Chapter 423 [Fish Bone Conch]

[Proficiency +1]

[[Gravity Control] lv1: (35/100)]

[...]

[Proficiency +1]

[[Heavy Tide] lv1: (72/100)]

[...]

Translucent characters flashed before his eyes.

Xia Nan only glanced at them briefly before dismissing them.

Remaining vigilant, he panted and took two steps forward, confirming that the Shark Beast on the ground—its head blown apart by his force field energy—was completely dead. There was no chance of any Stage 2.

Only then did he plant a foot on its thick, heavily muscled chest and yank out the [Ember Fall] straight sword that had pierced the monster's forearm.

As a system combat technique automatically acquired when the [Meteor Blade Hunter] class advanced to lv3, [Heavy Tide] had become the main focus of his daily training ever since he reached the Novice tier with it.

Truth be told, it was a bit frustrating. Ever since [Fang Hunt] had been leveled up to the max, Xia Nan had fallen into a state of powerless emptiness. To some extent, he couldn't even find a direction to strive for.

He considered himself incredibly disciplined. The tangible existence of extraordinary power and the clear progression path provided by his Attribute Panel made him more diligent than at any time in his past life.

He woke up earlier than the sun every day, and the sweat he shed during training felt like it could nourish a desert.

But after he advanced to lv2, and throughout the entire period leading up to lv3, his daily training had entered a rather awkward phase.

After reaching Mastery in his former main training regimens, [Spinning Slash] and [Fang Hunt], the sense of accomplishment from gaining proficiency was gone. They were no longer the core of his training; his daily routine now focused more on developing and expanding the ways he executed them.

[Gravity Etching] had usage limits, so he couldn't practice it more even if he wanted to.

The lengthy cooldown of [Ember Echoes] meant it could only be trained through a method similar to seated meditation, which could be done in the inn, and its progress was quite limited.

As for [Gravity Control], that went without saying. Its incredibly slow proficiency growth made it the most frustrating of all his combat techniques. No matter how hard he trained, he couldn't feel any improvement at all; it only occasionally granted him a point or two of proficiency out of charity.

Under these circumstances, the appearance of a combat technique with no usage limits, relatively low stamina consumption, and no strict requirements for the training environment was a godsend.

To Xia Nan, it was no different from a lost traveler in the desert spotting an oasis.

From the moment he advanced to lv3 in Sheep Horn Town and acquired the new combat technique, a total of forty-five days had passed.

Through sheer force of will, he had dragged the proficiency of [Heavy Tide] all the way from "1/100" to "72/100."

Forty-five days, 71 points.

That was an average of 1.5 proficiency points a day.

The efficiency was borderline absurd.

And one had to remember that the majority of those forty-five days had been spent traveling. Even after arriving in Barracuda Bay, he had diverted much of his energy toward familiarizing himself with the environment and gathering intel.

Maintaining such a rapid improvement rate under those conditions showed just how starved Xia Nan was for a combat technique he could train repeatedly.

Pulling some gauze from his belt pouch, he carefully wiped down his two longswords.

Alton's clothes were stained with blood and dirt. The Halfling's earnest, focused expression from the battle gradually relaxed with the enemy's death. He now stood near Xia Nan, cleaning the lingering blood from his own twin blades.

Nick, the leader of the Silver Claw Osprey squad, had his head crushed by the Shark Beast and was beyond saving. The Half-Elf Leda had been bitten completely in half at the waist; the echoes of her miserable screams still lingered in the cave, and she had drawn her last breath at almost the exact same time as the Shark Beast.

It was hellish. Strictly in terms of survival time, she had actually lasted a bit longer than Nick.

Unfortunately, the healing spell enchanted onto [Tears of Spring Breath] did not have limb-regeneration properties. It was completely useless for a severe injury like being cut in half; otherwise, the Half-Elf might have had a chance to live.

"Hurry up. We need to clear the battlefield," Alton reminded him in a low voice.

The cave was located right by the sea, and the pungent stench of blood could easily be carried away by the sea breeze.

If it attracted another monster, it would be extremely troublesome for the two of them. It was best to finish up and retreat as quickly as possible.

For Xia Nan, there was only one loss from this battle.

The battle-hardened [Purgatory Pulse] had finally met its end in a fierce fight, completely scrapped.

To be honest, the green-tier armor had been more durable than he'd imagined.

After all, going by past experience, it should have been destroyed during his battle with the Cleric back in Sheep Horn Town.

For it to last this long and play such a crucial role in the battle made it well worth the cost in his eyes.

As for the gains...

First, and most conspicuously, was the ceremonial staff held by the sahuagin priest—the one whose head Xia Nan had lopped off at the very start of the battle before chopping its body into three pieces.

...

[Fish Bone Conch]

Type: Staff

Grade: Common (White)

Effects:

1. When the user is in seawater, casting speed +10%;

2. Evocation (Water) spell damage +5%.

Description:

A primitive staff crafted from fish bones and a conch shell. To fully utilize its power... you must first learn how to swim.

Note:

"Galu!"

...

A white-tier staff.

Xia Nan didn't feel particularly disappointed.

In fact, finding a piece of spellcasting gear that could definitely fetch a price on the market on a sahuagin priest with a Challenge Rating 2 left him very satisfied.

After all, not every monster in this world carried a green-tier enchanted accessory like the Bugbear he had encountered right after transmigrating.

Otherwise, given the exaggerated efficiency adventurers displayed when faced with wealth, high-quality gear wouldn't be so rare and expensive on the market.

His only slight regret was realizing after the fact that he probably should have let Alton loot the body.

From a mystical standpoint, as a favored one of the Goddess of Luck, the Halfling's luck was definitely far better than an ordinary person's.

He had only pulled a white staff; if it had been Alton, they might have gotten a blue or even purple item right off the bat.

Who could ever be sure about something like luck?

At the same time, cold and realistic as it was...

...the two sets of weapons left behind by Nick and Leda from the wiped-out Silver Claw Osprey squad had also become part of his haul.

They were both white-tier equipment, and their specific effects were similar to Xia Nan's old [Decapitating Longsword], offering some durability bonuses while performing decently in other areas.

But in the end, they were secondhand goods salvaged from a battlefield. Neither Nick's twin swords nor the Half-Elf's wooden bow were likely to sell for much.

Let alone an auction, even leaving them on consignment at a blacksmith shop would invite haggling. The time and energy required to get a satisfying price would be completely disproportionate to the profit.

They were teammates who had fought alongside him, after all, and he wasn't terribly short on money at the moment.

If he could find the relatives of these two temporary teammates after returning to Barracuda Bay, Xia Nan didn't mind returning the weapons to their families as keepsakes.

If he couldn't find any leads, he wasn't some bleeding heart either; he would just find a blacksmith with a reasonable offer and sell them directly, using the earnings to cover his meals.

Xia Nan certainly hadn't forgotten Alton.

The little guy's contribution to the battle had been immense. The passionate, melodious lute music had significantly boosted Xia Nan's combat efficiency, and his crucial distraction of the Shark Beast at the critical moment had created the perfect opening for the fatal strike.

He was never stingy with such a trustworthy and reliable teammate.

But when Xia Nan tried to seriously discuss the distribution of the loot, the Halfling simply smiled and waved his hand, just like he had after the battle with the pirates, indicating that he didn't need anything.

To Alton, aside from basic necessities like food and lodging, the only other use for money was to please the Goddess.

And given his performance in the casino, there was really no difference between 100 gold coins and 1 copper coin.

It made Xia Nan feel a bit embarrassed, feeling like he was taking too much advantage of the Halfling who had accompanied him for nothing.

As if sensing Xia Nan's feelings, the little guy grinned and suggested that once they returned to Barracuda Bay, Xia Nan could treat him to a few meals at the city's famous restaurants as payment for this trip.

That was more than acceptable.

With the equipment loot sorted, next up were the biological materials.

sahuagin were incredibly common along the coast and didn't have any valuable parts on them, so they could be ignored.

But the Shark Beast whose skull Xia Nan had blown off was a different story.

Its Challenge Rating was estimated to be at least lv4, and if they had fought it in the water, its actual combat power would likely have been much higher.

The meat alone would definitely be worth some money!

The tricky part, however, was that this monster wasn't listed in any Monster Compendium Xia Nan had read.

Just like that Armored Lurker he'd scavenged a long time ago, he had no idea which specific body parts were valuable.

He felt a lingering uncertainty, afraid of accidentally tossing out some rare organ.

He guessed that its tough, thick shark skin might fetch a good price, and it could perhaps be used to craft equipment.

But Xia Nan didn't feel confident enough to start dissecting it right now.

Ultimately, at Alton's suggestion, they decided to transport the Shark Beast's corpse back to Cliff Rock Village. The villagers lived by the sea year-round; even if they hadn't seen this specific monster, their knowledge of similar fish would certainly be much deeper than theirs.

Getting their advice and grasping by analogy was better than just relying purely on luck right now.

It was just...

"Do you think this altar has anything to do with the Shark Beast?" Xia Nan asked.

He stood beside the crude altar built by the sahuagin, his dark eyes staring in confusion at the primitive runes carved into the reef and abandoned ship planks.

He clearly remembered that when their group entered the cave, those fishmen were conducting some sort of ritual under the leadership of their priest.

On the altar lay the corpse of the half-orc the Shark Beast had snatched from the village, while the Shark Beast itself was hiding in the pool behind it.

To say there was no connection between the two and it was all just a coincidence—Xia Nan didn't believe it for a second.

Yet, on their way here, they had stumbled across many gruesome corpses bearing the bite marks of the Shark Beast.

It made him increasingly suspicious of the relationship between this powerful, ferocious monster and the sahuagin.

To this, Alton only shook his head.

They had gathered too little information to judge the Shark Beast's origins.

And even if this monster looked a bit bizarre, if you considered the vastness of the entire ocean, it wasn't actually that strange.

Similar to animals in areas constantly affected by nuclear radiation in Xia Nan's past life, the magical particles in the air of this current world were incredibly active. It was perfectly normal for ordinary creatures to undergo aberrant evolution.

This was reflected in the Monster Compendium that was updated almost every year in the general stores of Barracuda Bay.

A powerful monster with a humanoid body structure and a shark's head, placed in that context...

...was, to the adventurers in the tavern, at most a tale to brag about over drinks. It wasn't huge news.

Xia Nan could only silently commit what he had seen to memory and consider it later if he discovered anything new.

It was worth noting that precisely because of the mutated Shark Beast's unknown origins, Xia Nan was worried about eating something contaminated, leading him to abandon the idea of tasting its flesh.

Of course, a large part of the reason was also that it had just eaten the Half-Elf's lower half right in front of him.

It would have been fine if he hadn't seen it, but having witnessed Leda's legs disappearing into the monster's maw with his own eyes, he couldn't help but feel a bit squeamish, ruining his appetite.

So, in a rare turn of events, he reined in his appetite after the battle and made no attempt to cook the monster.

Instead, he used the cedar branches along the coast, working with Alton to build a few crude rafts that were easy to drag. He tied them with the hemp rope he carried in his backpack and hauled the monster and the corpses of the three adventurers out of the cave.

They had been teammates for a while, at least, and it was easy enough to do. Xia Nan didn't leave Nick and the others' bodies to rot in the cave; he planned to bring them back to the village along with the Shark Beast's corpse and entrust the villagers with burying them.

His formidable physical fitness, combined with [Gravity Control] lightening the weight, allowed him to effortlessly drag the monster's massive body on the raft.

From a distance, the blue-gray behemoth lying on the raft presented a sharp contrast to Xia Nan dragging it from the front, delivering an indescribable visual shock.

At any rate, when Colin was called out from his hiding place by Alton and saw the Shark Beast's corpse behind Xia Nan, he was visibly stunned.

Only then did he notice the mutilated remains of Nick and the others.

Showing great sense, he asked no questions. Just like on the way there, his body trembled as he silently followed behind the two like an invisible ghost, not saying a word.

He couldn't stop his terrified eyes from darting toward the corpses. His face, already pale and bloodless from being battered by the sea breeze for so long, revealed an indescribably bizarre expression.

It was unclear whether he was feeling sorrow over the deaths of these three big shots, whom he had seen as completely unreachable; or if he was rejoicing in the fact that Xia Nan and the others had looked out for him and hadn't made him follow them into the cave.

Otherwise, he would probably have ended up just like the three adventurers before him—nothing more than severed limbs and a mutilated corpse.