!’

The shark was rushing straight into the hydrothermal vent.

If he killed it inside that rising bubble of superheated water, then once Madness ended and his invincibility faded, Yul himself would become a nicely steamed octopus.

Whether the shark could withstand that heat was unknown, but it was desperate to shake him off.

Yul now had to wrench at its head, steering it elsewhere.

Creatures respond to pain. When he gouged the left, it veered right; when he gouged the right, it veered left.

‘Good, move as I want you to!’

Madness hadn’t worn off yet.

Yul tried to twist its course inside the vent, but it wasn’t working—the shark’s turning ability was too clumsy.

‘Huh?’

Then he spotted it: a Pompeii worm drifting leisurely in the water.

With a spare tentacle, he snatched it up. It wriggled desperately.

‘Hahaha! No chance!’

He shoved it straight into his mouth and bit down.

Crunch, crunch.

[You have devoured a Pompeii Worm. Experience +50!]

‘Wait—hold on, doesn’t that mean while I’m invincible, it’s basically an experience farming event?!’

He had a deep-sea shark that boasted overwhelming speed, and he was currently controlling it.

Realizing this, Yul kicked off a chaotic experience-farming session.

‘This is it!’

He darted everywhere, flinging out his tentacles to snatch up anything he could reach.

Meanwhile, the shark crashed into the seabed, slammed into pillars—but if this car… no, shark broke apart, that wasn’t Yul’s problem.

‘Such overwhelming speed……! Sturdiness to withstand the vent’s heat……! Deep-sea shark, I’ve fallen for your specs!’

In the middle of this insane experience boost, the shark finally began to slow. As they exited the vent, Yul tore into its brain and finished it off.

[You have devoured a higher rank creature. Experience +1,000!]

[Current Experience]

[6,600/400]

‘Holy shit!’

Overwhelmed by the sheer points, Yul felt dopamine flooding his brain.

‘I need to evolve right away.’

A quick calculation: Stage 2 needs 400, Stage 3 needs 800, Stage 4 needs 1,600, Stage 5 needs 3,200.

Seeing that he could jump all the way to Stage 5 at once, his eyes nearly rolled back.

But he had overlooked one thing.

[Madness (狂化) Ended.]

[Usage time: approx. 1 hour. Lifespan consumed: 2 years.]

‘Eh?!’

He had burned 2 years for just 1 hour?