Is that a Wisp?
chapter-978

The pupa here could already no longer be called Great Dippers. They had already experienced some changes. The first change was the deformation of their limbs. Slowly, over time, their limbs turned into stumps before vanishing entirely.

The second change was them obtaining the same trait as a Motor Fish. In other words, being able to swim in water by generating water currents. Their speed didn't seem to be on the same level as a Motor Fish, but they accounted for that with their offensive ability.

They still possessed their tongue, and it was faster and stronger than before. Krune could feel that they were evolving significantly, judging by the speed of their growth. Nevertheless, it wasn't enough for him. After all, his end goal was to cause them to reach the peak power strength of Layer 3.

For that, he had to increase their evolution potential. For that, he first left them to their devices, ensuring to impede their cocoon stage by always keeping the temperatures around them to below optimal the moment he noticed they began to weave a cocoon.

While doing so, he noticed that it seemed a lot of energy was expended to initiate this process. So, when it was impeded, they didn't attempt to do it for another month. While keeping them as is, Krune focused on the Motor Fishes, those he determined were key to the fruition of his plan.

The first batch of Motor Fish Kings had grown a horn and all that due to being fed bone tree fruits from a variety of fishes. But Krune didn't want that. He wished for them to remain as Motor Fishes to the end, tamed.

So, once they became Mutated Motor Fishes, Krune caused them to selectively breed with the most powerful among them, even going to the extent of creating a large pool for them to live and swim within.

As the area in a rock pillar was limited, he supplemented it with depth, creating deep pools so that they would have a lot of room to plan and move around. And this way, they would exhaust energy tremendous and consume bone tree fruits even more.

Most of the bone tree fruits fed to them were those that grew naturally using the ocean water. But among them, he mixed in some that were grown using their blood. This way, he was trying to accumulate more Blood Essence of their race in their bodies.

As time passed, it seemed to be working as the Mutated Motor Fishes surpassed their natural restriction and eventually became Motor Fish Kings. It had been five years since they had arrived at the Secondary Landmass when the Motor Fishes became Kings.

As they were still Motor Fishes, they were tamed by him, even though they were kings. Krune had a total of 10 Motor Fish Kings under him and almost a hundred Mutated Motor Fishes now. Having been working nonstop for years, he had developed the place significantly.

As for the Seamstress, she too had her respective gains. As for Solare, from morning to until he slept, he hopped around from his working place to the Seamstress. On seeing that he was having fun, they left him to his devices, teaching him the alphabet, language, and numerous other skills during their resting time.

They hadn't figured out his passive abilities yet, but he was still young, so they weren't pressed for time.

One fine day, while he was working, Krune felt something instinctively, summoning his tablet to see that he was notified of a message.

[The First King, Gehen has captured a Primary Landmass, designating humanity's first stronghold.]

There was then a large arrow mark on the tablet, pointing in the direction they had to travel before reaching the location.

"Way to go." Krune smiled and retracted his tablet, muttering, "Now, we don't need to worry about a place to head towards."

Even otherwise, it wasn't their concern in the first place. After all, the Seamstress had already marked Gehen's pirate ship and a couple other places using her passive ability, Bubble Touch. So, one way or another, they would be able to reach a Checkpoint Turtle without getting lost.

Krune checked the condition of the six pupae that were grown using the bone tree fruits from the Motor Fish blood. At the start, they fed on the Mutated Motor Fish blood-based bone tree fruits. Once a Motor Fish King had been birthed, Krune only used their blood to create bone tree fruits and feed them.

Because of that, they had also reached the status of a King. Krune didn't know what species they were now, but he could determine that they were no longer a Great Dipper.

Appearance-wise, they were still the same as the start, possessing a limb-less body with a powerful tongue. And once they had become kings, it seemed they got a further boost in power as their tongues were able to damage the cage he had created.

Then again, Krune wasn't worried because he had already expanded the thickness of the cage to a crazy extent. This way, even if they continued to attack for an entire day, they would only be able to crack through half the thickness.

After that, they would become tired. Once they rested and recovered, they would see to their dismay that the cage had fully healed from the damage. As the cages were damaged and healed daily, it seemed to have experienced a tempering of sorts.

It was like an iron being repeatedly hammered to forge a stronger weapon. Over time, they had become so strong that even a king monster was unable to damage it. Over time, Krune began to call it the Tongue Fish, as it was literally that.

Also, since they had been consuming nothing but the blood of the Motor Fishes in the form of bone tree fruits, over time, the tamed nature of the Motor Fishes kicked in, causing them to submit to Krune. Because of it, the attacks on the cages were reduced.

Krune then made an incision on a Motor Fish King and tied it up to a bone tree that had been exclusively grown only using the blood of a Motor Fish King. Once it died, Krune allowed the bone tree to grow.

It was placed in a rock pillar exclusive to it, so it could grow without any hindrance. Almost three months later, it bore a colossal fruit that was as big as a Motor Fish King. Krune harvested it and fed it to the oldest Motor Fish King, having made enough preparations by even feeding it a Water Essence a day before.

So, even though it faced a lot of problems, it managed to swallow the fruit whole in the end. Ten days later, it became a Motor Fish Emperor. At this point, even Krune couldn't believe his eyes, upgrading the Motor Fish to such an extent when it seemed a Mutated status was their racial limit.

He then continued to feed it daily while using its blood to water new bone trees, using the produced fruits to feed the six Tongue Fish Kings. Krune was obtaining Godly Points from both the Mutated Great Dippers and the Mutated Motor Fishes.

At this point, the amount he obtained from the Motor Fishes was thrice the amount he was getting from the Great Dipper. It was because when he released some Motor Fish Kings into the pool with the Motor Fish Emperor, they had mated furiously, birthing a lot of Motor Fishes that seemed to be a new species.

And, when these Motor Fishes reached adulthood, they reached the Mutated status naturally. Once that happened, Krune killed most of the old Mutated Motor Fishes and regular Motor Fishes. This was to prevent polluting the new, improved bloodline.

He didn't kill any after that, allowing them to breed for a couple more years in the meantime resulting in three Motor Fish Emperors, 12 Motor Fish Kings, and around 20 Mutated Motor Fishes.

From this point onward, any Motor Fish that was birthed would reach Mutated status naturally upon reaching adulthood. And the best thing of them all: they were tamed by him.

Eight years since he arrived on the Secondary Landmass, Krune gazed up, noticing the ocean shining with Neon Radiance as he looked at the message displayed on his tablet.

[The Second Wave begins.]

As he was within the Secondary Landmass, Krune was unaffected by it, gazing up at the light spectacle with the Seamstress and Solare, chatting freely about how they struggled with the First Wave.

Soon, they made a move, using their fishing nets to capture more than thirty Neon Radiance Fishes. As one of their core passive abilities, they wouldn't say no to obtaining an upgraded version of the same.

"Do you wish to obtain Heat Radiance?" the Seamstress asked him, "It might turn out to be stronger than what I have right now."

"I'll pass." Krune laughed. "I am focusing on just Neon Radiance. The stronger I can obtain it, the better. Heat Radiance would negate my Frozen Blood."

"Alright," the Seamstress said before grabbing hold of Solare. She then asked, "Which one do you like, Heat Radiance or Neon Radiance?"

Solare innocently looked at the faces of two, feeling formless pressure from the Seamstress before he spoke, "H-Heat Radiance."

"Great! That's my boy!" She laughed, carrying him with her as they went about making merry.

Krune laughed at the sight, for a moment tranced by the atmosphere when he shook his head. "Focus!"

Setting aside 10 Neon Radiance fishes for Solare, Krune and the Seamstress took ten each. He killed one of them first, feeding the body parts forcefully to the remaining nine, turning them all into Neon Radiance Kings, for a moment cursing his rash actions as he understood just why they were feared by the Neon Radiance fishes.

They were called the Neon Radiance King, and hence, possessed as much strength as a Monster Gecko King. Even though he had been training for so long, Krune wasn't able to handle such a large group.

He was able to kill a Monster Gecko King one on one, albeit suffering life-threatening injuries. Though, subduing them all was incredibly hard. Upon seeing them thrash around without a care in the world if they would break the rock pillar forming their cage, Krune felt a headache.