Nathan veered his elbow forward and struck behind himself. The stone cage exploded backward and shattered into dozens of tiny particles. Nathan pressed the heel of his foot into the ground and propelled himself backward.

  “Oh no you don’t!” Bree shouted.

  She tugged upward with her fist and Nathan’s body slammed into hard stone. Bree rushed forward and threw a punch at his head.

  Nathan ducked under, then swept her legs with a smooth motion. She fell to the ground with a thud and a groan.

  The sound of a gun cocking.

  Dr. Ada pointed a firearm directly at him.

  Wait, when did she switch over to using guns?

  She pulled the trigger.

  A blue orb raced forward at impossible speeds. Nathan threw himself to the side. The orb hit the stone wall and for a moment there was nothing but silence.

  Ice exploded out in every direction from the impact site. A stray shard cut his sleeve and into his arm.

  She upgraded her weaponry, he thought. Normally I’d be all over that, but not when I’m the one facing it down.

  A flicker of vision from the corner of his eye. He stepped back and dodged a straight punch from Bree. A right hook came in and he stepped back from that one too. A third one followed immediately—a straight, this time going for his chest.

  She stepped forward at the same instant, breaking the pattern and pushing her closer than her previous attacks. The punch landed and socked Nathan in the solar plexus. Spittle flew from his mouth and his body careened backward like a puppet on a string.

  Her eyes narrowed. “You’re fast. But something as basic as that is enough to surprise you. You don’t fight a lot of people, do you?”

  Nathan coughed. He couldn’t seem to get the breath to come back into his chest.

  He wondered if turning back into water would fix his physical ailments when he reassembled his body. That would be a thing to pay attention to once he managed to escape.

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about—” He tried to suck in a breath. “I fight all sorts of people. Like Nathan Lee. The person who I definitely fought and defeated in single combat.”

  “He wasn’t particularly good at combat against other people too,” she said.

  What?

  “Actually, he was a very challenging opponent and I was on the ropes multiple times,” Nathan said.

  “I’m not saying he wasn’t dangerous,” Bree said. “But he had the technique of a walrus. Granted, you don’t really need technique when you can eviscerate people using mind-controlled water, but still.”

  Nathan was about to respond before he stopped himself. Getting into a debate about his true identity’s combat ability would be kind of a dead giveaway.

  Nathan's mind ran at top capacity. He was running out of time. The longer he spent with these two, the higher the likelihood they would figure out who he was.

  Would it really be so bad if they did? he thought. I mean, really, shouldn't I just go back and deal with all of the problems my disappearance has caused?

  His body slackened on the ground.

  Yes, yes it would. It would be a terrible idea. I'm on vacation, screw all this.

  He slapped his palms into the ground and propelled himself back into a standing position. He brought his left leg back as if he was about to enter some sort of fighting stance, then turned sharply and ran in the opposite direction.

  "Hey, you can't do that, that's not allowed!"

  Nathan ignored them and weaved into an alleyway. A wall of stone rumbled into out of the ground and in front of him. He ran directly forward and exploded through it, disintegrating the wall into fine dust.

  There was an incredulous squawk from behind him. Up ahead, he saw a really nasty looking barrel of oil with cuts and scrapes along the side. The top had been removed, revealing the black essence inside.

  He reared his foot back as he passed, then gave it a hard kick.

  It burst apart. Nathan snapped his fingers on one of the mid-air drops, putting as much pressure and friction as he could into the action.

  The heat from his snap was enough to light up the drop and it spread like a flash to the rest of the oil in mid-air.

  "Shit!" Bree shouted.

  Her heels dug into the ground and she swung her fist upward. A wall of stone scattered the flaming oil drops into an area behind her.

  In that same moment, Nathan cut to the right, then disintegrated into water.

  The clothes were tucked into the a bucket. He disintegrated his body into finer and finer particles until his liquid form was nothing more than a faint mist, only barely visible if you were explicitly looking for it.

  Bree rushed forward and made a corner turn. She passed through Nathan and to the other side, then came to a stop.

  She looked left and right, then clicked her tongue.

  "Where did he go?" she said.

  Dr. Ada stumbled in a few seconds after, then dropped her hands to her knees.

  "How do you run so fast?" she said.

  "You would be able to do it too if you invested in your strength and agility," Bree said. "Not that it seems to matter. He disappeared."

  Dr. Ada pushed herself back up to her full size and adjusted her glasses.

  "Faint traces of energy detected," she said. "Yet I see no sign of physical presence."

  "He probably used some sort of skill. Bastard."

  With that, Dr. Ada turned back around.

  "Can we please go find an inn to stay at? And preferably somewhere where we can wash our garments? Proper hygiene is essential to my experiments."

  Bree rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. We'll find somewhere to go."

  She took a few steps toward Ada, then stopped and sniffed the air. A small frown came over her face before she shook her head and continued walking.

  Nathan waited for thirty more minutes before he felt comfortable enough to regain his form.

  He fell back to the ground and let out a sigh.

  A cold draft reminded him of the fact that he was naked.

  He reached for his clothes, put them on, then walked toward the end of the alley.

  He glanced behind himself in the direction where Bree and Dr. Ada had gone.

  He shook his own head, then continued walking.

  [Forest Biome Fish (0/49)]

  Nathan swiped the window away and looked out over the river stream. He pulled his fishing pole out of his inventory and cast the line into the water.

  Almost instantaneously, he felt a nibble.

  The familiar pattern activated almost without him noticing. He reared back his fishing pole, then brought it forward and reeled in. Pull back, loosen, reel. Pull back, loosen, reel.

  The fish flew out of the air and slapped Nathan directly in the face with its rear fin.

  Nathan reached up and rubbed his cheek. The fish landed with a thud against the dirt.

  Still rubbing his cheek, Nathan activated [Basic Inspect].

  [Super Forest Salmon - Lv. 56]

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Nathan squinted his eyes. Even the fish were overpowered when you got to the Seventh Circle.

  He reached out and touched it with his fingers. It evaporated into fine dust and he saw the quest window flash in front of him with an updated status.

  [Forest River Fish - (1/49)]

  At the rate Nathan was going, he anticipated that he'd be done within just a few hours.

  Even with his stupidly high Diamond Plus ranked fishing skills, he hadn't been quite this effective.

  Out of curiosity, he opened up his stat screen.

  Nathan Lee - Lv. 94

  Age: 22

  Race: Water Elemental (A-rank)

  Class: Obsidian Fisherman (Obsidian)

  Stats:

  Strength: 30 (+112) = 142

  Dexterity: 50 (+33) = 83

  Constitution: 50 (+40) = 90

  Magic: 3 (+15) = 18

  Luck: 22 (+76) = 98

  Soul: 210 (+40) = 250

  Available Stats: 20

  Skill List:

  [Reel] (Obsidian)

  [Bait] (Obsidian)

  [Cast] (Obsidian)

  [Throw Harpoon] (Gold)

  [Riptide Mastery] (Gold)

  [Ocean’s Kiss] (Gold)

  [Tidal Shield] (Gold)

  [Basic Maelstrom] (Gold)

  [Gardening] (Copper)

  [Suspicious Gathering] (Copper)

  [Fundamental Cooking] (Copper)

  [Poor Crafting] (Copper)

  [Basic Inspect] (Copper)

  Nathan's eyebrows raised. Upgrading his class also upgraded his skills.

  Sweet, he thought. I wonder what the rank after Obsidian is?

  Nathan supposed that he'd find out soon enough.

  With that check, he reeled in his fishing rod all the way and got ready to make another cast.

  After about an hour, Nathan had managed to get twenty-three different Forest Biome Fish. And he'd gotten a lot of other fish besides that. Nathan wasn't exactly sure how an "Arctic Icetreader" managed to get all the way into the middle of a random temperate river, but he wasn't going to complain.

  Eventually he got to the point where he was just getting duplicates, and he assumed that he'd extracted everything from the river. His best guess was that he had to go to a lake or something.

  He reeled back in his fishing rod and stuffed it into his inventory. He stood up to his feet, stretched his hands, then placed them on his hips.

  "This vacation is getting off to a pretty good start," he said. "And once again, I'm absolutely certain that there are no consequences whatsoever to me taking a month off."

  Even he didn't really believe the bullshit that he was spouting, but he thought that if he said it enough times, it might become true.

  They're all smart and competent people, he thought. Bree had been running what was basically a town on the Third Circle, and there had been like, several thousand people in it!

  Of course, there were probably several million people in Nathan's towns at this point, but he was sure that she knew how to handle it. It was all the same stuff, whether micro or macro.

  He walked through the forest at a slow and languid pace. The leaves had fully come in — if he had to guess, it was right between spring and summer. In times past, he would have enjoyed the feeling of the sun against his skin and the cool breeze blowing through the trees.

  But when he felt those sensations, it was hard not to remember that he was essentially a ball of water in a skinsuit.

  And that kind of sucked the joy out of that particular emotion.

  I need to ask Thalassa if there's some way that I can get all of this weirdness out of me and turn back into a human-

  Nathan froze.

  How did I manage to forget that she-

  Nathan clenched his fist. He breathed in slowly, then breathed out.

  He pushed his thoughts away from... with all the skill and talent that he developed in the art of compartmentalization due to fighting against the Mother System.

  His feet moved again.

  A bump.

  "Get off of me, you bastard!"

  Nathan stopped, then turned around.

  No more random encounters, he thought. I'm on vacation, I'm on vacation—

  "You won't eat me!" the voice shouted again. "I'm going back to my wife and children, no matter what!"

  Nathan forced himself to keep moving. Yeah, it was unfortunate, but people died every day—!

  "My 14 children, who all depend on me, because I'm the sole breadwinner!"

  Nathan stopped and looked back at the direction of the voice, eyes as wide as dinner plates.

  How in the hell do you even have time for that?

  "Yes, if I die, my wife will most likely have to do unsavory work in order to feed our children—even then, many of them may end up starving. Not only that, but the orphanage that I run will most likely be unable to function! I have to live, for all of them!"

  Nathan ran his hands down his face.

  "Fine," he muttered. "One last time. I'm going to get involved, one time, then I'm going to disappear, and he'll have never seen me."

  He shot off in the direction of the voice.

  Two figures.

  One of the Lillards—with their fins and near unnoticeable scales—was being pinned down by a giant troll.

  Nathan pulled his fishing rod out of his inventory, and aimed it back. He swung forward and the hook flew through the air and crashed against the creature's head.

  It popped like a meatball. Blood and viscera in every direction, even toward Nathan.

  [You have leveled up!]

  Thanks System, he thought. Really appreciate the encouragement.

  Nathan walked over to the man on the ground. "You okay?"

  The man rubbed a piece of intestine that was on his face off and it hit the ground with a wet plop. "Indeed. All thanks to you, kind stranger."

  He stood to his feet and held out his hand.

  "You saved my life. I can't thank you enough," he said.

  "Yeah. Uh, no problem."

  "No, really. I'll make sure to spread your tale far and wide. The world will know of the good that you've done today."

  "I would really prefer if you didn't, actually."

  "Wait... are you—" The Lillard's eyes darted between the fishing pole and Nathan's face. "You're him, aren't you? The Prophesied One?"

  "I have no idea what you're talking about."

  "Oh, I see. Your coming is not yet public. Don't worry, I can keep a secret." The Lillard winked.

  Nathan grimaced. He would like it if he had a stronger way to keep him quiet—but killing the guy after saving him would be kind of counterintuitive and stupid.

  Okay, Nathan thought. If I'm gonna go to all this effort, I might as well get a little bit of information from him.

  "Are there any lakes in this forest?" Nathan asked.

  The Lillard nodded. "There are. Just behind me, walk that way for about an hour, and you'll find a nice wide lake. Perfect for swimming and... whatever else it is that you do. I presume it's very important and world-saving in nature?"

  "No."

  "I see. Well, there's one thing you should know," he said.

  Nathan had just been about to walk off, when he stopped and groaned. "What else is it?"

  "They say that there's a creature at the heart of the forest. An old, old monster, who's been around since before the Seventh Circle existed. A creature from another world."

  A boss monster. But it can't be the boss monster of the circle—so like... a mini-boss?

  "You have any other information on it?"

  "It's strong. Really strong. Multiple adventurers have tried to face it down in combat, and the creature has won every single time. I heard that a full party composed of a priest, a mage, a swordsman, and a shielder attempted to take it down. They were considered the best of their time—some even thought they'd be the ones to defeat the Demon King in the castle."

  "What happened?"

  "I mean, they died. I'm not sure what else you were expecting."

  Fair.

  "But are there any specifics?" Nathan said.

  The man shook his head. "Nobody lives to see it and tell the tale."

  Nathan would have to be on guard. This thing sounded dangerous. He had to admit, a very—very—small part of him was looking forward to the fight. It would be a good chance to blow off some steam.

  Nathan nodded. "I'll be going now."

  "Good luck Chosen Hero—I mean, totally random fisherman who has no relation to any sort of prophecy whatsoever!"

  Nathan's reputation was already screwed, wasn't it?

  The lake sparkled in the light.

  It was mid-afternoon, and the angle was such that it almost seemed like somebody had poured a bucket of glitter over the surface of the water.

  At first, it had been very charming, but it had eventually reached the point where Nathan's eyes were starting to get sore from staring at it for too long. He tried changing locations, but somehow, there was always a little bit of sparkle that he couldn't avoid.

  He adjusted his grip on his fishing pole.

  A bite.

  He reeled it back in with familiar motions. The fish landed to his side with a plop. He reached out, touched it, and it was absorbed directly into the quest.

  [Forest Biome Fish (48/49)]

  Nathan had been stuck on 48 for the past hour. Of course, Nathan also wasn't devoting his full attention to the fishing pole.

  On the outside, he was completely relaxed and engrossed in his fishing. But on the inside, every part of him was wound up like a spring. He knew full well that there was almost definitely someone watching. Not because of some sort of external sense or because he could just tell—no, it was because the universe hated him enough to where he was 100% convinced that if he let his guard down for a moment, he'd get shanked by some mysterious monster from the shadows.

  What kind of creature was it? A giant Eldritch Horror? A small, fast-moving snake-like creature? Or maybe something else entirely—a fungus, or a plant?

  Nathan didn't know. He'd need to stand on guard the whole time—

  A crunch in the leaves.

  Nathan didn't react. He didn't so much as twitch.

  He was a fisherman. When using a lure, you never wanted to alert the fish to the fact that you knew they were there.

  With smooth, natural motions, he reeled his line all the way back, then chucked it forward into the lake. He let out a manufactured yawn and slouched his back.

  Another crunch. So faint that under different circumstances, Nathan would have dismissed it as a trick of his ears.

  Turns out, saving that guy actually did help me out, he thought. Thanks to him, I'm onto your game, stalker.

  Another nibble.

  Another crunch.

  Nathan reeled back in his line early. He made a face of disappointment.

  "The bait didn't work," he muttered.

  At least, not for the fish in the lake.

  Another crunch. This one louder than any other that had come before.

  Nathan tossed himself to the side, gambling that the creature had made its move.

  A beam of flame sliced through the air where he'd just been.

  Nathan's eyes widened. He'd seen that ability before.

  You've got to be shitting me, he thought. Not him, not now!

  The ground trembled for a split second. Nathan had fought Bree enough times to know what that meant.

  He tried to dive backward, but his position was too awkward, and the speed of the skill too fast. An earth pillar slammed into his chest from below and sent him flying into the air. In that instant, there was a flash of light from overhead. Two jet-black pieces of metal slashed toward his chest.

  On sheer instinct, Nathan brought his fishing pole up with both hands and blocked both strikes. The fishing pole bent and screeched from the pressure, but didn't break.

  The figure was wearing a black cloak concealing most of his body. But Nathan could never mistake that smell. The scent of salt and sea filled the air.

  Nathan was thrown downward from the force of the blow and cut through the air. He reoriented himself at the last second and managed to bend his knees on impact and land feet first.

  A shudder ran up his spine from the pain.

  Another flash.

  The figure appeared in front of him, twin daggers resting at his side.

  Nathan gave a strained grin.

  "Leviathan," he said. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"