Chapter 447 Wrapping Up and Growing Fame

"Ellie... my little Ellie..."

Baron Farrow dropped to one knee and pulled the young girl tightly into his embrace, his voice choking with emotion.

His eyes were red, and the muscles of his haggard face trembled, betraying his undisguised agitation.

In contrast, the baron's daughter, Lady Ellie, appeared utterly at a loss. She merely kept her clear, innocent eyes wide open, staring blankly over her father's shoulder at the wall behind him.

From her perspective, it wasn't hard to understand.

For one thing, the girl had just recovered from a heavy dose of sleeping potion. Her head hadn't cleared yet. Still groggy from the prolonged unconsciousness, her mind was sluggish and unable to process the situation.

Furthermore, while the baron had spent every passing second agonizing over his daughter's disappearance—even though it hadn't even been twenty-four hours—the anxiety had severely drained him, leaving him physically and mentally exhausted.

But from Ellie's perspective, the greatest shock of this entire ordeal was the attack on her carriage on the way home yesterday evening.

After that, the potion had knocked her out.

To her, it was almost as if she had been sitting in the carriage one second, and the very next, she had opened her eyes to her emotional father hugging her.

She hadn't felt the twists and turns of the rescue at all.

Xia Nan and his group were treated with overwhelming gratitude and warmth by Grace, the butler of the Baron Mansion. Paying no mind to the blood and rainwater they hadn't yet cleaned off, the butler practically half-forced them to sit and rest on the soft sofas in the adjacent drawing room.

Lowering his head to take a sip of the tea respectfully offered by a maid, Xia Nan watched the touching reunion, yet he couldn't help but feel a little strange.

After all, the baron's daughter had been missing for less than twenty-four hours. Wasn't Baron Farrow's reaction a bit too intense?

Then again, having never been a father in this life or his past one, he found it hard to empathize. Considering the chaotic environment of Barracuda Bay, Baron Farrow had likely prepared for the worst the moment he discovered his daughter was missing. Now that Ellie had returned home completely unscathed, his reaction was understandable.

After a long while, the heaving of the baron's shoulders gradually slowed. Managing to calm himself, he staggered to his feet. Gripping his daughter's hand tightly, he walked over to the group.

The group took the cue, setting down their hot tea and politely standing up.

"I... I don't know what to say," Baron Farrow said, his voice even hoarser than before, though the anxiety and worry had completely vanished from his face. "You brought back my most important treasure."

Holding the special position of Charter Approval Officer in Barracuda Bay, he had spoken countless pleasantries over the years. Yet now, he found himself at a loss for words, ultimately deciding not to waste their time with meaningless platitudes.

"Please rest assured, the promised reward will not be short a single copper coin."

The baron's attitude was unprecedentedly sincere, his words ringing with utmost earnestness.

"Perhaps there isn't much I can do, but from this day forth, you will always be my friends in Barracuda Bay."

He gave his promise.

Naturally, this didn't mean Xia Nan could make endless demands of him.

As Xia Nan understood it, on top of the quest's base reward, this was an extra, highly valuable favor from the baron.

How to use it—or rather, when to use it—would require careful consideration.

Regardless, it served as a nice safety net for Xia Nan's future life in Barracuda Bay.

If he were the type of low-level adventurer content with the status quo, wallowing in taverns and casinos, he could probably live out the rest of his life in relative decency just by relying on this favor, provided he didn't push things too far.

While he pondered this, Ellie, her hand still held tightly by Baron Farrow, gradually regained a bit of her spirit.

Her bright, crystal-clear eyes looked at Xia Nan opposite her, filled with curiosity and echoing her father's gratitude.

From the girl's perspective, it was truly bizarre that the strange adventurer she had coincidentally met in the tailor shop just a short while ago was now her savior.

Noticing her gaze, Xia Nan snapped out of his thoughts and politely offered the girl a faint smile.

In response, Ellie beamed with a bright, radiant smile. Meanwhile, the guards from the Governor's Mansion standing on both sides of the room suddenly lost their steady breathing rhythms, their expressions turning subtle.

After all, the baron's daughter had been rescued from the shack's storage room and had only awakened from her slumber during the carriage ride back to the Baron Mansion.

These guards from the Governor's Mansion, on the other hand, had personally walked through that shack piled high with the corpses of the Horned Shark Gang. They had seen the mangled, unrecognizable chunks of meat riddled with holes, as well as the cleanly severed heads, their faces still frozen in terror.

Even knowing these were gang members who committed evil deeds on a daily basis, facing Xia Nan—the man who had caused such a gruesome scene—still made their hearts quail. They committed his sharp-featured face to memory, mentally flagging him as an extremely dangerous individual requiring special caution.

Xia Nan and the others didn't stay at the Baron Mansion for long after returning Ellie to her father. Since the father and daughter had just reunited after a crisis, it was better to leave them to themselves.

The quest reward certainly wouldn't be small, but now was clearly not the time to discuss it. It wouldn't be too late to have an in-depth talk once the baron finished tying up loose ends and adjusted his mood.

Moreover, distributing the reward required some thought. Xia Nan had contributed the most to the operation, and everyone in the party recognized his outstanding performance in combat. However, Hein had also made a considerable contribution, crucially helping the team track down the Horned Shark Gang's lair using the corpse of "Bloody-Nosed Rat" Jerry.

If they really wanted to get into it, they also had to consider whether Alton, as someone favored by the Goddess of Luck, had played a role in them finding Jerry's corpse in the first place.

Finally, there were the twin warriors who had assisted them. If the quest reward was purely in gold coins, they would need to discuss the distribution carefully among themselves.

Aside from that, the loot from the Horned Shark Gang also needed to be handled.

But of course, that was a matter for later.

Right now, the group of five had already returned to the Three-Legged Sea Dog Tavern after leaving the Baron Mansion.

One could clearly feel that as the group walked through the doors, the noisy atmosphere in the room paused for a fraction of a second before returning to normal.

But inadvertently, countless gazes swept over from all directions, primarily lingering on Xia Nan.

As for the scene on the coast that afternoon, apart from their own group, many adventurers operating nearby had rushed over upon hearing the commotion and witnessed the entire thing.

They had watched with their own eyes as a pitch-black wolf, looking as if it had crawled straight out of the abyss, sprinted across the sea and tore apart a distant wooden boat, shredding the fleeing man aboard it in the process.

The group hadn't made any attempt to hide the gruesome scene inside the Horned Shark Gang's shack. Even now, those severed limbs and chunks of meat were still soaking in the rainwater, untouched.

As the core figure and "chief culprit" behind all this, Xia Nan's image, deeds, and even a new nickname were gradually spreading among the adventurer community in Barracuda Bay.

Naturally, it would take time for his fame to truly build.

But right now, even though only a few hours had passed since the incident, his actions were already known to many interested parties, fueled by alcohol in an intelligence hub like the Three-Legged Sea Dog Tavern.

Sensing this, Xia Nan felt a strong sense of déjà vu, as if he had returned to the White Chickadee Tavern in Rivervale Town.

He naturally understood why.

Although the aftermath of the battle in the shack had indeed been a bit messy, the Horned Shark Gang members inside were humans, not green goblins. He had absolutely no intention of torturing them for pleasure; the cleanly severed heads were proof enough of that.

Xia Nan had treated it as a proper battle.

He just had to admit that the biting aura accompanying [Fang Hunt] was incredibly useful in a group fight where the enemies' average strength was relatively low. It saved him a lot of energy and drastically increased his reaping efficiency.

Because of that, Xia Nan could accept the post-battle scene looking a bit messy.

As for the black wolf sprinting across the sea... that was entirely a flash of inspiration that had popped into his head.

Back when he first arrived in Barracuda Bay, Xia Nan had wondered how he should handle accidentally falling into the sea during combat, or having to fight enemies in the water.

His subsequent battle with the Shark Beast on Cliff Rock Island had only deepened this anxiety.

After all, if that monster had chosen to flee and dive into the sea, he truly wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

Just now, facing an enemy slowly sailing away on a small boat, his deep-seated anxiety over the man's potential future revenge, combined with his considerations regarding naval combat since coming to Barracuda Bay, had allowed him to grasp a fleeting spark of inspiration, combining everything he had learned to the absolute limit.

He used [Gravity Control] to reduce the gravity acting on his body. While it wasn't enough to let him fly or even glide briefly, it was sufficient to achieve an effect akin to an astronaut's moonwalk.

Then, using his Level 5 Mastery of [Fang Hunt] as the core, he fully exerted his Strength and Agility attributes, pushing his horizontal speed to the absolute limit in an instant.

Finally, he utilized the Agility bonus on unstable surfaces granted by the [Tidal Stabilization] feat to maintain his center of gravity and balance during high-speed movement.

Combining all these factors, he ultimately achieved the spectacle of a black wolf sprinting across the sea and successfully beheaded the rogue who had thought he'd escaped with his life.

Even now, Xia Nan still remembered the sheer terror on that sinister face when the man saw him stepping over the waves and closing in.

It was worth noting that due to his countless encounters since transmigrating, his Perception attribute had reached a very high level. His intelligence attribute, however, had never gotten a chance to improve, remaining at the world's average standard—perhaps only slightly higher than an ordinary person's.

Regardless, the numerical difference between the two attributes had turned him into a creature of instinct, especially in combat.

Therefore, when he charged off the coast with [Fang Hunt] activated under the spur of that mental inspiration, Xia Nan hadn't thought too much about it.

This also meant that after cleaving the wooden boat apart with a single sword strike, he lost the explosive speed granted by [Fang Hunt] and fell straight into the sea.

As dashing as it had looked to step on the crests of the waves with a black wolf phantom surfacing around him during the chase, that was exactly how awkwardly embarrassed he felt swimming back.

Fortunately, the crowd on the shore didn't seem to notice his inner thoughts, remaining purely astounded by the spectacle of the wolf's howl.

"A pleasure working with you."

The greeting by his ear pulled Xia Nan's slightly wandering thoughts back to reality.

Beside him, Hein wore a smile, gazing at him with complex eyes. She had one hand extended, hovering in mid-air.

—Considering the silver krait Ayin coiled around her left wrist like a bracelet, she used her right hand.

Not rejecting her proactive display of goodwill, Xia Nan gave a slight nod and shook her hand.

"A pleasure."

In just half a day, Hein's impression of Xia Nan had been refreshed time and time again.

When they first met in the Adventurers' Association trading room, she had already guessed at this young adventurer's strength due to the faint sense of danger she perceived from him.

Yet she hadn't expected to still underestimate him.

Her mind unconsciously recalled the severed limbs and chunks of meat splattering around the shack like a meat grinder, as well as those heads spinning and falling amid the sharp flashes of the blade.

She recalled that pitch-black Winter Wolf leaping over the crests of the waves, and the utterly dead Horned Shark Riley and Broken Brow Batti...

This black-haired adventurer from the inland had likely already surpassed Level 5.

Even in the Southern Archipelagos, he would be considered a figure of note.

Thinking of this, Hein even started to reflect on whether she had offended Xia Nan during their time together over the past half-day. She absolutely did not want to needlessly make such an enemy for herself and the fleet backing her.

"I need to go back and report the situation to the captain. As for the baron's reward and the distribution of the Horned Shark Gang's loot, we can discuss that after they finish wrapping things up over there," Hein said. She pointed at the stairs leading to the tavern's second floor and asked tentatively, "Shall we... call it a day for now?"

Xia Nan had no objections.

After such a long day, Xia Nan also wanted a fragrant bowl of creamy seafood mushroom soup to properly reward himself. Her proposal suited him perfectly, so he nodded in agreement.

Seeing that Xia Nan had no objections, Hein breathed a small sigh of relief. She then left the tavern hall, taking the twin warriors—who had gone silent once again after the battle ended—along with her.

Retracting his gaze from the trio's backs as they vanished up the stairs, Xia Nan ignored the occasional glances from the surrounding adventurers and called out to the halfling, Alton, beside him.

"What are you having for dinner? Want to grab a couple of drinks?" Xia Nan asked.

Before the two could approach the bar, a magnetic, mature female voice rang out from behind the counter.

"You're back?" Hera, the tavern owner, rested both hands on the counter and leaned forward slightly. Her emerald eyes carried a hint of inquiry as she looked at Xia Nan with keen interest. "You guys caused quite a stir this time."

"Yeah... we can talk about that later," Xia Nan replied. "First, serve up two bowls of creamy mushroom soup."