Pirate Kingship

"Ahhhh——!"

The gigantic creature that crawled out from the sea opened its jaws, releasing a stinking roar from within its massive skeletal blackened mouth and eye sockets.

Even within its body, composed of black and red sludge and towering like a small mountain, countless twisted human faces surged and emitted relentless wails of despair.

Though the meaning of the roar was incomprehensible, the greedy hunger imbued in the sound was unmistakably clear.

The pungent odor of rotten eggs intensified a thousandfold with its appearance; if not for the isolating effect of overlapping spaces, many ordinary soldiers would have died of swamp gas poisoning without a fight.

Byron waved his hand, and the direction of the sea winds changed instantly.

Holding the Storm Authority, he didn’t need the Qiangfeng to keep The Golden Deer perpetually upwind.

With higher status come good people around you, and with greater power even the heavens and earth accommodate you; it’s no wonder the allure of power is so captivating.

His gaze fell upon the disgusting monster charging madly forward.

"A dead Mud Swamp Giant hidden in the sea’s mud gas mines? How many people has it devoured to become a Curse Spirit?"

The Sailing Logbook instantly read its information: [First Level Curse Spirit·Mud Swamp Giant]:

"An immortal monster formed by the combination of a wise Mud Swamp Giant’s death, deep sea mud gas mines, and even an entire seabed vein. It’s not Apu, the Totem God, yet more powerful.

Entirely fallen into its beastly side, devoid of any rationality, leaving only an insatiable desire to regain its sanity through ceaseless feeding.

It attacks any ship crossing above it, intentionally breaks the solid-state mud gas mine, creating massive bubbles to engulf passing ships, needing only to open its mouth leisurely for a meal.

Taboo: When passing through its territory, one must prepare a sacrifice in advance, offering slaves amounting to one-tenth of the passing crew, to safely pass."

Soon as Byron focused on the constantly shifting black ghostly faces on its body, a second piece of information appeared:

"Bound residual thoughts of the undead.

Adventurers from the Old Continent were clearly not the first to visit these unfamiliar seas.

Decades or even hundreds of years ago, the Kin from the opposite Eastern Continent had already used it as a passage while invading the Southern Continent East Coast.

Over the years, they sacrificed countless Black Iron Race slaves from the Eastern Continent, all becoming part of this Mud Swamp Giant.

Subsequent travelers who conduct sacrifices again can gain blessings from those sacrificed and this sea: [Black Iron’s Protection]:

With skin color deepening, tolerance to hunger rising, resistance to disease increasing, even when locked like sardines on dark and damp lower decks, they won’t easily die.

(Accept it, this is our last offering—the sunken Black Iron Race)."

Seeing this, Byron suddenly understood more deeply the black merfolk kingdom Saranthe had spoken of.

If they followed the "Book of the Beast Kinship (Volume Two)" path: Beast, to human, then to Totem God.

At first, the humans seen en masse underwater would likely chiefly be the Black Iron Race, making transformation into black merfolk during "shape-shifting" quite normal.

This explanation is flawless, the existence of black merfolk is certain.

Of course, there’s no time to ponder this now, and Byron hasn’t yet decided whether he should bring those Black Iron Race members back as local specialties when he returns from the Eastern Continent.

Because "Those who use my people, their country will turn black" and "Those who take my money will eventually become me" are terrifying curses of the same kind.

The opposing [Curse Spirit·Mud Swamp Giant] had already stormed across the sea, just 200 meters away from The Golden Deer.

With a swing of its massive hand, the seabed mud turned into giant waves surging towards The Golden Deer, every swirling wave was a dark hand.

It was as though numerous Black Iron Race from the Netherworld were extending distant invitations to the living, wanting to take them into the deep sea as companions.

The Luminous Crown above Byron’s head lit up, and he shouted loudly:

"King’s Military Might, activate!"

A lion’s roar echoed, and the Golden Lion, representing the will of the Hightins Country, leaped out, unleashing an intimidating roar at the Mud Swamp Giant.

The Golden Deer and all the cannon muzzles in the overlapping space lit up with a golden hue, easily enhancing the fleet with a Law-Breaking effect, even though they were not on the empire’s homeland nor fighting a Defensive War.

"Fleet, volley, fire!"

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!...

The searing shockwaves flattened the ocean waves, creating an enormous semicircular depression alongside, and the sea in front was fiercely driven back.

Though it appeared on the surface that The Golden Deer only had fifteen 32-pound cannons on the lower deck and thirteen 42-pound Carronades on the upper deck, with a one-time throw weight of a mere 1,026 pounds.

In reality, it was a total of 672 heavy cannons after quantity folding, with a projectile weight of 24,624 pounds, totaling 11 tons of cannonballs slicing across the sky.

The firepower density formed by the same projectile weight was vastly different between a fleet of twelve warships and a single warship.

An incredibly concentrated volley unleashed a scarlet barrage covering the sky.

If poor, employ tactical penetration; if flourishing, employ comprehensive firepower coverage.

Sail battleships experience no range anxiety, and the new abilities of the legendary warship greatly alleviated Byron’s fear of insufficient firepower; once rear-loading rifled guns and shrapnel shells were onboard, the ailment should be fully cured.

The next moment, shells filled with [Stormforged Weapon], [Manual Guidance], [Artillery Range Extension], [Demon Break] effects smashed through the muddy black tide, blasting apart the mountain-like imposing form of the Mud Swamp Giant.