"It is indeed a shard of the Blue Orb, incredible you found it so fast." The voice of the Yggdrasil Tree within my Divine Realm resonated within my mind, as she inspected the item resting over my dragon claws. "This Kraken must have swallowed it long ago, the reason why it grew way bigger than its peers must be this shard… So it has such properties."
"You mean these orbs can powerup monsters when they eat them?" I wondered.
"More or less… Did you saw something else wrong with it before you picked it up?" She asked.
"The shard was inside the Kraken's body, connected to its internal tissue and even its innards, like a parasite." I said, recalling what I saw.
"I see… These orbs are indeed kind of "alive" so I suppose a development like this should had been expected… yet it still surprises me…." She sighed.
As she said that, I looked into the item's information.
[Blue Orb of Oceans Shard (??? Grade)]
A mysterious Blue Orb Shard imbued with the mystical power of Water itself. It contains a primordial power within this world. As it is only a small shard of a greater elemental orb, its powers are limited. However, it is capable of infusing powerful mana and divine power to the things it parasitizes. Possessing a small will of its own, it seeks a strong vessel on its endless desire to become whole again. Collect the other three Shards and the Orb's Spiritual Core to reform the Orb to its original form.
Well yeah alright, it is indeed the shard. Though even the system can't tell me what's its actual Grade, weird. Why is it that the case though? Does it has something special within its components that the System cannot detect?
[Precisely, Drake. It appears the shard of this orb contains a power that it seems to not be possible to measure. Perhaps if you grow stronger, the entire system will do as well, and inspecting things beyond your realm might become more possible.]
[It seems dangerous though, if you touch it too much, it might try to parasitize it and attempt to control your body, save it for now while you still are not affected by it.]
"Wow, even I can get affected by this thing?"
[Yes indeed, be careful now.]
I quickly saved the shard inside my Inventory and looked the other way, quickly descending back to the ship. With me there was also a big Divine Crystal, the Divine Core of the Kraken, which I decided to eat right away while flying down, like a large cookie snack.
Crunch, crunch, crunch…
Ding!
[You've gained +15000000 Divine Power]
[You acquired [Divinity Fragment of Sea Creatures] x10!]
[You acquired [Divine Fragment of Oceans] x5!]
Ooh, I even got some Divine Power and Divinity Fragments! There's nothing better than that for now I guess. I also already am at enough Divine Power to Rank Up again. I doubt I'll be able to evolve again right away though.
[I know you want to Rank Up right away but saving your Divine Power until you have enough so you don't end up with zero of it after Ranking Up is a wise choice.]
"I know, I know, I wasn't going to Rank Up right away, don't worry."
I flew back with everyone, as I explained them what I saw inside. I didn't wanted to expose them to the Blue Orb Shard, so I only told them about it with as many shortcuts as possible, making the resume of it simple enough for even my toddler daughters to understand.
Benladann and Miranda, who accompanied me through the whole dungeon ordeal, knew very well of these orbs, and were naturally surprised once I told them about it.
"So you found a shard already?! Now that's weird…" Benladann said. "Isn't that too convenient? And right off the bat?"
"Yeah, but didn't you listen, Benladann? The Yggdrasil Tree did said that he would also attract these shards to him now that he holds their spiritual cores. We might end up fighting more powered-up monsters in the future." Miranda pointed out.
"That's true… I guess there's no helping it, huh?" Benladann looked into the skies while feeling slightly worried. "Well, this is not only your mission dear, but that of all of us. So next time we'll help you out."
"Well it was certainly powered-up, but nothing I couldn't handle… Well, maybe it could had killed me if I hadn't evolved though, it was pretty strong." I sighed. "Nonetheless, now that we are done here, how about we relax and eat something- Oh! How about the Kraken around here? Before Leviathan eats it all!"
Like that, everyone decided to take it easy for now (mostly due to my request), as we moved into eating and celebrating the victory. I picked up a dozen giant tentacle pieces floating in the sea and cut them down, grilling them with some flames.
I didn't used Divine Fire because that would burn them to a crisp instantly, and I cannot really do that…
As the celebrations continued, the night quickly came and the beautiful moon atop the skies emerged. Leviathan and her son were still swimming at our side, it seemed she was probably going to stick with us for a while. I don't know if for the whole trip, but she seemed quite attached to us somewhat.
"So how long will it take us to get to Muspelheim, Charlotte?" I wondered.
"The ship's incredibly fast as it is, but the sea is enormous. It might take us a few weeks at this pace." The Dwarven girl said. "I hope this is okay, mister Drake."
"Yeah its all fine… Though, hey Fuyu, can't you hurry?" I asked Fuyu herself.
"Of course I could go faster, but the faster I go the more energy I will require. The seas and the skies are filled with thick invisible clouds of mana and divine power, so the faster we go, the more energy we'll need." She said.
