Is That A Wisp?

It was currently nighttime. But even if it was daytime, it wouldn't have mattered for Cultivator, who had gone beyond a depth of 10 meters from the ocean surface. At present, relying on just Underwater Breathing, he proceeded underwater. 

Soon after, he activated another passive ability that allowed him to head deeper into the ocean depths. Once he noticed any dangerous fishes approach him through one of his abilities, he activated another passive ability, causing them to ignore him, as if they could sense that he would taste disgusting. 

This way, he avoided all battles, continuing to head deeper and deeper into the ocean. He didn't seem bothered about Gehen obtaining an active ability, minding his own business. He seemed pretty excited about the exploration, gazing at the various fishes that swam past. 

He then stopped, watching a Sonic Radar fly below him, sucking everything in its way as it used sharp teeth to shred them apart. Only after it went a long distance away did he continue to head deeper. And the deeper he went, the more bizarre the fishes got. 

They stopped being streamlined, taking on unnatural shapes and sizes. Some of them were stupidly huge, while others were stupidly larger than huge. As if the depth necessitated a bigger body size, the fishes continued to become bigger and bigger. 

As Cultivator headed deeper into the water, he initially thought it would be harder to breathe since he was too far from the air layer for the diffusion of air into water to reach him. But on the contrary, he felt like it was getting easier to breathe. 

Cultivator traveled for well beyond two days, noticing that it was still easy for him to breathe. Thanks to his final passive ability, he wasn't crushed by the water pressure at all. At present, he had swapped out all his previous passive abilities to ones that were suitable to explore the depth of the ocean, taking an entire year to collect them.

And now, his abilities had finally paid fruit. Irrespective of how strange the sea creatures got, none of them tried to eat him, allowing him to pass by. As he was underwater, the healing effect of the water satiated him to a certain extent. 

He had trained himself to be able to absorb enough healing effect from the water, using his previous passive ability to do so. Instead of depending on his passive ability like an extra ability, he trained using them, gaining part of the traits on his body himself. 

That was how he increased his advantage. And now, using the same advantage, he kept himself satiated, continuing deeper into the ocean. By this point, he was able to witness sea creatures that were more than a hundred meters in length. 

Judging based on their suffocating presence, Cultivator thought to himself, 'All these are probably on the level of a Supreme Monster.'

Eventually, after more than a couple of months of travel, he reached the bottom, noticing a barrier before him. When he touched it, he was sucked into it and dropped to the ground. Cultivator got up and dusted himself, looking around to see he was in a small air bubble that was hemispherical in shape, possessing a radius of 100 meters. 

The entire place was almost devoid of life. Almost, because there was actually a living being before him, one that was actually sentient. 

"Welcome!"

Upon seeing him, the being spoke. Though, its voice seemed like it didn't have a singular source. Cultivator looked around, observing the desolate place. There were quite a few pillars that were broken and almost grounded into dust due to the passage of time. 

Among them, there seemed to be a pillar that was still standing. Only spanning a height of 10 centimeters, it was a humanoid creature with tentacles in place of legs. It still retained a humane upper body, though. 

When Cultivator stood before it, the stature spoke, barely moving its mouth as it emitted a weak voice, "Welcome, mortal of a new era. May I know your name?"

"Cultivator."

"Cultivator is but a thing of legend."

"I'm not a legend yet."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"My name's Cultivator."

"Right! No wonder! Sorry, my bad! I got confused for a moment there," the statue said before its hands weakly shot towards his forehead, pointing at his glabella, asking, "That thing there, can I see it?"

"Why?" Cultivator asked in return.

"I want to see what's the controlling race of my world now," the statue said.

"Sure." Cultivator just smiled as he double-tapped his glabella and showed it for the statue to see.

Upon seeing it for a couple of seconds, the status emitted crunching sounds. "Dammit, it's still those blasted octopuses."

Cultivator simply watched the statue rage around for a good couple of hours, smiling when it calmed down. 

It then looked at him, saying, "This world was once dominated by us Immortal Statue race. We were those that grew without having to consume any race. As long as we were in the ocean water, we would absorb nutrients and grow. Every adult from our race would reach a height of 80 meters and possess tremendous power."

"Once we mature, we break one of our arms and watch them grow into a copy of ourselves. It wasn't easy to kill us since our bodies were made from tough stones."

"We were one frightening race, but also the most peaceful, having never harmed any other race since we never had a reason to do so." The status groaned as it continued, "But, everything changed once the octopuses attacked us. Their ink was capable of eroding our proud stone sculpted bodies."

"One after another, we were killed by this blood-thirsty race. Eventually, I became the last survivor. I, the last king, who was once deemed as the strongest of my kind, a 200-meter-tall symbol of power, ran into the depths of the ocean to survive. My only safety net was the fact that the octopuses cannot reach this deep."

"From then onwards, I have been waiting for a day when I could pass all my powers to someone that would carry out my revenge." The statue looked at Cultivator and said, "If you promise to avenge my race, I'll pass you the strongest of my race's power, something that your race now knows as an active ability. Do you wish to obtain this ability and avenge us after hearing my complete story?"

Cultivator took a comfortable seating posture, smiling as he responded, "I love an interesting story."