Nathan had felt a blip on his hunter's instinct—just for a single split second. It had been… tentacles? Hands? Appendages?—something reaching out of the ground, dragging the man underneath.

  Now they were all in the trees, safe… or, at least, Nathan hoped so.

  "Bree!" Nathan shouted. "It's underground!"

  Bree looked away from the water and toward him. "If I want to use my abilities, I'll have to get back on the ground."

  And at that point, it would become a test of dexterity. Would Bree be fast enough to activate her abilities and kill whatever the attacker was?

  Nathan wouldn't bet on it. Her strength was in Constitution… not Dexterity. And it was already clear that these monsters were ridiculously high-level—Nathan remembered how fast those angler fish–snake hybrid things were.

  "What about your water!" Bree said. "Can't you just… blast the ground?"

  Of course he could. Basic Maelstrom had managed to take out a building. But even if that didn't mean blowing his cover on the spot—the monster could take advantage of the chaos and hit them while the trees were falling—that's exactly what would happen. Nathan couldn't control that ability; it would blast everybody apart along with the monster!

  "No!" Nathan said.

  "Shit!" Bree banged her fist against the tree she was on. "We're trapped."

  Derek, who'd been silent up until now, shouted out. "What do you mean we're trapped?!"

  "Look around us!"

  Nathan did as she said and looked around in a circle. Except for the trees they were on, there were no other trees for what seemed like miles. Understanding dawned on him.

  "It waited until we were too deep in the swamp to escape. It just has to wait for us to fall out of the trees, or we starve. Either way, it wins."

  Derek went pale. "Shit."

  Nathan should've seen this coming. He should've noticed how the trees were getting sparser and sparser. He should've—

  No, calm down.

  He allowed the emotions to be wiped away. Underneath his shirt, his necklace glowed dimly.

  Focus in. Focus. What are my options?

  Basic Maelstrom was still an option. If he needed to, if all else failed, he might be able to kill the monster—but like he'd mentioned before, it would mean blowing what was left of his cover and fully exposing the fact that he was Number One. Nathan didn't need that.

  A flicker of Bree's offer crossed his mind—leading the survivor camp and having the power for himself… But he just couldn't. He was under enough pressure already.

  Besides, there was no guarantee that Basic Maelstrom wouldn't end up getting them all killed, as he'd already mentioned before. No, he needed to come up with something else.

  What about his more conventional water abilities? He still had access to Riptide Mastery. Was that a valid option? Maybe he could drill into the ground using the water. Now, what if the monster was too deep? It might be worth a shot, but there was no guarantee that it would take it out.

  Nathan breathed in. Of course. He was trying to get something out of the water… This was just fishing. He was just fishing—he needed bait.

  Nathan reached into his inventory and pulled out his fishing rod. He just had to remember not to use it as a weapon—for the first time in this circle, he'd be fishing.

  He reached into his inventory again and pulled out the Scythian Worm. The smell immediately almost made him throw up. His senses were so enhanced that it had become even more horrible to be in the presence of than when he first got it. He pushed past the smell, ripped off a segment and slid it onto the hook of his fishing pole.

  "Nathaniel!" Bree said. "What are you doing?"

  "What does it look like I'm doing?" Nathan cast his rod, the motion as familiar and easy as waving his arm. "I'm going fishing."

  The hook sank into the water and settled against the ground. Nathan breathed in slowly. This would come down to the wire—he would need to snap his wrists and hook that creature before it had time to realize what was happening.

  And he was also betting that the thing enjoyed the taste of Scythian Worms. There was no guarantee… But he'd had a good track record so far. He'd managed to lure monsters with it before; hopefully, this thing would react the same.

  The minutes stretched on. It seemed that everybody else had no other plan, because they were all just staring at him and his fishing rod, silent as stones.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  He felt something. The slightest vibration—so subtle that if he hadn't been focusing all of his attention on it, he wouldn't have noticed.

  His muscles stayed relaxed.

  Something reached out and wrapped around the hook. Nathan snapped his wrists and—

  The thing dodged. It moved its limb out of the way at the last possible second. The Scythian Worm was still on the hook… But he'd failed.

  His audience all breathed out a sigh of disappointment. And wait—was Chad streaming?

  Nathan shook his head and focused on continuing to fish.

  Come on, you stubborn bastard. I know you want it.

  He waited… He waited…

  Another vibration. Whatever it was reached out and tried to wrap around the Scythian Worm—but it avoided the hook! It took off the slightest segment of the worm and disappeared back into the ground.

  Nathan clenched his jaw. It was getting better at this than him. It would continue to get better. He had to get it on the next one; otherwise, he'd just end up feeding bait to the thing.

  Once again, his muscles relaxed. An idea came to him… He was already a magic fisherman; why not do a little bit of cheating?

  He waited.

  A breeze brushed against his cheeks. A branch dropped out of the tree and landed in the water with a soft splash.

  Vibration.

  The monster reached its body up, doing the same trick of going for the sides of the worm to avoid the hook.

  Nathan reached out with Riptide Grasp and held onto the thing's limb as hard as he could. At the same time, from the other end, he pulled his wrist directly into the path of the creature.

  The hook penetrated directly into the appendage. Nathan looked down at his reel and pulled.

  It was huge. Absolutely massive—what was this thing? He couldn't look; he had to focus on watching his fishing pole to make sure that he was applying the correct amount of pressure. He pulled back, reeled in… Pulled back, reeled in…

  "Nathaniel?"

  Pull back, reel in.

  "Nathaniel!"

  Pull back, reel in…

  "NATHAN, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD—"

  Nathan looked up at Chad. "What—"

  Nathan mechanically tilted his head toward the gigantic figure just at the corner of his vision.

  Attached to his hook was not a single monster. Rather, it was a single tentacle attached to what appeared to be hundreds of other tentacles, all writhing around out of the water. It was one of the most grotesque, horrifying things that Nathan had seen in a while.

  There was no face, no figure, no head. It was all just tentacles slammed together seemingly for no reason.

  "What the fu—"

  One of the tentacles reached out toward the tree that Nathan was on. It wrapped around the trunk, then pulled. There was a light snapping and cracking before the entire tree was pulled forward, and Nathan was tossed directly toward the writhing ball of madness.

  Nathan's hand twitched. He'd almost tried to pull on the fishing rod and swing it around like a mace. But he knew he didn't have the necessary leverage to do that—besides, fighting with a fishing pole… there’s only one person who does that—Nathan Lee,the number one delver. And right now, he was Nathaniel, harpoon guy and water cultivator.

  Instead, Nathan reached into his inventory and pulled out his harpoon, letting go of his fishing pole at the same time. As he flew forward, he lined up a shot directly for the center of the monster.

  His arms flexed, and he threw the harpoon.

  The harpoon whipped through the air and slammed straight into one of the tentacles. It pierced out the other side, then into another, and then right into the middle. It popped out the other side, covered in blood, viscera, and various other things that Nathan didn't feel the need to name.

  The creature's appendages whipped around in a frenzy, clearly in pain. It reached out one toward Nathan's body, and it struck him that he was still in midair—and that was a very bad place to be.

  Nathan tried to swim through the air, only to realize that you can only do that in cartoons. The tentacled monster reached out and wrapped around Nathan's body. Instantly, Nathan felt pressure crush his ribs and spine like an industrial press. He grunted from the pain and resisted the urge to flail about like a maniac.

  Beside him, Bree jumped down onto the ground. Her eyes lit up yellow, and earth burst out of the ground, smashing directly into the tentacled monster. The tips were shaped like spikes, so they drilled directly through the arms. It continued to rise, but it didn't actually seem to do much.

  Chad leapt into the air, his katana whipping out of his inventory. He slashed out, severing three or four of the tentacles at the base.

  "This isn't working!" Bree shouted.

  Nathan was about to respond when he realized that he was being dragged closer and closer toward the monster's maw.

  One tentacle reached up toward his neck, and at that moment, Nathan decided that he should probably figure out a way out of this situation.

  He grabbed the water from the swamp with his cultivation and pulled it upward, shaping it into a blade. It sliced through the tentacle that had been holding him, and he fell to the ground with a thump. He flexed his arms. The tentacle broke off and splashed into the water.

  Nathan looked up toward where his harpoon had sliced through the meat. There, just to the left of where his harpoon had hit, was… a flower? At the mere mention of the word, Nathan felt his arm—his false arm—twitch. Nathan flexed the fingers of that arm.

  "Quiet down. You're going to raise a lot of questions if I use you."

  At his words, it relaxed.

  His eyes shot back toward the flower at the center of the writhing mass. He’d be willing to bet good money that that was th Blightbloom seed. It was at the core of the thing?

  But how did they get to it?

  They were ripping off the tentacles, but that wasn't doing much. Not only that, but they were starting to get tired. Bree was breathing hard from the number of earth pillars she'd slammed into that thing. Chad's arms were shaking. The rest of the group didn't look much better.

  Nathan didn't know where his harpoon was—oh wait, he could detect treasure in water.

  He extended out that forgotten sense. He dove into the water and reached for his harpoon. He stood up. Lined up the shot toward the flower.

  He took a deep breath.

  Go.

  He threw it as hard as he could.

  His harpoon cut through the creature like a bullet. The harpoon sailed off into the distance, a purple flower attached to the end.

  The tentacled monster writhed for a little bit more, then got slower, and slower, before it finally stopped.

  [You have leveled up!]

  [You have leveled up!]

  [You have leveled up!]

  [Skill obtained: Ocean's Kiss (Silver)]