CHAPTER 102: Aquatic Trial Zone. ({Part-2} out of 3)

Both of those Alpha Chosen of the third trial zone headed towards me, as if they could sense where I was hidden.

Once they were a few meters away from me, they paused and discussed something amongst each other in some unknown language.

For some reason, when they talked, sound propagated through water as it would on air, and I could hear them clearly.

With it being some unknown language, I didn't understand a single word of theirs. However, through , I could tell that they were only at the peak of Tier-2.

So, I didn't worry about them harming me, even though I hadn't recovered much of my Spirit energy and Stamina. I also wanted to know how they found me and what they would do upon finding me.

Both of them cautiously approached the rock wall I hid behind in the small cave with weapons that looked like harpoons in their hands, and while one of them hesitated, the other one stepped forward and said something, while looking at where I was hidden, in a loud voice. This time I understood what they were saying since they used 'Genonian language' that every Alpha Chosen in the Trial World received a few days back.

"We are the chosen ones of the proud Atlan race from planet 'Atlanis. We know that you are from another trial zone and somehow related to the change in the system barrier. Our Sea Lord wants to meet with you. You have two choices now, you could either willingly follow us or you could retaliate, but then we would have to subjugate you before taking you with us. Be quick and make a choice."

While listening to everything they had to say, I used to read their minds. But since their thoughts were in their native language, I couldn't understand them.

So, I began to extract the memories of their language's learning experience, and in just a matter of few seconds they flowed into my mind, and I gained a basic understanding of their native tongue.

With that, I could read what they had in their minds. After a few silent seconds that I used to absorb their native language, one of them seemed to lose patience and shouted, "If you don't come out in the next three seconds, we will use force to take you with us! You could quit the thought of escaping from here."

The feminine looking one among them hesitated, before asking the male Atlan who just warned me in their native language, "Se...senior brother, this person seems to be at Lv.25, the same level as us and his combat prowess are unknown to us, how about we wait for reinforcements before engaging in a fight?"

"Humph! Junior Sister, even though this Alpha Chosen from the other trial zone was the same level as us, how could this person contend with us underwater. If you ask me, just one of us would be more than enough."

From their conversation, it was quite evident that the female was a prudent one, while the male seemed to be full of himself.

It seemed that they used on me and found out my level. But since the skill I had was already at the peak of Uncommon grade i.e, Lv.10, all they were able to take a peak were my name and level.

(E/N: They must not have been paying attention to the leaderboard, otherwise they might connect Jay with the person who used to be number 1)

As for their threat, I didn't care about it at all. Even though I was still in the weakened state, my stats were still enough to be a Tier-3 Low-Phase lifeform, and in the past minute, I had already recovered enough stamina and spirit energy which would be sufficient to deal with the two Lv.25 Alpha Chosen.

The male one seemed confident that he could deal with me underwater, but what he didn't know was that I had passive skills that would allow me to move freely underwater.

If I had wanted to kill them, I had a few ways thought out already. But, I didn't, instead I just got out of the makeshift rock cave that I hid in.

After exiting it, I lifted my hands above my head as if indicating that I was surrendering to them. It seemed to be a universal sign that they understood right away what I was expressing without any communication.

While the female Atlan was cautiously observing me, the male Atlan scoffed at me, "At least you know what's best for you."

Soon, the female Atlan slowly approached me. I could tell that she was cautious towards me since she couldn't check my stats at all.

"Please put your hands forward without any sudden movements, I am going to use a skill that ensures that you can't retaliate until we reach the Sea Lord."

Just like she asked, I slowly brought my hands forward and the female Atlan murmured the words 'Aqua Prison,' as the water around me condensed into an two meter tall oval bubble that engulfed me, and from within the inner wall of the bubble, shackles that were made of water sprung out and held on to my wrists and ankles, restricting my movement.

To my surprise, the skill that the female Atlan deployed was strong enough to completely suppress a peak Tier-2 lifeform. And although it couldn't contain me, who had overall attributes that equals a Low-Phase Tier-3 lifeform, it was quite impressive.

I played along and acted as if I couldn't move with the restrictions on me. Only after that did the female atlan sigh relieved and place her hand over the oval shaped 'Aqua Prison,' and then nodded at the male atlan.

Following that, both of them chanted at once in their minds, 'Aqua Propulsion,' and they began to move as if they were flying in the air, and the oval prison that I was locked in also moved along with them.

They didn't do any swimming movements to move, as water under their feet turned into a jet stream, propelling their body in the direction they wished to move.

Moreover, the speed at which they travelled was nearly half the speed of a torpedo missile, which was at 50 m/s. That speed might not be much on land, but underwater that was quite significant due to water's density and drag.

Just like I suspected, none of the monsters tried to attack either of those Atlans or me for that matter. To find out the secret behind that phenomenon, I pried into their memories, while also taking the chance to passively recuperate my Spirit Energy and Stamina.

Nearly 20 minutes passed and I gained perfect mastery over their native tongue as well as learned a lot about them and about the so-called 'Sea Lord'.

First thing was that their population was scarce, their civilization technology was more advanced than Earth's humanity. As for their planet 'Atlanis,' it was only half the size of Earth and its land mass was completely submerged within water, and all the lifeforms that lived there were aquatic creatures.

Just like how Humans were the intelligent race on Earth, on the planet Atlanis, the Atlans were the same.

However, the aquatic animals on that planet were very aggressive and enormous in numbers, constituting more than 99% of their planet's population.

In the beginning, the Atlans had to go to war with them just for survival. But as centuries passed, they developed water source energy technology, which was the greatest invention of their race.

Using that to make weapons, Atlans were able to survive despite their scarce population. However, their technology was limited due to their limited resources and countless aggressive monsters, so they weren't able to reach the top of their planet's food chain.

Due to their low population and a common enemy, there weren't any infighing in their race nor any discrimination amongst them.

The only thing that determines the position in their society, is one's military merits, and accomplishments, be they technological or military.

Their Atlan race was governed under the rule of the Sea Lord, and every generation, a few with highest accomplishments will be nominated as candidates for becoming the next Sea Lord.

The leader of the Aquatic trial zone's Alpha Chosen was also such a candidate who made his way to become the '357th Sea Lord' of their race.

This generation's Sea Lord was among those that were selected for the Alpha Program from their life planet.

Mostly because of being Aquatic lifeforms, all of them obtained water Innate Talent. Compared to Earth's Alpha Chosen line up, where almost everyone had Grade-8 Innate Talents, this wasn't as impressive, because out of those 11 Atlans, six had Grade-6 Water Innate Talent, four had Grade-7 ones and only the Sea Lord had a Grade-8 Water Innate Talent.

As the leader of their race, the Sea Lord was the first one to react and quickly gathered the other Atlans to survive in the mystical world.

Unlike the Earth's Chosen, where all of us survived, it didn't go as well for the Atlans, as they lost three of their own to the monsters in the initial two days of the Trial Program.

But that weakness didn't last long as they gradually grew stronger by hunting monsters together.

Especially the Sea Lord, who, with his Grade-8 Water Innate Talent, entered Tier-3 at the end of Day-6, and became one of the Alpha Rankers by ranking 870th in the .

Upon the thought of meeting that Sea Lord, my interest was piqued. Not because he was among the top 1000 Alpha Chosen of the Trial Worlds, but because of the Spirit Item he possessed which granted a 'Monster Camouflage Buff' for a certain period of time.

From the memories of the male and female Atlans, that Spirit Item was called 'Monster Camouflage Grail,' and when their Sea Lord reached Tier-3 and entered the top 1000 rankings, he received said item as a reward.

Through that item, the Sea Lord granted the other Atlans the 'Monster Camouflage Buff', making the monsters in their Trial Zone perceive the Atlans as fellow monsters, thus ignoring them even when they were close by.

While I was devising a plan to get a hold on that 'Monster Camouflage Grail', we reached the destination.

As for coming face to face with their 'Sea Lord' who was at Tier-3 Low-Phase, I wasn't worried at all, since my 25-minute long weakened state was just about to wear off.