‎If you ask me, having salty seawater rushing into your mouth and nostrils wasn’t exactly a good experience, so I absolutely do not recommend that.

‎

‎I kicked back at the water and my body shot upwards, but before I could reach the surface, I lost momentum, and had to kick back once more.

‎

‎However, i kicked against the water a little too much and ended up overshooting. Even after reaching the surface, my body shot into the sky for about a dozen meters.

‎

‎Feeling the chilly air of the sea brush over my pale skin, it was then that I realized I was stark naked.

‎

‎"Shit!" I cursed, covering my nakedness with both my arms as gravity took effect and I plunged back down into the deep sea.

‎

‎’Damn, that was close.’ I thought as I swam to the surface, slowly this time. Soon, my head was above the surface and the rest of my body stayed beneath the water.

‎

‎While I prided myself on my thick skin, people seeing me naked would severely thin that thick skin of mine.

‎

‎Anyway, I had reasole the reason why I overshot.

‎

‎Clench!

‎

‎I purposely clenched my hand, and the sound was heard even underneath the sea. My entire body felt stronger, and faster than before my death. Overall, I felt like my whole being had been upgraded.

‎

‎In short, all during my death and resurrection, I had managed to break into the Theta+ rank. I didn’t know how it happened, but it was a very welcome surprise.

‎

‎"Status." I called out.

‎

‎====Status====

‎

‎Name: Damon Darkfell

‎

‎Race: Human

‎

‎Age: 18

‎

‎Title : Third prince of the Darkfell empire.

‎

‎Rank : Theta+

‎

‎Strength : Theta+

‎

‎Agility : Zeta-

‎

‎Stamina : Theta+

‎

‎Aether capacity : Zeta-

‎

‎Luck : Gamma

‎

‎Charm : Alpha

‎

‎Techniques: Aether reinforcement (Grandmaster), Darkfell royal sword style (Grandmaster), Mirage steps (Grandmaster).

‎

‎Unique physique : Nexus prism physique (Omega rank.)

‎

‎– initial ability: One of many [Create reflections of yourself to confuse foes. The strength of your reflection depends on the amount of Aether spent. You can seamlessly swap places with any of your reflections.]

‎-------------

‎

‎The most notable changes were in my aether capacity and my agility. Both had broken through to the Zeta- rank. But there was one thing that bugged me, how the hell did my luck decrease from Delta rank to Gamma rank?!

‎

‎’What could have been the cause?’ I pondered. But since I didn’t have any conclusions to draw, I left it at that, even though it still bugged me.

‎

‎Anyway, I tried creating a reflection using my new aether reserves, and to my shock, I could create one using only one percent of my aether. So in theory, I could create a hundred reflections with my full aether reserve.

‎

‎"Hahahahaha!" I couldn’t hold back my laughter as I dispelled the reflection. My reflections could now be at a hundred different places. But wait... Speaking of reflections, I quite remember trying to swap with my reflections and vice versa as I fell into the sea, but it refused to work. Then everything went... off.

‎

‎Now, I could forgo the reason why my luck decreased, but there was no way I could let go of my abilities being wonky. No, wonky was putting it lightly, something, or rather, someone.

‎

‎The creature certainly couldn’t do that. It had no idea about my abilities, and thus couldn’t have used it will to prevent me from leaving much like Uncle Devon did.

‎

‎Eliminating the creature from the list, I thought about who could possibly possibly benefit from my death? And it didn’t take me long to come to a conclusion.

‎

‎"That insidious bastard!" I cursed, gritting my teeth. The only being who truly benefited from my death was that entity. I got to that conclusion especially after reviewing the fact that he could not take over my body himself. So instead, he got me killed, then played the card of being able to revive me, forcing me to rely on him, and thus giving him access to my body.

‎

‎But what was a minute? What the hell could he accomplish from the minute I granted him?

‎

‎I didn’t know what he intended to do in that one minute, but I was getting real scared of that guy. I don’t think I could fight comfortably again knowing that insidious bastard could stop my ability from working. This fact sent waves of terror down my spine.

‎

‎I spent a genuine hour just floating there, and trying to figure out how to prevent that, but nothing came up. So I decided to leave the sea first.

‎

‎However, I couldn’t leave naked now could I?

‎

‎"Where even are my clothes?" I wondered. Surely I remember falling into the sea with clothes on my person (Remember, Damon doesn’t know he was obliterated by the black beam).

‎

‎’Was it the act of bringing me back to life that stripped me of everything?’ I pondered. Forget clothes, even my spatial storage was gone. ’Maybe everything would still be in the place I woke up." I thought.

‎

‎‎Without wasting another second, I took a deep breath and dived back towards the seabed. In less than a minute, I reached the place I had awoken.

‎

‎Now that I looked at it well, the entire area was blackened, and it didn’t look like it got blackened by fire or something hot, but more like eroded by something vile and sinister.

‎

‎It didn’t take long for my mind to make the connection. "It was that black beam, wasn’t it?" I asked to no one in particular. The bastard must have struck me when I fell into the sea.

‎

‎Still, that was the least of my concerns, I was alive now, and that was all that mattered. What truly concerned me was my spatial storage, The astronomical loss would be beyond scale if I lost it.

‎

‎All my fortune was inside that spatial storage, including the gold Knotts and aether stones I had gotten from that tomb, and let’s not mention my featureless mask, then last but not least, the ’Hundred springs centurion flower’ I had took off the Aetherial association’s hands.

‎

‎’No, this won’t do.’ I rejected the prospect of losing the spatial storage and began sweeping away at the blackened seabed with my bare hands.

‎

‎A few minutes later, I found a blackened piece of fabric the size of my fingernail. Even though it had been blackened, It was no doubt a piece of clothes.

‎

‎That very piece of fabric ignited the flames of hope in my heart. if the piece of fabric was still intact -though, intact was a strong word-, then that meant there was a very high chance that the spatial storage was also intact.

‎

‎Unfortunately, as the minutes passed by, the flames of hope within my heart began to dim. By the time an hour passed, then two hours, I had completely lost hope of ever finding it.

‎

‎’Gods, I’ve never been so damn frustrated in both my lives.’ I inwardly cursed. Just as I was about to give up and head back to the surface, my eyes caught a silver glint peeking through the seabed at a distance.

‎

‎’...Could it be?’ I thought as my body shot towards the silver glint. I rummaged through the seabed, and eventually held grasp of a small silver ring.

‎

‎’Is it that my luck actually increased instead of decreasing?’ I thought joyfully as I put the silver ring on my finger. But then again, maybe it was because of the decreased luck that I spent over two hours looking for it and didn’t find it.

‎

‎Letting those thoughts fade away, I shot towards the surface of the water. It was time to go see how much time had actually passed, after all, I had lost track of time while I was in that nebulous void.

‎

After reaching the surface, I located the nearest island and swam towards it. It took me two minutes at full speed to reach it. The shore was empty so to speak, so I proceeded to get out of the water. After which I hid behind some shack present on the shore, and took out fresh clothes from my spatial ring.

"Phew! It sure feels nice to be clothed." I heaved a sigh after wearing the clothes. I then took out the featureless mask and changed my striking appearance to something average, before leaving the shore.

If I was correct, this was the island we were supposed to head to before that creature struck our airship down from the sky. It was called; Kraken island because the island really was shaped like a kalraken.

Anyway, after leaving the shore and heading deeper into the island, I stumbled into the first person on the island. He was a short stocky man, with a long beard.

"Um, hello, excuse me, can you tell me today’s date?" I asked politely.

The man looked skeptical. "Where have you been living, under a rock?" He asked looking at me as if I was stupid.

"I would only like to know today’s date please." I replied.

"Today’s date is April 14."

I froze.

"An entire month?!"

*******"

Thanks for your support everyone, if you want to read ahead, there are now five advanced privileged Chapters on webnovel, so you are more than welcome.

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