Rogue Villain-Chapter 173: Southern Coastline

The light blue ocean water stretched out endlessly acrss the horizon, the sunlight glittering against it. Ackster looked out at the view, admiring it. But he wasn’t surprised.

"Is this your first time seeing the ocean?"

Ackster was about to answer no to Wilma’s question. He had seen the ocean before. But it hadn’t been this ocean, and not in this life. Ackster Phileam, the person he was now, hadn’t seen the ocean before.

"...No."

Wilma nodded. It wasn’t like everyone had to be completely enamored the first time they saw such and endless amount of water.

"Well, I best get out of your hair then and get going. I’ve got promises to fulfill and all that."

After she was done enjoying the ocean breeze, Wilma hopped back into the hot air balloon. There was no reason for her to stay, especially when Ackster had basically gone out of his way to let her know that he wanted to be alone.

Wilma was worried about him, but she was also confident in his success. She couldn’t help but be a little curious, too, since she wondered what Ackster was going to do.

She was a little disappointed Ackster hadn’t told her, but the fact that he had told her about the Habitat proved that he trusted her enough to tell her important or relevant things. Since he didn’t tell her about his business in the south, it was probably for a reason or because he knew it wouldn’t matter whether he told her or not.

Ackster waved goodbye as Wilma took to the skies, leaving him alone on the rocky, deserted shore. Well, he wasn’t completely alone. He had Mio!

Mio tapped the side of Ackster’s face from their place on his shoulder before pointing at the ocean with vigorous excitment.

"Not yet, Mio. There’s still something to do before I brave the waters."

Ackster wouldn’t have a problem with food. He and Wilma had stocked up on supplies on the way south, and he was more than capable enough of hunting on his own. He was also too strong to suffer from sleeping outside. So, considering his antisocial personality traits and his desire to remain unknown, Ackster and Wilma decided to just drop him off at an unhibatated stretch of the coastline.

Ackster could have gone to the town The Hero stopped by as he subjugated the kraken since that might be closer to the Sea God Temple than where he was now. He could also find a boat at a seas-side town and use that to scout the waters or head further out before diving in.

But he wasn’t that far from the coastal town of Temir, so he could just go there when he wanted.

Wilma hadn’t dropped him off in the middle of nowhere so that he would have to swim out. He wasn’t even going to begin exploring the ocean yet. No, there was something he had to do first, and that was to deal with his overflowing lifeforce.

Ackster still couldn’t sense it, but he knew that nearby beasts and monsters could.

"At least we won’t go hungry."

They were already approaching him, saliva dripping down glistening teeth. But they weren’t strong enough to pose a threat to Ackster. They weren’t even as strong as the Ant Queen.

However, Ackster wouldn’t only attract weaker beasts. At the moment, that was simply all that was nearby.

When he entered the ocean, Ackster would almost certianly start to invite stronger and stronger beasts to take a bite. It would be good survival-traning to fight strong beasts and monsters underwater. But Ackster only had one arm and wanted to be prudent since his main priority was the Sea God Temple and Manual.

Getting entagnled with swarms of underwater creatures as soon as he dipped his toes would impede that progress more than Ackster could tolerate.

So, he had to find a way not be an absolute snack.

Thankfully, the method he had thought of was viable, albeit reckless. But reckless was as good as Ackster’s middle name after everything he’s done. Wilma advised him against it until she found out he was going to go underwater, which wasn’t very surprising since there wasn’t much else to do at sea.

Wilma was still not sure it was such a good idea. But she knew what kind of skills Ackster had. If there was anyone that could make it work, it would be him.

It would also be easier than learning how to supress his vitality. After all, the method Ackster had thought of to combat his overflowing vitality was to burn through it.

It was a relatively popular method among more physical fighters on the verge of death. Some even do it subconsciously as their desire to live overpowers their body’s innate inhibitions. They release the restraints on their body and go full-power to defeat whatever enemy they might be faced with. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The general name for such methods is aptly named Last Stand since that’s what it usually is, a final attempt at not dying. Either it fails and they die despite the power boost, or they succeed but succumb to the backlash to their body from blasting through the failsaves put in place to prevent the human body from harming itself.

Ackster was planning to learn how to perform a Last Stand on command and control it so that he could do it all the time and shave off the excess life force he emitted.

Even using Last Stand for a short period could render an able-bodied fighter useless foor a prolonged time. Using it for an extended period like Ackster had in mind was nothing short of suicidial.

But it was only suicidial if Ackster was going to die from it.

In theory, he would keep the Last Stand going on a low gear and have it trim his excess life force. Of course, there would still be backlash, regardless of how little force he put into Last Stand. But Strong Body and Stubborn Well-Being would take care of that before it built up and became irreversible damage.

Ackster wouldn’t only be trimming his excess life force, he would also be constantly strengthening it and repeatedly tempering his internal organs. To Ackster, it was the perfect training method, at least in theory. It might also only be perfect in theory.

But that was why there was such a thing as practice, to put theory to the test.

"Let’s get started then."