The ocean waters were peaceful, with the tides proceeding about as usual while the water currents within changed according to the depth like usual. The sunlight illuminated the area, despite it being difficult, if not impossible, to determine the source.
There was one ocean on the bottom and another facing it on the top, situated 3 meters away. The waves were tiny, barely reaching 5-6 centimeters, which meant they did not produce any noise. Everything looked the same…except for one thing.
The sounds of something being scratched constantly resounded throughout the place, somewhat grating to the ears. The sound was akin to using stone to scratch against a rock to scoop dirt from it. At times, there was a faint white powder that floated on the ocean surface.
The cause was Krune. His gaze was vacant, almost dispirited, as he seemed to have lost his sanity. At present, in his hand was what seemed to be a piece of bone, somewhat cylindrical at the back while sporting a triangular front, sharp.
It seemed to be the tooth of the worm-like fish that he had ripped out. Right now, he was using it to scrap on a large piece of bone, trying to shape it into a weapon he could use to wield. Currently laid beside him were a couple of bones that had been carved into weapons.
One was a tail bone that had been turned into a club. The handle part was slightly curved to give it a better grip. He had also tied some of the cloth from his dress to increase its grip. The second weapon was a pike with a small hook-like thing attached at the front.
Tied to its end was a rope, made using his dress. The other end of the rope was coiled around his left hand.
At present, there was only a small piece of the garment covering his hips. He was bare for the rest of his body, having used up all the cloth. Having been afloat on the ocean water for almost a month now, Krune had almost become mad.
As a cultivator, a month wasn't even a long time. Rather, it was just a short cultivation session. But as a mortal, a month was a long time to be idle. It was the difference in mindset and mentality. It wasn't just his body that had turned into a mortal. His mind, too, had been affected.
At present, even the Little Krune that was within his subspace was idle, having stopped comprehending the laws of his subspace. All it did was lay flat and stare at the floating Wisp Cores.
Its mind was blank at the moment. It was because it was affected by Krune's thought process. Their shared thoughts worked against it at this moment.
Initially, Krune had thought about doing certain things to protect himself better. After all, he had begun to work on creating them. But as the days passed, without anyone to talk with, without anything to think or ponder over, he had shut his mind and began to mechanically work on developing his tools.
The body of the worm-like fish was five meters long. In other words, that meant it contained a tremendous reserve of flesh to eat and bones for him to carve into weapons. Using the smaller bones, Krune made some knives that he used to further carve out the flesh of the worm-like fish.
As for the bigger bones, he used the longest two to turn into weapons: the club and the pike. During normal times, he used the club to row himself forward. But over time, he stopped doing that, allowing the weak ocean currents to take him wherever they wished.
After all, without seeing any destination in sight, he didn't even know if moving in a certain direction was worth it. After a while, Krune simply gave up rowing. All he did was work on making weapons, healing his injuries, and strengthening his base.
It was the most difficult during the first day. Krune didn't have any tools to work with. Using the neon glow he emitted, Krune looked into the mouth of the worm-like fish, noticing its teeth. After protecting his hands by putting a piece of cloth over it, he began to pull out its teeth.
Then again, it was easier said than done. The teeth didn't even budge, no matter what he did. As his nails had fallen off, Krune couldn't even scratch its gums. With that, he had to struggle through a lot. After struggling for an entire night, he finally managed to take out the tooth that was the most damaged out of them all.
He cleaned it using a piece of cloth before using it to cut open a section of the worm-like fish. It took a lot of time as Krune was completely exhausted. After spending hours on it, he managed to rip out a considerable size of flesh.
As he was famished, Krune didn't even stop to think if it would be healthy to eat it raw. All he did was clean it a little using the ocean water before gorging on it. Once he finished eating it, Krune fell asleep immediately.
When he woke up, he felt like he had recovered some of his lost strength. After that, he began to use the damaged tooth to cut the gums and take out the healthy teeth one after another. From there, he used them to cut patches on the worm-like fish's body and cut out pieces of its flesh.
Though, he soon noticed that his actions were making the floating worm-like fish's carcass unstable. It seemed that if he kept up with his actions, it was bound to topple over soon enough. In order to avoid such a scenario, Krune spent a lot of time pulling out a tiny bone from the worm-like fish.
He then used the teeth to scrape away on it, grinding it down to the size of a needle. He then used the worm-like fish's tendons to sew its skin back together. This way, he reduced the extent of its damage.
From there, he began to work. After some days passed, he spotted a school of fishes flowing past, barely managing to capture some using his clothes as a net.
During his free time, Krune used the worm-like fish's body as support while using his legs to paddle through the water. This way, he practiced swimming, preparing for the day he would be in the ocean on his own.
Previously, he had only survived by banking on his trove of experience. Then again, he couldn't say it would always be the case. After all, he was inexperienced in the art of swimming. With that, Krune began to train accordingly.
Moreover, he discovered a rather surprising fact. The ocean water was different from all the water he had come across. It seemed to contain a property beneficial to the body. As he soaked himself in the ocean water, his injuries began to heal.
Nevertheless, the healing speed was incomparably slow. Even a scratch took a day to heal. Moreover, it only increased his natural recovery by a small amount. At the very least, thanks to it, Krune's injuries didn't worsen his condition.
Moreover, the water also prevented any meat from rotting thanks to its beneficial property. This was the reason Krune could safely consume the worm-like fish's meat without any risks. Then again, after eating some of it, he left the remaining as is to ensure he had a soft platform underneath him.
As days passed, Krune came across numerous fishes swimming in the oceans above and below him. They weren't the threatening kind but rather seemed like regular fishes. He began to hunt for them and stored enough of them for his later needs.
As the water prevented their corpses from rotting, he used that to his advantage and racked a pile of fish for his food needs. The first three nights were the most nerve-wracking since he was alert against anything that might spring up on him.
But as the days passed, he became less vigilant, even going to the extent of stopping his body from glowing during the nights, remaining in the dark. His mortal fear of the dark continued to diminish. And, with a decrease in fear came a reduced care for survival.
...which resulted in his current situation after almost a month has passed in such a fashion. Krune had used the skin of the fishes to stitch on the worm-like fish's carcass, reinforcing it into a sturdier platform that he could comfortably rest on.
He had adjusted its body shape to resemble the float above, using the extra space to rest and relax while making his tools.
As he was using a tooth to shave a long piece of bone, something jumped up from the water, opening its mouth to clamp on Krune. In reflex, Krune's left hand moved, carrying the bone he was working on to plunge it into the mouth of the fish.
The bone hit the depth of the fish's mouth, going further in before choking on it, causing internal damage. As the fish had clamped shut in reflex, it noticed to its horror that its teeth cracked when coming into contact with the bone.
Krune's right hand went to his hip and pulled out one of the hung knives, thrusting it through the head of the attacking fish. The fish twitched for a dozen seconds before turning still. Even then, Krune didn't take out the knife.
Instead, he left the knife as is and pulled out a second knife from his hip, also plunging it into the fish, watching it twitch immediately, showing that it was just playing dead all along.
His vacant eyes glanced at his thigh, watching the deep bite marks of teeth that revealed his bone, gently placing the fish before him, all along using the long bone to prevent it from moving. Using a couple of knives, he quickly diced it up into many pieces.
Once he did that, he worked on it, extracting all the bones and internal organs from it. He dumped them on the ocean and separated the skin from the body. He washed both of them first, storing the flesh in a leather sack he had created.
As for the skin of the fish, he set it aside for the time being.
Layer 3: Double Ocean!
A layer of the Sub-Realm that had completely changed the cultivator that was once overpowered among his peers.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m