Chapter 34 - Bountiful Harvest

Chapter 34 Bountiful Harvest

The sudden sound of waves awakened Duncan from his dreamscape.

He opened his eyes. Only thin, faint silhouettes of the illusions he had seen during his half-asleep, half-awake state remained. He only remembered that he saw fish swimming in the air. The fish that surrounded him seemed exceptionally delicious. However, what did they look like again?

Could fish swim in the air?

Duncan blinked his eyes. The strange feeling of reality and the dreamscape torn apart and blended again stumped him for a short while. He looked at the three fishing rods he had fixed to the shipboard. He did not see any signs of fish taking the bait. The waves were growing bigger in the distance. They beat against the hull of the Lost Home.

The waves grew larger at a rate perceptible to the naked eye. Stronger waves began to surge constantly from afar. The gigantic hull of the Lost Home shook in the waves and the wind. The sound of waves splashing against the hull filled Duncan’s ears.

Duncan looked at the sky and deduced that the weather was still fine. Even though there were more waves than usual, there would probably not be extreme weather conditions, such as a powerful storm.

“This might not be good weather for fishing,” he muttered as he considered packing up the fishing rods. Right then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the tip of one of the fishing rods bend all of a sudden!

The strong fishing line, specially made for deep-sea fishing, instantly tensed up. The stubby and rigid offshore fishing rod seemed to have caught something big. The entire top half of the rod curved like a bow, accompanied by an ear-piercing screech. The shipboard also emitted the sound of rubbing wood under tremendous force. All of this told Duncan one thing.

A fish had come! A big fish!

He instantly discarded the idea of calling it a day. The passion of a fishing maniac burned within his chest. With two steps, he reached for the fishing rod and grabbed it to prevent it from falling overboard. With his other hand, he began to adjust the tension of the line.

“That’s more like it! How could I possibly come out empty-handed!” Duncan muttered to himself excitedly.

He struggled with the behemoth on the other end of the line. This was a difficult battle. The creature on the other side of the line was not planning on letting itself get caught without a fight. A considerable force tugged at the fishing rod. Even with Duncan’s strength and the support of the shipboard, they were merely at a stalemate.

The waves around the Lost Home grew larger. However, for Duncan, this minor shaking was insignificant.

He was mad at this stubborn prey. He was also worried that this long-awaited opportunity to improve his rations would slip away before his eyes.

The fishing line had reached its critical point of tension. The big fish was about to escape from his grasp.

After a long stalemate, Duncan finally made a decision. A clump of green flames suddenly emanated from the fishing rod in his hands.

The green flames burned brightly and spread like water rapidly along the fishing rod and line. The spirit fire burned along the fishing line, forming a line of fire that extended into the ocean. The next moment, an illusory green flame appeared deep under the water around the Lost Home. Under the light and outline of the green flames, a gigantic silhouette could be seen in the water.

This silhouette appeared like a mass of meat that extended and contracted irregularly. It covered a radius of several hundred meters around the Lost Home. Along its outline, many dark creatures were constantly changing and growing emerged. It was as though thousands of limbs were wiggling in the ocean, churning the water around the Lost Home and controlling the surging waves.

Duncan heard strange movements coming from the water. While he maintained the stalemate with his prey, he curiously peeked his head over the rail to take a look.

He did not see anything at all, only the rising and falling waves. Nothing much had changed.

He clearly felt the resistance from the fishing rod weaken ever so slightly compared to before.

His prey was beginning to lose strength. This fact caused him to reveal a radiant smile on his face.

He began to reel in line with force, gradually pulling his prey out of the ocean.

Alice was startled by the roaring and whistling coming from outside the cabin. She could feel intense tremors coming from beneath her feet. The furnishing in the cabin began to make a series of clanging sounds. She quickly grabbed onto a railing to prevent herself from falling. There was a look of surprise on her face as she thought to herself, “What happened?”

The Lost Home was shaking as though a massive storm was rampaging outside. A low, suppressed sound came from deep within the ancient ghost ship. It seemed to be roaring furiously as it fought against the terrors from deep within the ocean, against some behemoth that was attempting to consume it.

Everything in the cabin was clanging. At first, Alice thought that this was just because of the collisions caused by the ship shaking. Soon, she realized that the shaking did not cause the noise from the objects. The objects were talking among themselves. However, Alice could not understand this language that only the Lost Home itself understood.

She only knew that something was going on outside.

The doll decided to go up on deck to take a look. She stumbled as she ran out of the cabin. She supported herself against the wall to prevent herself from falling as she headed up to the deck.

After nearly stumbling over flailing ropes and crashing wooden buckets, she finally reached the top of the stairs. She pushed open the wooden door, constantly flapping in the wind, and saw astonishing giant waves on the boundless sea.

The sky was as black as ink-a thick, ominous cloud formed above the ship. The black layer of cloud seemed to descend upon the ocean’s surface. Giant waves as tall as city walls churned and surged beneath the dark cloud. They rose and fell as though they were surrounding the Lost Home!

This was the first time Alice had encountered such a situation. She did not know whether this was the normal condition of the ocean. However, she knew that she needed to find the captain.

She looked around the deck and took no time to locate Captain Duncan standing beside the deck’s railing

The surrounding waves were annoying. However, they were an insignificant disturbance to Duncan, who was on the verge of success. Under the feedback of the fishing line and the green flames, he could clearly sense that his prey had already stopped fighting back. He was gradually yanking the gigantic creature to the surface.

“Come on up!” he shouted happily, giving the fishing rod in his hand one last jerk.

A colossal fish leaped out of the ocean. It was truly massive, almost half his size.

In that split second, Duncan locked gazes with the fish in midair.

It was pretty ugly.

This was the first thought that came to his mind.

It was indeed a hideous fish. The surface of its black body seemed to be covered with some bumpy growth. There were also strange gray and white patterns randomly spread across the fins on both sides of its body. On its head, there were many bone spur-like structures. Its blank white eyes looked at Duncan beneath these bone spurs.

Duncan felt very uncomfortable. He thought that the fish was looking at him maliciously.

The next moment, he saw the fish start twitching suddenly. Its eyes, staring at him, exploded for some reason and blood flowed instantly from them.

The fish fell onto the deck with a heavy thud, twitching frantically as though it was being electrocuted. A few seconds later, it stopped moving. Fresh blood oozed out of its mouth and eyes onto the deck.

Duncan watched in surprise as this ugly fish rapidly died at his feet. He vaguely recalled something he had read. Most of the fish in the deep sea were indeed very ugly. Due to living in environments with extreme water pressure, their blood vessels would explode due to the difference in pressure after being fished up to the surface. They would even die very quickly because of this. Was this the same for the fish of this world?

While he was stunned, he could hear splashing

Duncan curiously looked towards the sound. He saw many smaller, peculiar-looking fish landing on the deck.

Their appearances were similar to the ones before, but they were only around half a meter long. Just like the larger fish, their bodies bled intensively, and they soon perished.

Duncan was somewhat stunned and took some time to react. He said, “Are these fish dumb or what? Why would they follow their companion to death?”

Alice grabbed the side rail tightly. She stared nervously at the sight of the brutal fighting not far away. It was enough to drive ordinary people crazy. She saw Captain Duncan standing at the side of the deck. The green flames on his body were burning brightly. He was like a burning giant fighting against the ocean. Three hook chains extended from the deck beneath his feet. One of the chains was burning with terrifying, intense flames.

She saw a gigantic silhouette suddenly emerge from the boundless sea. Then, a tentacle thicker than even the main mast of the Lost Home appeared. Countless, evil-looking eyes opened on the surface of the tentacle. Numerous sharp teeth ground and snapped between the eyes as though they were about to tear the entire ship to pieces.

Alice screamed. She wanted to warn Duncan to take shelter. She also wanted to rush forward to help him. However, the tentacle crashed into the captain before she could put any of her thoughts into action.

She watched as Captain Duncan raised his head. Under the light of the radiant flames, the captain’s face revealed a look of joy from a bountiful harvest. He stared at the countless eyes on the tentacle as they stared back at him.

The next moment, the eyes on the tentacle suddenly exploded, and the mouths of sharp teeth let out an ear-piercing, painful cry. The tentacle then snapped off. It was as though the gigantic creature hidden beneath the waves had taken the initiative to sever its connection with the tentacle. The heavily injured tentacle was left behind on the deck of the ship.

The tentacle fell on the ship with a loud crash. From the point it was severed, filthy, dense flesh and blood rained down on deck before the captain’s feet.