[Advanced Class Option #4: Water Strider]

  [Swarmblood Art: Unknown]

  [Brief Description: Unknown]

  [T1 Core Mutation: Striding Glaives]

  [Brief Description: Your lower legs will become water-repelling glaives. You will be able to stand and move atop water so long as you are able to maintain your balance]

  “And… if I can walk on water, will I be able to push forward through the storm?” Marisol asked, staring pointedly at the little Archive.

  the Archive said, reluctantly.

  “Confirm Water Strider Class.”

  “I’m certain.”

  And it was like a phantom butcher just came and severed the nerves in her legs, making her topple over unceremoniously from the unexpected sensations.

  She used to sit on her knees for long hours of posture training, and whenever she got up it’d be like the devil’s thousand needles puncturing her thighs; this what it felt like. Her legs weren’t just numb. Her bones were shattering, her muscles were rearranging, her skin was ripping, tearing and stitching itself back together. When she finally looked down, her throat clenched, and her teeth gritted.

  Her legs from the knees down were the sharpest curved blades she’d ever seen. Any semblance of feet, toes or bones were completely molded into the blade’s silver exoskeleton.

  It was like someone cut off her legs and replaced them with double-bladed swords.

  [T1 Core Mutation Unlocked: Striding Glaives Lvl: 1]

  [Brief Description: Your lower legs have become water-repelling glaives. You can now stand and move atop water so long as you are able to maintain your balance. At level one, your glaives are as tough as your toughness level. Subsequent levels in this mutation will increase their toughness. At max level, they will be thrice as tough as your toughness level]

  the Archive hissed, making her wince as she pressed her hands to her ears.

  “So you can read my mind, but you can’t read my resolve?”

  It difficult. It painful. Her thighs burned and her arms quivered as she pushed herself onto the tip of her blades. Her eyes watered as she felt stabbing throbs where her knees connected with the glaives, her nerves still trying to get used to her new lower leg appendages—but if she’d picked one of the other three classes and just flew away, flying downwind and betraying the core tenet of being a Sand-Dancer.

  “... A Sand-Dancer always dances against the desert, and the world for just a sliver of attention,” she hissed back, biting her lip, stabbing her right glaive through the floorboards as she rose on one knee. “Ten years I saved up for this once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Whirlpool City. Ten years I waited to bottle just small vial of healing seawater so I can dance with mama again—do you think I’ll go back now and watch mama’s life tick away without doing anything about it? Do you think a Sand-Dancer launches into a mid-air twirl without thinking about sticking the landing?”

  “I’m going to the Whirlpool City,” she said, shooting to her feet, snapping her arms out, and assuming the Sand-Dancer’s neutral one-legged standing posture. “Whether you like it or not, you’re coming along with me, so… help me get off this ship, will you?”

  The Archive was silent for one more moment—as though calculating her survival percentage and not liking the results—but then it started warbling. Shifting. Its six legs elongated, its two jagged antennae shortened a little, and its teardrop-shaped body thinned even further into something akin to a stick.

  She managed a small smile in response.

  The Archive had morphed into a tiny silver water strider, turning into a companion reflecting her chosen class.

  the Archive said.

  She took her first step slowly, careful not to slip her glaives between the floorboards, but quickly found it wasn’t hard as the Archive had made it out to be. It was a bit difficult trying not to wobble after her first step, sure, but not impossible. Walking only on her tiptoes in scorching golden sands was much, much tougher than this.

  As the heavy waves rocked the ship from side to side, she stumbled out of the cabin and nearly went over the railings immediately. Lightning cracked the sky and cold rain slammed against her face. If her sharp-as-hell glaives weren’t stabbed into the floorboards, she’d have been thrown off the ship already.

  Throwing her hands around the ratlines to stabilize herself, she forced herself to squint through the rain—out at the stormy seas—and it was a much more dreary sight than she’d thought.

  Captain Antonio had set off the voyage with four full-rigged ships, twenty armed crew and twenty civilian passengers on each, but now the only ship with a mast still standing was the one she was on. The other three ships were split down in half, ripped to shreds, littering the dark and wavy seas with torn sails and rotten timber. Water-logged crates and barrels bobbled on the sea’s surface. Corpses lay face-down and some hung limply near floating debris.

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  For a few seconds, she even thought she saw the ghost of a man standing on a plank of wood in the distance. He stood at the very edge of the wreckage, but then rain blew into her eyes and she was forced to blink; the ghost was gone by the time she opened her eyes.

  she thought.

  And although the storm would swallow everything here in due time… she thought she had a chance to survive.

  If she could really ‘stand’ on water with her glaives, just like a water strider could, then she could vault over the railings and try to move out of the storm. She didn’t know where she’d go, but—

  the Archive interrupted.

  The way the Archive said that made her hesitate to climb overboard immediately, so she listened, picked up a rolling water gourd, and chucked it out as hard as she could.

  A shudder of animalistic fear rippled up her spine as a giant shadow swam out from under her ship, kicking slowly towards where the gourd plopped into the sea.

  She thought it was some sort of serpent at first, but then she noticed the dozen tiny legs, the glowing orange fork tail, and the gigantic, curved tusks jutting out from under its jaw. Its legs and tusks were poking out the surface as it swam , like someone doing backstroke in the sands. A tiny whirlpool formed as it sucked in everything in the gourd’s vicinity—she she could hear its mandibles crunching down on everything it managed to drag under.

  “... W-What?” she breathed, looking at the Archive perched on her shoulder, and she pointed at the giant shadow with a shaky finger. “That thing… it just… what? What kind of monster is that?”

  A status screen popped up next to her head, and thank the Great Makers rain phased through it like a mirage. She wouldn’t have been able to read a single word otherwise.

  [Identification Complete]

  [Common Name: Fairy Shrimp]

  [Grade: F-Rank Giant-Class]

  [Aura: ~750]

  [Strength: ~4, Speed: ~2, Toughness: ~3, Dexterity: ~3, Perception: ~2]

  [Brief Description: Twenty body segments, eleven pairs of legs, and lacking in rigid carapace—fairy shrimps are best known for swimming upside-down and feeding on organic particles from water surfaces. They have two pairs of antennae, one pair especially elongated and resembling tusks, which they can control and are specifically evolved for grasping motions]

  the Archive muttered.

  She shot the little water strider on her shoulder a dumbfounded look. “I thought the ‘Swarm’ that’s attacking humanity and trying to conquer the world are all giant bugs. Shrimps aren’t bugs, right?”

  the Archive explained.

  The rain shower pounded her ears like a drum as she read the fairy shrimp’s description box over and over. It didn’t do the leviathan any justice—it completely failed to mention the shrimp was at least twenty meters long and nearly as wide as the ship was. An monster. And she would’ve continued staring dumbly out if the ship didn’t suddenly lurch backwards, her hands on the ratlines the only thing keeping her from falling off her blades.

  the Archive said plainly.

  “And how do I do that?”

  “I’m going to swat you,” she warned, clicking her tongue at the little bug on her shoulder as the ship eventually rocked backwards and forwards. Her palms were starting to bleed from how hard she was holding onto the ratlines. “I know it’s big, and professional bug-slayers probably train years and decades just to be able to hunt these monsters, but… is there a way I can kill it? Any weaknesses I can exploit? A blind spot in its defenses?”

  The Archive tilted its head quizzically.

  “Its , Archive,” she said again, gritting her teeth. “I ain’t gonna run or glide around it. I’m killing it here and now, so tell me how to clean a shrimp.”

  the Archive asked, genuinely puzzled.

  “So I’m just gonna let it scurry away after killing Captain Antonio, everyone on board, and potentially every other ship that comes sailing by this strait?”

  “I ain't claiming I know what orders the people who made you gave you, but if you serve the heroes of humanity and your first tenet avenging those who’ve lost their lives to the Swarm, then I’d say you can use a little reckless Sand-Dancer in you.” She forced a cheerful, confident grin onto her face. “The shrimp pay for what it did, and you’ve already come this far with me, eh?"

  She was pushing the Archive again, and she knew it, but if she was just going to run backwards, there’d have been no reason for her to pick the Water Strider Class.

  She to go forward.

  “So show me, Archive. What are its weaknesses, and can I exploit any of them?”

  the Archive said, sighing reluctantly.

  “What’s F-Rank Giant-Class supposed to mean?”

  the Archive said.

  “And what grade am I at?”

  “O…kay,” she said, nodding and gulping hard as she watched the shadow of the shrimp swim out again, swirling beneath the wreckage. “What are the shrimp’s notable weaknesses, then?”

  She blinked.

  Looked down at the Archive.

  Then blinked again.

  “Say that again?”

  the Archive repeated, just as curt as the first time.

  “...”

  “Actually,” she murmured, narrowing her eyes at the fairy shrimp’s shadow. It rose to the surface to swallow a few more planks of wood, as though searching for survivors it could gnaw on. “It does have one notable weakness if I just use a bit of common sense, right?”

  The Archive lifted its head to stare at her.

  She pointed at its upside-down legs breaking the surface like shark fins. The Archive followed her finger.

  “It’s swimming with its belly up,” she said. “Even if my glaives for legs can’t slice it open as it tries to eat me, something long and hard flying on its belly really, fast would still impale it right through, no?”

  A new black box popped up next to her head, and she took a glance at the glowing words.

  [Objective #1: Slay the F-Rank Giant-Class Fairy Shrimp]

  [Time Limit: 10 minutes]

  [Reward: 10 points]

  [Failure: Death]