Endless Evolution: Last Star

Chapter 1900: The Oyster and the Passages

As Adam set out for the Gray Sea, he had a lot on his mind. He imagined various scenarios and problems he might encounter, but… he never thought of this one.

Splash! Splash! Splash!

Splashes of water rose to his left and right as he sat on a giant oyster while it moved forward at tremendous speed.

“Well, I’ll have to thank Prasyx when I see him next time, this has made things a lot easier.”

Unlike him, the giant oyster knew the Gray Sea like the back of its hand and navigated between the islands to ensure there would be no more incidents like the one with Prasyx.

Sure, this time everything turned out well for Adam, but if someone more aggressive had been there instead of Prasyx, he might have found himself in a deadly battle instead of a helpful encounter.

However… the giant oyster was quite a demanding mount.

Clack! Clack! Clack!

The giant oyster clicked its jaw, and every time it did, it meant it was time to feed it. If Adam took too long to do so, the giant oyster would start swaying from side to side.

What was Adam supposed to feed this oyster?

Well, there was plenty of food around. Unlike ordinary oysters, this one didn’t mind eating something other than seaweed, it might even have preferred it.

“Alright, I get it. Whatever you want for now, I’ll take care of it.” Adam sighed as he tapped its shell.

Click!

The giant oyster clicked again as it spun around sharply.

A few kilometers ahead, the shadow of some kind of fish was visible.

Clack!

The giant oyster fired the air bullet straight at the fish. It wasn’t enough to kill or injure the fish, but because of the unexpected attack, the fish leaped out of the water, revealing itself.

It was a massive salmon with unusual orange skin and bright amber eyes glowing in the darkness. It was quite large, much larger than any ordinary salmon, and almost as big as the shark.

“I see. So this time you want a salmon for yourself? Fine, if I don’t do this, you won’t take me anywhere, will you?” Adam smiled as his needle appeared in his hand.

He could have thrown a spear at the salmon, it would have been easier and faster, but right now, his two shared abilities were unavailable because of Silvana. So, he had to make do with what he had at the moment.

Tap.

Adam leaped forward as the oyster struck the water with its body, creating a splash that propelled Adam forward.

The orange salmon spotted Adam, but it wasn’t the kind of monster that could give Adam a fair fight. It had a lot of energy, but in essence, before its transformation, the orange salmon was nothing more than prey for other creatures in the Gray Sea.

However, if someone weaker than a K4-Phantom tried to attack the orange salmon, for example, a K3-Phantom, the orange salmon would kill that Phantom with a single flick of its tail.

Tremble!

The orange salmon shuddered as its scales glowed brightly. A dense amber barrier appeared around it, which was supposed to help the salmon block Adam’s attack and return to the water.

Unfortunately for the orange salmon, it didn’t know that its opponent was better than anyone else at breaking through barriers.

“Well, that was a good try, but it’s still a mistake!” Adam smirked as his needle glowed brightly.

In a white flash, the needle shot across the dark water and pierced the amber barrier.

The orange salmon’s eyes widened in disbelief, but it was already too late to do anything.

Thrust!

The needle pierced right through the massive salmon as Adam swung his arm, pulling the orange salmon toward him.

“Good, now there’s just one move left.”

With the next swing, Adam threw the orange salmon straight at the giant oyster.

Whoooooosh!

The giant oyster leaped high into the air and clamped the salmon tightly between its shells.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

In a few quick bites, the giant oyster devoured the orange salmon and returned to the water in high spirits.

Adam smiled, shrugged, and landed on the giant oyster, which was now ready to continue on its way.

“Alright, I think we’re pretty close now.” Adam looked at the Obsidian Compass. “Keep heading west. The first passage should be there.”

Sure, the Obsidian Compass was malfunctioning, but that only affected its threat analysis of the passages. It was pointing in the right direction, there were no problems with that function.

Clack! Clack!

The giant oyster clicked and surged forward at high speed.

Strange as it may seem, even if Adam had used everything at his disposal, he wouldn’t have been able to move nearly as fast, especially on water. And unlike the giant oyster, he didn’t know the right route, which saved a lot of time.

The islands were visible in the distance, but the giant oyster ignored them since their destination lay ahead.

“Here we are, right?” Adam thought as he narrowed his eyes.

Suddenly, the giant oyster stopped, churning up waves.

Ahead lay a hollow, an underwater tunnel into which water poured as if from a multitude of waterfalls. There was nothing around that posed a threat, no monsters, no islands, near this passage.

Tremble!

The Obsidian Compass trembled as the energy pulse ran through Adam’s arms, heading straight for his head.

At the same moment, Adam’s vision changed.

Above the hollow, he saw several colorful streams. This was exactly what would help him determine whether this passage was safe or not.

But…

“Tsk, Prasyx was right after all.”

Adam was looking at three flows at once: blue, yellow, and red. They were rapidly shifting as the Obsidian Compass couldn’t pinpoint which color was the right one.

Perhaps if Adam had come here before meeting Prasyx, he would have decided to enter this passage.

Sure, he hadn’t seen what color it was, but he would have assumed the passage wasn’t dangerous based on its appearance and the silence surrounding them.

Even on the way to this passage, they hadn’t encountered anyone more dangerous than an orange salmon and other fish monsters.

But… he remembered Prasyx’s words.

“He said to avoid passages that look too safe. Huh, now that I think about it, he might have been right. This looks suspicious, like a descent to the bottom of a pool rather than at the Grand Abyss.”

Adam’s expression grew serious.

“Also, he said I should trust the Third Grand Star. It ignored me before, but maybe this time things will be different?”

Without rushing, Adam concentrated as he tried to get an answer from the Third Grand Star and the Path Construct.

Tremble!

Suddenly, the Path Construct trembled as the pulse traveled from it through Adam’s inner space.

Previously, he had been unable to pinpoint the location of the Bottomless Void. This was the only instance in which that had ever happened.

However, even now, it wasn’t a distinct energy flow that would point Adam in the right direction.

Instead, energy waves emanated from it, sweeping out like radar.

Adam could sense what his radar was picking up. It didn’t show him where the Bottomless Void was, but it revealed something else to him.

“I see… Judging by the radar, there’s… nothing right in front of me right now. Just a blank spot.”

A frown crossed Adam’s face as he looked at the Obsidian Compass.

Now that they had reached one of the passages, the needle was pointing toward the next one.

“Let’s go.” Adam made up his mind. “Maybe it’s a mistake, but I really don’t want to even go near that passage.”

Click!

The giant oyster clicked before turning around and moving toward the next passage.

Just a minute later, Adam was already more than ten kilometers away, and his aura had vanished.

At that very moment, two blue eyes opened at the bottom of the first passage. They filled with anger and outrage, but soon closed again, waiting for their next victim.

This passage wasn’t the only suspicious place Adam encountered on his way.

In just a few hours, he and the giant oyster had explored four different passages, but none of them showed up on the radar, and all seemed too quiet.

Adam didn’t want to take any chances. He knew that the Gray Sea was home to many monsters stronger than he was.

But when he reached the fifth passage, a glimmer of light finally appeared in his weary eyes, and a smile spread across his face.

“Huh, this looks completely different, right?” Adam exclaimed, looking ahead.

The five bone spires towered over the sea, and the skeletons of long-dead monsters were impaled on the sharp peaks of these spires.

To the left and right lay ruined, lifeless islands, of which only jagged rocks and floating debris remained.

Above the spires rose the spine of a massive creature, its ribs plunging into the ground to form a sort of bone cage around the passage.

The passage itself was a massive, shark-like jaw that was wide open. Inside was a whirlpool from which a natural red light emanated.

It was the most menacing and dangerous-looking place of them all.

“What do you think?”

Adam asked.

“This place is just perfect, isn’t it? I’m going in there!”

…

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