'Master Identification,' Daz invoked mentally, but surprisingly, nothing happened.

He wasn't shown a detailed description of the illusion masking Atlantis like he had expected. 'I guess I can't identify things that are hidden? Rose's version of Master Identification must be specialised to doing just that then, right? Identifying everything, even if only at a basic level. Otherwise, there's no way that she would know as much as she does about everything even with that big brain of hers and access to a limited system database. Well, she also has that guessing skill of hers, so I suppose it doesn't really matter...'

Daz crossed his arms over his chest as he stood there on the ocean floor and held his chin while he began thinking of ways to destroy or get through the illusion.

Before long, Daz decided to take Hamson out of his brand once again and swing it where he was certain the illusion began. The water in front of him rippled unnaturally and seemed to stretch.

'Okay, so that's a possibility. Hamson's sharp enough to damage the illusion, so I could always create a tear in it or outright destroy it. I kinda wanna keep it in place though since it could be useful once the city belongs to me, so that's a shelved option for now,' Daz concluded.

He was happy to have a seemingly certain plan if his other ideas fell through.

Next, the reaper used the skill Mass Dig, resulting in a big hole that was 30-cubic-meters in size appearing in front of him. He then bent over and picked up a chunk of the seafloor and tossed it towards the far end of this new hole.

Like magic, it simply disappeared, presumably having been sent to the other end of the illusion like Daz had. 'Huh. So the illusion covers underground as well. I kinda expected that, but it sure as hell would have been nice for such an easy exploit to exist. Well, I guess that only leaves trusting my instincts and hoping that there's actually a path through this illusion. It'll be annoying if it's restricted in a way that you can only enter it if you're an Alphorian.'

He sighed and shook his head softly before he began asking his instincts to bring him to the weakest point of the illusion or its entrance - if it had one.

'I guess I'm lucky,' Daz remarked as he saw the space in front of him that was rippling furiously. Occasionally, he could see glimpses of buildings through these ripples, though they were far and it was very dark, so it was hard to really tell.

'I wonder if this part of the illusion just degraded over time, or if it was heavily damaged during the fight with the powerful being? Anyway, I should be able to tear this part open with Hamson without destroying the whole illusion, or, at least, that's what my gut tells me,' Daz remarked internally and then summoned Hamson again.

Without even a shred of hesitation, he cut a vertical slit into the already weakened section of the illusion. Instantly, the sight of the city in the distance became focused and clear despite it still being almost pitch-black.

Daz could see that the illusion was trying its best to repair the hole he'd carved out as quickly as it possibly could, and not wanting to damage it any more than he already had, he stepped through the tear he had created.

'I wonder why Rose never mentioned the illusion?' Daz thought as he began walking on the seafloor towards the blue and golden ruins off in the distance. 'Did she not guess about it, so never knew, or was she aware of how sharp Hamson is now that he's fused with an imitation of a real god's weapon, knew about the weakened section of the illusion, and was confident Hamson could cut into it? Hmm... both seem possible.'

Daz entertained himself with such thoughts as he hopped on Hamson and let the shovel take him to Atlantis.

Congratulations! You have successfully completed the side quest [The Search For The Lost City of Atlantis]. Quest Rewards 1,000,000 Merit Points. +100 in all stats. A C-ranked Shovel or Trident. The total merit balance of the host is now: 118,559,990 [+1,000,000].

As soon as Daz stepped into the ruined remains of what was once Atlantis, his vision was filled with that screen, and not a moment later, a bronze and slightly rusted trident the same length as his entire body materialised in his left hand.

'Well, of course it was a trident and not a shovel... I guess high luck doesn't mean that you'll always be lucky. Anyway, system, show me my status please, and omit all info unrelated to my stats, including energy,' Daz requested.

Host's Status Stats Strength: [LR] 1,500(2,250) Dexterity: [LR] 2,000(3,000) | Item Boost: +50. Constitution: 2,333(3,399) [+100] Intelligence: 783(1,074) [+100] Transparency: [Limit Reached!] 750(1,125) [+67] Agility: [LR] 1,325 Charisma: 1,863 [+100] | Item Boost: +15 Defense: [LR] 2,000 | Item boost: +3,000. Immunity: 1,548 [+100] Soul Power: 16,410 [+100] Luck: [LR]1,250 | Item Boost: +375. Justice: 3,150 Corruption: 0 Wisdom: 1,933 [+100] | Item Boost: +250. Regeneration: 1,233 [+100] | Item boost: +100. Mana Sensitivity: 774 [+100]

Daz stroked his chin thoughtfully. 'And that's Transparency capped out... Each stat that reaches its limit for my species makes it more and more appealing to use my Limitless Fruit of Evolution early... Should I just buy a bunch of fruits like the Fruit of Luck instead and raise my stat caps?'

Daz wondered as he identified the trident. It wasn't anything special, as expected of a C-ranked item. It did allow the host to teleport to it if it was thrown, but it only had 20 uses of that before it would break.

He saw some slight potential in it, but really, it was such an uncommon weapon that he'd more than likely just end up hanging it somewhere in his throne room as an ornament. Something like a trophy from Atlantis assuming he found nothing else that was trophy-esque down here.

'System, now that I'm here, can I use my token to claim Atlantis?' Daz asked the system.

Denied. Not all conditions have been cleared to make [Atlantis] a system-sanctioned city.

'Oh? what conditions need to be fulfilled then?' Daz asked curiously.

Gold-level system access is required for that knowledge. Confirmed access level of the host to be emerald-level.

Two conditions must be met:

1. King Mofolo's spirit still lingers here, and he is still the rightful ruler of [Atlantis]. Banish or destroy him. (Optional: As a reaper, you may make him subservient to you.)

2. [Great Sword of Arthphodas] must be removed from [Atlantis]' Core.

Daz grinned. 'Those sound like quest conditions. Wanna throw me a bone, system?'

Silence met the young man, forcing a wry look to surface on his normally stoic expression. 'I guess that's fair. Neither of those sound too tough considering that I can attack souls and also factoring in my Lesser Item Box that can hold a certain number of items regardless of their sizes. Well, so long as they aren't living and I assume there isn't an upper limit to the size of stored items but I guess we'll see.'

Daz glanced towards the sword that was ominously looming overhead. It was hard to see in the darkness, but this place had quite a lot of glowing fish flying about, so if Daz focused, he could make out the shape of the giant weapon that was stabbed into the central palace.

'Well, chances are that they're together, right? I don't see why the king's spirit wouldn't be in the palace,' Daz logically concluded and thus controlled Hamson to take him there.

Hopping off of the shovel and cautiously holding it, Daz walked up the entry steps into the decrepit palace.

Reika nodded in admiration as she looked at every little thing very carefully. 'This place feels very... aquatic, however, it is the same size as the royal palace we once lived in when we were mortal. This place has certainly seen better days though. It is a shame that the murals on the walls are all cracked or completely shattered. We are sure they were beautiful once.'

Daz ran a hand gently along one such mural. No emotions flickered across his face as he thought, 'A shame, yeah, but it's not like it matters. If the system knew about this place, then no doubt Rose can learn all about its history as well.'

Reika noticed Daz's lack of interest so she puffed out her cheeks. 'Of course an insolent fool such as yourself would not care for the cultural significance of a long-dead people.'

Another thing that Daz didn't care for in this regard was Reika's opinion. He followed the light of his helmet as he navigated through the palace and completely ignored his demon princess spirit companion.

Reika begrudgingly following along as she tried to look angry but focused most of her attention on studying the murals and historical artefacts that Daz got close to. She also made sure to shout at him every time he stepped on something that looked important like a broken vase or a crumbled plate.

It wasn't long before the unique pair of beings had found themselves at the centre of the palace where almost all of it had been reduced to rubble in the wake of the massive gash in the seafloor that acted as the enormous sword's sheath.

'Okay, well, my Mana Sensitivity is setting off alarm bells whenever I look down this hole, so whatever's so full of energy is down there. The king's spirit, maybe? I guess I should get rid of this sword before doing anything else, but first... Master Identification. Secret Override.' Since he planned to gift it to Madison, Daz didn't want it to be cursed or anything.

Great Sword of Arthphodas [SS-Rank (Middle Tier)] Description

This sword was forged with the aid of over 20,000 master blacksmiths who toiled away for 50-years without rest.

The Overgiant Arthphodas used this sword for many millennia on his campaigns as a 12-star mercenary of the system.

It came to call the unassimilated planet of Earth as its home when its master died fulfilling his final mercenary campaign.

Hah. If this sword isn't a form of overcompensation, then only the system knows what is.

Stats Attack: 10,000 Sharpness: 5,000 Force: 5,000 Durability: 203,489/10,000,000 Skills Cut Through Space Self-Sacrifice Unstoppable Sweep Cut Through Space Tears a rift through space, allowing the host to damage all forms of barriers and dimensions (Does not work on barriers and dimensions that are labelled as undamageable or indestructible). Self-Sacrifice At the permanent cost of 10% of the host's maximum Lifeforce, the sword's stats shall quadruple for 5-seconds. Unstoppable Sweep At the cost of half of all of the host's maximum non-Lifeforce energies, the host may sweep the sword horizontally or vertically, and regardless of what is in its way, the sword shall not stop (will cause the sword the phase through undamageable or indestructible things). Randomly selected [Great Sword of Arthphodas] secret: It cannot be repaired, but it can be reforged into a weaker version of itself upon breaking.

'Huh...' Daz stroked his chin as he willed Hamson to take him to the sword's massive blade.

The metal wasn't rusted nor was it corroded, in fact, it looked pristine. The only visible damage on the sword that Daz could identify was heavy chipping all around its edges.

'It's almost as sharp as Hamson, though it has half of his attack stat. That Force stat... I recall that Hamson's spade mode has its Defense replaced with it but I've never really used that mode before. Remind me what it does, please, system,' Daz asked of the trusty omnipresent and omniscient being.

Confirmed. the item stat of [Force] adds superficial weight to an item. It is commonly added to blunt weapons or weapons of massive size. Each point of [Force] adds 0.01 force of tonnage to the weapon when attacking.

'Oh, really? So, in that case, this sword which is probably already like, what, 100-tonnes in weight, has an extra 50-tonnes of impact added to it without any of the extra weight? That's crazy. I should get Crusher to add that to her hammer,' Daz thought.

The Titan could already create over 300-tonnes of force with just her bare hands, so the thought of her being able to add even more tonnage of force on top of what she was capable of with her hammer both excited Daz and gave him chill.

'Anyway, here's hoping it'll fit into my Lesser Item Box. Store.' Unfortunately, Daz was greeted with an unwelcome notification.

Denied. The item the host has tried to store is 20,000-cubic-meters in size, while the size limit of a storable item for the skill [Lesser Item Box] is 30-cubic-meters.

'Well, I saw that coming from a mile away even without my instincts. The question now is, how the hell do I get this sword out of here? I can't exactly bring Maddy down here to fuse Family with it since she'll die from the pressure. Maybe Crusher? She could pull that out in her Titan form, right? Hmm... Well, I could also do that instead...' Daz's Wisdom and Intelligence were working together to help him come up with several possible solutions.