Nexus Awakened (An Isekai LitRPG Gender Bender Story)

The ship barreled through the river with a weightless grace.

It was a fifty-meter-long exploration vessel with a double-hull design. This meant that even if the ship was breached, so long as the inner hull was intact then the ship could remain entirely functional.

Heavy pale embellishments were incorporated into the fine woodwork. Gorgeous waves and spectacular curls lined the guardrails surrounding the ship, and immaculate inscriptions coiled around the four central masts.

However, these began to peel off like dry paint. Water broke in their wake, and the splashes sent a barrage of rain aboard.

Normally, this was not an issue. It was normal for water to splash aboard, especially in these chaotic conditions.

In the worst case, the water needed to be removed. But they were moving so quickly that the water slid off the deck before it could pool.

This was not the issue, however.

Indeed, in an ideal world this would be the only issue.

"Reinforce the walls beneath the deck! The masts are starting to melt!"

A single voice cut through the cacophony like a ray of light through parting clouds.

Frost stood in the center of the ship, immersed in a slurry of water and splinters. The reason why the ship was in such disarray was because of the sprays of Heavy Water.

At this speed the sprays of Heavy Water became indistinguishable from a volley of invisible arrows.

The deck rocked beneath her feet, and tiny indents formed in the wood. They were powerful enough to pierce through flesh and break bones. A single second of exposure was known to debilitate an entire crew.

As such, Raoul, the twins, and Joy were relegated to the heart of the ship. A heavy container made of steel was installed beneath the deck, which was common for scouting vessels as they usually carried Heavy Water aboard.

Res worked in the level beneath and boarded up as many holes as possible with any scraps laying around.

"This is called welding in your world, am I correct Frost!? I've seen Ber fuse metal with electricity before, but I didn't know it can be applied like this!" Res lack of eyesight became an advantage beneath the deck.

It had only enhanced her other senses.

Her hearing was honed to the point where she was able to pinpoint precisely which floorboard was going to give seconds in advance. Once they were identified, she moved to fetch a handful of scrap laying around and boarded the ceiling.

Iron scraps were common aboard vessels. There was no guarantee that an exploration ship would be able to resupply or find a settlement to make repairs, so they had to be stocked with raw materials, such as iron bands and scrap, to replace anchors, cannon balls, harpoons, etcetera.

Her fingers crackled with electricity and a blinding light as she dragged it along two pieces of metal. Then, she flung more than twenty pieces onto the ceiling and fired a short-distance electric shock. A beautiful orange glow spread across the cracks of each metal piece like lightning, and they fused into a single chunk of metal.

"I wasn't aware this was a technique. Welding doesn't use electricity outside of Electric Crystals." Res was perplexed by this finding.

While she was aware that electricity could be applied to fuse metal, her experiences with it often resulted in obliterating the metal. Skills were far too inflexible to use with precision. After all, Skills had circumstantial uses and a narrowly defined effect.

However, an Ability did not have the same restrictions. Res had lived for over thirty years as a Moon, which had skewed her perception of electric magic into believing it was solely combat-oriented.

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But with the advent of Frost and her cure to the Healer's Dilemma, and after her Realization, Res came to understand that there was far more creativity to electric magic. Skills were a limitation of the Blessed. Her Ability on the other hand, had enough freedom for her to fine tune how powerful she wanted her voltage to be.

She used her Ability like brush strokes on the ceiling that was her canvas.

Raoul then muffledly spoke through the steel chamber.

"Fire, magical bonds, and Dwarfen metallurgic magic make electrical bonds irrelevant…" She trailed off, only for the twins to urge her to continue.

"Raoul Raoul." (Orth).

"Tap tap tap tap." (Thras).

"Gam gam gam?" Joy just wanted to copy the twins.

"… electric mages are so rare that it's easier to use alternatives than to wait for one. Pair that with how unstable electricity is, and you end up with a ticking time bomb if you're working on anything remotely flammable. Inflow Direct's got that clause for electric mages. Total organ forfeiture to the Atelier in the event that a single spark has contaminated a pipeline."

"Raoul speaks from experience." (Orth).

"Refinery nearly went boom. Violation of Section–" (Thras).

"They didn't have that clause, so I was not found liable." Raoul sighed. "In hindsight, you could twist it… Call it a sabotage attempt if wish."

A storm of melancholy sept through the walls. If one were to look back on Raoul's life now knowing his connections, then it was easy to judge his mistakes as sabotage. Such was the fate of a traitor, but the twins remained silent as though in defiance of this.

Res bared her teeth.

She did not believe in this either.

* * *

A different kind of storm brewed above the deck.

Frost found herself in the center of the storm as Jury dragged the ship forward on her back. Chains rattled as steel strand snapped taut around ten anchor points scattered evenly around the vessel.

Ten thumbs up were directed to Frost from the anchors. She had used her Judge's Prides as anchors since there was no material that could withstand Jury's strength. They were half embedded into the deck, and they had to lean backwards to counter Jury's pull.

Furthermore, the entire ship was wrapped in web of steel strand. That way, even if Jury managed to dislodge multiple Judge's Prides, then she would not completely detach from the ship.

The failsafe also protected them against projectile attacks. A rain of poisonous barbs led the Anid assault as they scurried aboard, rearing their front legs and drumming on each other's backs like a battle cry.

Their accumulating mass caused the boat to bob. All ten archetypes of the Anids boarded the ship through the toppled masts, including the Mononids, Duonids, Trianids, Quadranid, Pentanids, Hexanids, Septanids, Octanids, Novanids, and the floating, massively encased eyes that belonged to the Decanids.

But these were Anointed Anids. They were beyond that of the standard Anids who possessed between one and ninety-nine limbs. These possessed anywhere between one hundred and nine hundred and ninety-nine limbs. The main difference aside from the number of limbs between each of the ten Anid Archetypes were their strength, stats and unique abilities that came from their ranks.

The poison barbs, which were aimed at Acedia, were fired by the Anointed Octanids that had between four-hundred and eighty to and four-hundred and eighty-nine legs. On their backs was a vibrant emerald imprint in the shape of an inhuman skull with bubbles foaming from the mouth.

It was a clear indication of what they specialized in.

* * *

Anointed Anids with legs between one hundred and nine hundred and ninety-nine. The first number designated the overall strength or level of the Anid. The higher and closer the number was, the more powerful and influential the Anid and the nest they hailed from were. Furthermore, this number determined the theme of the Anid overall.

400 for instance referred to poison-type Anointed Anids.

Then, the second number referenced what archetype the Anid followed. 8 for instance were the Octanid archetypes. Following this number was the level of evolution the Anid was. 480 Anointed Octanids were the second lowest in the evolutionary tree, whereas a 489 Anointed Octanid stood as the strongest and most developed of its poison archetype.

The sheer diversity of the Anids made them formidable foes. Needless to say, there was an Anid capable of thriving in any environment, hence the sheer size of the Gnawer Region which was dominated by Anids.