Chapter 97: Sonar Vision, Another Bout, Tehoms End (1/2)

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

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Working with no light and minimal sensory input was confusing when trying to gain a sense of direction. And when you completely took away sensory stimuli mostly used to navigate in your life, it created a heavy disability.

In Quinn's case, it got more difficult because he wasn't even sure what side was up. There was no floor beneath his feet. Floating in the deep waters made Quinn's search area much wider.

Quinn consciously blinked his eyes to make sure they were open before creating dozens of light orbs with magic. He used some spells that made bright lights and pushed them away from him at a distance in the water.

'Whoever made this vault thought things through,' thought Quinn, observing the lights in the distance.

The light orbs that he had released immediately went dull as they moved away from Quinn. A couple feet away and Quinn could barely see any light. And the problem wasn't in the spell; they were properly functioning. It was just that the water inside Tehom's Delight interfered with the propagation of light.

Quinn conjured another light orb between his hands and stared at the very dull light that should've been very bright. Feeling the water around the light orb, Quinn felt that the water had formed a peculiar composition that didn't allow the light to travel through the water.

The second trial area had made the use of light useless. Using light inside there to provide any form of usable visibility wasn't a viable option. The lights were dulled to the point that any light source was barely visible.

'This is fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.' Admired Quinn the water, even though it made his work there difficult, 'Not sure where I can use this, though.'

Quinn dispelled the lights and concentrated on his magic to use another approach to navigate.

A very brief burst of water magic emitted from Quinn, and a circular wave traveled outwards. Quinn couldn't see his magic, but vibrations were clearly detectable to him.

Human echolocation was the human ability to actively create sound and detect objects in their environment by sensing the echoes those objects made. People trained to orient with echolocation could interpret the sound waves reflected by nearby objects and accurately identify their location and size.

Visually impaired humans mostly used it to navigate their surroundings by tapping their canes, lightly stomping their feet, snapping their fingers, or making clicking noises with their mouths. They interpreted the sound echo from the objects in their surroundings.

What Quinn used was a highly advanced form of echolocation, made possible through water magic. By immersing himself in water, Quinn attempted to 'feel' and 'see' even the most minute aquatic vibrations in the earth. But instead of using sound waves, Quinn used aquatic vibrations, and instead of using his sense of hearing, he used his sense of touch.

By sending pulses of water into his surroundings, Quinn hoped that his sense of touch, or more specifically, the mechanoreceptors in his skin that responded to mechanical pressure or distortions, would give him some clues about the area drowned in complete darkness.

'No returns again,' thought Quinn. He had been doing this for two weeks, but not once had he gotten a hit. 'Time to switch frequency.'

Quinn started practicing this method of detection in the Great Lake. There he had gotten great results within days and, within a week, Quinn ended up developing the skill that allowed him to have a rough position of the objects that were nearby him.

He was recalling the time when he used his version of an underwater sonar against the best target practice.

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- (Scene Break) -

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Quinn was standing inside the waters of the Great Lake as he looked down at the Kraken.

If he had to be honest, Quinn wasn't sure about his relationship with the Kraken. Quinn had tussled against the Kraken four times, but only once he had been able to get past the titanic creature. And that was because he had taken the Kraken by surprise.

Quinn wasn't sure if he would win a fifth-round against a fully alert and ready Kraken. One thing was for sure, though. Which was; if the Kraken and Quinn had played cat and mouse every time Quinn visited the third vault then, at least fifty percent of the times, Quinn would have been thrown out of the lake.

'Thank God, that isn't the case. I can't afford to fight the Kraken every day,' thought Quinn as he stared at the Kraken's main body.

The cephalopod had its eyes closed and looked like it was sleeping. So Quinn did the only sensible thing, raised his hand and shot a powerful cannon blast of water towards the Kraken.

The second the water blast hit the Kraken, it opened its yellow eyes and stared at Quinn with confusion and slight annoyance.

”Yeah, you get up. Now isn't the time to sleep,” smirked Quinn and immediately sent two more water cannon blasts towards the Kraken.

The reason behind his actions was that every time Quinn exited the third vault after a session of exploration, the Kraken would push Quinn down to the lake bed and then proceed to ignore him. The Kraken would throw 'seaweed' in his face before he entered the tunnel and then, proceed to ignore him.

And that confused the heck out of Quinn. He couldn't understand why the Kraken was messing with him. Quinn had tried to stop it, but the Kraken only stopped for a day before messing with Quinn again.

So Quinn decided to channel his annoyance and irritation to productivity... and picked a fight with the Kraken.

”Come on, you big squid bully. Let's get some use out of you,” smirked Quinn as he continued to shoot blunt water blasts that wouldn't injure the Kraken but had enough to push its body around. Just like what the Kraken did to Quinn.

The Kraken felt irritated from being awakened from its nap and from the continuous body blows from Quinn. It raised its two tentacles, and both moved towards Quinn, bringing a smile to the target's face.

”Now we are talking!” grinned Quinn and clapped his hand in front of himself, and immediately the surrounding water with Quinn in the center turned black. Waves and waves of black erupted, covering everything in inky black.

Now both the Kraken and Quinn had their vision impaired by the opacity of black water.

Practical learning was what suited Quinn. So that's why he had decided to learn aquatic sonar detection. As Quinn personally learned better with stress and pressure, he picked up a fight with the Kraken, rather than just sitting around and just detect the grindylows hiding in the weeds.

'Activating Sonar. Test one, burst frequency: 40 kHz.'

One spherical wave of water exuded outwards with Quinn as the source.

Then, Quinn waited, waited for a response, a response from the Kraken's incoming tentacles.

Quinn had trust in the method. He was sure that the special water wave created from his water magic would return to him before the Kraken's tentacle.

And it did.

Quinn felt vibrations with traces of magic come back to him. The traces of magic marking the vibrations in the water told him that these vibrations were from the water wave he had exuded.

'Ah, so this is how it feels when something is rushing at you. The haptics are amazing,' wondered Quinn with a smile blooming his face as he waved his hand to his right, and a wall of ice manifested moments before a tentacle came swimming towards Quinn.

”Oh, Kraken! It's time to play!” laughed Quinn and immediately moved from his spot and once again started sending water waves out.

'Test two, burst frequency - 47 kHz.'

'Test three, burst frequency - 51 kHz.'

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'Test fifteen, burst frequency - 93 kHz.'

Spherical waves upon waves with different speeds and amplitudes rolled out from Quinn and spread out in the water. Every different frequency of the water wave sent back distinct vibrations, so when Quinn's haptic sense sensed them, he 'saw' something miraculous.

Quinn received tons and tons of vibrations that he would feel against his skin. Usually, his haptic sense wouldn't be able to differentiate these vibrations independently. But with his magic marking the vibrations, he ended up having the skill to discern them: which was, as Quinn thought, a mix of haptic and magical.

His occlumency aided brain was able to handle the mass information coming to him and quickly interpret it into understandable information for him to perceive.

”I can see it! I can see it all,” gasped Quinn as he looked to his front and even with his eyes showing inky blackness. He could even 'see' the enormous body of the Kraken and the five tentacles racing towards him.

It was like another world had been opened to him. Quinn could 'see' his surroundings in all directions instead of just the normal span in front of him. The ability to observe both in the front and the back was an amazing and novel experience that Quinn absolutely loved.

He detected every tentacle and could see them as they closed on him. Quinn readied his magic. He didn't use ice magic to block the tentacles, but decided to go with the riskier option and evade the tentacles by swimming through the incoming entanglement of tentacles.

The water magic, which struggled against the Kraken's tentacles' speed, had been tempered against the chaos of Poseidon's Wrath, so it was no longer the same. All the time Quinn had spent working out on harsh waters made swimming inside water much easier.

Water undulated around Quinn as he darted in faster than any creature inside the Great Lake. The water magic user swam quicker than the fastest non-magical fish, the black marlin, which had a top speed of 129km/h (80 mph)! He swam at a pace of over 200km/h (124.27 mph).

With abnormal dexterity and speed, Quinn, twisted and turned around by the five tentacles, avoided every single of them by inches.

With every passing second, Quinn's mind ran at a faster speed than before. It computed and calculated, and he made micro-decisions as the frequency, speed, amplitude, density of the waves that changed.

With every adjustment, Quinn's 'vision' became better and sharper, which allowed him to truly 'see'.

It was instinct.

It was intuition.

It was magic.