Ocean Master

After a long time of silently practicing with it, while he engaged in all his other activities, Sebastian was finally a pro in using his new unique skill.

Unlike the Water Transmutation unique skill, the Doppelganger and Invisibility unique skill was more peculiar in the sense that it was not exactly fine-tuned for direct battle like his first unique skill.

Of course, creating doppelgangers to fight was a powerful ability, but it was not as direct as the first unique skill.

Also, the invisibility ability emphasized the unique skill's preference for fighting in the shadows like an assassin than the valiant hero stereotype fighting style of the Water Transmutation unique skill.

Perhaps, these 2 unique skills were created taking their creators' personalities into account, and they perhaps explained why the stronger Ocean King was the one who died first, followed by the arrogant Doppelganger and Invisibility King.

To date, the more he understood the unique skill, the more Sebastian was sure that it was because of his arrogance that Carcarot Gorgoneon died.

If the Sea King was a little prudent and more cunning which was in line with his unique skill and even his species, the Sea King would have never found himself in such dire straits even when against the strongest armies of the variant humans.

After realizing his battle style, Sebastian already decided that his battle style was completely offensive which was in line with his first unique skill.

Offense was his defense!

Despite this, he needed to adapt to accommodate his 2nd unique skill. Even for a glory monger Pugilist, there were at times when it was more prudent and intelligent to take it slow and steady.

This was why for the past few months, Sebastian put in a lot of time and effort into mastering the invisibility ability of his unique skill.

It did not take much thinking to deduce that this ability would be invaluable in his quest to infiltrate the most sacred part of the Anemone Domain.

Now, the fruits of his effort and practice could finally show.

Of course, maintaining the invisibility state was still a tyrannical mana drainer but it was tamer compared to before. Sebastian's outrageous mana recovery speed helped in balancing things out.

Perhaps, if he was not a Megalodon and if he didn't have his Mana Box magic gadget, he would never take such a demanding route to accomplish his goal.

After a long time, Sebastian's intuition told him that he was finally facing a situation where he had to give his best again.

The difference from before was that he had a lot more means at his disposal, everything about him was different and stronger than before. 

Though he did not want trouble, hoping for everything to go smoothly, his inner Megalodon could not help but keep raring to go for the fight.

Despite his inner feelings, Sebastian still took it slow and steady.

The Anemone Domain was no ordinary opponent, this was a high-grade rural settlement that has developed for years with a deep foundation.

Through his contact, Master Galosh, Sebastian had managed to learn more about the rural settlement with time. Through the music master, he made more connections and also learned of the 13 councilors.

According to the music master, his greatest obstacle to his goal was the 12 councilors who with their mech could barely get Red tier strength in battle.

It was called barely, which probably meant semi-Red tier strength, but Sebastian did not dare to underestimate them. 

Having dabbled with the powerful predators of this tier numerous times, he had an accurate measure of their strength.

He was powerful for a purple tier predator, extremely powerful to be precise but due to the law of the strength gap increasing as predators evolved more, Sebastian could still not stand a battle against a real Red tier predator.

Even some abnormal purple tier predators like the Space Beast that he encountered some time ago in the Ocean Volcano region could give him a run for his money. He still needed time to develop.

Paired with his experience was why he did not underestimate his opponents.

The 12 councilors were like the icing on the cake though, the real cake was the chief councilor himself, Crook Mane, the leading clownfish of the Anemone Domain who was over 3 centuries old.

This predator was the only bonafide Red tier predator among all the clownfish in the rural settlement. His normal strength was at the lower end though, but he was complimented perfectly by his monster mech.

The mech of the leader, called the Devourer when paired with chief councilor Crook enabled this clownfish to wield the strength of the strongest Red tier predators.

In his element, the chief councilor could thrash the strongest hibernating elder of the Snake Kingdom, the Ancient Basilisk.

He was the reason why the Snake Kingdom never attacked all these years.

The reason why the councilors were Sebastian's greatest concern was that though the zone of transition led directly to the 3 most important zones of the rural settlement, an additional countermeasure was added to the most important one.

To get into the real depths of the zone of glory, there was an additional hurdle to pass and this one was connected directly to the central business district.

Through the massive mechanical corridor, every one of the councilors would detect immediately if a thief tried to intrude and could also arrive in no time. 

According to Master Galosh, this arrangement was made to prevent even intruders like the Ancient Basilisk from entering which decreased Sebastian's chances further but he never gave up. 

In Sebastian's opinion, there was nothing like a perfect plan and a perfect countermeasure. It all depended on if he could find a loophole to exploit, and he was sure that there was one.

All he needed to find was patience and proactive probing, this was exactly what Sebastian's plan entailed to get into the zone of glory.

In the worst-case scenario, he would be discovered and would be forced to fight. The thing was, Sebastian was not afraid of a fight.

In his plan, Sebastian's current miniaturized state was a disadvantage but in his previous life, according to the great Dutch football player and coach, Johan Cruyff, every disadvantage had its advantage.

The disadvantage of his current state was a massive decrease in strength, but the advantage was a massive decrease in size.

In his normal size, it would not only be harder for Sebastian to maintain his state of invisibility, but it would also be harder for him to maneuver around easily.

In his current state, he gave up brute strength for speed and flexibility.

Once the clownfish left his workspace to take adrenaline doses to force himself to keep on working, Sebastian went to work.

The first part of his plan was successfully evading everyone and every obstacle and getting himself to the divide that separated the zone of transition from the zone of glory.

If he could get there, then depending on the situation, he could then improvise on how to move forward with his plan.

[You have activated skill: Combined Super Sensing!]

With this skill active, Sebastian turned into what was akin to an advanced reconnaissance warship that was stuffed with advanced sensor systems.

After his recent evolution, his senses were one of his greatest traits.

Through his super sensing that eclipsed every sensor that this high-grade rural settlement had to offer, Sebastian drained even more mana as he steeled his mind and started phasing through all the obstacles in his invisible state.

Phasing through obstacles in the invisible state drained more mana but instead of taking the more time-consuming route of maneuvering over every obstacle, he deduced that directly phasing through them was the best.

Despite this, the zone of transition was one of the biggest zones in this rural settlement. Sebastian spent 4 solid hours before he got to the closest point that he could to the zone of glory without tripping any alarm.

By this point, his mana was already almost drained, he used his Mana Box magic gadget to replenish his reserves while resting at a corner to recover.

While recovering, he engaged in another scout and see mission. Since he was here already, a lot of things became easier, but he could not just brute force his way into the zone of glory, doing that was suicide.

Before he could move, Sebastian had to think of a way to keep the councilors busy so that none of them could spare time for him anymore.

He was on a time limit too, he needed to work fast and achieve his goals at the fastest possible speed before he was busted.

Considering the amount of importance that all the clownfish held to this most important zone, Sebastian had to think of something radical to make his plan a success and this was what stumped him.

"What should I do?"

Immediately after he asked, all the lights in the transition zone switched off.

BOOM!