Chapter 519 - 518: The Fishman Deity

Chapter 519: Chapter 518: The Fishman Deity

The rest of them were standing on the raft, looking mostly unharmed. A few torn Capture Nets hung from its edge.

Like other creatures of the Underworld, the Kuo-toa were also fond of capturing slaves.

In addition, they required a large number of living sacrifices to offer to their false Gods, which was why they favored tools like Person-Catching Forks and Capture Nets.

Kase, longbow in hand, shouted, "They seem to have retreated."

"Mr. Colin, Ale, are you two okay?" Orelia shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth.

"We’re fine!" Colin called back.

As he was about to get up, he suddenly realized his hand was still pinned under Ale’s waist.

Ale didn’t seem to have noticed.

She silently sat up and stared at the flowing lake water, looking somewhat annoyed.

"What’s wrong? Is something the matter?" Colin asked.

Ale stroked the prod of her Heavy Crossbow, looking dejected. "I think it got knocked a little crooked. And those Fishmen were so filthy."

"You can just clean it with Magic."

Hearing this, Ale immediately used [Magic Tricks] and [Repair Technique] to restore the Heavy Crossbow to its original state, but she still looked unhappy.

Colin scratched his cheek. "If the crossbow breaks for good, I’ll take you to the Grand Market to pick out a new one."

"Mm."

Ale murmured in acknowledgment, then carefully hung the Heavy Crossbow from her belt.

Colin glanced at her expression and breathed a sigh of relief.

’Looks like her mood has improved a lot.’

While the two of them were talking, the raft carrying Kase and the others quickly reached the shore.

Colin said to Dorn, "Right when the battle started, I felt someone hit me with a Spiritual Attack."

"I did sense a trace of Spiritual Energy as well," Dorn said. "Could it have been the remaining Gray Dwarves?"

"I don’t think so," said Colin. "Because I only felt the Spiritual Energy right at the start of the battle. I didn’t feel its influence at any other time."

Lanser chimed in nervously, "Because of the Mind Flayers’ influence, some Kuo-toa have awakened the ability to use Spiritual Energy. Maybe that’s the reason."

"It’s hard to say. In a moment, could you go down to the riverbed and search those Fishmen? See if they’re carrying any idols of their Gods. I can go with you," Colin said. "If they were slaves to the Gray Dwarves, then they wouldn’t have idols of their Gods."

"That’s true," Lanser nodded.

"I can go too." "I can as well," Dorn and Kase said, one after the other.

Colin patted Kase’s shoulder. "Dorn can Teleport over long distances, and he’s a smaller target in the water. It’s better if it’s just him and me."

"What’s that supposed to mean?! You short-lived fool." Dorn jabbed Colin in the arm.

Colin slapped his arm away, smiling. "Let’s get to work first."

Just to be safe, Colin brought an [Underwater Breathing Potion] with him when he went into the water. If they didn’t run into trouble, there would be no need to waste the Magic Potion.

The three of them dove into the water. It took them quite a while to salvage everything from the Kuo-toa’s bodies.

After the final haul, Colin climbed onto the shore and added what he was carrying to the pile of loot.

Ale hurried over and used Magic to clean the filthy water off him.

Colin looked over the salvaged items. For the most part, it was just small trinkets like pearls, Gemstones, and shiny seashells. The pearls were of poor quality, and nothing seemed particularly valuable.

Ale seemed to read Colin’s mind. "At most, this stuff will sell for a little over a hundred Gold Coins," she said.

Dorn stepped forward, picked up a dark, lumpy object, and examined it closely.

"You didn’t just pick up a turd, did you?" Kase said with a laugh, pointing at Dorn.

"Screw you," Dorn retorted without looking up.

Colin took a closer look.

The object in the Dwarf’s hand did look a bit like... that. It was a long, dark strip that tapered to a point at the end, and it looked quite disgusting.

"Well, you tell me. Other than this, what else did those Fishmen have on them that looked like an idol?" Dorn demanded irritably, seeing the expressions on the others’ faces.

"Then this must be it," Colin said, stroking his chin. "This band of Kuo-toa aren’t slaves to the Gray Dwarves, and their God might actually look like this. Perhaps this really is their God’s idol..."

"They actually worship a piece of shit!" Kase said, laughing.

Orelia said helplessly, "Please stop saying such disgusting things, Mr. Kase."

Just then, Colin noticed the polluted river water.

Spiritual Attack, polluted water, the Kuo-toa idol...

Taken individually, none of these things were particularly strange, but together, they felt... odd.

Colin stared at the idol in Dorn’s hands.

’Thinking in terms of the worst-case scenario,’ he thought, ’what if the God the Kuo-toa worship isn’t some fictional being, but a real, existing monster?’

’Then what kind of monster would it be?’

"An Aboleth?" Colin muttered unconsciously.

’Other than that, it seemed no other monster fit the criteria.’

"What are you talking about, Colin?" Kase waved a hand in front of his face. "Did you swallow some water and go crazy?"

"If our luck is as bad as usual, then the God these Kuo-toa worship is probably an Aboleth." Colin suddenly felt everything click into place.

As expected, Kase frowned and asked, "An Aboleth... what’s that?"

"A powerful monster that’s very skilled with Spiritual Energy. Just think of it like those Mind Flayers we encountered a while ago."

"A Mind Flayer... what’s that?"

The Half-Orc was about to make Colin’s head spin. "The octopus-heads," he said.

Kase muttered under his breath, "Then you should’ve just said ’octopus-heads’."

"They are terrifying monsters. Their knowledge is passed down through their bloodline, so every single Aboleth knows everything its ancestors knew.

That knowledge is so vast that many Mages desire it, but the human brain isn’t developed enough to handle it. The moment a person comes into contact with that knowledge, their brain simply collapses. To mortals, these creatures could be considered completely ’omniscient,’" Ale said grimly.

’So that’s the story,’ Colin thought.

The books he’d read had very little to say about Aboleths.

The only definite points were that the water around the monsters’ lairs becomes polluted, and that, like Mind Flayers, they can directly dominate other creatures using Spiritual Energy.

As Colin pondered, Ale went on, "It is said that these monsters existed even before the Gods came into being. And when the Gods crushed the Ancient Empire, they also turned the Aboleths’ undersea empire to dust."

"The Gods crushed the Ancient Empire?" Dorn frowned.

"Slave revolts, divine retribution from the Gods, and the Elven Wars."

Colin explained, "Those are the three core reasons for the fall of the Ancient Empire of Ora Kaim. However, because the ’Gods’ were the deities of the slaves, and most of the Deities in the human world today also emerged at that time, most people tend to combine the first two reasons into one."

Orelia said worriedly, "If that’s true, then aren’t we in a terrible situation?"