Chapter 98: Sea Competition 5
She waved the torch, tossing all the dislodged sea ears into the ocean before collecting them in her space.
It was a bit of a hassle, but it was safer this way.
And during the process, she found quite a few more Sea Pearls.
They were a great find, so naturally, the more she could collect, the better.
After some discussion, the three of them decided to have Shane Rhodes take the lead. His talent was lightning, and with all the water around, the resulting power would be immense.
Shane Rhodes would enter the water to stun the Sea Thorn Balls on the seabed, then bring them up to be dealt with.
However, only Shane Rhodes could complete this task. He was immune to lightning; the others weren’t.
Otherwise, they might end up sacrificing a teammate without even hurting the Sea Thorn Balls.
After Shane Rhodes dove into the water, Kai York and Hugh Finch joined in on the search for Sea Pearls.
An item that let you breathe freely just by holding it in your mouth was clearly precious. It was only natural to collect as many as possible—besides personal use, they could be traded for other resources.
As for these sea ears...
"Before the extreme heat, a single one of these sea ears would have been worthy of an auction." Now, they were just being tossed carelessly on the ground.
Kai York said, his face a mask of regret.
"It can’t be helped. Our Space Buttons have limited capacity," Hugh Finch said.
Even if Moira Lynch’s Space Button was large enough, the sea ears—unlike the Sea Pearls—were little more than seafood. They wouldn’t fetch a good price back home.
Besides, seafood spoiled easily once it was dead.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the reef, Moira Lynch spotted patches of a green, seaweed-like substance in a small tide pool.
It was perfectly normal to find seaweed in the ocean.
Now, Patience automatically provided a translation without Moira Lynch even having to ask.
[Blue Shrimp Seaweed: To avoid being eaten, it typically grows in nutrient-poor seawater and is usually found with Azure Shrimp.]
Moira Lynch raised an eyebrow. ’Azure Shrimp?’
She raised shrimp in her space too, but they grew so slowly there was barely enough for her to eat.
’But... Azure Shrimp?’
She remembered that one of Shane Rhodes’s tasks was to collect Azure Shrimp. ’Though his "Azure" probably isn’t the same as this "Azure."’
Moira Lynch hurried forward and yanked the patch of Blue Shrimp Seaweed up.
With their cover gone, a dozen or so blue figures darted about in the water, panicked.
[Azure Shrimp: The fastest-reproducing creature on Planet Aelmar. Usually found with Blue Shrimp Seaweed. Eats little and grows fast, making it the primary food source for many of Planet Aelmar’s lifeforms.]
Moira Lynch’s eyes lit up. ’Eats little and grows fast. What kind of miracle shrimp is this?’
Without a moment’s hesitation, she scooped the dozen or so Azure Shrimp from the water into her space.
She’d just had a look, and at least half of the dozen or so shrimp were already carrying eggs.
It wouldn’t be long before the first batch of Azure Shrimp started breeding in her space.
If these Azure Shrimp could sustain all the life on Planet Aelmar, then sustaining another planet like Caelus shouldn’t be a problem, right?
This could provide a stable supply of goods for her little shop.
Although her space was still well-stocked with food, it was all outflow and no inflow. No matter how large the supply, it would eventually run out. The Azure Shrimp had appeared at the perfect time.
They reproduced quickly, were easy to raise, and grew to a decent size. Plus, there was the Blue Shrimp Seaweed, which could be served with them.
After discovering the Azure Shrimp, Moira Lynch’s luck took an unstoppable turn for the better.
Exploring with her spiritual power, she discovered many more sea ears living underwater, a good dozen of which contained Sea Pearls.
Since they were underwater, Moira Lynch didn’t have to be so cautious.
But the suction force of these sea ears was still an issue.
Just as Moira Lynch was pondering the problem, purple arcs of electricity suddenly crackled across the sea’s surface.
Seeing this, Moira Lynch quickly took a few steps back. She glanced down at her feet—thankfully, she’d been standing far enough away, and the soles of her shoes were thick.
Once the shock passed, Moira Lynch’s spiritual power detected that the sea ears that had been suctioned to the reef had suddenly detached.
’Hmph. They were probably stunned by the electricity.’
Without a second thought, Moira Lynch collected all the sea ears into her space.
Of course, Moira Lynch didn’t forget to spread the purifying moss in the process.
For some reason, however, the second star remained in a state of being on the verge of lighting up, but never quite getting there.
’Is it because the area I’ve been covering is too small?’
’That must be it. Aside from right at the beginning, I’ve only been active around this one patch of reef.’
Just as Moira Lynch was lost in thought, a loud SPLASH echoed from the other side of the reef.
When she reached the other side, she saw Shane Rhodes dragging a dark, spiky creature out of the water.
Half of the spikes on the Sea Thorn Ball were gone, but the remaining ones were still wriggling slowly, which was deeply unsettling.
Kai York stepped forward, wordlessly snapped off a spike, and placed it in a small basket made from his Task Card.
The next second, the spike vanished, and the counter for his third task ticked down from one hundred to ninety-nine.
"Hey, why doesn’t Kai York just go down and collect the spikes himself? It’d save you the trouble of dragging these things up," Moira Lynch suggested.
At her words, the three men froze. They exchanged glances, a look of dawning embarrassment on their faces. It seemed that, yes, that was indeed an option.
"Those invaders on the seafloor should all be stunned by now, right? Kai York, you should go down now. Collect as many as you can before they wake up."
"Okay."
"I’ll go with you," Moira Lynch volunteered.
Ever since they’d witnessed Moira Lynch lift a gas canister with one hand, Shane Rhodes and the other two had stopped treating her like a damsel in distress.
After all, what kind of damsel fought more fiercely than they did?
They were all professionally trained, so they fought with restraint, knowing the most efficient ways to subdue an enemy.
But Moira Lynch was different. She was self-taught, learning from videos and personal practice, so she always went for the kill. She didn’t fight with honor; when pushed, she used lethal force.
So, when Moira Lynch offered to go with Kai York, neither Shane Rhodes nor Hugh Finch raised any objections.
The two of them jumped into the water and descended to the seafloor, where they saw a dense carpet of Sea Thorn Balls lying motionless.
At the sight, Kai York swiftly moved forward, took out a shovel he had prepared, and got to work.
As Moira Lynch moved to help with her own shovel, she silently extended her spiritual power, collecting Sea Thorn Balls from unseen corners.
After about ten minutes of frenzied work, they both stopped what they were doing.
It wasn’t because they had collected enough, but because the Sea Thorn Balls were starting to recover from the paralysis.