I Killed the Hero and Took His Achievements-Chapter 41: Sushi Night (Eating the Kraken Matriarch)

[Location: Atlantis - The City Gates]

[Status: Critical Failure.]

CRACK.

The sound wasn’t like glass breaking, it was like the sky itself was tearing open. The bubble that had protected Atlantis for three thousand years had shattered under the weight of the beast. A massive sticky limb at the size of a skyscraper smashed through the dome.

"AAAAHHH!" The situation was panic, and absolute unadulterated chaos.

Thousands of Merfolk swam for their lives, they can shapeshift their legs into a fish tail and change their breathing system into a fish gill, the water seeped through it to process oxygen in water, but the current was too strong. The influx of high-pressure water swept them away like ragdolls. Buildings crumbled, and coral towers snapped like twigs.

I stood on the balcony of the Star-Forge facility while holding my clipboard. The water rushed toward us, it was like a wall of death.

"Master!" Sylvia screamed resoundingly, her dragon wings were flaring instinctively. "The pressure! If the water hits the Forge, the thermal shock will forthwith detonate the core!"

"I know," I said composedly.

I looked up. The blocking out the bioluminescent lights of the city was a shadow. It was a massive, bulbous head with a pair of hate-filled red-yellowish eyes.

[World Boss: The Kraken Matriarch]

[Level: 85]

[HP: 20,000,000]

[Status: Hangry.]

It roared vociferously. It produced a sound wave that rippled through the water, shattering the eardrums of every soldier within a mile. "SCREEEEEE!"

"That’s deafening," I noted. "And quite rude."

Princess Marina was clinging to my leg. She was shivering, and her scales pale with terror. "It’s the Matriarch! She... she hasn’t woken up from slumber since the Age of Myths! We are doomed! We are all their food!"

"Stop clinging to me," I shook my leg. "You’re wrinkling my pants."

I looked at the water that was rushing in torrentially. Fighting underwater was very inefficient. My movements would be slowed by 30%, my fire magic would be dampened by 50%, and even Sylvia’s ice would be less effective against a creature adapted to the high pressure freezing deep, and dark environment.

"So," I muttered. "If the environment gives the enemy an advantage..." I stepped forward to the edge of the balcony. "I remove the environment."

"Sparky!" I yelled into the comms. "How much liquid capital do we have in the reserve?"

"Boss? Now isn’t the time for accounting! We’re about to be crushed by a gigantic squid!"

"ANSWER ME!"

"Uh... 60 Billion Gold in assets! But liquid cash? Maybe 5 Billion!"

"Good." I raised my hand menacingly. I didn’t target the monster, but I targeted the Ocean.

[Class Skill: Liquidate (Chaos Broker).]

[Description: Converts physical matter into currency based on its market value.]

[Range: Visual.]

"I’m buying the water," I whispered.

"What?" Marina blinked, her tears were floating in the rising water around her eyes.

"I said," my eyes glowed with a golden greedy light. "I am buying the ocean." ACTIVATE. A golden ripple exploded from my hand. It hit on the wall of rushing water. PING. PING. PING. PING. PING. The sound was deafening. It wasn’t the sound of water crashing, but it was the sound of a slot machine that was hitting the jackpot a million times a second.

The water didn’t splash, but it solidified. It turned yellow, then into Gold Coins. The millions of gallons of seawater that was flooding the city had transformed instantly into a tsunami of cold hard cash.

[Transaction Complete.]

[Item Sold: Seawater x 500,000,000 Gallons.]

[Market Value: 0.0001 Gold per Gallon.]

[Total Profit: +50,000 Gold.]

"Cheap," I scoffed. "Water really is a common resource."

But the effect was catastrophic. The water vanished, and gravity returned. The Kraken, which was floating buoyantly a second ago, suddenly found itself in a thin air.

"GROOOOAAAR?!" The beast looked puzzled. It tried to flail its tentacles while trying to swim through the air. But it couldn’t, gravity took place. BOOM. The Kraken fell agonizingly.

Millions of tons of "calamari" crashed onto the city streets, and finally landed on a mountain of gold coins. It writhed, thrashed, then gasped. Deep-sea creatures rely on water pressure to hold their bodies together. Without it? Their internal organs will begin to fail and explode.

"It’s... suffocating," Sylvia gasped while staring at the scene with wide eyes. "You... you tortured a deep-sea fish on air."

"I changed the terms of engagement," I corrected her. I turned to the group. "Now, while it’s flopping." I pointed at the gigantic beast. "End it."

Sylvia didn’t hesitate. She launched herself off the balcony toward it. [Dragon Form: Active.] She transformed in mid-air. A white, silver crystalline dragon slammed into the Kraken.

Ice vs. Flesh.

Sylvia unleashed a breath of Absolute Zero directly onto the Kraken’s exposed gills. CRACKLE. The gills froze instantly. The Kraken thrashed and smashed a row of houses. I would bill Marina for it later.

"Ahri! The eyes!" I commanded. Ahri leaped down, her tails blazing with blue fox-fire. "Finally, a target practice!" she squealed happily.

She ran along the length of a flailing tentacle. She dodged the limp suckers that tried to grab her. She finally reached one of its massive red-yellowish eye. [Skill: Fox Fire Bomb.] She filled a sphere of condensed plasma directly into the pupil.

SPLAT. The eye exploded miserably. The jelly and juice rained down gorily on the city. The Kraken screamed ear-splittingly. It tried to retreat and push itself back toward the ocean breach.

"Oh no you don’t," I said menacingly.

I looked at the sky. "Glacies!" I shouted resonantly. "Lunch time!"

From the upper atmosphere, a dark shape dived in. It was Glacies, my Level 60 Void Dragon Mount who had been circling in patrol. He heard the dinner bell. He crashed through the hole in the dome. ROAAAAR.

Glacies landed directly on the Kraken’s head. It was a clash of titans. Dragon vs. Kraken. Scale vs. Meat. Glacies sank his teeth into the Kraken’s neck. [Skill: Void Bite.] He didn’t just bite flesh. He bit the space around the flesh.

A chunk of the Kraken simply ceased to exist instantly. The Kraken’s HP bar dipped down. [HP: 40%... 20%... 5%.]

"Wait!" I shouted vociferously. "Stop!"

Glacies paused, a massive chunk of tentacle was hanging from his mouth. He looked at me with confusion.

"THE LAST KILL IS MINE," I stated.

I jumped down from the balcony. [Skill: Shadow Step.] I appeared on top of the Kraken’s head, right between Glacies and Sylvia. The monster was gurgling and dying miserably. I walked up to its brain case, "You broke my roof."

I whispered to the dying beast. "That comes out of your deposit." I raised the Soul-Eater’s Fang. The blade hummed. It was hungry, and hadn’t eaten a boss soul in a week. SHUNK. I drove the dagger deep into the soft spot of the skull.

The Kraken convulsed for one last time. Its massive eye rolled up.

[System Notification]

[Target Eliminated: The Kraken Matriarch.]

[Experience Gained: Massive.]

[Level Up: 40 -> 42.]

But I wasn’t done.

The dagger glowed crimson. A massive swirling blue soul that was ripped out of the remains. It screamed inaudibly as it was absorbed into the blade.

[Soul Harvested.]

[Weapon Stat Increased: +100 Strength.]

Then came the loot shower.

PING! PING! PING!

Orange and Purple light blinded the whole area.

[Item Obtained: Kraken’s Ink Sac (Legendary Material).]

[Item Obtained: Tentacle of the Deep (Epic Whip).]

[Item Obtained: Heart of the Tides (Mythic Orb).]

And finally...

[Title Acquired: Bane of the Deep.]

[Effect: All Aquatic Monsters fear you. Water damage reduced by 50%. You can breathe underwater.]

"Convenient," I muttered while equipping the title. I turned around.

The city was eerily silent. The Merfolk were peeking out from the ruins. They looked at the dead god-beast, then at the mountain of gold coins filling their streets. They looked at me.

Princess Marina swam over. She was staring at the gold. "You..." she stuttered. "You turned the water... into money?"

"I did," I said menacingly while wiping the slime off my coat. "Consider it a stimulus package for your economy."

Marina looked at me like I was the devil incarnate, but her eyes also saw something else. It was power. She saw absolute and undeniable power.

"Glacies," I patted my dragon’s snout. "Leave the rest, let other having a calamari feast. Leave the beak to me, I want to mount it on the trophy wall."

I walked back toward the Star-Forge facility. "Sparky!" I yelled resoundingly.

"Y-Yes, Boss?" Sparky peeked out from the blast doors.

"The roof is broken, fix it."

"On it! But Boss... we have a bigger problem!"

"What?"

"The Star-Forge! The energy spike during the Kraken fight... and destabilized the core! The reactor is overheating excessively!"

I frowned. "Overheating? Just cool it down."

"I can’t! We used all the coolant! The Void Leviathan bones are too potent! We need a biological heat sink! Something with high-affinity mana conductibility!"

I stopped. Biological heat sink, high mana affinity, and water-based. I slowly turned my head toward Princess Marina.

She was currently trying to pick up a handful of gold coins, she was looking greedy. She felt my gaze, then looked up. "W-What?" she asked while clutching her pearl staff. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

I scanned her thoroughly.

[Target: Princess Marina.]

[Race: Royal Mermaid.]

[Attribute: Hydro-Core (S-Rank).]

[Status: Debt Slave.]

[Body Temperature: Cold-Blooded.]

Perfect. I walked over to her. "Princess," I said, my voice was dripping with malicious charm. "Do you want to pay off some of that interest you owe me?"

Marina narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, how?"

"I have a job for you."

"A job?"

"Yes, a very specific, and very intimate job."

I grabbed her wrist. "My engine is running hot. And you..." I pulled her close. "...you look like you could use some warming up."

Marina blushed up, and her gills fluttered. "I... I am of a Royal! I do not do manual labor!"

"It’s not manual," I whispered into her ear. "It’s something magical. If you do it... I’ll knock 1 Billion off your debt."

Marina’s eyes widened open. 1 Billion, that was a century of taxes. She looked at the dead Kraken, at my dragon eating it, then at the gold. She bit her lip. "Fine," she whispered, her voice was trembling with a mix of humiliation and anticipation. "What do I have to do?"

I smiled viciously. "Follow me to the ship’s Captain Quarters."

I looked at Seraphina. Guard the door. No one can enter."

"Boss?" Seraphina blushed. "Are you going to... umm— punish her?"

"I’m going to fix my ship. Maybe... expand the fleet."