Seraphina picked up the glowing orb, her eyes lighting up before she placed it into her bag.
"What did you get?" Lucas Hall asked, leaning over with curiosity.
"Do you want to know?"
"Tell me, or forget it!"
Lucas wasn't one to indulge, especially since he had three treasures of his own!
Though they weren't golden, he certainly had more in number.
Meanwhile, many strange theories began to form in his mind…
What if the earliest dead shark yielded the best loot?
It wasn't impossible, and he'd have to test it over time to confirm.
But one thing was for sure: repeatedly submitting the same monster's corpse greatly lowered the drop rate.
Lucas had Seraphina take over the wheel, and he cleaned up the battlefield.
The monster loot machine was convenient; it cleaned up the shark carcasses and blood.
But the damaged deck, mast, and the big hole in the captain's room would require material repairs.
During the fight, they'd also collided with some floating debris, so there were additional hull damages.
Repairs alone had already cost 40 units of wood.
At least the loot machine was giving some resources.
Here's what they had in food and supplies:
Food: 12 Black Bread, 5 Sausages, 8L Fresh Water, 67 Vitality Coconuts, 3 Watermelons (Seraphina still had over 40 Vitality Coconuts in the cabin).
Resources: 55 Wood, 45 Cloth, 32 Stone, 10 Steel, 8 Crystal, 6 Sulfur.
Sea Snail Coins: 2050.
Steel, Crystal, and Sulfur seemed to be advanced resources, with a 5:1 conversion rate in the loot machine.
For now, they weren't short on food.
Unless things got dire, Lucas wouldn't be fishing in the stormy seas again.
He opened the world chat and started leaving a message.
"Don't fish in the Storm Sea! You'll catch monsters!"
"You're brave to survive!"
"Impressive, still talking!"
"Do you have proof? I don't believe it!"
Lucas didn't bother defending himself.
He chose not to post pictures to protect people's sanity.
The day quickly passed.
This was the sixth day since the storm began.
Today, the chat was lively, with players reporting that they had managed to escape the Storm Sea.
It seemed most players were near the exit, and would leave this area soon.
Only Lucas and Seraphina were far behind.
They had lost two days of progress.
When the storm first started, the wind wasn't strong, and their ship was moving fast.
It wasn't until the winds picked up and monsters started appearing that everyone slowed down.
Lucas checked the weather forecast.
Today's Weather
Location: Origin Sea (Storm Sea)
Sunlight Duration: Unknown
Temperature: 8-12°C
Wind Speed: Level 10
The wind had picked up a little more, and the temperature had dropped, making Lucas feel a bit chilly, but it was still bearable.
Seraphina, on the other hand, was still wearing her original outfit and didn't seem cold at all.
Lucas walked out of the captain's room and onto the ship's deck.
"Seraphina, time for a shift change!" he called out.
She nodded, handing over the crystal ball and heading toward the captain's cabin.
"By the way, aren't you cold in that revealing outfit?" Lucas asked curiously.
"Nope, this outfit keeps me warm," she replied, sending him a private message.
Name: Witch's Attire
Type: Treasure
Quality: Excellent
Description: Keeps you warm and waterproof, enhances sanity recovery speed.
As a witch, you must always have a set of casual clothes so that no one suspects you're a witch!
It was an excellent quality piece of gear that enhanced sanity recovery speed!
"Starting with the witch's outfit? Really?" Lucas questioned the fairness of the game again, but there was nothing he could do about it.
At least he had his reliable flintlock gun.
Not long ago, he'd used the lower-tier Fire Essence to enhance his Sea Serpent's Tooth.
Originally, he had wanted to enhance the flintlock gun, but it had a tendency to misfire, so it wasn't reliable enough.
Enhancing just added extra attributes; it wouldn't fix the weapon's inherent flaws.
And the flintlock gun was a high-tier item, so the lower-tier Fire Essence likely wouldn't bring much change. It was better to enhance the Sea Serpent's Tooth.
It turned out well. The Sea Serpent's Tooth became a high-quality item.
Name: Sea Serpent's Tooth (Enhanced)
Type: Treasure
Quality: Excellent
Description: A short sword made from the tooth of a sea serpent, enhanced with fire power, causing burns and fire poison on wounds.
The sword's blade turned red, and it became sharper than before, even hot to the touch.
Lucas continued to steer the ship, switching shifts with Seraphina.
Another day passed.
Lucas woke up from the captain's cabin, checking the log. He'd barely slept for 3 hours.
He had another nightmare, a series of them.
The first one, he saw Seraphina pointing a gun at his head with cold eyes.
But how could that be?
If she wanted to kill him, she had the chance back when he fell into the sea during the Sea Serpent battle. Why wait until now?
He shook it off, not letting his mind wander too far, though the sleep deprivation left him with a headache.
The second dream, he was swallowed by an enormous, centipede-like creature!
But there were no giant centipedes in the sea, right?
Was this premonition accurate, or just a coincidence? After all, the system didn't say anything about it.
Lucas started doubting himself, but quickly brushed the thought aside.
No matter what, he wasn't going to let nightmares control him. Even if the dream had some predictive power, the decisions were his to make, not the dreams.
Otherwise, wouldn't he become a believer of his own nightmares?
After eating a Vitality Coconut, he felt much better.
His wounds were almost healed; the effects of the holy water were impressive!
He'd just need two more days of rest to fully recover.
"Why is it so dark?" Lucas asked as he opened the door, startled by the view before him.
It was pitch black outside.
It wasn't like this a few days ago!
He quickly checked the weather forecast.
Location: Origin Sea
Sunlight Duration: None
Temperature: 12-18°C
Wind Speed: Level 10
Compared to yesterday, the temperature had increased, but the sunlight duration had changed from "Unknown" to "None."
He felt a sudden unease and walked to the bow of the ship.
"Seraphina, are you there?" Lucas called out, but received no reply.
He took out his sailing log, which illuminated in the dark, allowing him to see.
That's when he realized the Nightmare was stationary, not sailing. The storm's waves had concealed the fact.
His heart skipped a beat, and he ran up to the deck, realizing there was no one at the wheel.
"Seraphina?"
His pupils constricted in alarm as his heartbeat quickened. He immediately scanned the surroundings for Seraphina.
A faint light glimmered to the left, seemingly blocked by a shadow.
Lucas rushed over and found Seraphina standing still, holding a crystal ball, staring at the stormy sea with a blank expression.
"Hey, I called you. Why didn't you respond?" Lucas scolded her.
She barely reacted, only pointing a finger toward the front. "We seem to be surrounded…"
Lucas immediately looked in the direction she pointed.
It was pitch black, but for some reason, Lucas felt… something was moving out there.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning illuminated the sky, and Lucas finally saw the true form of the creatures.
They were giant, centipede-like creatures, their bodies segmented, with four blade-like jaws at the front that could snap shut like guillotines.
These creatures resembled the sea's Bobbit worms, only much larger, though their exact size was hard to judge due to the distance.
They were moving in the storm, shaking their heads as if performing some kind of ritual or celebration.
Observation of Unknown Giant Creatures: Sanity Decreased by 20
Lucas's mind was reeling as he looked at the crystal ball.
The sea map showed that they were surrounded by these giant centipede-like creatures, their numbers well over a hundred.
The monsters were scattered around the Nightmare, each represented as tiny black dots on the map.
They were surrounded… by these giant creatures...