Chapter Text
“Have you got anything, Hummer?”
“Afraid not, there’s nothing but false reports. Nothing note-worthy.”
Wifies sighed, setting down the report. He jotted down his notes in a notebook. August 7, 2026. False end. Likely mistook kelp for something else. He put away the book on the shelf, alongside the hundreds of other reports. Nothing. With this little leads, they might as well be going off of faith entirely. After publishing his own discoveries regarding the Leviathan, countless new reports had began emerging. People spotting strange black shapes. Strange noises. He picked up another report.
Last night, when I was playing on the NautilusCraft server, a black shadow seemed to pass by the corner of my eye. I swear it was some sort of entity. I keep hearing strange noises when I’m in the deep oceans. Anyone else experience this?
The comments, for the most part, were doubtful (as usual).
Another fake sighting smh. I’m getting kind of tired of this trend.
hey OP? i think i need a couple of big red circles and arrows, i don’t see anything lol
are you sure it wasn’t just your computer bugging? it looks like youre running some heavy shaders.
If I wasn’t certain I wouldn’t have posted here. — OP
Shrugging it off, Wifies set aside the report, logging in a new notebook. Likely mistook shaders for a moving shadow. Nothing to note. Occurred in what appears to be a cold ocean.
He picked up his camera, cleaning the lens with a clipping of wool. He glanced around the library, eyes lingering on the gap in the wall. The gap was planned to lead to a basement, where an extension of the library would be kept. With new reports of new sea entities coming in weekly, the library had soon proved to be insufficient to hold all of the records. This week had been no exception, with even more reports coming in than usual. At a complete loss of where to look, he and Hummer had resorted to jumping around servers trying to find a good candidate to continue their testing. With time, they had also greatly improved their building skills, having nearly memorized the construction of sea lanterns and submersibles, despite Hummer being vehemently against the idea.
To Wifies’ gratitude, Hummer did occasionally agree to using submersibles, mostly for investigating phenomena other than the Leviathan. Their research had often reached dead ends, but a dead end was still a result, wasn’t it? The only definitive results their research had given them was information on bugs — even if many of these findings had already been documented by other explorers and researchers.
Sighing, he picked up another report. He quickly skimmed over it, eyes barely registering the words on the page. As per usual, another false report. Though, a certain detail caught his eye. His eyes lingered on the page for another moment.
“Hummer. How many reports from NautilusCraft have you gotten?”
“What?”
“As in regarding reports coming from people who had been playing on the NautilusCraft server. Have you gotten any?”
Hummer mused for a while before reaching for a book he had recently put on the bookshelf. Skimming over it, he reached for another book while still looking over the one he was holding. “Have you tried using the server as a keyword? Try searching for posts mentioning it.”
Nodding, Wifies searched for NautilusCraft on the subreddit. Seventeen results, the majority of which had been submitted that week alone. How had he missed this? Even though most of the posts were recent enough for him to have not gotten to reading them yet, he had still heard it mentioned a handful of times in the reports he had read. This was something — an actual lead. He picked up his camera, slinging it over his shoulder. Finally!
“Seventeen reports from that server. It’s not a whole lot, but it’s certainly an outlier. Do you think we might find something there?”
“Of course.”
“We should start heading to the server then. I think we’ve found a decent trail to follow,” Wifies said as he searched up the server. He soon found the server IP, and saw that not only was the server public, but it was in hardcore. If anything, he reckoned that made their odds even better.
The server wasn’t the largest server, however it was getting quite a lot of traffic at the time. There were a little over a hundred players online, with many likely being residents. The rest, Wifies guessed, were there for the same reason he and Hummer were there. They were also hunting for the source of the newer myths. Like them, the newer players had no armor, having just logged onto the server for the first time.
“Where do we go first?” Wi asked.
“I think we might need supplies, but with all the people here, we might be losing our chance,” Hummer commented, gesticulating to the crowd passing through spawn.
“The ocean’s big enough, I think there’s enough room for a hundred or so people. We might want to build a submarine, there’s a lot of area to cover.”
“Right, right, of course.”
The two descended down the mountain into the settlement below. The village was relatively large, with its buildings being constructed with a blend of sandstone, concrete, and a variety of stones. Other houses were made of dark oak. Regardless, it was abundantly clear that each house had been constructed by a different player, with each one having a unique style to it. However, a good chunk of these houses now had reinforced doors, many being made of iron. It was clear that the recent surge in visitors had caused some players to try and protect their houses.
From what it looked like, many of the players had congregated in the coastal town, some talking in groups and others wandering around. Some of the houses near the center seemed to have been partially destroyed, with chunks of the walls missing, presumably from other players trying to enter the houses by other means. Probably trying to “borrow” some materials for submersibles. He was quite familiar with that, after all.
Near the center of the town was a player donned in complete diamond armor seemingly raised on a podium. A sign next to him read, “Selling redstone materials”. A small group was gathered near the podium. The two of them approached the podium, getting a better look at the adjacent signs. The player seemed to be selling a stack of redstone blocks, two stacks of slime blocks, two more stacks of honey blocks, along with a variety of other building materials such as glass and regular blocks.
“Alright, you lot, get in line. Wait your turn, would ya? Now, I’ve got my credentials here. Just make sure to specify your username when you transfer the money, yeah?” The player had a notebook out, and he was presumably jotting down the usernames of players.
“I’m going to try and buy some resources for the submarine,” Wifies said, starting to approach the podium.
“Wait, don’t you remember last name? Wouldn’t it be better if we just collected the materials ourselves?” Hummer asked.
“That’ll take days, and I don’t think we have that kind of time. Besides, it’s probably not going to be as bad as last time, trust me.” And with that, Wifies approached the player despite Hummer’s protests. The player faced him.
“Username?”the player asked, quite preoccupied with logging all the usernames.
“How much is all of the stuff?”
“What?”
“I said, how much is everything? Twenty bucks?”
“Fifty.”
“Fifty? That’s ridiculous. Forty.”
“Sixty.”
“Sixty—you’re not supposed to go up!”
“Now it’s seventy. Supply and demand, don’t know if you’ve heard of it. Are you going to take it or are you going to keep whining?”
“I’m not paying seventy bucks again.”
“Be my guest then, because you’re more than welcome to pay 120 at the stall over there. You’d get a lot more out of it, too.” The player gestured to the adjacent stall, where a significant crowd had also congregated. “Something about legitimacy, if you give a damn about that sort of thing.”
Wifies groaned. He wasn’t going to be doing this again. “Do you at least have potions? Water breathing, night vision, perhaps?”
“Afraid not. You’ll have to ask another lad. Now, if you’re not going to buy something, leave. There’s a line behind you, if you hadn’t noticed.”
Barely acknowledging the player, Wifies turned around and left, approaching Hummer, who had been watching the adjacent stall.
“What a rip-off. Barely enough supplies to build a submersible and the man wants seventy dollars for it,” Wifies scoffed.
“I really do hate the whole commercialization of the search. What happened to curiosity? Wonder? Does no one appreciate anything anymore?” Hummer sneered, crossing his arms. “Players are so greedy.”
“Not very shocking. Anyway, I think we could manage perfectly well with just a boat and a few potions, don’t you think?”
Hummer snapped his eyes away from the crowd and looked at Wifies. “Yeah, of course. I think we’d better keep looking then, I doubt there’s anything worthwhile here.”
Wifies nodded, and the two of them continued exploring the town. They passed several groups of newcomers, presumably exploration groups. More people had come here than expected. However, he did have to admit his video did attract millions to the search. Even though he was the first to prove the Leviathan existed — in some manners finding it— that didn’t mean that others would stop looking for it. If anything, it incentivized them even more. Now the Leviathan was more than legend. It had become something much, much more.
He didn’t know if that was a good thing.
The two of them approached an establishment made of mostly dark oak and spruce wood, with a bit of stone as decoration. The Sargasso Tavern — selling potions. Classy. The inside of the tavern was relatively well-decorated, lanterns hanging from the ceiling, barrels being used as makeshift tables, and a chiseled bookshelf in the back. Wifies took out his camera and began recording the interior. He might as well document everything for his next video.
He approached the keeper. “You guys sell potions here, right?”
“Sure do, what are you needing?”
“Well, we’ll need four water breathing potions and four night vision. I’d prefer if they were splash potions.”
“Long expedition?”
“Well, you never know.”
“8 dollars for everything.”
“Alright, that’s not too much, at least,” Wifies said, preparing to transfer the money.
“Keep safe out there, kid,” the keeper said, giving him the potions once he’d successfully transferred the money. If it weren’t from the success of his previous video, he doubted he’d be so willing to part with his money.
“Alright, Hummer, we’ve got the potions. We’d best get going before we lose our chance—“
“Also going to look for that blasted thing?” A voice asked from behind him.
With a tinge of reluctance, Wifies turned to them. They had a gold-accented peacoat and a certain air to them. Smugness, perhaps?
“Yes, we’re looking for it.”
“Fellow explorers then. My name’s Conseil.” He held out his hand to shake Wifies’. “You may or may not have heard of me.”
“Right. I’m Wifies.”
Conseil mused for a moment as he shook Wifies’ hand before his face seemed to briefly light up. “Ah! I remember you! You’re that, uh, blogger who made that video on the Leviathan! I must say, you did an excellent job faking it. By far the most convincing evidence I’ve seen so far.”
“Uh…Well…”
“You remember Arronax, don’t you?”
“Yes, that person who made the museum?”
“Yes, yes, right. The museum. Good friend of mine. Took the Leviathan quite seriously.”
“I’m aware. She made the theories regarding the Leviathan if I’m not mistaken.”
“That she did. Now, if you didn’t know, me and my group are looking to end what she started. Prove it’s beyond a bug. It’s a brilliant theory, but I know somewhere beyond those depths is something incredible. Don’t you agree?”
“Well yes, I’ve seen it, some of it—“ Wifies said.
“Haven’t we all?”
“Well, Conseil, why are you telling me this?”
“I think we’ve ought to have a cameraman on board. For the sake of documentation. A man with your…fame should be able to bring an appropriate light to the Leviathan.”
“Don’t you think it’s had enough awareness? I think most people know about it by now.”
“I just think it’s best, no? We have a submarine, and all of the budget — regards to the museum.”
Wifies thought about it for a moment. Would that really be the best choice? He could continue exploring the depths while still documenting everything. However, something rubbed him wrong about Conseil. Perhaps it was the fact that he immediately called him a liar. He turned to Hummer, who had stayed out of the conversation for the most part. He had gotten to this point with Hummer, it’d be unfair if he abandoned him now.
“Sorry, but I’m already pretty busy.”