Goblin Dependency

As for the ocean, perhaps under the influence of entertainment works from his previous life, Xia Nan had always harbored a sense of reverence deep in his heart.

Even though he had already obtained a Professional Level and possessed a powerful Strength that ordinary Human beings did not have, this had not changed.

Whenever he stood on the deck and looked out at the sea, catching a glimpse of that Mysterious, pitch-black darkness in the depths where no light reached, it always made him instinctively imagine some colossal monstrosity hidden within.

Thinking about it now, it should be a combined symptom of "Fear of the deep sea" and "Fear of giant things."

You never know what might be lurking in those Abysses filled with icy seawater.

If you were to fall into the Water, the claustrophobic feeling of being wrapped from all directions by the sea, the pressure coming from every side, the pitch darkness where you cannot see your own fingers and the strange noises stirred up by the surrounding currents... the instinctive Fear from the depths of your heart would flood into the blanks in your mind created by the loss of Perception.

At the same time, because of its special environment akin to outer space, the ocean had always been associated with those gigantic creatures whose body size far exceeded the norm.

The buoyancy of seawater offset, to a certain extent, the impact of gravity on the bones and muscles of living beings, removing the need to support a heavy body, allowing creatures living in the Water to grow without restraint; and the rich, diverse ecosystem of the ocean provided the necessary conditions for the survival of those giant beasts.

Especially in this fantastical world saturated with Magic Particles, where the fantastical beings that, in his previous life, existed only in legends and stories had become a tangible reality.

Xia Nan had once asked the crew of the Vengeance Blade Blade about information related to this, and the result... was just as expected.

Captain Lorin had personally steered the Vengeance Blade Blade to escape an attack from a gigantic shark that could swallow an entire sea vessel in a single bite; barbarian Akken had, as a child, personally seen the corpse of a sea turtle whose body was larger than half their village being washed ashore by the waves, and later its shell was turned into crude armor in batches, with every villager having a piece; Druid Hai Yin, on the other hand, was utterly unfazed by such things—supposedly, the headquarters of their Coral Association in the Southern Islands was built on the body of some enormous sea beast.

In response to all this, even though he always felt unsettled inside, Xia Nan had at least prepared himself mentally.

Only, perhaps because his luck had been relatively good.

He had been in the Southern Islands for so long, and the enemies he had killed were countless, yet he had never encountered one of those enormous foes with an outrageously oversized body.

Until today, until now.

When Xia Nan stood on the deck, using the specialty ability [Tidal Shaping] to steady his center of gravity on the violently rocking deck battered by the tide, braving the fierce downpour, letting his gaze pass over the towering wave crests and the ink-black sky, looking toward the direction from which the Horn’s call came.

The kind of scene that had appeared only in movies and anime in his past life, requiring cinematic special effects and brushstrokes to present it before the world, had now truly become reality.

It was a small, classic single-masted sailing ship, clearly a few sizes smaller than the Vengeance Blade Blade, with a shallow draft, probably a cargo merchant vessel running coastal trade.

It too had been caught in the storm; the sail on the mast had been torn to shreds, leaving only a few strips of cloth whipping madly in the wind. The hull rocked and tilted violently, and on the deck one could faintly glimpse many ant-sized figures running around like madmen.

In sharp contrast to it was a black-brown tentacle that had reached up from beneath the sea’s surface, slick and dripping with slime, much thicker than the ship’s mast.

At this moment, that tentacle had already reached over the ship’s rail and coiled itself onto the deck.

It was like a barbed fishhook thrust up from beneath the sea’s surface; the Dragon Bone of the ship groaned under the unbearable strain, the entire hull being forced downward, the bow pitching forward, visible cracks spreading over the surface of the planks.

Then came the second tentacle.

It looped under the keel, broke through the Water on the other side of the ship, and slowly rose until it was level with the adjacent mast. After a brief pause, it suddenly came crashing down.

"Boom!"

The sound of massive bodies colliding rang out with uncanny clarity in the brief lull between thunderclaps.

Wood chips flew, the mast snapped, and the dense sounds of planks shattering merged into a single roar.

The two tentacles, one at the front and one at the back, coiled around the bow and stern of the ship respectively and exerted force at the same time.

Obviously, even with this giant creature’s Strength, it was not enough to drag the entire merchant ship completely into the Water, yet it still caused a glaring crack to appear in the middle of the deck, accompanied by the terrified screams of the crew.

The ship was being torn apart.

"Hoist the sails, retreat!!!"

Captain Lorin’s shout exploded beside his ears.

Even though he had already roughly learned the size of this Demon from Sarisa in advance, the impact it had on people when they actually saw it tear a ship in half with their own eyes was beyond what ordinary people could imagine.

Whether they could fight it or not was another matter, but as long as one was a proper sailor with many years of seafaring experience, facing such a scene, there was no way they would still take the initiative to attack such a giant beast.

Xia Nan reacted extremely quickly.

Almost the moment Lorin’s words left her mouth, he was already making use of his ability to move freely on the swaying deck, rushing about like a firefighter to help the sailors haul cargo and pull on the ropes.

"Rumble!"

Overlapping with the thunder rolling overhead, a massive sound came from afar.

Xia Nan instinctively turned his head toward the sound.

He saw that on the distant sea, the merchant ship that had still been more or less intact moments ago had now been completely torn into two halves, the black-brown tentacles almost lifting the bow and stern upright at a ninety-degree angle.