World's Apocalypse Magician 16 Chapter 16: Mission Iii

"Cough, cough. Are there any questions concerning the mission?" Sia asked the group of espers, acting like nothing had happened.

"What if we face sea monsters? How do we divide the spoils?"

"Spoils will be decided to be given to the one who discovered and dealt the largest damage against the creatures." upon hearing the Sia's response, everyone nodded in agreement. This is one of the good things about the health points becoming visible.

Whenever espers or even normal human beings managed to kill a mutated beast, all of the involved parties would receive a tally of who dealt the most damage, all of which appear in their interface simultaneously and for everyone to see.

"What specific thing do we have to report concerning the Marianas Trench? Is it an object, a sea monster or something?" another esper asked. This question was quite similar to what Paolo had in mind. Even the system mission given to him had been too vague.

"This is an exploratory mission, so all of you will be equipped with nano cameras able to record whatever you see."

"if you think there is nothing notable present in the area, then you may already resurface."

"What happens if infighting occurs?" one esper asked, and majority of the espers in the room went silent, waiting for Sia's response while looking at Paolo.

"If infighting occurs, the offender who started the fight would have to be imprisoned or put into the wanted list for espers if the offender kills or maims their fellow esper."

"However, if the fight was justified and had plenty of witnesses to testify for the offender, the offender will be innocent and no remuneration would be needed."

A few more questions were asked, but they were resolved and clarified without a hitch.

An hour later, everyone left the villa and headed to the port area of Vietnam by moving through the Red river. Paolo and the rest of the espers immediately saw in the distance flooded areas and houses as well as commercial buildings submerged in water. Nearby these buildings would be the positioned submarine that they would be boarding.

It's time to complete this quest, Paolo muttered to himself.

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The journey in the beginning was quite calm. As they pa.s.sed through the formerly South China Sea, the submarine was able to fend off low-level sea monsters. Inside the submarine, majority of the espers were meditating or just interacting with one another, making connections.

Paolo was placed in a room with 2 bunker beds with three other espers, one of which was a tough-looking lady.

Everyone was silent, as they were afraid of offending Paolo. They had already known that Paolo had a short temper especially when he was contradicted or mocked. At the same time, they knew their own limits as the strongest among the three, the woman, was only a Rank Water and Ice dual elemental esper.

Paolo didn't mind and rested on his bed, closing his eyes once more.

After 6 hours of traveling underwater, something unexpected occurred. A loud explosion rocked the whole submarine, causing the alarms to sound off. The espers were beside me were awaken by the alarms, a bit confused but they began to prepare emergency evacuation protocols.

But what caused the explosion in the whole submarine? According to the system alarm of the submarine, the submarine has encountered an abnormal increase in pressure covering the whole craft, causing some parts of the submarine to actually tear up.

The environment where the collapse was favorable for the espers. After all, they were water-based espers, they could easily breathe. The only problem was the water pressure brought about by the depth of the submarine. The submarine was already inside the Marianas Trench, where the pressure was abnormally stronger than normal. Although water espers can survive underwater as if they were water itself, the weird pressure change could be an indication of an enemy esper.

Upon hearing the alarm however, I frowned. I immediately checked my skills if I had anything that allowed me to breathe underwater or any other similar situations.

I checked under the Air-skill tree auxiliary skills, and found what I was looking for. I bought the skills for Water and Air's 1st-tier to 4th-tier supportive skills, allowing me to move around in water casually.

Water

i. Supportive

1. Water Absorption

2. Water Manipulation

3. Water Creation

4. Auric Cover

5. Rainbow Aura

6. Water of Life

7. River of Styx

8. Transformation: Aquarius

9. Transformation: Leviathan

10. Eternal Water

Air

i. Supportive

1. Air Manipulation

2. Air Creation

3. Cutaneous Respiration

4. Flight

5. Translation

6. Desiccation Resistance

7. Sound Transmission

8. Long-Distance Sound Transmission

9. Winds of Blessing

10. Eternal Air

The first three tiers of all elemental supportive skills were similar to one another, allowing basic manipulation and absorption, as well as creation of these elements. On the 4th-tier above, this is where it diverges to show the respective strengths of each element.

At the same time, elemental supportive skills were quite different from elemental offensive skills: they didn't need to be unlocked per tier, but rather conditions as well as attribute requirements. For example, a 5th-tier offensive skill needs the previous 4 tiers to be unlocked before it can be used, as well as meeting the conditions and attribute requirements for usage. But the same 5th-tier supportive skill only needs the conditions to be unlocked as well as attribute requirements.

Everyone began to evacuate the submarine, and since there were non-esper personnel who were aboard the craft, they were escorted out with the help of the water based espers.

Paolo casually cast [Cutaneous Respiration] to everyone on board, allowing them to breath and survive underwater. At the same time, everyone was covered by a thin layer of air, allowing the pressure to not crush the bodies of these non-esper personnel that needed to be evacuated.

Upon seeing the situation, they were quite surprised to see the changes in their bodies. Paolo, who was responsible for the effect, merely gestured the three roomates of his with his finger to keep their mouths shut, as they were the one closest to him and detected the change in elemental density coming from him. They nodded in response, as if afraid they were going to be killed. Actually, that thought crossed Paolo's mind, but decided not to do it anymore because it felt too much work.

Paolo's spell was different from the [Water Defense] Skill, as it was an active skill. He set the time limit for the skill on non-esper personnel to be 30 minutes, while for espers, it was set at 12 hours. 12 hours was half the maximum time the spell could last.