Sea Survival: My Luck is Off the Charts

Tiberius, thrashing about in the black water, almost took a tumble.

Bramble seized the opportunity of his pause, desperately extending its thorny branches to absorb the water.

Soon, Caleb Colby and Finn Ford rowed over in their small wooden boat. Once they filled the barrels they had brought, they would paddle back to Faye Yardley’s Dragon Turtle Raft. There, they would trade out the contents, switch to empty barrels, and set off again.

As for what Master Veridian needed, that was left for Tiberius to handle. After all, with Gavin Donovan on his brother’s team, they were basically all in it together.

Faye Yardley, meanwhile, took all the newly crafted large wooden barrels and made her way to the edge of the underwater vortex.

After filling all the barrels with black water, she stepped onto the vortex and was launched back up to the surface.

Although the area of black water was shrinking, the vortex’s strength hadn’t diminished.

In the final minute before the invitation time expired, Tiberius began inhaling the water like a whale. The black seawater poured into his mouth, sending Bramble into a panic.

Fortunately, he vanished soon after.

Meanwhile, Finn Ford and Caleb Colby, scooping water from their small wooden boat, could only stare dumbfounded at the spot where he had vanished.

’Damn,’ he thought. ’Just as I figured. No one who hangs with Yardley is normal.’

Watching another thorny branch stretch past them and into the black water, Caleb Colby quickly pulled an empty barrel from his backpack. "There’s a little too much competition for this water."

"We should pick up the pace."

Four hours later, the two of them, exhausted, also vanished.

When Faye Yardley was sent back up by the vortex, only Bramble was left, desperately absorbing what remained.

From the surface, the patch of black water had shrunk to a circle just over a meter in diameter.

’It’s disappearing way too fast.’

"That Tiberius is unbelievable. He comes to a resource point one time and nearly drains it dry."

Even so, Faye Yardley wasn’t too broken up about it.

’Once this is over,’ she thought, ’I can use the Island Entry Order to go check that out.’

’As for that vortex... I wonder if I can dig the whole thing up and move it to the raft.’

She had been going down and coming back up to figure it out, but she still couldn’t find a way. She couldn’t grab it. Whenever she reached out to touch the vortex, it turned out not to be solid.

She stored all the black water she had collected in her personal warehouse.

Back on the raft, she figured the little that remained would be gone whenever Bramble finished absorbing it.

Bramble was essentially just stockpiling what it absorbed now; digesting it wouldn’t be so quick.

It knew a companion on the second floor was growing very slowly due to a lack of energy.

So not only did it treasure this rare opportunity, but it was also desperately storing energy in all of its thorny branches.

It thought this good fortune would last, but in reality, there were always plenty of others vying for a prize like energy.

Bramble pulled one of its roots from its planter pot. It slowly crept over the wooden fence and dropped into the sea. From there, it extended all the way down through the black water until it finally touched the vortex at the bottom.

The root coiled around the vortex, then suddenly sprouted countless more tendrils as fine as hairs. They wrapped around the vortex in dense clusters, completely engulfing it.

Just as Faye Yardley was about to sit down for lunch, Cole Kensington rushed in like a gust of wind. "Faye! Quick, grab a net! Tons and tons of treasure chests have appeared on the water!"

Without a second thought, she shot up, followed Cole Kensington out, and gave a quick shout for Bella before rushing off the raft and onto the surface of the sea.

’It really is treasure chests! So many, many, many...’

They were surrounding the entire raft.

However, Faye Yardley also discovered that not all the chests were real. Many of them only looked genuine; they were actually just "treasure chest bubbles" that popped on contact.

But that couldn’t dampen her excitement. Riding Bella, she cast her net wide. Even though many were just bubbles, a single haul brought in far more real chests than she could ever get by fishing.

Her joy was simply unparalleled.

Eamon and Cole Kensington were also out on the water, each in a small boat, continuously scooping up chests.

This was especially true for Cole Kensington. He had never been able to fish up a single treasure chest, but he could always snag one or two with a scoop net, which was enough to leave him completely satisfied.

Willow Yardley couldn’t leave the raft, so she just kept casting her fishing line over and over.

She even managed to catch more chests than Cole Kensington did with his net.

No one else could possibly understand Faye Yardley’s joy.

The treasure chests had only appeared in this specific patch of sea.

Deep below, the vortex was in the tight grip of Bramble’s roots, which had begun to haul it desperately toward the surface.

The more the vortex loosened, the more treasure chests bubbled up to the surface.

"Bella, faster! Even faster!"

Bella was just as excited. The patch of black water had shrunk again, and its perimeter was now completely encircled by Bramble’s thorny branches, allowing Bella to run without holding back.

This joyous frenzy continued for nearly an hour.

"Hahaha..."

Looking at the raft piled high with treasure chests, it was hard for Faye Yardley to keep from laughing.

’It’s like I got all this for free.’

Just then, Bramble’s roots dragged a small, dark disc onto the raft. With a MEOW, Blackwood leaped over, desperately pried the disc from Bramble’s roots, and took a deep suck from it. After letting out a couple of whimpers, Blackwood collapsed and lay still.

Bramble watched as the dark disc turned into a small, transparent, clean one. Furious, it lashed Blackwood with a root, then coiled around the cat. Other branches slid open the glass door to the balcony and tossed Blackwood inside.

Faye Yardley was happily counting her chests.

"1, 2... 13... 24..."

Just as she was happily counting, one of Bramble’s thorny branches tapped her on the back.

When Faye Yardley turned around in confusion, she saw it holding out a transparent disc.

[Small Teleportation Disc: Place on your own territory to enable long-distance teleportation.]

"My own territory?"

Faye Yardley looked at the disc in her hand and broke into a radiant smile. "Thank you, Bramble. It’s a wonderful gift. I love it."

She stored the item in her personal warehouse. ’I probably won’t be able to use this anytime soon,’ she thought.

’Unless I go to Lumina and actually use that land deed. Then I’d really have my own territory.’

Oh...

’If I do that, I can get the shop in Lumina up and running.’

’As for what to sell... I could probably sell anything, really.’

After stowing all the chests in her backpack, Faye Yardley stood up and looked out at the sea. To her surprise, the black water had vanished completely in that short amount of time.

After giving her the gift, Bramble seemed to have fallen into a deep slumber. It had absorbed too much energy too quickly, and it looked like it would take a long time to digest it all.

"Faye, let’s go eat. It’s almost three in the afternoon."

"Okay."

Though the day was gloomy and overcast, Faye Yardley felt that with such a great haul, it was brighter than the sunniest of days.

"Huh? Why is Blackwood passed out again?"

Willow Yardley smiled faintly. "It drained all the energy from the disc Bramble worked so hard to retrieve. I think it ate itself into a food coma."

Faye Yardley let out a soft "ah." ’So in the end, I’m the one who benefits from all this.’

’A small Teleportation Disc... I’ll definitely find a use for it.’