I Died and Got Summoned to Another World as a WHAT?!?!

"Why? Is something wrong?"

Athena says "There is an area of rough water ahead of us. It is being caused by the eruption of an underwater volcano. I could probably sail through it, but I don't see a need to take the risk."

"Okay, go ahead and avoid it. In fact, detour around it by a large margin. I want to try something, so it might be worse than you expect."

Athena says "Understood. Changing course now, master."

"How far away is the volcano?"

Athena says "About a mile and a half."

"Alright, thanks."

Just as I am about to head out, I decide that I should tell Lin before I leave. She won't be happy about being woken up, but she would be even more mad if she woke up and I was gone. Not to mention that if I go on an adventure without telling her, she might try to kill me.

It takes me several tries to wake her up and she is obviously not happy when she does. However, when I explain why I woke her up she is a bit less upset with me.

Lin says "Why are you going to swim into a volcano?"

"When I absorbed the lightning in that storm, I got evolution points. I am hoping that I can do the same if I swim in the lava."

Lin says "Oh, that actually makes sense. Alright, just be careful. Thank you for telling me."

"Sure. I will be careful."

Lin says "Try not to awaken any ancient evils!"

"Don't worry. I'm pretty sure I've already hit my quota on waking things up."

Lin says "I hope so!"

I give her a kiss and then turn to leave the room, Lin is asleep before I walk out the door. I exit the castle and walk out of the cabin before I take a look around. I can't see the rough water that Athena mentioned so I ask her where the volcano is.

After she gives me directions, I dive into the water, shift into a meg, and start swimming. As usual, the normal ocean life avoids me like the plague as I swim towards the volcano. Once I get closer, there isn't a living thing to be seen and the water is much warmer.

It continues getting warmer until it is basically boiling where the lava meets the water. Of course, to me it feels nothing more than lukewarm even when I swim into the lava. The meg form doesn't work once I enter the lava so I return to my normal form.

As soon as I do, I feel completely comfortable as if I fully belong here. Very faintly, I can sense a natural energy all around me in the lava and it starts moving towards me. As the energy enters my body, my body absorbs it directly, it doesn't go to my core.

+1 Evolution Point!

This is exactly what I was hoping for and there is a ton of this energy in the volcano. Based on the amount of energy I absorbed, what I can sense around me should be enough for twenty or thirty points. This energy is not a type of mana, it is something completely different.

It is a natural energy that I wasn't able to even sense before when I encountered it. I am not even sure what change has given me the ability to sense it now. My body feels warm all over, but the warmth is coming from inside, not from the lava.

+1 Evolution Point!

As my body continues absorbing the energy I feel more and more comfortable. I quickly start feeling drowsy and with the comfortable feeling I soon fall asleep. As I am sleeping, the energy keeps moving to me and being absorbed into my body.

+1 Evolution Point!

+1 Evolution Point!

+1 Evolution Point!

As the energy is being absorbed by my body, the eruption of the volcano gets stronger. However, the area around me stays calm and the eruption doesn't disturb my sleep. It is like my sleeping body is floating in a bubble as the world explodes around me.

+1 Evolution Point!

+1 Evolution Point!

+1 Evolution Point!

.....

When I finally wake up, the eruption is over and the volcano is calm around me. I have no idea how long has passed, but at least this time I am not sealed in the rock. When I check my character sheet I find that the volcano gave me thirty evolution points.

It looks like if I want to get to my next evolution, finding more volcanoes is my best bet. However, right now what I am worried about is how long I was asleep. If it was days again, then weeks would have passed for Lin and the kids.

The only way to find out how long has passed will be to return to the ship. So I swim my way upwards to get out of the volcano, but it takes longer than expected. Either I sank while I was asleep, or the volcano somehow got a lot taller.

When I finally get out of the volcano it proves to be the second option. Above the volcano I find air instead of water, the volcano has created a new island. It isn't a very big island, but considering how deep the water is it is still impressive.

If this kind of eruption had happened on land it would have been hugely destructive. Since we are still near demon lands, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Mother nature still has far more destructive power than anything Lin and I can do.

Then again, when we work together we can get fairly close to the damage level of a volcano. The main limit to our damage is our mana pools, if we had more mana we could do more damage. That makes me think of the crystals, with those we could have the ability to do even more damage.

With that thought I decide that when I get back I am going to convert all the available materials into crystals. Lin and I might not be able to fill them, but I plan to enchant them to gather mana on their own. It may take a while, but eventually we will have nearly unlimited mana.

At least for a short period of time, that will definitely become a factor in the war. If we can get the demon's forces to group up, we could wipe them out with one spell. I can't think of a better way to tip the scales in a war and it is a good use of the crystals.

The trick will be to get the demon's forces to gather in one spot for us to nuke them. They might be aware that it was us who destroyed their gate, if so they will be cautious. If so, it will be a lot harder to trick them, but not impossible, or so I hope.

The war should still be a ways off, a lot of things can change between now and then. I am still thinking about making an army of golems, but there are a ton of things I need to do first. A lot is going to depend on how things go once I get back to the peninsula.