Hunting the Destroyer of the Deep Sea
Graduate school graduation was no joke. In the freezing weather, the spray crashing against the ship clung to its hull, freezing into a white crust. Pearly milk-white ice clumped together, making the vessel look like a ship of pure white. Atop this ship, transformed white like a rabbit donning thick winter fur, only one man stood gazing out at the raging sea.
Suhyun exhaled a plume of white breath as he glared at the colossal lifeform swimming beneath the dark ocean depths. This being was so enormous it could swallow the Earth's largest creature, the blue whale, in a single gulp. When it swam just below the surface, waves the size of houses rose in the wake of its tail. Its size wasn't something to compare to buildings—it rivaled geological features. The mana sustaining its body was comparable to the ley lines coursing through the land. Its back was vast enough to connect two fortress cities, and the hide covering it was tougher and more resilient than metal plates of equal thickness.
If he could just admire its majesty in awe, that would be one thing. But Suhyun had to hunt this behemoth right now. Scientifically impossible, this creature existed solely due to its immense mana, and its body, infused with that power, already transcended the limits of life itself.
"Those goddamn professor bastards!"
In this isekai world with medieval-level civilization, the only way for a fallen commoner like him to receive any humane treatment was to become a mage. That's why Suhyun had joined a mage tower. Built at the nexus of ley lines where imperial mana converged, the towers were the power plants, laboratories, universities, and cutting-edge corporations of a world where magic existed. Most towers registered as educational institutions to receive imperial support, which meant they had graduations.
Of course, the towers didn't want their graduates walking away with their tech and knowledge. So they assigned impossible thesis projects to prevent anyone from graduating.
Suhyun, a graduate candidate from the Sage's Cauldron Mage Tower's fabrication school, originally from South Korea. His graduation task: Create an artifact using his own thesis.
Suhyun's thesis for graduation:
Bio-Metal Transmutation Using the Vital Essence of Organic Lifeforms for Artifact Creation
Theory for Ultra-Mana-Conductive Synthesis to Manufacture Giant Artifacts
Methodology for Artificial Spirit Synthesis to Control Artifacts
Turn living beings into metal, craft a giant artifact, and embed an AI into it. This was the kind of project that required national budgets, hordes of mages, and massive funding just to have a shot at success—yet they handed it to a single grad student. It was as good as telling him not to graduate.
But Suhyun gritted his teeth and tried anyway. His ability gained upon arriving in this world, The Gamer, turned life into an RPG: accumulate EXP to raise stats, gain skills through actions, and earn rewards from quests. It had been a huge help in surviving and entering the mage tower. And now, it showed him the path to completing his goal—though this one was ridiculously hard.
Salvage an elven unsinkable ship from mythic times and refit it as an artifact. Forge a harpoon from lightning in a sea struck by hundreds of thousands of bolts daily. Learn sea-binding magic from the sea witch to restrain giant ocean monsters.
After clearing countless prerequisite quests, Suhyun could finally attempt the hunt. He checked the quest that appeared before his eyes.
Destroyer of the Great Ocean, Aspidochelon Subjugation
Having mastered all the tower's techniques and knowledge, you've received your graduation assignment. But the corrupt elders and professors don't want their useful slave to escape, so they've given you an absolutely impossible task to keep you chained. Yet you saw potential.
To hunt the giant sea monster lurking beneath an unfrozen but colder-than-ice sea of drifting pack ice and glaciers—one that could swallow your galleon whole—you've made all preparations.
You recovered the wreckage of an ancient galleon made from the world tree, called an unsinkable ship in antiquity, to form the keel. You armored it with abyssal black iron, hardened by absorbing deep-sea volcanic brine for superior flexibility and water resistance, creating a vessel to pursue an ocean-upturning foe.
In the cradle of storms where thunder is born, at the heart of a magic realm where hundreds of lightning bolts strike every moment, you forged the thickest, toughest bolt into a harpoon to pierce the sea monster's body.
Finally, to face a sea monster brimming with near-infinite ocean mana, you've learned sea magic from the sea witch—human spells to counter vast power. Now, you've finished preparing to hunt the North Sea's great calamity, island devourer, the unstoppable, unescapable maw: Aspidochelon.
But beware: the Destroyer of the Great Ocean rules the high seas, smashing all ships, yet it's also a hunter that flees danger only to stalk and strike vengefully later.
Great risk brings great reward. Aspidochelon, with its enormous, potent mana, will be the perfect material for the giant artifact you've only theorized.
📍 Conditions: Subjugate Aspidochelon and claim its corpse
🎁 Rewards:Whale Fortress, Trait: Artifact Meister
To tackle this absurd challenge, Suhyun had completed countless prerequisite quests and made his preparations. He circulated mana through his body. The ship—unsinkable (due to an ancient curse that doomed it to sink)—built from abyssal black iron resistant to water attributes and flexible, responded to his mana. The massive vessel balanced atop the churning sea like a surfer's board.
In his hand, honed to a level unbelievable for a mage, he gripped the harpoon forged from sea lightning. It crackled with electricity, rearing to launch like a wild beast. The sparks from the harpoon vaporized splashing seawater with a growl. Aspidochelon seemed to sense it too, folding space with its overflowing mana to block. Suhyun distorted the space again, carving a path for the harpoon's flight.
Amid waves so savage they blurred the sea-sky boundary, created by the monster's colossal body and mana, Suhyun piloted the ship. With one hand, he built a spell for a fatal blow to the whale. With the other, he maintained and layered binding magic to restrain a beast the size of two fortresses—work that would tax a team of specialized mages from various fields. Steam rose hot from Suhyun's body.
Disturbing Waterway, Reverse Tide Ordeal, Hardening Currents, Tetys's Grasp.
The sea magics learned from the sea witch and engraved into the ship activated, consuming catalysts stored in countless prepared slots at a rapid rate to bind the giant monster and prevent escape. Feeling the drain, Suhyun stayed calm, patiently waiting for his moment without impatience.
To Suhyun, hyper-focused, that instant felt eternal. His skills, earned through his unique ability, never betrayed his efforts.
Harpoon Skill - Lv3
Technique for hurling harpoons downward into a target's body
- Harpoon accuracy +15%
- Harpoon penetration +10%
- Harpoon anchoring +10%
Throw - Lv8
Skill for hurling and hitting targets
- Thrown object accuracy +40%
- Thrown object speed +70%
- Thrown object range +300%
- Thrown object kinetic energy +50%
- Thrown object control +40%
- Control trajectory with mana expenditure
- Retrieve with mana expenditure
- Perform identical throw once more with mana expenditure
Nord's Harpoon
Martial art mimicking the North Sea god Nord's harpoon throw. When hurling a harpoon at sea creatures larger than yourself in North Sea waters, ignore a portion of their defense.
Swimming Arrow Enchant
Enchantment applied to flying arrows. Upon hitting living flesh, the arrow burrows deeper into the meat.
Harpoon forged from lightning gathered and refined in the Ten-Thousand-Thunder Strait.
On hit, releases embedded lightning to electrocute the target.
- Reduced mana cost at sea
- Throw speed +100%
- Lightning attribute damage +300%
His stats raised through EXP from his unique ability, skills earned thereby, and body enhanced by mana formed a trinity. Layered with magic and artifact power, the giant sea monster sensed the threat and thrashed wildly to break free of its bindings.
North Sea water that froze seabirds on touch and shattered in waves vaporized in an instant under tens of thousands of lightning bolts. The resulting steam explosion pushed back the seawater, exposing Aspidochelon's entire body for a moment.
A massive hole gaped in its cliff-like, endless flesh. From it poured dense mana and charred, electrocuted hide. Despite the human-sized crater, its hide was so thick the harpoon hadn't fully pierced. Over this wound, the Throw skill guided another harpoon downward.
This time, without the thick water barrier, the second harpoon struck the injured spot directly. Aspidochelon let out a scream laced with agony.
Suhyun rode the violent steam current pushing him and his ship back, ascending against it. He glared at the fully exposed Aspidochelon—gravely wounded but still alive—and drew up his mana.
"Let me graduate, you bastard!"
Kicking off the creaking ship, Suhyun leaped into Aspidochelon's wound.