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Working with no light and minimal sensory input was confusing when trying to gain a sense of direction. And when you completely took away sensory stimuli mostly used to navigate in your life, it created a heavy disability.
In Quinn's case, it got more difficult because he wasn't even sure what side was up. There was no floor beneath his feet. Floating in the deep waters made Quinn's search area much wider.
Quinn consciously blinked his eyes to make sure they were open before creating dozens of light orbs with magic. He used some spells that made bright lights and pushed them away from him at a distance in the water.
'Whoever made this vault thought things through,' thought Quinn, observing the lights in the distance.
The light orbs that he had released immediately went dull as they moved away from Quinn. A couple feet away and Quinn could barely see any light. And the problem wasn't in the spell; they were properly functioning. It was just that the water inside Tehom's Delight interfered with the propagation of light.
Quinn conjured another light orb between his hands and stared at the very dull light that should've been very bright. Feeling the water around the light orb, Quinn felt that the water had formed a peculiar composition that didn't allow the light to travel through the water.
The second trial area had made the use of light useless. Using light inside there to provide any form of usable visibility wasn't a viable option. The lights were dulled to the point that any light source was barely visible.
'This is fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.' Admired Quinn the water, even though it made his work there difficult, 'Not sure where I can use this, though.'
Quinn dispelled the lights and concentrated on his magic to use another approach to navigate.
A very brief burst of water magic emitted from Quinn, and a circular wave traveled outwards. Quinn couldn't see his magic, but vibrations were clearly detectable to him.
Human echolocation was the human ability to actively create sound and detect objects in their environment by sensing the echoes those objects made. People trained to orient with echolocation could interpret the sound waves reflected by nearby objects and accurately identify their location and size.
Visually impaired humans mostly used it to navigate their surroundings by tapping their canes, lightly stomping their feet, snapping their fingers, or making clicking noises with their mouths. They interpreted the sound echo from the objects in their surroundings.
What Quinn used was a highly advanced form of echolocation, made possible through water magic. By immersing himself in water, Quinn attempted to 'feel' and 'see' even the most minute aquatic vibrations in the earth. But instead of using sound waves, Quinn used aquatic vibrations, and instead of using his sense of hearing, he used his sense of touch.
By sending pulses of water into his surroundings, Quinn hoped that his sense of touch, or more specifically, the mechanoreceptors in his skin that responded to mechanical pressure or distortions, would give him some clues about the area drowned in complete darkness.
'No returns again,' thought Quinn. He had been doing this for two weeks, but not once had he gotten a hit. 'Time to switch frequency.'
Quinn started practicing this method of detection in the Great Lake. There he had gotten great results within days and, within a week, Quinn ended up developing the skill that allowed him to have a rough position of the objects that were nearby him.
He was recalling the time when he used his version of an underwater sonar against the best target practice.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Quinn was standing inside the waters of the Great Lake as he looked down at the Kraken.
If he had to be honest, Quinn wasn't sure about his relationship with the Kraken. Quinn had tussled against the Kraken four times, but only once he had been able to get past the titanic creature. And that was because he had taken the Kraken by surprise.
Quinn wasn't sure if he would win a fifth-round against a fully alert and ready Kraken. One thing was for sure, though. Which was; if the Kraken and Quinn had played cat and mouse every time Quinn visited the third vault then, at least fifty percent of the times, Quinn would have been thrown out of the lake.
'Thank God, that isn't the case. I can't afford to fight the Kraken every day,' thought Quinn as he stared at the Kraken's main body.
The cephalopod had its eyes closed and looked like it was sleeping. So Quinn did the only sensible thing, raised his hand and shot a powerful cannon blast of water towards the Kraken.
The second the water blast hit the Kraken, it opened its yellow eyes and stared at Quinn with confusion and slight annoyance.
"Yeah, you get up. Now isn't the time to sleep," smirked Quinn and immediately sent two more water cannon blasts towards the Kraken.
The reason behind his actions was that every time Quinn exited the third vault after a session of exploration, the Kraken would push Quinn down to the lake bed and then proceed to ignore him. The Kraken would throw 'seaweed' in his face before he entered the tunnel and then, proceed to ignore him.
And that confused the heck out of Quinn. He couldn't understand why the Kraken was messing with him. Quinn had tried to stop it, but the Kraken only stopped for a day before messing with Quinn again.
So Quinn decided to channel his annoyance and irritation to productivity... and picked a fight with the Kraken.
"Come on, you big squid bully. Let's get some use out of you," smirked Quinn as he continued to shoot blunt water blasts that wouldn't injure the Kraken but had enough to push its body around. Just like what the Kraken did to Quinn.
The Kraken felt irritated from being awakened from its nap and from the continuous body blows from Quinn. It raised its two tentacles, and both moved towards Quinn, bringing a smile to the target's face.
"Now we are talking!" grinned Quinn and clapped his hand in front of himself, and immediately the surrounding water with Quinn in the center turned black. Waves and waves of black erupted, covering everything in inky black.
Now both the Kraken and Quinn had their vision impaired by the opacity of black water.
Practical learning was what suited Quinn. So that's why he had decided to learn aquatic sonar detection. As Quinn personally learned better with stress and pressure, he picked up a fight with the Kraken, rather than just sitting around and just detect the grindylows hiding in the weeds.
'Activating Sonar. Test one, burst frequency: 40 kHz.'
One spherical wave of water exuded outwards with Quinn as the source.
Then, Quinn waited, waited for a response, a response from the Kraken's incoming tentacles.
Quinn had trust in the method. He was sure that the special water wave created from his water magic would return to him before the Kraken's tentacle.
And it did.
Quinn felt vibrations with traces of magic come back to him. The traces of magic marking the vibrations in the water told him that these vibrations were from the water wave he had exuded.
'Ah, so this is how it feels when something is rushing at you. The haptics are amazing,' wondered Quinn with a smile blooming his face as he waved his hand to his right, and a wall of ice manifested moments before a tentacle came swimming towards Quinn.
"Oh, Kraken! It's time to play!" laughed Quinn and immediately moved from his spot and once again started sending water waves out.
'Test two, burst frequency - 47 kHz.'
'Test three, burst frequency - 51 kHz.'
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'Test fifteen, burst frequency - 93 kHz.'
Spherical waves upon waves with different speeds and amplitudes rolled out from Quinn and spread out in the water. Every different frequency of the water wave sent back distinct vibrations, so when Quinn's haptic sense sensed them, he 'saw' something miraculous.
Quinn received tons and tons of vibrations that he would feel against his skin. Usually, his haptic sense wouldn't be able to differentiate these vibrations independently. But with his magic marking the vibrations, he ended up having the skill to discern them: which was, as Quinn thought, a mix of haptic and magical.
His occlumency aided brain was able to handle the mass information coming to him and quickly interpret it into understandable information for him to perceive.
"I can see it! I can see it all," gasped Quinn as he looked to his front and even with his eyes showing inky blackness. He could even 'see' the enormous body of the Kraken and the five tentacles racing towards him.
It was like another world had been opened to him. Quinn could 'see' his surroundings in all directions instead of just the normal span in front of him. The ability to observe both in the front and the back was an amazing and novel experience that Quinn absolutely loved.
He detected every tentacle and could see them as they closed on him. Quinn readied his magic. He didn't use ice magic to block the tentacles, but decided to go with the riskier option and evade the tentacles by swimming through the incoming entanglement of tentacles.
The water magic, which struggled against the Kraken's tentacles' speed, had been tempered against the chaos of Poseidon's Wrath, so it was no longer the same. All the time Quinn had spent working out on harsh waters made swimming inside water much easier.
Water undulated around Quinn as he darted in faster than any creature inside the Great Lake. The water magic user swam quicker than the fastest non-magical fish, the black marlin, which had a top speed of 129km/h (80 mph)! He swam at a pace of over 200km/h (124.27 mph).
With abnormal dexterity and speed, Quinn, twisted and turned around by the five tentacles, avoided every single of them by inches.
With every passing second, Quinn's mind ran at a faster speed than before. It computed and calculated, and he made micro-decisions as the frequency, speed, amplitude, density of the waves that changed.
With every adjustment, Quinn's 'vision' became better and sharper, which allowed him to truly 'see'.
It was instinct.
It was intuition.
It was magic.
...
The Kraken, who had been trying to get back at Quinn for waking him up, felt a little frustrated because of the black water. The black water didn't hinder It that much, but the Kraken was sure that this was why it wasn't able to catch the tiny human. Otherwise, it would have smacked the tiny human, pushed him around a little, before throwing him out of his home.
But then, the Kraken saw that the black water returned to normal. Finally, it was able to see the tiny human floating at a distance away, and he had his eyes closed.
The Kraken didn't think much of it and sent seven of its tentacles after the tiny human. But what the Kraken saw surprised it because the tiny human seemed to control water much better than before and even with its seven tentacles, the tiny human seemed relaxed as he dodged all of them.
Eight... Nine... Ten tentacles were sent after the tiny human, but the tiny human dodged every one of them without a problem. Even when it increased the speed, the tiny human continued to swim around its tentacle and refused to come into its grasp.
It was at that time that the Kraken's five hearts started to beat faster. It had been a while since the mighty beast of the water had felt this way.
Even though it liked to live harmoniously and spend its time in peace. The titanic creature was, as its name suggested, a Kraken. It was the legendary creature that was famous for sinking ships.
Now seeing something that it couldn't catch, the Kraken became excited, and the natural, primal instincts came up to the surface.
The Kraken wanted to go all out.
It wanted to face the challenge of the tiny human. No. The special human.
Yellow eyes shined with rigor, and the lake shook uncountable tall, massive tentacles fully came out and raised themselves. Fully showcasing the legitimate size of the titanic creature.
The grindylows all around scurried into their weed homes because of the tremors in the lake. The fishes panicked as they ran to find places to hide. In the distance, the merpeople in their village looked in the Kraken's direction with fear.
Quinn, who was now exclusively using the water sonar vision to perceive his surroundings, felt the tremors from the Kraken and had to adjust his magic to work in the great disturbance, and what Quinn saw shocked him.
Before, he had thought that the Kraken was already a giant. But now, with it standing tall with all of its tentacles out. Quinn finally understood that the creature in front of him was a titan on a different level.
It was so shocking that Quinn opened his eyes to actually see the Kraken, and he wasn't disappointed because the Kraken was absolutely massive.
Instead of feeling scared and regretful about his decision of provoking the Kraken, Quinn's heart pumped hard as an enthusiastic grin stretched on his face.
The water around Quinn erupted with energy as he laughed in the water and felt the rush of excitement.
He closed his eyes as waves of water restarted going out. The sonar vision returned as Quinn yelled, "Yeah, come on!"
That day, the Great Lake's residents spent the day in anxiousness, as tentacles, masses of ice, and undulations of water shook the entire lake.
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- (Scene Break) -
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The day Quinn battled the Kraken while the legendary beast tried to catch him for over an hour was definitely one of the highlights of his year.
The progress he had made that day was so extensive that Quinn felt he hadn't learned something so quickly in his entire life. The only thing that he could compare it with was the month Quinn spent regaining his magic.
But right now, even that progress wasn't enough, as Quinn was struggling inside Tehom's Delight.
'The vibrations ain't returning,' sighed Quinn as he kept on sending more and more waves out.
The waters in Tehom's Delight were eerie still, and unlike the Great Lake, Quinn couldn't sense any ambient vibrations that weren't traced by him. The natural water vibrations gave Quinn a passive aquatic sensory vision, while his marked vibrations gave him the specifics and increased his perception to another level.
But there was nothing in Tehom's Delight. No vibrations at all, nothing that would give him any clue about his situation. Even the feedback vibrations that were caused by his water magic didn't return to him.
'I'm so lost,' murmured Quinn as he crossed his legs in lotus position and 'sat' down.
Quinn tried to swim in one direction to see if he could reach some kind of edge, but after spending a three-hour session swimming that way, Quinn ended up without finding any sort of edge or boundary.
'Hmm... maybe I should send out stronger waves,' theorized Quinn as he thought about how to clear this room. 'But how do I keep them stable. Stronger and larger waves collapse into themselves.'
Tehom's Delight made people clear their heads, let go of all thoughts and relax. And that was a feature of this trial that Quinn despised because of how it affected him.
But the same feature was great when one wanted to think about problems. If one could concentrate, then the no external stimulation environment heightened the ability to analyze and meditate upon problems.
And that showed, as Quinn arrived at a solution after thinking about the problem inside Tehom's Delight.
'I need to increase the wavelength and amplitude of my waves for extra stability. Yeah, what was it? Ah, yes, large-amplitude ocean waves with certain shapes can propagate unchanged.'
Quinn had read about ocean waves while he was studying water magic and, in there, it was written that certain oceanic waves could retain their shapes for a long time and travel enormous distances without losing their form.
Without getting up, Quinn regulated his water magic and created a wave of water with a large wavelength and amplitude so that the waves would have deep and long crests and troughs.
He sent multiple spherical waves at regular intervals for half a minute before kicking back and waiting for the feedback.
Quinn waited for a minute for the feedback and sighed in disappointment when nothing returned.
'I need to think something out. This isn't worki- !!!'
Quinn's thoughts were cut off when he felt a very faint of his magic returned as feedback and caused his eyes to widen like saucers.
'Holy shit, they came back!'
Every single wave he sent came back with a very faint feedback, but Quinn concentrated hard to catch all those faint signals.
Immediately afterward, Quinn used occlumency to increase his immersion in the memory and increased his connection with the memory. This was something Quinn did every time he thought something was very important that he needed to be at his fingertips.
After several minutes, Quinn was finally able to get the level of recall that he wanted on a few seconds of memories.
"I know what I want to do."
Quinn took a big gulp of water for oxygen before extending both of his hands. Quinn readied the water magic and used his hands as sources of the waves. He started to send out simultaneous waves.
The two waves matched each other, creating a unified wave with the help of a nifty little concept known as constructive interference. The resulting waves were stronger than the individual ones and were much more stable.
After a while, feedback returned, relatively louder than before but still weaker than he would've liked.
'I found it! Yes, I found it!' celebrated Quinn, turning towards his back as that was the direction from where he sensed something. 'There is nothing in here, so that must be the exit!'
He kept on sending waves to get a continuous sense of the direction because Quinn was sure that Tehom's Delight messed up with his directional perception.
After swimming for a mere minute at full speed, Quinn arrived at the place, and now that he was so close to the anomaly he detected, things were much clearer. The sonar vision was showing him a clear triangular 'entrance.'
It wasn't a traditional entrance in the sense that there wasn't any door, doorframe, or anything that showed that it was an entrance of some sort.
Quinn's sonar vision, nonetheless, demonstrated there was a triangular spot of water reacting differently.
'No text of any kind,' noticed Quinn. He wondered whether to enter then or not.
After some thinking, Quinn decided to get in there and stepped into the triangular water. He immediately disappeared from Tehom's Delight, leaving behind a representation of ocean depths where no light ever reached.
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Quinn West - MC - Can turn into Toph, and Daredevil while in water.
Kraken - Messed with Quinn because it was fun - While peace-loving, some excitement is always appreciated.
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