Eric let out a deep breath.
It was not easy to kill a Rank 2 Beast. This became largely possible thanks to the high-grade Tier 2 spear and the Thunder Rune that he activated in his last push toward the Abyssal Grinner's heart.
A high-grade Tier 2 spear was more than capable of penetrating even the mana defense of a Rank 3 Mystical Knight, even if the weapon itself wasn't imbued with mana.
Since he was aware of the Abyssal Grinner's weak spot—which not all Beasts share—and with his currently available resources, he was able to win. Of course, his Blink also played a crucial role.
Otherwise, it was a hopeless battle. The best he could do was drag the battle out with his Blink, then breakthrough and escape.
In truth, Eric, Lyria, and Livy wouldn't have been this helpless if the battle had taken place above ground. Even without targeting the Abyssal Grinner's weak spot, they would still have won, as the Abyssal Grinner was a physical-type mana beast—meaning its attacks were far more straightforward.
While all three of them were wealthy with plenty of Tier 1 and 2 weapons, their enhanced stats and abilities needed to be counted into their arsenal as well—otherwise, even a Rank 1 mana beast would be extremely dangerous for their current rank.
According to the Memory Orbs, it takes a group of Rank 1 and 2 mana wielders to take down a Rank 1 mana beast, depending on the beast's growth stage. It was said that to take down an Elder Stage Rank 1 beast, a group of nearly 10 late-stage Rank 2 mana wielders was required. These were all estimates, as not all mana wielders or mana beasts were equal in strength or capability.
Eric quickly tried to contact Lyria and Livy through his device; however, there was no response—only silence.
His heart sank. He looked around but found no sign of them. He had no idea how far they had been pushed away—or how far he himself had moved from his initial location during the battle with the Abyssal Grinner.
Riya silently sighed. "Just crush the stone and return. Even though you've broken through, your body can't hold on even for five more seconds. I'm sure they've also returned."
Eric nodded and scanned his surroundings once more, but he could barely perceive anything beyond a dozen meters away. The entire place was dark and eerie—as if countless monsters were gazing back at him from the darkness.
He blinked randomly a few times, hoping to find or at least connect with Lyria or Livy through the artifact—however, there was nothing. He even lost track of the Abyssal Grinner's massive corpse.
Finally, he couldn't hold on any longer. He quickly discarded the artifacts attached to him, retrieved the teleportation stone, crushed it—and disappeared from the always silent, dark, and crushing ocean depths.
---
Lyria and Livy waited in deep apprehension. They sat on the white sand a dozen meters from the cave, completely naked, lips bitten tight with worry and fear.
Nearly a dozen seconds had passed since their arrival—each second feeling like an eon as Eric still hadn't appeared.
They had never felt so helpless before. Even when facing Cooper in the past, there had been something they could do—but now, they had no idea where they had been before teleporting. They couldn't even go back to search for Eric if they wanted to.
It almost felt like a final farewell—they refused to accept it. So they waited, unease and agitation coiling in their chests.
After what felt like another eternity of agonizing silence, Eric suddenly materialized beside them and collapsed onto the sand.
He was breathing harshly, eyes clenched shut as he clutched his chest.
Though the sudden shift in atmospheric pressure had been swiftly neutralized, he still needed moments to recover from the strain his body had endured.
The instant Eric appeared, Lyria and Livy's heads snapped toward him—tears welling in their eyes.
They couldn't help but leap forward, wrapping him in tight embraces from both sides—though they instinctively held back their force, knowing how disorienting the teleportation had felt for them.
Eric's breathing soon stabilized, though exhaustion clung to him like lead. His body ached as if he'd done tens of thousands of squats in the Gravitational Array—stiff, sore, but not critically injured.
He allowed Lyria and Livy to take advantage of him while he was down. Internally, he was extremely glad and relieved that they had managed to return safely.
After a while, he noticed something very distinct.
Why did it feel so clear that their skin was touching so directly?
Why did something feel too soft and big?
He lightly opened his eyes to observe, then swiftly closed them again.
They were all completely naked...
He had completely forgotten about that. For now, he decided to ignore it since all of them were naked.
What they had just gone through was their greatest life-and-death trial to this point.
Even Eric felt that was the scariest thing he had ever seen. Even the hideous-looking ghosts from his past life had a much cuter appearance than that massive Abyssal Grinner's grinning expression
Especially since they were already in a battered state when that grotesque fish appeared, the whole situation became even more petrifying.
Eric had learned one thing clearly from this event: the deep sea was currently off-limits for them. It was best to avoid it until they could at least see clearly.
There were many things to learn from this event. He felt it was better to leave those for the future, as currently, they were all very tired.
At this moment, he noticed something—a part of him seemed completely unaffected by fatigue and was instead growing excited. It was slowly rising like a war horn, ready to sound the trumpet for a new battle.
Without hesitation, Eric quickly pushed Lyria and Livy away and scrambled to his feet.
He then swiftly took out three long white towels from his ring and threw two directly at the girls' faces before they could continue ogling his naked back. Then, he proceeded to cover his own waist below, concealing his raised War-Horn.
Lyria and Livy pouted while removing the towels from their faces. They honestly didn't mind if Eric took advantage of them—in fact, they wanted him to. Sadly, he was not so easy to capture, so they promised they would try harder next time.
After covering herself, Lyria took a step forward and asked solemnly, "Brother Eric, just what was that monster? Did you manage to recognize it?"
Since it was their first encounter with a mana beast—and they'd been too focused on surviving the pressure—they hadn't even noticed its arrival or rank. Only its overwhelming threat.
Eric, still facing away to calm his war-horn's enthusiasm, turned his head and answered, "It was a Rank 2 Abyssal Grinner."
He didn't know its stage—but if it had been an Adult Stage Rank 2, they'd likely be dead.
Lyria and Livy paled. They'd faced a creature that required a team of Rank 3 mana wielders to defeat—and that, too, under 5,000 meters of ocean depth.
They'd severely underestimated the world's dangers and had been too casual about taking this trial. Perhaps they should have sought out another safe place—a lake of such depth. There had to be artificially made lakes or water bodies somewhere in the world that were at least safer.
Regardless, they had survived and passed!
Livy took a step forward 'violently', and her assets bounced a little. Though she didn't mind, Eric let out a silent internal sigh.
He felt being a young man was too pitiful—just about anything the opposite gender did stung them deeply.
He wondered why governments around the world in his past life had never banned the drugs called 'hormones'—or at least taxed them. A certain country's leader would definitely be interested in this proposal; it would be easy money for generations.
Eric decided he would later inform Lyria and Livy about the 'shock reduction technique' for their assets using mana. Although they lacked enough mana to do it all the time, with their high Intelligence, it should at least be less taxing.
"Brother Eric, Ly, I've broken through all of them! What about you guys?" Livy asked with an excited expression while glancing at Lyria and Eric.
Lyria beamed. "Me too!" She turned toward Eric with hope. If possible, she didn't want any of them to retry this dangerous trial—at least not until they were strong enough.
Eric grinned, turned around, and nodded. "Me three!" His War-Horn had calmed down considerably.
He was also extremely glad that both Lyria and Livy had passed.
He was also very eager to find out what ability they had all 'awakened' or 'evolved'. At least from what he himself had felt, he didn't think any of his stats had increased—instead, it felt more like he now had three more 'arms.'
He asked for confirmation: "Did any of you feel like you've gotten stronger in any of your stats? Or is it new 'arms'?"
"New 'ARMS'!" Both Lyria and Livy exclaimed in excitement.
They all looked at each other and burst out laughing.
They understood the huge potential of new abilities over simple stat boosts.
Stats were amazing, but those were mainly basic, while these abilities could be used through both Stamina and Mana—something they had figured out over the last few days. And since they had massive amounts of Stamina compared to Mana, they only needed to use a little bit of stamina to do amazing things.
They needed to experiment more to understand their abilities in depth, nonetheless, abilities were far more amazing than simple stats by a huge margin.
Eric pulled out his single-seater sofa from his ring and sat down. Lyria and Livy also pulled out theirs and sat.
Suddenly—almost as if Eric's butt had caught fire—he shot up straight and waved his hand.
"Let's freshen up and dress properly, then we can talk. Meanwhile, think and feel what new 'arms' you girls have developed."
After saying this, Eric blinked inside the living room and then disappeared inside, leaving both girls stupefied outside.
He had to escape—otherwise, his eyes might see something he wanted to avoid.
His naughty eyes would inevitably drift toward those 'directions'* while chatting, and whatever self-respect he had gathered—being 'mature,' 'cool,' 'respectable,' 'badass,' 'smartass,' etc.—would disappear, as both Lyria and Livy would clearly notice where his focus was going.
He was helpless!
Other than that, they also couldn't freely bring out their abilities with their barely clothed bodies.