Level Up: Voidwalker

Sitting in the hideaway, Atlas finished that part of the diary and wondered, 'Don't tell me they took the Arcane Ember to the vault on the lower flood? If so, the Silverstar Family is down there while the captain is elsewhere.'

He shook his head before turning to the vent he was going to. Void Step through, but Atlas yelped in fright when he spotted a creepy-looking humanoid staring at him with lifeless black eyes.

'Dammit! That scared the shit out of me,' he thought as his heart raced.

The creature was small but nightmarishly terrifying. Its sickly yellow skin stretched tight over a grotesque skeletal frame, seemed to shimmer with an unsettling sheen. Sharp, blood-caked claws and jagged teeth marked it unmistakably as a predator.

From its nearly bald head, bizarre strands of black hair sprouted, seeming to writhe with an eerie life of their own. Atlas felt a chill race down his spine as he took in the dreadful sight, which made his skin crawl.

Standing around four feet tall, the creature exuded a sinister aura, as if it lurked in the shadows, lying in wait to ambush its next unsuspecting victim. Atlas shook his head and used Void Sight on it.

[Lurker]

[Tainted]

[Rank: A - 1000 Exp]

[These are fast little fuckers, boy. You must be quicker!]

'Great advice,' he internally complained.

He quickly cast Void Veil, which blinded the Lurker and sent it into a wild frenzy, but Atlas quickly used Void Step to appear next to it, allowing him to drive his blades into the creature's skull.

'Now die, you creepy fucker!' he internally raged at being made jump by it.

The Lurker dropped dead before he cut out the purple core that he knew was worth something. Following that, Atlas continued down the small tunnel and soon noticed another grate that led to a corridor.

With a powerful kick, Atlas sent the grate flying from the opposite wall, where it slammed into a door with a crash. He climbed down into the horrible-smelling hallway, his heart pounding.

Pulling out a map after getting over the blood smell, he quickly assessed his location and realized he was on the third passenger floor—eighteen floors below the captain's quarters, where he had to get the vault key.

'I swear this blade better be worth it,' Atlas thought while glancing around. 'This place is giving me the creeps.'

Atlas crouched low, blending into the darkness of the narrow service corridor. The dim, flickering lights overhead cast long, twitching shadows that seemed to dance with malevolence.

He pressed his back against the cold metal wall, listening intently to the guttural growls and scraping sounds echoing from the adjacent passage. Atlas glanced in the sound direction only to see a group of Fleshfiends approaching him.

''This is ridiculous,'' Atlas muttered, urgency edging his voice as he sprinted away from the approaching threat.

But as he rounded the corner, a Lurker lunged at him with startling speed. Atlas's eyes widened in shock as the creature's claws slashed at him. He flailed desperately, trying to shake off the nightmarish attacker that clawed and bit with savage intensity.

'I swear I need a spell to warn me of ambushes,' he internally complained.

Atlas let out a scream when its teeth pierced through the gaps in the armor. When the blood hit the floor, the group of Fleshfiends turned around and rushed in his direction due to the smell, which made him panic.

He quickly cast Void Wave, which managed to dislodge the Lurker as it crashed into the nearby wall, allowing Atlas to thrust Nightblade into the creature's skull. The first Fleshfriend rounded the corner, letting out a horrifying growl.

'Oh god. This will be annoying,' he thought while leaning back to dodge a swipe of its claws.

It hit the wall behind Atlas before he struck out and sliced off one of its arms, which allowed him to get the upper hand on the creature. He managed to pierce the heart of the beast and used Void Blast to send the corpse into the others.

Following that attack, he rushed down the corridor as there were too many Fleshfiends to fight in a confined space. While running, a Lurker lunged from above, which Atlas sidestepped as it got swarmed by his pursuers.

Atlas sprinted down the corridor, relief washing over him as he spotted a staircase leading upward. He dashed up the metal steps, only to burst into a dining hall with a disturbing sight off to the side.

'What is that?' he wondered, edging closer.

As he approached, he saw a haphazard camp—the monster's work. The unsettling part was the collection of bodies strewn around. There were over a dozen, their lifeless forms a grim testament to violence.

Atlas's mind raced. 'Was there a battle here? Or something worse?'

There were Lurkers, Fleshfiends, and a taller, dark-skinned monster that looked worse than the previous two. He started searching the camp and realized it had happened hours ago, forcing him to continue through the nearest tunnel.

Afterward, he traveled for an hour and fought more creatures using his magic and swords before reaching a large storage area stacked high with rotten crates and a horrible smell that hurt his nose.

'What is this place? A monster nest?' Atlas wondered, casting a wary glance around the grim scene.

He checked the nearest crate but found nothing inside, deepening his confusion about the smell. Atlas's attention suddenly snapped back as several creatures dropped silently from a nearby wall, their sudden appearance heightening his dread.

They were seven feet tall, pale white, and had red eyes full of malice as they focused on him. Atlas gulped when he saw these horrifying creatures encircling him with intent. He quickly scanned it to find out what rank it was.

[Blightborn]

[Tainted]

[Rank: B - 800 Exp]

[Use your monsters, boy!]

Without thinking, Atlas activated Call Of The Void and summoned the Brute Void Bears, who charged out of the azure portal and crashed into the shocked Blightborns. They quickly tore the creatures apart with ease.

Following that, he rushed past the battling monsters and made his way up the ship while avoiding the Fleshfiends and Lurker, thanks to his camouflage that stopped him constantly fighting as he was growing tired.

'I need to rest,' Atlas thought. 'Maybe the captain room will be safe enough.'

It took several hours to reach the noble quarters behind the fences Amara wrote about. When Atlas spotted them, he was shocked. They looked like mithril defensive gates that were torn apart.

'What could have done this?'

Skeletons littered the floor, and when Atlas accidentally touched them, they crumbled into dust thanks to the time passed. He continued and passed through the destroyed gate before seeing even more corpses.

When he reached the floor where the nobles were staying, he noticed that the floors had collapsed because of something big. Atlas scanned the area and saw it was on the second floor of the ship.

'Too quiet,' he mused. 'It seems like a giant monster attacked.'

Looking out the dirty windows, he saw schools of sea monsters swimming around while living life.

His breath caught as he stepped closer, and his eyes widened in awe. Before him stretched a breathtaking sight of the ocean's depths, illuminated by bioluminescent creatures dancing in the water.

The sea was alive with a vibrant array of colors. A Giant jellyfish drifted by, its tentacles trailing like ethereal ribbons of light. Schools of glowing fish flitted past, their scales shimmering in hues of blue and green.

In the distance, the silhouette of a colossal sea serpent undulated through the dark water, its scales sparkling with a mesmerizing iridescence. As it glided effortlessly, its long, curved body created waves of light that rippled across the sea floor.

''Beautiful but deadly,'' he mumbled to himself.

Then, Atlas started looking for the captain's quarters and soon encountered even more Lurkers he had to kill before moving forward. He continued to fight and guessed there were the descendants of the original survivors.

'They've evolved backward,' he mused, the grim realization settling in. 'Maybe it's because they were trapped at the bottom of the sea.'

Pushing forward, Atlas finally reached the room he had been searching for. The door was stubbornly blocked; he used all his strength to open it. The captain had barricaded himself inside, a last-ditch effort to keep the terror at bay.

When Atlas stepped into the apartment-sized living space, he was met with darkness, mold, and an eerie silence. He swiftly activated his Light, illuminating the expansive room cloaked in a thick layer of dust.

He moved cautiously through the space until he spotted an office tucked away. As he approached, the beam of Light revealed a lifeless body slumped in a chair behind a massive wooden desk.

Atlas entered the room, the light casting eerie shadows across the space, and his heart sank as he recognized the body—it was the captain. He approached the corpse, his eyes drawn to a note lying on the desk.

Without hesitation, he picked up the note, realizing it was a final message from the captain before his death.

[Drop some powerstones, comments, and gifts to help the novel grow; I appreciate all the support you can give]

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