Chapter 216: Here we go again

Chapter 216: Here we go again

Even the biggest room in the fleet still felt cramped when it had more than a dozen people stuffed within, and they still needed several additional individuals to be present even though there was no room for them.

Those people ended up having to sit in remotely using the videoconferencing equipment available in the vessel’s multiple conference rooms.

“The loot from the Heart of Madness.” Isaac stated as he dropped the parchment on the table “It says its the diagram for a spell that can unite two things that should not be compatible, though I’m not a spellcaster, so I can’t tell how good it is, or if it’s useable in the first place.”

Hak grabbed the parchment and held it out in front of him so that Patrick and Raul could read it as well.

That would probably take a bit, so the meeting itself started while they analyzed the spell.

“Wait, that’s it? A lousy spell? Where are the Aspects, where are ...”

Fairfield shut the complainer up with a simple glare.

The Marine Corps Colonel was of average height, his impressively trained physique was mirrored by every other individual in the room and the fact that the jackass was located in another room meant that Fairfield couldn’t even get up in his face.

But this was the glare, the kind wielded by all with a great capacity for leadership, and struck like a physical blow.

“Mr. Sharpe, are you under the impression that we fought that battle for loot?” Fairfield asked icily “That the only reason we didn’t let a [Raid Boss] run rampant was the possibility of personal gain?”Ñøv€l-B1n was the first platform to present this chapter.

The man, who Isaac remembered as having been a pretty standard adventurer, wilted, but Fairfield wasn’t done yet.

“We are here to ensure that this situation does not repeat itself, that we take out the problem at the root. If all you care about is your part of the loot, then your presence on this ship is no longer required. Someone will bring you your share once the actual issues are done.”

Sharpe wilted and vanished from the screen.

“We tore the hell out of that monster, and its pieces are scattered all over the place. The pieces are still being gathered and any discussion of loot will wait until we know what there is to be shared.” Isaac said “And even if we had the loot, it would have to wait until the situation is resolved. Completely resolved.”

“Right, how the hell did Lovecraft predict where ...”

“Later.” Fairfield shut that down “Right now, our problem is that we don’t know what the status of the remaining cultists in the city is. A full Platoon of the Marines with the highest Level of mental resistance [Skills] has been dispatched with the proper support to investigate. In the meanwhile, we need to be preparing for what they throw at us next.”

The [System] message caught them smack in the middle of discussing what they’d do if another [Raid Boss] arrived.

Mosasaur Monarch (Tier 6) has been summoned near your location.

Summon Location: Pole of Inaccessibility, Ocean floor (4 km away, direction straight down)

Oh for fuck’s sake.

Isaac Thoma, you have been designated as Incident Commander.

You now hold Unified Command of the battle against ...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no need to deal with that.

“This one should be ea- ...” Isaac began, then cut himself off when a sufficient amount of time had passed that he could have reasonably scanned the thing with the [Aura] he’d projected downwards “On second thought, I got this, be back in five minutes.”

Once the brain had been destroyed, its movements grew less coordinated.

When the heart went, it weakened.

Its supply of air was lost along its lungs and it began to thrash madly.

The liver, spleen, and kidneys each bled profusely as he stabbed them in turn, blood loss further reducing its physical capabilities until finally, the long-awaited message flashed in front of his eyes.

Mosasaur Monarch (Lv. 45 Raid Boss) has been slain. 50,000 XP gained

And that was that. Isaac took a moment to make sure there were no nearby drones or scrying spells, and when he’d determined there were none, he grinned. That had been fun.

He swam back up to the surface, climbed up the side of the carrier, and walked straight back into the meeting room, dripping wet but unhurt.

Throughout the fight, all five minutes of it, he’d never once stopped participating in the discussion via the party.

“Why the hell didn’t you do that to the Heart of Madness?” another person asked over the video call.

“Do I need to explain that a higher Tier monster is stronger than a lower Tier one and that seven is more than six?” Patrick asked, speaking up for the first time. The speaker flushed and walked out of the webcam’s field of view.

“By the way, the spell checks out, it’s going to be expensive as hell, mana-wise.” He said.

“I can see applications in engineering and Alchemy, but you’d need someone specialized in those things to get specific uses,” Hak added. He might have said more when he was interrupted by a frantic man whose eyes were practically jumping from their sockets as he stared into the webcam.

“Ok, seriously, can we talk about the fact that HP Lovecraft somehow predicted the city would be here? What else is real? The mountain full of Shoggoths in the Arctic, the serum that can raise the dead, extradimensional houses with baby-sacrificing witches?”

“There’s a reasonable explanation for why he was right about there being a city here,” Isaac said.

“Oh, do tell.” The man replied acidly.

“The place we’re at, Point Nemo, is also known as the Pole of Inaccessibility, is as far in the middle of nowhere as you can get without leaving the planet or tunneling under its crust.” Isaac pointed out “If you want to build a trade city, you build it on trade routes. If you want to build an observatory, you find a place with calm weather and minimal light pollution. And if you want to hide an eldritch city, you put it in the middle of nowhere, and avoid places with specific extraordinary features, such as the deepest point in the ocean.”

“Wait, you think we’ve been playing around in Cthulhu’s RV or something?” Fenrir asked even as the scared whispering began.

Isaac just shrugged “I’m just saying that HP Lovecraft is probably not a prophet. I still don’t know what the city is, and it’s still bugging me.”

“Why don’t we explore it? We survived the Heart of Madness just fine, didn’t we?”

... It seemed like Sharpe had found his courage. Isaac rolled his eyes.

“Because having once eaten Indian food with a single chili pepper next to its name on the menu does not mean that you’re ready to eat a Carolina Reaper raw. The city is a million times worse.” Fenrir pointed out. And as it turned out, his glare was almost as good as Fairfield’s.

Sharpe, once again, slunk off.

This time though, Fairfield made sure to officially ban him from the vessel. Having someone there to play Advocatus Diaboli was useful, but an uninformed contrarian was the exact opposite of that.

And then, the long-awaited message finally arrived via the Party. The rest of the cultists had been either captured or killed and the city had been secured.

Well, there were still various anomalies that might still be hiding nasty surprises, but for all practical intents and purposes, they’d now taken possession of the world’s creepiest city. Now what the hell were they supposed to do with it?