Chapter 464 Improvement and Conclusion

"Proficiency +1"

"[Heavy Tide] lv1 (100/100) → [Heavy Tide] lv2 (0/100)"

"..."

"Proficiency +3"

"[Gravity Control] lv1 (40/100)"

"..."

The Plate-Chain Composite Armor, still bearing scratches on its surface, rose and fell slightly with his breathing. Covered in fishman blood and minced flesh, Xia Nan stood in place as translucent characters continually flashed before his eyes.

As the companion combat technique acquired when he upgraded [Meteor Blade Hunter] to lv3, [Heavy Tide] was currently Xia Nan's only combat technique that had not yet reached max level while still retaining considerable training value and progression speed. It had already become the main focus of his daily training.

Its proficiency increased very quickly.

Combined with the fairly high quality of the battles he had experienced since arriving at Barracuda Bay, he was also able to frequently visit the Goblin Lair for supplementary lessons and extra special training. This allowed the technique's proficiency to rapidly soar at an average rate of one to two points a day.

Now, it had naturally broken through the critical threshold of "100," upgrading from lv1 to lv2.

Although Xia Nan had just leveled it up and hadn't yet had time to test the changes, referring to the patterns of his past combat technique promotions, going from lv1 to lv2 could only be considered a standard quantitative change. It would make his use of the technique more proficient and slightly increase its power.

The first true qualitative change wouldn't arrive until lv3.

When that time came, barring any surprises, he would receive a precious attribute point reward.

As a class companion combat technique, [Heavy Tide] was extremely useful in combat. It was at least on the same tier as [Gravity Etching] and [Fang Hunt], so Xia Nan had no doubts about the lv3 qualitative change.

Every single point of proficiency from 0 to 100 was condensed from his own sweat; he had watched it rise bit by bit with his own eyes.

A few days ago, when the proficiency of [Heavy Tide] broke past 90, Xia Nan had already mentally prepared himself for the technique's advancement.

Its upgrade to lv2 was simply a matter of course, bringing no real surprise.

What truly surprised him were the three proficiency points from [Gravity Control].

Xia Nan wasn't sure what quality [Gravity Control]—an ability that had already surpassed normal combat techniques—belonged to. But he was almost certain that for [Gravity Control], every level increase would be a qualitative change.

Otherwise, it would completely fail to live up to the technique's name and its agonizingly slow leveling speed.

It had to be known that [Gravity Control] was initiated at the same time as [Gravity Etching], another class companion combat technique. Yet the latter had long since been trained to max level Mastery, while the former hadn't even accumulated fifty proficiency points at lv1—and this was despite Xia Nan integrating the practice of this technique into his daily life.

On the other hand, he also clearly remembered that one of the Attribute Panel requirements for a certain future Advanced Class was that [Gravity Control] had to reach lv2.

To be honest, perhaps because the quality of this combat technique was simply too high, his proficiency acquisition speed had slowed to the point of despair. Relying purely on daily training, it would take many days just to painfully scrape together a single point.

Only occasionally in combat, when he was struck by a flash of inspiration and achieved some unconventional maneuver using gravity, would it improve.

As for the sudden surge of three proficiency points, Xia Nan guessed the cause: within a short span of time, he had first reduced his own gravity to lessen the burden of Hein's flight, then increased his gravity during the fall to boost his attack power, all while splitting his focus to use gravity to interrupt the Sahuagin priest's spellcasting. Such precise, multi-angled applications of [Gravity Control] in that brief window, combined with his previous accumulation from water-stepping using [Fang Hunt], had finally rewarded him with a full 3 points all at once.

Seeing the proficiency of [Gravity Control] finally break past the forty-point mark, with its upgrade progress nearing fifty percent, a sense of accomplishment welled up in Xia Nan's heart.

Even if he gained no loot from this battle, these precious three proficiency points made it completely worthwhile.

These thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant; the battle was not over yet.

His attention only briefly swept over the Attribute Panel's notifications before returning to reality.

There was a total of thirty-six Sahuagin, including a spellcaster priest and six elite Sahuagin guards whose builds were visibly much more robust.

At the cost of slight damage to his Plate-Chain Composite Armor, putting the [Deathline] ring on cooldown, and expending four uses of [Gravity Etching], Xia Nan had plunged into the battlefield from the sky and successfully executed a decapitation strike.

In the less than five seconds it took to fall from the sky, he had killed the Sahuagin priest—the core of the enemy squad—as well as two elite guards.

This left the enemy's core combat strength with only four elite Sahuagin. The rest were nothing but ordinary grunts with a Challenge Rating of barely 0.5.

The battlefield was an open coastal beach. In the sky, the Druid, transformed into a Short-Tailed Albatross, held the high ground and provided crowd control support from the sidelines. His teammate fighting alongside him was a veteran Class Holder above lv5, wielding a Rare-tier scimitar.

The subsequent progression of the battle was entirely predictable.

In fact, the moment Xia Nan landed, many fishman corpses had already piled up on the other side of the distant beach.

Lorraine was a formidable Adventurer who had properly built her reputation in the Southern Archipelagos through her own strength, and was currently marching toward the Transcendent Tier.

Bolstered by her equipment, combat techniques, and her own physical attributes, her slaughter of these croaking Sahuagin could only be described as slicing melons and chopping vegetables.

When these fishmen—creatures that had lived their entire lives in the water—stepped into the surrounding [Scorching Heat Domain], the searing temperature that charred even their scales instantly crippled the majority of their combat capabilities.

The flaming [Scale-Fire Scimitar] swept back and forth through the air like a farmer's sickle in a field, leaving behind a wide swathe of blood and severed limbs.

Freed from the threat of the distant spellcaster, Lorraine could go all out.

Three minutes? Or maybe five?

Without even needing further assistance from Hein in the sky, amid the howling of wolves and the sizzling sounds of moisture evaporating from the air, the beach was soon completely devoid of fishman voices.

Necks severed, waists bisected, skulls cleaved open...

The fishman blood dyed the surrounding sand a fluorescent blue, and the ground was littered with twitching, broken limbs.

"Crackle."

Sparks flew.

The scorching heat of the scimitar's blade completely baked away the filth coating it. With a light wipe, it was restored to its pristine state.

Her nostrils flaring, Lorraine exhaled a puff of white smoke and casually flicked her cigarette butt into the gutted chest of a fishman corpse by her feet.

She looked toward the black-haired young man ahead, who had just sheathed his sword after decapitating the final Sahuagin on the field. A flicker of deep interest flashed through her brownish-red eyes.

Although she had already learned of Xia Nan's strength through her crew members and Hera at the Three-Legged Sea Dog—knowing he was quite an extraordinary Class Holder who had earned the title of "Sea Fang" shortly after arriving at Barracuda Bay—this was her first time actually fighting alongside him.

The results... were somewhat unexpected.

Setting aside whatever ability he had used to allow the transformed Hein to fly while carrying him in full metal armor, just the sword strike Xia Nan had delivered while falling from the sky was something no one in the entire Blade of Vengeance fleet—aside from herself—could have blocked.

And even she, Lorraine, would likely have suffered heavy injuries if she were caught off guard by such an attack.

With her boundless combat experience, she knew exactly what was required to execute such a ferocious strike.

Quick situational judgment and the courage to plummet were the prerequisites, but a physical constitution strong enough to withstand the resulting fall damage was the absolute foundation.

Then there was the illusory, pitch-black Wolf Head that resembled a falling meteor, along with the three consecutive slashes unleashed in an instant—a razor-sharp sword light that seemed to be made of forcefield energy. That was absolutely not something an ordinary Warrior class could possess.

His actual combat strength would place him in the highest echelon of her fleet, second only to her.

It was only because this year's Lunar Tide Banquet was just a few months away. Otherwise, given Xia Nan's level of strength, if he just took a few more quests from the Association, he would quickly make a name for himself in the Southern Archipelagos and earn an invitation to the banquet.

"Flap, flap..."

Air currents surged, and the sound of flapping wings overhead snapped Lorraine's mind back to reality.

The battle was over, so the Druid naturally had no need to maintain her Wild Shape to avoid being targeted. She fluttered her wings and descended.

Hum—

The same emerald green light from her transformation enveloped her body. Amid the flutter, her wings rapidly shortened, the tips dulling and splitting into fingers, while her bird talons elongated back into human legs. Her center of gravity quietly shifted upward.

In a single breath, she reverted to her original form: a human woman with brown hair and brown eyes.

It was worth noting that unlike the Lycanthrope girl named Mint whom Xia Nan had met previously, a Druid's Wild Shape was a type of spell, whereas the former was a physical mutation caused by a curse.

Therefore, even after reverting from her avian form to a human body, Hein didn't experience any embarrassing wardrobe malfunctions.

Driven by magical energy, her clothes and equipment—even the staff in her hand—would dynamically adapt and merge into her body during the transformation.

However, the vast majority of these items would temporarily lose their original functions and enter a dormant state; only a few could still be used post-transformation.

Xia Nan watched the Druid regain her human form ahead of him, thoughts flashing through his mind.

The ability to fly was a rare and powerful asset in any world.

Its inherent mobility advantage of ignoring almost all terrain was enough to make countless people envious.

From Xia Nan's perspective alone, if he could move freely through the sky—even if his flight speed was slightly slower than running on the ground—the time it took to travel from Rivervale Town to Barracuda Bay would be slashed by more than half. He wouldn't have to painstakingly traverse the hills and swamps along the way.

Unfortunately, the Short-Tailed Albatross the Druid transformed into was simply too small and possessed limited carrying capacity. Even though he had used [Gravity Control] to minimize his body's gravity as much as possible, her flight while carrying him was still erratic and incredibly strained. She could only manage short-distance movements, just like she had moments ago.

Otherwise, their tactical options would have been far more extensive.

Xia Nan mentally reviewed the battle that had just concluded.

The good news: leveraging the flight advantage of Hein's transformation to execute an aerial decapitation strike was practically verified as viable.

The bad news: dangling beneath the Druid in midair made him a literal sitting duck with zero defensive capabilities. Carrying him also caused Hein's flight speed to plummet, making it extremely difficult to dodge attacks from below.

If an enemy noticed the two of them in the sky and possessed ranged attacks, Xia Nan and Hein would end up in a very dangerous situation.

Thus, this sort of airborne drop tactic couldn't become his standard operating procedure within the Blade of Vengeance team.

It could only be used selectively under special circumstances.

Mmm... he and Hein also needed more time to build their coordination.

"How are you holding up? Do you need healing?"

Hein walked over to Xia Nan after landing, asking with concern.

"Even though we were already flying low, I felt it was still a bit too high. It was a little dangerous."

Only someone who actually possessed the ability to fly could realize just how dangerous it was to plummet from a height that seemed to be merely arm's length away.

Let alone a regular person, even an ordinary Adventurer dropping from that altitude would likely suffer severe injuries on the spot and lose their combat capability.

Yet this black-haired young man before her—if she recalled correctly—had even managed to accelerate his own descent using some unknown method...

In response, Xia Nan simply waved his hand, signaling that he was fine.

The constant halving of fall damage provided by [Tidal Stabilization] had already neutralized the vast majority of the impact force upon landing. Paired with his currently well-rounded physical attributes, his sturdy internal muscles and bones were more than capable of absorbing the excess shock, preventing him from taking any fall damage.

The only thing he needed to consider was that perhaps he shouldn't dive so fiercely before his next landing. The explosive power provided solely by [Fang Hunt] was already sufficient; he didn't need to use [Gravity Control] for extra acceleration.

Otherwise, if landing forced him into a state of stiffness, it could prove somewhat troublesome.

The battlefield was swiftly cleaned up.

This was a squad of Sahuagin out on a mission, so naturally, they wouldn't be carrying any valuables on them. Nor was it like a game where touching a corpse would inexplicably drop a completely unrelated piece of equipment or item.

The only valuable loot on the field—aside from the crude and common armor and harpoons they carried—were the two bizarrely shaped conches the Sahuagin priest had been clutching earlier.

They didn't trigger an Attribute Panel display, so they naturally couldn't be called equipment. According to Lorraine's guess, they were likely natural products of the deep sea, serving as casting mediums used to channel magical power.

Taking them back to Barracuda Bay might fetch a decent sum of money.

Of course, the specific details regarding the transaction and the distribution of profits would have to wait until the quest was concluded. For now, they were handed over to Lorraine, the captain, for safekeeping.

"These Sahuagin likely came over from the Twin Oceans."

Hein crouched on the ground, her gaze fixed on a particular fishman corpse in front of her.

On the corpse's arm, a highly conspicuous circular chunk was missing.

"It's not just this one. Many of the corpses have these wounds caused by spiral-tooth sharks."

Considering the encounter their own group had recently faced during the storm, these Sahuagin had clearly also run into that frenzied school of fish.

Although it was possible this was just an accidental encounter, the discovery warranted their attention.

Her gaze swept over the corpses of the fishermen in the pit, and she recalled the Sacrificial Ritual that Xia Nan had mentioned earlier.

Lorraine's expression involuntarily darkened.

"It seems... we should speed up our pace a bit more."