Angela had some matters to sort out so she left as soon as she was done instructing me, it seemed like she was avoiding me, but I decided against probing the situation.
I heard a commotion on the deck, going upstairs, I saw the whole crew assembled on the lower deck with hooks in the hands and they seemed as if they were prepared for battle. I saw no other ship in the horizon, so I was confused for a while.
"Ah, kid, you've arrived just in time, lets hunt some malicious fish. You might even find some rare treasures in their nest" said the fatty's voice as he towered over me from behind.
"Malicious fish?" I repeated. "Yes, they are an intelligent species of evolved fish, their nests are hoarded with rare treasures that could increase your core strength".
Hearing this, my eyes lit up as I would love anything that could help me raise my strength. Looking around me, I counted the number of crewmembers to see that there were roughly 29 members assembled on deck, all prepared to jump into the sea without oxygen tanks.
A look of confusion surfaced on my face as I watched a duo dive into the sea. 'Aren't they afraid of dying?' I thought as I watched them go in and not resurface for five minutes. "Kid, stop daydreaming and go bring back some fish, dinner wont find ingredients from daydreams" the fatty said as he pushed me off the bottom deck. I flailed as I fell onto the sea with a plop.
'Screw you fatty' I screamed in my mind before floating on the surface of the water glaring angrily at him, fully drenched in water.
"What's wrong kid? oh, here's your sword, make sure to not breathe!" The fatty said as he threw down my sword and patted his belly in vigor, expecting a great feast from the malicious fish.
I was speechless at his shamelessness.
I cursed him and his whole ancestry as he gave me the most useless piece of advice. I grabbed my sword and floated there with no idea of how I would breathe underwater.
I then saw another crewmember jump into the water before diving in, I decided to follow him so I would know how exactly they stay underwater. I held my breath and dived towards him; my eyes burned as I had it open under the salty water. There was a thin sheet of shimmering water that seemed like some kind of barrier. As soon as the crewmember swam past the barrier, I saw his silhouette start falling down a few feet before leisurely walking.
'Huh?' I thought in confusion before following him without hesitation. Right as dived through the shimmering barrier, I felt as if I was falling downwards. It seemed like I was no longer underwater, but I was on the air instead. Once my whole body broke through the barrier, I fell downwards, and landed on a soft surface.
Wow…..A land beneath the sea, just what kind of wonders could a place like this hide?.....
I saw a land of massive corals , and in the middle lay a cave that seemed to span several hundreds of feet. The crewmember that I was following stopped to notice that I was behind him "Ah, you're the new first mate that caught Angela's eye, I saw you take down the nomad captain with my own eyes. Some splendid work ye did there lad, I'm Jack" the pirate said in a welcoming tone.
"Hi jack, I'm Owen, where are we?" I asked. "This here is the domain of the malicious fish, they aren't too hard to kill, but I suggest you be careful, many of our lads have lost their lives in these domains, follow me" he said before setting off towards the cave.
As we entered the cave, the temperature dropped a few degrees. The cave was lit up with dim blue crystals that emitted light, path of illumination for our path ahead. They seemed like crystal stars on a night sky, beautifully scattered around the cave, the scene was truly splendid as I appreciated the scene from the bottom of my heart.
In the distance, I heard blood curling wails and then a few battle cries. Jack urged me to hurry up as crew might have met some trouble. As we ran along the path illuminated by the blue light, we finally reached a spacious cavern illuminated by even more blue lights of higher brightness.
2 of our men who entered earlier were locked in combat with humanoid fish. They were four of them and were the size of normal adult humans, but had blaring gills on either side of their heads, and seemed vicious and bloodthirsty, truly earning the name of malicious fish.
The fish weren't armed with weapons, but used claws that seemed to be metallic. They clashed with the swords of our crewmembers producing metallic clangs. I charged over with Jack, swiftly piercing the abdomen of a fish. It wailed in pain before rushing towards me in anger. I kept retreating while slashing out whenever it came close enough to me. I realized that these things were slow, giving me many opportunities to cut at them, no wonder they are considered food by the fatty, but I thought again thinking that the fatty would eat anything as long as it was living.
Back at the ship, the fatty who was supervising some chefs suddenly sneezed.
"Eh? Is someone cursing me?".
Within moments, the monster I was slashing finally dropped down on its face as it succumbed to it's various injuries. The other crewmembers had even successfully killed the monsters, smiling in glee when the fish monster dropped on its knees and died.
I realized that I did not use my core energy and relied solely on my physical strength. This was good in a way as conserving my core energy was important, as I had to use it during emergencies and to heal any wounds I sustained. Using raw physical strength would also allow me to grow my cultivation realm and finally break into the Baron realm.
Within moments, a few men came in with large ropes. "Good work, let us take these above the surface, the rest of you should explore deeper and return". The men said, as they tied the carcasses of the dead fish and dragged them away.
The four of us went deeper into the cavern extremely slowly so as to maintain our element of surprise. There seemed to be another spacious cavern that was lit brightly in the distance, as we got closer to it, we couldn't believe our eyes as there were large amounts of gold, sharp weapons and even mysterious orbs, filled with energy. On a pedestal in the cavern was a scaly egg, my eyes glinted as I felt a surge of excitement that I never felt before.
But with great reward comes great risk, naturally, there was a giant creature sleeping in the middle of the cavern, spikes protruded out of its skin as it breathed in and out. "That is a spiky basilisk, we will head in first and fight the creature, you and Jack try to kill it from the sides" one man from the duo said.
We nodded as we prepared our weapons. Both men charged in, their weapons lit up in bright red colors as they screamed in valor.
"Die beast!". They shouted as both attacks pierced the beast
The beast which was finally alerted, woke and roared in pain, flicking it's heavy tail at one of the men while a claw slashed at the other. Both attacks connected as both men flew back in a trail of blood and crashed onto the cavern wall. Although the beast was slightly injured, it seemed strong, so I dared no underestimate it.
This was a bad sign, I chanted Helen's name and focused on a portion of my core energy. Calling upon this blessing, a bright light emanated from my body as my speed increased and my surroundings slowed down. I could still see Jack running towards the beast in a slow pace, his sword shining in red light.
I took advantage of this and ran up to the basilisk, it's eyes followed me as I approached it, however it could not react on time as I was just too fast. I wanted to blind this creature to increase our chances of victory, I jumped up as I flicked my sword outwards aiming towards it's eye.
As my sword pierced it's eye, I pulled it out in extreme speed and was about to stab the other eye, however, the basilisk's tail slowly flicked towards me, I instinctively dodged it and landed on the floor again. My reflexes and battle instincts seemed to have improved by leaps and bounds after I became a semi-baron. It let me to wonder just how powerful I would become after breaking through to Baron.
I infused a bit of energy into my sword as I slashed at the basilisk's good eye from a distance, relying on my energy to make the fatal hit. The sword connected with the basilisk's nose as it created a clean cut, allowing the sword energy to travel up towards its eye and ravage it.
The basilisk was blinded, now comes the easier part, me and Jack worked together to slice at the basilisk from all directions. It kept flailing it's tail and claws around as it tried to hit us, but dodging was extremely easy as it couldn't see anything.
I finally found its weak spot and plunged my sword in with a little bit of energy, piercing it's heart and stopping it dead in it's tracks. With a final wail of pain, it fell on the ground with a loud thud.
Covered in basilisk blood me and Jack stood up to tend to the injured duo, their injuries were survivable, so they immediately left to recover from their wounds.
I turned to the treasures which the basilisk guarded and felt my eyes light up by the variety before me. With a sense of achievement, I walked up to the first thing that caught my eye, it was a purple spear made of a peculiar purple material. As I lifted the spear, I felt a surge of power in my arms, the spear crackled with faint lightning bolts.
I was astonished as to how such a weapon would exist in the world. I definitely should keep this to myself, although I might need Angela's permission, I'm sure I could.
I held onto the spear as if it was my child and watched as Jack appraised the various items scattered along the cavern. Within moments, a squad walked in, ready to bring the treasures back up to shore. The fatty ked the squad, he came with a splendid round of applause "Ah, my favorite prodigy, you've outdone yourself once more, let us get everything back up to the ship before an enemy sees us". Just as the fatty was about to delegate the work to the squad, he noticed the scaly egg on top of a pedestal.
His eyes almost bulged out as he stood there in utter shock.
"This…..How??...Impossible!"
The fatty's face jiggled in fear as he kept staring at the egg, the other crewmembers noticed the egg and let out exclaims of shock and fear as well…
Everyone kept saying "Basilisk's mutated egg" as if that was the most shocking thin in the world.
I have already come to terms with the fact that this world is filled with mysterious phenomena, so I didn't really become as awestruck as the rest of the crew.
"What exactly is that?" I asked the fatty as I propped my spear against the ground.
"Boy, that is the famed mutated egg of a basilisk, there is only a one in a hundred chance of such an egg from coming into existence, this egg can be used for us to raise an extremely powerful beast. You will surely be rewarded for such merits" the fatty said excitedly.
"Men! Bring everything to the ship with haste!". Just as one crewmember carefully placed the egg in a cloth bag, an eerie cry of desolation reverberated through the cavern, sending chills down the souls of every living being in the caverns.
"That must be the spouse of the dead beast, the energy signals it releases tell me that this one is at most a superior baron, we must leave at once" the fatty commanded as his face darkened. All the crew members were already filled with treasures, so they had nothing else to do than make a speedy escape.
I felt an extremely bad premonition as the screeching grew louder, I ran in full speed towards the place I started at, fearing for my life.