The Nebula's Civilization

Chapter 102: Frozen Time

It could be said that the worst Event that could happen in a game of The Lost World was the appearance of a Dragon, but when it came to the sea, a Kraken was comparable to a Dragon.

A Kraken was a kind of natural disaster.

In the beginning of the game, Krakens would occasionally appear as Events when characters were sailing, but starting from the middle stage of the game, when sailing became a major method of transportation, Krakens emerged more frequently and became a source of trouble since they would often cause damage to ships.

Be it fishing boats catching fish in coastal waters, merchant ships carrying lots of cargo, or the grand sailing ship which hadn’t been developed yet, they were nothing when it came to a Kraken’s tentacles. Once iron vessels were invented, it would be possible to face a Kraken without a god’s help, but luck was still often required.

The fundamental factor that made a Kraken a big threat was that it was not possible to attack its main body. With their many long tentacles, Krakens enjoyed shaking ships above water and picking out people to eat. While they did so, their main bodies remained deep in the sea.

‘The approximate size of their main body would be…around five hundred meters.’

Sung-Woon was not in the sky, but under the sea. Deep sea observation was something that many players ignored because generally, most things could be observed from a bird’s eye view. When facing a marine creature, however, players would have to go under sea to see it.

A player could move under water without any resistance. And even where there was absolutely no light, their sight was adjusted so that they could clearly make out the outlines of living and nonliving things. But regardless, many players disregarded deep sea reconnaissance out of habit, and that was occasionally the case for Sung-Woon too. As most gameplay was done on land, there was a tendency for the players to dismiss occasional losses at sea as nothing but bad luck.

‘Fortunately, I looked into it at the right time this time.’

The Kraken’s giant tentacles moved toward the ship above water, passing through Sung-Woon. This happened because a player’s body was detached from the world. But still, the fact that something passed through him was unpleasant, so Sung-Woon went backward and looked at the direction the tentacles were shooting towards.

Fortunately enough, Sung-Woon’s warning was delivered on time, so Black Scale’s ships had not entered the Kraken’s range of attack.

‘But…’

Sung-Woon felt that there was something more to come.

A video chat window popped up next to Sung-Woon. It was Crampus, the player with the eyes of a goat.

“Nebula! Did you know already?”

“Oh, I just found out. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you in advance. I thought everyone would have discovered it as well.”

Crampus glared at Sung-Woon.

“Don’t tell me this is something you orchestrated…”

“Why would I do such a thing? There was no way to control a Kraken in The Lost World.”

“...Then?”

“It was probably lured.”

Sung-Woon saw other beings approaching the ships from the ocean floor deep underwater, where the Kraken was stuck to. They were in a group, so at a glance, they seemed like a school of fish. However, closer inspection revealed that they were a line of individuals swimming underwater.

Crampus followed Sung-Woon’s gaze and noticed the swimming figures.

“Are they Deep Ones?!”

Sung-Woon could tell that the Deep Ones weren’t afraid of the Kraken at all.

The reason Krakens was a threat was not simply because they were huge. It was because they ate people. They would shake ships and flip them over to make the passengers drop into water, then they would pull the victims deep into the sea and put them into their mouths, and if there were people hidden in the ships, they would reach in with their tentacles and grab them.

‘Come to think of it, do Krakens have something to do with ancient evil or something?’

Through Sung-Woon’s observations, he was able to see that the Kraken did not extend its tentacles to the Deep Ones. It seemed that either the Kraken knew how to distinguish between the Deep Ones and other species, or that the Deep Ones knew a way to avoid being attacked by the Kraken.

‘That’s interesting.’

Then Sung-Woon said, “I wasn’t able to warn you about the first attack, but I can warn you about the second. Deep Ones will attack in between the Kraken’s tentacles.”

“Really? Then I guess we can tell you about the third attack, as we’re above the sea.”

Sung-Woon looked at where Crampus was pointing through the video chat window.

The ships of Yaboon’s Pirates were appearing from the horizon.

“They’re trying to keep us within the Kraken’s range of attacks.”

Crampus sighed and replied, “What are you going to do?”

Sung-Woon became uncooperative at those words.

“You’re not going to ask for my help for such an insignificant problem, are you? On your people’s ships, you even have…”

Crampus tsked as if he didn’t expect anything anyway, and the video chat ended before Sung-Woon could finish talking.

***

“Cut the tentacles! Hit the tips with an ax!”

“Aaack!”

“You fools! Give up on the ones who have already been captured!”

“Captain! The mast is…!”

The first military ship to be captured by the tentacles was Danyum’s Whalebone. Its mast became entwined with the giant, a-meter-wide tentacle, and when it pulled, the ship tilted. At some point, the mast began to bend with the tentacle pulling at it on one end, and the buoyancy of the whole ship pushing upward on the other.

Crack!

The dense, sturdy mast broke, scattering fragments of wood everywhere like an explosion, and the mast fell over the right side railing of the ship, following the tentacle.

Mazdari was still on board.

“What a mess.”

-Aren’t you scared?

“Of course I’m scared. But fear doesn’t help when doing things.”

Mazdari was drawing something on the floor with a brush. The awkwardly big brush suitable for a Garuda was eye-catching, but what Mazdari was drawing was even more impressive. There was a circle inside another circle with ancient writing along the border. It wasn’t difficult for someone who didn’t even know how to read ancient writing to tell that Mazdari had good penmanship because of the beauty the different shapes portrayed.

Mazdari had dug the claws of his feet into the floor in order to keep drawing while the ship was shaking, and he also had his other hand on the ceiling as if he were supporting it to keep himself in place.

It was certain he was drawing with a black ink, but whenever he completed a circle, it emitted a dim light.

“Mazdari! Where is Mazdari! Maz…”

The commotion outside stopped when the door to Mazdari’s room opened. Mazdari looked up at the uninvited visitor coming through the door.

“Oldor Mayen. Just in time.”

“What are you doing?”

“The reason why Delmardin, king of Asbestos, hired me, sent me to this distant southern sea, and the reason you were looking for me.”

Oldor was more unsettled by Mazdari than the threatening chorus of shouts, screams, and sounds of the ship breaking.

“Is it magic?”

“Yes.”

“We need your help right away. We, as well as Stone Cave’s ships, are all under the attack of a Kraken’s tentacles…”

Mazdari suddenly pulled out a dagger. Bewildered, Oldor instinctively raised his sword when Mazdari threw the dagger at him, only for the dagger to fly past him so quickly that he didn’t have time to defend or avoid it. When Oldor turned around, he saw that the dagger had pinned a tentacle to the ship. The tentacle pulled out the dagger by itself and hurriedly returned to the deck.

“Th…thank you.”

Mazdari just shrugged.

Then at that moment, Oldor saw a flash from both of Mazdari’s eyes.

‘...What was that?’

But there was no time to pay attention to such trivial things.

Even though Mazdari hadn’t demonstrated any magic in front of Oldor yet, Mazdari was a wizard acknowledged by Delmardin.

“What help do you need?” Oldor asked.

“Are you well aware of the situation outside?”

“Of course.”

“How many ships are within a radius of three hundred steps from our ship?”

“Three hundred steps? We were in the lead, so around a quarter of the ships we borrowed from Danyum. That would be about ten ships.

“About ten, you say…”

Mazdari murmured while writing ancient characters on top of the drawing.

“What species are there?”

“The majority are Trolls, but there are also Elves, Renards, and Hobgoblins. Oh, and a large portion of the crewmen are Satyrs.”

“There aren't any more? I think I’ve also seen Humans.”

“Ah, there are Humans as well. I don’t know too much about the species of the slaves as they’re not important.”

Mazdari silently pointed at himself.

“Oh, Garuda. There’s also a Garuda.”

Mazdari quickly wrote more things down.

Then he said, “You’re the one in charge, so you take responsibility.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Now get out. It’s time to concentrate.”

“I’m sorry, but will it take long?”

“No. It will be done when you get back to the deck.”

Oldor decided to trust Mazdari. Right now, there was no alternative other than praying to God.

As Oldor went up, the Rotten Hand spoke.

-Shall we start?

‘Yes.’

The Rotten Hand murmured unknown ancient language from inside Mazdari. And at the same time, Mazdari also began to recite an incantation. It was a magic spell. When the internal spell being recited by the Rotten Hand coincided with the voiced incantation being recited by Mazdari, the concentric magic circle drawn by Mazdari began to react, turning a blackish red while crackling like something burning.

This was the reason it was difficult to discover the secret of magic, as well as the reason only those who were cursed could use magic. Magic could only be operated by a spell if internal thoughts and external actions contradict one another. Since the discovery of ancient ruins, it took 150 years for enough data to accumulate to get to this discovery.

In addition to the knowledge Mazdari had learned from his teacher, he collected lost knowledge from other alchemists and was able to complete a few magic spells. According to the ancient history that Mazdari unearthed, a wizard with fewer than ten magic spells was nothing more than an apprentice. However, Mazdari knew that even an apprentice wizard would have a great power that no one else could compare.

‘I will show you…’

As Mazdari put his hand above the magic circle, the circle split, separated, and vibrated. Distortion and light repeatedly spread out and narrowed back in. Then another magic circle rose above Mazdari’s eyes.

‘...Magic.’

It was a Wizard Tattoo used to trigger magic. It could be engraved anywhere, so Mazdari drew it onto his eyes. And soon afterward, Mazdari’s palm touched the magic circle.

***

As Oldor was running up to the deck, he felt something that was neither wind nor anything tactile pass through his body from behind his back before extending far into the distance. Then the ship fraught with screams suddenly quieted, and confused, rambling murmurs replaced the noises of things crashing and breaking in battle.

Oldor quickly walked up and hit a dazed soldier in the shoulder.

“Hey, what is it?”

“General! L…look at that!”

A tentacle rose into the sky in preparation for another strike at the crewmen and soldiers on board, but it had stopped moving. Not only did it stay still, but it even sparkled under the blazing sunlight of the southern sea.

Thump!

As the tilted ship swayed back and forth to find balance, the tentacle collapsed and broke into sharp fragments. Fortunately, no one got crushed, but one of the fragments did brush past Oldor’s cheek. Nevertheless, Oldor didn’t even feel the pain.

“It is…frozen?”

Oldor understood why the soldiers on deck were blankly staring.

“It’s not only our ship. Look over there.”

Oldor looked at where the soldier was pointing at. The tentacles weren’t the only things frozen, but also the surface of the sea and about ten ships. The range of effect was about three hundred steps.

“...Amazing. I see why His Majesty relied so much on him.”

But again, those weren’t the only things hit by the spell.

Oldor turned around and saw a man holding an ax high in the air, frozen. It was an Orc slave.

“No…”

Mazdari approached him from behind.

“Fortunately, the magic has been carried out properly. It would have been better if you told me there was an Orc among the slaves as well.”

Leaving Oldor bewildered and at a loss for words, Mazdari looked at the sky as if he was looking for someone.

***

“Is it ‘Frozen Time?’”

It was a magic spell that controlled temperature. The effect and range of the spell was great, but it remained an elementary level magic spell because it took too long to prepare. Additionally, it was necessary to specify the targets, so it was also one of the magical spells that often caused accidents.

‘There would have been a better magical spell to use in this situation. Is he going for showmanship?’

That could be the case as the barrage of attacks coming for the military ships had been stopped all at once. All with Frozen Time.

The frozen sea then began to crack and break due to the warmer air.

Sung-Woon looked down at Mazdari and smiled.

‘There must be something you’re aiming for.’