First,

I repeated a slightly risky experiment.

[U-ugh…I-it’s……!!]

"Hmm…5 meters?”

I was measuring distance when the shark suddenly started convulsing, so I grabbed it with pressure.

After hunting quite a few times, I’d come to realize that any creature that detected me would show symptoms close to madness.

Their entire bodies twisted, expressing something like emotion…as much as they could. Though convulsing was the only word that seemed to fit.

It didn’t last long. At most, 3 seconds

But to me, who had only regained some control over my pressure, that was an eternity.

-Crunch!

"That should be everything nearby..."

I causally swallowed the fish ball the shark had turned into and looked around.

My Tide Sense now easily covered several hundred meters. The Abyssal Sea, which was usually teeming with creatures, was surprisingly quiet.

Because I had hunted everything in the vicinity. Even after all that, I hadn’t even recovered half my abilities.

Clicking my tongue in dissatisfaction, I fiddled with my partially restored control over the currents.

Losing my abilities was one thing. I could accept that. I did find a way to recover them after all.

But it didn’t change the fact that I’d entered the Abyssal Sea carrying a major problem.

And even had a goal.

"Hmm."

I tapped my head lightly, uneasily checking my condition.

Time was hard to gauge here, but at least a few hours had passed.

At that point, even with my original abilities, I’d normally start feeling the pressure. With my current weakened body, my already cracked ribs should’ve been completely crushed by now.

But strangely, I was fine.

'...What?'

Had my abilities weakened and the burdens on me along with them?

I considered that for a moment, then shook my head.

The pressure, currents, and even the deep-sea creatures were that different from what I knew. In other words, the burdens themselves hadn’t changed.

It just felt like I was receiving less of it. But with my Water Partition weakened too, I couldn’t understand how that was possible.

Letting out a sigh, I stared into the pitch-black abyss below me.

"Guess I have no other choice."

I’d already eaten every creature at this depth.

If I went deeper, the pressure would only get stronger, and I wasn’t sure I could endure it. But I’d already decided to reach the bottom.

No matter what excuse I came up with, going up would only be running away. I clenched my teeth and descended further.

First I had to find new species of deep-sea creatures. Then hunt in that area, recover my abilities, and go even deeper.

I had to restore as much of my original power as possible before descending again…

"?"

Just as I was organizing my next steps…

I felt something strange.

In the Abyssal Sea, there was something I should and could never sense. Something I had never once experienced before.

A smell.

More precisely, it was closer to an incredibly dense scent.

"What the…?”

Was it even possible for smell to travel underwater?

I sniffed a few more times, wondering if something was wrong with my nose. Then I checked my head, in case something affecting my sense of smell had been damaged.

Neither seemed injured. The scent was really there.

And if it were just a simple smell, I might’ve brushed it off as something strange.

But within it, I could feel an intent from whatever had left it.

[Path.]

[Food.]

[Cold.]

"Ugh..."

My head throbbed.

There was no doubt. It was a primitive scent, but precisely because of that, the intent it carried was unmistakably strong.

I felt like I finally understood what this was. Not a scent, but something closer to pheromones.

I slowly nodded, feeling some fascination, then immediately frowned.

"No, wait, why now…?”

It didn’t seem like I’d descended that much deeper compared to before, so it couldn’t be because of that.

It had just suddenly started. Almost at the same time I began regaining my abilities.

"..."

My abilities had weakened, but I could restore them by consuming fish balls.

The burdens on me had somehow noticeably decreased.

And now I could suddenly sense pheromones from deep-sea creatures.

It felt like there should be a connection between all of this, but I couldn’t quite piece it together.

After thinking for a while, I shook my head and began moving toward where the ‘Food’ pheromone seemed to be coming from.

Until I verified it, I couldn’t be sure. The Abyssal Sea was such a closed space it could drive a person insane, so maybe I was just losing my mind.

Not long after, several deep-sea creatures entered the range of my Tide Sense.

It was about six of them. All different species. Keeping my distance, I cautiously swam around, and then I saw another group merging with them.

Six turned into dozens, dozens into hundreds.

An overwhelming number of deep-sea creatures, far more than I’d ever seen, were all heading somewhere.

"You’ve got to be kidding me..."

My heart sank.

If I got discovered even once and triggered a fight, I’d be facing hundreds at once.

In my current state, that was the worst-case scenario. I was about to postpone figuring out whether it was really pheromones or not.

Then I saw it.

[Crunch…ugh...]

[Hmm…]

Fragments of some creature drifted upward from somewhere deeper.

Shredded legs, pieces of tentacles, and eyeballs, all surrounded by droplets of blood.

The deep-sea creatures were greedily devouring them, fighting over scraps.

Though, strangely enough, it didn’t escalate into outright bloodshed.

...Probably, in an environment where food was endlessly supplied like this, there was no need to fight. I too casually pulled one of the eyeball fragments toward me with a current and then noticed something strange.

This was clearly larger than a fish ball, yet it wasn’t being compressed by pressure.

Did it not get affected by pressure? Tilting my head, I tried crushing it with my own pressure and slowly widened my eyes.

"It’s tough."

I was pressing it with considerable force, but the garment, just a piece of flesh from what used to be an eye, didn’t budge at all.

No matter how monstrous something was, once it died, it should just become a lump of meat, right?

But this thing didn’t seem to follow that rule. Nodding slightly, I put it into my mouth.

"...Blegh."

And immediately spat it out at the fishy taste.

It wasn’t just that the texture was unpleasant. Fish balls didn’t feel like something I ate and more like they just dissolved and got absorbed into my body.

But this felt like chewing actual flesh. Even after swallowing a bit, nothing changed, so this stuff didn't seem useful. Clicking my tongue, I tossed the fragment away and slowly backed off.

'So the pheromones are real.'

The ‘food’ pheromone really did lead to food.

I didn’t know how I could sense it, but if I understood it, it was definitely something I could use efficiently.

Even right now.

I closed my eyes and focused on my sense of smell.

Then, beyond just 'food,' I began to sense countless other pheromones. As I examined them one by one, I noticed something. Behind a pufferfish swimming hurriedly, there was a ‘food’ pheromone trail. I checked its direction.

And sure enough, it was heading toward the deep-sea feeding ground.

'So they leave it automatically.'

Thinking about it, who would they be leaving pheromones for?

It seemed that whenever they acted with some kind of intent, it naturally left a trail behind them.

Like ants. As I nodded, the more I focused on these pheromones, the more I felt something deeper beneath them.

How should I put it? It was like I could see them. In reality, it was just a smell, but it felt more visual.

"Good..."

I followed one pheromone and found a large stingray. Something I had hunted before.

So this is what its scent was like. This time, I followed a different one.

A creature I hadn't hunted before appeared. It looked like a grotesquely deformed shark with three heads.

[U-ugh…Change, change…]

As it muttered strange words, I approached from behind and slowly tightened pressure around its neck.

-Craaack!

[U-ugh...]

The shark let out a final gasp before being crushed into a fish ball.

I frowned as I felt its pheromone grow stronger.

The meaning within it became intensely clear.

Death.

'They leave pheromones when they die too?’

No wonder the areas where I’d wiped everything out earlier were completely empty.

Well, since I had to hunt each species one by one anyway, it didn’t matter much. With the shark ball in my mouth, I memorized the pheromone it had left behind.

"Alright, got it.”

For the first time since entering the Abyssal Sea, I let out a small sigh of relief.

Thanks to these pheromones, it felt like I could drastically reduce trial and error. From now on, unless I deliberately followed them, there’d be no reason to encounter the same species again.

At this rate, recovering my abilities would be faster than expected. Just as I was thinking that, the density of the pheromones suddenly intensified.

"...?"

I tilted my head at the sudden change, only to realize that wasn’t it.

The pheromones hadn’t changed. What had changed was my sense of smell. More precisely, whatever organ was detecting these pheromones.

It had strengthened the moment I consumed the deep-sea creature.

So this counted as part of my abilities as well? I didn’t even have this before…

As I scratched my head, thinking that.

"Ugh.”

My vision went white, and I instinctively clamped my nose shut.

Blood poured from it. It wasn’t from overuse. It was because, as my pheromone-sensing ability strengthened, a different scent began to register.

"K-kgh…”

I clenched my teeth hard enough to crack them, grimacing.

This wasn’t a pheromone carrying any specific meaning.

It was something that directly stimulated instinct.

Every nerve in my body flared up. It was telling me to kill the source of that scent. Kill and devour it. Tear it apart and swallow it.

A primal rage awakened deep within me. I gritted my teeth and resisted it.

"What…is this…?”

That pheromone was flowing along the exact path I had traveled.