Days passed.
While Viswa is hunting and acting as a courier on the sea, Sir Warden was seriously investigating the origin of the change in these fish.
He also spent a lot of time in the sea and he finally saw something that made his heart skip a beat.
"I don't know what is happening, but as you said all the fish are either reaching close to the shore are entering the shallow waters or they are migrating to the waters near other village. And they are doing it in such a large scale. It seems like they are running away from something.
Black Sand Academy will take over the investigation completely. You don't need to worry. Just tell your fishermen to be careful. It would be better if there is no fishing for a while."
Sir Warden explained his findings to the Village Chief.
"But Sir, fishing is the main occupation for a lot of people. This year we managed to send a few kids to the Black Sand Academy and the whole village is trying to support their growth. If this source is cut off, then it would be hard to pay up for that."
Sir Warden frowned immediately.
"What do you need to pay for? Black Sand Academy doesn't charge any fee, all the resources are based on their ranks and there are dozen safe ways for the kids to earn more resources if they are in need. Why would the whole village need to work together to pay for some kids? That is insane."
The Village chief looked troubled. He hesitated a bit, but he stoned his heart and said.
"W… We were asked to pay by one of the senior instructors of the academy. If we didn't pay that, our kids would be targeted and expelled."
"What?" Sir Warden asked through gritted teeth. Anger is apparent in his tone.
"It has happened before."
Sir Warden looked at the tired expression and sighed, before taking out a small pouch and giving it to the village chief.
"You can stop sending money. And this might not be enough to cover all the money you have sent to academy, I will make sure you get the remaining money afterward. Can you tell me the name of the senior instructor that made you pay?"
"I… I …"
"Its fine, you don't have to tell me. But can you give me the names of the students at least? I will make sure they won't find any trouble from this.
Trust me, I will put my life on the line if required to make sure you and the kids are not incriminated for this."
"Thank you, the kids are …."
The Village chief listed out a few names.
Sir Warden took them and took a small sail boat and entered the sea once again. He needs to keep on investigating this stuff.
He went a bit deeper into the sea in search for something. Soon he found some traces. There are some black blood patches here and there within the sea and after searching far and wide, he managed to spot something.
A Twin Tailed White Shark.
It is one of the predators of the sea and even when it is born, it is born in a naturally evolved state with a strength of an Elementary Level Middle Stage Cultivation. And judging by the size of the thing that he saw, he could easily guess that it is already past the elementary level.
He also noticed that the shark which should have been as white as a milk, actually has a layer of black scales over it.
He hurriedly tried to follow it, the problem is he is in the water on a sail boat while the Shark is well… a Shark. He couldn't keep up with it.
At least with a boat of course. He had to get into the water. The only hesitation he had is that the water is not exactly great place to be in with all the weird things happening there.
But he could only grit his teeth and get into the water as he chased the shark over.
The Shark already realized that Sir Warden is out of its league and it tried to escape. It just moved faster in the direction it was already going in.
Meanwhile, back at the seas near the Black Sand Village.
Currently, Viswa is on the way back from the delivery and he figured it would almost take a day for him to comeback.
This is the farthest delivery he had done and he is sure he would get around ten points from this.
Within the last few days, he accumulated more than a hundred points which is quite significant amount. The only problem is, he has been unable to find as many fish as he wanted to. It is not because there is a lack of fish, but they are way too abundant.
Except for the Purple Rays now and then that are straying, the rest of the fish are almost moving like they are part of large schools. Even the beasts that are known to travel alone are moving in dense schools.
And Viswa cannot use any other fighting technique except grappling.
He took the risk and tried to bait one fish and lure it out of the group, but multiple fish caught a hold of it and he almost drowned. That time.
In such cases, the only way he could fight is when he is on the boat where he had some solid ground. He could use mid ranged staff weapons or even daggers are fine, but grappling means, he would have to get in the water and he would be dead before he could kill one of the fishes.
Even if there are only two or three in a group he would have tried, but they are moving around in dozens.
As Viswa contemplated on how to handle this situation, he noticed almost half a dozen Blue Sword Fish pass by. He looked at them in utter disappointment. He wanted to curse at Mr. Guide, but was afraid that he would get his ass whopped.
But he still wanted to try his luck and followed the Sword Fish since they are going in the same path that he has to.
At this moment, he suddenly spotted some boats coming towards him. There are three of them and they are small sail boats, they are just a bit bigger than Viswa's.
Each boat has two passengers.
Viswa looked at them and frowned. Because they gave a hostile vibe to him.
He became vigilant.
[RULE APPLIES TO HUMANS TOO]
A notification popped in front of him.
"Fucking hell." Viswa said through the gritted teeth and at this moment a spear flew from one of the boats towards him.
Viswa hurriedly dodged, but the Spear grazed past the hull of his boat. He looked at the damage and felt threatened even more.
With the activity of the fish here, he highly doubts that he would reach the shore unscathed if he lost the boat.
But he didn't have time to think too much about it. Spears came one after another.
*WHOOSH* *WHOOSH*
They whistled through the air and came at him with menacing auras.
Viswa tried to catch the spears coming at him and he did succeed with two, but the third one went right past him and went through the hull making a hole on the side.
But it is still okay, if it hit the hull a bit lower, there would be a leak.
And just then he realized that he jinxed the shit out of his situation.
Three spears lodged into hull and water started leaking in.
"Fuck my life."
He didn't wait long and just dove into the water. He swam to towards the three boats coming towards him.
The people on the boats were unable to find him with the speed he was moving. At that moment…
*CRASH* *SPLASH*
One of the boats' keel has been destroyed. The two people on the boats were dragged into the water.
Viswa tangled with the two of them. He caught a hold of one of those guys and held him in a rear naked choke. Since both of them were caught off guard, they didn't have time to breath in before they were dragged into the water.
The second one hurriedly swam to the surface to breath, he didn't have time to care about what Viswa is doing.
Viswa on the other hand had a hard time keeping the opponent under control. He had the edge because he dragged him in and held him there. But the other guy definitely had great strength. He is definitely in Elementary Level Initial Stage.
The only silver lining is, Viswa's recent growth is not small. He tightened his grip on the throat and made him open his mouth forcefully. It didn't take long for him to pass out.
At this moment, the guy who went to the surface came down along with a spear and threw it at him.
The remaining four guys didn't directly come down at the moment. They started throwing spears from the boats.
Viswa used the unconscious guy as his meat shield while he thought of a plan.