Chapter 350 - 161: Never Going into the Sea Again
’What on earth is collecting murderous intent from the sea?’
’And that phrase in the Gonzalez language from before...’
’Was it something these people encountered in their dreams, or some other foulness that has latched on?’
Wei’en gazed at the calm surface of the sea, lost in thought. The sea breeze ruffled his red hair, but his handsome face was expressionless.
On the deck beside him lay several fish covered in triangular scales—the very same Blue Marlins his panel had rated as delicious.
Not far away, Ronan stood with his head bowed respectfully, his eyes fixed on the ship’s rail, quietly awaiting the captain’s orders.
He was surprised by the day’s second order—to kill the Blue Marlins—but he didn’t dare say a word. He was afraid that saying the wrong thing would get him run through by the clearly preoccupied captain.
"Move those boxes to my quarters. I want to study their cause of death."
"Yes, sir!"
Ronan breathed a small sigh of relief. The Red-haired Captain was far more intimidating when he was silent than at any other time.
He quickly signaled to the other pirates behind him, then returned to his previous stance.
"Second Officer, can I go in the water during the day?"
"You, you mean to..."
"I want to go down and take a look," Wei’en said decisively. He wanted to try searching the sea to see what he could find.
"It’s possible, but it could be dangerous," Ronan hesitated. "Especially with some of the mutated species hiding among the deep reefs or in the silt. If they spot you..."
"Anything besides that?"
"Well, that should be it. The waters we’re in now are still close to the Eastern Continent. Normally, there aren’t any high-level deep-sea creatures here."
Wei’en nodded and gave the order, "Stop the ship. I’m going down."
"Yes, sir!"
Ronan had no choice but to return to the pilothouse. He pulled the brake lever to slow the Steamship and had the crew drop anchor to keep the vessel from drifting with the current.
Once the Steamship came to a complete stop, Wei’en took out a bottle of underwater breathing potion and poured it into his mouth.
"Tsk."
Compared to the Enlightenment Potion and Healing Potion he had drunk before, the taste of the underwater breathing potion was clearly beyond what a normal person could tolerate.
The salty, foul stench, like rotting sea fish, almost made him throw up.
Before long, the Magic Potion’s effects kicked in. He felt the pores on his skin open up slightly, as if countless little filters had appeared, connecting to the blood vessels within his body.
Wei’en knew the underwater breathing potion only lasted for about thirty minutes. Not wanting to waste any time, he leaped directly from the ship’s figurehead.
SPLASH.
[You have been targeted by the murderous intent of a Deep Sea creature: Swordfish. Reward: Survival Points +1.]
The moment he entered the water, dozens of messages flooded his panel.
Surrounding the Steamship were hundreds of bizarrely shaped fish of all sizes. Many of them noticed the intruder and swam straight for him.
Wei’en ignored these small fish, which posed no threat. After activating his Spirit Conversion talent and raising his resilience level to ten thousand, he swam straight down.
[You have been attacked by a Deep Sea creature: Spiny Fish. Evaluation: I’ll have to reconsider what to call you. Hmm, "weakling" no longer does your strength justice. Reward: Survival Points +1.]
’Not a weakling?’
’Just as long as it’s not "weak duck"...’
Hm? By the time he descended about thirty meters, visibility had already dropped to the point of near-total darkness.
By the time he was close to a hundred meters down, not only had the number of murderous intent lock-ons greatly decreased, but even the fish that had been relentlessly attacking him had turned and swum back up, as if he had left their aggro range.
It wasn’t until he was around a thousand meters down that Wei’en felt something solid beneath his feet; he must have reached the seabed.
By then, his surroundings were already a space of complete darkness.
If it weren’t for the pressure he felt on his face and body, he might have thought he had entered the Lord of Despair’s dream once more.
Wei’en could only rely on the faint light emitted by some of the fish to illuminate a small area and see anything at all.
But strangely, as soon as these bioluminescent fish were more than five meters away, their light would instantly vanish, as if swallowed by the seawater, plunging the surroundings back into darkness.
Wei’en frowned. He didn’t dare use his Spiritual Perception to probe the area, worried it might attract attacks from mutated species that could sense his Spiritual Power.
’If a mutated species discovers me down here in the Deep Sea... I’ll be in for a world of hurt.’
After waiting quietly for a while, as another deep-sea creature glowing with red light passed by, he stealthily reached out, grabbed its tail, and began swimming along with it by kicking his legs.
At the same time, he used the light from its body to survey his surroundings, paying special attention to the prompts from the panel in his mind, hoping to find the thing that could collect murderous intent.
He gasped.
’This place...’
But when Wei’en got a clear look at what was below, his eyes widened, and a shiver ran through him.
’That’s not the seabed down there at all!’
’That’s a goddamn colossal deep-sea monster!’
The monster’s snake-like body was coiled into a disk. Under the red glow, its scales shimmered with a faint, ghostly light. It was as motionless as if it were hibernating.
Its spike-covered head alone was an astonishing ten meters long.
Along its back was a row of sharp dorsal fins, flanked by countless "tiny" tentacles.
Currently, these tentacles were dragging deep-sea creatures toward its dorsal fins, which sliced them in half before the pieces were sent to its mouth... ’It’s eating in its sleep?’
Wei’en: "..."
He quickly let go of the glowing red fish, kicked his legs, and swam upward.