The Lord of Elements from a Drop of Water

Chapter 4: A Swarm of Black Rock Shrimps

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Leap Wave Attack!”

…

In a bid to escape from the Kelp Demon’s intense gaze, Jon began to launch a series of consecutive Leap Wave Attacks to help him flee.

However, the Kelp Demon continued to stare at him fixedly, giving him no chance to slip out of sight.

After being on a run for two days, Jon began to discover some pattern.

No matter how hard he ran, the demon seemed to maintain the same distance between them as it watched him from afar and it neither moved further or closer to him.

Jon’s mind was bursting with questions.

“What’s going on? Is the demon playing some trick on me?” he wondered.

Eventually, Jon decided to stop running so that he could see what the Kelp Demon was up to.

“Whoosh!”

When Jon heard the sound of something slicing through the waves, he quickly turned to see where the commotion was coming from.

That was when he caught sight of a red tassel spear that was over three meters long and formed by seawater shooting towards him.

“Water Demon Bloodthirster!” he hollered.

Utilizing his Water Demon Bloodthirster, he slashed the red tassel spear into smithereens.

Glancing up in the direction where the attack was launched, he quickly spotted his enemy and, at the same time, the description popped up on his virtual screen.

“Level 2 Black Rock Shrimp.”

However, there wasn’t just one but an entire group of as many as twenty of them.

“Ding! New mission unlocked. Kill some Black Rock Shrimps.”

A new quest popped up in the system in a timely manner.

After the group of Black Rock Shrimps observed Jon for some time, they immediately dived in for a second attack.

This time, Jon observed how they attacked.

Each shrimp would spit out a small gust of seawater from their mouths and, together, the water would form a three-meter-long red tassel gun—the one that was aimed for Jon.

“Leap Wave Attack!”

Jon executed yet another Leap Wave Attack to reduce the distance between him and his enemies. However, this group of Black Rock Shrimps was obviously smarter than the water elements. They clearly understood what their advantage was and hurriedly kept a safe distance from Jon.

At the same time, they launched their third wave of attack.

“Bloodthirster Sword Toss!”

Jon swung his sword and chopped off the third red tassel spear that the shrimps had shot towards him before he used his Bloodthirster Sword Toss to hurl his weapon over.

The group of Black Stone Shrimps immediately formed a water wall to defend themselves against the impact caused by the explosion of the Bloodthirster Sword Toss.

“Water Demon Bloodthirster!”

“Double Sword Desire!”

“Bloodthirster Sword Toss!”

Vowing to break through his opponents’ defense, Jon utilized the strongest long-range attack combo that he had mastered at this stage.

“Boom!”

Although the group of Black Stone Shrimps continued to build their water wall to fend off the attack, the power of the current explosion was already beyond the limits of their defense.

The swarm of shrimps shrimp were completely thrown off their feet from the explosion.

“Leap Wave Attack!”

This time, when Jon executed his Leap Wave Attack, his opponent could no longer coordinate among themselves to dodge his blow. Only half of the Black Rock Shrimps managed to flee, while the other half remained rooted to the ground.

“Watch out for my sword!” Jon hollered.

He then swiftly drew back his sword and slashed it at the shrimps.

“Ding! Mission completed. Level 2 black rock shrimp killed. Level fragment + 10 obtained.”

“Ding! Successfully extracted advanced water-type fragment +1 from the target’s body.”

“Ding! Mission completed. Level 2 black rock shrimp killed. Level fragment + 10 obtained.”

…

After wiping out half the swarm of Black Rock Shrimps, Jon managed to obtain a total of +100 level fragments and +11 advanced water-type fragment.

By the time he was done with his killing spree, half of the swarm of Black Rock Shrimps had fled far away.

“Heh, these shrimps are way smarter than the water elements. To think that they would know that they should flee when they can’t defeat their enemy,” Jon remarked.

Riding on the waves, Jon began to chase after the shrimps.

When he passed by a karst cave, the Black Rock Shrimps managed to pass through safely but when it was Jon’s turn, a crab suddenly showed up from nowhere and stopped him in his path.

A description popped up on his virtual screen:

“Level 8 Black Rock Crab.”

“You’re in the way, scram aside!” Jon roared.

With a wave of his Water Demon’s Bloodthirster, Jon slashed the sword towards the Black Rock Crab and left a bloody trail on its pincers when the crab raised its pincers to block off the attack.

Hopping mad, the Black Rock Crab opened up its black pincers in a bid to cut Jon in half.

“Leap Wave Attack!”

Jon transformed into a wave and struck the Black Rock Crab’s body, leaving a gaping gash on the areas that he had come into contact with.

The Water Demon’s Bloodthirster could simultaneously injure and cause one’s enemy to lose its strength. Rounding it up meant dodging one of the black stone crab’s attacks, and then slashing it again.

“Bloodthirter Sword Toss!”

Jon did a backhand toss and hurled the sword out, blowing up the severely injured Black Rock Crab into pieces.

“Ding! New mission unlocked: Kill some Black Rock Crabs.”

Jon was too quick to jump into action and in the blink of an eye, he had already killed the enemy and ended the battle. That was why a new quest was unlocked.

“Ding! Mission completed. Level 8 Black Rock Crab killed. Level fragment +100 obtained.”

“Ding! Successfully extracted advanced water-type fragment +5 and advanced earth-type fragment +5 from the target’s body.”

Jon glanced at his data panel and noticed that it had been updated to reflect that he was now in level 5. He now had 328/160 level fragments, which was more than enough for him to upgrade himself.

“Upgrade!” Jon declared.

“Ding! 160 level fragments were used. You’ve successfully advanced to level 6. You obtain a roll now that you’ve levelled up. Do you wish to use it immediately?”

“The roll expires within 24 hours. Please use it as soon as possible.”

“I’ll use it now.”

Jon chose to use the roll immediately.

The virtual screen revealed the image of a common pachinko machine that could be found anywhere along the streets. However, the slots on the machine that represented the prizes were all blank. A yellow light dot darted across the screen erratically before.

Subsequently, the pachinko machine disappeared.

A line of words then popped up on the screen.

“You’ve drawn your lot. Congratulations, you’ve obtained a the Mystic Water Shield skill.

“Mystic Water Shield: Builds a ball of water which serves as a shield to fend off a certain amount of damage inflicted on you. It’s defense capabilities depends on the user’s level.”

Although a Water Demon’s body could heal quickly after sustaining injuries and also had excellent pain tolerance, Jon still hoped to master some defense skills for it wouldn’t be sufficient to rely solely on his body to protect his crystal core. This skill came at the right time.

“Ding! You’ve successfully mastered the Mystic Water Shield.”

The system notification buzzed and the three words ‘Mystic Water Shield’ was written in the skills panel in a handsome Song style typeface.

As he was held back by the crabs, Jon lost sight of the Black Rock Shrimps. After pondering about it for a moment, Jon decided to drop the chase for it would be too inefficient to kill those low-level shrimps since the quantity of level fragments that he could obtain from them was so low that it wouldn’t be justified for him to pursue after them.

Jon then lowered himself to the bottom of the sea to observe the underwater karst caves, for he noticed that that was where the Black Rock Crabs seemed to have come from.

The group of Black Rock Shrimps had startled it when they passed by the top of the karst cave and by the time it came out of the cave, the Black Rock Shrimps have already slipped away. That was why it stopped Jon, who was chasing after shrimps.

Jon had extracted the eath-type Evolution Points from the Black Rock Crab’s body and now that he was more inclined towards close range combat, he was extremely keen to find out if there were any more Black Rock Crabs in the cave. He also wanted to see if he could extract more earth-type Evolution Points from the bodies of these Black Rock Crabs.

After observing the entrance of the cave for a long time, he still did not spot any Black Stone Crabs coming out.

“Perhaps I should go in and take a look,” he muttered.

As the saying goes, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”. Jon knew that it would be pointless for him to remain outside and hesitate.

Quickly springing into action, he swam right into the karst cave.

The walls of the cave were craggy and filled with the secretion of unknown creatures. Some resembled the marks left behind by stalactites that had fallen off.

Jon’s vision worsened as he went deeper and deeper into the cave. Eventually, he could only identify the things that he had come across through information indicated on the system’s virtual screen.

After searching for nearly half an hour, he still did not encounter a second Black Rock Crab.

Just when Jon thought that the cave was void of other living creatures, he heard a sudden movement from the end of the cave.

Jon instantly perked up and glanced towards the direction of the sound.

Three Black Rock Crabs appeared to be traveling together or patrolling the area in groups, for they turned around the corner of the cave and appeared in Jon’s line of sight.

Their levels simultaneously popped up on Jon’s virtual screen.

“Level 8, level 8 and level 9.”