I Became an Evolving Deep-Sea Creature

Chapter 8. The Deep-Sea Creature and the Lighthouse Keeper

The founder of the Beltain family was a mage. However, as the family intermarried with ordinary people, the magical bloodline thinned, and by the current generation, having even one mage was considered fortunate.

Ian Beltain was the third son of a noble family.

From a young age, he had been recognized as possessing magical talent, and thus, he was given a choice.

He could attend the academy to study magic, or he could take on a personal mentor and learn magic privately.

He chose neither.

The moment he entered the mansion's library as a child and began delving into the legacy left by his ancestors, he felt that mastering it was his destiny.

Even as a fallen family of mages, they still had rules.

Gawae Bulchul (家外不出).

(If one is not of the family, it must not be passed on.)

No one outside the family may learn the ancestral magic.

Bihin Bujeon (非人不傳).

(If one is not human, it must not be passed on.)

If one's character is corrupt, they may not learn the ancestral magic.

Bigija Bujeon (非技者不傳).

(If one has no skill, it must not be passed on.)

If one lacks proper skill, they may not learn the ancestral magic.

When Ian, the first in decades to meet all three conditions, appeared in the family's history, every member unanimously agreed to allow him to inherit the magic.

-Unique Magic, Great Balance (大天秤)

It was a form of magic that deviated greatly from the general schools of common magic.

Digging through many lost records and restoring ancient knowledge filled Ian with excitement.

Upon reaching adulthood, he realized that restoring the magic required the study of both the sky and the sea.

With the family's support, he volunteered to serve as the lighthouse keeper on the edge of their territory.

A remote island lighthouse, rarely used after the opening of a new sea route.

For someone who needed to observe both the stars and the sea, it was the perfect place.

He endured solitude well and had a deep interest in marine biology—so it was, in every sense, his true calling.

* * *

He had been frail since childhood, so he spent time every day walking to build up his strength.

That day, too, he was walking along the coast as usual.

It was purely by chance that he discovered the creature.

A strangely shaped specimen washed up on the shore.

"An octopus?"

He had never seen an octopus that looked so peculiar before. It was small, about the size of a single arm, quite cute, and had fins on its head shaped like ears.

For Ian, who had a deep interest in marine life, it sparked an irresistible curiosity.

He poked and prodded the creature a few times before realizing it was still alive.

After fetching some seawater and a fishbowl, he brought the octopus home for observation.

It seemed to still be unconscious, not moving, but that gave him time to study it calmly.

It was truly strange. Why on earth would an octopus need fins? Its tentacles were short—could they grow longer? And how had it ended up on land in the first place? His curiosity only deepened.

Then, while he was out for a short while, the octopus had perked up.

"You're finally awake?"

Yul was in confusion. He remembered fainting after seeing the sea's surface, but everything after that was blank.

"How do you feel? Are you okay?"

Meeting a talking human was, of course, delightful. But more than that, Yul was in despair—he could feel that his lifespan was running out.

[Until next evolution]

[5,600 / 6,400]

It didn't matter that the man had brought him here.

【Current Lifespan】

[Remaining – 19 days]

Time had passed. Without devouring creatures at least the size of a sand shark, reaching the final evolution was impossible.

And in the remaining time, ascension seemed out of reach.

There were no physical signs of aging, but Yul could feel it—the moment his lifespan ran out would be the moment of his end.

'So this is it.'

Still, he had done enough. Starting as a parasite, becoming an octopus, obtaining the Stone of Authority, and surviving the duel between the Sea God and the Lord of the Abyss.

That was a fierce life. At least it was better than his previous one, living aimlessly and dying of cancer.

"Hm. What do octopuses eat, anyway? Shrimp, maybe?"

Even when a shrimp was dropped into the fishbowl, Yul didn't react.

There was no point in eating—it wouldn't grant enough experience anyway.

"Hm. What else should I try? This, maybe?"

He didn't react, no matter what the man dropped in.

"Then... will it eat a magic stone?"

At that moment, Yul's senses grew tense. He saw a strange-looking gem drop into the fishbowl.

He could feel powerful energy radiating from the glittering stone.

As if bewitched, Yul reached out a tentacle and swallowed the magic stone whole.

【Current Lifespan】

[Remaining – 49 days]

'.....!!!'

His lifespan had increased by thirty days!

"Oh? It eats magic stones?"

Only then did Yul look up at the man.

A slender man with delicate features, who somehow looked frail.

If anything, he gave off the air of a scholar—perhaps a young professor who had earned a doctorate early.

However, his enthusiasm for learning seemed immense. Yul wanted to communicate with him, to somehow get more of those magic stones.

'First, I need to fill up my experience!'

He spread his tentacles wide and began devouring the shrimp and crustaceans that had fallen around him.

As expected, his experience increased by one to three points at a time.

"Ohh! You've got your appetite back!? But it looks like you're eating more than your own body weight—were you starving? Have you been malnourished this whole time?"

Yul felt he had to communicate somehow.

Ultrasound waves wouldn't work, but maybe he could convey will through consistent actions.

Body language—it should work.

Sticking to the side of the fishbowl, Yul extended one tentacle out of the water and waved it back and forth.

“Huh? What is it?”

Through repeated gestures, he urged the man to hand over the pen lying a bit farther away.

"... You want this?"

The man instead handed him a tangerine sitting beside the pen.

–Whack!–

Yul grabbed the tangerine and flung it aside, then pointed at the pen again. The man, startled, picked it up in surprise.

"W–Wait, you mean this?"

Yul took the pen and began writing letters along the outer glass of his fishbowl.

He wrote in Hangul. (Korean)

'Who are you? What's your name? Where is this place?'

"My God! This is the discovery of the century! Is this octopus intelligent? Can it understand human speech and even write? Ohhh! My God! Ohhh! Lord above!"

He clutched his head and slapped his forehead repeatedly, like a man who had just seen an automatic taxi door open for the first time.

He was so excited that there was no chance of holding a proper conversation.

'Well, come to think of it, he's right. It is the discovery of the century.'

If on Earth, a pet octopus suddenly stretched out a tentacle, demanded a pen, and began writing in some unknown ancient language, people would probably go insane from shock...

Some might even suspect they'd developed schizophrenia—or call the octopus a servant of Cthulhu and beat it to death.

But thankfully, nothing so extreme happened.

Ian approached Yul carefully, as if meeting an alien species for the first time. He spoke politely.

"Ahem, ah... Hello. My name is Ian Beltain. May I know your name?"

Upon hearing this, Yul pointed at the paper. With his damp pen, he wrote the word "Yul" on it.

"Oh? Oh? Oh? Is that your name? I don't know how to pronounce it, but how extraordinary! You seem to understand what I'm saying, yet you can't speak to me, correct? Do you understand?"

Tap tap. Yul tapped the glass twice with the pen.

As the moisture on his skin dried up, he switched to another tentacle.

"How about we communicate in a simple way? Two taps for yes, one tap for no. Like that."

It would limit their communication to yes-or-no questions, but it was an efficient enough system.

Of course, Yul underestimated this scholar.

"Whereareyoufromwhyareyouherewhatspeciesareyouwhatpartofthedeepseadidyouliveinwhatsinthedeepseawhydoyourspecieseatmagicstonesareallyourkindssmartorareyouuniquehowdoyouseemehowcanyouunderstandhumanspeechwhereisyourwritingfromdoyouhavechildrenwhatisyourmainfoodwhatarethosefinsforcanyousprayinkcanyouusemagicwhydoestentacleseightmoveindependentlyareyoucontrollingthemdirectlyhowdoyouknowaboutpensaretherewritingtoolsinthedeepseadoyouhavefriends?"

'Jesus Christ, stop!'

(T/N): HAHAHA!

Ian Beltain was a madman with clear, shining eyes. He unleashed a barrage of questions at Yul like a storm, and Yul could only pound on the fishbowl in response.

Thunk thunk thunk THUNK. Thunk! CRASH!

Finally, Ian's insane flurry of questions stopped only when the side of the fishbowl cracked.

As he cleaned up the shards of glass, Ian said calmly,

"Well, this method is inefficient. We'll need something sturdier. Let's think of another approach. Would you like to learn to write? Then I'll be able to hear your story as well."

Yul decided to go along—after all, he needed a way to express himself somehow.

"Knowing how to speak makes it easier to learn how to write. In that sense, you should have no trouble picking it up."

Yul quickly learned the written language of this world. At the same time, he gradually absorbed bits and pieces of human knowledge from the surface.

In his previous life, Yul had already been fluent in six languages.

Ian explained that the script he used belonged to the Western Kingdom. Its grammar was somewhat similar to English, so Yul mastered it in no time.

During that process, they exchanged introductions. In his past life, Yul's full name had been Kwon Yul. But he decided to drop the surname and simply go by Yul.

In this world, that didn't seem strange at all.

As Yul learned more about the world, he discovered that Ian lived on a vast continent called Randa.

"This is an island on the western edge of Randa. A remote, isolated place."

So roughly, the far west of the continent.

Now that Yul could communicate through writing, he had one thing he desperately wanted—magic stones.

When he consumed one, his lifespan increased by a whole month.

His experience didn't grow, but that didn't matter—what mattered was that his life span extended.

He had to restore the life force that had been damaged during his earlier Madness activations.

-I need magic stones. Can you give me more?

"Magic stones are a valuable resource. They can only be mined in special crystal quarries, so I don't have many. Just enough for alchemy use."

Ian spoke with an apologetic look. Of course, magic stones weren't something that appeared out of thin air.

-I really need them. They're the only way I can extend my lifespan.

"Your lifespan? Isn't that something incredibly important?"

-I'm not asking for free. Let's trade. There must be things in the sea that your kind would want, right?

Yul could travel the ocean freely. Surely there was something humans desired down there.

"Ah? Then could you perhaps bring back a Vesping Pearl?"

-A pearl?

"Yes. In the southern sea lives a giant clam called Vesping. Its pearls are powerful magical materials—you could trade them for magic stones."

-Alright! I'll do it! Anything else?

Yul wrote down a list of items humans might want from the sea:

Vesping Pearl, Energy Coral, Seaweed Fruit, and other valuable resources.

-I'll need a container to carry these things.

"How about a net? There are some old fishing tools abandoned near this island."

-Hmm. Can I even carry that?

Then Yul realized that underwater, weight felt much lighter. It should work somehow, so he accepted the offer.

"Then I'll arrange a merchant in advance. Shall I take you out of the fishbowl?"

-Of course.

As Ian lifted Yul out of the fishbowl, there was a faint look of regret on his face—like a graduate student forced to part with a fascinating research subject.

Feeling slightly guilty, Yul wrote:

—I'll be back soon.

"Alright. When you return to this lighthouse, could you ring the bell for me? I'll hang one near the shore."

Yul and Ian agreed on where to meet next—and then went their separate ways.

That brief encounter marked the beginning of a long-lasting bond between Yul and the lighthouse keeper.